Michael Mahler's Ditherings http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/ Ramblings of a Gay Pagan in Erie PA en Copyright 2007 Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:59:16 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification A relaxing few days Erie Blogger get together, which was also a great time! We had about 10 people, including a few first timers. The Community Blood Bank provided the pizza and wings as a thank you for the Erie Blogger Blood Drive last month. Mike and Dennis were both there from Erie Blogs. Mike mentioned about a YouTube style debate that they were thinking of doing for congressional candidates. Ultra nifty! The Erie Bloggers seems like we have settled into the second Tuesday of the month. Next month's get together will be at the Cornerstone Bar and Grill, 3811 Pine Ave, Erie PA on Tuesday, September 11 (yeah, I know) at 7 PM. I already posted the event to the Yahoo group, Eventful.com, MySpace.com and Upcoming.org, as well as sending it out to local mainstream media. Don't tell me I don't know how to spread the word! Oh well, I should probably wash the dishes and take the dogs for a walk.]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/a_relaxing_few.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/a_relaxing_few.php Friends Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:59:16 -0500 Dick Cheney: Why invading Iraq would be a huge mistake (1994) ]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/dick_cheney_why.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/dick_cheney_why.php Politics Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:37:56 -0500 Karl Rove resigns. Hmm. White House political guru Karl Rove is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Rove "first floated the idea of leaving a year ago. But he delayed his departure as, first, Democrats took Congress, and then as the White House tackled debates on immigration and Iraq, he said. He said he decided to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be obliged to remain through the end of the president's term in January 2009."

[Taegan Goddard's Political Wire] ]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/karl_rove_resig.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/karl_rove_resig.php Politics Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:38:50 -0500 Erie Bloggers get together on Tuesday at 7 PM, more weekend stuff [Listening to: Fugue In G Major, BWV 577 (The Jig Fugue) - E. Power Biggs - Bach: Great Organ Favorites (3:13)]]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/erie_bloggers_g.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/erie_bloggers_g.php Friends Oddments Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:00:57 -0500 John reading my Palm
2007-08-11 Hafla 008_edited-1
Originally uploaded by Michael Mahler The hafla at the Erie Art Museum Annex tonight was fun. A hafla is Middle Eastern party with belly dancing and a potluck. John was reading palms, and I got the idea for this photo. So, he read my Palm (PDA.) The rest of the photos in the set are here.
]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/john_reading_my.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/john_reading_my.php Computer Geek Friends Oddments Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:21:58 -0500 Friend of the family in the paper an article about Erie native Michael Warner, who practices Transcendental Meditation. In the early 70s, my parents hung out with a lot of counterculture/hippie folks, which was kind of cool. Michael Warner was one of those folks. I remember him as being a very quiet and pleasant sort of guy. When my parents got divorced the first time (I was about 10 or so), my mom and we kids stayed at a hotel for a night before moving up to Rochester, New York. I remember that my mom had three of her female friends come over to socialize, and Michael Warner came over as well. My mom is almost as verbal as I am, and there was one point that all four women were talking at once. I turned to my goal, and said, "Oh wow. Quadraphonic yakking!" He smiled back. Michael's family owned Warner Amusements, which I think used to be over on E. 12th St by French. Relatively soon after I started working as a computer programmer, we had a few support calls there. It was interesting catching up with somebody that I hadn't seen in over a decade. I am trying to recall if it was then that was setting up a database in R:Base 5000. I used that package when I did my internship at Hamot Media Services. I seem to recall that Steve, the brother-in-law of David who was at the Erie Blogger picnic, as well as being the namesake of my brother, was also into Transcendental Meditation. ]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/friend_of_the_f.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/friend_of_the_f.php Family Friends Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:59:26 -0500 Sara Gilbert (Darlene from Roseanne) has a daughter

Roseanne's Sara Gilbert Welcomes Baby Girl

 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 08, 2007 05:00 PM EDT Former Roseanne star Sara Gilbert is a mom again. The actress, 32, and partner Allison Adler welcomed daughter Sawyer Gilbert Adler on Aug. 2, Variety's Army Archerd reports. The pair have a son, Levi, who's 3 years old. Gilbert, who played daughter Darlene on Roseanne Barr's hit ABC sitcom, now has a recurring role on ER. ]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/sara_gilbert_da.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/sara_gilbert_da.php GLBT Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:55:25 -0500 Mitt Romney's sons give SO much for their country! "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected, because they think I'd be a great president."

-- Mitt Romney, quoted by the AP, defending his five sons' decision not to enlist in the military.

[Taegan Goddard's Political Wire] How can anyone take Mitt Romney seriously about this? I am flabbergasted/]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/mitt_romneys_so.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/mitt_romneys_so.php Politics Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:26:03 -0500 Sweet Jesus! Are ALL Republicans pervs???

Michigan Young Republican pleads guilty in sex case

 Posted by Jim Nichols July 24, 2007 17:26PM Categories: Breaking News, Crime The former head of the Michigan Federation of Young Republicans admitted today that he sexually abused a colleague during a national convention here last summer. Michael Flory, a 32-year-old attorney from Jackson, Mich., pleaded guilty to sexual battery on the day he was to stand trial for rape. The teary-eyed college student he overpowered in a downtown hotel room gasped and dabbed her eyes as Flory replied to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan's question, "Are you indeed guilty?" "Sure - yeah," Flory said. Corrigan set sentencing for Sept. 13. Flory faces a sentence that ranges from probation to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Flory is also a licensed insurance broker; Corrigan warned him that the guilty plea places both professional licenses in jeopardy of revocation. Assistant County Prosecutor Carol Skutnik said Flory's lawyers, Henry Hilow and Bill McGinty, surprised her with a plea offer as trial witnesses from several states were arriving to testify. The plea bargain, she said, doesn't include any suggestion of leniency, and the state will seek incarceration. She also said she hopes to present evidence of several "other incidents of sexual misconduct" in which Flory took advantage of vulnerable young women. The victim, who is 22, declined to speak after Flory's guilty plea. She and some supporters lamented when the incident became public last winter that Flory and his followers within the Republican organization had been smearing her reputation in retaliation for accusing Flory of rape. Skutnik said she found that to be true. "People were using every opportunity to try to trash her, on Web sites or whatever," the prosecutor said. "He's been running around telling everybody what a piece of trash she is, so she was very happy to see him plead guilty." The defense can say little until sentencing, Hilow said. "He would just like to put this in the past for everybody," the defense attorney said. Flory gained some notoriety at age 18 when he gave a televised speech to the Republican National Convention in the Houston Astrodome in 1992. The Michigan Young Republicans' Web site once hailed him as "one of the rising stars of GOP politics in America" and declared that "Mike has earned a great name for himself." Flory, the victim and other members of Michigan's delegation to the national Young Republicans convention were partying in the Warehouse District last July 6, police and prosecutors said. The victim became so intoxicated that she headed back to her hotel room. Flory escorted her. But when she lay down to sleep, he "violently forced several sex acts upon her," Skutnik said. Shall we review? Adults having sex with people who are underage, incapacitated or unwilling is wrong, criminal and thoroughly bad. Bashing gay people for political point does not mitigate this. Hmm, so I guess if a stocky black man fell asleep in an altar boy outfit at a convention of Republican Catholic priests, he pretty much is certainly in to wake up to someone being rather ..forward. ]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/sweet_jesus_are.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/sweet_jesus_are.php Politics Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:31:25 -0500 A statistic to be proud of! GLBT-focused discussion on LOGO tomorrow (and yes, my DVR is already set to record it!), here's why: when you show up at the polls, it is in polticians' interest to listen to you. Please note that gay men voted at about twice the rate of the general population in the 2006 midterm election.
The Los Angeles Times points to a new poll by San Francisco-based Community Marketing Inc. finding that "92.5% of gay men reported that they voted in the 2004 presidential race, and almost 84% said they cast ballots in the 2006 midterm election. Among lesbians, the results were almost as impressive; nearly 91% said they voted in 2004; for the midterm, the figure was 78%."

"The information on voter participation by gays was compiled as part of a larger study of consumer interests and habits within the community slated for release later this month. The survey questioned more than 12,000 gay men and more than 10,000 lesbians, giving its results a miniscule error margin of plus-or-minus 1%."

[Taegan Goddard's Political Wire]
]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/a_statistic_to.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/a_statistic_to.php GLBT Politics Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:02:25 -0500 Republicans do seem to like going down on guys, don't they? David Ehrenstein found this little gem about the newly elected president of the Young Republican National Federation sexually assaulting a sleeping guy by fellating him. Glenn Murphy, who has apparently been big on pushing wedge issues like opposing equal marriage rights. There is a police report from the July 29, 2007 incident, and he apparently also did the same thing back in 1998. Attention Republicans: if you really want to be taken seriously about this whole marriage is only for straight couples who have vanilla, for reproduction-only sex, it might help to not suck quite so much dick. Just sayin'. It would also be nice to maybe not force yourself onto people who are underage and/or unconscious at the time. Ick!]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/republicans_do.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/republicans_do.php GLBT Politics Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:55:50 -0500 Walking the dogs in the rain It was rather late last night, and I needed to take the dogs for the daily walk. It's sort of my excuse to get some exercise as well, and since they are rather rambunctious, I get a bit of upper body as well as the walking thing. It turned out that it was raining rather torrentially, but it was really warm, so I figured "What the heck?" and we took off. It was curiously invigorating. I remember a few times when my sister and I were kids that Mom would let us go out and run around in the summer rain. (I guess not that much different than playing under a sprinkler.) If the weather is warm, it's even better as I can't take being both cold and wet. It also ended up being a good excuse to do some laundry when I got home. I guess I probably looked pretty odd/dumb, but it was fine. http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/walking_the_dog.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/walking_the_dog.php Pets Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:35:54 -0500 Rep: Bob Allen (R-FL) is a lousy liar and a craven closet case

Florida representative Allen: Fear made me offer sex

Fear of the "pretty stocky black guy" who turned out to be an undercover cop made Florida state representative Bob Allen perform the actions that led to a charge of solicitation to commit prostitution, Allen told police in documents aired by the Orlando Sentinel. Allen was arrested July 11 in a Titusville, Fla., public park restroom after he offered the officer $20 to let him perform oral sex, police said. The charge, a second-degree misdemeanor, is punishable by a year in county jail and a $500 fine. Allen says he is innocent and that he will not resign from the legislature. He did resign late last month from the board of the Girls and Boys Town of Central Florida, cable TV station Central Florida News 13 reported. He is scheduled to be arraigned August 23. In a taped statement and other documents released last week, Allen, 48, told police that he was intimidated into offering sex. "I certainly wasn't there to have sex with anybody and certainly wasn't there to exchange money for it," the Sentinel quoted him as saying. Rather, he said, "this was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park," Allen said. He said he feared he "was about to be a statistic." Titusville police told the Sentinel that they were investigating a nearby condo burglary when they saw a disheveled, unshaved man enter and leave the park restroom three times. They decided to send in Officer Danny Kavanaugh. In a statement Kavanaugh said he was drying his hands in a stall when Allen peered—twice—over the stall door, then joined Kavanaugh inside. "This is kind of a public place, isn't it?" Kavanaugh quoted Allen as saying, according to the Sentinel. Allen then suggested "going across the bridge; it's quieter over there." When Allen was loaded into the patrol car, the statement said, he asked if "it would help" that he was a state legislator. "No," the officer said. Soon after taking office in 2001, Allen was one of 21 Florida legislators to sign Gov. Jeb Bush's friend-of-the-court brief supporting the state's ban on gays adopting children. In March he cosponsored an unsuccessful bill that would have enhanced penalties for "offenses involving unnatural and lascivious acts," such as indecent exposure. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate) Oh yeah, also check out this article in the Orlando Sentinel. I LOVE this quote:
In a sometimes-emotional statement delivered at a news conference, Allen added, "This is an ugly and unpleasant situation that has been thrust upon me and my family." The seven-year legislator, a Florida co-chairman of U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, urged his constituents not to jump to conclusions about the Wednesday afternoon arrest. However, he did not directly address what happened.
An "ugly and unpleasant situation being thrust" sounds like what the cop had to deal with. Kids, the jokes for ths practically write themselves! Sweet, sweet schadenfreude. ;)]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/rep_bob_allen_r.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/rep_bob_allen_r.php GLBT Politics Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:20:52 -0500 Visit to the dentist, a quiet day I had scheduled a visit to the dentist today to have some cavities taken care of. I was sort of dreading it, but I knew that it had to be done. My mom was a real stickler for taking care of our teeth when we were kids. I remember once a friend of hers sneaking some snacks up to us during a party and falling asleep without brushing my teeth. It felt like having committed a mortal sin. It wasn't so bad, but the dentist did make a reference to if something developed a problem, there might have to be a root canal. I have never had one of those, but it doesn't sound like fun. I am still feeling somewhat anxious. Work wasn't too bad. One of our programmers was off, and I was going to handle any food bank crises, but everything was fine. I did have some emails from one customer, but it was for the online system I wrote, and I was able to get it resolved fairly quickly. I also got a call from the president about a problem he was having running some software as I was getting done at the dentist. That was also fairly easily resolved. I got an upgraded digital camera (cool!) but the memory card won't be here until Wednesday, it looks like. Fortunately, no big pressing photo stuff. I am a fairly crappy photographer, but it is useful for the face pics for the newsletter and etc. So, I should skedaddle and do some domestic stuff and then walk the dogs. The glamour never stops! http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/visit_to_the_de.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/visit_to_the_de.php Oddments Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:30:10 -0500 Potluck/ritual for Lammas/Lughnassadh here. I celebrated Lammas/Lughnassadh with Swan's Cove. We hadn't done a ritual with just the core group in a while. We had a nice potluck first, and then ritual afterward. The ritual had some degree of silliness, which was fine. Afterwards, we were batting around ideas for the closing ritual for Erie's 3rd Annual Pagan Pride Day. (Swan's Cove is doing one of the ritual's this year.) Selkie had also drawn a logo, but it had only been a line drawing. So we talked about a color scheme. She is going to work on making a pennant to display at the event. I came back and chatted with Deb, and then walked the dogs before heading out. Oddly enough, I bumped into the 2 guys from Iraq Summer, who had a display at the Jazz and Blues festival. So I told them about the photos that Deb had just posted. The older of the 2 guys was particularly thrilled about the feel of the event. He also felt that Erie was a much more tolerant city than Miami. I think that one of the advantages of being a smaller community is that people are less likely to hang out only with their own demographic, so people are more likely to get to know others who are different. My friend Maddie asked me to give a ride home to a guy I saw for a few months last year. He was going through a tough time, so we talked a bit. Oh well, I need to finish the domestic stuff and get some things done.]]> http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/potluckritual_f.php http://www.eriegaynews.com/mahlerblog/2007/08/potluckritual_f.php Friends GLBT Pagan/Religion Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:42:54 -0500