Inception hunk Tom Hardy admits: 'I've had sexual relations with men.'
He "admits" it. Like one might admit a mistake, or a crime.
I know it's the Daily Fail, but jebus.
CNN is reporting that Shirley Sherrod is planning on suing Andrew Breitbart for knowingly misrepresenting a speech she made to a chapter of the NAACP.
The fun thing that you'll immediately notice upon reading the actual story (at least the version that's up at 1:45 U.S. Central Time) is that most of the article is taken up by a discussion of what "the other side" thinks about Sherrod, in this case, the bleatings of a retrofuck conservative who's on the board of the Catholic League.
Maybe existing evidence illustrates that Sherrod was quoted out of context by a bigot who wanted to take down the NAACP and defend his own political movement, maybe Sherrod's a racist who hates America and eats white children. I suppose we'll never know the real truth.
Yay media. :(
Dear "Charlie St. Cloud":
Got to hell. The world does not need a feel-good version of "The Sixth Sense."
Kthxbai,
Deeky
[Trigger warning for homo/queerphobia, transphobia, and self-harm]
Well, of course it's not, but whatever. It's still banned in Burlington County, New Jersey, and in Texas.
Like I said, Revolutionary Voices: A multicultural queer youth anthology is a pretty cool book. Here's how editor Amy Sonnie describes it in the front material:
"As youth who have 'grown up' during the '80s and '90s, we are the product of a unique historic moment in which queer youth are increasingly visible and coming out at younger and younger ages. These days many of us have greater access to community and support. From gay-straight alliances to LGBT centers, from media visibility to the Internet, queer youth are finding and creating community all over the globe. Increased visibility, however, also means an increase in the attacks against us. And with youth coming out in larger numbers and from more disparate communities, it is all the more urgent that we talk about how our identities as young queers intersect with our cultural, racial, and economic backgrounds."I ran across this book last winter, when I was browsing at a local bookstore. I snapped up the last copy, which was being remaindered. I strongly suspect that the main reason the bookstore was carrying it was that the book grew out of a project at Syracuse University, which is just up the street. This is really a shame, because I wish more, not less, people had access to this collection.
"I first began to come out when I was 11. In terms of my family, I was fortunate because my parents have always been accepting of my sexual identity....So at the age of 12 I came out to my entire elementary school, which included grades K-8...I was in sixth grade and attending a Catholic school in San Francisco when I came out to a small group of people...During this time I started attending LYRIC, the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, a wonderful program and hang-out space for LGBT youth in San Francisco....The next year I was in seventh grade..."Apparently this is dangerous writing, because it might lead one to turn out like Gina de Vries, author of that passage, or like Alix Olson, whose work is also included in the anthology.
So, can we talk about last night's episode of Work of Art? [Spoiler warning.]
It was truly the most abysmal episode since the [TW] "create something shocking" challenge, for plethoric reasons, not least of which was the scarred body of a fat man of color being insistently called a suitable palette upon which to build a representation of hell by a thin white woman.
The title of this episode is "Opposites Attract," and the challenge was "Opposing Themes." With six assholes contestants left, they were paired into three teams, who were tasked with creating individual works of "opposites."
The opposites were: Heaven and hell, chaos and control, and male and female.
[Insert sound of record scratching here.]
Who the fuck is producing this show—John Gray?!
Male and female are NOT FUCKING OPPOSITES—and defining them in contradistinction to one another is essentially the very thing that underlies the subjugation of anyone who isn't a straight cis alpha male. For a show that continually pats itself on the back for being "progressive" and "boundary-pushing," they would have been hard-pressed to find a more retrofuck, small-minded, oppressive set of "opposites" than the TOTES NOT-OPPOSITE male and female bookends of the regressive and repressive gender binary.
Don't even get me started on what those two dipshits actually produced for "male and female."
P.S. Miles is a terrible, terrible human being.
6,600. The number of graves at Arlington National Cemetery that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) believes may be unmarked or mislabeled on cemetery maps.
Army investigators estimate the number is a mere 211.
Among the alleged problems at Arlington: "cremated remains being buried in the wrong gravesites, missing burial records, unmarked graves and burial urns put in a spillage pile."
"On Her Wedding Day, Saying the Things Left Unsaid," by Andrew Cohen.
There just aren't enough barf bags in the world for this mess, upon which I hereby confer the Andrew Corsello Award for Public Displays of Cringe-Inducing Privilege While Waxing Narcissistic About a Woman I Could Not Be More Heavingly Relieved Not to Be.
Cohen's colleague, Lizzie Skurnick, responds.
[H/T to Shakers Lord Asparagus, Poodle, and Bernie 83.]
Challenge Target and Best Buy Antidemocratic Donations
Back in January, the US Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to democracy by ruling that corporations have the same free-speech rights as individuals, thus allowing corporate interests to make almost totally unregulated donations to influence elections.
Taking advantage of this delightful expansion of corporate personhood, Target Corp., which is headquartered in Minneapolis, donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a group that purports to be about job creation, but is a Republican front group run by former staff of outgoing Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and actively supporting Republican State Representative Tom Emmer as the GOP nominee to replace Pawlenty.
This has caused some problems for Target, which claims to be gay-friendly, since Emmer is, ahem, not gay-friendly.
Target Corp. on Tuesday defended the use of its new freedom to spend money on political campaigns as employees and gay organizations criticized a $150,000 donation that will help a Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate who opposes gay marriage.If that were true, the company wouldn't be donating egregious sums of money to a bigot. It's really that simple.
Chief Executive Officer Gregg Steinhafel assured employees at the company's Minneapolis headquarters in an e-mail that the discount retailer's support of the gay community is "unwavering." He said employees, some gay, raised concerns that the money is helping state Rep. Tom Emmer, a fiery conservative who is his party's likely nominee for governor.
…He said the company doesn't have a social agenda or necessarily agree with all the positions of candidates it supports. "Let me be very clear," he said, "Target's support of the GLBT community is unwavering, and inclusiveness remains a core value of our company."
Monica Meyer, the interim head of the gay rights group OutFront Minnesota, said the gay community has long viewed Target as a supportive employer, and many are surprised by the large donation to the pro-Emmer group.And it's not just LGBTQI groups who are pissed about the donation.
"A lot of people feel betrayed by this place where everybody goes to shop and you get to see them at Pride and you feel good that you're supporting a corporation that's giving back to the community," she said.
Several shoppers at the SuperTarget in the St. Paul suburb of Roseville — all of them self-identified as Democrats — weren't happy to hear about the chain's political involvement. Viki Karr, 50, said she would like to keep politics out of her shopping and would "definitely" not shop somewhere that supports the GOP.Because the Supreme Court was all too eager to "let that happen," it now comes down to average people tracking corporate giving and making their voices heard in opposition to prevent that from happening.
Pat Mackey, 67, also of Richfield, said she was disappointed in Target.
"I think it is going to drown out the $25, $5 contributions of the average American, and we can't let that happen," she said.
Contact Target: Phone: 612-304-6073 / Fax: 612-370-5502. Contact Best Buy: Phone: 612-291-1000 / Fax: 612-292-4001.
This morning, I awoke from a dream in which Iain had left me. I'm not remotely fearful in my conscious mind that Iain will leave, and I've never had dreams in previous relationships about lovers leaving, but I occasionally have them now. Maybe it's a sign that I'm finally with someone I really want to stay; maybe it's a sign that I'm becoming more aware of our mortality; maybe a Freudian would tell me it's about unresolved Daddy issues; who the fuck knows?
In any case, as Iain was getting ready to leave for the train, I rolled over and peered at him through the grey morning light. "I had a terrible dream that you left me," I told him.
"I'm not leaving you," he said, matter-of-factly. He twisted a cufflink through his cuff then looked up at me and grinned.
"I hope not," I laughed.
As is his habit before he leaves in the morning, he came to me and kissed me on the forehead. "Hope is for Obama," he sniffed. "I'm all about certainty."
Anything Bush could do, I can do better:
The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.In case you need a reminder of the fun stuff national security letters—which are the intelligence-gathering equivalent of the presidential signing statement: a stroke of the pen to magically turn dubiously ethical and formerly prohibited actions into perfectly legal maneuvers, with no legislation, no oversight, and no knowledge of the American people required—were used for during the Bush administration, here's a refresher.
The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.
But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters.
We need your help now to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
by Elizabeth Shirey, the Grassroots/Policy Advocate for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a national, legal services and policy organization dedicated to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), with our repeal coalition partner the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, jointly announced today a new grassroots campaign to increase support and to press for passage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal in the U.S. Senate.
Your help is critical. This nationwide campaign will mobilize grassroots supporters of equality across the country. Too many times when I mention that I work on the repeal of DADT, I hear the following response from repeal supporters: "Oh, right! I heard something about that a few months ago. So…what's going on with that?"
As you may know, the Defense Authorization Act – which contains the repeal amendment – passed the U.S. House and the Senate Armed Services Committee back in May. The next step toward repeal is the full Senate vote, which could come just after Labor Day.
We need supporters to contact their senators and tell them to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and follow the lead of Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) who will be managing the defense bill on the floor. It is critical that we beat back any filibuster threat, defeat attempts to strike repeal, and stop any corrosive amendments.
With the combined resources of HRC and SLDN, we'll be in a strong position to put maximum pressure on the Senate as we move toward this vote for repeal. Now is the moment where we need your help and your teaspoons.
We need every person on board as we try to flood senators' offices with pro-equality voices and drown out the ever-present opposition. There are many ways to get involved, including writing and calling your senators or participating in an in-district visit over the August recess. In-district meetings are a very personal way to tell both your senators why you support repeal and why this step toward equality is so important for our country.
DADT affects the lives of countless active-duty service members, veterans, and their dependents, discharged under this law. Don't let bigots call the shots – now is your chance to weigh in on this issue with major decision-makers. Let's get this done!
The other night, I happened to glance out the front window just as I saw a big, beautiful pigeon land on the front porch. It's very unusual to see pigeons in this area; because we're right on Lake Michigan, we get lots of seagulls, but we're too rural to get many pigeons.
So the quick back story is that this band, The Rescues, is like my musical fantasy. The two ladies in the band are Kyler England and Adrianne (an excellent lesbian singer-songwriter who has routinely broken my heart over and over with her music throughout the years), both of whom had long and successful solo careers and both of whom I've spent way too much money on in ITunes.Enjoy.
They teamed up with two guys from LA, as they were all sort of doing their own solo things in the local scene, and The Rescues is the end result. The harmonies are amazing, the lyrics are honest and earnest, and the entire sound is just incredibly organic and not manufactured by anything other than their individual songwriting all coming together. Lots of call and response pieces throughout the CD, super-thick harmonies that absolutely blow my mind...blah blah blah I'm a total fanboy, but they're the first band that I really feel like I'm engaging with in a very long time -- and that's something I've missed since I stopped playing shows and writing as much as I used to.
Desert sand fills up your boots
You promise not to run
California won't grow roots
They burn up in the sun
I'm lost but I'm not afraid
So what if nothing's taking hold?
All the plans that you made
Let 'em go
Falling down in the dirt
We're OK
We are tired, we are hurt
We're OK
Crashing cars, dying stars
I can love you like you are
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
We're OK
Torn dress, broken heart
Stumble to the ground
Feel the eyes rip you apart
They try to take you down
Oh, but they'll never break us down
Falling down in the dirt
We're OK
We are tired, we are hurt
We're OK
Crashing cars, dying stars
I can love you like you are
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
We're OK
I know you don't believe it
Sometimes I don't believe it
Together we'll fall
Don't matter at all
You're the one you gotta forgive
Forgive
Falling down in the dirt
We're OK
We are tired, we are hurt
We're OK
Crashing cars, dying stars
I can love you like you are
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
Sirens wail, empty sail
Not enough cups to bail
Bad luck getting good
You don't want it like you should
Empty out your bank account
You know you can live without
Hit the wall, have to crawl
Even if we lose it all
We're OK
We're OK
