The Folsom Street Fair was small, sleazy, and slightly dangerous-feeling when I first attended 20 or so years ago. Yesterday's beautiful afternoon showcased a much different 2006 edition of the fair.  There were more people like the couple on the left (the woman was holding a leather leash that went to the man's dog collar, by the way). It was a lot of fun, but a different type of fun. Not dangerous, but still very San Franciscan. A few g-rated pictures of the crowd and friends from yesterday are in my Folsom Street photo set.

A benevolent dictatorship is a clearly a superior form of government.  An all-powerful do-gooder who can cut through deceptions, bureaucracy, and legal technicalities to benefit the people is dream of the righteous and justice-loving people.  Most religions put God in this role of benevolent dictator of heaven, while secularists bemoan the impossibility of such mortal paragons who can guide our affairs here in this life.  We settle for democracy because we cannot divine which among us is wise and benign enough to have dictatorial power. Democracy, we decide, is the best government that's possible. King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is [...]

 A fun gray day in San Francisco! I was glad to be able to stop by the end of the LJ picnic in Dolores Park.  I enjoyed seeing in person the icons I have known over the past year. I hear that fuzzygruf will be posting an attendance list and other links.  The few photos I took of the  LJ picnic are up at Flickr.

Tom Kelly celebrated his 50th birthday this afternoon. redozdachs and I stopped by briefly on a break from the computers. Here are some photos of the celebrants on hand as the party revved up. Happy 50th, Tom.

Today's edition of the Bay Area Reporter features a news story on my church's new Senior Minister, Rev. Gregory L. Stewart. They report on his comments on Unitarian Universalism and liberal religion, and they also detail his family's journey to San Francisco through Red State land. I am happy to see liberal spirituality mentioned at all, and it's very nice to have the positive comments.  Read the Article

We were very tired 11 years ago this moment, at 6:55 in the morning.  The vet had just left with stern instructions to leave Syntax alone. Let her get some sleep and get some sleep ourselves. We had run through the VCR of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert about five times during the night, never really watching it.  Instead, every time Syntax sighed, we'd lose track of the movie and watch to see if this was The Moment.  We watched heads poke up in the middle of her stomach, looking for the way out.  We went and checked our crash [...]