Same old God,gun, and gays

In 2004 Howard Dean said in order for the democrats to pick up some votes in the south, they would have to stop talking about God, guns, and gays. Candidate Barack Obama was chastised by the press when he said the truth by saying "But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s no evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

It's no different in Victoria because our local paper's forum top subjects of the week are "God, guns, and gays."The state of Victoria's economy doesn't have a thing to do with these subjects being at the forefront.it has more to do with losing control in a culture war. I'm pretty sure the social conservatives have seen the trends in favor of gay-marriage, and they have kept up with Prop 8 in California. I'm sorry but gay-marriage should never be a ballot issue,all human issues should be handed in the courts. Following the discussions on gay-marriage is like driving on Lombard Street in San Francisco. Lombard Street in San Francisco is one of America's crookedest streets. The subject starts out with the typical conservative whine by saying that the Victoria Advocate story was left leaning. To the social conservative, anything left of Attila the Hun is left leaning. The subject drifts to polyandry, incest, bestiality, HIV Aids, and many other diversions. I'm surprised that waywardwind brought out the issue of the constitution. He is right but no one discussed it because the smokescreen was getting all the attention. The Federal government has no business in defining marriage. I believe the Supreme Court will look at the constitutionality of the “Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA)that was signed into law  by President Bill Clinton. The social conservatives are doing a good job with their smoke screens because I have not seen where visitation rights or the right to file a joint return being discussed. There are too many inconsistent conservatives. True to their conservative beliefs ,waywardwind and staunch conservative Ted Olson takes a quote from the 14th amendment (my favorite) "no State É shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person É the equal protection of the laws" to make their case. The other social conservatives' repeat "smaller government" over and over, except when it comes to the social issues.

I believe some conservatives would see nothing wrong with a man wanting to marry his gun. Mark my word, the" guns on college campuses" law is just the first step in making Texas an "Open carry" state. Why not have an up and down vote right now while the republicans have a very large majority. Get it off the agenda but it won't make one iota, because preventing mass murder by allowing everyone to pack guns is not a proven science. While it's true that the criminals already have all the guns they want; arming paranoid citizens will not scare off the criminal. If we could get a map showing us where the gun permits are being issued; I would bet most of are being issued on the north side; far away from the gang bangers they fear. I have looked at FBI statistics that show guns are rarely used in home defense. I can't remember a story in the Advocate where a gun was used to kill a burglar. I've heard fellow coworkers talk endlessly of the day that they would kill a burglar trying to get into their home. I know a lot of it is just talk, but I can't see myself shooting someone because they are stealing my lawn mower. I remember telling my fellow coworkers that I didn't even own a gun... They said that they would know what house to steal from. I left them speechless; I said" you're no better than the burglars." The bottom line is; people can have all the guns and ammunition the law allows but paranoid citizens with guns do not give me a sense of security. They can spend all day trying to convince people that an" armed society is a safe society" but they sound like a debt strapped husband trying to convince his wife that they need a $5,000 boat to lower the grocery bill.

I learned a long time ago that it is useless to argue with social conservatives that are locked in. Sure, you could spend endless hours debunking their arguments, but they'll have some fresh ones when you get through.........For example, after Sarah Palin's weird ficticious account of the Paul Revere's midnight ride ,supporters of Sarah Palin tried to rewrite the Wikipedia acoount of that ride, to fit Sarah Palin's account..Even after Chris Wallace gave her a chance to take back her account of the facts, Sarah Palin doubled down.....  Stephen Colbert had to show how it would be physically impossible to reload a front loaded musket and ring a bell,  while riding a horse at full gallop...He used a mechanical hobby horse....After all that,Chris wallance said she gave a a credible interview....  Compared to what?

Remembering Theodore

It's been two years since Theodore died but for some strange reason we always find little things here and there that remind us of a cat we called "Theo" for short, but I'm pretty sure he would've preferred Theodore; he was that kind of cat.

Several years ago when my children were still teenagers; my wife and I went on a vacation to New York City. When we got home our children introduced us to baby 'Theo," who just showed up at the front door soaking wet from the turbulent weather. My children still won't fess up as to how they really acquired Theodore. Today, when we ask them, they just laugh and give us two or three similar stories of the day they found him. All's well that ends well.

Theodore grew to be a 14 pound independent, antisocial, mongrel black cat; who just wanted to be fed, have his litter box cleaned, and left alone so he could get in his full 20 hours of sleep. He let our other cat know who the boss was by throwing her around like a rag doll when he is in a rare playful mood. When the children left home, they said “now Theodore and dad can retire together." They weren't kidding and we have a picture of Theodore sleeping in one recliner and me in the other recliner watching a ballgame, to prove it.

We decided just to have a couple of cats in our golden years because they are supposed to be low maintenance. Theodore was anything but that because his only priority was to find a way to get outside. It was funny watching him hide, situate his back feet, and use his whiskers to gauge precisely how much room he needed between the person who opened that door and his freedom. Theodore was a neutered declawed cat, but once he got out, he would run off strange dogs and cats by just hissing. We knew that he wouldn't last long as an outside cat. It was always an adventure when he got out and at times expensive. Since he was a black cat, it was easy for him to hide, so we had to buy a spotlight to find him when he got out at night. There was a time when we didn't realize he was outside. This one rainy day, I heard a thumping on the backyard patio door; it was Theodore wanting in. The most memorable moment was when Theodore got out, climbed the tree and jumped from there to the roof of our house. He must've been content and it probably was amusing for him, watching from above, as we called out for him. About 45 minutes, into the search, my younger daughter spotted him, and then the adventure really began. It was as if he was deaf because he never reacted to us pleading for him to get down. He had some shade, so he wasn't in a hurry to get down. My neighbor didn't have an extension ladder, so I had to go buy one but that wasn't going to be my biggest problem. Here I was; an out- of -shape retiree who had to depend on two people who had never held a ladder, as my supporting team. I finally got him and brought him down by holding him in my left arm and navigating my way down with the other arm, and the only worries my family  had,was that I would drop him.

Theo lived 17 years but his last year on earth was not pretty. He became friendlier in his last year but his arthritis had become so severe that he couldn't climb the steps to be with us at night. He would just get on the coffee table and roar until I finally gave in, picked him up and carried him upstairs. It was painful watching him walk down the stairs. It was the last month that we will never forget. Theo started hiding under the bed and in the spare room downstairs. He was not eating or using his litter box. We took him to one vet, who said he was dehydrated needed to be forced fed. After two weeks, he was still the same, so I decided to take into another vet where I insisted on an X-ray or anything else that would pinpoint his problem. It was then that we got the bad news that he had been suffering from liver cancer, and here we were ,forcing him to live like that. I still remember the day when our grown children and grandchildren came by to say goodbye to Theodore. He lay there, lifeless in his carrier allowing everyone to pet him and to say their goodbyes. Theodore was just an old black cat who mysteriously showed up at our door one day, but little did we know he would leave a lot of memories.