hi, i've been slacking with online stuff (work is crazed and killing me), but...

went to Madrid and Seville in March--pics here

Mad03269

And these are just wonderful--love them!-- Jorge Bispo's pics--

VESTIDO DE NOIVA

sorry i haven't updated this in so long

but i just got back from Rome! it was wonderful--i was there for a week...

i'm slowly uploading all the pics to my flickr account here (it'll take a while)  : >

there are also pics there from my Tokyo and Cologne trips

Romeargentina12

Part 2: Former AFA columnist Joe Murray answers your questions

... As for the larger issue of homophobia, it is clear that throughout a large portion of the “family values” world there is a fear of homosexuals. This fear almost borders on paranoia, for many believe that gays are out to recruit the young and overrun the culture. Any advance made by gays, thus, is a loss for Christendom. It is my belief that this zero sum mentality has been interwoven into AFA’s fabric, and the fabric of most “pro-family” groups. ...

History has been made, folks! SJR-7, the proposed amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage and civil unions, has been defeated in committee. The amendment is dead.

Think Progress rocks, and this is a great idea--spread the word!

ThinkProgress Fellows will be drawn directly from our readership and other progressive blogs, and will become an integral part of our team — writing for ThinkProgress and the Progress Report e-newsletter, monitoring media outlets and conducting other research projects.

Fellows will serve six-month terms, receive a monetary stipend ($3,000), and travel to Washington D.C. for a weekend of training at the Center for American Progress. You’ll be asked to work about 20 hours/week, and you don’t need to reside in Washington.

Applying is easy: just fill out this application and submit it to tpfellows@americanprogressaction.org by April 30. You can also email that address with questions.

Marine Times:

Sanchez investigation wraps up today

The Corps on Friday was slated to wrap up an investigation into allegations that a corporal in the Individual Ready Reserve who appeared in gay porn films before enlisting solicited more than $12,000 from private organizations by asking them to fund a deployment to Iraq he never made, according to e-mails from the investigating officer forwarded to Marine Corps Times. ...

very interesting, from Pam at Pandagon --

Murray speaks out against homophobia and hypocrisy

youtube -- i love love her, and this song--i had never heard this version of it--amazing.

and a recent speech she gave in the UK-- We're in this together

There's this seesaw we've been trapped in since Nixon--one where the GOP runs up massive deficits and trashes trust in law and government as a force for good, then us Democrats have to come in and clean up but can't make real progress because of all the damage done, then the GOP comes back in and does the same thing again, then we have to come in and clean up again, etc...

I don't see an end to it, and i find it impossible to reconcile with any sort of real progress occuring, or even a halting of the reversals. It seems that we've been going backwards since the 70s, and watching the rest of the world go forward.

Each succeeding generation--as a result of this trashing, then cleaning, etc--has less faith in government as a force for good, and cynicism grows and grows so that even small improvements seem out of reach, let alone big things like universal health, or better lifelong public education, clean energy, etc.

Can it be stopped? We're stuck in it for 08 for sure.

just out of this world wonderful

Lullabies from the Axis of Evil

Various Artists

Sorry i haven't posted in a while--work's been crazed...ugh....