If your’e a bigot, forget it. I’m done. I’m too old for this shit and I’ve seen too much to ignore it.

If you want to keep your gay friends and neighbors down, I don’t want to know you. I’m not your friend. I’m not you pal. I will not vote for you, I will not lend you my lawnmower, I will not come to your birthday party. Because you are a bad person.

No, I’m not going to punch you in the face. And yes I can separate my professional relationships from my personal ones. But if you think you can hold such positions and expect me to smile in your face in a social situation, think again.

Change. That’s what I want you to do. Wake the fuck up. Find your brain, find your heart and stop stepping on the throats of people who do you no harm.

If you think you can get some kind of cover by pretending that it’s all because of your religion, I’m not buying it. Not that I personally give a shit what your scripture or your clergy have to say on the issue, but I’m not even buying it as an excuse for believers. Your bible says lots of things that you ignore. Tons. Shitloads. Things that you somehow figure out a way around. Things that you don’t seem to be so strict about.

I don’t see you stoning adulterers in the street. Or people who work on Saturday. Or disrespectful children. And I’m sure I’ve seen you eat shellfish on occasion. Somehow you’ve figured out that those things are anachronistic, not relevant, not meant for us in the modern world. But gay people? Now that’s something that you absolutely cannot deviate from. Sure thing.

You’re just homophobic bigots hiding behind your religion. The end.

I’m done with the lot of you. Let me know when you’re ready to repent and ask for forgiveness.

Liberals wanted black people to be considered people. Conservatives said no. We did it anyway.

Liberals wanted to let women vote. Conservatives said no. We did it anyway.

Liberals wanted to let men and women marry regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. Conservatives said no. We did it anyway.

Liberals wanted to let gay American soldiers come out of the closet. Conservatives said no. We did it anyway.

And today liberals want to let gay Americans marry one another. Predictably, conservatives are saying no.

How do you think that’s going to work out?

This is what it means to be a social conservative. You’re against expanding enfranchisement to an ever wider circle of people. You resist these changes. I can’t think of a single instance where we look back and think “hey, those conservatives were right!” Can you? The arc of the moral universe may indeed be long, as Dr. king said. But it really does seem to bend toward justice.

Note that I really place high value on things like commercial-free viewing, a la carte purchasing and integration with iOS devices. And I don’t place a lot of value on things like channel surfing or pro sports. Your mileage may vary quite a bit.

The cherry on top is that, depending on movie rentals, specific cable packages and other factors, I estimate that going my route saves me 50% or more over cable.

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

I’ve heard it before. Usually in a very specific context: conservatives whining about being taxed for a social safety net they don’t want. The “wolves” in this scenario are the recipients of government spending. The “sheep” are the hardworking taxpayers who foot the bill. Democracy, they would have us believe, is always at risk of being nothing more than the have-nots taking advantage of the haves through government action.

Nick seemed a little nonplussed when I expressed exasperation. He apparently didn’t mean it in the way I’m used to. Nevertheless, here’s my reaction to its more common use by American conservatives.

First, we have a constitutional democracy. Not everything can be decided by a vote of our representatives. The Constitution sets the limits of what the legislature can do. One presumes that having the sheep for dinner would violate his civil rights and be disallowed–no matter what the vote tally came to.

But more specifically, I find the conservative’s use of this quote puzzling. It seems as if they live in a world where wolves are voting the sheep dinner left and right. That is, a world in which the have-nots are taking from the haves to an alarming and unfair degree.

That’s not the world I live in.

Taxes are lower today than they have been in my lifetime. And wealth concentration at the top is greater now than it has been in many decades. Does that sound to you like the rich are being overtaxed by recipients of social programs? So much for the wealthy being cast as mutton dinners.

And the middle class taxpayer? They’re people who themselves rely on things like Social Security and Medicare, so the fact that they have to pay for it can’t really be considered unfair.

To the point that social programs like Medicare are experiencing great cost increases, well that goes directly to the heart of our health care system problems. Specifically, it’s not that people have too much health care–it’s that health care costs too much in America. Control the costs like other civilized countries do and Medicare becomes pretty manageable.

Anyway, the sheep and wolves quote always annoys me. What do you think?

Paul Ryan, the Republican Party’s latest entrant in the seemingly endless series of young, prickish, over-coiffed, anal-retentive deficit Robespierres they’ve sent to the political center stage in the last decade or so, has come out with his new budget plan. All of these smug little jerks look alike to me – from Ralph Reed to Eric Cantor to Jeb Hensarling to Rand Paul and now to Ryan, they all look like overgrown kids who got nipple-twisted in the halls in high school, worked as Applebee’s shift managers in college, and are now taking revenge on the world as grownups by defunding hospice care and student loans and Sesame Street. They all look like they sleep with their ties on, and keep their feet in dress socks when doing their bi-monthly duty with their wives.

Zing! And what follows is a pretty astute analysis of what guys like Ryan represent in American politics. Read the whole thing.

1. The Hobbit. Duh. I’m one of it’s millions of fans. And it seems to have a lot of the same ingredients as the excellent Lord of the Rings films.

2. Prometheus. I’ve been a huge fan of the Alien films. In fact, my appreciation for them has grown over the years rather than diminished. Sequels and prequels, those movies that eventually follow the original successful film, are usually duds. But the Alien franchise has been defying that principle since 1986. Perhaps it’ll keep on doing so.

3. Beasts of the Southern Wild. I like the trailer. It apparently did well at Sundance. That’s all I know.

4. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Why? Look at that title. Just look at it.

5. Yes, yes. The Avengers. I still haven’t seen it, but I’m sure I’ll get to it soon.

6. Life of Pi. I’m really, really hoping this one doesn’t disappoint. I’m such a huge fan of the novel. If you haven’t read it, do so. Now.

Meanwhile, I’m eagerly waiting the return of Doctor Who, Sherlock and The Walking Dead.

What are you watching on television these days?

a) federal regulations forcing mortgage companies to lend to low income people who could not really afford mortgages

b) deregulation of the banking industry which had been going on in a bipartisan way for decades

c) a government takeover of banks

2. Businesses aren’t hiring in this so-called “jobless recovery” because

a) their taxes are too high

b) they don’t have access to capital

c) they’re too uncertain about future regulation and tax law

d) customers aren’t buying

3. The largest cause of our increasing federal deficit is:

a) Social Security

b) “Obamacare”

c) Stimulus spending

d) The Bush tax cuts

4. Current federal tax rates are

a) higher than they were four years ago

b) higher than they were ten years ago

c) lower than they have been in decades

5. Teen birth rates in the United States have been dropping since the 1970s because of

a) abstinence-only sex education

b) comprehensive sex education

c) wide availability of contraception

d) both b and c

e) Jesus

6. The so-called “cap and trade” system for reducing industrial carbon emissions was first proposed by

a) Bill Clinton

b) Newt Gingrich

c) Heritage Foundation

d) Vladimir Lenin

e) both b and c

7. Among the measures the Obama administration has taken to curtail second amendment rights are

a) closing the gun show “loophole” which allows the purchase of firearms without background checks

b) limiting magazine capacity

c) further restrictions on the ownership of certain kinds of automatic weapons

d) the Obama administration has done nothing whatsoever to curtail the rights of gun owners

8. The bailout of the US auto industry was

a) a success, resulting much of the loans paid back and in GM becoming the world’s top-selling auto maker

b) a government takeover of what was once a private industry

c) a partisan kickback to the American auto worker’s union

d) both b and c

9. Effective corporate tax rates are

a) lower than they’ve ever been before

b) higher than they’ve ever been before

c) Trick question! Corporations don’t pay taxes, they just pass the cost along to consumers

10. The bottom of the recession occurred during the period of time when the policies of which administration were in effect?

a) Obama

b) Bush

c) we still haven’t hit bottom

d) technically there was no recession

11. The bank bailout or “Troubled Asset Relief Program” (TARP)

a) was among Bush’s last policy decisions

b) was among Obama’s first policy decisions

c) was a highly partisan decision

12. The so-called Republican “war on women” is

a) entirely fabricated by Democrats

b) a term used to describe Republican lawmakers recent attempts to curtail not just abortion but contraception, women’s health care in general and even equal pay

c) a term used to describe Republican presidential candidates’ hostility toward not just abortion but contraception, women’s health care in general and even equal pay

d) going well

e) both b and c

13. State governments are experiencing large deficits chiefly because

a) the entire country is struggling to climb out of the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression, increasing safety net expenditures while simultaneously lowering the tax base

b) teachers are greedy

c) corporate tax rates are too high

14. With regard to domestic oil production, the Obama administration has

a) increased it

b) decreased it

c) done nothing

15. Your own personal federal taxes have __________ under Obama administration policies

a) gone up

b) gone down

c) have not changed

16. The death of Osama bin Laden was

a) a coup for the Obama administration and highlights a difference between himself and Romney

b) no big deal as a president Romney would have done the exact same thing had he been given the opportunity

c) precisely planned for maximum political effect

d) a hoax

17. The mandate that individuals be required to purchase private health insurance is an idea that was first cooked up by

a) Karl Marx

b) Heritage Foundation

c) Barack Obama

d) the “lame-stream media”

18.  Speculating that watching Glee can cause people to experiment with homosexuality means that you are

a) genuinely concerned about the youth of America

b) a homophobic dick

c) gay

d) both b and c

19.  The first American politician to put the individual health insurance mandate into effect was

a) Paul Wellstone

b) Barack Obama

c) Mitt Romney

d) Jefferson Davis “Boss” Hogg

20.  When the individual insurance mandate became the law in Massachusetts, then-governor Mitt Romney said

a) it’s a shame we can’t do this nationally because that would be unconstitutional

b) we should do this on a national level

c) this was a terrible idea that went wrong, let’s never speak of it again

d) where’s my Etch-A-Sketch?

21.  Of this list, who was the first to say that millionaires should pay a higher tax rate than bus drivers, and that to do otherwise would be “crazy”?

a) Warren Buffett

b) Jimmy Buffett

c) Barack Obama

d) Ronald Reagan

Back around 1995 I bought my first new computer: An Apple Macintosh Performa 630CD. I’m guessing I paid $1500 or more. It had a 33 MHz microprocessor, 8 megabytes of RAM and 250 megabytes of storage.

Today I have a computer whose CPU clock speed is 3000 times faster and which has 13,000 times the storage capacity. In addition to being less than a third of the price, it has wireless internet connectivity, does video conferencing and is battery powered.

It also shoots high definition video, takes terrific photographs, knows where I am at all times, fits in my pocket and makes phone calls.

Flying cars notwithstanding, the future really has delivered in some ways. Now I’m trying to imagine what technology will look like in another fifteen years.