Y’all Gonna Make Me Start Celebrating Father’s Day

Many of you know how I feel about certain “holidays”, specifically Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day.  I have some issues with Christmas and Thanksgiving too, but honestly, any excuse to eat a lot of food is enough for me to set aside my principles.  Plus, those are the two main days that I get to spend time with members of my extended family.

I don’t really remember ever celebrating or even acknowledging Mother’s Day before that fateful one when my mother was laid to rest.  I assume we must have had Mother’s Day celebrations prior to that.  Maybe, maybe not.  That could explain why she was buried on Mother’s Day, and no one noticed.  Or maybe I just don’t recall.

I’m also not sure if I don’t celebrate those “holidays” because I’m an orphan.  And I’m aware that I had a tumultuous relationship with my father during my formative years, but as an adult, he sure was one cool dude.  But it can’t be anything to do with the relationship with my father because my husband is an excellent father, was raised by a wonderful father, and we still don’t celebrate Father’s Day. 

I just feel like every day is Father’s Day; every day is Mother’s Day; and every day is Valentine’s Day.  After all, we are parents every day, and we love each other every day.  But that’s just my perspective, hence the name of the blog.

But for those people who celebrate Father’s Day, for those people who acknowledge Father’s Day, for those FATHERS who feel special on that day, the least the rest of us can do is to give them that respect.

On Father’s Day, Facebook was bombarded with memes and posts about Happy Father’s Day to the mothers who are fathers and mothers.  Because they decide to share everything about themselves, the only person that I know who is a father and a mother is Bruce Caitlyn Jenner.  Too politically incorrect?  Then what else would you call someone who is woman above and man below?  But this is so not about Bruce Caitlyn.  Then there were narratives about deadbeat dads, about sperm donors, about the fact that anyone can be a father but not everyone can be a dad.

I know a whole lot of fathers - in my inner circle, friends, acquaintances, and out of all of them, I’d say 95% are good fathers.  Of all the fathers that I know, only a handful need to step up their game; the majority of them are on point.  They are loving.  They are supportive – financially and otherwise.  They are mentors.  They are hands-on.

I’m not a father.  I don’t celebrate Father’s Day.  However, I was really ticked off this past Sunday from the utmost disrespect that many fathers had to endure about the negativity that many people feel about a few fathers.  For the fathers that I personally know who could work on their game, it’s mainly extenuating circumstances that cause them not to do better.  That’s not to say that I’m making excuses, but at least it’s not like they just sit down and say, “Today, and for the rest of my life, I’m going to be the worst father that I can be.”

Another irritating point is that these fathers just recently had to go through their Facebook and see people bragging about their four year old Pre-K graduation, who is blessed to be leaving Pre-K at four.  They had to see the long essays about how proud people are of their five year old graduates who successfully got promoted to the First Grade.  They had to endure how happy folks are about their 12 year olds who are going to Middle School next year.  They had to see pictures of 15 year olds from their Junior High School proms.  Did these fathers bitch about the fact that these kids were at the age to reach these milestones?  No!  They shared your joy.  Yet, you are the first to combat with that’s what they are supposed to do if anyone says that some fathers go above and beyond the call of duty.

Many mothers out there make mistakes on a daily basis, yet every Mother’s Day, there are more ‘queens’ than at a royal convention.  Mother’s Day already gets a big hoopla compared to Father’s Day, so perspectively speaking, what does it take away from single mothers for fathers to be celebrated on Father’s Day?

Happy Juneteenth

I cannot believe that this is the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, and it is also the first that I’m knowing what it is.  I started seeing Juneteenth a few days ago, but silly me, I thought it was some kind of hip hop music festival due to the arena in which it was mentioned, and due to its silly name.  But I noticed that it kept coming up in light of certain situations that were occurring in this here US of A.  You know, like police beating up kids at pools, non-White people pretending to be Black, and now the massacre at a historic Charleston, SC church.  Now I usually like to be in the know, so because there wasn’t much narrative about this Juneteenth, I kept ignoring it.  Eventually, I realized that it was becoming way too popular for me to avoid, so I researched it.

Not only is Juneteenth 150 years old, like I just mentioned, but it was on June 19, 1865 that Major Gen. Gordon Granger led Union soldiers to Galveston, TX carrying news that the war had ended and that all slaves were free.  Armed forces had to literally bring the news in person because Texas refused to follow President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation from two and a half years prior.  You know, I can just imagine the arrogance of those slave owners – “Well, if Abe (cause you know they were not going to give him the respect of calling him President Lincoln) thinks that these niggers are free, then he has to come here himself and tell us.  He will have to pry them out of our cold dead hands!”

I’ve lived in this country for around 25 years, and I have never heard about Juneteenth before this year!  Never heard anything about it from any civil rights leader.  Not from the media.  Not from any educator.  Not from the kids’ schools.  Nowhere.  And, yeah it’s up to me to learn about my own history; but it’s the same media that remind me when St. Patrick’s Day is looming, when Columbus Day is around the corner, how many marches are taking place on Memorial Day.  And by the way, Memorial Day and Independence Day were all about barbeques until September 11, 2001!

But Juneteenth is an actual holiday.  It became an official holiday in Texas in 1980, and about 45 states currently acknowledge it, either as a state holiday or a ceremonial holiday, including New York and Pennsylvania where I’ve lived, and I still never heard about it.  Yet the media would like to tell me stuff that I couldn’t care less about.  Like the other day Kelly Clarkson’s weight made news.  I’m gonna make this real quick and painless.  In a nutshell, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace visited The Mike Gallgher Show, and this was what happened.  They were talking about Little Caesar’s bacon-wrapped crust pizza when Gallagher asked, “Have you seen Kelly Clarkson?  You know the singer, Kelly Clarkson?  Holy cow, did she blow up.”  Being the ultimate professional, Chris Wallace was not going to fall for that bait and said, “Really?  Do we want to talk about some of your friends?  Kelly Clarkson’s got a lovely voice.”  But, alas it’s radio, and he just fell right into that trap and continued, “She could stay off the deep dish pizza for a little while.”

Well, of course he got into trouble.  Was he far from the truth?  Hell no!  Girlfriend has gained at least 100 pounds since she debuted on American Idol.  Of course the public said he fat shamed her.  I’m assuming he dropped an insincere public apology.  I have no time to locate it; it probably sounds like all other insincere public apologies.  She even went on Ellen, claiming that she didn’t care what people say.  LIAR!!!  Remember when Mo’Nique used to curse ‘skinny bitches’ and act like she was okay with her weight?  Remember when Star Jones used to pretend that being morbidly obese was not an issue, and if you didn’t mention the elephant in the room (no pun intended) she wouldn’t either.  Didn’t they both eventually lose the weight and felt more ‘healthy’?  We all care what people say to some degree.  Kelly Clarkson even threw her infant under the bus, insinuating that she just had a baby and what do people expect.  Like I said, Girlfriend gained about 100 pounds.  That baby did not weigh more than ten pounds. 

But here’s the irony: Ellen is 25 years older than Kelly and half the size, (or a third – she’s really big) but that’s not the problem because according to Kelly, “we are who we are”.  But as I watched her sitting on the chair in that matronly dress with her breasts resting on her gut, which in turn was resting on her lap, with her legs too big to be crossed that they were left slightly ajar, and with Ellen sympathetically telling her, “as long as you are happy and healthy” I thought to myself, “Who the hell are they kidding?”  And I just know that years down the road, if she ever loses that weight, she will finally admit that she knew she wasn’t healthy, that she knew she didn’t believe what she was saying.  But I’m digressing……..

One of the problems with the race relations in this country is that White people (and you know I hate to generalize, but for argument’s sake, I will just for today) are obsessed with places.  In their world, people cannot comingle.  Everybody has to stay in his place.  Someone has to come in at first place; ergo somebody has to take last place.  The concept of equality does not resonate in their minds.  There has to be strict guidelines as to who can go where, who can say what, who can do what.

Check it out.  This country has been obsessed with contests for decades.  And within the last decade, the contests have gotten more and more ridiculous.  It’s not enough to be the smartest on Jeopardy!; contestants have to be degraded on shows like American Idol, and all the Housewives of All the Cities.  I don’t watch them; but you know the ones I’m talking about.  I’m surprised that shows like The Price Is Right and Wheel of Fortune still exist.  They are family friendly and do not aim to denigrate. But the problem with these contest shows is that they are too subjective.  I’m not saying that the judges cannot be unanimous; but who’s to say that Contestant A is a better performer than Contestant B?

Then there are magazines like People with the Sexiest Man Alive and 50 Most Beautiful issues.  How you are going to judge the sexiest man in the world and don’t look outside of Hollywood is amazing!  So the 50 most beautiful people in the world today did nothing to change, yet next year, they’ve been downgraded because the movie that they had out last year is no longer hip.  And Americans still fall for this stupid shit!

The Miss America and Miss USA pageants are hardly ever judged fairly, yet they return every single year.  Even in sports, we have to deal with nonsense because even when the contest is NOT subjective, and there’s a clear-cut winner, there still has to be bullshit narrative.  American Pharoah did what many racehorses couldn’t achieve and what Secretariat did in 1973.  When Secretariat won the Triple Crown, there had been a 25 year drought.  Charismatic in 1999, War Emblem in 2002, Funny Cide in 2003, and Smarty Jones in 2004 all won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, only to fall short in the Belmont Stakes.  More recently, I'll Have Another in 2012 and California Chrome in 2014 met the same feat.  So when American Pharoah finally ended a 37 year drought for Triple Crown winners, you’d think that this amazing thoroughbred, his jockey, his trainer, his owners and everyone involved would get their time to shine.  But no!  First thing people said was, American Pharoah is a great horse, but he’s no Secretariat.  If Secretariat and American Pharoah were to run against each other, Secretariat would be x furlongs ahead of American Pharoah.  First off, Secretariat was born in 1970, American Pharoah was born in 2012.  Who’s to say what would have happened if they actually raced against each other in any single race?  THERE IS NO WAY TO EVER KNOW!

It’s like comparing LeBron James to Michael Jordan.  Jordan retired for the third and last time in 2003.  About five months later, James entered the league.  Not only is the game played differently, but they play differently and different positions.  Stat-wise, Jordan leads in some areas, James in others.  Maybe we can wait until James has retired for good, then make some kind of comparison; but no, people started comparing Rookie LeBron to Retired Jordan.

Speaking of basketball, the NBA (National Basketball Association) has a championship game every year.  There is one team from Canada, but somehow, when the time comes for the championship games, these two teams are vying to see who will be the WORLD CHAMPIONS.  And nobody cares if it’s an Olympic year and America doesn’t bring home the gold with the best of the best.  It’s quite fine for just one NBA team to be the best in the world, just because America says so.  But clearly America doesn’t care because it does the same for hockey, baseball and football.  And speaking of football, don’t even get me started.  This country not only changed the name of real football to soccer, but it went ahead and stole the name for a different sport where the athletes pretty much don’t use their feet.

So you see what kind of people we are dealing with, right.  For years I’ve wondered, “Why don’t they like us?”  (us meaning Black people)  How come we realize that (and again I know many Black people who are prejudiced against White people for no reason at all, well except the obvious old reason) we are all the same inside, and pigment doesn’t make anybody better than anybody else?  How come we judge people by their actions and not by the color of their skin?

Jealousy is one reason why someone hates another for no reason at all.  But what can they be jealous of?  We were the ones who were enslaved.  We were the ones who were ruled.  We are the ones who have zero power.  We are the ones who struggle in poverty.  What could they be jealous of?  Could it be that no matter what they do to us, we just pray (again I’m generalizing here, because you all should know by now that that train has left my station) endlessly whenever they torment us.  We are the ones who forgive them blindly no matter what they do to us.

The hatred that they have for us go so deep that they literally don’t want us around.  We can't go to church.  We can't go to the pool.  We can't go to our own bachelor party.  We can't go to the 7-11 for a late night snack.  We can't go home if we are a Harvard professor or an African immigrant.  We can't go to sleep if we are a 7 year old girl.  We can't go back to South Africa where some of the earliest fossils were found because they’ve taken that country for themselves. We can't go to Mars because they worked us for years without pay, so we don't have old money.  And even after they’ve killed us, they still desecrate our burial sites.

Being baffled I said to myself, “If they didn't want us here, why did they bring us from Africa in the first place?"  Seriously, where in the world do they expect us to go?  The only solution I can come up with for this deep-seated hate is that they do not want to live with the constant reminder of the evil business of slavery.  And to make matters worse, we took the high road and have forgiven them for the ultimate sin.  Getting rid of us is clearly not the solution. We have long forgiven you and moved on, so prospectively speaking, White people, in order for you to also move on, you need to forgive yourselves.

Baby Got Black!

In the 1986 movie Soul Man, C. Thomas Howell’s character applied to and was accepted to Harvard Law School, but when his rich dad decided not to pay his tuition, he applied for and received a scholarship – for African-Americans Only.  Changing his appearance to look Black, he met and fell in love with a real African-American (well technically, mixed race because there was no way someone who was predominantly Black was going to be cast for that role – that’s what women like Rae Dawn Chong are for).  When he found out that she was the original candidate for the scholarship and had to work as a waitress to support herself and her son, he eventually came clean and repaid the funds he fraudulently received.

Call me naïve, but that was one of my favorite movies.  At 17, I was not offended by the concept of the movie.  Today, I still would not be offended because movies are supposed to make us think, are supposed to entertain us, are supposed to imitate life.  And the idea of someone pretending to be Black instead of the other way around for personal gain is more funny than offensive in my humble opinion. 

Therefore when I heard of Rachel Dolezal, I couldn’t help but see the humor in it all.  She is the 37 year old head of the NAACP Spokane, WA chapter, and according to her parents, she is WHITE!  Biracial? No!  Mixed race? No!  Traces of Black? No! 

So I just read a little bit more about Rachel, and here’s what I found.  She was always interested in Black culture.  She married a Black man.  She has four Black adopted siblings.  She received a scholarship from Howard University.  She teaches African American Studies at Eastern Washington University.  She is a huge advocate for the Black community, being a spokeswoman on race-influenced police violence, being appointed chairwoman of a police oversight committee to keep an eye on fairness in police work, and having appeared with Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby after the Freddie Gray incident murder.

Montana, where Rachel was born around 1978 had less than 0.25% Black people.  Mississippi was about 36% Black in 2000, but in Jackson where Rachel went to college, it was about 70% Black; if you are in love with Black culture, that’s not a bad place to start.  She went to Howard University for her masters, which we know is predominantly Black.  Girlfriend finally hit the mother lode.  Spokane, WA where Rachel currently lives is about 3% Black, so it’s kind of understandable why she could pass for Black amongst her peers.  I don’t know why, but the lady considers herself Black.  Who am I to tell her otherwise?

However, if someone in this country, heck in this world was going to change who they were, why they wouldn’t choose to be a WHITE MAN is beyond me.  When it comes to privilege and having life the easiest, nothing beats a White man.  Yeah, it’s not politically correct to say that.  It’s not politically correct to state the obvious.  Well, it’s not correct to sit here and lie either.  So pick your poison!!!

So for a White girl who grew up in Montana, to choose to identify as Black in this day and age is quite interesting to me.  One thing I give her props for is to wear braided hair extensions on a regular basis.  Those things pull your hair out, are not easy to keep clean, can be very uncomfortable and painful, although easy to maintain.  And I’m not going to lie, she ROCKED those braids!

It doesn’t bother me that she tanned herself to look darker; many people of color bleach their skins to appear lighter.  It doesn’t bother me that she changed her hair to be kinkier/curlier; many people of color wear straight weaves.  It doesn’t bother me that her job is to champion human rights and the civil rights of Black people, even though she is White.  Well, her parents actually admitted that she has some Native American in her.

This is what bothers me mostly, that the NAACP still exists.  Now, I don’t want to put anyone out of a job because I know what it feels like to have a steady salary one day and the next day you’re trying to figure out how quickly you can update your résumé.  And I understand that although it’s not a service that I need, there are others who might.  According to their website, the mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. 

Even the name of the organization is redundant.  Black people are not called colored anymore…well, not in public.  At least, they don’t refer to themselves as colored, so that’s an advancement.  The NAACP was founded in 1909, and it’s been 106 years, and although there has been vast improvement, racial discrimination still exists in the political, educational, social and economic arenas of this country.

Just like how dozens of women who were outed for simultaneously dating a famous golfer do not seek help from NOW (National Organization for Women) and go instead to Gloria Allred for guidance and counsel, whenever a Black unarmed person gets shot by the police, no one calls the NAACP.  The person who sets up the marches and the protests is the one and only Al Sharpton.

I’m not saying that the NAACP doesn’t do anything; I’m just saying that I haven’t seen them do much.  And in light of the fact that so much injustice still takes place in America, I want to know how they use the $30 annual membership fee or the $750 lifetime membership fee paid over a 10 year span that they receive from the nearly 400,000 members.  Oh, they’ll get you if you are young too with membership starting from $10 a year to a $400 lifetime membership.  Yes, I know that they give scholarships, but $2,000 can only go so far.  And yes, I know every little bit helps, but let’s not pretend that they are paying anyone's way through college.

Rachel lied about being African-American.  Rachel lied about the identity of her father.  And really and truly, it doesn’t matter to me or clearly to the NAACP about the ethnicity of its leaders.  Benjamin Jealous wasn’t all that colored, and he served as President and CEO from 2008 to 2013.  He had lots of drops of Black blood in him, but back in the Jim Crow era, he could have passed for White ….. if he wanted to.

Not only should the NAACP or any organization like that go away, but the idea of classifying people in terms of color should also go away.  If one can still abide with an organization like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 2015, then Rachel Dolezal can abide by the one-drop rule and say that she’s Native American.  And I for one am tired of our blackness being the first thing people mention about us, as if it’s not obvious.

Case in point, citing Wikepedia.org:  Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. 

However, this is how JFK was portrayed on the same site: John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), commonly known as Jack Kennedy or by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Notable events that occurred during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Police Week, the establishment of the Peace Corps, the Space Race—by initiating Project Apollo (which later culminated in the moon landings), the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and the increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

After military service as commander of Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from that state from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. Presidential Election. At age 43, he was the youngest man to have been elected to the office,[2][a] the second-youngest president (after Theodore Roosevelt, who was 42 when he became president after the assassination of William McKinley). Kennedy was the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president.[3] To date, Kennedy has been the only Roman Catholic president and the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.[4]

Not only was his religion mentioned in the end of the second paragraph as opposed to Obama’s race being mentioned in the first sentence, but it’s written almost as an afterthought.

So since the NAACP claims to protect the equal rights of all people, it really shouldn’t matter if Rachel was Black or White.  However, deep down, we know that if she had applied for that job without implying that she’s Black, she would have never gotten that job.  I guess she thought it would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission, which I’m sure she’ll be doing shortly.

A common definition of ethnicity is “socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural or national experience”.  If Rachel’s parents think that she is Swiss, German, Czech with some Native American, who is to say she doesn’t have some African too?  Maybe she doesn’t; maybe she does.  Who cares?  But the woman, for whatever reason clearly identifies with the Black race.  However, at the end of the day, she is working for an organization that is as superfluous as this scandal, and perspectively speaking, that is the real scandal.

But, Shouldn’t It Be Kaitlyn Jenner?

I usually have an opinion about pretty much everything, but this time I don’t.  I’m not saying that I don’t have anything to say; I’m just not leaning either way.  And the major reason is I JUST DON’T GIVE A FLYING FIG!!!

I will agree with some of the memes, comments and statements, but I just don’t care that much to give it that much oxygen. 

Therefore I agreed with the meme with Kris Jenner pondering why he didn’t spell Caitlyn with a K.  Totally agree!  Then I realized why.  Someone speculated that Bruce is doing all of this to garner as much attention as the women in his family.  At first I thought, who cuts off his little friend just for attention?  But two things:  A) he still has his little friend (I’ll get into that in a minute) and 2) nobody is talking about Kim’s constant nakedness, so maybe.  And spelling his name with a K will just make him another plain old Kardashian.

Caitlyn introduced herself on the cover of Vanity Magazine wearing a silky, white basque and matching underwear.  Not only do I not own a basque, I also had no idea that was what it was called.  He She appeared in a Porsche commercial wearing a sexy red dress accenting his her breasts.  I’m not saying that Bruce wasn’t trying to find himself herself; I’m not saying if being Caitlyn makes Bruce happy, then by all means do your thing, boy girl.  I’m just saying that nobody was giving Bruce any commercial.  Nobody was paying any attention to Bruce.  Bruce was not on anybody’s radar.  I know these celebrities like to re-invent themselves, but that’s taking it to a whole nother level.

Now ESPN has awarded him her with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.  In the 1970s, Jenner became a national hero after winning a gold medal in decathlon during the 1975 Pan American Games and the 1976 Olympic Games.  He has set world records.  He has accomplished other feats like being named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, being inducted in the Olympic Hall of Fame and the US National Track and Field Hall of Fame and was the recipient of many awards.  So yes, I applaud him for all that.  By the way, he was a legit he then right?  So it’s politically correct to refer to him as him if I’m referencing the 70s, right?  (This is so frigging complicated.)  But for ESPN to give him the Arthur Ashe Courage Award just because this time last year he was wearing a brief (or was he) and now he’s wearing a panty is RIDICULOUS!

Some people might disagree and say it takes a lot of courage for him to expose himself to the world like that.  Well, nobody asked him to pose is a basque (I like that word) on the cover of an international magazine.  There are so many transgenders, and I know America likes to have a famous face for every cause, but if Bruce had become Caitlyn for himself, I would be the first one to give him his props.  That would send the message that he’s doing it for himself, for his own happiness and to be a shining example to everyone to live his or her truth.  But the man wanted to get a reality show out of this.  However, that was cancelled before it even started.  The man had interviews – I obviously didn’t watch them so I can’t tell you what he said or didn’t say.

And for those of you who say it’s not our business, you are just as ridiculous as Bruce Caitlyn, whatever his her name is.  Again, if he she was just living his her life and minding his her own business, then it wouldn’t be our business.  But from the time you appear on the cover of a magazine in women’s underwear and your breasts are now bigger than mine, heck I’m gonna talk.  Then I find out that you have breasts, but you kept your penis, you’re telling me that I’m not going to be curious about what the hell you are.

And look, I’m not one for labels, but if Caitlyn was a man, but now has breasts bigger than two ex-wives combined who also had implants, kept his little friend, BUT will be dating women, what on earth is he she?

All I know is that a lot of stuff is going on in the world, even in this country.  Beau Biden died from brain cancer.  A sitting vice-president’s son died at the young age of 46, and all everyone wants to talk about is Caitlyn Jenner.  In his own rights, Beau Biden was a former Attorney General from Delaware and a force in the Democratic Party. 

Dennis Hastert, another conservative Republican whose sole purpose in the late 90s was to impeach President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, we are now finding out was a pedophile while he was a wrestling coach and has paid off millions in hush money.  I’m not gonna lie – I’ve always told my kids that they can play any sport they want EXCEPT wrestling.  That sport has always seemed very gay to me….not that there’s anything wrong with that!!! 

There’s still no water in California.  Tornadoes are ripping Colorado.

Serena Williams will be the first woman to win the Australian and the French Open in the same year since Jennifer Capriati did it in 2001; and if she remains unstoppable, she will be the first woman to win all four grand slams in the same year since Monica Seles did it in 1992.

So it’s not as if there is nothing happening in politics, sports, or the weather.  Important things are happening.

Okay, I lied.  Or I misspoke.  I still don’t give a rat’s ass, but boy do I have an opinion!  Seeing Bruce Caitlyn on the cover of Vanity scared the crap out of me.  Since I’m confessing here, it actually grossed me out.  The image of an old man wearing too much makeup to look like a middle aged woman, the sight of a former athlete whose muscular arms and thighs are also interwoven with the sag from old age, the bad wig and baggy panties are images that perspectively speaking, I will never be able to unsee for the rest of my life.