KMHD Playlist from 4/21

From my show, 10pm to Midnight every Saturday night on KMHD 89.1 in Portland and here on the web.

1. THEME WAYNE HORVITZ DUKE FROM MONOLOGUE

2. TREES SNOOKS EAGLIN FROM THE WAY IT IS

3. PEPE LINQUE OREGON FROM CROSSING GLEN MOORE TUNE

4. BROADJUMP JOHN KIRBY/CHARLIE SHAVERS FROM MOVIE SEPIA SINDERELLA 1947

5. WONDERING WHERE DON BYRON FROM BUG MUSIC

6. THE PENQUIN RAYMOND SCOTT FROM RESTLESS NIGHTS AND TURKISH DELIGHTS THE MUSIC OF RAYMOND SCOTT

7. DON BYRON THE PENQUIN FROM BUG MUSIC

8. FUNKALICIOUS KEITH SCHREINER AND DEREK SIMS UNRELEASED

9. VALENTINES DAY KEITH SCHREINER AND STORM LARGE FROM SESSIONS AT EAST

10. DON'T KNOW THE NAME KEITH SCHREINER SAW IT PERFORMED LIVE WITH DEREK SIMS UNRELEASED

11. CIRCLE DANCE PAUL MOTIAN TRIO JOE LOVANO BILL FRISELL

12. HOW SHALL I SEE YOU THROUGH MY TEARS JEVETTA STEELE AND THE J.D. STEELE SINGERS FROM OEDIPUS AT COLONUS ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM

HOUR 2

1. JOY OF TROY ORNETTE COLEMAN FROM TWINS

2. CYBER CYBER ORNETTE COLEMAN AND JOACHIM KUHN LIVE IN LEIPZIG

3. THE BLESSING DON CHERRY FROM ART DECO

4. NEFERTISIS ANDEW HLL FROM LIVE AT MONTREAUX VINYL
SNUGGLE SET

5. PURPLE NIGHT BLUES SUN RA FROM PURPLE NIGHT

6. #11 DANZA LUCUMI 3 LEG TORSO ARR GABE LEAVITT

7. A VALENTINE OUT OF SEASON JOHN CAGE FROM IN A LANDSCAPE STEVEN DRURY KEYBOARDS

8. LULLABY FOR HELENE (QUARTET VERSION) BILL EVANS FROM FROM LEFT TO RIGHT CD VERSION

9. BETTY CARTER

1O. SWEETER THAN THE DAY WAYNE HORVITZ FROM FROM A WINDOW

My KMHD Playlist 4/14/07

I do a radio show Saturdays from 10pm to Midnight (Pacific) on KMHD-FM 89.1 on the radio and streaming live here on the web.

Here's the playlist from last night.

Time Artist Song Album Notes

10:01 PM Wayne Horvitz Duke Monologue
10:03 PM Bobby Previte Open World Pushing the Envelope
10:08 PM John Zorn The Sicilian Clan Naked City
10:14 PM Liv Warfield Brotha Man Embrace Me Live at Doug Fir
10:25 PM Dahlia Forget This Place Emotional Cycles Jen Folker on vocals
10:29 PM John Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen Pin Your Spin Pin Your Spin
10:32 PM Reggie Houston's Earth Island Band Mean Bunions Urgin for the Virgin He means Virgin Islands
10:35 PM Galactic Black Eyed Peas Late for the Future
10:40 PM David Vest Monklite in Vermouth Unreleased
10:42 PM David Friesen Trio Come Rain or Come Shine Midnight Mood Live in Stockholm Randy Porter Piano, Allan Jones Drums
10:49 PM Mac Potts Tipitina Unreleased www.myspace.com/macpotts
10:58 PM Various Last of the Hipmen A Tribute to John Coltrane David Murray on Sax
11:06 PM Lester Bowie Rio Negros The Great Pertender
11:14 PM World Sax Quartet Night Train Rhythm & Blues
11:20 PM Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett The Raven Speaks Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett 1971
11:27 PM Gil Evans Las Vegas Tango The Individualism of Gil Evans Vinyl
11:36 PM Dr. John Qutre Parishe N'Awlins Dis Dat or D'Udda
11:38 PM Oregon Take Heart Northwest Passage
11:43 PM Zoe Keating We Insist one cello x 16: natoma layered cello
11:46 PM Pink Martini Song of the Black Swan Hang on Little Tomato
11:49 PM Tim Buckley Chase the Blues Away Blue Afternoon
11:53 PM Yet To Be Oregon Northwest Passage
11:58 PM Wayne Horvitz Duke Monologue Show Theme

The Cruel "Old" Subtext in the Imus Flap

Just as the Imus flap has exposed how deeply the race issue goes in America, what you may not have noticed is the subtext for many of Imus' detractors. That is the subtext of age discrimination.

Laugh if you want. But if you're laughing at that statement, you're probably under 55. And you probably laughed at "I've fallen and I can't get up." And you laugh at all the "old" jokes, too.

Take the subtext in Nina Burleigh's post here "Don Imus and the Rage of the Viagrans." His first offense was his statement about the Rutgers women. His second offense was that he's old. He needs Viagra and is therefore a lesser person than someone who doesn't. He's just old. Push him out of the way and get on with it.

Take her last line, " They are the jokes that their wives and girlfriends share with each other, but quietly, in order to hang onto their icky diamond rings and the rights to the sweet little retirement ranch.
They have to do with what those little blue pills can't cure forever."

Perhaps she doesn't see what's in her future.

Unlike bashing ethnic groups, dissing older people is particularly stupid because while Imus will never become black, every single one of those who ridicule their elders will one day become a member of the club.

In many societies elders are respected. Not this one. The difference is that the current crop of older folks are boomers who are not about to take the guff. Present company included.

You can laugh at me but I learned everything before you did, and I’m going to know what happens after you die before you do. Top that with a Viagra joke, kid.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com

Imus Was Doing His Job

Those African-Americans who are calling for Don Imus to be fired, should look to their own media. Radio One, an African-American owned radio network, for years has hired black racist talk show hosts. They constantly generalize about "white folks" or "Europeans." They're serious. They're not making jokes.

Ever seen any African-American comics on HBO or BET? One anti-white joke after another.

Are African-Americans going to fire anyone who makes racial jokes? How about blacks who do the dozens on other blacks? Let's fire them. Just because you're of the same race as the person to whom you are throwing the worst insults possible (the sole purpose of the dozens), doesn't absolve you of hurtful language.

Was Imus' comment stupid? Sure lots of Imus' comments are stupid. He has made a career out of stupid comments. Did I think he meant what he said? Of course not. He was doing the dozens. He insults everybody. He's a SHOCK JOCK. His purpose is to shock you. How can he shock you? By going to the limit of taste and sensitivity.

That's his job. You and I may not like the job description, but that's what he gets paid for.

I realize there's a danger in that kind of humor. But the essence of humor is exaggeration. Imus' technique of saying the worst thing that comes to his mind in order to get a laugh may be regrettable, but it doesn't make him a racist. If that were true then paint every jock and comic of every race with that brush and fire all of them.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com

George Bush's Jake LaMotta Moment

Remember in "Raging Bull" when Jake LaMotta was fighting Sugar Ray Robinson for the last time? Jake was beaten to a bloody pulp. Robinson brutally hit him, repeatedly. When the ref stopped the fight, LaMotta stood, blood all over his face. Blood even dripping from the ropes. Although he was still standing, he was thoroughly defeated. He turned to Sugar Ray and said, "I never went down, Ray. You never got me down, Ray. I never went down, Ray," as though that fact mitigated his defeat.

George W. Bush has had a series of Jake LaMotta moments recently, talking defiantly to the Democrats who have defeated him. As his administration, and his life, crumbles around him, he stands in the rose garden and says, "I never went down, Nancy. You never got me down, Harry. I never went down, Democrats."

The whole world knows he has been defeated, yet he stands, bloody, trying to make us believe that it means something that he appointed the Republican fund raiser, and lying Swift Boater Sam Fox as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. Another crony who would have been rejected by the Senate, snuck in as a recess appointment.

"I appointed Sam Fox, Ray. You couldn't stop me, Ray."

He stands in the ring with boos in his ears, looking defiantly into the camera and telling us that he will veto the funding for the troops. He's still reeling from the punches, dizzy and confused. Maybe he'll never realize what's happened to him…the total rejection of his presidency.

He behaves as though these childish acts negate the series of Bush Administration scandals that have been exposed. It doesn't.

As Jake's behavior was indicative of his total denial (of everything), so is Bush's recent bully behavior. Many bullies understand when they've lost. Jake didn't. Bush doesn't.

I know it'll never happen but I wouldn't mind seeing Bush in a dark cell banging his head against the wall and shouting, "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?"

All we can hope for is that Bush ends up running a cheap bar in Miami, where he gets up on stage every night and tells bad jokes.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com

Sampson Revealed True Bush Philosphy

"The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-rated' reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial."
---Kyle Sampson, under oath.

We know that's your philosophy, Kyle. But that's not how "justice" is supposed to work. We know that your statement reflects the entire ethos of the Bush administration. Thanks for summing it up.

Politics trumps everything.

How nice of you to give us that very clear picture. "Performance-related" is the same as "political." Doing the right thing in the pursuit of justice and punishing criminals is a function of politics.

Has there ever been a clearer explanation of the theory of Rovian governance? I mean other than that he "goes home and rips the heads off of small animals." Did anyone notice how easily those words rolled off of Rove's tongue. They sounded just like all of his other lies. I wonder which of them we should believe? I choose to believe that there are many headless small animals in Karl's compost.

The "small animal" line is much more credible than anything Alberto Gonzalez has said in the past few weeks….I mean than he EVER said.

All Democrats have to do is swear these people in and let them talk. They'll tell us their morally bankrupt philosophy.

I used to think I was a cynic.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com

Notes: 10,000+ On the Streets of Portland, Oregon

Several weeks ago I posted here about my reactions to the antiwar demonstration in Washington D.C. I called it Good Demonstration, Bad Show. It was based upon watching people on TV scream into microphones at the podium before thousands in the live audience…and how that made for bad TV. And how that presented a good point of view badly.

Yesterday, I participated in a similar demonstration in Portland, Oregon. An estimated 10,000-15,000 people marched through the downtown, filling around 20 city blocks with a single purpose, demanding an end to the war. There were other issues and other groups involved including a bunch of those cute anarchist kids who caused a ruckus and got themselves arrested.

Early on, I sought them out because I figured they're would be the only ones who presented any danger (read: entertainment) in an otherwise polite spectrum of lefties of all stripes. They carried a sign which read, "No Gods, No Country, No Masters," (without the commas). As they marched they chanted, no jeered, at bystanders, "While you're shopping, bombs are dropping."

They appeared to be 16-20 years old. They appeared feel they had nothing to lose and were bent on venting their anger. I felt like they were my army. Then I thought, "All armies are always made up of people this age." I must admit it felt empowering to consider that they were fighting in my name. Then I thought, "Does that make me any different from anyone else who has an army?"

That thought didn’t stop me from enjoying their enthusiasm. During the Vietnam protest era, I was having a beer with some guy who was around my (draft) age. He looked at me very seriously and said, "You're into trashing aren't you?" (Note: "trashing" meant busting up things in the name of "revolution," a word that was tossed around a lot back then.) I said, "Uhhh. Ummm. Well, I'm kind of non-violent but I can see your point."

When they caused the dust-up, they spray-painted the backs of several members of the media. I thought, "Good point."

Nevertheless, as far as staging one of these mass demonstrations, it's still a bad idea to let one person after another drone on and on from a stage, through a sound system that about 25% of the crowd can hear while the rest of the folks hang out till it's time to march. It's mostly preaching to the choir anyway, and let's face it, it gets boring, no matter how heartfelt the preacher.

Oh, and one more thing. Could we have about 80% fewer folk singers?

Thankfully, and probably because it's Portland and the West Coast, there was a Burning Man feel to some of the festivities. We need that. If you don't know what Burning Man is, you're part of the problem.

There were a lot of clever signs. Take note in case we need more demontrations in your town:
"The Rapture Is Not An Exit Strategy"
"You're Certainly Too Stupid to Be the Antichrist…But You're Evil Enough," including a picture of Bush with horns.
"Some folks say we're Bush Bashing. In Oregon we call it THINKING."
"War Is Terrorism with a Bigger Budget."
"Empty Warhead Found In White House."
"W Is the New Swastika."
And one that said simply, "Enough."

What's good is being in a crowd of ten thousand people who think more-or-less like you do. It's inspiring. It was inspiring. Inspiring because folks like us have helped turn the tide. The problem is, of course, that in the face of overwhelming public disapproval of the war, the White House sends more and more troops. At the same time we chafe at the pace of Congressional action.

The point is to end the war, after all. Point made yesterday, anarchists and all.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com

Oregonian Story on Shel Bailey

I wrote this piece on Shel Bailey for today's Oregonian A&E section.

To My Fellow Jurors Part 2

I actually got started writing a piece on the trial we were on. A few minutes ago, after futher consideration and after looking at the defendant's MySpace page and seeing his friends, I came to the conclusion that I'd rather night write about the trial.
If "Slate" had the nerve to walk up to the victim and threaten her IN THE COURTHOUSE, there's no telling what he or his friends might do should I sell this to Willamette Week or Portland Monthly.
I will use the experience in a piece of fiction I'm working on.
Your notes will live on, just not in a piece of non-fiction.
Thanks again. I still feel like we did the right thing.

Oregon's Solution to Universal Health Care

While all eyes are on Washington, on the collapse of the Bush administration and the danger America faces from these wounded Republicans, on the war in Iraq and rumors of wars. While we focus on a premature Presidential campaign which is taking our eyes off the ball and distracting us from the real work at hand, many states are striking out on their own.

While it may seem as a joke and as traditional conservatives are laughing behind their hands at the Federal paralysis they've wrought, state government is still government!

States are moving quickly on global warming and health care. California has a health care bill working and here in Oregon, which made physician-assisted death a health matter, rather than a moral one, a bill has been introduced which makes a lot of sense.

The front man for the bill is former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber (D), himself an M.D. The bill has this simple statement, which blows away all of the complexities that the medical industry throws at us, "the objective of our health care system is health, not just the financing and delivery of health care services."

Oh yeah. The object is not making money for the medical industry. What a concept!

The law "Requires (the) Governor, within 90 days of passage of Act, to request congressional approval to redirect federal moneys into (a newly formed) Oregon Health Fund." That means all of the money that the federal government feeds to the state would go to a central fund which includes, "(a) Medicare funds under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act; (b) Medicaid funds under Title XIX of the Social Security Act; (c) General Fund moneys that would otherwise be spent in the Medicaid program; and (d) The value of state tax expenditures for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage."

The law argues that, "the ability of states to maintain the public's health is increasingly constrained by those federal policies, which were built around 'categories' rather than a commitment to ensure all citizens have timely access to the effective treatment of essential health conditions."

Federal policies were written by those beholden to the medical industry, not to insure the health of Americans but to make money for that medical industry.

The proposed Oregon law recognizes that, "clinging to the system of employer-sponsored coverage as it is currently structured is not an option," and similarly, "that clinging to the current structure of Medicaid is not an option." It aims to, "eliminate the need for a special program for the poor by ensuring that all Oregonians, including the most vulnerable members of our society, have access to treatment for at least the same defined set of essential health conditions."

The bill goes on to explain the nuts and bolts of how the Fund would administer health care. Read it for yourself.

While Congress talks itself to death, some states are actually doing something about health care, our most important problem.

The organization pushing the Oregon bill is We Can Do Better. This bill may or may not be the best solution, but it's an open and honest one. One that has just one objective: to keep us healthy and get us health care that doesn't bankrupt us.

The medical industry has had its day. It's time to put the brakes on them. Overtime.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com

Check out Art Levine's blog

Despite being an old friend of mine, he's a terrific journalist and a funny guy. His blog is listed on this page.

Portland Girl

A few years ago Greg Bond and I created this music video of a John Callahan tune. It was shot on the rainiest night of the winter, and for Portland that's saying something.
John is known for his good sense of bad humor. It was a revelation to us that he wrote so poignantly.
Clara Aho plays the Portland girl. Quite a trooper, huh?



A few months ago John released "Purple Winos In the Rain," a CD of his songs. A different version of Portland Girl is on it. You can buy it here.

Here's My Appearance On Evening Magazine

Last spring, Seattle's Evening Magazine (KING-TV) ran a piece on me and the Rabid Nun Infects Entire Convent book.
They re-ran it last week. Watch it here.

Understanding the Reactions to the Cheney Bombing

In once sense I can understand why this site would delete comments on the bombing near Dick Cheney in Afghanistan that might lament that the bomb wasn't close enough do personal damage to the VP. Most of us, no matter how grudgingly, approved of Michael Dukakis' answer to Bernard Shaw's question during the campaign for President. Shaw asked, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis said, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life."

What most of us thought at the time was, "If somebody raped and murdered MY wife, I'd like to see the bastard die a slow death, but I refuse to lower myself to his level."

When the planes hit the buildings on 9/11 and thousands died, most of us wanted to retaliate. We thought it right to retaliate. That means killing the people who were responsible for those deaths. It was roundly agreed upon, except from those who think any killing is wrong.

So when Dick Cheney, the one man responsible for the deaths of thousands of American men and women in his boutique war in Iraq, and the maiming of tens of thousands of other Ameicans in his war. And the one man responsible for turning America into a nation who comitts atrocities and war crimes in torturing prisoners and illegally holding others.

And the one man responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands (hundred of thousands?) of Iraqis. And the one man who wants to start another war with Iran.

And when the one man who has hijacked the American Constituion and has tried to turn our country into a Presidential dictatorship has a bomb go off near him, is it so far-fetched to wish him ill? How many of us would have the courage of Michael Dukakis and say, "No. I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life?"

If I heard he had been blown up? It's never good to take a life but I would not have been unhappy to have someone else as Vice President of the United States.


This is also on huffingtonpost.com

To My Fellow Jurors

Was a troublesome weekend, wasn't it?
I have not get begun to write and I don't know where it'll end up, if anywhere. If you'd like to see the result it might be better for you to email me your email address and let me notify you when I'm done and what I've done with it.
My email is tvdpdx@gmail.com
I'm getting a CD of the courtroom recordings and I'd be happy to share that with you, too. They don't transcribe, or "translate" as that P.I. called it.
Thanks to those of you who gave me your notes. I will not be using the real names of any of us jurors.
I still feel I made the right decisions, even though doubt creeped in from time to time. It wasn't enough to make me think I should have voted the other way.

Portland Songwriters Contest Story

Here's a piece I wrote which ran on Friday, February 16 in the A&E section of The Oregonian.

Through the Open Shield

Originally posted on Common Ties a wonderful website which I am very happy to write for.

By Tom D’Antoni

It was 1992 and I had it going. I was living in Baltimore. I had a writer/producer staff job at an advertising agency, I had a show on a national talk radio network, I had begun publishing an alternative newspaper and I was producing a TV show for the Mayor of Baltimore. Around that time King World hired me to produce segments for a new TV show they were introducing starring comedian Tim Reid. And I was living with my poet girlfriend and helping her raise a 10-year-old son.

I had a great life.

Within six months it was all gone. Everything, including the girlfriend. Some of it was my fault and some of it was bad fortune. Doesn’t matter though, does it?

I had nowhere to turn. I got a job driving a cab and spent the next two-plus years working at America’s single most dangerous occupation.

Driving a cab in a city like Baltimore is not like driving a cab in New York or L.A. where, although it sucks, it is perceived as a way-station, an in-between job for creative types. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a godsend for immigrants, and in towns like Portland, Oregon, drivers actually enjoy their work and make a profession out of it. But see, I had already had my work before millions of people and I was over 40. It felt like a dead end. How could I ever recover? I didn’t see any way possible.

I played the kill-me game. I would pick up anyone. I picked up every criminal I could find. Maybe one of them would kill me. Baltimore was a racist town, probably still is, and the hatred went both ways. I was the fish and the cab was the barrel.

It felt good having sunk so low. It confirmed all the bad things I believed about myself. If I had been smart enough, I thought, I would have been a real criminal. They weren’t going to have their phone cut off. They didn’t have a heart to break. I was stuck. I could see no way out.

I was in shock. I felt the pain, but I was too numb, hurt too badly to feel all of it. I drove cabs so beat up they shouldn’t have been on the street. I wasn’t able to drive every day. I didn’t want to die that much. I was passive aggressive about my suicide. Three, maybe four nights a week, and no weekends, too much competition. I could make as much on a Monday as those poor bastards did fighting each other for fares on the weekends.

It was too crazy on the weekends, anyway. I couldn’t even commit to my own suicide enough to risk being out there at 1:30 a.m. when the night was at its peak, when the bars were almost closed, and the frenzy of drunken, vicious men scavenged the streets, out to use the night and everybody in it for their own purposes, no matter what the cost.

Fridays were the worst. People got paid on Fridays. You never had the back of the cab empty then. You were never out of danger. I wanted to choose my poison. I didn’t leave the house thinking, “Tonight I’m gonna do something to cause them to kill me.” Maybe it would just happen that way.

Odd, in light of this, that I wouldn’t drive without a shield between the front and back seats. Some drivers wouldn’t drive WITH one. They didn’t pick up criminals.

Cab drivers were getting shot all the time, blown away usually from the back seat, sometimes from the driver’s side window. It didn’t make me feel anything. I figured one of these days my number would come up. There would be a lot of pain for a brief moment, and then all the pain would stop.

I felt time running out. I had spent so much time working at what I did best, the writing, TV and radio … this should have been the time I put it all together and really did something. Instead, I was in this cab. I could feel the time slipping by like I was bleeding to death.

I thought about those self-righteous self-help bastards on TV, always talking about having a choice … nice theories … bullshit in reality. Ask a junkie. Ask a drunk. Ask the cab driver.

In the depths of it all, I picked up a black woman and her little daughter who was maybe 5 years old. I left the shield open. We didn’t talk after she told me where she was going. I was so buried under the weight of my failure I could barely talk to anyone.

What prompted her, I’ll never know. We drove in silence for 10 minutes. I stopped at a red light. Without warning, the little girl grasped the base of the open shield with both of hands. She stuck her head through the opening in the shield and said, “I love you.”

I busted out crying.

It was the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me.

Through my tears, I said, “I love you, too.” I don’t know if her mother heard me or what she thought, but she must have been as surprised as I was.

My misery continued for another couple of years, but that one moment of pure angelic bliss has never left my mind.

Send This Message To the Troops---The Truth

Republicans like John McCain and Joe Lieberman (I know) keep saying that we shouldn't send the wrong message to the troops, when it is they who have been sending not only the wrong message to the troops, but wrong in sending the troops THEMSELVES in the first place.

Truth is harsh. It's not pretty, but here is the message the troops should be hearing:

You have been sent to fight and die so that several American corporations can make untold fortunes from your sacrifices. You were lied to from the beginning. There was no threat to the United States. You are not defending "freedom." You are dying so that others may get richer.

That's why your friends have died, your wives, husbands, children, grandchildren, even Cindy Sheehan's son. Not for freedom, or to prevent another 911, but for the greed of the friends of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. In other words, in vain.

As tough as that is to swallow, it's the truth.

Troops, the rest of America has figured this out. We're trying to get you home. Many of us have been fighting for years to get you home. Many of us did all we could to try to prevent you going there.

One problem is that Bush has two more years in the White House, and you are stuck in his hell. Many of you will die for his miscalculated adventure which, although it blew up in his face, still provided war profits on a scale that should send him and his friends to a federal prison for the rest of their lives. His handlers have turned his latent megalomania into an excuse for keeping you in the middle of a civil war that they stoked.

Make no mistake, we want you home. The problem is that politicians are politicians. When a McCain trots out the tired old (see 1968) "supporting the troops" chant, even politicians against the war take cover, sputtering when they should be loud and clear. It's simple. The war was wrong. We were lied to by the Bush Administration to get into it. It is they who have the blood of your comrades on their hands.

They need to say, "Not one more dime for this war. Nothing. Mr. President, if you don't have the money to fight this war, then you'll just have to bring home the troops. And start today."

That's what the American people were saying on election day.

A harder truth is that it is our troops who tortured and are probably still torturing. Yes, I know that orders came down from above, but the deeds have been carried out by the "troops" we're supposed to be supporting. Every action carries personal responsibility and the responsibility for killing and maiming in the name of me and my country is on the troops as well as those giving the orders.

Here's another idea, troops. Stop fighting. Do everything you can to protect yourself and your comrades, but no more. Tell your commanding officers, they might agree with you. If you come home and they want you to go over again, don't go. Step forward and join the huge percentage of the rest of us who are convinced that this is a mistake that we need not compound any more.

So if you're one of the troops who continues to kill Iraqis so that Haliburton, Exxon-Mobil and the rest can continue to loot America's treasury and ruin the economy for future generations, I don't support you. You don't represent me. You represent a CEO someplace.

Like I said, truth is harsh.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com

Gays In the Military---It's a MALE Problem

The problem with gays in the military being out of the closet is not a gay problem. It’s not even a straight problem. It’s a male problem, it has to do with how men behave.

In the entire debate, which began again once last week, there has hardly been a peep out of lesbians or hetero women on any of the issues raised by straight men opposed to the idea. We didn’t hear anything about women not wanting to shower with other women, or sleep in close quarters, or…. anything.

Why? Because women don’t behave the same way as men do, sexually. For one thing, with very few exceptions, women don’t rape.

There is within every man, straight or gay, an unconscious understanding of male sexuality. It is, I am told by my gay male friends, better understood by gay men, because they deal with other men’s sexuality on a regular basis. But straight men (like me) know that, given the opportunity, men will have sex with anything that attracts them; be it male, female, animal, vegetable….basically any other person or object in the universe.

And when are the male peak sexual years? The same years most men serve in the military, including the years when the main thing men think about is sex.

That’s what straight men in the military are afraid of, even though they may not know that’s what they’re afraid of. Unfortunately, they may be right. This is not an argument against giving gay men and lesbians the same rights for which they are putting their lives on the line. It’s just a fact about men.

If gay military men were allowed to be out, it could well be a tremendous lesson for men in general. It could help men in confronting the fact that it is the men in the world who do the raping, and most of the sexual harassment. When these straight men are confronted with gay men who behave the same way toward them that they have behaved toward women….well, we may have some old fashioned consciousness raising.

And, by the way, anybody who thinks that gay men won’t be checking out every good looking man who walks by, just doesn’t understand men.

Does this mean that men can’t control themselves? Of course not. It means that men might better learn to, finally, or at least learn that anything that turns them on is not fair game.

It’s all a learning experience. Learning how to live with each other in or out of the military is tough, given the random nature of human behavior. There should be a lot more talk among men about their sexuality. And I mean neither Howard Stern-type discussion, nor running to the woods and beating on drums.

There aren’t any simple answers to the questions of how to deal with men of all sexual orientations in the military. Men just don’t deal with their own sexuality very well.

Perhaps a calms discussion of how men of all sexual persuasions can live together in the military is a good place to start.

Sex In Space?? America Demands Answers!!

Once again, reality catches up to tabloiditry.

Years ago I wrote a piece for The Sun, the American supermarket tabloid, entitled "Sex In Space, They've Already Tried It." The piece was rejected because they didn't want any sex stories, something I always regretted because sex is the home page for fantasies. There are more fantasies about sex than any other single aspect of human existence.

Don't look at me like that.

Nevertheless, I didn't include that story in my book "Rabid Nun Infects Entire Convent and Other Sensational Stories From a Tabloid Writer ." It just wasn't as funny as the others, which may be another reason it got shot down by The Sun.

Now we find out that astronaut Lisa Nowak and Shuttle pilot William Oefelein were "involved." They may have tried it during weightless training for all we know. They never flew together, but other men and women have shared that small intimate space aboard the Shuttle. According to MSNBC, "Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was 'more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship,' according to an arrest affidavit."

All of this came out when she was arrested for allegedly going after a woman whom she thought was seeing her celestial lover.

Do our astronauts have meaningless sex in space?

Now the real questions begin:

Did they take their clothes off?
What's it like doing it while weightless?
Did the others know?
How far did they go?
What's the quality of the orgasm in space?
How do they clean up?
Is there video?
Where can I buy it?

As a loyal American citizen, I demand to know these answers. I helped pay for the damned Space Shuttle and the salaries of those astronauts and I want the facts! Here's where Congressional oversight comes into real play.

What have we learned from their experiences?
Did weightlessness contribute to Nowak's alleged jealous rage?
Is the pilot of the shuttle a cad?
Is it true that they had to erase "For a good time call Lisa at (phone number redacted)" on the shuttle and the space station walls?
And just how do all those sperms swim without gravity?

America demands answers!!

A can of worms has been opened! Was this the first time?
Have they been testing out the body's reactions to sex all along?
What about all those men-only flights?
Is there a higher rate of pay for those who participate?
Do they tip?

I want Congressional hearings now! And I want them on C-SPAN, every goddamned second of them.

America is drooling today!

And don't bother looking for the video online. I already tried.

This also appears on huffingtonpost.com