NEWS: The Enterprise And The Big Apple; Tea Party Underground; Egyptian Deathsex; Barack Obama's Cali Killing Spree

 Space Shuttle Enterprise, meet Midtown. 

 Do some Egyptians really want to legalize postmortem intercourse? Now it's unclear:

Alleged proposals to allow Egyptian husbands to legally have sex with their dead wives for up to six hours after their death have been branded a 'complete nonsense'.

The controversial new 'farewell intercourse' law was claimed, in Arab media, to be part of a raft of measures being introduced by the Islamist-dominated parliament.

... The initial report, published on reputable English language website alarabiya.net, claimed Egypt's National Council for Women was reportedly campaigning against the changes.

It said the group said that 'marginalising and undermining the status of women would negatively affect the country's human development'.

Dr Mervat al-Talawi, head of the NCW, wrote to the Egyptian People’s Assembly Speaker Dr Saad al-Katatni addressing her concerns.

Egyptian journalist Amro Abdul Samea reported in the al-Ahram newspaper that Talawi complained about the legislations which are being introduced under 'alleged religious interpretations'.

The subject of a husband having sex with his dead wife arose in May 2011 when Moroccan cleric Zamzami Abdul Bari said marriage remains valid even after death.

He also said that women have the right to have sex with her dead husband.

 Clerics join forces to fight marriage equality in Scotland. 

 The Times reiterates: homophobes are gay.

 Priest in porn probe departs parish:

An Irish priest at the center of a gay porn controversy has asked to leave his parish and take sabbatical leave from the priesthood, he said Sunday.

Father Martin McVeigh has admitted he destroyed a memory stick containing "inappropriate imagery" ahead of a church investigation into reports he accidentally showed pictures of naked men to parents of children preparing for their First Holy Communion.

The incident happened at the start of a PowerPoint presentation at a grade school in Pomeroy, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in March, said the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady.

Parents said in a statement they were "horrified" by what they saw and called for action to be taken against the priest.

The church reported the incident to police, who said no crime had been committed.

 The Williams Institute investigates "racial" diversity among same-sex couples:

Newly released Census 2010 data, analyzed by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, highlight unique aspects of racial and ethnic diversity within same-sex couples. They are more likely than their different-sex counterparts to be interracial or interethnic, and couples that include a racial or ethnic minority are more likely to be raising children. Fully a third of same-sex couples that include an Hispanic partner are raising children.

“This is our first 2010 glimpse of the racial and ethnic compositions of U.S. households headed by couples, including same-sex couples,” said Gary Gates, Williams Distinguished Scholar at UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute. “The new Census data help provide a fuller picture of the diversity within the LGBT community,” said Gates

The US Census Bureau recently released the research brief Households and Families: 2010, which includes data on the racial and ethnic compositions of households headed by couples in the United States, including same-sex couples.

 The new, improved Tea Party:

... it isn't the kind of activity that makes the press," Fabretti continued. "I mean, when you put 5,000 people at an event, you know, everybody shows up with their cameras. You have 10 meetings with different legislators on [Capitol] Hill -- nobody knows about it."

 The overwhelming whiteness of TV, and what it does to your brain. 

 Some plants possess memory, the ability to communicate, and the ability to respond to communication. The Times wonders if it's still okay to eat them.

 Not only did Barack Obama kill Andrew Breitbart -- he murdered murdered his coroner with arsenic! (HT: JoeMyGod.)

Zach Wahls Talks With Piers Morgan About The Sanctity of Marriage: VIDEO

Wow. Suddenly Zach Wahls is everywhere. I mean -- everywhere! He's everywhere! And his book's not even out yet.

Friday he was on the Piers Morgan Show, talking about the real threat to the sanctity of marriage in America. As always, young Mr. Wahls is very erudite and very right. Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

 

GOProud Doesn't Like Dan Savage Speech

Yesterday, I posted a video of portion of a speech delivered by Dan Savage to a conference of high school journalists. Dan's speech was to be about bullying, and anti-gay bullying in particular, and Dan didn't bother being PC: He acknowledged up front that a lot of anti-gay sentiment comes from a literal reading of the Bible, and suggested that it is possible for Christians to learn to ignore that book's seemingly anti-gay sentiment, just as they ignore its prohibitions on the eating of shellfish and repeated endorsements of slavery.

This isn't an anti-Christian message. It's an anti-Biblical literalism message. But GOProud, just like the rightist media reporting on Dan's speech, seems to have missed that point. They released this statement yesterday:

Today, GOProud, a national organization of gay and straight Americans seeking to promote freedom by supporting free markets, limited government, and a respect for individual rights, condemned a speech given by left wing gay activist Dan Savage. "Dan Savage¹s outrageous anti-Christian tirade hurts, not helps, the fight for gay rights in this country," said Jimmy LaSalvia, GOProud Executive Director. "There is nothing incompatible between being a Christian and believing that all people should be treated equally, and Dan Savage¹s attacks on Christianity only fuel those on the extremist fringe who oppose gay rights.

"Dan Savage should apologize for his comments and should apologize to the high school students in attendance whom he called 'pansy-asses,'" continued LaSalvia. "It is ironic that someone whose claim to fame is fighting bullying would resort to bullying tactics in attacking high school students who were offended by his outrageous remarks.

"GOProud works with people of faith every single day gay and straight. We believe strongly that people of faith should be treated with respect," concluded LaSalvia.

... which is a rather gross mischaracterization of what occurred at Dan's speech, but oh well. GOProud's a political organization; good politics are its biz. Dan's a journalist, and his business is to tell the truth to the best of his ability. These ends are not always simpatico. 

Rachel Maddow Salutes The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power: VIDEO

ACT UP celebrated its 25th birthday last week, and Rachel Maddow celebrated along with them. Did you know she used to be a member?

She did. And to commemorate the birthday, she and her people put together the excellent video below. It's got a lot of archival footage of ACT UP's many ballsy public actions, and ends on this note:

AIDS has killed more than 30 million people worldwide. Even in the United States right now there are thousands of HIV-positive Americans on waiting lists for treatment. On waiting lists for what are called the "AIDS drug assistance programs" in the States. Programs that do not have enough money to get HIV treatment to Americans who need it. In this country. in 2012.

With adequate treatment and healthcare, living with HIV can be a chronic manageable condition now. And that's mostly the way we think of it in this country now. Even though around the world, and even here at home, not everyone is there yet and more needs to be done.

But the reason AIDS can be a chronic manageable condition, the reason it is possible to imagine it ending, the reason ending it is in reach even now -- in significant part is due to a very radical group called ACT UP, which I belonged to for a big, defining chunk of my life before I was ever in media. And which has a deserved place in American history that a lot of people will try to ensure never gets told. But it will be told.

Happy 25th birthday, ACT UP. You set out really aggressively and controversially to change the world. And you changed the world. 

Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

Seventeen-Year-Old Jack Reese Committed Suicide Near Ogden, Utah: Rally Planned

Another gay teen committed suicide last week. This was in Mountain Green, Utah, just east of the small city of Ogden. If the the Ogden Standard-Examiner is any indication at all, it seems like a pretty awful place to grow up gay.

The young man's name was Jack Denton Reese. He was 17. He died last Sunday. Shortly after Mr. Reese killed himself, his boyfriend, 18-year-old Alex Smith, was slated to speak on a "community panel" following a screening of Bully, discussing Mr. Reese's difficulties with anti-gay bullying in school. Smith had apparently completed the discussion before he learned the news.

There shall be an event -- a kind of half-memorial, half-rally -- at 6:30 p.m. on May 1st at the Ogden Amphitheater (343 E. 25th Street, Ogden) so that community members might, according to a press release:

... stand in solidarity with (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) LGBT youth, to speak out and express grief and outrage at yet another loss of life in Northern Utah and to witness for the need for immediate change in schools, churches and society. Until ALL youth are loved and accepted in their homes, able to attend school without fear of bullying, and know that their lives are worth living, this community will continue to demand change.

Numerous community leaders, educators, parents and youth will speak out for acceptance and love for LGBT youth, including active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the request of Alex Smith, a candlelight vigil in memory of Jack Reese will be held at the conclusion of the event.

According to Mr. Reese's obit:

Jack was very good with computers and loved to play his X-Box games. He enjoyed skiing, four wheeling in the mountains and working with plants. Jack loved animals and will miss his cat, Cat. He was also very good with kids and loved taking care of them. Jack was learning to speak Japanese and loved anything to do with Japan. He was also very good at drawing and photography. 

WHC Dinner Highlight: How Presidents Should Treat A Dog (VIDEO)

The treatment of dogs has emerged as an unlikely issue in the 2012 American presidential campaign. Perhaps it began last year when Gail Collins, the politicomedic columnist for the Times, felt moved to include a reference to Mitt Romney's Irish Setter, Seamus, in seemingly every column she wrote between April and November. Whenever it began, eventually everyone was talking about Seamus -- about how, when the Romney family went on a road trip, Mitt would put the dog in a kennel and strap the kennel to the roof of his car; and how on one memorable occasion the terrified (you'd think) and/or ecstatic (if you believe Mitt) pooch defecated into the slipstream, forcing Mitt to make a rare roadside stop to clean up. 

Well -- for a while now, the leading Romney-related Google search has been "Romney dog," which was obviously annoying to Mitt's campaign. To even things up, one of Mitt's staffers let slip a few weeks ago that Barack Obama has actually eaten a dog, which is true. Obama admitted to it in his autobiography. 

Because of all this, last night's White House Correspondents' Dinner was full of dog humor. "Which reminds me of an old joke," said Barack Obama, after mentioning Sarah Palin. "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull is delicious." The audience didn't quite know what to make of that.

And then Obama shared some choice words with the cynical dogbaiters behind this SuperPAC ad, AFTER THE JUMP ...

(If you'd prefer to watch Obama's speech in its entirety, click here.)