Archive for the ‘All’ Category
Beard of the Week IX
In recognition of Memorial Day here in America, I offer this World-War-I photo of two British Officers, c. 1914, apparently behind the lines, in the trenches, and sitting down for supper. I was not able to find any bearded soldiers from that war, as I had hoped, so I've updated the rules* to include any […]
My Gay Belt
As everyone knows, gay people have "gaydar" and we can all instantly recognize each other and pass on the secret handshake. Nevertheless, as an extra aid-to-recognition, I have this belt I usually wear to hold up my trousers. It's woven in six lovely rainbow colors, the rainbow of gay pride, and it works like a […]
Beard of the Week VIII
I am continually amazed at the search strings people submit to Google that bring those searchers for knowledge to this blog — both that such frequently odd and unexpected search strings would show me so much Google favor, and that people would even think to ask such things. Recently, someone reached a beard of the […]
Mounties to Marry
Frank and Kenneth sat at their computers, variously intent on reading the online news that caught their attention. "Oh, isn't this romantic!" Kenneth said. Frank responded with "hmm?" "It seems* that two boy Mounties have fallen in love and intend to get married this summer." "That's sweet. I suppose the news report is filled with […]
Speaker of Truth vs Facilitator of Intolerance
I'm just as amused as any good-hearted liberal at the news of John McCain's being booed when he delivered the commencement address at New York's New School. As promised, this was reportedly the same speech he gave at Jerry Falwell's Liberty "University", generally seen as a transparent attempt to pander to extremist religious power — […]
The English-Minus Plan
Sometimes it's like shooting fish in a barrel; do comedians need writers when we've got the Bush administration? From a Reuters story:* He [Attorney General Gonzales] said Bush has instead [of making English the "official" language of America] long supported a concept called "English-Plus," believing that it was good to be proficient in more than […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Laughing Matters
Payback & Return on Investment
Avedon Carol with two pieces of insight,* in one post no less, right next to each other! I wonder what really happened when he [George W Bush] was in the TANG [Texas Air National Guard] that makes him hate the Guard so much. I mean, he sure seems to have it in for them. I […]
The Bash Mary Cheney Amendment
What I've been reading about today was the "movement" for the national constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality for gay people. It's all very odd and mixed-messag-y. I mean, we homos were the wedge issue in 2004, but now illegal aliens and big fences with sharp points are suddenly du jour, while "values voters" (pace […]
Not-So-Secret Republican Agenda
At last! The Secret Republican Agenda has been revealed:* During the May 16 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly claimed that The New York Times and "many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed." O'Reilly continued: "According to the lefty […]
Nevaeh: Your Go-To Girl
Things I never knew until I read this article* in the New York Times: "In 1999, there were only eight newborn American girls named Nevaeh. Last year, it was the 70th-most-popular name for baby girls, ahead of Sara, Vanessa and Amanda." Nevaehs have made the fastest rise in name popularity of all names in "more […]
The Road Map to Totalitarianism
Remarks excerpted from the Bob Herbert column, "Fear and Power": In the dark days of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt counseled Americans to avoid fear. George W. Bush is his polar opposite. The public's fear is this president's most potent political asset. Perhaps his only asset. Mr. Bush wants ordinary Americans to remain in a perpetual […]
Trawling for Meaning
In a short posting yesterday ("Trolling for Phone Sex?") I quoted a paragraph about a curious use of the word "trolling" by the President, a word whose slang meaning is "to cruise for sex". In the comments, Chris pointed out that, in a similar situation, he would use the verb "to trawl" which, by analogy […]
Trolling for Phone Sex?
…last Thursday the country experienced an uncomfortable moment when the President of the United States reassured us that the government['s collecting phone records] was not "trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans." Apparently W's speech writing staff doesn't know that trolling is slang for an older gay man cruising for anonymous sex […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Laughing Matters
Beard of the Week
I am one of those people who tends to find redheads — men, in my case — something special. It's not an exclusive thing with me, and it doesn't approach a fetish; rather, it's more like extra credit on the attraction score card. Sometime ago — I think I was still in graduate school, so […]
Viral Gore
For weeks, months maybe, there's been a continuous, low-level buzz talking about Al Gore as the Democratic candidate for president in 2008. There are many little reasons for the buzz: his speeches, the release of his film about global warming, talk about the election he won in 2000, "security flaws" in Diebold voting machines, polls […]
Who Ya Gonna Call?
To recap some events: The Bush administration assures us in the breaking "domestic wiretapping" scandal — later and more accurately dubbed "domestic spying" — that they're only out to get the bad guys and they're only listening to limited phone conversations that have at least one terminus outside the US. The Administration lied. We now […]
Sensitive Issues
I'm confused. It's this whole Mary-Cheney's-A-Lesbian-But-Don't-Dare-Call-Her-That thing. Apparently John Kerry was a "son of a bitch" for saying that Mary Cheney is a lesbian during the presidential campaign in 2004. I guess it's because Repulicans have a well-known aversion to the truth. Good thing he didn't call Mary's dad a "Dick". Oh, and I love […]
Have you Heard the One About the Digital Plumbers?
What an amusing set of spy-story dominoes John Aravosis set up and knocked over on his AMERICAblog this morning: At 12:42 am: "AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth giving the NSA the phone records of tens of millions of innocent Americans. Program goes far beyond what Bush claimed." — USAToday reports that the "limited" spying on domestic […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Pete Wentz: Truth-Sayer
I have to admit that I am not a Pete Wentz fan, because until today I had never heard of him nor the band for which he plays bass, called "Fall Out Boy". However, I'm feeling very supportive thanks to an MTV story* about some good things Mr. Wentz said and the hysterical reaction of […]
Beard of the Week
In a nice post* about how "pro-life" really means "anti-sex", Shakespeare's Sister quotes someone quoting someone as saying that "contraception encourages [among other things] sexual deviance (like homosexuality)." Oddly, the logical leap isn't nearly so far as one might imagine, given the premises. First off, this does come as a bit of a surprise to […]