Shifting...

With tears in my eyes, I today watched Governor Howard Dean announce the end of his campaign for President of the United States. Although his decision has left me, and I am sure many other supporters, with a feeling of despair, the light has not gone out all together. I have yet to find much about Kerry to excite me, I have found some points of Edwards platform worth looking into. Although he is not perfect (is anyone?) there is potential. Today, I sent him this e-mail.

"Hi. My name is Kevin Hickey and I've been a devout Dean backer from the moment I heard his name a little over a year ago. But I've kept up with the other candidates, making sure I was backing the candidate that best supported my views.

"I strongly support the ideas Senator Edwards has, and am ready to shift my support to Edwards now that Dean has backed off his campaign. I must admit, I had tears in my eyes as Dean made his announcement today. Why? Because I believe Dean was the best candidate to end the tyranny our country has faced these past three years under the dictatorship of George W. Bush.

"I have some concerns, however, over Senator Edwards committment to equality, especially pertaining to gay rights, and more specifically, same-sex marriage. I understand Edwards is against a constitutional ammendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman, that support is not enough.

"When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court determined "that only full, equal marriage rights for gay couples -- rather than civil unions -- are constitutional," the four judges went on to say, "The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal."

"This is perhaps one of the most profound statements I've ever heard supporting same sex marriage. What is marriage? That is a question we really need to look at. Our constitution gurantees every American the right to chose religion, whether to have it in their lives or not, and not be persecuted for it. But time and time again, the definition of marriage has come from the church, and therefore, has violated every American's rights, even those that support the church.

"Marriage, in the United States, is a fundamental right that allows couples certain rights that singles do not have. It is not based on religion, or rather, it shouldn't be. "Seperate but equal" is simply not good enough, and I hope Senator Edwards can realize this. You don't have to agree with it, however, to deny those rights, or to give those rights a different name to different groups is flawed, and frankly, discrimanatory.

"Protect marriage." What, exactly, are we protecting? Is it worth protecting a system that has a failure rate of 50%? Is it worth protecting a system that allows a man and a woman, on a whim, to get married, only to have it eneded within days, all the while a committed same-sex couple cannot enjoy that freedom?

"SEPERATE IS NOT EQUAL.

"I am continuing to evaluate Senator Edwards' platform, and look forward to hearing from him regarding this issue.

"Thank you for your time."

WTF?

"American Airlines pilot suggests passengers discuss Christianity
Associated Press

"NEW YORK - An American Airlines pilot flying passengers to New York asked Christians on board to identify themselves and suggested the non-Christians discuss the faith with them, a spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline said Saturday.

"Flight 34 was headed from Los Angeles to John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday afternoon, said spokesman Tim Wagner. The pilot, whose identity was not released, had been making flight announcements and then asked that the Christians on board raise their hands, Wagner said.

"The pilot told the airline that he then suggested the other passengers use the flight time to talk to the identified Christians about their faith, Wagner said.

"The pilot later told passengers he would be available at the end of the flight to talk about his first announcement.

"Wagner said the airline was investigating the incident, and that the company had guidelines about appropriate behavior. He said the pilot had just returned to work from a weeklong mission trip to Costa Rica.

"It falls along the lines of a personal level of sharing that may not be appropriate for one of our employees to do while on the job," Wagner said."

Spam this Martha...

11:28 am and the phone rings. I look at caller ID and it lists an 800 number, but no name. I answer. The caller on the other line hangs up. I immediately called back the 800 number and got a recording, saying, "Thank you for calling the Message Center." After listening to the menu prompts, there was no option to speak with someone, or to find out who the company really was. At Jenn's encouragement, I Googled the number 866-849-3243 and found a message board where others have complained about similar phone calls. It turns out the number belongs to Xpedite, a telemarketing company. I wasted no time in going to DoNotCall.gov to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, as my phone number is registered with the National Do Not Call list. I have filed a complaint there twice before against offenders, and it's an easy site to use. For those not registered, I encourage you to do so. I rarely get phone calls from telemarketers anymore, and very grateful for that. We usually got between 2 and 5 calls a day before the national DNC list was created.

I am loosely following the Martha Stewart trial in New York, and have come up with some conclusions of my own. First of all, why would Martha, worth hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of dollars, risk her entire empire on a $55,000 stock trade? Second of all, if she really received this phone call telling her to sell her stock, why wouldn't she? It's not her fault someone called her and gave her illegal information, and you sure as hell can't expect her to sit there with the information and do nothing with it. As far as I am concerned, whoever gave her the inside stock information is the one who broke the law. It can also be reasonably guaranteed had she been a man, there would be no trial.

Website update: Over the last month I have added three new recipes to the recipe page, most recently a recipe for the Envy Martini, one of the martinis representing the seven deadly sins at Crimson Resteraunt in Austin, TX. Also recently added was a recipe I made for tortilla soup, and previously added was a recipe for a butternut squash, goat cheese and walnut spread.

On the fly...

--> Congratulations to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for determining "that only full, equal marriage rights for gay couples -- rather than civil unions -- are constitutional." The four judges went on to say, " The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal." Of course, Bush and all his other God-fearing friends are up in arms, and have decided to investigate a constitutional ammendment to protect marriage, something Bush has said in the past isn't necessary.

"The president of the Massachusetts Family Institute says the legislature needs to 'protect and defend marriage'." From what? What do they think they're protecting and saving marriage from? Maybe they think a system with a 50%+ divorce rate is working, and is worth protecting. Interesting.

--> So we saw Janet's boob. The story now is the story that resulted from it. The Christian fundamentalists and Bush kronies are up in arms, and its quite hillarious. I for one couldn't be more pleased it happened, as CBS is now under investigation, again, by the FCC. Read "Ready to rumble" below for more.

--> I have some new favorite songs, thanks to American Airline's inflight radio. My favorite channel is #4, called Connected. The description for this channel is, "Get connected to the best hit music on the planet, with all access to the global pop charts." Sounds like my cup of tea. Last month I came to discover I really liked:

- My Immortal by Evanescence
- Sweet Dreams My L.A. ex by Rachel Stevens
- Friday by Daniel Bedingfield
- Nothing Fails by Madonna
- Bluebird of Happiness by Mojave 3
- You're the First, the Last, My everything by Barry White (A rediscovered favorite classic of mine.)

This month I have discovered so far:

- Kissing a Fool by Michael Buble
- All Things by Widelife with Simone Denny (theme song for Queer Eye)
- Melt by Melanie C (former Sporty Spice)

Fab 5...

Sitting on reserve you often find yourself doing too much of something (spending money), or nothing at all (constant sleep). Today, I have found out how to do both. I've been watching on Bravo a Queer Eye for the Straight Guy marathon. I've only seen a few episodes in the past, and have always liked the show. Today, I've seen three episodes so far, and god knows how many more before the Super Bowl starts. That's something you won't see everyday, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Super Bowl in the same paragraph.

Such is me. Carson Kressley, the blonde of the Fab 5 cracks me up. The things he says have me rolling on the floor, at least twice in every episode. During the marathon Bravo has been teasing the new season that starts February 17th. In the tease, there's Carson hiding under some blanket or curtain, and he comes out saying, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Drag Queen." I've seen the tease at least three times and it still has me laughing. Another shot: Carson wearing some gask man, holding away from him a jockstrap on a hangar and saying, "Luke, I have your jockstrap." Stupid, simple, and yet hillariously funny. (It may help to keep in mind when on reserve, flight attendants often lose all sense of reality.) He also takes simple expressions like, "What a difference a day makes," and says instead, "What a difference a gay makes." He's the one that definately keeps me watching. I can't wait to here what's going to come out of his mouth next.

"Make the switch..."

And we did, to Verizon Wireless. Beth and I finally ditched AT&T Wireless after having service with them starting in the early ninties. Now, when I got my first cell phone, it was with Cellular One, but AT&T bought them a few years later. I have been a big fan of AT&T Wireless, but my support has dwindled over the last year, after I switched to their GSM network. My service area coverage has decreased significantly, and the number of calls I can't make since the system is busy has increased. I could have gone back to AT&T's original digital network, but their customer service regarding my concerns over GSM put them squarely on course to loose me as a customer. And the did.

Beth and I had been discussing switching cellular providers when our Consumer Reports issue for January arrived. The top story was all about cellular providers, cellular plans and coverage, and cell phones themselves. AT&T rated mediocre with most respondents to the survey citing the same problems I did above for the low score. Verizon, in every aspect except price, was rated number one. Most respondents agreed the cost, although higher than most, was worth it since their customer service is outstanding and the coverage area is vast. After a doing a little more research on my own, Beth and I finally decided to, "Make the switch." I chose the LG VX6000 camera phone for my phone, which Consumer Reports rated very highly. It isn't as technical as my Panasonic GU-87, but the usability is much better. Beth went with the free Audiovox CDM8600. That one was free, and Consumer Reports rated that one high, too.

Wow, much ado about cell phones.