fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
A month and a half ago, I wrote about the need to reform the filibuster so that the minority Republican caucus in the Senate would not use it as a bludgeon to stop any and all legislation it did not like. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decried the abuse of the filibuster during much of…
{Warning: Offensive language below.} Trayvon Martin would have been 18 today. Some sicko decided to “celebrate” by defaming him. A Mr. Todd Kincannon, former GOP chairman from South Carolina tweeted during the Super Bowl: This Super Bowl sucks more dick than adult Trayvon Martin would have for drug money. – Quoted from Wonkette Right, so…
Something happened to me the other day on Facebook which has never happened before. I put up what I thought was an innocuous post about 82 year old Jim Nabors marrying his partner of 38 years in the Great State of Washington. Mr. Nabors and his now-husband Stan Cadwallader live in Honolulu, but hopped across…
Oakland, California, a city of about 396,000 residents, saw 131 homicides in 2012. This is the highest homicide rate for Oakland since 2006, when 145 people lost their lives. I actually have a deep distrust and loathing for firearms and could never see myself owning one. OK, I do have a friend who once…
The day began in Sandy Hook, Connecticut with the tolling of bells. While the nation paused for a moment of silence in observance of the one week anniversary of the mass shooting, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre prepared to take the stage. The NRA had been conspicuously silent about the mass shooting, which left 28…
In the masthead for the gar spot you’ll see the bottom part of my tabla sitting just above the keyboard. This is the instrument I actually ended up studying, and continue to study after over a quarter century. But my first Indian instrument, the first instrument I ever studied seriously, was the sitar. I had two…
When the tweets came out that the US Supreme Court would hear cases challenging 1996’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and 2008’s Proposition 8, I paused. Most of the initial responses I saw seemed happy that the cases would have their day before the Supremes. My enthusiasm was tempered, however, and I can explain my…
When Barack Obama won the 2008 election, I took to the streets. I wanted to see reactions to this historic moment. I drove to Jack London Square and found a full-on street party. In fact, driving from Oakland to Berkeley I saw people literally dancing in the streets all over. It was a day for…
Our vote is precious. Our vote is sacred. Our vote is our democracy. Please use it. However which way you vote, vote. Don’t let anyone deter or dissuade you. If you are eligible to vote, please vote.
He’s a real Nowhere Man, Sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody. -Lennon/McCartney A thought keeps jostling my head. Mitt Romney is a Nowhere Man, literally. I guess one could say that his record number of flip-flops on the issues make this moniker a given. But I’m not thinking of…
