Saturday, October 12, 2013

Orlando Cruz KO'd In 7th Round

Boxing Insider reports:
Orlando Cruz is a southpaw and he did not make eye contact with Salido during introductions. Salido is a notoriously slow starter but he did not start slow tonight. Salido was warned for the first of multiple times in the first round for low blows. Cruz was sticking and moving early with his jab but Salido did well when we he went to the body. The second and third rounds were tight and tough but Salido was the man who was landing the much harder punches. The crowd could be heard chanting “Puta, Puta” in the third round. Cruz was landing some decent shots but Salido was not visibly bothered by Cruz’s punches. Cruz had his best round of the night in the fifth. Salido was able to turn the fight back in his favor in the fifth round by going to the body again and was extremely aggressive. The end came in the seventh round when Salido was landing some hard uppercuts. A right hook left uppercut combination sent Cruz to the mat for the full count of ten.

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Sen. Ted Cruz Easily Wins Values Voter Summit 2016 Presidential Straw Poll

Previous  presidential straw poll winners at the FRC's hate summit were: Ron Paul, Mike Pence, and Mike Huckabee.  #DoomedByHistory

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Gay Boxer Orlando Cruz Weighs In For Tonight's World Championship Title

Orlando Cruz weighed in for the bout wearing rainbow briefs and will wear rainbow trunks during the fight. He spoke to the Guardian about tonight's featherweight world title match.
Cruz understands how this fight will smudge the boundaries between the personal and professional. He even implies that Salido, as a Mexican, might be troubled by facing a gay fighter. "My coming out made it harder for him. He will have it in his mind that he's fighting a homosexual for the world title." Is he suggesting Salido might be homophobic? "He's professional with me but Mexicans often have something homophobic in them. It's the machismo culture. He won't want to lose to a gay man. Salido will be much more aggressive. He will want to make a statement because I'm gay. But he'll fall into the trap by being macho. I'll let him come at me, and I'll show him then. The only language I will use is spoken by my fists. They will do my talking."
The Bleacher Report is predicting that the slightly bigger Salido will win. Cruz is 5'4" and weighs 125 pounds.
Salido has a two-inch height and reach advantage, but Cruz is clearly the quicker, slicker boxer. The major question to be answered in this fight is whether Cruz can hurt Salido with single shots. El Fenomeno doesn’t throw a lot of combinations. This could be an issue, considering Salido’s counter-punching prowess. Throwing one shot at a time will make him easier to counter and time. This will only increase Salido's aggressiveness. If Cruz can’t slow the former champion's pursuit, stamina could become a problem later in the fight.
The fight will air at 9pm ET/6pm PT on HBO Pay-Per-View. (Photo via Andres Duque.)

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Gay People Need To Keep It Private

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Gun Freaks Exploit Newtown Anniversary

Beyond disgusting.
In an appalling bid to “own” the Dec. 14 anniversary of the Newtown slayings, a coalition of gun lovers has announced plans to declare that horrific date “Guns Save Lives” day. “We are going to use the day to get our views out,” said Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation. “We don’t want (pro gun-control groups) own that day. ... We are gonna be there first.” It was a proclamation that had people who lost family members at the hands of a crazed gunman at Sandy Hook elementary school shuttering. “Dec. 14 is a sacred day for Newtown families that should be about our loved ones — not this disgusting political stunt,” said Erica Lafferty, the daughter of murdered Newtown principal Dawn Hochsprung. “These people will be trampling on the graves of the innocent children and educators who were murdered that day.”

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Praise Lesus

The Vatican has suspended sales of a papal medal which heralds the world's savior, Lesus.
Four of the medals, which went on sale Tuesday, had already been sold. It has been suggested that because of the error these could become valuable. The medals were made by the Italian State Mint and should have carried the inscription: "Vidit ergo Jesus publicanum, et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi, 'Sequere me.'" This roughly translates as, "Jesus therefore sees the tax collector, and since he sees by having mercy and by choosing, he says to him, 'follow me.'" Instead, someone named "Lesus" saw the tax collector.
(Tipped by JMG reader Arthur)

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Cut Copy - Free Your Mind

E! Online has a recap:
Alexander Skarsgård shirtless, just how we like him! In Cut Copy's new "Free Your Mind" music video, the hunky True Blood star plays a cult leader (a super-sexy cult leader, that is!). Adding to Skarsgård's cult-leader look is a long, blond wig. In the vid, Skarsgård is shown doing a number of unusual things: He baptizes a woman in a pool before kissing her on the forehead; he tames a vicious pit bull with his bark; he pees in front of a woman, who takes notes while analyzing his urination; and he gets in on a little makeout session with a female friend.

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Washington Post Vs Teabagger

(Via AmericaBlog)

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Maggie Gallagher Gives Up

"It’s clear that the courts are going to shut down the marriage debate and impose gay marriage uniformly. There is not yet a unified sense of where we go from here, except for this: there is an accelerating awareness that the consequence of marriage equality is going to be extremely negative for traditionalist Christians. Refusing despair is a powerful political weapon. If we don’t keep fighting, we are not going to be tolerated. The question we have to face is this: did the Supreme Court give us Roe v. Wade, or Brown v. Board?  If it’s Roe, we lose, but our views of marriage will still be respectable. But if we let it be Brown, we’re in big trouble." - Maggie Gallagher, quoted in the American Conservative(Tipped by JMG readers Chris and Christopher.)

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Sandy Rios At The FRC Hate Summit

Remember when former Concernstipated Women head Sandy Rios predicted that "thousands of ex-gays will descend upon Washington DC."? And then NINE showed up? She got more of the same yesterday at the FRC's hate summit.

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Friday, October 11, 2013

NEW JERSEY: State Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Lambda Legal's Marriage Case

Breaking news from the Associated Press:
The state's highest court on Friday agreed to hear a case on whether gay marriage should be legal and whether same-sex weddings can be performed while it decides. A lower-court judge ruled last month that the state must legalize same-sex marriage starting Oct. 21, but Gov. Chris Christie's administration said in a court filing Friday that a single judge should not be able to force New Jersey to do so. The argument was included in a brief the state submitted in support of its emergency appeal after a state judge refused to delay her order that New Jersey legalize same-sex marriage as of Oct. 21. The state Supreme Court accepted the case Friday, skipping the normal course of letting an appeals court hear it first. Oral arguments were scheduled for January.
Lambda Legal reacts via press release:
Today the New Jersey Supreme Court announced it would hear both the merits of the marriage case as well as the appeal on the stay motion. "Time is of the essence and it's great the court is moving so quickly," said Hayley Gorenberg, Deputy Legal Director of Lambda Legal. "We are looking forward to making our case at the New Jersey Supreme Court for the families in New Jersey who need marriage to better protect their families."
Lambda tells me that the stay motion schedule is unchanged and that their papers on that are due on this Tuesday. That means that the Court could decide to let marriages begin on October 21st before hearing the full case in January.

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Tweet Of The Day II - Fake Scalia

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Ben Carson At Hate Summit: Obamacare Is The Worst Thing Since Slavery


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US Olympic Committee Adds Sexual Orientation To Non-Discrimination Policy

The United States Olympic Committee today amended its official non-discrimination policies to include sexual orientation.
At his annual address to the USOC Assembly on Friday, CEO Scott Blackmun said the federation is not in the business of trying to influence Russian policy. “The fact that we do not think it is our role to advocate for a change in the Russian law does not mean that we support the law, and we do not,” Blackmun said. The board passed the measure Thursday, a week after chairman Larry Probst, a new member of the International Olympic Committee, said he would support a similar change to the IOC Olympic charter. Currently, it does not mention sexual orientation as a form of discrimination. With the Sochi Olympics less than four months away, Blackmun said the USOC is seeking clarity from the IOC on what will and won’t be regarded as violations of the IOC rule against using the Olympic stage to make political protests or demonstrations.
Blackmun added that the USOC has given American athletes the freedom to express opposition to Russia's anti-gay laws "however they see fit." But that freedom ends when the Games begin. (Tipped by JMG reader Dwight)

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Join Me At Palm Springs Pride

We'll be holding the meet-up for JMG readers at Oscar's, which I'm told is right around the corner from the giant Palm Springs Pride block party that night. Thanks very much to Oscar's for hosting us and to Bud Light for sponsoring our meet-up. Hopefully I won't get too hammered as I'm scheduled to be princess-waving the next morning. (I'll do one of them there Facebook invite thingies too, so you can stalk your fellow readers.) By the way, what goes with a purple sash? I don't want to clash.

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Press Release Of The Day

From the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Rep. Forbes cancelled his planned appearance today at a fundraising luncheon for an anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association, at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. Forbes’ decision comes in the wake of a petition and TV ad campaign by Faithful America, a progressive Christian organization. My organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center, also joined together with national civil rights groups to call on Forbes and other public officials to skip the Values Voter Summit. Rep. Forbes apparently realized how bad it would look to spend today raising money for a hate group instead of working on a solution to the government shutdown. He has worked closely with the American Family Association in the past, but we hope this represents a clean break. As we’ve said before, this has nothing to do with one’s position on same-sex marriage or other social issues. Instead we’re talking about a group that blames the Holocaust on gays and says women have no place in political leadership. Mainstream conservatives shouldn’t have anything to do with this kind of bigotry and extremism.
My post about the Faithful American ad campaign is here.

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WYOMING: Liz Cheney Tries To Squash Ad Claiming She Supports Gay Marriage

US Senate candidate Liz Cheney is super-upset about a campaign ad that claims she secretly supports same-sex marriage. And she wants that shit off the air.
Cheney's office sent letters to cable operators and TV stations in the Mountain West region and demanded the ad be removed from broadcast zones in the Denver, Cheyenne and Casper markets. The Cheney camp claimed the ad inaccurately portrayed the candidate as a supporter of gay marriage. Legal counsel for the American Principles Fund, the conservative super PAC funding the ad, sent a rebuttal to operators and stations that received a letter from the Cheney campaign. The super PAC’s legal counsel claimed every aspect of the ad was correct and all facts were available for the public to see. “In making these statements, the (Cheney letter) attempts to divert the station's attention away from the actual text of the Advertisement, all of which is entirely supported by the public record,” wrote American Principles Fund attorney Douglas Chalmers Jr. “Indeed, the principle (sic) source for the advertisement is Ms. Cheney's own recorded words, as broadcast on national television.”
I do SO hate gay marriage! Ask my gay-married sister!

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Woman Screaming "God, You're My Savior!" Disrupts American Airlines Flight

Tampa's WTSP-TV reports:
The video shows a woman repeatedly yelling "God, you're my savior!" as the plane lands. The man narrating the video claims she told fellow passengers her mother recently passed away and asked for prayers, before she escalated into the screaming chant. The narrator says flight attendants asked that he make sure the woman didn't try approaching the plane's back door. Video shows passengers sitting next to the woman trying to calm her down, without any success. A spokesperson for American Airlines tells 10 News they are aware of the incident and that the flight crew assisted the woman during the flight, but did not elaborate further on her condition.
A commenter on Gawker rants: "Why the fuckity-fuck was she NOT restrained? A passenger starts losing it chanting the WASP version of Alahu Akhbar on my flight and no one restrains them and your airline is getting a major lawsuit from me at the end of the day."

(Tipped by JMG reader David)

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Betty Crocker Celebrates ALL Families

The reaction from you-know-who will be as delicious as a Betty Crocker cake. Thanks, Betty!

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When Hate Groups Collide

Brian Brown stopped by the Family Research Council's booth at the Values Voter Summit today to chat with FRC vice president Peter Sprigg, who appeared on national television in 2010 to declare that Lawrence V Texas had been "wrongly decided" and therefore homosexuality should have remained a crime. Sprigg is probably congratulating Brown for his successful collaboration with the Russian government. Photo source.

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Kuwait To Expand "Gender Testing"

Pink News reports:
The Health Ministry of Kuwait has proposed that genetic tests for immigrant workers in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, be tightened to prevent transgender migrants from entering the job market there. This news follows an announcement earlier this week that Doctors in Kuwait and other GCC countries may subject men entering the county to screening tests in order to attempt to “detect”, and ban gay people from entering. Tawfiq Khojah, director-general of the Executive Office at the GCC Health Council, said, “The health checklist for migrant workers now contains a mandatory examination to determine gender.” He went on to say that the restrictions were intended to preserve Islamic principles. The proposal for the change will be made before the Central Committee for foreign workers on 11 November he told Arab News. The test aims to determine the gender of the person at birth, as well as through the worker’s medical history.

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Rachel Maddow Calls Out Religious Right For Supporting Russia's Anti-Gay Pogrom

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What Is Right Wing Jewelry?

Booth #18 at the Values Voter Summit.

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S.E. Cupp To CNN: Stop Calling The FRC's Values Voter Summit "Anti-Gay"

Mediaite's Andrew Kirell writes:
The banner was referring to the event’s host: The Family Research Council. Headed up by frequent cable pundit Tony Perkins, FRC is literally anti-gay and anti-abortion. So the banner is certainly not inaccurate. FRC is quite outspoken about its opposition to homosexual acts, and makes plenty of cable news appearances to decry the oncoming wave of a “pro-gay culture” and whatnot. So… yes, they are definitively anti-gay and anti-abortion. Those two platforms are basically their lifeblood.
Kirell goes on, however, to say that it's unfair to lump Ted Cruz and Rand Paul in with the "more extreme, vociferously anti-porn, anti-homosexuality elements of the conservative movement."

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Tweet Of The Day - Soledad O'Brien

My post on this story is here.

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CANADA: Straight Man Beaten For "Looking Gay," Cops Seeking Assailant

And it's not the first time this has happened to him. Via the Surrey Now:
Kerry Tyler Street, 25, of Fleetwood, skateboarded a little too close to a gay-hating thug in Guildford on Wednesday afternoon and ended up lying in a pool of his own blood. The attack happened in the 14600-block of 104th Avenue, shortly after 3 p.m. As he passed by, Street said, this guy punched him in the face, and once again as he fell, busting his nose and jaw on the way down. This was followed by a flurry of kicks to his face, Street said. The attacker was screaming, “faggot this, faggot that.” Street said four witnesses rushed up help him as his attacker “just kind of walked away. “I’m lying there in a pool of my own blood, it’s getting bigger and bigger, and he just kind of walks away,” Street said. “It makes me quite literally sick to my stomach.” Street said this is the second time he’s been beaten up by people who presumed him to be gay, “and the catch is that, well, I’m not gay.”
The victim has posted a YouTube clip about the attack.

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Freep This Indiana Poll

Fly, monkeys! Fly! (Tipped by JMG reader Birdie)

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Ted Cruz Heckled At FRC Hate Summit

The National Journal reports:
Ted Cruz was interrupted by hecklers at least half-a-dozen times during his Values Voter Summit speech. But if that was intended to get the Texas firebrand down, it surely did not succeed. "I'm actually glad the president's whole political staff is here instead of doing mischief in the country," he said a couple outbursts in. "How scared is the president?, Cruz asked after another protester was removed from the audience. "What a statement of fear, what a statement of fear. Oh, they don't want the truth to be heard. They definitely don't want the truth to be heard." It's, of course, highly unlikely that any of the protesters at the Values Voter Summit were Obama plants. But the concept, whether intended as a joke from Cruz or not, really set off the Values Voter crowd. Inevitably, that included chants of U-S-A! U-S-A! "You know, the nice thing is," Cruz said, "the left will always, always, always tell you who they fear. And they fear you. They fear the American people."
Cruz later joked that he might "disappear" after visiting the White House later today.

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New Site: Fuck You, Congress

Enjoy. (Tipped by JMG reader Win)

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Quote Of The Day - Joe The Plumber

"Wanting a white Republican president doesn’t make you racist, it just makes you American. In the pre-black president era, criticizing the president was simply the American thing to do. An exercise of one’s First Amendment right. Criticism had nothing to do with color, because there had never been a black president, or at least one whom people recognized as black. So to criticize the president meant that you didn’t like his policies. The election of a recognized black president was not supposed to change anything. In fact, it was supposed to (1) ease any perceived racial tensions, and (2) allow the government to focus on legislating without race. So America would be more free than ever to discuss the issues. Not the case. And that is why having a white Republican president is best for the country." - Joe The Plumber, writing on his website. (Tipped by JMG reader Doug)

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WASHINGTON: Trucker "Patriots" Stage Rolling Slowdown On DC Beltway

Earlier this week some news outlets called the plan a hoax, but it appears that the so-called Ride For The Constitution is underway this morning on the DC beltway.
The Truckers Ride for the Constitution planned to start at 9 a.m. Friday, with truckers driving the 64-mile Capital beltway in eight hour shifts until Sunday afternoon. By about 8:45 a.m., Virginia State Police officials said that about 30 tractor trailers left a stop in Dumfries at about 7:30 with plans to head toward Washington. Meanwhile, in Dumfries, 15 more were spotted bearing the official Twitter hashtag of the ride - #T2SDA. The protest has attracted truckers from as far away as the West Coast and has more than 140,000 supporters on Facebook. “Anybody at all is talking about the truckers coming to shutdown D.C.,” says organizer Ernest Lee. “We've got to stand together. We've got to be united. Guys, we've got to keep it peaceful here. Got to keep it clean."
The group's Facebook page is here.

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It's National Coming Out Day

Is there anybody left for you to come out to?

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Feds Charge Rabbis With Torturing Men With Cattle Prods To Force Divorce

Federal prosecutors have charged two New York City area Ultra-Orthodox rabbis with using cattle prods to force Jewish husbands to agree to divorce their wives. 
Rabbi Mendel Epstein, 68, of Brooklyn and Rabbi Martin Wolmark, 55, of Monsey, Rockland County, were among 10 people arrested in the barbarous scheme with tentacles that ran all the way to the rabbinical court. Epstein is accused of running an unholy crew that charged women trapped in marital limbo $70,000 to $100,000 to strong-arm their stubborn husbands into granting a Jewish divorce known as a “get,” a criminal complaint reveals. Wolmark, who presides over the rabbinical court in Monsey, is charged with accepting money to make sure the court approved the gets. “They didn’t do it out of religious conviction,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Gribko told a judge Thursday in a federal court hearing in Trenton, N.J. “They did it for money.”
Prosecutors say the group conducted at least 20 kidnappings.

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Headline Of The Day

Details.

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Queer Nation Disrupts Carnegie Hall

The New York Times reports on last night's protest:
The furor in the West over Russia’s new law placing restrictions on the discussion of homosexuality continues to dog the conductor Valery Gergiev, who is one of Russia’s most important cultural exports these days. Mr. Gergiev, a prominent supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who signed the law, drew protests Thursday night at Carnegie Hall, just as he did last month at the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera. Shortly after Mr. Gergiev walked onto the stage at Carnegie Hall to begin leading the celebrated Mariinsky Orchestra in a program of three Stravinsky ballets, the concert was briefly delayed by several members of Queer Nation, a protest group that has been vocally pushing for gay rights in Russia. “Gergiev, your silence is killing Russian gays!” several protesters shouted, as Mr. Gergiev, in tails, kept his back to the audience. Some members of the audience booed the protesters; others applauded. One woman yelled, “This is an artistic event!”
The protesters were ejected and no arrests were made.

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TRAILER: Hercules

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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Palin To Rally Against Cory Booker

Lovely photo of Lonegan.

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More Russian Activists Arrested

The New York Times reports:
Video recorded this week during the arrest of gay rights activists in Moscow shows what Russia’s legal ban on “propaganda for nontraditional sexual relationships” looks like in practice. The raw footage, accompanying a report from the independent Russian news site Grani, shows police officers arresting activists as they marched through the Russian capital’s Arbat district on Sunday, chanting and carrying a banner that read: “Hitler Also Began With the Gays. No to Fascism in Russia.” The activists also chanted against legal moves to take children away from gay parents. The video also captures the response of some bystanders, who initially intervened to prevent the police officers from using excessive force, before discovering what the protest was about.
Excessive force! Wait, they're gay? Carry on, officers.

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GERMANY: Catholic Bishop Called To Resign Over $37M Private Residence

A Catholic bishop in Germany is facing demands to resign after it was revealed that his under-construction private residence will cost $37M. Via Reuters:
Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, bishop of Limburg, was investigated by a Vatican envoy last month after protests in his diocese against lavish spending at odds with Pope Francis's shift of the Church's focus towards simplicity and poverty. The soaring cost of the stately residence next to Limburg's hilltop cathedral was made public by the diocese on Monday and was immediately criticised by churchgoers and officials. "Such prestige projects simply don't fit with Catholicism," said local Catholic Raimund Champert. "The Church, like the Pope, has a responsibility to be humble and lead by example. We are not in the Middle Ages anymore." Christoph Hefter, a lay member of the diocesan council, said: "The cost is shocking, it is beyond belief." Pope Francis, whose simple style contrasts with the more baroque tastes of his predecessor Benedict, whom he replaced in March, said last week he wanted the Church to serve the poor and strip itself of "vanity, arrogance and pride."
Der Spiegel reported on the mansion last year.
Men in red T-shirts immediately appear whenever one approaches the construction site. "No photos!" they warn passersby, even though one can still make out very little from behind the high brick wall. Workers on the mystery-enshrouded construction site keep quiet as if they'd been forced to swear a vow of silence. Members of Limburg's building board haven't even been allowed to take a quick look at everything. And county council officials haven't been able to check on any of the rumors that have been circulating in the city. Taken together, these hold that the complex boasts dedicated rooms for reliquaries, a sauna, a fireplace, a wine cellar, gemstone detailing, statues of holy figures and a heatable roof that can protect the bishop's private chapel from snow and ice. The magnificent estate can only be seen from outside from a nearby balcony. But the woman with access to the balcony seems intimidated when asked about it. Certain "gentlemen," she says, have strictly forbidden her to allow interested visitors access to the balcony.
The bishop recently visited India on a mission to help "poor children who worked breaking stones." He flew there on a first class ticket that cost almost $10,000. (Tipped by JMG reader Rolf)

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Man Killed By Truck While Walking To Honor Bullied Son Who Committed Suicide

Tragedy upon tragedy. KATU-TV reports:
Joe Bell had a message for gay teens suffering from bullying who might be contemplating suicide: “It’ll get better.” He was spreading that message during a walk across the country – from Oregon to New York City. Joe was walking in honor of his son Jadin. The 15-year-old boy was gay and suffered from bullying. He hanged himself on a La Grande school playground in January. A passerby saw Jadin and tried to help, but the boy later died at a Portland hospital. Joe Bell was walking along a rural highway in Colorado on Wednesday evening when he was struck by a semi-truck and killed.
Investigators believe the driver fell asleep at the wheel. A fund for the Bell family will be announced on the website that supported Joe Bell's walk. (Tipped by JMG reader Birdie)

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BREAKING: New Jersey Court Denies Christie's Appeal To Stay Marriage Ruling

Breaking from the Associated Press:
A New Jersey judge has denied a request from Gov. Chris Christie's administration to delay the start of gay marriage in the state until after a legal appeal is final. The ruling Thursday from Judge Mary Jacobson moves the state a step closer to start recognizing same-sex nuptials on Oct. 21. That's the day Jacobson had said in a previous ruling that the marriages had to be allowed. But Christie's administration is expected to appeal the denial to a higher court. The administration has already asked the state Supreme Court to reverse Jacobson's earlier ruling that the state has to allow gay couples to get married.
UPDATE: Lambda Legal reacts via press release.
In today's decision, the Court wrote: "In making this argument, however, the State ignores the largely abstract nature of the harm it alleges, which pales in comparison to the concrete harm caused to Plaintiffs by their current ineligibility for many federal marital benefits, and the significant litigation burden they would have to shoulder to challenge federal denial of marital benefits to civil union couples."

"This is wonderful news!" said Hayley Gorenberg, Deputy Legal Director of Lambda Legal. "The court's decision once again confirms that the hardships of not being able to marry are real and immediate. Every day does count. Allowing same-sex couples to marry helps many New Jersey families and hurts no one else." "Momentum is with us," said Troy Stevenson, Executive Director of Garden State Equality. "All couples in New Jersey need the dignity of marriage, and they need it now. We look forward to seeing many of them, who have been denied that dignity for too long, marry in the coming weeks."

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Christmas Is In The Constitution

"You go to the end of the Constitution, what do you find? It's dated from when? It's dated from the first Christmas! From the birth of Jesus Christ, 'the year of our Lord.' So we dated our Constitution, we dated the Declaration of Independence. We dated them from the very first Christmas! In other words, Christmas is IN the Constitution. Christmas is IN the Declaration of Independence. Because those documents are dated from the birth of what the Founding Fathers referred to as 'our Lord.' In the year of OUR Lord. All of them said, 'Jesus Christ is OUR Lord.' Our history began with the first Christmas. People say, 'Hey, the Constitution's a godless Constitution, God's not in there. There is no mention of Christ.' Absolutely wrong. It is an explicitly Christian document." - Hate group spokesman Bryan Fischer, speaking today on the AFA's radio network.

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Robertson: AIDS Came From Polio Vaccine

Completely debunked theory, of course.

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USPS To Announce Harvey Milk Stamp

From the Facebook page of the Harvey Milk Foundation:
Breaking! It is official! The USPS will confirm this week that my uncle, Harvey Milk will be commemorated on a 2014 US postage stamp. Another first! My deep gratitude to everyone that supported this effort! More details including the image to come via USPS soon! "Hope Will Never Be Silent" and will be on millions of letters soon!
Get ready for some super-sadz!

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Gay Boxer Orlando Cruz To Don Rainbow Trunks For World Championship Bout

This Saturday recently-out boxer Orlando Cruz will fight for the world featherweight title in Las Vegas. Pictured above is his planned gear for the match. Via Yahoo Sports:
It is, by far, the biggest stage that Cruz has had for one of his bouts. To take advantage of the exposure, Cruz plans to wear pink boxing gloves and a pink-trimmed ring jacket to help show support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But Cruz, boxing's first openly gay fighter, will also wear rainbow-colored trunks, to support the LGBT movement. The rainbow flag is a symbol of the movement and was created in 1978 in San Francisco to urge inclusiveness for all. Everlast made the trunks and the gloves in collaboration with Cruz.
Cruz will marry his boyfriend next month in New York. (I don't recommend reading the comments at the link)

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Booker Tweaks Teabaggers

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Taiwan Animators On Kuwait's "Gay Test"

How that test might work hasn't actually been revealed.

(Tipped by JMG reader Gary)

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CANADA: British Columbia To Launch HIV Test With 14-Day Post-Infection Result

The Vancouver Sun reports:
British Columbia will be the first province in Canada to use a more accurate HIV detection test that has greatly improved the diagnosis of early or acute HIV infection. The new test, which will be utilized provincially following the results of a study led by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, detects the virus as soon as one to two weeks after it enters the body, compared with up to four weeks using standard HIV testing. That’s important, because people have a higher risk of transmitting HIV to others during the earliest stage of infection.

The study, released Wednesday in the AIDS Journal, found that nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) greatly improved the diagnosis of early or acute HIV infection, according to a joint release by the BCCDC and the Provincial Health Services Authority. The study estimated that between 25 and 75 new HIV infections were avoided as a result of a pilot program that promoted the pooled NAAT method — a test developed in the U.S. — since April 2009 at six clinics accessed by gay and bisexual men in Vancouver.
The new test is more expensive and will only be used in "targeted settings where it will have the most impact."

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GOP Offers "Temporary" Debt Ceiling Deal


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Liberty Counsel Still Has The DOMA Sadz

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Homocon Tweet Of The Day - Matt Drudge

Drag for Halloween. But still in the closet.

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25 Years Of National Coming Out Day

The 25th annual National Coming Out Day is tomorrow.

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Cardinal Dolan On Pope Francis

"What he [Pope Francis] is saying is that if the perception of the church is of a scold who's always nagging and always negative and always fearful, we're not going to make many converts, because nobody wants to join the church out of fear or (join a) a paranoid group. If we emphasize the positive, the gracious, the embracing, the warm, inviting side of the church, then we're going to attract people. And that of course is what Pope Francis is saying and doing on steroids. When the Holy Father suggested this new strategy, I don't think he got a longer standing ovation from anybody than he did from the bishops in the United States. Because we've been saying for a long time, 'Listen to everything we say, don't just listen to us when we speak about your pet issue.'" - Cardinal Timothy Dolan, responding to Pope Francis' call for the Catholic Church to not "interfere spiritually" with the lives of gay people. (Tipped by JMG reader Str8 Grandmother)

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Maddow Plays Politician Or Porn-ititian

Rachel Maddow and Michael Strahan appeared on Andy Cohen's show last night for a round of Politician Or Porn-itician, during which Maddow appeared to identify Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims as NOM president Brian Brown. Oopsie.

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Quote Of The Day - Muffie Potter Aston

"I fear for New York City if Mr. de Blasio gets elected. He just wants to tax everyone to smithereens. You have to be fair to everyone. You have programs that support all of the people of New York. But if you continue to tax what you see as the upper-income brackets, it’s still only going to be providing a small percentage of additional income. I would love to support a fourth term for Mike Bloomberg. So if we can float that, you can say Muffie Potter Aston wants a fourth term for Michael Bloomberg." - Manhattan socialite Muffie Potter Aston. Yes, that's her real name. (Via Women's Wear Daily)

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Anthony Weiner Vs Sean Hannity

Things really got heated last night:
Weiner kept pestering Hannity to say whether the debt limit should be raised, and when Hannity told him to stop asking questions, he shot back, “What am I, a potted plant?” Weiner called Hannity “defensive” and said, “You speak to the mothership at that party.” As Weiner kept going, Hannity figured out exactly what his game was. “You’re auditioning for MSNBC! You’re auditioning. You want Chris Matthews’ job, I can tell!… You never shut up like Chris Matthews either!” Weiner shot back, “Why do you always have patsies on?” and commented that “Fox apparently has much lower standards.” Hannity replied, “You want to talk about low standards? You really want to go there?”

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Queer Nation To Protest At Carnegie Hall

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Lady Gaga - Aura

Also an ad for Machete Kills.

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Editorial Of The Day

The editorial board of the New York Times has endorsed Cory Booker for the US Senate. But perhaps more interesting than the endorsement is what they say about his opponent.
Mr. Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota, N.J., says he wants to focus on economic issues. But his method, like that of one of his role models, Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, could only add to the senseless partisanship that has now taken the economy to the brink of disaster. He would, for example, raise the debt ceiling only “in alignment with budget cuts.” He has a plan to try to close all regulatory agencies every 7 to 10 years and start each agency over from scratch.  Mr. Lonegan is out of the mainstream on many other issues. He once said he believed it was a mistake to create Social Security and Medicare; such obligations, he said, should instead have been left to charity. He has argued for eliminating the minimum wage. He opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. He opposes same-sex marriage, and he is pushing to delay the Affordable Care Act. His past record on immigration became a national scandal when, in 2006, he tried to get McDonald’s to take down a billboard printed in Spanish. He later tried to have English declared the official language in his hometown.
The election is Wednesday and Booker presently leads by 12 points.

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Open Thread Thursday

What's your prediction for this year's big Halloween costumes? Miley Cyrus? Duck Dynasty?

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Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Holy Ghost! - Okay

I spent the summer blasting Dumb Disco Ideas, the first single from the new Holy Ghost! album. Here's their follow-up, which is much more in their typical retro 80s electro style. Think early Human League or OMD.

RELATED: Holy Ghost! remixed Working The Midnight Shift for the coming Donna Summer tribute album.

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Brian Brown: Fred Karger Will Not Stop Me From Collaborating With Russia

Yesterday we learned that NOM watchdog Fred Karger has reached out to federal officials, asking that they investigate Brian Brown for possibly violating the Logan Act, which forbids citizens from collaborating with foreign governments against the interests of the United States. Five days after Brown's speech to the Duma, they passed the bill which bans anybody from a country with legalized same-sex marriage from adopting Russian children. Today an official Russian state news agency got a response from Brown.
Brown told RIA Novosti in a telephone interview Wednesday that he spoke extemporaneously at the meeting, and he called Karger’s suggestion that the speech may have violated US law “absurd.” “It is laughable how little he understands that in America we’re free to stand up and speak for things like traditional marriage around the world,” Brown said. Brown said he was invited to speak to the lawmakers by Russian activists working with the World Congress of Families, an Illinois-based conservative group set to hold a global convention in Moscow next year. He said Karger’s appeal to top US officials would not deter his work abroad. “We’ve been very open that we’re going to work with allies around the world that believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman,” Brown said. A State Department spokeswoman said Wednesday that she could not confirm whether Karger’s letter had been received but added that “if and when we do receive it, we will review it and respond appropriately.”
According to a transcript posted by the Duma, one of the things that Brown told Russian lawmakers was, "We will unite. We will defend our children their normal civil rights. Every child must have the right to normal parents: a mother and a father."

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Florida Radio Station Apologizes

The station's general manager alerted us to the above notice via a comment left this afternoon on the post I wrote yesterday. Thanks very much to all the JMG readers who called him.

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