I’ve always enjoyed a good diet Pepsi but I usually find myself ordering Diet Coke out of habit.

I received an email the other day from the American Family Association that has made me into a complete + total Pepsi Evangelist.

The American Family Association is one of those wingnut conservative groups that spends a lot of money fighting gay marriage.  I signed up out of simple curiosity, and out of a desire to get to know, and try to understand, the opposition, and people that frown on me and my life.

So the latest thing that’s gotten their panties all in a wad is Pepsi.  Now the AFA seems to think that because Pepsi does the following things, they are the pinnacle of all evil and must be STOPPED:

1. Asks their employees to take diversity training courses
2. Advertises in magazines like OUT
3. Gives money to charities like the Human Rights Campaign
4. Is a sponsor of the NYC Gay Pride Parade

Now, the HILARIOUS thing about all of this, is the AFA is asking people to boycott Pepsi. But if the above is their criteria, I got some news for them. They can’t just stop at Pepsi. Here is a list of just a SAMPLING of the companies that not only received 100% on last year’s HRC Corporate Equality Index, all of whom fit the bill based on the bullet points above (except perhaps for the parade sponsorship), but were also rated a “Best Place to Work” for LGBT employees:

• Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. So Kiss your Budweiser goodbye!
• Campbell Soup Co. Too bad, they’re kinda helpful in tough economic times
• Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. NO SODA FOR YOU
• Coors Brewing Co. NO BEER FOR YOU
  
• PepsiCo Inc. (duh)
• Walgreen Co. NO DRUGS FOR YOU

And that’s just a partial list of the Food category!  They also can’t buy camera or develop film (Eastman Kodak Co.), own a computer (Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) , Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc.), have a good calculator (Texas Instruments Inc.), ever fly in a plane (Boeing Co.) or pretty much do anything, EVER.

So back to Pepsi for a moment.

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I continue to be perplexed by the extreme popularity of Rachel Maddow.  Yes, she is intelligent.  Yes, she is snarky and sarcastic.  Yes, she is funny.  Yes, she is bringing new visibility to the lesbian community, which is always wonderful for me in a deeply personal way.  But people seem to think that she is this unique voice that the world has never seen.  And even those in my beloved, dramatic community are fawning all over her.

But come on.  Really?  Rachel Maddow has all the ingredients of your typical, over-education, east coast lesbian.  The only novel thing about her is she’s on TV.   I think the problem is, while people know gay men, most people in this country just don’t know enough lesbians to see how completely typical Maddow is.  Let’s break it down

1.  Maddow is really, really into politics

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The numbers are in, and they are striking. Fifty-five percent of registered New York City voters got out there on election day and voted.

The highest voter participation rate was in Staten Island (aka Richmond County). The largest absolute number of voters were in Brooklyn. And the highest percentage of support for Barack Obama came out of the Bronx.

Sources:

• http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/enrollment/county/county_mar08.pdf – Voter registrations as of March 2008
• http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html?scp=3&sq=interactive%20election&st=cse

The recent reports of the vitriolic McCain-Palin rallies were scaring me. McCain and Palin have been stirring up angry mobs of citizens, who have reacted with the now infamous “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” shouts, apparently directed at Barack Obama.

But after reading the Washington Post’s article “Anger Is Crowd’s Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally“, it occurred to me that this is perhaps less about hate than it is about defeat, and the republicans slowly coming to terms with that.

Let us recall the Kübler-Ross model, developed by Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross of Switzerland, and elaborated on in her book “On Death and Dying.”  This model can be applied to any form of catastrophic personal loss.

The five stages outlined in the Grief Cycle are becoming readily apparent in the behavior of member of the Republican Party as election day approaches. This revelation both relieved and encouraged me.  I wanted to share this with others, which is why I put together the below youtube video.

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If you place a nominee on a ballot, can their race simultaneously be both an advantage and a disadvantage?

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton apologized to a gathering of black newspaper publishers Wednesday for a top fundraiser’s controversial comments that Sen. Barack Obama’s race has helped his candidacy.

(CNN) — A Chicago minister who delivered a fiery sermon about Sen. Hillary Clinton having an advantage over Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential race because she is white is no longer a part of the Obama campaign.

When I was an undergraduate, one of the most popular classes was one taught by Professor Kenneth Jackson: The History of the City of New York. Some came because they heard good things about it; other because they were fascinated by the Burns documentary in which Professor Jackson appears.

My personal fascination was a bit of both: In my first semester, I had a computer science class in a large auditorium. With over 300 students it was easily my biggest class, so nothing seemed strange when I slipped into a seat in the packed lecture hall, out of breath from running. What did seem strange was that the room was dark, but sometimes Professor Sklar would show us videos of robots playing soccer and the like. What was strange, was that we were watching a movie about New York. I kept waiting for the connection — none came. Eventually, I realized I was in the wrong class: and I wasn’t twenty minutes late, I was forty minutes early!

I stayed in my seat, entranced by the commentary. You can look straight up any of the avenues in New York and see all the way to the top of the city. True! Had I noticed it? No! New York was a city founded by the Dutch to make a buck. It began as a real estate transaction between the Dutch and the American Indians. On and on it went.

The class was too demanding when I finally returned my senior year; Professor Jackson mandated the students attend multiple walking tours and write several papers. But I will always regret missing out on the Midnight Bike Ride through the city, that he took the class on every year. I passed by them in a car on the way home from a date. I wanted to follow them; I had no bike. But nostalgia and regret cannot take away from the pleasure of watching the Burns documentary, New York.

It shocks me that the Flatiron building went up in 1903. That New York invented the Express Train. That the first subways cost a nickel, and remained that way for fifty years. That Ellis Island, on its busiest days, let in 16,000 immigrants. How the city tripled in size in the 19th – 20th century due to immigration. How people from all over the world came here, awed by Lady Liberty, settling into a city of skyscrapers and hopes and dreams, and managed not to kill one another. Much.

More Italians than in Naples; more Irish than in Dublin. “By 1905, four out of five New Yorkers were either the children of immigrants, or immigrants themselves. Forever after, many Americans would view New York as a foreign country.” Did you know Penn Station used to be BEAUTIFUL!

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