SoCS | Today is Saturday Right? NOT!!

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s SoCS. My disclaimer, every week I aim to participate in SoCS when I get the prompt on Friday. Then Saturday rolls around and have I participated? Not! So I am submitting on Sunday and hope that readers do not get twisted in a knot for me not following the rules.

This whole week has been one emotional knot after another. The first knot is a knot of joy because of the news that my youngest niece was at the hospital on Sunday awaiting the arrival of her first child and my fourth great niece. Baby Sophia arrived at 7:45am on Monday March 23 and is one of the most precious gifts that I have been given.

Two hours earlier on March 23 my partner Cruz’s work place called and I did not find out why they called until he got up a few hours later.  So the second knot was a knot of extreme shock and sadness. One of his work spouses that had worked with him and one other person on the same shift in the Chemistry Department at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio for 38 years had passed away suddenly. I knew this woman and loved her personality, sense of humour and her love of life.

Our friend’s father who was 84 and had been in failing health for a while delivered another knot of grief, shock, and sadness when he passed away on Tuesday. While this was another difficult knot – we were able to find a rainbow at the end because as I told our friend’s sister and her brother their dad was just waiting to make sure his baby got home okay before he went to go meet her there.

So I have never been to a double funeral mass, but there really was nothing different other than the fact that there were two caskets as opposed to one. So here I go with my Stream of Consciousness Saturday. It is Saturday, right? NOT!!!!

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I thought I’d seen it all!! Not!!!

I am pretty clear about who I am, the things I have gone through in life, my political views are pretty clear.  I am a God fearing homosexual male who has suffered over the years with alcoholism, cocaine addiction, recently clinically diagnosed with bipolar depression and I am now in my late 40’s where I am not strictly Democrat, Liberal, Conservative or Republican. But when I read crap like what I am about tell you it really RATTLES MY CAGE!!!

This is a story that I happened to see today on www.lgbtqnation.com:

California attorney files for ballot initiative to have all gays executed. I thought this was a gossip story until I read the actual proposal for the initiative “Sodomite Suppression Act.”

I will be kind and not spew forth the horrible language that wants to show up in this post. I think people like this attorney, for as much as they hate the LGBTQ community, there might just be some latent homosexuality in them. This is just too much hatred. The other day one of my sponsors stated something very clear “if you spot it and don’t like it and it bother’s you that much, then you got it!” This attorney fits that bill.

But this story has a happy ending because it seems that the California Attorney General Kamala Harris is a pretty smart lady based on the story below: “California AG moves to block ‘shoot the gays’ ballot initiative from going forward” It is always nice to see when a smart person steps in and says “Not today Satan, Not today!!!!”

Until next time that is What’s Rattling My Cage!!!!

One Liner Wedenesday | Happiness Is

Happiness is the ability to move forward knowing the future will be better than the past! Today I choose to be HAPPY!!!!!

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday.

Gun laws are about to change in Texas!! YEEHAW – NOT!!!!

First let me preface this by stating I support the Second Amendment of The Constitution of The United States of America which states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” I would bet that the founding fathers could have never imagined that we would live in the country we live in now.

I would venture to say the Founding Fathers imagined that the country would not last as long as we have considering the types of diseases and problems that plagued the fledgling nation. What this amendment means to me is that I have the right to own a firearm and to protect my family and property. In today’s society, especially in places like the Great State of Texas, people want to make laws in their states that changes the meaning of this important amendment to suit them and not stay true to what the Founding Fathers intended with the Second Amendment.

On Tuesday March 17th the 84th Session of the Texas Legislature Senate approved and sent to the House Senate Bill 17 which will create a law allowing individuals with a current Concealed Handgun License (CHL) to no longer have to conceal their handguns. This means individuals will be allowed to wear a shoulder or waist holster and carry their handguns pretty much anywhere in public. I do believe the law will still restrict the possession of firearms by individuals in any business that makes 51% or more of their revenue from the sale of alcoholic beverages. What this also means is that Texas is on the verge of making it way to easy for individuals to carry weapons.

Who will be responsible for ensuring that every person walking around, riding public transportation, at restaurants etc. are actually licensed to carry those handguns? I can guarantee you that there will probably be more individuals open carrying that are not licensed than are licensed. Why do I say this? Have you seen and heard about the violence going on in this nation lately? I have and frankly it scares me. I would love to think that my above statement will not be the case, but it will.

On Wednesday March 18th the 84th Session of the Texas Legislature Senate took the first step to a full Senate vote to approve and send to the House Senate Bill 11 which, get this, will allow individuals to carry concealed handguns on all campuses of Higher Education Institutions. The bill is expected to be fully approved and sent to the House tomorrow March 19th. This particular bill does allow Private Higher Education Institutions to place restrictions or opt out.

My concern with this bill is that the Texas Legislature did not listen to the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System, Texas A&M University System, the board of many of the community colleges, other larger four year universities across the state, students of the institutions that were against the passage of this bill.  How can you be elected and not listen to your constituents? These people get elected and they go to Austin and only pay attention to their big money donors and the fear mongers.This bill is just creating opportunities for individuals whether they be students, faculty or staff to snap for any reason. Could this happen without this bill being passed, yes, but this bill just opens the door without the knock.

I believe both of these bills are not needed and in the end will cost the tax payers of Texas more money due to our having to pay for more prisons, more court trials and more healthcare costs in the event victims do not have proper healthcare. The 84th Session of the Texas Legislature Senate has taken the first step to removing the true meaning of the Second Amendment, the Texas House is set to take the second step later in the session, and our newly sworn in Governor Greg Abbott is already warming up the pen to sign them into law!!! Gotta love my Great State of Texas!!! Until next time that’s “What’s Rattling My Cage!”

One Liner Wednesday | I’m funny, funny how?

“I’m funny, funny how?” – Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas). One of my top five favorite movies of all time.

This line is one I love to use anytime my family, friends or coworkers say “you’re funny!” I then follow with Funny how? Looking or acting and most times they say both just to be funny. Because of my 18 years of living with HIV/AIDS, many years of alcoholism/addiction and my recent confirmed diagnosis of bipolar depression – it is very IMPORTANT for me to always have a great sense of humor!!!

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday

Post from John Pavlovitz says it all!!

I am a very proud gay man who has been with his partner for a little over 14 years. That being said I am in the minority of LGBTQ individuals when it comes to same sex marriage. I do not believe in same sex marriages because of my faith and my beliefs, what I do believe in are CIVIL UNIONS. I believe that every long-term monogamous couple deserves to protected under the law and be afforded the same rights regarding taxes, hospitalization visitation rights, and inheritance rights as heterosexual straight married couples. John Pavlovitz hits the nail on the head regarding the spewing forth of rhetoric regarding gay marriage ruining the institution of marriage when it is the divorce rate that is ruining the institution of marriage. Please read his post below!!

Why Divorced, Straight Christians Should Kiss The LGBT Community.

English lessons

As a someone with a B.A. and M.A. in Communication I tried to take this post so very seriously. Unfortunately I couldn’t because some of these can put writers in one difficult conundrum and I was cracking up towards the end!!

Maybe not all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are bad

Excellent post Sadie! I find it fascinating the work they are doing in the scientific and medical fields with genetically modified organisms. I do feel that having them in our foods are not such a great thing.

Just something I was thinking about . . .

Though in planned future posts, you will read my thoughts (and criticisms, rants and bitches) about GMOs in our food supply, there are some other areas where I am fascinated with what they are doing with genetic modification. Though there is not enough known to completely understand any adverse effects that may result from this application of gene modifying, I am still amazed at what they are working on – MEDICINE for healing terminal illnesses.

Research has shown that certain, often deadly, diseases we have fought hard to eradicate in the past can be genetically modified and then used to attack other specific diseases.

“The Big C” – you know, cancer

There are over 300 known types of cancer, but advances in modern medicine may very well result in cures for cancer someday. It was realized decades ago that treating prostitutes for exposure to rabies by giving them the…

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One Liner Wednesday | My parents made me NARCISSISTIC – NOT!!!!!

I was never put on a pedestal by my parents! If I am narcissistic, it is because I have caused me to be so as I have gotten older!!! Today, I do love myself UNCONDITIONALLY!!! See the story below!!

Parents may be to blame for narcissistic kids, says study!

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday.

Is there no form of protocol in Washington, D.C.??

So over the last few days I was busy spending wonderful time with my family and really not caring about the news. Today I am scouring Facebook and other sites to see what would rattle my cage. Here’s what: “Who does Senator Tom Cotton think he is?” Cotton who is the junior Senator from Arkansas drafted the Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran which was signed by 48 other GOP Senators.

My question about the protocol is, who approved this to be drafted and then who approved it be passed along to the GOP Senators for signatures. This open letter is a slap in the face of the way this country handles it’s international affairs. Basically this letter states that anything approved by the President’s of the two nations is just ceremonial because it can be torn up  and made null and void. While this may be true. Why are we advertising it – we already disclose way too much information about how, when, why, and where we do things to conduct the business of the United States of America!!!! Just saying!!

While Cotton does provide some rather interesting points regarding our constitution, he seems to do it that annoying way that a teenager likes to point out what they feel is to be fact. The second point is as follows:

“Second, the offices of our Constitution have different characteristics. For example, the president may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms. As applied today, for instance, President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then – perhaps decades.”

This is the most arrogant item in this open letter that SCREAMS to the entire problem with our nation’s political system. It plays to the assumption that an individual like Cotton will continue to just serve and serve, and serve – do you get the picture? When will we stop being enamored with some one just because we have known their name for decades. It is our responsibility to ensure that we are investigating and learning everything we can about our politicians. We need to make sure that we are making this country what we are supposed to be through excellent bi-partisan leadership so that my nieces, great-nieces, and great nephews are not screwed in 50 years because unfortunately that is where we are headed!!

Until next time, that’s what’s rattling my cage!!!!