Lucky

More on the Sarah Palin birth controversy, from Huffington Post.It's enough to make me change my mind: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/22/palin-trig-trutherism_n_852585.html

This has gotten beyond my capacity to understand: April 22, 2011, 5:48 pm Google Says It Collects Location Data on Phones for Location Services http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/google-says-it-collects-location-data-on-phones-for-location-services/?hpw Followed by this: Google's Android mobile-phone platform faces soaring software attacks and has little control over the applications, according to security firm Kaspersky Lab. Applications loaded with malicious software are infiltrating the Google operating system at a faster rate than hackers did with personal computers at the same stage in development, said Nikolay Grebennikov, chief technology officer for Kaspersky. The company identified 70 different types of malware in March, up from two categories in September. "The growth rate in malware within Android is huge; in the future there will definitely be more," Grebennikov said. Kaspersky will offer security on Android in the third quarter of this year. Hacking into mobile-phone software has become increasingly sophisticated, forcing Mountain View's Google to remove malicious applications that were available from its Android Market store last month. The applications, which were remotely disabled, gathered information about mobile devices and could be used to access personal data. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/21/BUL51J5G3C.DTL#ixzz1KJDI0Sqk

I saw the last production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, an early groundbreaking AIDS play, at the Public Theater. Now it is moving to Broadway, where it is in previews prior to an April 27th opening. In my opinion, every gay man that can should make it to see this play. It speaks of what our community suffered and continues to suffer. Playgoers receive this letter from Kramer after each performance: A letter from Larry Kramer PLEASE KNOW Thank you for coming to see our play. Please know that everything in The Normal Heart happened. These were and are real people who lived and spoke and died, and are presented here as best I could. Several more have died since, including Bruce, whose name was Paul Popham, and Tommy, whose name was Rodger McFarlane and who became my best friend, and Emma, whose name was Dr. Linda Laubenstein. She died after a return bout of polio and another trip to an iron lung. Rodger, after building three gay/AIDS agencies from the ground up, committed suicide in despair. On his deathbed at Memorial, Paul called me (we’d not spoken since our last night in this play) and told me to never stop fighting. Four members of the original cast died as well, including my dear sweet friend Brad Davis, the original Ned, whom I knew from practically the moment he got off the bus from Florida, a shy kid intent on becoming a fine actor, which he did. Please know that AIDS is a worldwide plague. Please know that no country in the world, including this one, especially this one, has ever called it a plague, or dealt with it as a plague. Please know that there is no cure. Please know that after all this time the amount of money being spent to find a cure is still miniscule, still almost invisible, still impossible to locate in any national health budget, and still totally uncoordinated. Please know that here in America case numbers continue to rise in every category. In much of the rest of the world — Russia, India, Southeast Asia, Africa — the numbers of the infected and the dying are so grotesquely high they are rarely acknowledged. Please know that all efforts at prevention and educations continue their unending record of abject failure. Please know that there is no one in charge of this plague. This is a war for which there is no general and for which there has never been a general. How can you win a war with no one in charge? Please know that beginning with Ronald Reagan (who would not say the word “AIDS” publicly for seven years), every single president has said nothing and done nothing, or in the case of the current president, says the right things and then doesn’t do them. Please know that most medications for HIV/AIDS are inhumanly expensive and that government funding for the poor to obtain them is dwindling and often unavailable. Please know that pharmaceutical companies are among the most evil and greedy nightmares ever loosed on humankind. What “research” they embark upon is calculated only toward finding newer drugs to keep us, just barely, from dying, but not to make us better or, god forbid, cured. Please know that an awful lot of people have needlessly died and will continue to needlessly die because of any and all of the above. Please know that the world has suffered at the very least some 75 million infections and 35 million deaths. When the action of the play that you have just seen begins, there were 41. I have never seen such wrongs as this plague, in all its guises, represents, and continues to say about us all. Larry Kramer For more information, visit TheNormalHeartBroadway.com

James Durbin seemed much sadder at Stefano's loss than Stefano himself did. Durbin cried, then gave Stefano an endless hug after his last song. I think James will ultimately be the winner, and he and Stefano can still date, so it isn't so bad.

The San Francisco Chronicle today tells us how to travel safely (and where to go in Mexico): http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/04/20/mexico_mix_safe_travel.DTL

A wise man!

From the NYPost today: Cops who fix tickets aren't corrupt -- they're courteous. That's the opinion of one police-union leader, who last night defended the practice as part of the culture of being a cop. Vigorously supporting members facing departmental or criminal charges in an ongoing probe, Edward Mullins, the head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, insisted the age-old practice is "just a courtesy" and cops reap no personal benefits. "The portrayal of some members of the department being involved in a major corruption ring of ticket-fixing for favors" and the idea that "labor organizations discreetly approve [of it are] ludicrous," Mullins said. Mullins has recorded an audio message asking current and retired members of the NYPD of all ranks to come forward with stories about fixing tickets to show it's not anything nefarious. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/union_boss_tix_fix_cops_just_aim_JVid5QhvVF0jMNIZFE2DRO#ixzz1K53BLPaX

I looked up Telly and learned that he played Angel at the Hollywood Bowl show, but not on Broadway. Still and all...he has an angelic look.

Not yet. Here is a website that DID talk about Patrick as a sex object, but with a wink! My Wink

No, I didn't know that. I thought 525,600 was the number of Thai boys you have been with!

Then you have a fight on your hands! And no fair using money!!!!

The son of former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Patrick, is in the hip clothing business, according to Gawker. Given how hard it must be to be the son of Arnold, give the kid credit for starting young. He is 17, thus we report only his business dealings, and not on his recent topless photo: http://gawker.com/#!5793511/arnold-schwarzeneggers-son-to-sexily-conquer-the-world

I suppose if you don't aspire to more class than Sarah Palin and her ilk then it is okay. But why do it on a site that tries to appeal to a cross section of gay readers, including those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Should they have to see that every time they log in? If so, maybe they will stop logging in. Christianity is the major religion here, and insulting it will win you few friends.

The Warblers, fronted by Darren Criss, and performers from the TV show Glee, appeared on the today show today. Groupie Marc Anthony did not appear with them! You can see them here: Marc's Warbler Buddies (I tease Marc Anthony here because apparently he knows one of the Warblers. I am jealous if he is the one I like!))

Well, duh. The study was conducted on women, so of course it would show only that.

Would a camp for gay kids be okay? They could learn from each other and from their counselors, engage in wholesome activities to become comfortable with their identity...oops, unless it was a camp in Malaysia, where effeminate boys are sent to learn how to butch it up: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/19/malaysia-gay-counseling_n_850883.html

"P.S. Marcos has one of the most beautiful dicks I have seen! 8" of perfection! lol " Hehehe...yes, I heard that you rank it #31 out of the 8768 that you have been with! LOL

I am probably looking forward to lurkerspeak's tales of his trip as much as he is looking forward to his trip.

A short piece? It's 4 pages long! Short for the New yorker, I guess. What it did, though, was remind me why many don't like David Remnick. His sense of intellectual superiority reigns here, as he purports to review Manning Marable's book but essentially proselytizes for Alex Haley's earlier "autobiography" which Marable has now reduced to a pack of lies*. Apparently Remnick wants the Malcolm X that he remembers, not the Malcolm X that existed. *Not in total, of course, but in many of its essential parts.

Don't we all already know that sex makes us happy? So why is it so controversial when the head of the newsletter Surgery News writes that it is the semen itself that works as an antidepressant? http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/forget-chocolate-on-valentines-day-try-semen-says-surgery-news-editor-retraction-resignation-follow/ His argument is that women having unsafe sex are happier than women using condoms because the semen works as an antidepressant. Granted, that is a stretch from the simple statement that having sex can make you happier. It might encourage unsafe sex. But say if a woman is married and trusts her husband, do you think she is demanding condom use? No. And apparently she is happier for it! Anyway, the guy who wrote the article has resigned, the article has been pulled, and no one seems happy at all. I wonder is semen as a facial can work just as well...

And how was Pride Weekend in Phoenix?

Thanks for sharing the story. I found it an uplifting start to my week.

As a ticket fixing scandal erupts in New York City, I am reminded that fixing tickets has been common in America since the first ticket was issued. "It is a practice that by all accounts has been around almost as long as the traffic laws: fixing a traffic ticket. In the annals of small-bore corruption, there are few things more commonplace than a police officer’s making a ticket disappear for a friend or relative. Yet now this curb-level cronyism is threatening to erupt into a New York Police Department scandal. Some two dozen officers in the Bronx could face criminal charges as a result of a lengthy inquiry into the practice, and hundreds could face disciplinary action by the department, a law enforcement official and several other people briefed on the case said." The Times did not contact me on the subject, but I remember as a young lawyer that every lawyer in town knew how to fix a ticket. The courts had ruled that the standard summons did not meet legal muster for charging a crime, but the city kept using them anyway since they were so convenient. All a lawyer had to do to get the ticket dropped was file a motion to dismiss, citing the court decision. The average Joe did not know this and just paid his tickets. The catch was that the prosecutor could refile the ticket, using the proper forms. But that task was assigned to one woman, and she was, um, quite popular.Lots of tickets never got refiled, and even if they did, the cop had usually given up by then and did not even appear in court. (Less than half of cops usually show up for ticket fighting cases anyway, in my experience.) At our little law firm, we would get people wanting parking tickets fixed. At that time, the fine was only $2, so we would assure them that, yes, we could get the ticket fixed, then we would just go over and pay it. They were never the wiser and seemed to think that we had some clout, which didn't hurt when future business was at stake. Tickets have long been unpopular as it is usually the driver's word against the police officer's, and you know who courts decide to rely on. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/nyregion/ticket-fixing-by-police-investigated-in-new-york.html?ref=nyregion

Well, in other religious news, an apparent inconsistency in the Bible might have been solved. From Yahoo news: LONDON (AFP) – Christians have long celebrated Jesus Christ's Last Supper on Maundy Thursday but new research released Monday claims to show it took place on the Wednesday before the crucifixion. Professor Colin Humphreys, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, believes it is all due to a calendar mix-up -- and asserts his findings strengthen the case for finally introducing a fixed date for Easter. Humphreys uses a combination of biblical, historical and astronomical research to try to pinpoint the precise nature and timing of Jesus's final meal with his disciples before his death. Researchers have long been puzzled by an apparent inconsistency in the Bible. While Matthew, Mark and Luke all say the Last Supper coincided with the start of the Jewish festival of Passover, John claims it took place before Passover. Humphreys has concluded in a new book, "The Mystery Of The Last Supper", that Jesus -- along with Matthew, Mark and Luke -- may have been using a different calendar to John. "Whatever you think about the Bible, the fact is that Jewish people would never mistake the Passover meal for another meal, so for the Gospels to contradict themselves in this regard is really hard to understand," Humphreys said. "Many biblical scholars say that, for this reason, you can't trust the Gospels at all. But if we use science and the Gospels hand in hand, we can actually prove that there was no contradiction." In Humphreys' theory, Jesus went by an old-fashioned Jewish calendar rather than the official lunar calendar which was in widespread use at the time of his death and is still in use today. This would put the Passover meal -- and the Last Supper -- on the Wednesday, explaining how such a large number of events took place between the meal and the crucifixion. It would follow that Jesus' arrest, interrogation and separate trials did not all take place in the space of one night but in fact occurred over a longer period. Humphreys believes a date could therefore be ascribed to Easter in our modern solar calendar, and working on the basis that the crucifixion took place on April 3, Easter Day would be on April 5.

Not to leave Jesse Jackson out of it! "From that gay teacher, I got a good grade, I got to use his car, I got 10 dollars and I got my dick sucked. That's not gay, that is surviving." -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson, "regaling" a former Rainbow PUSH Coalition employee with details of a male teacher who took him under his wings in high school and told him that he needed an education to go along with with beloved football. The former employee, Tommy Bennett, alleges Jackson targeted him for taunts and "humiliating tasks" and asked him for oral sex -- and is seeking $450,000 in back pay and damages.(from kennethinthe212.com)