So, just look at us... I went to my 35-year high school reunion last night. Some faces never change, others you wouldn't recognize in a million years (thank God for name tags). I had a great time. Bill the Honeybear, wonder of wonders, had a good time too. We danced, we ate (quite a nice buffet, too), I caught up with people I hadn't seen in decades (at least three attendees hadn't been to a class reunion in over 10 years -- and it was the first for one guy). Plus it was nice to see how much the old town had changed -- and how much it hadn't. (The old town, in case anyone is wondering, is South River, New Jersey.)

In case you're wondering, the post title up there is from a Stephen Sondheim song, "Don't Look at Me", from the musical "Follies". I won't give you the full lyric, but the fragment is at the end of the song and goes: "So, just look at us/Fat, turning gray/Still playing games, acting crazy/Isn't it awful?/God, how depressing!/Me, I'm 100/You, you're a blessing/I'm so glad I came!"

After a year, closure. We went down to Florida on Tuesday to scatter the ashes of my parents and my brother-in-law. Wednesday morning, me, my sister Penny, some of her girlfriends from high school, her daughter-in-law Shayna, and assorted spouses (plus the Honeybear and Penny's current boyfriend) sat around and reminisced; Shari, one of the girlfriends, did us up a fine ham-and-egg dish, half omelette, half quiche for breakfast. Later that day, Bill, Penny, Shayna, Jim (Penny's boyfriend), and I took a boat out and scattered my mother, my father, and my brother-in-law into the water. On Thursday, we came home.

I did two good impromptu things (I think). First, the toast at Tuesday's dinner: simply, "Family". Second, the toast (using morning mimosas) after the reminiscenses: "To my mother and my father, who gave us roots and gave us wings; and to Ralph, who did the one thing I ever asked him to do: he made my sister happy."

The damn election is over. The candidate I voted for conceded defeat on Wednesday morning. Now there's reports and rumors flying all over the place about miscounted or lost votes. As I posted on a user group this past week: They'd better hurry. January 6 is when the electoral votes get counted, and unless you can change those (by recounting votes or whatever) there is no Constitutional mechanism to undo a Presidential election, no matter what you find afterward.

Was the Kerry loss due to gay marriage issues? In part, yes. I hate to say it, but the GLBT community and its allies fell down in the one arena they needed to do well in -- educating the general public about GLBT rights (and the lack thereof), especially in the so-called "red states". We also didn't point out the true meaning behind the language of several state anti-gay-marriage amendments -- that they would not only bar gay marriage, but any contractual arrangements that might copy benefits of marriage. Or, in other words: no civil unions; no powers of attorney; no living wills; no joint adoptions. Some lawyers are wondering about the fate of insurance benefits provided by employers to domestic partners. When you hear about lawsuits challenging these newly-passed anti-gay amendments, many of them are coming up due to the argument that the voting public was deliberately misled due to the explanatory language on the ballots about these amendments. (Louisiana's anti-gay amendment was struck down for just such a reason.)

But in part, no. Poll data from this election showed that in states where there was an anti-gay amendment on the ballot, the voting percentages for Bush were up only slightly (exceptions: Oklahoma and Utah, where the Bush percentages were up by 4 to 5 per cent). And there was one larger issue than GLBT rights this year: the handling of the Iraq War. It seems like "Don't change horses in mid-stream" was a deciding factor in voters' minds.

What about Congress? Well, the Republicans picked up some extra seats in both houses, retaining their majority. The balance is 55-45 in the Senate -- not a veto-proof majority (that would be 60). Plus you still do not have those 55 voting as a solid bloc -- there are still mavericks like Chaffee of Rhode Island (rumored to be planning to switch parties), Snowe of Maine, McCain of Arizona, and Specter of Pennsylvania. Over in the House, Marilyn Musgrave is back -- she's the author of the FMA -- and she's vowing to bring it back in the next session. A resounding defeat for Musgrave would have put another nail in the coffin of the FMA; but the GLBT community and its allies couldn't manage that, either.

And they're off... The race for 2008 is already underway. Many people are already naming Hillary Clinton as a strong candidate for the Democrats -- at least, she can't be attacked on her Vietnam service record. The jockeying for position started November 3.

If I ruled the elections: I would mandate the UK style of television campaigning. I would eliminate the primary elections -- let's face it, they're too much political circus, not enough political meat to be of any use. Far better to let the state party committees choose their delegates, send them off to wherever the convention is, have all the potential candidates give their best shot policy speeches there, then let the delegates decide. So what if it takes 137 ballots to come up with a candidate? It would be much more exciting to watch than the bland coronation ceremonies we now have. (Remember when it was exciting to watch convention coverage? Me too.) I would change the campaign finance laws to one simple rule: Thou Shalt Divulge The Source Of Every Single Penny Thou Dost Raise. Let the Federal Election Commission keep the running tally/source list, and have them send it off to the major media outlets once a week. No more fussing over hard money, soft money, 527's, and all the other rot. The Supreme Court, long ago, said that campaign contributions were a form of political speech protected by the First Amendment -- so how can it be constitutional to restrict it? And then, like God on the seventh day, I would rest.