NEWS: Spice Girls, Speed Levitch, And A Fierce Russian Homophobe

The Olympics' gayest team gets gold.

Hilton Als on the death of David Rakoff:

I met David at Columbia, when it was an all-boys school. We were both students then. This was in the early-to-mid nineteen-eighties, and to say that gay men were interested in, and terrified of, one another back then is to reduce the horror of the time ... I stayed away from David, because of the sadness I saw in his eyes; I didn’t think I could take it. His sadness felt like the sadness I felt wandering through a world of broken bodies, dashed hopes, possibilities extinguished.

Years later, I was re-introduced to David by a colleague at The New Yorker. His eyes were different: the world had taken some note of his gifts, and there was a light behind the sadness. One felt he couldn’t believe his good fortune ...

"If The Sikh Temple Had Been a Mosque."

Newly-invented particles will oxygenate your blood when you can't breathe:

The particles are composed of oxygen gas pocketed in a layer of lipids, a natural molecule that usually stores energy or serves as a component to cell membranes. Lipids can be waxes, some vitamins, monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, phospholipids, or—as in this case—fats.

These fatty oxygen particles are about two to four micrometers in size ...

Dancing With The Stars' Derek Hough does not like being photographed at gay bars.

The Spice Girls are reuniting tomorrow.

A good analysis of the Ryan pick from John Dickerson.

Did this fey young Warhol wannabe grow up to be Russia's most ridiculous antigay polician?

Yes -- the music that introduced Mitt Romney this morning really was the theme from Air Force One. Learn this and more at Wonkette, which delivered probably the media's best and most spot-on blow-by-blow of this morning's pageantry:

First, Romney walked out to the soundtrack from Air Force One, which increased his foreign policy experience by nearly 75%. He was very happy to be able to announce Paul Ryan as a game-changer policy wonk Young Gun political outsider thing. Paul Ryan is a 14-year Congressman who has basically not stepped foot outside of the District of Columbia since he could rent a car without a co-signer. Romney awkwardly introduced Ryan as “the next President of the United States,” but then smoothly corrected himself by putting his arm around Ryan’s shoulder and grinning through a really painful explanation of how Romney made a mistake, but not in selecting Paul Ryan, because (chuckle), um, because ...

If you haven't met the avant-garde tour guide Speed Levitch before -- say, in Waking Life, a movie he stopped in its tracks with a crazy tour of the Brooklyn Bridge, which explained the meaning of life, the mystery of self-awareness, and Lorca -- then please do so AFTER THE JUMP ...

 

Human Rights Watch To Lebanon: No More Anal Probes

It's both inexpressibly sad and deeply ridiculous that the Human Rights Watch, the four-star charity founded in 1978 to enforce the Helsinki Accords, must in 2012 issue a press release demanding that Lebanese police officers cease performing anal probes on suspected gay men. But they must, and they have.

From HRC:

“Forensic anal examinations of men suspected of homosexual contact, conducted in detention, constitute degrading and humiliating treatment,” said Rasha Moumneh, a Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, based in Beirut. “These ‘tests of shame,’ as local activists call them, should stop immediately – the state has no business punishing and degrading its citizens for consensual sexual conduct.”

In case you're wondering: When Lebanese cops probe your bum, they're looking for semen. The consensus among those few mainstream scientists who think about such things is that the probes are unreliable.

The issue's come up because of the police raid of a gay cinema in Beirut on July 29th, in which 36 men were arrested for peaceably watching a movie. They were all probed. Some were released post-probe; some were not. Those convicted of having performed sexual acts "contradicting the laws of nature" could be sentenced to up to a year in prison.

Rep. Paul Ryan's Coming-Out Speech: VIDEO

Rep. Paul Ryan is known for his wonky, information-packed speeches. Today, after Mitt Romney introduced Ryan as his running mate -- and after Ryan strode manfully, tielessly forth from the belly of the USS Wisconsin -- Ryan delivered a speech that was anti-wonky, and almost totally information-free. He sounded like he knew it, too. Ryan looked profoundly uncomfortable, save for a brief stretch in the middle of his address during which he talked about numbers and money. Mostly, the message was: Barack Obama's the problem, Mitt's the solution. Rephrase and repeat 'til the message sticks.

Sample applause line:

America is on the wrong track. But Mitt Romney and I will take the right steps, in the right time, to get us back on the right track.

Good to know. Watch Paul Ryan to talk to you like you're a toddler, AFTER THE JUMP ...

Bradley Manning's Pre-Trial Punishments May Save Him From Worse

The miseries suffered by Bradley Manning, the gay Army private and Wikileaker, are well documented. After his imprisonment at Quantico, he was kept in soul-killing isolation, restricted to a 6x8 cell for 23 or 24 hours per day, barred from laying on his rack or leaning against walls during his waking hours, denied toilet paper, and forced to strip naked during cell inspections. Juan Mendez, the United Nation's "special rapporteur" on torture, decreed Manning's treatment "cruel and inhuman."

Manning may yet benefit from his difficulties in the brig. The Guardian reports that Manning's civilian lawyer, David Coombs, has filed an Article 13 motion claiming Manning was cruelly, inhumanely, and illegally punished before he'd been convicted of anything. (Manning still hasn't been convicted of anything.) From Coombs's website:

The Defense is requesting the Court to dismiss all charges with prejudice owing to the illegal pretrial punishment PFC Manning was subjected to in violation of Article 13, UCMJ and the Fifth and Eighth Amendments to the United States Constitution. 

The Guardian explains Article 13 like so:

The defence motion is brought under Article 13 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It states that "no person, while being held for trial, may be subjected to punishment or penalty other than arrest or confinement upon the charges pending against him, nor shall the arrest or confinement imposed upon him be any more rigorous than the circumstances required to insure his presence."

Under Article 13, if a judge decides that a member of the armed forces has been illegally punished before trial, he can grant the prisoner credit on the amount of time they have already served in custody, or can even dismiss all charges outright.

The Log Cabin Republicans Are Thrilled

From their website:

"Congressman Paul Ryan is a strong choice for vice president, and his addition to the GOP ticket will help Republican candidates up and down the ballot,” said R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director. “As chairman of the House Budget Committee and author of the Republican “path to prosperity” that provided the blueprint for serious spending cuts in this Congress, nobody is more qualified to articulate a conservative economic vision to restore the American economy and stimulate job creation.

At the same time, Congressman Ryan’s 2007 vote in favor of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and his consistent willingness to engage with Log Cabin on a range of issues speaks to his record as a fair-minded policymaker. Overall, while Log Cabin Republicans have not completed the endorsement process for the 2012 presidential election, this is a choice that all Republicans can be excited about, and which sends a good message about the kind of campaign Governor Romney wants to run, and the kind of president Governor Romney wants to be.

Not to beat the point into the ground, but Ryan did later revoke his support of ENDA. Does that not impact the LCRs opinion of his "fair mindedness"?

Obama Campaign Responds To Paul Ryan Pick

Obama for America campaign manager Jim Messina issued this statement this morning, in response to Mitt Romney's selection of US Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate:

In naming Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has chosen a leader of the House Republicans who shares his commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy. The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid. His plan also would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors. As a member of Congress, Ryan rubber-stamped the reckless Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit and crashed our economy. Now the Romney-Ryan ticket would take us back by repeating the same, catastrophic mistakes.

The Obama campaign's already got a slick anti-Ryan page on the web, and it talks about Paul Ryan's difficult legislative relationship with women and gayfolk:

Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps women fight for equal pay for equal work. He voted against repealing the discriminatory policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and supports writing discrimination into the Constitution by amending it to ban gay marriage.