Just a quick note as the night draws to a close here in DC. What an amazing first day at CPAC!! I’m walking around with a badge blaring “GayPatriot.org” and the folks here couldn’t be nicer!

Lots of GP readers are stopping me to say hello. Dan–this is the reason we have done this for 5 years!!!!

The Blogger Panel this afternoon was a blast and the room was packed.

And Chris & Jimmy are doing a kickass job at the GOProud booth in the exhibit hall.

Thanks CPAC for such a warm welcome!!

About two-and-one-half years ago when I submitted my “Concept Paper” outlining my dissertation, I anticipated that the second chapter would introduce the goddess Athene, starting with her Minoan-Mycenaean origins and leading up her guidance and support of the (male) hero in Greek myth.  Just over a year after that, I promised the chair of my dissertation committee that chapter on February 1, 2009.

Every time I started to write it, however, I didn’t seem ready.  Some perhaps might say it was laziness.  And perhaps it was.

Only when I saw the parallels between Sonny Corleone and Achilles, whose rage at the outset of the Iliad is about to ignite a civil war in the Achaean camp, did I realize that I couldn’t introduce the deity who restrains him until showing first the nature of his rage.  Achilles was not alone–in Greek myth or human society.  Other men have close to letting their anger getting the best of them before mastering it, while some never do.

In short, I had to show why  the owl-eyed goddess was necessary and to introduce the a problem she addresses in Greek myth (and hence culture) and so show her meaning to that society–and, by extension, to our own.  So, I added in a second chapter, an extended exegesis of the Bronze Age barroom brawl which begins the oldest of Greek epics.  A female friend dubbed it my “testosterone chapter.”  I submitted that two weeks ago.

And now, I’m about to submit the chapter I was supposed to have completed one year and 17 days ago.  It came together in a matter of days (I took four days off in the two-week period).  I had done most of the research (and all that I had used in the first week of writing) well before the initial “deadline.”  It came together not then when the research was complete, but after that new chapter was.

There is something in this, though I am, at this moment, perhaps not qualified competent to express it in a succinct catch phrase.  Perhaps, one of you can.  I struggled over something for nearly a year, only to find it falling into place in little over a week.

All that said, I’m pretty drained from all this writing and may take the whole weekend off from blogging.  I’ll see how I feel.  While Bruce blogs up at storm from CPAC on Friday, I’ll be at the Getty Library where I do my research.  And I won’t be bringing my laptop.

Well, never let a crisis go to waste may be the droning theme of the Obama Administration. But his water-carriers in the Old School Media, never wanting to be challenged as the least intellectually curious bunch in the room never lets a tragedy go without blaming it on the Tea Party movement (Unless, of course, there are ties to the Left wing. In that case, it’s “Move along! Nothing to see here!“)

Here we are, without even a sunset between us and the ranting suicide of an Austin lunatic (and having lived there, I can tell you, they’re countless), and the Leftist press has blamed Joseph Stark’s attack today on the IRS offices in the Texas capital on (wait for it…) the “the Tea Party movement”. While admitting that “[t]here’s no information yet on whether he was involved in any anti-government groups or whether he was a lone wolf,” Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post nevertheless, concludes that: “after reading his 34-paragraph screed, [he is] struck by how [Stark's] alienation is similar to that we’re hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement.”

Capehart then goes on to quote at length specifically chosen bits and pieces of Stark’s “manifesto” (available here, from Smoking Gun), to support his claim. Naturally, however, the link isn’t included in Capehart’s shoddy reporting, because it might have revealed to anybody who chose to read it many other facets of this lunatic’s (Stark’s, not Capehart’s) aggravation.

To wit: Stark specifically calls out the Catholic Church and organized religion in general, an obscure tax provision from 1986, the lack of universal health-care, Enron, the Justice Department, oh, and this guy who used to be president that all those tea-baggers hate, George W Bush!

In fact, poignantly missing from Capehart’s clearly political representation of Stark’s comments is the very end of the diatribe, printed in bold so that it couldn’t be missed:

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Well, couldn’t be missed, that is, unless you had a political agenda and were trying to misrepresent what Stark was all about. Is this really what Capehart and his fellow morons at WaPo find to be “similar to that we’re hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement”?

Now, I’m not going to say that Stark was some sort of Leftist. He was clearly deranged and had his own personal motives that bled oddly into politics. But just remember, as these ugly reciminations will no doubt continue over the next few days who brought up his politics, and how dishonest they are about it.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

From two fellow bloggers here at CPAC.

Kevin from Lakeshore Laments has this one.

And this one from Steve from NoRunnyEggs.com:

Thanks, guys!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Senator Brown is speaking now and about to introduce Mitt Romney.  I’ll have a short video clip in a moment….

VIDEO of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA):

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Dick Cheney is here and will introduce Liz in a few moments…

UPDATE: FOX News was wrong.  Liz wasn’t introduced by her Dad.   Maybe afterwards???

UPDATE: Yep, Dick Cheney made it…. but after Liz spoke.  It was a great moment.  He got a standing ovation and all of the bloggers poured out of the room to see the stage.  My camera crapped out, but hoping to find some pics soon.

Photo from John (PatriotPartner) of Dick Cheney from CPAC floor:

My Twitter entry:  “Nation’s most vocal supporter of gay marriage & removing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell speaks at #CPAC10 – DICK CHENEY! HA.”

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

. . . since leaving Blogspot.

Link to CPAC at Townhall.com.  The theme of CPAC10 is “Saving Freedom”  Also the name of Jim DeMint’s book.  Hmmm.

Reminder, yours truly will be a panelist on the Blogger Free For All Panel at 4pm.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Marco is coming on in a few minutes and is now being introduced by the esteemed conservative US Senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina (also known as PatriotMom’s Senator).

Stay tuned….

Rubio: “The blizzard may be the best thing to happen to the American economy in 12 months!”

Rubio is now articulating the fundamentals of America — First Principles.  “The only country where it doesn’t matter who your parents were.  Which country would you trade places with?”

“Those with a worldview that were elected in 2008 are now using the economic downturn, not to fix America, but to change America.  This growth in our government is being funded by foreign money.”

“The good news is that it didn’t take Americans a long time to figure this out.  Leaders at the highest levels are trying to redefine the American government and economic system.  But Americans have figured it out.”

“This is the single greatest political pushback in American history.  2010 is a referendum on the very identity of our nation.”

AWESOME: “The US Senate already has one Arlen Specter in it.”  [referring to Charlie Crist]

Rubio is now articulating coherent pro-growth, pro-free enterprise policies that most Americans would believe in.

Rubio: “These [Islamic] terrorists aren’t trying to kill us because we offended them.  They are trying to impose their view of the world on us and America is standing in the way.”

Rubio: “What makes America great is that there are dreams that are impossible everywhere else, but are possible here.  Why is that?  Most other countries chose government to run their lives.  The problem is that when govt controls the economy, those who can influence the govt always win — and everyone else stays the same.  In other nations, the employee can never become the employer.”

“Americans chose individual liberty instead of excessive government.”

“Everything I’ve accomplished, I owe to my parents, my God and to the United States of America.”  Marcoooooo!

“Let us ensure that history’s record of this time is clear.  Like those Americans who came before us, we rose to face the challenges of our time.  Let us make the right choices so that the American miracle can live on.”

Good morning from Bloggers Row (or Lounge?) from Washington, DC at the CPAC Conference.  We are moments away from Marco Rubio’s speech.

One downside, my digitial camera is acting up…. so photos may be delayed and via the iPhone.

UPDATE: Hey, the camera is working now….

I’m liveblogging & live-Tweeting Marco’s speech.  So stay tuned…

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

For as long as I’ve been blogging, longer even, for as long as I’ve been open about being a gay Republican, I’ve had left-wingers lecture me on how the GOP is controlled by religious zealots eager to do away with our freedom and create what some might call a “Christianist” state.  When I tell such folk that I’ve been involved not just in the GOP as an openly gay man, but have also participated in various conservative organizations, they seem little interested in my experiences, as if they just didn’t happen or are aberrations.

More often than not, these self-assured individuals so convinced about the real nature of the Republican Party and American conservatism have never met more than a handful of Republicans nor even attended a meeting of a Republican committee or auxiliary.  Such individuals are thus not qualified to talk about the GOP, much less address whether or not there is a place for gay people in the party.

With a prejudiced view of the GOP just like that of those individuals, Andrew Sullivan demonstrated his competence to serve on the Cato Institute panel addressing that very topic.  According to my friend Rick Sincere who attended the panel, the Obama-enamored blogger lambastedd the GOP:

Sullivan went on to criticize the Republican party for accelerating its “campaign of fear” against gay people and said the GOP “is no longer a political party; it is a religious party [whose members] owe absolute obedience to the President.” The Republican Party’s “soul has been corrupted,” Sullivan said solemnly.

Maybe he needs to say this to secure his place on the left, but this description has little resemblance to the party with which I’m familiar and in which I’ve participated (not to mention countless other openly gay men and lesbians).  Someone should have asked him where he derived his information.  Had he walked precincts with Republican volunteers, participated in GOP committee meetings, spoken to gatherings of Republican clubs?  Or had he read about it on left-wing blogs?

Andrew Sullivan was talking about a Republican Party which exists entirely in his imagination.

And while Andrew talked the conservative talk, opposing hate crimes laws, calling himself a Thatcherite, he refused to address his support for Obama’s program.   (more…)