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Thoughts regarding Sheriff Paul Babeu

When this first broke, I thought that I wasn’t going to comment on it. I changed my mind after watching this news conference.

On several of the blogs that I read, there have been really shocking and horrific comments made about the sheriff. The most venomous and unfair remarks I’ve read were from blogs that cater to the gay world. Even the comments in blogs of the religious right weren’t as hostile.

This left me wondering what about this man had generated such venom. So when I saw a link to this news conference if figured I’d have my morning coffee and see what this guy could possibly say that would generate so much anger from the gay community.

This is a long video. I like a lot of what this man says. Those items we disagree on… well nobody’s perfect!

Sheriff Paul Babeu Press Conference from Paul Babeu on Vimeo.

Several things struck me about this guy.

He strikes me as genuine.

He’s doing his best to hold it together during a very public exposure of his sexuality. He comes across as a very private person and having something as personal as your sexual behavior splattered across the world wide news machine has to be difficult. I give him credit for hanging in there.

Sheriff Babeu explains his life philosophy pretty well. He says he’s a man of duty, and that duty and honor are both at the top of his priorities even when duty and honor may result in personal difficulties. He points out that he’s never lied about being gay. From another published comment attributed to Sheriff Babeu, He’s also never worn being gay on his sleeve.

Sheriff Babeu explains why he contacted an attorney to represent him in a disagreement with Jose. One of the things that caught my attention later in the news conference is that Sheriff Babeu refused to discuss the particulars of the relationship. It’s hard to make out but I think one of the reporters off camera asks something about the length of time the relationship lasted and when it ended. Sheriff Babeu only responds, “prior to September” and goes no further.

The Sheriff states a couple of times that he’s a single man, and that he’s done nothing wrong or illegal in dating other adults. At one point the Sheriff tells someone in the crowd that the minute details of his personal life aren’t anyones business. The person in the crowd doesn’t like that answer but quiets down pretty quickly.

During the whole interview I saw nothing but a guy dealing with a tough situation with a commendable amount of grace under pressure. Hell, I’d vote for him.

Sheriff Babeu didn’t come across as a racist,  hatemonger, liar, or abuser of power. So I was still at a loss to understand why the gay community as represented on the mainstream gay blogs were so hateful in their comments about this guy.

Then the Sheriff addresses the allegation that he threatened to have Jose deported.

AH HA! Here we go, THE HOT BUTTON ISSUE! Immigration…

Because every gay person should be completely happy with, and supportive of illegal immigrants. (Even though a large percentage of them are devoutly Catholic and by church doctrine are opposed to gay rights)

Sheriff Babeu says that he didn’t threaten Jose with deportation, and goes on to say that to his knowledge Jose’s immigration status was the same as anyones.

The commenters on the gay blogs and some of the blog sites themselves have locked onto this single allegation and in one of the most  hypocritical twists of logic have tried, convicted, and condemned Sheriff Babeu without any evidence whatsoever.

How can the gay community demand justice, freedom, and equality while at the same time stomping all over those very principals?

Sheriff Babeu, is an example of both what is right … and wrong in this country.

Here’s a guy that just lives his life. He works, contributes, serves his country, serves, his community, dates, and has bad breakups. He’s no different than any of the rest of the people in this country. In fact he’s the ultimate guy next door.

Here’s whats wrong in this country.

By saying “I’m Gay”, somehow all the contributions this man has made are thrown into question. Many people, in politics, the media, and some in the communities he serves will now look at Sheriff Babeu differently and few, will even seek to limit his freedoms.

Is it any wonder at all that folks like the Sheriff work so hard to keep their private lives private?

Our society creates and reinforces an environment where your choices are;

Be gay, open, honest…. And stigmatized… In corporate America, You’ll never gain promotions, achieve anything of note, or move up the corporate ladder to success. In the political arena, with few exceptions you’ll have to be a Democrat, can’t be conservative, and will probably not be taken seriously and therefore your career will always be limited. OR Hide.

Given those options which would you choose?

I hope that Sheriff Babeu is a tough as nails. I think the next few weeks are going to be very hard on him.

I sincerely hope that his friends continue to rally around him and that he’s never lacking for support.

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I shouldn’t write anything when I’m sick, EVER!

I really shouldn’t write blog entries when I’m sick.

I wrote a blog on Thursday, then posted it yesterday and as I read it today, I thought “Damn I sound like a crazy person”.

I got lucky. According to the “read count” no-one had read it yet. So I pulled it safely back to draft status.

If in fact anyone did read it … apologies. I’m not really that crazy…

I will probably rework the posting and then repost it. Some of the post is valid, but I honestly don’t remember writing the last half of it.

Obviously I was pissed off when writing the post, I’m not sure exactly how much of my anger was just from being sick and how much was real.  Admittedly I get worked up pretty easily. So it’s possible it’s 50/50.

On the other hand sometimes when I write stuff while I’m sick it’s just DAMN strange.

There is part of me that says fuck it! Leave it posted as is and give people an insight into my strangely twisted mind.

As I re-read the post, it comes through loud and clear that I don’t like users. I don’t like people that take advantage of me. I really don’t like people who won’t help themselves. And finally I don’t particularly trust my current neighbors.

I suppose the bottom line is that I really want to live in a community where we all work together. My little corner of my little town used to be that kind of place and I was happy to be a part of it.

Times change and with time people change too. My little corner of town is becoming a lot like the anonymous suburbia that I grew to dislike so much, I haven’t a clue about how to make it better.

I guess that’s a dilemma that lots of folks are facing now-days.

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Locusts

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The author John Ringo described a kind of people in one of his books as Locusts or Grasshoppers I don’t remember the exact wording. For the purposes of this post the difference between the creatures isn’t all that important.

I’m going to very liberally describe what I took away from Ringos book. With apologies to Mr. Ringo if I screw this up too much.

Ringo describes a class of people that are essentially users, They contribute little to the society except telling all the rest of us what we’re doing wrong and how the contributors in the world are damaging, the Earth, the sky, the water, crops, whatever… you get the picture.

At the very same time these people have high expectations. They believe that they will never have to go hungry or thirsty, or shiver in the cold. They believe that the system, the state, the world can , will, and SHOULD take care of them no matter what.

One of the characteristics of these people is that they will move into a nice area, consume the resources, demand changes in laws, rules, and local societies until the nice place they moved into is no longer nice.

Streets can’t be fixed because the asphalt is bad for the environment and stinky, besides.

Pesticides can’t be used to grow our crops because the pesticide is dangerous. We have to grow everthing organically because it’s better for the environment, (What? We get less edible food growing organically? you must be doing something wrong.)

People can’t smoke in their homes because the smoke might hurt someone living 2 doors down and you can’t smoke outside because it’s a bad example for anyone who might see you smoking. (As an aside I’m glad I quit smoking, but Damn! All the anti-smoking laws and ordinances are just plain wrong!)

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After the locusts have been in an area a while, the very things they liked about the area are gone. Swept away in a tide of legalese and nonsensical Locust/User thinking. At this point the locusts move on, property values that were artificially inflated by their presence plummet. While the locusts don’t have an agenda of scorched earth… the effect is the same.

His description, is apt and I think I have a Locust or a perhaps groups of Locusts living next door to me.

It’s a pity really, because the former occupant / owner of the the house immediately adjacent to me was a love and I miss her dearly.

The house further up the block was occupied by a guy that was for all intents and purposes Crazy with a capital C but he pulled his weight and minded his own business right up until adult protective services put him in a hospital when the neighbors figured out that he was living in his car. Yep, he lived in his car parked in the driveway of his house, he only went inside to poo and get ice from his fridge.

Both of these people, one 70 years old and the other crazy as a loon would clear the snow from their driveways, and help in clearing the snow from the common street in front of our homes. Why? because it was in all of our best interests and neither of them were locusts.

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They looked after their yards, they picked up trash they saw around the neighborhood even if it wasn’t theirs… You know, sometimes a bag or peice of paper gets away from the trash truck and ends up blowing around… It’s not a difficult thing to go pick stuff like that up and put in in your bin so that next week the trash truck does haul it away.

Give me old folks and crazy people rather than what I have now!

Right next door, there are at least two 18 to 25 year olds (one male & one female) Plus an older woman, older yes… but younger than me!

I don’t really know how many people are living there, the number seems to fluctuate fairly regularly. That makes me nervous enough… What annoys me is that these Locusts have not and apparently never will get their asses outside to shovel even Their OWN Driveway much less the little strip of street in front of their house.

The house of the crazy man has been purchased, donated, or by some fashion come into possession of an animal shelter.

The owner of the animal shelter came down and introduced herself. She had an accident last year and since then I haven’t seen her. What I do see is a single fairly young woman, in a red truck. Who on more than one occasion has treated me like THE HELP. Including suggesting that I started earlier on the shoveling since she couldn’t get into the street and had to walk up to the house.

SAY WHAT?!?!?!

I looked at her for about a millisecond and said “I’m not the groundskeeper, the road isn’t county maintained and you’re benefiting from my largess in the first place. Im not getting paid to do this.” She actually motioned for me to get back to work and walked away.

I was stunned… Then I figured lets just back this train the fuck up.

I stopped shoveling and pulled my 4×4 into position in my shoveled driveway. I can easily drive over 6″- 8″ of snow without even putting the transmission in 4Wheel LOW.

Screw ’em!

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I’m an asshole! it’s MY Nature! I was trying to be nice… it’s a lot easier for me to think about their houses as potential food stores when the zombie apocalypse comes.

The point is. I’ve been mentioned in town as “The Nicest Neighbor…” and that seems to mean to these people that I’m their servant.

Well screw that! I’m only shoveling The bare minimum for my 4×4 to get out and they can remain snowbound by 2 inches of snow or get off their lazy asses. Fuck ’em!

If you aren’t prepared… you deserve what you get!

I cleared my driveway, and the road from my driveway down to the main road. All it took was 30 minutes simple… Why would I do it since I don’t need to go anywhere? I want to be able to take the fun car also known as the (Aryan Eco-Destroyer) out over the weekend if I feel better.

The sun hitting the pavement will make that happen. So I was being selfish….

Now I’m going back to bed to sleep the rest of this cold from hell out of my system.

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100 Degrees and Shivering.

I like it hot. I’ve always liked Palm Springs in the Summer. I’m talking about planning my vacation time around spending time in Palm Springs when it’s 110 in the shade.

Naked by the pool, hotter than hell and I’m just damn comfortable. The Comedian Bill Hicks would have described me as a lizard.

However, I’ve been running a fever of 100 plus for the past day.

It’s not unusual for me to spike at 103 and then drop sub normal for a few hours. What is unusual is a more or less sustained fever for long periods of time.

I spent the whole day in bed shivering off & on watching movies and South Park. The fever finally broke around 8pm last night. I’m currently sitting at 97.9F which is a relief. This is the first time in 24 hours that I’ve been clear headed, and not completely miserable.

Whatever has taken hold is not letting go, On the other hand… when I get out of bed to go take a leak, my balls are hanging very nicely… Now if I just felt good enough to do something sexual or perverted well It might be worth being sick

My sleep schedule is completely screwed up too. I woke up a little while ago and realized I wasn’t going back to sleep soon. So I’ve been reading emails that have been neglected for days. And of course catching up on the news.

One thing that this has taught me is that I can do without the network news… at least for a few days.

I’ve been watching stuff on Netflix, and my own disks. I haven’t even turned on the satellite box, leading me once again to question the satellites necessity.

Whitney Houston is still dominating the news. This surprises me, not because I’m heartless but because we’re so fascinated with tragedy. I too loved her voice she was an excellent vocalist. I just feel sorry for her family not only because of their loss but because they won’t have the opportunity to grieve in peace and solitude.

The unblinking cameras of the paparazzi will follow and detail every event and comment the family makes until well after the poor woman is laid to rest.

It just seems that we should have a little more respect, but then again I’m old fashioned.

 

 

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Valentines Day

Happy Valentines day.

I have a cold.

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It started out as nothing but a minor tickle. So minor, that I ignored it. Then during the night Sunday it developed into a full blown sore throat, fever, sneezing, coughing, PAIN in the ass!

Women say men are whiny and hard to deal with. We’re actually pretty easy to deal with. LEAVE US ALONE…

I’m like most men when I’m sick.

I don’t want to take a shower, I don’t care if I stink, I don’t want to look pretty, and I don’t want to put clothes on.

We revert to our primitive state. It’s actually for everyone else’s protection. If someone can tell we’re sick from 100 feet away they know two things.

1 We’re infectious, the rest of the tribe should stay away.

2 We’re probably really bad tempered and unless you want a stone ax in your head… Probably best you stay away.

We’ll eat when we’re hungry, we’ll forage in the food stores and cholesterol BE DAMNED! We’ll sleep, watch TV, we’ll jerk off cause we want to feel better if only for a few minutes and we’ll pull out the whiskey, scotch, or whatever because that gives us a burn in our throat that’s way better than Nyquil.

In my case the dogs are on guard protecting me. It’s kind of nice & I sleep soundly when they’re on guard. These guys don’t bark unless there’s something they’re worried about. For the most part they’re content to sniff me occasionally, (Checking to see if I’m dead, I sure smell dead.) then back to the foot of the bed watching the door.

This Valentines day… all bets are off, I’m not going anywhere, doing anything, or engaging in a Hallmark Holiday. I’m in bed, in a cave with the flickering garish light of a TV, the only source of illumination. I’m cranky and I’m going to stay right here until either I can’t stand my own stink or I get well whichever comes first.

if you want to see the “nice” me… The first appointment is two weeks from next Monday… I’ll see you then!