Archive for April 1st, 2010
Tonight we get to say thank-you to Frenchie Davis for sticking it to bigots in 2007
Tonight is Roscoe’s 23rd Anniversary party and we’re attending, with a report back at a later date we’re sure. It’s something fun a lot of the bars here in Boystown do for regulars: throwing open bar cocktail parties for the holidays and the bar’s anniversary.
Roscoe’s has brought in Frenchie Davis from American Idol to perform for the crowd — after AI she went on to great success on Broadway and performed for Market Days here in Boystown in 2007 or so.
We’re looking forward to thanking her in person tonight for something she did that day, something remarkable.
Market Days is a large street festival here in Boystown the first weekend of August. It’s the last hurrah of summer in some ways, with big stages for concert built right in the middle of the street, with one of them centered over by the IHOP that marks the northernmost boundary of Boystown.
It’s a great place for the stage, and the concerts are always so much fun (including in the past people like Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Donna Summer, RuPaul, the Village People, etc., all steps away from Boystown, so close we can open our windows and not only hear the music, but watch the performances without going outside…it’s AWESOME). The only downside is that the stage is built next to the parking lot for a black Baptist church, and the church members and their guests often set up anti-gay, mean-spirited protests ranting and raving against gays while the festival’s going on.
It’s more of that garbage we repeatedly tell you about: Gay = AIDS, God made AIDS to kill gays, all gays should burn in Hell. The black community is no friend of Boystown, and these “religious” people seemingly never picked up a Bible, let alone actually read it.
Well, during Frenchie Davis’ performance at Market Days, she actually stopped the music at one point and scolded those hateful lunatics. She told them, point blank, that while they had a legal right to be there “acting the fool” the way they were, and that no one could chase them away, she asked these people if they ever truly “knew God”.
“Because if you did, you’d know He’s ashamed of you, carrying on like this. If you could take that time to make those wicked signs, and can stand around in the hot sun condemning everyone around you to Hell, just think of all the good things you could have done today if you put your minds to it, fools. ”
She then got ultra-personal, practically in tears, and talked about having no money and being so broke she thought she’d end up homeless. American Idol saved her, and after the scandal that forced her off the show, it was the gay community who embraced her and got her back on her feet. She started playing gay clubs, entertaining at Pride and other events like Market Days, and soon she was getting booked on Broadway, playing for gay audiences who were excited to see her and loved her.
She looked right at those hatemongers, and sistah to sistah, she CALLED THEM OUT.
“I would not be here today, babies, if it wasn’t for gay men. I’d be waiting tables somewhere instead of singing, and I might just be dead. So, I love these people. These people gave me a career. These people love me. You wanna mess with this people, it’s okay, I ain’t mad at ya, but you’re gonna have to mess with me too. And I’m a big girl. I can mess back. You want to bring it, I say bring it, but you better know I’m a church girl. I read me some Bible. And I’m a GOOD reader. I read all the parts, not just the ones I want to try to use against people and succeed only in making myself look like a damn fool. Which is what you are, babies. Fools. And I am tired of educating and trifling y’all.”
The crowd went wild.
Frenchie revved up the music as loud as it would go and got everyone to drown out all the hate being aimed at us from that parking lot.
She was a tour de force.
We will never forget it.
So, we’re thrilled to meet her later tonight and thank her for doing that. She didn’t have to. She put herself on the line by calling the black community out like that.
We’re going to make sure she knows how much it was appreciated.
True Life Obamacare Horror Story
We’re sure you’re hearing things like this yourself, but today at lunch our friend Sarah told us she’s pregnant — and that she’s unable to get health insurance because her pregnancy is a pre-existing condition insurance won’t cover.
She was in tears because she thought she was unable to get pregnant, and was actually on birth control, despite the fact other medical problems have kept her from having a period for seven years. Well, a miracle happened, but it unfortunately happened about a month after she was laid off her job — so she’s unmarried, has no insurance, and her boyfriend is a musician who doesn’t have insurance of his own.
Sarah has a doctor’s appointment next week, and spent most of the morning fighting with the billing department there, as well as several insurance companies, trying to determine what she could do to pay for all the medical help she’ll need with this pregnancy.
She asked about Obamacare, which she calls “Obama’s Bill”.
“Well, didn’t they just pass Obama’s bill? Doesn’t that mean you have to cover me?”.
“No”, the insurance companies and doctor’s office told her. Under “Obama’s Bill”, pregnancy is a pre-existing condition and pre-existing conditions are still not covered, as this bill was written and made into law by Dr. Utopia.
If Sarah’s the sort of person Obamacare was supposed to help, and Obamacare is not going to help Sarah, then what was Obamacare for?
“He’s a liar,” Sarah said, angrily stabbing into a cobb salad at Nookie’s. “He said his bill would fix everything but then why don’t I have insurance? The Obama Bill passed so I want my insurance now because I am pregnant and he said pre-existing conditions would be covered, so he needs to cover it now”.
We really believe there are tens of millions of Sarahs out there who are going to do just what she did in the time between now and November: they are going to face some kind of medical situation that they would have handled differently pre-March 20th…but now, after “Obama’s Bill” passed, they are going to demand insurance coverage and medical care because they believe that’s what “Obama’s Bill” was for.
When they are confronted with the cold reality that they will NOT in fact get insurance and will not get free medical care, they are going to get mad and stab their cobb salads.
Or, take a stab at the Socialist-Democrat Party at the ballot box come November.
Are you seeing anything anecdotally similar in your part of the country?
Do you know any Sarahs?
How Can You Help Right A Heinous Wrong to the Snyder Family?
An American hero and his family have been wronged -- what can you do to set it right?
Honestly, we don’t know what to say about this, because it makes us too angry on a primal level to even begin to think rationally.
Please read this post over at CNN by John Ellsworth, explaining the travesty of justice that’s transpired in this, The Golden Age of Hope and Change, where the family of slain Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder has been forced by a judge to pay legal fees for the Westboro Baptist Church — that engine of hate presided over by Fred Phelps, truly the wickedest and most evil man alive today.
If there really is a Devil in Hell, he’s got the gang at Westboro on his Friends and Family calling plan.
Phelps and his troop of demons disrupted a hero’s funeral, because they are far-Left loons who hate America, hate our military, and hate the young men and women who give their lives to defend this country.
The Snyder Family sued Westboro and won in court…then an appeal reduced their award by half…and a new ruling this week not only overturned the original verdict, but imposed $16,000 in court fees on the Snyder Family for standing up for basic common decency and battling back against Westboro.
Ellsworth argues this case needs to go to the Supreme Court.
How can we all help make this happen?
This is a travesty of justice and a slap in the face of all military families.
We love the military more than we could ever tell you, and wish things had been different in our own lives so we could have worn a uniform ourselves. We love the USO, and volunteer through it to help our troops whenever we can.
This travesty presents another opportunity for those of us not in the military itself to come to the aid of those who are — and do whatever we can to make Americans wake up and see what an injustice has been done.
We need ideas folks…what sort of hue and cry needs to go up to get a case before the SCOTUS?
Let’s make that happen.
Hatemail of the Day: Saying Something Nice About FLOTUS Edition
From time to time, we post the hatemail trolls fling at us here, like so many feces smacking against the walls of their mother’s basements. Here’s one we found in the spam filter today, in a surprising place — a thread where we honestly did our level best to say something nice about Michelle Obama. It was hard. It was a major stretch. But, we noted earlier today that Michelle really does seem to enjoy spending time with children, and the children like visiting with her too. So, we think that’s very nice for all involved. More of that should happen, in fact, because it seems to lend itself to less scowling and America bashing on her part.
Well, one troll out there, though a supporter of the current FLOTUS, didn’t like us saying anything nice about her — so it’s proof we really can’t win no matter what we do.
TROLL:
Yuo are not giving her the slightest shred of humanity, which does not reflect well on your own. Which MEANS: You are sick, you are sick, you are sick,sick,sick, you are sociologically sick and AIDS is the only cure for you fags. That’s right, fags, I said it, and I mean it. How dare you talk about our beautiful frist lady yuo racist fags. You are sick, you are sick, you are sick, sick, sick fags. I hope someone kills you.
What loveliness on a nice spring day, huh?
It’s one thing for some of you out there who don’t like Michelle to be mad because we said something nice about her. There were many of you out there who went berserk when we said something kind about Roger Ebert a while back, because you didn’t want anything nice said about him. That we can almost understand, because at least it’s consistent.
But, if you like this current FLOTUS, then why are you mad that we complimented her? Why is that AIDS-worthy? We’ll never totally understand the wishing of AIDS on gay people you don’t like, but when we rallied to help Scott Brown win in Massachusetts, we realize how upset the Left was with that upset, so in that instance we can ALMOST understand these loons becoming so unhinged they’d hurl an Unforgiveable Curse at us.
But in this instance?
It’s just crazy.
Great use of spellcheck from the troll, too.
Persephone's Ransom
Technically, this happened last night, and it’s the true harbinger of Spring here in Chicago: when we spot the first “straight” frat boy type guy running shirtless on Halsted, supposedly unaware he’s making his workout route RIGHT PASSED all the gay bars here.
Too funny.
They do this on the lakefront trails, too, wanting to put on a little gun show…but it’s just especially hilarious on a busy street like Halsted, where people don’t jog, and we never, ever see these guys running in the cold, non-shirtless weather.
But, the first genuinely nice day in this town, and here they come.
Not that we’re complaining.
And then, today, after that first shirtless runner heralded the arrival of spring, all the Brendens are out in their olive green cammo or black tank tops, board shorts, and flippity-flops.
Which they’ll sport until Halloween or so.
Welcome to springtime in Boystown. Persephone’s ransomed and the flowers are shooting up from the ground, the boys are losing their shirts, and the windows are opened here at Buzzquarters for the first time in forever, letting a nice breeze race through the room and chase away the ghosts of one horrible winter.
Which Horseman of the GOP 2012 Apocalypse is the MSM pushing today? John Thune edition
Mother said to be a good boy and eat all of my sandwich before I engage in any more taxidermy today.
John Thune seems like a nice enough man.
To eat cucumber-and-mayonnaise sandwiches on Wonderbread dipped in skim milk and served on paper plates with.
He’s one of the boring, bland, uninspiring, loser candidates for 2012 the MSM is pushing the GOP to nominate, so the MSM’s boyfriend, Dr. Utopia, can win a second term…and, we presume, use those 4 years to deliver the death blows to America.
It’s interesting to watch men like Thune fall for all the praise the MSM lavishes on them. John McCain is another very nice man who thoroughly enjoyed years of praise from the MSM, so that one day the Left could position him as the Republican nominee…so that he could lose to a Democrat when the MSM wanted a Democrat in the White House.
McCain never realized he was being used. He was like the nerdy, oddball in high school so excited the jocks invited him to sit at “the cool table” that he never saw the massive atomic wedgie during gym class coming.
Tim Pawlenty is really one of the dumbest people on the planet if he thinks he’s presidential material. One of us here at Buzzquarters — any of us — has a better chance at being president than Tim Pawlenty does. Randomly pick someone out of the phone book, and as long as that person does not resemble Droopy Dog, that person has a better shot than Pawlenty — whose nickname in college, apparently, was “an insomniac’s delight”.
Thune’s not as cataclysmically unattractive as Pawlenty, but he is creepy looking.
Not serial killer creepy, but there’s a weird Norman Bates vibe to him, like he’d enjoy taxidermy, or talking about taxidermy while eating cucumber-and-mayonnaise sandwiches and drinking powdered milk, hold the water.
Republicans, continue to allow the MSM to pick your candidates at your own peril.
Bob Dole.
John McCain.
John Thune?
Not if we have anything to say about it.
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Children Really Do Like Her, and She Seems To Like Them
Living in Chicago, we not only had the chance to meet Michelle Obama several times through the years, but we’re friends with many people who worked with her when she was part of Mayor Daley’s staff working for the City. She’s not a nice woman, she loved every minute sitting in those pews at Trinity United reveling in Jeremiah Wright’s oratory, and we think she’s largely a disgrace as First Lady.
BUT — and this is not an April Fool’s joke we swear — we do think credit needs to be given in that children really seem to like her, and she really seems to like them.
A few weeks back, we also acknowledged how much we admired Roger Ebert’s strength in dealing with losing his jaw, his ability to speak, and the simple daily pleasures of eating and drinking. We don’t like Roger Ebert. We don’t think he’s a good man. We’ve met him here in Chicago and he was rude and surly and, essentially, doing an out of drag Michelle Obama impression.
BUT the man has immense inner strength to continue to appear in public, when his face now horrifies people and would absolutely mortify the lot of us if something like that came our way.
You can indeed — and our opinion, SHOULD — find something you like and admire in even the worst people out there. Otherwise, you are no better than the Left, which is perpetually set on hate and forever determined to annihilate all who make it onto their hit lists.
If someone you don’t especially like or respect does something good, you are under no obligation to cheer for them or make a production out of it. There’s no requirement to spend your days and nights frantically searching for something nice to say about everywhere.
BUT, if the spirit moves you, and you notice something good in someone you don’t particularly care for, it’s never a bad thing to acknowledge it.
Michelle Obama’s fashion taste is ridiculous.
Her ego is unparalleled.
The way she burns through taxpayer money hosting lavish events at the White House during a depression is appalling.
Her “proud of her country for the first time in her adult life” comment will never be forgotten.
BUT children do like her, and she seems to like them. Her smile in the photo above is real, whether the hair on her head is or not. She’s treating that little girl with kindness and giving her a moment she’ll remember for the rest of her life. She’s, of course, dressed inappropriately again — wearing see-through Fredericks of Hollywood evening wear to garden — but she’s outside, with children, and she’s not scowling or rambling about what a terrible country America is.
That’s a big deal for her.
It really does make us proud of her for the first time in our adult lives.
No, she doesn’t deserve a parade for smiling and being nice to a small child. No, Roger Ebert doesn’t deserve a parade, either, for being able to face up to how cancer ravaged his body.
We don’t like either of these people, but we like something they each did, and we felt compelled to make note of it.
