A few years ago, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life to read. I felt bad about the fact that I started the book but never completed it. After hearing the recent soundbites of Warren equating homosexuality to pedophilia and incest, two incontrovertible crimes against humanity, I imagine it may be quite a while before I ever finish the book. I’m sure it’s a good read, but the recent news has kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.

I don’t want to go into a long, drawn out diatribe on this whole Rick Warren thing. There are just a few things I want to point out.

1) I think President-elect Obama made one of his first missteps as our new leader when he chose Warren to offer Invocation at his Inaugural ceremony. Warren is considered by many to be a good man. He is respected around the world and his literature has become required reading for many people of faith. But some of his beliefs are so antithetical to Obama’s, one has to wonder what positives there would be in extending such an invitation. I am in the midst of partaking of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals, and from the introduction alone, one could replace Lincoln’s name with Obama’s and the difference in the two and their approach to forming an administration would be nominal. To me it is true that the best discourse may come from those whose ideals are not always perfectly aligned. Such differences can provoke better decision-making.

However, why would Obama alienate the very people who gave him such a strong backing during his campaign, especially by embracing someone who is not even going to be a part of his cabinet? There is no real benefit to bringing such controversy to a historic ceremony that is full of pomp and circumstance but not at all impactful when it comes to policy decisions. Why rock the boat if you don’t have to? And why spit upon those who so lovingly lifted you upon their shoulders and helped to carry you into the White House?

2) That being said, it must be reiterated that Reverend Warren is not a part of the Obama administration. And it should also be pointed out that Obama has proven himself to be a shrewd, meticulous and determined man. He has made it clear that the final decisions to be made will be made by him. “The buck stops with me.” So, while his choice for this historic yet — in the grand scheme of things — relatively insignificant ceremony was a bad one, I truly believe that Obama’s policies will, in the long run, be more offensive to Reverend Warren’s sensibilities than to the LGBT community. Obama says he supports the Gay community (and abortion rights, which also differ greatly from Warren’s own ideals) and, at this point, I take him at his word. We shall see.

3) On a personal level, it bothers me when people try to equate the struggles of African-Americans to the struggles of Gay men and women. I think the discrimination both groups receive is the same, and I think that the psychological effect such discrimination has on the two groups is the same. But I think there are differences that make one a struggle from crib to grave and another an internal struggle that can remain hidden until it is either forced or voluntarily brought to the fore. I am not diminishing the pain and suffering endured. I am not diminishing the torment one must feel, spending a life rejecting what is only a natural feeling, a feeling that is often portrayed by friends and foe alike as sinfully unnatural. And I am not diminishing the obvious physical and psychological torment endured during overt gestures of hate by the intolerant. I guess I feel that one group (usually) has control over when and how their “outing” is revealed while the other group is thrust into combat the minute they emerge from the womb. The struggle for both is a tough one, but the road on which these struggles transpire is markedly different.

A recent AP News article states that many people do not perceive President-elect Barack Obama as a black man. He’s described as bi-racial, multi-racial, blah, blah, blah. The author Christopher Hitchens claims that he is just as white as he is black and that he is not the “first black president”. If I am not mistaken, Hitchens grew up in the U.K. and not the United States, more specifically, not below the Mason-Dixon line in the U.S. So, perhaps I should give him a pass on this one. In this country, it isn’t what you actually are. It is all about what people see. Perhaps Hitchens missed the innumerable death threats Obama has received in the last few months, or perhaps he neglected to see the number of Americans who would not vote for Obama simply because they thought he was black — and to be fair, the number of Americans who voted for him for the exact same reason.

You know what? Technically, these people are right. Genetically, Barack Obama is not a 100% black man (in this country, who is 100% anything?). But, right now Obama has a 79% approval rating in his handling of the transition from Bush’s administration to his own. 68% of the country has confidence in the president-elect, according to Gallup. He’s doing really well with American’s at this point. But the pessimistic side of me can only think that as Obama’s approval rating goes down, the blacker he’ll become. And if he ever achieves the cellar-dweller numbers of Bush, he’ll be darker than Wesley Snipes. It’ll go from “he is the perfect example of what America is. He is multi-racial, multi-cultural. His is the face that represents the portrait of the American landscape” to “See? I told you not to vote for his black ass. He was genetically disposed to pull us into the crapper.”

I truly, truly hope that I am wrong. But this country has seemingly come a long way in a very short amount of time. And I have to be cautious in thinking that humanity has truly taken a turn for the better.

He’s been a bad man. A very, very bad man.

Single-handedly, Governor Rod Blagojevich has reintroduced the kind of heavy-handed corruption the state of Illinois has been so well known for over the years. With a heady mix of hubris and narcissism, Blagojevich has successfully pushed former Governor Switzer out of the number one spot for sleaziest politician. Yes, what Switzer did was a pretty sleazy thing, but the governor of Illinois was more than willing to put his self-interest and well-being before all of the citizens to whom he swore to protect and serve. Switzer was doing his job. His flaw was hypocrisy and that enchanting bit of poontang he had on the side.

Money and power, my friends. Money and power. Politics is a damnable thing. If I have one sane hair on my head (I’m bald, I know), I pray it will keep me from ever running for any form of political office. It’s nothing more than a cesspool filled with greed and lust, empty promises and a whole lotta horseshit. And none of us is immune. Even Obama is bound to disappoint us one day. Although, I hope that I am wrong.

But you know what? Governor Blagojevich’s worst sin isn’t that he tried to finagle truckloads of cash from fellow politicians by presenting them with the possibility of taking over the open Senate seat left by President-elect Obama. It wasn’t that he even considered taking the open seat for himself. His worst sin wasn’t even his attempt, by withholding state funding for Wrigley Field, to muscle the Chicago Tribune into firing the editorialists who had been unflattering to him in the prominent rag.

Okay, maybe those are his worst sins. But you know what comes in as a close second?

That’s right. That hairdo.

Mr. Blagojevich, Donnie Osmond called. He wants his haircut back.

I just can’t think of one right now.

Yesterday, Senator John McCain’s senior policy domestic adviser claimed that the Blackberry was a “miracle that John McCain helped to create”. When informed of this, Senator McCain laughed and said, “That’s true. But in my day it was referred to as the Coloredberry.”

*rimshot*

*crickets*