News: Eating Elephant, More Fluke Insults, Budget, Thinking

Erich Bishop, the openly gay son of a former KKK member, is running for state house in Kansas.

"To a man?" That's how Fox News anchor Monica Crowley reacted to news that Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown student Rush Limbaugh called a "slut" for wanting access to contraceptives, is engaged. Adam Peck writes, "Crowley’s fake surprise that Fluke is not, in fact, a lesbian is especially ironic given the attacks that her network leveled against Fluke in February."

Rupert Murdoch admitted that News Corp. executives tried to "cover up" a culture of hacking.

Jen Tyrrell, the mother booted from her son's Boy Scouts troop for being a lesbian, appeared on MSNBC today and had this to say about the incident: "We were like a family, so in essence … we lost our scouting family, but they also lost two members of their scouting family."

The thankfully short life of the "I Kill Gays for Fun" Facebook page.

The Victory Fund says that for the first time ever all 50 states have an LGBT elected official. From the Washington Blade: "[VF] has listed the names of openly LGBT officials in 49, saying that it has also identified a local official in Alaska whose name will be made public soon."

In related news, 2012 is turning out to be quite the year for LGBT candidates: "[Victory Fund] has already backed more than 100 national, state and local LGBT candidates, and expects that number to double before November."

John Paulk, an "ex-gay" activist photographed in a gay bar in 2000, now lists himself as "interested in men and women" on Facebook. Has another charlatan seen the light?

Perhaps hoping that he hasn't completely eradicated his political career, failed presidential candidate now claims he can be an influential surrogate for Mitt Romney: "I'm going to look at how I can be helpful, because I suspect people will still show up to hear me."

Oakland A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy won't stand for homophobic business on the kiss cam. "They put two guys on the 'Kiss Cam' tonight. What hilarity!! (by hilarity I mean offensive homophobia). Enough with this stupid trend," he tweeted.

Reality star and White House party crasher Tareq Salahi is claims young people will help his campaign for governor in Virginia: "The social media, those people that have associated me with television or reality TV, opens up a whole new audience, and frankly the younger audience is going to be very important in winning this governor's race."

Racism among the contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Top Gun sequel?

Progressive Catholics are coming out against Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan. "We would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few," wrote dozens of faculty and students at Georgetown, where Ryan spoke today.

Lindsay Lohan smoked a stoge while hanging around the set of Glee.

Not sure if you heard or not, but Ricky Martin will be hosting an LGBT Obama fundraiser.

Lambda Legal is fighting to overturn the 2010 aggravated assault conviction for a man who was accused of using a "dangerous instrument" when he bit someone because the judge claimed his HIV-positive status turned his saliva into a weapon, even though HIV is not transmitted through saliva. 

Singer Kris Allen strikes striking poses during a photo shoot for his forthcoming album, Thank You Camellia.

A little taste of elephant.

Chew on this: "Thinking analytically dims supernatural beliefs [such as religion], apparently by opposing the intuitive thought processes that underpin them."

The Senate renewed the Violence Against Women Act, which now includes LGBT people. The House now has to pass its own version.

Meryl Streep tries to get her groove back in the Hope Springs trailer.

Jon Stewart Rips FOX News for Hypocrisy on Rush Limbaugh: VIDEO

FOX News tries to excuse "entertainer" Rush Limbaugh while accusing Bill Maher of hiding his "reprehensible" statements under the "helmet" of "comedy", and Jon Stewart isn't having it.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Jon Stewart Rips Rush Limbaugh and GOP Over the Sandra Fluke 'Slut' Accusations: VIDEO

Jon Stewart had to use protection to sheathe himself from 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Gross' radio host Rush Limbaugh's filthy rhetoric about contraception and "slut" Sandra Fluke.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

NEWS: Putin Wins, Santorum Talks, Limbaugh Is Both Loved And Hated, McDonald's Gets Weird

Putin won:

Russia's opposition has vowed to continue protests alleging widespread irregularities after a tearful Vladimir Putin claimed victory in an election that will see him return for a third term as president.

With more than 90 per cent of votes counted on Sunday night, the tally for the former spy who has dominated Russian politics for the past dozen years stood at 65 per cent. That represents a comfortable victory with no need to go into a second round of voting.

Later blaming the wind for the tears in his eyes, Mr Putin wasted no time in declaring victory, addressing thousands of Russian flag-waving supporters at a victory rally outside the Kremlin walls.

“I promised we would win. And we did win!” Mr Putin said, to cheers from his supporters. “We won an open and honest battle.”

The making of Santorum, a man of moral profundity:

... As [Karen Garver and Rick Santorum] made plans to marry and he decided to enter politics, she sent him to her father for advice.

Dr. Kenneth L. Garver was a Pittsburgh pediatrician who specialized in medical genetics. The patriarch of a large Roman Catholic family, he had treated patients considering abortion but was strongly opposed to it.

“We sat across the table and the whole evening we talked about this issue,” Mr. Santorum told an anti-abortion group last October. He left, he said, convinced “that there was only one place to be, from the standpoint of science as well as from the standpoint of faith.”

The utterances of Santorum, a man who can't keep his mouth on message:

“The Blunt amendment was broader than that,” Santorum told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. “It was a conscience clause exception that existed prior to when President Obama decided that he could impose his values on people of faith, when people of faith believe that this is a grievous moral wrong.”

This editorial about Rush Limbaugh's latest orgy of public awfulness gets a few things very, very wrong, but it contains at least one delightful turn of phrase:

Inadvertently, Rush also helped advance the argument from the left that Republicans are waging a war against women. After referring to Fluke as a "slut" and a "prostitute," he offered the following proposition:

"So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives ... we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

The image suggested is equally degrading to Limbaugh given his obvious familiarity with "watching," and invites unflattering speculation. To wit: It is entirely possible that Limbaugh himself never needed contraception in college, but virtue in the absence of opportunity is hardly a moral triumph.

... and despite overwhelming public disapproval, misogynists and sexophobes just keep digging themselves deeper.

And deeper.

The best thing to hit the web this weekend: a collection of terrifying children's drawings.

Christian schools in Texas don't want to play basketball with Muslims.

Dear God, what's Quick serving to French people? (That's Quick, not McDonald's, contrary to previous reports. Thank you, readers, for pointing out this knuckleheaded error.)

"Blacks and gays: The shared struggle for civil rights."

 

Hate Group Leader Bryan Fischer Wants to Make the World a Safer Place for Homosexuals: VIDEO

How to do that? Curb flamboyant homosexual behavior at schools, so that kids like Larry King won't get their heads blown off by classmates. Because it was Larry's fault that he's dead now, right?

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

In a written piece, Fischer goes on about how King's killer McInerney, was the real victim:

McInerney complained to school officials about this obviously inexcusable sexual harassment, but school officials did precisely nothing, just telling McInerney to suck it up and take it. Even when teachers reported the growing tension between King and McInerney, still school bureaucrats did nothing. Other teachers admitted during trial testimony that they decided to say nothing because they didn’t want to jeopardize their shot at tenure.

Can you imagine the school would have been as sanguine had a straight student been harassing a homosexual student like that? That student wouldn’t have been around long enough to repeat the behavior.

Rush Limbaugh echoes Fischer:

Now we’re told in Newsweek that an assistant principal was encouraging this kid to be flamboyant because it furthered an agenda. I wonder what that agenda could have possibly been? Anybody want to take a wild guess? Back in 2008, the parents and brother of Larry King, the kid who was shot, claimed that the school was allowing him to wear makeup and feminine clothing, and that this was a factor leading to his death. [...]

Is it any wonder that parents get a little worried when they send the little tykes off to school, because I’ll tell you, folks, what’s happening, especially in these blue states, what’s happening in these public schools, the last thing going on is what we’ve all thought of as traditional education. There is education taking place, and there are agendas that are being promoted, but they’re not what you and I were taught in school. So now a confused 17-year-old is dead because the school, “Ah, there’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing that we can do about this. So sorry.”

Speaking Of Uganda: Americans Ship Off To Fight, While Rush Limbaugh Praises The Lord's Resistance Army

Yesterday, the United States quietly commenced hostilities in yet another unlucky country, bringing the total up to -- what? Five? But this one's probably worth it. Barack Obama's committed no more than 100 "advisers" -- who are nevertheless combat-ready -- to helping the Ugandan government rid the country of the child-raping, body-mutilating, mass-murdering theocrats known as the Lord's Resistance Army, and especially its leader, Joseph Kony.

Kony is a spirit-channeling madman who enslaves prepubescent children. Say what you will about the Ugandan government's oft-ugly treatment of gay people: Kony's worse. During the long civil war he's waged in Uganda, Kony's MO has been something like this: Roll into town, kill a bunch of mothers and fathers, kidnap the kids, keep the girls prisoner and train the boys to fight. His army -- which numbers, at this point, less than 4,000 -- is comprised primarily of bonded children. (The photo at right is of a young woman named Nancy Abwot, one of the Lord's Resistance Army's child abductees. She received her injuries during an escape attempt. The image is courtesy Echwalu Photography.)

It's hard to say exactly what species of craziness animates Joseph Kony, if only because he does a convincing impersonation of Christian mania at one moment and then, without batting an eye, claims to be Muslim. Maybe he's just a megalomaniac. Maybe he loves sex slaves and cash. Who knows? What's more, who cares? The dude's going down. (Unless he's hiding in Khartoum, which seems possible.)

This is good news for everyone, you'd think. Wrongo! Rush Limbaugh thinks Kony's a pretty cool guy.

Here's a bit of Rush's radio show from yesterday, as transcribed at Little Green Footballs:

[The] Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill.

So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding. Jacob Tapper just reported it. Now, are we gonna help the Egyptians wipe out the Christians? Wouldn’t you say that we are? I mean the Coptic Christians are being wiped out, but it wasn’t just Obama that supported that. The conservative intelligentsia thought it was an outbreak of democracy. Now they’ve done a 180 on that, but they forgot that they supported it in the first place. Now they’re criticizing it.

Lord’s Resistance Army objectives. I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty, and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the LRA ideology.” Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.

Note that Rush kind of bungled the allegiences of the Lord's Resistance Army in Sudan. No matter. Facts are for wimps.

Check out a very moving trailer for a film called Children of War, about Mr. Kony's child soldiers, AFTER THE JUMP...