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If the Shoe Hits!

Pardon the title. I just can't find any appropriate title to this entry.

Gad!I was really laughing when I saw this and I think Dubya deserves this for being, according to Dyames, "a jackass" that he is.

But wait, according to this CNN reporter, there is more to the shoe-throwing-thing than just being a show.

How to Burn US$20M-Literally!

If you have 20 Million US Dollars to spend, what will you do with it?

If you are the Royalties of Dubai, U.A.E. and owner of the Atlantis Resort Hotels, you will treat your A-List celebrities and other guest for the opening of your hotel to an extravagant firework display and breathtaking lights, lasers, and sounds show.

And this is what they just did. They placed more than one hundred thousand fireworks along The Palm (if you were born not from this age, that is the man made island shape like a Palm Tree off the coast of Dubai) and created a light show that would seem to look like the Atlantis Hotel rise up from the waters (the legend of the Atlantis, remember?).

It was Phenomenal! It made the fireworks display during Beijing Olympics looks boring compared to the grandeur that this created. Never mind if the rest of the world is in recession. Never mind if the other Atlantis hotels are having problems with their bookings. If you have the money, don't just spend it - - SPLURGE! (Do I sound sarcastic?) Here watch the extravagance! Wonderful, Phenomenal, Breathtaking, but still an extravagance and I love it!

In Fairness to Sarah Palin

From the day John McCain announced that Sarah Palin was his running mate, I was already skeptical. My initial reaction was, this move was an attempt to catch the Hillary voters.

That skepticism turned to disgust after hearing her in those interviews and her relishing her role as an attack dog. Palin's repeating those "palling around with terrorist" lines no matter how many facts checks were released stating that it isn't true was irritating.

But in fairness to her, bad comments coming after the election about her (i.e. Palin thought that Africa is a country) which allegedly came from McCain's top advisers are equally disgusting. These are the people who vetted for her, people who said that she can be just one heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world. And now they are all saying these. If these are the kind of people surrounding McCain, it is no longer surprising why they failed in this election.

Here's what CNN's Campbell Brown has to say to these people:

Funny, I was so excited I can't even Vote

Joc-joc Bolante's Jingle

I heard this being sung by Arnold Clavio this morning at DZ Double B, while I was inside a cab on my way to the office:

"FG, FG, I am sick
Call Ma'am Gloria very quick.

Gloria, Gloria, shall I die?
No my Joc-joc, just tell a lie.

I rest my case your honor. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Gay Justice League

No, these are not gay guys dressed in super heroes costumes with super human powers. They are actually the "cabinet", a group of extremely rich gay guys who financed politicians who are running against an "anti-gay politicians". Here's an article from Time.Com:

The Gay Mafia That's Redefining Politics

By John Cloud/Beverly Hills, Friday, Oct. 31, 2008

Few weeks before Virginia's legislative elections in 2005, a researcher working on behalf of a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors telephoned a Virginia legislator named Adam Ebbin. Then, as now, Ebbin was the only openly gay member of the state's general assembly. The researcher wanted Ebbin's advice on how the men he represented could spend their considerable funds to help defeat anti-gay Virginia politicians.

Ebbin, a Democrat who is now 44, was happy to oblige. (Full disclosure: in the mid-'90s, Ebbin and I knew each other briefly as colleagues; he sold ads for Washington City Paper, a weekly where I was a reporter.) Using Ebbin's expertise, the gay donors — none of whom live in Virginia — began contributing to certain candidates in the state. There were five benefactors: David Bohnett of Beverly Hills, Calif., who in 1999 sold the company he had co-founded, Geo-Cities, to Yahoo! in a deal worth $5 billion on the day it was announced; Timothy Gill of Denver, another tech multimillionaire; James Hormel of San Francisco, grandson of George, who founded the famous meat company; Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., the billionaire grandson of the founder of medical-technology giant Stryker Corp.; and Henry van Ameringen, whose father Arnold Louis van Ameringen started a Manhattan-based import company that later became the mammoth International Flavors & Fragrances.

The five men spent $138,000 in Virginia that autumn, according to state records compiled by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project. Of that, $48,000 went directly to the candidates Ebbin recommended. Ebbin got $45,000 for his PAC, the Virginia Progress Fund, so he could give to the candidates himself. Another $45,000 went to Equality Virginia, a gay-rights group that was putting money into many of the same races.

On Election Day that year, the Virginia legislature stayed solidly in Republican hands; the Democratic Party netted just one seat. But that larger outcome masked an intriguing development: anti-gay conservatives had suffered considerably. For instance, in northern Virginia, a Democrat named Charles Caputo (who received $6,500 from Ebbin's PAC) had beaten a Christian youth minister, Chris Craddock, by an unexpectedly large margin, with a vote of 56% to 41%. Three other candidates critical of gays were also defeated, including delegate Richard Black, who had long opposed gay equality in Richmond. Black had had no single donation as large as the $20,000 that Ebbin's PAC gave his opponent. "This was my ninth election campaign, and it wasn't unusual to have homosexuals involved," says Black, who now practices law. "But it was different, certainly, in degree. There had not been a concerted influx of money from homosexuals as a group before."

The group that donated the money to use against Black and the others is known as the Cabinet, although you won't find that name on a letterhead or even on the Internet. Aside from Bohnett, 52; Gill, 55; Hormel, 75; Stryker, 50; and Van Ameringen, 78, the other members of the Cabinet are Jonathan Lewis (49-year-old grandson of Joseph, co-founder of Progressive Insurance) and Linda Ketner, 58, heiress to the Food Lion fortune, who is running for Congress against GOP Representative Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina.

Ketner's is something of a long-shot bid — her district has been reliably Republican for years — but recently Congressional Quarterly described her "suddenly strong run" against Brown as "the biggest surprise" in this year's House races. Ketner, who was invited to join the all-male Cabinet as a way of diversifying it, declined to discuss her role in the group.

Among gay activists, the Cabinet is revered as a kind of secret gay Super Friends, a homosexual justice league that can quietly swoop in wherever anti-gay candidates are threatening and finance victories for the good guys. Rumors abound in gay political circles about the group's recondite influence; some of the rumors are even true. For instance, the Cabinet met in California last year with two sitting governors, Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, both Democrats; political advisers who work for the Cabinet met with a third Democratic governor, Wisconsin's Jim Doyle. The Cabinet has also funded a secretive organization called the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which a veteran lesbian activist describes as the "Gay IRS." MAP keeps tabs on the major gay organizations to make sure they are operating efficiently. The October 2008 MAP report notes, for example, that the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force fails to meet Better Business Bureau standards for limiting overhead expenses.

For more of the article, click here.

Long and Difficult Road for McCain

If Only I could Vote for Obama

Gallup came up with a result of its world polling on who among Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain would non-US Citizens prefer to be the next President of the United States. The result was overwhelmingly for Obama, 4 to 1.

Of the Seventy (70) countries surveyed by Gallup, only two countries showed McCain winning with a significant margin. These countries are Georgia and the Philippines. Yes dear, the Philippines! Twenty-eight percent (28%) favored McCain over Obama's twenty percent (20%).

Now, I would like to make this caveat: what I am going to say next is purely based on my opinion and may not be supported by studies.

I can understand why McCain would win in the Philippines. No matter how we may deny it, Filipinos still have some racial biases and prejudices against non-whites. Filipinos would still prefer a white over a black. Just check groceries and see how many whitening soaps and lotions available in the Filipino market today. Daily Filipinos are bombarded with messages that white is way much better than anything dark. You are instantly a hit if you are a mestizo or a mestiza, but if you are dark colored, you still have a lot of convincing to do. (Ted also wrote a story about the attitudes of some Filipino-American’s towards Obama)

Another issue would probably be the outsourcing industry in the Philippines. The Philippines have truly benefited from the Republican administration’s policy of allowing American Industries to ship some of the jobs abroad. Almost every buildings in Metro Manila right now are filled with Call Center and Business Processing Offices catering to the various industries in the US. There is a perception here in the Philippines that a Democrat, especially Barack Obama, would not support outsourcing and would protect the job security of the American workers.

But why would I still prefer Obama over McCain.

No matter how many times he will deny it, McCain would still continue the policies of George W. Bush. These policies have brought all the troubles that not just the US is facing right now, but the rest of the world as well, the Philippines included.

First there is Iraq. To this date, McCain is still insisting that going to war in Iraq is the right thing to do. He constantly criticizes Obama about not admitting that the surge have brought some good things to Iraq, forgetting that going to Iraq was wrong on the first place. Iraq was a symbol of the US bullying the rest of the world and this gave all those extremist a rallying point, emboldens them and making the world even more dangerous than it is before 9/11.

Second, McCain and the Republicans (most of them) are in denial that Climate Change is caused by manmade reasons. For them, burning gasses and drilling oil is not really the main cause of Global Warming. Remember Sarah Palin during the Vice Presidential debate? She mentioned that Global Warming is mainly caused by some cycles of the wind and human interventions have nothing to do with it.

The US, being the most powerful country in the world should lead in the campaign against Climate Change. But how can the US lead with a Republican Administration that is being supported by lobbies from Oil Companies? One of the reasons why the Kyoto protocol did not succeed is because the US is not and refuses to be a signatory to this agreement. With McCain being the President, I can’t see hope for a fight against Climate Change.

Third, the economy. It is unfortunate that the Philippine is dependent on the US Economy. With all these economic woes that the US and the rest of the world is facing, Mc Cain never showed anything that he has the capacity to lead the US in solving this crisis. Besides, this economic problem that the US is facing right now was because of the Republican policies in allowing the market to dictate its own course with little regulations from the government. I simply cannot imagine another four years of a Republican in the White House.

Fourth, McCain is old and if he gets elected and something happens to him, God forbid, Sarah Palin would become the US President. If she becomes US President, to paraphrase Tina Fey, I don’t want to become a citizen of this Earth. Palin scares me.

Happy Birthday Ma

Me and Mama in Christmas of 2005 giving Gifts
to tribal children in Quezon, Bukidnon

Mama could have been 62 last Tuesday.

There is never a day that I don't miss her. My only consolation now is I know that she is in place where she is no longer suffering.

Happy Birthday Ma, I miss you . . .

For the sake of our Collective Intelligence, Sarah Palin Should be Stopped!

I am so loving this. This was taken from cnn.

Time for Palin to answer Tough Questions
by Roland Martin
CNN Contributor

(CNN) -- Do you know what was so great about Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan? They were three of the biggest trash talkers in the history of the NBA, but they had the game to back it up.

Somebody should tell that to Gov. Sarah Palin.

Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate has been running around the country, firing up her -- yes, her, and not necessarily McCain's -- loyal supporters by blasting Sen. Barack Obama for "palling around with terrorists" and demanding that the American people know exactly when he learned of the past of 1960s radical William Ayers.

She has stoked the crowds by saying, "This is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America." We all know what that is designed to do: Portray Obama as a foreigner who isn't as American as she. Or you. Or Joe Six-pack, the hockey mom, soccer mom, Wal-Mart mom, NASCAR dad and the other coded words she uses regularly.

But what is truly pathetic is that Palin talks tough, but is really scared of facing her own issues.

Since she is good at proclaiming that the American people need to know who Barack Obama is -- an attempt to paint him as a shady figure who might occupy the White House -- the American people deserve to hear Palin answer if her husband, Todd, a former member of the Alaska Independence Party, agreed with its founder, who wanted to secede from the union.

Is there anything more anti-American than wanting to sever ties with the country?

It's critical that Palin answer questions about whether she disagrees with John McCain's criticism of the Bush administration's decision to remove North Korea from the terrorist nation list. She spoke in favor of it. McCain didn't. Are they on the same page or not?

The American people deserve to hear from Palin as to why she didn't say a word to rebuke the hateful, pathetic and degrading comments made at rallies featuring her, such as when someone in the crowd called Obama a terrorist, someone else shouted, "Off with his head" and others suggested he is a traitor.

Lastly, don't you think the self-described maverick needs to own up to what really happened with the firing of the commissioner in Alaska? She was declared by a special investigator to have been within her rights in firing the commissioner, but she was blasted for abuse of power and violating the state's ethics act.

So what did she say in a conference call with Alaska reporters -- who were not allowed by the McCain camp to ask follow-up questions? That she was cleared of all wrongdoing, legally and ethically.

That's right. She repeated over and over and over an absolute lie, and we are supposed to say, "Hey, it's all fine. She winks at us. We love her hockey mom schtick. Don't worry about that abuse of power thing."

Well, after having to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney being accused of beating the drum for war by berating and pushing our intelligence apparatus to match his political views on Iraq, don't you think we should really care about someone who has been accused in a report, authorized by Democrats and Republicans, of using their power and influence to get their way?

Sure, her supporters will say she's talked to the "media." She was questioned by Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and that self-described journalist -- yes, he really called himself that -- Fox's Sean Hannity.

Palin has done interviews with ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric, and local TV folks. But why is she so scared of NBC's Brian Williams? And why is she so fearful of CNN?

Does she somehow think that our big guns like Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Campbell Brown are just too tough in asking questions? My goodness, Tina Fey has actually done more interviews about playing Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin has done about being Sarah Palin!

Hmmm. McCain, Sen. Joe Biden, Barack and Michelle Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Cindy McCain and even McCain's 95-year-old momma and Palin's daddy have all done interviews with CNN, sharing their thoughts on the campaign. But Palin? Not a whisper.

It's clear that Palin really isn't a true frontier woman. See, when you tote a gun, carry a big stick and spit fire, you aren't afraid to take on all comers.

So, Sarah, if you want to talk big on the campaign trail to those audiences that don't talk back, go right ahead. But if you truly are the maverick politician you say you are, come on and talk to us soft, coddled, elitist journalists. Surely we aren't as tough as the moose you like to take down with your Second Amendment-protected hunting rifle.

Good Morning, Good Night Makati

Trying to be Back

My Last entry in this blog was more than a year ago already. I miss my blog, I hope I could find sometime to write again. There's a lot to share for almost one year and ten months that I have been silent. I'll share it to you, for the meantime, here's some pictures for you to enjoy. These two pictures were taken using my Motorola Phone during our (Dyames and I) not so recent trip to the Manila Ocean Park.


Flying Fish


Dive

PHILIPPINES 3000

Talented and creative persons are not boring.

Trust them to organize a party for you and you will have one hell of a good time. For me, tWS Christmas Party in December 1996 was one of the parties I could never forget. I was with a group of talented, funny, crazy and creative people and boy! did we have a good time! To quote Ian, we stopped Dumaguete's traffic. Why? These pictures will tell you why.

The News Staff, (l-r) Me, Erma, Jade, Elgie, Tulalang, Jen-jen

The bunch of crazy, funny, talented and creative people

Me and Dinah hosting the "show"

Of course, the picture alone won't tell how much fun we had that night. Let the people who are there tell you the story. HEHEHEHEHEHE!

15 SECONDS OF FAME

Back in college I was already quite known to most of the Students in Silliman. I mean, being a writer of the Weekly Sillimanian and an active Student Leader (among many others), most of the students and teachers alike have already known me.

But this picture and the story behind it made me an instant celebrity of Silliman University during my time.


I wasn't really expecting the kind of reaction of the Silliman community when the lampoon issue came out. When I agreed about the story I was only there for the fun of it. You know, being part of the big joke. Then, I never thought that it could make me "famous".

Phines Patalinghug was insisting that it was part of my scheme to be able to win the Vice Presidency of the SU Student Government. Of course, the story made an instant name recall, but that wasn't the purpose, it wasn't even on my mind when Dinah suggested my story of killing someone would be the banner story of the lampoon issue.

The story started one day when Ritchie (the Business Manager, forgot his family name) was taking pictures of the people in the tWS office. I was so tired from editing the news stories when he took a picture of me. So when the photo was develop (these were the days when digital photos were not yet staple), with a haggard face I look like I was on a big trouble. Dinah was laughing when she saw the picture and a bright idea came into her mind (as always!). She suggested that the said picture would be published with a story that I am a murder suspect. Excited about the idea, I agreed.

Unfortunately, a week before the the publication of the lampoon issue, the said picture could not be found. But the story was already there. So instead of still looking for the said picture. I suggested that Sheila Campomanes will take a picture of me that would look like a mug shot for crime suspects. And thus the picture above.

That wasn't an easy picture to take. Sheila might have wasted 3-4 negatives and countless "takes" to capture that image. I was laughing when she was taking picture. The idea that I have to act and look like a goon for the photo shot was very funny for me. But eventually the actor in me came out. And from an innocent looking (ehem! walang kokontra), I was transformed into a hoodlum-looking-killer.

Well, that was behind the story of how I killed Michael Cornito with a metal hair brush in Boltz Hall and how the Piapi National Police (PNP)discovered that I was the prime suspect.

tWS ONLINE

Today, in commemoration of the declaration of Martial Law by then President Ferdinand Marcos, the Weekly Sillimanian (tWS), Silliman University's Student Publication and one of the country's longest running weekly campus publication, will launch its online version - the www.weeklysillimanian.net.

You may ask, what is the relation with martial law and tWS? When Marcos declared Martial Law, tWS was one of the first campus publication that Marcos ordered to close down allegedly becuase of its subersive arrticles (read: Anti-Marcos). Launching tWS at this date is a better way of saying that camous journalism is well and alive in this part of the country.

tWS is also celebrating its 103 anniversary and they will be having an exhibit today featuring testimonials of former member of the staff. I was asked to made a one paragraph testimonial. But really1 how can you contain in one paragraph the wonderful memories I have with tWS that helped define who I am now. I am sure the organizers would understand. This is what I wrote:

It is quite difficult to sum up into one paragraph my experience as member of the editorial staff of the Weekly Sillimanian. For one, being a member of tWS was one of the defining moments for me as a student of Silliman University. So my apologies if I go beyond the one paragraph requirement.

I joined tWS in June 1995 as a Junior Reporter, then move as a Senior Reporter by the second semester of that school year. In school year 1996-1997, I was appointed News Editor of tWS. Together with Dinah Baseleres (Editor-in-Chief), Ian Fermin Casocot (Associate Editor), Joanna Ruth Utzurrum (Features Editor), and a bunch of crazy yet talented staff, we publish one of best issues of tWS. And this I say with no apologies!

Since two years prior to us tWS failed to come up weekly, it was then a challenge for us to be a real a “Weekly Sillimanian”. And that we did. We set up a strict schedules and deadlines for everyone to follow (that includes the EiC, the editors and even our adviser). Failure to meet the deadline would mean a deduction from your honorarium and receiving a “verbal lashing” from Dinah (and believe me, that is the last thing you want to hear from her). Writing good stuff and meeting your deadline, however, would entitle you to become one of “staff of the month” where your name will be announced at tWS and you will receive an additional amount for your honorarium. We don’t condone mediocrity, but we were not also short with praises for those who did their job well. At tWS, we were good friends, but when it comes to work and doing our responsibility, we were able to separate personal from official things.

We had good stories during that time. We entered the school year with the news that then SU President Mervyn Misajon just resigned. That was also the year that the registrar tried the computerized enrolment system. Founders day we received news that the Board of Trustees has just appointed Dr. Agustin Pulido as the new SU President which caught everyone in a surprise. During semestral break, Silliman hosted a summit for all the Student Government heads all over the country. It was also during our time that the SU Faculty Association (SUFA) staged a strike against the administration. The heads of the SUSG at that time were also quite a personality that our reporters have literally camped out outside of the house of the SUSG President (She is nowhere to be found in campus), just to get her side on the stories that we run about the SUSG. At that time also, I did a three-part in-depth story of the state of our dormitories and was also able to come out with an interview of an HIV/AIDS victim.

At tWS we took our responsibility seriously. We observed the basic tenets of the Journalist Code of Ethics. This we do because we know that tWS is not just a Campus Publication, tWS can practically be considered a community newspaper for Dumaguete. Thus, the paper is read not just inside the campus, but also by those within in the larger community. To ensure issues are thresh out well, every Wednesday we meet as a whole staff where we critique the issue that was just released and discuss the stories (news, features and opinion) that would come out in our next issue. Everybody participates in this discussion including our non-editorial staff.

That year also, we revive the lampoon issue where I became an instant celebrity of Silliman University (check the Sillimaniana section to find out why).

But we were not also all work. Boy! We had fun. During our Christmas party we decided to have a costume party with the theme, “Philippines 3000” where we don all the craziest futuristic costume we could think (Dinah won the best in costume with her metallic ballerina get up). We held the party at the residence of our adviser Irma Pal in Amigo Subdivision. All of us put on our costume at tWS office in Guy Hall and with our costumes we hailed a pedicab to bring us to Amigo Subdivision. Of course, several pedicabs did not even bother to stop and for those who did, I could just imagine the things that were in the mind of the driver who took us.

There are a lot of stories I could share with my tWS experience, but space is always our constraint. All I could say, what I am now, part of this I owe it to tWS and the people I encountered because of the Weekly Sillimanian.

Damn! I miss those days!

SO THIS EXPLAIN WHY

You Are 50% Boyish and 50% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Your Brain is 73% Female, 27% Male

Your brain leans female You think with your heart, not your head Sweet and considerate, you are a giver But you're tough enough not to let anyone take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

GOOD NEWS!

Ma'am Rose Baseleres sent me a text message yesterday.

The Silliman University School of Communication is now officially the Silliman University College of Mass Communication. The SU Board of Trustees has just upgraded our school in their meeting last August 27, 2006. Kudos to the people who made this possible.

What a nice gift for our Ruby Year!

THE BIGOT GOT HIS SHARE OF BEATINGS

For his ignorance, bigotry and by being plainly an asshole, former Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz got what he deserves from writers who had the wits and the logic to say how stupid he was.

Here's a column by Manuel L. Quezon III (grand son of the late President Manuel Quezon)and a letter by Jonathan Best, all published at the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

THE LONG VIEW
The grand inquisitor
By Manuel L. Quezon III,

(Published on page A15 of the August 14, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

KURT VONNEGUT ONCE OBSERVED, “FOR SOME reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with Tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.” Vonnegut was pointing out the basic immorality of society’s self-proclaimed moral custodians. Hate the sin but love the sinner? But that opens to a possible debate on what is sin.

How much easier, more certain and eminently satisfying to decree, Kill them all. God will know His own.” The result is the perversion of the finer instincts of religion into a false trinity—faith, hope and bigotry, setting aside charity which represents an inconvenient truth: Christ was friend to prostitutes and tax collectors, and He debated even with the devil. Must Christianity end with Christ?

Retired Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz says that his vigorous and vicious condemnation of gays,lesbians and transgendered people is not supposed to incite hatred and intolerance—or to be precise, that he is not invoking a blanket condemnation of all gay people. He only objects to some, not all. For example, he has nothing but the most generous and respectful thoughts for those who conform to what he finds tasteful and tolerable behavior. And what is tasteful and tolerable as far as his wounded sensibilities are concerned? A minority meekly and absolutely surrendering to the tyranny of the majority, a sub-culture reduced to the subhuman, in which the individual is instructed to live out, every day, a total repudiation of the self. Cruz demands the elimination of a diverse and rich culture—one that is as much a mirror of society’s larger complexities as it is an alternative to some of the worst instincts and features of the broader culture for which he has stepped forward as spokesman—because the minority displeases and disgusts him.

He would have me, and everyone else like me be a slave, a fugitive, a hypocrite and, most of all, a coward. And I find that disgusting. I find it neither reasonable nor acceptable. I do not even find it understandable. Cruz does not understand us, does not want to, would be unwilling to. Yet he says he hates only some, not all, of us, and expects “some of us” to embrace and thank him?

For what? That he reserves his scorn only for hairdressers and fashion designers? That he respects me, the writer, but heaps abuse on someone else because that someone uses slang I don’t use, speaks louder than I do, wears what I don’t wear—and those superficial differences are the things that guarantee me (and those who behave otherwise) Cruz’s respect?

I will not embrace him, not for that, much less shake his hand or offer him the opportunity for civilized disagreement. For he is blind to the civilization to which I belong, and to the fundamental identity I share with those he despises. Whether we have a little learning or not, whether we speak in the same manner or not, regardless of what we wear and what mannerisms we choose to exhibit, we are the same, for in the fundamental things—those we choose to love, to have relationships with and with whom we aspire to share a life marked by a measure of domestic bliss and emotional contentment—there is no difference. To permit Cruz to make such distinctions is to grant him and all those like him an intolerable—because it is fundamentally unjust—power to define myself and those like me.

When he casts the law as an instrument for prosecution, persecution and discrimination, he must be fought. That he discredits polite behavior by portraying civilized discourse as a fancy disguise for his uncritical obedience and intolerant enforcement of uniformity; that he defames religion by turning it into an ideology of hate; that he makes a mockery of filial piety by insisting that tyrannical instincts should be cultivated among the elderly and enforced upon their direction—these should inspire not pity for his moral dementia; these must provoke anger. And condemnation.

To be different is to be held in suspicion. The nonconformist is a subversive. Subversion and rebellion make societies become more generous, more diverse, more compassionate—and an individual more free. For the inability—or unwillingness—to see rebellion as a virtue and not a flaw is what provokes the uncomprehending hostility that makes the anxious herd stifle dissent and stamp out anything different. But humanity is not a herd, and being human demands a vigilance against the kind of provocations that start stampedes.

I will respect anyone’s convictions, but only to the extent you will respect mine. Goodwill inspires the same; tolerance results in cooperation. But I will not be told whom to love, whom to be friends with, what culture to represent, what mannerisms and interests to adopt and, much less, discard. I will not modify my behavior or limit my pleasures merely to please Cruz or bigots like him. The respect gays, lesbians and transgendered people experience is a brittle kind, but hard-won. Far more has to be won, in terms of actual legislation or in every sphere of our lives where discrimination virtually takes place every day.

The behavior Cruz finds so obnoxious is the price he and everyone else must pay for the pink triangles of the German concentration camps, the labor camps and prison cells of Soviet Russia and Communist China and Cuba, the merciless beatings and taunts endured by so many over so long a time. It is his punishment for representing a society whose instincts remain fundamentally murderous toward anyone different. If he weren’t such a hate-monger, he might realize it’s no punishment at all, and that society is all the better for the increased prominence of gays.

Hate-speech as journalism

(Published on Page A14 of the August 17, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

IN his Aug. 12 column, Isagani A. Cruz ranted about the terrible vulgarity of gay hairdressers and effeminate schoolboys and he warned the Philippine nation lest it loses its masculine virility. (In 2003, he targeted gays on TV shows in a somewhat less hysterical article.) Cruz waxed nostalgic of the simpler days of his youth when hardly a gay could be spotted on the streets of Manila. Was he born during the Spanish Inquisition?

Cruz offered apologies to the "decorously discreet" homosexuals he respects -- among them the "less than manly" dress designers (who are acceptable as long as they manage to repress their "condition"). If he had the guts he would also have apologized to the distinguished heads of several major Philippine corporations, Catholic and Protestant priests, movie stars, famous athletes, military men and millions of Average Filipino men and women who are active homosexuals and lesbians enjoying their "condition" just fine.

Cruz launched himself into plain, old-fashioned bullying and gay-bashing, while trying to pass off hate-speech as respectable journalism. Social commentators are welcome to criticize gay culture all they want, we criticize ourselves mercilessly at times and accept criticisms from straight friends and honest critics when appropriate.

But Cruz is not a friend or thoughtful critic. He is a bigot and a hate-monger. He singled out the most vulnerable members of the gay community -- the youth and transgendered and the marginalized workers among them -- who have few options when dealing with their sexuality. He growled about the "homos" in religious processions and asked if the Philippines would be converted into a nation of "sexless persons." He fumed that some people are advocating that homosexuals be given equal rights as "male and female persons."

He menacingly boasted how gays were "mauled" in the 1970s when his five "macho" sons were in school. Despite being a former lawyer, he conveniently ignored the fact that violent gay-bashing is considered a serious hate-crime in most civilized nations.

Sadly, Cruz's self-righteous tirade is pointed to a direction where so many Demagogues and hate groups have gone before. The Church in the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition proclaimed homosexuals an abomination in the eyes of God and sent hundreds of thousands of gays to be tortured and burned alive. Offending men were tied together and burned like faggots of wood, hence, our modern-day nickname "faggots."

The Nazis used gas chambers and the Red Guards in Shanghai used baseball bats because they felt bullets were too expensive to waste on "bourgeois degenerates." The American Klu Klux Klan castrated and lynched gays. And now Islamic fundamentalist death squads in Iraq and Iran are beheading gay men and lesbians in the name of their "all-merciful" God.

JONATHAN BEST, Tambo, Parañaque City

Flawed Logic of a Senile Homophobic

As a legal luminary, I have high respects for former Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz. I mean, his textbook is what we used for our Political Law class.

I never realized that for a someone whom we expect logic, open-mindedness and intelligence, he could write something illogical, poorly research (or nothing at all!) opinion.

The guy must be turning senile!

'Don we now our gay apparel’
By Isagani Cruz

Published on Page A10 of the August 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

HOMOSEXUALS before were mocked and derided, but now they are regarded with new-found respect and, in many cases, even treated as celebrities. Only recently, the more impressionable among our people wildly welcomed a group of entertainers whose main proud advertisement was that they were “queer.” It seems that the present society has developed a new sense of values that have rejected our religious people’s traditional ideas of propriety and morality on the pretext of being “modern” and “broad-minded.”

The observations I will here make against homosexuals in general do not include the members of their group who have conducted themselves decorously, with proper regard not only for their own persons but also for the gay population in general. A number of our local couturiers, to take but one example, are less than manly but they have behaved in a reserved and discreet manner unlike the vulgar members of the gay community who have degraded and scandalized it. I offer abject apologies to those blameless people I may unintentionally include in my not inclusive criticisms. They have my admiration and respect.

The change in the popular attitude toward homosexuals is not particular to the Philippines. It has become an international trend even in the so-called sophisticated regions with more liberal concepts than in our comparatively conservative society. Gay marriages have been legally recognized in a number of European countries and in some parts of the United States. Queer people -- that’s the sarcastic term for them -- have come out of the closet where before they carefully concealed their condition. The permissive belief now is that homosexuals belong to a separate third sex with equal rights as male and female persons instead of just an illicit in-between gender that is neither here nor there.

When I was studying in the Legarda Elementary School in Manila during the last 1930s, the big student population had only one, just one, homosexual. His name was Jose but we all called him Josefa. He was a quiet and friendly boy whom everybody liked to josh but not offensively. In the whole district of Sampaloc where I lived, there was only one homosexual who roamed the streets peddling “kalamay” and “puto” and other treats for snacks. He provided diversion to his genial customers and did not mind their familiar amiable teasing. I think he actually enjoyed being a “binabae” [effeminate].

The change came, I think, when an association of homos dirtied the beautiful tradition of the Santa Cruz de Mayo by parading their kind as the “sagalas” instead of the comely young maidens who should have been chosen to grace the procession. Instead of being outraged by the blasphemy, the watchers were amused and, I suppose, indirectly encouraged the fairies to project themselves. It must have been then that they realized that they were what they were, whether they liked it or not, and that the time for hiding their condition was over.

Now homosexuals are everywhere, coming at first in timorous and eventually alarming and audacious number. Beauty salons now are served mostly by gay attendants including effeminate bearded hairdressers to whom male barbers have lost many of their macho customers. Local shows have their share of “siyoke” [gay men], including actors like the one rejected by a beautiful wife in favor of a more masculine if less handsome partner. And, of course, there are lady-like directors who are probably the reason why every movie and TV drama must have the off-color “bading” [gay] or two to cheapen the proceedings.

And the schools are now fertile ground for the gay invasion. Walking along the University belt one day, I passed by a group of boys chattering among themselves, with one of them exclaiming seriously, “Aalis na ako. Magpapasuso pa ako!” [“I’m leaving. I still have to breastfeed!”] That pansy would have been mauled in the school where my five sons (all machos) studied during the ’70s when all the students were certifiably masculine. Now many of its pupils are gay, and I don’t mean happy. I suppose they have been influenced by such shows as “Brokeback Mountain,” our own “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros” (both of which won awards), “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” and that talk program of Ellen Degeneres, an admitted lesbian.

Is our population getting to be predominantly pansy? Must we allow homosexuality to march unobstructed until we are converted into a nation of sexless persons without the virility of males and the grace of females but only an insipid mix of these diluted virtues? Let us be warned against the gay population, which is per se a compromise between the strong and the weak and therefore only somewhat and not the absolute of either of the two qualities. Be alert lest the Philippine flag be made of delicate lace and adorned with embroidered frills.

The guy is completely a jerk!

What is he suggesting, that we stop gays from expressing themselves? That we forever put every gay into the closet so as just to conform with what they want in the society? That gays would be to careless as to dishonor our flag? That by being a gay is a sign of weakness? That gay could actually control their preference?

This jerk treats gay as if we are a social disease!

I got so irritated reading his work and really, I would want to throw him at the rising magma of Mayon Valcano!