The Antisocial Socialist

I didn't know that Dan thought those things! How lame.

From:

sabotabby

It's disappointing because I used to love his column. But he's said those things, no doubt about it.

From:

misslynx.livejournal.com

He actually seems to have gotten somewhat better over time with regard to bisexuality. I think the got raked over the coals enough on that one that he's started to engage brain before mouth these days.

From:

he's a smug high school libertarian with a gun boner trapped in a gay man's body

Bingo!

So disappointing.

From:

I haven't seen a version of that sonoma cty story yet that makes the slightest bit of sense, or even minimally explains what happened. Unless the city officials resorted to simple theft, there's a legal process to go through, forms, legal findings, and so on, and nobody has said what those were. For example, under what justification did they ignore a durable power of attorney? The only way I can make this story work at all is to assume the court found both men incompetent. Is that what happened? I need more information. From the story as it stands, I can't even tell which city officials, exactly, were at fault, which laws they broke or ignored, and so on.

From:

sabotabby

I can't shed any light on it, I'm afraid.

From:

misslynx.livejournal.com

I've done a bit of searching around and yes, there are definitely a lot of questions I'd like to see answered. With regard to the selling off of possessions, apparently it was to cover the medical bills for the older partner's hospital stay before his death, and they treated the situation like they would anyone who had died completely alone with no family - i.e. the government basically took control and sold off his assets to cover his debts.

What I can't figure out is why the younger and supposedly healthy partner also got put into a nursing home, and why/how they ignored things like wills and powers of attorney. I don't know if maybe something also happened healthwise to the younger partner that resulted in him being placed in the nursing home, and maybe the county actually didn't know about the various legal documents because the couple didn't have any other friends or family to advocate for them, or whether it really was a case of deliberate bigotry.

But a lot of the activism happening around this seems to be focussed on trying to get one media outlet or another to do some kind of investigative piece on the situation, and hopefully that will shed some light on it. It's a disturbing situation no matter what, but it would be good to be more clear on exactly what flavour of disturbing.

From:

The PDF of the complaint lays it all out: http://bit.ly/bDbSoi It's 78 pages.

From:

It looks legit:

http://nclrights.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/nclr-launches-visibility-campaign-to-expose-tragic-case-where-sonoma-county-separated-elderly-gay-couple-sold-off-all-belongings/

Clay Greene and his partner of 20 years, Harold Scull, lived in Sebastopol, California. As long-time partners, they had named each other beneficiaries of their respective estates and agents for medical decisions. As 2008 began, Scull was 88 years old and in deteriorating health. Greene, 11 years younger, was physically strong, but beginning to show signs of cognitive impairment. As Scull’s health declined, it became apparent that they would need assistance, but the men resisted outside help.

In April of 2008, Scull fell down the front steps of their home. Greene immediately called an ambulance and Scull was taken to the hospital. There, the men’s nightmare began. While Scull was hospitalized, Deputy Public Guardians went to the men’s home, took photographs, and commented on the desirability and quality of the furnishings, artwork, and collectibles that the men had collected over their lifetimes.

Ignoring Greene entirely, the County petitioned the Court for conservatorship of Scull’s estate. Outrageously referring to Greene only as a “roommate” and failing to disclose their true relationship, the County continued to treat Scull as if he had no family. The County sought immediate temporary authority to revoke Scull’s powers of attorney, to act without further notice, and to liquidate an investment account to pay for Scull’s care. Then, despite being granted only limited powers, and with undue haste, the County arranged for the sale of the men’s personal property, cleaned out their home, terminated their lease, confiscated their truck, and eventually disposed of all of the men’s worldly possessions, including family heirlooms, at a fraction of their value and without any proper inventory or determination of whose property was being sold.

Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Greene from their home and confined him to a nursing home against his will—a different placement from his partner. Greene was kept from seeing Scull during this time, and his telephone calls were limited. Three months after Scull was hospitalized, he died, without being able to see Greene again.

Here's a pdf of the complaint:

http://www.nclrights.org/site/DocServer/Greene_v_Sonoma_County.pdf?docID=7461

I am inclined to believe theft might indeed have been a motive because as the complaint lays out, they'd worked in Hollywood and apparently had an extensive collection of memorabilia. The younger man was indeed found incompetent and apparently pressured to sign legal documents, as page 9 details. I had to quit reading there.

From:

Thanks for digging that up. It's awful.

From:

That aussie article is a bunch of classist individual solutions.

God, I remember a time in lefty politics when the words "individual solution" were a big put-down. Now it's the opposite.

From:

sabotabby

I liked

ironed_orchid's comment: "Become middle class." That's about it.

From:

That was awesome. Classic, even!

From:

Individual solutions surely mean taking things into your own hands, which is a good thing if the powers that be are unmovable on certain issues?
I fret all the time about ethical consumer stuff, and hope it makes a difference if enough people act on their frets too.

From:

human-loser.livejournal.com

I love that that truck is parked in a handicapped stall. Any way you slice that fact, it leads to a joke.

From:

sabotabby

My theory is the douchebag who drives that parks in the handicapped spaces just to be a douchebag. He probably takes up two spaces just so disabled people have nowhere to park.

From:

writer-grrrrl.livejournal.com

Thank you for the puppy. I can't bring myself to read that Sonoma County story today.

From:

sabotabby

Yeah, I don't blame you. It's awful compounded by awful.

From:

ironed_orchid

That's the most depressing story I've read in awhile.

I will note that the Ethical Dilemmas I linked to were written for Australian audiences, so a couple may not apply to people in other countries. And if anyone has a problem with that, well, consider how much stiff if written for US audiences and get other it.

From:

sabotabby

There were a couple Australian-specific things (certain brands and such, but we at least have Canadian equivalents), and the bag thing doesn't really apply locally because we have a plastic bag ban in Toronto, but it's pretty much the same.

From:

ironed_orchid

I'm not sure how much kangaroo is available overseas. Although you can avoid that one by not eating meat at all.

The bag thing isn't for plastic bags, but reusable bags which are made of... plastic, or other non-biodegradable substances. They, along with plastic bags are due to be banned some time soon.

Also, peeing is the shower is only okay if you haven't already gone one step further and installed a grey water system to channel water from shower, sink, and washing machine to garden sprinklers. In that case you don't want to pee in the shower.

From:

peeing on cardboard in compost bin is very good, I hear.

From:

ironed_orchid

Yep, it speeds up decomposition and adds heat. But you don't want to apply urine directly to most plants. Peeing around citrus trees is okay, but it will burn the leaves on most ground cover.

From:

Hmm...it suggests I feed my Sausage Doggie kangeroos.
Actually, dogs are omnivores so can be healthily vegetarian, although my doggie won't eat vegetables apart from chips and peas.

From:

sabotabby

I think it would be expensive to feed my kitties kangaroos, and the fossil fuels involved in transport would negate the environmental benefit.

From:

spuzbal.livejournal.com

And in Sonoma County, of all places? In my mind, all of Northern California is super tolerant. :(

Speaking of puppies, though, this random puppy I'd never seen before in my life crashed through my front door last night, zoomed through the house, and played "Can you catch me??" in the garage. Its owner's friend followed it and apologized for the puppy's behavior. It was a pretty amazing experience all around.

From:

Lovely puppies!

From:

freetobeme.livejournal.com

Clearly you've never been to Redding.

From:

krinndnz.livejournal.com

Northern California is better than average, but a few super-liberal places skew the perception. Otherwise, same thing as America in general: more rural areas are likely to have some lethally fuck-headed ideas prevailing.

From:

gethenian.livejournal.com

Ignoring the first story because homicidal rage doesn't look good on me.

I'll settle for less homicidal rage at the stupidity inherent in the "new ethical dilemmas" link instead.

The next time I hear some idiot whinge about how horrible eating meat is for the environment, I may have to eat THEM. >:|

From:

Meat eating is very environmentally bad, unless you eat wild pests. But meat eating is mainly bad because it is not a nice thing to do to poor innocent creatures. I don't object to people-eating, though. Good for the environment and good for disposing of baddies.

From:

laughingimp.livejournal.com

It's so hard to make sure that the people we're eating aren't themselves eating all kinds of garbage, though.

From: