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AirBeagle is the ‘net pseudonym of Steve Pollock, who lives in Ann Arbor, MI. He is 40 years old (gasp) and was born in Roswell, NM, (yes, THAT Roswell, NM – and no, he’s not an alien). He’s also lived in Clovis, NM; Duncan, OK; Plano and Dallas, TX; Pleasant Hill, CA; Highlands Ranch, CO; San Francisco, CA; and Ann Arbor, MI. He currently lives on Wisteria Drive, but does NOT know any Desperate Housewives, so quit asking that question, thank you very much.

AirBeagle the website consists of several domains: « AirBeagle.net », which is about life in Michigan; « AirBeagle.org », which currently contains casualty listings; « AirBeagle.com » and « AirBeagle.biz », with resumes and communications consulting for clients; « AirBeagle.US », a collection of ‘blogs; and laquo; AntiFascist.US », which has links to articles about the NeoFascist American Empire and world in which we live. AirBeagle has been clogging up the bandwidth pipe since 17-Mar-99.

Steve is an accomplished communications professional with over 18 years experience in a wide variety of areas. He has provided communications and web consulting to a variety of clients for over 10 years and is available to serve your needs in these areas.

The beagle in ‘AirBeagle’ is Bayley Murphy Beagle, who is the pooch-on-the-porch, the sultan-of-the-sofa, the dog who has the art of looking subservient but actually completely dictating the agenda of any one who veers into his sphere of influence. Liposuction on this animal would be extremely expensive. The AirBeagle photo galleries are filled with WAY too many digital captures of His Laziness. His bio is only marginally more interesting than AirBeagle’s.

Thanks for stopping by!

This week saw (along with the unionized graduate student instructors going on a one-day walkout) undergrads tossing Frisbees out on the grass, warblers chirping in the trees, Canadian geese making their whooping noises … it must be spring again, or what’ll pass for spring in southeast Michigan until the thaw really hits. Whatever it is, I have a feeling we won’t be seeing much more snow.

Somebody is getting nostalgic for Ann Arbor’s ‘way cool skate and music scene’ in the ‘80s as embodied in a ‘zine called « Local Chaos » [via « MetaFilter ».]

Has anyone alerted « AAIO » yet?

Now, let’s see. The murderer of 100,000+ Iraqis and 1,600+ American troops and 140+ Texas inmates wants to save this brain-damaged vegetable lady … no, that can’t be right. Ummmm, how ‘bout: the man who signed a Texas law giving hospitals the okay to kill terminally ill patients who can’t afford their services wants to promote a ‘Culture of Life’ … hmmm, that doesn’t sound right, either. How ‘bout … the people who voted to slash and burn Medicaid funding which pays for such things as feeding tubes for persistent vegetative state people are about to have an apopleptic fit that one of the patients they screwed is about to die. Er, no. Yeah. The regime which has now committed more homicides of prisoners of war in just two years than the North Vietnamese did in over 13 is calling Michael Schiavo a murderer. Can that be the way it is?

Gee, it’s easy to get all confused by the current higgledy-piggledy-ness. Does somebody have a scorecard so I can keep track of the flip-flopping here? I mean, we’ve moved way beyond hypocrisy here, into something that is simply inconceivable by my poor little brain.

After all, I see tonight that none other than « Pat Buchanan » wants the Emperor to send in the Federales to ‘rescue’ Mrs. Schiavo (and be careful clicking on the link; it’s a transcript of a recent session of one of the many vacuous cable teewee stinkfests, this one known as Hardball [snicker, guffaw].):

‘PAT BUCHANAN: What George Bush ought to do right now is send federal marshals in and pick up Terri Schiavo and put that breathing tube back into her—excuse me, the food and hydration tube back into her, as this is taken up to the United States Supreme Court. He took an oath, Chris, to defend the Constitution of the United States. He has got an obligation, as well as these judges do, to defend that Constitution. And that means to protect this woman‘s life.

‘MATTHEWS: What happened to the 10th Amendment?

‘BUCHANAN: Look, the 10th Amendment has been dead as a door nail, Chris.’

Finally, one of the Fascists owns up to reality. (By the way, Fascist News Network’s John Gibson is calling for Jeb Bush to send in state troopers to force feed the poor woman. I’m sensing a trend in tonight’s Fascist Party Talking Points memo.)

Oh well. At least it conforms to #11 on the list of Elements of Fascism: ‘Abandonment of any consistent ideology in a drive for state power.’

As for Buchanan’s statement, well, he’s right. Much of the Constitution no longer is operational. I personally don’t think that we need to keep up the pretense any longer that this is a Constitutional Republic. Call it like it is and be done with it. The only question now is how do we slide through like Teflon and avoid poor Winston’s fate in 1984?

« Brilliant », as always.

Funny how deafening the silence is from Fascist Party politicians about « the majority ruling and politicians being out of touch with mainstream ‘Murricans » where Terry Schiavo is concerned:

’• 70% of Americans say it is inappropriate for Congress to involve itself in the Schiavo case.
• 67% of Americans “think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.” (Just 19% believe the elected officials are acting out of concern for her or their principles.)
• 58% of Republicans, 61% of independents and 63% of Democrats oppose federal government intervention in the case.
• 50% of evangelicals oppose federal government intervention in the case, just 44% approve of the intervention.
• 63% of Catholics and a plurality of evangelicals believe Schiavo’s feeding tube should be removed.’

— ABCNews Poll

Well, ain’t that just a kick in the pants?

My calendar says that today is the Vernal Equinox. Or, put another way, frickin’ Spring is finally here.

Of course, there’s still dirty white stuff on the ground and it’s so gray outside that I must invoke the infamous quote about Ann Arbor: ‘A sunless horror, devoid of joy and hope.’ And there’s a chance of snow later in the week.

But.

It’s frickin’ spring, people. Finally.

I’m two days late in noting it, but Happy Birthday, AirBeagle!

AirBeagle the website was born on 17-Mar-99 in San Francisco. Six years later, I still don’t know what I’m doing or why.

But we’re havin’ fun!

A big, hearty « Screw You, Michigan! », and especially Mike Cox … Love, Steve, future ex-Michigan resident:

‘Michigan’s attorney general issued an opinion Wednesday saying cities and other government entities won’t be able to provide benefits for same-sex partners of employees in future contracts because that would violate Proposal 2 – the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Attorney General Mike Cox wrote that the city of Kalamazoo’s policy of offering health and retirement benefits to same-sex partners is banned now that voters have approved a constitutional amendment that states the union between a man and woman is the only agreement recognized as a marriage or “similar union for any purpose.”’

Religiously insane twits.

There’s been a change in URL around here, so prepare to update your bookmarks and RSS feed.

Asquared will now (for reasons I won’t totally bore you with) be located at just

http://airbeagle.net/

If you continue to try asquared.airbeagle.net, you’ll get automatically forwarded to airbeagle.net, so no worries there.

As always, thanks for stopping by and we appreciate your support.

My dream early this morning was about a device called an Orgasmotron. It was a real dream; I am not making this up.

I was still in San Francisco and, inexplicably, went to someone’s house to get a demonstration of the Orgasmotron. It was a wand-like vibrator (like you see in Brookstone or Sharper Image) and it had a smaller wand sticking out of the side for clitoral stimulation.

The demonstrator was … an old lady. Again, inexplicably. She showed how to use the thing, noting that it kept track of how many orgasms you had via a digital readout on top.

Very weirdly, the thing also recorded voices … in her case, it had the voice of her dog and cat on it. (Don’t ask for explanations, I didn’t make this shit up.) The dog was an old Airedale and he and the cat were curled up on a doggy bed.

Suddenly, things shifted. I was in the same house and everything, but for some reason I wasn’t wearing shoes or socks and the old lady had morphed into a thirty-something gay boy who was asking if I was okay and didn’t I love the Orgasmotron. I said I did and started looking for my socks and shoes. As I put them on, I saw another couch underneath the front window of the room and, wrapped up in a blanket with just some blond hair and a blue eye and a nose sticking out was the gay boy’s partner, just lying there looking at me.

At that moment, the phone rang and woke me up.

Freaky-deaky.

We just took the long processional around the complex. It’s sunny and beautiful, but still quite chilly. NOAA says it’s 42. The high was supposed to be ‘near 39,’ so I guess I’ll take it.

Beagles needed lots of pooping, pottying and sniffing stops. He seems very perky and happy on the walk. As I’ve said many times over the last 10 years, we need to do it more often.

He’s now had a carob-dipped rollover and is getting up on the couch to take a nap. He’s all worned out …

From yesterday’s Ann Arbor News:

Ann Arbor has received 70.3 inches of snow so far this winter, compared with 36.8 by this time last year and 40 inches in an average season. The record is 75 inches in the 1981-82 winter season.

The exclamation above is what some undergrad was screeching into her cellphone when I was walking across campus this afternoon. Well, yes, I can sympathize, despite my vaunted fondness for winter. I spent much of the weekend in pain due to an injury induced by slipping in ice caused by the winter weather, so I should be just as pissed off at winter as that undergrad was. And damn was it ever cold today, all day. It seemed somehow even more piercingly and bitterly cold on March 8 than it did in January when the temps were at zero and below and you couldn’t walk anywhere without nearly freezing your sinuses.

It’ll all be over soon, or so we keep telling ourselves. Right? We’d like to think so — even I wouldn’t mind a change in scenery on a day like this — but as long as that “polar vortex” that the weather-head was pointing to on the map on the news tonight is spinning up there in Ontario and shoveling that Arctic air down in our direction, well…..

2005-03-07 14:39:00

« Boy George doesn’t have kind words for Kabbalah faddist Madonna Louise Ciccone »:

‘Gay pop star Boy George has slammed Madonna for embracing the Kabbalah, the mystical offshoot of Judaism which preaches homosexuality is a disease. … “I have a problem with Madonna’s devotion to Kabbalah, because I watched a documentary that said that Kabbalah believes that gay people are diseased and can be cured. She’s such a hypocrite. This is the woman who has embraced homosexuality and used it to her advantage.”

— Irish Examiner

Ouch.

Scandalous times at Boeing continue; this time, the company « fired its CEO over a sex affair with an executive »:

‘Boeing Co. on Monday said its board forced out president and chief executive officer Harry Stonecipher because of a relationship the married, 68-year-old Stonecipher had with a female executive at the company. The unexpected ouster makes Stonecipher, who spent just 15 months in the top job, the second consecutive CEO to depart the Chicago-based airplane maker and defense contractor in disgrace. His predecessor, Phil Condit, resigned Dec. 1, 2003, as a result of the defense contracting scandals that ultimately sent two Boeing executives — ex-Air Force procurement official Darleen Druyun and chief financial officer Mike Sears — to jail.’

— SF Chronicle

Oh, my. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

Apparently, sending your sixth-grade, 11-year-old daughter to school wearing low, hip-hugging jeans with the Playboy logo on the ass is acceptable practice in Ann Arbor.

Or was that too Puritan of me?

There was a vote last week in my home state’s legislature that « gives a glimmer of hope for civility, sanity and intelligence »:

‘The state House on Monday voted to abolish the death penalty in New Mexico and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole. The repeal bill passed on a vote of 38-31 and went to the Senate. “We believe that the time has come for New Mexico to take this thoughtful and practical step,” said the measure’s sponsor, Rep. Gail Beam, D-Albuquerque. Death penalty opponents have tried to get the law repealed for about eight years; it was the first time during that effort the full House had voted on it. Opponents of capital punishment said it does not deter murder, it’s expensive for the state, and there is a risk of executing innocent people.’

— Santa Fe New Mexican

The « Death Penalty Information Center » has facts debunking the old deterrence myth.

Asi es Nuevo Mexico … and I’m proud of it.

Phillip Carter and Paul Glastris, writing in the Washingotn Monthly, « make a compelling case for an Imperial draft of sorts » summed up by the following passage:

‘In short, America’s all-volunteer military simply cannot deploy and sustain enough troops to succeed in places like Iraq while still deterring threats elsewhere in the world. Simply adding more soldiers to the active duty force, as some in Washington are now suggesting, may sound like a good solution. But it’s not, for sound operational and pragmatic reasons. America doesn’t need a bigger standing army; it needs a deep bench of trained soldiers held in reserve who can be mobilized to handle the unpredictable but inevitable wars and humanitarian interventions of the future. And while there are several ways the all-volunteer force can create some extra surge capacity, all of them are limited.

‘The only effective solution to the manpower crunch is the one America has turned to again and again in its history: the draft. Not the mass combat mobilizations of World War II, nor the inequitable conscription of Vietnam — for just as threats change and war-fighting advances, so too must the draft. A modernized draft would demand that the privileged participate. It would give all who serve a choice over how they serve. And it would provide the military, on a “just in time” basis, large numbers of deployable ground troops, particularly the peacekeepers we’ll need to meet the security challenges of the 21st century.

‘America has a choice. It can be the world’s superpower, or it can maintain the current all-volunteer military, but it probably can’t do both.’

— Washington Monthly

Gonna be an interesting four years.

Ruh-roh … « a Fascist nerd-twit on the Federal Elections Commission just made a shot across bloggers’ collective bows » in what is probably a typically nasty campaign by the Fascists to destroy McCain-Feingold:

‘Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over. In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign’s Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate’s press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines. Smith should know. He’s one of the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission, which is beginning the perilous process of extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet. In 2002, the FEC exempted the Internet by a 4-2 vote, but U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last fall overturned that decision. “The commission’s exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated communications regulation severely undermines” the campaign finance law’s purposes, Kollar-Kotelly wrote.’

— News.com

‘Bradley’ … sounds like a brat/twit, doesn’t he? (Just look at his picture on the article.)

Oh well. I don’t really link much to campaign sites here; I can’t think of any that I did in campaign ‘04 (although I could be wrong). And I have very mixed feelings about McCain-Feingold. This will also bear close watching.

Folks are a bit up in arms because « British Airways flew a 747 on two long trips with just three operating engines » [gasp]:

‘A British Airways jet that continued on an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles to London after one of its four engines lost power also flew on three engines on a later flight from Singapore to London, the airline said Friday. The Boeing 747 left Singapore on February 25 and landed at London’s Heathrow Airport the next day, arriving only 15 minutes behind schedule, BA spokesman Jay Marritt said. Three hours into the 14-hour flight, an oil pressure indicator showed there was a problem with one of the engines, which the captain shut down as a precaution, Marritt said. It was the captain’s decision to continue with Flight 18, which was carrying 356 passengers, he added. “It’s still very safe to fly a 747 on three engines,” Marritt said. “It is certified to do so.”

— CNN

Well, it’s certified to finish a flight on less than four engines if it’s in the middle of nowhere with no landing strip in sight (as opposed to, say, a few miles from KLAX), but sure, we could quibble over that small detail.

Those evil gentlemen in the so-called liberal media are trying to draw a connection between these two incidents and a new comma-nistic, anti-bidness European Union regulation dictating fair compensation for inconvenienced passengers:

‘The decision not to return that flight after the engine lost power raised concerns about a new European Union law which requires European carriers to reimburse passengers for substantial delays. U.S. officials said they have no evidence the airline’s decision to continue on was influenced by the regulation. “We would never compromise the safety of our passengers,” said British Airways spokeswoman Diane Fung on Monday. “The plane is certified to fly on three engines. It is perfectly safe to do so. The pilots are trained for such situations.’

Right. You flew a 747 from KLAX to KLHR and again from KSIN to KLHR on three engines because it’s such a bitchin’ fine airplane (and hey, not operating that fourth engine saves expensive fuel!) and not because you’d have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars in compensation to 100+ inconvencied passengers.

Hmmmmmm.

Well, I’m an unrepentent old socialist; I love the new regulation. It would have been wonderful if it had existed back in April of 2000 when I was stuck for nine hours in the Venice, Italy, airport by Air France and just got a voucher for a $4.50 slice of cold pizza for lunch. The worst pizza I’ve ever eaten was in Italy. But I digress.

This one bears more watching.

Now, here’s yet another reason to consider Canadian citizenship: « somebody above the 49th has a spine and knows how to stand up to the Fascists »:

‘Dear Condi,

‘I’m glad you’ve decided to get over your fit of pique and venture north to visit your closest neighbour. It’s a chance to learn a thing or two. Maybe more. I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.’

— Winnipeg Free Press

Great stuff, eh? O, Canada! Thanks, Lloyd!

« Further proof that Lincoln was gay », by Paul Rudnick:

‘The first draft of the Gettysburg Address began, “Four score and seven years ago-ish …”

… ‘Lincoln urged Congress to bind the nation’s wounds “with malice toward none, with charity for all,” although under his breath he murmured, “except for a certain red-headed lieutenant, and he knows why.”

… ‘Another friend, Billy Greene, said that Lincoln’s thighs were “as perfect as a human being’s could be.” Lincoln was said to have responded, “It’s called Pilates.”

… ‘When Lincoln was told that Lee had surrendered, he gasped and exclaimed, “Oh no she didn’t!”’

— The New Yorker

And so on …

Shhhhhh. Don’t let the Fascists know it, but one of the Empire’s favorite uber-patriotic songs is actually all about [gasp] faggotry! Ahhhhhh! « The horror »:

‘A macaroni, was a fop or dandy with an extravagant hairstyle and affected mannerisms. More literally, a macaroni was a small tricorn hat placed on top of a high wig. Hence, when Yankee Doodle ‘stuck a feather in his cap, and called it macaroni’, it was the entire cap, not just the feather, that constituted a macaroni, and which symbolized him as a Dandy and a bit of a buffoon.’

— Rictor Norton, “The Macaroni Club: Homosexual Scandals in 1772”, Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook, 19-Dec-2004, updated 1-Mar-2005

Ooopsy! We already know that The Star-Spangled Banner tune is actually a tavern drunken drinking song … what’s next? America the Beautiful is actually a coded homage to the beauty show circuit?

Cool. Yankee Doodle Dandy is now AirBeagle’s theme song.

Yes, I suppose we have been blogging less lately. I confess to a lot of blogging fatigue, brought on mostly by a heavy final term at SI. Still a hell of a lot to work to do before it’s all over, seven weeks and change until my final final, graduation a week later, then …..

No more school. Strange to think about.

The weather hasn’t bothered me a lot, although I have taken some unfortunate spills in patches of ice in the past month or so (falling flat on my rear end both times, the second time more severely). I have accommodated to the snow and the cold far better than I thought I ever would. But I do understand why most people wouldn’t agree with me in my equanimity toward the prolonged winter, and I told a friend of mine the other day that if this had been three months straight of rain rather than snow, I would be in serious grouch mode myself about now. I am getting kind of tired of trudging through the snow and dealing with the dry-air-induced asthma, come to think of it. My spine isn’t too happy, either.

We do, perhaps, have a bit of blogging fatigue around these parts.

For myself, spring is just a mere, what, 17 days away. Oh yeah. Can’t wait. Get this ugly, dirty snow outta here.

Frank will be going into mourning then, pining away for the melted snow.

I shouldn’t speak for him, but I think there’s less than two months until graduation and last-term fatigue has set in; hence, the light blogging.

Cabin fever/graduation fever. Yeesh. The only content one around here is the beagle.

An acerbic columnist at The Guardian has a brilliant op-ed up which asserts that « death is no big deal »:

‘I lost a friend last week. These things happen — I’m bad at people, after all — but I can’t say I’m not pissed off. Last week I also talked to a nice lady who was great at describing loss, the details of loss, the amputated future, the lack of company. Because I’m bad at people it took me a long time to remember she was so well-informed because her husband died a while ago. I mean, ages ago, but she hasn’t forgotten him. Which is odd, isn’t it ? She wants to be able to talk to her husband, I want to be able to talk to my friend — but we shouldn’t. We should be over it. How do I know? Because I should be caring about how a bony tart and a petulant clothes horse choose to christen their spawn. I should be fretting over whether a lack of established royal precedent at Windsor register office will cause Camilla to spontaneously combust. I should want to see more and more and more of Jimmy Carr. Then I would be part of the real world, the things that matter, the questions that deserve every scrap of media attention they get.

‘Particularly, I should keep away from anything to do with unpleasantness, injury, or loss — they have no place in a modern media environment. Take Lance Corporal Andres Raya. I shouldn’t think about him. He’s dead now. He made it through Iraq, went home to California and couldn’t take it. He committed suicide by cop in a three-hour gun fight. But he doesn’t matter. Or Baha Mousa, he’s never going to get the kind of headlines he might if he’d shagged Jordan, or shat himself in a celebrity detox special. He’s dead now. Our troops killed him. But if that matters at all it’s as an indication of how stressed war can make the modern soldier. His brother Ala’a misses him, but he probably lacks perspective.’

— The Guardian

Like I said, brilliant.

The news report provides murky details, but apparently a « vicious homophobic beating in Santa Fe has sent a gay man to intensive care and his attackers to jail »;

‘A man remained hospitalized in intensive care Tuesday morning after he and another man were beaten in what Santa Fe police said was a hate crime sparked because the men are gay. According to a report in Tuesday’s edition of the Albuquerque Journal, police said James Maestas, 21, and another man were leaving the Denny’s Restaurant on Cerrillos with several friends early Sunday morning when they were approached by a group of five males who were throwing rocks at their car and challenging them to a fight. … According to the newspaper report, a police officer’s statement said that the attackers followed Maestas and his friend to the La Quinta Inn, where the friend was staying. That was when the group began beating up the Maestas and his friend, according to the officer’s statement. During the beating outside La Quinta Inn, the attackers were yelling, “Let’s (mess) these faggots up,” the officer’s statement said.’

— The New Mexico Channel

I’ve stayed in that La Quinta Inn and probably eaten at that Denny’s. When Frank and I were moving from SF to Ann Arbor a year-and-a-half ago, we ate dinner at a restaurant on Cerillos pretty close by; Frank got some intensely negative, uncomfortable vibes from some macho dipshit and his girlfriend who were sitting nearby. Santa Fe may be an allegedly ‘liberal’ town, but this kind of thing isn’t exactly new.

And the social climate that the Emperor and the Fascist Party have created will only make things worse, of course. Hate Crimes legislation, civil rights, civil protections are all being opposed by so-called Christians.

Tonight, I’m a little less inclined to want to move to Santa Fe after I graduate; a little more inclined to move to Canada.

After all, the Amurrican empire is now a place where « gay and lesbian are naughty words, but Hitler, Nazi, terrorist and bin Laden aren’t »:

‘To the NFL it’s naughty to be “GAY” but OK to be “BIN LADEN.” You can be a “NAZI” but not a “LESBIAN.” Even a gay man with the last name Gay can’t buy a jersey. This rather bizarre conclusion is reached when trying to order a personalized jersey from the NFL Shop, the online merchandise site run by the league. Anyone trying to buy a jersey with the single word “GAY” or “LESBIAN” or “GAY PRIDE” on the back gets a rejection message that states: “This field should not contain a naughty word.” The wording was changed in the hours since this article first appeared and the NFL contacted. Now when you enter “GAY” and try to checkout you get the following: “The personalization entered cannot be accepted.” This wording is no less offensive than “naughty” and doesn’t change the issue. Especially when you can buy jerseys with “FAG” or “HITLER” on them. Someone running the NFL’s website decided certain terms were “naughty,” including a declaration of sexual orientation. But “BIN LADEN,” “TERRORIST,” or “AL QAEDA” are all accepted; just have your credit card handy (personalized jerseys start at $79.99).’

« Godwin » be damned. Folks, look, it’s 1935, this is the Third Reich, we gay and lesbian citizens have just been banned from getting married and are about to lose even more hard-won civil rights and there are folks connected to the halls of power calling for our further demonization, marginalization, branding and out-and-out execution.

May God harshly judge, condemn and punish America’s Fascist Emperor, Party and supporters and its so-called Christian extremists.

And may God bless and heal Mr. Maestas, fighting for his life in that Santa Fe hospital.

Thanks to quite a few problems, some internal and some external, the folks over at « TextDrive », which is where all the AirBeagle sites reside, have had some problems the last couple of weeks.

So if you’ve been getting a series of errors while trying to access any part of AirBeagle, you can blame, mostly, the evil, dirty, smelly, rat bastard comment and e-mail spammers who flood servers with their foul stench and cause pain to website owners and, especially, techno-geeks at webhosting providers.

The other problem has been those techno-geeks; they did a very special offer for lifetime hosting for $400 and don’t seem to have been very prepared for the rush of new orders that they got. They’ve been overwhelmed, victims of their own success.

However, response time seems to be better this evening and the ‘internal errors’ seem to have stopped, so maybe we’re rounding a corner.

Unfortunately, individual entries don’t seem to be working right, nor do categories. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on there. You can still live comments via the popup windows.

And part of the mess is of my own making; I’m moving all sections and folding airbeagle.net and airbeagle.org into airbeagle.us. It may be a week or two, but we’ll get back to normal soon.

Thanks for hanging in there with us.

The « AARP » has its own « Typepad » blog out; it’s dedicated to fighting the « disgusting and reprehensible Fascist campaign to discredit AARP and elderly supporters of Social Security ». What a sad statement about American today that it’s even necessary.

Why is the blog necessary? Consider:

’… with GOP support and the plan’s arithmetic looking equally shaky, Bush’s allies aren’t taking chances. A well-funded conservative group called USA Next posted a Web page with two pictures: a camouflage-clad American GI with an X painted on him; two men in tuxedos kissing, with a checkmark on them. The caption: “The REAL AARP Agenda.” The ad was justified, the group argued, because the Ohio branch of AARP had opposed an anti-gay-marriage referendum in the state. (The national body has taken no position on that or other cultural issues.) But the real reason, said USA Next’s CEO, was pure political provocation. The ad was a “test,” Charlie Jarvis said, to see whether “left-wing bloggers” would “focus entirely on one image and explode about it. My guess was right.”

— Newsweek

The real reason rears its ugly head. Like gays, seniors are perfectly acceptable cannon fodder in the Great American Culture War, according to the Fascist stormtroopers.

Doesn’t matter that the Brown Shirts are lying. These amoral people will do anything to score points.

The AARP’s position is clear. As the blog itself notes:

‘Marie Smith, AARP President, in a February 25 speech to the City Club of Cleveland said: “AARP’s opposition to private accounts funded by Social Security is not a liberal position, or a conservative position, or a Republican position, or a Democrat position — it’s a common-sense position that can and should be supported by people of all political persuasions and ideologies who care about the future retirement security of our children and grandchildren.”’

Amen, Marie. Don’t let the Fascist Party smear campaign get you down. Fight the pigs!

« Our Life in Michigan – Miscellaneous Beagle Pics »

In which Beagle gets some Salon Treatment and takes a snowy walk in Winchell Park:

« Our Life in Michigan – Miscellaneous Beagle Pics »

Then:

‘They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary
security, deserve neither liberty or security.’

— Benjamin Franklin

Now:

‘Protecting national security must take precedence over civil liberties because Britain faces the prospect of “terrorism without limit” that could result in “thousands” being killed.’

— Tony Blair

Here’s how AirBeagle works:

There are six domains in the AirBeagle family, AB.US, AB.org, AB.com, AB.biz, AB.net and AntiFascist.US, but only two are really used — .US and .biz. AntiFascist.US automatically forwards to AB.US, as does AB.net and AB.org. AB.com automatically forwards to AB.biz.

« AirBeagle.US » contains the following ‘blogs:

« Ask »: Here’s where you find out all you want to know about AirBeagle.
« Bike »: A chronicle of my efforts to ride a bike and get some regular exercise.
« Contact »: How to reach out and touch us.
« Drive »: I just leased a new Jeep, my fourth. This is where we do a Car and Driver bit, keeping a record of expenses and other things that happen over the course of the lease.
« Fly »: In which I indulge a major passion: airliners. I love ‘em. I write about the industry and post some pictures.
« The AntiFascist ». While similar in tone to AB.US, except it only contains links to news articles which highlight current affairs in five areas, News, Politics, Culture, Fundamentalism and Corporatism, both Imperially and Internationally. Read ‘em and weep.
« Live »: This is the joint blog which I and my partner Frank write … it’s all about our grad school experiences while attending UM in Ann Arbor. This is where all the good stuff is, with lots of variety.
« Print »: Life with literature, also a passion. Not as frequently updated, but mainly where I keep a list of books I’ve read or am reading.
« Read »: Totally random, personal stuff which doesn’t fit anywhere else. It’s the most personally revealing section.
« Remember »: Another major passion: history. Primarily, you’ll find me writing about the history of Europe between 1815 and 1945, but there are other bits and pieces here too.
« Screen »: All about film. Movies I’m watching or have just seen, stuff I’ve rented from the library and an up-to-date listing of my 500-disc DVD library.
« Slaughter » contains a list honoring all the men and women who have lost their lives since the Boy Emperor George II seized the throne of the ‘Murrican Empire in 2001. I update as often as I can, but the deaths are getting too numerous and it’s getting hard to keep up.
« Snork »: The Dayley Bayley is where you’ll find a recent picture of my dog, Bayley, the Beagle in AirBeagle, updated every day. Or as often as I get a chance.
« Think »: All about my adventures in teaching and in grad school at UM’s School of Education, where I’ll be getting my master’s degree. I keep it fairly generic; don’t need to get dooced.
« View »: All photos, all the time. Here’s the repository of all our photos that we take over time. They cover some five years, but I hope to add more soon.
« Watch »: Here’s where you can watch the beagle live. It’s the place to get voyeuristic and spy on us via our webcam. If you see a graphic that says we’re offline, it means the camera is off and we’re looking for some privacy.
« Write »: The final AB.US section is where I keep longer writings and essays that don’t fit on the main blogs.

The main page of « AirBeagle.US » is the oldest section of AirBeagle and where I blow off the most steam. Here’s where I fight the good fight, mostly against the self-righteous, hypocritical and evil Fascists and Fascist FunDumbMentalists that would turn the American Republic into the Fascist Theocracy of ‘Murrica. I don’t pull punches here. If you don’t like in-your-face progressive politics and activism, and/or you think George W. is akin to God, then you won’t like what you see here.

Then there is « AirBeagle.biz » which is used to deliver information about my education communications consulting and my personal resume.

A better site map will be coming when I get a chance.

Welcome.

There’’s been a very curious transaction this week; « a Canadian company bought three Boeing plants in Kansas and Oklahoma »

‘Toronto-based conglomerate Onex Corp. is heading for the potentially turbulent skies of the aviation industry with a $1.2 billion (U.S.) purchase of three Boeing Co. commercial aircraft plants in Kansas and Oklahoma. “We have come together around a vision, to build a stand-alone competitive business with customers from around the world,” Nigel Wright, an Onex managing director, said in a conference call to announce the deal for the three plants yesterday. The deal includes $900 million in cash and assumption of about $300 million in existing debt, according to Onex managing director Seth Mersky. It’’s worth about $1.47 billion (Canadian). “Onex is awfully happy to begin this process. We share a common goal to build a strong, stable, world-class aerospace supplier,” Mersky said. The plants provide Boeing with fuselage and other components for 737, 747, 767 and 777 planes and is a supplier for the 787 Dreamliner.’‘

— Toronto Star

What’’s curious is that Onex has no aerospace experience at all. Boeing says the transaction is intended to increase competition. Says Onex’’s chief: ‘’This could have been very advantageous for an aerospace buyer because they could have eliminated cost from administration or engineering functions, but Boeing decided to take a different tack … They decided that the opportunity to build a stand-alone business, and having more suppliers in the market would be better in the long run.

Sounds to me more like an identity crisis in the face of slipping market share thanks to Airbus, but that’’s just my opinion. Boeing Commercial appears to be shrinking and becoming strictly just a designer of airplanes. You have to wonder if it’’s a viable strategy over the long run, but then I’‘m far from being an expert on big bidness.

Naturally, the employees, as usual, may get the shaft. Onex claims that they will be hiring, but two passages in the article stand out. Onex, however, avoided commenting on whether the new company, to be formed to run the plants, will have jobs for all the plants’’ employees.

’”The 9,000 employees of the old plants will have to apply to the new company for jobs. Onex says it intends to hold meetings with employees over the next several days.’

Which is to say here’s an opportunity to weed out ‘undesirables’ and take advantage of Oklahoma and Kansas laws which are hostile to unions.

Regardless of the true intent, forcing an employee to ‘re-apply’ for the job he or she currently holds is insulting and demeaning. Way to get off on the right foot, Onex.

E-Mail
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Snail Mail
Steve Pollock
1443 Wisteria Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4643

Phone
734 / 846-6498

AirBeagle is best viewed in Mozilla’s Firefox or Apple’s Safari or even Omniweb. It works in Opera and Netscape, just not as well. You’re on your own there.

And for you Internet Explorer users: Break the shackles of Microsoft and get a REAL browser! AirBeagle works in I.E., but not that well … because I.E. is a bloated piece of crap, the engineers of which should be flogged repeatedly with copies of Jeffrey Zeldman’s Designing With Web Standards.

1. I was born in Roswell, NM, almost 20 years to the day after John Denver. Yes, THAT Roswell. No alien jokes necessary – I’ve heard ‘em all.

2. I am a Sagitarrius, but think it’s all mostly a buncha harmless hooey.

3. I was baptized in the Church of the Nazarene.

4. I spent several years in a church loosely affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

5. Which explains why I am now very much against organized religion.

6. My number one pet peeve is hypocrisy.

7. The cities I have lived in are Roswell; Clovis, NM; Duncan, OK; Plano, TX; Dallas, TX; Pleasant Hill, CA; Highlands Ranch, CO; San Francisco, CA; and Ann Arbor, MI

8. I moved 14 times between 1994-98, mostly to different apartments around the north Dallas area.

9. My favorite cities in the world are Berlin, Germany, and Venice, Italy.

10. My least favorite city in the world is London, England.

11. I have much trouble understanding my native language as it is spoken in its native land.

12. I love the countryside between Cracow and Oswiecim, Poland.

13. I love to travel, especially by plane or on long road trips.

14. I have visited 31 of the 50 United States.

15. I have flown over 8 of the remaining 19.

16. I can’t wait to visit Vermont and hope to live there someday.

17. I have been to six foreign countries: England, France, Germany, Poland, Austria and Italy.

18. I was once yelled at by a London cabbie.

19. I threw an angry ugly American fit at Charles deGaulle airport outside Paris when I didn’t get the seat assignment I was promised.

20. I am deeply ashamed of number 19.

21. I was also deeply ashamed of patronizing Planet Hollywoods, Hard Rock Cafes and Virgin Records stores in Paris, London and Berlin.

22. I wish I could live in Salzburg, Austria.

23. My ancestors on my mother’s side came from Siegen, near Cologne, Germany. Other relatives came from County Coleraine, Ireland, and from England.

24. I am related to both Belle Starr and Black Jack Ketchum. Although my great-great-grandfather was named John W. Booth, I am not apparently actually related to John Wilkes Booth.

25. I used to cry every single day when I was forced to go to school.

26. I became very near-sighted in second grade; my eyes got steadily worse until the deterioration suddenly stopped in 12th grade; I have had the same contact prescription for over 20 years.

27. I rode a helicopter when I was eight and screamed from the time we left the ground ‘til the time we landed.

28. I am afraid of heights, but only in buildings or roller coasters. I love being on top of very high mountains or cliffs.

29. I locked myself out of the house one night wearing nothing at all when I was nine years old.

30. I pretended to be Evel Knievel when I was in elementary school in the early ‘70s and built lots of ramps to jump my bike over.

31. I played the cornet in junior high and high school band. I played it badly.

32. I graduated high school with honors, but college with only a 2.79 gpa. College bored me.

33. My favorite subjects are history and English.

34. My least favorite subjects are math and science.

35. I have a major book fetish, especially European history.

36. My kindergarten class had the privilege to tour the first Boeing 747s ever built before they entered airline service with Pan Am; Boeing engineers gave me a Lifesavers during the tour.

37. I was never in a fight in school and have never hit anyone in anger.

38. I collect commercial airline memorabilia from the golden age, 1930s-1960s.

39. I miss the days of Braniff International’s Easter egg colored airplanes and ‘air-stripping hostesses.’

40. I collect Playmates interactive Simpsons toys.

41. I love ‘South Park,’ but suspect it is full of fascist Republican propaganda.

42. My favorite TV show of all time is ‘Northern Exposure.’

43. I detest reality TV, but am currently completely hooked on BBC’s ‘Changing Rooms.’

44. My favorite guilty pleasure, movie-wise, is ‘Steel Magnolias.’

45. My favorite movie of all time is ‘The Best Years Of Their Lives.’ A close second is ‘An American In Paris.’

46. I am a major Hitchcock fan.

47. I love pretty much any movie made before about 1965.

48. My favorite actresses are Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell.

49. My favorite actors are Cary Grant, James Stewart, Gene Kelly and Farley Granger.

50. No other actor or actress (especially those working today) are fit to lick the shoes of Joan, Katherine, Rosalind, Cary, Gene, James or Farley.

51. I once saw Redd Foxx at the Oklahoma City airport. He got angry when we pretended not to know who he was.

52. I once saw Doug McClure at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. My aunt got his autograph.

53. I saw the cast and crew of ‘Party of Five’ film an episode at my office building in San Francisco.

54. I stood in line at different times to get the autographs of Patricia Nell Warren, author of ‘The Front Runner,’ Armistead Maupin, author of ‘Tales of the City,’ and Jan Karon, author of the ‘Mitford’ series.

55. I am a major fan of Doris Day’s movies and albums; ‘Mr. Tap Toes’ is one of my earliest musical memories.

56. I don’t think Rock Hudson or Montgomery Clift were particularly good looking.

57. But I would have jumped into bed in a heartbeat with Farley Granger or Guy Madison (or both!)

58. I’m attracted to Ben Affleck, but think he’s a bad actor.

59. I would be attracted to Matt Damon, but he reminds me too much of a 12-year-old and that makes me nervous.

60. I enjoy being totally alone much of the time.

61. I have over 425 movies on DVD.

62. I can be a movie Nazi.

63. I know very little about music – just what I like.

64. Britney Spears is my worst nightmare – on so many levels.

65. I cry when reading sentimental books like R.F. Delderfield’s ‘A Horseman Riding By,’ ‘The Green Gauntlet,’ and ‘To Serve Them All My Days.’ This causes great conflict inside me, because I’m an English major and these books aren’t particularly good literature.

66. One of my favorite books is Elleston Trevor’s ‘Bury Him Among Kings.’

67. The worst job I ever had was mopping the floor of the diner in a Woolworth store.

68. The best job I ever had was small town newspaper reporter.

69. I scream at TV news reporters and anchors when the evening news is on.

70. I believe we live in a corporate Fascist police state.

71. I believe the official explanations about 9/11 are … incomplete.

72. I have a potty mouth sometimes, which is ironic because, when I was a kid, cussing made me very angry.

73. I cut my own hair. Sometimes the results leave a little to be desired.

74. My beagle has me wrapped around his paw and is lord and master of the manse.

75. Happiness is a warm beagle.

76. I hate seafood.

77. I barely tolerate oriental food.

78. I love Tex-Mex and Italian.

79. I eat toast every morning for breakfast.

80. Chocolate-coated breakfast cereals are gross, yet I drink chocolate milk every morning.

81. Minor earthquakes are fun.

82. Chasing tornadoes is even more fun.

83. I miss thunderstorms. There aren’t any in San Francisco.

84. The best thing about living in San Francisco is the fog.

85. The worst thing about living in San Francisco is … it’s crowded. We’re wedged in here like rabbits in cages, for god’s sake!

86. I take home the soaps/shampoos from every hotel I visit.

87. Sunshine and deep blue skies depress me.

88. Rainy days make me very, very happy.

89. I hate it when my teeth aren’t brushed.

90. The toilet seat must be down.

91. The toilet paper goes over the roll, not under.

92. I take a shower every morning and a bath every night.

93. 250-threadcount sheets, changed at least three times a week, are the only way to go.

94. I am a night owl and prefer to stay up until at least 3 a.m.

95. However, I also love being up and seeing the dawn.

96. My oldest and dearest friends have been around for over 26 years and are as close as family.

97. Upon my death, I want to be cremated.

98. I doubt the existence of a hereafter.

99. I have never stolen anything from anyone in my life.

100. I can be an accomplished liar, when need arises.

News from California: « An experiment with RFID badges for attendance purposes fails for a community school »:

‘It started with a girl who went home from junior high saying she felt like an orange. Lauren Tatro, 13, told her parents the plain facts. Every student at Brittan Elementary School had to wear a badge the size of an index card with their name, grade, photo — and a tiny radio identification tag. The purpose was to test a new high-tech attendance system. To the eighth-grader, it seemed students had been turned into grocery items on the shelf, slabs of sirloin at the meat counter, fruit in the produce section. So began a difficult stretch for this town of 2,885. Outraged parents claimed the school was trampling their children’s privacy and civil liberties, maybe even threatening their health. School board meetings overflowed. Folks talked of George Orwell, Big Brother and the Bible. The American Civil Liberties Union joined the fray. Parents picketed. TV news crews from as far away as Germany descended on the 600-student school.’

— LA Times

After much ado and hoo-haw and won’t somebody please think of the children, the company that started the whole thing cancelled the whole experiment, took their toys and went home.

But don’t cry too hard for them; as always, controversy is the best publicity you can get. You can’t buy the publicity that occurs when adults start yelling at each other over kids (or other things for that matter).

Savvy people know this. Madonna, for instance, wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for controversy; that Sex book was a complete joke, more stupid than sexy and her singing has never been particularly noteworthy. She owes her career and her millions to her ability to market herself through controversy. The more she was denounced from pulpits and had parental warning stickers stuck on her albums, the more money she made, ensuring that she made more albums and more controversy. That’s been her cycle for over twenty years, and it’s worked like a charm.

Just like it’s worked charmingly for InCom:

‘Ever since InCom’s name began appearing on TV and in newspaper stories around the country, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Many are callers from school districts wanting to adopt the technology. Ahlers said he won’t be surprised if some states eventually require the technology in schools. “This has been a very, very good experience,” he said. “They spelled our name right and spread it across the country.”’

Bingo. The bottom line. They lost the battle in Sutter, but may have just won the entire war for the rest of the country. Growth and profits will ensue and, just like the man said, some state legislators (southern and Republican, I predict) will embrace the whole thing and start requiring school children to be branded like cattle. The rest of society won’t be far behind; teachers will be tagged like students; Wal-Mart, the leviathan who may have done more than any other entity to bring RFID to maturity and popularity, will start tagging employees, and so on. And it will all be done in the name of efficiency, technology and, above all, safety.

Which always makes me remember the much-used-lately Benjamin Franklin quote:

‘They who would give up liberty to gain a little security deserve neither.’

We’ve pissed away our liberty because we’re such wimps. And put on the throne the Chief of All Wimps, a scared, swaggering bully of an Emperor.

Ain’t the Twenty-First Century gonna be grand?

Of course, it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault. If he hadn’t built that damn Bridge to the Twenty-First Century in the first place, we might not be in this mess.

John Wooden of Chickenhead Productions scores big parody/satire points with two new websites, Sex is For Fags and Iron Hymen — abstinence-only sites for, respectively, boys and girls.

Well, that’s quite a pic of « a guy I’ve had a crush on since It’s Your Move », eh?

I don’t know much about rugby, but I know « these boys are wearing nothing but socks » and said socks are not on their feet!

« V-Day » came and went this year; next year, I hope we all pay more attention to it.

‘Because of your efforts V-Day, and the spirit, energy and movement to end violence against women and girls, has spread wildly around the world. Last year there were 2300 events, celebrations, in over 1100 cities, villages and towns. From Delhi to Detroit women took back their bodies and their lives. I was lucky to be in Mumbai where I witnessed the extraordinary humor of a brilliant Indian cast performing The Vagina Monologues for hundreds and raising money for a local shelter. I was there in Tulsa, Oklahoma performing for 2500 Native Americans so that women there would be safe and free. I was there when 7000 people from all over the world marched on Juarez, Mexico and insisted that there be justice for the hundreds of disappeared women and safety for the living.’

Excellent.

An excellent new blog, « Secret Simon », joins the fray; this one is about a ‘happily’ married man who decides he can’t suppress the truth about himself anymore and shares that truth with his wife. And then blogs about it:

‘We will be separating. No two ways around it. Reality has set in. Her two conflicting minds have started to reconcile. This was the reaction I was bracing for in my initial confrontation. The flash of shock has worn off and logic has started it’s course. She told me she felt like Dorothy and the Wicked Witch in the same body. One side wants to just go home and have us all live happily ever after and the other wants to hate me for what I’ve done. I had to take off work yesterday to settle things down. She talked to her parents in the evening. On her way to talk to them, I could tell by her goodbye that a resolution was drawing near but wasn’t sure exactly to what degree. After a lingering hour of paralysis later, she came home. And to her senses as well. While I can’t agree with the fundamental belief she was raised with, the one that nailed down the lid for so long on my identity, I am glad that she has something to stand by. Now that the curtains have been drawn, guess that makes me the Wizard.’

A Wizard of Oz reference. And he’s been questioning that he’s gay? Anyway, welcome to the technicolor side of life, Simon. Glad you finally decided to join us.

So which of you recruited him? Who gets the toaster?

Boy, Ohio (or, to be more accurate, its loony legislature) just « doesn’t know when to stop », does it?

I’m taking a blogging/web break. It was forced on me, but I’m actually not quicking much about it. A bad software update on my Mac from Apple (Motto: ‘Love the Computer, Hate the Company’) has royally fouled things up on my beloved Ti-Book. It’s been dead for two days and my backup software restore disk is apparently bad, so unless I pay some money for new system software, I’m screwed for awhile. I’m forced to check e-mail and make blog posts on Frank’s Windoze machine. Torture.

But I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have a web break for awhile. There’s a bunch of books I want to read and some exercise I need to get.

I’m also waiting for the release of Textpattern 1.0, which was promised over a month ago. I think when that happens, I’ll be simplifying things a great deal. All of the sections in the menu on the right will become merely categories here at the main page; all the subdomains will disappear. AB.com will forward to AB.biz, which will still be for consulting purposes and my teaching/education blog. AB.org, AB.US and the AntiFascist will probably be merged into this main page also. Hence, one TXP CMS for .net and one for .biz and we’re good to go.

We’ll see what happens. It’s always good to get a break from things you’re too tightly wrapped up in, right? I’ll be back shortly. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!

Sad news today: Another passing from the 20th Century American intellectual landscape. « Playwright Arthur Miller, 89, is dead »:

‘Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman,” came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died. He was 89. Miller, who had been hailed as America’s greatest living playwright, died Thursday night at his home in Roxbury of heart failure, his assistant, Julia Bolus, said Friday. His family was at his bedside, she said. His plays, with their strong emphasis on family, morality and personal responsibility, spoke to the growing fragmentation of American society. “A lot of my work goes to the center of where we belong — if there is any root to life — because nowadays the family is broken up, and people don’t live in the same place for very long,” Miller said in a 1988 interview. “Dislocation, maybe, is part of our uneasiness. It implants the feeling that nothing is really permanent.”

A very apropos quote.

Since I’m a total A-type (a for anal, that is), I created a spreadsheet with statistics on what the Jeep has cost us in gas.

Just over the two-month mark and we’ve gone 1,061 miles, used 99.418 gallons of gas at a cost of $143.50 and paid an average of $1.81 per gallon. That’s an average 212.3 miles per tank and a whoppingly disappointing average of 13.359 miles per gallon. Ouch.

We’ve also spent $117 for car tags, $206 for insurance and some change for car washes. We won’t talk about the car payments.

Other than the gas mileage, we’re mighty happy with Jeepy so far.

Caution: If you don’t like vitriolic, angry political rants, skip this entry. Consider yourself forewarned. Thank you.

The Ann Arbor News (Motto: ‘We Have the World’s Worst Website’) is reporting today that the « Thomas More ‘Law’ Center (For the Promotion of the Fascist FunDumbMentalist Authoritarian Vision for the Empire) launched a direct, personal and vicious attack on Michigan’s gay and lesbian families »:

‘As opponents of Proposal 2 predicted, the constitutional amendment approved by Michigan voters last November to define marriage is being used to challenge same-sex benefits provided to partners of gay public employees. An existing lawsuit against Ann Arbor Public Schools is apparently going to be the test case. The Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center and 17 taxpayers are asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to stop the local school district from providing medical benefits to gay couples. In court papers, they cite the November constitutional amendment known as Proposal 2, which says the union between a man and a woman “shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.”’

As a gay employee of the Ann Arbor Public Schools (who admittedly does not receive ANY benefits because AAPS considers ‘subs’ the lowest of the low and therefore unworthy of decency and respect, let alone benefits—but that’s another rant), I take this one very personally and it’s one more nail in the coffin of any nascent desire I might have to wish to remain in this state and educate its future leaders. And I’m sure that the 12 or so gay/lesbian couples who actually receive these benefits take it even more personally than I do. God bless them and keep them.

Face it, Michiganders, Prop 2 was a vicious, ignorant, barbaric and discriminatory assault on a Michigan minority group. It deserves a spot in the infamous pantheon of western civilization’s Hate Laws Perpetrated by the Majority, such as Jim Crow and the 1935 Nuremberg Laws.

But now, just to make sure we got the message, this Fascist front group ups the gay bashing for good measure.

Well, as Dan Akroyd said to Jane Curtin back when Saturday Night Live was still funny, ‘Jane, you ignorant slut.’

Yup, Michigan, you ignorant slut, here’s what we’re gonna do, so listen up, you ignorant 2.6 million Michiganders who voted for this claptrap … because you want to deny health benefits for domestic partners, I will continue to access free, taxpayer-funded, public health care via the UMHS system, including the ultra-expensive emergency room … and you, the ignorant 2.6 million Prop 2-loving Michiganders are going to be soaked for the bills. Yup, I will access every taxpayer-funded service I can in order to make up for the absence of my Prop 2-denied equal protection benefits and every single one of you Fascists can pay the bills.

And we’re not talking about a few hundred bucks, either. You will pay for my emergency room bill last Thanksgiving. For all of my doctor visits over the three years we’ll be in this Bible-thumping state. My MRI last October. Every blood test. Every prescription. Every specialist. Every x-ray. At full, undiscounted, totally ugly, top-dollar rates.

And I’m going to go ahead and make an appointment with the dental service which provides free, taxpayer-funded dental care to those without insurance, and you can damn well pay for that too. Fair warning: I need quite a bit of dental work. Fillings replaced, three crowns, deep cleanings, might throw in some teeth-whitening.

And that’s not all. Oh no.

I’m going to go ahead and get my master’s degree in education from Michigan’s premier public, taxpayer-funded institution of higher learning, and I’m going to do it with low interest loans funded by you 2.6-million ignorant Michiganders. [With a wicked gleam in his eye, he wonders if said loans can ever be repaid on a public school teacher’s salary?]

And then I’m taking that Master’s degree which you paid for out of state … perhaps even out of country, and you don’t get the benefits of that educational investment in the public schools of the state of Michigan. How about we just let Michigan’s children be educated by ignorant Prop 2-loving teachers? After all, as you so smarmily have been reminding us for three months, the majority has spoken.

And in Michigan, that majority spoke in favor of hate, torture, fear, ignorance, intolerance, superstition and barbarism by voting for Prop 2 and its spiritual father in the White House.

Fine. Majority rules. But that decision will prove might costly, dollar-wise. Since the almighty dollar is they only thing that gets a Fascist’s attention, then that’s where we’ll hit him.

I’m going to personally make sure of it. Hmmmmm. What other free taxpayer services can I access and soak it to the so-called ‘Moral Michigan Majority?’ After all, on the pittance that AAPS pays me, I can qualify for just about anything.

Now, dear friends who voted NO on Prop 2, none of this applies to you. You know I love you more than my luggage. Thanks for putting up with my rant and thanks for your support.

We now return to sweetness and light.

25 Short Stories
  Stephen Vincent Benet
    The Sun Dial Press, Garden City, NY, ©1943
    University of Michigan Libraries
    Dewey 828 B465
    572pp.

I’m reading 25 Short Stories, a collection of seminal American works by « Stephen Vincent Benet », one of my favorite authors.

Two of the works are Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates and By the Waters of Babylon. Both are works of fantasy. In the former, a country doctor passes away and receives his due, entry into Heaven. But he finds it boring there, so he takes the back roads and sets up shop in Hell, treating all kinds of the damned for all their afflictions and generally relieving torment. This, of course, won’t do at all, so he’s kicked back up to Paradise. It’s one of my all-time favorite short stories.

The post-apocalyptic vision of By the Waters of Babylon is eerie in many ways in that it shows a post-nuclear-war, irradiated America … but it was written in the 1930s, some years before the first atomic bomb exploded over Trinity Site, New Mexico. It’s the granddaddy of the post-apocalyptic science fiction/fantasy stories that were extremely popular throughout the Cold War, none of which can top it.

Also in the volume is The Sobbin’ Women, a short story which inspired the musical and motion picture « Seven Brides for Seven Brothers » (and is superior to both). The story is based on « the rape of the Sabine women », a founding legend of the Roman Republic. The title is a sly commentary on American frontier ignorance; the lead character tells the seven backwoodsy brothers about the Romans and the ‘Sobbin’ women’ and puts the central events of the story in motion.

And then there’s _The Devil and Daniel Webster, which contains this opening passage:

‘It’s a story they tell in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire.

‘Yes, Dan’l Webster is dead—or, at least, they buried him. But every time there’s a thunderstorm around Marshfield, they say you can hear his rolling voice in the hollows of the sky. And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, “Dan’l Webster—Dan’l Webster!” the ground’ll begin to shiver and the trees begin to shake. And after a while you’ll hear a deep voice saying, “Neighbor, how stands the Union?” Then you better answer the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper-sheathed, one and indivisible, or he’s liable to rear right out of the ground. At least, that’s what I was told when I was a youngster.’

I’d certainly be afraid to go to his grave and have him ask me that question now. We’re more divided than ever, albeit from within, not along regional lines, and the Republic is dead, the Empire transcendent.

But maybe he’d drag me into the grave with him … or else come out fighting, whooping the dickens out of the current crop of Christo-Fascists plaguing the country. That would be something!

Stephen Vincent Benet. Great stuff.