02/27/2008
News: Sinead O'Connor, Chris Dodd, Kickboxing, William F. Buckley
American conservative standard-bearer William F. Buckley, Jr. is dead at 82.
Yesterday, Robbie showed us a snippet of Mariah Carey's new "Touch My Body" video. Here's the whole thing.
Madonna names new record Hard Candy: "She loves candy. It's about the juxtaposition of tough and sweetness, or as Madonna so eloquently expressed: 'I'm gonna kick your ass, but it's going to make you feel good.'"
UK hit by 5.2 earthquake, biggest since 1984: "Student David Bates, 19, suffered a suspected broken pelvis when he was hit by a falling piece of chimney in his attic bedroom in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, his father, Paul, said. Paul Bates said he was woken by a deep rumble which was followed by shouts from his son upstairs. He said David was hit by a piece of masonry about 2ft square, which had fallen from the chimney stack. 'This massive piece of stone had landed on his hip and he was just shouting that he thought it was broken and I called an ambulance,' he said. 'You just don't expect it. Of all the things that can happen - an earthquake.'"
Santa Clara, California Board of Supervisors votes to formally oppose FDA ban on gay blood donation.
Openly gay kickboxer Rod Llaneza discusses his champion status: "Llaneza is passionate when conversation turns to kickboxing, no doubt rekindling the desire that helped him defend the USA Amateur Champion belt from the Professional Karate Commission, a sanctioning body for kickboxing and karate, for four years until he retired in 2004 with a 19-2 record. When talk is of kickboxing, Llaneza displays a confident, passionate and even cocky side that served him well in the ring for kickboxing or boxing, where he captured a Golden Gloves title for Georgia. 'I love to perform and go out into the ring. I don’t really care about winning and losing. It’s all about the performing. I pride myself on being sharp. You’ll never be bored watching my fight,' he says."
Serve: Larry Craig looking for summer interns.
Senator Chris Dodd endorses Obama.
Sinead O'Connor unleashes on Kylie Minogue: "I know Australian fans might want to shoot me for saying this, but that would be a far better option than to listen to one of her albums."
Straight Australian Idol Guy Sebastian dogged by anti-gay taunts: "In September 2006, the original Australian Idol winner revealed he was on the verge of quitting the industry after his Palm Beach house was pelted with eggs and the word 'faggot' spray-painted on his car. But Sebastian, who recently became engaged to his long-term girlfriend Julie Egan, believes he has finally built up the necessary tolerance to handle the slander. 'I used to think it was just a part of being in the public eye, but really that kind of behaviour is just not on - that line shouldn't be crossed,' he said."
Gay grandson of Al Capone speaks.
British scientists explain how world will end: "The sun will slowly expand into a red giant, pushing the Earth farther out into space, but not far enough. Our home planet will be snagged by the sun's outer atmosphere, gradually plunging to its doom inside the fiery stellar furnace."
Christian foster parents in the UK denied application to parent because of their views on homosexuality: " The devastated couple withdrew an application to their council to continue as foster carers after being told they must condone homosexuality to adhere to gay rights laws. The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation), which came into force last April, makes it illegal for any business or organisation providing a public service to discriminate against anyone because of their sexuality. The council says its fostering panel felt it would not be following the regulations if it placed a child with a couple who could not comply with the Act."
Justin Timberlake begins work on Open Road movie.
Posted 1:50 PM EST by Andy Towle in Australia, Blood Donation, California, Chris Dodd, Great Britain, Justin Timberlake, Kylie Minogue, Larry Craig, Madonna, Mariah Carey, News | Permalink
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more gay kickboxers please.
NIIIICE.
Posted by: buzz | Feb 27, 2008 1:56:52 PM
That little bit of news about the UK foster parenting system just made my day. If you think homosexuality is wrong, I'm sorry but you have no business educating children.
Posted by: Butter | Feb 27, 2008 2:02:27 PM
LOL... Too funny... Can you imagine being Larry Craig's intern? Are wide stances considered an asset?
Posted by: Jeff | Feb 27, 2008 2:06:47 PM
Isn't taking away children from parents because they oppose homosexuality just as bad as taking away children from parents because they are homosexual? While I obviously disagree with those peoples' point of view, if they are loving parents and do a good job with their foster children they should be allowed to do it.
Posted by: MT | Feb 27, 2008 2:09:24 PM
I'm with MT on the parenting question. What matters is a good, loving home for kids, not some feel good rule by goverment. You don't win over people's minds with intolerance from any side of an arguement.
I am sorry to see William F. Buckley has passed. While I don't agree with much of his views, I had great admiration for the man's intellect and sardonic humor. Plus he favored marijuana and was against the war in Iraq.
My favorite Buckley quote was when he was running for Mayor of New York City on the Conservative line in the 60's(a party he helped form)....he was asked what he would do if he won.....Buckley got that evil grin he had and said....**I would demand a recount**. RIP
Posted by: Joshua | Feb 27, 2008 2:22:04 PM
@MT: How can you say that these bigots can even be capable of doing a good job at raising a kid?
Posted by: Butter | Feb 27, 2008 2:22:12 PM
Here's one of Buckley's "witticisms" that really sticks in my mind (as quoted in the NYT obit):
“Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in the upper forearm to prevent common needle users, and on the buttocks, to prevent the victimization of homosexuals.”
As far as I know, he never apologized for this shameful fearmongering.
Good riddance.
Posted by: DC Dude | Feb 27, 2008 2:39:46 PM
Good riddance, William F. Buckley. Given your opinion that those with HIV should be tattooed to prevent 'victimization' of others, I hope yours was an especially painful death.
Posted by: peterparker | Feb 27, 2008 2:39:53 PM
Hmm, if that Buckley quote is correct, then sorry DC and PP, I don't read it the way you do.
It seems to say we could have prevented a lot of the spread of AIDS if IV drug users had a mark on their arms and gay men had a mark on their ass. Then you would know for sure if you are about to engage in drug use or sex with someone who is HIV+.
Though I don't necessarily agree with that approach, it is about people being honest and it would eliminate sweeping persecution of those within these groups who aren't +.
And the quote reads victimization "OF" not victimization "BY"
Posted by: ATLSteve | Feb 27, 2008 3:03:10 PM
Butter,
How many perfectly well-adjusted commenters here were raised by homophobic parents?
Posted by: 24play | Feb 27, 2008 3:04:48 PM
PeterParker, you beat me to it. While it is true that Buckley was very bright, that intelligence was eclipsed by such a contempt for human dignity that he found it plausible that we should tattoo the HIV+. How appalling. Should we, to protect the unwitting, tattoo "asshole" and "bigot" on people?
Posted by: LD | Feb 27, 2008 3:07:51 PM
@24Play
Probably many, Myself included. Considering my upbringing tough, had I not been gay I'd probably turn out to be a bigot myself.
Posted by: Butter | Feb 27, 2008 3:18:17 PM
Interesting. I never knew that my ex-boyfriend's drug dealer was also a championship kickboxer. I was just use to him selling drugs while he bartended at our local pub.
Posted by: Josh | Feb 27, 2008 3:24:55 PM
Stay classy, Josh.
Posted by: 24play | Feb 27, 2008 3:29:00 PM
ATLSTEVE: You are giving William Fuckwad Buckley far too much credit. He was an extremely intelligent man who, as a commentator and an writer, was noted for his command of the English language. In the quote regarding tattooing people with HIV, Buckley was not expressing a desire to protect homosexuals or injection drug users. He didn't give a rat's ass about either group. He was simply fear mongering. That quote was intending to give the impression that people with HIV were psychopaths, intent on infecting others, and that a tattoo would help everyone else protect themselves.
And if you think for one moment that William F. Buckley gave a hoot about faggots, consider this quote from Buckley, directed at Gore Vidal after Vidal called Buckley a "crypto-Nazi" during a debate over the actions of Chicago policemen: "Now, listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in your goddamn face, and you will stay plastered."
Still wanna give Buckley the benefit of the doubt, ATLSTEVE?
Posted by: peterparker | Feb 27, 2008 3:29:47 PM
I was simply responding to an isolated quote taken out of context...not to get into a pissing contest with anyone.
There are far worse enemies of the gay community than William F. Buckley.
Posted by: ATLSteve | Feb 27, 2008 3:42:59 PM
Re: homophobic foster parents
Why would you knowingly want to subject a child to bigots? I say bravo for the U.K.. If respect and common decency are to much for these "christian" foster parents to handle, then the last thing I would want is for them to be receiving my hard earned money to raise more bigots. Not to mention what if a gay child was placed in their care.
My father was a nasty bigot; I would hate to see any child knowingly subjected to that kind of life. It took me 30 years to come to terms with my sexuality. Sure I am happy and well adjusted now but a lot of good years were waisted being angry and scared.
Posted by: jzn | Feb 27, 2008 3:59:01 PM
"Isn't taking away children from parents because they oppose homosexuality just as bad as taking away children from parents because they are homosexual?"
No. Homosexuals have been shown to be good parents to kids straight and gay. These folks obviously wouldn't be.
It's sort of the old argument that fundamentalists who oppose homosexuality are equivalent to homosexuals who disagree with them. The two are not at all comparable. On one side you have an opinion; on the other, a life. Hasn't it been demonstrated that homophobia is harmful to children? Do we condone ex-gay therapies? Why put children at risk?
Posted by: Kevinvt | Feb 27, 2008 4:06:11 PM
ATLSTEVE -- The issue is not whether there are worse homophobes than Buckley, the issue is that he died today, and should be remembered not as some great enlightened intellect, but for his divisive and fear-spewing rhetoric. He deserves to die in shame.
And...since you're so concerned about context, don't forget that being gay and HIV+ in 1986 was nothing like it is today. Few understood the disease transmissions. Queers were routinely bashed, literally and figuratively, for spreading the "gay cancer." Buckley's suggestion to tattoo all carriers seemed (and still does to folks who know history) much like the dehumanizing methods for tracking "undesirables" in Nazi Germany.
However, let's let the man speak for himself. Perhaps you will be won over by the cheap rhetorical flourishes behind which he cowers to hide his bigotry. I am not, and am glad the man is dead. I only wish it had happened sooner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Crucial Steps in Combating the Aids Epidemic; Identify All the Carriers
By WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR.
I have read and listened, and I think now that I can convincingly crystallize the thoughts chasing about in the minds of, first, those whose concern with AIDS victims is based primarily on a concern for them and for the maintenance of the most rigid standards of civil liberties and personal privacy, and, second, those whose anxiety to protect the public impels them to give subordinate attention to the civil amenities of those who suffer from AIDS and primary attention to the safety of those who do not.
Arguments used by both sides are sometimes utilitarian, sometimes moral, sometimes a little of each - and almost always a little elusive. Most readers will locate their own inclinations and priorities somewhere other than in the polar positions here put forward by design.
School A suspects, in the array of arguments of School B, a venture in ethical opportunism. Look, they say, we have made enormous headway in the matter of civil rights for all, dislodging the straight-laced from mummified positions they inherited through eclectic superstitions ranging from the Bible's to Freud's. A generation ago, homosexuals lived mostly in the closet. Nowadays they take over cities and parade on Halloween and demand equal rights for themselves qua homosexuals, not merely as apparently disinterested civil libertarians.
Along comes AIDS, School A continues, and even though it is well known that the virus can be communicated by infected needles, known also that heterosexuals can transmit the virus, still it is both a fact and the popular perception that AIDS is the special curse of the homosexual, transmitted through anal sex between males. And if you look hard, you will discern that little smirk on the face of the man oh-so-concerned about public health. He is looking for ways to safeguard the public, sure, but he is by no means reluctant, in the course of doing so, to sound an invidious tocsin whose clamor is a call to undo all the understanding so painfully cultivated over a generation by those who have fought for the privacy of their bedroom. What School B is really complaining about is the extension of civil rights to homosexuals.
School A will not say all that in words quite so jut-jawed, but it plainly feels that no laws or regulations should be passed that have the effect of identifying the AIDS carrier. It isn't, School A concedes, as if AIDS were transmitted via public drinking fountains. But any attempt to segregate the AIDS carrier is primarily an act of moral ostracism.
School B does in fact tend to disapprove forcefully of homosexuality, but tends to approach the problem of AIDS empirically. It argues that acquired immune deficiency syndrome is potentially the most serious epidemic to have shown its face in this century. Summarizing currently accepted statistics, the Economist recently raised the possibility ''that the AIDS virus will have killed more than 250,000 Americans in eight years' time.'' Moreover, if the epidemic extended to that point, it would burst through existing boundaries. There would then be ''no guarantee that the disease will remain largely confined to groups at special risk, such as homosexuals, hemophiliacs and people who inject drugs intravenously. If AIDS were to spread through the general population, it would become a catastrophe.'' Accordingly, School B says, we face a utilitarian imperative, and this requires absolutely nothing less than the identification of the million-odd people who, the doctors estimate, are carriers. How? Well, the military has taken the first concrete step. Two million soldiers will be given the blood test, and those who have AIDS will be discreetly discharged Discreetly, you say!
Hold on. I'm coming to that. You have the military making the first massive move designed to identify AIDS sufferers - and, bear in mind, an AIDS carrier today is an AIDS carrier on the day of his death, which day, depending on the viral strain, will be two years from now or when he is threescore and 10. The next logical step would be to require of anyone who seeks a marriage license that he present himself not only with a Wassermann test but also an AIDS test.
But if he has AIDS, should he then be free to marry?
Only after the intended spouse is advised that her intended husband has AIDS, and agrees to sterilization. We know already of children born with the disease, transmitted by the mother, who contracted it from the father.
What then would School B suggest for those who are not in the military and who do not set out to get a marriage license? Universal testing?
Yes, in stages. But in rapid stages. The next logical enforcer is the insurance company. Blue Cross, for instance, can reasonably require of those who wish to join it a physical examination that requires tests. Almost every American, making his way from infancy to maturity, needs to pass by one or another institutional turnstile. Here the lady will spring out, her right hand on a needle, her left on a computer, to capture a blood specimen.
Is it then proposed by School B that AIDS carriers should be publicly identified as such?
The evidence is not completely in as to the communicability of the disease. But while much has been said that is reassuring, the moment has not yet come when men and women of science are unanimously agreed that AIDS cannot be casually communicated. Let us be patient on that score, pending any tilt in the evidence: If the news is progressively reassuring, public identification would not be necessary. If it turns in the other direction and AIDS develops among, say, children who have merely roughhoused with other children who suffer from AIDS, then more drastic segregation measures would be called for.
But if the time has not come, and may never come, for public identification, what then of private identification?
Everyone detected with AIDS should be tatooed in the upper forearm, to protect common-needle users, and on the buttocks, to prevent the victimization of other homosexuals.
You have got to be kidding! That's exactly what we suspected all along! You are calling for the return of the Scarlet Letter, but only for homosexuals!
Answer: The Scarlet Letter was designed to stimulate public obloquy. The AIDS tattoo is designed for private protection. And the whole point of this is that we are not talking about a kidding matter. Our society is generally threatened, and in order to fight AIDS, we need the civil equivalent of universal military training.
William F. Buckley Jr., editor of the National Review, is author, most recently, of ''Right Reason.'' His syndicated column appears locally in The New York Daily News.
Posted by: DC Guy | Feb 27, 2008 4:13:12 PM
"Ding Dong The Witch is dead.
Which old Witch?
The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
Wake up -you sleepy head,
rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead.
She's gone where the goblins go,
Below - below - below.
Yo-ho,
let's open up and sing
and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh,
sing it high,
sing it low.
Let them know
The Wicked Witch is dead!"
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Feb 27, 2008 4:15:46 PM
This is the first time I have ever agreed with anything David Ehrenstein has had to say. Ding dong indeed. Let the singing begin.
Posted by: lonnie | Feb 27, 2008 4:24:39 PM
Well, everything else seems insignificant when you consider the sun is going to turn us into charcoal.
Posted by: Tug | Feb 27, 2008 4:36:26 PM
It should be pointed out that scientists have been debating the fate of the Earth for years, and it is not so much that they have made any conclusions as it is they are taking sides. The UK study mentioned is not definitive by any means, though it extends the timescale past the previous limits of study.
Like Goldwater, Buckley grew more libertarian as he got older. The notion that older sins are more pressing than any subsequent reform smacks of retribution. Likewise, contemporary conservatives have become increasingly nutty. Gone are the days when they could debate rationally. He was one of the few men who could verbally constrain Bush/Cheney on the Right and get some respect, leaving us only wanna-bes like George Will and Andrew Sullivan. And you know they aren't going to listen to anyone on the Left.
Posted by: anon | Feb 27, 2008 4:42:17 PM
Buckley repeated his belief about tattooing people with AIDS in 2005:
"Someone, 20 years ago, suggested a discreet tattoo the site of which would alert the prospective partner to the danger of proceeding as had been planned. But the author of the idea was treated as though he had been schooled in Buchenwald, and the idea was not widely considered, but maybe it is up now for reconsideration."
Posted by: JeffNYC | Feb 27, 2008 4:50:41 PM
Anon -- find me a verifiable quote from Buckley specifically repudiating his 1986 stance on HIV patients, and I'll be glad to reconsider my so-called "retribution." I appreciate the flattery, but frankly doubt anything said on this site will affect his legacy as much as you seem to believe.
As far as his "subsequent reform," the man certainly owned up to mistakes about other bigotries, like opposition to the Civil Rights Act, which once found him standing philosophically with the likes of Strom Thurmond and Bull Connor. But, as far as I know, he never apologized for his proposals to treat sick people like so much livestock to be branded and led to the slaughterhouse.
For someone heralded as so intelligent, Buckley seemed remarkably devoid of compassion or circumspection.
Posted by: DC Guy | Feb 27, 2008 5:11:00 PM