The Why Of Tennessee...

 

To start, the state of Tennessee is as conservative & backwards AF.  According to this article the decision to cut federal HIV monies caught those who were HIV+ or those needing testing, but they weren't the direct target.  Not that the "fine" people of that state minded that them gays got what they deserved.

This piece states the actual targets were Vanderbilt University's transgender health program & Planned Parenthood.   That would've been a loss of just under a quarter million.  The easiest way to do that was to reject the entire allotment.  That makes the rejected monies come to over 8 million.  Those just needing help with HIV matters are going to face a much harder time now.  

HIV isn't a gay disease.  Yet even if it was, that has nothing directly to do with being trans or needing Planned Parenthood.  This is just some hideous group of politicians means to attack people they despise.  Face it, Republicans are a hate group.  They don't care who they hurt in the long run.

Cya...

Tomorrow...

 

Tomorrow is the midterm election.  How will this go?  Who knows?  I've done what I can.  Now, it's up to  Oklahomans & Americans to remind us how awful they can be.  Midterms are always stupid pendulum swings by impatient, impractical people who didn't get their way day 1.  Elections always show us how willing people are to vote against their own best interest, just so they can scream at someone else.  The American political system only serves to show the indulgence, ignorance, hate & greed of the people living here.

I don't have high hopes.  I never do when people are involved.  I'd love it if they surprised  me, but let's be realistic.  

Cya... 

Dour...

 

The last couple of weeks have left me exhausted & exasperated.  So much for a good October.  A lot of things have decided to collide & make my life more challenging.

The weather has been so weird the yard work is still ongoing.  We've been overly grey with little rain.   It's been just enough to hamper getting anything done.   The van needed tires & the car had to get tags replaced.  The tags should've been a non-issue, but every unmasked idiot was there. We've had strange issues with the power flickering.

Then to add to it all, we try to watch TV last night & the channels were blank.  Suddenlink forget to send us a memo that we'd need a cable box for our basic cable now.  I was on the phone with them for almost 3 hours.  Just for them to tell me that & set an appointment for it in 2 weeks.  So for now, no cable. 

This has all been fixable & manageable.  I'm just sick of fixing & managing every damn thing.  Then of course, this morning Windows had to do an update.   That slowed me down a lot more than the cat puking by my door.  

Sorry for the rant.   I'm just tired & frustrated.  I'm in a fairly hateful mood at the moment.  Take care.

Cya...

Trash Day Again...

I'm getting a little new-agey & metaphysical.  As usual on Wednesdays we took the trash to the curb.  It's no longer in our house.  It can no longer impact our house with its heat, stench & other attributes.  I wish  a lot of people could do this with their lives.

We live in a time when a lot of people are angry.  They aren't just mad, though they're hateful & aiming all their negativity at others.  There's hate abounding for every group you can imagine.  No matter what you are, some group despises you.   And, they're not happy doing this in the sanctity of their own homes, no.

These people are spewing their vile, noxious rhetoric & actions anywhere & everywhere they can.   They rant online.  They protest at everything.  They declare their hate, the injustices suffered, their disgust of those who oppose them or are just indifferent.  

Why can't they just take they're trash to the curb?  Why can't they focus on those things in their lives, not everyone else's & deal with their personal garbage & stop forcing others to?  

These people seem to thrive on hate & anger.  It's like they might not exist without all their negativity.  They seem scared that if they let go of all this, there might not be anything of them left. They fear if they don't have those things they target, they'll have to deal with their our lives & their personal issues.

You have every right to alter you, your life & your perspective.  But that's it.   You have no right to force yourself, your thoughts, your ideologies onto others.  

Just take your trash to the curb & I'll take mine.

Cya....

This 1 Time...

This is the only I'll address this matter on this blog.  There was a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.  Not, just a mass shooting, but the biggest in US history.  The shooter is dead, the garbage is out the door.  His name is known, but I'm not going to give him the credit of calling him that here.  He was a cowardly ass who planned an attack on a nightclub, right before closing time.   This man was weak & barely worth being called human.  

The monster was slain, but the casualties are numerous & the damage will be hard to overcome.  The villain's father is proclaiming this had nothing to do with Islam.  He thought his son was homophobic.   His ex-wife told of how abusive he was.  He claimed ties to terrorists.  Enough so, he was on a watch list.  He declared loyalty to such a group before he began his rampage.

This was about hate.  This was about stigma.  This was about how the world still views gays as someone they should be able to just kill on a whim.  This was about this man's issues with homosexuality, but it was also about his upbringing.  His culture & religion got him to the point where he found this action acceptable & appropriate.  

Hell, maybe he just wanted to go out semi-famous.  Maybe he was competing with the jerk who killed the singer from The Voice in Orlando the day before.  Hopefully, this won't spark a 1-up type of thing.  

This is about hate, grubbiness & fear.  May his next life be that of a worm.  Then at least he'd be useful.

Cya...

Fringe Hate...

This article isn't directly about HIV.  It's about the systemic under-reporting of hate crimes in this country.  This article primary deals with crimes against people of color, but also notes many other groups are targets as well, including gays.  

In this country, even though we have hate crime laws, most people don't want to admit hate motivated the actions of the perpetrator.   Somehow simply avoiding that admission is supposed to make it better.  But when the target is the black relative of civil rights activist on Martin Luther King day, it's hard for that not to be considered hateful.

The majority population doesn't want to realize how much hate they harbor for others or the "them".   They don't want to look in the mirror & see the seething thing that loathes others so badly as to bring them harm simply because they aren't the same.    Yoda was right.  

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.     Yoda - The Phantom Menace

Cya.... 

I Hate To Say This...

For as long as I can remember, somebody has always had some reason to dislike or even hate me.  More often then not, those reasons were things completely beyond my control or my ability to influence.  The list was long; actions my parents took, where we lived, how often we moved, perceptions of me based on appearance, etc..

Do you know what?  None of that has changed.  In fact, I've added to the list of why some people will despise me.  How dare I be gay, let alone +. There still remains precious little I can do about any of it.  Truth be told, I probably wouldn't even if I could.  How dare those people judge me?  Like they & their lives are so much better.

Every day I read articles about specific communities as centers of disease, poverty & crime.   There are daily reports of people being specifically targeted by groups, even police, for aspects of their lives they can't change.  How dare they be different?  Sometimes, these reports aren't done to be helpful or informative.  Too often these reports are to point out why these people should be hated & avoided.

For the last several years, U.S. government officials;  federal, state & local, have being trying their damnedest to prove just how hateful & petty  they can be.  It's an unfortunate fact, but still true, they hate you.  They hate you for:

• Not being White
• Not being rich
• Not being their kind of zealot
• Not being perfectly straight
• Not acting as they define your gender
• Not living as they see fit
• Not bowing down to them

There's so much more, but they hate for not accepting what they say & do as some kind of sick gospel.  Why can't you just accept that, 

"Flowers are red young man and green leaves are green.  There's no need to see flowers any other way than they way they always have been seen"  Harry Chapin

That song was talking about education, but what it was really about, was getting people to submit.  To be as they decreed.  

There are a few things you need to remember.  Nothing you do will ever be enough to make them stop hating you.  They don't want you to change.  They're tied between trying to get you to just go away & keeping you so they have to focus for their hate.

Yes, they abhor you.  They detest your actions & your life.  But, there's a perk to this.   At least you know it.  You know you can't change them.  You can't make them like you.  Their hatred isn't about you, it never was.  Their hatred is their & their's alone.  

Maybe knowing that, you can see you're worth more they can offer.  Just perhaps, knowing this, you can make a plan to get through life without wasting time trying to stop their hate.  Maybe knowing this, you can let yourself be & hopefully not focus any of their hate on yourself.

Cya...

Today...

Today I read a few articles.  1 about Russia &  its state sponsored hatred towards HIV & anyone unfortunate enough to have the illness.   As a result, the levels of HIV in Russia are escalating rapidly.    It seems some Russian politicians feel HIV will solve itself by killing everyone with it.   I guess they've forgotten about it spreading.

Another article talked about how over 10,000 people could have been exposed to HIV & other illnesses due to another neglectful dental office.  This time the facilities were in Sydney.   Great, more dental idiocy.  I'm not posting the articles because the point I want to make here is people still won't actively, accurately & honestly deal with HIV.  They won't handle it at a personal level & are even less apt to at a governmental & service level.  

Even with all the advances in HIV treatment over the past decades, some people still act like its the 1980's.  I know we might have the technological know-how to cure HIV in the near future, but it won't happen.  Because some people refuse to face HIV for what it is, a virus.   Its a virus that spreads.  It isn't ideological device or moral punishment.  Until everyone accepts that, HIV isn't going anywhere.

Cya...