Sunday's were meant for eating good food

Sundays were meant for eating good food. Today, with the beautiful weather, was no exception.

Normally this foodie household would be more than happy to head out to our favourite brunch spots of @116 or DiPratos, but today was so beautiful we were inspired to cook for ourselves.

It is always an endeavor that surprises because as much as we like to eat other folks cooking - to toot our own horns - we can do a pretty damn good job ourselves.

So what did the House of Louise prepare today?

Spinach Quiche and Sweet Potato Hash with Caw Caw Creek Sausage.

That's right lots of fresh, natural ingredients with some store brand goods. Sandra Lee would be proud and more than a little impressed with this semi homemade feast.

First the Spinach Quiche.

First we took thick sliced smoked bacon and with meat scissors cut four pieces into 8 piece sectionals. This made latter steps easier. We cooked the bacon in a frying pan until it was good and crispy and removed from the heat. Using the rendered bacon fat we sauteed five garlic cloves that had been pressed and 1 finely chopped onion. The garlic and onions sauteed until they were golden brown.

Meanwhile we grated fresh Vermont white cheddar, Amish Swiss, and Asiago cheese - about a cup worth. In a large bowl we added to the cheese mixture 7 eggs and two cups heavy whipping cream. This was then beat; fine sea salt, Cayenne pepper and paprika along with ground porchini mushrooms were added to the egg mixture and stirred in.

Back on the stove top the bag of organic baby spinach was added to the garlic and onions and were themselves sauteed.

In the glass pie pan we placed a Publix brand pie crust and blind baked the crust for ten minutes.

Once removed from the oven we further crushed the bacon and sprinkled it on the bottom of the crusted pan. Then we added our spinach, garlic, and onions making as neat a layer as possible. Finally the egg mixture was poured over the top filling the pie pan. Once more Porchini, salt and pepper were dusted on top of the raw quiche.

The quiche was then put in the oven on the center rack, set at 375 degrees. For ten minutes we let the quiche bake. In the mean time more of our three cheeses were grated to be used as the top of the quiche. After the ten minutes were up the cheese was sprinkled on top and the pie was placed back in the oven to cook for 30 minutes.

The Sweet Potato Hash with Caw Caw Creek Sausage

This dish was prepared simultaneously with the Quiche. 2 large sweet potatoes, skin on, cut in cubes (½ to ¾ inch – whatever size you prefer or have the OCD to cut) 1 medium red onion, cut to a similar size as the potatoes 6-8 ounces of sliced sausage links or other salty, fatty meat (bacon,pancetta, etc) 1 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp butter 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper (and/or white pepper)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil on one side of the stove. Parboil the diced sweet potatoes for about 5 minutes, until just fork tender, then drain them thoroughly.

While the pot of water is coming to a boil, place a large skillet over medium heat. After the skillet is hot, add some olive oil and fry the sausage (I added oil since the sausage was rather lean), cooking it completely. Note: I melted a dab of bacon fat (I keep a jar by the stove) in the olive oil. If you're using bacon, you can just cook it in its own fat. Once the meat is cooked, set it aside to drain on a paper towel.

Using the rendered fat in the skillet saute the onions until they are soft and translucent, just beginning to caramelize. Add the sweet potatoes, garlic, butter and thyme leaves and season to taste. Allow the potatoes to caramelize on each side, being careful not to stir too much. Once the potatoes have a bit of golden color on each side, add the meat back to the pan and serve.

The dishes complemented each other very well, and were served with a cold and crisp glass of Saint Hillaire Champagne. Although we had it with spinach quiche today, the hash would go just as well with a poached egg, and/or hollandaise over it.

These recipes may not have come from the Lee Bros but they hit the spot and were definitely Simple. Fresh. & Southern. Another great Sunday afternoon, with lenty of time to spare to enjoy the spring like weather and a good book on the porch, or a laptop to tell you all about it.

SC Book Festival

Yesterday I spent the entire day at the South Carolina Book Festival. I managed to come away with a slightly lighter wallet, but more full bookshelf. A friend from Greenville came down for the day. The Goal: Find interesting books and have the authors, if present, autograph them.

We started in the exhibition hall visiting the various publishing houses. After making it through and purchasing the latest book by Ron Rash - Burning Bright, as well as his bestseller Serena, and what will probably be her break out book - Bloodroot by Amy Green. Then we headed to lunch.

After lunch we met up with my our friend Bill and managed to get Ron Rash to sign our books. Then we sat in on a section about the history of the NAACP and human rights with historian Patricia Sullivan and SC Native Son and professor of Literature Jack Shuler. It was very interesting to hear the discussion on these histories. Did you know that Woodrow Wilson was the person to introduce segregation into the federal government? Yeah I didn't either. I usually just think of Wilson as the man who got us through WWI and planted the seeds for the future United Nations.

Next up, and most exciting for me, was to sit in on the session with the Lee Bros. and Brian Dukes. Before the session though I had to go and buy their latest book: Simple Fresh Southern. And ah hell, while there I couldn't resist buying yet another book: Pioneering American Wine, a collection of writings by one of America's first viticulturalists.

It was a really interesting session. The Lee Brothers are both extremely personable. As the panel came to an end the audience were given the opportunity to ask questions. I asked two.

The first question, as I told the panelists, was probably more important than the second. Tomato, Mustard of Vinegar? I got more than a few chuckles and claps and all three did their best to avoid the answering the question and decided to divvy it up each taking a sauce without admitting what their preferred sauces were. The second question was about heirloom foods, a concept that all three panelists endorse.

After the panel I ran to the signing area and waited in line with the gaggle of other folks for an autograph... but I had a plan. I told my friend from Greenville and he laughed - brilliant. I made it to the front of the line and as I presented the book for signature reminded the Lee Brothers that I was the one that asked the BBQ question. I didn't have to remind them, they knew. I told them they didn't have to say it out loud, but if below their signatures they would put a T, M, or V that's all I needed to know. Ted didn't bother with the letter but wrote the word out. Matt on the other hand, hesitated - unsure if he should really put it down. I told them their secret would be safe with me, and he wrote it down. Success.

At this point in time it was getting late, the festival was drawing to a close. But I was still lacking one signature - Amy Green. Only the week prior she was on NPR, her book has been gaining critical acclaim. I coveted that signature.

It was 5:00pm there was only 20 minutes left and she was participating in a session and would be signing outside of the room. I slipped into the room and heard the last few minutes of the session. As it was concluding her companion author Charles McCain was invited to ask a trivia question for the folks in the room if you got the answer you won a prize, a book! Despite only being their for five minutes I raised my hand was called on, and won. After that I slipped back out the room and waited for Amy - she signed my book.

The day was a total success.

SVILUPPO: Many many apologies to Author Chalres McCain, since he was the one who asked the question and I mentioned it here. It is only fair to mention that he is the author of An Honorable German. It should be noted to from that session I also learned two very important styles of fiction writing - those based on free form, Ms. Green, and those based on meticulous accuracy, Mr. McCain.

As for the question - what is the Latin Motto of the State of South Carolina - Dum Spiro Spero... here's to Boy's State! Mr. McCain class of '73, myself '00.

Insurance Carriers

You know it's a good day when one of the most conservative industries in America starts marketing to the gays.

The first week of Lent and Sushi

What's the connection between the first week of Lent and Sushi?

Tempura.

In Latin we call the Ember Days the Quatuor Tempora, or "four times" of the year. This Latin term gave rise to a form of foodwhich I am sure you all know.

In the 16th c. Spanish and Portuguese missionaries settled in Nagasaki, Japan. From their interest in inculturation and out of sensitivity for the ways of the people, they tried to make meatless meals for Embertide, which is a fast time. They started deep-frying shrimp. The Japanese ran with and developed it to perfection. This is “tempura,” again from the Latin term for the Ember Days "Quatuor Tempora".

Quadragesima

The Season of Lent is close upon us. The universal call to fasting and prayer and reorientation of our lives begins with the donning of ashes and continues through Holy Week and the celebration of the Paschal Feast Easter Sunday.

For some back ground on Lent, and the history of it see Catholic Encyclopedia.

So how are you observing Lent?

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus, ctd.

Previously I noted the rhetorical divide in understanding how the Apostolic Constitution is to be implemented and what it means for Anglo-Catholics. There was other news that flew under the radar.

The "new ecumenism" espoused by the Pope, while an affront to many Anglicans, is being practiced by... you guessed it, the Anglicans.

Per Ruth Gledhill the Methodist Church has pulled a TAC with their organizational President and Vice President saying,

'Methodists approach the Covenant with the Church of England in the spirituality of that Covenant prayer. So when we say to God, "let me have all things let me have nothing," we say it by extension to our partners in the Church of England as well. We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission. In other words we are prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a Church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom.'

While Ruth looks at this rather cheekily, we're on the same page about this: how is this any different than Hepworth Primate of the TAC making overtures to the Holy See, leading up to the edict of the Apostolic Constitution? She points out some concerns both communions see as potential stumbling points.

Some Methodists are not sure about whether they want bishops or not, and some Anglicans, from the ranks of those who oppose women bishops, are not sure about whether they want Methodists. The reasons for both oppositions are the same: questions around orders and the Apostolic succession. But the Methodists might be prepared to accept bishops if women are allowed to join their ranks in the Church of England, as Methodism is fully inclusive of women in all leadership positions.

The parallels between these realignments is pretty amazing. It's not just the hurdles that both groups have to overcome it's also a matter of history and direction.

For Anglicans and Catholics there's ARCIC, for the Anglicans and Methodists, in Great Britain it is their covenant. For both it's a matter of realizing that at some point there's nothing more to talk about. For ARCIC it was a matter of lots of good work and then a break down because of the controversial stances the Anglicans have taken ecclisiologically.

In regards to the covenant, it is interesting to note the formal agreement to seek unity was signed in 2003, the same year that ARCIC talks were suspended. That being noted, the covenant seemed to state what was already known, that the two bodies were moving closer theologically and in mission (social justice).

It's also like watching a great game of Chess, or Risk as those who are deemed theologically 'conservative' amass on one side of the board and the liberals on the other, all in the name of 'Christian Unity.' The obvious question is, Unity to what end?

To note, on this side of the Atlantic, I don't believe the United Methodist Church and Episcopal Church have any plans to merge.

They've bought enough rope

The Financial Times has an interesting article on the Greek Crisis and how it's coming to America. It's worth a read and I'd encourage you to Check it out. The following though reminded me of an historical quote:

the Chinese have sharply reduced their purchases of Treasuries from around 47 per cent of new issuance in 2006 to 20 per cent in 2008 to an estimated 5 per cent last year. Small wonder Morgan Stanley assumes that 10-year yields will rise from around 3.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent this year. On a gross federal debt fast approaching $1,500bn, that implies up to $300bn of extra interest payments – and you get up there pretty quickly with the average maturity of the debt now below 50 months.

Know which quote I'm talking about? It's from Lenin. The Capitalist will sell us the rope with which we will hang them. As for the Chinese, well we know about our delicate relationship with them.

The article argues, almost convincingly, that the Keynesian free lunch does not really exist.

Deficits did not “save” us half so much as monetary policy – zero interest rates plus quantitative easing – did. First, the impact of government spending (the hallowed “multiplier”) has been much less than the proponents of stimulus hoped. Second, there is a good deal of “leakage” from open economies in a globalised world. Last, crucially, explosions of public debt incur bills that fall due much sooner than we expect

I said almost because what Mr. Ferguson fails to mention, and sadly probably on purpose, is that we've been deficit spending for the better part of the last decade. It's called two unfunded wars - which by the way is a foreign investment like international aide if you will... where you give and get nothing in return, the largest (unfunded) entitlement expansion since Medicare - which did nothing to actually address any real costs associated with senior medical care or the price of drugs. It was in fact a give away to the insurance industry. Oh yes and who can forget the tax breaks to correspond with these spending increases... hello!!! Spending increases, not cuts!! You cut taxes you cut spending there's a correlation folks.

$757 billion, the majority of which has yet to still be spent, is still a drop in the bucket compared to the profligate - orgiastic spending spree this country has been on for the last decade.

If we learned anything from OJ Simpson it's that you've got to believe the lie and it must become your truth, so it obviously is for Mr. Fergusun, who's no stranger to revisionism, and his framing of the current mess the world is in. Why after all, they say, should you let the truth come in the way of your smear.

But false premise aside the conclusion that Mr. Fergusun draws is for the most part right.

Explosions of public debt hurt economies in the following way, as numerous empirical studies have shown. By raising fears of default and/or currency depreciation ahead of actual inflation, they push up real interest rates. Higher real rates, in turn, act as drag on growth, especially when the private sector is also heavily indebted – as is the case in most western economies, not least the US.

This administration, unlike the last, shouldn't and can't afford to blithely believe that GDP will continue to grow at a pace constant with inflation. The fear of the Great Recession was real. The damaging spending that we've inflicted this past decade, along with the fear created by the recession has raised real interest rates and growth will probably be lower than expected.

We'll end with Mr. Fergusun who notes,

On reflection, it is appropriate that the fiscal crisis of the west has begun in Greece, the birthplace of western civilization. Soon it will cross the channel to Britain. But the key question is when that crisis will reach the last bastion of western power, on the other side of the Atlantic.

Dividing America

Geography? Been there, done that. Culture?That's what brought us the Civil War. Economics, yeah it's been done... Politics? We've heard the Red State Blue State spiel.

But how about a meta division?

Via Richard Florida we find a new way to divide America into 7 distinct regions based purely on the social networking of Facebook. From such exotic names as Socalistan to the more mundane Greater Texas Pete Werden has analyzed 210 million Public Facebook Profiles. From the habits of facebook users and mapping their connections we can learn about the folks. Per Werden:

Some of these clusters are intuitive, like the old south, but there's some surprises too, like Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas having closer ties to Texas than Georgia. To make sense of the patterns I'm seeing, I've marked and labeled the clusters, and added some notes about the properties they have in common.

Thus you get the map, and the descriptions of these clusters. From the available information it looks like a meta description that combines not only geographic and sociologic taxonomies but some freakanomics. Take for example "Dixie":

Probably the least surprising of the groupings, the Old South is known for its strong and shared culture, and the pattern of ties I see backs that up. Like Stayathomia, Dixie towns tend to have links mostly to other nearby cities rather than spanning the country. Atlanta is definitely the hub of the network, showing up in the top 5 list of almost every town in the region. Southern Florida is an exception to the cluster, with a lot of connections to the East Coast, presumably sun-seeking refugees.

God is almost always in the top spot on the fan pages, and for some reasonAshley shows up as a popular name here, but almost nowhere else in the country.

If it sounds familiar, it probably should -- this nearly neatly explains, and to my estimation definitely gives meat to why Nate Silver's formulae for vote predictions were so accurate. It's a fuller picture. Let's take a look at South Carolina from Fan Page Analytics:

Profile for South Carolina

Friends

o North Carolina
o Georgia
o Florida
o DC
o New York
o Texas
o Tennessee
o Virginia
o California
o Pennsylvania

Likes

o God
o Starbucks
o I need a vacati...
o Chick-fil-A
o Freeze Pops
o Dislike Button
o Michael Jackson
o Charleston, SC
o The Beach
o I believe in God

Names

o Michael
o Jennifer
o David
o Chris
o John
o Ashley
o Jessica
o James
o Amanda
o Lisa

and Columbia, SC?

Profile for Columbia, SC

Friends

o Charleston, SC
o Greenville, SC
o Charlotte, NC
o Atlanta, GA
o Florence, SC
o Augusta, GA
o Washington, DC
o Myrtle Beach, SC
o New York, NY
o Raleigh / Durha...

Likes

o God
o Starbucks
o Chick-fil-A
o Michael Jackson
o Freeze Pops
o Dislike Button
o I need a vacati...
o Taraji P. Henson
o R.I.P Michael J...
o I believe in God

Names

o Michael
o Chris
o John
o Jennifer
o David
o Ashley
o Jessica
o James
o Amanda
o Jason

Oh those Muppets

They were huge in the 80's. Big Bird's tribute to their creator at his funeral is possibly the saddest thing in modern popular culture, and now they're back with 'huge hits' (pun intended) on the interwebs.... er... webernets. All I can say is I sympathise with Beaker and keeping pace with technology.

Evangelical Leader: Quit Moralizing, focus on Discipleship

An interesting and provocative article about Gay Marriage hit the Christian News Wire. Meet House Church Leader Ken Eastburn:

"Creating a moral America is not God’s goal nor should it be ours. Instead, the Bible is clear that our focus should be to make disciples and seek first the Kingdom of God."

But he doesn't stop there. He challenges the very modern, American, liberal Christian understanding of the Kingdom of God as something that can be created on terra firma as a Christianesque Utopia:

"It is a common mistake for Christians to spend time, energy and resources in advocating for a morality that is consistent with their faith," says Eastburn, "But at the end of the day our goal, the command given to us by Jesus Christ, is to make disciples. When our time and energy is spent on moralizing a secular nation, we are sacrificing our ability to obey Christ's command."

He continues with a very traditional argument which to our ears sounds out of place as well as Provocative:

"Many Christians have their faith intertwined with their nationality and, as a result, believe that their efforts to legislate a specifically Christian morality are glorifying to God. But just the opposite is true. No matter how good America becomes, people are still separated from God by sin. The only agenda we should be spending ourselves on is the redemption offered through Jesus Christ."

Very Interesting. You're not going to save or evangelize people through legislation, only through personal outreach.

That's why it's been so strange for marriage equality supporters to see laws, liberal laws that carve out HUGE exceptions for religious groups and persons of faith from participating in same sex unions, the bills still fall in the face of an unwarranted out cry from religious groups. How is it an infringement upon your religious liberty to say that you don't have to participate, support, or celebrate a same sex union? If the state takes a neutral position on homosexuality how does that impede on your ability or the strength of your message to convince people of your position?

A new twist in the Prop 8 trial

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Judge Walker may be gay.

But before the religious right gets all up in arms, let's remember that Judge Walker is a libertarian conservative - many of his questions were smart and specific, and being a libertarian conservative he even asked why the government should be in the "marriage" business at all.

Above the Law tries to tease out any potential bias, but ultimately concludes that jurisprudentially Walker is above reproach, though after the ruling if it's confirmed that he's gay it'll be a public perception issue. To which I say certainly.

This week in Anglicanorum Coetibus

Within days of each other two prelates - one Catholic, one Anglican (CofE) release opposing statements on the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

First is Bishop Peter J Elliot, Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne Australia. He says of the Anglicans that ferry the Tiber that they will be "United in Communion but not absorbed." The other is the Anglican Archbishop of York, Dr. Peter Sentamu. As reported in the Telegraph, Dr. Sentamu told the BBC recently of these Anglicans that "they wouldn't be 'proper Catholics.'"

Other than guffaw from these shores, I'll leave it to Damian Thompson to take the good Archbishop of York to task for his spectacularly ignorant and offensive statements.

On this side of the pond the response to the apostolic constitution has been positive from the Roman Catholic perspective. After all it was in America that the precursor to the Ordinariate was established with the Anglican 'Use' parishes.

As far as reactions from the Episcopal Church - it's been pretty muted as that ecclessial community is still in upheaval internally. The national church is taking on individual clerics, congregations, and dioceses as they align with more conservative Anglican provinces.Interestingly while visiting Charleston, SC the former Bishop of Rochester, Pakistani born Michael Nazir-Ali, mused on Constitution that the Vatican has created a Presbyterian Ordinariate because "the Proposal offered no Bishops from the Roman Catholic Church for the fleeing Anglicans."

A little further upstream there's no word yet if the local Anglo Catholic church, Church of the Good Shepherd, is considering the Ordinariate with their spiritual, doctrinal, and liturgical closeness to the Catholic Church.

The Great (fire)Wall of China

“The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization..."

- Karl Marx

Besides a cool quote by Karl Mark, Reason Magazine has an interesting article on how to utilize the WTO against the Chinese government to open them up, not to corporate interest (though that's a component), but to the virtues and vices of the freedom of speech. Their argument is based around the elements of the Treaty China signed to join the WTO:

When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 it agreed that foreign service companies would have the same access to markets in China as domestic companies do. Now the European Union and the U.S. Trade Representative office are considering an argument that the Great Firewall violates China’s obligations to permit free trade in services under its agreements with the WTO. Last year, in a working paper titled Protectionism Online: Internet Censorship and International Trade Law, the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) think tank argued that “WTO member states are legally obliged to permit an unrestricted supply of cross border Internet services.”

The idea here is to use their recent spat with Google as grounds to file a complaint with the WTO. The argument goes that state censorship violates the free trade agreement as it interferes with the ability of the Internet giant and other web companies to provide a service to the Chinese people. The article goes on to explain that while a ruling in a hypothetical complaint with the WTO doesn't guarantee compliance that it does in turn allow for legal retribution in the forms of tariffs on Chinese products.

Their is hesitation by the American Trade Representative to pursue this option which is reflective of the Administration's delayed reaction earlier this year to the hacking of Google by Chinese government officials. Because of the extremely close interdependency of the Sino-American economies any negotiation with China must be labeled: fragile, handle with care.

Waldo Lydecker whacks Joe Taylor, FITSNews

Waldo's got a great post up about how abysmally the current Commerce chief has performed at growing the SC economy, and has the most sound, and blunt, critique of this state's economic development strategies:

The fact remains, South Carolina is pursuing out of date strategies to attract companies that just want cheap workers to bolt things together. Screw the residents of the state: give BMW and Boeing land and tax breaks that will take decades to recover even as state services atrophy, look the other way when most of their workers are not real employees but contract workers (hello, BMW), and pray they don't pick up and leave when their factories are fully depreciated and they can get some other state to build them new ones.

Joe Taylor ought to resign in shame over the way he is willing to pimp the citizens of South Carolina. A 21st century economy is not one where your operating principle is to beg companies to come here on the promise you're willing to beggar your constituents' rights to access to redress when they are abused. In the new economy, workers' knowledge and ability to innovate is where the action lies. And they can, even under the Supreme Court's reactionary views, can go where they are most valued and life is most agreeable. Smart people don't migrate to low wage states.

In this century, companies that succeed- and stay- in SC are companies that can persuade their employees to want to live here and stay here. As long as South Carolina is perceived as a racist, reactionary, uniparty, head up its ass, homophobic, misogynist political/business culture, all you can be sure of is that the big, nameplate corporate recruits that enable politicos to declare victory and go home will stay here only as long as it suits them.

Both parties suffer from this mindset in South Carolina. The idea is, if we can bring in companies by throwing money, reforming tort and lowering taxes - then the expanded tax base will maintain the provided services. The fact is, until we invest in the necessary services in this state, educate our children properly, foster homegrown innovation then we'll be an attractive site for expansion, and relocation. We wouldn't have to throw as exorbitant incentives at out of state and international corporations. It'll take a whole lot of institutional reform for which the political will in South Carolina is completely non existent. Sure FITS News can harp about reform, and legislators may pay some election year lip service to it, but they know where their bread is buttered.

quiet ubiquity the final taboo

I was a fan of the SyFy show Battle Star Gallactica - as many of my friends were. So when SyFy announced and premiered Caprica - the prequel to the BSG series, I was more than excited to watch. It comes on Friday nights at 9, and most Fridays I'm out and about on the town so I dvr it to watch on Saturday morning or afternoon. This past Friday's episode, which was the series premier after the extra long pilot the previous week, was great. But something caught my attention.

As the Tauron mafioso Sam Adama is walking his nephew through the Tauron ghetto of Caprica city - he very nonchalantly explains to young William, future Admiral Adama, about he and Williams father began their lives on Caprica after leaving Tauron. He explained how he was trying to "pick up" a guy and William's father "picked up" the guy's sister. The conversation continued with Sam talking about how he and William's father got involved with the Tauron mafia before he breaks some one's window for his boss.

For the characters - the fact that Sam Adama, mafioso, series bad ass, is gay is no issue at all. For me the fan watching it was a "did he just say what I thought he said" moment, and through the power of dvr, and rewinding, I realized he did.

This to me is a huge step in the evolution of gays in popular culture. In decades past we weren't acknowledged at all or shown in a negative light. Then we were the humorous, or witty occasional characters. In the 90's the gays burst out of the closet and onto the main screen, most likely because of the horrors of the AIDS crisis. (well we gotta talk about the Gays somehow -- they're dying in the street!).

But still, when gays weren't presented as victims of disease we were presented on screen as the flamboyant caricature of what people assume gays to be.

I recall the first time that I had seen the ubiquity of homosexuality addressed, which in a way nullifies the ubiquity. In the Simpsons episode from 1997, Homer's phobia. Homer's new gay friend proceeds to take him to places all over Springfield where gays are present. At first the folks seem like your average Joe, then a song and dance number breaks out. It was funny and won many plaudits from media organizations and gay advocacy groups alike for it's positive treatment of the gay community. At one time Homer proclaims:

You know me Marge, I like my beers cold, my TV loud, and homosexuals FLAAAMMING.

It was funny, but it again characterized, like the song and dance numbers, how the straight world wanted, needed, to identify and classify the gay community.

Now most major networks have regular gay characters. From Will & Grace on NBC to Brothers & Sisters and Modern Family on ABC to Glee on Fox, and various Soap Operas on all the major Networks. Each show portrays the character in one light or the other but they all share one thing - the gay character is obsessed with being gay, that's their focus, that's their point of existence, that's how the world sees them -- navel gazers. It's just another caricature.

Granted these stereotypes are based in reality. There are certain segments of the community that are flamboyant, there are segments that are obsessed with being gay, I think it's the evolution of the community as we try to assert both our existence and negotiate our matriculation into the culture and society at large. That's the point of marriage equality and efforts to repeal DADT - it's not for special treatment, it's for equal treatment. We're here, we're queer, and we just want to be left alone.

Perhaps more shows will go the route of Caprica - perhaps others already have, there's a lot of TV programming out there folks -and show gays neither as flamboyant caricatures or as the gay character, after all that's the direction that gay community is moving - acknowledged, accepted, integrated, quiet ubiquity.

Or perhaps Caprica will go the direction of the others, and Sam Adama will make a production of his sexuality - it's too early to tell, but there is promise.

Common Ground with the Rushbo

During the Presidential campaign of '08 I discovered something about John McCain - he too is an ABBA fan. As it happens I have something in fan with Rushbo. It turns out Rush Limbaugh is also a fan of the Gaga. (See him dance to Poker Face!) Music really does offer a chance for finding common ground after all.

Or maybe it's just a Bad Romance.