Separate but Equal 2008

Do gay people scare straight people? Is there some need to say we need gays, we need to give them basic utilities, and simple access, but limit their interaction to the lowest, most tolerable levels?

I don’t know what it’s like to be African-American in the 1950s. I do know that as an Asian-American in Chicago and Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s, I was called “chink”, “jap”, “gook” and “monkeyboy”. And starting in the 1980s, I was also called “fag”.

As a minority in America, I do not want to be treated differently. I want the same opportunities, rights and access as others citizens. I thought that being an American means something to most people in the US. I thought it mean opportunity and freedom from oppression. Why, then, do we not have the decency to treat each other equally? We’re all children of God. So, though we may vary in skills, talents and other born traits, why can’t we let God’s will be and stop standing in judgment.

Such sentiments lead me to lament America’s perceptions of gays. Yes, apparently we can be entertaining. We put on lovely dinners, make pretty outfits, put on memorable weddings and create masterpieces in makeup and hairstyle. And yet, after we finish out efforts, we’re sent to the back of the bus, told to keep quiet, appreciate how good we have it, and good heavens don’t hold hands or kiss in public.

American is better than that. Unfortunately, it takes a long time. It took a century of Irish-bashing, a century of “reconstruction”, a lifetime for the differently abled. It took two centuries for women to not just earn the vote but to get a chance to sit at the top of the table.

Perhaps gays need to be more patient. Accept the bashings. Accept the teen suicides. Wait until America is ready.

But that doesn’t make it right.

But it sure made me pause and wonder about the statistics in sports business. I mean, as an avid USC fan who relishes pouring over the stats while sitting in the Coliseum, I should be somewhat understanding. With the explosion of fantasy sports leagues, though, the sport stats business has been through the roof.

It seems like 1/2 the adult male population goes on about sports stats and fantasy leagues. They pore over the numbers and study trends.

I’m not sure if this is rational to me. Is it the passion of sports itself? The athletes? Or the enjoyment of picking something that was well-researched and seeing if you won?

If the research and outcomes are the kick, then why don’t people spend their time studying the financial market and investing? If we could somehow harness all this mental energy, this social interaction, this analysis, imagine how much more efficient the financial markets would be.  And more importantly, imagine all the money these fantasy sports fans could be making!

Come on, people. If you’re really capitalists, you’d be using that analysis energy to make some serious money.

Offensively, it just never seems to amaze me how we cannot seem to trust our running game. If our running game can rack up 200 years in the second half, imagine what we could do if we actually tried to run the whole game!

Shoot! As a disgruntled, pissed on old-style conservative (small government, no established church in government, Teddy Roosevelt style progressive and environmentalist), I surely could have said a word or two to them before they ran off to the golf course. Ahh, maybe next time.

Um, is it me or was this pretty much what was happening in the 2008 Republican Presidential race, with Sarah Palin and John McCain?

So, just to give an idea of what my political compass is, I took the test on politicalcompass.com and got the following results.

Where I apparently stand

So I am seemingly a centrist Libertarian. I like that. Here’s the chart of famous political leaders…

Where other folks stand. Look, Bush is a right-wing fascist!

Lastly, here are the 2008 Presidential candidates as they apparently stood this year. No wonder that in this crazy world of American politics, Obama could even remotely be considered socialist. Ha!

So, no libertarians here, not even Ron Paul. Poor me.