Alas he is. Of course he is several years my senior and has a lot of life experience and (to his credit), does not live a typical gay lifestyle. Love is a many splendored thing, it seems.

As for your comparison to the Carter thermostat suggestion, KUDOS TO YOU. I hadn’t even considered that one but it is a prefect analogy for this situation as was your explanation of the difference between the two.

Thanks for the comment, Rhett!

Case and point– his campaign’s recent attempt to make the tire pressure gauge into a modern Carter Cardigan Sweater. It’s utter fail. On face value, you can see why the idea might have looked good. There are similarities between Carter telling people to turn down the heat and Obama saying that proper tire inflation would obviate offshore drilling. The problem is, however, that nobody in McCain’s camp seemed to understand why the sweater thing backfired.

Carter looked dippy in that sweater, and as he wasn’t qualified to dictate fashion, people didn’t want to do it for fear they’d look dippy, too. That was the capstone to people’s frustrations– everything sucks, and now we have to look like dorks, too. Say it a’int so, Jimmy. Say it a’int so.

But a tire pressure gauge is a fairly neutral item, fashion-wise, and I daresay it might have even seemed somewhat appropriate. There’s nothing quite like ranking out a straight, macho guy by suggesting he doesn’t know how to maintain a car.

Ever watch a boxing match, and one of the pugilists gets hit really hard and, while he’s not down, he’s certainly no longer in the fight? Just pathetic flailing and wandering around the ring? That’s kinda how McCain looks to me these days.

I can’t believe your parter is a Log Cabin Republican. I thought those were just make-believe, like elves, goblins, and Eskimos.

Ahmet was a member of the gay rights group Lambda Istanbul, that was closed down earlier this year by the government of Turkey for “immoral” behavior.

This is a country that is being considered for EU membership, and who, according to many sources, has made “major improvements in human rights.” I just don’t see it. It angers me that the EU will say that a country must improve their human rights situation to be able to join, but then ignore a breach of human freedom like this. I’ve been able to find no comment, no reaction by any EU parliament member to Lambda’s closure.