(Originally posted to Home at EraBlog on Fri, 25 Jun 2004 20:47:24 GMT)

After several months of not blogging, I’ve decided to resume. EraBlog was nice while it lasted, but Mike Amundsen hasn’t been paying attention to it for a while. I was always frustrated at the lack of con­fig­ura­bil­i­ty, and I hated the hard-coded limit of three posts showing up on the front page.

I’ve moved to http://weblogs.asp.net/george_v_reil­ly/.

Update: See next post. I’ve long since moved to GeorgeVReil­ly.com/blog.

(Originally posted to Queer at EraBlog on Wed, 11 Feb 2004 23:48:38 GMT)

George W. Bush, after months of hinting that he would support the Federal Marriage Amendment, has endorsed it. He’s desparate­ly trying to change the subject from whether he was AWOL from the National Guard in Alabama.

The Human Rights Campaign is urging everyone to oppose this. They provide a sample letter to send to your rep­re­sen­ta­tives, but I threw it away and wrote my own (below), which has been sent to my rep­re­sen­ta­tives, via the HRC Action Center.

The Bush Ad­min­is­tra­tion pisses me off on so many levels. I’m par­tic­u­lar­ly infuriated about Bush’s support for the Federal Marriage Amendment. After …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Wed, 11 Feb 2004 06:08:52 GMT)

From my email. Origin obscure.

Things you have to believe to be a Republican today:

1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a con­ser­v­a­tive radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. res­o­lu­tions against Iraq.
3. "Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
4. A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national cor­po­ra­tions can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
5. Jesus …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Tue, 02 Dec 2003 08:32:12 GMT)

I sign a lot of petitions. Here’s one that I wrote a custom letter for.

First, the background.

From: "John - THE LIST" <john@gayad­vo­ca­cy.com> Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 6:24 PM Subject: THE LIST: Action Alert - Free Ruslan Sharipov THE LIST - Special Alert for Gay Torture Victim

Washington, DC December 1, 2003

Ruslan Sharipov, a journalist in Uzbekistan, is being imprisoned and tortured because he’s gay. His government captors have threatened to rape him with a bottle and inject him with AIDS. But there is talk that the government may soon amnesty a few political prisoners. Let’s make sure he is one of them …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Sat, 18 Oct 2003 06:46:45 GMT)

I just read an interview on BuzzFlash with Bob Beckel. Beckel is a longtime Democrat political consultant. He’s now gone into the business of exposing the right wing’s dirty tactics at his website, BobBeckel.com.

We’re in the business of exposing their tactics, some of which I’ve had used against me before – like mailing official government-looking stationery to blacks in precincts in the South, telling them if they vote in the wrong place, they’ll get a $5,000 fine and a year in jail. It obviously drove down black turnout. That’s one that Jesse Helms’ thugs used against Harvey Gant in NC. …continue.

(Originally posted to Personal at EraBlog on Sat, 11 Oct 2003 18:15:39 GMT)

I have gout. It’s an unpleasant form of arthritis. Once or twice a year, one of my lower joints will swell up overnight. Usually, it’s struck one of my knees, though the last few attacks have all been in my feet. The knee attacks have all been extremely painful initially and I’ve required pre­scrip­tion painkillers to get to sleep at night. Just bending my knee a few degrees is enough to make me break out in a cold sweat. For­tu­nate­ly, after a few days, the pain decreases to the point where it’s annoying but tolerable.

Oddly, the feet …continue.

(Originally posted to Toast­mas­ters at EraBlog on Tue, 07 Oct 2003 06:53:32 GMT)

I gave the following speech to Toast­mas­ters on October 1st, 2003, as Speech #5, "Vocal Variety".

SPOLIN GAMES

Spolin Games. That sounds like it could be a new set of titles for the Xbox.

Far from it.

The Spolin Games are a set of improv theater games invented by Viola Spolin in the nineteen-thirties, and refined by her for the next six decades. These games are used in im­pro­vi­sa­tion­al work, to help bring out creativity and spon­tane­ity. Viola’s son, Paul Sills, founded the Second City improv theater company in Chicago back in the nineteen-fifties.

I was first introduced to the Spolin Games last year. Two …continue.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Thu, 14 Aug 2003 06:40:32 GMT)

Good article on how the Bush ad­min­is­tra­tion is using language to influence public opinion.

Some examples:

Civil service reform means "flex­i­bil­i­ty" to replace civil service protection with cronyism and patronage.

Pri­va­ti­za­tion justifies the notion that cor­po­ra­tions are more likely to serve the public interest than publicly owned utilities, schools and prisons.

Support the troops, a brilliant concept, suggests that if you question foreign policy or war policy, you have the deaths of our finest young men and women in uniform on your hands. Objective: to stifle public dissent.

(Originally posted to Politics at EraBlog on Sun, 27 Jul 2003 02:22:19 GMT)

I found an in­ter­est­ing piece about what makes a political con­ser­v­a­tive.

Four re­searchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of con­ser­vatism report that at the core of political con­ser­vatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psy­cho­log­i­cal factors linked to political con­ser­vatism include:

• Fear and aggression
• Dogmatism and in­tol­er­ance of ambiguity
• Un­cer­tain­ty avoidance
• Need for cognitive closure
• Terror management

This was linked to from the Dean Blog’s copy of Howard Dean’s July 25th speech, The President Has Misled Us.

(Originally posted to Home at EraBlog on Fri, 25 Jul 2003 06:50:20 GMT)

As I mentioned in my Toast­mas­ters’ speech about nat­u­ral­iza­tion, I decided on September 11th, 2002 to become a U.S. citizen.

This morning, I had my interview with the Bureau of Cit­i­zen­ship and Im­mi­gra­tion Services (BCIS, formerly known as the INS).

This afternoon, I was sworn in as a U.S. citizen at the Seattle INS Office. Eighty-three other new citizens were sworn in at the same time. Many were Filipino, Vietnamese, Mexican, or Eastern European. Only three others, all Brits, were from Western Europe. We were gathered into a stuffy room with an overflow crowd of relatives and friends. It was …continue.