Saturday, October 18, 2008
Poll
Recently I posted a poll..... Does size matter? The most selected answer "Depends on Activity" with 60% of the votes, followed by "No" with the remaining 40%. With so may personals adds and craigslist posting requiring Hung, I'm surprised that there was not a single vote for "Yes".
This is weird.
My first Saturday off in months and haven't a clue what to do with the extra time. I'm sure I'll come up with something. :=)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Why Does It Have To Be This Way
Found this one one Michael's blog Gaytwogether (see blog list)
Homeless LGBT Youths Often Face Violent Life On The Streets
Months ago, 15-year-old Drew said he would have described himself as an “ordinary teenager.” “I lived with my parents in a nice house in a good neighborhood in upstate New York,” he said. “I got good grades at school, and my life was pretty great.”
The young teenager—who withheld his surname for safety reasons—now lives alone on the streets of the Upper West Side, forced to beg strangers for the few dollars he needs to buy food each day and routinely accepting money for sex.
“It all changed the night I tried to tell my parents I was gay,” he said. “My mom was pretty cool with it, but my dad just freaked out and started screaming. Then he started hitting me.” “He’d never hit me before, never,” he sobbed, “but when I told him who I was, that I was gay, he just got so mad. He said he was going to kill me and I believed him, so I ran.” After spending a few nights sleeping at a friend’s house, Drew returned home, hoping that things might have calmed down. “I tried to open the door, but my key didn’t work any more. So I started knocking and eventually my dad came to the door and told me that I was no longer his son and he never wanted to see me again. He said if I ever tried to get in touch with him or my mom again he’d find me and kill me,” he explained.
Terrified and devastated at losing his family, Drew fled to New York City, where he hoped people might be more accepting of his sexuality. But since arriving five months ago, Drew estimates that he has been beaten up on average once a week—just for being gay.
“Mostly it’s other homeless people who do it,” he said. “They find out you’re gay, and then they wait for a chance to punish you. When I first got here I went to a shelter, but once the other kids found out I was gay they started teasing me and then one day they all ganged up on me and beat me up. We weren’t in the shelter at the time so the staff didn’t know, but now I’m too scared to go back or to try another shelter in case it happens again. I prefer to take my chances on the streets.”
Local youth workers claim that Drew’s experiences on the streets of New York are not uncommon.
Margo Hirsch, executive director of the Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services—an advocacy organization that works on behalf of runaway, homeless and street youth,—said that while young people who self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender often run away from home because they feel unsafe there, the reality of life on the streets is usually no better.
“The streets are an incredibly dangerous place for any young person to be living, but those who self-identify as GLBT are often even more vulnerable, and there are certainly cases we know of where individuals have been attacked on the streets or in shelters,” she said. “Obviously it’s something shelter directors try to guard against, but in the larger shelters there may be over 200 young people, and it becomes hard to monitor exactly what’s going on.”
In 2007, the Empire State Coalition conducted a local survey in which it found that almost a third of homeless young people in New York self-identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. These findings closely mirror a similar study conducted nationally by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which estimates that between 20 percent and 40 percent of all homeless youth define themselves in this way.
Nick Ray, Senior Policy Analyst at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said he believes part of the reason for these figures has to do with high levels of prejudice toward those who identify as LGBT that still exist in many areas of American society.
“Often when young people come out about their sexuality, they encounter a lot of prejudice,” Ray said. “Sometimes they may actually be thrown out of their homes, but even if they are not forced to leave, the prejudice they encounter at home or at school or elsewhere in their local community can often make them feel very unsafe to a point where they feel their only option is to run away.”
Drew echoed Ray’s sentiments about the dangers of the streets. “Things were really bad at home, but they are just as bad here,” Drew said. “Every night I’m too scared to go to sleep, because it leaves me very vulnerable, and I just don’t trust people any more.”
“I hate being on the streets, but I’m too scared to go back home or to a shelter, so I don’t really have much choice,” he added. “To many people I’m just invisible, and they don’t seem to notice me, but those who do either want to beat me up or they want me to have sex with them. I don’t know which is worse.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Please support the:
Empire State Coalition
Ali Forney Center
"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."
MAKE A DONATION TO THE NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN TASK FORCE
READ THE OFFICIAL REPORT: The Epidemic of Homelessness Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Youth
Homeless LGBT Youths Often Face Violent Life On The StreetsMonths ago, 15-year-old Drew said he would have described himself as an “ordinary teenager.” “I lived with my parents in a nice house in a good neighborhood in upstate New York,” he said. “I got good grades at school, and my life was pretty great.”
The young teenager—who withheld his surname for safety reasons—now lives alone on the streets of the Upper West Side, forced to beg strangers for the few dollars he needs to buy food each day and routinely accepting money for sex.
“It all changed the night I tried to tell my parents I was gay,” he said. “My mom was pretty cool with it, but my dad just freaked out and started screaming. Then he started hitting me.” “He’d never hit me before, never,” he sobbed, “but when I told him who I was, that I was gay, he just got so mad. He said he was going to kill me and I believed him, so I ran.” After spending a few nights sleeping at a friend’s house, Drew returned home, hoping that things might have calmed down. “I tried to open the door, but my key didn’t work any more. So I started knocking and eventually my dad came to the door and told me that I was no longer his son and he never wanted to see me again. He said if I ever tried to get in touch with him or my mom again he’d find me and kill me,” he explained.
Terrified and devastated at losing his family, Drew fled to New York City, where he hoped people might be more accepting of his sexuality. But since arriving five months ago, Drew estimates that he has been beaten up on average once a week—just for being gay.
“Mostly it’s other homeless people who do it,” he said. “They find out you’re gay, and then they wait for a chance to punish you. When I first got here I went to a shelter, but once the other kids found out I was gay they started teasing me and then one day they all ganged up on me and beat me up. We weren’t in the shelter at the time so the staff didn’t know, but now I’m too scared to go back or to try another shelter in case it happens again. I prefer to take my chances on the streets.”
Local youth workers claim that Drew’s experiences on the streets of New York are not uncommon.
Margo Hirsch, executive director of the Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services—an advocacy organization that works on behalf of runaway, homeless and street youth,—said that while young people who self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender often run away from home because they feel unsafe there, the reality of life on the streets is usually no better.
“The streets are an incredibly dangerous place for any young person to be living, but those who self-identify as GLBT are often even more vulnerable, and there are certainly cases we know of where individuals have been attacked on the streets or in shelters,” she said. “Obviously it’s something shelter directors try to guard against, but in the larger shelters there may be over 200 young people, and it becomes hard to monitor exactly what’s going on.”
In 2007, the Empire State Coalition conducted a local survey in which it found that almost a third of homeless young people in New York self-identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. These findings closely mirror a similar study conducted nationally by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which estimates that between 20 percent and 40 percent of all homeless youth define themselves in this way.
Nick Ray, Senior Policy Analyst at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said he believes part of the reason for these figures has to do with high levels of prejudice toward those who identify as LGBT that still exist in many areas of American society.
“Often when young people come out about their sexuality, they encounter a lot of prejudice,” Ray said. “Sometimes they may actually be thrown out of their homes, but even if they are not forced to leave, the prejudice they encounter at home or at school or elsewhere in their local community can often make them feel very unsafe to a point where they feel their only option is to run away.”
Drew echoed Ray’s sentiments about the dangers of the streets. “Things were really bad at home, but they are just as bad here,” Drew said. “Every night I’m too scared to go to sleep, because it leaves me very vulnerable, and I just don’t trust people any more.”
“I hate being on the streets, but I’m too scared to go back home or to a shelter, so I don’t really have much choice,” he added. “To many people I’m just invisible, and they don’t seem to notice me, but those who do either want to beat me up or they want me to have sex with them. I don’t know which is worse.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Please support the:
Empire State Coalition
Ali Forney Center
"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."
MAKE A DONATION TO THE NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN TASK FORCE
READ THE OFFICIAL REPORT: The Epidemic of Homelessness Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Youth
Posting from Gaytwogether (see blog list)
Listen to Michael..... he know what he is talking about.
You've just lost something, and can't find it. You spend the whole morning and tear the house apart, still can't find it. Retrace your steps, nope, look in places that it could have never possibly be, sure why not. Give up, nope, keep looking, late for work, I don't care it's here somewhere.
Obsessed, no not really, just not going to stop, I know it's here. Go through everything, twice. Someone must have stole it. That's ridiculous, I'm the only here. Sit down, re-group. Must have left it somewhere. Where was I? Okay that's even dumber than looking under the mattress.
Defeat is near. I'll just get a new one. I can't do that. I love this one, I've had it one too long. Maybe I'll find it later. Yeah, right, okay, it's lost. Your late, time to leave, it's cool out, you put on your jacket, it's in the pocket.
Stop searching. Really, I mean that. The harder you look, the the more the search becomes an exercise in futility. He's not at the bar, the grocery store, or Bed, Bath and Beyond. I don't mean don't look at that cute guy, a nice butt, or those beautiful eyes. I said stop searching, I didn't say stop breathing.
You need to get out, the love of your life won't be knocking at your door. You need to get out for only one reason - for yourself. Go where you want, do what you want to do. Have a great time! Find out what makes you happy. And then, whatever you're missing, whatever you're looking for, you'll soon find in your own heart. Your true happiness, your love waits to be found inside of you. And when you find it, when you make that wonderful discovery, someone else will too. Someone special. Trust me, I know, and so does he.
Michael
You've just lost something, and can't find it. You spend the whole morning and tear the house apart, still can't find it. Retrace your steps, nope, look in places that it could have never possibly be, sure why not. Give up, nope, keep looking, late for work, I don't care it's here somewhere.
Obsessed, no not really, just not going to stop, I know it's here. Go through everything, twice. Someone must have stole it. That's ridiculous, I'm the only here. Sit down, re-group. Must have left it somewhere. Where was I? Okay that's even dumber than looking under the mattress.
Defeat is near. I'll just get a new one. I can't do that. I love this one, I've had it one too long. Maybe I'll find it later. Yeah, right, okay, it's lost. Your late, time to leave, it's cool out, you put on your jacket, it's in the pocket.
Stop searching. Really, I mean that. The harder you look, the the more the search becomes an exercise in futility. He's not at the bar, the grocery store, or Bed, Bath and Beyond. I don't mean don't look at that cute guy, a nice butt, or those beautiful eyes. I said stop searching, I didn't say stop breathing.
You need to get out, the love of your life won't be knocking at your door. You need to get out for only one reason - for yourself. Go where you want, do what you want to do. Have a great time! Find out what makes you happy. And then, whatever you're missing, whatever you're looking for, you'll soon find in your own heart. Your true happiness, your love waits to be found inside of you. And when you find it, when you make that wonderful discovery, someone else will too. Someone special. Trust me, I know, and so does he.
Michael
Posting from Gaytwogether (see blog list)
I have been following Michael's blog for quite a while now. It's so wonderful that he has found Steven.
First Things First: ---- Michael's Daily Diary ---- Sex, Love And More
Having sex, making love, or making love to someone you love. Three choices, and some of us are lucky enough to have experienced all three. This isn't a debate of which is better. For me, depending on the time in my life and the person, all three have been okay to great.
Having sex. There's no need to even to talk about that one, if you haven't been there, then I highly recomend it as a good start.
Making love. It doesn't start or end with just having sex. It's not love, it's sex with more of everything you love. More romance, maybe some wine, candles and music. More time, more touching, more kissing, more of what you want, more of what he wants.
Making love to someone you love. This goes beyond the romance and sex. There is an excitement that tugs at your heart, maybe even sneaks into your heart. Making love to someone you love remains part of the storybook of your loves, your life.
And then there is the ultimate. Two people making love who are both in love with each other. To have someone in your life who walks into the room and lights up your soul or touches you and sets you on fire. There is an intensity that is far beyond passion, when you make love you both become one.
Steven, thank you for walking into my life, my heart and my soul. You are the most remarkable person I've ever met, and how wonderful it is to have you so in love with me. I've told you, now I'm telling the world, I am so very much in love with you too.
Michael
First Things First: ---- Michael's Daily Diary ---- Sex, Love And More
Having sex, making love, or making love to someone you love. Three choices, and some of us are lucky enough to have experienced all three. This isn't a debate of which is better. For me, depending on the time in my life and the person, all three have been okay to great.
Having sex. There's no need to even to talk about that one, if you haven't been there, then I highly recomend it as a good start.
Making love. It doesn't start or end with just having sex. It's not love, it's sex with more of everything you love. More romance, maybe some wine, candles and music. More time, more touching, more kissing, more of what you want, more of what he wants.
Making love to someone you love. This goes beyond the romance and sex. There is an excitement that tugs at your heart, maybe even sneaks into your heart. Making love to someone you love remains part of the storybook of your loves, your life.
And then there is the ultimate. Two people making love who are both in love with each other. To have someone in your life who walks into the room and lights up your soul or touches you and sets you on fire. There is an intensity that is far beyond passion, when you make love you both become one.
Steven, thank you for walking into my life, my heart and my soul. You are the most remarkable person I've ever met, and how wonderful it is to have you so in love with me. I've told you, now I'm telling the world, I am so very much in love with you too.
Michael
Still NOT A Palin Fan
Found this article on Michael in Norfolk's blog. (see blog list at right.)
Sarah and Todd Palin's REAL Ties to Anti-Americans
The ever disingenuous Bible Spice Palin continues to tell lies about Barack Obama's alleged ties to terrorists yet conveniently forgets her husband's seven year love fest with Alaska Independence Party ("AIP") and/or her own past statements that she supports the party's principles - like breaking away from the USA? The women is despicable and proves herself more of a lying snake with each passing day. Now Salon has a lengthy article that looks at the Palin's ties to the AIP and one can only wonder why the MSM is not all over the issue. But then I forget, most in the MSM no longer have heard of the concept of investigative reporting. A reading of the Salon article makes it clear that it is Sarah Palin, not Barack Obama, who is out of touch with true mainstream American values. This woman is a nutcase and dangerous. Here are some highlights from the Salon story:
*
Though [former Alaskan Independence Party chairman Mark] Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.
*
Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."
*
The AIP was born of the vision of "Old Joe" Vogler, a hard-bitten former gold miner who hated the government of the United States almost as much as he hated wolves and environmentalists. . . . . During a gubernatorial debate in 1982, Vogler proposed using nuclear weapons to obliterate the glaciers blocking roadways to Juneau. "There's gold under there!" he exclaimed. Vogler made another failed run for the governor's mansion in 1986. But the AIP's fortunes shifted suddenly four years later when Vogler convinced Richard Nixon's former interior secretary, Wally Hickel, to run for governor under his party's banner. Hickel coasted to victory.
*
Hickel's subsequent failure as governor to press for a vote on Alaskan independence rankled Old Joe. With sponsorship from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vogler was scheduled to present his case for Alaskan secession before the United Nations General Assembly in the late spring of 1993. But before he could, Old Joe's long, strange political career ended tragically that May when he was murdered by a fellow secessionist.
*
"The AIP is very family-oriented," Chryson explained. "We're for the traditional family -- daddy, mommy, kids -- because we all know that it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we don't care if Heather has two mommies. That's not a traditional family."
*
"The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world," Chryson exclaimed. "And Alaska is not the only place that's about separation. There's at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States." This has meant rubbing shoulders and forging alliances with outright white supremacists and far-right theocrats, particularly those who dominate the proceedings at such gatherings as the North American Secessionist conventions, which AIP delegates have attended in recent years.
*
Another far-right organization with whom the AIP has long been aligned is Howard Phillips' militia-minded Constitution Party. The AIP has been listed as the Constitution Party's state affiliate since the late 1990s, and it has endorsed the Constitution Party's presidential candidates (Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin) in the past two elections. The Constitution Party boasts an openly theocratic platform that reads, "It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations." . . . . In Wasilla, the AIP became powerful by proxy -- because of Chryson and Stoll's alliance with Sarah Palin.
*
In 1994, Sarah Palin attended the AIP's statewide convention. In 1995, her husband, Todd, changed his voter registration to AIP. Except for an interruption of a few months, he would remain registered was an AIP member until 2002, when he changed his registration to undeclared. In 1996, Palin decided to run against John Stein as the Republican candidate for mayor of Wasilla. While Palin pushed back against Stein's policies, particularly those related to funding public works, Chryson said he and Steve Stoll prepared the groundwork for her mayoral campaign.
*
While Palin played up her total opposition to the sales tax and gun control -- the two hobgoblins of the AIP -- mailers spread throughout the town portraying her as "the Christian candidate," a subtle suggestion that Stein, who is Lutheran, might be Jewish.
*
By Chryson's account, he and Palin also worked hand-in-glove to slash property taxes and block a state proposal that would have taken money for public programs from the Permanent Fund Dividend, or the oil and gas fund that doles out annual payments to citizens of Alaska. Palin endorsed Chryson's unsuccessful initiative to move the state Legislature from Juneau to Wasilla.
*
Chryson says the door remains open now that Palin is governor. (Palin's office did not respond to Salon's request for an interview.) While Palin has been more circumspect in her dealings with groups like the AIP as she has risen through the political ranks, she has stayed in touch. When Palin ran for governor in 2006, marketing herself as a fresh-faced reformer determined to crush the GOP's ossified power structure, she made certain to appear at the AIP's state convention. To burnish her maverick image, she also tapped one-time AIP member and born-again Republican Walter Hickel as her campaign co-chair.
*
But whether the Palins participated directly in shaping the AIP's program is less relevant than the extent to which they will implement that program. Chryson and his allies have demonstrated just as much interest in grooming major party candidates as they have in putting forward their own people. At a national convention of secessionist groups in 2007, AIP vice chairman Dexter Clark announced that his party would seek to "infiltrate" the Democratic and Republican parties with candidates sympathetic to its hard-right, secessionist agenda. "You should use that tactic. You should infiltrate," Clark told his audience of neo-Confederates, theocrats and libertarians. "Whichever party you think in that area you can get something done, get into that party. Even though that party has its problems, right now that is the only avenue."
*
Now, Palin is a household name and her every move is scrutinized by the Washington press corps. She can no longer afford to kibitz with secessionists, however instrumental they may have been to her meteoric ascendancy. This does not trouble her old AIP allies. Indeed, Chryson is hopeful that Palin's inauguration will also represent the start of a new infiltration. "I've had my issues but she's still staying true to her core values," Chryson concluded. "Sarah's friends don't all agree with her, but do they respect her? Do they respect her ideology and her values? Definitely."
Sarah and Todd Palin's REAL Ties to Anti-Americans
The ever disingenuous Bible Spice Palin continues to tell lies about Barack Obama's alleged ties to terrorists yet conveniently forgets her husband's seven year love fest with Alaska Independence Party ("AIP") and/or her own past statements that she supports the party's principles - like breaking away from the USA? The women is despicable and proves herself more of a lying snake with each passing day. Now Salon has a lengthy article that looks at the Palin's ties to the AIP and one can only wonder why the MSM is not all over the issue. But then I forget, most in the MSM no longer have heard of the concept of investigative reporting. A reading of the Salon article makes it clear that it is Sarah Palin, not Barack Obama, who is out of touch with true mainstream American values. This woman is a nutcase and dangerous. Here are some highlights from the Salon story:
*
Though [former Alaskan Independence Party chairman Mark] Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.
*
Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."
*
The AIP was born of the vision of "Old Joe" Vogler, a hard-bitten former gold miner who hated the government of the United States almost as much as he hated wolves and environmentalists. . . . . During a gubernatorial debate in 1982, Vogler proposed using nuclear weapons to obliterate the glaciers blocking roadways to Juneau. "There's gold under there!" he exclaimed. Vogler made another failed run for the governor's mansion in 1986. But the AIP's fortunes shifted suddenly four years later when Vogler convinced Richard Nixon's former interior secretary, Wally Hickel, to run for governor under his party's banner. Hickel coasted to victory.
*
Hickel's subsequent failure as governor to press for a vote on Alaskan independence rankled Old Joe. With sponsorship from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vogler was scheduled to present his case for Alaskan secession before the United Nations General Assembly in the late spring of 1993. But before he could, Old Joe's long, strange political career ended tragically that May when he was murdered by a fellow secessionist.
*
"The AIP is very family-oriented," Chryson explained. "We're for the traditional family -- daddy, mommy, kids -- because we all know that it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we don't care if Heather has two mommies. That's not a traditional family."
*
"The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world," Chryson exclaimed. "And Alaska is not the only place that's about separation. There's at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States." This has meant rubbing shoulders and forging alliances with outright white supremacists and far-right theocrats, particularly those who dominate the proceedings at such gatherings as the North American Secessionist conventions, which AIP delegates have attended in recent years.
*
Another far-right organization with whom the AIP has long been aligned is Howard Phillips' militia-minded Constitution Party. The AIP has been listed as the Constitution Party's state affiliate since the late 1990s, and it has endorsed the Constitution Party's presidential candidates (Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin) in the past two elections. The Constitution Party boasts an openly theocratic platform that reads, "It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations." . . . . In Wasilla, the AIP became powerful by proxy -- because of Chryson and Stoll's alliance with Sarah Palin.
*
In 1994, Sarah Palin attended the AIP's statewide convention. In 1995, her husband, Todd, changed his voter registration to AIP. Except for an interruption of a few months, he would remain registered was an AIP member until 2002, when he changed his registration to undeclared. In 1996, Palin decided to run against John Stein as the Republican candidate for mayor of Wasilla. While Palin pushed back against Stein's policies, particularly those related to funding public works, Chryson said he and Steve Stoll prepared the groundwork for her mayoral campaign.
*
While Palin played up her total opposition to the sales tax and gun control -- the two hobgoblins of the AIP -- mailers spread throughout the town portraying her as "the Christian candidate," a subtle suggestion that Stein, who is Lutheran, might be Jewish.
*
By Chryson's account, he and Palin also worked hand-in-glove to slash property taxes and block a state proposal that would have taken money for public programs from the Permanent Fund Dividend, or the oil and gas fund that doles out annual payments to citizens of Alaska. Palin endorsed Chryson's unsuccessful initiative to move the state Legislature from Juneau to Wasilla.
*
Chryson says the door remains open now that Palin is governor. (Palin's office did not respond to Salon's request for an interview.) While Palin has been more circumspect in her dealings with groups like the AIP as she has risen through the political ranks, she has stayed in touch. When Palin ran for governor in 2006, marketing herself as a fresh-faced reformer determined to crush the GOP's ossified power structure, she made certain to appear at the AIP's state convention. To burnish her maverick image, she also tapped one-time AIP member and born-again Republican Walter Hickel as her campaign co-chair.
*
But whether the Palins participated directly in shaping the AIP's program is less relevant than the extent to which they will implement that program. Chryson and his allies have demonstrated just as much interest in grooming major party candidates as they have in putting forward their own people. At a national convention of secessionist groups in 2007, AIP vice chairman Dexter Clark announced that his party would seek to "infiltrate" the Democratic and Republican parties with candidates sympathetic to its hard-right, secessionist agenda. "You should use that tactic. You should infiltrate," Clark told his audience of neo-Confederates, theocrats and libertarians. "Whichever party you think in that area you can get something done, get into that party. Even though that party has its problems, right now that is the only avenue."
*
Now, Palin is a household name and her every move is scrutinized by the Washington press corps. She can no longer afford to kibitz with secessionists, however instrumental they may have been to her meteoric ascendancy. This does not trouble her old AIP allies. Indeed, Chryson is hopeful that Palin's inauguration will also represent the start of a new infiltration. "I've had my issues but she's still staying true to her core values," Chryson concluded. "Sarah's friends don't all agree with her, but do they respect her? Do they respect her ideology and her values? Definitely."
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
More About Me
Let's see, in my last "More About Me" I ended with my divorce from BC. A few months before we split, she convinced me to start therapy(I will always be grateful to her for that), well anyway after just a few sessions it became couples therapy for that last few weeks. Valentines day 1998 I have her diamond and gold earring worth about $24oo(I had a friend in the biz so I didn't spend any where near that) and she game me a white dress shirt, boy I sure missed seeing that red flag, the next day she asked for a the divorce. At that point I knew that the only thing that would make her happy was to agree to the divorce. That evening I had an appointment with my therapist, needless to say when I got to his office I let loose and told him exactly what an incompetent imbecile I thought he was and never went back. After the shock changed to anger and then to depression I got suicidal, and decided that I needed to find a new therapist or I was not going to survive. I went through several before I found one that I was comfortable with when I found John, at that time I had no idea just why I was so comfortable talking with him. At the end of each session we would take the last few minutes for what he called a shooting match, he would as a quick question and I was to answer without thinking about it. Well after several months and dealing with a lot of issues from my child hood, one of his shooting match questions was "Are You Gay?" I said "Yes", he sat there with out saying a word, my mind was racing a million miles a second, for the first time in my life I felt so, so, so, so..... FREE. I had been in denial about so many things in my life for so long, my sudden renewed and empowered sense of self was so over whelming that all I could do was cry, seemed that with each teardrop the me that wasn't real was being washed away and revealing the true me. Ok . Wow...... that's enough for now, next time I will tell you about the session we had on his kitchen floor(don't go there....altho given the chance I would have......lol.....)
So for a final note for today. If your not happy with the way your life is don't mope through it, get into therapy or at least find a support group..... NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If the first therapist you see doesn't have give you a certain comfort level, find another one, it took me at least 8 tries before I found John. It can save your life.... it saved mine.
So for a final note for today. If your not happy with the way your life is don't mope through it, get into therapy or at least find a support group..... NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If the first therapist you see doesn't have give you a certain comfort level, find another one, it took me at least 8 tries before I found John. It can save your life.... it saved mine.
Belle
Wow.... she may only have 3 legs but if there is a squirrel to chase that girl can move.......
Belle - Update
Belle arrived Friday afternoon, so sweet and friendly, followes me where ever I go unless Riley or Gab is in her way. She got swatted across the nose by Sassy, so now Sassy is on her ignore list....lol
Remember she is up for adoption. Two things I have discovered about any future home is that hard/smooth flooring and steps are rather difficult for her, but that doesn't keep her from chasing squirrels, not fast enough but gives it a good try.
Remember she is up for adoption. Two things I have discovered about any future home is that hard/smooth flooring and steps are rather difficult for her, but that doesn't keep her from chasing squirrels, not fast enough but gives it a good try.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)