BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus

Subject: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 10:09 AM

I thought Mudcatters may enjoy a little event going on this 4th of July weekend in my home town of Bozeman, MT.

A controversy began when a group of "Tea Bagging tax protesters" decided to parade on Saturday morning on Main Street, achieved a permit, but as pointed out in the local newspaper articles, the city tax payers will have to pay for the security, staff on 4th of July holiday will now have to work that day, etc.

So, a local electrician decided to get a permit to also parade on Main Street Saturday morning, paying for the costs with donations, rather than city taxes. He calls his group the Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus, and the Monty Python Lumberjack song is their anthem.

He's selling Tshirts for $20 each to raise the funds, and today is the last day he can fund raise to meet their goal.

Here is the Facebook group page, where you can read the newspaper articles about the history of this little "dust up" controversy, join the group online (it's global) post a comment, donate, discuss.

Facebook group Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus

If that link doesn't work, just go to Facebook.com and search on the name of the group.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 10:12 AM

MWaaaahahahahaha!!! Go, Sparks, go!!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 10:19 AM

From the INFO page on the group........

Company Overview:
    The Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus is a "big-tent" organization that welcomes anyone who wants to exercise their first amendment rights on Independence Day. Or just come mock the hypocrisy of the Fox Propaganda Network's sponsored anti-tax, right-wing Bozeman Tea Party's request to close Main St. for its July 4 march at a cost to the city of $1,100 in taxpayer money!
Mission:
    To encourage people to exercise their first amendment rights, and mock Fox-fueled phonies asking the city to spend taxpayer money to close the street for a tax protest.
Products:
    None yet, but it's movements like this that have spawned great ideas, which inspired products that make our very way of life today easier, like the mimeograph machine and Betamax videotape.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 10:22 AM

From the Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus discussion page:

In an ironic twist, the local anti-tax Tea Party organizer, Henry Kriegel, who is asking the city to close the street for his protest on July 4 at a cost in taxpayer money of $1,100, is discovered by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle to have owed the IRS $13,000 in income tax debt, of which he was relieved by a bankruptcy court. Oh, and he's also on the payroll of Americans for Tax Reform (aka Grover Norquist).

-------

I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: bobad
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 10:50 AM

"I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr."

Love the quote.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 10:59 AM

So true. I tried running ancient Rome once (in a game). It works fine as long as you effectively maintain your tax base. If not, everything goes totally to shit in short order, and you can kiss your stable and healthy society goodbye! You will, in fact, have trouble even surviving in such a situation...as it leads to riots, starvation, revolution, gang warfare, and all kinds of other very nasty stuff like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Willie-O
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:34 PM

Sort of like California I guess, LH?

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 01:41 PM

I could quibble that Monty Python's original lumberjacks were not necessarily gay, but merely cross-dressers who "liked to press wild flahrs"—but what the heck. More power to 'em.
*
Little Hawk: What was the name of that game? Was it a computer simulation, or a board-type game?

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 01:57 PM

Hi, Jim. It's a superb game, actually. It's a computer game that involves a lot of military strategy on both the tactical and strategic level, some interesting political decisions as well, a choice of managing 3 great families...the Julii, the Brutii, and the Scipii, plus all kinds of careful financial and social management.

You can even play the game as Carthage, Egypt, Gaul, Greece or various other nations of the time and take on the power of Rome head-to-head. I particularly enjoy being Hannibal or Hasdrubal for the Carthaginians and turning the tables on the Romans.

It's called "Rome: Total War", was put out by "The Creative Assembly" (Sega), and should still be available online.

It takes a little while to get the hang of things, but not long. The game provides some simply learning scenarios to get you going at the start. Be prepared to lose a lot of hours out of your life if you get hooked on it. ;-)

The one thing you learn quickly in Rome is that money IS power, you can't raise or train an army without it, and if your finances fail...everything fails. So first you make sure about the money coming in and spend it wisely. Then you try and find generals who are good at winning battles...and administrators who are good at running towns and cities. And...you avoid offending too many of your neighbours simultaneously! (This was a lesson Hitler never learned...)

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Skivee
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 03:56 PM

LH, was that the first computerized "Civ" game? If so, many of the actors are mates of mine.
The military advisor who says (aproximately)," Let me sheath my sword in the belly of your ememies" is in my band.

The world needs more Green Gay Loggers For Jesus.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Skivee
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 03:57 PM

Der...I just read your post better and saw that it wasn't "Civ".

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 04:08 PM

No, I think it came out after the "Civilization" series, and it's much better in my opinion.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Riginslinger
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 05:31 PM

I hope they don't give loggers a bad name!

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: robomatic
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 05:31 PM

I would buy the T Shirt if I actually saw one on line for sale.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 06:09 PM

I think the facebook site says that the tee shirt has the name printed on it.... Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus. I think you can contact him from the facebook page.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 06:22 PM

His address is posted on the event page:
Send your check to: Brian Leland, 528 N. Bozeman, Bozeman, MT 59715
$20 for t shirt

You can email to him at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 06:25 PM

I really like " Let me sheath my sword in the belly of your enemies"!
Now that is a serious offer of violence.
How about "let me sharpen my halberd on the teeth of your concubines". Or maybe "let me re-shingle my parapet with the skulls of your adversaries." Or even "let me flat-pick my bombarde to the dismay of your assembled serfs."

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 06:29 PM

Let me exercise my trebuchet on..... oh, never mind

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 09:46 PM

They reached the goal! Enough money to pay for the city of costs of the march (so taxpayers don't have to) and hundreds left over to donate to the food bank. Any more money collected from T shirt sales will be donated to the food bank.
Here is a link to the T Shirt image.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=2143621&id=93443224211&ref=nf

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 11:48 PM

It turns out there's a series of games:
Shogun: Total War
Medieval: Total War
Rome: Total War
Medieval II: Total War
Empire: Total War

Wikipedia has a nice introductory article, with links to the official web site.

However, I don't think I can get involved in game-playing right now. Mudcat takes up nearly all the time I can afford to spend on the computer.

In the past I've spent many hours playing SimCity, which makes the same point about money.

Sorry for the digression, folks.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 12:42 AM

SimCity was a very cool game in its time.

"Rome: Total War" and "Alexander" are the best of those total war titles. Both are excellent, and both will eat up way more of your time than you are wise to give them.... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 11:30 AM

I liked the digression.
It reinforced the excellent point made by the quote above,

I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

It is really crazy here how Republicans can't see that taxes are necessary for the good of all in our country. The dumping of tea into Boston Harbor was about protesting taxation without representation. We have representation, and these people don't bother to go to their representatives with their issues. They like to whine and demonize the party they don't like... and then create more expense for taxpayers with stunts like the tea bagging. They will have their little march, paid for by taxes, but so will Leland's humorous group, paying their way themselves.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 12:40 PM

Republican administrations spend public money like water anyway, Alice, so their usual rhetoric about cutting taxes is extremely misleading. They cut it in one place where it can easily be seen by the average Joe, gouge and reduce services and hand out huge contracts to private industry in other places that are not so easily seen, and the public ends up doubly screwed in the long run.

This has also been occurring in Canada and most of the western world ever since the 1980s, with the onset of Reaganism and Thatcherism.

They grin at you, put a dollar in your outstretched hand (the "tax break"), while quietly pickpocketing 3 more dollars out of your back pocket with their other hand. Most people don't notice until much later that they've been robbed. Their attention was fixed on the "tax break".

A series of governments have done this to us in Canada...and no matter WHICH party we vote in or out, it still keeps happening. I suspect this is because the same large commercial interests dominate and run all the major political parties. It's also because the world's resources are diminishing rapidly while the world's population is rising...

You can only get so much air out of one balloon.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 12:54 PM

I think it's just hysterical that these skrewballs obliviously call their activity "teabagging". I'm sure their teenage kids are sniggering behind their hands whenever Dad says "well I'm off to a teabagging rally".

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 04:45 PM

be prepared to lose a lot of hours....

No shit! TheSilentOne has been embroiled for several months in an online version with several work mates and others. I think it has a kind of Rip van Winkle effect. His hair has grown so long, I hardly recognise him.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 06:21 PM

Is he forgetting to wash, eat, and trim his nails? If so, he's entering Phase IV Rome Addiction. There is no known cure, other than destroying both the computer and the Rome disk.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 02:31 PM

I went down to Main street and met with the other people who have a sense of humor (gathering to walk up the street for the Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus). Brian asked that people not carry slogan signs that would be controversial or critical, so the only sign I saw was something about Patriots With A Sense of Humor.

Some people wore the tee shirts, some ladies in front of me had red flannel plaid shirts, some people had their dogs on leashes with them or kids in strollers. About halfway up the street to the Court House destination, Brian started leading "Kumbaya". According to the marching permit, we had to sing Kumbaya or we would have been in violation of what he had gotten for the description of the gathering.
So, I then led God Bless America, then suggested we sing This Land Is Your Land, and after that we had arrived at the Court House, where Brian said, Thanks for coming, go spend some money at the local merchants on Main Street and have a great 4th of July.

I went to breakfast by myself at my fave downtown eatery, The Cateye Cafe, and on my way home noticed that about the same number of people who had marched earlier with Brian were now marching up the street in their Tea Bag protest. So much for their thousands of people expected... more like 50 or so from what I could see.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 02:46 PM

May God continue to bless and safeguard the great state of Montana!

Happy 4th!

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 04:01 PM

Arrghh! I so want one of those t-shirts! But I'm in Manchester UK. Have to see if Leland has a paypal account...

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 05:32 PM

yup, just email to Leland and I'm sure he will figure out some way to get it to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: GUEST,PNB
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 09:15 AM

Alice,
Thanks for reporting the parade. I work in Bozeman all week, but live in Billings. Nice to know that there are other Mudcatters in the area. Kudos to Brian on the parade.
Patrick

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Neil D
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 04:37 PM

Yeah. Good on ya.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 08:30 PM

First of all, Alice, thanks for all the info...

Secondly, LH's game reminds me of a guy who I shared a 2 bedroom apratment with back in the 70's... He was a Trekie and alot of other things and had a large board game in his bedroom that was probably a forrunner to the ones that LH plays... Did I mention that this guy was also a complete lunnie... He would stay up all night long (alone) moving battle ship or troops or whatever he did in there... Sometimes I would wake up to use the bathroom at like 3:00 in the morning and he encounter him in the hall wearing a holster with a gun in it, never saying a word and going back to his war game... He never ever had anyone else in his room so he must have been playing the game against himself... Maybe that's why he felt to carry a gun around with him... Maybe he thought that his other self was going to cheat and steal one of his battle ships??? I donno... I don't miss that guy one bit...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:23 PM

Unlike your strange ex-roomie, Little Hawk doesn't carry a sidearm. He carries a short sword and wears a plumed helmet.
Actually, computer strategy games are quite fun and addictive. I had an Age of Empires habit that cost me some sleep for a while. The first-person shooters are generally too gory and senseless for me, but Call of Duty, which emulates action on several World War 2 fronts, is a lot of fun to play as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:40 PM

Thanks, Alice! This was fun to read about; can't wait to show the tshirt image to my brother!

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 02:48 AM

I was thinking that Call of Duty might actually be worth playing, LEJ. 'Shooter' games don't generally interest me at all, but I thought that particular one might have possibilities of being a realistic war simulation.

Bobert! I know exactly what you were dealing with in the case of your ex-roomate back in the 70s. The strategy games then were board games. They were played on a large paper map or board that folded out into a map big enough to move hundreds or even thousands of pieces on. The pieces generally represented various military units (ground, sea, and air...plus sometimes supply units, etc). The games varied from fairly simple to infernally complex...in the case of the larger ones. Some of them took an evening to play. Others took weeks or even months to play...devoting several hours a day. The instruction manuals were immense, the rules encyclopedic. The fanaticism of those few geeks who were really into those kind of games was extreme. These were guys who lived and breathed to play wargames, and they sacrificed all to do it. They gave up women, wine, and song, not to mention any possibility of having a normal life. They gave up worrying about trivial matters like dressing properly, bathing, taking care of their general health and appearance, and having a social life. They formed small clubs of diehard wargamers who would rent a space over a store where you could play with your fellow gamers into the wee hours of the night, after finishing your shift at the pizza parlour or the variety store.

The typical hardcore gamer was a fat, sweaty young man with very poor fashion sense and wearing horn-rimmed glasses that badly needed cleaning. His shirt was not tucked in properly, one or two buttons were undone, and his fly was often half open, but he wasn't aware of it. Not only did he not date women, he barely knew they existed! His entire attention was fixed upon mastering the rules of an immense wargame that covered an area the size of a ping-pong table and ecompassed either the entire European theatre of war in WWII or the entire Pacific theatre of war....or BOTH! (the ultimate scenario)

His contempt for people who didn't know about or see any value in wargames was immense, his arrogance in his knowledge of the games was palpable.

He often had a skin problem, not to mention greasy hair and ugly shoes.

His eyes were red from staying up all night playing the games and from squinting at little cardboard unit counters under bad lighting.

He was, in short, a geek and nerd of the first water...and proud of it!

This was wargaming in the 1970s.

Computers have vastly improved matters since.

The person you were rooming with probably was playing the game against himself...a useless thing to do, because it's just not fun. You always know what you are thinking, so no move you make against yourself ever comes as a surprise, and the whole situation becomes very static and basically uninteresting. One needs a real opponent (human or computer) or it's just not fun at all.

The poor bastard probably couldn't find anyone else around there who wanted to play his games! He must have regarded you as the dust beneath his feet. Serious wargamers have little time for ordinary people, regarding them as useless grazers on the fields of life, mere chaff in the wind, barely even to be recognized as human...probably best exterminated.   ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 10:47 AM

With President Obama arriving here tomorrow for a town hall meeting at the airport and the start of a family vacation to national parks, the local newspaper printed an update today on the Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus.

The T Shirt has become popular, and will be sold in music stores in Missoula and Bozeman.

partial quote:

"The Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus, formed in June to protest the Bozeman Tea Party's Fourth of July protest of high government spending, has sold about 225 T-shirts printed with the coalition's logo and donated $2,000 of the proceeds to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank, said Brian Leland, head of the coalition.

The coalition has agreements to sell the T-shirts at Rockin Rudy's in Missoula and at Cactus Records in Bozeman, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting food banks in each respective city....

Leland said he's sold T-shirts to folks as far away as Sweden.

When he heard that President Barack Obama would be visiting the Gallatin Valley on Friday, Leland sent him a T-shirt, a move he called a "marketing Hail Mary."

Along with the shirt, he wrote the president a note that stated that "the T-shirt was probably not appropriate for official state functions, but it would probably work well for a pick-up hoops game or as a night shirt for him or a member of his family."

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 08:25 PM

Update... a year later, the Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
marched again on the Fourth of July down Main Street (after some months of contentiousness discussion to get city permission).

Here is a photo and news article:
click

"...Last year the irony of the Tea Party insisting on shutting down Main Street was that the closure costs were estimated at $1,100 that they would have to pay staff to close the street down for a parade to protest taxation and government spending," said Leland. "The irony was just too much. So we formed the Coalition and raised enough money not only to offset the closure costs, but also the majority of the Tea Party's closure costs as well."

Sunday's marchers, while small in number, had high spirits and a good sense of humor.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Midchuck
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 08:49 PM

My son is now the protagonist's next-door neighbor.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 10:04 PM

Three Cheers for the GLFJ!!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 10:26 PM

Dig it.

I am reminded of that 70's Tshirt, Nuke The Unborn Gay Whales For Jesus.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Jul 10 - 03:00 AM

Wow- did anyone besides me read the 13 Comments on the event? Only ONE person appeared to have a grasp of the situation. I gather that Bozeman is fairly conservative?

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: ollaimh
Date: 06 Jul 10 - 08:10 PM

i dunno i would have supported the green coalition for gay loggers who save whales and legalize marijuana, but not such a small tent group.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 03:20 AM

Speaking of Tee Shirts

I know it is a slight variation but I saw a tee shirt once in Australia with the words:

" The Moral Majority is neither"

AD

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Alice
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 12:38 PM

@Ebbie,
The people who tend to post comments on the newspaper site tend to be not just very conservative, but also Glenn Beck and Limbaugh fans.


A.

Subject: RE: BS: Green Coalition of Gay Loggers for Jesus
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 07:10 PM

Thanks, Alice. I was a bit startled.