On This Date In ISBL History: Random Musings

As Carlos and I are in sunny Miami for business and pleasure, I thought I’d do something I’ll call “On This Date In ISBL History” and repost some things from back when the blog was new, and newish … this was originally published January 9, 2014:

Random Musings

Congrats to icon Lily Tomlin, who married her long, longtime partner, Jane Wagner on New Year’s Eve in New York.

The two women have been a couple since meeting in 1971, and now some forty-two years later they are a happily, legally married couple.

Congratulations!

They are still happily married ... still funny ... still fabulous!

As many of you know, my sister, undergoing chemo for lung cancer, had seen most of her tumors shrink, which is good news right? Well, not exactly, because as anyone who’s gone through any kind of cancer treatment, or known someone in treatment, knows that while tumors shrink, the cancer cells run and hide in new places throughout the body.

This is what happened to my sister. The cancer has metastasized to her brain, causing several large lesions there. She was suffering all kinds of memory issues and lethargy, and, in talking with her doctor, has decided to undergo radiation treatment.

Radiation was something she said she’d never do, but faced with the issue, she changed her mind. First though, steroids were given to reduce the swelling on the brain, so now she is functioning better. Then came the issue of where to have the radiation. The insurance through her employer had ended — she stopped working last year when she began chemo — but as a retired military person, she was entitled to radiation treatments at a VA hospital. Trouble is, one was about an hour from home, and they couldn’t take her, and the next closest one was two hours from home.

Then it was learned that her employer insurance has not ended, and so now she is back home, taking radiation at a hospital just five minutes away.

So, it’s been a mixed bag this week of bad news and good news, but that’s the way things happen, I guess.

My sister passed away a month later, February 15, 2014.

I still miss her something awful.

So, Hostages is over and if it ever comes back to TV again I’ll stop watching CBS altogether. What a ludicrous show, so badly written and so badly plotted that it was almost laughable; and yet, like a train wreck, I could not look away. But the finale tied every storyline up in a neat little bow with all happy endings — mostly. The doctor didn’t kill the president. The family got back together. The president, who raped a girl eons ago, was now being held accountable. The mastermind of the Kill The President plot got the bone marrow to save his wife and then decided he’d turn himself in. His brother, who aided him, as well as a woman who helped, had fallen in love, and even though the brother murdered an innocent man during the series, he and his girlfriend were able to escape and live happily ever after.

The most disturbing issue? Two of the bad guys were black; one helping with the Kill The President Plot and the other the mastermind behind it. Those two, the only Black men on the show, were killed, meaning, I guess, if you’re white and you commit a crime you live happily ever after but if you’re black, you die?

Bad on you CBS.

Better news for TV? Downton Abby is back; so is House of Lies — featuring the amazing Don Cheadle — and Episodes — with Matt LeBlanc as the anti-Joey.

American Horror Story and Stevie Nicks? Say.No.More.

Also, Josh Holloway has returned from Lost to Intelligence, in which he plays a spy with a microchip that allows his brain to function like a computer or a Smartphone, I guess. Implausibility abounds, but Holloway is nice eye candy.

Plus, be still my hearts, Justified has returned with the oh-so-handsome Timothy Olyphant; good storylines, great writing and a hot leading man!

Hostages never came back. Downton Abby and House of Lies finished their runs. AHS is still, thankfully, a must-see. Josh Holloway didn’t last long on Intelligence, but he is back again, for Season Two, in Colony and is still hot. Worst of all ... Justified ended its run and Timothy Olyphant is not on my TV every week any more. I find that one still hard to take ...

So, if you drop by here regularly, you know I love a good f-bomb. I’m fairly good at containing my usage in public, but in private, in the car, at home, writing for this bloggy thing, I love to drop ‘em.

But apparently Martin Scorsese loves an f-bomb more.

His new film, “The Wolf of Wall Street”, is all about excess, with orgies on a plane to cocaine and cash and everything in between, so it’s no surprise that the film has set the all-time record for the use of the f-word.

According to Wikipedia, the word “f**k” is used 506 times on “Wolf” and the previous record holder was Spike Lee’s 1999 film “Summer of Sam” with 435 instances. But “Wolf” isn’t the first time Scorsese has set the f-mark; Scorsese’s “Casino” dropped the bomb 422 times, while his “Goodfellas” dropped it 300 times.

My hat is off to you Mr. Scorsese, you win!

Still, I used the f-bomb thirty-seven times this morning. I’m so proud.

Seriously? The Washington Blade reports that American Idol contestant and openly gay pop singer Clay Aiken is considering running for the U.S. House from North Carolina.

A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says Aiken, a Raleigh native, has taken the initial steps for a run, including consulting with political operatives in Washington, D.C., about a bid for the seat. Aiken made phone calls to gauge support, talked to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and met with figures in Raleigh about a potential bid.

He has also been working with Betsy Conti, a Raleigh-based political strategist who’s worked for former North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore.

I hope she recommends he go a bit lighter on the mascara if he wants to be taken seriously.

Clay lost; ‘nuff said.

Don’t ever underestimate the power of a queen; or even the Queen.

Prince Harry has been ordered by the Queen to “sooner rather than later” shave off the bushy polar beard he grew while on his charity trek in Antarctica.

Harry returned to Britain just in time for the festive celebrations at Sandringham and though his brother William and sister-in-law Kate said they loved his “Windsor whiskers” his grandmother was apparently not amused.

Harry maintains that beards are a royal tradition and told a well-wisher watching his family walk to church on Christmas morning that he intended to keep his, and a place insider, probably Princess Anne because what else does she have to do says, “The rest of the family liked it and were taking the mickey, especially his cousin Zara who dubbed him ‘Prince Hairy’.”

Prince Hairy. Prince Hottie, too.

PS Who's that next to him? O M G I’d like to be trapped in an igloo with those two!

I’m still up for a tryst with Prince Hot Ginger and the Unknown Hunk ... don’t tell Carlos.

So, Consuelo Roca-Jones, our youngest feline child.

Carlos goes from calling her Princess one minute to Little Bitch the next, but it has become abundantly clear who is in charge around here.

See, Miss Jones likes to sit in an open window and watch the birds and smell the yard and such. And Carlos, who obviously kowtows to the Little Bitch Princess, has taken to opening a window just so she can perch in it. Trouble is, the heater in the house is running and it’s 30-degrees outside but he doesn’t want to, and I quote, “Make her mad.”

Consuelo 1, Carlos 0.

And this battle of egos still wages on in our house, and Consuelo is up by over a hundred points by now!

So, the Polar Vortex brought out all the scarves and hats and gloves and coats, but in Illinois, at one move theater, it brought out the funny.

Take a look at that marquee …

Luckily we are in Miami during the South Carolina cold snap!

Liz Cheney is still a moron. But that isn’t really surprising really, is it?

I Didn't Say It ...

Henry Rollins, on [t]Rump 2016:

"In a nation of hundreds of millions of people, there is one man born to lead. A man who stands head and shoulders above the rest. A lone alpha who burns incandescent in a vast wasteland of darkness. When asked to serve in Vietnam, he said no and took a deferment. He took a few of them, actually, because he is his own man. He got married. The merger didn’t work. She was fired. So was the next one. It’s business, not personal — like America! He has overcome adversity. Like bankruptcy. And with an almost Michelangelo-like genius, he conquered the K2 challenge of his hair. He is what America needs. A man with so much self-confidence that, if you put him in the Oval Office, some of it will no doubt trickle down to you. Who is this man who will put all other world leaders in their place? The same man who just read a cellphone number, allegedly Lindsey Graham’s private line, out loud so the world could hear. (Hey, I laughed.) This man is America. So bend over, relax and hold onto something solid, because here he comes — here comes Donald Trump 2016. And when he puts it in, you’ll know who your daddy is."

Rollins rules!

[photo source]

Clay Aiken, on Donald Trump: 

“I kind of hope he decides to stick with it and maybe give people another option outside of the Republicans and Democrats.”

And that option is The Blowhards With Money Party?

We already have that, Clay, and it’s called the GOP.

[photo source]

Barbara Boxer, US Democratic Senator, on how she is bothered by men, like fellow Senator James Lankford lecturing women about reproductive health:

“I just don’t like lectures by men about what it’s like. I’m pro-choice and I just have to say, using pregnancy as a political football doesn’t sit well with the people I represent and the people of this country. We have to respect one another. I respect your view entirely. I’m asking you to respect mine. Keep Uncle Sam out of my private life and my children’s and my grandkids’ and your’s. Families will make these decisions with their God, with their doctor.”

Sounds pretty clear, right? Keep the government out of women’s vaginas.

[photo source]

James Lankford, US Republican Senator, in response:

“I’m a dad of two daughters. I had something to do with the birth as well, and was also there. I was there during the sonograms.”

Wait, let’s make one thing queer, James. After you shot the wad, it was all on your wife; she carried the children; she birthed the children; she breastfed the children.

You helped; you helped, you didn't birth. Deal with it, and stay out of women’s issues and quit trying to make abortion a man’s issue.

It isn’t.

[photo source]

Kelly Osbourne, on Donald [t]Rump’s anti-immigrant lunacy:

“And if you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilets, Donald Trump?” 

Look, I know what she meant, but she went about it all wrong.

She was certainly not implying that the only job for which Latinos are needed is to clean toilets; she meant that, possibly, a great many maids in those [t]Rump hotels are Latina and so maybe [t]Rump should think twice … twice? I mean once … before bashing Hispanics.

[photo source]

Jeb Bush, on defunding Planned Parenthood due to the GOP lie that the organization is selling aborted fetuses:

"I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars in funding for women’s health programs. If you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine organizations, community health organizations that exist, federally sponsored community health organizations to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues. But abortion should not be funded by the government, any government in my mind."

First thing, Jeb; abortion is not funded by the government by law so quit lying and pandering. Secondly, we need trillions and trillions of dollars in defense money but $500 million in women’s health issues—like cancer screenings and treatment—is too much?

Siddown.

[photo source]

Random Musings

When we were at South Carolina Pride a few weeks back, Carlos found a kilt he wanted to buy. His grandfather was from England — he moved to Mexico as an adult and lived there the rest of his life — and Carlos has always been an Anglophile.

Now, his kilt isn’t plaid, it’s a dark green, but it’s very cool, and once it arrived to the house, he decided he wanted to wear it to our wedding. I had other ideas — I always do — of keeping it simple, with each of us in a nice black jacket, white shirt and nice — nice — jeans.

Carlos said, “Jeans?????”

I said, “Kilt????”

He’s wearing the kilt, and that’s fine, because it looks good on him, but I did ask that he wear a nice black jacket and white shirt. So, he showed me the white shirts he had in the closet; not one from this century, so imagine dirty dishwater white color; and there wasn’t a black jacket in sight.

So, Carlos, who hates to shop, set off in search of a black jacket, a white shirt, and some black boots to wear with his kilt. When he returned home, happy as a clam to have found the items, he gave me a little preview; nice jacket; very nice crisp white, white, shirt, and some cool black boots — rough-trade boots, if you will.

I sat in the chair and muttered, “Wow, you get a whole new outfit for the wedding and I’m wearing my old black jacket.”

“I knew it!” He shrieked, and my ears began to bleed.

“Shout it to the whole neighborhood,” I said.

Carlos walked to the living room window, threw it up, and shrieked outside, “I. KNEW. IT!!!!!”

Today I went and bought myself some new, nice, cool, jeans, a new crisp white shirt, and three pairs of new shoes, you know, because I will not be outdone at my own wedding!!

Last week the Labor Department reported that 248,000 jobs were created last month, pushing the unemployment down to a six-year low of 5.9%.  

Thanks Obama.

See, Rightwingnuts? That's how “Thanks Obama” works. Say Thanks to the President for fixing the mess created by George W. Bush.

And then sit down.

So, naturally, other than my own upcoming marriage, was the news out of SCOTUS this week, which paved the way for marriages in at least five — and perhaps up to eleven — new states. 

I got a huuuge kick out of some of the GOP wingnuts who called the Supreme Court a bunch of unelected judges — um, yeah, that’s how it works — and said they were activist judges.

Funny, though, had the Supreme Court ruled the other way these asshats would have been praising these non-elected activists for doing their jobs.

GOP? Take a seat; you don’t have a dog in this fight any more.

Speaking of GOP loons … Mike Huckabee.

That’s really all that need be said, but I love this Tweet, and the response from Jesus H. Christ.

Who knew Jesus was so funny?

I watched a new comedy last week called A To Z; it’s one of those “relationship” comedies, but it’s just quirky enough not to be sappy, and just well-written enough to be actually funny.

As in the scene where our couple is sitting in a trendy martini bar and the bartender asks the girl if she likes her “Martini Navratilova.”

He then offers to make her a “Martini Luther King Jr.”

Okay, it made me laugh, and I also got a little tingly with the adorkable male lead, Ben Feldman.

I do so love a dork; hell, I’m marrying one!

American Horror Story Freak Show started last night and, naturally, Jessica Lange was brilliant, and fearless and fabulous, and a bit shocking. Plus, all kinds of oddities, some real, I think, and some not, I think. And, if you have a fear of clowns, well, yeah, you know.

Next up for Ryan Murphy, creator of AHS, is American Crime Story, the first season of which will focus on the OJ Simpson trial.

Having lived through it, I’d think that case would be better suited under the Freak Show umbrella.

Did I mention I’m getting married? I think I may have …

At any rate, just yesterday a judge down in Charleston County issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple; one half of the duo was his own sister.

Yup, the Honorable Irvin Condon, accepted a marriage license and fee from his cousin, Charleston County Councilwoman Colleen Condon, and her fiancée, Nichols Bleckley.  After the requisite 24-hour statutory waiting period, Judge Condon says he will issue Condon and Bleckley their marriage license unless a court of competent — is that a trick question — jurisdiction orders him not too.

This would make Colleen and Nichols eligible to become the first same-sex couple to be legally wed in South Carolina.

And then just as that news broke, came the news that Richland County, home to the capital, Columbia, and just a hop, skip and a jump from Smallville, has also begun issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

In freaking South Carolina!

Richland County Probate Judge Amy McCulloch said she accepted applications for the first time because, “I believe it’s time for this to change. It’s a fundamental right to be with who you want to be with.” She also said she changed categories on the county’s marriage license paper application from “bride” and “groom” to “Applicant 1” and “Applicant 2.”

Like Judge Condon, McCulloch is also waiting to see how the Attorney General’s office or the state Supreme Court reacts to taking marriage-license applications from same-sex couples.

But it’s shocking to hear that same-sex couples are getting marriage licenses in, again, freaking South Carolina!

UPDATE: Our wingnut Attorney general has asked the state courts to halt the issuance of marriage licenses; for now, because one day soon he'll look a bigger fool than he did yesterday.

On the flip side, asshat, wingnut, douchebag Utah Republican state representative Kraig Powell opened a bill file in the Utah legislature to revise marriage statutes, suggesting that the law be rewritten to refer to same-sex marriages as "pairages."

I ask that the law be rewritten to refer to Powell as an effing moron, and I think my bill will pass first.

Look at that Clay Aiken, so sharp-tongued and quick-witted.

Clay is running to be North Carolina second district representative, and recently had a debate with the incumbent Republican Renee Ellmers, who, like all race-baiting goose-stepping GOPers keeps trying to tie her opponent to Barack Obama because, well, I guess they think that’s bad.

And Clay ain’t playing that, and when Ellmers uttered the line, “This Obama-Aiken economy is just killing us,” Clay responded, “You might need to get a new writer because calling it the Obama-Aiken economy is just preposterous.”

Still, Ellmers kept at it, this time alluding to Aiken's vocal prowess and showmanship while discussing the U.S. military:

“It's almost as if as an entertainer, you believe that you can just go in with a song and dance and change the mind of the military leaders.”

Aiken said, and it still makes me giggle, “The most embarrassing reality show in the country right now is Congress.”

Two snaps up for Aiken!

Random Musings

Congrats to icon Lily Tomlin, who married her long, longtime partner, Jane Wagner on New Year’s Eve in New York.

The two women have been a couple since meeting in 1971, and now some forty-two years later they are a happily, legally married couple.

Congratulations!

As many of you know, my sister, undergoing chemo for lung cancer, had seen most of her tumors shrink, which is good news right? Well, not exactly, because as anyone who’s gone through any kind of cancer treatment, or known someone in treatment, knows that while tumors shrink, the cancer cells run and hide in new places throughout the body.

This is what happened to my sister. The cancer has metastasized to her brain, causing several large lesions there. She was suffering all kinds of memory issues and lethargy, and, in talking with her doctor, has decided to undergo radiation treatment.

Radiation was something she said she’d never do, but faced with the issue, she changed her mind. First though, steroids were given to reduce the swelling on the brain, so now she is functioning better. Then came the issue of where to have the radiation. The insurance through her employer had ended — she stopped working last year when she began chemo — but as a retired military person, she was entitled to radiation treatments at a VA hospital. Trouble is, one was about an hour from home, and they couldn’t take her, and the next closest one was two hours from home.

Then it was learned that her employer insurance has not ended, and so now she is back home, taking radiation at a hospital just five minutes away.

So, it’s been a mixed bag this week of bad news and good news, but that’s the way things happen, I guess.

So, Hostages is over and if it ever comes back to TV again I’ll stop watching CBS altogether. What a ludicrous show, so badly written and so badly plotted that it was almost laughable; and yet, like a train wreck, I could not look away.

But the finale tied every storyline up in a neat little bow with all happy endings — mostly. The doctor didn’t kill the president. The family got back together. The president, who raped a girl eons ago, was now being held accountable. The mastermind of the Kill The President plot got the bone marrow to save his wife and then decided he’d turn himself in. His brother, who aided him, as well as a woman who helped, had fallen in love, and even though the brother murdered an innocent man during the series, he and his girlfriend were able to escape and live happily ever after.

The most disturbing issue? Two of the bad guys were black; one helping with the Kill The President Plot and the other the mastermind behind it. Those two, the only Black men on the show, were killed, meaning, I guess, if you’re white and you commit a crime you live happily ever after but if you’re black, you die?

Bad on you CBS.

Better news for TV?

Downton Abby is back; so is House of Lies — featuring the amazing Don Cheadle — and Episodes — with Matt LeBlanc as the anti-Joey.

American Horror Story and Stevie Nicks? Say.No.More.

Also,Josh Holloway has returned from Lost to Intelligence, in which he plays a spy with a microchip that allows his brain to function like a computer or a Smartphone, I guess. Implausibility abounds, but Holloway is nice eye candy.

Plus,  be still my hearts, Justified has returned with the oh-so-handsome Timothy Olyphant; good storylines, great writing and a hot leading man!

So, if you drop by here regularly, you know I love a good f-bomb. I’m fairly good at containing my usage in public, but in private, in the car, at home, writing for this bloggy thing, I love to drop ‘em.

But apparently Martin Scorsese loves an f-bomb more.

His new film, “The Wolf of Wall Street”, is all about excess, with orgies on a plane to cocaine and cash and everything in between, so it’s no surprise that the film has set the all-time record for the use of the f-word.

According to Wikipedia, the word “f**k” is used 506 times on “Wolf” and the previous record holder was Spike Lee’s 1999 film “Summer of Sam” with 435 instances. But “Wolf” isn’t the first time Scorsese has set the f-mark; Scorsese’s “Casino” dropped the bomb 422 times, while his “Goodfellas” dropped it 300 times.

My hat is off to you Mr. Scorsese, you win!

Seriously? The Washington Blade reports that American Idol contestant and openly gay pop singer Clay Aiken is considering running for the U.S. House from North Carolina.

A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says Aiken, a Raleigh native, has taken the initial steps for a run, including consulting with political operatives in Washington, D.C., about a bid for the seat. Aiken made phone calls to gauge support, talked to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and met with figures in Raleigh about a potential bid.

He has also been working with Betsy Conti, a Raleigh-based political strategist who’s worked for former North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore.

I hope she recommends he go a bit lighter on the mascara if he wants to be taken seriously.

Don’t ever underestimate the power of a queen; or even the Queen.

Prince Harry has been ordered by the Queen to “sooner rather than later” shave off the bushy polar beard he grew while on his charity trek in Antarctica.

Harry returned to Britain just in time for the festive celebrations at Sandringham and though his brother William and sister-in-law Kate said they loved his “Windsor whiskers” his grandmother was apparently not amused.

Harry maintains that beards are a royal tradition and told a well-wisher watching his family walk to church on Christmas morning that he intended to keep his, and a place insider, probably Princess Anne because what else does she have to do says, “The rest of the family liked it and were taking the mickey, especially his cousin Zara who dubbed him ‘Prince Hairy’.”

Prince Hairy. Prince Hottie, too.

PS Who's that next to him? O M G i'd like to be trapped in an igloo with those two!

So, Consuelo Roca-Jones, our youngest feline child.

Carlos goes from calling her Princess one minute to Little Bitch the next, but it has become abundantly clear who is in charge around here.

See, Miss Jones likes to sit in an open window and watch the birds and smell the yard and such. And Carlos, who obviously kowtows to the Little Bitch Princess, has taken to opening a window just so she can perch in it. Trouble is, the heater in the house is running and it’s 30-degrees outside but he doesn’t want to, and I quote, “Make her mad.”

Consuelo 1, Carlos 0.

So, the Polar Vortex brought out all the scarves and hats and gloves and coats, but in Illinois, at one move theater, it brought out the funny.

Take a look at that marquee …