Mae Young was one of the most entertaining and adorable WWE characters during Linda McMahon's reign as CEO. I loved her and still do.



Linda McMahon's snarkworthy Senate campaign continues to roll along, eating up millions of her WWE dollars. I wonder how GOP primary voters will react if they find out just exactly what has been the WWE product under McMahon's leadership. McMahon shouldn't have resigned as WWE CEO to try to buy a Senate seat. I just don't think it is going to work.

 

The GOP propaganda machine is trying to claim that Ryan Sorba, of the "Young Conservatives of California," was "booed off the stage" for being anti gay. The facts don't fit the propaganda. Sorba committed the cardinal sin of going off talking points and criticizing conference organizers who allowed some homophobic gay Republicans to attend as long as those self loathing queers said and did nothing to support lgbt rights. (Hat tip for Video: Box Turtle Bulletin)



When you watch the actual video, several things are apparent.

1) He did not leave the stage until he was done talking.

2) The number of people cheering and applauding were greater than those who booed, though the people booing were louder per person.

Also, the GOP noise machine is claiming that Sorba was being booed for being a bigot. That isn't true, if you know anything about the right in this country. He was booed for criticizing the conference organizers, CPAC. Rightists are expected to be good little sheep who flock in unison.

By the way, "GOPride" (it really should be called GOShame) did nothing to promote tolerance of our people at the convention, much less pushing for equality. They accepted terms which expressly forbade that. All they were allowed to do was to offer help and advice on technology. GOShame didn't object to this at all. After all, the GOShame people hate themselves and all other glbt people just as much as the rest of the CPAC attendees and organizers.

 

 

Most people in this country really, really, really need to get laid.

 

Israel has been guilty of a prolonged campaign of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine since the country has started. Isreal's desire to steal more Palestinian land and resources has been insatiable. When the nation of Israel was formed, Israelis were the minority of the population, yet they got the majority of the land and the most valuable of land.

Yet, that wasn't enough for Israel. After nationhood, Israel launched a terrorist campaign to drive much of the native population out of the country. Later, Israel stole the rest of Palestine in two wars of aggression. Now, they have all of the West Bank, including Palestinian East Jerusalem under occupation. Gaza is under a siege.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are subjected to a slow, methodical, and murderous campaign of ethnic cleansing which shows no sign of easing. Palestinians in Israel proper face rampant discrimination for not being Jewish.

All of this is bad enough. One thing that makes this worse is that my own government is involved with this. Administrations and Congresses of both parties have financed, and armed, and provided diplomatic support to Israel's antisemitic campaigns against the Palestinians. (Palestinians are a Semtitic people, and most Israeli Jews are European, not Semitic.)

Worst of all is that Israel got its nuclear weapons by attacking a US submarine, and "our" government has never done a damned thing about it. They murder Americans civilians who commit peaceful acts of nonviolence against crimes against humanity, and "our" government does absolutely nothing in response. The flow of aid, trade, and support keeps going.

With Mossad's latest terrorist attack in Dubai, they used Identity Theft against British citizens to commit their crime. How much longer until Americans like you and me become victims of Identity Theft committed by the Mossad terrorists?

Enough of this bullshit! Our government should ban all aid and trade with Israel. If our government really cared about the "war on terrorism," it would break off diplomatic relations with that terrorist regime.

I'm an atheist, so I have no reason to travel to Israel. It's not like it's in the world's 500 most fun tourist destinations or anything. A travel boycott against Israel by me would be a completely empty gesture. I can, however, call on my government to end its support for the antisemitic government in that country.

 

Photo: Paul Keller

Thanks to Queers United for reminding me about this.

National Condom Week 2/14-2/21 is an excellent way to publicize those simple objects that have saved the lives of the gay and bisexual men in your lives. Although religious extremists love to lie about the effectiveness of condoms, condoms are exceedingly effective when used properly. Here are some instructions from Avert on how to use condoms.

Open the condom package at one corner being careful not to tear the condom with your fingernails, your teeth, or through being too rough. Make sure the package and condom appear to be in good condition, and check that if there is an expiry date that the date has not passed.

Place the rolled condom over the tip of the hard penis, and if the condom does not have a reservoir top, pinch the tip of the condom enough to leave a half inch space for semen to collect. If the man is not circumcised, then pull back the foreskin before rolling on the condom.

Pinch the air out of the condom tip with one hand and unroll the condom over the penis with the other hand. Roll the condom all the way down to the base of the penis, and smooth out any air bubbles. (Air bubbles can cause a condom to break.)

If you want to use some extra lubrication, put it on the outside of the condom. But always use a water-based lubricant (such as KY Jelly or Liquid Silk) with latex condoms, as an oil-based lubricant will cause the latex to break. Click here to see picture of lubricants.

The man wearing the condom doesn't always have to be the one putting it on - it can be quite a nice thing for his partner to do.

Here's a YouTube video that Avert embedded too.



Lubricants:
Generally, you should use lubricants that specifically say that they are condom safe. Women's Health at About.com has some info on some of the things that you definitely shouldn't use for lubricating condoms.

Never use a lubricant that contains oils, fats, or greases such as petroleum-based jelly (like Vaseline brand), baby oil or lotion, hand or body lotions, cooking shortenings, or oily cosmetics like cold cream. They can seriously weaken latex, causing a condom to tear easily.

So many people have died needlessly from HIV. Many people still do because HIV drugs don't work indefinitely for everyone. Some people get sick or even die from the drugs. People with HIV are at risk from unsafe sex too because of the variety of strains from a rapidly mutating virus. Different strains have different resistances to HIV drugs.

Protect yourself and your partners.

 

This ticker shows that nearly 5 million American families, not individuals, have lost their health coverage since the beginning of 2008. There were tens of millions of Americans without coverage before that. It's an enormous problem.

And, it's worse. Health insurance corporations and HMOs are getting ever more ruthless in denying claims for needed healthcare for the people who still do have "coverage." Copays and fees to employers are going up while insurer/HMO executive pay stays astronomical. A significant portion of those added copays and employer charges have been used to lobby Congress, saturate the media with propaganda, and create the astroturf teabagger "movement" in order to avoid the more efficient and humane alternative of government provided health coverage.

It would be great to replace private coverage, including its death panels*, with single payer healthcare which doesn't have them. If only there wasn't so much corruption in politics.

When are the majority of the middle class and the poor going to realize that we are getting screwed by the rich and their corporations, not by the hated minority group of the week? When are people going to grow up and accept the fact that corporate media owned and controlled by rich Republicans is rightist, not liberal? When are people going to see beyond the propaganda?


*Insurance companies use death panels all the time. The HMO/insurer lobbyist who was feeding the whole "death panel" talking point to Sarah Palin actually was projecting an industry practice onto the government.

 

No Xmas Presents for This Atheist


I Think That This Video Is Actually Serious


Screaming Christian at Jesus Camp


Faith Healing


Christians Protest a Star Wars Movie


Catholic School Bans Harry Potter


Religious Neighbor with Some Signs

Few things are more symbolic of just how out of touch the Democratic Party elites are with Democratic voters and the party's core constituents than the nonsense about "bipartisanship." Nobody outside the Beltway gives a flying rat's venereal disease about bipartisanship.

In the last election, voters wanted change. What have we gotten? It's the same policies we have had for the last 30 years. The politicians keep looting the Treasury on behalf of the rich while the rest of us get screwed.

Let's look at some of the things Democratic voters actually care about.

1) The senseless, expensive, illegal, and murderous war on Iraq.

2) The Great Recession

3) No Healthcare (either because of no coverage at all or because HMOs and insurance companies refuse to pay for needed care)

4) Racist, sexist, and heterosexist bigotry, discrimination, and violence.

5) Putting politicians and the rich under the rule of law.

6) Making the government accountable to the entire population, not just the wealthy few.

7) Global Warming

8) Products in Americans stores mostly being made abroad

9) The continuing cascade of foreclosures.

10) Union busting labor laws.

Yet, what do Obama and the "Democrats" in DC natter on about? "Bipartisanship" Fuck bipartisanship. Start governing.

Those asswipes think that everything is about them. Evan Bayh, a disgusting Bush/Cheney/Clinton/Reagan/Palin/Limbaugh Republican who poses as a moderate Democrat, has been whining incessantly about "bipartisanship." Bayh and most other Democratic Senators don't give a shit about their responsibility to govern. All they care about is restoring a good old boys network atmosphere to the Senate. (OK, it's really a straight, white, Christian, rich, old boys club, but you get the drift.)

President Obama built up this huge grassroots network during the campaign, and he has ignored it once in office. If he held a few rallies in states where Gopper Senators were filibustering the Public Option and sent out a few action alerts, we would have the public option by now. A few Goppers would have caved enough to not filibuster and only vote against the legislation. If he had worked to withhold DNC and DSSC financing from "Democrats" who opposed the public option, they would have caved. Given a choice between losing all of his seniority and his position as a committee chair, Lieberman would have caved like the cowardly sewer rat he is.

Did Obama do this? No, of course not. In fact, Obama and Reid have even refused to use budget reconciliation and recess appointments to put a stop to all the bullshit. President Obama consistently has cared more about "bipartisanship" than the people who voted him into office. In other words, he was more worried about his personal professional relationships with Gopper Senators than he did about the country and his presidency. Obama deserves to have majority disapproval when he continues to act like a narcisstic, sniveling Clinton! The average toddler isn't as self absorbed as the average politician these days.

The Green Party is starting to look golden!

 

Gopper politicians have flip flopped all over the place, even though their party campaigned in 2004 on Kerry being a "flip flopper." The funniest part is when the Gopper politicians take credit for stimulus money in their districts when they voted against it. (Hat Tip: My Big Fat Lazy Blog)

The whole thing also proves that the GOP thinks that the teabaggers are idiots.



Note to Any Teabaggers Reading This:
If your friendly, Republican politician says that the stimulus plan was bad, check and see if they have also made statements in favor of it. (Even the ultraright Cato Institute is noticing.)

Full Listing (Think Progress)
(This is long, so you may want to do a ctrl-F (command-F on Mac) to search for your congresscritter or Senator's name.)

Stimulus Hypocrisy and the Tea Partiers (CATO)


Republican hypocrites vote no on stimulus but take money and credit for 'good policy' (Examiner.com)

Stimulus Hypocrisy (Think Progress)



 

Hat Tip: Queer, Isn't It?

Dale Robertson, who has become famous for a racist sign, is one of the more controversial figures in the teabagger thing. Many of the people trying to corral the teabaggers for the GOP are claiming that liberals are making up the whole thing about Robertson being a leader of the teabagging set.

Guess what? It turns out Robertson is the founder and proprietor of TeaParty.org, a major teabagger website.

Robertson does exaggerate his role in the teabagland. He says he's the "President and Founder - Tea Party." The real founders of the teabagger astroturf scam were beltway insider lobbyists for the HMOs and the health insurers. I don't think Robertson has any idea who is really pulling the puppet strings for the fiasco he is a significant part of.

The corporate teabagger puppeteers are throwing some of their own puppets under the bus, now that they are becoming inconvenient. The very racism and obnoxiousness that corporate lobbyists and GOP operatives found so charming last summer is becoming a political liability now. Teabaggers now are assigned the task of returning to the smarmy GOP code speak for the same racism that Robertson expressed more overtly with his sign.