Army Chief Is Lap Dog of Religious Nutcases

The latest front-man for all the right-wing, queer-hating, religious nuts opposed to the repeal of DADT (and pro keeping the fags in their place) is the Army Chief of Staff, General George W. Casey, Jr. (who gets paid $19,326.60 a month to defend the Constitution).

He testified before the Senate that he "has serious concerns" about repeal and that he supports a year-long "study" before the ban is repealed. What he really wants, of course, is to drag his feet long enough for the forces against repeal to find enough "problems" with it to forestall repeal indefinitely. He ain't kidding anybody. Well, he ain't kidding me. None of them are kidding me anymore.

Every day that this onerous law remains on the books is yet another day when an innocuous minority (mine) is deprived of the fruits of full citizenship, SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF PANDERING TO THE RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY OF A HANDFUL OF ZEALOTS.

Repeal DADT. Do it now.

Sexual Anorexia

There is such a thing. And I have it. Wiki defines it as avoidance of intimacy because of emotional brittleness. Okay. I'm risk averse. I know where that comes from. I had an alcoholic mom and an alcoholic grandmom whose major intramural sport was getting drunk, fighting with each other and waking me up in the middle of the night to answer the question "which one of us do you love more?"

I was 6 years old.

So I shut down and swore that no one would ever hurt me again. Not like that. I knew that I could be physically hurt -- there was nothing I could do about that (and I lived in fear of that, too) -- but I'd be damned if anyone was ever going to get close enough to me to emotionally scar me like that again.

And no one ever did. Not even when people moved away. Not even when they died.

The last time I actually cried over the death of someone I was 19. It was the same grandmother I mentioned above.

I drank because I was a drunk. Deep down, though, I also drank because it made it easy to have sex with people -- and why was that, you ask? Because when you're drunk you are not intimate. Not really. Physical, yes. Intimate, no.

Get it? I do. Now.

In a couple of weeks I'll have been sober for 12 years. And only now is this becoming clear to me.

Next up? How do I fix it?

Stay posted. More will probably be revealed and, as usual, it won't be good.

Growing up is hard work.

Navy Men

I was a Navy man. My dad was a Navy man. My granddad was a Navy man. And Admiral Mike Mullen, 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of the United States of America, is a Navy man.

To the best of my knowledge (and it's only anecdotal, based on personal experience), I'm the only one of them who is gay, therefore I was the only one who had to "hide it" during my time in the Navy.

Yesterday something happened that I never in a million years thought would happen. Admiral Mullen sat at a table before the Armed Services Committee of the Senate and told that august panel of Senators that it is now time to put an end to the onerous law known to the masses as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Many were delighted. Some were chagrined. Most notably Senator John McCain, another ex-Navy man. Of course the good Senator has his own problems at home right now regarding this whole mess ... his wife, Cindy McCain (God love her!), has come out clearly on our side -- so you KNOW Johnny Boy ain't gettin' any these days! No wonder he's so cranky.

You would think (maybe) that some people would see the handwriting on the wall -- that the good old days of making political hay (and fundraising cash) out of fag-bashing are rapidly coming to an end. It would only make sense, I think, to bow to the inevitable and to sign up on the right side of history.

Like Admiral Mullen. Whom I would gay marry in a heartbeat. If he'd have me.

Thank you, Admiral Mullen. Thank you for being a real American.

I would be proud to serve under you, Sir. All kidding aside.

And the Nominees Are....

It's nearly time for the Gay SuperBowl aka "Oscar Night" and today we had the preliminaries, the announcement of the nominees. Note that this year the rules have been modified to accomodate the plethora of fine motion pictures that came out this past year, and,7 therefore the number of nominees for Best Picture stands now at 10.

[drumroll please]

And the nominees are:

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart *big surprise
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo'nique, Precious

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best Director
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, & Thomas McCarthy, Up

Adapted Screenplay
Neil Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Ianucci, & Tony Roche, In the Loop *big surprise
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Foreign Language Film
Ajami (Israel)
El secreto de sus ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophete (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

Animated Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side *big surprise
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Best Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Best Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Best Documentary
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Best Makeup
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Best Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Best Song
"Almost There," The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
"Down in New Orleans," The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
"Loin de Paname," Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner & Frank Thomas
"Take It All," Nine, Maury Weston
"The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart, T-Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham

Best Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Best Documentary Short
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

Best Animated Short
French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live-Action Short
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants