Tuesday, November 25th
The rest of the DC trip was uneventful. Got up at the crack of dawn on Sunday in order to give my presentation on arthritis and mortality. Turns out, if you have arthritis, you live longer than if you don't. If I had to guess, it's because those with arthritis pain are more likely to see doctors and therefore other conditions get treated better and faster. The trip back wasn't too bad. It was prior to the holiday rush and the weather cooperated.
I'm taking a slow holiday week. Not going into the office but working some from home. Using the extra hours to do some major house cleaning to try and get the last of the crap that needs to be in storage boxed up and out of here. 28 years ago, I left home with four boxes of books, two suitcases of clothes, a bicycle and a typewriter. My how times have changed...
Tommy's family arrive for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. At least I've got the kitchen and dining room clean so far. I'm working on the master suite later today.
PIC is coming along. Still have a bunch of lyrics to write. I need to spend more time with those and less time at whatthemovie.com which is my latest addiction... 1,520 and counting...
Saturday, November 22nd - National Harbor, Maryland
I'm ensconced at the Gaylord hotel at National Harbor, just outside the DC beltway on the Potomac, attending the Gerontological Society of America meetings. It's not a bad meeting, some interesting stuff on the needs of Gerontology and Geriatrics in coming decades with an aging boom. I have to present some research on arthritis and mortality at the ungodly hour of 8 AM tomorrow prior to flying back home. Turns out, arthritis protects you from dying. I surmise it's because the pain makes you more likely to receive routine medical care and other conditions are therefore caught early. As my right knee has been problematic for some years, I guess I am in good shape.
The Gaylord is a huge hotel (same people who have the Opryland hotel in Nashville) that reminds me of a Vegas hotel, but without the casino. It's in the middle of nowhere and you're basically trapped in it with their overpriced food service. ($12.50 for sandwich, chips and coke). It's emblematic of all that's currently wrong in American society, if you ask me.
Trying to spend some time between meetings writing the new version of 'Politically Incorrect'. Have a skeleton of the show, now trying to flesh it out given the people and talents we have for the new edition. I also have a murder mystery dinner party to write.
Friday, November 14th
I have been less ecstatic about the election results than many. Most of the rest of the GLBT community has been as well. Mainly, because we have been told in no uncertain terms that we need to be satisfied with the back of the bus, at best and having to walk at worst. If nothing else, the success of Proposition 8 in California in particular, which rescinds previously court guaranteed equal rights, has been a bit of a galvanizing force. I think there's going to be a lot more activism and pushing and a lot less complacency from the community nationwide. And its a community that's a lot larger with a lot more political clout than most people think.
The following from the New York Times encapsulates the real issues a lot more eloquently than I ever could.
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/dark-side-of-the-vote/
(Sorry, Blogger is not letting me create a direct link this morning for some reason...)
Wednesday, November 5th
While I'm generally pleased at Obama's victory last night, I am only cautiously optimistic that there will be much in the way of swift and substantive change in the direction of the country. Things are so bad and the Democrats margin of victory, while impressive, does not leave them with a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate or even a cohesive party and philosophy. Obama is fairly untested on the national stage and had better make his next moves fairly carefully, all against a background of the usual right wing noise machine that has always worked better as an opposition tool than a tool of the party in power. I'm just pretty sure that things won't get a whole lot worse. At least Caribou Barbie has been packed off back to the frozen north where she can gaze at foreign countries from her back porch and cease to bother us any more.
I'm disappointed, but not surprised by the results on Proposition 8 in California, my previous home, and the other anti-LGBT measures that passed. The majority will never grant rights to the minority or the other through popular vote. If it had been up to popular vote, Chinese would be unable to own property, miscegenation laws would still be on the books and African-Americans would still be relegated to 'separate but equal' status. In our culture, minority rights have always had to come through the courts and legislative process. Marriage in any one state won't really matter, though, until they start actually enforcing the 14th amendment and repeal the stupid DOMA signed by Clinton.
A thought. What if the Human Rights Campaign raised $5 million dollars to put a constitutional amendment on the California ballot invalidating marriages performed in Mormon temples. Getting the signatories wouldn't be that hard and a strategic ad campaign highlighting some of the Mormons' stranger beliefs might actually get such an amendment passed. Turnabout as fair play or life lesson as to how the state has no real business determining whose marriages are valid or whose are not.
Not a whole lot else going on. Have to sit down and do some writing for a murder mystery and on Politically Incorrect Cabaret now that the election is over.
