"Straight Men Want Trannies"

In what can only be described as not surprising, a whole lot of straight men have a thing for transsexual women. A new study is out, based on internet visitors to transsexual dating sites and porn sites, and it seems that when no one is looking, because God forbid these same men actually have the balls to admit they are cool with us, they are flocking to these sites to get their fix.

Research gathered from more than a dozen major sources – including Alexa, Google and Internet World Stats – reveals that nearly 190 million heterosexual men are attracted to transsexual women and actively seek romantic contact with or sexually explicit images of them annually.

You would have to be living in a cave not to notice the increased attention being paid to transsexuals as they now regularly show up on top rated sitcoms and dramas, reality shows and the documentary of the week on cable stations everywhere. Sadly, too many people still think of us as nothing more than porn stars, prostitutes and guest stars on Jerry Springer. Even when they are trying to be respectful about us, they still can't help but belittle and be demeaning...

“You’re now seeing [transsexuals] in mainstream advertising and on TV shows. That and the Internet have made it [socially acceptable for transsexuals] to be out there on display.”

I'm so glad we're now on display, much like the prized cattle at your local state fair. I don't know what it's going to take to make people realize that we are real human beings, with real feelings and emotions, real families, real careers and more than capable of making great contributions to society. I keep trying to do my part by holding my head up high and going out into this world and do what I do best, live.

And Then There Were None

Senator Edward Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, left us last night and today we are all the poorer for it. I know there are those who didn't like him but the truth of the matter is, Kennedy was one of the great ones, a champion for those who had no voice and one of the last true statesmen. With his passing, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia is the last of the great ones and he too will soon be gone.

The Three Brothers

Lest you think that those on the right will show some respect, think again. Rush Limbaugh, the drug addicted asswipe of the right, congratulated himself today on predicting Kennedy's death before a health care bill could be passed.

Real Women

I've never understood why some women want to go for the emaciated look so popular in fashion magazines and on TV. There are few things less attractive than a size 0 woman and when I pass one on the street or in a store, I just want to kidnap them and take them to an all you can eat buffet. Since I began transition seven years ago, I've never been one to go all in on fashion and such. The only "womens" magazine I read is Glamour as it has a real female empowerment message and for the most part, stays away from the crap that is peddled in other magazines of the same genre.

Lizzie Miller looking ravishing in the pages of Glamour

Validating my belief in Glamour is an amazing picture that can be found on page 194 of the September issue. That it has become one of the more talked about magazine spreads in recent memory shows how far we have to go when it comes to affirming the inherent beauty in all women, not just the pencil thin models so routinely featured in magazine spreads. Her name is LIzzie Miller and she is without a doubt one of the more beautiful women that I have ever seen. She is real and judging from the smile on her face, she couldn't be more pleased with the way she looks. Good for Glamour and most of all, good for Lizzie.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

On the Today Show and sorry to say Matt Lauer, she's not "plus size", she's just healthy.

Let Those Socialist Countries Have Healthcare

You see, in America we just don't roll that way. We're proud of the fact that are health care system pretty much sucks ass. We're even more proud of the fact that 47 million Americans have no health insurance. Hell, we're fighting like mad to make sure that those benevolent insurance companies, the ones that keep raising your premiums by 25% and make sure to drop you the moment you get sick, keep making obscene profits off of our health. No, we don't need no health care reform in this country because that would take away all the money that we use to kill brown people in foreign lands.

We Need A Picture of Your Genitals

This really pisses me off...

From the Philadelphia Gay News comes this disgusting story of Kate Lynn Blatt, whose employer requested a photograph of her genitalia as a condition of continued employment.

Blatt was working for Manpower, a temporary employment service. After she was asked to leave a job she was on for Manpower in 2007, they told her that she’d have to provide documentation from her surgeon regarding genital surgery, plus a photograph of her genitalia in order to seek further employment through them.

The company (Sapa) lied about the reason she was terminated, and then would not let her return to work and use the women’s locker room unless she was willing to provide the documentation and the photograph. Manpower concurred.

Thankfully, the woman has filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and filed a lawsuit against the company.

Teh Stupid really does hurt sometimes.

District 9- Truly Spectacular

It's been a very, very long time since I walked out of a movie theater and felt the way I did today. Over the years, I've seen a lot of great films and even a few that were so special as to stick with me to this day, but I must admit, walking into District 9, I never for a second thought that this would be one of those films. Six hours later, I'm still stunned by what I saw and I imagine it's going to take quite some time for the magnitude of what I saw to actually settle in. In an era where Hollywood trys to hit you over the head and appeal to the lowest common denominator, great films aren't supposed to be made. District 9 is a great film and one that will change the way you think about movies.

I'm a huge fan of science fiction and while there have been a few smart and satisfying films of late, Sunshine being the best example, all too often what passes for science fiction is pure crap. Not since the early 1980's has the genre seen a film that compares to District 9. Ridley Scott's masterpiece Blade Runner and James Cameron's Aliens, are the benchmark for great science fiction and cinimea in general. Blade Runner has long been my all time favorite film with Aliens not far behind. Both movies are visually stunning, incredibly intelligent and as amazing today as they were all those years ago. District 9 deserves to be ranked with both and I suspect that 30 years from now, District 9 will still be seen as a masterpiece.

What makes the film so special is that it is everything that Hollywood is not. Producer Peter Jackson gave $30 million to unknown commercial and short film director Neil Blomkamp and told him to make whatever movie he wanted. The native of Johannesburg, South Africa expanded on his totally cool short film Alive in Joburg, casting unknown South African actors who all deliver a tour de force. Setting the film in Johannesburg, an urban hell hole if there ever was one, was brilliant. The memory of apartheid is always lurking as the movie shows what happens when alien refugees, not wanted by residents of Joburg, are moved into segregated areas of the city and forced to live in deplorable conditions.

If you see only one film this year, make it District 9.

Here is Alive in Joburg...


What the trailers here.

"Keep Louisville Weird"

I was at Kroger tonight and while I was in line, my T-Dar went off loud and clear. No matter how passable someone might think they are, I can usually spot a trans girl a mile away. In this particular case, the girl was very attractive, had a great haircut, had a lot of confidence and had amazing skin. The last part was the tell. You see, she was wearing a top that showed off way too much skin and as a result, her shoulders and upper arms had that masculine tell. No matter how skinny she was, and she was, the shoulders, arms and hands always give you away.

Anyways, I just smiled and thought it was kinda cool that two T-girls would be in the same checkout line. That's when the guy in front of me, a young twenty something who clearly had way too much testosterone flowing through his body, began to chuckle and make jokes with another woman in the line. His money quote was "keep Louisville weird", a play on the movement to support the Louisville institutions that make Louisville what it is. The girl they were making fun of was none the wiser to what was happening behind her and to her credit, the cashier would have none of it. Sadly, I didn't speak up and defend her and for that I feel pretty damn awful.

Home

RedOrbit is one of my favorite sites on the internet. Despite the fact that I was never a good student when it came to science, it's still one of my favorite things. Each day, RedOrbit puts up a new image and when I was going through the archives tonight, I was transfixed by this amazing view of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Click on the photo for a bigger and better view...



Here's what RedOrbit had to say...

The Milky Way blazes above the European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities at Mount Paranal in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert. Paranal hosts the world’s most advanced ground-based astronomical observatory, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and is home to two new telescopes for large imaging surveys currently under construction, the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). Both are expected to “take up duty” in the 2009-2010 timeframe.

This photograph shows an edge-on view of the Milky Way’s glowing plane slicing across the night sky, laced by bands of dust and dark gas. Taken with a digital camera using a three-minute exposure, the photograph also reveals a bit of action on the ground. To the left, a vehicle with its parking lights on stops lets out a passenger. Though bathed by the light of the Milky Way, the high-altitude desert remains quite dark. To illuminate the rightward path to the underground entrance ramp of the ‘Residencia’, where staff and visitors stay, the passenger takes along a small flashlight, seen as a squiggly bright line. In the lower right, the glass dome on the Residencia’s roof reflects the starry sky overhead. One of our Milky Way’s galactic satellites, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is seen hanging above the Residencia in the lower right corner of the image.

The Way The Conservative Mind Works

I've seen this before but thought I would share with you as it's quite telling and probably the most accurate portrayal of what it's like to be a right wing nutcase (via AmericaBlog)...

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

And then I log on to the internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

Some Mor Pics From The Flood

Just some pictures that I thought really relayed the magnitude of the flooding today. The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), which runs the flood pumps in the Ohio River and Beargrass Creek flood plains, said that one of their stations received 6.5 inches of rain in one hour, making that the heaviest rain ever in a one hour period. The official total at the airport, although far less than areas north in the urban core, set an all time August rainfall record. Here are some of the pics (courtesy of the Courier Journal, WHAS, WAVE and LEO)...

The Watterson Expressway at Manslick Road. I think this picture is just amazing.

Near the University of Louisville campus.

University of Louisville campus

Churchill Downs stretch under water.

Churchill Downs paddock under water.

Cherokee Park in the Highlands. Beargrass Creek is about 10 feet above it's banks.

Beargrass Creek in Cherokee Park. The creek is normally a small stream.

Old Louisville flooding

Old Louisville flooding at 3rd and Magnolia. I used to live at this corner.

These people are sitting on the steps of my old apt. building.

In front of my old apt. in Old Louisville

Round 2

Here comes the next wave....

Fetch Me An Ark

The lightening began early this morning but the rain didn't start till a little after 8. An hour later, 6 inches had fallen, creating massive flash flooding here in Louisville.
Storms moving into the city.

The Weather Channel has a great twitter page about the flooding. Check it out here.

Only once in my life have I seen in rain like this and that was during Hurricane Elena in 1985 when we were living in Clearwater, Florida. Here is a rundown of what's happening:

1. Interstate 65 has been closed most of the day as sections of the highway near downtown have been under several feet of water.
Interstate 65 flooding.

2. The Watterson Expressway is closed in the southwestern part of the city as sections of the 10 lane expressway are under 5 feet of water.

3. Churchill Downs has had to evacuate horses because of high water.

4. The University of Louisville campus is under 3 feet of water.
UL Campus


5. The main branch of the Louisville Public Library sustained heavy flooding and lost over 10,000 books as well as hundreds of computers.
The Library

6. The United States Coast guard is doing water rescues around the flooded areas.
Water rescue.


7. Louisville International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world (because of UPS World Air Hub) was closed for several hours today. Long delays are expected all day.

8. 20,000 homes without power.

9. A fire, sparked by the storm, destroyed parts of an upscale apartment complex in eastern Louisville.


10. Several area hospitals have been flooded.

11. Many intersections downtown are closed.
Downtown streets

12. Area creeks have flooded their banks. This includes Beargrass Creek and Floyds Fork, the two main drainage basins for Jefferson County.
Beargrass Creek floods downtown streets.


Old Louisville

Tron

Okay, I'm totally geeked about this...

Cold War

I am a child of the Cold War and like my parents, it will shape me till the day I die. I just finished watching a very troubling film called Testament and it brought back all kinds of memories. Set in 1983 small town California, it's the no nonsense story of a close knit family who find their world shattered by nuclear war. There are no mushroom clouds, no special effects, no gore or violence, hell, we don't even know why the war started, we just know that it slowly destroys all that this family knows. For those out there who were born after about 1982 or so, you just have no idea how scary it all was. Each night, we all went to bed knowing that it was entirely possible that while we slept, the missles would launch and the bombers would fly. NATO and The Warsaw Pact were both armed to the teeth and fingers were on the triggers, the only question being who would blink first.

In the end of course, the West prevailed and the Soviet Union collapsed along with it's empire across Eastern Europe. We came quite close to all out war in my lifetime and even more so in the lifetimes of my parents. Mom and Dad grew up practicing war drills at school, drills that were abandonded by the time I got to school as it became clear that none of us were going to survive if the bombs did drop. Yes, it was scary as hell and it's something I don't want to go back to no matter what. For those too young to remember or even know what I'm talking about, lucky you.