Edit: Update below, news round-up.

******

When I think of gardners, I think of all the kind-hearted people on my Flist who take pictures of their fields and farms. True, I have the ultimate in brown thumbs, so I tend to skim the actual how-to posts, but pictures pretty!

What I generally don't think is "homophobic bigot" when I think of gardners.

As it turns out, stoney321, a Master Gardner, today received a stunning email from the president of a gardening supply company with whom she had done business in the past.

Troy Hake, president of Outsidepride.com, sent out an email blast to all of his clients and customers (which he numbers in the tens of thousands) to express his ultimate horror: two primetime CBS television shows that he enjoys had the unmitigated gall to show same-sex couples sharing a moment of affection.

The shows in question? Cold Case and Without A Trace, two television series that regularly showcase human-on-human violence for our entertainment. Now granted, the focus of both shows is on the people who solve the crimes, and less so on the victims. However, both Cold Case and Without A Trace have no problems occassionaly sliding in elements of the main characters' personal lives, including their sex lives.

Don't get me wrong. I like both shows, and if I've got nothing better to do with my time, I'll sit down and watch them. Mostly I like trying to figure out the mystery part beacuse I honestly don't give a crap about the character stuff.

Yet it boggles my mind that the owner of a gardening company with a significant catalog business, upon seeing a male-male couple on Cold Case tentatively working their way toward a relationship, and upon seeing a female-female couple on Without A Trace share a kiss, has gotten his knickers in a twist. So much so, that he email blasted his entire customer base urging them to drown CBS in complaints about both shows.

See? This is what I don't get about homophobic bigots (aside from the fact that they keep insisting that they're not, as Mr. Hake does here). Show 'em a decapitated body on prime time, they don't blink. Show 'em two people of the same sex making moon eyes at each other, and they're clutching the ol' pearl necklace (yes...a joke that's in bad tast...sooooo don't care).

Think he kind of forgot that a certain percentage of his customer base just might be gay? And that a larger percentage of his customer base just might find his opinion a weeeeee bit offensive?

Or maybe he just doesn't care and won't mind the loss of current and future business.

Anyway, to read the full text of the email blast that stoney321 got, as well as stoney321's response, go here.

You can bet that when I get home tonight, I'll be sending an atta-boy to CBS. As for Mr. Hake, I'll have to think harder about my email. I want to be polite while making clear that I will work very hard to turn his his company's name into "mud" with all my gardening friends.

He's entitled to be a homophobic bigot, of course.

And I'm entitled to preventing money from ever reaching his pockets because he is a homophobic bigot. I have no compunctions about letting him know that I'll be doing just that.

******

News Round-Up or Why You Should Never Assume Everyone Agrees With You:

One customer actually gets an answer from the company and it pisses him off. (F-bombs are dropped.) I have to include this snippet, though, because it made me laugh:

I know we won't be buying seeds from them anymore, and that's what it boils down to. The amount of business they lose or gain from this shit will determine their level of tolerance. Depending upon their profit and loss reports, they'll either fly a Christian flag or a Rainbow one. I visited their site just now to see if they were committed to their opinions enough to post it on their pages. Could find nothing at first. I searched their site for the word "gay". Found this: Gayfeather Thickspike. I'm sure it's a flower, though it would be a great name for a queer superhero, or maybe just a high-priced dildo.

Turns out, according to The Portland Mercury Blog, that it's a canned response that every customer is going to get. Considering how much publicity this is getting, no response might be a better option.

Best Week Ever actually has a piece on this email

The Consumerist, Shoppers Bite Back urges its readers to take action.

Cup of Coffee confirms they also got the email.

Gay Rights Watch has some fairly humorous commentary on the whole thing, not to mention a new Web design for Outside Pride. (WARNING! Image may be offensive for some.)

Here's something from the blog Good As You.

lisalamona got the same letter.

Loaded Orygun actually called Outside Pride to confirm that the email is legit

The Portland Mercury Blog has also picked up news about the email.

The Portland Metroblog has also picked up the sordid affair.

queer_rage has something to say as well.

Am I getting any fanfic writing done?

Why, no. No, I'm not.

Wanna know why?

I'm too busy beating my head against the wall and screaming obscenities. That's why.

Now, saying George Bush lied is sort of like saying that grass is green and the sky is blue. I know this.

But when you've got a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions like Hurricane Katrina and you lie about it?

Well, now. We're talking about something else entirely.

The RudePundit (as the name implies, most of the language in this blog is not worksafe) went home for the holidays and documented in excruciating detail with pictures how the entire region is still in dire straights. (The Katrina links, however, are worksafe.)

The photos are devastating and Mr. Rude's exploration of his hometown and environs will make you sick with grief.

Read his journey home, then read the latest from AP. Better, go watch the video.

Remember Bush how said, "No one knew the levees would break?"

Remember how quite a few people called bullshit on that?

I really hate being right. Especially when you've got, to quote Editor & Publisher:

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The footage - along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press - show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Excuse me. I need to go somewhere and scream very loudly. I'm feeling just a little bit overwhelmed.

Still feelling craptastic, although I dragged my butt into work today because...yeah. I'm stupid. That and I'm just well enough to be going out of my skull from boredom.

I may post another part tonight for Facing the Heart in Darkness. Or I may just crawl directly into bed. Depends on how sucky I feel.

I do apologize for the delay, but this stomach bug sucks.

Anyway, I've been seeing some discussion about the Danish Charicature Riots, especially among the Europeans on my FList. As I've been in and out of it pretty much for the past five days, I haven't really gotten involved in the discussion nor have I been able to really think clearly about it.

I did, however, find a very good write up about what happened this past weekend.

Juan Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan who specializes in Middle Eastern Studies has the best, most balanced, and most level-headed take on the caricatures that riled the Muslim world that is very much worth reading.

Sample quote:

I want to underline that few places in the Muslim world have seen violence over the caricatures, so far mainly Damascus and Beirut (which are unexpected in this regard.) Protests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and elsewhere have been nonviolent. This is not to play down the seriousness of what happened in Damascus and Beirut over the weekend — acts which can only inspire horror and condemnation — only to set it in context. There are 1.5 billion Muslims. A lot of Muslim countries saw no protests at all. In some places, as in Pakistan, they were anemic. The caricature protests are resonating with local politics and anti-imperialism in ways distinctive to each Muslim country. The protests therefore are probably not mostly purely about religion.

I really recommend that you read the whole thing...


ETA: A Sign of the Times...
via Atrios

Freaky-ness.

Once upon a time, you'd have to search someone's bedroom and find the diary when you had people like Jacob D. Robida, the New Bedford 18-year-old who attacked patrons in a New Bedford gay bar with a hatchet and a gun and then subsequently died in a shootout with police in Arkansas.

Now, you can always read Robida's My Space page to get a look inside the mind of a killer.

Anyone else just a little creeped out by this? Or is it just me?

What the FUCK?

*seethes*

Are you shitting me about the Walk-A-Thon/Country Music Concert to "celebrate freedom" and "support the troops" and to "remember the victims of 9/11"? And it's actually ORGANIZED by the Department of Defense?

As in this is MY tax dollars at work?

I. Have. No. Fucking. Words.

This picture from Dependable Renegade pretty much says it all, dontchya think?

Orwell must be laughing his ass off.

Allow me to join Steve Gilliard in wishing Rumsfeld a one-way express ticket to hell. Way to once more hide behind the pile of rubble that was the World Trade Center and International Good Will as more and more of the general American public figures out that you and your boss FUCKING LIED because you had a hard-on for reshaping the Middle East according to some mushroom-inspired neocon fantasy.

Oh, and Clint Black? I'm ordering an express ticket to hell for you, too. Maybe you and Rummy can share a seat. Can't come soon enough for either one of you, baby. *kiss-kiss*

To make me feel better, I've decided to make a wee small donation to support Cindy Sheehan as she continues to dare President Bush to come out and answer her questions.

Woman's got serious OVARIES people. And we all know that Bush has no balls. It's really an unfair fight. I put $25 on Sheehan to win.

Rumor has it they're going to arrest her if she doesn't leave the side of the road by Thursday.

As Maureen Dowd points out, ignoring Sheehan (and trust me, you don't ever want to piss off a Gold Star Mother with a mission because that's just bad juju) is probably the stupidest way to handle the situation.

As our Chickenhawk-in-Chief (bwack-bwack-bwack-BWACK!) continues to hide his alcoholic ass from one Gold Star Mother, the Right Wing Slime Machine continues to tie itself in knots to the point where the "t" word (that would be "traitor") has been applied. And before anyone tosses the Drudge/O'Reilly talking point at me that Sheehan said something completely different about holding Bush personally responsible for her son's death after meeting with the Chickenhawk-in-Chief last year, just to let you know: they're misquoting her just a little bit. Actually, they've edited, twisted, and basically lied about what Cindy Sheehan actually said.

So, while I'm wishing Clint Black and Donnie Rumsfeld a long, painful trip to hell, why don't I throw Bill O'Reilly and Michele Malkin on top of the flaming turd pile. Hope you all burn. Fuckers.

Since I can't call down a rain of fire on these people's asses, I guess I'll just have to toss some bucks in the Cindy Sheehan kitty. Poor woman is ill because of her outdoor vigil, but she ain't moving from her spot. The woman needs chicken soup. Hopefully my contribution will buy some of the good stuff for her.

I am irate now with the entire fucked-up government we've got in the U.S. I don't suppose there's a job waiting for me in Canada somewhere? I've always been a Maple Leafer at heart. Does it help that my mother's family is originally from Quebec?

On July 12, 2003, Sen. Santorum cried out and pointed an accusing finger at the Black Man from Boston, falling into the trap that has resulted in destroyed lives, reputations, and the end of great political movements, especially religiously fueled ones.

For you see, when you cry out on the Black Man from Boston, you wake Nicholas Scratch, and he will surely come to call on you.

I am tempted to ask the good Republican Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Are you entirely sure you want to get the estimable Mr. Scratch's attention?

And while no time is a good time to draw the eyes of Nicholas Scratch to you, you are currently faced with a populace who is growing increasingly discontented with the Republican Congress and Republican White House; a growing population of people who've figured out they were lied to about Iraq; the president's right-hand man Karl Rove on the verge to twisting in the wind thanks to sudden break-throughs in the Valerie Plame case; a tanking economy; grumbling from the evangelical Christians on the right who want to exercise some political power and get payback, but don't feel they're getting enough of it...

And have we mentioned? Your poll numbers are sinking like a stone for the 2006 Senate Race. And your Democratic challenger, who's ahead of you by an almost 2-to-1 margin, hasn't even started campaigning yet. Lose in 2006, that will surely hurt your run for President in 2008.

Are you entirely certain you want the attention of Nicholas Scratch?

Ahhhh, it's too late now. I do believe He's seen you already. Do witness the sudden number of body blows landing on you and your party. It may have taken Him three years to work His wiles, but now He is calling payment due.

However, I admire you for continuing to assert that, indeed, the Black Man is from Boston, even in the face of people who are starting wonder if you're insane or just an insensitive clod.

What makes this truly funny, Senator, is that you're not wrong. You're not wrong at all.

( You see, since the earliest Colonial times, everyone knew that Satan lived in Boston. That you've just discovered this causes me to worry about your lack of historical knowledge and your poor powers of observation. )

It's a passing fancy on my part, I'm sure.

But whenever certain fearful souls point to Boston where Satan walks the streets, I imagine the Black Man of Boston looking up from his Dunkin' Donuts Great One coffee and his Boston Globe sports section to raise an elegant eyebrow in response.

That raised eyebrow always means trouble.

Whenever small men blame "the liberals" for serving the dark forces of evil, I remember that once the people of the Massachusetts Bay Colony believed that Native Americans were the servants of Satan and that their victories against settlers was a sign of God's disfavor.

And when I watch scandal after scandal finally crashing over these tiny men, these frightened men, these men who pray to God in front of microphones to save them while wrapping themselves in an American flag, I can see disreputable Nicholas Scratch standing in the background and laughing at the futility of it all.

But there's no Daniel Webster or Johnnie Cochran with a Chewbacca Defense to save them.

History repeats.

All you need to do is see the pattern, and translate today's demons into yesterday's beliefs.

Sen. Santorum has accused the Black Man from Boston of crimes He did not commit. And now Nicholas Scratch will remind the good senator that no Satan, and no devil, can tempt a man (or woman) to do something that he (or she) was not already prone to do.

And suddenly, today seems like it's a very good day.