One score and twelve years ago....What an adventure it has been!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD BEAR

Thirty two years ago this morning I was shoved out of my mother's womb three months and a day early. I was a two pound, nine ounce bundle of flesh that was seventeen inches long. I couldn't figure out what God was thinking when He came down and commissioned me from my mothers womb and then said "Now get out into the world." instead of letting me stay in this nice warm sack of fluid for another ninety three days. This is my five minutes of paying tribute annually to my mother and father.

Since I am my mother's first born she sucked down on the anesthetics and ended up passing out half way through delivery. My father, in regards to the minor miracle in front of him, responding to the intensive neo-natal conflicts of my premature birth did two things that have the highest honor in my life. They will forever reign in my life no matter what happens or what people say about me personally and professionally. Thirty minutes after I was born I was baptized and given my father's name, the highest glory he could give me, and then handing me back over to God in prayer and the doctors for health and safety. My mom woke up three days later.

ABORTION AND THE SOLEMN FEAST OF HOLY INNOCENTS AND MARTYRS

Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents (citations from my homily: Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:16-18, Assumption of Moses 6:2-6) within the Octave of the Incarnation (Catholics take 8 days to celebrate Christmas Day and Easter Day, similar to Chanukah) . Therefore the issues of premature termination of any life has a very special place in my own history. I am for life from conception to natural death. Technically I was born at the very end of my second trimester. And yes if you do the math I was suppose to born on April Fools Day. Evil is not the opposite of Good it is any thing that takes away from our lives and living them for good will towards our fellow members of creation.

I am not going to make this too political; however I must address this, especially on my birth feast. I am against abortion however I am also pro choice, only in one regard. That is, the fact that if abortion were not legal, I as a member of the clergy, would be celebrating double the amount of funerals (both mother and child). I do believe though that abortion needs to be pulled out of the private clinics and needs to be a ethically guided and medically sound procedure. That just is not guaranteed in a private clinic setting. By requiring continued after procedure medical care and ethical guidance we can greater limit the ramifications of a termination on both the body and mind and soul of the individual whom has made the most tragic decision of their and someone else's life and the biological father's honor. We need to restore the father's right of choice in the decision as well. He contributed half of the byproducts (23 chromosomes and 30 minutes of hard labor) to form this new life, he should have some say in its future, 'possession should not be nine tenths of the law'.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE BLOG

If you take time to notice by actually viewing my blog directly (not through an RSS feed, or whatever else people use to scan this from a distance) I found out (totally on accident mind you) how to put certain things over on the main column above and below the blog entries. I hope you like some of these changes just remember to scroll down a little bit off of the main page to view everything. It is not quite done and completely updated or shuffled from one category to another but I will be finishing it up over the weekend.

Why did the sidebar link categories change?

This was done in an effort to clarify better what people are looking for. Before all the personal, political and news, commentary blogs were for the most part in one of two groups of link lists "what all d fagz r talkn bout!" and "3 rivers blogged down". One of the major complaints I received is people were getting dizzy trying to figure out which blogs they wanted to view because they couldn't always tell what type of blog it was. The new blog link list have new titles and a description underneath to better explain each category. Certain blogs have been reassigned to other categories completely that more appropriately align to the content of the blog. For instance Scott and Brian's or Blake's blogs are completely related to local sports and therefore are under all the links to "support 3 rivers athletics" while Undies Drawer has been placed under "don we now our gay apparel" I hope that these changes will help people use the resources that I am trying to provide to our greater local and queer community members.

The Fort Wayne blogs have been broken down into three main categories:
+ bare it all along 3 rivers (news & politics blog roll)*new*
+ 3 rivers blogged down (personal blog roll)*revised*
+ coming together on 3 rivers (community organizations, public interest blogs)*new*

(GLBTIQAS) blogs have been broken down into three main categories as well:
+ what all d fagz r talkn bout! (gay and lesbians, etc. personal blog roll)*revised*
+ is 1 penis and 2 testicles worth 1,000 thoughts? (pictorial and graphic blog roll)*new*
+ queer community and culture (national perspectives blog roll)*new*

[EDITOR'S UPDATE: Please see the post from 05 March 08 for further updates on formating]

What are some of the other things that you have toyed with on F6?

One is adding a third colour to the blog for subtitles and emphasis in actual posts, but the jury is still out on that one. Trying to find colours that coordinate well with the existing scheme is a bitch and a half sice I am working with two opposites initially. The background has been grayed out a little bit so as to give the appearance of recycled paper.

The three quotes and the Jay Brannan video player have been moved to the main column of the profile for people to have an easier time viewing them or picking which video to watch.

Tracking oneself across the blogosphere or letting your readers see where you've been.

In addition, I have added as a new idea in response to "New Media New Rules" and the "Civility Code" from a few months back is a link list entitled "what I did say!" which is a list of the fifteen latest comments of mine on other people's and/or organization's blogs. This is an effort to challenge especially the local authors and everyone to be more accountable for their activity across the blogosphere as well. One last benefit to this decision is that now when I leave a comment I can go back and check directly on a response from others or the author/editor of the original blog.

The links to my comments on other's blogs are listed in the following format:
1. international date (yyyymmdd)
2. the first two initials of the origional blog's authors name (Eric White=EW:)
3. followed by the acronym for the origional blog (Kody's blog is KT:TV for Tinnel Vision)
4. next is a synopsis (three words max) of the title of the original blog
5. lastly in parenthesis is the order in number of the comment that you posted eg:(6)
As a note of courteousness if you do set one of these up make sure to set the link list to "Reverse Sort Alphabetically" in order to view the list in the proper order.

The only slight downside to this link list of my comments elsewhere is everyone else can read them as well. Sometimes people don't realize they are dealing with two different persona's when reviewing the crassness of my blog (and the historical series that was F6's original old media venue) versus my personal or pastoral commentary on other blogs and sites. I challenge everyone to take time to think about the possibilities and provisions for improving your surrounding community and the communication between neighbors. Whether friends or enemies, specify or at least declare your biases and predispositions when writing; remember also, facial features aren't usually illustrated well in written commentary.

[EDITOR'S UPDATE: This feature was discontinued after 2 months. It didn't work as intended, became cumbersome to keep track of , and some blogs don't allow links to a single post.]

CLARIFICATION AND APOLOGY

And that leads me to my clarification and apology then the closing of this post. In my review and follow up of the New Media New Rules forum held on the twentieth of this month, I referred to Rachel Blakeman and Nathan Gotsch in what some would assume is a demeaning manner.

What you are not all aware of is my internal mental animation. I have a cartoon that plays in the back of my head (hence my warped humor or views on certain things) and I see people and events in cartoon format as well as how they appear in reality. This skill comes from teaching preschool for several years. There are only so many ways to illustrate "pigs flying off a cliff" to three, four, and five year olds.

The first time I met Rachel was after the general election this year at the Thirsty Camel. She came in, sat down in a slump, and strained her neck veins to raise her head after a very hard fought election cycle; therefore my mind recorded an image of her in both reality and in animation format and it stuck, hence the mule reference. My apologies for not having clarified the terms of endearment. Now that I have somewhat explained the process with Rachel let me just say that certain actions or illustrations done by Nathan reminded me of a combination of a kangaroo and a jackrabbit (picture provided) with a cute little cotton tail bouncing into the vegetable garden and tearing it all to shreds. I wont even go into the notion of my wanting to see him in clip on rabbit ears and fur lined bikini except to mention them briefly (all puns were intended) in this forum.




I hope you all have enjoyed the thoughts and perspectives I've shared thus far. I look forward to the adventures over the coming few months and enjoy the continued Cross Blog Debate and conversation with each of you.

Blessings Along The Journey!

MRev. Kenneth White, Jnr., Editor,
F6 ~ Fun Fag FAQs From Father Fozy
http://frfozybearftwin.blogspot.com/

A Crapload of Conduct Issues (Final Copy)

Over the last week or so several blogs in the area jumped on two particular bandwagons.

The two primary issues that did get coverage over the normal City of Fort Wayne government corruption or citizen's general stupidity, were discussions (which I started lurking across from Mitch Harper's Fort Wayne Observed) on a certification of civility for bloggers who were being asked to moderate their blog content under the principles drafted by Tim O'Reilly.

A second bastion of cross blog politicking came when Rachel Blakeman of Be Part of the Solution started a discourse that comes down to boycotting businesses/owners that support a particular opposing political ideology, candidates, or platforms.

As of earlier this morning, also reminisced by Kody's Tinnel Vision, it has been quite an interesting recovery from the elections. Even with the aforementioned cross blog debates as the blogosphere around these Three Rivers traffic has seemed to slowly trickle to a log jammed stream with no hope of recovering for a couple of days to a week, to the pointe that this blog, yes my blog, actually almost made it to the Top Twenty on the Indiana Influence Index of the Blog Network News site! Thank you!

To give you a basic rundown of my thoughts would probably take forever; so before I continue my response, let us first review the basics of the Civility Enforced platform from Irish blogger Tim O'Reilly.

We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation. But frankness does not have to mean lack of civility. We present this Blogger Code of Conduct in hopes that it helps create a culture that encourages both personal expression and constructive conversation.

1. We take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog.

We are committed to the "Civility Enforced" standard:

We will not post unacceptable content, and we'll delete comments that contain it.

We define unacceptable content as anything included or linked to that:
- is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others
- is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person,
- infringes upon a copyright or trademark
- violates an obligation of confidentiality
- violates the privacy of others

We define and determine what is "unacceptable content" on a case-by-case basis, and our definitions are not limited to this list. If we delete a comment or link, we will say so and explain why. [We reserve the right to change these standards at any time with no notice.]

2. We won't say anything online that we wouldn't say in person.

3. We connect privately before we respond publicly.

When we encounter conflicts and misrepresentation in the blogosphere, we make every effort to talk privately and directly to the person(s) involved--or find an intermediary who can do so--before we publish any posts or comments about the issue.

4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

When someone who is publishing comments or blog postings that are offensive, we'll tell them so (privately, if possible--see above) and ask them to publicly make amends.
If those published comments could be construed as a threat, and the perpetrator doesn't withdraw them and apologize, we will cooperate with law enforcement to protect the target of the threat.

5. We do not allow anonymous comments.

We require commenters to supply a valid email address before they can post, though we allow commenters to identify themselves with an alias, rather than their real name.

6. We ignore the trolls.

We prefer not to respond to nasty comments about us or our blog, as long as they don't veer into abuse or libel. We believe that feeding the trolls only encourages them--"Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it." Ignoring public attacks is often the best way to contain them.

Of course this new campaign came with logos and banners and all the fluffy feel good bull lark that comes with "making the world a better place" feeling expressed through the "thoughts of those who are enlightened". I am so sorry, sometimes people just need a good deep dicking or ass spanking (read: brain refresher), whether it be from someone pointing out the practical or the more ideal response to an issue or at least educating through a tense situation or ignorant populous regarding a particular subject matter.

So of course others in the blogosphere of Fort Wayne decided to add their own explosive rhetoric into the mix. Eric White @ The Centerline, actually brought up that Tim O'Reilly added the category of "Anything Goes" as an option to amend the Code of Civility. All the blogs in the area included disclaimers and new applications of the Code, with some illustrating with cartoon animations one of which was that of a lit fuse on a dynamite stick amongst others.

Now of course this blog with my propensity to use male erotic art and photography has several ideas for how to illustrate each option and I will post those later. As to where this blog stands on the issues of blog civility? Blunt force trauma has always worked best in my case.

The questions posed by Rachel Blakeman after some review of the cross blog debate still ring of the same hypocrisies that the liberals bitch and whine about when Christians boycott Disney and other theme parks for "Gay Days" or when conservatives bitch because liberals boycott certain manufacturers and clothing companies or grocery stores for certain work site practices and labor violations; yet still neither party, conservative or liberal, have bothered to chastise the S.A. [edited/cite] which uses homeless men as sweat shop labor and spend approximately 80,000.00 dollars a year to promote discrimination of gays and lesbians, or on occasion other minority group members.

My point is simply this, if you want to draw your line in the sand, fine do it; but then make damned sure as hell that you, put a concrete slab on either side of that line and erect a ten foot high by ten foot long fence between those slabs of cement, and post a don't trespass sign on either side. Don't be the ecological/environmental/economical conscienceless who preach against abusive work environments, for abstinence only education, protest harmful chemicals, and preach intolerance on a Saturday rally and then secretly shop at Wal*Mart on Thursday night when no one is watching or go to a gay bar on drag night while wearing a dress because no one will notice. Duality is what pisses me off more than anything hold your stand on ideals and in reality not just against individuals or companies.

I dislike the way Wal*Mart treats it's employees and what it does as a company to small mom and pop stores even here in big old Fort Wayne, Indiana. But there are three reasons why I still shop at Wal*Mart:

1. They carry my particular favorite brand of underwear, Hanes Forward Fashion Bikinis, String Bikinis, and Low Rise Briefs, with my over sized balls and a ghetto booty as big as mine they provide the support and longevity, sheerness, and breathe ability I desire in essentials wear. Three pairs that I still have from 1995, I know I am a bad queer boi, are just now starting to show wear and tear.

2. The five different medicines I am on for my two heart failures and kidney failure in the course of a year only cost me thirty six dollars a month, before Medicaid kicked in since I haven't been able to work my primary paying jobs since mid March. Now it roughly cost me sixteen dollars a month. Thanks to the Wal*Mart in house co pay of four dollars a prescription on certain medicines I am alive today and have not had to go onto dialysis yet.

3. The third reason is my nine year old boy Bruno, who I am probably going to have to take for his walk here shortly, before it gets to cold and beyond dark. He is on a special food diet and the only place that carried the type of food that he could eat during the E-coli scare that hadn't been contaminated was a Wal*Mart brand Lamb and Rice blend.

By the way, for those who don't know, Bruno is an Australian Cattle Dog (aka, Queensland Blue Heeler) with throwback traits.

~CONCUSSIONS AND ILLUSIONS~

As I can not find one of the pictures I am looking for, and knowing my luck it will appear as soon as I publish this final post, I am going to revisit this post in a couple of months. I hope that: a. the conversation will have not subsided as it is one that we as bloggers need to progress through and evolve around for a while; and b. as we try out these new codes of conduct and stretch and skew them to our own application of civility, we will remember that it all started with one man writing down his thoughts across the world wide web and all of us jumping his bones or at least bitching up a storm about it.

Now if I were still in advertising or marketing regularly I would tell my big standard company to take note of this power of one blog to change the conversation even for just a brief time from Ireland to Indiana and across the world. That is called in marketing, 'a desired return'.

I think that the biggest concern is that we don't become complacent in the comfort that we all have behind a screen of electrons and strokes on a well worn keyboard. For most of us if we didn't have the news sources either online, through television, or the good old fashion black and white newsprint, to feed off of for stories to banter about, what would we have left? Each other and that is exactly what we have now both in person and through traditional industry.

There is a huge debate going on about the future of news media in this country and everywhere else. The blogosphere hasn't just changed the status quota or flipped mainline journalism on its ear, it has changed the way we all look at cultures and ideas and common practices that aren't considered abnormal any longer.

We as bloggers have taken the time to share either our lives and our opinions on certain matters and sometimes a little of both about this small part of our world around us and hopefully along the way have learned from others what a true normal world view really is.

Truth be told, I am lewd and graphic (and I probably use the strong man argument style more than I should); but more so important is that I inform you of my sarcastic and queer view of life and love and doing them both well, sometimes. I can only pray you enjoyed the exploration and beseech to you peace in every imaginable form.

Blessings Along The Journey,

Fr. Fozy Bear
MRev. Kenneth White, Jnr.