May We Celebrate The Blessings of This Day.

We Remember...

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal";
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free
While God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on!

...Betrayed

I weep…
I howl…
THIS was the future WE were promised in our childhoods reading Clarke, Asimov and Bova. The worlds of Saberhagen and Bester. The fevered martial-dreams of Niven, Pournelle and Bujold...
MylackofGod!  How could I have forgotten Robert A. Heinlein?

Instead we have a small world of false-entitlement, hypocrisy and petty-politicians with no dreams at-all. Impoverished of goals, parochial in vision…

It was to be in our generation and our children’s.

Tanstaafl.

DADT is gone...

Somewhere in Heaven Maj. General Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Baron von Steuben, the Drillmaster of Valley Forge, Chief of Staff and Inspector General of the Continental Army, author of “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States” is smiling.

The Way Forwards

The GOP needs a leader who will hammer-home the new paradigm that it’s the Democrats who are the Party of Wall Street, Big Business and Big Labor. They don’t care about small business, the entrepreneur, or the worker at a small business who’s non-union. The Democrats don’t even care about farmers anymore…just Big Agro’ and their allies Big Pharma.

The GOP needs to drive a wedge between the struggling small business owner or small business executive who’s sweating-out a payroll…and the fat-cat Big Business exec. and his golden parachute and no sweat or sweat equity in the game. Between those who work hard and risk their own money, and the corporate-types on Wall Street, Big Business and Healthcare/Pharma who just play with “Other People’s Money” while protected by golden parachutes and government bailouts.

This has not been a failure of Capitalism…it’s been a failure of Casino Capitalization and the corrosive effects of Other People’s Money. It’s time for some GOP Leader to step forwards and deliver a “Cross of Gold” speech for the 21st-Century and revitalize Republicanism as a party of muscular activism as under Theodore Roosevelt…not as the “Party of No” against Obamaism.

The Nobel So-called Peace Prize

Yet again the Nobel Committee has lowered the bar on what ACTIONS constitute "Peacemaking" in today's sorry world. While Pres. Obama shows promise, to nominate an elected official with little-to-no foreign policy experience or stature just TWELVE DAYS after his inauguration is both premature and exceedingly shallow.
And to cite Pres. Obama's June 4th, 2009 Cairo speech when the nominations closed in February 2009 demonstrates that the Committee chose Pres. Obama without actual deeds-on-the-ground, and then wrote the citation to fit.

"Out" on the PGA Tour?

The PGA Tour has three major factors that would discourage a talented gay golfer from competing on-tour. One, there's a very outspoken and prominent fundementalist-evangelical Christainist movement within the PGA Tour locker room. And with professional golf being such a collegial-sport and business, I would think that any "out" golfer would have a real problem both with a large percentrage of the Tour and the sponsors.

Two, more-so than most professional sports the PGA Tour's wives and girlfriends are very prominent both on the Tour and in the TV broadcasts. There's always the "cute moment" on the 72nd hole where the Tour-member's greeted by the wive or girlfriend on TV, and during the Tour special events like the Ryder and President's Cup the wives and girlfriends are actually part of the official entourage with their matching get-ups and social activities. I imagine being the first male boyfriend in that gaggle of twelve bottle-blond "golf-wives".

The third is the lifestyle. While yes the PGA Tour and the junior tours visit exciting resorts, they're straight resorts not known for the gay visitors or exciting gay nightlife off-course. Plus there's no real privacy for even a closeted guy to either date or have a active relationship with someone. The entire Tour travels effectively as a group...using the same hotels, places to eat, and see each other 6-days a week sun-up to sun-down. Between the Tour-members, their caddies, the wives and girlfriends...and the PGA Tour business and TV broadcasting entourage...the rumor-mill would quickly "out" any gay carrying-ons.

...And then there's the sponsors. For a number of years there was quiet chatter about Justin Lenard until he got rather-publicly married a few years ago. His career didn't improve; but his endorsement deals certainly did. While the serial infidelities of a John Daly and his multiple marriages make him a golf-legend, the PGA and the endorsing sponsors equally fear a gay scandal like the misbehavior of CNN"s Richard Quest just this week. Especially in their Red-State, Republican TV markets.

I fear the unless a new, young towering talent like a Tiger Woods rises from the college-ranks...who was already "out" while in college...we're not going to see an out PGA Tour member. Someone with such protean-power and talent that some sponsor will take the gamble like Nike did on Tiger , and who's golf skills will frighten the bigots to keep a low profile just as they did for Tiger Woods.