06/29/2007
News: Seattle's Pony, Tyrese, Planet Out, Chris Benoit
SCOTUS strikes down voluntary school integration. From Stevens dissent: "The Court has changed significantly since it decided School Comm. of Boston in 1968 [a major busing case]. It was then more faithful to Brown and more respectful of our precedent than it is today. It is my firm conviction that no Member of the Court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today's decision."
Its little pony: Seattle gets a new gay bar.
Breakthrough: Scientists discover way to remove the HIV virus from infected cells.
Who knew? The Wikipedia page on WWE wrestler Chris Benoit's death was updated with information about his wife's death hours before authorities discovered the bodies of the couple and their 7-year-old son.
The Economist looks at "out and proud" parents: "The kind of gay activists who think you can't be authentically gay unless you are permanently in opposition to the mainstream find the prospect of gay assimilation appalling. So does the religious right. A black preacher named Wellington Boone, for example, has circulated a pamphlet entitled 'The Rape of the Civil Rights Movement: How Sodomites Are Using Civil Rights Rhetoric to Advance Their Preference for Sexual Perversion'. But he is howling at the incoming tide."
Two gays in this year's Big Brother house?
Advocate: PlanetOut faces June 30th financing deadline. "It was PlanetOut’s last earnings call in May that set off alarms in the financial community, even as a report was released weeks later that showed ad spending in gay media reached record highs in 2006. In addition to the $6.9 million loss, the San Francisco-based company—owner of Planetout.com, Gay.com, The Advocate , Out , and RSVP Vacations, among others—projected a $7-9 million loss for the entire year. That sent its stock price plummeting to an all-time low on May 22 of 86 cents a share, a drop of 89% from its 52-week high of $7.95. PlanetOut also has two outstanding loans: one for $7 million due over the next six months; and a second loan of $10 million, most of which is due over the next four years. The company has been hamstrung more than anything by the poor performance of its travel and cruise subsidiary, RSVP Vacations, in particular lackluster bookings on a trans-Atlantic cruise aboard the Queen Mary that culminated earlier this month. The low occupancy, plus related fines, resulted in a $700,000 hit on first-quarter earnings."
Lance Bass knows a thing or two about "transforming".
Tyrese announces ban on men at upcoming "Shirts Off" tour: "We’re putting a ban on all dudes from coming to the show."
Queen Latifah takes a spin on her hog.
Brighton, England gay basher avoids prison sentence: "On Friday October 27 last year Whittam drank six pints of strong Stella Artois, had four shots of Sambuca and took half a gramme of cocaine, the court heard. He approached lesbian couple Sarah Lavis and Rachel Moorey in London Road in Brighton at 11pm. They were looking through some records left outside a charity shop. He told Miss Moorey: 'If you don't leave them alone I'm going to batter you.' He kicked Miss Lavis in the back, and called the couple obscenities including 'dirty lesbians'.
Jesse Metcalfe wants to be a singer.
Posted 2:30 PM EST by Andy in Gay Media, Gay Parents, Great Britain, Jesse Metcalfe, Lance Bass, News, Reality TV, Seattle | Permalink
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One has many reasons for having lost during the 2004 Presidential campaign most of the great respect he once had for John Kerry. But none are higher than his failure to even attempt to make clear to voters [and I concede that was a challenge] that the greatest issue at stake was not terrorism, Iraq, the economy, or any of the others discussed but trying to stop the coup on our federal judicial system orchestrated by the Bush Reich.
It has many tentacles, such as his Attorney General's attempts to fill federal prosecutor positions with Repug extremists, but the Supreme Court is the head of the beast, and this shameful, jawdropping decision, read rape, regarding school integration is the greatest proof yet that Bush's appointments—if not balanced by future appointments a Democratic President might make—have created a court that threaten civil liberties for decades to come.
While mentioned during the debate last night at Howard University, that appointment power is again THE most important issue. If you remember nothing else, remember that if tempted to vote for a Republican candidate.
Posted by: Leland | Jun 29, 2007 3:42:53 PM
Who's Tyrese and why should I care?
Posted by: Daniel | Jun 29, 2007 4:14:01 PM
Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus! My prayers have been answered. I feared I would go to my grave without seeing a 6 foot 4 version of Carson Kressley, Lynn & Alex, Bobby Trendy, Ross the Intern, Franklin Pangborn, Mario Cantone, Beau, fill in the blank (and we do mean BLANK) on TV. But as AfterElton once pointed out, Big Brother is the show to count on for using eager to act out nelly queens for "comic relief."
Of course, the height of this latest one might be the only unique factor. We've noticed a trend in the last couple of years. The TV hills are so alive and crawling with flaming fags that I'm surprised Costco isn't selling them by the case with Made in China stamped on their asses.
And forget all those unsightly windmill farms people are starting to complain about spoiling their views. It's time we started harnessing all those flailing limp wrists for alternative energy. After all, what windmill has ever given style tips on Good Morning America or peddled hair brushes on QVC or gotten paid to be Jay Leno's in-house fag joke?
Posted by: SteppinFetchit | Jun 29, 2007 4:32:35 PM
Daniel
Tyrese can be seen running from a giant robotic scorpion in the Transformers movie and doing that other thing he does well: looking pretty when his mouth doesn't move.
When he tries to do anything else, it's just plain sad.
Posted by: mark m | Jun 29, 2007 4:43:02 PM
Leland
Well said. The recent SCOTUS ruling has stirred up many in my own family to finaly register to vote and to vote dem in the future. That is after their heads were done exploding in shock.
The possible silver lining from the ruling is that it might stir up the masses finaly to vote. The majority of america is NOT conservative, they tend moderate to liberal. The conservatives on the court might have just caused the death of the conservative movment by awkening the moderate to liberal giant that is the american masses.
Posted by: anon | Jun 29, 2007 5:03:03 PM
Steppinfetchit is SO Leland.
Posted by: Jason | Jun 29, 2007 7:54:17 PM
For those who don't the Court's decision does not affect them as most here don't have children, think again, they are so far to the right, that if they can't give kids a chance, just think of how Roberts and Alioto and Thomas will react when a gay rights case hits them.
This is just plain wrong, and a statment on just how far to the right this country is going, and that the struggle for gay rights is going to get harder and harder with the Bushies out of control and out of touch.
And, God forbid they get another Bush next election to push it even more to the right, SCARY.
Posted by: Luke | Jun 29, 2007 9:11:20 PM
What's next?
White only water fountain signs again?
Then of course the mandatory "cure" = shock treatments, chemicals, and lastly lobotmys for gays. They want 1953 all over again where blacks knew there place, gays stayed in the closet or were institutionalized, women could be beat by husbands without reprecusions, and pagans and atheists could get lynched, etc.
Well, at least they will take the Log Cabin repubs first. Fascists always purge their own ranks first like Hitler with the knight of a thousand knives which saw Hitler's own best friend and staunchest supporter killed because he was rumored to be gay and then the brown shirts were slaughtered.
Posted by: anon | Jun 29, 2007 10:21:22 PM
All of the black evangelicals who voted for Bush because of gays and abortion are going to run back to the dems in 08 faster than you can say "Brown vs the Board of education was a landmark civil rights case".
Posted by: shocked&awed | Jun 29, 2007 10:30:38 PM
Actually, the hidden scandal is that even in integrated school districts where black and white kids attend the same "school", in many areas they rarely attend the same classes, with many of the black kids put into "special ed" classes while white students attend "regular" classes. This "granularity" problem is not overcome easily and the courts are hardly able to force necessary changes. In the south, many parents of white kids simply take their children out of public education and put them in private religious schools, leaving the public education system largely black. Now, what do you do about that?
Posted by: anon (gmail.com) | Jun 29, 2007 10:39:17 PM
really, "anon(gmail.com)"? what statistics do you have to show that "in many areas they (black and white students) rarely attend the same classes"? do you really want us to believe that white parents, by and large, in the south move their kids out of public schools leaving them mostly black? i live in the south, and have not seen much evidence of this. where did you get this information? perhaps if you can demonstrate such a situation actually exists, we can talk about what to do about it.
moreover, what's with the gratuitous quotes? are you implying by writing "school" that it is a so-called school, not really a school? why quotes around the words: special-ed, regular, and granularity?
Posted by: nic | Jun 30, 2007 5:52:26 AM
(oops).
also, i know what granularity means, but how is the issue you allege in the first sentence a granularity problem?
Posted by: nic | Jun 30, 2007 6:20:02 AM
School is in quotes because by segregating within schools they no longer have one "school" but two within the same building. Special Ed is in quotes because its a euphemism for segregated black classes. The same for regular being for white classes. Granularity is defined by the context of the statements.
You'd have to do a search online or in big newspapers to get sources, but they're there. It's not a universal problem, but rather one that flies under the radar of the courts.
Posted by: anon (gmail.com) | Jun 30, 2007 11:40:43 AM
Anon (gmail.com)
I am going to help you out
Dr. Aaron Kipnis PHD(an ashkenazi jew =european descent , mentioning this just so nobody makes any claims Oh a black man wrote a book about it)examines the number of minorities in special education and does mention the racist element in placement.
Also utilizing my search engine provided a multitude of newspaper articles on the subject. The first I looked at was dated this year and was Grennville North Carolina.
Posted by: anon | Jun 30, 2007 2:18:48 PM
anon (gmail.com):
no, granularity is not defined by the context. you would need to explain it: "granularity problem" is your nonce (if not) nonsensical phrase. further, you cannot expect the reader to read your mind. your quotes mean what you say they mean to YOU, not to anyone else. and, when making blanket statements the onus is yours to support them.
imagine handing in an essay with unsubstantiated claims and writing a post script to your teacher saying, "You'd have to do a search online or in big newspapers to get sources, but they're there".
i am not saying that every post that appears here must quote sources. indeed, if the post is clearly an opinion, it needs none. however, when something is stated as fact, it does.
i've taught rhetoric and comp. to college freshman, so i know a little bit about this.
Posted by: nic | Jun 30, 2007 3:47:24 PM
This decision by the judge is a step by the republican party to take over the black vote. Pure and simple.
To believe that it's going to motivate the liberal vote is a fallacy, or worse a ploy to keep the democrats in the dark about what is going to happen:
Confronted with a party that is no longer seen as protecting their interests blacks are likely to start voting massively republican. Why do you think the GOP has gone out of his way to hire minorities as their talking heads on TV? there's a reason for it.
I believe democrats will have to turn right too if they hope to snatch back the minorities votes from migrating to the GOP.
Posted by: Xenu | Jul 1, 2007 10:52:24 AM
Xenu your reasoning is flawed. It was repubs and Bush who stacked this court.
Every black american I have talked to these past few days about this subject fully understand who is responsible = repubs, and they are fuming mad. This will motivate the moderate to liberal majority of america to realize that voting is important. There is a silver linging and it is this will probably be one of the final nails in the coffin of the conservative movment. The sleeping giant is awakening and is pissed off at bush and the repubs.
Posted by: anon | Jul 1, 2007 7:49:42 PM
Anon, either you are being voluntarily disingenuous or you truly don't understand how politics work!
Black voters are not going to flock the voting booths because some judges decided to dissolve volunteering school integration. not in 2007. Blacks (nor whites) don't get "fuming mad" at things like that.
However, communities do rally to parties who they feel defend their interests the best. like the fundamentalists have mostly voted republican..up until now at least.
Conservatism will be dead the day zionists stop promoting it through "liberal" media networks, with the likes of Glenn Beck and co. That's when. but it's still alive & kicking.
Posted by: Xenu | Jul 2, 2007 1:42:54 PM
xenu, of all the commentary i've heard since the right-wing supremes undid some thirty years of established practice, yours is certainly the most novel. (of course, i don't listen to talk radio or screech news on fox.) it quite sounds like pie-in-the-sky prognostication. do you honestly think that blacks and other minorities will not be upset that the wing nuts on scotus, to all intents and purposes, reversed brown v. board? if you do, then your user name is certainly apt.
Posted by: nic | Jul 3, 2007 11:50:22 AM