The Agenda:

Testing the Premise: Are Gays a Threat to Our Children?

What the "Dutch Study" Really Says About Gay Couples

Federal Hate Crime Statistics: Why The Numbers Don't Add Up

Refuting Christianity Today

  Favorites:

Still Life At Sunset

Anderson Cooper and Scooter

Wandering, Wondering

The Aperture of Memory

Easter's Birthday

The First Time I Cussed

  Photo Essays:

The Anasazi Ruins of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Monsoons of 2004

Miracle Mile

Now Showing / Reflection on Hayden, Arizona

Microsoft Turns Its Back: A Call To Boycott
Monday, April 25, 2005

Back in 1986, I bought my very first PC. It was an XT Turbo clone, with a switch that boosted the 8 MHz processor up to a blazing 12 MHz, and a just-released EGA video card that dazzled the eye with all of its 256 colors. Although it was little more than a $1,600 checkbook and word processor, it was an amazing thing to this young and impressionable engineer.

I’ve been loyal to Microsoft ever since then, although it was more a marriage of convenience rather than love. Windows had more than its fair share of flaws and shortcomings, but I used a PC at work and I wanted to maintain compatibility at home. While I was tempted to try out an Apple every time it came time to upgrade, I always stayed with Microsoft simply because it was the easiest thing to do. Given the fact that I’d have to buy all new software, it was also the cheapest thing to do.

□■□■□

Last week, the New York Times reported that Microsoft, which had twice before supported a Washington state gay rights bill that would have banned discrimination in housing, insurance and employment, withdrew its support for the bill this year after the conservative pastor of Antioch Bible Church, located just a few blocks from company headquarters, threatened a boycott. Microsoft’s move surprised the bill’s supporters, and the bill went down in a one-vote defeat. State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown complained that Microsoft’s reversal was “the wrong message at the wrong time.”

This is surprising given Microsoft’s previous reputation for its commitment to equal rights. They were among the earlier companies to provide domestic partner benefits, and they have one of the oldest LGBT employee groups in the country. But Microsoft’s actions last week were downright shameful and cowardly, especially coming as they do in the very same week in which two Seattle men were sentenced for the gay bashing of Micah Painter.

Microsoft is trying to defend its decision, claiming they are just as committed to equal rights as before, but they decided to “tighten the focus” of its lobbying efforts. But that claim rings hollow given the circumstances of their decision in today’s climate. Commitment must be steadfast if it is to mean anything, otherwise it is cheap. Micah Painter didn’t run in the face of adversity. Microsoft did.

Conservatives are quick to threaten boycotts at the drop of the hat. It’s time we did the same. In times like these, it is especially important that the money we spend goes to those who are not afraid to stand by their commitments, and not to run at the first sign of trouble.

I hope our so-called gay advocates show some backbone on this issue. HRC, GLAAD, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, it's time for all of them to show some cojones on this instead of just tisk-tisking this incident away. There's nothing wrong with a little action to back up our righteous anger. Microsoft obviously fears boycotts – they acted to try avoid a boycott threat from the Christian right. It's time we showed them that we can be just as fearless in our commitment to principles as well.

As for me, I’ve decided to make the switch the next time I’m in the market for a computer, which may come up later this year when I consider a new laptop. After that, maybe this baby:

Meanwhile, I’ve already made my first move: I love my new iPod.

Update: Microsoft changes its mind.

Do Wonders Never Cease?
Monday, April 18, 2005

My great-grandmother (Easter was her name because she was born on an Easter Sunday) told me all about Florida. It was a magical place with real-live mermaids swimming at Wikki-Wachee Springs. It was a fantastic Garden of Eden, with oranges and lemons growing on trees just outside your tourist cabin window.

he said, why you could just reach right out that window and pick them straight off the tree! Can you imagine that? Straight off the tree and then you could squeeze it right then and there and have the freshest orange juice you could ever imagine. Just a few seconds from the tree to your glass. You can't get any fresher than that! Oh, and the seagulls, why they would practically eat right out of your hand. The flowers were so beautiful and they were everywhere! Ruth, she said it was the happiest place in the world. She said she could just sit on a log on the beach and just watch the tide for the rest of her life if she could, and she wouldn't care about anything else in the world and she could die happy.

Yes, that is what they did. They left all of their cares behind for a few short weeks that lasted a lifetime. My great-grandfather Cecil, who always did all the driving, pointed the Chrysler towards the south, threading his way through the hairpin curves in the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia, where they could stop at Rock City to see seven states. And then, when the car finally rumbled to the end of the world, to the tropical sunset of the Florida Coast, they piled out of the car and onto the beach. Forty years washed away in the surf.
 

Ponce de Leon thought he discovered the Fountain of Youth. Florida had that effect on people, especially those who were escaping from the cold grey Ohio winters. It was an adventure never to be forgotten, not even to this very day. Easter made sure of it.

I never thought I’d be able to see such wonders. And even though I have traveled much further in my short lifetime than she did in her long one, I still don’t think I will see the wonders that she did. Our wonders, well, they're somehow different and far less magical. After all, the world – and our expectations of it – has changed a bit since then.

No, I think we will not see the likes of this in our lifetime.

Parillada
Monday, April 11, 2005

© LookingForSam / Jim Burroway

We're just across the street from a strangely out-of-place faux-Greek faux-temple, where we are enjoying a decadently sumptuous parrillada of grilled beef and spicy chicken, served with guacamole and salsa de tomatillo and washed down with ice-cold micheladas, margaritas, and Cokes. This we share with friends in Nogales who are undergoing the adventures of fixing up a ruined territorial/Victorian mansion they bought for next to nothing. They got what they paid for, but when they are finished with it (they think this summer, I think three years from now) it will be a fine, fine home, with a broad porch in sight of the tortilla curtain, with a great view of the town of Nogales, Sonora just on the other side.

This is how Sundays were meant to be spent, on the back patio of an old stone restaurant on Avenida Obregon, just on the other side of the curtain, but within sight of the old stone mansion. The same stonework makes its appearance in two separate buildings on either of the border, a very hefty stone’s throw from one another.  In this stone restaurant, there is an overly loud guitarist who sings Guantanamera. He’s amplified so loudly that we can barely hear as we discuss the pitfalls, surprises, and rewards of rescuing a part of Nogales’ history. Sit four queens at a dinner table with food and drink discussing a renovation, and six different opinions fly back and forth about what direction the renovation must take. Meanwhile, the slightly drunken waiter forgets to bring chips and salsa, but because he has the presence of mind to recommend Cerveza Indio – a brand I had never heard of – all is forgiven. Cerveza Indio makes a very refreshing michelada indeed.

So we forgive him for being slightly tipsy and leave him a good tip after we’ve stuffed ourselves full of food and drink and laughter. We then continue walking on down the Avenida, past the many farmacias that cater to American seniors on fixed incomes, past the trippy guy selling metal sculptures of javelinas and chupacabras, past the nice lady with very elegant glassware just beyond the rug market, until finally we get to Café Ajiijic. That’s where everyone else orders lousy cheesecake to go with their coffees, but I enjoy a sinfully rich chocolate cake to go with mine. It’s a nice outdoor café with a fountain, parrots and itinerant musicians, where we can sit comfortably in the shade and watch the tourists and locals walk by. They walk by with their whole life stories following behind them, stories that only we know because we’re the ones making them up as they walk by. A very satisfying afternoon.

© LookingForSam / Jim Burroway

Days like these are like a tall, cool drink of ice-cold agua fresca, so refreshing and so nourishing on a warm spring day. Forget the whole “chicken soup for the soul” nonsense. Chicken soup is hot, bland, salty. It may be okay for when your sick, but why shouldn’t there be a medicine for when you’re already feeling satisfied? A medicine that you take when you’re already feeling perfectly gregarious on a sunny Sunday afternoon?

Nogales is my medicine for days such as this. I just need to remember to take it more regularly.

In Paradisum
Friday, April 8, 2005

◄ March 2005
► May 2005

Then And Now
Monday, April 4, 2005

© LookingForSam / Jim Burroway

There is a monument right there in the middle of downtown Globe, Arizona which reads:

From a sycamore near this spot, L.V. Grime and C.B. Hawley were lynched on Aug 24, 1882 for the hold up-murder of Andrew Hall, Wells Fargo Packer, and Dr. S.T. Vail. The culprits had a fair hearing before JP Allen on Wednesday evening, and at 2 AM Thursday on a clear night they were hanged. Saloons were closed and it was an orderly lynching.

© LookingForSam / Jim Burroway

You see, that's how it's done. The folks in Tombstone need to look to the experts and learn how to do it up right.

In a crowd of more than 150 reporters, photographers and camera crews, about 150 Minutemen volunteers registered for the project... The event had some locals, including Tombstone Mayor Andree De Journett, concerned about possible problems...

Dave Troupe said he joined the Minuteman Project because he doesn't believe the Border Patrol does enough to control the border. But the Green Valley senior citizen said he's worried that the event is going to attract "nuts."

The uncertainty has local residents nervous enough that even those who don't normally carry guns in Tombstone are carrying them now, said Patti Escapule, whose family has lived in the Wild West town for generations

Mobs today. They just don't make them like they used to.