Sunday, December 28, 2008

Oscar Bait corner with SCCL

Did you see Slumdog Millionaire? Did it get into your soul and make a home there, set a fire of love? Here are some things I thought while watching the movie:




="I don't think this is going to live up to the hype, even though I didn't read reviews, so don't know 'what I'm supposed to think' or anything."




="This structure is going to get old..."

="Jeez, there's, like, another hour and a half left!"

="I'm not crying, I'm not crying, I'm not crying..."

="That was fucked up."

="I guess this is awesome?"


="Ooohh, a Bollywood dance number!"


="That was awesome!"

Just stuff


There is a well-written editorial in the Times about my best-friend and future husband, Rick Warren, and people who get mad about stuff. [times]

Let's see, also, our bros who play football in the Europes are being involved in a campaign to combat homophobia, which is very nice of them. [guardian uk]

Um, what else... Oh, apparently Eartha Kitt was a gay icon? I didn't know that until today, but she passed the other day, so that's my reason for including this. [Dallas Morning News]

Okay, Walmart is going to start selling iPhones. This will be news to some people. [msnbc]

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Dec 26th is Boxing Day!!


You know, the famed day Beyonce made an album about (tastefully titled B'Day)? What this used to mean is buying gifts and giving them to the less fortunate (me); what it means now is returning gifts, cashing out gift cards, and taking advantage of post-christmas, recession-based apocalypse sales. If you're Colander/the Fishbelly, it means having to work, so I've always got that. Merry boxing day, world. [b'day on wiki]

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Breifly: Gran Torino, Wendy, Lucy


I saw Gran Torino. It's not mindblowingly innovative (and might be robbing others if its too much an Oscar presence) but it was a good movie, and Eastwood was good, and the non-actor young actors were endearing too. If someone offers to take you to see it, say yes. Clint Eastwood directing (at this stage of the game) is not a bad thing, ok? Stop acting like it is. Okay, I love you, later days.


==


Wait, wait, don't go. I also saw Wendy & Lucy, and it was touching, and understated, and Michelle Williams being so good made me miss Ledger even more. So, see that too, I guess.



She holds a stick at some point. It's pretty poignant. Seriously tho, I dug.

#10: Binge Drinking


Because lowered inhibitions are an excuse to do anything, including 'act kinda gay', especially if kinda refers to the true inner you that you're suppressing because you were raised religious/with 'traditional values'/are still in high school/have bonehead friends or think you do. Drinking too much and very lots also allows the trad excuse of "dude, I was so wasted" before anybody even mentions that you fondled their cock (over their jeans) or tried to kiss them or told them you were in love with them, or "Bro, I don't remember anything after those shots", which what is used AFTER someone brings up that you guys maybe made out with each other/tugged ones alongside one another.

Drinking also allows the Closetbro [ednote; obsessed w Carles] to hook up with girls, who are usually boring/ugly/just friends/like a sister/the girl version of them. It allows them to not feel bad about playing themselves out (denying their true journey) and duping unsuspecting honeys into wasting time on someone who is wasting time on themselves. Drinking heavily may also allow one to visit Corbin Fisher (en-ess-eff-dubs) just to check out the bods and rub a little, or sit in a haze next to their bro who smells really good tonight, what cologne is that? Cool, can I hold you, I think we're connecting?


Basically, alks makes life better and will be the bees knees during the Greatest Depression Ever, so it's obvious that it also helps make the Closet case okay with marrying this chick who was only supposed to make him forget how pissed his dad will be if he ever came out so he never can. It helps him not hang himself when his wife is all I'm pregnant, dumby. It'll make hurting himself socially acceptable because it's okay to drink yourself into perpetual numbness and early graveness since prohibition is over. It's just not okay to be gay, so drink up gay boy, no one can tell, really. You're mad butch.


Well, if the Pope says it, it gots to be true

My theory is that the Pope is basically useless, but that's just me:

A suggestion by Pope Benedict XVI that homosexuality is as much of a threat to the survival of the human race as climate change sparked outrage among gay rights campaigners on Tuesday.
"It's the latest homophobic attack by this pope," said Gustav Hofer, co-director of a documentary on the life of a gay couple in Italy called "Suddenly Last Winter".
"The Vatican talks about homosexuality or transsexuality as if it were a whim, never as suffering," Hofer told AFP, adding that the Roman Catholic Church "reduces sexual orientation to the sexual act as if it had nothing to do with a person's identity." [afp]


Hahaha, you guys just don't get Bennie's sense of humor. He's really nice when it's just me and him, swears.

===

Melissa Etheridge and that chick from Popular are stupid, but it's ok. [edge boston]

===

"A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday." ...in America. Teach your kids, assholes. Seriously, stop. [ap]

==

Rick Warren sucks and is too useless but Obama either thinks he needs him, or thinks it's cool to have a super religious white friend, and either way is cool, if you're into that. I'm not a judge, dude! [on top]

HAPPY XMASSS


The 25th is my best friend's birthday. Maybe you've met? He is Jesus and I didn't get him a gift, because of the recession and being gay. Amen.

===


That's the dude from MGMT up there. I don't really listen to them because I'm trying to cut back on people telling me to put bands on my iPod or they won't like me, so I only listen to "Electric Feel" because I don't feel like spending cash pounds just to find out that I don't like their record (old argument, yea, we know). The picture is from Hipster Runoffz, and what I learn reading Carles is that it's okay to like Justice more than other musical band groups, because it's just okay to like things that make life fit into functional 4/4 time groupings with cool bass solos dubbed in the center of the mix, toward the end of the track. It's okay, because you say it is, and it's your life.


That said, I finally saw A Cross the Universe and it made me feel, in NPO:


-alone

-happy

-pumped

-excited for the future

-more interested in Justice

-that Kavinsky maybe doesnt have so many songs cuz maybe he parties too hard?

-that SebastiAn doesn't do interviews because he's shy, not cuz ppl don't ask

-scared

-jealous

-like being there for my friends

-sober
-like I'm wasting my life


Smiles are contagious.

Did you hear?


Our pretend bf (one of many SCCL pretend male men) got assaulted by one of his own teammate peoples in his pretty perfect face (or something) and now the losing team coach is totally maybe getting shitcanned, for Jesus' birthday.

While the reports have been foggy about the entire nature of the incident,
there is something that is very clear -- Romeo Crennel has now guaranteed his
own demise.
People will talk about how ridiculous Quinn and Smith are, but my
stance is that it's Crennel who has completely lost it. Yes, things happen in
pro football all the time, but not when your franchise quarterback is being
punched in the face. This is the sort of locker room environment that has been
cultivated by the Crennel regime the past four seasons. This "players" coach has
lost control of his entire football team -- and it is
embarrassing. The players obviously have no respect for the team,
franchise, Cleveland, or themselves.

Okay, that's just speculation, but it got us this far, and that's what really counts. [examiner]

====

Cristiano Ronaldo, our pretend side-peice, because in Pretend Land (Burbank, CA), people have no scruples and everything is OK, did awesome in some way, and had an interview that apparently did not go way awesomely:


First to enter the set was a smiley Ronaldo, who prompted a giggly and
girly reaction from the show’s apparent host, who was quickly followed on stage
by Rooney. With all the excitement around them, and clearly not understanding a
word, Ronaldo and Rooney looked uncomfortable in their new surroundings, with
smiles plastered over their faces as the chaos around them unfolded.

Cue the sterotypical photo-snaps live on air before the interview got
underway. And when the questions finally came they included the presentor
telling Ronaldo “I’d love legs like yours,” and telling the Portuguese star “he
is so cute.”

Then things really started to fall apart. Ronaldo was quickly pulled
out of the interview by a third party (who the presenters tried to talk to on
air), with Rooney confusingly left all on his own as he tried to also exit the
stage before being told to stay put. A cringe-worthy 60 second interview was
then held, with Rooney constantly found looking over his shoulder before finally
being allowed to leave the stage. [bleacherreport]

Mmm, how relevant to this American Xmas time. Here's the video here--tug one, bro.


UPDATE: This was the picture I was supposed to use instead of the one right above. No big deal. Hug someone u love today?



Sorry for the mixxup and things. I know how it is.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Unrelated to Gays: Baghead, bro


I saw the movie Baghead recently. It was my first foray into mumblecore, but I didn't know that going in. I just knew it was supposed to be horror-y, and it was called Baghead. I ended up enjoying it a pretty great deal--I literally knew nothing about who made it or what the point was supposed to be, so everything that happened was a surprise. Good acting, a surprise. A plot, a surprise. THE plot, a surprise. It was basically a dramedy, driven by engaging characters, shot handheld for that feeling of real life being captured. Then there were the horror elements, which were handled far better than I thought--the stalking, tension-filled scenes are framed absolutely perfectly. Whatever, I liked it, it wasn't the DARK KNIGHT, because not even your god is equal to those heights, but it got me through the night, so fuck it. On DVD on the 30th Dec.

Roving Dance Party: Blogging Secrets


I just wanted to call a post that--it doesn't really mean anything. Well, except for the blogging secrets part. Google. That's the blogging secret. It's how we find both homophobia and dudes. It's how life happens and babies are made. Only in America (and Earth, as seen through the eyes of Americans). Sorry about the dude in the bathtub; he's got nowhere else to go.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Notes on Milk

Okay, so I saw Milk, sue me. Here are some things that I would right next to asterisks, in no particular order, in regards to Milk or my viewing of it, if I were inclined to do such a thing:

*It was a good movie.

*James Franco and Sean Penn have pretty natural chemistry, maybe not at first (this is me not knowing in what order the movie was filmed, and also me just having to get used to them being in love almost immediately, at least in screen time), but eventually yes, they convince they are in love.

*It's not even like Paranoid Park on the How Artsy Is It? scale, but I don't think it's all that far from the one with Keanu Reeves and River Pheonix (I know what it's called, I was just tired of typing titles).

*Emile Hirsch seems like he's doing a bad impression at first, then is pretty good from then on. That means we liked him.

*It is VERY timely. Everybody likes looking at historical movies and drawing the parallels to Real Life (people like doing this with any kind of movie maybe) and they will have a field day with this, because it seems sometimes like nothing has changed. You hope that people who may not feel this way (inolerant peoples) will actually sit through the movie to at least get the sense of this, for all that would be worth. Nobody, though, is really presented with a judgement attached--not even the bad guys get treated like all bad, even when they are scary. *Things have changed, though, but you see it's been the same thing over and over. Hopefully, people will start noticing how stupid some of these arguments are.*

*Sean Penn is very good, if I didn't already say that. He's earned whatever award they link him to, whether he actually gets them or not.

*Josh Brolin is good. His character has a drunk moment that could be seen as funny if it were in another movie, but it works good here.

*There's a lot of making out, maybe too much. If you hung out with this much making out, and you weren't involved in it, you'd be kind of annoyed.

*It's whatever. You should probably go see it. Bring a date!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

On Mt. Olympus: Golden Globe Nominations

Okay, so the Golden Glurb nominations were released (or what have you) today, and two things: Well actually three: One, I'm not even pissed about cool movies being skipped over in favor of movies that tuck in their dress shirts when grandma comes over, because who really gives a shit about these things? 2)To contradict that, I'm happy about True Blood getting recognized, even if they invited Entourage even though we asked them not to, and we're also happy our pretend fake lover James Franco got nominated even if it's sort of a joke (did they like him so much, and HATE Milk so much, that they had to do this?).

And THREE: the actors might have to go on strike before this shit even goes down. THE THING IS, if I was an actor, the last thing I would want to do, for me, or for my fans, is go on strike during the the Economic Doomsday Crisis of the Aughts. It would be shitty, but THEN if I screwed my financial situtation down the road because of this temporary, albeit years long, crisis, then I would be pissed down the road, since my lifestyle would be based on this millionaire sitch I'd be in, and I'd be needing that money, y'know? So I would kinda have to go on strike, becase it would affect my future, not just my right now. So who knows what they'll do, but if they don't strike, it would be kind of stupid of them. I would respect them, and totally understand, and it would very much suck, but they would be dumb if they didn't. Okay fin

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

In the news: The Song Remains the Same


No, the picture has nothing to do with the posts. It's just for artistic purposes? Whatever, read the news instead, if you like:

Sean Penn thinks making a movie where he's a big icon of some movement or other means he can admire any icon, represnting any movement he damn well pleases, and that is NOT cool, bro. [LAT]

A dude was walking arm-in-arm with his bro, as in, his real brother, and they got beat up, and the thing might be that the attackers thought they were h to the omos, so let them have it. [ap]

Gay people might get some gay rights (those are regular rights, sculpted to look gay) in Ohio of all places. [plain dealer]

Some dudes in the UK are being Police Style looked for because they made phobic chants at a soccer match, and guess what? DOING THAT IS ILLEGAL THERE! [pinknews]

Somebody wrote the movie Milk, and is capable of conducting interviews, which he has done. [SBIndependent]

Those people who wear scarves indoors and watch Project Runway took off of work yesterday so that their coworkers could get a day free of fuckin' nancies. The impact is discussed (I went to work). [ChiTrib]

Theater, Judy Garland, rainbow-colored advert font. [broadway.com]

FINALLY: Here is Led Zeppelin being awesomer than most, playing Dazed and Confused, because that's just how it is.



In the world: Wednesday is Human Rights Day

One, tomorrow is Nat'l Gay People Should Call Out of Work and Get Fired Day, which I shall not be participating in (sorry, bro-mos). Second, tomorrow the UN will here a motion or something to call for the global decriminalization (in the uk version, this word is spelled with an 's' not a 'z') of being That Way. From the UK Guardian:

It will be the first time in its history that the UN General Assembly has
considered the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human
rights.
Although it will not be binding on the member states, the
declaration will have immense symbolic value, given the six decades in which
homophobic persecution has been ignored by the UN.

Member states will not be bound by this, as in, like, have to give shit. The implications are that now it will be Officially Frowned-Upon. You see, many countries (including this one) do not always make decisions based on science, but by what Space Jesus and the intergalactic planet-devourer, Allah, sayeth, through their confessional, co-autobiographical memoir, The Bible: How We Got a Bunch of Assholes to Live Their Lives Based on Fairytales. 86 Countries on this 21st Century planet Earth outlaw ghey sexytimes, with some Islamic regions making this punishable by DEATH (for newcomers, death is what God specifically forbade his adherents to inflict on each other; forget that, though--this is about homos):

Unsurprisingly, the Vatican and the Organisation of Islamic
States
are leading the fight against the UN declaration. The opposition of
the Pope is truly sickening, depraved and shameless. Of course, the Vatican
has form. In 2004, it teamed up with Islamist dictatorships in the UN Commission
on Human Rights to thwart a resolution sponsored by Brazil that opposed homophobic violence and discrimination. The Holy See is so viciously homophobic that it opposed the UN condemnation of the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.


Last week, the papal envoy to the UN, Monsignor Celestino Migliore,
explained the "logic" of this opposition when he announced
the Vatican's rejection of this week's decriminalisation declaration. The
monsignor argued that the UN declaration would unfairly "pillory" countries
where homosexuality is illegal; forcing them to establish "new categories (gay
people) protected from discrimination." Such laws would "create new and
implacable acts of discrimination ... States where same-sex unions are not
recognized as 'marriages,' for example, would be subject to international
pressure."


In other words, protecting LGBT people against discrimination is
an act of discrimination against those who discriminate. Since the Vatican is
against discrimination, it opposes discrimination against countries that
discriminate. This is the mediaeval mindset of the Pope and his placemen.

The Pope is an asshole. What surprises me, though (and, I think, underscores my ignorance) is that support for ending this discrimination is coming from many Latin American countries, which others may have led us to believe, heretofore, were all a bunch of closet-cases, overcompensating by being all hatey or whatever. Also, get this: Australia and the US Amerikkka are not on board with this!! But CANADA IS!! So are the Kiwis! People sometimes wonder why I hate everything under the wretched Red Sun of god, and here, from this same article, is an example of why. If your little ones are having trouble sleeping, here is a TRUE bedtime story you can read to them--it should not only help them rest, but make sure they know whose side they should be on if they want you to basicaly not be grossed and ashamed whenever you look at them:

On December 5 2007, Makvan Mouloodzadeh, a 21-year-old Iranian man, was hanged in Kermanshah Central Prison, after an unfair trial. A member of Iran's persecuted Kurdish minority, he was executed on charges of raping other boys when he was 13. In other words, he committed these alleged acts when he was minor. According to Iranian law, a boy under 15 is a minor and cannot be executed. At Makvan's mockery of a trial, the alleged rape victims retracted their previous statements, saying they had made their allegations under duress. Makvan pleaded not guilty, telling the court that his confession was made under torture. He was hanged anyway, without a shred of credible evidence that he had even had sex with the boys, let alone raped them.
The lies, defamation and homophobia of the debauched Iranian legal system was
exposed when hundreds of villagers attended Makvan's funeral. People
don't mourn rapists. This execution was bare-faced homophobic judicial murder,
according to Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, of the underground Iranian Queer Railroad, which helps Iranian LGBTs fleeing arrest, torture and execution.
Haha, gay people are such assholes. Maybe I won't go to work tomorrow.



Sunday, December 7, 2008

In the Movies: Punisher - War Zone


For some reason, I read a bunch of reviews for this movie, mostly because I was rooting for its director, Lexi Alexander. They were entertaining, these reviews were. This one is probably the best, and likely sums up the movie better than most other options on the lines. Obviously, most people are not at all concerned with such a farce as this, until they remember how important entertainment is, then they're totally on that shit.

Friday, December 5, 2008

In the media: the Jonas Brothers


I find it very difficult to hate the Jonas Brothers. And I hate everyONE and everyTHING. Seriously, think of a noun, and I probably have something awful to say about it. People ask me why I'm so quiet, and that's why: I am brimming with vitriol, people. But, with the JBz, AS I CHOOSE TO CALL THEM, they are so fundamentally opposite everything I strive for (except money) that I have no choice but to embrace them, you know? Sure, they love Jesus and I blaspheme and spit in god's face at every chance I get. They are upbeat and my heart is blacker than the crudest of fossil fuels. The only thing we have in common is how much we likely touch ourselves, and yet they probably have more buttsecks than me (because they are Pure and buttsecks doesn't count in the eyes of Jesus).
I love bands that let seep through some semblance of honesty, but I am open to like most anything (the newish song "Kill the Lights" by Britney Spears is appreciated by me these days as much as the bulk of Mr. Oizo's Lamb's Anger lp, as much as Ten Kens, a band I am recently digging), yet cannot find an angle from which to fully embrace the Bro-bros music, or to not feel weird even listening to it (there's something about it that says Stay Away). Someone on some board somewhere today pointed out how these guys have a full band that plays along with them, and I think this speaks of the larger problem: they are controlled by Disney, and Disney is a money-hungry, brand-spewing monster. Britney Spears' life is a crudely-polished turd right now, and if the JBz suffer the same fate, I'll be kind of annoyed at the world, because there are three of them, and they're brothers, and they should be looking out for each other, and not getting brainwashed by big corpos or even their 'rents, as kids say these days, right?? So maybe they'll be okay. But, I dunno. Nick, the youngest, has been in show bizness THE LONGEST. His parents (and I'm speculating here) have to be scumbags on some level--smart, bizness savvy, sure, but they are loving the money coming in, and who wouldn't?? But still, I find myself constantly defending them. I dunno--with the aforemention Ms. Spears, I basically coveted her downfall since I was in high school. I just wanted that bitch (sorry) to go down, just bein honest. But now that she has, it sucks and now I know I was a jerk.

So, Jonases? Please, if management starts crushing up vikes handing out lines after the show, or offers you their scrip of addies shaped like Flinstones vitamens before a Regis and Kelly taping, SAY NO. Life is long, and it's tremendous, and as long as your goal, growing up, is to be cool™, and understanding™, and to learn as much as possible, you'll be fine. But if evangelicalism (?) proves to be the Titanic I think it might be (I am wrong a lot, though, guys, and I care, really sorta I guess) then promise me that you won't go down with the ship. I will continue to defend you, and I apologize if this came across as condescending.
NOTE: I think I am only interested because (a) whoever styles them has wicked sense of style and I want anything Nick wears and (b) I am fully down with raising Joe's kids.

Just say the word, bro. [pictures via Variety]

TGIF: Slow news week


Yeah, so, to avoid posting the same thang over and over, I just post nothing (this is also to avoid becoming a hawt dudez photo site, which is just brimming below the surface, that's BRIMMING BTW) and also I work allowed but will probably get fired soon, ANYWAY:


*New York might try to sneak same-s3x marridge into legalness by making it an issue of helping the state's economy or what have u. [daily news]


*This article mentions the orientation of the alleged crime-causer, but I stopped reading it before they made it clear why this information is relevant to what appears to be an unrelated issue of KIDNAPPING. [SLTrib]


*This rugby ref came out, and says it was really hard, but thinks he would have basically just gotten his ass kicked if he had been a futball ref, and we basically agree, though we don't have evidence on us at this exact moment, ok? [bbc]


*"...But while a majority of non-white voters backed a ban on gay marriage, the key finding in the new survey was that voters' position on Proposition 8 was determined more by their level of education and income than their race or ethnicity, said PPIC president Mark Baldassare. Among Californians with a high school diploma or less, 69 percent voted for Proposition 8. Among college graduates, 57 percent voted against it." [mercury news]


Wednesday, December 3, 2008

#9: Sports

Because what young people need as they get older is an identity, and sports provide that, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Goths have the dark arts, drama gheys have theatre, and kids whose parents either recognize that sports are a good start to a healthy life (that these kids will grow to squander by binge drinking and snorting rails) or realize that they are old and that life sucks and must live vicariously/perilously through their sons, have sports.

Sports also foster discipline, which is good for guys who have a strong sense of self, as it will be a way to harness focus when they find something that focus will aid in improving. For people without spines, however, discipline can quickly turn into conformity, which is why sports programs (especially in movies) have the reputation for being full of arrogant pricks who are slaves to (and perpetuate) the idea of popularity as a virtue. Everybody is different unless they are trainted not to be! And building a belief system that can stem from the values of being good at a sport, this is something that happens to one without totally realizing it, so when they are put into a situation that forces them to self-analyze (such as realizing they might like dudes), they can be totally thrown off and angry/confused--a closet will be borne, and a case will cling to this masculine identity for dear life, and who could blame them.
The problem is older people being in the closet, but that could be the problem across the board. No out-N-proud pro athletes means none at the high school level, or college, because gays are the devil broken up into millions of little Degrassi fans. But seriously, the straight teammates think only weirdos are ghey, the ghey ones think if they act tough no one will suspect them (thereby perpetuating the cliches and misinformations that keep their cages locked so tight), and a million little lost connections are made, and youthful years wasted, because of fear.

If one is hell-bent on never coming out while simultaneously making life more difficult for others, athletic heroism is the perfect cover to employ. If you're in love with your friend Daniel, but would rather die than admit that to yourself, why not become awesome at footballing, get a hot girlfriend, and call people fags all the time? IT'S THE PERFECT CRIME, and, also, it's moral, because you are only hurting yourself (and your girlfriend and eventual children, but they don't count!). This isn't Spartan times--athletes aren't allowed to notice how hot each other are, or blow one another to commemorate a job well-done (not yet!), so the closeted athlete won't even partake in the straight baller's antics of ass/ball slapping, playing nudging or hugging, or European man-kissing.

Are you part of a sports club and also straight? After a big win, go around doing ghey stuff to people, the ones that act the most offended and grossed out (the ones who act like they have the most to lose by being okay with this) those are the ones you need to hug closer and say, "No matter what, you're still my teammate and my friend and I love you. And that probably goes for all the guys here, too." Then hold him at arm's length and appraise him, then look him in the eye and say, "Do you know what I mean?" He'll probably call you a homo, but he'll never forget that you did it, and will never be able to say that nobody, ever in his life, tried to be there for him. (Plus, when one comes out after all those years of sports, they are both butch, and have a rockin body, and that will make them POPULAR AS FUCK! Which is their Earthly wont.)

In the (slow) news (day): Prop 8 Forever


"Leaders of the California Legislature and members of its gay and lesbian caucus have introduced measures supporting the repeal of Proposition 8, the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage approved by voters last month."

This is basically so the Supreme Court of Cali knows that official people with jobs oppose this thing, not just homeless gey people. They won't have a ruling til NEXT JUNE, though, so you still have an excuse to be a slut until then. [sfc]

Further in the world of sports...


Been a couple days, so we will post chaotically because the reason we DON'T post sometimes is to avoid chaos, so we are giving ourselves what we Don't Want for a change, k? (Also reading about sports--see previous post--made me want to just keep reading about sports. Funny how that works.)

*Cristiano Ronaldo won the Best Player Ever This Year, 2008 Millenial Awesomeness award, and might be changing teams also. When further researched, it was also found that Mr. Ronaldo is adorable in, like, every picture ever taken of him. [ap]
*Oh, Brady Quinn is going to have finger surgery. We'll put our interest in the Browns in the refrigerator until the outcome of this procedure. [ap]
*You want to see some hockey playing dudes grabbing some balls? No? Well, by balls, we mean testys or whatever, so click the link if you change yr mind. [MSIH]
*Michael Phelps was named sportsman of the year by Sports Illustrated, proving our theory that it is cool for dudes to fawn over this guy and his doep bod, as long as they point out that he is also sort of a butterface when under natural lighting, which makes him HUMAN. That is why it is okay to hate Ronaldo, because he'd make Burt Reynolds do a double take wockawockawocka...[cnn]


Oh hai: Random thing


If you care at all about sports or whatever, or just interested in stories about people, then the Times, NY, has an interesting story about a dude who started a football team at the University of Vermont, just 'cause he got it like that. [nyt]

Monday, December 1, 2008

Everyday is a holiday, post 3: The science of the gays


Yeah, everyone knows America's hottest new religion is Teh Geighs, founded by Pink Mafia underworld captain Cheyenne Jackson (pictured, above, on a pants-dropping mission). This is true historical fact so please do not do independant research confirming it because it is a waste of time. All adherents to Geighs knows that they have made a choice to spite Jesus by constantly watching Xtube videos without donating money and downloading torrents of Bel Ami features with no intentions of actually buying the films. Like we said, it's a choice, except it's not, because science says so:

Researchers are finding common biological traits among gay men, feeding a growing consensus that sexual orientation is an inborn combination of genetic and environmental factors that largely decide a person's sexual attractions before they are born.
Hmm. Science is bullshit, but okay, I'm listening:
Such findings — including a highly anticipated study this winter — would further inform the debate over whether homosexuality is innate or a choice, an undercurrent of the recent Proposition 8 campaign in which television commercials warned that "schools would begin teaching second-graders that boys could marry boys," suggesting homosexuality would then spread.

Some scientists say the political and moral debate over same-sex marriage frequently strayed from established scientific evidence, including comments by vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin that homosexuality is "a choice" and "a decision."
Look, I don't need scyence to tell me Sarah Palin basically sucks. She made a decision to be annoying yet pretty and I totally tolerate that. Okay what else?

A host of studies since the mid-1990s have found common biological traits between gay men, including left-handedness and the direction of hair whorls. The likelihood that if one identical twin is gay, the other will also be gay is much higher than the "concordance" of homosexuality between fraternal twins, indicating that genes play a role in sexual orientation, but are not the entire cause.

"In the past decade, I think the pendulum has swung more toward biological theory and biological causes," said Richard Lippa, a psychology professor at California State University-Fullerton, who has studied hair patterns and other biological traits in gay men."
Sven Bocklandt, a geneticist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, is bewildered by the argument that people choose their sexual attraction. He said that virtually every animal species that has been studied — from sheep to fruit flies — has a small minority of individuals who demonstrate homosexual activity.

"I really believe the reason most humans are straight is the same reason that most crocodiles are straight, and the same reason most whales are straight," Bocklandt said. "Nature would not leave something so important for reproduction, for the survival of the species, to coincidence."

Less understood is the degree to which sexual orientation is determined by genes or environmental factors, such as hormones or immunological factors that may act on a fetus. What scientists call "the fraternal birth order effect," the fact that each successive boy born to the same mother has a greater chance of being gay,may be due to an increasing immunological response by a mother's body to each male fetus in her womb.

Long discredited are theories that parenting — one mid-20th century
theory held that boys raised by a domineering mother with a distant father were
more likely to be gay — has anything to do with sexual orientation.

Wow, that was a long one. I suggest you go read the article because it's interesting and actually well-written, which I am not ever, except sometimes when I'm drunk and no one tries to stop me. I'm gay (if you're into labels, which I'm not, blahblahblah just love me pleez), and I believe all this biological research, and I also know that it doesn't account for closets, dudes who you may hit on but who are all like [whiny voice], "I have a girlfriend, I fuck chicks, I like football but Brady Quinn is a homo" etc etc. So they could have all the hair whirls and swishy walks (one study I read pointed out that biologically gay men tend to pivot their hips when they walk and straights pivot their shoulders; KEEP AN EYE OUT!) in the world, if they aint touchin peenies at sexytime it don't mean a whole lot, now does it, Charlie? No, it does not.

The other thing is, Dr Drew Pinsky of the LurveLines and Celebrity Realityhabs, he used to always ask gay guys who would call up about stuff "was your mother an overbearing bitch?" and they'd be like, yes! Why would this be common among gay males (which it was) if it didn't have some affect on how they turned out? The other thing is, it could be a symptom of mothers of gay sons--they emasculate them in a misguided attempt to change the behavior that they perceive leads to gayness when it in fact is simply a sign of it. Who knows.

The other thing Dr Drew would do, is he would ask gay guys if they had been molested when they were younger, at an age where they could remember it, and if it was by a dude. Whenever he would ask this, he would almost always be right (I don't remember what about these gay guys would tip him off, sorry [sadface]). Our boy Mark Foley, of congressional page texting fame, acknowledges being gay, has a partner, but says he was molested when he was young too. Again, this doesn't mean the kid-touching is causing it, it could just be that these pervs see a particular sign in these kids and take advantage of it. These are simply relationships I have come across in the past, is all I'm saying. In the movie Happiness, by Todd Solondz, the gay kid is molested by Dylan Baker's character. In Augusten Burroughs's Running with Scissors, he is taken advantage of by an older male, at about the age of twelve if I'm not mistaken (he was pretty certain he was gay before this ever happened). Whatever, my point is, there is science, and there is what you think, and if you ain't quotin' science of some other smart soundin' shit, please don't talk about BIG TOPICS or something ignant if you CAN avoid it only, unless you are a philosopher, LIKE ME, whereupon ignorance is not only allowed, but MANDATORY ARRGH!

[walks away, trips over endtable and breaks face]



In the news: World AIDS Day

Talk about the holiday season! No but seriously, go get checked out, for fun even:

*AIDS remains the world's No. 1 health threat and in the United States is a grave risk to black people in particular. As Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, put it, "AIDS in America is a black disease . . . about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black." [washpost]

*Health authorities and the U.N. AIDS agency pledged Sunday to combat the stigmatization of people with the disease by unveiling a massive red ribbon, the symbol of AIDS awareness, at the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing.
"Stigma and discrimination are major obstacles in an effective response to AIDS. We need to engage all sectors of society in China to combat these issues and work together to stop the disease," said Minister of Health Chen Zhu, according to a UNAIDS statement. [ap]

*A worldwide drive to test one million people for HIV in the week ahead of World AIDS Day on Monday has been highly successful, a U.S. AIDS group said.
"Our One Million Tests campaign has been met with a wildly enthusiastic response in all corners of the world," said Terri Ford, director of global advocacy for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. [cbc.ca]

*From the mouth of yr preznint bush: "I'm pleased to announce that we have exceeded that goal early," Bush said standing with first lady Laura Bush on the North Lawn of the White House decorated with a giant red ribbon to mark the occasion. "The American people through PEPFAR are supporting lifesaving treatment for more than 2 million people around the world." [usa today]

*The analysts developed a mathematical model to predict what would happen if most adults and adolescents were tested every year for the virus that causes AIDS and those who tested positive were immediately treated with antiretroviral drugs instead of waiting until their immune systems were depressed, as is now policy. ... The results, described last week in The Lancet, a British medical journal, were remarkable. Transmission of the virus from infected individuals to others could be driven so low as to be nearly eliminated within a decade, largely because the drugs would drastically reduce the amount of virus in their blood and genital secretions. [nyt]

Cyber monday overshare: the smokening

I quit smokening oneth the gonj today. I'm at work and wouldn't have done so by now anyway, but the quit is there, when it finally comes up. This is probably bs, as some people I only hang out with for this reason, and will have to just become alcoholics with them in order to sustain the friendships. Whatever, I'll probably talk about this later, as it's not like I'll be stoned or anything.

Pip pip!