Low price, rich story, instant download

Five bucks gets you an instant download of my book, "The Captain and Thomasine," a  historical novel taking place in Jamestown and London, and following the histrionics of 17th Century Virginia  where the governor dictated gender-specific clothing for colonial residents -- in effect, establishing three genders. And yes, there was a trial. Actually, the download is only $4.99. (I love deflation.) So go ahead and take advantage of this great offer. There you go:

--Don Floyd, author

http://www.scribd.com/doc/123816342/The-Captain-and-Thomasine

LET'S HELP MAKE THIS GO VIRAL!

         The Daddy DNA
         Database Project

This is a recent post on the Immoral Minority blog by a contributor who chooses to remain anonymous. It's brilliant! I hope you will help spread the word. Share it with as many people as  possible. DF

To counter the current wave of Republican legislation to control women's body, health and reproduction rights, here's my proposal:

Push for a bill that requires all males over the age of 12 to have their DNA in a database - after all, they are half the genetic material needed to create a baby...and since the men do not want women to have birth control, and everyone is supposed to be 100 percent responsible for their own actions and offspring (no government support or handouts at all, according to Republicans) it only makes sense that every single male should be in a database so they can be tracked down and their wages garnisheed to support their offspring. If they can't - then it's off to a workhouse of some sort to work for below minimum wage (the rest of their compensation is in the form of room and board) and what little salary they get will go to any children they fathered.

The wealthy will love this idea - it provides cheap labor (they can also be used in work groups with chains, of course, so they don't escape) to work in the fields - thus doing the work that no one else wants to do (and eliminating the jobs that are now filled by illegal immigrants). Inmates (with tracking anklets, of course) who have good behavior could even become house help for the uber rich

The Romney Republicans will love it since the rich benefit! And the Santorum and far right Republicans will love it, too, since it protects every single egg and sperm. Adults of all ages rot in custody will have no rights and no support or safety net.

Sounds like something the Republicans should really go for, right ??? **said with a touch of snark** After all, personal liberty is meaningless when compared to the rights of a sperm and an egg which are much more important - so what's a little DNA in a database if it means that every single sperm will now be protected and have a "loving" father?

Since the far right and (some) Republicans will not listen to facts or reason, the only way to make our point is to fight their absurd ideas with our own absurd ideas and keep the pressure on until these lawmakers come to their senses and stop trying to pull this country back into the dark ages and use "religion" to control women.

Please get the word out to your state congresswomen and senators.

Check out the Immoral Minority blog: http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/

AN EDUCATOR'S REVIEW
          Here's a book that's hard to put down
This book by Don Floyd takes a historical setting in Jamestown where the first known intersexuality dilemma in America unfolds. The author produces a remarkable and sagacious story of compassion, loyalty and courage.  His tenderness of heart, intellect and love of history fill the pages of “The Captain and Thomasine,” a novel easy to read, enabled by a flow that makes it difficult to put down.

Mr. Floyd cleverly makes this historical fiction come alive with documented figures such as Captain Nathaniel Basse, his son John, his uncle William Basse and Thomasine Hall.

Captain Nathaniel Basse is truly a man of character, courage and compassion, and his life greatly contributes to the emerging morals and ethics of our nation. His profound courage and the earnest desire to always do the right thing earn him the right to conquer death and inherit the ultimate gift. John is a carbon copy of his father. He has inherited the captain’s attributes and will carry on the Basse name with pride and humility.

William Basse has the spirit and wit that one would expect from such a poet of his time. Thomasine Hall went on trial in 1629 to distinguish if she was a man or a woman. Thomasine defended herself in this historical Jamestown case with the courage and tolerance that makes this book a must  read.
                                                                                                                
The author has researched his topic well and does an excellent job of combining history, legend, imagination and wit. Fact is separated from fiction so there are no historical misunderstandings. At the end of the book, the author adds Historical Postscripts, which are very interesting and valuable in fully understanding this story from the 17^th Century. The author writes from the heart with a kindred spirit that is unsurpassed.

The book has a few surprises which add to the already polished manner of Mr. Floyd’s style and technique. The written style of the book is unique to most modern authors, contributing greatly to the auspiciousness of the overall book.  I applaud the author’s keen and judicious technique in highlighting the real beauty of redemption and the secret in achieving a triumphant life. I highly recommend this fascinating book.

Neal W. Clark, Ed. D.

Neal W. Clark, a lifetime Georgian, holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from NOVA Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He is a former high school teacher, principal and assistant superintendent of schools. He now serves as Educational Administrator for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice/Office of Education and lives in Hawkinsville, Ga.

How President Obama can drive me crazy

Like the rest of us, President Obama has his strengths and weaknesses. But where he is strong he is very strong, and where he is weak, he drives me crazy.

Oh, but for a few changes by Obama, and he could well win the admiration and loyalty of that part of America that is savvy challenged – often buying lies and not seeing in-plain-view truth.  They are suspicious of intelligence, and they see something nefarious behind a class act.

I know what you’re thinking. Why would President Obama even want to win these people over? Many of them are voters! That’s why.  Bringing in the sheaves might resonate with Obama if he saw the logic of using his brain not only for soaring loftiness but down-to-earth reality.

That’s it! Just use his brain to be more spontaneous. No prefabricated spontaneity, please. Just allow his brain to allow spontaneity. It’s a no-brainer, really.

But President Obama seems to use his brain to censor himself, and that drives me crazy. Thus, he speaks haltingly with many vocal pauses, some way too long.

Many white Southerners speak that way also, and they do it, I think, to assure accuracy in what they say. Has Obama picked up a bad habit from the South?  I’m a Georgian but I  like New Yorkers because of – not in spite of – their fiery fast-talking and car-hood banging. I find them amusing. Better than that, I see their hearts. They mean you no ill. They just yield sometimes to innate bluster prodded on by antsy genes.

I think I liked President Obama better as a campaigner. Those were the days! But now that he has taken on his presidential mantle, Obama has become too preoccupied, I think, with appearing noble and historical, and that drives me crazy. I’m a historian by nature, and I can assure you that history will   hold Obama high, so what is he worried about?

What’s more, many citizens don’t know Obama actually has a heart when they see little or no external evidence of it. Aye, there’s the rub! All things we experience viscerally while listening to a politician come with what our eyes see and sometimes with what our ears hear. The spoken word – as much as I love it – is only one of the ways we communicate.

Obama loves words because they give him the tools he needs for communicating accurately. But he does not seem to be concerned about speaking accurately from the heart.

Is there something psychological involved here? Yeah, I suspect at some point in his life – maybe several times – Obama got burned by revealing his heart. It may have seemed to be the right thing to do at the time but in politics, rivals will use anything against you, even your greatest asset. Lesson learned.

So Obama appears to be into an ongoing mental chess game. He plays the game not with just one opponent but concurrently with many opponents, all eager to checkmate him before he checkmates them.

Does that sound like survival? Nothing wrong with that. We all develop ways to survive.  It’s part of being human. The fittest survive. But is Obama relying too much on a strong defense at the expense of a vigorous offense? Is Obama stressing his brain and being a little boring with this frenzy of tiring mental activity?  I would be wasted after managing to anticipate the moves of just one opponent. Obama is superior intellectually. Get used to it. But survival by mental design absent spontaneity is like carrying one of your political guns unloaded. Obama is intelligent. He should know this.

I can relate to Obama, however, because I am not exactly a street fighter. He needs to be – and a tough one at that. Americans like fire – openly expressed emotions – when other options are less than satisfying.

Instead, Obama tries to appear noble, and that drives me crazy. Why not let emotions do what they were meant to do? I can still see the 1980 image of candidate Ronald Reagan when he exclaimed, “I am paying for this microphone.” He was participating in a Republican primary debate in New Hampshire, an affair he had paid for. True, he was trying to gain political capital by changing the rules of order and carting in some of his political buddies since he, uh, was paying for the debate.

But the debate moderator was guilty of worse behavior. He ordered the soundman to turn off Reagan’s microphone. Not too smart! If the moderator had any problems with Reagan, he should have voiced them before the debate. Something like: “We will have no debate if one candidate is paying for it.” End of debate.

As it turned out, the moderator personally handed Reagan a priceless gift: a chance to do the Reagan thing. And nobody does Reagan better than Reagan. He immediately seized the opportunity. Did he seem a fool? Yeah, but the audience was all his, especially the TV audience.

I don’t recommend anything this silly for Obama. He’s better than that. He can do his own thing. But does he want to? Is he keeping anything remotely emotional sequestered inside a mental holding cell? Seems so! And we are missing out on some great political footage.

If Obama was ever an attack dog he changed his mode of operation at some point. I suspect it was when he started getting a dose of racism when he grew up and ventured out from the protection of his mother and primarily his grandmother who fought her way up to some banking prominence in Hawaii where whites were second-class citizens. She was tough to the point of being disliked by some, feared by many, but admired for her success as a white woman in a culture that was not enamored with whites or women in positions of leadership.

Early in his life, Obama most likely thought of himself as being like the rest of his family. Color didn’t register with him. When I was growing up in Georgia, that same attitude existed in my rural social circle concerning dark people (most likely Indian ancestry). Everybody was aware they were dark, of course, but the question of color really didn’t register. (I’m slightly dark myself.)

Color registered highly in black-white goings-on, however. We were worlds apart, even though there was more than a fair amount of white-black intimacy, which still exists. This intimacy is a strange mystery. Could it be related to the heart? Could it help explain why so many African-Americans continue migrating to Atlanta and all points Georgia – many into fields of prominence? They’re coming home! Thank you very much!

And I believe they have a forgiving spirit about the horror many of their ancestors had to endure in the South. For that matter, they might have a forgiving spirit about the horror many of their ancestors had to endure in such places as Massachusetts where the thriving slave trade revealed that Big Business will do anything for a buck.

When Obama ventured away from his area of protection, people referred to him as black. It might have been a shock to him. In Chicago apparently, he took on the black persona to a degree and has been considered black ever since, although he is just as much white as he is black and basically was raised as white.

Sometime during this transition, I believe, Obama decided against emotional confrontation and street fighting in the open arena of staking out areas of dominance. He became a manipulator behind the scenes, I think. He learned how to divide and conquer, I suspect. He learned how to find common ground and give others the credit. He seems to have no need for adulation, only progress, even if his name is not attached to it.

I have never seen him truly emotional. That is a failing for a leader because followers like to see their leaders get angry in the process of protecting them. They like fire. And they like street fighting. Obama shuns all of this and operates in a world that is not remotely transparent. Concerning leaks to the press, Obama operates like a CIA director – tougher than any other president on this point because he sees leaks to the press as a national security threat.

Unfortunately, this toughness does not register with much of the public, and that drives me crazy. In fact, the press in most cases does not even inform the public about Obama’s zeal to rein in the press and identify the leakers.

Obama uses tough rhetoric at times, but he should take it a step farther. I recommend using his Hawaii grandmother as a model of toughness – out front – where everybody can see. That would truly be a breath of fresh air. And maybe I could recover from being crazy so much.

Saint Harold has spoken: It's THE END

You're never too young for senility to set in. Consider Harold Camping. He's 89 and senile as hell. Either that or he's a mindless fraud. You know Harold, don't you? He's the California dude who has drawn a lof of attention by saying Jesus will return Saturday – without a doubt! That's right, Saturday, May 21, 2011. Tomorrow, in other words

One little matter. The Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) begins at 6 p.m. today when Friday ends. So batten down the hatches. Here it comes in just a few hours. On second thought, forget about it, because nobody knows lickety-split about the Second Coming. So says Jesus. Harold is a liar, if we believe Jesus. And I believe Jesus. Check it out. Mark 13:32
 
But of that day or that hour no one knows; not even the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the Father. Matthew 24:36

So there we have it. Harold knows something that Jesus doesn't know – the angels either. To check out the lying part see peripheral verses. But let's be kind. Maybe Harold needs beatification. At 89, he needs something! Real bad!

Saint Harold! Now, that's catchy!

Don Floyd



Bush failed, but a real patriot succeeded

After 9/11, Osama bin Laden was the prime target for any sensible and sane American president. Not for George W. Bush, however. He turned his sights on Iraq, killed countless innocent Iraqis and spilled the blood of American sokdiers needlessly.

Saddam Hussein was a bad guy but posed no immediate threat to the United States. But what did that matter? Bush and his team – chiefly Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld – were after oil and whatever booty they could cart out of Iraq. Do I smell war crimes here?

Bush told the American people that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction all over the place. It all was a blatant lie. It was not a miscalculation. It was a lie. And the lie was repeated over and over for years.

So instead of taking out Osama bin Laden, Bush orchestrated the capture and hanging of Saddam. Why? It is not clear, but we might note that both Bush and his Poppy were very cozy with the wealthy bin Ladens in oil-rich Saudi Arabia. The bin Laden family would not want anything bad to happen to their prodigal son, would they?

So Bush and his spy network suddenly went blind and could not find Osama bin Laden, the top priority for any president wanting to remove a mass murderer and one of the worst national security threats in American history.

It took a sane and competent president, Barack Obama, to hunt down Osama bin Laden and kill him. It took persistence and intelligence – both kinds – to find this criminal living in a million-dollar mansion in a plush neighborhood 30 miles from the center of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Not in the desolate mountains – as Bush would have us believe – but in plain view of Pakistan’s leadership.

Who is the real enemy here? Certainly not Iraq. If being a true American was his aim, Bush would have sent a small contingent of well-trained and highly competent Navy Seals to take out this global terrorist.

But no! Bush helped facilitate the deaths of American soldiers – the young and the innocent – who would not have a chance to experience one small slice of the American future. And he did it in the wrong place. It would take the keen sight and insight of one of the best presidents in U.S. history to handle the job. Barack Obama is a patriot!

The Republicans and all reactionaries in America still are in the habit of telling lies. They even besmirch Obama's character – first because he is a Democrat but also because of his African ancestry. Resurgent racism is shamelessly hidden under the cloak of a bogus search for truth – otherwise known as the Birther Movement.

Franklin Graham is just as much a disgrace to his family name as Osama bin Laden was to his.

The main Republican aim is to provide American welfare to Big Money – ever growing richer and not providing the jobs that this country needs. Republicans just love outsourcing, which in no way helps America but provides jobs for foreigners. This is not only antipatriotic but precariously close to treason.

What else could you expect from serial liars? The death of the Republican Party would be a tremendous benefit to us all. This party is complicit in the rape of America.

Serve Big Money and gouge the middle class. That is their passion. To hell with what’s good for the country. Just take the bribes from Big Money. Does that sound like patriotism? No, the phony flag-wavers persist in their hypocrisy and abuse of our country.

When will this abuse stop? Only when voters recognize shameless lying and highway robbery for what they are and remove this serious national security threat from office. The real enemy is here, not over there.

Don Floyd
 

ORDERING MY BOOK: Click here to order a hardback or instant download of "The Captain and Thomasine." Download price is only $12.50. http://www.lulu.com/product/hardcover/the-captain-and-thomasine/11768769?showPreview

Stephaun De Paul reviews my historical novel

As you may know, my blog defends the abused and rebukes the abuser. It also promotes my historical novel: “The Captain and Thomasine.” Today I’m promoting – and I’m sharing with you Stephaun De Paul’s review of my book. Stephaun De Paul of New York is highly regarded for his genealogical research focusing on Captain Nathaniel Basse, the main character in the story.

Don Floyd

 
Stephaun De Paul's New York Review

The Captain and Thomasine is a love letter to our collective past. Jamestown, Virginia, 1629: the historical Captain Nathaniel Basse, ancient planter, nation builder, steps onto the page with flesh on his bones and takes his place among the giants of industry and nation who would pioneer and father forth the indomitable spirit of one of the greatest nations in the history of mankind. From one such heart and mind comes a work of quiet strength and tenderness. Don Floyd has raised our forefather from the grave and allowed him to walk among us once more. We meet a man comfortable in his own skin; a man who wears his dignity like an old coat; a man at the end of his life who has earned the love and respect of his family and peers by his courage and compassion. He is a man who has matured into his stature by the development of a judicious mind and a spirit of tolerance for all God’s creatures. In The Captain and Thomasine we see a man built by nation -- an Englishman come home to die as an American. We meet his son, John, who will go home to America to continue what was started by his father and a handful of people who conquered death and fear to give him an inheritance far greater than lands and money. John is possessed of a balanced nature imparted to him by an engaged and loving father. We’re introduced to Nathaniel’s famous uncle, the poet, William Basse, an Englishman of solid spirit and humor. In three generations of Basse men, we begin to experience the continuity that would become our own history, and we meet the historical, Jamestown hermaphrodite, Thomasine, who has traveled to England to give back to her mentor and savior the lovingkindness he once gave to her. Don Floyd has borrowed heavily from history and the family mythology to build a work of fluidity that is hard to put down, and for that reason, is a quick read. In his own words, “It is a book about intersexuality, compassion, loyalty, love, spirituality, forgiveness and the triumph of beauty.” The obvious love with which Don has handled his subject projects onto Nathaniel Basse a goodness which leaves a defined impression of the author’s own goodness. A work of fiction based on historical fact relies heavily on legend and imagination. In the end, Mr. Floyd is careful to separate fact from fiction and gives us a judicious work worthy of its subject and free from didacticism. The story smolders, still, in the crucible of history releasing to us the spirit of our fathers and revealing to us our own. Nathaniel Basse is one of a handful who gave us our heritage, and we are all his children whether by blood or destiny. The Captain and Thomasine makes us proud of that history.

Stephaun De Paul
http://web.me.com/depaul7/Polemic/Welcome.html






Please scroll down to see Margot Woodrough's earlier review.



   
        The Triumph of Beauty is found in many places. Here, the daisy.






Chuck Colson's seek-and-destroy mission

You remember Chuck Colson. Sure you do. You know, Watergate, Nixon, obstruction of justice, imprisonment – all that kind of stuff. Upon reflection, maybe you don’t remember Chuck. After all, that was a long time ago. Chuck celebrated his 79th birthday in October. What a guy!

After getting out of prison way back when, he launched a seek-and-destroy mission for Christian fundamentalism. He’s still marching as to war, and the fundamentalists love him. And why not? He says what they want to hear.

Perhaps the most bizarre attack on God’s children was Chuck’s stunning revelation that there is no such thing as intersexuality. God made male and female, Chuck noted, and stopped at that. Case closed.

“The Bible teaches that the Fall into sin affected biology itself – that nature is now marred and distorted from its original perfection. This truth gives us a basis for fighting evil, for working to alleviate disease and deformity – including helping those unfortunate children born with genital deformities.”

Wow! Chuck has it all figured out. Only two genders. Period. But, wait, he is not finished. For the Christian, he says, “nature is not our basis for determining normality. Scripture tells us how God created us before the Fall, and how he intended us to live: as males and females, reflecting His own image.”

Let me get this straight. God intended us to live as males and females, thereby reflecting God’s image. Really now. In saying that males and females reflect God’s image is Chuck also saying that God is intersexual?

I don’t think so, but Chuck does have an odd way of expressing himself. Perhaps his thinking processes have fallen victim to the Fall he talked about. “Nature is now marred and distorted from its original perfection.” His words. And we now have “a basis for fighting evil, for working to alleviate disease….” Also his words.

I think we could all agree that Chuck is a bit marred. We all are. But we learn to work around it. Problem is, working around it takes a lot of energy and we eventually become worn out, and disease sets in. So we retire. Chuck, though, is like the rabbit that just keeps going and going and going. Sadly, there is nothing funny left in his wake.

God’s children are being abused. It must stop. I repeat, it must stop – that is, if the teachings of Jesus are to be taken seriously.

Come on, Chuck, it’s time to retire! Give yourself a break. You deserve it, and so do the rest of us. Have a nice day, Chuck! And have a nice eternity!

Don Floyd

Intersexuality at 17th Century Jamestown

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Grew up a girl, became a soldier,
dressed as a woman, defended
herself in stunning Jamestown case

Cross-dressing was not all that uncommon in the 17th Century, not among the English and not among the Native Americans of Virginia. But the Thomas/Thomasine Hall case of 1629 was not about cross-dressing as we think of it today. It was about CHOICE-dressing – it was about America’s first known intersexual, her struggle for identity in a male-female world and her choice to dress as a woman despite effortss of Jamestown settlers to force her to dress as a man. 

Magistrate Nathaniel Basse sided with Hall, ruling that she should dress as a woman, but the settlers went over the captain's head and in an act of explosive intolerance took their case to the Virginia governor, who also was the primary judicial figure.

Hall testified during a March 25, 1629, session of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia that she was christened as a girl in Newcastle upon Tyne, named Thomasine and was raised as a girl. She considered herself a girl in childhood and a woman in adulthood.

She was well-spoken in court but did not prevail. The governor had something else in mind. He did not rule that Hall must dress as a man. He ruled something far worse.




BOOK REVIEW
May 14, 2010
By Margaret Woodrough

This is historical fiction with a heart. When Jamestown was being settled two unlikely characters crossed paths. Nathaniel Basse was from a wealthy London family. While serving in the early government of Jamestown he was a key figure at the trial of Thomasine Hall. Both figures appear in historical records. Don Floyd has used them to write a story of compassion, love and tolerance. Don is a meticulous researcher with a desire to paint an accurate picture of Jamestown and London in the mid 17th Century. In addition there are some interesting historical postscripts at the end. I highly recommend this delightful book.


Big Money and abuse of taxpayers

If you have any problem believing that Big Money controls the political world and thereby controls how taxpayer money is spent, take a look at an article by National Journal’s Lindsey Boerma. The article, quoting the Center for Responsive Politics, says candidates for Congress have spent more than $3.6 billion on this election so far.

Neither Boerma nor the Center for Responsive Politics ties this jaw-dropping amount to Big Money, but I do. Donations to politicians by corporations are not made out of the goodness of hearts. They are made in an attempt to influence or buy votes. I do not say that all politicians are bought and paid for, but many are. This is abuse of taxpayers, and as I have noted, my blog aims to disclose abuse wherever it may be.

Let’s take a look at my own congressman, Lynn Westmoreland, a Georgia Republican. OpenSecrets.org lists the top 20 organizations contributing to his Election Campaign Committee in the fundraising cycle of 2009-2010.

He raked in a total of $703,253 and has spent $648,793. Individual contributions totaled $364,192 while Political Action Committee contributions totaled $306,180. “Other” – who knows who they are – contributed $32,881. And Westmoreland, the last of the big spenders, contributed $0 for self-financing.

He did better in attracting individual contributions than I had suspected, but many of those individuals apparently are employees of organizations that qualify under law as Political Action Committees.In any event, $703,253 is a lot of money, and the people who dished it out want something in return.

Whether they get it is another question. I would have to follow Westmoreland’s votes more closely to see if he is being bought. Giving him the benefit of the doubt – which is a dangerous thing to do – I will say he has not been bought. (I’m clearing my throat now.)

Westmoreland’s top PAC contributors gave him $10,000 each, and for some reason United Parcel Service gave him $9,999, one dollar short of $10,000. The other top PAC contributors were AFLAC Inc., Southern Co., Home Depot, Honeywell International and National Beer Wholesalers Assn. Other PACS gave him $5,000 each, and others gave him varying amounts.

All of this is perfectly legal, and I congratulate Westmoreland for his success in raking in the dough, but I want to highlight the National Journal’s calculation of what the $3.6 billion could do to really help people – something the politicians promise to do but somehow never do.

The National Journal says these political contributions could pay tuition for at least 62,548 university students, pay the annual salaries for 83,116 high school teachers or pay for 1,323,529,412 school lunches. There’s a long list of other things this money could pay for.

If the goodness of hearts were running the PACs, high school teachers and school lunches might be their top concern. But no, they have found that the best way to win friends and influence people is to fork out the dough.

Keep an eye on your congressman or congresswoman. We’re talking Big Money.

Don Floyd



Intersexuality: nature's diversity at work

Internet sites focusing on intersexuality are growing. It is a subject that once was whispered about. Surgeons routinely altered intersex infants, and in so doing inflicted a lifetime of pain. I am featuring today a few of the intersexuality sites with the aim of informing you about a natural condition of diversity.

The Intersex Society of North America, San Francisco, is devoted to systemic change to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with an anatomy that someone decided is not standard for male or female. www.isna.org/

OII–USA is the United States affiliate of the Organization Intersex International, a non-profit organization incorporated in Quebec. OII–USA resists all efforts to make intersex invisible, including genital mutilation without consent and offers another face to intersex lives. www.intersexualite.org/

Association for Humanistic Psychology, San Francisco. In our search for the truly humane and for the higher road we are continually challenged to enlarge our capacity for tolerance and our ideas of who and what we are. www.ahpweb.org/pub/perspective/intersex.html

Religious Tolerance (Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance). For reasons of ignorance, religious teaching and fear, we have tended to force people into the heterosexual male or female role. But, as in so many sexually related topics, a two-mode model is insufficient. www.religioustolerance.org/igm_circ.htm

I also call your attention to a book listed on Amazon.com: “Between XX and YY: Intersexuality: the Myth of Two Sexes” (hardcover) by Gerald N. Callahan, PhD. http://www.amazon.com/Between-XX-XY-Intersexuality-Sexes/dp/1556527853



Meanwhile, back to the 21st Century

This is a new blog, and I am just working out the kinks. I'll get there. Bear with me until I do. There has been a current development that I need to tell you about. I wrote a commentary yesterday about Sarah Palin, and today my piece ended up at the top of Palingates, the premier blog in pursuit of the real Sarah Palin.

The piece is written with the perspective of a retired journalist, an old-fashioned editor who believed in reporting real news -- and did so without apology. Check out the link:ead my piece:
http://palingates.blogspot.com/


Here is my Palin commentary

There are many unexplainables concerning Sarah Palin, and I find myself trying to explain the unexplainable. A lot of what I say here is based on intuition, horse sense and perhaps a smidgen of paranoia.

When Palin was first introduced to the world scene by John McCain – the very act of which proved that McCain was unfit to be president – I thought: Sarah Who? Who is this woman? Then my liberal friends started wringing their hands over the prospect of a bimbo soaring to political heights. I pooh-poohed the notion, saying that Palin was a flash in the pan and would never go anywhere except maybe back to a trailer park someplace in the bleakest part of Alaska. I have never been more wrong – in all my years of political observation.

Here’s where I made my mistake. I was relying upon conventional wisdom – my own conventional wisdom perhaps – and saw in Palin a laughing stock in the making. I was not fully aware at the time of a strange, fearful darkness that was covering the land we call America. Something truly frightening has moved in and is doing nothing less than threatening our national security.

I should have had a clue when the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Fox News started moving up in popularity. I should have had a clue when the Republicans chose John McCain, a known adulterer, as its nominee. You’ll recall that McCain’s extremely loyal first wife nursed him to health after he returned from his POW experience. Well, after McCain was doing well enough to start bed-hopping with women, his first wife was grotesquely injured in a car accident.

At some point after that, McCain met Cindy, whose father had a similar POW experience, and it was love at first sight for Cindy’s entire family. They all loved John. And, of course, his newfound wealth helped ease his conscience as he made sure his first wife was taken care of with Cindy’s money. After an affair with a Southern Baptist (Cindy) that lasted about a year, McCain asked first wife for a divorce, which she dutifully granted. One or two of her own children by a previous marriage are even working for Cindy now.

This is way beyond kinky!!! It’s a sad allegorical commentary on the depths this nation has plunged morally. No complaints from the Moral Majority, however. They glory in the fact that McCain attends a Baptist church in Arizona about once every five years and have no problem with him calling himself a Baptist which he’s not. Never been baptized, and as far as I know never attends an Episcopal church where his real membership lies dormant.

The Southern Baptist Convention, which normally rails against drinking alcohol, has no problem whatever with Cindy making her millions by distributing beer. I suppose she pays her tithes – and more – at the grateful Baptist church she is a member of. The Southern Baptists are smiling all the way to the bank.

But I digress. I was talking about Sarah Palin, another immoral basket case. To repeat, I had not seen the signs when Palin emerged from nowhere to become No. 2 on the Republican ticket. She had no accomplishments to speak of as Alaska’s governor, her main claim to fame being mayor of Wasilla. Oh, that, and possessing foreign relations experience by looking across the water and seeing Russia. Oh, that, and having the talent to tote babies – anybody’s baby. Evidence for any political ascendancy by Palin just wasn’t there at the time. Sadly, there were a lot of things I did not see or know at the time.

First, the news media found Palin to be good theater. Many people saw her as exciting, different, folksy, feisty, born again, and a real family woman. And the news media was happy to start earning a profit for a change thanks to Palin’s draw. You are aware that the news media operates on a narrative, which is drafted and modified daily – even hourly – for maximum suck-in power. If there is no tension, the news media creates tension. If there is no real race, the news media makes it the most exciting race in political history. And when there is real news – news that does not agree with the narrative – that news is left to languish.

The news media is at its lowest since William Randolph Hearst. But this is not yellow journalism. It’s reactionary journalism, a calculated choice for an ailing industry facing possible extinction because of the Internet.

The news media, you see, could not afford to bring down Palin because it would sorely cost them in the pocketbook. The news media and politicians are co-conspirators. The Republicans put out the lies and trash, and the news media reports the lies and trash virtually without challenge.
Let me modify that. Lies and trash also are fired away daily in emails, sent to gleeful believers who then forward them to their entire address book.

And that brings up another question in this Palin phenomenon. Who writes this email stuff? Is it somebody out there with nothing else better to do, or is it a serial killer who enjoys a hobby on the side? No, I believe Big Money is behind this endless array of lying emails, just as Big Money was behind those people screaming at the town hall meetings. The agenda is to halt a movement toward decency in government, because a return to decency in government would adversely affect Big Money’s big money. And if an email says what the reader wants it to say he believes it eagerly and completely. I don’t know when Big Money staged a political coup and took over America, but it is now fighting for its life, and I like to think it is desperate. The lying emails and Sarah Palin herself are good evidence of this desperation.

You mentioned Rupert Murdoch being in Alaska the same day Palin resigned as governor. I do think this is good circumstantial evidence of a link between the two. Hell, Murdoch may have even orchestrated her resignation after doing a deal with the rest of Alaska, that deal being to get Palin the hell out of Alaska – and we don’t care how – and we won’t do any more investigating of wrongdoing and we certainly won’t prosecute. Alaska is already in lousy fiscal shape, thanks to Palin, and any long drawn-out investigation and prosecution would drain Alaska’s finances even more.
You never know what Murdoch has up his sleeves. I don’t. Whatever it is, Palin is a key player. Why? Maybe he wants to be president after getting Palin elected. She’s too stupid to run anything, much less the U.S. government. I’m hoping that Murdoch is so desperate (Big Money desperate) that his judgment has been clouded. Also, has he taken into account that Palin is volatile, likes to scream a lot at people and throw canned goods at the first dude? Can she be controlled? How many more babies is she going to have? I can see the headlines now after another baby mysteriously appears long after the first dude is out of the way, being axe-murdered by Sarah: “Immaculate Conception the American Way.”

Don’t laugh. My headline fairly well sums up the arrogant attitude of about half of America’s population: We need to save the world for Jesus. We need Christianity and democracy in every country. We are, you know, highly favored by God. We can defeat any country in war. We are the best. And those Muslims should be interned just like the Japanese in World War II. On second thought, deport them.

Griffin has a highly respected doctor who is a Muslim. He was born a Muslim right here in Griffin. Should we get rid of him, just kick him out? This is how silly and frightening people are talking these days. I’d like to zap them, but as Richard Nixon said, that would be wrong.

I’m hoping the Tea Party ends up marginalizing the Republicans, who already have come close to suicide. Big Money is hedging its bets, supporting both the Tea Party and the Republicans, and that would seem to benefit the Democrats by splitting the reactionary vote. Again, let’s hope Big Money has become so desperate that its judgment has become too clouded to make rational decisions. You notice that I use the word “hope” a lot. Well, that’s about all we have now. Obama has taken on Big Money. He is at peril. But we can hope, just as he has hoped. Perhaps America can survive this horrific crisis. Yes, we can hope.

Now, on Palin’s baby mystery, I regret that I have not followed that closely. I’m certain, however, that Palin didn’t get extremely great with child in just a month or two. So she lied. This is sort of like perjury, which is much worse than what was lied about. But does the country care? Many don’t – perhaps as much as a half of the citizens don’t. They overlook things if the candidate is their kind of candidate. And the Palin supporters are overlooking a whole lot of stuff. I can’t keep count. The fact that the dark side of America likes Palin is truly scary.

I don’t think I’ve said everything that needs to be said about this mess, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what I think.

Don Floyd