April 2010
1 post
Sam Shrieve on MySpace Music
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Includes a fairly nice version of Hallelujah.
August 2009
1 post
Barack Obama - Why We Need Health Care Reform →
What we need is a single-payer system with everyone being covered. We already have an American model for such a system: Medicare. We could extend it to cover everyone and we could fix whatever flaws it may have. All doctors should be required to participate too.
July 2009
10 posts
Sergeant Who Arrested Professor Defends Actions →
Why is it that the “disorderly conduct” charges were dropped if the arrest was justified? Is that offense merely an excuse the police use for harassing people who annoy them? And once they have harassed someone for a few hours do they drop the charges because beyond that it’s too much trouble for the police, or else they know they can’t get a conviction?
U.S. Judge Challenges Evidence on a Detainee →
The U.S. has been holding a guy for six years at Guantánamo with no evidence he has done anything wrong, except for a confession extracted via torture and threats his family would be killed if he did not confess. He may have been as young as 12 when first detained. Why is the Obama administration still holding this guy?
Apple Legal Reportedly Hinders Reporter's... →
“The complaints [about iPods catching fire], made to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, amount to over 800 pages of documentation covering 15 incidents that Apple’s lawyers repeatedly tried to prevent [investigative reporter Amy] Clancy from accessing under a Freedom of Information Act request.”
Amateur Finds New Earth-Sized Blot on Jupiter →
An amateur astronomer in Australia using a $10,000 14.5” reflecting telescope discovered that an Earth-sized object recently struck Jupiter.
Why We Must Ration Health Care →
Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton, explains why we do, and why we must, ration health care. He also suggests a rational way to do it.
Multitasking on the Road →
Cellphones are the most dangerous distraction on American roads. Driving while using a cellphone is as dangerous as driving legally drunk; it ought to be just as illegal. Hands-free phones do not eliminate the risk, because the problem is the distraction, not the fact that you’re holding something in your hand.
Walter Cronkite Dies At 92 - CBS News Video →
SCLC and Marriage Equality →
Melissa Harris-Lacewell writes, “a national civil rights organization that takes a ‘neutral position’ on an issue of basic civil rights [same-sex marriage] does not deserve to exist.” She points out that it was an openly gay black man, Bayard Rustin, who architected the 1963 March on Washington and “whose fierce pacifism and commitment to non-violence is the very...
Rainbow Revolt →
The story of the violent police raid on a gay bar in Fort Worth on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall from the pages of the Fort Worth Weekly.
“To the Editor:
The 40th anniversary of gay young people fighting back against...”
– Letters - Gays Left Waiting and Wondering - NYTimes.com
June 2009
10 posts
Texas gay community outraged at nightclub raid... →
Early Sunday morning, on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Fort Worth police, accompanied by agents of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, raided the Rainbow Lounge, a newly-opened gay club in Fort Worth.
40 Years Later, Still Second-Class Americans →
“Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws.” - Frank Rich
“There’s a perception in Washington that you can throw little bits of partial equality to gay people and that gay people will be satisfied with that,” said Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter who won an Oscar for “Milk,” last...
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs:... →
“The total number of victims reporting anti-LGBT violence to NCAVP in 2008 was 2,424 which represent a 2% increase over the total number of victims reported in 2007 and a 26% increase over a two year period. Known anti-LGBT murders rose 28% from 2007 to 2008 and are at the highest level since 1999.”
The Other Side of Justice →
In this article, Harvard constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe explains why he would like the ninth circuit court to dismiss the Smelt v. United States lawsuit challenging DOMA. In brief, he thinks it’s likely to fail and also that there’s a stronger challenge being brought by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in a federal district court in Massachusetts.
The Liberation of Adam Lambert : Rolling Stone :... →
“I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,” says Adam Lambert. Did anyone ask him to be a civil rights leader? On the other hand, being a singer doesn’t preclude him from having and occasionally expressing his views on civil rights. The cover photographer for this issue of RS is weird. Why would he think it necessary to include a green snake?
Knowing someone gay improves attitudes towards gay... →
“The Gallup Poll data … show conclusively that many views toward gay and lesbian issues are related — in some instances, strongly so — to personal experience with individuals who are gay or lesbian. There are two plausible explanations for this relationship. One is that exposure to gays and lesbians leads to greater acceptance, regardless of one’s ideological...
Failure of Democracy
At the Cultural Diplomacy Press Symposium held in Bass Hall in Fort Worth this morning there were comments about democracy in music. A music critic from CA who was in the audience spoke up to say that democracy can lead to bad decisions when there is widespread ignorance. He used as his example the voter approval of Prop 8 in CA. He mentioned that he and his male partner have been married twice...
New Hampshire legalizes same-sex marriage →
New Hampshire is the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage, which will take effect there on Jan 1, 2010. NH will also recognize same-sex marriages and civil unions from other states. Civil unions in NH will automatically convert to marriages on Jan 1, 2011, if couples do not convert them sooner.
May 2009
2 posts
What is "traditional marriage"?
The notion of “traditional marriage” is virtually incoherent. “Marriage” has been evolving for thousands of years. At what point did anyone decide that “marriage at this time and in this cultural is what will be called ‘traditional marriage’?” Never. There is no general agreement on what constitutes a “traditional marriage” and what...
Banning hugs? →
Some schools are banning hugs between kids because of exaggerated fears of clueless adults. It’s totally outrageous.
April 2009
14 posts
“NASHVILLE (WATE/AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union has asked public...”
– ACLU asks Knox Co. schools to stop blocking gay Web sites
Amazon Rights Error After Tweet-Rage on Twitter →
Amazon claims it was just a mistake that LGBT books lost their sales rankings and failed to show up in searches last weekend.
It’s a mistake that would not have happened if Amazon weren’t intent on censoring so-called “adult” books from public view. Why doesn’t Amazon enable users to do their own filtering?
DAY of SILENCE : April 17, 2009 →
This Friday is the National Day of Silence, to focus attention on anti-LGBT bullying in schools and to bring an end to it.
A Ban on Drooping Drawers Leads to a Legal... →
70% of the citizens of Riviera Beach, FL, are prudes and idiots.
Study Finds Link BetweenFacebook Use, Lower Grades... →
This study found a correlation between lower grades, less time spent studying, and Facebook use. Could it be that students who are in general less inclined to study are more likely to use Facebook because they have more time to fill?
Gay Vows, Repeated From State to State →
Support for same-sex marriage has grown substantially over the past five years.
Amazon Says Glitch to Blame for "New" Adult Policy →
Amazon doesn’t think Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain should appear when conservative Christians (and their children) search for books.
How can it be called a “glitch” when well-known books with gay characters or gay themes disappear from search lists after Amazon explicitly adds the word “gay” to the list of keywords of books to exclude?
'Gay writing' falls foul of Amazon sales ranking... →
Many GLBT books have lost their sales rankings, and fail to appear in searches, because Amazon decided to make their lists more “family” friendly, although apparently less friendly to GLBT families.
Who is running Amazon now? Some radical conservative Christian wacko? Amazon is calling it a “glitch,” but it sure doesn’t look like a glitch to me.
Some people are...
Matt Coles: The Legal Importance of the Iowa... →
Matt Coles is the Director of the ACLU’s LGBT & AIDS Project. He says that what sets the Iowa marriage decision apart is a passage at the end where it addresses the unspoken reason many people oppose same-sex marriage: religious opposition.
The Court says, “State government can have no religious views, either directly or indirectly, expressed through its legislation. This...
Vermont legalizes gay marriage with veto override →
With the legalization of same-sex marriage in Vermont today, gay people can now legally marry in four states: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, and Vermont.
Perhaps the anti-American religionists will finally realize that legal equality for gay people is something they can’t stop. The perverted religious “morality” of a minority of religious people may finally be losing...
I Hate My iPhone →
Why is it that someone too lazy to make a real effort to learn to use her new iPhone gets to publish an article in the New York Times entitled “I Hate My iPhone”?
She wouldn’t even try to type her own email address into the device when she purchased it. She insisted that the salesperson do it for her! Is it any wonder that she never became comfortable with it?
Iowa Supreme Court Says Gay Marriage Ban Is... →
The Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that denial of marriage to same-sex couple violated the equal protection provision of the Iowa Constitution. Same-sex marriages could begin taking place as soon as 21 days from now.
A copy of the decision is available here: Varnum, et al., vs Brien.
Critics slam Microsoft bridge as waste of stimulus... →
$11 million from the economic stimulus package is going to build a bridge from the entrance to Microsoft’s East campus to a parking lot at Microsoft’s West campus, crossing a public highway. This in no way helps to stimulate the economy, since without the public money Microsoft would foot the entire bill for the bridge. So it’s an $11 million gift from taxpayers to a company...
March 2009
18 posts
New York Law School :: Lesbian/Gay Law Notes →
The lead article in the latest issue of Lesbian/Gay Law Notes discusses legislation in Vermont and in New Hampshire that would legalize same-sex marriage in those states.
Do These Gay Rights Leaders Deserve So Much (Or So... →
Every time you donate to GLAAD, 3.5% of your donation goes to pay the CEO’s $251,034 salary. When you donate to HRC, 0.7% goes to the CEO’s $302,200 salary. Although the two CEO’s salaries are similar, HRC’s budget is six times larger than GLAAD’s. HRC might look like a good deal, but HRC once supported homophobic Republican Senator Alfonse D’Amato in New...
Study: Same-sex couples face higher poverty rates →
Likely due to various forms of discrimination, the Williams Institute at the UCLA College of Law found that lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals have higher rates of poverty than heterosexuals.
A Man’s Existentialism, Construed as Blasphemy →
Blasphemy laws exist in Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wyoming. ”Several of the state statutes explicitly outlaw verbal attacks on God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost and ‘Scripture.’” These laws need to be struck down as unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment.
Texas State Rep. Mark Shelton doesn't think some...
Today I got a letter from Mark Shelton, M.D., my State Representative. In it he says:
“Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender/identity expression is a challenging issue in communities across Texas. Though the Texas Constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, I am in favor of rights for domestic partners in order to ensure that they receive respect...
Obama Administration to Support U.N. Declaration... →
The article makes it clear that the declaration is non-binding. There are not enough votes to pass it in the General Assembly.
Text of the declaration
We reaffirm the principle of universality of human rights, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose 60th anniversary is celebrated this year, Article 1 of which proclaims that “all human beings are born free and equal...
Obama Orders Treasury Chief to Try to Block A.I.G.... →
Perhaps they should start by firing all the executives who are due a bonus.
Trinity College Program on Public Values Survey... →
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life did a study just six months before the Trinity College study and came up with different results.
The Pew study found more than twice the number of atheists (1.6% vs 0.7%) and agnostics (2.4% vs 0.9%). It also found more Mormons (1.7% vs 1.4%), Jews (1.7% vs 1.2%), and Buddhists (0.7% vs 0.5%).
How could two large surveys differ by a factor of more than...
