Bobservations

Since Carlos’ eyesight has gotten worse I have taken over the banking and paying bills and such. The other morning I was going to drop him off at court for a translation and then head to the cabinet make and give them a downpayment for our new kitchen and said to Carlos:

“I transferred $10,000 from savings t checking this morning—”

“TEN THOUSAND!!! For what?”

“For what? The first payment for the new cabinets, or maybe for my trip to the Bahamas—”

“You’re going to the Bahamas?”

See what I deal with?

This Tuxedo Says is from April 2021:

 I mean, come on. Tuxedo can’t even vote or fire a gun and he understands this nonsense. Sheesh!

Robert Redford passed away this week at 89; a great actor, filmmaker and humanitarian, he’s like the last movie star … Barefoot in the Park … Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid … The Sting … All the President’s Men … The Candidate … The Way We Were …. Ordinary People .. The Natural … The Milagros Beanfield War … Quiz Show … and so many more, including producing a great TV show, Dark Winds. His movies often helped explain America to Americans and off screen he worked tirelessly for environmental causes and fostered the Sundance-centered independent film movement.

And he was hot, too.

I have been tasked with painting the new ceiling in the sunroom and started the project last Friday. On Saturday I was going to finish the primer coat and then start on the new color but I decided to change the sheets on the bed first. I grabbed a sheet, walked around the bed and then jammed my pinky toe against a bedpost and, yes, I now have a broken toe … black-and-blue and painful AF.

Sunday morning as I limped into the kitchen Carlos said:

“You gonna paint the ceiling today or should I have Alex come by and do it?”

Not a word about the toe, just the paint, and would I like to climb up a ladder and paint the top of the peak which is about 14 feet up.

He’s lucky I didn’t break his toe.

According to the GOP who are painting themselves as the poster asshats for civil discourse the Democrats must stop calling Republicans fascists but Republicans can still call Democrats communists, socialists, the enemy within, radical left Marxists …

Make it make sense. Never mind, it's the GOP, and they don't make sense.

Jennifer Lopez popped on a blond wig and, in her continuing thirst for attention, spewed photos of herself all over social media. Sadly, many of the people who saw the photos on her Instagram page were wondering why she was posting photos of Gwen Stefani.

Oh, Jell-O—as Carlos calls her—you are so high maintenance and thirty for social media clicks that you actually had someone hold the camera for the “selfies” you posted.

PS That’s the real G-Stef down there and not Jell-O.

The other day President Cankles said, and rightly so, that “smart people” don’t like him.

Crazy, but true and even better is the fact that he keeps insulting his base as being stupid and it’s completely lost on them.

As I was at the cabinet-makers on Monday paying the down payment, I sat and chatted with a couple of the women who worked in the front office and I am not exactly sure of all that I said, but both women have invited me back every Monday morning for another comedy performance so their week can start off fun.

Andreas Giesen is an actor and dancer and social media influencer and if that isn’t enough he wants to know: Would You Hit It?

I Didn't Say It ...

Andy Cohen, Bravo TV bigwig, on the gossip that he’s engaged to NHL star and LGBT ally Sean Avery.

"Dude, Sean Avery is straight. Do you understand that? So a gay guy and a straight guy should be able to be friends without you asking me if we're engaged, right? Very, very straight. Listen, I'd be happy if Sean and I were bangin ... but it's not [happening]."

I’d be happy to be banging Sean.

Just sayin’.

Joe Biden, on LGBT rights and his marriage equality stance:

“A lot of people criticized me for speaking out, not long ago, about gay marriage. I could not remain silent any more. It's time we stopped talking. It’s the civil rights of our day. It’s the issue of our day … That’s why the president eliminated DOMA, Don't Ask, Dont' Tell. That's why he came out against this notion that marriage can somehow be recognized in one state and denied in another. And when it comes to the rights of — you know the president's phrase, and I'll paraphrase this slightly — that everybody in America should have the dignity to choose who they love and marry who they choose. He believes that but not just because it's a human right because it's about treating everyone with dignity."

Word.

And once again, thanks Joe.

John Nienstedt, Minneapolis Archbishop, on the Devil and The Gays:

"Today, many evil forces have set their sights on the dissolution of marriage and the debasing of family life. Sodomy, Sodomy, abortion, contraception, pornography, the redefinition of marriage, and the denial of objective truth are just some of the forces threatening the stability of our civilization. The source of these machinations is none other than the Father of Lies. Satan knows all too well the value that the family contributes to the fabric of a good solid society, as well as the future of God's work on earth."

Funny, he doesn't blame Satan for Catholic priests f**king little boys and girls.

Elton John, on Lady Gaga, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus and Michael Jackson:

 “I’d like to be able to talk to [Lady Gaga] right now, but I can’t get through to her. And there are times when you have to listen. When your persona begins to take over your music and becomes more important, you enter a dangerous place. Once you have people around you who don’t question you, you’re in a dangerous place.

…

“[Lindsay Lohan] was someone with a successful career and her parents completely f—ed her up. The dad was in jail and the mum was doing coke with her. Great!” 

…

I see a meltdown waiting to happen … And [Miley’s] so young! But she’s got two records in the top 20, so who is going to stop her?

…

“I was in my dressing room in Las Vegas when they announced that Michael Jackson was playing 50 dates at the O2. I turned to my agent and said: ‘He won’t do a single one of those.’ I could tell you he was going to die. He’d been doing drugs for so long, he’d been a mess for so long – and I’ve known Michael since he was 12 or 13 – that it was never going to happen. Everyone was saying it was going to be great and I was saying: ‘Hello? Are you looking at the real thing here?’” 

Elton does love to dish; I’ll give him that. And he’s right about Gaga; it’s less important what she sings and more important what she wears. As for Lohan, maybe—if rumors are true—she’s keeping her distance from her parents and that would be good. Miley? She’s making record companies a lot of money so they’ll continue to let her do and say and wear, or not wear, whatever she wants as long as the cash registers ring. As for Michael, I think we all knew that concert tour would never happen, even if we didn’t know it was because he was going to die.

Gwyneth Paltrow, on turning 41 and how, because her husband Chris Martin threw her so many parties last year, she’ll celebrate this year:

"This year it's Chick-fil-A. That's it."

Wow. 

Paltrow, who portrays herself as some sort of Vegan Goddess, and inspirer of regular people, will eat Chick-fil-A?

No wonder The Gays are done with her.

Tim Gunn, on never coming out to his parents:

"It was a very different time. It was a very different era. And I had a lot of fears about being gay, about what that actually meant. And I had already presented my family with a lot of disappointments and I didn't feel that I wanted to present them with yet this. It's very funny, though. My mother died two years ago. And I think she eventually figured out my sexuality, but we never talked about it. And my father was gone long before. We never once talked about it.”

It certainly was a different time, and Gunn’s parents were from a time before that.

Still, I feel sad he couldn’t be his whole self to his parents.

Robert Redford, coming out for marriage equality at an event in Utah:

"I'm here for the same reason you are – equal rights for all. Like you, I believe there's no place in our world for discrimination. None. I think it is un-American. If we change discriminatory laws in Utah, it sets a benchmark for people in other states; it allows people to see what can be done."

The march goes on … and Redford has stepped up.

John Hawkins, former South Carolina State Senator who led the charge in our state to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriage, on now coming out for marriage equality:
"I was wrong about pursing the marriage amendment. I wish I hadn't been so strident against it....I'm really hoping that people are going to walk away from this with a little bit of healing...It would be great if everyone who stood against us in the Senate said, 'We were wrong; In fact, you really do deserve equal rights.'"

While it would have been nice to have him change his stance while still a senator, it's refreshing to see yet another politician realize that now it is the for full marriage equality.

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Democratic congressman from Flroida, on teh GOP and the Tea party: 
"The civil war that has been raging within the Republican Party is over. And now that the House has voted to shut down the government unless Obamacare is defunded, it's official: The Tea Party has won — the far right is calling the shots."

Say goodbye to any form of bipartisanship when it comes to the 'baggers. The party that doesn't listen is running the show over there.

I Didn't Say It......

Kobe Bryant, on his 'fucking fag' slur:

"Even though I didn't mean it that way, I've since learned what that word still means to a lot of people. I went on-line myself and I did my own research and I saw and I read about kids who were committing suicide because of being teased for who they are. I don't play that. I used to beat up a lot of kids even in high school who used to tease my friends because they were gay, or because they were black, or because they were Jewish, or because they were yellow, or because they were whatever. For people who don't think my apology is sincere, they don't know me. This isn't over for me. I really plan to do more. What I said was ignorant and I really didn't realize what I was saying. Now that I do and realize how it affects people I really plan to do more and to help with the awareness."

Wow, so you had gay friends in school and beat up people who called them gay and then you grew up and called someone a fag and, well, that's just how it is, and you're being sincere when you apologize?
Keep talking, Kobe, and keep digging yourself in deeper. But if you want this to end, try saying, "I'm sorry I said something reprehensible. I'm sorry I didn't think before I spoke. I'm sorry that when someone upsets me the first thing I think of is to call them a 'fag'"
Failing that, just say,"I'm sorry"and don't do it again. Ever.


Former NBA Player, and out gay man, John Amaechi on Kobe Bryant's anti-gay slur:

"I suppose that's the typical, "I apologize if you're offended" type of comment. I doubt very much when he said that that he thought Bennie was a pile of sticks. There's only one contemporary meaning for that. The problem we have now is because of the way we don't address homophobia, the ultimate insult to a man is to tell them either they're like a woman or worse, that they're gay. We have to take it as unacceptable as a white person screaming the N-word at a black person. … I can tell you that I've been called a f——- fairly routinely, and yet people seem to hold off on calling me the N-word. We've got to mirror that progress.

I'm not interested in seeing Kobe punished. What I'm interested in is if you're really sorry, that this is a one-off mistake for you, use the power you have to make a difference. That means a proper apology and doing something with his brand. Good Lord, he's got the power with one executive decision to get people moving and do something good here. Do something good.

I've said this before and I know people think it's hyperbole, but especially in America, people look at sports stars like their gods. I keep saying every time, "If sports stars are gods it's time we see a miracle every once in a while." This is an opportunity for that....what I would want is to encourage Kobe to use the power he has to really make an apology that means something. Tell black men, men in general in America, that resorting to that sort of language is the lowest of the low and is unacceptable. And it doesn't make you any more of a man. That's really the answer. Saying you didn't mean it is not the answer."

I can't add to this.
Amaechi said it all, and much better than I could.


Marilyn Davenport, Tea Party activist and Orange County GOP committee member, on being busted for emailing an offensive "joke" with the caption: "Now you know why there's no birth certificate"--sidenote: you will not see that offensive picture on this blog:

"Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it. You're not going to make a big deal about this are you? It's just an Internet joke."

Oh, I get it, Marilyn.
You have black friends so you can't be racist.
Like Kobe has gay friends but still says, 'fag'?
With friends like you the Black Community doesn't need enemies.
Racism isn't funny.
Stupidity isn't an excuse.
You are a moron.

Barney Frank, on Obama's stance on DOMA:

"There are lawsuits against it that I think will win anyway, because the federal government can’t discriminate. Beyond that I don’t see anything about gay marriage happening on a federal level. More and more states will go that way, though. When they do, people will see, as with health care and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” that there are no negative consequences. Places that have gay marriage have had none of the negative consequences that people warned us about. Zero. The divorce rate hasn’t gone up. There have been no calamities. Marriage hasn’t lost its meaning. Same-sex marriage as a divisive issue is losing its steam. Overall I think antigay prejudice is on its way out."

I'm not sure anti-gay prejudice will ever be all the way out.
Look at the racial prejudice many still feel toward the Black community, or even the Muslim community.
But I do see change, and I do see hope, and I do see more and more people understanding that my marriage, or any gay marriage, will have zero effect on their marriage.


Reese Witherspoon, on her 'disgusting'love scenes with Robert Pattinson:

"Rob possibly had the most hideous horrible cold of any co-star I've ever had to do a love scene with ever in my entire life ... He was literally snorting and snotting through every second of it -- and it was not appealing. I'm talking green, infectious, disgusting -- I'm not kidding! ... I'm going to say it's a little bit of a downer. I was a little disappointed. It wasn't sexy."

Quelle surprise.
Pattinson always looks, to me anyway, like an unwashed dog. so I can't imagine a love scene with him being sexy at all.


Robert Redford, on Sarah Palin's insinuation that higher education is elitist:

"Well....the country is made up of three categories. Traditionalists, cultural creative people and the moderns. The moderns are the hi-tech Silicon Valley people. The traditionalists on the lower end of it are the people who don't want change, they're afraid of change therefore they have anger. The fear card is a very big powerful card and when you have people afraid of change; they'll do anything to prevent it. They're doing it because they're limited, frightened of people who are not as limited. I think Sarah Palin, part of her strength is how limited she is."

Her strength is that a lot of limiuted, fearful people, think she has a clue as to what she's talking about, when clearly, she's an idiot.


Andrew Sullivan, on the long-awaited granting of his green card:

"I do not know right now what to do or say. Except to express my love and gratitude for my family and friends and husband who lived through this with me; and to those who helped lift the HIV ban; and to my lawyer who was simply magnificent; and to those who did what they could - and they know who they are - to keep this show on the road. "But I do know this. America remains the great dream, the great promise. For all its dysfunction, it remains an ideal, a place where the restlessness of the human mind and soul comes to rest in a place it constantly reinvents and forever re-imagines. I know this in my bones, perhaps more than many who take this amazing mess of a country for granted. But for the first time in my life, I do not feel somewhere in my psyche that I am displaced, unwelcome, an impostor."

Now, if we can allow gay couples, binatinal gay couples, to be treated as equally as straight binational couples, we will be headed in the right direction.

Sarah Palin, on how the media is treating Donald Trump unfairly:

"They are hammering him about the one issue that he has brought up and not been shy about and that's the birth certificate. He's merely answering reporter's questions about his view on the birth certificate and then reporters turn that around and saying that's all he's got! He's only running on a birth certificate issue when that's not the case...Donald Trump is running on the issue, bottom line, that Obama is so far over his head."

Um, Obama is in over his head?
How so, Grizzly Bore? I mean, do you have any solid evidence, or is the only thing you're grasping at Donald Trump's weave? If Trump had anything else to offer, then you know he'd be talking about that.
He's one-note, you're less than that. Seriously, when you pander to someone who is pandering to morons, what does that say about you?

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, on LGBT rights:

"I'm proud to be with you, to stand with you and pledge we will continue to work to fulfill the aspirations of Minnesotans and Americans who want the same rights, freedoms, opportunity, respect, dignity and legal protections and legal opportunities as every other one of their fellow citizens which the founding principal of this country."

Well, this must surely count as big news coming from the governor of Minesota, home of Tom Emmer and Target.
Hopefully the people of the state will follow and cheer their governor, rather than travel into homophobia and bigotry with Emmer and Target.

Ted Nugent, has-been rock star, and right-wing-nut, on Kobe's slur:

"If the NBA had any true gay convictions, the NBA should host a Homosexual Night. During halftime, the homosexuals could come down on the court, hold hands and prance around the court to music by the Village People. The NBA could then give each homosexual a pink basketball as a symbol of solidarity. Like other professional athletes, numerous NBA players have done all kinds of things on and off the court that do not cast a positive light on themselves or the NBA, but they have not been fined $100,000 by the league. Homosexuals are a protected class in America. If you think what happened to Mr. Bryant was a travesty, just wait until you see what homosexuals in the military do when they claim they have been mistreated because of their sexual orientation."

Wow, I'm a protected class in America?
I guess no one told me. Or America.
See, I, um, can't get married, save for a few states. In many places I can be fired, denied housing, unable to adopt a child, simply for who I am. I can get beaten just by walking down the street because of who I am.
And it's okay to call me names on TV. It's okay to make fun of me for sport. It's okay to use a derogatory term about me as an insult, because I'm protected.
What I need is protection from asshats like Nugent.

Chely Wright, on being snubbed by country music since she came out--except for people like Faith Hill and Brad Paisley:

"My first performance on the Grand Ole Opry was in 1989, and I was kind of an Opry darling. I'd be called to perform at least every 10 weeks, until my coming out. Since then, I've not heard a peep."

I'm sure the good ole folks at the Opry have their own version of the story, of why Chely Wright has not been asked to perform there in well over a year.
But, when she was asked to perfrom about five or six times a year, for about twenty years, and then is met with silence shortly after she said she was a lesbain, well.....
Shame on the Grand Ole Opry.