02/01/2006
Capitol police drop charges against Cindy Sheehan: "We screwed up."
SOTU remainders: Buy the human-animal hybrid t-shirt.
SOTU remainders: Bush's one hour argument with himself.
Portuguese lesbian couple challenge Portugal's constitutional amendment banning sexual discrimination and try to get married.
Posted 2:53 PM EST by Andy Towle in Elsewhere | Permalink
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Andy,
What about that human-animal hybrid--the man hung like a horse???
Posted by: Ken in MS | Feb 1, 2006 4:17:12 PM
That news from Reuters is very incomplete, in fact Portugal was the first country in the world to ban discrimination on basis of sexual orientation in its constitution in 2004. In english this is a better news: http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,18015002-5001028,00.html
Posted by: Miguel Alves | Feb 1, 2006 5:18:46 PM
What the heck is an animal-human hyrid anyway?
Posted by: bmw | Feb 1, 2006 8:47:29 PM
Previous self-proclaimed Constitutional law expert posters, please ready slowly: "mistaken"..."old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions".... "Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs" — in fucking handcuffs!!! "Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T-shirts,”
"However, State of the Union guests don’t receive any guidelines, according to Deputy House [Cunt] at Arms Kerri Hanley. “You would assume that if you were coming to an event like the State of the Union address you would be dressed in appropriate attire,” she said. Appropriate to whom, bitch?
Posted by: Leland | Feb 1, 2006 9:04:44 PM
Leland-
I suppose you go the beach in a coat and tie.....figure it out. If your too stupid to understand what you should be wearing then you should not attend.
Posted by: Matthew Schooler | Feb 1, 2006 11:56:20 PM
Leland,
Whether you realize it or not, there is a vast difference in expressions that a person might be arrested for and expressions that are not protected by the First Amendment. A lack of protection by the First Amendment is not equal to a violation of a law unless such conduct is made illegal by some applicable law.
While the charges have been dropped, which I think they should have been, I still do not believe that she has First Amendment protection for her actions in that particular location. I'll spare you the details as I fear they would only serve to confuse you.
Posted by: Matt | Feb 2, 2006 12:40:56 AM
First of all, one would hope someone with the name Schooler would be able to...aw, hell with it.
"If YOUR too stupid to understand..."
That would be If Y O U ' R E ... a contraction of you are.
Now look. Sheehan understood perfectly. It was a demonstration. It's kind of like a free speech thing & last time I checked free speech was still constitutionally allowed.
And Matt - are you suggesting that constitutional rights (regarding fashion or anything else for that matter) are only covered in certain geographical locations? Please. That's absurd, the most laughably absurd thing I've read or seen in quite a while - almost 2 days, in fact. See, fashion as politics (or art) go back quite a ways, even--believe it or not--all the way back to the 1990's. I remember when groups called Act Up & Queer Nation used t-shirts to make political statements all the time. I used to wear t-shirts to make some of those statements, sometimes as simple as walking into a g-rated movie with a t-shirt that simply said 'Queer' while holding the hand of my boyfriend. I also used to wear the one that said 'Dyke' just to confuse people, but there I go again, showing a sense of humor.
My point? Unless there are specific dress codes posted in a visually accessible area or invitations that specify say, 'black tie only' (and then Cher STILL showed up in that see-through beaded thing with the whacked out bird headdress) and Hanley clearly states above there are NO guidelines given to attendees - then good taste is the only behavioral modicum in this situation...except - - - political demonstrations are not a matter of taste.
Sheehan shows up wearing a t-shirt at an event where a guy in a suit is giving a speech that will change nothing. He's not magically going to get any line-item veto power the next day and there won't be any solar power energy tax cut bill introduced or passed before Valentine's Day to cut America's "addiction to oil." Sheehan just sat down wearing a cotton garment that stated a simple fact: the number of people who have died in the war our country is waging. What happens? She's dragged out of the rotunda in handcuffs.
Meanwhile, all across the country the notorious Rev. Phelps shows up at funerals of gay bashing victims, veterans of the same war Sheehan is demonstrating against, AIDS victims and others. He and his misguided group of hellspawn disrupt bereft mourning families & nobody in the government says a fucking thing...'cause, y'know it's Phelps & Co's CONSTITUTIONAL FUCKING RIGHT to stand there and shout epitaphs and slurs at a casket. So I hope that you understand that from where I stand I think something's not quite right. If all y'all want to continue talking about how Sheehan was wrong to do it, then fine. It's.
Your.
Constitutional.
Right.
I just don't have to stick around and listen to your drivel.
Now excuse me while I go dig out my old t-shirts.
Posted by: basi4insanity | Feb 2, 2006 1:21:20 AM
Andy, hosting the kind of hate speech against Coretta Scott King and Cindy Sheehan that's been appearing on Towleroad in the last couple of days is going to drive away new readers like me.
You are one of the sharpest and fastest webmasters out there, but the juvenile trolls here, who basically sound like teenage high-schoolers who bully the effeminate kid because of their own panic about being gay, are going to continue to ruin the experience of the site. I suggest (a) a moratorium on comments or (b) Andy, create a new site to accommodate the disruptive posters who are clearly only trying to ruin the impression of the site as a whole. They shouldn't object, since as they have been screaming for days, Cindy Sheehan should have been silenced immediately for expressing her opinion. Andy, if they won't post on Little Green Turdballs and the radical right bulletin boards and take the gay-bashing that they say they like from their fellow conservatives, then, why don't you just create a safe space for them and then you can gather the ad revenue from Log Cabin Republicans, Ann Coulter books, whatever.
But sixteen year olds continuing dropping self-hate stink bombs in the comments section will stop people from reading and contributing, and since it's obvious they are not your contributors, you need to think about whether it should be a point of principle to let them drive away your readership.
Posted by: Brian NYC | Feb 2, 2006 8:07:51 AM
I don't know, Brian -- in theory, I agree with you but we're (mostly) all adults here and more than capable of ignoring a few pimply kids, bored trolls and wingnut ranters (the price of free speech and all that). Let's just keep rolling our eyes and focusing on real communication.
Posted by: Scott D | Feb 2, 2006 10:06:39 AM
I have no problem with a differing points-of-view. What I find annoying is "new readers" who presume to tell the host how to run his web site. Talk about trollish.
Posted by: Tom | Feb 2, 2006 11:13:05 AM
I concur, Tom. I really dislike elitist, snobby windbags. So much unbridled drama about nothing.
Posted by: matt f. | Feb 2, 2006 11:59:22 AM
Goddamn it! I posted a literary masterpiece in the earlier thread...I wanted "Michigan Matt" to benefit from my tongue...and not in the way most gay men would want to benefit. Please don't make it a wasted post. As for this thread, I agree with Tom and Scott D...not Matt F., since I'm a windbag. Mr. Towle has given us a great set of doors on which we can post our theses. If a nincompoop who either types faster than he thinks or is simply illiterate posts drivel, we can ignore it…as I’m sure many of you have ignored this. Ouch!
Posted by: JT | Feb 2, 2006 1:07:37 PM
But JT, you're not an elitist, snobby windbag. Regular ol' windbags are cool with me. :)
Posted by: matt f. | Feb 2, 2006 1:22:59 PM
What the hell? Are you kidding me? Self hating juvenile? Does a different opinion scare you so much that you have to constantly resort to name calling? You are the real wingnuts and the radicals - the ones calling for limited speech. You are hypocrites. Crying to let CS have free speech but degrading anyone who does not agree with you. My problem has never been with CS. I feel she is a woman in mourning and is basically lost. My problem is with the person that gave her the ticket. What was the motive? Did that person feel sorry for her loss? Did they think she would find some sort of solace in this demonstration of free speech?
What kind of colorless society do you want where everyone agrees with each other?
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