As always you can view all my recent Cape Cod pics on my online photo gallery.

Thanks to Siberian Grinder for the heads up on this camera.

Now the Cape is a beautiful place that has a peaceful quiet that transcends its mere appearance of beaches and seagulls. And P-town is no exception. It was remarkable to me, however, that of all the places I’ve ever been to on the entire planet, P-town was the only one that had anything like “A Non-Hate Community” written on its welcome road sign.

So what was my impression of this “non-hate” community? I thought it was the most hateful place I had ever been… ever. Really. It wasn’t like I feared for my life or that everyone was running around with red glowing eyes and eating each other… but there was definitely something wrong with the place. I have never felt more disapproving glances. I have never seen bumper stickers and apparel with such hateful and intolerant content (usually about President Bush or Republicans). Really, this place – that touts tolerance – was the most intolerant I’d ever seen. A sick irony in an already sick country of political correctness and hypocrisy.

It was no surprise that this article just came out in the Boston Globe regarding the July 4 weekend just two weeks ago:

A new intolerance visits Provincetown

Police say gays accused of slurs

[...]

Police say they logged numerous complaints of straight people being called “breeders” by gays over the July Fourth holiday weekend. Jamaican workers reported being the target of racial slurs. And a woman was verbally accosted after signing a petition that opposed same-sex marriage, they said.

[...]

Winsome Karr, 45, originally from Jamaica, has worked in town since 2002. Lately, she said, the off-color comments stem from gay visitors who mistakenly believe that all Jamaicans share the views of an island religious sect that disagrees with homosexuality.

[...]

On same-sex marriage, the clashes have occurred as the state Legislature grapples with whether the electorate should vote on a measure to limit marriage to heterosexuals. A group that supports gay marriage, knowthyneighbor, has created a website displaying the names of more than 100,000 signers of a petition that calls for the state Constitution to be amended to prohibit same-sex marriage.

Knowthyneighbor’s tactics are controversial, with critics alleging that knowthyneighbor is making the names of same-sex marriage opponents public in an effort to expose or intimidate them. The group’s founders say they are simply promoting civic discourse.

The names of 43 Provincetown residents are listed on the website. Most of the petition signers attend St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, which serves the Portuguese community and others in town. The Catholic Church has helped lead the fight against same-sex marriage.

One St. Peter’s parishioner, Yvonne Cabral, was verbally accosted last Friday by Provincetown Magazine publisher Rick Hines after Hines learned that Cabral signed the petition, according to police.

Police Chief Ted Meyer plans to seek charges of disorderly conduct against Hines, who saw Cabral shopping and loudly called her a “bigot,” according to both Hines and Meyer. Other people who signed the petition — and subsequently had their names posted on the same website — said manure has been spread on their properties in recent months, Meyer added.

This is the kind of stuff that keeps Westboro Baptist Church in business.

Sunset at Paine’s Creek3, originally uploaded by WarAxe.

This is a test of my photo posting directly from Flickr.com. If this worked then a nicely formatted post appears in my blog with a link to a sunset at Paine’s Creek Beach at Cape Cod. (You don’t get these shots every day)

If this didn’t work I will delete it right away and you won’t even know I goofed.

Ok, I just checked it out and it worked fairly well. I have to edit the template Flickr uses, though, to clean up some of the XHTML. What you are seeing has been sanitized.