I am so ashamed

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Monday April 16, 2012 · 6:47 PM PDT

2012/04/16 · 18:47

Please read Chrislove's diary about the tragic loss of yet another young LGBT person. Kenneth J. Weishuhn Jr. took his life this weekend after being bullied relentlessly at school. He came out only a few months ago.

Every time a story like this breaks across my twitter feed (far too often), I find myself unable to do much of anything for a while. And I have to say - until right now, I've never understood my reaction. The shock. Rage. Horror. Anger. Disgust.

These are terrible tragedies, but we see terrible tragedies every day. Just today I attended a lecture about the decades-long, ongoing tragedy in the Congo. Why does this albeit awful news about someone I never knew hurt so much?

I didn't get it until I read Chrislove's diary, and watched the heart-wrenching video a few of his friends put together. I started writing a comment and the words were on the screen before I even realized what I was saying.

"I am so ashamed."

Because this is my fault.

flowrider

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Wednesday May 11, 2011 · 7:19 AM PDT

2011/05/11 · 07:19

I just submitted this Letter to the Editor to the Tampa Tribune. Because it's just so tacky not to send a little thank you note.... (referencing this, btw.)

flowrider

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Monday February 14, 2011 · 1:08 PM PST

2011/02/14 · 13:08

It's St. Valentine's Day, which, despite our culture's sometimes-overbearing commercialism and the vast ocean of cliche to which this holiday has fallen victim, today is really about the simplest and most complex, the sweetest and most bitter, facet of our humanity. Love makes us more alive, and it kills us. It is so contradictory, and yet so simple and straightforward.

In our culture, many of us spend great portions of our lives, along with a great deal of time, energy, and money, trying to find someone to call in the middle of a difficult day who knows exactly how to lift our spirits - someone to share in our triumphs and to mourn our failures with us, and when those failures occur, to anchor us in a life that isn't predicated on success or failure and help us pick up the pieces and move forward.

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Ky-Gov - Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Gov. Beshear Chooses a Running Mate

flowrider

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Monday July 20, 2009 · 7:33 AM PDT

2009/07/20 · 07:33

Today, Governor Steve Beshear announced his choice of Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson to be his running mate in his 2011 re-election campaign. (Please excuse the shortness of this diary - I wanted to get this out...).

Mayor Abramson is an intensely popular figure in Louisville and the state's urban areas. So popular, in fact, that he's currently serving out his fifth term as Mayor, lending to the slogan "Mayor for Life" among his supporters

Abramson, 62, is in his 20th year as mayor of Louisville. He served three terms as mayor of the city of Louisville and is in his second term as mayor of the merged Louisville Metro government.

flowrider

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Wednesday April 15, 2009 · 9:01 AM PDT

2009/04/15 · 09:01

George Orwell observes a fairly common thread in political discourse in his book 1984.

In Orwell's lexicography, doublethink is the practice of simultaneously believing two contradictory things. It is a form of political social and coercion, encouraged by ever-present leadership of the Party. The goal is to make the citizenry intensely pliable, thus making them easier to control. If you can dismantle that part of a person's logical reasoning centers which insists that opposites cannot simultaneously be true, you can convince them of anything.

"War is Peace"

"Freedom is Slavery"

"Ignorance is Strength"

flowrider

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Wednesday April 08, 2009 · 1:38 PM PDT

2009/04/08 · 13:38

Not a lot of analysis in this diary, for which I apologize. I just wanted to share this poll of the Ky-Sen race from Political Wire.

It appears, in every head-to-head matchup with potential (and one declared) Democratic challengers, incumbent Senator Jim Bunning loses handily. In fact, the smallest margin is a full 7 points, comfortably outside the margin of error. Full results below the fold.

flowrider

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Saturday February 21, 2009 · 4:13 AM PST

2009/02/21 · 04:13

I did a search for this and ~~nothing came up, so sorry if it's a repeat~~ initially missed a diary from yesterday. Please visit: mysiclaker's diary.

Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana and a so-called "rising star" of the Republican Party nationally, has announced that Louisiana will not be accepting almost $100 million in Federal stimulus funding.

From Politico:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Friday that he will decline stimulus money specifically targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal government’s payout to states.

flowrider

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Monday March 31, 2008 · 11:59 AM PDT

2008/03/31 · 11:59

I haven't been in organizing field for very long, so forgive me for my original naiveté. You see, as my political experience, in college and after, is by far based mostly upon Kentucky political elections, I had a few misconceptions about voting throughout the US. For example, I was under the impression that every state closed the polls at 6 pm, that all primaries were closed partisan affairs, that early voting and provisional ballots had been tried and hadn't worked well.

Seriously.

The truth is, Democracy in Kentucky, hailed by proponents of our county-centered, weak central government system, is broken. The path to any kind of populist control of the Commonwealth, and to any chance that the people of this state will get decent help from the government, depends upon the expansion of our voting rights, and yet elites of both parties continue to block any such efforts.

flowrider

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Thursday March 20, 2008 · 12:32 PM PDT

2008/03/20 · 12:32

The following is a message that I sent to Kentucky superdelegates, urging them to support Barack Obama.

To whom it may concern,

My name is (flowrider). (identifying information redacted...) Though I will be willing and able to work through November in support of Sen. Clinton, at this time I am fully and wholeheartedly supporting and encouraging the support of Barack Obama for President of the United States.

Senator Clinton is a respected public servant for whom I would happily vote in November. I believe she has an understanding of the system and will be able to work within it in such a way to "get some things done" if she were elected. This, I believe, is undisputed, but is simultaneously completely beside the point.

RSS

I am so ashamed

LTE to Tampa Tribune re: High-Speed Rail

Valentine's Day 2011 - On Love and the Gay Rights Movement

Ky-Gov - Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Gov. Beshear Chooses a Running Mate

The American Right and the Orwellian Lexicography

KY-SEN NEW POLL: Bunning Loses to Every Potential Democrat

UPDATEDx3: Jindal Rejects Stimulus Help

Kentucky Voting Laws - Archaic, Status Quo, Discriminatory

My Letter to Kentucky Superdelegates