Friday, March 17, 2006
Michael Jackson
has closed the manison on his Neverland Ranch and laid off (they were too old to simply "lay") some of the employees there but has not completely shuttered the sprawling estate, the pop star's spokesman said.
If only those walls could speak...
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The Washingon Post reports that President Bush's troubles with congressional Republicans, which erupted during the backlash to the Dubai seaport deal, are rooted in policy frustrations and personal resentments that GOP lawmakers say stretch back to the opening days of the administration.
For years, the Bush White House and its allies on Capitol Hill seemed like one of the most unified teams Washington had ever seen, passing most of Bush's agenda with little dissent. Privately, however, many lawmakers felt underappreciated, ignored and sometimes bullied by what they regarded as a White House intent on running government with little input from them.
Well, if this was the case, why didn't these cowards stand up and do what was best for the country and vote their consciences? I have long complained that many Republicans place the "conservative movement" ahead of America. The fact that these GOP officials no longer want to be rubber stamps in an election year when Bush is horribly unpopular, speaks volumes about their lack of integrity and disloyalty. It is further evidence why we should throw the bums out of office.
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You know the downward spiral in Iraq has started when even the
Kurds are pissed. Apparently, they burned down a museum dedicated to the memory of an attack by Saddam Hussein.
You know, I can't wait until we can get Americans out of that rat trap that Bush placed us in.
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The head of the St. Patrick's Day Parade
ignited march madness yesterday when he likened letting gays participate to allowing neo-Nazis and the KKK to join other ethnic events.
"If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?" the parade's chairman, John Dunleavy, was quoted as saying in an interview with The Irish Times.
It is clear that Dunleavy has deep-seated issues that he needs to resolve. His reaction to gay people is abnormal and bizarre. I suggest he sees a therapist.
"Welcome to pure, unadulterated homophobia - it's not pretty, is it?" said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda. "It's shocking that Mr. Dunleavy hates gay people so much. What have we ever done to him?"
The difference between the Klan and gay groups is common sense. Hate groups exist to exclude people, while gay groups work for inclusion. It is a shame that Dunleavy is further destroying the already tarnished reputation of the parade and turning it into a national disgrace.
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The
Equality Ride bus was defaced Thursday evening outside the hotel where Riders were in a planning meeting for their action on Friday at Lee University. As the meeting dispersed, Riders found pink letters scrawled across the side of the bus reading "Fags Mobile." The bus driver reported that he witnessed a middle-aged woman and a teenager drive away from the scene, possibly a mother and son. The vandalism and suspect description were reported to Cleveland police, who are investigating the crime.
"The attack on the bus is hate speech, plain and simple, spelled out for everyone to read," said Jacob Reitan, Equality Ride co-director. "But a more subtle form of hate speech happens when students at the schools we are visiting are told they are sick and sinful just for being the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people God made them to be."
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Atlanta's gay newspaper,
Southern Voice, wrote an interesting article naming the
10 worst places for gay people to live on earth. Although, five of my ex-boyfriends voted, my apartment, mercifully, didn't make the list.
In Uganda, one gets up to life imprisonment for homosexual sex. If you want to stop a person from sodomizing, you send them to prison??? That's like punishing the boy with his hand in the cookie jar by sentencing him to work at Famous Amos.
Have you ever noticed that the places that treat gay and lesbian people the worst are shitboxes that no one in their right mind would want to visit? The very economic, social, political and cultural health of a nation is always dependent on how the government treats its gay citizens. Even in America, the states that have the most anti-gay laws are all backwards and boring.
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(Chad Larson)
On the The Edge Show with radio star Chad Larson, hillbilly truckdriver Merrill Keiser Jr., who is running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat in Ohio, said Elton John was "worthy of death." When pressed if he would have Mary Cheney killed, he said, "how else would you do it" if you wanted to follow a law that he would consider proposing if elected to the U.S. Senate.
He also said, "you can't be a good person if you are a homosexual." We also learned that the Bible-thumper did not go to church. I enjoyed the very revealing interview and a glimpse into the mind of a very screwy and hateful person. Sadly, his point of view is shared by too many Americans who hide their murderous longings under the guise of religion.
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Thursday, March 16, 2006
The blog,
Molly Saves The Day, has a solution for the women of South Dakota who just lost their right to choose: A Do-it-Yourself abortion manual.
For under $2000, any person with the inclination to learn could create a fully functioning abortion setup allowing for both vacuum aspiration and dilation/curettage abortions. If you are careful and diligent, and have a good grasp of a woman's anatomy you will not put anyone's health or life in danger, even if you have not seen one of these procedures performed.
It is sad that it is coming to this - but here is a glimpse of the future, as the far right begins to dismantle a woman's right to control her body.
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Concerned about politicizing her favorite charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday
turned down a invitation to meet with President Bush, a snub that left Republicans dismayed.
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The White House said Wednesday a revised policy on granting security clearances to gays and lesbians does not reflect a change in how the government will treat sexual orientation.
"The Bush administration is waging a covert war on loyal federal employees who happen to be gay," said California Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.
The administration rewrote a 1997 regulation that had said sexual orientation "may not be used as a basis" for denying clearances or determining whether individuals should be eligible to access classified information unless it could make them vulnerable to coercion or exploitation. President Bush's updated language says security clearances cannot be denied "solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual."
With all the real security problems we have, such as our ports, why is the Bush Administration taking one penny of taxpayers money and wasting precious time on a non-issue? This is flat out disgusting behavior and an insult to all of the gay and lesbian people who have patriotically worked to secure this nation.
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Due to her bad personality and ties to the military contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing Representative Randy Cunningham, political observers expected
Katherine Harris to give up her bid for the U.S. Senate.
Instead of seeing the writing on the wall, she has decided to write up to $10 million in personal checks to save her flailing, failing and ailing campaign. In essence, the woman who helped propel George W. Bush to "victory" in Florida in 2000, is trying to buy her way to victory against Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, like they did in Bush v. Gore, Harris is doomed to throw a lot of money down a rat hole.
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The political
firestorm continues. According to
The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz:
"One thing is clear about Russ Feingold's move to censure President Bush - Republicans love it and Democrats hate it. Rarely has a maneuver with as much chance of passing as Barry Bonds hitting 73 homers without steroids sparked such a reaction."
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Have you noticed that the press keeps telling us that Americans support Bush's illegal surveillance efforts? The group Media Matters addresses this falsehood today in their
daily report. The fact is, Americans don't want Bush and Cheney looking through the keyhole.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006
I will be on KABC's The
Al Rantel Show today at 2PM EST to debate a yahoo from the American Family Association about the right wing's new
boycott of Ford. Please call in, if you can, and ask the hick, why the AFA is still
selling a video of failed "ex-gay" poster boy Michael Johnston.
And also ask what they are doing about Mississippi's failed child welfare system, where children are dying. After all, they are based in the state.
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Capitol Hill is still at a full-boil because of Sen. Russ Feingold's (D-Wisc.)
resolution to censure George W. Bush for what he says is a clear violation of a federal statute regulating domestic surveillance.
Feingold's resolution, formally introduced Monday, would censure Bush for approving an "illegal program to spy on American citizens on American soil." The senator's intention was to refer the matter to the Judiciary Committee for hearings and a vote before consideration by the full Senate. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) tried to force an immediate vote, to put the Democrats on the spot, but Democratic leaders objected, and for now the censure measure appears to be stalled.
What a shame the Democrats did not take this opportunity to bolster their credentials on national security and take a stand against Bush's illegal surveillance shenanigans.
"We have a great case that they have done a poor job of fighting the war against terrorism," Feingold said of the Republicans in an interview yesterday. "We need a different strategy, one that shows we stand for something."
Feingold would make a damn good president. He is one to watch as the primaries get closer.
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A
scary op-ed in
USA Today by Phillip Longman suggests that conservatives are outbreeding everyone. This may end the Enlightenment, stop evolution of the species and enrich televangelists. According to the article:
What's the difference between Seattle and Salt Lake City? There are many differences, of course, but here's one you might not know. In Seattle, there are nearly 45% more dogs than children. In Salt Lake City, there are nearly 19% more kids than dogs.
This curious fact might at first seem trivial, but it reflects a much broader and little-noticed demographic trend that has deep implications for the future of global culture and politics. It's not that people in a progressive city such as Seattle are so much fonder of dogs than are people in a conservative city such as Salt Lake City. It's that progressives are so much less likely to have children.
Gay men, find yourself a lesbian today and have lot's of kids, or the entire nation will soon turn into Utah. (Not that there's anything wrong with that)
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A
judge barred key government witnesses from testifying at the death penalty trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, ruling yesterday that the misconduct of a federal lawyer, Carla J. Martin, had so tainted the proceeding that all evidence concerning aviation security must be stricken.
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In San Francisco and
Boston, the
Catholic Church doesn't want special needs kids placed with gay couples. It makes no sense to deny these children loving homes. Perhaps, these priests simply want more vulnerable kids
for themselves.
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Senate Democrats on Monday
blocked an immediate vote on a call by Senator Russell D. Feingold to censure President Bush for his eavesdropping program.
Way to go Dems...one more missed opportunity.
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According to
Salon.com, 279 photographs and 19 videos from the Army's internal investigation record looking into Abu Grahib show a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious prison -- and make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable.
My friends, this is just too disgraceful for words. After looking at the pictures, I felt nothing but shame.
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Tuesday, March 14, 2006
I was loitering in the Lower East Side a few days ago and got a craving for sugar, as I often do. My face lit up when I saw a huge sign that read BAKERY. I waltzed over to "Babycakes," however, when I got inside I was crestfallen. It was apparently some kind of "natural foods" bakery. How stupid, I thought - chocolate chip cookies are supposed to be loaded with shit that makes you fat and kills you by 40.
I was about to storm out, but I was so hungry I decided to try one cookie. I took a single bite and almost fell out of my chair. The cookies were spectacular - if you like them super-crisp. They were by far the best I had eaten in New York - which says a lot because this place has cookies practicably falling from the sky. One cookie turned into two - and then five...and before I knew it, I'd have to jog to Florida to burn off the calories. But, damn, it was worth it. For those of you in New York check out Babycakes. They also have a dizzying array of cupcakes. The address is:
248 Broome Street
212-677-5047
Tell them Wayne sent you, although they have no clue who I am.
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I caught a really fun movie on cable tonight,
Festival Express. It was about a train trip through Canada in the Summer of 1970 with some of America's hottest bands. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and The Band were among the headliners.
Janis Joplin is just flat out the coolest singer who ever lived. She didn't play rock-n-roll - she
was rock-n-roll. In this movie she performs a few few songs and blows the audience away. Joplin looks like she's having an excorcism on-stage. If you like classic rock - check this movie out. Cherry Garcia was also a blast to watch. Wait, that's the ice cream.
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(Weekly Column)Gay men are limp-wristed and may have a Queen Gene, according to a controversial segment on
CBS's 60 Minutes, "The Science of Sexual Orientation." The show suggests that gay men are prissy and prance and wear lavender pants while they lisp and dance. Which can certainly be true, in some cases, but is this just crass stereotyping masquerading as science?
The segment featured two sets of twins. The fist pair - Adam and Jared - was nine years old. Jared was tough as nails and had a collection of G.I. Joes, while Adam painted his nails and dreamt of pantyhose.
Steve and Greg, the second pair of twins, were adults. Steve, who is straight, grew up playing sports, while gay Greg "liked helping out in the kitchen."
The idea of studying identical twins is to show that upbringing has nothing to do with the outcome of sexual orientation. Indeed, one has to be
a dolt with
an agenda to still believe the outdated myth that homosexuality is caused by bad parenting.
"Psychologists used to believe homosexuality was caused by nurture - namely overbearing mothers and distant fathers - but that theory has been disproved," reporter Leslie Stahl authoritatively said. "Today, scientists are looking at genes, environment, brain structure and hormones. There is one area of consensus: that homosexuality involves more than just sexual behavior;
it's physiological."
Identical twins with differing sexual orientations suggest that there are other factors at work than just genes.
"There's also the environment that happens to us while we're in the womb," said Northwestern University researcher Michael Bailey in the segment. "And scientists are realizing that environment is much more important than we ever thought it was."
Michigan State University's Marc Breedlove drove home this point by showing Stahl how he can take a rat that scurries and make him sashay with a shot of hormones or castration.
"I wouldn't call these gay rats," explained Breedlove, who has the perfect name for a vermin sex researcher. "But I would say that these are genetic male rats who are showing much more feminine behavior."
The show also pointed out that for every older brother a man has, his chances of being gay increase by one-third. Additionally, Bailey addressed the lie that gay men are more promiscuous by nature. He said both gay and straight men are "shallow" and tend to focus on looks, but gay men simply have more opportunity.
"They're [gay men] just more successful at it, because the people they're trying to have sex with are also interested in it," Bailey said.
I applaud this dose of truth, because anyone who has spent five minutes around straight men, know that they are just as frisky as their gay counterparts. The only people who deny this are uptight fundamentalists. And they are really no different, except they have hang-ups and feel guilty after the sex.
Whether Bailey has hit the scientific jackpot or is a
crackpot is open for
debate. Many people bristle, for example, when he claims that gay people walk and talk differently. True, one's gaydar does not have to be finely tuned to figure out Richard Simmons or Clay Aiken is gay. Oh, wait, is Clay gay?
Before Bailey makes such
broad assumptions, however, he should put on football pads and collide with former NFL player
Esera Tuaolo. This might rattle him out of his one-dimensional mind-set and lead him to expand his research to include gay and lesbian people who are not borderline transgender.
There are
also critics who rightfully question Bailey's potentially
dark motives. He once told
The New York Times that if it became possible for parents to determine sexual orientation in the womb than, "selecting for heterosexuality seems to be morally acceptable....Selection for heterosexuality may tangibly benefit parents, children and their families and seems to have only a slight potential for any significant harm."
"His research is highly questionable," said Lisa Mottet, a transgender rights attorney with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force."Bailey's work is simply not credible." NGLTF has criticized his research on transgender people and bisexuals calling it shoddy and filled with unscientific assumptions.
Still, the 60 Minutes segment, as a whole, was very helpful to the gay rights movement. It brusquely dismissed the inane pseudo-science of our opponents. But in the process of neutralizing the right, it neutered gay men. While we are cheering the segment, Bailey should know that most of us aren't using pompoms.
VIDEO LINK
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National Priorities Project
March 14th, 2005COST OF IRAQ WAR AS OF TODAY: $247,383,000,000
WHAT WE COULD HAVE DONE WITH THE ABOVE MONEY IF WE USED IT FOR PEOPLE ON ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:- fully funded all global anti hunger efforts for 10 years!
- fully funded all global HIV/ AIDS programs for 24 years!
- make sure every child on the planet was given basic immunizations for 82 years!
- build 2,227,461 additional housing units!
-sent 32,766,066 children to one year of Head Start!
- hired an additional 4,287,193 teachers for a year!
- provided 11,287,631 FULL FOUR YEAR scholarships to public universities.
- we could have fully insured 148,134,000 children for a year.
- we could have saved over 2,300 American lives and tens of thousands of the citizens of Iraq lives.
Here is the National Priorities Cost of War Website:
Cost of War
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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today filed an Internal Revenue Services (IRS)
complaint against Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and American for Tax Reform Foundation (ATR Foundation), conservative, non-profit organizations led by right-wing activist Grover Norquist. The complaint asks the IRS to investigate activities by the groups which may violate IRS regulations and require a revocation of their tax-exempt status.
"Mr. Norquist's misuse of his non-profit organizations as commercial enterprises violates the IRS code, and necessitates an immediate investigation," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. "The IRS has been quick to step in and investigate liberal organizations, but has so far failed to demonstrate a similar appetite for examining the activities of conservative groups. There is no better place to start than with an exhaustive review of how Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist exploited the laws intended to promote charitable works."
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The Washington Post reports that Ford Motor Co. is
facing a boycott from a coalition of 19 right wing groups that are in a tizzy over the automaker's decision to resume advertising in gay-themed publications after an initial decision not to advertise.
The boycott is being led by the American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss. This is interesting, because we learned in
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert's column yesterday that Mississippi has the worst child welfare system in the nation. According to the column:
How bad is Mississippi? In the papers compiled by Chilren's Rights for its lawsuits a reference to testimony by a key official of the Department of Human Services, who said the state would "not necessarily investigate" whether child abuse had occurred if a "little girl" contracted a sexually transmitted disease."
Well, there you have it folks, the American Family Association is really the gay bashing association. Even when young kids are being hurt or killed under their noses, they don't lift a finger to help. They simply don't give a damn about children or real families. They exist simply to attack gay people.
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Once upon a time, Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC's
Hardball, was a breath of fresh air. But he, like Bill O'Reilly on Fox, has morphed into a
transparent tool for the Republican National Committee. Needless to say, when your nose is two feet up Karl Rove's ass, the breath of fresh air is gone.
In the straw poll last week in Memphis, Matthews offered effusive praise for his favorite Republicans, utterly failing to conceal his overabundant glee. According to Media Matters, the TV host touted McCain as a "maverick," referred to closeted RNC chief Ken Mehlman as "Kenny Boy" (Wasn't that Bush's name for Enron CEO Ken Lay?) and inexplicably called Bush "charming," even though opinion polls show that America thinks he's annoying.
I can't even watch Matthews anymore. He is predictable and insults my intelligence. It is like watching a GOP pep rally.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
vowed to resist increasing international pressure over the country's nuclear program.
"No power" could take away nuclear technology, he told a crowd of thousands in Gorgan, northern Iran.
It looks as though the U.S. may have to step in and handle this matter militarily, as Iran is resisting all reasonable diplomacy. A smart Democrat running for president will outflank Bush on the right and say that, "If I am elected president, there will not be a nuclear Iran."
Sadly, Bush has damaged his credibility and spread our troops so thin that Iran believes they can proceed, just as North Korea had. The Bush doctrine on war has clearly made us weaker as a nation and less likely to contain nuclear or terrorist threats.
And the nuclear deal with India? I still can't figure out the wisdom of that. It has made our world a much more dangerous place by giving a green light to nations that want to build atomic arsenals.
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Monday, March 13, 2006
Today, the National Stonewall Democrats and Executive Director Eric Stern officially announced that he
will step down as Executive Director as of April 1, 2006. Deputy Director Jo Wyrick will serve as Interim Executive Director until a formal search has been completed for Stern's replacement.
"As a cancer survivor, my health has always been of paramount importance to me," said Stern. "While I have not had any health-related complications, the last five years of constant campaign-related work have taken their toll on me and I need to take a break from politics before I completely burn out and risk damage to my health and well-being."
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New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was right on the money when he wrote today that Sen. John McCain is a tool of the right wing. The columnist pointed out that McCain is incredibly conservative and has kissed Bush's ass at almost every turn.
"The bottom line is that McCain isn't a moderate; he's a man of the hard right. How far right? Statistical analysis of Mr. McCain's recent voting record, available at www.voteview.com, ranks him as the Senate's third most conservative member."
McCain is an attractive candidate at first blush because he "looks presidential" and is a war veteran. But the closer one examines his extreme record, the more unacceptable he is. Don't get snookered by his many photo-ops and attempts to appear mainstream. McCain is actually to the right of Bush on most issues.
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The CBS news magazine
60 Minutes had a
fascinating segment last night on the origins of sexual orientation. I thought it was very well done and rebutted the patently absurd notion that homosexuality is caused by family dynamics. After all, it takes a particularly foolish person with blinders to still believe in that outdated theory. However, the show may have gone too far with stereotyping gay men.
I'd be curious to get my reader's thoughts on the 60 Minutes segment.
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The Bush political war machine is getting tired, run down and worn out, according to an article in
The Washington Post.
"We're all burned out," said one White House official who did not want to be named for fear of angering superiors. "People are just tired."
This works out just fine, because the American people are tired of the Bush Administration. Still, Bush arrogantly insists that he needs no changes. So, I guess we can expect the parade of blunders to continue.
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An
autopsy showed that a heart attack killed Slobodan Milosevic the United Nations war crimes tribunal said here on Sunday evening in a terse announcement. The statement served only to deepen the mystery over the circumstances surrounding Mr. Milosevic's abrupt death just as his prolonged trial was finally nearing an end.
I hope they didn't intentionally kill Slobo, but I'm having a difficult time caring if they did. This was an awful human being who exploited nationalism and fear to consolidate power. In the process many families were destroyed, people killed and his country nearly ruined. Sympathy is hard to come by for such a nasty person. His legacy is one of death and destruction.
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In his last issue as the editor of Harper's Magazine, Lewis Lapham has left a parting gift for his successor: a firestorm in the media and among AIDS researchers.
The source is a 15-page article in the March issue, titled "Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science," by Celia Farber. Ms. Farber, a longtime magazine journalist, has been a polarizing figure because she has frequently written about the position of "AIDS dissidents," who argue that H.I.V. does not cause AIDS.
Is Farber a journalist or a nutjob?
Read the article in today's
New York Times and decide.
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Senator Russell D. Feingold
said Sunday that he would introduce a measure in the Senate to censure President Bush over the domestic eavesdropping program.
"What the president did by consciously and intentionally violating the Constitution and laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping has to be answered," Mr. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said on the ABC News program "This Week." "Proper accountability is a censuring of the president, saying: 'Mr. President, acknowledge that you broke the law, return to the law, return to our system of government.'"
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Sunday, March 12, 2006
Two Men kissing in a park and a topless woman bather are featured
in a film that will be shown to would-be immigrants to the Netherlands. The reactions of applicants -- including Muslims --will be examined to see whether they are able to accept the country's liberal attitudes. Muslim leaders in Holland say the film is offensive.
"It really is a provocation aimed to limit immigration. It has nothing to do with the rights of homosexuals. Even Dutch people don't want to see that," said Abdou Menebhi, the Moroccan-born director of Emcemo, an organization that helps immigrants to settle.
Yeah, right, it has nothing to do with
anti-gay attitudes prevalent among many Muslims in Holland. Give me a break.
If these immigrants can't handle freedom, they don't belong in the country. Period. The Dutch government is making a wise decision to ensure only those who believe in liberty take the journey to a free land. Fire up the DVD and make sure moderates, not maniacal mullahs, enter the Netherlands.
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A former Summit Christian School teacher arrested last weekend after admitting having sex with a teen boy was enrolled in a controversial "ex-gay" ministry whose adherents believe people can change their sexual preference through the power of Christ, the
Sun-Sentinel reported today.
Love in Action International in Memphis, Tenn., is the oldest and best known of the ministries that try to counsel people away from homosexuality through spirituality. With a mission at the heart of one of the nation's culture wars, it has been praised by Christian conservatives and criticized by gay-rights advocates since its 1973 inception in California.
The ministry drew scrutiny last summer when a 16-year-old boy complained on his Web site about his parents forcing him into the center. Now, Love in Action is back in the spotlight after the March 3 arrest of former Summit Christian School teacher Chad Stoffel of Palm Springs.
Those of you who have been following these sham groups are not surprised by the arrest. Exodus, which Love In Action is a member, is packed with miscreants who participate in shameless behavior and skullduggery. This is just the latest Exodus failure. We have come to expect such stories from a group based on a foundation of lies.
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