JamesSavik

I'll take celeberties who are annoying for a thousand Karl. What is all if them? What is more important for a celebrity than being OUT is how they behave once they are OUT. If they act like an oversexed alleycat in heat like George Michael , I'd rather they stay IN.

Can anyone guess why I have a great affection for Emmitt Honeycutt? Brian Kenny is my favorite character for all sorts of reasons. He has a mean, self absorbed streak but it is offset by a vulerability that he shows very rarely and usually only where Justin or Mikie are involved. Kinny-isms: (the wisedom of Brian Kenny) There are only two kinds of str8 people: the ones that hate you to your face and the ones that hate you behind your back. Stupid breeders. So busy with their broods, they just can't keep up with homo averice... I'm the most fabulous fag in Pittsburg. That is, if it's possible to be fabulous in Pittsburg. Brian is the love child of James Dean and Ayn Rand... What is it with Brian Kinney?" "He doesn't give a shit"

Dom- I'm so glad you are back! For a while there, I was afraid that Vic and some of your other more rabid fans were going to put your picture on milk cartons! James

Happy B-day Colin! A big hug to you and your B-friend!

Once I suffered through 30 chapters to see a couple finally come together only for one of them to join the military and leave. I HATED IT. Since openly gay men can't join the [uS] military, I have to wonder why a gay would even want to join. Guy goes away to honor and glory and leaves a character that I liked at home. Were I the guy who was left to defend the homophobic nation, I can imagine writing a particularly venomous Dear John letter saying something to the effect of if the breeders want to kill each other off and its their damned club, let them have at it. We should have enough good sense to stay out of it. There was nothing wrong with the story, I just hated that turn of events. I must confess that I held a grudge against the character and hoped that he was run over by a tank or something equally as gruesome for leaving that sweetie behind during the best years of their life. I can understand stand by your man but thats taking it to extremes. Once again- nothing was wrong with the story. It just stomped all over one of my hot buttons. It was in fact a good story up until that point, and probably afterwards, it just fell on the wrong ears.

You mean like William or Prince with a makeover?

Oh Clumber... more input from you is always welcome. [the Beast is a shameless Anglo-phile and always enjoys hearing from our cousins across the pond, oh and thanks for the tea] I don't even know how many posts I have but numbers aren't my objective. I suppose I could crank some out but won't until I have something to say.

Dom- Good to hear from you! Hope things are going well. Got a puppy picture? James

Where do I start... An author explaining his work has done a poor job. In this case, a few words might be in order. the New People is a series of interrelated poems that I wrote over a period of some years about that strange and largely unknown wasteland called the Suburbs and the people that live there. I wrote most of it in the early eighties and it sat in a notebook mostly undisturbed. Every now and then, I would take it out and tweak it. In 2004 I took it out and did a major overhaul on it and its posted at awesomedude's poetry page. Sterile silent desperation, alone in the crowd, living with the darkness within and without... questions: Who is the scary looking guy close to Suburban Daddy? The Unabomber. What is the picture of associated with Suburban Mommy? Two 10 mg or "blue" Valium Why are drugs and alcohol such a central theme? I'm an ex-addict. It's the world I lived in.

That's how old Jim Morrison and several other icons were when they checked out. For me, it's the 30's. I was making money and moving up. The 40s have been one bust after another. If the 50s aren't any better, I may just decide to say fuk it and die.

The New People Introduction Hello, My name is John Doe, All that I as is 10 digits, Filed away in a data bank, Ten cold digits tell my story, Alpha plus is my rank. Promise and wonder fill our brave new world, Of high technology and analysis, No new thoughts are born, They are all out worn, So we stop thinking and cease to exist. All we are is what we have seen, The latest propaganda to have been: A socialist insecurity number, A ticket to the big match, A big screen color TV. A good Sunday ritual, A membership in the party, In good standing with the moral majority. The Suburbians Welcome back my friends to a show that's sure to end, A festival of fools, A continuium of complacency. Fighting for the almighty buck, With cunning or just plain luck, Chasing checks to the bank, It's the money that decides your rank. What is it that we try so hard to buy, Something called the American Dream? Has become just another a twisted lie, We tell ourselves to still desperations silent scream? Whatever became of our brave new world? It's really something for the few, All of it's promise has withered and died, Killed by accountants in dark gray suites, Bureaucrats oh so civilized, That see the world through blinded eyes. Is this purgatory or just the suburbs? Where the edges are all smoothed over, A velvet limbo before the void: Within this rosy wallpaper exist the numbered people, Living in a world of pooly written television scripts, With plastic lovers and young republican minds. Rats Racing Fat cats, mall rats, old bats in expensive hats, Kids in cars, jocks in bars, wanna be movie stars, Dead heads, red heads, hot lovin newly weds, Old men, young skin, trying out a brand new sin, Cops in cars, sushi bars, hippies with old guitars, Chinese, Japanese, anime sluts on their knees, Avenue, Revenue, a river place with a view, Young punks, old drunks, opportunistic political skunks, Stylish hills, favorite pills, summer time standing still, Alley cats, spoiled brats, the morbidly fat, Network news, nightly blues, trailer trash in Italian shoes, Big wheels, fast deals, corporate licenses to steal, Bright lights, urban blight, sneaker inspired fire fights, Liquor stores, cheap whores, serial killers keeping score, Money madness, chemical gladness, suicidal sadness, Fast thrills, utility bills, toxic chemical spills, Crack dealers, soul stealers, carnival fire-eaters, Garbage men in Pierre Cardin dancing in the winter wind, Acid dreams, obscure scenes, cars passing in between, Rebellious fire, hot desire, the world at the end of a wire, Insane dreams, dying scenes, traffics timeless screams, Compassion, out of fashion, feelings in traction, Depression, recession, endless mindnumbing concessions, Out of breath, wish for death, lose yourself in regret No time to catch your wind, before it starts all over again. True or false, fact or fiction, insane contradictions, Run the race, keep the pace or fall flat upon your face, Frantic action, dissatisfaction, reflection and reaction, Lose to win and win to lose, No one gets to choose. A Day in Suburbia The plant down the street had an accident with nuclear fission, Something is wrong with the Pinto's transmission, There's a documentry on the tube about Viet-nam, There's a letter in the mail from Billy Graham. I don't care for spiritual awakening, It's just another drug that people are taking, That makes the load easier to bear, So they mow their lawns and cut their hair. There is a big meeting of the P.T.A. They want to ban books that make kids gay, They gather at the river to burn their intellect, So that dangerous ideas won't infect. What is it so dangerous to learn, That they would rather see burn? Could it be that people might see, That it is possible to think and be free? Suburbian Daddy Jews, junkies, mental flunkies, Fags, and all sorts of freaks, Every day they get more spunky, They even walk the streets. Geeks and freaks and fags and drags, Is this really modern progress? Not that I could give a damn, As long as I am a success. Every day I retreat to the

Happy B-day Lawrence... may the next year be MOST EXCELLENT!

I can't imagine that Billy. In my experience, it's just the opposite: gay guys are fairly indistinguishable from the str8 ones. :mellow: We gay folk have no obvious hormone deficiencies either. In fact, the bars are full of guys who would like to exchange hormones.

Smart Bombs Really, really dumb bomb "Death to America, death to Israel, you guys go first..." Suicide Bomber Barbie is fierce as long as she doesn't break a nail. The suicide bomber homing pidgeon was a horrible idea... Suicide bomber cat hates you... Yassar's Big Adventure

Everyones experience is unique and colored by their surroundings, culture, where they live and so on. As a gay male of a certian age from the rural south, I'd have to say that being gay to me means discrimination, punishment, 2nd or 3rd class citizenship, fearing the police as much as criminals, listening to the same f_ing idiots babbel about the healing power of jebus and how he loves everybody but dem faggits. It means that it's hard to get a job regardless of your qualifications. It means having beer bottles thrown at you when you cut the grass. It means having cops give you sh*t just because they can. It means dreaming of a better place but knowing where to look or how to get there. It means seeing the swishy "house faggots" happily cut hair and decorate interiors knowing that as a masculine homosexual, you'll never really be accepted in a typically masculine field. It means painful feelings of inferiority and despair, occassional bouts of depression and desperation and a deep sullen anger that roils just under the surface and won't go away. It means therepy if you can afford it or booze if you can't. It means hangup calls at 3am from drunken idiots that you didn't want to f*ck anyway. It means forgetting a lot, pretending and tolerating more than you should have to. It means after watching you dreams sail away over and over, you look at str8 people and hate them as much as they hate you.

What makes a good Systems Administrator? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A deep streak of Masochism, very little life and the ability to wake up nice and cheery at 2am to a panicked phone call from an idiot user who has just done something stupid that is going to cost you two weeks work. At least a BS in Computer Science. With all the BS in this game, you'll need at least that much. Experience. Of course you can't get a job until you've got experience so the mere existence of systems administrators is a logical impossibility since the first one has never been hired. The patience of Job (for eventually you will wish to curse God and die). A good sense of humor - Lest the job should drive you into the SERIAL KILLER business. Good Communications Skills - So that you can tell a user tactfully and diplomatically that if he (or she) ever does anything as stupid as that again, that you are personally going to choke the living shit out of them. Good Vendor Interaction Skills - So that you can bribe your service vendors technicians so that they will actually do/perform services as advertised, on time. Good Networking Skills - So that you actually know that your multi-million dollar network is down and the users aren't just complaining because they haven't got the skills, training or a clue as to how to USE it. Salesmanship - So that you can get management to actually support your installation with needed capital for necessary training, software, hardware and diagnostic tools rather than tell you : THAT IS WHAT WE PAY YOU TO DO. A Severe Mental Disorder - So that you do not immediately recognize that the position of Systems Administrator is roughly equilvalent to wearing a "KICK ME, I'm Stupid" T-Shirt. A Secondary Job Skill - So that when you eventually BURN OUT, you won't starve. You want extra pickle on that? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As an experienced Systems Administrator, I consider these eleven attributes to essential to a competent SA. But since SA's are only a theoretical possibility (see Above), I myself can not possibly exist, nor can this news group, its corresponding members nor the Internet itself. So this entire discussion is a delusion -a logical paradox which can only exist in the Twilight Zone. NURSE! GET MY MEDICATION.... I'm having another one of those DAMNED FITS..

Remember, remember the fifth of November, The gunpowder, treason and plot, I know of no reason Why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. People shouldn't fear their Goverenments. Goverenments should fear their people. We are oft to blame in this, 'Tis too much proved - that with devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself. I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none. Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof. A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy. __________________________________________________________________ Least you think we are immune, secure from tyranny's doom, Read this law that was just made, tell me that you are not afraid.... __________________________________________________________________ The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. It was passed with 404 votes in favor. A close reading within an historical context

Like a great comet, the best poets blaze gloriously only for a short time and then they are gone. Some say that it is because this world is not really their home. Others say that this world is toxic to such spirits. I don't know. I am simply grateful for the light that they bring while they are here.

Don't get too excited. In science, to prove or discover something, especially something controversial, you have to build a mountain of data until the conclusion is incontrovertible. An analogy: this discovery is a cinder block. A comprehensive theory is the house we want to build.

There have been a number of studies similar to this with brothers, twins, etc. While the statistics suggest that there is some relationship, no causative mechanism has been suggested. Last year there was a very promising study which looked at the relationship between the incidence of homosexuality and birth order. The implication of the birth order study was that homosexuality was caused by a complex interaction between the mothers endocrine system, immune system and the fetus. In the case of the male fetus (XY compared to his mother's XX chromosome pairs) is foreign to the mother's body. The fist male child triggers the immunity response. Subsequent male children trigger an interaction between the immune system and endocrine system which causes a variation in enzymes and hormonal balance in the womb. It is this delicate balance of chemicals which is responsible for physical development of the fetus en utereo. Thus- the genetic factor in homosexuality appears to be how the endocrine system of the mother works.

Perhaps knowing the score before you weigh in would be beneficial. Here's a few facts about Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church you must have missed: The Westboro Baptist Church is composed almost entirely of Phelps blood family. Westboro & Phelps rose to prominace by protesting at the funerals of AIDS victims during the 80s & 90s. Phelps sr and many of his adult children are lawyers and sue EVERYONE for almost any reason. Phelps Sr has since been disbarred for unethical conduct and some of the other Phelps are not far from it. Westboro advises G&L youth to committ suicide rather than live in sin. Phelps is a creature of the media. The more exposure he gets, the more donations roll in from like minded people. Phelps only began protesting soldiers funerals because the media was no longer covering his gay-bashing activities. Westboro/Phelps was sued by a soldiers family for their words and actions at soldiers funeral. Gays had nothing to do the this court action. Between 1985-1998 Westboro protested at thousands of funerals of AIDS victims and Matthew Shephed's funeral- no one gave a shite. Westboro started picketing funerals of soldiers in 2003 and has done a couple of hundred. Since then scores of lawsuits and state laws prohibiting these protests have popped up. There are better places for gay & lesbian people to live. And there are much worse places. Of the "gay-friendly" countries of the world, most of them are very close to the United States politically, culturally and diplomatically.

Phelps is symbolic of the worst sort of bigotry that gay people face. In some ways he is useful to our cause: when reasonable people see the drooling, rabid faithful of Westboro and hear their lunatic ravings, it has to be similar to seeing a member of the Taliban telling women to wear their burkas, children to quit playing soccer and everyone to stop playing or listening to music. Like the Taliban, their message simply does not make sense in the modern world. The more it is disseminated, the more back-wards and foolish it appears. Hopefully, the Westboro crap will have a trickle down effect that causes moderates to react to Phelps anti-gay rhetoric the same way they would to the Ku Klux Klan's anti-minority and anti-Jewish rhetoric: no one really cares if you are a backwards, inbred religious fanatic-- and no one wants to hear about it either.

This was not a "fine". It was the award of a lawsuit. There's a big difference. A fine is imposed by an agency or office for a number of infractions and is usually levieded without Judaical review unless the fine is appealed. Court awarded damages are the results of litigation. The award can be appealed and the results can be no comment, a reduction in damages or a higher court may overturn the verdict or require a re-trial.

The more fundamentalist the society, the more deeply depraved are its "upstanding" citizens and the greater the lengths the state willl go to hush up their exploits.

There are several things that kindle my interest in a story. First, the author [based on my experiences with his work]. If one of a number of authors submits a story, I'll make a point to read it. If he's on my short list, I'll drop what I'm doing and read it. :king: Second, word of mouth or what others are saying about a story. Third, if I don't know the author or I haven't heard of the story, a catchy title will sometimes do the trick. Fourth, I prefur some genres to others. I WILL read a sci-fi story and will turn my nose up at a Western. I WILL read a mystery and pass on horror. On the other hand, there are several things that make me lose interest in a story. First, if the story is a spooge covered sex-fest, I'll probably move on... unless its a really, really good spooge covered sex-fest and those are few and far between. Second, if the story is cliche... Third, if the story is a mess with lots of spelling and gramatical errors, it'll wear me out and I'll give up. Fourth, if the story sucks, and lots of them do for tons of reasons, you can't expect people to read it. NOTE: Hey Comsie: maybe what makes a story suck? would be a good weekly topic.