Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Fear, Loathing and Godwin's Law in the United States

I want to begin my blog entry with this clip from Chris Matthews' show Hardball this evening.

I'm not the greatest fan of Mr. Matthews. He's the kind of guy that is too in love with the game of politics most of the time. He tends to miss a lot of things, but I do admire his tenacity and his drive...and the very enthusiasm that annoys me, also amuses me. But he's right on the money in this final comment from tonight's show. So let's start here before I talk about the state where I was born, Arizona.


OK, first point made. I agree. Can we drop this shit already? Godwin's Law covered...now to Fear and Loathing.

I was born in Tucson, Arizona, Pima County nearly 50 years ago. We left when I was just a year old and I've only been back twice since.

I love Arizona. It is breathtakingly beautiful country. Tucson in particular to me because of the Santa Catalina mountains that surround it and the unbelievable cast of light the sun makes when shining through the blue sky and through the wind carved mountains.

My grandmother and grandfather moved there in the late 40s from Waterloo, Iowa for my father's severe asthma. Basically, Arizona saved his life.

My mother's parents moved to Tucson in 1952 from Arcadia, in the Los Angeles area because of my grandfather's job moving them. A new plant apparently for Hughes.

The Santa Catalinas as seen from the University of Arizona in Tucson, my dad's Alma Mater.

Mount Lemmon, where my dad apparently spent many a college night with pals and a case of Coors. In the winter you can ski here and then drive over to Tucson at the bottom where it's 80 degrees.
Arizona was the place to be, the place to go. Jobs were growing, housing was booming. America's fixation with the myth of Cowboys and Indians was building to fever pitch.

Decades later, after we moved to New York City in the early 60s, Arizona began to fall on hard times. Terrible employment, decaying industry as like every where else, jobs moved out of the country. Sure there was the tourist industry and there's a fuck ton of wonderfulness to tour to in Arizona (notice that I haven't even brought up the Grand Canyon), but tourist dollars are never enough.

As I understand it things are starting to pick up a little in Arizona as they are slowly, oh so slowly picking up in the rest of the country. It's still got a ways to go...

So...why has the Arizona legislature created a law that has not only alienated it from so much of the rest of the country, just about the entire Latino population OF that country and threatened it's economy with boycotts?

Fear....and loathing.

Remember the USA Patriot Act? Same thing. U.S. gets attacked. White House and Congress need to look like they are doing SOMEthing...but they have no idea what, so they go with the easy instead of the smart. They are also operating from absolute fear. Fear of attack, fear of losing elections, fear for life of family and nation. Fuck with civil liberties, the Constitution and what we stand for in order to give the illusion that we have taken a major step to solve the problem. Then use the powers given by said act to listen to soldiers having phone sex with their partners overseas.

Now, the AZ legislature follows suit. Only they go even further. Arizona feels attacked. And not entirely without justification. Just over the border is Mexico, a country so thoroughly fucked up that to call it a rogue nation might be a compliment. The government there is dysfunctional. Drug cartels are running everything and so heavily out-arm Mexican law enforcement that they basically run the show....and they are now moving through to the U.S. to kidnap and ransom.

This is not a frequent occurrence, but once is enough.

Clearly we have a problem.

To be sure, illegal immigration has been an issue for a long long time and something needs to be done about it. But it's the Federal government's job as it is an international issue.

I'm not going to get into the inherent racism of the bill. Other's have written and blogged and broadcast about it. I can't add anything that is at all helpful except to say that I agree entirely. And so does the Sheriff of my home county.

Unfortunately he has a good bit of opposition among his constituents, but he's been sheriff of Pima County for 37 years, there must be more they like about him than dislike. But I'm encouraged to know that good men of courage and conviction are in the state to counter the cowardly acts of a legislature that can't function. For now.

There's a lot of bigotry in Arizona, so I expect that idiots who don't learn from history think nothing of having to show papers to police on a whim. MusingMadman (who is covering the outrage end of this argument very well, which is largely why I'm not going into it myself) already had a ridiculous argument with someone using the "If you're a law abiding citizen you have nothing to worry about" argument. I can't even begin to go into how fucking stupid that guy has to be.

Anyway, I happen to like what Lindsay Graham, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman (yeah, I'm liking something LIEberman did...scares me too) are pushing. It's a sensible law that solves the current issue and deals with the issue of those who have been here for a long time with humanity and logic.

Folks against "amnesty" don't like it...but that's idealogical claptrap. This is reality, Greg. (Points if you get the reference) There's just no way to deal with those any other way.

Congress has to act. It hasn't done so for many Administrations both Democratic and Republican. It's time to deal.

And then we have to deal with Mexico. There's a reason there's fence jumping. Mexican life sucks and there are American businesses perfectly willing to hire illegals because they are cheap and easy to control with fear.

We have to take out these drug cartels. We have to examine our own drug laws. Let's face it, the war on drugs isn't working from a law enforcement standpoint and it can't work unless those fuckers are wiped the fuck out. (By the way, guess where the Al Qaeda gets it's money). We have to find a way to help Mexico get it's infrastructure and everything else in gear so that Mexicans are happy in Mexico.

Remember, Canadians aren't jumping the fence to take advantage of our fabulous healthcare system. Maybe we can find a way to get Mexico working. What that is I really don't know. But there are plenty of good minds out there. Let's get to it.

As to Arizona, I have no doubt that this law will be found unconstitutional and the state will bow to economic pressure (as it did when it was a hold out for Martin Luther King Day). But Texas is already talking about similar laws. There's a trend here...the only way to stop the trend is to actually solve the issue. But too, changing demographics will reverse this trend.

On the other hand...I don't have an issue with Mexican drug cartels taking Texas out. Maybe we can let them secede.

Bottom line, I hate that Arizona has brought this nonsense on itself. I want others to love this state as I do. To appreciate it's beauty and potential. That can't happen while idiots, cowards and bigots are running things.

Monday, April 26, 2010

A musical interlude of sorts

While I am working on a cogent blog entry on Arizona's latest misstep, I want to post this song for your listening and soulful pleasure.

I stumbled on this song while watching an episode of the TV show Castle, from last season. I think it really covers so much about what's at the core of human behavior and suffering.

Envy and fear are at the core of our anger most of the time, the core of action and inaction.

I have striven for years to free myself of these particular chains, with a modicum of success. Still working on it.

So I am sharing with you, my tens of readers...Enjoy.

Oh..and if you are as outraged as Leslee, I and many others are...join A Million strong against praying for the President's death on Facebook.

And now;

Tomorrow I'll post about my home state of Arizona, what's wrong and what's right.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Why David Gregory Should Be On The Unemployment Line

The pathetic state of the press in this country has come down to this;

Outsourcing.

That's right. News organizations, unable to do their own work have gotten so bad at it that Sunday news shows have actually been offered the service of Fact Checking.

Now, let's set aside for a second the fact that really, when a politician is interviewed by the press that said press is informed enough on the questions they will be asking that they will not only be able to catch the politician on a half truth or out and out lie, but be able to keep that politician on their toes. They will be doing their job.

When a politician or any figure going to an interview with the press is not nervous, is not scared is not double checking their facts before going on, the press isn't doing their job.

I submit that when it comes to Meet The Press, politicians, especially those on the Right are likely enjoying a cocktail before their interview.

I've written before about how Dick Cheney got hours and hours of fun filled interviews with Tim Russert in which he was not challenged at all in the build up to war in Iraq. Russert, sadly, only woke up to the bullshit well after it was too late. I remember when Hillary Clinton was running for NY Senate and Russert moderated the debates between her and then opponent Rick Lazio. Russert pounded Clinton on the Lewinsky "issue" and pretty much gave Lazio a pass on everything. I'm told Russert was a liberal. Perhaps he was overcompensating, but I digress.

I may be a liberal but I want every politician to be fact checked, not just the Right. But mostly what I see is pretty much the opposite. The grilling is aimed at Democrats and the Left and Republicans pretty much get to say whatever the fuck they want. And twerps like Breitbart and the Fox Propaganda Machine whine about a Liberal bias in the press that I have yet to see outside of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann.

And then there's David Gregory...This guy...dancing while Karl Rove is serenaded by a tuxedoed white rap artist who has probably never gotten closer to the inner city than his cleaning lady. Stuff like this makes me think of Max Von Sydow's line in "Hannah and Her Sisters"; If Jesus were alive today, he'd never stop throwing up.
The picture is fuzzy, but that's Gregory behind the rapper, thumbs up, bottom lip bitten.

OK...back to my original point (in my own roundabout way). I used to be addicted to the Sunday morning news shows. Face The Nation, This Week (way back with David Brinkley, then of George Stephanopolos, now Jake Tapper and eventually Christiane Amenpour) and of course Meet The Press, the longest running TV show in history, let alone the longest running news show.

When I started watching these shows, it was anchored by a reporter named Garrick Utley a very serious news man with pretty decent credentials. When I was a kid, I remember this show being an even more challenging (if boring to a child) place. The subject, be they politician, activist, celebrity etc, faced a panel of about 4 or 5 journalists. Those journalists ranged in the political spectrum from right to left and asked whatever question they saw fit.

I guess to save money, NBC began to pair it down...then the started a round table set so that every one was sitting at the same table all chummy and inside club like.

Utley retired and he was replaced by Tim Russert, an amiable man with a zealous love of The Buffalo Bills and a background in politics but not much background in journalism so far as I can tell. This only reinforced the "insider" game. He was chummy and palsy with politicians because, well, there were his chums and pals. And it became Meet The Press with Tim Russert, or essentially The Tim Russert Show. And so the chumminess increased.

Oh sure, he'd get a gotcha in every now and then but mostly he would be the only questioner and his questions, increasingly, became unimportant (i.e. fixating on Monica Lewinsky as opposed to say...healthcare).

Now, lest I be attacked for speaking ill of the dead, as I said earlier when he passed, Russert seems to have been a genuinely nice guy and was clearly loved. But the quality and standards of Meet The Press were reduced under his reign. That's just the way it is. And his untimely death resulted in it getting even worse.

David Gregory strikes me as the kind of guy who reads a little on a subject, makes a list of 5 questions to ask his subject and never veers off course...which of course allows his subject to get away with utter nonsense.

Months ago when he had Dick Armey and Rachel Maddow on the show, he let Rachel do his job for him by exposing Armey's corporate funding for the so called grass roots movement known as the tea party. Gregory sat there, his thumbs up his ass, while Rachel actually earned her paycheck.

That was the last Meet The Press I watched. I stopped watching This Week when it became clear that I was expected to take Michelle Malkin and Elizabeth Cheney seriously.

But now Politifact has stepped in and some have responded well. This Week has decided to use it. ABC is clearly looking to upgrade it's News Division with the hire of Christiane Amenpour and now they've gone further by perhaps deciding to hold facts up as an important part of political discourse.

David Gregory however, doesn't think it's his job and declined. Furthermore he said his audience could do it for themselves. Here Jay Rosen blogs with quotes from Gregory.

I don't find this surprising. The facts would not be helpful to Gregory, whom I suspect has an agenda. He's not a journalist. He's not even trying. He should be unemployed.

Read Joe Gandelman's excellent blog on the subject here.

If you're as annoyed as I am, look up this Facebook page as well and "Like" it.

The Press should not be an inside game. David Gregory wants to keep dancing with Karl Rove and he wants us to shut up about it. Maybe we can get him to shut up.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Ash Kicking Our Ass

In late August of 1883 the volcano at Krakatau (many know it as Krakatoa, but it's pronounced "ow" not "ohah") erupted. The eruption was so fierce and so powerful that the skies in London were red for days from ash in the upper atmosphere. The volcano itself essentially melted into the sea. It has since grown back.
Telegraph gave the news of the eruption but it was slow reaching. There was some panic, some fear in the areas that saw only a red sky. Understandable.


Last week a volcano erupted (called Eyjafjallajokull and no I am not going to try and pronounce it) in Iceland (in case you've been hiding under volcanic rock for the last 10 days) and a different form of chaos has ensued. Flights delayed and canceled because the ash is so thick and so strong that it is blocking the ability for jets to fly safely. Military operations are slowed or cancelled for the same reason.

Looking at these photos it is not hard to imagine a less educated and more primitive society predicting the end of the world, apocalypse, etc. In the last few months there have been earthquakes and tsunamis all over the place. I have to admit, even I sit here thinking what the fuck is going on.






(I took these pictures from the following site http://www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli/perm/iceland/eyafallajokull_20100416-en.html but that site seems to be blocked now. A shame. It's possible I might get in trouble for having them?)

It's very easy to start thinking of God's vengeance, as Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson and that ilk start spewing. Even in this day and age. The weak and small minded use it to shore up their superstitions, their power-structures.



Unless you're one of those geniuses that believes the earth is 6,000 years old and that man used Tyrannosaurus Rex to pull his plow etc, we know that the earth is astoundingly old and we know that our time as human beings on this earth is a relatively tiny amount.

As much as I argue with creationists and anti global warming deniers on the right, I also argue with "tree huggers" on the left. Not because I'm not a tree hugger (because I am), but because I've always had a problem with the "Save The Earth" argument.

The Earth, my friends and loved ones, will be just fine. It's us that needs the saving. We're the ones that will be wiped out when weather makes things inhabitable. We're the ones that will die of radiation poisoning if some idiot decides to follow suit on blowing up a nuclear bomb.

The Earth, she will adapt. The forms may change, may mutate, but they will push through.

When you walk down a paved street and there's a crack in the pavement, in a short amount of time, there's a weed or a tree popping up. Here in New York, when a building gets torn down and an empty lot is left...a lot of brick and dirt and mortar, nothing more, mind you. The next year, that lot is filled with grass, small trees, etc. In two years you have a forest. The Earth always finds a way, Life always finds a way to exist. It doesn't need to be human.

I do have some belief in a higher power, but it isn't the God people go to church to worship and/or fear. I believe that there is power greater than humankind, and if the volcanic eruption and the ensuing disruption to our lives isn't a clear demonstration of that power, whatever it's source, I don't know what is. I call that power Life. I don't know if it's mystical or accidental or what. I'm just pretty sure it is what it is and it will do what it will do whether we like it or not.

We are nothing.

We are a brief and tiny species in a far far greater tapestry that may or may not be "God's plan", but is certainly something larger than we seem to be able to accept or comprehend.

We ain't all that. We need to get over ourselves. We need to take care of ourselves and each other. We need to stand (or sit) in awe of Life and be humble in our actions. Our advanced form of travel is brought low before a single action by the planet we inhabit.

God's not angry folks. The Earth is just doing what it does. Living. We're just lucky enough to be here while it does.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

My trip to Dixieland (sorry)

About a year or so after my ex and I separated I did what any frustrated, lonely divorced man in his early 30s would do, fly across the country to meet a woman I met online. Notice the word sane is nowhere in the previous sentence.

I was new to the internet and the chat world had completely hypnotized me. Also, I needed to get out of town and see a bunch of old friends.

So off I went for about ten days to Los Angeles. I'd arranged to stay with a friend who lived in Los Feliz while this internet woman and I planned out our time.

Those particular plans were dashed within 45 minutes of my arriving. But that's perhaps another blog.

I spent my 10 days hanging with friends and mostly catching up with my friend, Tess, at her apartment.

Tess was/is a costume designer and at the time was working in Names, a play that posed a hypothetical scene between Elia Kazan and other members of the Group Theater, the night before Kazan named names at the HUAC. The role of Stella Adler was played by Dixie Carter.

The production had developed a tradition Tess told me. On weekends, between matinee and evening performance, the cast and crew of the show was invited to Dixie and Hal's "house" for dinner. Tess said "Come to the matinee, you'll be invited, trust me".

Now I wasn't going to say no, but I felt sheepish about the idea of getting a free lunch at someone's house whom I didn't even know. Seemed a bit classless to me, but Tess told me not to worry about it.

I was not a big Dixie fan. Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike her, but I only knew her from Designing Women, a sitcom I liked but only watched now and then. I had been a big fan of her husband, Hal Holbrook for many years.

Anyway, I saw the show and became a Dixie fan almost instantly. Her portrayal of Stella Adler (whom I'd also met at one time though briefly) was spot on and very moving. And her presence was undeniable.

After the show I had every intention of politely getting on a bus back to Los Feliz. It just felt too rude to me to do otherwise. But I did got backstage to talk to Tess. Tess introduced me to the cast bit by bit which of course included Ms. Carter. Tess told her I was an actor friend from college visiting from New York etc. and Ms. Carter asked how I liked the show.

I told her pretty much what I said here, and asked if she had known Stella Adler. She hadn't. I became a bigger fan as I said "Well, that just makes your performance even more amazing." She smiled and then put her hand on my shoulder and said "You're coming over for dinner, aren't you?"

There was a certain sternness and elegance in this question. Later I learned that Tess had already told Ms. Carter about me and had even said "he's probably going to leave first as he's kind of shy". So it seems she was being somewhat proactive..and terribly kind. It was obvious that she adored Tess. I was just lucky enough to be a friend of hers.

20 minutes later I'm at the mansion, being introduced to Hal Holbrook, and their chef who had made a delicious meal of spaghetti and meatballs and garlic bread. 20 some odd people walking around the yard, the beautiful pool and land.

I sat by Hal Holbrook and listened to him tell the story of how he couldn't mount this horse on one of the westerns he had done.

I have pictures of this day, but apparently they are in storage. One is a very nice pic of Dixie with her chef and another of Hal telling this story.

There's a lot I remember and a lot I've forgotten. A-it's a long time ago and B-I was rather ossified by the circumstances.

Dixie Carter was classy, full of grace and elegance. Hal was more down homey in his feel, but just as full of grace and his own elegance. They seemed quite the couple.

My fandom of Holbrook was fortified by meeting him, my fandom of Carter almost created from scratch that very day.

I never saw either again after that afternoon but I always remember that day as one of my life favorites.

It's very sad to think of the world without Dixie Carter in it. One less note of class on the planet.

My thoughts and sympathies to Mr. Holbrook and the family.

Rest In Peace.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The Fallen and The Risen

Jesus Feeding the 5000


Pretty sure you know who this is.


If you read this blog at all, you know that I'm not a tremendous fan of religion itself, so generally today being Easter doesn't resonate for me beyond being a day when I see people dress up and go to church, or kids going on Egg Hunts, etc.


A modicum of research tells us that Easter is a Christianization of Oestre, a pagan holiday celebrating the rebirth that is spring. It makes sense that the power structure of the church morphed the holiday into a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from his crucifixion in the same way that the pagan holiday of the Winter Solstice eventually became the celebration of Jesus' birth.


Like I said, I'm not a religious man. I don't like church, or "the church". I am highly suspicious of anyone that tells me what, why and how I should worship a God I only suspect is there. I do believe in spirit, I do believe that there is something intangible to life that works around and through us, but I don't ascribe any one school of teaching. Religion is division to me, and there's too much of that in the world.


Not that I'm a great example. I'm a very angry man. Very frustrated. Of late I find myself filled with rage with the state of many of my fellow Americans.


I hate them.


I hate them with a fire that fills me with regret. I'm trying to find a way to love them. To love them and hate the ignorance that drives them. I'm trying to have compassion for Tea Partiers because I know what they fear, as deliberately uninformed as they are. I remind myself that while they hate things that aren't real, have shown real signs of racism, that they love their children and feel in their hearts that they are operating out of that love, no matter how misguided I may think know they are. I want to understand and have compassion enough for them that I learn to speak to them with that compassion instead of the disdain I feel now.


It's hard.


So on this day in which a great deal of the world celebrates rebirth in one form or another, I am also reminded that it is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. And so...I will finish this entry with quotes from Dr. King and those attributed to the teacher known as Jesus.


I do this for myself as well as those that have chosen to speak with bricks, bullets and hate. Because I'm this close to taking up a gun myself and that is not the man I want to be.


Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.


 Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place;  for those who live by the sword, die by the sword."  Matthew 26:52.


Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.


But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.   If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?   For even sinners love those who love them.   And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same. Luke 6:27-32


I know that at some point soon, probably tomorrow, I will make a comment to someone about Andrew Breitbart, or Sarah Palin or Ronald Reagan or any number of "conservative heroes" that I find to be distasteful examples of humanity. I know I'm not perfect or all loving, but today, let me let this go. Let me feel just compassion and love for my fellow human beings. Let me remember that we are all afraid. We are all fragile and we are all capable of doing and being better.


Whether looked at from a biblical standpoint or simply an historical one, we are all fallen.


We are all capable of rising from the death that is hatred and vitriol to the life that is love and understanding. 


I'm working on it.


I'm working on it.


Happy Easter.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

My Savage Fandom (in which I recommend podcasts)

A few years ago I finally broke down and got an iPod nano. It wasn't my first mp3 player, but I had gone a long time without one and I was working at a job where sometimes you needed the music playing in your head to help focus. (Later I learned that that is a classic ADD behavior...but that's a different point).

Through the iPod I was exposed to iTunes and through iTunes, podcasts. I now rarely listen to music on my nano, or my iPhone. It's all about the podcasts.

My listening range goes from the podcasts of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann to fanboy podcasts for Fringe, Lost (two favorites), Joss Whedon to Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me and This American Life. Other favorites include Polyamory Weekly and I Want Your Sex and more.

One of my big favorites is Dan Savage's The Savage Lovecast, which is the audio version of his sex advice column. I've been reading him for years in The Village Voice and Time Out Magazine and watch him whenever I hear he is going to be on some show or another.

Savage is the kind of writer that I wish had been around when I was a teenager. We are about the same age so I assume part of why he does what he does is because he was aware of the same vacuum.

Dan has a great mix of humor, patience, outrage, compassion and tough love. He's not afraid to tell a caller that they are being selfish, or stupid or some general ass...but he is filled with understanding no matter the situation. He's also snarky as hell, and I love snark. But his advice, I have found is 99% spot on. There's no dogmatic approach to anything. His only agenda is to get the best information and most helpful advice and resources out there. Invariably my mind and heart will be changed by the points he makes. Without revealing details left by a caller he will research resources in the areas they are calling from and give them hints...sometimes he will even call someone back and broadcast the actual conversation on the cast.

We are where we are in life and generally I tend to believe that "the universe unfolds as it should". But for so long I was flying blind when it came to sex and relationships and at the less than tender age of now 48 I cannot tell you how many "aHA" moments I have listening to this podcast. I don't dwell on it but I am keenly aware of the very different choices I would have made in my life had there been someone like Dan to read and listen to 30 years ago. Oh sure there were resources, but you had to go to them..and the things I was thinking about were less obvious.

Having gone to the High School of Performing Arts I experienced many friends "coming out" during that time. But I'm not gay, my thoughts and "theories" and ponderings were different. My desires were different and I was too shy to express them or explore them at that point and I wasn't learning from watching my gay friends as they braved the waters of a more public life. (Remember that 30 years ago, even in "Liberal" New York, coming out as gay could get your ass killed or at the very least seriously beaten. Yes it still happens, but not nearly with the kind of frequency or general acceptance as it did then.)

My daughter's generation is so much more aware of what is out there and in there than mine was. They're more informed, in general, than we were. Oddly in this "post AIDS" environment, I think that people coming of age have more understanding, more education and more awareness of sex, sexuality, it's rewards and dangers than human beings have had in a long time. They aren't perfect, there's plenty of mistakes going on. But it all stems from ignorance (cough, Bristol Palin, cough cough). Dan's on the frontline of that war.

He is fun, funny, forthright and clear. He begins every cast with a rant of one kind or another, generally at Right Wing hypocrisy, and that is always massively enjoyable. And lest you think he's a partisan hack, you should hear how he lays into President Obama on Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Listen to it, tell your teenager to listen to it , tell your friends to listen to it. Spread the word.

As an addendum, when I tweeted about writing this entry yesterday I was tweeted by someone recommending Dear Redhead. I'll check her out. Apparently she's been described as Dan Savage with a vagina. The more the merrier I say...I'll let you know.

Sex is who we are and how we got here. We need to embrace it, own it and feel good about it. And that's why I listen to Dan.