Family ties

I think I have finally recovered from the Thanksgiving weekend. It was one of the best holidays ever. Mom visited for the first time since Dad died (during the summer).

She arrived on Wednesday, then on Thursday we left the ATL for the metropolis of Dawson, GA, where Kevin's dad lives. Very, very small town. But Kevin's family is so good and so fun. Mom didn't know what to think during much of the visit there, I think. She hasn't spent much time around people who don't hold back. They'll talk about anything, even at the dinner table. Kevin's mom mentioned something about a man who died, and at the wake, the widow mentioned something about the deceased's penis being broken. The way his mom told the story was hilarious. My family just doesn't talk about such things. Ever.

We came back to Atlanta Friday night. We spent Friday afternoon touring Plains, GA, home of former President Jimmy Carter. Mom's a big fan, and honestly, so am I. Plains High School has been converted into a museum of sorts.

Saturday was a quiet day, spent mostly at home. It was really cold (well, cold for ATL) and rainy, so we just chatted, read, and napped. Having Mom around for the long weekend was nice. We definitely grew closer.

Jury Doodee

I'm serving on a local grand jury. Every month, for two days, I sit in a room with 22 other people and listen to attorneys interview various investigators and witnesses about crimes. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. At least most of the time.

The people making up the jury come from all walks of life, and from all parts of North Georgia. Because I'm mostly an ITP guy, dealing with OTP people isn't one of my fortes. Most of them are shocked at the crimes we hear about. I, however, am shocked by the sheer stupidity of the criminals. That they think they can get away with their schemes is amazing. The number of dumb people in the world is astounding. Or not, depending on your perspective.

Just in case you can't get a picture of the hilarity that ensues, here's a little glimpse inside.

The Players

Smacky-Boy. He's very hot. Good body, cute face, quiet type. I don't get a gay vibe from him but he would be fun to tumble with. He sits two rows in front of me, so I have a good view of him most of the time. Not annoying at all.

The Loud-Mouth Elementary School Teacher. This woman puts the 'K' in 'Kountry'. I don't know what part of the sticks she came from, but she makes a comment, the most obvious comment that can be made, about most everything that happens in the jury room. Very annoying.

The Cougher. She's the "secretary" for the jury thus she sits up front, facing the rest of us. She's another county-type woman who speaks with some indiscernable rural Georgia accent. She employs goofy facial expressions to stay awake, seemingly unaware that people can see her make these faces. She also erupts into violent coughing fits at least once every month. These are some of the nastiest coughs I've ever heard. After about 5 minutes of coughing in front of everyone, she rushes to the restroom, where she gags and gurgles for another 5 minutes or so. Very annoying.

The Rabid Republican Old White Man Business Owner. Surprisingly, he and I tend to agree on a lot of the principles we discuss as a jury. Not annoying, shockingly enough.

The Sleeper. He has astute observations and comments during deliberations. He's a member of the NAACP. He falls asleep fairly frequently, but he doesn't snore, so it doesn't bother me. Not annoying.

The Home Boy. This guy is kind of cute until he opens his mouth. If you've ever believed there's no such thing as a stupid question, you haven't heard this guy. First of all, he speaks in some sort of Ebonics that no one seems to understand. The word 'stranger' is 'skranger'; 'tort' comes out as 'tora.' I can't even imagine what the court reporter's transcripts of his comments look like. Enunciation and diction are unknown to The Home Boy. He claims to work in a law office so he knows just enough law to be dangerous. For example, after the reading of a proposed indictment involving verbal threats made against an official, he literally argued with the attorney about the First Amendment's right to free speech. (FYI: threatening language is not necessarily considered protected speech under the First Amendment.) He's the source of much eye-rolling among the other jurors. He asks many irrelevant questions that begin,"I'm just curiou..." That isn't a typo. He never pronounces the 's' in 'curious.' I guess it's an Ebonics thing. Incredibly, beyond-belief annoying.

The Retired Lady. In small doses I like her. She's more liberal than most of the others, listens to NPR, touts the benefits of public transit, etc. But she can be annoying because she talks so much. I don't think old people know how to whisper.

The Mealy-Mouthed Mothers. These folks, there's about, oh, 3 or 4 of them, are strong women, but they're the type of suburban/exurban/rural women who base their worldview on wrong information.

The Others. Mostly quiet, non-threatening young to middle-aged men. Nothing really striking or impressive about any of them.

The Court Reporter. I think he's gay. He doesn't interact with the jurors very much so I can't be sure. But he sets off my gaydar.

The Staff Lady. I don't know what she does other than coordinate our schedule, but I'm sure what she does is very important. She doesn't have much of a personality, though, and she seems to be a little bitchy, so I don't pay a lot of attention to her.

That's all the people I regularly encounter.

Rules & Procedures

They won't let us have cell phones in the jury room. The lunches in the cafeteria suck. Security. Ugh. Because we meet in a local government building, we have "security." First we have the incompetent security guards who don't have a clue about the concept of quick, quiet efficiency. They hold up the line by chatting with people they know. They barely check IDs. And dealing with the stupid people in the line itself is an exercise in futile frustration. They don't know the rules. Here are some clues: They're looking for metal, people! Empty your pockets, show them your cell phone is actually a cell phone, and don't ask stupid questions. What's so difficult about it?

Something else I've learned during jury duty is how fascinating one's nails and cuticles become when listening to testimony.

Picture it. Berlin. 1929.

So Brian got us tickets to see Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester tonight. They're a German swing-type band who play music and sing songs from the 1920s and 1930s. Very Berlin. Very Roaring '20s. The only things missing were cigarette smoke, gin and Marlene Dietrich. I swear I thought she was going to walk out on stage during the first song. All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening.

Now I need to go shower. Those Germans sure do spit a lot when they speak (and when they sing)!

Premature Expectations

I've never handled being disapppointed by friends well. Actually, I'm usually quite flexible when it comes to accommodating the whims of others, but sometimes, with some people, I get really weird about it. That happened today. Plans changed at the last minute. Other things took priority. And I was left making a back-up plan for my day.

I think I get weird in the first place because I don't want confrontation. On the other hand, I don't want to feel walked on. Confrontation at least gets my feelings out there, and I believe it's healthier to get the frustration and disappointment out instead of holding it in. But, needless to say, I didn't handle the confrontation well. I stuttered and stammered through explaining my understanding of the turn of events. Anyway, it ended up with the hope that I'll be "over it" by tomorrow rather than his acknowledging that I've been slighted. Not fun.

Because of this turn of events (and this isn't the first time), I feel there's a lack of respect towards me, my time and my feelings. My plan is to work on changing my expectations. I know how these things tend to work out, so making the back-up plans ahead of time and expecting the unexpected should help alleviate some of these feelings.

Then again, looking at it a little differently, he does this to everyone because he has a habit of overcommitting his time. So it isn't anything personal. I suppose there's comfort in that realization.

Sorry this is a downer on a Saturday night. Next one will be fun, I promise.

Arafat had AIDS???

Several news sites are speculating that Yasir Arafat died of AIDS.

I'm tending to be quite skeptical of these rumors because many of the sites have a conservative bent: The NY Post, WorldNetDaily.com, David Frum (the former Bush White House speech writer who coined the term 'Axis of Evil') in the National Review, etc. They would have a vested interest in discrediting (if dying from AIDS is discrediting) anything Palestinian. But why try tarnishing the reputation of someone whose reputation is already tarnished? Arafat did enough on his own to discredit himself; he doesn't need help now that he's dead.

It seems that for years people have speculated that Arafat was gay, or at least bisexual. I had never heard those rumors.

An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind

David Remnick has a piece in this week's New Yorker about Yasir Arafat. In it, he sums up my feelings about the United States' unfettered support for Israel:

"...[A]fter the Six-Day War, in 1967, Israeli triumphalism and self-righteousness left no room for the admission that seven hundred thousand Palestinians had fled or been driven from their land in 1948, and that the unending occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, along with the accelerating construction of settlements there, amounted to a moral failure that could not be excused or ignored."

Don't misunderstand: the Palestinians have committed more than their share of wrongs. Their terrorism must stop before any lasting peace will happen. Still, desperate people do desperate things, as evidenced from both sides. However, regardless of what we think of the politics, the governments or the leaders, everyday people are affected by this mess and have been for centuries. I have no answers, other than hope for some understanding from both sides. The impending withdrawals from Israeli settlements is a hopeful sign. Perhaps with Arafat's death a new generation can bring about peace. Let's hope so.

Culture clash

With my cosmopolitan style and sensibility, it may be hard to believe that I grew up in a rural farm community.

Anyway, I still keep in touch with the local goings-on via the daily newspaper. So you can imagine how infuriating reading the letters to the editor section can be. I try not to react, really I do. But sometimes they allow some of the most ridiculous letters to be published, I can't stop myself. It all started with this:

Don't bother reaching out
Just how close was the election? Bush won the Electoral College vote 286 to 252. Bush won 30 states, Kerry won 20 states and D.C. Bush won 52 percent of the popular vote, Kerry, 48 percent. That seems fairly close until you break it down further. If the Electoral College was set up by counties won instead of states, Bush would have won approximately 95 percent, Kerry, five percent. If you break it down by square miles, Bush won 2.5 million, Kerry won 512,000. That's almost 5 to 1 in favor of Bush. That seems like a mandate to me.
Now the Dems want the president to reach out to them, while they sit back and whine about the election results. Former Dem VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro said on TV the other night that if the states George Bush won were to secede from the Union, those states would never be able to survive. If the states that George Bush won were to secede, who would grow the food to feed the people in the states that voted for Kerry? As long as the Democrats act as disrespectfully as Susan Sarandon and Bill Maher and his audience did on his TV show the other night towards Republicans and Christians, I see no reason to reach out to them. You can't spit in someone's face and then expect them to reach out to you.
Randall Malone
Johnson City

I broke down. I wrote a letter in response. I'm so ashamed. I didn't even address his last paragraph. The whole square miles thing stuck in my craw. Here's my response:

Re: Randall Malone’s letter published November 14, 2004: It is indeed interesting to ponder the ‘what if’ statistics Mr. Malone presents. They are, however, red herrings. The Electoral College is broken down by states, not counties, and parcels of land (specifically, square miles) do not vote. People do.

The hard reality is that the population centers of the country are in the so-called blue states. To analyze a candidate's support by square miles simply makes no sense. Therefore, GW Bush’s victory is hardly a mandate given only the four percent spread (using Mr. Malone’s statistics; other sources show a smaller gap) separating the vote.

But it is no longer shocking to hear many supporters of the current Administration misapply facts and misuse language to their benefit. Dividing the country is uniting. A struggling war is success. Increasing pollution is clearing the skies. Bigotry is love. And, finally, a slim victory is an overwhelming mandate. So it seems that, for the foreseeable future, applying the opposite concepts of these conservatives' buzzwords will reveal the true state of affairs and their real agenda.

I haven't received a call, so it may never be published in the paper (they have a thing about not publishing letters from people who live outside their circulation area, but I do have a connection there, so maybe they will publish it), but it's here on my little corner of the web, at least. And I'm feeling much better now!

But I still feel just a bit embarrassed that I broke down.

Let the faux fur fly

Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal Constitution has ripped Barbara Mandrell Linda Schrenko a new one in today's editorial. I haven't heard stuff this vicious even from a drag queen! Get a load of this:

Well, at least Linda Schrenko, former state superintendent of schools, looked pretty doing the perp walk on Monday, when she went to the federal courthouse to turn herself in. (I wouldn't have gone with the poofy fake fur collar and cuffs, though. Women her age do much better with a simple, tailored look — St. John Knits, say.)
She looked like she had mistaken the occasion. She wasn't there to be crowned queen of the tri-county butterbean festival. She was there to be handcuffed — a moment that called for a demure, slightly downcast look. Instead, she put a high-wattage smile on that overhauled face.

The entire editorial has that tone. But it's deserved. Linda Schrenko deserves any punishment she receives. She didn't even show up to her job the last few months she was in office! Jeez!

Stay tuned; this soap opera is going to be good.

Things that go bump in the night

One of the short films shown last night at Atlanta's Out on Film was Nightshadows.

Warning: Spoilers below!

The main character, Matthew, invites a trick over. After a little conversation in which Matthew mentions his 30th birthday is in a few hours, they get freaky. Cut to later on, when Matthew wakes up alone. Or is he?

Ghosts are in the house with him, it seems. Are the ghosts real? Is Matthew a murderer? No blood is evident; we see it only in his flashback, which could be a hallucination. We also see some newspapers lying around. The headlines mention missing young men.

I think he was seeing "dead youth" all around him -- remember it's his 30th birthday. I think an argument could be made that he was literally terrified of turning 30, of losing his youth that he kills himself before he could turn "old." An explanation for the newspapers is a fascination with "disappearing youth." I'm not sure he killed anyone at all -- the "ghosts" he sees counld be the ghosts of his youth haunting him. Lots of questions are left unanswered at the end, but in a literary way, not in a they-forgot-to-tie-up-all-the-loose-ends kind of way. The viewer can make of it what he or she will.

That's why, after thinking a lot today about this short, I'm seeing a lot more to it than its being a simple gay horror flick. I am appreciating it a lot more now than I did last night.

It looks like Rice in Powell movement

I don't know what to make of the resignations in Washington. Now out are Powell (State), Paige (Education), Abraham (Energy) and Veneman (Agriculture). This follows Ashcroft's resignation as Attorney General.

Condi is in line for State, it seems. Who is Bush considering to replace the others? I think the best we can hope for is a new group who, collectively at least, are at the same point on the political spectrum as those resigning. Certainly we won't see anyone with more liberal views appointed to any position in the Bush White House. Let's hope he isn't going to adjust his Cabinet any more to the right.

Tilting Cabinets lead to broken dishes, after all.

Her Dogma got run over by her Karma

Dateline Atlanta:

Former State School Superintendent and right-wing lap dog Linda Schrenko has been indicted for theft. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that she was indicted for stealing "more than $500,000 in taxpayer money and spent part of it on cosmetic surgery."

Was the surgery good, at least? Well, you decide...

Karma is indeed a bitch. We'll be seeing more and more conservatives falling like bombs over Fallujah in the coming months and years. It'll be nice for these holier-than-thou nutcases to get a dose of real morality. Let's get tough on crime!

Midnight Fun

Just got in from a video bar named Midnight Sun here in San Francisco. We had a good size group -- Kevin, Rich and David, David's roommate Don, and their friend Roy. I had a great time -- one of those times where I forget everything but the moment. We sang along with the songs on video, made up our own songs, and chatted amongst ourselves. Didn't even pay attention to the other people in the very crowded space. I love times like that. No self-consciousness, no worries, no thoughts except for those of the moment. The best of times, indeed.

Betty's Friends of Our Lord (F.O.O.L.) Awards

Betty Bowers has awarded her F.O.O.L. awards again. See who the winners are!

Virginia may be for Lovers, but Georgia is for Bigots

While I can’t say I’m surprised by Georgia's anti-gay marriage amendment’s passing, the intensity of my anger in reaction to it has taken me aback.

The hatred that was no doubt spewed from the pulpits of fundamentalist and evangelical churches across the state had to be quite intense to get the voters out. While non-fundamentalists also certainly voted “Yes” to ban gay marriages in what was, frankly, a popularity contest, the blame for the hate-filled tone certainly belongs on the backs of the fundamentalists and their political wing, the Christian Coalition of Georgia (now there’s a misnomer if ever there was one -- nothing Christian about that group).

Here is my message to those fundamentalist activists in terms they will understand:

A day of judgment is coming. And we will be judged by how well we treated others here on this earth. It wasn’t a gay man who said, “Whatever you have done to the least of these you have done to me.” No, it was Jesus himself; the man you claim you fashion your lives after.

You can drape yourselves in crosses; you can consume all the grape juice, wine and unleavened bread you want; you can mutter to yourselves and call it prayer; you can lift your hands up and call it giving praise. You can give voice to your hatred in the voting booth. But you will not escape judgment for the hatred in your hearts. What do you plan to say when asked what you did for the underdog, for the ones whose fate you decided in that voting booth?

How can you look at yourselves in the mirror every day?

Crisis of my personal Constitution

Glum. Demoralized. Hopeless. That pretty much sums it up. That the American public can be both so gullible and so cruel is beyond my comprehension.

They think W. is going to keep them safe? They don't yet know terror. Wait until their children and grandchildren are shipped off to some God-forsaken corner of the world to fight some folly of a war. Wait until a woman's right to decide the fate of her health and body are taken away. Wait until travel restrictions are put into place because of some questionable terror threat. Then, and only then, will these non-thinkers finally see exactly what this administration has in store for the country. Like Germany in the 1930s, however, I fear it will then be too late for many, many people.

For what it's worth, Josh Marshall makes a valiant effort at offering hope for the future of the country. I'm trying to let it soak into my being. I hope you have more luck than I've had with that.

Synagogue and State

Does anyone else think it's weird that churches are used as polling places? Many people talk about it as if it's the most normal thing in the world, but I just don't see it that way. Not because right-wing Christians tend to vote Republican, but because those of other religions could feel intimidated into not voting at all.

Imagine how indignant and truly scared some Christian fanatics would feel walking into a mosque or synagogue to cast their votes. Actually, it's kind of amusing! But my point is made. Do Muslims and Jews and other "non-members" feel intimidated by the very fact that they have to go into what could be considered another world in order to exercise their legal right to vote?

Trial Sized

Hey all you pollsters.... How do you calculate the margin of litigation? An article in USA Today quotes Youngstown State University political scientist Bill Binning, who says, "I don't know if it's [Kerry's predicted win] going to be within the margin of litigation."

I realize he's making a point using that phrase, but it got me to thinking about how would a potential margin of litigation be calculated for an election? Sounds elusive to me, although I would think it could be done to some degree of accuracy, and a formula would be interesting to see. Lawyers? Pollsters? Give us your ideas on this one.