Lucky

Embarrassed by the recent turmoil in the US government, the Statue of Liberty announced today that she will be closing. "I can no longer proudly represent the values of a country which ignores their very foundation," the statue said. "What was once a great democracy is now in shambles, and I will not be a part of it." Government authorities meanwhile are trying to put a different spin on it, saying that the statue will be closing, but only for a year, for "maintenance" issues. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/nyregion/statue-of-liberty-will-close-for-a-year-to-further-improve-safety.html?hp

Gawker.com reveals in what is for them a long article about the ex-bishop of Miami and his secret gay underground, wherein favored gay priests were rewarded and debauchery went unpunished. It's pretty interesting reading: (Bishop) Favalora, who was the most powerful Catholic official in Southern Florida from 1994 until last year, stands accused of cultivating what one group of pissed-off Catholics describes as a corrupt "homosexual superculture" in the 195 churches, schools, missions, seminaries, and universities that constitute the Miami Archdiocese. If their allegations are to be believed, for sixteen years Favalora ran his organization like the don of a lavender mob, rewarding his favorite homosexual sons and forgiving their many indiscretions—rampant sex, hedonism, embezzlement, alcoholism, and the railroading of chaste priests among them—while punishing those with the temerity to complain. Wanton hedonistic gay sex is of course unobjectionable—even encouraged!—among those not in thrall to the idea that God hates your penis. http://gawker.com/5825254/the-catholic-churchs-secret-gay-cabal

Perhaps we should implore President Obama to moderate this debate. He would have us start off by insisting that the number of posts in each forum be equal, thus causing some nonpolitical posts to go from the Hooboy Pub to the Politics forum. Then he would promise to become a fierce advocate for those of who want to consolidate the forums, thus ensuring that no change ever gets made. Shortly thereafter, the website will be seized by its creditors and sold to Fred Phelps.

So, if a city is not on the list, can that be considered an endorsement by MER of the safety of the city? Are the same cities on the list at nighttime? What other variables might make the city a less likely candidate for the list? Is it possible that the list is funded by the cities themselves as a roundabout way to encourage tourism to those places? And who is Fred Smith?

This topic is way too political for me to consider, and I resent seeing it here among the main discussions of the group. Shouldn't there be a separate forum for hotbed stuff like this? We need all of the space we can get for inane videos of little kids brutalizing grown up songs! And, in case I am not clear here, consider this:

This is a Bruno Mars song, much more enjoyable when he sings it. I can picture him "letting it all hang loose" or close to that, not these kids.

I am glad that you like the graph, DarnTop82. If you have read my other posts over time, you won't find me saying many good things about Congress or Obama either. I think they have all let us down. I think the riots in Great Britain are a sign of neglect of the affected youth and an indication that their needs should be heard. I did not characterize any ethnicity in the gun thing. Joe Blow could be any color. he could even be a woman.

You are welcome. When I saw such a succinct and clear look at the debt problem, I couldn't resist.

For most of us, life is different than it was in 1776. The country has grown beyond anything the Founding Fathers could have imagined. Big government requires smart people to run it. And we do have big government, not just to smite the Tea Party, but because we have a big population. Do we want the finest people running it(in theory) or do we want to continually turn the job over to rank amateurs? There is waste in government. The Bush wars, the Bush tax cuts- they compounded what was a solvable problem. Let's cut defense spending, cut out waste across the government, reduce eligibility for social services based upon need. Let the rich pay a tax rate higher than the one their secretary pays. Those are my Tea Party goals, and I don't even like tea!

Final thoughts on this subject. We all get to post in essentially open forums, dividing some subjects by categories to make it easier to find a particular topic. Politics is one of those forums, and it does help one looking for those subjects to easily find what he wants to see. Yet, many of us think politics is important enough to put in the general discussion group, not only because we want the topic to get the most readership, but because politics is an essential form of gay life. Had we not engaged in some politics of our own, we might still be patronizing Mafia bars and hiding our faces when the place was raided. The idea that we can post anything within reasonable guidelines helps increase the flow of conversation here, that conversation, I believe, being the very life of the place. Why some just cannot fathom coming across a political topic makes me think of women jumping on a table and screeching when they see a mouse. We are grown ups, yet sometimes we act like grade schoolers. There is an endless supply of butt shots, reminding me of trips taken with grade school boys where the first thing we hit was the Playboy newsstand. It's a commentary on us that butts are more popular than politics. And don't think I don't like seeing the butt shots. I appreciate the work of those like EXPAT, zipperzone, lurkerspeaks, and others to bring us the best choices. But I do wade through a lot of stuff that I don't care to see. Guys who post videos and expect us to watch it without any idea of what it is or why I might like it are just lazy. Why not tell us what you have so we can decide if we want to watch? At least on a politics thread you can soon discern its topic and move on. You didn't have to open up a video link and start watching. In short, in a community forum such as this, with multiple people and multiple interests, we come across much that does not interest everyone. Why single out politics as something akin to a mouse or fingers on a chalkboard? It demeans the rest of us who might have developed the interest and care more about the world than where the next butt pic is coming from. (And again, don't get me wrong, I like butt shots.) So, let's keep the spirit of openness and not impose restrictions on political threads as though they are some kind of rare fish that wouldn't interest us hedonists.

You jest!

You can go back and forth on term limits. In my opinion, it leaves a bunch of amateurs making big decisions. The whole country is on the decline anyway thanks to George W. Bush. His tax cuts and two unwanted wars have devastated the economy. Beyond that, his Republican appointees plundered the treasury to the extent they could, sharing it with their fat cat friends. They deregulated any meaningful laws to keep the environment or honest business practices flowing. Bush put Alito and Roberts on the Supreme Court to dismantle the Constitution. And they skillfully got Joe Blow to go along with it all in order to protect his right to bear a gun that he only uses when drunk.

A trip to China! How convenient. You can just bring your savings account and hand it right over to them, avoid the middleman!

Townsend, you hardly ever post any more here anyway, so let's be upfront about that. A change as suggested would barely affect you. Gcursor, given the stock market's reaction to the possible change, you could be right!

Term limits means that your legislators never learn the ropes or amass enough power to get anything done.

I am in favor of combining them and do not understand the opposition to it. But ultimately we will survive either choice.

Obama U.S. Attorney Nominee David Barlow Is Tea Party Senator's General Counsel WASHINGTON -- Presidents routinely choose party loyalists as their U.S. attorneys. But normally, they choose nominees from their own party. President Barack Obama dismayed fellow Democrats on Tuesday when he announced his pick to be the next U.S. attorney for Utah is David Barlow, currently the general counsel to freshman senator and Tea Party favorite Mike Lee (R-Utah). It's unclear whether Barlow shares Lee's more extreme legal theories about the limits of federal power. But what is known about Barlow is that he has no significant criminal law experience -- he was a corporate lawyer practicing pharmaceutical defense, toxic tort and product liability law before starting to work for Lee in January -- and he's a registered Republican who contributed $300 to Obama's opponent, Sen. John McCain, in 2008. Todd Taylor, executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, said his group sent the names of several strong, qualified Democratic candidates for the job to the White House, then never heard anything back. "We're just deeply disappointed" by the Barlow nomination, Taylor said, "and given the legal philosophy of Mike Lee, it leads us to wonder what this guy even thinks about the law." The liberal ThinkProgress blog suggested that "Lee's contempt for the Constitution raises serious concerns about Barlow’s fitness to serve as Utah's top federal attorney." All in all, Taylor said, the nomination "just raises a bunch of question about why." Huffington Post

"But I still say if you want to see a movie, the best experience is in the theatre on a big screen." Just don't forget the raincoat. The topic is porn, after all.

Don't believe him for a moment, gcursor. The rest of us had our Gold memberships delivered personally by naked Thai boys who did a candle dance on top of us when they presented the membership.

Yes, thanks for the report. And TY, what trip do you have planned? I love to live vicariously off of others' trips!

Stocks Plunge on Fears of Global Turmoil Investors Cite Slow U.S. Recovery and Europe’s Debt Crisis By GRAHAM BOWLEY 31 minutes ago American indexes fell around 5 percent as new data heightened fears that the United States may be headed toward a double-dip recession and that Europe’s debt crisis could widen. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/business/markets.html?_r=1&hp Is the Times getting its news from this forum these days? Look at this: News Analysis Time to Say It: Double Dip Recession May Be Happening By FLOYD NORRIS It has been three decades since the United States suffered a recession that followed on the heels of the previous one. But it could be happening again. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/business/economy/double-dip-recession-may-be-returning.html?hp

Flaws in your reasoning? Dude, this could devastate the male hooker industry! Let's assume that half of those 14 million out of work are women. That leaves 7 million men. Assume that 1% of them are gorgeous, then you have flooded the market with 70,000 new hustlers. How can the current escorts keep up their rates in the face of that competition? Prices would drop and even more people would be out of work!

Lookin, I wish I could agree with you, but I was better at politics in the eight grade than Obama is in the White House. You learn early that you don't start negotiating at the 50 yard line and work to the opposition side. You hopefully have some balls to take a position that you support and work from there, maybe meeting at the 45 yard line or closer to the 50th. Obama can give a great speech, but that is the extent of his political skill. Why else was Biden doing all the heavy work? Hillary would have had Boehner standing in the corner until he could play nicely.

Better hurry. The FAA may be back any minute.

Yes, perhaps some threads do need to be flagged! I was expecting to see a cute pic of a new puppy!