Elections, Cease Fear, and The Pink Pistols

I was wearing my Cease Fear Instructor t-shirt at aerobics class tonight and someone commented on it (and the other ‘interesting’ shirts I wear to class).  I explained what Cease Fear (I was a founding member and instructor for them) and Pink Pistols (I was a founding member of the Palouse chapter) are about but it occurred to me that it was really a much bigger issue.  A lesbian friend of mine is all wound up about the elections and had this to say to me recently:

well, let’s see why i might be hurting:

  • i’m gay, and the village idiot is opposed to my continued breathing, but he won’t say so directly…
  • i’m atheist, and the village idiot is born-again, in a country he’s trying to make into a theocracy…
  • i’m female, and we all know what he thinks of women…
  • i can think, which is heresy in this adminstration…

i’m trying to leave this country before i can’t, because this country’s administration believes i’m an abomination in many ways…

Heavy sigh.  If the above were really true then she should be thanking me and others for standing up for our right to keep and bear arms and training gays and other minorities to defend themselves.  But for some reason I’m not hearing that from her or any others in her particular minority group who fear being so oppressed.  My opinion is that things aren’t nearly as bad as she thinks they are.  I have some objections to some of President Bush’s positions but the only realistic alternative to him was John Kerry.  And there was no way Kerry could be trusted to protect gun rights and it was unlikely that he would do the right thing to defend us against Islamic Jihad.  As long as we have our guns there isn’t going to be a genocide aimed at any minority.  At least in every other genocide there has always been strict gun control prior to the implementation of the genocide and I can think of no reason why this country and time should be any different.

Here are some news stories that involved me and the above pro-freedom groups:

Lewiston Morning Tribune
AP Version of the above story
Seattle Times Editorial

Yassar Arafat’s illness

It turns out there are people claiming probably Arafat has AIDS.  People have for years claimed he was homosexual.  Interesting twist on things.  That would explain why the French doctors haven’t publically announced his illness.  That would explain why Israel didn’t just put a bullet through his head a long time ago.  What it doesn’t explain is why, if Israel knew he was gay, they didn’t just release the video tapes of his liasons.  In any event it appears he is out of power for good.

Karen died last night

Barb got a call about 7:20 last night.  It was her uncle Lee (Karen’s stepfather).  He said Karen died about 40 minutes earlier.  We don’t know any details beyond that.

James was here when the call came in and went downstairs to tell Xenia.  Barb called her siblings.  I called Kim and left a voice mail message but just as I hung up she called back from her work phone.  A little while later Kim was at our door.  Her boss told her to go home.  She was in tears and Barb and I hugged her for a long time.  Kim and Barb talked and talked before Kim finally went home.  When I took James home he asked why Kim was some much more broken up about Karen than he and Xenia.  I told her that as Barb puts it, “Kim has a big heart.“  Kim has a tremendous amount of empathy for others.  She is very, very sensitive in a lot of ways.  She is a very strong person but she also feels pain much easier than others too.  Kim is very special person.  When we were in the Richland hospital and talking to Karen’s sister we discussed how much Kim was like Karen in a lot of ways.  Her strong will and her sensitivity.

Another thing I forgot about Karen was that it was her that suggested I contact Battelle about a job.  She knew they were hiring and I went to their website and found some positions that looked promising.  Within a couple days I had an interview and within 10 days or so I had a job offer which I accepted.

She will be missed.