I watched all of this vid, all 14:25 of it.

I’m going to focus on Tony Perkins. He holds himself out as this expert on family because:

a) He’s a former U.S. Marine

b) He is a former police officer

c) He is married with FIVE kids.

I wonder if he ever even sees his family. I’ve noted an odd statistic, more than two children tends to destroy most marriages. That has been the case with a number of my friends. Once you get past three, it’s all over. But Perkins proudly crows about his five spawn. I think Perkin’s may have been trying for his own “God’s Little Army” but his wife must have put her foot down, or at the very least obtained a tubal ligation, else they end up like the Duggar’s.

But here’s another little statistical anomaly. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that homosexuality might have a basis in epi-genetics. So all these big Christian families, you can bet sure as shit that one of those kids is going to be gay. I wonder how they’ll deal with it?

But explain to me how this makes Perkins an ‘expert’ on family? He’s trying to be slick, talking about natural law which is code speak for God. You see in their view God created the world and nature so by calling it that they speak to the converted while trying to recruit more ‘believers’ to their ’cause’ of oppressing LGBT people. This isn’t just about marriage equality, it’s about the desire of Perkins, Sprigg, FRC, AFA et al trying to re-establish the criminalization of homosexuality.

The most interesting part of the video is when they actually get Peter Sprigg to say he actually wants to criminalize gay behavior. Personally I’d like to criminalize Christian Fundamentalism.

They can howl all they want but Perkins and Sprigg are wrong on the issue of gay rights. It isn’t a special right, it is an EQUAL right. I suggest both men do a thorough reading of the U.S. Constitution and the Amendments to that document. Because you see, one of the key Amendment tells it all; equal protection under the law. Not protection of white, Christian, heterosexuals only, but ALL of US!

So yesterday we went to the Mall/Maul. I needed a new pair of sneakers. You see, you cannot get me out of my sneakers. And it doesn’t help that the job I’m in has a very loose dress code (Jeans, t-shirt, sneakers are acceptable, you’re there for your mind, not looks!).

But since I also walk a lot, I tend to blow through a pair in six months. It isn’t the uppers that go, no it’s the soles of the sneakers that wear down to perfectly flat.

So I got a pair of Reebok mid-top zigzags, and a pair of Nike sneakers in gray with bright green highlights. Can you guess which are my favorites? If you guess the latter, good for you. I like bright colors.

And Keyron got a pair of Nike canvass sneakers, and a pair of sandals. All total about $300.

And Pride season is coming up. I might do a tri-city this year. Boston is the 12th of June, Providence is the 18th, and NYC is the 26th. In order here’s how transportation works:

Boston via the MBTA from Providence
Providence is local
NYC via bus, though I’d prefer to go by train.

This will likely be out first time hitting all three major parades in the northeast in one year.

Seems like Pastor Harold Camping’s prediction that May 21, 2011 at 18:00EDT was completely wrong once again.

Camping has done this before, in 1994. So why the hell did people put any credence in his blatherings this time? Probably because they didn’t KNOW about his past errors in prophesy.

As I mentioned in the prior post about our trip to North Carolina, it just so happened that we were driving through Virginia at the time. Traffic was very light but even when it’s that light you’d expect some people to be taken up on the day of Rapture per this:

1 Thessalonians 4:15–7, in which Paul cites “the word of the Lord” about the return of Christ to gather his saints.

…and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Ah, Saulian scripture. It’s good for some bat shit crazy stuff. He also has his mitts all over Romans, 1 Timothy Revelations and other books of the New Testament.

The thing is, if you read the Bible there is no firm data given for the return of the Christ. It is deliberately said that way to keep people in line, to be fearful. I think the original intent was to get people to be nice to each other but got perverted along the way into what we see today.

A good example, at the funeral we attended yesterday morning the pastor played on this theme in his eulogy. But he did make the distinction that we don’t know the date of the return and rapture.

So in essence, Camping is just pulling the dates for these events out of his ass. That part doesn’t surprise me, but the gullibility of the Christian evangelists is astounding.

One woman MURDERED her child, others have given away their goods and fortunes. It really is stunning. The stupidity of the evangelists is appalling instead of stunning. But then, I know what causes it. When you don’t give people outlets for their amusement, they end up turning to the church.

This was evidenced by my time in North Carolina. The radio dial is filled with religious programming, there are churches everywhere, and nary anything for amusement otherwise. No wonder you have people believing people like Camping.

And as I said, on the drive back I didn’t see ANYONE taken up into the air. No cars crashing, careening off the highway, etc. Nope, just people driving along, doing 45MPH in the left lane with their Jesus stickers on the car.

The trip down was fairly uneventful. That is, until Keyron’s cell phone rings. It’s our sister in law Michelle first asking where we were (NYC) and telling us that my Keyron’s mom’s husband had died.

Knowing my Keyron’s Mom’s history my first thought was “Oh shit, did she do it?” Much to our relief, it was a myocardial infarction that killed him.

It was clear sailing all the way down until we got near Richmond, VA, where the torrential thunderstorms started. I have driven in blizzards and hurricanes but the torrential nature of storms once one gets past the mid-Atlantic is interesting and something I wish NOT to drive through. Imagine someone dumping bathtubs worth of water on your windshield every few seconds and then you have an idea.

Because of the storm I went from doing about 90MPH all the way down to about 35MPH because even at high speed the windshield wipers were useless and as a result you could not see more than a few feet in front of you, maybe to the end of the hood of the car. All I could see in the distance were the weak tail lights of a the vehicle in front of me and used that as a guide.

It was an interesting this week. There have been people in and out of the house offering condolences to my Keyron’s Mom. And I got to meet most of the family members I’ve heard Keyron talk about.

And true to form, I got to be in the car alone with my two nieces and my nephew. My nephew is just about 3 years old and a cutie, and his personality is emerging and he’s a definite character. The girls are around 7 years old and twins and they too have their character shining through.

We were waiting in the car for Keyron’s Mom to pick the flowers for the funeral. I wanted to just chill out, leave the AC running and listen to some music but the kids were fussing.

So I did something that runs counter to my general permissiveness when it comes to kids. I implemented the policy of be quiet, chill out and listen to the music. I just told them I was being serious, and to sit quietly, not touching each other, hands by their sides. To my surprise, it was applied to great effect.

But once again we were talking and the question of the relationship between Keyron and I came up. First one was do you live together. I answered in the affirmative. The next was if we slept together and my affirmative response elicited an “Ewwww” from both girls.

I then had to explain to them that humans bond in different patterns, men with men, women with women, men with women. That there was nothing icky about it.

This is the second time in a little less than six months that I’ve had this conversation with the twins.

This caused some consternation on the part of my Keyron’s Mom, not because I spoke to the girls about it, but that they asked about it again and had the “Ewwww” response.

You see my sister in law’s mom is probably putting the Jebus in the girls heads. And I know Keyron’s mother is going to have a little talk with the kids mother about all this.

But here’s the thing, these girls now know that gay people exist. And despite the religious indoctrination, they’ll know that the demonization of LGBT folks is nothing but bovine effluent.

On Thursday morning we had to take Keyron’s Mom for her biopsy. Big production btw, even if they did do it via endoscope. Had to get up at 5AM to get her to the hospital for 7AM and I knew nothing would happen until the surgeon and anesthesiologist got there and the surgery/biopsy started at around 10AM. So we didn’t get out of there until after lunch time. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that doctors know how to waste your time.

Another interesting thing is gas stations around here. I went to an Exxon station where it said “Pay inside”. So I go in and the girl says “Oh the pump is on, just pump your gas then pay.”

The pump itself is a basic old style pump. You extract the nozzle and have to tip the pump enable to the right then you can pump the gas.

The nozzles themselves have no vapor recovery systems on them. And I note the proportion of ethanol here in lower than it is in the northeast.

And here we are the Friday before our day of departure. The original intent was to leave early Saturday morning so we’d get back to Providence around between 4PM and 6MP on Saturday. But the funeral is at 1PM on Saturday so the earliest we’ll get out of here is probably 2 or 3PM. That means a 2AM to 3AM arrival.

In fact I already told Keyron before we leave for the funeral we have to have EVERYTHING packed and ready to go.

The funeral was interesting. Relatively short service at the church and I have some recordings of the preachers ‘eulogy’ and the choir doing the recessional that I need to transfer off my phone and onto the net. Because the preacher was supposedly a friend of he deceased but the sermon he preached was odd. He chose to focus on the free will but God is watching theme. Yeah, god has five billion sets of eyes to keep watch on all of us.

The internment was just a quick blessing and off we went.

We ended up leaving Columbia, NC (Tyrell County) at 3:10PM. Got gas and we were off. Three tank-ups totaling $90 wasn’t bad even with gas that averaged $4 per gallon.

During the trip as we got to 18:00 EDT (22:00 UTC) I noted the rapture hadn’t started. 19:00 rolled around, 20:00 rolled around then past midnight and the rapture hadn’t happened. I guess Harold Camping go it wrong again, same as he was in 1994 when he predicted the end of the rold and the rapture.

Now all we need is to get solidly into 2013 and we can debunk the Mayan crap too.

But we got into Providence at just before 4AM. Would have gotten here an hour and a half earlier had it not been for the damned George Washington bridge in NYC. First of all the toll is $8. I can traverse the state of NJ for $9.25 but to go over one bridge it’s $8? What didn’t help was having only TWO cash lanes open and at the same time watching the trucks and other cars fly by in the left lanes because of EZ-PASS.

So I had an idea. EZ-PASS is nothing but an RFID transponder. The scanner sends a power up pulse to the transponder and it transmits and ID that the agency then uses to charge the owner of the car.

I see a hack potential. You could for instance install the master reader on a car and have it poll other cars for the EZ-PASS info then setup a device that lets you collect the ID’s and use them when your vehicle is ‘scanned’ or a transponder. You get my drift right? Highly unethical But it is a hole in the EZ-PASS system.

But for $8 they should be able to have EVERY booth staffed and accept cash. Not only that the bridge should be plated in solid gold. Maybe offer concierge evacuation servies. They could devote a lane for a roving bathroom. Quick in and out. Maybe water and food services. You know, if you’re going to be there for an HOUR AND A HALF it might becomes necessary to use the facilities, or maybe you’re a spot hungry. Think of the additional revenue they could raise, then they really could plate that fucking bridge in gold.

So got home, unpacked the car, and got about 6.5 hours of sleep. I can function on that. It’s when the count slips below 5 hours that I’m in trouble.

So I note that an article WAS published on Rainbow Times Massachusetts only to be pulled (Aka 404’d) before I could read it.

I contact the author who responded that the editors wanted a source on record. I beseech everyone from MERI who knows anything to contact Joe Siegel and get on the record.

The story needs to be told.

Well, today I found out about a way to sync my iTunes library to my phone. I was resistant about it earlier because I have a rather good sized library and would hate to lose all that. I was considering my iPod Touch v2 and iTunes library a sunk cost. You accounting types out there know what that is!

To my surprise I found an application for the PC/Mac and Android called DoubleTwist. That and a $4.99 add-on for my phone called AirSync allow me to synchronize my iTunes library to the phone.

So now I have to spend about $50 on a 32GB micro SD card for the phone so I can keep my library there.

And what Apple never allowed me to do with my iPod, namely use wireless to synchronize, means that I’ll never buy an Apple product again. I am now an Android evangelist!

And while I learned how to develop applications for the phone, I’m finding I don’t have to root the phone or even write my own. Just search the marketplace and pretty much everything I want is there.

And I know Keyron is getting increasingly jealous of my phone. But the battery life on the phone is sort of weak and he talks on his ALL the time. He’d essentially have to keep in tethered.

But ultimately he will get one.

Now I’m hearing MERI plans to file suit against anyone who talks about what went down.

Um, nice little gag order bastards. You may notice, the MERI logo is gone on this blog. I refuse to support an organization that resorts to such drastic tactics.

I also own the domains rhodeislandformarriage.org, .info, and .com. They are currently pointed at the Marriage Equality Rhode Island site but I think I’m going to point them to a NEW site. Perhaps one that exposes MERI’s current leadership.

Bring it!

These are the top 25 in order by number of visits to this blog:

United States (US)
Canada (CA)
United Kingdom (GB)
Australia (AU)
Germany (DE)
Kuwait (KW)
India (IN)
France (FR)
Sweden (SE)
Philippines (PH)
Netherlands (NL)
Spain (ES)
Taiwan (TW)
Japan (JP)
Vietnam (VN)
Brazil (BR)
Greece (GR)
Israel (IL)
Romania (RO)
Poland (PL)
Saudi Arabia (SA)
Russian Federation (RU)
Italy (IT)
Turkey (TR)
Mexico (MX)

What interests me is that of course the U.S. and Canada top the list. But the standouts are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It has to be military folks. But welcome even if you’re not military, welcome all.

Other interesting combos, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam. But yet China falls pretty far down the list, so much so it’s not included here.