POTUS Comments On CT Mass Shooting

President Obama's remarks yesterday concerning the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT..

Two Fracking USA Mass Shootings

We always like to brag in the United States when we're number one in the world about something vis a vis other nations, but being number one in the number of people who die due to gun violence is not something to be proud of.

We've had two mass shooting in the States this week.   One was Tuesday at a mall in Clackamas, OR that killed three people and yesterday it was a mass shooting at an elementary school campus in Newtown, CT. that killed 27 people.  20 of the victims were children between the ages of 5-10 along with seven adults.

As someone who is part of a community that continues to experience a gun violence plague, I'm beyond sick and tired of seeing people die because some people have a fetishistic attachment to guns.  

I'm also beyond sick and tired of vanillacentric privileged card carrying NRA gun nuts pointing to the Second Amendment and immediately deploying their 'guns don't kill people' and 'if people were armed, it would have stopped the attack before it happened' spin lines.

Yeah right,.the shooters in the last three incidents were wearing masks and body armor.   There were armed people in the vicinity when former congressmember Gabby Giffords was nearly assassinated in Tucson by Jared Loughner and when James Holmes attacked the Aurora, CO movie theater. 

Someone was even mindnumbingly stupid enough to say that if the kids at the school had been armed it wouldn't have happened.  Don't even insult mine or anyone elses intelligence by trying to peddle that line. 

We always hear about protecting the rights of you gun owners.   How about protecting the rights of us Americans who don't want to own guns, but our safety and security are increasingly threatened by the out of control gun culture.  This is not the Wild Wild West anymore and the United States has a highly competent, well equipped professional army unlike in 1787 when the Constitution was adopted.  Our gun laws need to reflect that.   It's time to deal with the reality this fetishistic gun culture is killing innocent people and making our country less safe.  

And it's not just us liberals complaining about the flood of guns in the US making our streets less safe.   The guns are now spilling over across the Mexican and Canadian borders and negatively impacting their citizens and their nations, too.

It's past time for sensible gun control legislation that balances the 2nd Amendment rights of gun owners with the needs of people who don't want to come near a gun, but have just as much right to have the ability to go about their daily lives without the fear of themselves or their loved ones being shot or killed.

To paraphrase Spock from Star Trek, the needs of many Americans outweigh the needs of a few militant gun owners.

I asked this question when I wrote my post in the wake of the Aurora, CO shooting and it bears repeating once again.

How many more people have to die, be wounded or crippled in the United States, Canada and Mexico before y'all stop tripping and allow some common sense gun laws in this country that ban assault weapons, extended magazine clips and people with mental health issues getting their hands on weapons that kill mass quantities of human beings?

Can somebody in the National Rifle Association answer that question for me?  And this time, I think people in Clackamas, OR and Newtown, CT would be very interested in hearing the answer to that question. 

Shut Up Fool Awards- Less Than 12 Days Until Christmas Edition

Happy Holidays TransGriot readers!   Just thought I'd give you the gentle reminder that December 25 is rapidly approaching, so you still have time to get those Christmas cards out and get those gifts for the special people in your lives.

It's also Friday and that means it's time for my weekly exercise in shining a spotlight on colossal ignorance and unfettered stupidity. 

So let's go to work as Ed Schultz would say.

Honorable mention number one goes to Fox Noise for continuing to pimp that 'War on Christmas' toro caca


Honorable mention number two goes to Supreme Court injustice Antonin Scalia who got called out by Duncan Hosie, a freshman Princeton University student on his homophobia in his case dissents at a campus lecture and Scalia doubled down on it.

Honorable mention number three is the Republican Party, who still haven't figured it out that pursuing the same anti-worker, anti-woman, and voter suppression policies will grease the skid to more national and increasingly state and local electoral defeats.

This week's winner is 2012 Shut Up Fool of the Year Award nominee Allen West.  This fool once again opened his mouth and something ignorant came out of it.   He not only threw in his usual POTUS bashing comments, he cited 'cheating' as the reason for his loss to Rep-elect Patrick Murphy.

Naw Allen, if you really want to find out who is most responsible for your sore loser behind becoming a one term congressmember, look in the mirror.


Allen West, shut the hell up fool!

C-279 Update-Getting Filibustered By The Conservatives

Been keeping track of C-279, the federal Trans Rights Bill that seeks to protect the human rights of my trans Canadian brothers and sisters.  

They've already had a great year and progress in passing trans rights legislation in Ontario, Manitoba and most recently Nova Scotia and would like to keep that positive momentum going into 2013.

Bil C-279 would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code to include "gender identity" and "gender expression" as grounds for discrimination but seems to have hit a little resistance while it was in committee.  

Not surprising since the Conservatives were already borrowing tactics from their south of the border Republican cousins and conservahaters by throwing 'bathroom bill' shade at it.  

The NDP's Randall Garrison, the sponsor of this private members bill ain't happy about it, and neither is the Canadian trans community and their allies..  

Mercedes Allen breaks it down for us in terms of what transpired.

2012 TransGriot NFL Picks-Week 15

Well, was not a good Week 14 for me or my Texans.   They took a 42-14 buttkicking at the hands of the New England Patriots.  After holding as much as a seven game lead for most of the season I'm now trailing Mike by two games with three weeks to go no thanks to the Buffalo Bills expensively sorry defense blowing their lead against the St. Louis Rams.

But as Mr Watts painfully remembers,  I erased a four game deficit last season in less time.  I have three weeks left starting with this one.

I know what happened the last time the Texans embarrassingly lost a nationally televised game.  They took out their frustrations at Reliant on the Angry Birds.   This time it's Andrew Luck coming back home as the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts and the Texans needing a win to clinch their second straight AFC South division title and needing to just win baby to stay ahead of the Patriots for the number one AFC playoff seed.

Let's just say the Colts picked a bad week to be coming to Reliant for this crucial game.

Well, gotta handle my Week 15 business and stop the bleeding  Tired of the mediocrity that's allowed him to inch ahead and erase my lead in the first place.   Mike's picks are here, mine are in underlined bold print.

   
Week 14 records 
TransGriot  8-8
Mike Watts 10-6

2012 Season Records
TransGriot  130-77-1
Mike Watts 132-75-1

Week 15

Thursday, December 13
Bengals at Eagles

Sunday, December 16
Packers at Bears
Giants at Falcons
Buccaneers at Saints
Vikings at Rams
Redskins at Browns
Jaguars at Dolphins
Broncos at Ravens
Colts at Texans

Sunday Afternoon  
Lions at Cardinals
Panthers at Chargers
Seahawks at Bills
Steelers at Cowboys
Chiefs at Raiders

Sunday Night
49ers at Patriots

Monday, December 17
Jets at Titans

Indonesian Trans Festival Shut Down By Islamic Defenders Front

There are some areas of our planet in which it's a struggle for our trans brothers and transsisters to openly live their lives in peace.  Unfortunately for the seven million transpeople who live there Indonesia is becoming one of them no thanks in large part to the Islamic Defenders Front and neglect of their human rights.

That neglect of trans human rights is particularly galling since Indonesia was where the Yogyakarta Principles were created.

A 2010 ILGA regional conference was disrupted by these so called 'defenders of the faith' and earlier this month the IDF was back on the reprehensible job of hatin' on the local transwomen by disrupting a trans festival in Jakarta planned to dispel myths and lies being spread about the local trans community.

IDF thugs showed up with sticks and helmets to break up the event, claiming the organizers didn't have a police permit and the neighborhood didn't want them having a trans pageant there.   The festival and its pageant portion was moved to the Legal Aid Foundation in central Jakarta

Merlyn Sofyan, the initiator of the festival, denied the event was only just a trans pageant.

“It’s called Festival Waria Berbudaya [Cultural Transgender Festival], not a pageant where contestants are judged by their looks,” Sofyan told the Jakarta Globe. “Festival Waria Berbudaya is an attempt to answer the wrong perceptions in our community by producing decent human resources of waria. It’s not going to be instant, but we’re trying to nurture them.”

But Salim Alatas, the head of the Jakarta chapter of faith based transphobes the IDF insisted that such an event would not be tolerated, whatever the reason was.

Sofyan, who herself was a winner of the Miss Waria 2006 pageant, said in that interview it was not the role of the IDF to say who was right or wrong.  "If we’re talking about religion, who has the right to judge other people?” said Sofyan, who had hoped the festival would counter negative sentiments toward the transgender community in Indonesia.

Indeed, since when did the Islamic Defenders Front get the right to judge other people in Indonesia, much less use thuggish tactics to break up and disrupt events they don't like?  

That's not defending your faith, that's expressing to the world how little faith you actually have if you can't live up to the principles of it and let others live their lives in peace.

Happy 20th Birthday Sage!

Today is Sage Smith's 20th birthday.    Unfortunately she's still missing..  We'd hoped that she'd be back home by now celebrating this day with her family and friends.

And she should be. 

Sage should be doing what any twentysomething would do on their Big 2-0 birthday.  She should be at home tearing into her gifts and preparing to blow out twenty candles on her birthday cake enveloped in the love of her family and friends. 

Instead she's been missing since November 20.  Christmas is approaching, the person who last talked to her in Erik McFadden has left the Charlottesville, VA area and several searches have revealed no clues to Sage's whereabouts.

One thing people have been pissed off about is the lack of media coverage, but it looks like that may be starting to change as well.  

Continue to pray not only for Sage but her family in this trying and painful time for them.  If you have any information concerning this case please call Crimestoppers at 434-977-4000.

TransGriot Update:  Found out there will be at Lee Park in Charlottesville, VA a rainbow balloon release in honor of Sage's birthday starting at 5:30 PM EST.  If you live in the area and can attend please consider going to the event and supporting the family and friends of Sage.

Dominican Republic Trans Org COTRAVEDT Demands End To Anti-Trans Discrimination

There have been some interesting things happening for trans people in the Caribbean since 2010.  With the Organization of American States adopting a resolution urging its member nations to implement their resolutions covering human rights sexual orientation, and gender identity we are starting to see some of our transpeople in the region become more insistent that their various nations respect and protect their human rights.  

Monday was the 64th anniversary of the ratification of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.   In the Dominican Republic COTRAVEDT, the organization that advocates for the Dominican trans community, chose that date to hold a press conference demanding an end to anti-trans discrimination and they have equal access to basic services in their nation.

COTRAVEDT represents over 1,200 trans people in their island nation and Nairobi Castillo, the coordinator for the group pointed out 18 transsexuals and sexual workers have been killed this year, but no indictments to solve any of those killing have yet been made by authorities.  

Castillo noted the Dominican Republic lags further behind in discrimination in education, health and freedom of movement for the trans community.

To add an exclamation point to the anti-trans discrimination being decried by Castillo, Eddy Flores, the mother of a transwoman described her outrage over taking her trans daughter to a public hospital but having to leave because of the negativity aimed at her.  She eventually had to find the money to take her trans child to a private clinic.


Flores also proclaimed at the COTRAVEDT press conference her trans child isn’t a monster and she loves her the same as any other mother loves her child.

It's past time for the Dominican Republic to treat transpeople living inside their country's borders with the same dignity and respect that they would have for any other citizen of that nation.

Be nice if that would happen for our trans cousins in the Dominican Republic as expeditiously as possible.
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I-69 Signs Finally Going Up In Houston Area

When I lived in the Louisville area, during one of my trips to the Indianapolis metro area I actually got to do a portion of it on I-69, the eventual NAFTA superhighway which was approved in 2002. 

I -69 is being extended across several states from Indiana to terminate at the Mexican border here in Texas.  When I moved back home in 2010 I got to travel on a co-signed portion of it on I-55 from the Mississippi-Tennessee state line south to the I-69 interchange near Hernando, MS that heads off in the direction of Tunica and its casinos.  

When US 59 was widened and rebuilt over a decade ago in the Houston area, it was done to interstate highway standards.  That came in handy when the 1-69 NAFTA superhighway corridor in Texas was routed along much of US 59 which transits east Texas and becomes a major freeway just northeast of Houston.

There is another 6.2 mile (10 km) section of I-69 that has already been signed along US 77 from I-37 in Corpus Christi to Robstown.

TThose of us in the Houston area will start seeing gradually over the next few months I-69 signs installed on the section of US 59 running through our area with the first section being a 35 mile (58 km) one from FM 787 near Cleveland, TX  past IAH to the North Loop 610. 

The 40 mile (63 km) section of 59 (AKA the Eastex and Southwest Freeways) that runs in a north-south direction from Loop 610 past the east side of downtown, Minute Maid Park, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the southern half of the Montrose gayborhood to Rosenberg, TX in Fort Bend County is awaiting approval to be signed..  

But it's just a matter of time before we see the I-69 sign across the entire Houston area      

Donna Summer Posthumously Inducted Into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame

The 2013 Class for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was announced, and after six nominations Donna Summer FINALLY made it in.  

Would have been nice if you could have done so while she was still on the planet.

In addition to the Queen of Disco making it in, Public Enemy was inducted in their first year of eligibility (yeah, boyeeee) along with fellow Class of 2013 inductees Albert King, Rush and Randy Newman.


While I'm happy for Donna Summer, Albert King and Public Enemy, still pissed that Chic, who should have been in with Summer a long time ago is getting the Susan Lucci treatment. 

This was Chic's seventh time being nominated and once again they missed getting inducted.   

The induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2013 will be held at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on April 18.

12-12-12!

Today is December 12, 2012, the last triple digit date of the 21st century.  

We've already experienced 1-1-01. 2-2-02, 3-3-03, 4-4-04, 5-5-05, 6-6-06, 7-7-07, 8-8-08 (which was the opening date for the Beijing Olympics), 9-9-09, 10-10-10 and 11-11-11 last year.

And thank God I'm alive to see it.

TransGriot readers, hope this is a wonderful day for you and revel in the fact that this unique date won't come again on the calendar until the 22nd century.

2012 Texans Watch-Ouch! 11-2

The Texans played arguably their most important game in their franchise history yesterday when they showed up in Foxborough, MA with their liberty white uniforms and 6-0 road record to take on the defending AFC champion New England Patriots.

And unfortunately stunk up the joint.  

The Patriots scored on their first three drives and cruised to a 42-14 loss that ended the Texans six game winning streak.   It was also their first loss in AFC conference play. 

While the Texans wanted to win this game and get some national respect in the process, it's tough to beat the Pats in Massachusetts in December.  It's even tougher when you turn the ball over, don't score on your first four first half possessions and when you do create Patriot fumbles you fail to recover them. .

Despite the blowout loss, my fave NFL ballers 11-2, are still holding the number one seed in the AFC and by winning their remaining three games against the Minnesota Vikings at Reliant and their home and away AFC South games against the Indianapolis Colts can clinch it.

They can clinch their second straight AFC South title by beating the Andrew Luck led Colts this Sunday.  

Arrest Made In January Lapuz Killing

I wrote back in October about the killing of our Canadian trans sister January Marie Lapuz who was found stabbed at her New Westminster, BC home on September 30 and later died at a local hospital. 

It's now being reported the New Westminster, BC police on December 5 arrested Charles Jameson “Jamie” Neel with the killing of our trans sister 

He has since been charged with second-degree murder and was scheduled to appear at New Westminster court on December 6.

Police investigators are still trying to ascertain the motive for Lapuz's killing, and since the case in now before the court system and the investigation is still active they have not released any further information to news outlets in the area.

Here's hoping that Neel is the person who did it, the justice system handles their business and puts him away for a long time.

Will keep y'all posted on this case.

Caroline Wozniacki, Stop Hatin' On Serena's Curves

Caroline Wozniacki was doing what she does best on a tennis court and lose to better (and sometimes worse) players than her, but took it to a racist level in Brazil last weekend.  .

During an exhibition match she was playing against Maria Sharapova in Sao Paulo, Brazil she decided to mock tennis star Serena Williams' curvaceous body by stuffing tissues in her breast and butt and waddling around the tennis court. 



Of course, the predominately white crowd thought Wozniacki's antics were hilarious. 

I didn't, and not just because I'm a huge Serena Williams fan.  Michael Arceneaux didn't think it was humorous in this EBONY article and 84% of the people voting in a NewsOne poll at the bottom of the story discussing Wozniacki's problematic stunt didn't think it was funny either. 

And the fact this isn't the first time Wozniacki has mocked Serena that way pisses us off even more. 

Once again this plays into the borderline racist disrespect aimed at the Williams Sisters ever since they have been on the women's professional tennis circuit dominating it and the disrespect aimed at Black women in general for the last 400 years.

To borrow a comment from Michael Arcenaux's article, Black women's bodies are not a joke.  We also take an extremely hard line about any disrespect aimed at Black women in general by white women.

I doubt Caroline will be laughing at the Australian Open next month if she happens to be in the same half of the draw with Little Sis and they are on opposite sides of a tennis court.

Frankly I pray that happens, and Serena pulls out a can of straight set whoop azz for Wozniacki's flat behind.

Caroline, you really need to shop hatin' on Serena's curves because you don't have them, the only way you'll will is pay a plastic surgeon some of your prize money to get them and you don't have a single Grand Slam title to show for your seven years spent as a tennis pro. 

Trans TV Alert-Barbara Walters 20/20 Show Finally Airing

I posted last month about a update ABC's 20/20 was doing concerning their 2007 show about trans children.  The show was supposed to air November 2, but due to network coverage of Hurricane Sandy's landfall was pushed back to November 23.   It didn't air on that date either. 

The long awaited update in which Barbara Walters visits the trans kids and their families that were interviewed for that 2007 show will finally be broadcast this Friday

I'm looking forward to seeing what's up in these trans children's lives 5 years later.

What Happened To McDonald Case Instigator Molly Shannon Flaherty?

Laverne Cox has a post up on HuffPo focused on CeCe McDonald, our Minnesota transsister who stood her ground against a hate attack instigated by a white supremacist and transphobic bigots.  Due to a massive miscarriage of justice she is unfortunately doing three years in jail behind it. 

Laverne's post led me to ponder what's been happening in the legal case with Molly Shannon Flaherty, the woman who triggered that fateful June 5, 2011 altercation outside Minneapolis' Schooner Tavern that night and shoved a glass in CeCe's face that opened up a cut that took 11 stitches to close.

There was a lot of justified griping from the African-Americans trans community and our allies about the glaring reality that none of the white people involved who started this crap were facing charges or jail time like CeCe was.   The 41 year old Flaherty was arrested May 11 and charged with two felonies: second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and third-degree assault causing substantial bodily harm

Interestingly enough, Hennepin County Prosecutor Michael Freeman (D) is still trying to cover his rump and cited a unspecified conflict of interest in not prosecuting Flaherty's case in Hennepin County where it happened, but instead in Washington County

Note that ever since then and the announcement that Flaherty had been charged, it seems as though there has been a cone of silence cloaking what has happened ever since.  What's up with that?  

If the Washington County prosecutors are trying to keep this quiet in the hopes that dropping this case off the news radar will allow people to forget it and give them the opportunity to let Flaherty walk for instigating this BS instead if putting her butt in jail like y'all did CeCe, umm no, that ain't happening.   

It's time for the media and everybody else to ask questions in terms of what is happening in this case.  If no answers are forthcoming, then the Washington County prosecutors need to asked in front of unblinking camera eyes why.   It may also be time to light a fire under Michael Freeman's behind if necessary.

Flaherty deserves jail time and a fine for causing bodily injury to CeCe, and the trans community should not rest or let this crap slide until CeCe gets some justice out of this fracked up situation, too.instead of the heaping helpings of injustice she's had to deal with.

The Best Man 2 Coming November 2013!

I wrote about it back in October 2011 when the news first broke that one of my fave movies, The Best Man is about to get a sequel.  

After the initial burst of excitement from fans of the movie like myself, hearing that Malcolm D. Lee would be writing and directing it, and hearing the entire cast wanted to reprise their roles, all we were waiting for was the date we would need to be at the multiplex for its premiere.

Seemed like that would be a no brainer decision to greenlight it since the original movie grossed $35 million, it has a huge fanbase, and a cast made up of Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan, Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Monica Calhoun, Harold Perrineau and Melissa De Souza we all want to see in some new situations post that wedding weekend.  

Well, the film has finally been greenlighted by Universal and the untitled Best Man 2 sequel will be at your local multiplex on November 15, 2013.

So yeah, we'll finally get to find out what happened to Mia, Lance, Jordan, Harper, Robin, Murch, Quentin and the woman they all loathed, Shelby.

As of yet no details on the basic story or trailers have been released, but you know when that finally happens I'll post that info here on the blog.

BSG Blood and Chrome-Finale

The final episodes of the Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome series...

SyFy, y'all really need to reconsider your ill advised decision to not make this a series. I would rather watch that than that BS wresting y'all put on.

GOP 2012 Christmas Gift

What the Republican Party will deservedly get for Christmas besides the electoral beatdown President Obama gave them.

Sage Smith Case Update-Sage's Birthday Approaching And She's Still Missing

Sage Smith's 20th birthday on December 13 is rapidly approaching, and the trans teen that has been missing since November 20 still has yet to be heard from by family or friends.   Someone else that hasn't been heard from besides Erik McFadden, the last person to talk to Sage is the media.

Kinda sad that if you Google 'Sage Smith', links to my blog posts pop up.   I shouldn't be one of the few peeps commenting on it, a point GLAAD's Daryl Hannah made in his HuffPo post he wrote about the lack of media coverage in this case 

Yeah, I'm not happy about this, but I'll put my pissivity about this indifference toward this young POC transperson's life on pause and turn the focus of this post back toward finding our trans youngling.

A vigil and walk is happening later today starting at 6:30 PM EST.   If you live in the area and can support the family and this event, please do so.

The Vigil and March, will begin at 6:30pm Saturday at 731 Orange Dale, we will start with prayer, then words of reflection from family and friends,. Then we will walk from Orange Dale, down 9th street, up the 9th/10th street connector, right on Main street, than down to the Train station ending at around 7:30. This will symbolize the lantern shining to help Dashad find his way home, as well as the light which must be shined on his disappearance, to find out what has happened to Dashad. We also will have media there to help in spreading the word. We need peoples help in supplying the candles. We have gotten support from at least 3 area churches so far, and are trying to enlist other civic leaders.

If anyone has eyeballs on Erik McFadden or you have any pertinent information relevant to this case, please call the Charlottesville, VA Police Department at 434-977-4000.

And let's continue to pray for the safe return of Sage to her family.