"FRICKIN’ HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD! JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH! POPE PAUL VI AND ALL THE SAINTS! AND DEAR GOD WHY ARE ALL THESE WOMEN IN EXPENSIVE ULTRASUEDE DRESSES RUNNING UP AND DOWN THE AISLES SCREAMING THEIR FOOL HEADS OFF???!!!!!"
Category: Teenage Angst
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It was a Cold and Boring Night
"To me, as a gay boy, hugging another boy was perfectly natural. It always has been, it always will be. I always felt instinctively somehow that people would disapprove and say I was naughty. And I always felt instinctively that I knew what I wanted and I was going to have it and all those disapproving people could just go suck eggs and pound sand. Even at the height of the worst spiritual and sexual repression that Oklahoma and its churches could dole out, my inner belief has always been the same. There's nothing wrong with me. I've known who I am and what I wanted since I was at least five. And everyone else who is not onboard with that can go over Niagra Falls without a barrel."
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Movie Night: A Cry in the Night
"Whatever the novelty of seeing goodie two-shoes Perry Mason as a Peeping Tom/Kidnapper, it's Carol Veazie who is the standout."
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Same Here
There's this thing that has been closely guarded for going on 40 years in 2018. It's my secret. So as it hits its 40th birthday in our new year, I decided it's time to tell the world.
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'Baptized in Blood'
I’m not sure why I’ve been leaning towards supporting John Edwards this primary season. Perhaps its his populism and anti-corporatism (although I’m realistic about his chances to actually do anything about it once in office). Or perhaps it’s because it’s refreshing to hear reasonable, quiet, calm, realistic talk during times of international crisis (as opposed...
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Visceral
A very moving, and very sad, slideshow of the «Benazir Bhutto assassination» has been posted at the New York Times. A horrible end to a horrible year. The «complete collection of photos» is available for viewing (and purchase) at Getty Images. Meanwhile, her 19-year-old son, «Bilawal» is purportedly named her successor. What a huge burden...
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The Beast's 50 Most Loathsome
The only end-of-the-year list I ever pay any attention to (and agree completely with) is the list of the 50 most loathsome people produced by «Buffalo Beast», which features The Boy Emperor firmly in spot el numero uno, up from el numero tres in 2005 and 2006: ‘Is it a civil rights milestone to have...
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Farewell, Sweet Molly
Since I wasn’t posting during the last few months, I missed noting the saddest day of the year, which made me weep. Molly Ivins is no longer with us. The Nation collected a beautiful «salute to Molly Ivins»: ‘The country was founded by dissenters, and if as a doubter of divine authority Molly inherits the...
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Lost in 2005
There were some remarkable people who left us in 2005: ‘When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.’ —Shirley Chisholm, who died 1-Jan-05 ‘“We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the...
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Lost in '05: Hunter S. Thompson
The year that was: « Goodbye Hunter S. Thompson »: ‘‘Politics is the art of controlling your environment.’ That is one of the key things I learned in these years, and I learned it the hard way. Anybody who thinks that ‘it doesn’t matter who’s President’ has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die...
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Happy Holidays!
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Asi es Nuevo Mexico
Stuff like « this » makes me wonder if my desire to return to my home state is really all that wise of an idea: ‘An essay contest at a New Mexico high school asks students to explain why preserving marriage between men and women is vital society and why unborn children merit respect and protection. The...
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Courage and Conviction vs. Cowardice and Coercion
“Rabbi Yoffie! You’re my new hero!” We need more courageous heroes like « Rabbi Eric Yoffie » to speak more truth to power: ‘The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them “zealots” who claim a “monopoly on God” while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler’s....
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Paradox? Or Hypocrisy?
“Jesus, save us from your followers!” I’ve been meaning to blog this for weeks, to read it into the record, so to speak. But what with grad school hell, I just haven’t had time. I’ve long thought that we need to take Jesus back from his followers. And Bill McKibben wrote up « some persuasive arguments »...
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Just Married
Thank you, Canada! And thank you Neil Hodgins and all our wonderful friends! Pics are up: « The Wedding » « The Reception »
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City Beneath the Sea
I’m melancholy tonight, listening to « Harry Connick Jr.‘s » Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?, Basin Street Blues and, especially, City Beneath the Sea, his love song to New Orleans, which is one of a handful of my favorite cities on the planet. Tears my heart...
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Approval from Jerry Falwell
Gosh. I feel so … honored. « Jerry Falwell now approves of me getting my master’s in elementary education », as long, of course, as I don’t ‘recruit’ the little buggers … whatever that means: ‘“I don’t think homosexuals should be granted a special minority status,” he told the paper. However, he said that gays, including teachers,...
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We Are All Londoners
Just as on 11-Marzo, we were all Madrileños and on 11-September we were all New Yorkers, as of 7-July we are all « Londoners ». ‘Once the shock had settled, I started to feel immense pride that the LAS, the other emergency services, the hospitals, and all the other support groups and organisations were all doing such...
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The Intelligently Designed Four
So. « Ayn Clouter writes movie script treatments ». Who knew? ‘What is really needed to refresh the medium is to bring in, not “politically correct” references to current society, but real down-and-dirty politics filled with Red State values. Hence this treatment for a much better remake of the original material, meant to be financed by a...
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Next Up: They Dig Up the Body and Re-Enact the Resurrection
Undaunted by the « autopsy », Terri ‘Schiavo’s brain damage “was irreversible … no amount of treatment or rehabilitation would have reversed” it, said Jon R. Thogmartin, the pathologist in Florida’s sixth judicial district who performed the autopsy and announced his findings at a news conference in Largo, Fla. Still unknown is what caused Schiavo, 41, to...
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On Memorial Day
On Memorial Day, I always think back to 1989, when as a newspaper reporter, I was privileged to meet a great group of heroes: Memory Of WWII Still Vivid For Vets (Part I of the Wake Island Story) ‘Considering the power accumulated for the invastion of Wake Island and the meager forces of the defenders,...
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Holding Down the Home Front
Wives Cope With Husband’s Memories (Part II of the Wake Island Story) By Steve Pollock The Duncan (OK) Banner Sunday, August 13, 1989 MARLOW – It all came back to them this weekend – fists lashing out during nightmares, the traumatic memories, the attempts to catch up on lost time. The wives of 10 Wake...
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Remembering Kent State
Author Philip Caputo had an interesting interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that I caught the other day at lunch. And the NPR website has « an interesting section featuring Caputo’s writing on the Kent State shootings » on the 35th anniversary: ‘The hill slopes down in a sweep of green to a green field. That must...
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V-E Day Video
Here on the 60th anniversary of VE Day, I’m watching two films, Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph des Willens and the Criterion version of the French film Nacht und Nebel. The first is the face that the Germans wanted to present to the world, the second is of the reality. Both are quite shattering, especially Nacht und...
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Church Purge Confirmed
And now there’s confirmation in the mainstream press about a « North Carolina church’s purge of Democrats »: ‘Some in Pastor Chan Chandler’s flock wish he had a little less zeal for the GOP. Members of the small East Waynesville Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who didn’t support … Bush. Nine...
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Democrats Purged From North Carolina Church
« WLOS », an ABC affiliate in western North Carolina, is reporting interesting news: ‘Religion and Politics Clash: Religion and politics clash over a local church’s declaration that Democrats are not welcome. East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them...
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Soulforce for Good
Every once in a while, there’s a ray of sunshiney hope that pierces the gathering gloom that is life in the Christo-Fascist Empire. This time, it’s « Soulforce’s Mel White and 500 others protesting at the gates of the citadel of Fascist FunDumbMentalism »: ‘At least 500 people braved spitting snow showers and cutting wind Sunday outside...
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Heil Benedict!
So, a few days after the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Konzentrationslagers Ravensbrueck and Buchenwald, and on the anniversary of Waco and Oklahoma City, 117 men in red dresses have decided to elect as Pope a former member of the Hitler Jugend who also helped man Volksturm anti-aircraft batteries at the end of World...
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Deathbed Dollars
While we’re all a bit tired of poor Terri Schiavo (let her rest in peace), I say we keep screaming about this one and hang it squarely on the Fascist FunDumbMentalists’ heads … like a flaming rubber tire. They are, after all, not shy about using a vegetable for their political purposes, as we’ll see...
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Duly Noted
According to World Health Organization figures, on the same day that Terri Schiavo died and so-called Christians mourned her so-called ‘murder,’ 6,000 other human beings died from vaccine-preventable diseases including diphtheria, measles, polio, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, Hib and yellow fever, because they and the countries they live in are too poor to afford the...
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RIP Teresa Wright
Truly terrible and depressing news: one of my all-time favorite actresses, « Teresa Wright, passed away Sunday »: ’« Teresa Wright », the willowy actress who starred opposite Gary Cooper and Marlon Brando and won a supporting Academy Award in 1942 for “Mrs. Miniver,” has died. She was 86. Wright died Sunday of a heart attack at Yale-New Haven...
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Air Jesus Drops Bombs on Tolerance
Media Transparency has a fascinating, interesting and ultimately pretty frightening expos´ posted — « Air Jesus: The Evangelical Air Force »: ‘For five days inside the Anaheim Convention Center, from February 11-16, the NRB’s attendees conducted business as if they were huddled in the catacombs of Rome rather than welcomed guests at a self-contained suburban city of...
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The ONE Campaign
New on the blogroll: « The ONE Campaign »: ‘The ONE Campaign is a new effort to rally Americans to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. Through The ONE Campaign, each ONE of us can make a difference. Together as ONE we can change the world.’ Go and sign the petition and help out...
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Disclaimer and Copyright
Except where noted by quotes and italics, all content is written, edited and issues forth from the feverish and fertile mind of AirBeagle. © 1999-2005, Some Rights Reserved. Licensed under a Creative Commons licensing scheme.
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Eric Blair, Laughing His Ass Off in His Grave
Yeesh. I go away for awhile and come back just in time to read « the most hypocritical, outrageous lies ever spoken by the Boy Emperor » ‘Referring to Putin’s recent steps to consolidate power, roll back democratic reforms and curb press and political freedoms, Bush said: “We must always remind Russia that our alliance stands for...
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Blows Keep Falling
Sad news tonight: Following the deaths of « Arthur Miller », « Sandra Dee » and « John Raitt » comes the biggest blow: « Hunter S. Thompson » apparently shot himself: ‘Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, fatally shot himself Sunday night at his...
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Spongedob Stickypants Strikes North
Not content to run roughshod within the Empire, « jack-booted Fascist FunDumbMentalists are mounting a hard-core press to export hatred and discrimination to Canada »: ‘American evangelists are urging Canadians to oppose same-sex marriage. The anti-gay groups are using Christian broadcasters to spread the message. Earlier this week, James Dobson, chairman of the Colorado-based Focus on the...
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RIP Shirley Chisholm and Robert Matsui
The bad news continues to pour in as the Republic lay dying: « Shirley Chisholm passes at age 80 »: ‘Chisholm, who took her seat in the U.S. House in 1969, was a riveting speaker who often criticized Congress as being too clubby and unresponsive. An outspoken champion of women and minorities during seven terms in the...
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Northwest 33, Service From Amsterdam to … Hell!
The airline industry’s … further descent into anarchy, let’s say … continued this week. This time, a « 28-hour ordeal on Northwest flight 33 » shows that things are all higgledy-piggledy in the air: ‘In an ordeal that made some passengers feel like hostages, about 300 people aboard an Amsterdam-to-Seattle flight were delayed for 18 hours on...
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On the Casualty Lists
I don’t have a content management system for airbeagle.org, which is where I keep a tally of those sacrificed to the extremist political ideology of the Bush administration. So there is no way to leave comments over there. (You can certainly leave them here on airbeagle.us, however, if you have something to say about the...
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Same Old Story
« As news comes along that the first of several repressive anti-gay-family state amendments are already bearing fruit for the Fascist FunDumbMentalists », here’s an interesting article being reported tonight on the BBC: ‘American divorce reform planned ‘Changes in the law are opposed by the Republican party ‘The U.S. government says that it is planning...
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Compare/Contrast Time
As seen on « Daily Kos »: What was on John F. Kerry’s chest: What was on the Boy Emperor’s [sullied] uniform: What was on the Dick Cheney’s uniform: ZILCH And for those of you, like me, who don’t know what they mean: Kerry: • Silver Star • Bronze Star • Purple Heart • Combat...
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The Rock on Which It Was Built
From The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch: ‘They had no chance of knowing the strange tangled history of the Christian Church: how a small Jewish sect had separated from all the other Jewish identities of first-century Palestine after it proclaimed its founder, Jesus, to be the Messiah whom all Jews sought. Over four centuries the little...
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Up to Speed
Bought a cheap little odometer for the Bobcat that works really well and was easy to install. Nothing fancy or expensive, just a way to tell how far I’ve gone …
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Northwest Threatens Employees
‘Northwest Airlines is threatening to discipline, and possibly fire, union employees if they proceed with picketing that questions the safety and security of Northwest flights, according to a letter the airline sent to the mechanics union. “It seems like pure intimidation,” said Jim Atkinson, president of Local 33 of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. The...
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Like the New Spiffiness?
So how do you like our new clothes? Much better, I hope. Here are some notes about the new design/location: You might not have noticed, but our URL is now airbeagle.US; thanks to our new Textdrive hosts, I can finally, without extra cost, use the .us domain I’ve been paying for for two years. Since...
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66 For The Gipper
He’s gone; I’m sorry I voted for him, but admire his commitment to public service; my extreme sympathies to Nancy (and every other family who has to deal with Alzheimer’s like my family did); and sure, he was likable and funny and a good story teller and all, but get a grip people, separate the...
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Voices
‘The first sight I got of the beach, I was looking through a sort of slit up there, and it looked like a pall of dust or smoke hanging over the beach.’ —Lt. Ray Nance, Executive Officer, 116th Infantry Regiment, US 29th Division ’…we were hearing noises on the side of the landing craft like...
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Save Us, Jesus, From Your Followers
Finally, some religious leaders state the obvious … the Boy Emperor has little moral authority in spite of waving bleedin’ Jesus on the cross around like a billyclub, « and the doin’s in Iraq make it worse »: ‘The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by some U.S. soldiers points to the danger of [the Boy Emperor]...