This PSA ran during the season finale of Glee, and I really, really like it. I hope it’s effective (and I should work on that myself, I’ve gotten better, but it certainly pops out every now and then):
Quick update here, although I’m hoping to do some more updates that will show up later this week and next.
Lots of fun movies, lets start with this one, shared by my friend Kyle:
The Hobbit films finally have release dates and titles. I think it’s weird they’re using “There and Back Again” even though the story of the Hobbit (plus a bunch of extra stuff) is going to take two movies. But then again, I don’t really believe that these will stay as the release dates.
Here’s a fun movie to help you learn the 50 states:
Once again, Rob has posted something that is so amazingly well written, so touching, that all I can do is link to it. His blog is always worth a read, and of course, this is no exception.
I try not to talk about politics that often, even here on the blog. But if you read me long enough, you’ll see which way I lean (although I register as an Independent, more on that in a bit).
But who am I kidding? Vast majorities of elected Republicans would rather see LGBT citizens dead than alive. And heaven forbid we actually discuss equality. While this may be true for some of their party members (especially older generations), younger generations get it (and choose to fight over states rights and fiscal issues, which I know very little about, so have it, I’ll remain concerned with social issues). So in some cases it’s a waiting game.
Suicide attempts by gay teenagers — and even straight teens — are more common in politically conservative areas that lack school programs supporting gay rights, a study involving nearly 32,000 high school students found.
Hatzenbuehler’s team found a higher rate of suicide attempts even among youths who were not bullied or depressed when they lived in counties less supportive of gays and with relatively few Democrats. A high proportion of Democrats was a measure used as a proxy for a more liberal environment.
Politicians are always railing against things that are unsafe. Just a suggestion.
And while there are certainly stand out elected Democrats (and to be fair, in some cases, Republican, although they tend to stand for equality after they are out of office, when it doesn’t matter), neither party seems to really care or get it right now. We’re a great demographic to ask for money, so we’re courted, but sadly, often little is done (but again, remembering the fact that last year was in fact a banner year for equality).
This made me think yet again of U.S. Representative Steve King and his belief that we don’t need laws banning workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians, because employees shouldn’t be “advertising” their sexual orientation anyway.
So I’m forced to wonder: What would Rep King want Adam to do?
When he’s asked where the cookies come from, is he to lie? Perhaps King wants him to shut out his co-workers with a vague and evasive answer (while they show him pictures of their kids, introduce him to them in daycare, bring them to dinner on the last night, and are left to wonder why he’s so closed off)? Or is Adam simply not to bring the cookies at all? [to get the backstory about Adam and his husband, and the cookies, check out the full article at the link]
I don’t know which alternative they prefer, but my reaction is the same to each. What a meager life they want us to have.
And by “us” I don’t just mean gays and lesbians. I mean our associates and colleagues, anyone who works with other people, who develops relationships and builds human contact into their work life. What a meager existence they want all of us to have, closed off in cocoons of impersonal efficiency. Hell, not even efficiency — everyone in a successful office knows that strong relationships are the key to getting things done and weathering sudden crises.
Not that I’m in (or looking for) a relationship. But one of the things I hate the most is the absolute silence I have to keep at work.
Everyone around me talks about their wives, their husbands (there’s a lot of complaining, but still), their children and the events in their lives. I hear about date nights, anniversaries, first words and steps, school plays and sicknesses.
Anytime coworkers talk about their spouses, or the hot woman in the shop, their sexuality is being flaunted in front of me. Yes, I’m good at diverting, and ignoring, but it is very tiring. I may be used to the unfairness, but that does not mean I don’t despise it.
I’ll remain closed off and quiet, evading questions and keeping my distance from everyone in the office. And as tiring and ridiculous as that is, I can only hope something changes soon.
Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian, is back! And now she’s addressing the masses:
Catholic Vandals in France destroyed “Piss Christ.” I’m not familiar with the work, but apparently it’s quite famous. They assaulted a guard and attacked the photo with an ice pick, which just sounds viscous. It always makes me sad to see art destroyed.
A few months ago, Gawker redesigned their family of sites, and they are horrible to try to navigate now. Here’s a graph of their traffic, can you guess when the redesign went live:
It’s nice to see the Democrats actually go on the offensive for once, and the ad is a lot of fun (if not sad):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z7FiBsR8OQ
Also in politics, remember the phrase that those who protest the loudest against [insert any cause] are usually actually personally involved in [cause]. See: Larry Craig, et al. Well, the Tea Party member of the state congress of Montana who tried to removed all equality for LGBT citizens? Yeah, she’s a lesbian. When will politicians learn that this pattern is clear?
Want to see something fun and cute? Check out Cute Roulette. It’s like Chat Roulette, but with (presumably) no penises, just lots of baby animals!
You’ll have to excuse me while I laugh. Considering he is the man who after a rant of anti-Semitic slurs called a cop “Sugar Tits,” Mel Gibson has the gall to say he has never treated anyone badly, and certainly not for their religion or gender!
For Stockholm Pride, their organizing committee made this web app that goes through your Twitter feed and shows you where it lies on the sexuality spectrum. Aside from giggling like I was 12 (yes, I know, sometimes I’m very immature, but it keeps me young and happy, so leave me be), I enjoyed the description, I thought it was fitting.
Smaller update today, but here’s what we got, hope you enjoy.
Huge news, URU is finally being released as open source! I don’t quite understand how it all works, but I’m very excited that the community will finally get to sink it’s teeth into Age Writing (and everything that comes with it).
I”m really afraid of public protests, but I think I could hold this sign up, it’s smart, witty and makes an good argument:
Have you been following all the trouble surrounding Spiderman: Turn off the Dark? George Takei is going to fix it all:
This is just amazing. I now kind of want to go bread shopping!
The new “Kingdom Tower” will be one mile high, twice the height of the Burj Khalifa. A normal elevator would take 12 minutes to reach the top from the bottom. And it was just given the go ahead to begin construction. Crazy! Take a look:
Sooooooo, I’ve been incredibly sick as of late. But, always looking for the silver lining, I learned what I’m allergic to by being prescribed a massive dose of it! Yay!
So the CMS I use gave this article the same number as my college mailbox number, so exciting! So anyway, here’s some fun things for you:
Here’s the “official” 140 character description of LOST:
Check out this cool ad, although I’m honestly more impressed with a cell phone in a wooden shell:
I saw this on my phone, and it’s not circulating around Facebook. Mad Elf is amazing (and really high ABV), but I don’t know how much of a case Troegs’ has. Guess we will see.
Zombies are now walking on the Wisconsin State Capital in protest of Scott Walker! Check it out:
Listen, the first one of my friends who has kid around 6 or so (that’s just a guess), has to buy them this shirt:
No exceptions.
Well, this is infuriating. Also, alarmingly scary that over 30 states have laws like this.
So up in Maine, the Republican governor was so incensed by a mural depicting the labor in his state, he had it removed (which I guess is now angering the people who put up the money for it, but that’s a legal battle for another day). I think this is a fantastic way of protesting (it’s not a bad mural, although I’m not a huge fan of the colors used or art style, but hey, that’s not the point):
Infuriated by the police blaming the victim in sexual assault cases, in Toronto, a “Slut Walk” was organized, with over 2,000 people attending.
Copyranter wrote about a previous Hot Wheels installation, putting two giant kids on the side of the highway, watching the road like it was their track. This one is better though, and it’s been picked up by a lot of sites:
The giant news that has overtaken my twitter and Facebook feeds is that the next Batman will be doing some filming here in Pittsburgh, probably in July. Nerdist has a great article about the inevitable reboot that is set to happen after this third movie. Go over and read “Reboot Rage.”
First, I have to mention that one of the comments on YouTube brings up a good question, what about pajamas? But anyway, we had a group that was using the conference center that I was helping to get a quote and put together their permit for their stay. They actually split off from another group that used the same facility because the original group decided that women were in fact allowed to wear pants. As they were explaining their new name to me (so we could get all the paperwork straightened out), they were trying to pull me into the theological discussion. I quickly left under the guise of putting their check in the safe and drawing up their permit. Good gravy.
That’s it for now, hopefully I’ll continue to feel better, catch everybody later!
