So, on the floor of the US House of Representatives in debating the health care bill (which, as you know was just passed by Congress & signed by the President), Minority-Leader-In-Perpetuity, John Boehner took to the floor of the people's House & seemed to simply delight in reminding the American public that the GOP is still the Party of No.
Now, that reminder has been set to music. The video below may seem familiar to a lot of people, but--with a little inventive editing--someone created a new version of Will-I-Am's awesome musical tribute to our President, and I hope it gets played on every computer in every household in the Land of the Free:
Wait, I’m wrong. Should have done better than this. Please, I’ll be strong. I’m finding it hard to resist. So show me what I’m looking for.
CHORUS Save me, I’m lost Oh Lord, I’ve been waiting for you. I’ll pay any cost. Save me from being confused. Show me what I’m looking for, Show me what I’m looking for…oh, Lord.
Don’t let go. I’ve wanted this far too long. Mistakes become regrets. I’ve learned to love abuse. Please show me what I’m looking for.
CHORUS Save me, I’m lost. Oh Lord, I’ve been waiting for you. I’ll pay any cost. Save me from being confused. Show me what I’m looking for. Show me what I’m looking for…oh, Lord.
Show me what I’m looking for. Show me what I’m looking for. Show me what I’m looking for.
CHORUS Save me, I’m lost. Oh lord, I’ve been waiting for you. I’ll pay any cost. Just save me from being confused. Wait, I’m wrong. I can’t do better than this. I’ll pay any cost. Save me from being confused. Show me what I’m looking for. Show me what I’m looking for. Show me what I’m looking for. Show me what I’m looking for…oh, Lord.
Though I am nearly as old as our President, I have loved Sesame Street since I was a little kid (I don't think I know ANYONE who didn't watch Sesame Street growing up), and--of course--I think that Michelle Obama is the most impressive, awesome First Lady certainly in my lifetime.
So, if you put Michelle on Sesame Street talking about eating healthy & planting your own garden, you get very close to awesomeness overload...but it's well worth it!
As you'll see, Michelle not only loves vegetables, but they love her, too! :-)
The only thing I think that would have made this clip any better is if she & Big Bird did the fist bump! ;-)
The video below is not new. I've seen it before a few times, and I'm sure so have many others. I just happened upon it today, and it started me thinking (I know. I know. You may want to sit down for this.).
I'll bet you that there are probably as many people out there who have a great dislike of Reverend Al Sharpton (or, at least a dislike of what he stands for) as there are who dislike Reverend Pat Robertson &/or what he stands for. Now, if any of you have ever ready anything I've ever written here, or elsewhere in the worldwide web, you can probably guess where I stand on the Rev. Al vs. Rev. Pat question. This post, however, is not about which of these men courageously & publicly supports GLBTQI people & our human & civil rights & which of them delights in whipping up unfounded fears & manufacturing outright lies to fight tooth-and-nail against people who seek only to love whom their hearts direct.
Truth is that--their respective personalities, faults & manifold detractors notwithstanding--these two men (combined) have a pretty significant following, and most of those people will follow these men where they think God is leading them, and--on global warming, at least--both Al & Pat feel that God is calling on them to fight this good fight together as true brothers-in-arms.
Of course, this glaringly obvious fact was the reason that Repower America created this Public Service Announcement in the first place.
Seeing the ad again just reminds me of the actual good that can be done when we decide we love the world more than we hate each other.
As a nation, we are still engaged in that most noble of pursuits: to truly make "self-evident" the fact that "all men [and women] are created equal" and that, as Americans & as children of God, we are all equally entitled to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
I--for one--feel blessed to live in a country where so many of my fellow citizens understand that, for too many of us still working to claim our full birthright as citizens of the greatest country in history, these most noble of words are still just words. In spite of that fact, I take heart knowing that more & more of us are beginning to really understand the words of the American poet, Emma Lazarus, when she wrote, Until we are all free, we are none of us free.
There are some things I enjoy that I am not proud of. Guilty pleasures of a sort, I guess you might call them. I don't usually discuss these little secrets because they may be seen by lots (and lots) of people as "low-brow", and, really, they're probably right. I have no defense, and (obviously, where these are concerned) no shame.
So, on with the confessions:
God please forgive me, but I actually enjoyed the old MTV show Jackass (and even the Jackass movies). While I'm spilling my guts, I might as well admit that I think Johnny Knoxville is kinda cute, which I am sure had at least a little do with why I always tuned in.
I was actually enthralled with The Anna Nicole Show...well, at least the first season when she was actually being herself (or whatever "herself" had become after her wild ride of a life). The second season was OBVIOUSLY at least partly staged & it seemed to me that Anna Nicole was working from a script. My guilty love affair with her show quickly ended when season 2 began, but I still love the show's theme song. Still can't get that stupid tune out of my head...Anna, Anna, Fabulous Anna, Anna Nicole. You're so outrageous...
One more piece of ugliness before I get to the point of this post: I laughed out loud MANY times at South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (I still don't know how the movie's producers got that past the MPAA censors). I didn't see it in the theater, but I rented the DVD so I could--to paraphrase Mother Bates from the movie Psycho--appease my ugly appetite for celluloid silliness in the privacy of my own home...afterwards, though, I did feel the need to shower...a couple of times! :-)
Anyway, I hope this rather long-winded preface will help you to understand (as much as possible) why I think this commercial for a new item on Hardee's menu too hilarious not to share.
I ask your forgiveness in advance for feeling the need to involve you in the inanity to follow:
I've really liked this song for a while. It's not a spectacularly-professional type video, but I am posting it for the quality of the song.
In a way, I need a change From this burnout scene Another time, another town Another everything But it's always back to you
Stumble out, in the night From the pouring rain Made the block, sat and thought There's more I need It's always back to you
But I'm good without ya Yeah, I'm good without you Yeah, yeah, yeah
How many times can I break 'til I shatter? Over the line can't define what I'm after I always turn the car around Give me a break let me make my own pattern All that it takes is some time but I'm shattered I always turn the car around
I had no idea that the night Would take so damn long Took it out, on the street While the rain still falls Push me back to you
But I'm good without ya Yeah, I'm good without you Yeah, yeah, yeah
How many times can I break 'til I shatter? Over the line can't define what I'm after I always turn the car around Give me a break let me make my own pattern All that it takes is some time but I'm shattered I always turn the car around
Give it up, give it up, baby Give it up, give it up, now Now
How many times can I break 'til I shatter? Over the line can't define what I'm after I always turn the car around All that I feel is the realness I'm faking Taking my time but it's time that I'm wasting Always turn the car around
How many times can I break 'til I shatter? Over the line can't define what I'm after I always turn the car around
Don't wanna turn that car around I gotta turn this thing around
I just found this song on YouTube today, and I love it.
It's a new song called Lifeline by Mat Kearney. Lyrics follow below the video.
Hope you love it, too:
You're watching everything you ever held on to slip away from you and all you're running from, well, it's catching up to you.
Got you looking for a lifeline swimming in the high tide waiting for the daylight to bring you home
The world is too big to never ask why the answers don't fall straight out of the sky I'm fighting to live and feel alive but I can't feel a thing without you by my side Send me out a lifeline
You're watching everyone you ever belonged to walk away from you maybe all along you've been running from the truth
Got you looking for a lifeline. You're swimming in the high tide waiting for the daylight to bring you home
The world is too big to never ask why the answers don't fall straight out of the sky I'm fighting to live and feel alive but I can't feel a thing without you by my side Oh, send me out a lifeline
There's nothing i would change, I'd give it all away for you again and again and over again everything I own is in your control
I'm looking for a lifeline swimming in the high tide waiting for the daylight to bring me home
The world is too big to never ask why the answers don't fall straight out of the sky I'm fighting to live and feel alive But i can't feel a thing without you by my side Oh, send me out a lifeline. Won't you send me out a lifeline? Send me out a lifeline...
Ethan McNamee is a third grader at Montclair Elementary in Denver, Colorado. As improbable as it sounds, for his class project, Ethan organized an Equal Marriage Rights Rally today at the Capitol Building in Denver.
From all I’ve read about it, this was entirely Ethan’s idea & he was told that not everyone in attendance at his rally would necessarily agree with what he was saying. In the video below, Ethan even addresses the fact that “there might be some people who have a different view from us”, but young Ethan encouraged supporters to “please keep all your positive energy on the rally. Despite the views of these people, I believe that I am doing the right thing, and lots and lots of people can many lives better…”.
Since I don’t think I can put it any better than Ethan did today at the rally, let’s hear and (thanks to YouTube) see what Ethan has to say.
In the midst of the current storm of my life, God keeps whispering sweet hope to my heart.
As insubstantial as the source of this hope may seem on its face, a song I heard for the first time today by (of all people) Miley Cyrus proved yet again to me that our Lord will do what He must to touch our lives, if we only let Him in.
I'm also starting to see that I can't let my life be about all those things I do not or cannot have; I want it to be about how--in spite of everything--truly blessed I am that God loves me enough to send me encouragement from the four corners of the world, and to have so many dear, precious friends who selflessly hold me up in prayer...and just plain hold me up when I don't even feel like I have the strength to stand at all.
Today, God gave me this...
The song is called The Climb and below is Miley's video.
Some of the lyrics that especially touched me today:
]I can almost see it That dream I'm dreaming but There's a voice inside my head sayin, You'll never reach it, Every step I'm taking, Every move I make feels Lost with no direction My faith is shaking but I Got to keep trying Got to keep my head held high
There's always going to be another mountain I'm always going to want to make it move Always going to be an uphill battle, Sometimes you going to have to lose, Ain't about how fast I get there, Ain't about what's waiting on the other side It's the climb.
I am posting this video clip from The First Wives Club merely because not only do I adore Bette Middler, Goldie Hawn & Diane Keaton I truly dig their own inspiring rendition of Leslie Gore's hit You Don't Own Me.
...a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. --Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5
Today's G.O.P. brought you by the number "ZERO" (ya know, as in the number of good ideas the G.O.P. has in trying to fix the economic systems they screwed up in the first place...)
I had first heard of Regina Spektor when she gave the California Courage Campaign permission to use her song, Fidelity,to lend a little musical assistance in the fight for equal marriage rights & to overturn California's Proposition 8.
When I had heard the California Courage Campaign was working to get the word out about the dangerous precedent that Prop 8 would set in allowing 50% + 1 of the population to take away the rights of their fellow citizens, I posted about it in this blog, and I included a video of Regina's song created by the CCC that presented pictures of some of the real people & real families that would be legally hurt if Prop 8 were allowed to stand.
Today, I found Regina's song on YouTube with the original video she created for it. This video, of course, does not mention equal marriage rights, but I think it is a cute & visually appealing little video (well, maybe "little" isn't the right word since--as of the writing of this post--nearly 10 MILLION people have viewed the video on YouTube).
I've personally have always believed that an honorable cause deserves a knock-out theme song, and this catchy little tune by our Ms. Spektor--in my mind--more than fills the bill...
In accepting his Oscar for Best Original Screenplay last night, writer Dustin Lance Black said that, if openly-gay former San Francisco City Councilman Harvey Milk, whose life and subsequent murder 30 years ago at the hands of former city councilman Dan White was the basis of the film, Milk, were still alive today...
"I think he'd want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, and by the government, or by their families that 'You are beautiful, wonderful creatures that are valued. And no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you, and very soon, I promise you that you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.' Thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk!"
There are so many people out there--gay kids and those of us who used to be gay kids--who needed to hear that & who needed to be reminded of something that so many others have always had the luxury to take for granted.
Recently, Suze Orman, the openly-gay financial guru, put her own unique economic spin on the argument for marriage equality for all Americans.
On behalf of Suze, I dedicate this belated video valentine to all those married couples whose government recognition of their promise to take care of one another brings them more than just financial security & to those who still fight to know how that feels:
Newly-single GWM who is (trying to be) more than "just" gay, and white and male. Still learning & still trying to determine what makes me, me after "living" the first 3/4 or so of my life in the closet. I am discovering, little-by-little, that the answer to Cher's musical question, "Is there life after love?" is "Apparently so...". That answer, however, comes with an important codicil: it doesn't mean that it'll be easy or heartbreak-free; as the old Lynn Anderson song goes--none of us is "promised...a rose garden".
There are many little quotes, sayings, and other little bits of wisdom that have helped me to understand my life just a little better. A soupçon of which follows:
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” --Maya Angelou
"It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you're not." --Denis Waitley
To Mr. Waitley's point, I am also beginning to see that sometimes the greatest hindrance to a joy-filled life is the person living that life because we believe we don't deserve it...but we do...ALL OF US do.
