Mitt Romney Rejoins Board of Directors of Marriott

Mitt Romney has his first post-election gig, Reuters reports:

J.W. Marriott, Jr., the company's executive chairman, said, "We are delighted that Gov. Romney has agreed to rejoin our board, on which he has served with distinction twice before.  We will benefit from his tremendous energy and capability to guide long-term success in an increasingly complex business environment.  We look forward to working closely with him again as a member of our strong, talented and diverse board."

Arne Sorenson, Marriott's president and chief executive officer, said, "Gov. Romney has proven to be an astute, independent director who is fluent in the demands and opportunities of our highly competitive industry.  We are fortunate to have him back on our board."

Romney, who has served on the Marriott International board twice before, starts immediately.

Mitt Romney Is Sad And Rudderless Post-Election

There's an early Simpsons episode in which Marge becomes the church's "Listen Lady," leaving pious Reverend Lovejoy with nothing to do but play with his model trains.

To the toy passengers on these trains, the brokenhearted and bored pastor, playing the conductor, says "If the passengers will look to their right, you will see a sad man. That is all..."

After reading this Washington Post piece, "A detached Romney tends wounds in seclusion after failed White House bid," I can't help but imagine failed president candidate Mitt Romney in that Lovejoy role.

An excerpt:

The man who planned to be president wakes up each morning now without a plan.

...

Gone are the minute-by-minute schedules and the swarm of Secret Service agents. There’s no aide to make his peanut-butter-and-honey sandwiches. Romney hangs around the house, sometimes alone, pecking away at his iPad and e-mailing his CEO buddies who have been swooping in and out of La Jolla to visit. He wrote to one who’s having a liver transplant soon: "I’ll change your bedpan, take you back and forth to treatment."

In the end of the aforementioned Simpsons episode, Lovejoy saves Ned Flanders from being mauled by baboons after Marge gives him bad advice. The fallen pastor becomes a hero once again. Will Romney pull off a similar comeback? Is he willing to risk his life fighting off rabid baboons to save a fellow American?

News: Lindsay Lohan, Mitt Romney, Mercury, Scorpio Sky

Senator-Elect Tammy Baldwin, US Rep-elect Mark Takano and Ambassador David Huebner, all of whom are openly gay, will speak at the Victory Fund’s LGBT Leaders 2012 Conference, which starts today.

Mitt Romney stopped by the White House for a 70-minute lunch with President Obama. The campaign rivals had turkey chili and reportedly talked about "America’s leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position in the future." The White House says the men "pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future." I have the same arrangement with summer camp friends from 1994.

According to Dr. Sylvia Rhue, her family history proves that Abraham Lincoln was gay and had an affair with William Herndon, his law partner.

David Petraeus wrote to a friend about his recent fall from grace, "I screwed up royally. I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day... [But] Team Petraeus will survive though have obviously created enormous difficulty for us. Holly is however once again demonstrating how incredibly fortunate I was to marry her."

Rebel Wilson's on top of the world, and actually deserves to be there.

Low level pro-wrestler Scorpio Sky knows "faggot" is offensive, which is why he uses it early and often.

Sure, Jude Law, you're not as young as you used to be, but you still look pretty darn good.

NYU student Blake Pruitt talks to gay men about gay men.

Sigh. Lindsay Lohan, an actress I really wanted to see have a comeback, was arrested after getting into a bar brawl in New York City. That brawl was reportedly over Max from the band The Wanted.

Meanwhile, Lohan also faces charges for lying about a car accident in Los Angeles.

George Zimmerman is selling autographs to fund the team defending him for Trayvon Martin's murder.

Ellen DeGeneres shares road signs warning wheelchair-bound citizens of incline-assisted alligators and other out-of-the-ordinary public alerts.

Britney and Will.i.am, "Scream and Shout," the video.

Braison Cyrus, brother of Miley and son of Billy Ray, makes his modeling debut in the February edition of Troix magazine.

NASA's Messenger rover found enough ice at Mercury's poles to fill the Dead Sea.

Democratic Rep. Jackie Spier introduced a "Stop Harming Our Kids" resolution today that aims to stop "ex-gay therapy" for minors. "Any effort to change sexual orientation is not medicine, it’s quackery, and we should not be supporting it with taxpayer dollars," said Spier.

Terrible: 60% of youth infected with HIV in 2010 are African-American. "Nearly 29,000 new cases of HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, were attributed to gay and bisexual males in 2010, and 82 percent of those cases occurred in large cities," US News and World Report reports.

With marriage equality set to become the law of the land, Washington state is considering gender-neutral language for marriage and divorce certificates. "Our fight for marriage equality is in part a fight for gender equality, not just for the gay and lesbian community. It is a fight for equality of sexes and the idea that marriage does not in itself mean that women are subjugated to men," said State Rep. Jamie Pedersen.

GQ Names Mitt Romney 'Least Influential Person' of 2012

Their choices are in no particular order, but Romney gets the lead page.

The magazine rips:

Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian's impression of a white person. Thank God the election's over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson's pampered money Dumpster. Good-bye, Mitt. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life quietly ensconced at Lake Winnipesaukee, blissfully ignorant of the plight of anyone who doesn't have $300 million squirreled away in the Bahamas.

News: Powerball, Action Figures, Morsi, Botany

A somewhat belated congratulations to California lawmaker Cathleen Galgiani! The Democratic state senator who came out of the closet to fight anti-gay bullying eked out a reelection victory last week.

As Mitt Romney settles into post-campaign life at his mansion in La Jolla, California, one has to wonder how he's coping with the town's growing stench. From the NYT: "...The smell, a pungent stench that emanates from the accumulation of bird feces on the rocks, has become a growing problem. And strict environmental regulations in the cove have stymied the city’s efforts to address the problem before it drives tourists and businesses away, effectively roping the rocks off with red tape."

There's definitely still plenty of red tape to be put up before Washington and Colorado residents can buy legal green: "Like Washington, Colorado still needs to set up a regulatory framework to handle what is expected to be a big expansion of its marijuana market, even though the state already has more medical marijuana dispensaries than it has Starbucks."

A cost of mobile accessibility in India: "Millions once bought sex in the narrow alleys of Kamathipura, a vast red-light district here. But prostitutes with inexpensive mobile phones are luring customers elsewhere, and that is endangering the astonishing progress India has made against AIDS."

Now you too can be an action figure.

The mystery of the black dahlia has been solved. The actual flower, not the legendary murder mystery.

Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 topped the box office this weekend, as expected.

Derek Hough left his sleeves at home for Dancing with the Stars rehearsal.

PETA says happy birthday to Miley Cyrus by giving her a pig.

Feeling lucky enough to buy a ticket for the $425 million Powerball drawing?

And a very happy birthday to The Killing actor Joel Kinnaman.

A Catholic speaks out against Vatican-backed hate.

Faced with protests for his ouster, Egyptian President Morsi now claiming his dictatorial power grab is just temporary. "The presidency reiterates the temporary nature of those measures, which are not intended to concentrate power, but to avoid ... attempts to undermine democratically elected bodies and preserve the impartiality of the judiciary," he office said in a statement that gave no end date for his sudden one-man rule.

Former French first lady Carla Bruni said that she, unlike husband Nicolas Sarkozy, supports same-sex marriage and gay adoption. "I am rather in favor of gay marriage and adoption, I have a lot of friends -- women and men -- who are in this situation and I see nothing unstable or perverse in families with homosexual parent," the former model and musician told Vogue.

It will be a big, gay week for the Supreme Court.

A Kentucky teacher has been reprimanded after writing "You can’t be a Democrat & go to Heaven" on her classroom's chalk board.

Disheveled Mitt Romney Spotted Pumping Gas in La Jolla: PHOTO

Mitt Romney was spotted pumping gas in La Jolla, California, near one of his many homes:

"Mitt Romney at my local gas station," Reddit user mkb95 wrote. "He looks tired and washed up."

Romney's hair appears to be slightly frazzled, unlike the slicked-back coif he sported on the trail—though it's nothing like Al Gore's post-2000-election-loss beard. Other Reddit users countered that the former Massachusetts governor merely looked annoyed at having his photo taken at the pump.

"I talked to him for a good three minutes while he was filling his tank," the photographer added. "I guess he's moving to one of his houses in the town I live in, La Jolla."

In related news, Hank Plante writes for the SF Chronicle about the Romneys' plan to settle there, noting that it's a not so "red" area with many gay families:

But it is also in La Jolla where the local Democratic councilwoman was just re-elected, giving the San Diego City Council a 5-4 Democratic majority. And it is in La Jolla where the longtime Republican congressman was just beaten by a Democrat.

And it is in La Jolla where, according to the New York Times, there are six gay households within a three-block radius of the Romneys' $12 million home.

This is not to mention that La Jolla is part of the bluest of blue states, California, where Republican registration just fell below 30 percent, and where voters said "yes" to a tax increase on people just like the Romneys.

So what gives? If you are the Romneys, then why not settle in a red state where people love you? What's wrong with Alabama, Mississippi or even Utah? Simply put, when it comes down to it, Mitt and Ann Romney seem to want the same things that so many others seek in California living: a tolerant, open, environmentally beautiful place to live that we're not afraid to pay for.