Well I really don’t want to turn this into the “excessive force by police officers” blog, but this one is a national headline as I believe it should be.

Who are we really being terrorized by?  I’m starting to question.  What the hell is going on?

Is this kid going to be looking over his shoulder every time he walks down the street?  Will he ever trust police officers?  I’m just sickened by it.

Read the full storry at The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/24/jordan-miles-teen-violini_n_434772.html

Alright everyone, I’ve got a lot of Google Wave invites and a few Google Voice invites.

If you would like me to send you an invite, then leave me a comment with your Google Email address and I’ll send it out as soon as I can.  I’ll edit this post when they are all gone, so if this is unedited there is one available.

Last year AFA wanted me to boycott McDonald’s because the company refused to end it’s association with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.  They sent me a cute little prewritten sticky note that I was to take to my local McDonald’s and stick on the money used to pay for my last McDonald’s meal.  The note would inform the Manager that until McDonald’s stopped siding with moral corruption and became neutral in the “culture war” I simply could not in good conscience spend my hard-earned Christian dollars at the restaurant.  Hilarious, right?  Hilarious, odd, and scary, all swirled into one nightmarish little Neapolitan mix.

Needless to say, I never dropped off the note at McDonald’s.  And the boycott was a total and complete bust, as McDonald’s stock went up nearly every single day that the boycott was active.  Lots of gays drinking lots of iced coffees, yes, yes we did.

Jump to my latest mailing from AFA.  GAP INC. IS EVIL!  THEY WON’T SAY “CHRISTMAS” EXCLUSIVELY!  Basically, I’m supposed to boycott all Gap Inc. stores (Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap, etc.) until after Christmas the Holidays because they’re supposedly censoring “Christmas”.  Unfortunately for the nonexistent credibility of the American Family Association, Gap actually has an ad out now that very obviously says “Christmas” loud and clear:

If you think I’m kidding, just click on the video and let it take you to the YouTube page and take a look at the comments.  Here are a few of the crazies:

“More secular paganism to sell more cheap Chinese crap. The boycott will expand to any company who denies Christ.”

“This is supposed to appease those of us who are boycotting Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic. Just more moral and cultural relativism. Boycott not over.”

“Merry Christmas Gap, may you have no better sales than any other time of year…let’s go to Macy’s who has respect for tradition and values. Throw it all to the wind right? Why believe anything when its all "relative" to what "feels right" to whomever no matter what drugs they are on? ur ok im ok!”

“This is stupid. Do whatever feels right they say. I will not shop there. That feels right. First they refuse to use Christmas in their advertising now they throw it in with Solstice. Disrespectful! I will spend my Christmas dollars elsewhere. Merry Christmas!”

Those few comments are just from the selection made in the last hour, truly terrifying.

Now for the GAP win aspect of this post.  It was just announced today that the profits of Gap Inc. were up 25% in the last quarter.  The timing of AFA’s silly boycott could not have been better.

Now my fair-minded, non-crazy friends, I encourage you to pick up a few extra GAP gift cards this year for your friends and family.  I know these AFA folk probably don’t normally shop at GAP anyway, but I think that regardless it couldn’t hurt for us to support GAP’s spirit of inclusiveness.

Family, friends…yes, you’re getting GAP gift cards.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Any other fans out there?  Be sure to check out the behind the scenes clips on Hulu, they’re great.

I do wish that the bill could have been sent through Congress on its own accord, but attaching it to a defense bill was the safest bet for getting it through and the Democrats did the right thing in doing so.

Matthew’s parents Judy and Dennis have worked tirelessly to see this happen and I have enormous respect for both of them.  I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Judy at a Soulforce event protesting Focus on the Family and their hurtful, dangerous rhetoric.  She was incredibly sweet and genuine and my heart broke all over again for this women who was thrust into a role that no parent would ever wish for.  Hate took her son from her she chose to go on and fight that hate,  She is my personal hero because of it.

Today as I watched the above videos I stumbled upon this great video which contains the statement that Dennis Shepard gave during the trial of one of Matthew’s murderers.  The audio is from the movie “The Laramie Project”.  It is incredibly moving.

Surgery is performed to remove a part of the skull and essentially create a new soft spot, allowing the head to grow properly.  I was about 6 months old when I had my surgery.

Here are a few photos taken after my surgery, during my recovery:

  My Mom has told me that after the surgery she was too afraid to hold me for fear of hurting me so my Aunt Sheryl, a nurse, held me first in the photo above.

Here I am being held by my pretty concerned Mother.

A month or so later, my hair had started to grow back and my scar had healed.

Sagittal Synostosis has no lasting side effects and it’s not something that really has any impact on my life.  I had follow-up Doctor visits to make sure everything went smoothly but then that was it.  I was too young to have any memories from this time, thankfully.

I do however have very vivid memories of dealing with Perthes Disease.  You can find info on Perthes Disease on Wikipedia.  To put it simply, Perthes Disease is degenerative disease where the hip joint starts to fall apart and lose mass.  When I was a kid the treatment was a leg brace.  I was 4 years old and wore it for a year, and Mom just sent me some photos today:

I don’t remember any pain, even though I apparently did experience some, but I do remember the frustration.  I remember not being able to run or jump or play with the other kids on the McDonald’s playground.  I remember walking like a penguin, hobbling side to side to get to my destination.  I’ve heard the story many times of how my Grandfather cried when he first saw me in my brace.  He’s told me the story many times, and it still seems to get to him all these years later.

I remember the day I finally got to take off my brace.  My Doctor’s office was in a building that had a big open lobby, that went up several floors.  It had this wide spiral staircase in the middle and after confirming with my Doctor I could indeed run and jump, I ran out of the office, jumped, skipped and headed for the stairs.  I dragged my Mom up and down those stairs several times that day.

Well, there you go.  I know more photos exist from both my surgery and my leg brace, but these are all that I have for now.

On a further geeky note, I added some additional login options for my comments.  You can now just login with Facebook or Twitter, so you have no excuses not to leave comments.

Now, on to the good stuff.  Excuse me while I turn into a shrieking 12 year old girl…OMGSH ARE YOU WATCHING GLEE!!?!!??!1  I’ve fallen in love with this show.  The pilot was excellent, the second episode was underwhelming, but since then they’ve recovered nicely.  Jane Lynch alone made me interested in the show; I loved her on the short-lived Lovespring International and she’s just laugh out loud funny.  Jane Lynch aside, there’s a really sweet gay character and my favorite of all, a fiercely fabulous black woman.

Warning: If you’re a straight male who watches football, hunts, drives a pickup truck, or thought Sarah Palin was a good idea and/or should hold any elected office then you probably won’t like Glee.

If you haven’t watched the show yet, do it before Hulu decides to pull it down.

There’s the light stuff.  I’ll get to what’s really been going on in my life in a future post.

Is this happening more often or is the Internet just making us more aware of it?  This police officer didn’t know he was on video, obviously.  The kick in the head, then pushing the guys arm up way beyond where he needed to, then the high five…pretty disgusting.

I know the guy is a criminal and I know he’s a suspected gang member, but does this really help reform anyone?  I believe this kind of behavior does nothing more than send more young kids into gangs and helps to create distrust and hate toward police officers in general.

From what I’ve read this officer hasn’t been disciplined or suspended yet, but I’ll update when I find out more.

I’ve been haunted lately by the images of teenagers Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni as they wept and waited for their execution, pleading for their lives.  There are questions about their case, and whether or not they were executed for their consensual homosexual acts or not, but regardless, hundreds of people are executed in Iran and other places for simply being who they are.

There are people and organizations working to make change around the world.  Please consider joining up with Amnesty International and making a recurring donation.  When atrocities like these and in many other categories appear around the globe Amnesty is always there fighting for justice, peace, and human rights.  I have the utmost respect and gratitude for Amnesty International, and if I’m lucky maybe someday I will work for them.