sttropezbutlersays

Yes, the time has come to seal the windows. It is getting hot and more to the point it is getting humid.

I can almost handle the heat. It is the humidity that slays me. That constant sheen (the one plus is that it takes about 15 years off one's face) with the sticky undies feeling. Literally sliding into bed cause the sheets are damp.

I hate it.

But really, is all this air-conditioning good?

With the cost of energy soaring...for example in my 600 square foot apartment my electricity costs average 55 dollars a month in winter....with no air conditioning and no heat. In the summer, keeping my thermostat set at 80 during the day and 78 in the evening, my costs soar to 150 bucks a month. And that was last year. Who knows what it will be this year.

I know, I know. It is all Bill Clinton's fault.

F__k Bush and all his rich white cronies.

Are we really the "Richest Country In the World?"

Are we really?

You know what. I don't believe it. I'm sorry I don't.

I know we are told all the time that money doesn't solve problems, but if we are the richest country in the world, couldn't we at least make an effort to see if some of our "issues" might be improved by spending.

Oh, that sounded so anti-Republican. After all, spending only leads to debt! Wouldn't want that!

Does anyone really want to tell me that the Repukes are "fiscally responsible?" As the National Debt approaches 9 trillion dollars, I want to hear some Repuke tell me this is all Bill Clinton's fault. Yeah, if he hadn't been getting a blow job from Monica, the debt would have stayed under
6 trillion.

In 8 years in office the debt increased approximately 1.7 trillion dollars during Clinton's years. Since Bush took office the debt has increased by nearly 3 trillion dollars and we have another two years of this "fiscally conservative" jokester in power! But hey, the rich get richer because we are "cutting taxes."

In Texas, where funding of public education has been an issue for many years, Rick Perry has proposed what else? Cutting property taxes. That way we can pay for public education. Oh by the way, we will cut property taxes and we will increase the sin tax on cigarettes and re-write the franchise tax law (that 2/3 of business had figured out a way to not pay) so that more businesses do pay. Sure. That ploy always works. Business is always the first to pony up. That's why they spend so much on lobbyists!

It is all smoke and mirrors.

We are rich in one thing in this country. Stupidity, followed quickly by apathy.

Wonder which segment of the working class will lose their pensions next.

STB

Check out Blogzie for some graphic proof about our vast wealth!

Hey. Anyone listening. We don't have a National Health-care plan. Our bridges are crumbling. Our interstates are a mess and oh by the way we have left a major American City to rot.

And what is on the minds of our lawmakers? Why immigration and illegals. Yes indeed, gays are in their place, they were quickly shown the door and shown to be second class citizens so hey...no more political mileage there.

Let's beat up on the people who put the vast majority of food on our tables. Sure, let us get rid of those men and women who clean our houses, mind our children, bus our tables and oh yes, pick those vegetables.

Am I the only one seeing the racism here? Am I the only one seeing the stupidity of all of this. This is legislation designed to placate all those idiots out there with their support our troop magnets who are really the same folks who drove around with America, Love It or Leave It bumper stickers 40 years ago.

The same folks who somehow think that America is a "white" country. Fuck them.

We have laws on the books. Those laws make it ILLEGAL for a business to hire someone who is not a documented worker. Enforce this law, and voila, seems to me that the problem is solved.

Oh, but wait. Business needs these undocumented workers to do the jobs that Americans won't do. (And we know Americans love to EAT.) And besides, these undocumented workers will work for 4 or 6 dollars and think they are living the American Dream.

Give me a break.

Yeah, Immigrants are this years Gays.

Zipping around this a.m.

Found this.

Read it.

Thoughts That Come Unbidden Department

Thanks Woodstock!

Remember when I mentioned that I wanted to be a juror on the Enron trial. Well, I guess some wires got crossed, as I just received a summons for jury duty and the Enron case has been underway for weeks.

This ought to be interesting.

How many of you think I will be chosen for a jury? BTW, I will recuse myself if asked to serve on a murder trial as I am not a believer in the death penalty.

STB

Dorine worked with my friends and our employer for nearly 35 years. In the old house, not the one I worked in, but where I met her, she did just about everything. She cooked, she cleaned, she did laundry and when the house was rented to others, she worked for those people as well.

The stories she used to tell about Elton John. But I'll leave that to her book!

Dorine was and is amazing. She and her husband had lived in Nancy before coming south to St. Tropez. Her husband was a coiffeur and had a large shop or as I still like to call them, a salon de beaute! They had one child, Evelyne, and when she decided to marry and live in the South, Dorine and Monsieur Gilet decided to follow her South as well.


She and her husband bought a wonderful house on a lovely piece of property in Ramatuelle. She loves it because she can take her dogs on long walks daily. It really is beautiful, with views of the sea and even though populated it offers a nice sense of isolation.







In the new house, Dorine and I worked with Evelyne, her daughter. We were an incredible team. When I started working with them, I spoke no French. Dorine speaks more English then she admits, but Evelyne speaks very little English. The first season was a challenge. As I learned the language the experience just got better and better!


I always told Dorine, who is the same age as my mother (were my mother still alive) that when she retired I would retire as well. As it happened, the summer she decided to retire turned into the winter that my friends decided to sell the house. I think we all knew that an era had come to an end.

I learned a great deal from this amazing person. Everything from how to make a great vinaigrette to how to be a better, more caring person. This was someone who never had the opportunity to travel, and yet she knew more about the world then most of my contemporaries in the United States. I have a deep and abiding love and respect for her. Happy 80th year on the planet Dorine!

That charming monster named Barbara Bush reared her head here in Houston to gain some free press for her sons today.

Mrs. Bush was visiting a local school to see dollars from the Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund in action.

Here's the rub. The money was spent on a program called COW, which is a "learning" tool produced by none other than her loser son Neil Bush. Yes, the same loser son from the Silverado Savings debacle. Seems Neil is in the technology business now, hustling schools using his connections and from what it looks like...monies raised by Daddy's charity.

No, it isn't illegal. But it is unseemly and it is typical.

The rich get richer. We get shafted.

I detest them all.....especially her.

STB

5:10 I just noticed a post on Huffington Post and an article from the Houston Chronicle about this issue.

STB

Yesterday I had two interesting discussions about voting.

One was with someone who is the the "I don't vote, because it doesn't mean anything anyway" category. The other conversation had to do with the upcoming gubernatorial race here in Texas.

We were discussing who we'd be voting for and my friend said to me, "I am going to wait till near the end of the process to see what the polls say and I may find myself voting for Carole Strayhorn." Ms. Strayhorn is a registered Republican, who identifies herself as a Republican, but is running as an independent because she knew she would never be able to defeat Perry in the Republican primary.

I was shocked to hear this coming from my friend, who is very involved politically and had spent much of the last two years working hard to defeat Proposition 2 here in Texas. This was the politically motivated ballot measure to add a constitutional amendment to the Texas State Constitution denying same sex marriage. As you all know, it passed.

I stated that I would be voting for Kinky Friedman, who is a funky, smart fellow who made his mark in the music world. Her first reaction to my statement was that I was "throwing away my vote."

Wrong thing to say to me after I had spent my afternoon arguing with someone who did not vote at all because it didn't mean anything.

My friend said that she was willing to vote for Strayhorn if it meant that Perry would be defeated. I asked her how she could vote for someone who belongs to a party that says very clearly they do not honor or respect or are willing to concede equal treatment to gay people. Well she said, it was all about defeating Perry.

I said, I am sorry to disagree but I will be voting my conscience and don't ever tell me again that "I am throwing away my vote." She responded with...."well Kinky isn't going to win so why would you vote for him."

OK...my point and sorry it took so long to get to it.

When did it become the point of voting that you were simply voting for the winner.

I know, I know. I don't live in the real world.

I still think that I live in a "community" and that people will treat you nicely if you treat them nicely. I still believe that if you choose to live in an apartment complex that you have some responsibilities to the "community" aspect of living in this kind of dwelling. OK, so I am the fool.

But don't tell me I am throwing my VOTE away. Frankly I may have my right to vote taken away simply because of my sexual orientation. Who the hell knows in this ridiculous George Bush/Karl Rove/Jerry Falwell/James Dobson world I find myself living in today.

I will always vote my conscience as long as I am accorded that RIGHT and PRIVILEGE.

Of course those old white men I mentioned above would much rather I never voted. They bank on the fact that they can get their core group of voters to the polls but really count on all of those who don't bother to vote because it "means nothing."

When everyone gets off their ass and votes then we will know whether voting works. Hell, maybe nothing would change. Maybe the "majority" really does want Bushco in power. But maybe too, if people did get off their butts we would see a positive change.

We might see the fragile concept called democracy in action. Hell if we are lucky, we might even see sanity return to the world we all participate in!

STB

Many of you have likely seen this before, but if you haven't....

One of our fellow bloggers is going to be traveling to the Gulf Coast to assist Habitat for Humanity in the ongoing effort to build housing for many of those who are still in need.

Clandestine is going to be making the journey. Click on the link for further information! She's made it very easy to make a donation either through the Habitat for Humanity Web site or through using PayPal.

Having lived through both Katrina and Rita, and knowing how many lives were displaced I offer my heart felt thank you to what Ms. Clandy is doing!

If you feel inclined, please drop by and give what you can!

Thanks!

STB

I am sound asleep.

It is 3 in the morning and suddenly there is an explosion above my head. Someone has dropped what sounds like two tons of something on the floor above me.

I jump up, look at the clock and think something is strange because the apartment above me is empty. Yes, my sour neighbor and her barking dog moved out about two weeks ago!

I then hear voices. Loud voices.

I can't imagine what is going on. Has someone broken into the apartment above me. An empty apartment?

I throw on some clothes and in a moment of sheer stupidity I open my door just in time to see a young woman coming down the stairs. She says nothing to me. I walk out of my apartment and nearly run into another young woman and a man carrying a huge TV. They aren't carrying it away from the apartment however, but carrying it in to the apartment

IT IS 3 IN THE MORNING AND THESE TOTAL LOSERS ARE MOVING INTO THE APARTMENT ABOVE ME.

I ask them what they are doing...stated as "What in the FUCK are you doing." She says, I am moving in. I say, "Jesus, it is 3 in the morning.!"

Now for the good part.......she says, "Yes, I love Jesus."

It is really moments like this I know I should never EVER own a gun.

I turn and go back into my apartment.

I whip off a scathing email to the management of the building and try and fall back asleep.

To top it off. I can not get Blogger to upload a photo.

I have a feeling that the fact that I can not upload a picture will prove to be the LEAST of my problems.

Cheers gang! I have to find a new place to live!

STB

Spring into summer. One of the most refreshing quaffs ever had! Yes each day before lunch we would serve Pimm's.

What is a Pimm's you ask?

Our version:

First we chopped fresh fruit. Whatever we might have on hand, from peaches to cherries to whatever Dorine had found at the market.

Then we put three cubes of ice in a glass.

Then we added the fruit.

Then Pimm's.





Next we used lovely bubbly French lemonade instead of champagne!




Our secret ingredient however was this hard to find beverage! Yes the delightful Ricqles which is the:

Premier soft drink à la menthe



Lastly, we added some fresh mint from the garden and voila. I would have folks blasted in no time. This is what they ended up looking like!



The key is everything in threes...all equal parts!

CHEERS
STB

What the hell is going on?

Really...what the hell is going on?

Three years later we are being told that the Iraqis and the Americans are launching the "largest air strike" since the "war" started. Jeez...the Iraqis have an airforce?

This is such a fucking joke...except it is no joke. People, human beings, are dying and being maimed. Except the carnage is not happening, cause there is no there there and the good old liberal media is covering it just like there is! Must be sweeps week for more than just the Pres.

I love it when all the assholes on the F word network tell us about how the "main stream media" is just a bunch of liberals. Hello..who has the bigger ratings? I think The F word network wins that hands down. So, they are now liberal?

What will this administration come up with next?

Oh right...the 9 TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT.

Yeah, lets cut some more taxes.

My knickers are in a twist between what's going on in the world and what's been going on at blogger.

I am hoping one of them gets better and soon!

STB

I really wish I was one of those people who dealt with stress by not eating.

Instead I seem to be one of those people who can not sleep. I have been tossing and turning all week long. This morning at 5 a.m. I decided to just get up and get going.

Get going in real terms means sitting down, turning on this machine, and reading. We all do it.

First thing I read this morning is an article by David D. Kirtpatrick called Call For Censure is Rallying Cry to Bush's Base. NY Times 03/16/06 in the Washington section. Here's the opening line:

Republicans, worried that their conservative base lacks motivation to turn out for the fall elections, have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring or impeaching President Bush.

I read the piece and what struck me the most was the "win at all costs" mentality. The way to win apparently is to turn serious calls for censure or impeachment into nothing more than political fodder. It is all too disingenuous.

Shades of the Enron trial which is happening here in Houston daily. It amazes me how debased our system of justice appears to be. It really is all about winning, and I know I break no ground in saying this.

We see it all the time. From OJ to MJ. If you have a smarmy enough team of lawyers and you as a defendant are willing to lie and you have a jury of peers who are blinded by showmanship and celebrity then of course your chances of being freed are greatly enhanced.

I for one am sick of this "winning is everything" attitude.

Yesterday, movie theatre owners, announced that they would seek to block cell phone signals in the theatres. Okay, it isn't enough to ask people to turn off their cell phones. It isn't enough that the individual have enough respect for those around him or her to turn off the phone. No, it is now necessary to block the cell signal period. What has happened?

We are no longer a civil society. Again, this isn't news to anyone. I guess it is just hard to swallow on a lovely morning when the birds are singing songs that used to make me joyous about facing the day.

Today, I just want to run and hide. I detest the world more and more.

That classic cry, turned into a punch line......Why can't we all just get along......seems very poignant today.

STB

Living Will

I, STTROPEZBUTLER, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it or lawyers/doctors interested in simply running up the bills.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to ask for at least one of the following:

______a Bloody Mary
______a Diet Coke
______a Margarita
______a BLT
______a Martini (Gin)
______a Beer
______a Gin and Tonic
______a Steak
______a Burger
______a Bowl of ice cream
______a remote control (Any remote control)
______ Chocolate (From a Rollo to Godiva)
______ Sex
______ Rothman's (Or a Camel unfiltered)

it should then be presumed that I won't ever get better.

When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my appointed person and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Signature:___STB_____

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn't place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

Jamie Raskin, testifying Wednesday, March 1, 2006 before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in response to a question from Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs about whether marriage discrimination against gay people is required by "God's Law."

Just opened my windows, perhaps for the last time this season. Yes, when it gets hot in Houston, it gets hot in Houston. One tends to end up sealed in one's abode. I find it really tedious.

Not as tedious as the continuing mis-information being feed to us by that shell of a president.

My favorite quote in the news yesterday was:

"In all my years on the bench, I've never seen a more egregious violation of the rule about witnesses."

LEONIE M. BRINKEMA, federal judge in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.

Funny thing is I feel that way nearly everyday as I read what my government is doing in my name. Can anything be more egregious than the war in Iraq? Or spying on citizens, or keeping people in concentration camps with no charges against them? The list goes on and on.

Now it is mid-day and I am enjoying this amazing moment cause the humidity is 22%! It won't last.

Bye Bye Maureen S!

Yesterday, for some odd reason I thought about Tammy Faye and Goggled her. Her web-site popped up with a letter dated Feb. 17, 2006. Apparently she is now Stage 4 cancer. Later last eve, as I was surfing between shopping channels and other garbage on the telly...I espied said same Tammy Faye on Larry King. Compelling is the only word that comes to mind.

So as we ease out of winter and into spring (which in Houston means we hit summer running) I hope everyone is working on their contingency plans for escape...whether it is from hurricanes, earthquakes or asshole politicians. Who knows, I could be married and living in France by the end of the year!

STB

I am a lucky man.

I was asked back to St. Tropez a number of times.

My hosts, who were eventually going to be my employers, built a new house in the early 80's. Their new house sat above the Bay of Pamplone which is "the" beach of St. Tropez.

The new house was a perfect vacation house. It had four guest bedrooms, each with a wonderful bath. It had a huge master suite with an attached library.

There was also an enormous salon where we gathered in the evenings after dinner. But the house was really designed to be an outdoor house. There was a covered terrace, as well as an open terrace and this is where much of the entertaining that occurred in this house happened.


Of course the house had a pool and a tennis court!


That is Marguerite Porter and my friend Laura playing tennis. Notice, Marguerite is in ballet shoes! She was still dancing with Royal Ballet when this photo was taken!


This first season in the new house was loads of fun, especially the first official HAT PARTY!

From left to right that is the Divine George, a lovely man named Ralph Clark (who was very involved in Formula One racing,) Laura, Sion Williams (who was doing what was to become my job 12 years later,) my host and Jay Jolley. In the front row is Marguerite Porter, Anthony Dowell and my other host. I was snapping the photo! But don't fret...here I am after the party!

Miami Herald
Posted on Fri, Mar. 10, 2006

In My Opinion Quoting Bible to attack gays is hypocritical

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

An open letter to Donna Reddick:

I'm writing this for Desiree. She's a student at Miami Sunset Senior High, where you teach business technology. A few days ago, she sent me an e-mail recounting an incident that happened on campus last week.

It seems that on three successive days, the morning announcements, which are televised throughout the school, featured student-produced segments on the subject of gay rights.

On the first day came comments from students who took the pro position. On the second day came remarks from a counselor who spoke of the need for students to respect one another. On the third day came you.

You and a few students, actually. One told classmates homosexuality was ''unacceptable in the eyesight of God.'' Another said gays were ``unrighteous.'' The coup de grace, though, was you invoking Sodom and Gomorrah and telling students homosexuality was ''wrong according to the Bible'' because God ordered humanity to multiply, which gay couples cannot do.

Desiree was, to put it mildly, upset. In the e-mail, she accused you of bigotry and wondered how a gay student could feel assured ever again of fair treatment in your class.

I tend to agree. She also suggested that you crossed the line between church and state, an accusation about which I'm more conflicted.

It seems to me there's a difference between proselytizing for a religion and explaining how one's faith has influenced one's opinion.

You're entitled to think what you think, no matter how stupid it might be.

INTELLECTUAL CONSTIPATION

But I'll leave those questions for others to parse. My biggest frustration lies elsewhere. Put simply, I've had it up to here with the moral hypocrisy and intellectual constipation of Bible literalists.

By which I mean people like you, who dress their homophobia up in Scripture, insisting with sanctimonious sincerity that it's not homophobia at all, but just a pious determination to live according to what the Bible says.

And never mind that the Bible also says it is ''disgraceful'' for a woman to speak out in church (1 Corinthians 14:34-36) and that if she has any questions, she should wait till she gets home and ask her husband.

Never mind that the Bible says the penalty for going to work on Sunday (Exodus 35:1-3) is death. Never mind that the Bible says the man who rapes a virgin should buy her from her father (Deuteronomy 22:28-29) and marry her.

I'm going to speculate that you don't observe or support those commands. Which says to me that yours is a literalism of convenience, a literalism that is literal only so long as it allows you to condemn what you'd be condemning anyway and takes no skin off your personal backside.

As such, your claim that God sanctions your homophobia is the moral equivalent of Flip Wilson's old claim that the devil made him do it.

You resemble many of your and my co-religionists, whose faith so often expresses itself in an obsessive focus on one or two hot-button issues -- and seemingly nowhere else.

They're so panicked at the thought that somebody accidentally might treat gay people like people. They run around Chicken Little-like, screaming, 'Th' homosex'shals is comin'! Th' homosex'shals is comin'!''

Meantime, people are ignorant in Appalachia, strung out in Miami, starving in Niger, sex slaves in India, mass-murdered in Darfur. Where is the Christian outrage about that?

GOOD CAUSES

Just once, I'd like to read a headline that said a Christian group was boycotting to feed the hungry. Or marching to house the homeless. Or pushing Congress to provide the poor with healthcare worthy of the name.

Instead, they fixate on keeping the gay in their place. Which makes me question their priorities. And their compassion. And their faith.

If you love me, feed my sheep.

For the record, Ms. Reddick, the Bible says that, too.

© 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.http://www.miami.com

Pay too much and you could raise the alarm

By BOB KERRThe Providence Journal 28-FEB-06
PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Walter Soehnge is a retired Texas schoolteacher who traveled north with his wife, Deana, saw summer change to fall in Rhode Island and decided this was a place to stay for a while.

So the Soehnges live in Scituate now and Walter sometimes has breakfast at the Gentleman Farmer in Scituate Village, where he has passed the test and become a regular despite an accent that is definitely not local.

And it was there, at his usual table last week, that he told me that he was "madder than a panther with kerosene on his tail."

He says things like that. Texas does leave its mark on a man.
What got him so upset might seem trivial to some people who have learned to accept small infringements on their freedom as just part of the way things are in this age of terror-fed paranoia. It's that "everything changed after 9/11" thing.

But not Walter.

"We're a product of the '60s," he said. "We believe government should be way away from us in that regard."

He was referring to the recent decision by him and his wife to be responsible, to do the kind of thing that just about anyone would say makes good, solid financial sense.

They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522. And an alarm went off. A red flag went up.

The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable.

And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn't call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn't try to sneak a machine gun through customs.

They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast.

After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed.

So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called.
"When you mess with my money, I want to know why," he said.
They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

Walter called television stations, the American Civil Liberties Union and me. And he went on the Internet to see what he could learn. He learned about changes in something called the Bank Privacy Act.

"The more I'm on, the scarier it gets," he said. "It's scary how easily someone in Homeland Security can get permission to spy."

Eventually, his and his wife's money was freed up. The Soehnges were apparently found not to be promoting global terrorism under the guise of paying a credit-card bill. They never did learn how a large credit card payment can pose a security threat.

But the experience has been a reminder that a small piece of privacy has been surrendered. Walter Soehnge, who says he holds solid, middle-of-the-road American beliefs, worries about rights being lost.
"If it can happen to me, it can happen to others," he said.

(Bob Kerr is a columnist for The Providence Journal. E-mail bkerr@projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)

Begya seen here with an adoring fan!

Begya's Oscar Picks!

We've found the semen stained blue dress.

It was on the news last night.

It was replayed dozens of times.

There "they" were. Talking, listening, being told that New Orleans was going to get hit.

There "he" was. Saying "don't worry." The full resources of the government are behind you.

We have found the semen stained blue dress.

Where is everybody? Where is the move to impeach? Where are the protests in the streets?

Where is everybody?