No (Fox) News Is Good News!

I've been seeing a commercial recently from the cable provider where I live (in central Florida), Bright House, explaining that Bright House and the Fox Network have still not negotiated a new contract, which is set to expire on December 31st. The Bright House commercial states the cable company wants Fox to keep its programming on the air while they continue to negotiate, even if they haven't reached an agreement by the end of this year. According to Bright House, nothing would stop Fox from continuing to provide access to their networks while negotiations are still being conducted. Bright House doesn't ask their customers to call Fox & ask them to keep their programming, whether they meet the deadline or not, but they suggest awfully hard.

I read in the online version of the local newspaper, The Orlando Sentinel that Fox claims that Bright House isn't negotiating at all; they're having Time Warner Cable negotiate for them (Bright House bought out Time Warner here in Central Florida a few years back), which I don't get, but (as the kids say nowadays), "Whatever..."

Anyway I just had to point out that, as a Bright House customer, I don't know & am not even slightly interested in what the hitch is in their negotiations or non-negotiations, but I would personally be ECSTATIC if I didn't have to see any Faux News programming on my cable menu at all. I hate even scrolling past their name when I'm trying to find something to watch on TV. As you can imagine, even if Faux News is lost to us here in central Florida, I can honestly say that--on my part--there will not be any love lost!

The only thing that I'd miss even a little would be Family Guy and American Dad, but I know that sometimes we must be willing to sacrifice things that are quasi-important (see the shows listed above) for things that are more important (less Faux in my life).

So, this year, I have an EXTRA reason to look forward to 2010! :-)

You Gotta Love How Dolly Loves The Gays

I'm sure that it's probably not surprising to hear that Dolly Parton supports equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, but it just warmed every last cockle in my big ol' queer heart to see that she feels a kinship with us homosexuals because, like us, Dolly knows how it feels to not be accepted in the "mainstream"--whatever the [bleep] that is.

In my humble opinion, Dolly & God have at least one thing in common: they both (using Dolly's words now) love everybody for who they are. Now that's what I call true Christianity!

Speaking of which, in the article linked above, Dolly gives her opinion on mega-church pastor Joel Osteen's contention that "homosexuality is not God's best," and she does it in her always-loving way.

You'd be absolutely correct to note that, physically speaking, Dolly is loaded up with plastic and silicone topped off with some great fake hair (I'm pretty sure she'd be the first to admit it), but that big ol' country heart of hers? As they might say down south, it's as genuine & as big as all get-out...even bigger than her tallest wig & her world-famous bosom! :-)

Love For Sale

Well, not really love, but the right to celebrate that love with a legally-binding civil contract called "marriage".

If you haven't already heard about it, a heterosexual woman from New York named Jamie Frevele, who claims she doesn't have any intention on using her right to marry is actually "selling" her right to marry on Ebay!

I know it sounds odd, but what she actually plans on doing with the money from the highest bidder is to donate it to a LGBT rights group. I personally think it's pretty ingenious! It attracts attention to New York state's failure to provide equal marriage rights to same-gender couples AND it raises money for a good cause!

Who knows how long Ebay will allow this particular auction to go on before it pulls the plug, but here's a screenshot the "item" for "sale" as of 6:40 am, Eastern (US) Time (the high bid at this time is $307):


Click on the pic to enlarge it

I also love Jamie's description of the "item", part of which reads:

I'm an unmarried heterosexual woman, and since I probably won't be using my right to get married, I would like to give it away. I would like to sell it to the highest bidder and donate the proceeds to an organization that supports LGBT rights since the government designed to protect all of us is picking and choosing based on what they think is icky, weird, or unkown to them.

Bid now, and you can have my super wonderful privilege and legal ability to get married as many times as you want in a classy place like the one pictured. You don't have to know the person, you don't have to like them, you don't have to think through your decision to get married or anything - you can just do it! Because you can! Come on, it's cool to get married, and think of the pictures you'll have to show people of this person that they will definitely think is so wrong for you and probably is! But heavens to BETSY, do NOT marry someone of the same gender because that would be a mockery of the institution of marriage.

And if it doesn't work out, just get divorced. Half the cool people who get married do that anyway.

I will write you up a fancy, wonderful, articulate proclamation handing over my right to get married. I have no official documentation because this is something I was born with since I was born heterosexual. Unfortunately, this is only a symbolic gesture. However, since I'm picky and difficult, it's probably something that, if a physical object, would have been considered pristine and shiny after some dusting. Your bid, on the other hand, is real, and the donation you make to an organization that supports those who have been treated as second-class citizens will be well worth it.

The Right Is Wrong

Political columnist, and mostly-conservative columnist, Andrew Sullivan, who writes for The Atlantic Monthly recently wrote an article, he titled Leaving The Right writes why he thinks the party is over for American conservatives, and why he felt moved to make such a public break with his political blood brothers (and sisters). Sullivan's column in The Atlantic Monthly follows a few days after Charles Johnson, another mostly-conservative blogger who runs Little Green Footballs explained that The The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff. I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

This certainly has been a long time in coming, but I am glad to see that some American conservatives (the REAL ones, not the neo-con type) are beginning to--as Dear Abby used to say--wake up & smell the coffee...but, I guess in this case, the smell is more akin to the fetid stench of a morally-poisonous, parasite-laden brew of faux ideology concocted by cynical, selfish, fear-driven-money-loving opportunists out to serve their own special interests by leeching off a valid political belief system (that I nearly always disagree with, but which I can respect because I know that--like me--they believe what they believe because they love their country, and want to make it better. These TRUE conservatives and I want the best for our country...we just disagree on how to do it).

I know it may be hard to believe this--being as how I am as far away from "conservative" as Sarah Palin is from sanity--but I really do hope more true conservatives begin to smell the rot coming from the slow-but-sure death of their no-longer Grand Old Party, and get the fire in their collective political gut to not only stand up and say, "Enough is enough," but to fight to take back what was theirs.

I am a (mostly) proud Democrat & progressive, but I am--first and foremost--a (mostly) proud American, and it is my country (& even the world) that would reap the benefits of a strong (at least) two-party system. A civil political discourse amongst people who may not hold the same point of view can only make this country stronger.

With those who run today's American Right, it's impossible to have a real discussion of the issues of the day when they're not even interested in talking or compromising. Believing that they honestly know what's best for everyone else, bound-for-"glory", they proudly wear their blinders, cavalierly ignoring the will of all but the truest of believers, forcing their neo-con mirage of Utopia onto the rest of us--for our own good, of course! (<----Sarcasm)