Well....Duh

Mingle² - Online Dating

Not that this surprises me too much; after all, this blog has never shied from discussing such things as nakedness, HIV, unprotected sex, and the other stuff you're not supposed to mention in rooms where there are plastic covers on the furniture.

But, given that I am an obstreperous bastard, I would like to dedicate a song to the raters out of love and respect.

Toodles!

Not Safe For...Ewwwwwwww!!!!

Courtesy of one of my relatives who is fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to live nearby.

Yes, you can click on the picture and make it larger -- but before you do, consider that I may have made it the smallest size possible for a reason.



Nine feet, 1 inches long and ninety-seven pounds, if anyone's counting.

And yes, it's real. It was killed at Hillsdale Lake just south of Kansas City -- which may alarm some new homeowners therein.

UPDATE: Thanks to astute reader Prairie Biker, we may now state that the location and exact weight of the snake is questionable. Apparently this appeared in one spot and has been making the rounds on the Internets of late, with the location changing over time.

Now that that's clarified, if you'll excuse me, I have to finish responding to that nice wealthy widow in Nigeria.......

Anyone Got a Spare Ten Mil?

'Cause I have plans......wonderful plans.....

Brave New Whorled

Matt over at yon Malcontent has up a linkage to an article discussing what appear to be certain characteristics strongly associated with gayness -- in particular, being prone to left-handedness or ambidexterity, and the way in which the hair whorls on one's head spin.

In short, if you spin Southern Hemisphere, you're more likely to be straight, and if you spin Northern Hemisphere, the odds are better that you're not (which still doesn't explain why there are so many hot men in Australia, but I digress).

Crazy, right?

Well, thanks to my admittedly-unusual background, I can tell you.....not really.

Horse trainers and rodeo cowboys have made observation for years that the position of the hair whorl on the forehead of a horse or a cow relative to a horizontal line drawn between its eyes and a vertical line down the middle of its forehead to its nose is a good predictor of its temperament. In bulldogging, a steer whose hair whorl is below that horizontal line tends to keep its head down and plod, meaning you have to reach lower; in contrast, one that is above the line tends to be flighty, faster, and -- paradoxically -- a stopper, who when you pass it on your horse, will probably slam on the brakes, jerk its head up, and knock your teeth out if you're not careful. Same with horses; the more their whorl varies from the crosshairs -- where those two lines meet -- the less desirable their behavior.

Of course, tobacco-addled folk like myself aren't always the best judges of what's what, so one day an amazing person -- a lady by the name of Temple Grandin, whose life is a story in and of itself and who I've had the pleasure to work and speak with -- decided to test this scientifically. Sure enough, she found that it WAS true -- cattle with whorls that were off-kilter, or no whorls at all, tended to be more agitated and showed behavior like high heads and jerky movements like we in the rodeo area know so well (and painfully). Furthermore, as Temple pointed out in more detail (search for "Hair whorls"), the hair whorls are formed from the same embryonic layer at the same time that the brain is forming, which would provide some degree of explanation for their seeming predictive power on behavior.

An interesting and disquieting point in Temple's research, though, is that a strong correlate for it comes from human studies; namely, it has been known for quite some time that humans with Down's syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, schizophrenia, and autism tend to exhibit unusual physical traits, such as abnormal hair whorls, a higher tendency towards left-handedness, and a high number of physical anomalies -- i.e. relative finger lengths and appendage sizes -- than the average person with none of these.

On the one (left) hand, that makes a strong argument for homosexuality being in large part biological; all of these particular syndromes have a strong genetic component, with environmental factors playing more of a trigger role than a shaping role. However, on the other hand, that makes of homosexuality a brain misfire -- or, as Doctor Laura famously (and tactlessly) put it, a "biological error".

On the other hand, the implications of this are a bit to the right of cataclysmic. In the majority of the cases of syndromes just mentioned, people can bring themselves closer to "normal", if you will, through medication, therapy, and learning to work around the limitations of their particular situation.

Can the same thing be said for gays? Should the same thing be said for gays?

The answer, in my opinion, is: it all depends. I cannot say that homosexuality is always a blessing, any more than someone else can say it is always a curse. There are simply too many situations, too many scenarios, in which it is one, either, both, or even neither. We all know lives that started and stopped, families torn apart and put back together, utmost joy and blackest despair.

I suppose it all boils down to this; whatever works best for you. And that is why I will not bother getting excited or upset about "ex-gay" organizations, or reparative therapy, or potentially curbing homosexual urgings through drugs, or un-gaying babies in the womb; they will work for some people.

But not for me, thanks.

Meh.....

Matt over at InterstateQ has posted an interesting statement, allegedly by an associate of Tyler Whitney.

Which immediately brought to mind the following quotation from Macbeth:

it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

I suppose one could get more excited than that, but frankly, I've been called worse by marginally better, and I'm well past the point of caring about what someone who will put that much vitriol into a statement says.

Granted, saying outrageous, deliberately-inflammatory, and downright childish things has made Ann Coulter a lot of money....but whoever "Saint Joe McCarthy" is, they ain't even no Ann Coulter.

Meme, May, Mah, Mo, Moo.......

It seems that the latest thing in the blog circles in which I run is the meme -- which, loosely defined, is like a chain letter that doesn't bring down curses on you and your family if you fail to complete it.

I think.

At any rate, since everyone else is baring their souls, I might as well; after all, this blog has never shied from (Not Safe For Work) baring anything.

So here goes:
_____________________________________________________________________________

The Rules:

-- Post the rules, then list 8 things about yourself.
-- At the end of the post, tag and link to 8 other people.
-- Leave a comment at those sites, letting them know they’ve been tagged, and asking them to come read the post so they know what to do.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Riff off other peoples' answers" wasn't in there, but it wasn't excluded either.....so, as the Greeks used to say, "Adiaphora".

1. My cooking falls at the low end of the metrosexual range. That is, I can cook well when required to impress someone, but still make a substantial withdrawal from the Trader Joe's freezer aisle every week.

And before you ask, my husbear is a great cook; the problem is that neither of us wants to spend the time necessary in the kitchen to do it on a daily basis.


2. I eat things plain. Double cheeseburgers, plain, Taco Bell tacos, no lettuce, and can you bring me some real bread and butter instead of this double-herb crusted oily dripping virgin focaccia something-or-another?


3. I work out 3.5 times weekly (four one week, three the next) -- a habit I started when I....


4. Played football. Middle school, high school, and college. Really. Starting linebacker at all levels, even made all-American in college.

And no, locker-room scenes never really turned me on. Probably because a room you associate with puking after wind sprints is not one in which romantic or sexual moods flourish.


5. Nicknames I had throughout my football career included "Professor", "Maverick", "Express", "Will" (for weakside linebacker -- insert your own ironic "and Grace" here), and "Bucket Butt".

The last referred to my rump SIZE, not to any particular characteristics of it. Honestly!


6. While on the topic of quasi-manly pursuits, I rodeoed in college and afterwards on a nominally-professional basis; I also taught the university's horse training class for undergraduates, which is what I blame for my then-consumption of a can a day of Copenhagen Black.

(Yes, I quit eventually. Some guys thought it was sexy; most were neither impressed or amused.)


7. Boilermaker, cosmopolitan, Amstel Light, Miller Light, Diet Coke, and tap water.

In reverse order.


8. My husbear and I met online.

Some evening you, too, may be messaged by a man and end up selling your house, quitting your job, and moving halfway across the country to a city in which you swore you would never live under any circumstances -- and it was the best decision I ever made.

Your mileage may vary.


Now that that's over, I can only think of a few people to whom to send this:

1. Sonicfrog

2. Jimbo.Info

3. Army of Mom

4. Lab Kat

5. See Jane Mom

6. Cake or Death?

7. Charging Rhino

8. Gryphmon's Grumbles

(Sorry. The meme must be obeyed. I have enough enemies already........)

Rule #1 For Effective Analogy

Use one that works.

And suddenly, I have this vision of Wayne and Garth suddenly turning to each other as the jet thunders overhead, and...um....well....doing it like....

Robbie Nailed It

Word.

(Sorry -- the "Simpsons" episode featuring N'Sync is on this week, so I've had that on the brain).

Update: Other bloggers have started to weigh in with good reads -- The Conjecturer, GayPatriotWest, Rick Sincere, and even a few unexpected spots that are getting a sudden lesson in what happens when you go against the gay grain.

If nothing else, that last gives me hope.

If You Can't Handle It, Block It

Well, Signorile has banned me from his blog -- which is not surprising; after all, he didn't get where he did by allowing people who told the truth to stay around him for long.

Just in case he gets in a deleting mode, though, it seems I should record for posterity the comment I left him last night, in response to his own, that has him all apopolectic.

Um, no, I would like Tancredo to say, gee, I have a loyal staffer who's gay so I DO support employment non-discrimination for gays.
The fact that he employs a gay person speaks volumes for the fact that he does not discriminate in employment against them.

You, in turn, could make it clear that you oppose abuse of nondiscrimination laws by gays, such as in the case of Bonnie Bleskachek.

I want him to say that he DOESN'T support an ammendent to the Constitution of the United States to make gays second class citizens (Federal Marriage Amendment), which he voted for and spearheaded.

Please. You don't even demand that of your own Democrat candidates, nor do you blast gays and gay organizations who support them.

One would think that you would be just as inclined to bash those gays and those candidates -- but that would be only if one wasn't aware of what party and what gay organizations keep you in chardonnay.

Next:

I want him to say that it is GOOD for gays to adopt children in DC, which he voted against allowing.

Well, one of your fellow gay Democrats and HRC supporters thinks otherwise when it comes to gay parenting.

And if you go to my conservative blog, you'll find I have a great deal to say about it. Mostly involving the tendency of you and your commentors to indulge in the sort of hate speech and threats of violence that you affect to despise from the religious right.

Finally, it is North Dallas THIRTY. "North Dallas Forty" should be reserved for the passable novel by Pete Gent and the somewhat-disquieting movie with Nick Nolte.
North Dallas Thirty | Homepage | 06.13.07 - 12:56 am | #

And note that, unlike Signorile, I feel no particular need to block his minions who are setting out to namecall me in my comment section with far less proof than I've put in his.

As Robbie of the Malcontent aptly puts it, "This week, everyone's favorite sad, leftist mess dines on the blood of gay young in a limp attempt at remaining relevant outside of his private circle of elite coastal fags who honestly believe the rest of homosexualdom not living in New York gives a rat's ass."

Heck, They Can't Even Get Facts Straight

As I alluded to yesterday, my commentary over on Signorile's blog isn't being taken very well; in response to my pointing out with clear references their support of what they had previously termed homophobic, they released a wave of whisper-gossip that frankly, I haven't seen the level of since my stint of teaching sixth-graders.

My favorite, though, has to be from commentor "Rick".

I noticed this 'North Dallas Forty' character splattering outrageously homophobic comments all over the blogs. So I did a little digging and guess what I found: about a year ago he was found to have issued a jihad of death threats against gay bloggers like Mike Rogers. He is one of those nut cases just like the ones who blow up Planned Parenthood and issue edicts against abortion doctors. He is a total nut case. He even had to shut down his website after legal action was taken.

Of course, that has no references whatsoever -- probably because of these little issues:

1) He has me confused with GayPatriot.

2) He got incorrect what GayPatriot actually did.

3) He missed that I criticized GayPatriot for what GayPatriot did.

4) He apparently is ignorant, inadvertently or willfully, of what Mike Rogers did to GayPatriot's friends and associates.

What makes this particularly hilarious is that this post from "Rick" came despite my having pointed several of these facts out to "Demesne Lord" -- who, despite knowing the truth of the matter and commenting in the same thread, hasn't seen fit to inform "Rick" or the other commentors.

Again, not that this surprises me much; it's just amusing how blatantly obvious it is.

Update: As reported below, how could we forget JoeMyGod, whose hatemongering (and anonymous) commentors have posted not just Mr. Whitney's home address and phone numbers, but those of his PARENTS as well -- apparently so that their fellows who are out for blood could do their worst.

I'm clocking how long this stays up. Starting at 1:27 PM JoeMyGod commenting time.

UPDATE: And the addresses and phone numbers have been taken down -- as of the afternoon of June 17th.

Let's see, that's only what, three days?

And the same old excuse, of course:

I removed the addresses here once they were brought to my attention. I try to read all my comments, but sometimes the longer threads get away from me.

Apparently JoeMyGod isn't aware of the fact that you can actually READ all of your comments in Haloscan without having to go thread by thread.

It's on the same screen that you use to delete/edit them.

Lies Work Better When Told to the Stupid

As one might expect, numerous people this week, mostly militant atheist, are touting this statistic concerning Americans' views towards how humans came to be as a sign of some sort of scientific apocalypse.

The interesting thing is that, if one looks at the actual data, it's quite historically stable; indeed, if anything, belief in creationism or some sort of divine intervention increased during the "science-based" Clinton administration.

What this means, in my opinion, is simple; people aren't necessary anti-science, but they are smart enough to recognize that, quite often, those who tout "science" are using it for ulterior motives.

Take, for example, the anti-Bush diatribe in today's Chronicle.

Like his failure to take global warming seriously, President Bush's decision to ignore science and veto the recently passed bipartisan bill that would permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research within an ethical framework spotlights an inconvenient truth. All Americans, not just those who have diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, will pay the price.

Take diabetes, for example. Leading scientists say embryonic stem cell research holds great promise for finding better treatments and a cure for the nearly 21 million Americans, including 2 million Californians, who have the disease. And that's not to mention the 54 million who have pre-diabetes, meaning their blood glucose levels are higher than normal and they're at increased risk of developing the disease. That number is sure to rise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls diabetes an epidemic and says 1 in 3 babies born today -- and 1 in 2 among nonwhite babies -- will develop diabetes in their lifetime, if trends continue.

And of course, what should we do to halt this horrible, horrible menace?

Stem cell research allows scientists to better explore how to control and direct stem cells so they can grow into other cells, such as insulin-producing beta cells. Creating new beta cells could mean a cure for Type 1 diabetes as they would serve as a source of cells for islet cell transplantation. They could also provide a powerful tool for controlling Type 2 diabetes.

Unfortunately, for those of us supposedly science-free Christians, especially those of us with a biology background, there's a little problem here.

As the article briefly alludes, there are two primary types of diabetes; Type 1, aka insulin-dependent diabetes, in which the islet cells of the pancreas are incapable of creating insulin and require a person to take it externally, and Type 2, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes, where the body loses its ability to respond to the insulin it produces.

Type 1 diabetes is the one that stem-cell research theoretically could most help, since the ability to restore or implant pancreatic islet cells would allow these patients to produce their own insulin. However, according to the CDC's own statement, Type 1 diabetes makes up only 5 - 10% of all diabetes cases.

Why is this important?

Because Type 2 diabetes, which makes up the remaining 90 - 95% of cases, is, according to the ADA itself, on whose board this author , quite preventable -- by changing diet and increasing physical activity. Indeed, in most cases of Type 2, it's not that the islet cells quit producing insulin; it's that, after years of obesity, bad eating, and lack of exercise, the body simply refuses to respond to it.

What this "scientific" commentor is telling us is that we need ethically-questionable research to find a cure for something in which 95% of the cases are, by and large, preventable without a single stem cell anything. Even more ironically, he's citing statistics about how many deaths, dollars, and days lost this is costing us per year -- without mentioning that it's due primarily to peoples' choosing to overeat and not exercise, not to any particular lack of stem-cell-based cures, and that dealing with the former would have far more effect on reducing losses of all three than the latter.

In short, this is on the same level as an argument for the need for embryo dissection to make lung cancer cures from the CEO of a cigarette manufacturer.

But, when one looks at Dwight Holing's donation record, it should surprise no one that he apparently has no ethical qualms whatsoever about perverting science for political purposes, especially when it's anti-Bush.

He's just not used to people knowing something about what he's trying to use for propaganda.

Tiresome, But Not Surprise-some

I was thinking it had been a while since the usual suspects and their comments sections went and savaged another gay person for the crime of being conservative.

Aside from their attempts to smear him with guilt by association and hold him permanently responsible for doing something ostensibly anti-gay prior to his coming out, the interesting thing is watching what they're demanding be done to him.

You have to nip these people in the bud. Today he's fronting for YAF, tomorrow he'll be the Roy Cohn of the 21st Century. To me, people like him are no better than a Black person passing for white and joining the Ku Klux Klan. (I'm not gay but I am Black and that's how I see it.) When someone is working against the rights of people just like him (or her -- Mary Cheney springs to mind, as do Clarence Thomas and Kenneth Blackwell), he needs to be stopped dead in his tracks.

Or, more precisely put:

My heart bleeds, but not for the likes of him. Make him bleed. Make them all bleed. If you aren't up to it. Don't watch, or stay out of politics. This is not a polite and civil endeavor.

As previously noted, it's not exactly a secret that the lives and health of gay conservatives and gay Republicans aren't worth much to these people, but it still is a little jarring to see how blatant they are about it.

What is kind of amusing is the lovely bit of schizophrenia they display, paying lip service to the necessity of "bipartisanship", how desirable it is for for people of all political and religious stripes to come out, the need to work from within the Republican Party to create change -- and then declaring open season, including the use of physical violence, in order to "stop" those who are actually doing it.

Continuing, when last I posted on this tendency of theirs, several comments made were to the effect that I should not hold bloggers responsible for the comments made on their blog.

My response: from personal experience and from my own blog, I know very well that these particular bloggers can rouse themselves to make counter-comments, edit and delete existing comments, and outright ban people from commenting at all. More than that, I know that their "regular" commentors will become quite vociferous and, via email, cry wolf-in-the-fold to the blog owner and complain when someone posts that which they consider objectionable.

Given that, it seems quite obvious that the reason these comments are still there is because neither the blog commentors or the blog owners are opposed to them. Indeed, the only reasons they seem to take down threats of violence and death to people they don't like is when they're publicly embarrassed by them.

Pretty sad when you consider that even the worst of the homophobes have the decency to condemn violence against gays.

Update: Not surprisingly, Signorile didn't take a response to his rant about Mr. Whitney that pointed out that Signorile wasn't even making those demands of Democrat gays very well.

Like I said, though; the fact that these blog owners have no trouble banning and deleting posts by people they don't like does very little for their argument that they shouldn't be held responsible for the hate speech of their commentors.

Update: And of course, how could we forget JoeMyGod, whose hatemongering (and anonymous) commentors have posted not just Mr. Whitney's home address and phone numbers, but those of his PARENTS as well -- apparently so that their fellows who are out for blood could do their worst.

I'm clocking how long this stays up. Starting at 1:27 PM JoeMyGod commenting time.

One Man's EEEEWWWWWW....

is another man's trophy fish.

Ah, wasted entrepreneurial potential.....if only I had known our little creek and tanks (ponds, for those of you non-Southwesterners) were muddy, murky gold mines...

Thick Head, Thin Skin

Let me assure those outside California.....this is a case of the pot calling the kettle chartreuse.

Or, as one of my politico friends put it today, "Hell would be one of the nicer places Migden has told people to go."

Life Imitates.....Uh, Something

All one can say is.....wow.

The scary part is that I could see it catching on as an extreme sport.

Pithy Placement

For some obscure reason, I feel the need to give props to Matt of The Malcontent for his delicious use of a well-placed quote in talking about his site's erstwhile forums.

Of course, they were immediately eaten by the spammers. Then they burned down, fell over and were eaten by the spammers again.

Which comes from.....

Listen, lad, I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started 'ere, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle in the swamp, but I showed them; I built it all the same.

That one sank into the swamp.

So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. The third one burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp....but the fourth one stayed up!

And that's what you're getting lad.....the strongest castle in these islands!

Of course, my favorite line from that is......

Don't like 'er? What's wrong with 'er? She's...beautiful, she's rich, she's got HUUUGE.....tracts of land!

How To Start Your Day Off Right

1. Fill one microwave-safe coffee mug two-thirds full with milk.

2. Microwave milk on High for 2.5 minutes or until milk is warm to touch

3. Stir in the following:

-- One splash of sugar-free hazelnut or almond-flavored Toroni syrup
-- One package Sweet N' Low
-- One-half scoop chocolate or vanilla (or both) whey protein powder

4. Add fresh-brewed espresso to fill mug

5. Top with powdered cinnamon

6. Serve to handsome, sleepy husbear with freshly-brushed kiss and side of hugs.

7. Get some.

Just One Question, Please

How exactly does one "detonate a whale"?

Passionate Viewing

I know Jamie was involved in this somehow.

Personally, having lived a good portion of my life in Kansas, with the only nearby town making Jericho look positively urban, I can only say this......truth was far more dull than fiction.

Here, Have Some More Opiate

I'm waiting for the shrieks of, "Theocrats!"

But of course, they won't come.

This is after all, nothing new......and actually, quite common.

With a swaying, purple-robed choir behind him and Davis at his side, Clinton stood at the pulpit of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, the city's oldest black congregation, and cited Scripture, comparing the recall of the embattled Democratic governor to the mob that wanted to stone an adulteress during Jesus's time.

"Let he among you without sin, cast the first stone," Clinton said. Everyone in politics makes mistakes, the former president told the congregation, which interrupted his talk with repeated standing ovations. But he said the recall is misdirected anger. "Oh, the governor didn't make every single problem go away," Clinton said. "So let's throw a rock at him. It'll make us feel better."

Clinton appealed for cooler heads. "Gray Davis and I have been friends for a long time, and I don't want this happening to him. But this is way bigger than him. It's you I'm worried about. It's California I worry about. I don't want you to become a laughingstock, a carnival or the beginning of a circus in America where we throw people out for making tough decisions," Clinton said.

Then he paused, and urged California voters, "Don't do this. Don't do this," as the congregation erupted in applause.

But, given the usual screaming fit thrown by the Democrat Party if Republicans even dare to say or do anything of the sort......no less hypocritical.