As a former Wisconsin resident and proud Badger alumni, it pains me that I am not there at the moment, but alas, I - along with the rest of the world - can only sit back and watch the situation unfold. For those of you who have not been paying attention to the news, Wisconsin is currently embroiled in a heated political battle over Republican Governor Scott Walker's blatant douchebaggery and his attempt to strip unions - and public sector workers - of their collective bargaining power. Wisconsin has been a pioneer in the pro-labor movement for the past century and Walker's bill to strip workers of their rights is both shocking and unpopular to say the least. Walker is resisting any form of compromise, citing that we are a broke state and therefore have to deal with the consequences for our brokeness - mind you the "tool" states this amidst rumors of him siphoning out money to his campaign contributors. Walker also has his National Guard on standby should the peaceful protesters and their "liberal lies and agenda" need to be subdued.  Here is a Huffington Post articleoutlining the timeline for the past 10 days of this protest - a protest that has drawn thousands from all over the state and region. Apparently, other states are looking to Walker's dumb attempt at totalitarianism to see how it pans out for them, before moving forward. Such was the case with the marriage equality battle that occurred only a few years ago. Hopefully, social equity and justice will prevail from this encounter, instead of conservative and Republican think-tanks scaring the citizens of Wisconsin into believing that eliminating the rights of workers is in their best interest.

So unfortunately I could not be in Wisconsin at the moment to support my fellow protesters - and I have been jonesing for a good protest. However, at our most recent improv show on Saturday I was able to give an impromptu rant about Wisconsin and the sheer idiocy of Scott Walker. Even though it is small, this is my contribution to the on-going protests occurring at the Capital.

So to all my Wisconsin friends and allies, I say thank you for standing up for the rights of the individual and not letting the tyranny of one dominate. As one of our right songs so epically states;

" U-rah-rah! Wisconsin!
Praise to thee we sing
Praise to thee our Alma Mater
U-rah-rah, Wisconsin!"

Check out the video below and make sure to visit The Utility Players website for more hilarious videos and photos.

In life, I am sometimes astounded by the sheer and utter stupidity of people. More often than not the stupidity comes from elected officials empowered to make decisions impacting our every day lives. However we elect those individuals - sometimes to multiple terms - so what does that say about us. Probably at the end of the day we're all a little stupid, a little crazy, and most importantly a little gay ... but I digress.

Most of you might have heard the news piece about Jared Lee Loughner - a fanatical, disenchanted citizen - and his rampage that resulted in the deaths of 6 individuals - including a 9 year old girl and federal Judge John Roll - and 18 seriously injured including Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giifford - who suffered a point blank head shot and is battling for her life at the moment. Here is the full article here. The focus of constant debate and conversation centers on how could this happen? What could have provoked someone to do this? The 2010 election was chalk full of nasty rhetoric, scathing accusations, and invariably each candidate would blame their opponent - and their party for that matter - for the complete and utter destruction of these United States. One political debate between Jack Conway and Rand Paul featured Conway accusing Paul of being a member of a secret society that tied a woman up, forced her to smoke pot, and then dunked her into a lake. However, some Americans once again refuse to wake the hell up. A CBS poll released today related that a majority of Americans - 57% compared to 32% - felt that the divisive rhetoric of the 2010 campaigns had nothing to do with the incidents that occurred on Saturday. Oh blow me; that is largest piece of crap I have ever had. There is no doubt, at least in my mind, that the rhetoric had a SIGNIFICANT impact.

For example, last year former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin proudly displayed a map of the United States with "cross hairs" on 20 Congressional Representatives - including Rep. Gabrielle Gifford. The tagline for the image is "we've diagnosed the problem, help us prescribe the solution". Now, many have contended that there is no relation between the map and Laughner's actions. I might not be a political think-tank or pundit, BUT DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS. A woman - who mind you could have been our current Vice President - feels that Democrats who disagree with Republicans are "the problem" and that we as Americans need to come up with a "solution". The disturbing language creates an "us vs. them" mentality reinforcing the archaic adage of "if you are not with you are against us". 

This problem is not solely reserved to the inadequet two party system of government in our country. Studies have demonstrated that when majority populations pass discriminatory measures against a minority population - such in the case of gay marriage - members of that majority feel empowered and justified in their hatred of this group. An individual feels that they can gay bash someone, call someone an ethnic slur, or sexully harass their employees because their government, family, country, church, etc has told them it is ok to think that way.  In this way the individual is absolved from any and all guilt because a "higher power" has affirmed their behavior or way of thinking.

Another prime example is when the Assistant District Attorney vehementally blasted a University of Michigan gay student on his blog citing that he was a Nazi with an extremist agenda and a terrorist to the University. How can it even be remotely acceptable for this elected public figure to verbally abuse and harass this student? The Assistant D.A. was so obsessed with this student that he stalked/videotapped the student from his house. We need to wake the fuck up and take ownership over the words, thoughts, actions, and intentions that we set out into the Universe instead of trying to find ways to scaepgoat other people and work to absolve ourselves for any guilt.