Such a mess... sad!

I made mention over on FB about what is either Trump's latest disconnect with reality or else just his latest distraction.  Truly, only a bit of time will tell what this salvo, against Obama rather than the media, will actually reveal whatever the motivations.  If there is a good thing about it, then it would be that this is an interview and not a leak.  Mr. Trump has had more than enough leaks, though I look forward to each additional leak, and how it shows light on the workings (or malfunctions) of his administration.  I have always thought Donald Trump was little more than a showman in the PT Barnum model, and he has yet to prove me wrong.  At this point, his decision to pull out of the Press Dinner (due to his thin skin and dislike of their gall in actually reporting news unflattering to him) is likely a smart one, and John Oliver of The Daily Show commented that it was the best thing he has done since the inauguration.

The short film «Bald Guy» / «Skallamann»

Because sometimes you just need a smile.  Whether this version has subtitles or not is pretty irrelevant, as this is song and dance for no other reason but to have a good time, I mean they are singing about a guy making out with a bald guy.

Dorothy Parker and other things

Prior to sending my niece my old copy of "The Portable Dorothy Parker," I found some used books online and ordered them for myself.  Both came wrapped in plastic like comic books at a comic shop, and while I have already opened and read a few from the poetry book, I also look forward to exploring her short stories anew once I break into that one.  I currently have so much going on book-wise that I fear I will never make it through everything.

Farce President Trump is really making me hope that he can find some legal ground to deport me so I no longer am required to identify as an American.  The man is a terror to our allies and a blessing to our enemies.  If ISIS needs a recruiting tool, then Farce President Trump will step up and make himself and his hateful rhetoric available.  ISIS has never had a better spokesman than Trump.  Oh Allah's faithful, listen to the words of Trump, surely such a bigot will inspire you.

I need to start writing other things again.  These updates where I am nothing but a bit upset with things must be getting as boring to read as they are uninspiring to write.

ReHash of FB (Enemy of the People)

Oh man, I so want to keep using the phrase "Enemy of the People" just over and over ad nauseam, because really what else is there to do as a blogger, revel in the "Enemy of the People" status that Trump has bestowed upon you, and just keep going.  Truth or not, "Enemy of the People" is indeed the newest thing from Trump, and I will need to venture over to CafePress to get myself the appropriately marked coffee mug.

Trump and his "Enemy of the People" were actually not my intention today, but after a few beers, it seemed a perfectly adequate topic.  As I said on FB, for a country that was founded by illegal immigrants, we seem to take a dim view on them today, which can even be construed in a worse fashion when you consider that Thanksgiving is supposed to be a holiday where we recognize those of the first peoples who lost so much when they showed the newcomers from across the see a bit of basic kindness.  Kindness you have to wonder if they are regretting when you consider the treaties broken and then the fact we want to shove the Dakota Access Pipeline onto them.  It really must be nice to be a caucasian who actually doesn't give a shit, and maybe someday I will become one of them, but it isn't now.

"Life Itself", the biopic

I am not sure how many people have seen the "Life Itself" biography currently playing on Netflix, but I would highly recommend it.  The film is fun and it gives a remarkable progression of how Roger Ebert changed as a man, and as he grew, both older and wiser.  For some of us, who remember the PBS series, don't always remember that he was unable to speak in his last years, and for someone known for both his written and spoken word, that couldn't have been easy.  One thing that constantly catches me off guard in the documentary is that you can see thru Roger's jaw, and that the surgeons basically left the jaw flap for nothing but aesthetic purposes.

I forgot

Since it seems President Trump approves of blogs as journalism (see those allowed into press conferences), then I guess, since I seldom approve or say nice things about him, I may have been elevated to an "enemy of the people" which seems to be his defacto term for the who publish unfavorable things about him.  I find it interesting that if Fox News isn't careful, they will be tarred with that brush as well.  It also sounds like Breitbart found one of its editors in trouble recently.  Considering how unpalatable I consider Milo, if he really is for that sort of thing, he really deserves to lose his publishing contract.  He likes to inflame people and he doesn't consider how he does it until it is too late.  The hit to the bank account may make him a bit more thoughtful, whether he really believes the crap he spews or not.

Before too many days go pass

I feel as if I don't get some sort of update here, then I will end up neglecting what so far is a pleasantly revitalized blog.  Anyway, this weekend at work, aside from work, I did manage to start Ocean Vuong's Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which is a book of poetry, rather than a novel.  While I haven't found something easy to share, I can say that it is powerful.  The poems in it so far don't seem good for me to take extracts from, but I refuse to try and copy whole pages, especially when I have to manually type them.

On a less esoteric scale, I also read Wolfmanny by Julia Talbot, of which I can say it was pleasant with an overdose of cute.  I really should have expected the cute, considering it dealt with a shifter manny taking care of five kids.  More than anything, if she plans to expand the series, then she set a good solid base, and hopefully there will be a bit less cute as things progress.  Not a bad mm romance, but one beset with the trials of child players stealing the scene.

I still need to get the John Donne posted over here, but that isn't for just now, and I am sure Mr. Donne did not mean polyamory when he wrote it, though in this day and age, it is something that can be read into the piece.

When Half the Poem is by a different Poet

I don't know if I am just slow, lazy, or moody about when I read the book, but I am still working on Carlos Pintado's Nine Coins/Nueve monedas.  Amongst those read today included "Portico":

I know that in my life's last moment,

that line of Walt Whitman's will come to me:

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy

walks to his own funeral . . . 

Considering how many entries I have made regarding Whitman, it only seemed sensible to share this as well.

Just sneaking in a posting for today

Happy Valentine's Day, for those who enjoy the holiday.  I have been so perpetually single, that I no longer worry about it, and tend to forget about it.  No hard feelings with the holiday, just not something I have spent any time enjoying for a very long while.

I did do laundry today, which is what I consider my accomplishment for the day.  Clean clothing is a nice valentine to myself, and my co-workers will be pleased that my clothes don't bear that need to be cleaned stench (though I have a desk job, so that really isn't an issue).

That is pretty much it.  I seem to think the futility of posts like this is probably why this blog keeps going dormant.  If not the reason, it was probably a contributing factor, since I am sometimes one of those annoying all or nothing sorts.

Reminded of Neruda (and other thoughts)

In the February 6, 2017 issue of The New Yorker, I found a poem by Charles Simic that reminded me a great deal of Neruda's The Book of Questions.  I know I have quoted some of the Neruda poetry in the past, so I will spare myself more exercises in transcribing, since those poems are in a physical book for me, rather than electronic.  I think the fifth line of Simic's poem, "Does the sound of the surf remind it of itself?" is probably what the parallel most strongly to mind.

Aside from feeling vaguely unsettled, likely due to a lack of exercise in my daily regimen, there is little to report.  I spent the weekend at work, reading a bit of this and that as I had time.  I will say, electronic readers are great for allowing that, with John Donne (I am reminded there is a poem I wanted to share, but that will be another entry), John Milton, TE Lawrence, and Walt Whitman all authors that I read bits and pieces from.  I also did some browsing of the news, looking for anything I might have missed during the week.  From the latter, I did find this interesting piece in Slate in which the author talks about how the Trump administration is using calls of "Fake News" as a the equivalent of a schoolyard taunt to distract the media and put them on the defensive.

Synchronicity in Reading

Not long ago I read Donald Platt's poem "The Main Event," which is about a boxing match from 1962 between Benny "Kid" Paret and Emile Griffith.  The match is a grizzly affair with the referee stopping the match, a bit belatedly, as Paret is hung on the ropes and beaten ferociously.  Paret eventually dies.  I highly recommend the poem, and it can be found in The Best American Poetry 2015, though it was originally published in Southwest Review.

Shortly after reading this, as I was reading Tales of Beatnik Glory by Ed Sanders, I came across a chapter/short story that mentioned the same fight, "The AEC Sit-In."  The fight was used in a different way in the story, but I found it interesting that I read two unrelated works that just happened to mention the same unfortunate boxing match.

I guess the more you read, the more you discover these things, and I guess if i wanted to be properly clever I could compare and contrast the authors' use of the fight, but I don't care to be properly clever right now, as it is Monday morning, and I am winding down from work, and not mentally up for such an exercise after working all night.

I feel like I need to post

Oddly, I want to add something to the blog, but after waking up far too late today, I don't have that much to add, since I spent the day playing Elder Scrolls Online.  I thought I had gone to bed early enough last night, so that I would wake up at noon-ish or thereabouts, but instead, slept well until closer to 3p.  I need to renew my work ID and I thought if I were up at noon, then I could do it, without getting stuck in traffic and all that rot.  Now, regardless of snow or whatever, snow being why I did not renew it this past Monday morning, I will need to head over to the badging office Monday morning to take care of things.  The place isn't open on weekends, and it closes well before my start time on Fridays.  That is my vent on my over-sleeping, because I can't very well blame it on anything other than me not setting an alarm.

There might be something later when I have moved from checking out the day's news (yay! the courts upheld the stay) to reading the various books and magazines sitting around the house.  I still need to finish January's "Poetry" and have February's issue waiting in the wings.  There is also "Nine Coins" and the latest "Juxtapoz," not to mention Whitman, Ashberry, and the Library of America volume on Art in America.  So much to read, and I haven't even ventured into the fiction.

A link to a poem and thoughts (on what, I am not sure)

I found this great poem by Jameson Fitzpatrick in January's "Poetry" magazine, and I think you should give it a read.  I decided it would be too difficult to just take a section of it and post, so that is why I linked the whole thing.  Considering how things in this blog have progressed, linking it is likely political.

I was looking, but couldn't find it quickly, so I will either forget about it or search later for the line of Whitman I was seeking, one where he sees no difference in the young men sent to war by either side during the Civil War.  It will probably haunt me until I can find it and share it.

Speaking of Whitman, "Long, Too Long America" is one I transcribed onto my FB feed.  I got several likes, and then of course someone decided to make the poem political, and said the screaming was from liberals or some such thing.  After a calm comment from me about one beauty of poetry was that people could interpret it as they will, especially when the author is long gone.  This earned another response of some sort, and I eventually said:

The fact you immediately jumped to something derogatory and negative in your interpretation of the poem, while I was basically using it as a reminder that this country has been divided before, and that we made it through once, and will again, means we really don't see the world in the same way, and our perspectives aren't likely to jibe often. Whitman's war poetry is filled with the blood of young soldiers, and the horrors daily seen, and so there are lamentations also included, but there is also the hope that we will come out whole as a country, and this hope is what carries the poems.  

After that, there was little more to be said, and he did sort of apologize.  Perhaps we are so polarized because we not everyone is willing to compromise on their vision for this country, a country that has historically and consistently demonized immigrants, but has somehow managed to keep accepting them.  We are a country of immigrants, and to deny that is to deny history, and to claim that immigrants have always been openly accepted is also to deny history, since just prior to WWII the US refused to allow a ship of Jewish refugees to disembark.  History is dark and sometimes unpleasant, and though they claim it is written by the winners, we all lose if the other voices are completely silenced.  With the current methods terrorists seem to enjoy, I think a thorough vetting of immigrants is fair and just, and that vetting got even more thorough when it was discovered some were allowed into the country, only to have them attempt to send money to terrorist organizations.  Slowing the process down and increasing the scrutiny was a valid answer, banning people outright fleeing from countries at war is not a measured answer, it is a panic answer that does no good, but does manage to alienate our allies, and make life infinitely more difficult for those fleeing their homes.

Ironically, VP Pence is staunchly pro-life, but a dead three year old boy lying on a beach deserves nothing because he is muslim?  Something tells me that VP Pence is only pro-life if there is a chance the child will be brought up as a good Christian.

Gilli again... but it should be the end of it, until he publishes a new book

Gillibran Brown, houseboy and sub to two remarkably patient men.  I finished all of his published works this past weekend, though I have yet to completely read all of his website diaries.  The boy is an incredible mass of emotions fighting through his traditional upbringing to make themselves known.  While I don't actually expect a pleasant tome, the next book of his memoirs should be interesting as it will deal with his mother's passing and how he dealt with her request to sing her father's favorite song at her funeral.  Both of these were foreshadowed in the last two volumes, as well as how he deal with the box of memories she gifted him on her last Christmas.  All of that creates an emotional minefield for someone whose emotions carry on at a heightened level anyway, so I am curious as to how him and his men handled the situation.  Either he has removed the actual events from his blog, or he never reported them there, but I am curious.

A friend of mine mentioned that over on Goodreads there is a group of folk who discuss whether Gillibran Brown is actually a real person, and to them I have no solid reply, but instead think that it doesn't really matter.  While Gore Vidal meant the comment as a slight to Anais Nin, I do think that if Gillibran Brown doesn't exist exactly as he portrays himself in his memoirs, then his memoirs are indeed his greatest bit of fiction.  The Gilli portrayed has so many qualms and tends to be straight-forward with the reader as to what is going on in his mind, that even if everything is not as presented, everything was certainly as interesting as presented.  A good friend of mine has the ability to present the most everyday sort of story in such a fashion that you laugh out loud, so Gilli having the same ability wouldn't surprise me.

The last full book, dealing with Christmas at Leo's, I really thought showed a side of Gilli we haven't seen much.  I really enjoyed the interaction with Pat, who for lack of a better description could be termed an aging or aged queen.  Gilli reached out, Pat reached back, and I hope Pat shows up as a support in the next book, though, if based on real life, there is no telling if that will happen.  Pat has the experience and respect of the others so that when he defends Gilli, they actually listen.  While Gilli can be over the top, Pat being a sympathetic ear, and someone who I think Gilli connected with was a nice change, since Gilli does seem to have issues with so many people, and, even more remarkable, was that Gilli reached out even when he thought he had been dismissed by Pat.  While I hope to read more about how Gilli dealt with all the impending horrible events in his life, I hope for a respite from all of that with Pat showing some support for him.  Anyway, that is how I want things to play out, but life isn't always like that, so who know how his memoir will play out until he releases it.

A bit from "Paradise Lost"

As I was reading the news this past weekend, I came across this rather striking image.  Is it overblown or a premonition?  Only time will tell, but I also happened to be reading a bit more of "Paradise Lost" this weekend as well, and came across this near the end of book 1 in Milton's poem:

He spake: and to confirm his words, out-flew 
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze   
Far round illumin’d hell: highly they rag’d 
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
Clash’d on thir sounding 
Shields the din of war, 
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav’n.

          -Milton, John (2012-10-13). Delphi Complete Works of John Milton (Illustrated) (Kindle Locations 3025-3028). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

This cover, in addition to how Trump has behaved towards the judiciary this past week, as well as his treatment of the press, and his general disregard for the US Constitution, I think compelled my brain to draw that comparison with Mammon.

Gradual Discovery

Over on FB, there is someone I went to high school with, and he is on the opposite side of the political spectrum, which isn't an uncommon occurrence, especially considering I went to high school in Southern Indiana.  Regardless, he posted some story about Tom Brady being threatened with a public flogging if he didn't recant his friendship with Donald Trump.  I asked if he was serious about such a story, and then said that Tom Brady, like any entertainer, is allowed to speak his political views, and the fallout from them is between him and his fans, like it would be any entertainer.  The comment back was something about it being from the left, and he was confused.  I am not quite sure what happened, as I was there supporting someone's right to an opinion, and if they choose to be vocal about that opinion, then they should accept the fallout, and I didn't care whether the opinion was from the left or right.  I am not going to follow up comments on that chain because it really seems that even when I agree with this person, in this case allowing an entertainer the right to their opinion, I am somehow in the wrong by not condemning those who disagree with it?  I know my English isn't that bad, but for some reason I think we are speaking different languages.

[I do consider professional athletes entertainers, since they use their talents to entertain via sport.]

More Whitman

His Civil War poetry seems to strike a chord with me currently.  Here is another:

LONG, TOO LONG AMERICA.

Long, too long America,Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only,But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not,And now to conceive and show to the world what your children en-masse really are,(For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?)

- Whitman, Walt; Gilchrist, Anne (2014-02-20). The Complete Walt Whitman: Drum-Taps, Leaves of Grass, Patriotic Poems, Complete Prose Works, The Wound Dresser, Letters (Kindle Locations 1384-1393). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.

I found something from "Paradise Lost" I intend to share as well, but since I had already posted this to FB, I figured it would make more sense to do this one today, with the other used at a later date. One nice thing about poetry is that it allows us to remember that what we face today is little but a different aspect of what has been faced in the past, no less pernicious, and no less unpleasant, but not something completely new.

Edit: I attempted to correct formatting on this but I didn't succeed. Rather than fuss with it forever, I am just going to leave it.

Walt's words work well

YEAR THAT TREMBLED AND REEL'D BENEATH ME.   

Year that trembled and reel'd beneath me! 
Your summer wind was warm enough, yet the air I breathed froze me, 
A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken'd me, 
Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself, 
Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baffled? 
And sullen hymns of defeat?

          --Whitman, Walt; The Complete Walt Whitman: Drum-Taps, Leaves of Grass, Patriotic Poems, Complete Prose Works, The Wound Dresser, Letters (Kindle Locations 1292-1298). Bybliotech. Kindle Edition.

I came across this poem yesterday, and liked it, and thought it terribly apropos of the current situation.

Gilliflowers, again.

I still have 25% of the book to finish, but one thing I do like about this book is how Gilli portrays his own fight against acceptance of his epilepsy and his partners' acceptance and work on mitigating and minimizing its impact.  I doubt anyone wants to admit they have a condition as potentially debilitating as epilepsy is becoming more active rather than less as they grow older, so I can't fault Gilli in his single minded pursuit that it isn't that big a deal.  Personally, I wouldn't like the fuss over it either, so I genuinely get his point.  One thing about this book is that it takes place over a short period of time, and, since I haven't finished it, I have yet to find out how that plays out.  What I do appreciate about this memoir is how he portrays his denial of the condition while his lover impose ever more restrictive conditions to try and minimize it.  He isn't on board and he is in denial, but he wants the relationship and he respects his partners enough to make a go of it, and while not always pleasant, his attempts give the reader some insight into what is in his mind.  No one wants to be an epileptic, and no one wants to be seen as a medical condition rather than a person, so I am really hoping Gilli makes peace at some point before the end of this book, though from friends, and from a bit of HS English Lit (can we say foreshadowing), I am guessing he will have more than just his epilepsy to work through before the end.

For the record, I did go over to Smashwords and pick up the rest of his books, since his website mentions them first, rather than Amazon.

Charlie Cochet's "Thick & Thin"

I really should have mentioned this yesterday before chatting about Gilli.  Anyway, in Ms Cochet's latest THIRDS novella she does a nice job of wrapping things up prior to the next book, which is focused on a couple other than Dex & Sloane, who have been the main concern for most of the series,  though others have occasionally taken the spotlight.  I believe she mentioned something about wanting to separate this out so it didn't distract from that storyline, and I am glad she did.  If you have forgotten some of the details my friend Cheryl assures me that Ms Cochet does a nice job in recapping them for you.  I didn't have the same continuity issues, so I will say that Ms Cochet's recap did not distract from the story at hand.  This is a novella that plays out events that happened at the end of book 7, and sets up the next book to be relatively tidy, rather than distracting from that story with the revelations detailed here, because this book combined with the next would do nothing but distract from those details.  If I were cynical I could say it is a play for money, but I am not quite that bad, and I do think what happens in this story would seriously distract from whatever story she has set up for Seb & Hudson, and I think she was correct in her decision to make this its own story, however unconventional the storyline.  I would also advise that if you haven't read any of this series, then this is not the book to start with.  Start with book 1, "Hell & High Water" and if you like it, continue on, as this isn't a series that, as yet, I haven't seen quality issues with.  With the exception of two books, the series focuses on two main characters and is constantly developing the secondary characters, such as the aforementioned Seb & Hudson.  The books require a suspension of disbelief into Ms Cochet's scientific logic for shifters, and they also require you not to be squeamish when gay sex is described, but overall, for this sort of genre fiction, I think she does a marvelous job, and this novella does exactly what she expected, which is wrap up consequences from book 7 while prepping readers for book 9.  Due to the emotional rollercoaster these characters experience, I also don't see any issue breaking this out, because by doing so, Ms Cochet allowed the emotional requirements at the end of book 7 to shine as they needed, and not be lost in an epilogue.

So this isn't exactly a book review, but I did read it, and enjoy it, and would suggest it to others who have enjoyed the series.

Venting a little...

OK, let's get some ugliness off my chest.  First off, I do not think that everything President Obama did was wonderful.  Contrary to the Republicans though, I do not think his entire agenda was wrong and should be undone as quickly as possible.  Starting with medical care, do we live in a country that actually believes everyone doesn't deserve affordable medical care?  By affordable, I don't mean that getting cancer leaves you a choice of treatment which will bankrupt you, or choosing no treatment, because it will leave your family in better financial position.  I recall reading that "for profit" medical centers have a higher issue of welfare fraud than "non profit," and if this is true, perhaps the government is wrong in just looking at insurance as a solution.  (This link isn't the article I had in mind, which was read a bit ago, but shows the various medical frauds from 2015, both of the insurance industry and medicare.  It also doesn't say which are for profit or non profit.  Regardless, the amount of fraud is staggering.)  Since all the fraud mentioned in that article wasn't just against medicare, but also against insurance companies, it isn't something that can simply be put to government incompetence, as private industry has a problem with it as well.

Back to my original point, do we really want to live in a country that can't or won't provide basic medical care to people.  Broken bones happen, but for fast food workers or retail employees, if they don't happen at work, prior to the Affordable Care Act, they didn't make the money to pay for treatment without going into significant debt.  I know a lot of people bitch and moan about the minimum wage, but if you are working for it, there isn't much chance that you are saving anything, after rent, utilities, and food, and if you are saving for something, an accident will put you back at nothing, whether that money was for school, a vacation, or, ironically, helping out family with medical bills.  Republicans began to really get an earful after the election, and while they are still going to try and dismantle the programs, their voters at least have them doing it with a bit more thought and a bit less glee.  They care about the vote, not the voter, which is to say they don't really care.

Another gross example of not caring is Trump executive order on immigration.  He did not vet this with the agencies involved and he did not think about how it would impact our allies, or those living, working, and studying in this country.  He didn't care and just made his proclamation, with the fallout damaging pretty much everything.  Follow that up with his conversation with the Australian PM, in which he argued about a refugee agreement Obama had made.  The agreement, according to the Australian PM, was for 1250 refugees to be accepted in the US after proper vetting.  Trump was arguing 2000, which is a significant overstatement.  Trump does have a way of exaggerating things.  While the women's march was a scheduled event, last weekend's spontaneous airport protests were brought on by Trump's callous handling of immigration regulations.

Government has almost always been accused of being cold and faceless, insisting on the regulations, regardless of if they made sense.  Trump is giving his face to this ugly bureaucracy by showing no care whatsoever for his actions or their consequences.  He has a steep learning curve, and he is still carping about Schwarzenegger and his "The Apprentice" ratings.

I guess that is it for now, though I may try to write something a bit later about something other than politics.  In my opinion, since private industry was unable to affordable insure all Americans, then the government does have the obligation to step in.  We are not a pure capitalist society, because if we were the robber barons and monopolists from the nineteenth & early twentieth century would still have their mini empires; instead, we are a mixed system, capitalist principles tempered by government restrictions, lest we live in a  polluted world working 80 hours weeks for below a living wage.  Americans are better than that, and our government needs to be as well.

Couldn't sleep (so I got out of bed and read)

I was having one of those nights, where I wanted to go to bed early, and if you work nights, 2:30am is early, but then couldn't sleep, and after an hour or so, I got up.  Chamomile tea seemed in order.  I did have a bit of it, and am on my second mug now, and I do think I will sleep fine once I finish it, and this entry.  Being all Trumped out, I opted not to focus my reading on current events, and instead picked up a semi-humorous memoir, "Gilliflowers," instead.  Gillibran Brown website can be found here.  Gilli is very effective at translating his smart mouth to the page, and as he calls out his more obvious exaggerations, it does serve as a device to make you wonder about the rest.  Anyway, being out of the UK and writing the books via blog means there are always new phrases I am not accustomed to, and he is kind enough to explain them.  There is also the fun of seeing words on the page that I haven't seen many recent writers use, during today's reading "slattern" caught my attention, and gave me a giggle.  Of course, what would comments about a book be without something political, and here is Gilli's view:

"I hate talking politics, especially with business people. The business class tends to view politics as something that should only relate to their personal profit margins, as opposed to something that should benefit mankind in general."

             - Brown, Gillibran (2012-09-19). Gilliflowers, Bonds of Affection, Memoirs of a Houseboy 2008 (p. 113). Houseboy Works/Gillibran Brown. Kindle Edition. 

Actually the author recently had a kerfuffle with readers when he voiced his displeasure with both Brexit and Trump -- just because he writes fiction, does not mean he isn't allowed his opinion, though some of his readers didn't appreciate him sharing that opinion.  Chiming in here, I am glad he expressed his opinion, as much as anything else because as a writer, writing is safe form of venting, so he doesn't keep all that frustration and feeling of impotence locked up.  It is why I share any number of articles regularly on Facebook & Google+, because it is a way to share my concerns.  His readers don't need to agree with him politically, just like you don't need to like the political beliefs of any actor or musician.  You might wish they would keep their trap shut, but don't call them names because they were sharing their views.

I think I will have to face that if I am actually going to write here regularly, this will be about what I am reading, whether poetry, gay fiction, or to some degree the news, though I will try to push that off to other social media.

Wow...

I am constantly amazed at how people view the world, or perhaps I should say view the world via the political/religious lens.  Facebook today took me into that uncomfortable territory where when I compared the fundamentalist sects of Christianity and Islam, I was told that is was basically irrelevant because a lot of Christian sects have reached out GLBTQ folks.  I am doing what I can to keep an open mind and argue reasonably, specifically mentioning that I said "fundamentalist" rather than referring to either as a whole, but it didn't seem to do any good, because the person I was conversing with thought I was stretching the fundamentalist aspect.  ISIL/ISIS is a fundamental sect of Islam, and comparing them to similar hate filled sects of Christianity is only proper.   Neither is accurately reflecting their faith, and both deserve to be discussed because of that.

I don't consider Mom's Methodist Church to be fundamentalist at all, so don't take my condemnation of that group as to being relevant to her or her faith.