Well here is the photo. We waited along the Mall with thousands and thousands of other people after swearing we wouldn't get anywhere near Central London today. Yeah, well... How often does London throw this big of a party?
First the Wedding. It went off without a hitch. The weather forecast said it was going to rain. It didn't. Anti-monarchist protesters said they were going to be out in force. The weren't. Pundits said the crowds would be unmanageable and unruly, and nothing could have been further from the truth.
It's hard not to get caught up in the hype of an event this big. The global audience that watched these two people get married today was estimated at over two billion. Why?
To be honest? I really am not sure. There are the obvious reasons. It's a live history lesson.. The British Monarchy is living history. To steal the quote from the movie "The Queen"; it is an unbroken line going back over a thousand years. It's hard not be fascinated watching this institution change and adapt to the 21rst Century.
You can argue the issue of how ridiculous the idea of hereditary privilege is in this day and age, and many here in London are. London's biggest talk radio station LBC 97.3 FM, had no shortage of callers on both sides of this issue. With the majority of callers expressing enthusiastic support, for the Royals, and what today's pomp and pageantry has done for the morale of the whole nation. But there were other callers who were just adamant in saying they feel it's crazy to keep paying millions of pounds a year to support a group of people who's only qualification is having been born into the Windsor family.
Yet if you are going to argue strictly from the perspective of cost, today pretty much killed that argument. The cost to the British taxpayer, (of which I am now one..) to maintain the Monarchy is around 70 million pounds a year. Estimates of how much money this wedding has generated for the British economy so far is low-balled around six hundred million pounds. Not a bad ROI. (Return On Investment.)
If nothing else, I am totally behind anything that gives British composer John Rutter an excuse to compose new music. His new piece "The Anthem" commissioned especially for today's ceremony was amazing.
So at least for today, the debate over the merits and costs of a Constitutional Monarchy was put aside. Billions of people all around the world, joined the over one million people in Central London, (including this new Londoner), in wishing "Wills and Kate" all the best.
Lets be clear. Pat Robertson is not a Christian. Oh he is very good at claiming to be. But there is very little coming out of his mouth, that bears any relation to the words of Jesus Christ. Pat Robertson's religion is in fact, Pat Robertson. Pat is a dedicated disciple of his own bigotry and opportunism.
Pat Robertson’s one true God is the money and conservative political power, that peddling hatred has earned him over the years.
Lest we forget just how anti-American this lunatic actually is, let's revisit one of his greatest hits. Here with his favorite backup wacko, Jerry Falwell. Pat and Jerry manage to blame everyone but Osama Bin Laden for the attacks of 9-11.
It long past time for this bitter and sadly demented old man to be taken aside, given something soft to chew and put to bed. The only "higher calling" Pat Roberson is interested in serving, is himself.
The ridiculously mis-named "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA), is an affront to ALL Americans. I love how Conservatives like Robertson love to champion protests against companies like Disney and Apple for the their progressive stances, but when Progressives do the EXACT SAME THING, to protest business that support bigotry and discrimination, that is just "unbelievable".
I am not going to wast time and blog space going through the facts on how EVERYTHING Pat Robertson and his assorted ilk, have said about same sex marriage is a complete lie. If you really want to read through it all, feel free to go here.
I do have hope that eventually the United States will grow up and leave behind the likes of Robertson and his fellow snake-oil salesmen of hate. In the meantime, the rest of the Western World still looks at us and shakes it's head.
It's the heads "birthers" exploding all over the United States....
via Talking Points Memo... Hoping to end a long-running "controversy" over whether he was born in the United States, the White House released President Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate on Wednesday.
"The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn't good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country," the White House's Dan Pfeiffer wrote in a blog post.
"Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate," wrote Pfeiffer. "They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting."
Radio Host Michaelangelo Signorile had a call on his show from a man in Alabama who is convinced that Barack Obama is not an American. The call is a stark examination of how no facts, no amount of proof, no birth certificate will EVER satisfy these people. They are desperate to believe that the Obama Presidency is the result of some vast conspiracy.
This call to the show from Winston in Alabama confirms why the birther conspiracy will never go away, a fascinating look at why crazy beliefs endure. Even after all the facts were explained to Winston, and after he appeared to agree that the facts were right, he still held doubts that President Obama was born in this country.
What's clear to me is that birthers have other reasons for which they dislike the president, even hate him -- and some of those reasons are too ugly, perhaps, for them to even admit to themselves. Hence, they cling to this conspiracy even after it's disproved.
A bit more than a year out from the biggest logistical challenge London has faced since the Battle of Britain, what is painfully clear to even the casual observer is just how "not ready" this city is to host the Olympics.
Tourists tend to praise London's public transit system. Before I lived here I would regularly lament the failings of the Chicago Transit Authority and the San Francisco BART and MUNI systems, wishing they could "be more like the trains in London."
I take it all back.
To the ELevated trains of Chicago's Red Line I humbly beg your forgiveness. To my beloved BART and MUNI trains from SF Civic Center station, I take every sarcastic remark I ever made, chew and swallow them. You are marvels of urban engineering and models of efficiency compared to "the Tube".
I now know why as a visitor, I always thought. London Transport worked so well. For the most part, visitors only really use the tube in Central London (zones 1 or 2). Also tourists usually are not on trains at Rush Hour. Around 6pm they're at their hotels getting ready to go out to dinner or theaters/clubs in the West End.
London Trains seem to do pretty well if all you need is to get from Earls Court to Leicester Square during off-peak travel times. Beyond that? It's one big game of "signal failure roulette".
Let's pause here for just a moment to address that great all-purpose excuse for any major problem with trains in and around greater London...
"Signal Failure".
Back in the 1970's on the now legendary British scifi TV show "Doctor Who", whenever actor Jon Pertwee couldn't pronounce a particularly technical phrase in the script; he'd substitute the phrase "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", in place of whatever it was he didn't want to try to say.
I'm convinced "signal failure" is London Transport's version of this. I moved to London on April 8th, and EVERY DAY I have been here, there has been an announcement of "signal failure" at one or more points on the Train System.
So as stand writing this on my blackberry in the stifling heat of yet another idled Jubilee line train; I can't help but pose the question:
If London can't manage to keep its train running through an average rush hour commute, how on earth will this city cope with the world's biggest sporting event?
Well the move is done. I arrived in London this afternoon and Eric and I made it home with all four bags relatively easily. Its been an exhausting and emotional week. Leaving my job at Kaiser Permanente on Wednesday, and getting everything moved out my San Francisco apartment, sadly didn't leave a lot of time for goodbye's. To all the folks who have emailed saying; "What?!? You've left!" I am sorry there wasn't any extra time.
This move would have never happened on time without help from some of the most amazing people in my life. My Sister and Brother-in-Law Leah & Jean Georges Demathieu were miracle workers helping clear out my apartment. Also, I never would have been ready and able to move without the help of Rudy Guerrero, the most amazing friend anyone could ever ask for, who helped haul and lug and carry and was an amazing source of morale support through this whole daunting process.
Saying goodbye to San Francisco was very bittersweet. Finally being able to move here to London and start the next chapter of my life is wonderful, yet at the same time it is odd to leave a city and people that has been home for seven years.
So as my (now former) co-workers at KP Learning and Development like to say... Onwards!
I will admit I have been somewhat distracted over the past few weeks as I have been packing for my move to London.
As a result of having my head in boxes for the last two weeks, I have not paid close attention to what has been going on in the newly GOP controlled House of Representatives.
Which, as it turns out is a real pity. As I have missed what amounts to comedy gold, courtesy of the the Teabagging Wingnuts of the new Republican majority. The always brilliant Rachel Maddow brings us all up to speed on the latest fun and frolic...
Wow....Just when you think the well of wingnutty-ness has run dry, the GOP rises to the challenge and doubles down on the crazy. Lets review. shall we?
According to Donald Trump, (yes, the really bad hair guy, Donald Trump) President Obama was not born in the US because there are (according to him) no pictures of the young Barack Obama prior to age 13. BARACK OBAMA PICTURES: The early years - chicagotribune.com - Opps.
THEN, we have our current involvement in Libya. Remember back in oh... say 2002 and 2003 when ANYONE criticized the war in Iraq, the greater Wingnuttia went berserk with shrieks of How DARE you criticize the Commander-in-Chief in a time of war, you traitorous America-hating, troop-hating commie bastard! Why do you want the terrorist to WIN?!
Fast forward to 2011, It now seems as if our dear right-wing patriots are only patriotic when the GOP holds the keys to the Oval Office
And now, we have the glorious MYTH that somehow the GOP now cares about and is focused on, JOBS. Hmmm really?
The Republican Party is now a very bad, very sad joke. One silver lining in all this, is that once the cirque du' insanity that will be the 2012 GOP Presidential Primaries is over, America will most likely re-elect Barack Obama with the largest plurality since 1984, when Ronald Reagan stomped on Walter Mondale like a bug at an exterminator convention.
Amazing Public Service Announcement currently running in Ireland...
Meanwhile in the United States the ridiculously mis-named hate group "Focus on the Family" is launching a counter campaign that is PRO- bullying and is actually offering cash prizes to anti-gay Christian students who make the best video about how it's totally right to bully, shame, and ostracize gay kids for their sexuality.
According to Focus on the Family Spokes-bigot Candi Cushman;
,LGBT groups use bullying prevention to "promote their homosexual agenda, including the idea that homosexuality is normal. Focus on the Family education expert Candi Cushman said that the group is against bullying but that bullying prevention “is being hijacked by activists.” She claims that anti-bullying programs are gay activism in disguise and that these programs conceal their true purpose.
Eliza Byard, Executive Director, of the The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) had this to say about Focus on the Family's opposition to anti-bullying efforts in schools...
Focus on the Family has tried to discredit GLSEN's efforts to make schools safe for all students since our founding in 1990. These most recent attempts show that, once again, Focus on the Family either doesn't know what it is talking about or simply don't care about addressing bullying, or both. The policies we support - which, by the way, include protections for bullying based on religion - have been shown by years of research to make a difference in young people's lives. That is why nearly 70 national education, youth service and civil and human rights organizations endorse the Safe Schools Improvement Act. In terms of LGBT youth, we certainly hope that Focus on the Family agrees that the current environment in which nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment each year in school is simply unacceptable. But we won't hold our breath.
The wing nut social conservative Right knows that Anti-bullying efforts are a direct threat to their ability to fund-raise by dehumanizing Gays and Lesbians. Focus on the Family is desperate to get control of the Bullying debate and get control of it FAST. Because, if you say it is wrong that a kid was bullied because they were gay, you are really saying there is nothing wrong with being Gay; and FOTF has too much invested in their hate, and can never allow that to happen.
This in spite of the clear evidence that bullying based on sexual orientation was the direct cause of a number of tragic teen suicides across the the United States last year.
These people are insane bigots, They are so filled with hatred for people who don't share their sad twisted anti-American, anti-Constitutional world view, they would seek to stop efforts that could help save kids lives.
This past year, as this...American equivalent of the Taliban obsessed over DEFENDING the bullying to death of Gay Kids, the news was been filled with story after story, of a Gay Teen somewhere in America who was bullied into taking his or her own life.
Focus on the Family has spent millions of dollars saying that Gays and Lesbians are "attacking families" and are out to "destroy traditional marriage", that Gays and Lesbians have a "Radical Agenda" and are a"threat to children". So I am sure the LAST thing Cushman would want to do is have to answer for the impact that her "work" has had in putting the lives of American kids at risk in their own schools, every day.
While the rest of the civilized world continues to move forward it is hate groups like Focus on the funding..er.. I mean "family", that seek to turn the United States into a theocratic backwater of hatred and intolerance.
Immigration officials say they will no longer put a hold on the cases of binational married gay couples, just two days after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that action on such cases would be halted pending further legal guidance.
Wednesday morning USCIS press secretary Christopher S. Bentley toldThe Advocate that the agency had received legal guidance to lift the hold it had issued Monday. The guidance was issued in the form of written communications from the Office of the General Counsel at Department of Homeland Security (USCIS is a component of DHS).
Bentley declined to release any of the written documents at this time, saying it was privileged communication. He emphasized that the official policy itself within DHS had never changed.
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Well so much for that... Turns out the "Abeyance" or hold on same sex partner deportations is over.
I don't know WHY so many people are surprised by this... ALL of the promises made by then Senator Obama, to the LGBT community in 2008 were just hot air.
We will hear them again in 2012. The President will barnstorm around the country claiming HE repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He didn't.Congress did. The President didn't lobby, didn't act, didn't do diddly-squat. Oh sure, AFTER all the work was done, he was glad to jump in. The ONLY thing he did was sign the bill. Important to be sure, but hardly "fierce advocacy".
Over the next 18 months, the President will tout how he has "Stopped Defending DOMA" (while hoping nobody asks about the ENFORCEMENT of DOMA, or how for the first 3 years in office he defended DOMA by comparing same sex marriage to incest...)
So I guess it's time to (once again) point out the BLINKING OBVIOUS... (everybody join in.. this time with feeling!)
PRESIDENT OBAMA IS NOT A PROGRESSIVE or EVEN A LIBERAL.
President Barack Obama, is a centrist. A timid one at that. He wants to govern but he doesn't want to actually have to lead. Now that being said, we all can agree that he is light years better than ANY of the GOP Wingnut lunatics that want to replace him. But frankly, at this point, that isn't saying much.
Also, what is even more apparent this past week, given his behavior; it is starting to become clear, that deep deep down, the President believes the Gays are kinda icky. To be fair, I think he feels BAD about believing that, but not bad enough to actually change anything.
We waited, my husband and I. We hoped, we donated, we campaigned and we believed. Now three years later, we have this latest 'bait and switch- back" on DOMA and Immigration equality. It has just proved to us, that we were right this past year to give up on President Obama, and move to the UK.
I said this on Monday, and it keeps ringing true; The BEST the LGBT community can hope for out of Barack Obama, is that he moves from a position of actively opposing marriage equality to one of passive indifference.
Yesterday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services revealed that deportations of people who have overstayed their visas, but are in a state-recognized same sex marriage, are now on hold. (From Metro Weekly:) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following up on reports from this weekend, Metro Weekly just received confirmation from Christopher Bentley, the spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, that cases of foreign partners who are married to a same-sex partner and would otherwise be eligible for a green card are on hold in light of questions about the continued validity of the Defense of Marriage Act. Bentley writes, "USCIS has issued guidance to the field asking that related cases be held in abeyance while awaiting final guidance related to distinct legal issues." He notes, however, "USCIS has not implemented any change in policy and intends to follow the President's directive to continue enforcing the law." The legal distinction means that although DOMA is still being enforced, the USCIS is using its discretion to hold off on denying green card applications where applicable. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A lot of people have sent me text messages and emails today asking me if I am excited and happy about this "significant step forward" for same sex bi-national couples.
Sigh....
I'm sorry but this is all nonsense, wonderfully symbolic nonsense, but nonsense all the same.
Green Card Petitions by same sex couples will not be approved as long as DOMA is still on the books. Also this does NOTHING for bi-national same sex couples who are currently living overseas, or for couples where the Non-American partner is not currently in the U.S.
As far as the Administration taking this "significant step" goes... There is also no logical reason that the steps taken this past month; (declining to defend DOMA in court, putting pending deportations on hold ect.) couldn't have been taken THREE YEARS AGO. That might have helped move current court challenges to DOMA through the system faster. Instead we had the Obama DOJ filing legal briefs defending DOMA by comparing same sex marriage to incest... How soon we forget huh?
The legislation recently introduced to repeal DOMA is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. Why? Simple, the GOP and it's rabidly wingnutty base are desperate to keep LGBT Americans as the one last minority it is safe for them to promote the hatred of, for fundraising purposes.
When the Republican Party wants to deport children BORN HERE because their Parents were not citizens, do you honestly think these politically opportunistic bigots are going to sit idly by and allow same sex couples even a small dose of equality?
I am very glad that the couples who were facing forced separation have been given a reprieve, but unless DOMA is repealed it will be only a temporary one.
I know this feels like it should be seen as some sort of positive step forward, but I just can't get excited because Barack Obama (with one eye on his re-elect) has moved from active opposition to Marriage Equality, to passive indifference.
This is window dressing ahead of the 2012 re-election kickoff. Which Huffington Post says is coming in April.
(hat tip to JoeMyGod for this latest bit of American Taliban ass-hattery)
Speaking to his faithful minions at the Shereton in West Des Moines, GOP Presidential hopeful, Rev. Mike Huckabee, ranted how the threat of Gay Marriage will destroy America, and that stopping it might even cost you your Job!
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Wow... There is just way too much Crazy here to even begin to pick apart. If you are going to argue about who God gave land to, you might want to check with the Native Americans, who I imagine would take issue with Mike's claim of divine ownership.
The singularly Caucasian audience was almost roused from their rubber-chicken induced stupor by Huckabee's dire exhortations of a battle of Good vs Evil, and his fierce stand against those who would "enslave us". (Mike better be careful, Wall Street might take those references personally....)
Also you can't help but wonder, how thrice-married serial adulterer Newt Gingrich will deal with Huckabee's assertions that only a monogamous marriage is "true".
Let the glorious circular political firing squad that is GOP Presidential Primary politics, begin!
Bi-National Lesbian Couple Can Press US Marriage Claim
It what appears to be the first such action of its type, an Immigration Judge in Manhattan has adjourned deportation proceedings for the Argentine lesbian spouse of an American citizen to allow the couple to proceed with their application to have their marriage recognized for purposes of federal immigration law.
Monica Alcota, 35, who came to the US a decade ago, married her partner of nearly three years, 25-year-old Cristina Ojeda, last August in Connecticut.
The couple’s attorneys, Lavi Soloway and Noemi Masliah, argue that their clients’ marital status should qualify Alcota for permanent residency, as would be the case with any different-sex couple.
A 2010 US court ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act’s denial of federal recognition for legal same-sex marriages, they say –– coupled with the Justice Department’s recent decision that it could not and would not defend DOMA’s constitutionality on that point –– opens up the real possibility that Alcota and Ojeda may be accorded recognition.
In a March 22 hearing in the US courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, Immigration Judge Terry A. Bain gave the couple the go-ahead to press their claim with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) –– a unit of the Department of Homeland Security –– through what is known as Form I-130, a petition to have Alcota recognized as “the spouse of USC.”
For now, the couple’s case has been adjourned until December, a decision supported by the government's attorney.
“It is almost impossible to overstate the significance of what happened in there,” Soloway said immediately after the hearing. “An adjournment based on an I-130. It would never have happened a year ago. I don’t think I even would have filed it.”
Describing the development as “huge,” Soloway also credited Bain with being “very kind, very generous” in her handling of the case.
Today on the House Floor, Rep Anthony Weiner (D NY) thanks the GOP for their clear laser-like focus on the issues that TRULY matter to the American People...
All those who ranted that such a thing, as what happened last night on prime-time TV would "destroy America", are now exposed for what they really are. People like Newt (thrice-married adulterer) Gingrich, Sarah (unmarried pregnant daughter) Palin, Tony (gay kids should just kill themselves) Perkins, and Maggie (hating people is what I do best) Gallagher all got their asses kicked last night. Their fear mongering, lies and outright hatred of other Americans failed.
So what was it that defeated them? What showed the world that everything these hate mongers have said is just ignorant bile with no basis in reality or truth?
Just a tiny little television show.... called Glee
Over the course of today there have been a slew of reactions across the blogosphere, the vast majority of which have are overwhelmingly positive. There were a few comments posted on the Los Angeles Times media blog from people claiming to be "concerned parents" who didn't feel it was appropriate for teens to see two boys kissing. One commenter claimed the kiss was too "confusing" for her teenage daughter.
Really?
If these kids are any indication, it's safe to say that the teens of America were not at all confused by last night's episode.
In the Spring of 2004, I moved to San Francisco. I had lived in Chicago for nearly 6 years. When I was part of the large scale lay offs that swept through the Banking industry back in the early 2000's. It was geographically and culturally not nearly as big a move as when I moved to South Korea, back in the late 1990's. Yet it felt nearly as big.
Now 7 years later, I once again sit in my apartment surrounded by boxes, faced with the daunting task of culling through the bits and pieces of my life. Deciding what to pack, what to discard, what to give away. Once again, I am moving. Leaving a city that I have grown to love, a job that has been fun, challenging, and always rewarding. Leaving friends who made this crazy place feel like home, and leaving family who moved here themselves only few short years ago, as well.
Moving is always something that prompts introspection. Whether you want to or not. Lots of people have asked me "what will you miss?" When they ask that, they of course mean, what aspect of living in San Francisco will I miss after I leave. Of course there are lots of "things". Yet, like any big transition you find yourself looking more, at the difference between the person I was when I arrived here, and who it is, that will be leaving San Francisco in April. Older? Yes of course. Wiser? One would hope. I learned a lot about myself and life in general living here. Regrets? A few, but isn't that the case with all things in life?
Back in 2004 when I started this blog over on the now-defunct AOL hometown, then moving it to Yahoo 360, and finally here to blogger. I entitled it "Funny Odd Thing...Life." It is quote from one of my favorite writers, the late, great Douglas Adams. In his series of books, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", the main character, Arthur Dent, is a man who keeps having the most improbable things happen to him on nearly a daily basis. When he repeatedly asks others he encounters why all these crazy things always happen to him, invariably the person would shrug and reply; "Dunno.... It's a funny odd thing.... life."
I will confess, that over the years, I have often felt a lot like Arthur Dent. When I was a kid, growing up in South Central Wisconsin , I think it is safe to say (and those who 'knew me when', would probably agree.) I really didn't "fit in". My vocabulary, sense of humor and interests where always very different from that of my peers. I was into Monty Python, The Goon Show, and Douglas Adams. I hosted my own local television show, I watched Doctor Who, listened to movie soundtracks and knew all the lyrics to songs by Gilbert and Sullivan. In short, I was a funny odd kid.
But like so many funny odd kids, I eventually found my own way. As a teenager, I moved to Germany, then back to Wisconsin for college. Then, in my 20's I moved to South Korea. From there, I found my way in my 30's to Chicago, and eventually, to here, in San Francisco. Now in my fourth decade, I find life is no less funny or odd. I fell in love, I got married, found a new job, and as a result, I am moving again. To London.
So as I sort and pack for this move. I am grateful for everything that the past seven years has given me. Along with that gratitude is a great deal of excitement. One of my favorite composers is Stephen Sondheim. In his musical "Sunday in Park with George", there is a great song about change, and the mixed feelings we often have when facing it. Like Arthur Dent, like George, this funny, odd kid... is looking forward, and is excited to Move On.
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