The 'Impact' rally in Boston.

I was there, along with over 2000 of my closest friends.

Helped some sweet dykes get their rainbow flag hoisted. (Lovely women, but couldn't tie a knot to save their lives!) took a bunch of pictures.

This is my favorite:


To see things like this, fills me with hope and optimism. Seeing these two older, distinguished gentlemen, having a conversation with a teenaged Asian girl, speaks so much about what we can be as a society and have become as a society. That these people, who some would think were separated by the gulfs of race and age were engaged in a conversation, the one, learning from and about her elders, the other two, encouraged and energized by this child.

Yes. This IS what hope looks like, what it feels like.

November 15th. 1:30 PM. Boston. City Hall Plaza.

Protest against Prop 8 in California. Rally for full equality for citizens.

Both the Massachusetts and U.S. Constitutions guarantee all citizens the full and equal protection of and under the law.

I'm straight. I support marriage equality.

I'll be there.

(edit) crossposting my comment from the Facebook Boston Rally page:

"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it Now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph."



Thomas Paine, The Crisis -- December 1776

Have fun at your "riding lessons and 'American Girl stuff", your "plays", your "other plans".

Sorry that you won't be there in Boston because of the icky rain. Wouldn't want you to be the least bit uncomfortable.

I'm 56 years old. I am badly afflicted with arthritis. Standing in the cold and the rain will hurt like HELL for me. I'm also straight. But I'll BE THERE for my gay brothers and sisters. No matter what.

I can't really say that I'll miss seeing you 'sunshine soldiers' there.

If you look long enough, you can find anything on the Internet.

For example:
Bertrand R. Brinley's 'Rocket Manual For Amateurs'. Published in 1960, it has long been something of the Holy Grail for modern amateur rocketeers.

Chock full of technical details, design specs, and rocket fuel recipes. And that's the reason why it's been out of print for decades.

Rocket Fuel. There are some seriously dangerous formulas in this book. You could easily kill yourself if you did something stupid.

And of course, in this post 9/11, "BE AFRAID!" day and age, as well as the irrational fear of anything that might possibly hurt someone, no one is going to take on the potential liability for republishing this book.

However, getting back to the subject of this posting.

The book is on the Net as a PDF scan of the pages. I just downloaded it myself. Not that I'm planning to brew up rocket fuel in my apartment or launch rockets from the roof of the building.

No, I downloaded it because I'm now one more person that has the PDF, making it just slightly more difficult for this book to be lost and forgotten.

While I'd love to have a genuine hardcopy of the book, the cheapest version I have seen recently was US$50.00 via eBay. Maybe someday I'll be able to spend that kind of money on a 40+ year old paperback book.

Oh, the URL?

Sure. Here you go: http://www.filestube.com/1144a11ae0e8381203ea/details.html

You'll have to download three seperate files, though, via Rapidshare, which will take you about 45 minutes to get all of them, and then use some manner of file decompression utility to expand the .rar files.

Oh, and then there's the matter of the file password.

It's Brinley.

DISCLAIMER!!! I am not responsible for ANYTHING that YOU DO with this book. Don't be stupid! If you have a "Here, hold my beer" moment and wind up getting a Darwin Award, that's not MY FAULT. No way, no how.

Got that? Good.

Ain't that America!