Okay, y’all, thanks for the, um, support yesterday. Here’s what happened:

Mom (my bride, the love of my life, she who I can’t live without, the goddess, angel, etc.) ran from work to pick up our son so he could go to scouts. He announces he doesn’t want to go to scouts, preferring to get ready for the open house instead.

Then, God (or one of his appointees) saw to it that it poured down rain. So no soccer practice.

Finally, I went (in the traffic that is s l o w e r because of rain) and picked up the other two at their respective day cares and we made it to the open house with five minutes to spare.

But that isn’t what this entry is about. No, Arlene Wohlgemuth (she who must not be named) has crawled under my skin in a big way today. (she’s running for congress and represents everything that I think is bad about government)

I get these nifty full color ads in the mail, every day, that say things like “Vote for me! I’m great!” only this year it’s “Don’t vote for them, they’re nasty!” The topic of the one I received today? Adoption by gay (gasp!) parents!

See, Arlene has an opponent that apparently said or did something that might allow gay parents in Texas to adopt a child. Legally. And Arlene thinks this is about as bad as an apocolypse and says things like “these children need a strong and supportive home” and “parents wait as long as a year to adopt a child in texas and some even go overseas.” It goes on and on about how we cannot allow this and how it will destroy the moral fiber of our state (there’s a laugh) if it happens.

Well, nothing could piss me off more, nor be more full of bullshit.

Facts:

• There are thousands of kids in Texas waiting to be adopted. Waiting. to. be. adopted.What there are not, are pretty, healthy, six week old white infants like the one pictured on the campaign propaganda. No, most of these kids are older, and (egads!) black or green or blue.
  

  As of July 31, 2003, there were 3,617 children waiting for adoption through the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Of these,1,263 were African-American, and 1,245 were Hispanic.
  95 children had physical disabilities, 1,378 had learning disabilities and 1,551 had emotional problems.

• People are not exactly lining up to become adoptive parents. Income tax rules say you can get a tax credit of up to $10,160 for qualifying expenses paid to adopt an eligible child. A credit. For those of you that know taxes, this means you can reduce the tax you owe to the government. So it ain’t the money. You want a cute little white kid? So does everyone else, get in line. You wanna adopt? The state will bend over backward to help you do it. (except that Arlene has slashed their budget)
• I have fostered for many years, and all of the physically and sexually abused, and neglected children I have seen came from straight as in not gay parents. So don’t give us any happy horseshit about how “a marriage between a man and a woman is the only proper home.” We’re talking reality, folks, not some political action committee meeting.

I need to lighten the fuck up. And ya know? I’m still on my first cup of coffee. Wait’ll I get charged…