The Choas of Arrogant Politics

Well, this week the Iowa legislature removed all LGBTQ protections from the law. Unfortunate on one hand; understandable on the other. Looks like there is a big demonstration against it today. The MOMA photo is so appropriate because neither side in this debate acknowledged the other's right to exist. Non-gender conforming people have as much right to credit, apartments, and services as anyone. However, people are not going to stand for genetic males playing sports against women. This is a big sports state and people are almost uniformly against that. Likewise, there is a sizable portion of the population against gay "marriage". Most folks don't (like me) care either way, hard-line religious types refuse to accept it. They define term "marriage" exclusively as a genetic man and a genetic woman. For better or worse, they own it; it has been that way for 6, or 8 or 10 thousand years, despite gay. So if you want to give tax and legal protections to gay unions, which they should have a right to, you have to call it something else--unions, liaisons, pacts. No, they had to have the term "marriage." Well, now we have a backlash and there will be people who will take advantage of it. It makes me unbearably sad, but I totally understand it, and I can't believe that if the gay community hadn't been so pushy and righteous about their "rights," but given some credence to the basic reservations of legit voters out there, we wouldn't be here.

An Anniversary of Sorts

It’s an anniversary of sorts: For a whole year, other than one meeting in early August 2024, to watch citizens toss out Lisa Kotter out on her inglorious bum, I have not attended a Cascade City Council meeting. I said nothing at that meeting, because neither I heard or saw there led me to believe that the systemic corruption of the entitled making every decision to suit their fancies continues unabated. Earlier on in the summer, a man who I had seen at only one council meeting tells me how “Much Mike Beck has done for this community…” I almost barfed on his shoes. Since I have been back from Florida this year, I had a beer with the Mayor, and he tells me it cost us $50,000 to fix the sewer line Beck transferred to the city several years back. Last year, Feb. 2024, when I got back to town, I discovered an end run around democracy: Ms. Kotter and the entitled, instead of a public discussion and decision about where the dog park should be moved to, it was decided behind closed doors to put it in Oak Hill. By the middle of July new pickleball courts were sited there despite the fact that it is not centrally located, and a community should not be using public money to augment property values in its well-off neighborhoods.