Gay Rights and New Jersey

Haven't posted in a long time. Haven't needed to, really. Been recuperating from my surgery and re-adapting to my daily schlepp from central NJ to Manhattan and back.

Since last we talked, New Jersey voted out Jon Corzine (D) as governor and voted in Chris Christie (R). Anti-gay marriage Chris Christie. Anti-gay everything Chris Christie.

Here's what you need to know about politicians.

1. They lie.
2. They are opportunists who will promise you anything (or at least allude to promising you something) in exchange for your undying love, devotion, cold hard cash and vote.
3. They will repeatedly pull the rug out from under you and/or throw you under the nearest bus in order to keep you in a state of neediness so as to guarantee their re-election, time after time after time.

Look. Here's how it works. Let's say, for a moment, that you're the American Cancer Society. You're not REALLY interested in finding a cure for cancer. You're REALLY interested in making a living PRETENDING to look for a cure for cancer (keep those cards and checks coming!)

And that's how it is with gay rights and Democrats. They're not REALLY interested in getting us our rights. They're only interested in making a LIVING by PRETENDING to care about getting us our rights. A living they do not want to lose. Even if it means a couple (or a lot) of us get beat up or killed now and then.

And we're idiots if we imagine, for one second, that it's any other way.

In the words of the immortal Norm on "Cheers", "it's a dog eat dog world, Sammy, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear."

And so are you.

Hatred Comes to Blue Jersey

I live in New Jersey. Despite the fact that I have a douchebag US Representative (Republican Chris Smith who, only yesterday, voted AGAINST the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Bill), it's a largely "blue" state in terms of it's overall politics.

However, red has reared it's ugly head.

Bill Marriott, of the hotel chain, talks about his and his company's separation of religious views from business conduct:

http://www.blogs.marriott.com/default.asp?item=2284808

and yet, the virulently anti-gay New Jersey Family Policy Council is tossing a soiree featuring Carrie Prejean at a Marriott Hotel in Whippany.

http://www.njfpc.org/html/defenders-of-family.asp

You might want to call the hotel and let them know your feelings about this … and while you have them on the line, mention Bill Marriott’s publicly stated position.

Ketchup

Been offline for a few days while recouperating from surgery on my eyelid last Friday. So today I'm playing "catch-up."

The surgery was to correct the "half-mast" eyelid caused by nerve damage as a result of my fall in the shower last January.

Friday morning, bright and early, my opthalmologist scrubbed up, anesthetized the lid and proceeded to do a "lid-lift." I was in at 8 and out by 9. I had a good time the rest of the day and just goofed-off in front of the new HDTV.

Saturday was a different story. It itched and burned like hell. I kept applying cold compresses to it throughout the day, but still it itched and burned. It FINALLY occured to me on Sunday afternoon that it's the height of allergy season here, so I popped a Claritin last night and slept like a baby.

I'm back in the saddle today. And speaking of horses:

In Memorium
Eight Belles
A Filly Who Was All Heart

I watched the Kentucky Derby Saturday afternoon. It was great up until they ran the filly into the ground and killed her for no good reason other than corporate greed. It really pissed me off. As good as she was, she had no business being paired up with the big boys.

The racing business in this country is a disgrace and the way they treat the horses borders on animal cruelty.

But, alas, gambling is big business with lots of friends in high places.

Sad. Very sad.

Finally, we have this today. The New Jersey Hall of Fame has inducted 15 new members, including The Boss (Springsteen), Sinatra, Yogi Berra and a slew of others. There was an article about it over at the Huffington Post and, in the comments section, one comment in particular really resonated with me. Here it is:

"New Jersey is the Europe of America, (ad hominem attack on another poster)! No death penalty, sane gun laws, paid family leave for a new baby or sick relative, an effective if a little late open space policy and unions for gay couples. Yes we have our warts but we are moving forward at a much faster and progressive rate than the rest of the country. Oh, also a couple towns over is the Quaker settlement of Moorestown, the best place to live in the country the last few years in a row. It's also the weirdest state in the country, and I mean that in a good way. Check out google earth and look at some of the crazy stuff, south Jersey is the strangest."

At 10 years, I have now passed the point of being a New Yorker and am now proud to be from the Garden State!

Mullets and all.

The Rains of Ranchipur

Well, it's high monsoon season here in the east and while the rest of the nation is digging its sorry ass out of neckdeep snow, we here in lovely, tropical New Jersey are enjoying the 60 degree temperatures and 90 mile per hour winds. Not to mention the 4 inches of rain per hour. And thunder and lightning (which are "Donder und Blitzen" in German, in case you didn't know that.)

I had to travel on the Turnpike last night, to an from a gay 12-Step meeting I attend in Pennsylvania, and the traffic, even at those late hours, was horrific as every university student in the east who lives in Boston traveled home from DC and vice-versa. Don't they have universities for hometown kids in those cities?

I thought about going to the malls yesterday and today until I saw the traffic reports. Fuggeddaboudit.

Tomorrow afternoon I have to drive to my sister's in Delaware where I'll be in hiding until Wednesday. Ordinarily I'd take the turnpike but I have a sneaking feeling that this time I'll be taking the best kept secret in the Garden State, I-295, which runs parallel to the turnpike for about half it's length AND IT'S FREE!

It's not a perfect solution, it gets quirky at times, but it's better than sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 60 miles on Christmas Eve.

I saw "Atonement" yesterday. I thought I was on the verge of becoming bored with it, but it turned out that I loved it, cheesy ending and all.

Other than that, nothing much to report except that I'm looking forward to being OFF for the next week and a half.

So while I think of it...

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! (whether or not you believe that some teenage virgin got inseminated by a dove 2000 years ago and had God's son, which I don't personally believe, but hey, it's a free country until the fucking THEOCRATS take over and slam all us queers into concentration camps, but hey, that won't happen this week, so what the fuck, enjoy yourselves, eat too much, be nice to each other, buy some presents for OTHER people for a change and DON'T DRINK (too much) and drive.)

Love,

JoyZeeBoy

New Jersey Roundup!

Some of you lovely folks who really should get hobbies might remember that I went to the Rehoboth (DE) Roundup last winter, over President's Day weekend. Well, it's the start of a NEW roundup season already.

In a few hours I'll be heading out all the way across Route 33 from Hightstown, NJ, through Freehold (home of "The Boss") then to Route 18 and finally to beautiful, out in the middle of fucking nowhere, Tinton Falls, NJ for the newly resurrected New Jersey Roundup - 2007 Edition. So no more postings this weekend unless I get real ambitious Sunday night, after I get home.

The Rehoboth Roundup was enormous (+400 attendees), well organized, great workshops, plenty of fun activities and GREAT speakers from various 12-Step programs. If our first NJ roundup in many years is half as good as that, then there is hope that it might continue on again next year.

Roundups are kind of like websites. There comes a time when they sort of "go viral" and suddenly become enormously popular (like the P'town and Rehoboth and Miami Roundups). Word of mouth actually accounts for a lot in terms of building popularity for them.

Next month is the Philly roundup, which I'm also looking forward to attending.

So, naturally, I've spent the morning cleaning the bejeebus out of the apartment at home... just in case. Oh, alright. Just in case I meet Mr. Right and he wants to move in this weekend.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

As you may also recall, I got some definite interest during the Rehoboth Roundup and I'm kind of hoping that'll be true this weekend, too. The big difference being that this Roundup is happening less than 40 minutes from home (Rehoboth is a good 2 hour drive from where I live), so it's more likely I'll meet someone who is GD (geographically desirable) than it was in February.

Yeah, I know that sounds crazy. Hey! I'm a drunk! (recovering)

Now if you'll excuse me, the toilet definitely needs a shave.

xxxooo

With a Thong in My Heart!!!

Jake over at NoFo got me thinking about songs that invoke a certain place, city or state, or state of mind with his recent post about going home to Iowa.

Iowa, of course, was immortalized by Meredith Willson in his musical, "The Music Man" in which he lovingly described his fellow Iowans thusly:

"Oh, there's nothing halfway about the Iowa way to treat you,
if we treat you, which we may not do at all.
We can be cold as the falling thermometer in December
if you ask about our weather in July.
And we're so by-gone stubborn
we can stand touching noses for a week at a time
and never see eye-to-eye...
but what the heck, you're welcome, join us at the picnic
you can have your fill of all the food you bring yourself.."

Oklahoma, of course, is in a category by itself. Rodgers & Hammerstein saw to that.

But both of those are musical theater.

Nobody ever wrote a musical about Virginia, or Maryland or (God forbid) Delaware. Not even New Jersey.

This is not to say that New Jersey doesn't have it's fair share of songs about it, and places in it.

"Wildwood Nights" Ah, my mispent youth.
"Palisades Park" Freddie "boom-boom" Cannon

and many others. But my absolute favorite, without exception, is this one. It's by The Boss. And Route 9 is real. It runs right through the Boss's hometown of Freehold. I've been on it and under it beaucoups plenty of times, usually on my way "down the shore" to Asbury Park, home of The Stone Pony where the "E" Street Band got it's start.

Here's the touching, tender, first verse, that so moved the hearts of thousands of New Jersey teenagers ever since it's release in the mid-70's:

"In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin' out over the line
Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run..."

Hits ya' right here, don't it?

Are there any songs about your hometown or state that you just love?