Daily Stops

When I get home from work, I take about 20 minutes to browse through some blogs I enjoy reading. I thought tonight I'd share a few of them with you.


Marc and Angel Hack Life: Practical Tips for Productive Living

As you may know, I love lists. This site has lists with great life lessons. Some recent examples:
10 Things I Wish I Knew 10 Years Ago
12 Choices Your Future Self Will Thank You For
10 Ways to Write a Life Story Worth Living
9 Free Ways to Become Wealthy


Wil Wheaton Dot Net (now 2.0)

Yes, that Wil Wheaton.

He's a really witty writer. I think you'll enjoy his writing - especially if you're a geek.

I also own two of his books.
















Reality Blurred

A column all about reality TV


!! omg blog !!
and
After Elton

A summary of the gay items around the internet each day - entertainment and the lighter news.


Towleroad

A summary of the gay items around the internet each day - very political


Literally Unbelievable - "Stories from The Onion as interpreted by Facebook". It's quite funny to read how gullable some people are!


Then I browse through a few blogs dedicated to shirtless and/or nude celebrities, and then move on.

"Join The Party"

Boycot Lowe's

From Entertainment Weekly's website:

Lowe's pulls ads from "All-American Muslim" after "ordinary" portrayal protested

A TLC reality show offering a positive portrayal of Muslim life has come under protest and at least one advertiser has pulled its support.

Hardware store giant Lowe’s has yanked ads from the series after the Florida Family Association encouraged members to email the program’s advertisers.

“The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish,” the group said about the show, a docu-soap chronicling everyday Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan that debuted last month. “Clearly this program is attempting to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to influence them to believe that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show.”

The organization posted a letter allegedly from a Lowe’s representative agreeing to pull its ads: “While we continue to advertise on various cable networks, including TLC, there are certain programs that do not meet Lowe’s advertising guidelines, including the show you brought to our attention. Lowe’s will no longer be advertising on that program.”

Lowe’s then acknowledged and defended its decision on Twitter: “We did not pull our ads based solely on the complaints or emails of any one group. It is never our intent to alienate anyone. Lowe’s values diversity of thought in everyone, including our employees and prospective customers.”

Florida Family Association also suggested Home Depot and Sweet’n Low have been scared off, but emails posted from the companies say they only bought one ad each in the first place. All told, the organization claims its email campaign has convinced 65 companies to stop advertising with the show.

Now the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has weighed in and is calling on its membership to support the show — and to contact Lowe’s. “Sadly corporations, such as Lowe’s, have succumbed to the idiocracy of such garbage campaigns, which are orchestrated by groups and organizations which lack credibility, legitimacy, and are founded on the basic notions of bigotry and racism reminiscent of a shameful era in this country’s history,” said the organization in a statement.

A TLC spokesperson wouldn’t discuss the protest, but told EW: “We stand behind the show All American Muslim and we’re happy the show has strong advertising support.”

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Here's a link to the story.

Here's a story about Lowe's sort of apology.

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From Kal Penn's Twitter feed: “Our next movie: ‘Harold & Kumar Do Not Go To @Lowes. Please take a sec to sign & support an all-American show.”

Sign

Reposted from the always interesting STFU Conservatives...

Blog: Margaret and Helen

Thanks to Google Reader, I stop by almost 100 blogs regularly. One of my favorites is Margaret and Helen - "Best Friends For Sixty Years and Counting".

Here is an excerpt from one of Helen's recent posts:

For everyone who is currently considering removing their Obama sticker from the back of their car… for every Democrat who made the effort to get out the vote and today is feeling a little down… for every progressive American who is thinking about moving to Canada…. I say this:

Christine O’Donnell might not have been a witch, but Sarah Palin is definitely a bitch. Three steps forward. One step back.

We’re still two steps ahead of the game with a Senate and a White House. Washington will be grid-locked for the next two years, but the ground war just came to the States. Democrats need to stop looking for middle ground and start looking for higher ground. And for goodness sakes, grow a pair and quit apologizing for it.

As I see it, the Democrats have one job between now and the next election - figuring out how to get those who stayed home mad enough to get off their asses. Democracy isn’t a spectator sport. I mean it. Really.

She's 84 years old and still fighting the good fight!

Link: What The Heck Has Obama Done So Far?

If someone says, "Obama hasn't done ONE good thing for our country yet!!", here's a site to help you set the misguided person straight:
What The Fuck Has Obama Done So Far?
or the PG version What The Heck Has Obama Done So Far?

Source: The always entertaining STFU, Conservatives

Tea Baggers

A friend emailed me this, though he still calls them Tea Partiers, whereas I call them Tea Baggers.

Did you know that the words “race car” spelled backwards still spells “race car”?

And that “eat” is the only word that, if you take the first letter and move it to the last, spells its own past tense, “ate”?

And if you rearrange the letters in “Tea Party Republicans,” and add just a few more letters, it spells: “Shut the fuck up you free-loading, progress-blocking, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, violent hypocrites, and deal with the fact that you nearly wrecked the country under Bush and that our president is black, so try and get over it.”

Isn’t that interesting?

Sign Near Books

From one of my daily reads STFU Conservatives...

Another Article About Faux News

Fox News Ignores Ken Mehlman’s Coming Out, Runs Zero Segments On Story

By Igor Volsky on Aug 26th, 2010 at 6:00 pm

When Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8, Fox News barely mentioned the story and its most prominent conservative commentators ignored it entirely. Yesterday, after the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reported that former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman — who had orchestrated President Bush’s gay-bating 2004 re-election campaign — was coming out as gay, Fox News Channel remained similarly mum and as of this posting has yet to run a single segment on the story.

A Wonk Room review of Critical Mention reveals that CNN mentioned the name “Mehlman” 19 times, MSNBC reported on it 12 times (searches for “gay” and “Ken” produced similar results, with Fox News stuck at 0)...

The entire story is here.

Obama orders hospital visitation rights for gays, lesbians

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a rule that would prevent hospitals from denying visitation privileges to gay and lesbian partners.

The president's Thursday memo said, "There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. ... Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides."

Gay and lesbian Americans are "uniquely affected" by relatives-only policies at hospitals, Obama said, adding that they "are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated."

When Lisa Pond collapsed during a family vacation in Florida three years ago, her partner of 17 years was kept away from her hospital room.

Janice Langbehn begged and waited for hours to stand by Pond's bedside at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, but it wasn't until her partner's sister arrived that she got any information. In the end, the person Pond was closest to was relegated to a waiting room as she died from an aneurysm.

"To hold Lisa's hand wasn't a gay right, it was a human right," Langbehn told CNN on Thursday.

Obama requested that the regulation make clear that any hospital receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding, which includes the vast majority of U.S. hospitals, must allow patients to decide who can visit them and prohibit discrimination based on a variety of characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

Read the rest of the article here.

Web Site: Bad Paintings of Barack Obama

My favorite web site today:
Bad Paintings of Barack Obama

It is very minimalistic. Pictures. No words. Click to see the next one. Repeat.

Sample below.

Article: It's Not God Saying Gays Should Be Put to Death, It's YOU

Filed by: Waymon Hudson (pictured below)
February 24, 2010 4:00 PM


Alright. Let's get one thing straight, fundie homophobes- you don't get a pass when you "quote" the Leviticus Bible verse saying:

If man lies with a man as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.

This may come as a shock to the "hate the sin, love the sinner" set, but by quoting that verse, it's not God saying that gays should be put to death - it's YOU. It's not simply a personal religious view or a debatable "political difference" or a great talking point. YOU are saying that I should be put to death.

This week we've heard it from everyone from a Ugandan Pastor to another California Beauty Queen, Miss Beverly Hills 2010 Lauren Ashley. And despite them both saying they 'don't hate gay people', there's not much love in saying I should have 'blood upon me.' That's not really a debatable point.

Of course we've all heard that Leviticus quote in every debate about homosexuality and LGBT rights that comes up. Everyone from Focus on the Family to politicians to Westboro Baptist Church throws that verse up as a bump-sticker quote that explains why they hate us- and why it's beyond their control that they do.
They just can't help it- God says so.

Uganda's Porn Peddling Pastor Martin Ssempa uses the quote to explain why his country should pass the "Kill the Gays" Bill, even while at the same time he says he doesn't hate gays. It's just about the act, not the person. It's out of his hands- that verse means we should die. It's not up to him.

Even the new Miss Beverly Hills 2010 Lauren Ashley uses the verse to explain why it's okay if she hates the gays:

The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman. In Leviticus it says, 'If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.' The Bible is pretty black and white. I feel like God himself created mankind and he loves everyone, and he has the best for everyone. If he says that having sex with someone of your same gender is going to bring death upon you, that's a pretty stern warning, and he knows more than we do about life.

Yet in the same breath, she says she personally doesn't hate gays, we just have a friendly difference of opinion:

That isn't really the issue. I have a lot of friends that are gay, and ... I have a lot of friends who have different views, and we share our views together.

See? It's not Miss Beverly Hills who thinks you should die - just ask her gay friends!

This verse has become a homophobic cover for people to try to wash their hands of the damage they are doing and the violent, extremist views they hold. It's become an accepted talking point for bigots and haters, parroted without any real thought about the consequences of saying a swath of people should be killed because their personal idea of 'God says so.' (Oddly, the same people breeze over other 'abomination' verses in the same book and put on their mixed fiber clothing and eat their shrimp scampi after church.) I've personally heard that 'gays should be killed verse way too much in my life. It's what started my life as an activist when a skycap played it over the intercom in Fort Lauderdale Airport as a joke. Because saying I should die is simply hilarious.

Think it's a stretch to mention the Ugandan Pastor and a California Beauty Queen in the same post? It's not. It's the "trickle down" hate effect. Leaders crow about how gays should die and then small-minded bigots use it in casual conversation. It's all the same hate.

That's why it's important that we don't give passes to people like Miss Beverly Hills. She invoked 'death for gays' in a discussion on gay marriage (and pageants) and wasn't challenged by the interviewer. That's how accepted the talking point has become. That's what we are facing.

And that's why we have to always call it out.

Let's be clear: when you trot out this Bible verse, you are endorsing it, embracing it, and wrapping yourself in it. No amount of "I have gay friends", "it's just the act", or excuse-making will soften it. YOU are saying I should be killed.

You can't wipe your hands of it, you can't act shocked when violence happens to LGBT people, and you can't distance yourself from it. YOU own it. YOU are part of it.

And no amount of fancy pageant walking will change that.


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The original article is here.

Here is a related article about the "beauty" queen.

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Finally, here is a related sign.

Our Next Mayor?

Though I have lived in Jefferson Parish for almost 10 years, I was born and raised in Orleans Parish. (That is, New Orleans for those of you out of town.)


After two terms of hell with Mayor Ray Nagin, the next mayoral election is wide open.

So far, I'm liking James Perry. I have no idea where he stands on the issues, but there is profanity in his commercial. That's funny.

Here is the commercial...


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As I research the other candidates, I'll make a recommendation.

Funny Protest Signs

I found this picture here. There are a lot more funny ones.

"Top Chef" Judge: Top Notch Comment

Ashley is a contestant on this season's "Top Chef". (If you are not familiar with the show, go here.)

She is also a lesbian - and objected to one of recent challenges, involving a bachelor/bachelorette party.

On his blog, "Top Chef" judge Tom Colicchio writes one of the best, concise responses in favor of gay marriage:

This week, our chefs cooked for joint bachelor/bachelorette parties, and Ashley spoke articulately about her dismay and discomfort cooking to celebrate an upcoming wedding when gay people are still denied the right to wed throughout most of the world. I’m going to go out on a limb and say a few words about same-sex marriage: First of all, part of the problem with the issue is that it is framed by opponents as a discussion of whether gay people should get special rights. This is specious – yes, special legislation or court decisions grant them the right to wed in a particular state, however this is done to ensure that they share equal protection under the law by finally being able to avail themselves of the same rights as everyone else. They are not seeking special treatment, just equitable treatment.

Second, religion has no business being part of the discussion. When a couple is wed in a house of worship, the officiant may be performing a religious rite, but as far as the law is concerned, that officiant has been authorized to perform a civil function, plain and simple. And even were same-sex marriage to be legalized by the state, no one would be holding a gun to the heads of the clergy to require them to perform a ceremony that their faith or personal creed does not condone. Just as some rabbis would not perform my marriage to my wife because I wasn’t Jewish, clergy can decline performing same-sex marriages; gay couples can either find clergy willing to officiate or can be wed in a civil setting. The idea that religious leaders are continuing to shape state law is just wrong. The institution of marriage should be available to all. The idea that you can have a life-long partner and not make decisions for them in a hospital, not share in insurance benefits, not automatically have parental rights unless you are the birth parent, is just flat-out wrong.

To read the rest of his blog entry, and how his opinion relates to the TV show, go here.

Pro-Gay Christian Billboards Spark Debate

I found the below article here, one of my daily stops.

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NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― Christine Lutz was traveling down Interstate-30, just east of Fort Worth, when she came face to face with a billboard containing a pro-gay message. "I cringed. I was disgusted at the same time," she said.

The billboard angered Lutz so much, that she fired off a stern e-mail. "I said how dare you take the scriptures and twist it to fit your needs," she recalled.

There are four billboards with similar pro-gay messages along I-30 that have started a debate among Christians in North Texas.

Rev. Jon Haack, with Promise Metropolitan Community Church, said, "If we go back to the gospel readings, we don't find anything within those texts that discriminate or exclude against gay and lesbian people. Gay and lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people are part of God's creation too."

Rev. Haack is with one of five local churches sponsoring the billboards that advocate gay acceptance by all Christians.

One billboard reads, "The early church welcomed a gay man." Another one reads, "Jesus affirmed a gay couple."

The billboards were put up a week ago along I-30 between Grand Prairie and Fort Worth and the negative e-mails are already coming in. "There are people who have told us to reread our Bible which is the very question we're asking others to do," explained Rev. Colleen Darruagh, with Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Dallas. "We've had people say, 'How dare you take the name of God in vain' and that God hates homosexuals."



Pastor Sam Dennis, of Parkway Hills Baptist Church in Plano, says Christians shouldn't hate gays. He disagrees however with the billboards' use of scripture to back a pro-gay message. "I'm hard pressed to find that scripture advocates that it's alright to live in a gay lifestyle. Just like I'm hard pressed to find that scripture advocates that's it's alright to live in an adulterous relationship or as a wife abuser or as a murderer."

The five local churches sponsoring the billboards are part of the Worldwide Metropolitan Community Church which has a predominantly gay congregation.

The roadside signs will be up in North Texas throughout September. For a closer look at the billboards check out the website www.whywouldwe.org and www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.org.

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I love the irony: "The billboard angered Lutz so much, that she fired off a stern e-mail. 'I said how dare you take the scriptures and twist it to fit your needs,' she recalled."

Buy More Pepsi

Church boycotting Pepsi over gay marriage debate

BRANDON, Florida - The Cola Wars aren't just between Coke and Pepsi. Now, a Tampa Bay church is taking on one of the largest corporations in the world.

"We would like to send them a message," said Terry Kemple, President of the Community Issues Council that is organizing a boycott of Pepsi products because he says it "advocates the acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle."

In addition to hundreds of church-goers who have joined the boycott, Kemple just got his mega-church, the Bell Shoals Baptist Church, to remove its 10 Pepsi machines. They have been replaced with Coke machines.

"They (have) begun to utilize the money we've helped them build up to trample on what we consider family values," said Kemple of Pepsi.

He said the company donated more than a million dollars to organizations that fought California's gay marriage-banning Proposition 8. He also says the Pepsi Corporation has sponsored gay pride events and commercials that accept cross-dressing and homosexuality.

"We're concerned about that diminishment of the ability of Christians to speak what the Bible says," Kemple said.

But Nadine Smith, the Executive Director of Equality Florida, called the boycott offensive to her and embarrassing to those who participate.

"The irony is that - in moving from Pepsi products to Coke products - they actually switched from one company that supports full-equality to another companty that supports full-equality," Smith said.

Pepsi is one of the largest corporations in the country, boasting subsidiaries like Gatorade, Tropicana, Frito-Lay and Quaker. However, calls to the company's headquarters went unreturned on Tuesday.

Representatives from the Bell Shoals Baptist Church, which draws several thousand members every Sunday, declined comment as well.

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Note to Self: Buy more Coke too.

President

From Margaret and Helen: Best Friends For Sixty Years And Counting:

The name of their post is "I remember an America where black men didn’t grow up to be President.", but I didn't want you to get the wrong idea so I didn't name my post that.

Margaret is it just me or did combing your hair become optional when going out in public? I’ve been watching news clips of these town hall free-for-alls and we have definitely become a nation of tired, poor, and huddled masses clearly tempest-tossed, but without access to a good beauty salon. Universal Hygiene – now that is something I could get behind. And all of them are asking for their America back. I wonder which America that would be?

Would that be the America where the Supreme Court picks your president instead of counting all the votes? Would that be the America where rights to privacy are ignored? Would that be the America where the Vice President shoots his best friend in the face? Or would that be the America where an idiot from Alaska and a college drop-out with a radio show could become the torchbearers for the now illiterate Republican party?

I fear that would not be the America they want back. I fear that the America they want back is the one where black men don’t become President.

Read the entire post here.

Many conservatives enraged over Obama school speech

I've had enough of these jackass Conservatives.

We had to sit through 8 years of Bush. Now it's our turn. Sit back and shut up.

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(CNN) -- The White House found itself on the defensive Friday over what would ordinarily be considered the most uncontroversial of events: a back-to-school speech to the nation's children.

The White House said the address, set for Tuesday, and accompanying suggested lesson plans are simply meant to encourage students to study hard and stay in school.

Many conservative parents aren't buying it. They're convinced the president is going to use the opportunity to press a partisan political agenda on impressionable young minds.

"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me," suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH. "I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."

Read the entire story here.

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Or go here to read NPR's version of the story. There is both a text and an audio version.

Lou Dobbs: Tobias Wolff and Maggie Gallagher Discuss Gay Marriage

Lou Dobbs hosted law professor Tobias Wolff and the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher discussing the Obama administration's recent brief that said it is obligated to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, but believes that it is discriminatory and should be repealed.

Lou Dobbs does ask Gallagher over and over how same-sex marriage somehow threaten heterosexual marriages. She never did give a straight (huh huh huh, he said "straight") answer.

The clip:


Note: I shamelessly stole this story from Towleroad.

I wonder if that's this Tobias Wolff?