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Greetings!
 Well, spring is definitely here, in all its polinating glory. And with it comes a great opportunity for me to re-affirm a domestic skill at which I SUCK -
blowing the patio. I have a pretty big oak tree in the middle of my
backyard, and this time of year it casts off a million little thingies that
look sort of like caterpillars. I call them oak doodlies. They are
a total pain in the patootie, and if I don't keep the deck relatively free of
them, they can cause big problems with the deck drainage when it rains. I
learned this lesson very well last year.
Leroy, my yard guy and all around helper, usually keeps the deck
in good order, but when it's doodlie time, he'd have to be on duty 24/7 to keep up, a situation that neither of us is interested in. Soooooo, I
have to blow. For the life of me, I cannot figure out the subtleties of
this task. My four main "techniques" are to
- blow everything straight up
in the air,
- blow stuff back in the area that I have already "cleaned",
- blow
stuff back and forth without ever actually advancing, and
- blow stuff into the
pool.
I did slightly better today, since it was my second time and I
could draw from yesterday's mistakes. But let's just say that if there is
a prize for blowing, I will never get within 100 yards of winning it.
This distresses me, because I am a sales rep, and by nature we are
competitive. If there is a prize, we want to win it! Doesn't matter
what the reward is - we just need to WIN THAT PRIZE!
Anyhooo, I have a whole new appreciation for Leroy and his blowing skills, and at this point a raise is under consideration. Oh well, just another swell day in suburbia!
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Vote for Pride Grand Marshals
Deadline is April 7th - This Wednesday
 | Pride Houston is making it easy for everyone to vote for this year's Grand Marshals. All voting is being done on-line and it only takes a few minutes. The categories are Male, Female, Organization and Honorary. I'm thrilled to be among this year's nominees for Female Grand Marshal. You read learn more about the community contributions of each candidate by clicking here. It's not my style to campaign for a position that is an honor - not an office - but if you have found value in the things I've done for our community, then I'd be honored to have your vote! One note about the voting process: To help eliminate the possibility of ties, Pride forces you to select your first, second and third choices in each nominee category. Please note that the system will allow you to select the same person all three times. This is useful in situations where you have a strong opinion about your first choice, but might not have an opinion about the other candidates. It is also useful in situations where you feel strongly about your "A" candidate. And one final note: If you don't already have a favorite for Male Grand Marshal, please consider Gary Wood. He is a wonderful gentleman, a great asset to our community and a personal friend.
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Upcoming "Don't Miss" Events
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Be sure to check the Calendar page of Social Notes for more details on each of these fine events. You'll find time, dates, location, a description of the event, along with prices and a links where appropriate. Click on over so you'll be In The Know.
- Thursday, 4/8: Pride Houston Kick-Off Party an
 d Grand Marshal Announcement, at Momentum Audi
- Sunday, 4/11: Girl Jam 10 at The Usual
- Thursday, 4/15: Thursday Book Club meets at the Montrose Library
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"Save The Date" and purchase your tickets now for these future events!
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 Even though these events may be a few days/weeks down the road,
you need to buy your tickets and/or make your reservations NOW, girlfriend! You can find out all the details, including ticket purchase information, by visiting the Calendar Page of Social Notes
- May 1: Deadline for signing up to sit with Northwest Corner at the Pride In The Park Astros GLBT recognition event.
- Saturday, 4/24: Kindred Spirits Charity Golf Tournament
- Saturday, 4/24: Vickie Shaw performs in Houston
- Sunday, 4/25: Bitch in concert
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The Rant
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 Do Republicans even understand how democracy is supposed to work? Our guy won, your guy lost. Please try to master this concept and move on. Barack Obama was elected with 53% of the popular vote and 68% of the electoral votes. This is far more the George W. Bush managed to get in either of his wins. I understand that you don't like this fact (facts being optional in your world), but he is the legitimate president of the United States.
Obama ran on a platform that included health care reform. People understood this and voted for him because of it. Health care reform is a popular issue, although I can understand why you might think that it's not. First of all, if you only inhabit the small world of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Fox News, you believe that your beliefs make up the majority in this country, although they do not. And those "information" sources have spent the majority of their broadcast time in the past year, telling you fabulous lies about the bill.
Given all the mis-and dis-information that circulated, it's no wonder that some polls showed health care reform to be unpopular. But two interesting things about those polls: a healthy percentage of those who were unhappy with the bill were unhappy because it didn't go far enough! And the other thing of note is that whenever pollsters actually poll people on their support for the individual components of the bill, support goes way up.
Also, despite what the right would have you believe, this bill was not "rammed down our throats". The subject was debated for a year, and Republicans were given every opportunity to participate. They declined. For example, Obama held a meeting with repub leaders almost a year ago. They told him that tort reform was important to them. He said "OK. What are you willing to compromise on in order to get that in the final bill?" What followed was the sound of crickets chirping.
The Dems used legitimate and appropriate legislative processes and tools to get the bill passed in the face of unprecedented recalcitrance by the Republicans. Those same tools and processes had been used by the R side many times, yet the righties howled in protest when the tools were deployed by Dems. What rank hypocrisy.
And now the threats of violence are heating up - over an attempt to provide meaningful and affordable health care for all our citizens, for gods sakes. I'm not justifying violence on either side, but at least when the left was protesting violently back in the 60s, we were trying to stop and illegal and immoral war. The tea baggers are threatening murder simply because someone with a darker skin than theirs will have access to basic health care.
Palin, Limbaugh and Beck are not elected officials. They are free to spew their venom and make their not so veiled threats every day without recourse. But the Republican party leadership is not without blame here either. When John Boehner, House Majority Leader, calls health care reform the Apocalypse, he is inciting his low-information followers to extremes. When Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann says she wants her constituents to be "armed and dangerous", she deserves to be held accountable for any violence that follows. I could give you plenty more examples, but it makes my head hurt.
I don't see this ending well. The Right has totally abandoned any pretense of truth in its ceaseless propaganda, and its elected leaders have decided to abdicate their duties as lawmakers. Their followers, who are so eager to believe the worst about Obama and the democrats that they will swallow ANY lie, are becoming like a herd of spooked animals - one spark away from total panic and destructive action. Who within the Republican party has the sense, gravitas and respect to get this calmed down? No one that I can think of. Pretty depressing thought indeed.
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So Long!
 Well, that's all for this edition of Social Notes. Two final notes of an ourdoorsy nature. Loyal reader Greta is forming an all lesbian motorcycle club, called Chick Clique. Email her for more information.
Also, the Houston Women's Softball League has started its season, and they invite everyone to participate, either as players or spectators. They play on Sundays at Memorial #1.
Sincerely,
Carol Wyatt
Social Notes
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