Bobservations

So, a 3D printed gun might be available soon because … _____ and NRA.

My question is: when the first mass shooter uses a 3D printed gun, is Congress gonna offer 3D printed "thoughts and prayers"?

David Cooley is a well-known gay businessman—he’s the founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay club, The Abbey—and last week he was flying from New York to Los Angeles when flight attendants told his partner to move from his Premium seat to the main cabin or, wait for it, get off the plane because another couple, a straight couple, wanted to sit together..

Cooley posted about the incident to his Facebook page.

“I have never been so discriminated against while traveling before. ... After my traveling companion and I had been seated in our assigned seats for a while, we were approached by the flight attendant and my companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a couple could sit together. I explained that we were a couple and wanted to sit together, [but] he was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane. I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave. We will never be flying Alaska Airlines or their recently purchased Virgin Airlines Group ever again. Thank you to Delta Air Lines for getting us home safe. If you are an #LGBT person, please spend your travel dollars with an LGBT friendly airline like Delta.”

A spokesperson for Alaska Airlines says:

“When boarding flight 1407 from JFK to LAX, a couple was mistakenly assigned the same seats as another couple in Premium Class. We reseated one of the guests from Premium Class in the Main Cabin. We are deeply sorry for the situation, and are investigating the details while communicating directly with the guests involved to try and make this right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and our employees value inclusion for our guests and each other.”

So, Alaska Airlines admits they made a mistake and double-booked a pair of seats and yet had no problem splitting up a gay couple so a straight couple could sit together?

Funny that, and funny that Alaska Airlines then issued another statement touting their diversity and support of the LGBTQ community.

Nice words, but your actions don’t match.

This week _____ bragged that the Gross Domestic Product [GDP], a chief economic indicator, came in strong at 4.1% growth. Then, the White House Communications Team, under the new direction of former Fox News co-president Bill Shine, posted a graphic to Twitter in which they spelled “United States” wrong:

It remained up for well over three hours.

And the mocking ensued, as when Danny Deraney Tweeted:

“If you include Obama’s leadership, this growth would rank 5th. 

- 5.1% Q2 2014

- 4.9% Q3 2014

- 4.7% Q4 2011

- 4.5% Q4 2009

- 4.1 % Q2 2018”

Followed by Helen Kennedy’s Tweet:

“Also Obama’s White House could spell ‘United States’.”

And then Paul Cambridge who asked:

“Where are the United Sates?”

Look, it’s a typo, but coming from a White House, and a President who misspelled his own wife’s name—Hi Melanie!—it’s pretty high-larious!

At a rally this week _____ said we need stronger voter ID laws because you even need a picture ID at the grocery store.

So, this morning I stopped at the DMV and got my license updated! Now I can buy bread from a store and not from the guy on the corner selling it out of an Impala.

The new GOP … Anne Landman, who said she's upset with _____ about Russia, immigration, and tariffs, created a billboard that went up in Grand Junction, Colorado, where she replaced the ‘O’ in GOP with the Russian hammer and sickle:

"I mean, I’m tearing my hair out over this stuff! How much are we as citizens supposed to take?"

Her plan is to keep the billboards up until the midterms, and says she is being offered all kinds of cash to keep the billboard up:

"Several people have walked cash right up to my front door—one guy dropping off enough in cash to buy a whole week of the board."

The Resistance at work.

In How Stoopid Are They news … the _____ administration is freezing fuel standards put in place by President Obama because they say better fuel economy means people would drive more, and driving more means they would face a higher risk of accident and injury.

No, seriously, that’s what they said.

This breaks my heart … an orca, tagged as J35, and a member of a critically endangered family of orcas, gave birth to a calf last week. only to watch it die within half an hour.

And for two days she grieved, carrying her dead calf on her head, and refusing to let it go. Even when the baby slipped off and sank below the surface, she would dive down and retrieve it, and carry it again.

Just an animal? I think not.

House Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan—a conservative wingnut—announced that he'll run for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Should the American people entrust us with the majority again in the 116th Congress, I plan to run for Speaker of the House to bring real change to the House of Representatives. President Trump has taken bold action on behalf of the American people," his statement continued. "Congress has not held up its end of the deal, but we can change that. It's time to do what we said."

Perhaps he wants the job because he thinks he can spare himself from the scandal about how he handled complaints about a doctor at Ohio State University who is accused of sexually abusing wrestlers that Jordan supervised when he was the school's assistant wrestling coach in the 1980s and 1990s.

While several wrestlers claim Jordan knew that team doctor Richard Strauss groped them, but Jordan, in typical GOP stance, denies any knowledge of abuse.

Uh huh.

I love a good protest, but what I love even more are the signs at the protests. Gone are the days of Make Love, Not War and welcome to the days of …

And, speaking of pervs … last week Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick over sexual abuse allegations that stretched back decades. The Vatican released this statement nonsense:

“Cardinal McCarrick, a prominent Roman Catholic voice in international and public policy, was removed from public ministry on June 20, after an investigation found credible accusations that he had sexually abused a teenager 47 years ago while serving as a priest in New York. Cardinal McCarrick, now 88, said in a statement at the time that he was innocent. Subsequent interviews by The New York Times revealed that some in the church hierarchy had known for decades about accusations that he had preyed on several men who wanted to become priests, sexually harassing and touching them."

Pope Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation, ordered his suspension from public ministry, and 'sentenced ' him to live in a house for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial.

Um, how about a real trial and then ship the rapist off to prison? No, the Catholic Church would rather put him up in a house until the scandal blows away and then do nothing.

Nothing; exactly what they’re done for decades about child rape. Fuck them all.

Damon Erik Williams plays Linc, the new love interest of Deran Cody, played by Jake Weaver, on Animal Kingdom, and he is steamy.

And nude quite often.

Just sayin.

Photo of the Week: Travelin' Light

Photographer Martin Le-May and his wife, were walking in Hornchurch Country Park near London when they came across the unusual sight: a small weasel appearing to ride on a woodpecker. Le-May said the weasel was actually attacking the bird, and the woodpecker was in a struggle for its life with the unwanted passenger, but not before Le-May could snap the picture ...

... and post it to Twitter where is was reTweeted thousands of times. 

The picture has inspired numerous tribute images, including one that Photoshopped a shirtless Russian President Vladimir Putin riding atop the weasel as it rode on the woodpecker.

Sidenote #1: Le-May says the woodpecker was able to land and escape; the weasel was alst seen scurrying off to the US Congress.

Sidenote #2: Though we won't be traveling by woodpecker, Carlos and I are off to Miami for a few days. I have some preplanned posts and we'll be taking the laptop with us, so you may hear from me before we return home next Friday.

Have a great weekend ... and week!

Photo Source

Random Musings

UPDATE: A judge has ruled that Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene's Flowers in Richland, Washington, who refused to provide flowers to a gay couple for their wedding, has violated state consumer protection and anti-discrimination law because … oh yeah … discrimination is illegal and, well, wrong.

Good.

Now, howsabout that Vatican and The Gays?

See, the Vatican did something it has never done before; it gave a group of US gay and lesbian Catholics some VIP seats at Pope Francis' weekly general audience last week.

Hoo-ray … wait a minute …

The welcome wasn’t all that; the group, the New Ways Ministry, was only identified on the Vatican's list of attendees as a "group of lay people accompanied by a Sister of Loretto."

And the group was never acknowledged or announced; when a Vatican monsignor read the list of the different groups in attendance in St. Peter's Square, he skipped over The Gays altogether, and Pope Frankie failed to mention them, too.

Don’t ask, don’t tell … alive and well in Vatican City.

I don’t camp; well, I used to camp … on a sidewalk for concert tickets. But outdoors? In nature? Oh, honey … no. And I used to say that my idea of camping was a hotel without room service. But last night, while watching Modern Family, I heard my new favorite I Don’t Camp line:

If  you find me in the woods after three days, it means I've been dead for two.

Boo-yah!

Supermodel David Gandy turns thirty-five years old today. In a suit, in his drawers, always hot. That is all … carry on.

So, remember that time noted asshat Lance Armstrong swore up and down on a stack of Bibles that he never used performance enhancing drugs?

And then he confessed to Oprah that he’s a big fat liar and did use the drugs. And then he said, just the other day, that, if given the chance for a do-over, he’d still dope?

Well, apparently courts don’t like it when you commit perjury and an arbitration panel in Texas has ruled Lance Armstrong must pay a $10 million penalty for being a liar.

Now that’s dope.

Okay, it’s no secret that I don’t like Living Blow-Up Doll, AKA Taylor Swift, very much, if at all. But then I stumbled upon this photo of Swifty at the SNL 40th birthday bash sitting next to the Mama Grizzly Bore™ and couldn’t help but laugh.

Swifty’s doing that whole ‘hold your elbow close to your body so you don’t accidentally lay in on the armrest and the crazy grandma in the sequined mini doesn’t touch you.’

Plus, is it just me, or does the MGB™ look like Drunk Grandma at Christmas whilst wearing a dress that her daughter Blister wore back in 2011? Unemployment must not pay if MooseMeat can’t afford new rags.

So, in the Everything Old Is New — and Stupid — Again file comes the premiere of former Friends star Matthew Perry in a reboot of a 160s film and 1960s TV show, The Odd Couple.

Yes, nothing says fresh like a rehash of a fifty year old movie. But, given that it’s CBS — the network of old people … sorry old people, but it’s true — and given that it’s replacing 2.5 Men, which was basically The Odd Couple for the Aughts, I guess it does make sense.

I dunno because I won’t be watching.

So, I 'Like' Andy Borowitz on Facebook. He has that irreverent sense of humor I love so much, and so I'll share his Status Update from earlier in the week:

Racism is funny. Not.

So, y’all remember the story of South African Kyle Roux who learned that his image had popped up on a controversial billboard along a major highway in Virginia for a “No one is born gay” campaign. The billboard showed two pictures of Roux; in one, he wears a suit, while in the other he has on a T-shirt. And the caption read:

“Identical twins. One gay. One not. We believe twin research studies show nobody is born gay."

Trouble was, Roux is not a twin, and Roux is gay, and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays [PFOX] never bothered to check because, well, liars lie.

Roux didn’t support the sign’s message, and even though PFOX has since taken down the sign, decided to strike back at the group on his own.

Planting Peace, a nonprofit organization based in Topeka, Kansas, erected a new sign down the road from where the PFOX billboard once stood, that looks eerily similar, though it contains a different message.  The new sign features new photographs of Roux with the caption:

“Dear PFOX: Identical twins? I’m not. I’m gay. Regardless of what you believe I was born gay. And I’m proud of who I am.”

PFOX isn’t talking because, well, liars lie and then they hide.

In Good News:

A recent survey of likely GOP voters in the 2016 election cycle showed that Republican voters in South Carolina ... yes, South Carolina ... find opposition to marriage equality mostly or totally unacceptable.

Times do change.

Photo of the Week: Dog.Gone.

This is the rug that greets you at the sheriff's office in Pinellas County, Florida, for which taxpayers paid $500; not such a bad price except ...

... after being there for two months someone finally noticed that instead of 'In God We Trust,' Florida's state motto, it read ...

... 'In Dog We Trust.'

The error was made by the rug's manufacturer and it is being replaced, while the original, according to Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, will be auctioned off for charity.

I have a better idea; I know someone, out there in the Pacific North West, who would just love this rug, and i know a couple of Labs who'd like it as their personal nap spot.

Just sayin'.

Photo[s] of the Week: Emergency Exits

Okay, I'm just gonna put this out there:

I was touring the interwebz and found this Emergency Exit map and I was all flummoxed. 

I mean, if I was trapped inside this building ... and how I ever got in there in the first place is beyond me ... I'd probably die because I'd have no idea how to get out.

Just sayin'.

This building, on the other, I know inside and out ....

Again ... just sayin'.

This one? I wouldn't know how to get in or out ... That one? I somehow feel like I've been here before.

Photo of the Week

During the holidays, a Gay Couple came home to find a rather nasty slur scratched into their door, beneath their shimmering, glittering wreath, but instead of fighting hate with hate, they decided it might be best to teach the little bastards vandals a lesson into how to make their hate scrawls a little prettier.

I love it!

Photo of the Week: Madonna

Just in time for the release of some new music, Madonna has also come out with a new face. I'm getting Madonna, with a sprinkling of Lauren Bacall, a hint of Kathleen Turner, and a tinge of Faye Dunaway.

Here she is, through the, ahem, ages.

Just sayin'.

Photo of the Week

I am not much of a fan of Robert Pattinson,. best known, and only known to me, as the Glittering Vampire in the Twilight series. But some people do have a thing for him, even, I imagine with his new haircut.

Here he looks like he needs a good shampoo and a brush ...

... then he turned around to give us this ...

... which only made me think of this:

Photo Screenshot of the Week

We all know the GOP is a bunch of War Hawks, many of whom never served in the military. They have no problem sending our men and women off to war, even the ones based on lies, but they have real issues with taking care of our veterans when they return home.

And one such veteran isn't having it ...

Veteran Jim Adams summed up his feelings brilliantly about these fake “patriots” that wrap themselves in the American flag while doing everything imaginable to impoverish our soldiers.

Bravo, sir, Bravo!

source

Photo of the Week,

Gosh, I love an old Jag convertible. 

I'd start speaking in a clipped English accent; I'd act like some sort of British super-spy. I'd ... I'd ... hang it on the wall of my house and use it as a bookcase?

Sheesh, you'd have to have a boat-load of cash to turn a full-sized Jaguar into wall art. 

And it begs the question, how do I get it off the wall and out of the house when I want to go for a spin?