Rocker Needles

OUT magazine recently got the truth out of ‘Drag Race’ winner, Sharon Needles, and she comes clean about her recent brush with the law.

Lady Bunny

“Earlier this week, after attending drag legend Lady Bunny‘s “Hot Mess” party at Manhattan nightclub XL, RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sharon Needles found herself in a bit of a quandary: she had to drain the snake.

Unfortunately for Needles, she had already left the nightclub and what she thought was a secluded corner ripe for some natural graffiti turned out to be one of the worst possible places for a queen to take a leak. That’s right, a police station.

“I had gone to Lady Bunny’s show that night because whenever I get a chance, I love to watch other entertainers,” Needles tells OUT exclusively. “I had a couple of drinks with friends, I had a lot of Red Bull. I was on my way home and it hit me: I had to pee so bad.”

And when a drag queen has to pee, folks, it’s no simple matter.

Ryan Reynolds demonstrates

“Drag queens do something that’s called tucking,” Needles explains for those who might not know. “It’s the art of putting your testicles up inside your body and taping your penis near your anus.” Needless to say, tucking makes the act of relieving yourself a bit complicated. In Needles’ own words, “I was literally going to pee into my butt because of where my penis was.”

Having crossed Broadway, the Pittsburgh-based beauty spotted what she thought was an alley and she sidled up between two parked cars and a dumpster to answer nature’s call. Unfortunately, the other line rang in the form of an unexpected visitor.

“I felt a tap on my shoulder—it was a policeman,” a still shaken Needles recalls. “He asked if I usually pee on police stations, and I looked up and there it was: A police station. There were cop cars all lined in a row, but I hadn’t even noticed because I had to pee so bad.”

Non-effected Officer Latrice Royale

An attempt to reason with the officer wasn’t effective.

“I tried to apologize and said I had seen dogs pee on the street a million times and it was just natural,” she says. “I tried to explain tucking to the officer and he didn’t understand, so he took me in.”

The result? A 20 minute wait for the gift of a ticket for public urination. Not, Needles stresses, the arrest that wags have been whispering about.

Looking back on the incident, America‘s Drag Sweetheart can see the humor in the situation.

*insert evil laugh here*

“It wasn’t on purpose, but I think it was funny that it was a police station,” she says. “Because I find theres so much unnecessary angst and brutality from American police officers.”

All in all, Needles says the ordeal wasn’t nearly as bad as has been reported.”

We are glad that she is safe and got nothing more than a public urination charge.  Next time before peeing outside, look up.

Related articles

• Sharon Needles Prize Money Purchase (lezgetreal.com)
• Sharon Needles Wants to Cruise with YOU (lezgetreal.com)
• My Life in Drag (lezgetreal.com)

Wile E. Coyote & The RoadRunner

Wile E. Coyote (also known simply as “The Coyote”) and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters (a coyote and a roadrunner) were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese. The characters star in a long-running series of theatrical cartoon shorts (the first 16 of which were written by Maltese) and occasional made-for-television cartoons.

In each episode, instead of animal senses and cunning, Wile E. Coyote uses absurdly complex contraptions (sometimes in the manner of Rube Goldberg) and elaborate plans to pursue his quarry.

Wile E. Coyote & Bugs Bunny

The Coyote appears separately as an occasional antagonist of Bugs Bunny in five shorts from 1952 to 1963: Operation: Rabbit, To Hare Is Human, Rabbit’s Feat, Compressed Hare, and Hare-Breadth Hurry. While he is generally silent in the Coyote-Road Runner shorts, he speaks with a refined accent in these solo outings (except for Hare-Breadth Hurry), introducing himself as “Wile E. Coyote — super genius”, voiced with an upper-class, cultured English accent by Mel Blanc.^[1] The Road Runner vocalizes only with a signature sound, “Beep, Beep”, recorded by Paul Julian, and an occasional tongue noise.^[2]

To date, 48 cartoons have been made featuring these characters (including the three CGI shorts), the majority by Chuck Jones.

Starving Coyote

Creation

Jones based the Coyote on Mark Twain’s book Roughing It, in which Twain described the coyote as “a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton” that is “a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry.” Jones said he created the Coyote-Road Runner cartoons as a parody of traditional “cat and mouse” cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, which series Jones would work on as a director later in his career.

The Coyote’s name of Wile E. is obviously a play on the word “wily.” The “E” was said to stand for Ethelbert in one issue of a Looney Tunes comic book, but its writer hadn’t intended it to be canon.The Coyote’s surname is routinely pronounced with a long “e” (/kaɪˈoʊtiː/ ky-OH-tee), but in one cartoon short, To Hare Is Human, Wile is heard pronouncing it with a diphthong (/kaɪˈoʊteɪ/ ky-OH-tay). Early model sheets for the character prior to his initial appearance (in Fast and Furry-ous) identified him as “Don Coyote”, a play on Don Quixote.

Another ACME product

Acme Corporation

Wile E. Coyote often obtains complex and ludicrous devices from a mail-order company, the fictitious Acme Corporation, which he hopes will help him catch the Road Runner. The devices invariably fail in improbable and spectacular ways. Whether this is result of operator error or faulty merchandise is debatable. The coyote usually ends up burnt to a crisp, squashed flat, or at the bottom of a canyon (some shorts show him suffering a combination of these fates). Occasionally Acme products do work quite well (e.g. the Dehydrated Boulders, Bat-Man Outfit, Rocket Sled, Jet Powered Roller Skates, or Earthquake Pills). In this case their success often works against the coyote. For example, the Dehydrated Boulder, upon hydration, becomes so large when it crushes him, or the Coyote finding out that the Earthquake Pills bottle label’s fine print states that the pills aren’t effective on road runners, right after he swallows the whole bottle, thinking they’re ineffective. Other times he uses items that are implausible, such as a superhero outfit, thinking he could fly wearing it (he cannot).

RoadRunner, Beeper, Wile E., and Calamity in Tiny Toon Adventures

How the coyote acquires these products without money is not explained until the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action, in which he is shown to be an employee of Acme. In a Tiny Toon Adventures episode, Wile E. makes mention of his protege Calamity Coyote possessing an unlimited Acme credit card account, which might serve as another possible explanation. Wile E. being a “beta tester” for Acme has been another suggested explanation. Wile E. also uses war equipment such as cannons, rocket launchers, grenades, and bayonets which are “generic”, not Acme products. In a Cartoon Network commercial promoting Looney Tunes, they ask the Coyote why does he insist on purchasing products from the Acme Corporation when all previous contraptions have backfired on him, to which the Coyote responds with a wooden sign (right after another item blows up in his face): “Good line of Credit.”

The company name was likely chosen for its irony (acme means the highest point, as of achievement or development). Also, a company named ACME would have shown up in the first part of a telephone directory. Some people have said ACME comes from the common expansion A (or American) Company that Makes (or Making) Everything, a backronym of the word. The origin of the name might also be related to the Acme company that built a fine line of animation stands and optical printers; however, the most likely explanation is the Sears house brand called Acme that appeared in their ubiquitous early 1900s mail-order catalogues.

In one Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote short film, “Ajax” was used instead of Acme. In another short, the names “A-1″ and “Ace” are used.

Anyone have an Excedrin?

Laws and rules

As in other cartoons, the Road Runner and the coyote follow the laws of cartoon physics. For example, the Road Runner has the ability to enter the painted image of a cave, while the coyote cannot (unless there is an opening through which he can fall). Sometimes, however, this is reversed, and the Road Runner can burst through a painting of a broken bridge and continue on his way, while the Coyote will instead enter the mirage painting and fall down the precipice of the cliff where the bridge is out. Sometimes the coyote is allowed to hang in midair until he realizes that he is about to plummet into a chasm (a process occasionally referred to elsewhere as Road-Runnering or Wile E. Coyote moment).

The coyote can overtake rocks (or cannons) which fall before he does, and end up being squashed by them. If a chase sequence happens upon a cliff, the Road Runner is not affected by gravity, whereas the Coyote will realize his error eventually and fall to the ground below. A chase sequence that happens upon railroad tracks will always result in the Coyote being run over by a train. Its Formula. If the Coyote uses an explosive (for instance, dynamite) that is triggered by a mechanism that is supposed to force the explosive in a forward motion toward its target, the actual mechanism itself will always shoot forward, leaving the explosive behind to detonate in the Coyote’s face.

Too bad they can't read.

Similarly, a complex apparatus that is supposed to propel an object like a boulder or steel ball forward, or trigger a trap, will not work on the Road Runner, but always will on the Coyote. For instance, the Road Runner can jump up and down on the trigger of a large animal trap and eat bird seed off from it, going completely unharmed and not setting off the trap; when the Coyote places the tiniest droplet of oil on the trigger, the trap snaps shut on him without fail. At certain times, the Coyote may don an exquisite Acme costume or propulsion device that briefly allows him to catch up to the Road Runner. This will always result in him losing track of his proximity to large cliffs or walls, and the Road Runner will dart around an extremely sharp turn on a cliff, but the Coyote will rocket right over the edge and fall to the ground.

Good Book

In Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times Of An Animated Cartoonist, it is claimed that Chuck Jones and the artists behind the Road Runner and Wile E. cartoons adhered to some simple but strict rules:

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going “meep, meep.”
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: “A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.” — George Santayana).
4. No dialogue ever, except “meep, meep” and yowling in pain.
5. The Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he’s a roadrunner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert.
7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
10. The audience’s sympathy must remain with the Coyote.
11. The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner. (The robot that the Coyote created in The Solid Tin Coyote caught the Road Runner so this does not break this rule. The Coyote does catch the Road Runner in Soup or Sonic but is too small to eat him.)

In an interview years after the series was made, writer Michael Maltese said he had never heard of the “Rules.”

In popular culture

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner have been frequently referenced in popular culture. The Villain (directed by Hal Needham) is a parody of these animated shorts as well as being a spoof of westerns. In The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!, Road Runner gets run down and dies, after which Coyote commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with a prop gun.

In a sketch on In Living Color (Season 5, Episode 10), Wile E. Coyote (played by Jamie Foxx) is put on trial by Congress for displaying excessive violence in his cartoons; Elmer Fudd (played by Jay Leggett) is his lawyer. In the film UHF, “Weird Al” Yankovic’s character introduces a Road Runner cartoon as a sad, depressing story of a “pathetic coyote” futilely chasing a “sadistic roadrunner”. The characters were referenced in The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Bounty Hamster, Kick Buttowski, What’s New, Scooby-Doo?, Robot Chicken, and South Park.

On Family Guy

In an episode of Cheers, some bar patrons discuss the Road Runner cartoons. The discussion continues and builds in intensity as a minor subplot throughout the entire episode until at the end of the show some of the bar patrons are boisterously declaring that the Coyote character is meant to be symbolic of the Antichrist. Wile E. Coyote appeared briefly in an episode of the live-action show Night Court, where he was admonished by Judge Harry Stone for chasing a bird. Wile E. Coyote has appeared two times in Family Guy (voiced by Seth MacFarlane): his first episode, I Never Met the Dead Man, depicts him riding in a car with Peter Griffin; when Peter runs over the Road Runner and asks if he hit “that ostritch”, Wile E. tells him to keep going.^[13] In PTV, Wile E. appears in a flashback when Peter offers a store credit when Wile E. claims a refund for a giant sling shot that “slammed me into a mountain”. In the Dexter’s Laboratory episode “Road Rash” Dee-Dee does an impression of the Road Runner after Dexter falls down a man hole.

Humorist Ian Frazier created the mock-legal prose piece “Coyote v. Acme”, which is included in a book of the same name. Karen Salmansohn wrote an article on The Huffington Post centering on the characters. Guitarist Mark Knopfler created a song called “Coyote” in homage to the cartoon shows of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, on the 2002 album The Ragpicker’s Dream.

These days you can see new Wile E. Coyote & RoadRunner cartoons on Cartoon Network’s The Looney Tunes Show.

Related articles

• The rules of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons (kottke.org)
• Education from Cartoons (lezgetreal.com)
• Time Warner Cable to kill off Road Runner Internet branding (neowin.net)

Miss Alexandra Chase, VT drag queen & BFF

Do you miss a certain drag queen in your life? I know that I do. We used to co-DJ at a gay club that is now closed, shop for her gowns together (the ladies at Fashion Bug loved us.), and even did drag together the year I won my first drag contest singing Billy Joel‘s “Piano Man”. Over 10 years later, we are still good friends. She doesn’t do drag anymore because she doesn’t fit into her old gowns, but that is a different story.

–BUT if you are missing the queens from seasons past of RuPaul’s Drag Race, then have no fear my lovelies! They will be back as guest professors of RuPaul’s Drag U!!!

Check out the promo for it from LogoTV.com.

That’s right, if you love the drag queens from RuPaul‘s Drag Race, then have no worries darlings! You can watch them on the upcoming season of RuPaul’s Drag U, where they are drag professors helping ordinary women became absolutely fab! It’s basically “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy“, but with drag queens instead of gay men and women instead of straight men.

I know I’ll be watching because I can’t wait to see Sharon Needles, Chad Michaels, Raja Gemini, Latrice Royale, and others as teachers of their fabulous aesthetic craft. I hope you tune in as well. June 18th on LOGO. It will also be available for free online.

Related articles

• RuPaul’s Queens Sell Out (lezgetreal.com)
• Sharon Needles Prize Money Purchase (lezgetreal.com)
• Who’s ready for ‘RuPaul’s Drag U’? (popbytes.com)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race Queens Get A Disney MakeOver! (perezhilton.com)

Barry toking a Joint

New insight into the early life of Barack Obama has been recently made available in the form of excerpts from his forthcoming biography, “Barack Obama: The Story.” Apparently young Barry Obama, like countless of his contemporaries, enjoyed partaking in the use of marijuana. The president even was a trendsetter amongst his peers:

As a member of the Choom* Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called “TA,” short for “total absorption.”

Roof Hits w/ Cheech & Chong

Along with TA, Barry popularized the concept of “roof hits”: when they were chooming in the car all the windows had to be rolled up so no smoke blew out and went to waste; when the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.

He also was unafraid to go against proper smoking protocol:

Barry also had a knack for interceptions. When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted “Intercepted!,” and took an extra hit. No one seemed to mind

Barry giving a speech

What is clear from these anecdotes is that not only did Barry Obama try cannabis, but he was what many would refer to as a recreational user, a “stoner” if you will. Which begs the question, when exactly did Barry Obama, who participated in three foot bong hitting contests, become President Barack Obama, who laughs off the issue at town hall meetings and ramps up the war against medical marijuana to new heights?

It is time the President says publicly what he already knows personally: Responsible marijuana use should not be a crime and it is time we put an end to the war on cannabis consumers.

(Personally I’m all for a president that smoked pot over one that smoked crack. Just sayin’…)

*Choom is Hawaiian slang for smoking marijuana.

Related articles

• “Barry the Stoner.” (stevengoddard.wordpress.com)
• POTUS Barry Obama is now for gay marriage – yeah right! (bonjupatten.com)
• Obama’s transgender ex-nanny an outcast in Indonesia (miamiherald.typepad.com)

So how to celebrate the changing of our culture? I’m looking back at how it changed my life. I was born a year before Return of the Jedi came out. My first Halloween costume was as a baby Princess Leia. My cousins also dressed as the characters that Halloween and we went Trick-or-Treating as the cast. Growing up with my grandmother I vividly remember the year she was given a 12″ Chewbacca doll for Christmas. I was about 4 years old. Around 5 years old my cousin, Paul, began having a Star Wars collection of action figures. I remember wanting to play with all of them, but always getting stuck playing Boba Fett when I really wanted to be Leia or C3-PO.

It was over 10 years later when I finally sat down and watched the movies that my life had evolved around. At age 15 I didn’t really know what to expect when I sat down to watch the first 3 Star Wars movies. I remember sitting with my mother and grandmother on a couch in Florida. It was a cool Summer night and they were showing the movies in a marathon on tv. Strangely enough the first thing I noticed about the first movie was the everyone’s outfits were really plain and uninteresting. I decided then that the future should have color in it.

When Lucas decided to do the prequels I didn’t quite know what to think. I’d never heard of a “prequel” before and it took me a bit to understand that it was an entire movie of backstory. That seemed odd to me at first. Now it is a norm in the movie industry. So I went to the prequels and learned a new story of the characters. What bothered me most was that while I now knew the characters Vader, C3-PO, Chewie, Yoda, the births of Luke & Leia, and R2-D2′s back stories, I wanted to know about Han Solo. I wanted to know how he and Chewie hooked up as friends, what type of life had turned Han into the swaggering, cocky pilot he was in the originals. What made him like fiesty princesses? When was Lucas going to answer these questions?…It’s 2012 and I’m still waiting….

And so today we celebrate the creation of a movie franchise that has found it’s way into every corner of our pop culture, from movies, toys, cartoons and music. Thank you Mr. Lucas for giving us new planets to dream about and new adventures to wonder about.

Related articles

• Movies Reimagined: Star Wars.2 (lezgetreal.com)
• May the 4th Be With You (lezgetreal.com)
• Star Wars at 35/ Space age fairytales: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)/ Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ~ Review (georgesjournal.wordpress.com)

Towel Day is celebrated every year on the 25th of May as a tribute by fans of the late author Douglas Adams. On this day, fans carry a towel with them to demonstrate their appreciation for the books and the author, as referred to in Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The commemoration was first held in 2001, two weeks after Adams’ death on 11 May 2001.

He never got to see his books make it to the big screen. He died right before HGttG made its big screen debut.

Author Douglas Adams

I first read Adams’ books when I was a sophomore in high school. I fell in love with the characters and the vision of Space that I’d never imagined before with 2-headed politicians, book researchers from far off planets, and meals that sold themselves to you. By the time the movie came out in 2001 I had read every book of Adams’ that I could get my hands on. I read the whole Hitchikers “trilogy”, in addition to his other works like “Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency”, “The Meaning of Liff“, and “The Deeper Meaning of Liff“. The man knew how to write and how to enrapture the mind in ways no other man could. His work meant the world to me and when he died…I cried.

So to commemorate this man’s great, silly, wonderous works, don’t forget your towel.

Related articles

• Interstellar Hitchhikers, Rejoice: It’s #TowelDay! (geeksaresexy.net)
• To Do Friday: International Towel Day (comicsbeat.com)
• It’s Towel Day (travelbetweenthepages.com)

At the time, Emanuela was 15.

Amorth was appointed to his post by Pope John Paul II and claims to have carried out tens of thousands of exorcisms. Amorth is also one of the people who attacked Harry Potter calling the books the “work of the devil” and has claimed that “the devil was at work in the Vatican” with regards to the child sexual abuse scandal.

The Vatican has insisted that they have done everything that they can to help solve this mystery.

Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, the head of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that, although the girl fell pregnant after being abused by her stepfather, her twins had “the right to live, and could not be eliminated.” He also stated “It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons. Life must always be protected.”

Showing off that the Catholic Church is more interested in preserving male superiority than actually helping the poor or preventing the need for abortions, the Catholic Church has not acted in any manner against the alleged abuser. The police believe that the girl was sexually assaulted for years by her stepfather, and that it was not until she was rushed to the hospital because of severe stomach pains that it became known that she was pregnant and required an emergency abortion. Odds on are that neither the girl nor the two fetuses would have survived the pregnancy.

According to the Belfast Telegram:

The controversy represents a PR nightmare for the Vatican. The unnamed girl’s mother and doctors were excommunicated for agreeing to Wednesday’s emergency abortion yet the Church has not taken formal steps against the stepfather, who is in custody. Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the conservative regional archbishop for Pernambuco where the girl was rushed to hospital, has said that the man would not be thrown out of the Church, because although he had allegedly committed “a heinous crime”, the Church took the view that “the abortion, the elimination of an innocent life, was more serious”.

Former President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva even got into this stating “As a Christian and a Catholic, I deeply regret that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude. The doctors did what had to be done: save the life of a girl of nine years old. In this case, the medical profession was more right than the Church.”

The girl’s stepfather is also accused of abusing her handicapped 14-year-old sister, and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

One of the doctors involved in the abortion, Rivaldo Albuquerque, has stated that he will continue to attend Mass despite what the archbishop orders.

The NHTL wants the protections that LGBT South Africans enjoy stripped from the Constitution. They submitted a proposal to the constitutional review committee, which is charied by Chief Patekile Holomisa. Chief Holomisa is also the chairperson of the NHTL, so, of course, the petition was then referred to the parliamentary party caucuses. Reports are that Holomisa is antagonistic to LGBT people, and is vehemently opposed to civil unions and same-sex marriage.

African National Congress chief whip, Dr. Mathole Motshekga, issued a statement stating that the ANC will not accede to any submission seeking to amend the nation’s Constitution to strip LGBT people of their protections.

However:

Subsequently on SAFM AMlive, Xolani Gwala conducted an interview with Contralesa which exacerbates concerns despite the statement issued by the office of the ANC chief whip. It was suggested that people who are lesbian and gay foster declining population figures in South Africa because they are not actively engaged in sexual reproduction, and thus stop people from having babies.

Whomever put forward this argument would seem to be blithely ignorant of Statistics South Africa’s population statistics, which shows an impressive increase in the population of our country over time; but the point is evidently not the question of fact but rather the prejudices which informed the statements.

It was suggested that lesbian and gay persons do not make appropriate adoptive parents of children, and that adoptions by same-sex couples should be discouraged. Holomisa also claimed that, traditionally, people who were homosexual were subjected to certain rituals which transformed them from socially and culturally unacceptable “sexual deviants” into “normal”, socially and culturally acceptable heterosexuals.

It appears that many of the lies being spread by the anti-LGBT groups in America have now shifted fully into every corner of Africa. The question is, will South Africa follow Uganda and other nations backwards into the Darkness or will they stand up and keep moving forward.

Officer Taking Child

At 5:30 a.m. on May 10, armed men broke into the bedroom of Kirk Kyle Farrar’s 12 year-old daughter and shook her awake. The men led her downstairs at gunpoint and forced her to lie on the floor next to her mother and father, with her hands behind her head. Another armed man took Farrar’s two-year-old son from his crib, and would not let his parents hold him. “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity,” Farrar wrote in an email to friends, obtained by Reasontv.com. “I will never forget the hopeless feeling of not being able to comfort my son or daughter.”

The armed men who broke into Farrar’s home were officers with the Meridian, Idaho, Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. They were executing a federal warrant for Farrar’s arrest for the crime of selling bongs.

A Bong

Farrar’s wasn’t the only family traumatized that morning. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Idaho National Guard, and four Idaho police departments raided the homes of 13 other headshop owners and employees on May 10. All of the headshops had their inventory seized. One shop lost more than $80,000 worth of merchandise (bongs and pipes marketed as “tobacco water pipes”). Another headshop owner had his and and his employees’ vehicles seized.

The investigation into these 13 shops and their employees (two of which are still at large) for selling drug paraphernalia was led by U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson, a Barack Obama appointee. Nine of the shops were also accused of selling “Spice,” a synthetic alternative to the prohibited and significantly safer drug marijuana.

In his email, Farrar denies selling spice. “Piece of Mind Boise has never carried these products EVER! We made a commitment from the start not to carry it because we believe it is dangerous and not being used in a legal fashion.” 

He also notes that his cousin, “[who] has never previously committed a crime and has absolutely no criminal record,” has been charged “with 4 Federal felony charges stemming from selling tobacco products.” 

“The open sale of drug paraphernalia promotes unlawful drug use and helps drug traffickers thrive,” Olson said at a press conference on May 10. “These indictments show federal, state and local law enforcement partners will attack drug trafficking on all fronts.”

During a speech at the Center for American Progress earlier this month, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said that the law enforcement-only approach to America‘s drug problem was not “humane, compassionate” or “realistic.” He also said that the Obama administration does not believe it can “arrest its way out of the drug problem.” 

Reasontv.com spoke to one headshop owner. At his attorney’s behest, this owner declined to go on the record, but did say that local police had been aware of the store’s existence and sales of glass pipes for years, but had never threatened charges or discouraged the business from operating. The owner believes that the raids came at the behest of federal law enforcement officials.

According to the Idaho Statesman, “the DEA, Idaho National Guard, IRS and the U.S. Marshals and Attorney’s offices worked on the case,” which the agencies built over the course of an entire year.

Tommy Chong

As if more evidence were needed that President Obama’s drug war looks a lot like George W. Bush’s: The charges against Farrar and the other Idaho headshop owners are reminiscent of the federal prosecution of actor Tommy Chong under Bush’s DOJ. Chong was convicted in 2003 for distributing paraphernalia through his company Nice Dreams Enterprises. Chong was fined $20,000, and made to forfeit his domain name, all of his inventory, and $103,514 in cash.

Related articles

• Penn Jillette SLAMS Obama on Marijuana, Drug War (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• Obama’s War on Bongs: Capitol Hemp Edition (reason.com)
• 5 Ways Law Enforcement Has Bungled Drug War Raids (alternet.org)

Elton John

Elton John is in a Los Angles hospital being treated for a serious respiratory infection, CNN reports.

The 65-year-old entertainer became ill last weekend in Las Vegas while performing his “Million Dollar Piano” show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. John returned to Los Angeles to undergo testing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday.

“Those tests resulted in the attending Cedars-Sinai physician recommending that Elton not perform any concerts for approximately seven days with complete rest and antibiotic treatment to cure his respiratory infection and prevent any damage,” a statement from the publicist says.

We hope he recovers quickly.

Related articles

• Cedars-Sinai first West Coast ALS clinic to implant breathing-assist device under new FDA approval (medicalxpress.com)

Dylan in 2011

Today we wish a very happy 71st birthday to a musical legend, Mr. Bob Dylan.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan’s early songs, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”, became anthems for the US civil rightsand anti-war movements.

Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan’s six-minute single “Like a Rolling Stone” has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965. However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.

Dylan age 19

Dylan’s lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard,Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

Dylan with guitar

Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered to be his songwriting.

Since 1994, Dylan has published three books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries.As a songwriter and musician, Dylan has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards; he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.“  In April 2012, President Barack Obama named Dylan as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Let’s listen to some Dylan together with one of my personal favorites, Tangled Up in Blue from 1974.

Related articles

• Bob Dylan: 20 best lyrics on his birthday (csmonitor.com)
• Bob Dylan to the White House next week (politico.com)
• Bob Dylan, Albright to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom (dawn.com)

However, there is something going dangerously wrong with their electronic control. Somehow, DVDs, USB sticks and file sharing are punching holes in North Korea’s careful control of information.

In the failing days of the Soviet Union, in the late 1980s, where Radio Free Europe had failed to make much of a difference in Soviet society, West German television was rocking the state to its foundation. It was showing the Soviet people the world that they never knew existed, a world that included such American shows as Dallas. This is what is happening now in North Korea.

South Korean television shows are being shared and traded, along with “K-Pop,” Korean popular music.

A 31-year-old North Korean defector confirmed the impact, saying “I was told when I was young that South Koreans are very poor, but the South Korean dramas proved that just wasn’t the case. His statement was part of the InterMedia report prepared for the United States State Department, which surveyed hundred of NK defectors who entered South Korea through China. Chinese merchants smuggle the physical media in and some people along the border illegally access foreign TV channels or radio broadcasts and record them.

If the experience in the Soviet Union is any indication, these little breaks in the wall of isolation will do more damage to the Kim regime than any sanctions anyone can impose. Nothing harms an isolationist regime faster than losing the isolation.

Related articles

• Illegal File-Sharing Opens North Korea to World(livescience.com)

  ---

• North Koreans getting more foreign media than ever, study says(latimesblogs.latimes.com)

  ---

• In the News – N. Korea suspected of involvement in China’s arrest of S. Korean activists(mouonekorea.wordpress.com)

  ---

• China allows N. Koreans to leave for Seoul: reports (vancouverdesi.com)

Actor Parsons

Award-winning actor Jim Parsons reveals he’s gay and in a 10-year relationship, according to a New York Times profile.

Parsons, best-known as Dr. Sheldon Cooper on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, discusses his work in last year’s production of The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer‘s searing chronicle of the AIDS epidemic in New York City during the early 1980s. The Times‘ Patrick Healy writes, “The Normal Heart resonated with him on a few levels: Mr. Parsons is gay and in a 10-year relationship…”

Parsons & Spiewak

The 39-year-old (really?) actor publicly thanked his partner Todd Spiewak from the podium of the Golden Globe awards ceremony while accepting the trophy for best actor in a comedy series.

Parsons is currently headlining the revival of the classic comedy Harvey as Elwood P. Dowd which will open June 14 at New York’s Studio 54 theatre.

Related articles

• Theater: Jim Parsons Prepares for His Lead Role in ‘Harvey’ (nytimes.com)
• Harvey’s Jim Parsons featured on the cover of Time Out New York (boneaubryanbrown.com)
• Dr. Sheldon Cooper Does Broadway (lezgetreal.com)

Eugene Polley

Eugene Polley, an inventor whose best-known creation has fostered blissful sloth, caused decades of domestic discord and forever altered the way consumers watch television, died on Sunday in Downers Grove, Ill. Mr. Polley, the inventor of the wireless television remote control, was 96.

His death was announced by the Zenith Electronics Corporation, where Mr. Polley began his career in the stockroom before rising through the engineering ranks to invent the device, called the Flash-Matic, in 1955.

An ad for Zenith’s Flash-Matic. Zenith sold 30,000 televisions with the remote control.

“Just think!,” an advertisement breathlessly proclaimed that year. “Without budging from your easy chair you can turn your new Zenith Flash-Matic set on, off, or change channels. You can even shut off annoying commercials while the picture remains on the screen.”

The Flash-Matic remote, which worked like a flashlight, was shaped like a snub-nosed revolver. The shape was a considered choice on Mr. Polley’s part, as he explained in 2000, letting viewers in the age of ubiquitous TV westerns “shoot out” commercials.

Flash-Matic made the TV audience less captive, though also less active. For the first time, viewers could comfortably exercise dominion over sound and image without simultaneously exercising the body on the march between couch and dial.

B&W TV w/ Dials

(The “dial” was a round thing with numbers on it — all the way up to 13 — by which viewers changed the channel through the direct application of fingers and wrist. One did not so much surf channels in those days as ride their gentle swells with all due deliberateness.)

As Mr. Polley, by then 86, proudly told an interviewer in 2002: “The flush toilet may have been the most civilized invention ever devised, but the remote control is the next most important. It’s almost as important as sex.”

For his invention, Mr. Polley received a thousand-dollar bonus. But his device was soon supplanted by a more efficient, more enduring and far better-selling one, developed by a Zenith colleague, Robert Adler.

News accounts over the years have often described Mr. Adler erroneously as the TV remote’s sole inventor. Mr. Polley, a plain-spoken man who seemed to avail himself of his own internal mute button only rarely, was largely relegated to the margins of history, a condition that rankled.

“Not only did I not get credit for doing anything,” he told The Chicago Tribune in 2006, “I got a kick in the rear end.”

BIOGRAPHY

Eugene Theodore Polley was born in Chicago on Nov. 29, 1915. (He disliked the name Theodore and adopted his confirmation name, Joseph, as his middle name.) His father, a bootlegger, abandoned the family when Gene was about 10.

A Zenith Radio

The young Mr. Polley studied at the City Colleges of Chicago and the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), but lacked the money to complete a degree. At 20 he joined the Zenith Radio Company, as it was then known, as a stock boy earning 40 cents an hour.

Mechanically adept, he worked his way into the engineering department. During World War II Mr. Polley, on loan from Zenith, worked for the United States military on bomb fuses and ship-detecting radar.

After the war, as TV sets began to colonize American homes, Zenith’s president, Eugene F. McDonald, faced a quandary. Mr. McDonald, who held a utopian view of the new medium, was certain that viewers would revolt en masse against television commercials, by his lights a growing scourge.

But until that halcyon day arrived, Mr. McDonald knew, he needed to offer consumers a stopgap, and he enlisted the company’s engineers to make it.

Ad of Lazybones remote

The first TV remote, called Lazy Bones, was introduced by Zenith in 1950. It had one profound drawback, however: a cable snaking from the remote to the set, over which users were inclined to trip.

Mr. McDonald enlisted Mr. Polley to build a wireless remote, and the Flash-Matic was born. The hand-held device emitted a visible beam of light, which consumers could point at a compatible TV set.

The new, purpose-built sets had a photo cell embedded in each corner of the screen; the viewer activated the cell by “shooting” it with the remote. One cell changed the channel up, another changed the channel down, a third muted the sound, and the fourth turned the set on and off.

A 1955 Flash-matic remote

The device proved popular: during its first and only year of existence, 30,000 Flash-Matic sets were sold.

But there were difficulties. Because the system was light-activated, sunlight hitting the TV screen could cause the channels to change in spontaneous roulette. Viewers also had trouble remembering which corner of the screen controlled which function.

Mr. Adler improved Mr. Polley’s device by making it responsive to sound instead of light. His remote, called Space Command, used inaudible, high-frequency sound waves to control the set. It, too, had problems — it could be set off by the sound of jangling keys or rattling coins — but was deemed enough of an improvement on its predecessor to be brought to market in 1956.

A Space Command Remote

From that year to the early 1980s, when infrared remotes became standard, more than nine million sets controlled by Space Command technology were sold.

Mr. Polley, a longtime resident of Lombard, Ill., had lived most recently in Glen Ellyn, Ill. He is survived by a son, Eugene Jr., and a grandson. His wife, the former Blanche Wiley, died before him, as did a daughter, Joan Polley.

With other colleagues, Mr. Adler and Mr. Polley represented Zenith when it was given a special Emmy Award in 1997 for its development of wireless remotes.

Mr. Adler died in 2007. Zenith has said publicly that it considers him and Mr. Polley the joint inventors of the device. Mr. Polley begged to differ. “A father has to be present at conception,” he said in a 2002 interview. “And if you’re not, you’re not that father.”

From one lazybones who spend a lot of time in front of the tv, Thank you Mr. Polley. I’d be much more active if it were not for you.

Related articles

• TV Remote Control Inventor Eugene Polley Dead at 96 (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Eugene Polley, inventor of TV remote, dies (variety.com)
• Eugene Polley, Inventor Of The TV Remote, Has Died | Complex (thehiltonburnellfiles.wordpress.com)

Dr. Shakil Afridi

Dr. Shakil Afridi provided vital information to the CIA that helped identify the hiding place of Osama bin Laden. For helping to rid the world of a master terrorist and murderer, the Pakistani government has arrested Dr. Afridi for treason and sentenced him to 33 years in prison, and just for grins and giggles, fined him 320,000 Pakistani rupees ($3,477).

Dr. Afridi was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign and providing the CIA with information gathered in his house-to-house canvas for persons who might need to be vaccinated. In January, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a television interviewer that Afridi had played a vital role in the operation, but he had not committed treason or done anything to harm Pakistan. The Pakistanis have a different view. The fact that bin Laden was hiding just blocks away from their premier military academy was extremely embarrassing to them. Relations with Pakistan have been frosty at best since the killing of bin Laden last year.

The United States government is not pleased. The United States government is also trying to settle a little dispute with Pakistan over transportation of equipment and materials to Afghanistan for our troops. The land access has been closed and all our supplies are being airlifted into Afghanistan, ever since a NATO attack on militants on the border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November. Intelligence agency co-operation between the two nations has virtually ceased.

Just another beautiful day in the neighborhood….

Related articles

• Doctor who helped US catch Bin Laden jailed for treason(timesofmalta.com)

  ---

• Pakistan jails doctor who helped CIA find Bin Laden – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
• Pakistani doctor accused of helping U.S. gets 33 years in prison (cnn.com)

Talibani beating women in public before the 2001 invasion

More than 120 schoolgirls and their teachers were victims of a toxic powder introduced into their air in their school. This is the second mass attack on Afghan schoolgirls in two months.

The Taliban do not want girls to attend school. The Afghanistan Ministry of Education says that 550 schools have been closed in 11 provinces because of attacks. National Directorate of Security spokeman Lutfullah Mashal said that “A part of their [the Taliban] Al Farooq spring offensive operation is….to close schools. By poisoning girls, they was to create fear. They try to make families not send their children to school.” In other words, they want to impose their warped version of Islam which is in direct opposition to the teachings of the Qu’ran. Education was prized by the Prophet, and he stressed the need for all persons to be educated. The Taliban wants to close all the schools before the hand-off to Afghan security in 2014.

Related articles

• 120 Afghan schoolgirls poisoned in classroom attacks(abc.net.au)

  ---

• Afghan girls poisoned in second anti-school attack(gpibenin.wordpress.com)

  ---

• Radical Islam’s Fanatical and Unbalanced, Hate Filled Misogyny(zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)

  ---

• Afghan Schoolgirls Poisoned (lezgetreal.com)

Egyptian polling place

Egypt has begun the two-day first round of their presidential election, the first true multi-party presidential election in its history. No one is expected to receive a majority of the votes, so there will be a run-off in mid-June. The results are expected by June 21.

The candidates are divided between Islamists and secularists, and the man who wins the election will control the process of writing a new Egyptian constitution. He will set the tone for Egypt in the 21^st century.

Though the Muslim Brotherhood took the majority of seats in the incredibly complicated parliamentary elections this winter, there is a rising backlash against the influence of Islamists in Egypt. The country has been primarily secular for decades, and had greater rights for women and non-Muslims than most of the other nations in the region. Non-Muslims may be a minority, but women are not. There is also a rising sense of empowerment among the very poor in Egypt’s cities.

Egyptian women have enjoyed freedom of career, education, marriage, reproduction and dress that are threatened by the extreme faction of the Islamists, the Salafists. The Muslim Brotherhood has vowed to be more moderate, but their strong Islamist roots make women suspicious of their goals.

Distrust of the Islamists is just as strong among the poor. Hamas and Hezbollah gained their political power in Gaza and Lebanon through charitable works, not through radicalism. They bought their political power with food, clothing, housing, and money. I remember a disabled young man in Afghanistan who was interviewed by Canadian freelance journalist Arthur Kent during the rule of the Taliban. He questioned why the mullahs who were running the country were ignoring their Qu’ranic injunction to take care of the poor and do charitable works. One of the greatest themes of Islam is charity. But the Muslim Brotherhood and the other Islamists have not laid that groundwork of Islamic charity to win over the very poor before trying to win political power.

The Mubarak government ignored the depth of the poverty that occupied the bottom rung of Egyptian society. Now, these people have the power of the ballot box as they have never had it before. Though the rebellion that ousted Mubarak was begun by young, educated, unemployed and underemployed Egyptians, they are not as large a bloc as the extremely poor who are living in shanties with open sewers running through the street.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 86% of Egyptians are planning to vote, and 82% believe the election will be fair and honest. Though the number has slipped in recent polling, 73% still believe the military will hand over power to a civilian government. Faith in the process is a remarkable accomplishment in a nation that has endured decades of single-party and military rule.

These elections are just a first step in a long process for Egypt, an evolution to a new political and social reality. The next year will see an extensive battle over the new constitution.

Related articles

• At Last, Egypt Holds Presidential Election(newser.com)

  ---

• EGYPT ELECTION 2012: First free and fair vote in 5000 years pits Islamists against former Mubarak men(dailymail.co.uk)

  ---

• Egyptians prepare for presidential elections; candidate make final pleas (pri.org)
• Egypt votes in first free election (news.com.au)

Yummmm...

I happen to have a huge sweet tooth and I’m always looking for ways to turn it into a cavity. It doesn’t help that my partner’s sweet tooth rivals mine. We are lucky enough to manage a sweet dessert every night. But for those nights when we have no money, no food and not much else to tame the tooth, we look for simple ideas. I found this one and just may try it. You can too!

What You Need

Pan Cut

Kitchens Tips

Singer Adam Lambert

With the album Trespassing, Adam Lambert confirms his superstar status and makes history as the first openly LGBT vocalist to have an album debut at the #1 position of the Billboard album charts. When a woman first debuted an album at the #1 position, it was Whitney Houston with her album, Whitney. The torch for equality in music has been passed.

Released May 15, Trespassing premiered at the top of both Billboard’s Top 200 chart and digital albums chart. With a mix of dance songs and ballads, including the equality anthem “Outlaws of Love,” the album has also received exceptionally strong notices from music critics.

Lambert’s first album, For Your Entertainment, debuted at number 3 in 2009. Other LGBT recording artists, including Elton John and George Michael, have had number 1 albums, but prior to coming out.

Watch a teaser for the soon-to-be-released video for Lambert’s single “Never Close Our Eyes” below.

To Mr. Lambert, Congratulations!

Related articles

• Adam Lambert Daily Update – May 23, 2012 (onthemeaningofadamlambert.wordpress.com)
• Adam Lambert Music Video Tease: “Never Close Our Eyes” (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• Trespassing Opens #1! What happens next? Radio Show (onthemeaningofadamlambert.wordpress.com)

Personalized keychains

Vases from alcohol bottles

Zombie Feet Shoes

Doodle Rocks

Hybrid Shoes

Abandonment Tissues

Shoes too loud?

Something Really Great

Egg-scape

Cheap fireplace

A Brighter Day

Desk Fort

Chinese dragon

Snailmail Prints

Yum, Tuna.

Expensive taste?

Festival hat

$10 paint job

Hippy Eggs

I want this bathroom.

Related articles

• Man Customizes His Mustang With A Sharpie (neatorama.com)
• Stained by Sharpie – Best Birthday Party Craft EVER (tarasviewoftheworld.com)
• 5 Simple DIY Plant Markers (craftingagreenworld.com)

Noureddine Bouheiri (photo from Reuters)

Tunisia’s new government has decided to extradite Moammar Qaddafi’s prime minister back to Libya to stand trial. Justice Minister Noureddine Bouheiri said that the hand off could take place in “days or weeks.” The vagueness of the announcement could be designed to prevent attempts to intercept the transfer.

Former Prime Minister Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi will be the first senior official fo the Qaddafi regime to stand trial under the transitional government. The southern Libyan tribe which has been holding Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, who acted as his father’s spokesperson with the West, has refused to turn him over either to the transitional government or to the International Criminal Court.

Mahmoudi served as Prime Minister from 2006 until the regime fell last year, and a Tunisian court ordered him extradited in November. The Tunisian government chose to hold on to him until things stabilized in Libya. Bouheiri told Reuters news service that the Libyans “have pledged to respect Mahmoudi physically and emotionally and to give him a fair trial.”

Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began just 16 months ago, is the one nation that has been willing to extradite Qaddafi’s former ministers. Algeria has promised sanctuary to members of Qaddafi’s family and regime, and sons Hannibal and Mohammed, their mother and sister Ayesha are known to be there. Son Saadi is in Niger, and from time to time talks about invading Libya and restoring the Qaddafi regime, but his experience as a professional soccer player doesn’t make him a prime candidate to lead a new army. Qaddafi’s other sons, Mu’tasim, Saif al-Arab and Khamis are all dead. Former head of security, Abdullah al-Senussi is in custody in Mauritania for illegally entering the country. Mauritania used to be a French protectorate, and for some reason, France has claimed jurisdiction over Senussi, as well as the Libyan transitional government and the International Criminal Court for extradition.

Related articles

• Tunisia To Extradite Qaddafi’s Ex-Prime Minister(rferl.org)

  ---

• World Briefing | Africa: Mauritania: Qaddafi’s Former Spy Chief Is Indicted(nytimes.com)

  ---

• Prominent Qaddafi Son To Be Tried In Libya (rferl.org)
• Former Gaddafi Prime Minister to be extradited to Libya (itv.com)
• Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, Convicted in 1988 Lockerbie Bombing, Dies at 60 (nytimes.com)

Ferrari 612 Sessenta

It just doesn’t pay to flash your Ferrari in Italy these days, or your Lamborghini either. If the police stop you behind the wheel of a half-million dollar car, you better have paid your taxes.

Italy is dealing with a $2.5 trillion debt, which translates into 108% of their GDP, certainly not the worst in Europe, but with the instability of their government of late, very troubling for the rest of Europe. And Italians have this thing about paying their taxes….they don’t like to do it. So, the new, interim, appointed government has decided to crack down on tax cheats and the best way they can think of is to target people guilty of conspicuous consumption.

So, if you are an Italian driving a very expensive car, you can expect the police to stop you and ask for you tax registration ID along with your license and registration. Same if you own a yacht. And business owners are having their records gone over very carefully. So far, they have found $12 billion in unpaid taxes, and identified 2,000 luxury car owners who cheated on their taxes.

Not everyone is happy about the crackdown. There have been more than 250 attacks on tax offices so far, including letter bombs and Molotov cocktails. One tax office was held hostage for six hours by a businessman who could not pay his $1,250 in back taxes. In some cases, anarchists have claimed responsibility for the attacks. More troubling is the increase in economically motivated suicides, up 52% since 2005.

Prime Minister Mario Monti has promised increased protection for tax offices, and the continuation of the crack down on wealthy tax cheats. He compared them to people who give “poisoned bread to their children,” for the harm they have done to poor Italians.

The tax cheats have been pretty creative. One owned a Ferrari, Maserati and Mercedes, and registered them all in his mother’s name. He had hidden seven million euros in property sales last year. Another owned three homes and used thirty different bank accounts. Eighty people have been arrested and another 2,000 are being investigated.

So many Ferrari owners have tried to unload their flashy cars that the market for used Ferraris is so glutted, the prices are ridiculously low, with the value having dropped at least 20%.

A crackdown on people vacationing in the ritzy resort of Cortina D’Ampezzo last winter found over thirty people who were driving luxury cars and had only declared incomes of $30,000 a year.

And if you think our politicians have been engaged in a “class war” try this one….the Italian government is running a television ad that shows slides of various parasites that feed on wood, fish and dogs, followed by a picture of a man with the caption “Parasite of society, tax evader.”

Related articles

• Tax Cheats Become Italy’s Public Enemy(nytimes.com)

  ---

• Italian police uncover widespread tax evasion amongst yacht owners(telegraph.co.uk)

  ---

• Italian tax collectors don skis for spot-checks in Alpine resort (guardian.co.uk)
• What Ferrari Sales Are Saying About the US Economy (thestreet.com)
• Ferrari hybrid surpassing Enzo as costliest car (sfgate.com)

Mexican drug cartel territories, red is the Zetas

So, what happens when one is arrogant enough to post a video of oneself dumping 49 mutilated bodied next to a highway near Cadereyta, Mexico, flashing a banner with one’s name on it? On a good day, the Federales come and arrest your ass.

Daniel Elizondo Jesus Ramirez, AKA “El Loco,” tried to evade arrest by firing at the troops and lobbing a fragmentation grenade, but they caught him anyway. The 43 men and 6 women who were dumped have not been identified, but appear to be migrants from southern Mexico and Central America. Still at large are two other leaders of the Zetas drug cartel,”El Gambo” (The Shrimp) and “El Altavoz” (The Speaker) who were also featured on the video.

The banner flashed in the video warned that similar fates awaited rival cartels, the police and the military. While it is possible to hunt up the video, it has been removed from YouTube where it first appeared. Additional messages were posted denying Zeta responsibility for the body dump, but the government believes these were done to confuse the issue.

The Zetas control most of northern and eastern Mexico and are engaged in a war with the Gulf cartel and the Sinaloa cartel for control of the entire country. The Zetas were founded by former members of the Mexican military. Mexican Brigadier General Edgar Ruiz Villegas Melendez said in a press conference that Ramirez had confessed to the body dump on orders from higher officers in the Zetas.

Last year, it was briefly believed that Ramirez had been killed while being hunted for his part in the kidnapping and murder of two women. But he sent a message to the media announcing “I’m still alive….El Loco of the Zetas.”

Related articles

• ‘El Loco’ Arrested After 49 Beheaded Bodies Found(undisputedlegal.wordpress.com)

  ---

• Mexican troops capture a top suspect in slayings of 49(edition.cnn.com)

  ---

• Mexico Arrests ‘El Loco’ for Role in Beheading and Mutilation of 49 People (raptureimminent.wordpress.com)
• Mexican army: Zetas leaders ordered killing of 49 (miamiherald.com)

Doohan as Scotty

The Dragon has breathed fire – and James Doohan’s ashes are in orbit.

Yes, at long last and after a last-second scuttling over the weekend, the SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off at 3:44 a.m. this morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket, owned/funded by the privately held company Space Exploration Technologies, a/k/a SpaceX, is headed toward the International Space Station, carrying 1,000-plus pounds of supplies for the station’s crew, as well as the ashes of more than 300 people, among them Doohan, Star Trek’s beloved Scotty, who passed away in 2005, and Mercury program astronaut Gordon Cooper.

“Feels like a giant weight just came off my back,” tweeted SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. He posted that tweet once Dragon deployed its solar panels, which, according to the Reuters news service, is the first of several major milestones that must be met before the spacecraft is cleared to dock at the station. If all goes as planned, that will occur on Friday. This mission is actually the last test flight for SpaceX under NASA’s COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) initiative, which finances the development of private vehicles that can launch cargo to the ISS.

Doohan’s ashes – which also were launched to space in 2008 as part of an unsuccessful mission — were part of a secondary payload included on the second stage of the rocket, not on the Dragon itself. That payload separated from the capsule at the 9-minute, 49-second mark and is now orbiting, on its own, above the Earth. It’s expected to stay in orbit for approximately a year before descending back to Earth and disintegrating during re-entry.

Doohan's Daughter

Wende Doohan, James Doohan’s widow, was on hand for the launch with the couple’s daughter, Sarah, now 12. Doohan posted a photo on Twitter and tweeted the following comment early today. “Sarah and I enjoyed watching a beautiful rocket launch this morning – certainly a first for her.” Also, on May 18, Doohan tweeted the attached photo of Sarah at Cape Canaveral with a caption that read “Following Daddy’s footsteps?”.

Related articles

• Trying to Shoot James Doohan’s Ashes into Space . . . Again (nationalreview.com)
• Beam me up Scotty: Star Trek actor’s ashes blasted into space (itv.com)
• Celebrities’ Ashes Launched on SpaceX Falcon Rocket – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)

Vegas Strip Steak raw

“It’s an un-obvious chunk of meat that has been sitting there — a little diamond surrounded by a bunch of coal,” Steve Price told me. “I’d love to tell you more. We just can’t.”

Price works at Oklahoma State University. The school says it has worked with an outside meat expert to discover a new steak. It’s hiding somewhere inside a part of a cow that’s now commonly used for hamburger.

The steak has a name — the Vegas Strip Steak (TM) — and a marketing campaign. But, because OSU is still waiting on its patent, they are being cagey about the details. Price explained it in broad strokes.”The patent actually claims the kind of knife strokes that you make in order to create this cut of meat,” he said. “You take this muscle, you make cuts here, here and here and you end up with this Vegas Strip Steak.”

There does seem to be a precedent for this sort of thing. One guy patented cuts of meat that became Steak-Umm and KFC‘s popcorn chicken.

Price hopes the Vegas Strip will take off by the end of the year. The basic idea is to get restaurant chains interested in the steak, and to work with big packing plants to sell the steak to the restaurants. OSU would charge a licensing fee to the packing plant.

Should I expect to see the steak at the grocery store sometime soon?

No, Price said.

Why not?

“If i told you, it would be a hint to where this muscle is,” he said. “A knowledgeable person would say, ‘Aha!’”

Related articles

• Can You Patent A Steak? (npr.org)
• Vegas Strip is now also a steak (thestar.com)
• Steak Specialists Discover A New Cut Of Beef (gizmodo.com.au)

Awww....

The X-Men, one of the world’s most popular super hero teams, have always been at the forefront of the biggest stories in comic history, and today is no different as Marvel is proud to announce the wedding that has everyone talking!

Today, fans worldwide learned on ABC’s “The View” that Jean-Paul Beaubier, aka Northstar, proposes to his boyfriend Kyle Jinadu in ASTONISHING X-MEN #50, on-sale May 23 (tomorrow!!!) in comic stores, on the Marvel Comics app and at the Marvel Digital Comics Shop.

the happy couple

The creative team of New York Times best-sellers Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins have put Northstar and Kyle’s relationship to the test—and now they’re about to take their biggest step yet. But will their path to wedded matrimony in New York City be smooth or are there hidden dangers around the corner?

“The Marvel Universe has always reflected the world outside your window, so we strive to make sure our characters, relationships and stories are grounded in that reality,” said Axel Alonso, Marvel Editor in Chief. “We’ve been working on this story for over a year to ensure Northstar and Kyle’s wedding reflects Marvel’s ‘world outside your window’ tradition.”

Then, on June 20, don’t miss the wedding of Northstar and Kyle in the pages of ASTONISHING X-MEN #51! This unforgettable issue features covers by Dustin Weaver and Marko Djurdjevic, along with a special “Create Your Own Wedding” blank variant cover! Select comic book retailers nationwide will host wedding parties at their stores to celebrate this joyous occasion, with special items exclusively available at participating stores!

“The story of Northstar and Kyle is universal, and at the core of everything I write: a powerful love between two people who have to fight for it against all odds,” said Liu. “This is the quintessential Marvel story, one that blends the modern world with the fantasy of super heroes in order to tell an exciting story that begins with a wedding—and continues in ways you can’t imagine.”

comic cover

Northstar was first introduced to comic fans in the pages of 1979’s UNCANNY X-MEN #120, a member of the super hero team Alpha Flight and antagonist to the popular super heroes. A gold medal winning Olympian and successful businessman, the French-Canadian super hero quickly became one of the most popular members of Alpha Flight when its ongoing series launched in 1983.

In 1992’s historic ALPHA FLIGHT #106, Northstar became the first openly gay super hero when he announced his sexual identity through national media. Since then, Northstar has not only joined the X-Men but become one of their most popular new members.

Aren't they cute?

Northstar and Kyle have been a couple since 2009, garnering a large fan following since their first appearance together.“As a long-time fan of the X-Men, it’s not only a true honor to be part of such a historically significant story but also a complete joy,” explained Perkins.

Don’t miss the proposal everyone’s talking in ASTONISHING X-MEN #50, available tomorrow in comic stores, on the Marvel Comics app and at the More on Marvel.com: http://marvel.com/news/story/18770/save_the_date_landmark_x-men_marriage#ixzz1vcOdWXm6

Congrats to the happy couple.

Related articles

• Gay X-Man Northstar Inches Closer To Wedding (towleroad.com)
• Gay X-Man Northstar’s Wedding To Be Announced On ‘The View’? (towleroad.com)
• Marvel to announce landmark Astonishing X-Men #50 story on tomorrow’s The View (comicsbeat.com)

Moretz as Hit Girl

A sequel to the cult superhero adventure Kick-Ass had long seemed a fevered dream of the comic’s creator Mark Millar, who has developed a notoriety for leaking “news” that is either conjecture or wishful thinking. So when Millar declared that Kick-Ass 2 would go into production this summer, we were a bit leery.

However, with The Avengers showing there’s still a serious love of superhero features among moviegoers, all the studios are looking to capitalize, and so Universal is moving forward on Kick-Ass 2 with Cry_Wolf helmer Jeff Wadlow usurping Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn, who is too busy developing X-Men: First Class 2 to return. Nonetheless, Vaughn will help produce the sequel, which is slated to shoot in London this September.

Hit Girl & Kick Ass from comic

Wadlow revealed to the press recently that he penned the screenplay over the holidays, and sought to find a place where the first movie and the second graphic novel intersect. Like its precursor, Kick-Ass 2will take some departures from its source material, Millar’s comic of the same name, as Wadlow explains:

“I think the most important thing that’s gonna’ change from the Kick-Ass 2 comic to Kick-Ass 2 the movie was just really finding an emotional story to tell. Because what I certainly loved about the first film, and what I think elevated it above most comic book adaptations, is the heart and the emotion in the film. It was sort of my challenge as the filmmaker and storyteller to find something as emotional in the second film and I think we have some stuff that people are gonna’ really respond to.”

Actress Moretz

As to specifics, he hopes to play up Hit Girl’s part, despite the fact that her story is “sidelined” in Millar’s second book. As she gives up her superhero alter-ego in the comic, its story instead focuses on Kick-Ass and Red Mist’s evolution to the Motherf–ker, a more vicious villainous incarnation. However, this approach may be problematic, as Moretz hasn’t yet signed on to the sequel, though Wadlow says the two have met, she’s read the script and is by his estimation, “very excited about what we’re doing with Hit-Girl.”

Kick-Ass stars Aaron Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse are also said to be in talks, but it seems far more likely they’d be game to reprise their roles as their careers haven’t exactly blown up as Moretz’s has. Since her brazen breakthrough with pint-sized and foul-mouthed Hit Girl, the starlet delighted horror fans with Let Me In, and dazzled critics with Hugo. However, her most recent efforts aren’t faring so well. Dark Shadows tanked its opening weekend, accruing only $29 million, which smarts with a bloated budget of $150 mil. Plus this batty comedy—as well as the gritty coming-of-age tale Hick—were generally panned by critics. Could this urge her to return to the role that first won her such good will? Let’s hope so, both because her upcoming Carrie remake is a risky venture, and because Kick-Ass 2 wouldn’t be nearly as hard-hitting without her.

WonderWoman & LeopardGirl

Your favorite DC Comics character might be gay.

In an interview at the Kapow Comics Convention, DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio said that a “prominent” DC Comics character will soon come out of the closet, reversing an earlier statement where he had said DC was more likely to insert a new LGBT character than “out” an existing one.

Aquaman & Aqualad

Twitter users have cited Aquaman and Wonder Woman as the most likely candidates. They won’t be the first gay characters in comics, though. “It’s sad when DC is playing catch-up to Archie. And the entire comics industries of Japan and Europe,” tweeted @Joe_Hunter. Once they start catching up, though, it could happen in a Flash.

Related articles

• Major DC Comics Character To Come Out Of The Closet (towleroad.com)
• The First Gay DC Character – Except all the Ones That Came (Out) Before (graphicpolicy.com)
• Gay Super Hero? DC Comics Says Yes (revolutioninmedia.com)

Coach Sue Sylvester

Teacher Will Schuster

Councilor Emma

Rebel Puck

Footballer Finn

Diva Rachel

Token Gay Kurt

Boy Band Blaine

Musical Feet Mike

Lil Lost Tina

Wheelchair-Bound Artie

Ballsy Becky

Sultry Santana

Airhead Brittany

Stripper Sam

Soul sister Mercedes

Cheerleader Quinn

Related articles

• ‘Glee’ says ‘Goodbye’ with season 3 finale preview–Old flames reunite (examiner.com)
• Ryan Murphy Confirms Who’s Leaving and Staying On Glee For Season 4 (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Spoiler Chat Daily: Glee Season Finale Scoop! Plus, Grey’s Anatomy, White Collar and More! (eonline.com)

The BBC reports that the accused threw water at the judge as well as directed obscene gestures at him. The judge stated that the long sentence was imposed because of the “nature of the facts, the refined way they were planned and their duration”. He also did not buy Robert M’s expressions of remorse.

Robert M was convicted of abusing 67 victims at two Amsterdam nurseries and at homes where he babysat. He taped the abuse and shared the videos on the internet. His husband, Richard O, was sentenced to six years in prison for facilitating the commission of the crimes.

While the majority of pedophiles are straight men, there are some gay men who do molest children. There are also women who molest children sexually.

Entering a store nude

A woman who walked naked into two New York stores and asked for the time has been charged by police with public lewdness, the Times Union newspaper reports.

The woman, who has been identified by Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy III as Barbara Lafleur, of Saratoga Springs, calmly walked in each store and was captured by security cameras in each.

The first store on Lafleur’s short shopping tour was Curtis Lumber in Ballston Spa, New York. While there, witnesses said she approached two employees before leaving the store of her own accord, telling one employee on the way out, “Have a good day.”

“No one wanted to say much to her,” remarked store manager Bob Eakin to the Times Union. “It’s not a situation you want to be involved in.” It is kinda awkward.

Having failed to score any wood at the lumberyard, Lafleur then walked into a Stewart’s shop nearby, before being asked to leave. One employee told the Union:

“The manager said, ‘Ma’am, are you aware you have no clothes on?’ She was kosher and cool about it, and the manager told her she needed to leave.”

Nudists protesting their rights to be nude

Lafleur has since been charged with public lewdness. In a statement released shortly after charges were pressed, Murphy III gave an insight into Lafleur’s motives:

“While the defendant claimed she was merely expressing her freedom to be fully liberated by walking nude into Stewart’s and Curtis Lumber, this alleged conduct is actually a crime under the penal law. Surprisingly, mental health found no psychiatric issues whatsoever.”

Lafleur could face a maximum of 90 days in jail if convicted.

Related articles

• Naked Woman Walks In Two New York Stores, Asks For Time (inquisitr.com)
• Woman Arrested After Strolling Through Store Naked (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• Public nudity is just “self-expression” (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)

Murray's head

You can always tell it’s Oscar season when films featuring big-name actors portraying famous historical figures start rolling into theaters. Focus Features has gone ahead and released a trailer for one such production on the horizon, titled Hyde Park on Hudson.

The Hyde Park on Hudson cast is headed by Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt – who is joined by his Rushmore costar, Olivia Williams, as the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Samuel West as King George VI, and Olivia Colman  as Queen Elizabeth.

However, similar to My Week with Marilyn, the film unfolds from the perspective of a more obscure name: Daisy (Laura Linney), FDR’s distant cousin, who also becomes a good friend and confidante to the famous U.S. president – not to mention, partly serves as the audience’s eyes and ears as the film’s major players collide over the course of a colorful weekend gathering.

Judging by this early footage, Murray looks to do a spot-on job channeling the mannerisms and personality of the late FDR; in short, his performance is pure Oscar bait. That also goes for the lovely period production design, old-fashioned musical soundtrack and storyline about the messiness of human emotions – all within the context of a get-together between British royalty and the U.S. First Couple (set against a WW II backdrop). Make no mistake, Hyde Park on Hudson appears to be for the period drama crowd what, say, Battleship is for those who love summer popcorn blockbuster fare. (And there’s nothing wrong with that.)

Actor Murray as FDR

Many Murray fans should be pleased to see the actor continue his trend of working on more artsy and independent fare. Hyde Park on Hudson also looks to have a bit more mainstream appeal than some of Murray’s most recent work, such as his collaborations with Wes Anderson (including, this year’s Moonrise Kingdom) or Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers, The Limits of Control). After all, the film was directed by Roger Michell – whose credits include frothy flicks like Morning Glory and Notting Hill, along with more serious dramas, such as Enduring Love and Venus – with a screenplay by Tony Award-winner Richard Nelson.

Focus Features was also wise to settle on the early December date for Hyde Park on Hudson. That will allow it to start building momentum for the big award shows in early 2013, while also serving as counter-programming to the big blockbusters due to hit theaters that month (The Hobbit, One Shot, etc.).

Hyde Park on Hudson begins a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on December 7th, 2012.

Related articles

• Bill Murray Plays FDR in the ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ Trailer (screenrant.com)
• ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ Trailer: Bill Murray Gets Delightfully Presidential (slashfilm.com)
• Bill Murray Is Awesome In Trailer For ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ (cosbysweaters.com)

Ned Flanders meets Lady Gaga & her flaming tits of fury.

Tonight is another season finale for the long-running The Simpsons, but its an episode that has been causing a bit of a stir in the geek/freak fan groups. Simpsons and Gaga fans alike are thrilled to see this mash-up and her effect on the almost-normal world of Springfield. Lady Gaga will be doing the voicing of herself as she visits the famous town and encounters the infamous family of …The Simpsons. Don’t miss the season finale featuring Lady Gaga!!! SUN 5/20 at 8/7c on FOX! THAT IS TONIGHT!!!

Today, the man held responsible for the bombing, and convicted for it, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi died, likely from cancer. Three years ago, he was expected to live about another six months, and was released from a Scottish jail. Al-Megrahi insisted that he was innocent, but largely went into hiding after he was released. He spent his last days in his family estate in Tripoli surrounded by very tall walls.

Khaled al-Megrahi, the son of Abdel, told the world that his father had died, but did not give any other details.

Al-Megrahi stated in his last interview, which was published in December, that “I am an innocent man,” al-Megrahi said in his last interview. I am about to die and I ask now to be left in peace with my family.”

It is impossible to know if al-Megrahi really is innocent of the murder of 270 people in 1988. It is quite possible that he was handed over for prosecution by the Libyan government at the time in order to alleviate the international pressure that was hammering them hard. That Libya was part of one of the worst acts of international terrorism in the last thirty years, though, is not not in doubt.

Camp David in the 1970s

I love G8s, our annual exercise in the nations that think they still rule the world pretending to make globally important decisions.

This G8 is unique in one regard. It is being held at the President retreat, Camp David in Maryland, a cozy little pseudo-rustic spot built under the WPA between 1935 and 1938 as a camp for Federal employees and taken over for the personal use of the POTUS by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1942. Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David in honor of his father and grandson. It is the mountains of northern Maryland, just shy of the Pennsylvania border.

But the best things about Camp David are its isolation, its standing security and its lack of accommodations for hordes of aides and armies of reporters. It is a shirt-sleeves environment with Presidential comforts and little ostentation. The Canadians held one G8 at a very isolated ski resort. Except for having to truck in the security, it was a similar situation.

Unlike…..

In 2004, the G8 was held on at the Sea Island Resort on Sea Island, Georgia. Sea Island is one of Georgia’s barrier islands, accessible only by causeway from another barrier island that is home to over 10,000, which in turn is accessible only by causeway from the mainland. I lived on the mainland, which happens to be the port city of Brunswick. And therein lies the tale.

Brunswick is the third busiest port in the armpit of America (turn the US map upside-down) – Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, being the other two. On St. Simons Island, the entryway to Sea Island, there are two very large shrimp processing companies – SeaPak and King and Prince. Most of their employees live on the mainland. St. Simons Island is the high rent district, so a lot of doctors, lawyers, bankers, professional types live over there.

To achieve the necessary level of security for the G8, U.S. military ships patrolled the coast and the Intercoastal Waterway that separates the barrier islands from the mainland. The port, which receives auto imports, was shut down. It was the height of shrimping season, so the shrimpers went elsewhere, and the packing plants shut down, leaving hundreds of employees without pay for that week. The port employees also went without pay. The causeway to St. Simons was disrupted by security checks, so most professionals just stayed home that week, meaning legal matters went undone. If one of my cats had become ill, I would have had to go through a process similar to crossing the Canadian border to reach my vet. The city of Brunswick ground to a halt.

There were a few protesters, but nothing to rival the mess in Seattle, Genoa and London at other economic summits. The aides and entourages booked every hotel room on St. Simons, so the press swarmed on Savannah. On the mainland, we joked that the Sea Island Resort must have used every ounce of insecticide in Georgia to keep those eight world leaders from meeting some of Georgia’s more interesting inhabitants – cockroaches the size of mice and wolf spiders five inches across, to say nothing of the mosquitos. I forget if they also shut down the chemical plant and paper mill on the mainland to keep the attendees from catching a whiff of Coastal Georgia’s favorite perfume – industrial pollution. (Ben Affleck bought an island off the coast north of Brunswick while engaged to Jennifer Lopez and we used to swear that she broke it off after being caught downwind of the chemical plant.)

My daughter and I played a game of “what if terrorists….” during the G8, mostly because no on involved in the security for the G8 gave any thought to the city. There were huge fuel tanks on the docks. A single runaway truck could have easily breached the chain link fence and ignited them. The city’s water is in above-ground towers, whose legs could be easily bombed just by pitching a gym bag over the fences. The primary home construction material is wood, and the area around downtown contained hundreds of small houses, many abandoned, that could easily be set on fire. The phone and electrical lines were particularly vulnerable. It reached a point with our landline phones that BellSouth’s repairmen would just come to my door and say “dead squirrel” or “tree trimmer” to explain why I had no phone service. We were able to imagine dozens of scenarios where terror could be wrecked in the shadow of the summit while the attendees were perfectly safe.

Allegedly, a few of the attendees at Camp David are under-impressed by the setting. Tough tiddies, folks. I’d rather see you have to cope with a little rusticism than see any other city go through what was done to Brunswick, or Seattle where the rioters caused millions of dollars in damages.

Besides, there’s something really cool about the idea of the leaders of the supposedly eight economically strongest nations on earth – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, along with representatives of international organizations – sitting around a round table. Legend has it that King Arthur commissioned the Round Table so that no knight held precedence over another.

This year’s agenda included discussions about Syria and Iran, with the eight agreeing to be ready to release their strategic oil reserves if further sanctions in the region cause a reduction in the flow of oil. A unified vision of reaction to the civil war in Syria and the threat of Iranian nuclear development were announced, specifically, keep doing what we’re doing for the time being. There were discussions about the economic problems in Europe and the fate of Greece with the Europeans promising to keep Greece afloat if not recovering.

Presumably, President Obama is too much of a gentleman to say “I told you so” to the Europeans. At previous summits he has urged them to reverse course and embrace the Keynesian solutions to recession and depression and not keep doing the things that caused this global economic crisis. Of the eight, only Japan and the United States have expanding economies, meaning their gross domestic product has risen over the last year. Germany is almost flat-lined and the other five are shrinking.

In short, it’s just another G8, a couple of days of discussions at which nothing really earth-shattering happens. It’s all very civilized and diplomatic and formulaic.

Now, on to Chicago for the NATO summit, where the protests have already started. Hopefully, Rahm Emanuel will not regret hosting it.

Related articles

• G-8 leaders agree to boost growth, protect oil supplies – USA TODAY(usatoday.com)

  ---

• Two small planes intercepted near Camp David(wjla.com)

  ---

Cast cover

Bluewater Comic’s unauthorized The Cast Of Doctor Who takes a glance into the backgrounds of a few of the actors who have taken on the role of The Doctor through the years. Without a standard comic storyline, the book serves more as an introduction to the series, specifically designed for newer fans that are interested about the Classic Doctor Who series.

The comic book oddly only looks at four official Doctors (plus a fifth outside canon which we will get to later). This limited examination was restricted based on space available for the publication of the comic. Overall, the comic examines William Hartnell as the First Doctor, Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, and Matt Smith as the current Eleventh Doctor.

The Cast Of Doctor Who functions mainly to provide some background information on the history of the actors who took on this role, giving you a quick glance at their biographical information and highlighting some of their key film, television, and theatrical roles prior to and after Who. Despite its succinct short summary fashion, the details are (for the most part) surprisingly accurate in places.

Tennant as the 1st Doctor

Having said that, it puzzles me as to why the publishers opted to focus only on a few actors instead of all main eleven Doctors. While the space factor may have provided more room to focus on four, I found myself somewhat disappointed that Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy were not given a shot in the book (although Troughton and Pertwee do briefly appear). On top of that, Nu Who fans would be horror-struck at the exclusion of Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant.

The artwork in The Cast Of Doctor Who is adequate for the purpose of the book and the interpretations and likenesses of the featured actors are actually pretty well done. It does, however, take a bit of a morbid turn in the death of William Hartnell, with the artwork becoming not so much non-figurative, but creepily darkened and beyond interpretation.

Cushing as 1st Doctor

A main criticism of the comic, however, is the inclusion of Peter Cushing as the Doctor from the non-canon films made during the 1960s. Cushing’s work in the two Doctor Who films is not part of the overall mythos of the current series. Considering the book seems to be designed as a gateway media to encourage newer fans to discover the classic series, the inclusion of Cushing detracts from this. Furthermore, the writers misspell Tarkin when they get to his Star Wars role – a HUGE no-no!

Newer fans to Doctor Who will notice the biographical pages to be informative, and hopefully it does encourage them to check out the classic series. However, dedicated longtime fans will be disappointed with the book, with the lack of other Doctors, and particularly the manner in which Cushing’s Doctor is upheld in the pages. This one is just for newer fans.

Related articles

• It’s a Triple Threat with ‘Doctor Who: The Three Doctors’ (Review) (popmatters.com)
• Dr. Who Montage – Past to Present (reginajeffers.wordpress.com)
• The Other Doctors of Doctor Who (mentalfloss.com)

Bugs & Tweety on Saturday morning

Saturdays are meant for cartoons. They are meant for lazy mornings eating cereal and watching cartoons in your pajamas. Saturday mornings I wake up early with my son, turn on the tv and start my morning.

On Saturdays we find superhero cartoons to watch. Boomerang and Cartoon Network are best for these. Today we are watching the following;

Related articles

• Structure of a Silly Saturday (lezgetreal.com)
• Saturday Morning Cartoon Break (lezgetreal.com)
• Education from Cartoons (lezgetreal.com)

StarFire in DC comics

Starfire is the name of several fictional comic book characters published by DC Comics, but the most prominent Starfire is Koriand’r, the fourth character to use that name. She debuted in a preview story inserted within DC Comics Presents #26 (October 1980) and was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Starfire was ranked 20th in Comics Buyer’s Guide‘s “100 Sexiest Women in Comics” list and you can see why. Meee-ow!

Koriand’r, Starfire’s real name, is a princess of the fictional planet Tamaran in the Vegan System, and was in line to rule the planet as Queen.

Like all Tamaraneans, Starfire’s alien physiology constantly absorbs ultraviolet radiation and converts it to energy for flight. The solar absorption experiments performed on her by the alien Psions granted her the ability to channel and project that same energy into destructive blasts called “starbolts”.  As shown in the “Insiders” crossover story arc (Teen Titans and Outsiders),Starfire can also release nearly all of her stored energy as a powerful omni-directional explosive burst, many times more powerful than her standard blasts. The released energy leaves her in a weakened state.

Starfire possesses superhuman strength, which combined with her superior fighting-skills has enabled her to win about two out of three times against the much stronger Donna Troy (as the latter was in the early 1980s) during purely hand-to-hand training matches.

Learning English from Robin in Episode "Go!"

Starfire is also capable of assimilating other languages through physical contact with another person. When she attempts to do so with males, she usually kisses them because it is “more fun” for her. She is proficient in armed and unarmed combat, having been trained in those arts by the Warlords of Okaara.

Starfire appears in the Teen Titans animated series, voiced by Hynden Walch. Elements of her storyline appear in different episodes spread across the show’s five seasons, in which she deals with her arch-foe and sister, Blackfire (also voiced by Walch), the responsibilities of being a princess, and her insecurities about being an alien on Earth.

Tamaranean Race

Starfire was born and raised on the distant planet Tamaran before arriving on Earth and joining the Teen Titans. Her race, the Tamaraneans, are an emotional race who see feelings as the force that drives their very livelihood. Their emotions fuel their natural abilities of flight and superhuman strength, as well as  Starfire’s starbolts. Her race is also highly resilient to radiation and the cold (though the longer she is outside, and the more exhausted she is, the more susceptible she is to sub-zero temperatures). The animated Starfire also has the ability to travel faster-than-light without a ship, as well as the ability to survive in the vacuum of outer space for long periods of time. However, she cannot breathe underwater. Sometimes her powers act beyond her control, such as releasing explosive energy blasts when she sneezes, as well as her strength accidentally bending a street light down to the ground.

Character Design for Teen Titans

Starfire’s Titans character bears some similarities with her comic version. In the flashback episode “Go!”, which tells of the founding of the Titans in their animated continuity, just before meeting the Titans, Starfire is shown being held prisoner as a “prize” by a group of Gordanian slave masters, working for an interstellar power known as the Citadel. Eventually, she manages to escape and flees to the closest planet, which happens to be Earth. Starfire runs into Robin and the other soon-to-be Titans, but after being mistreated for so long, she is aggressive, antagonistic and does not trust the Titans or any one else for that matter. After Robin aids her in taking off the “space cuffs” that bind her wrists, the Gordanians whom she escaped from show up looking for her and the Titans help her fight them off. After winning and driving off her jailers, Starfire elects to stay on Earth with the four heroes and quickly develops feelings for Robin.

Close-up of Starfire's face

Starfire is inherently the most sensitive of the Titans. This kid-friendly version of Starfire is naive, innocent, and somewhat insecure, but it is this trait that endears her to others, especially to Robin. An alien and an outsider, she is still new to Earth and its customs, which serves as a recurring source of comic relief. She also insists on sharing her own customs with other members of the team. Presumably because English is not her first language, Starfire speaks without contractions and misuses idioms. Additionally, she uses several Tamaranean nouns.

Raven & Starfire

Starfire has a pet giant moth larva named “Silkie” in the series, given to her by Beast Boy. Starfire takes friendship very seriously, and is easily distressed when others, especially her friends, argue or fight. Although her naive and slightly overly friendly yet kind nature can sometimes clash with Raven’s more secretive one, she has shown a closeness to her.

First Kiss in Trouble in Tokyo

Reflecting the comic books, the series hints at a potential relationship between Starfire and Robin. In the season 5 episode “Go!”, Robin and Starfire’s first kiss is shown; however (as in the comics), this was for the purpose of assimilating the English language. In the movie Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, moments are shared between the two. Finally, Robin and Starfire share the “actual” kiss after Brushogun is defeated.

Starfire’s run on the Teen Titans animated series, as well as her Anime-type cuteness, gained her a huge fan following. If you are interested in seeing reruns of the show you can find them online or weeknights on Boomerang at 11pm.

Related articles

• Cartoons Reimagined: Teen Titans (lezgetreal.com)
• Starfire Meets Her Nieces And Nephews in ‘New Teen Titans’ Clip [Video] (comicsalliance.com)
• Starfire Babysits In New DC Nation Clips (comicbookresources.com)

Art by Jettila Lewis 2012

Ever wanted to party with Sharon Needles? Who doesn’t?! Well, now may be your chance of a lifetime to party with the drag superstar. Today Drag Race winner, Queen Sharon Needles posted this to her fans on her Facebook page and we thought you might want in on it.

Sharon Needles is going on a AMAZING trip through America’s #1 Gay Travel Specialists, ALandCHUCK.travel, and She wants you to come too!
Go together and you can have even more fun as a group. If you use her GROUP HOST Code (1437737) to book your trip, they’ll put you in her VIP group. You’re gonna have a great time!
EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS: This Deluxe 8 Day CARIBBEAN CRUISE travels from MIAMI to NASSAU, PARADISE ISLAND, ST THOMAS, ST JOHN, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, GRAND TURK, TURKS & CAICOS ! This is the first event of its kind in the world… Exclusively from ALandCHUCK.travel! FREE Two (2) Open Bar Cocktail Parties & Show with the largest collection of LOGO TV & RuPaul’s Drag Race stars in history! Including Celebrity Judge Michelle Visage!
• PRIVATE FREE Cocktail Reception With her!
• PRIVATE FREE Specialty Gourmet Dinner With her! Cover Charge Included!
• FREE Souvenir Professional Photo With her!
• FREE Bon Voyage Bottle of Wine!
XOXO
Sharon Needles
MAKE SURE YOU GIVE MY GROUP HOST CODE (1437737) WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR RESERVATION!
CALL NOW – 1-866-949-1429

Related articles

• RuPaul’s Queens Sell Out (lezgetreal.com)
• Drag Race Down to Final 3 for Season 4 (lezgetreal.com)
• Sharon Needles: Will She Be The Next Drag Superstar? (dangerouslee.biz)

Rumors have been rampant that Saudi Arabia is seeking a union with Bahrain, which is an island connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway. The ruling monarchy in Bahrain and the government are controlled by the Sunni minority and there have been periodic protests and demonstrations in Bahrain for the past 15 months, with the Shi’ite majority seeking greater representation in the government when not demanding the abdication of the King. The government in Bahrain has allowed certain activities to take place on the island, such as the sale of alcohol, which would be forbidden if the country were to unionize with Saudi Arabia. That would upset the Saudis who view Bahrain as a nice place to vacation away from the clerical restrictions within their own country. Unionization would be a no-win situation on both sides, but logic never holds against a good panic-inducing rumor.

Iran wants to prevent any closer ties among the Sunni-dominated Arab states because Iran is one of only three Shi’ite majority states in the region. They have been supporting the Shi’ite minority government in Syria as part of their determination to replace the slightly more liberal Sunni with the more fundamental Shi’ite in governments across the region. Sunni countries, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, have been more open to liberalization and tolerance of other religions. Saudi Arabia is the most strictly Muslim because of its unique position as the home of Islam and homeland of the Prophet. Iran is being thwarted in attempts to infiltrate Bahrain and foment a full-blown revolution there.

Except for Yemen, which is the poorest nation in the Middle East and in a near-perpetual state of chaos, the nations of the Arabian peninsula are the wealthiest in the region, but that wealth is concentrated in the ruling monarchies. So far, they have chosen to bribe their citizens with increased financial supports to avert the spread of the Arab Spring. But the peninsula is bounded on the east by the Persian Gulf, and across the Gulf is Iran, which has periodically threatened to blockade the Gulf and cut off oil shipments through it. Closer relations among the Arab states might provide the opportunity for creation of alternatives to the Straits of Hormuz for oil shipments and cut Iran’s self-perceived power over them.

Iran has positioned itself as an enemy of other Middle Eastern nations, with its threats to Arabian oil shipments, support of the al-Assad regime in Syria and of insurgent forces in Iraq, the threat of nuclear weaponry, and fomenting of rebellion in Bahrain. Though the Arab states have not overtly threatened Iran as vocally as Israel has, they represent a much greater threat to the ruling regime in Iran.

Related articles

• Iranian Protesters Denounce Saudi-Bahrain Union Plan(rferl.org)

  ---

• New stress point: Tension mounts between Iran and Saudi Arabia (raptureimminent.wordpress.com)
• Bahrain protests: Shias rally against closer ties with Saudi Arabia (guardian.co.uk)
• Tens Of Thousands Protest Gulf Union Plan In Bahrain (rferl.org)

Muslim Brotherhood Emblem

THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING! THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING! Or more specifically, the Muslim Brotherhood is coming. It has been the panic cry of the right wing ever since the Arab Spring dethroned Hosni Mubarak over a year ago. Some in the right wing media accused President Obama of “revealing his Muslim affinities” by “hosting” the Muslim Brotherhood at the White House, when what he was doing was holding some preliminary meetings with the majority party of the Egyptian parliament.

Well, all the hysteria was premature. Two polls have been released together, one taken in February and one taken in April. They show a dramatic shift in Egyptian opinion.

Though 63% of Egyptians supported the Brotherhood, in part because they had the most efficient political organization in the country, last February, in April their support has fallen to 42%. The nation is preparing for Presidential elections.

Support for the more conservative Salafis has also fallen, from 37% to 25% over the same period. The Muslim Brotherhood has been trying to position itself as the more moderate, but Muslim party. The Salafis support imposition of Sharia law and expulsion of all non-Muslims from Egypt. As in other Muslim countries, this kind of extremist position is most popular in rural areas where the populations tend to be less educated and less affluent.

Egyptians are also expressing reservations about letting the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis, who hold the majority seats in Parliament, write the new constitution. Support for the parliamentary majority to choose those writing the constitution has fallen from 62% to 44%, while support for having the new president make those choices has grown from 9% to 14% and support for the current military rulers to choose has gone from 14% to 17%.

Egyptians are also retreating from having the majority party choose the new prime minister. Support for that has dropped from 46% to 27%, and support for the new president to make that decision is up from 27% to 44%.

When asked if people thought it was a good thing or a bad thing for the Muslim Brotherhood to hold a strong position in the parliament, the “good thing” fell from 62% to 36% and the “bad thing” rose from 27% to 47%.

After the rebellion that liberated Egypt from the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood was the only group able to hit the ground with a strong political organization. That strongly impacted the parliamentary elections. They could field more candidates and put more money into the election. Now, it appears the Egyptian people are having a mass case of buyer’s remorse.

Democracy is a messy process, and in its infancy it closely resembles human infants – lots of spitting up, shitty diapers, barfing and burping occasionally interrupted by heart-melting smiles and shining eyes. Egypt has a long way to go in its evolution to a modern democracy, and all the rest of us can do is watch and hope that in the chaos they will not choose to retreat to the security of a dictator.

Related articles

• Presidential Election In Egypt Getting Really Ugly(lezgetreal.com)

  ---

• Campaign promises trump reality as Egyptian elections draw near(timesofisrael.com)

  ---

• Egypt’s Struggle Between Democracy and Secularism(theepochtimes.com)

  ---

• Candidate Aboul Fotouh highlights diversity of Egypt’s Islamists (csmonitor.com)
• Muslim Brotherhood Goes Hardline (commentarymagazine.com)

Budding Author Emer

EMER is a new gay author and is looking for an audience. While I’ve known him as a friend and artist for years, this is his first trip into the world of professional writing. You can find a collection of his short stories (some in process, some completed) on his web page; http://emer420.hubpages.com/.  He is a fabulous young gay man (yes boys, he’s single!) writing from the view of a small town American. When you go to his page you will be greeted by;

Hello world,

I have many interests.  However my main interest is obviously writing.  I love writing horror and sci-fi, but will sometimes dabble in romance, mystery, and comedy.  I am a student at Castleton State College and am very close to achieving a bachelors degree in World Literature and Communications.  I plan on writing books and working behind the camera on film productions after I graduate.

I am currently working on a compilation of short stories that I would like to get published after, or before, I graduate.  It will consist of 18 stories that all take place the same small ocean town.  Some of which will be posted here as a preview.

I hope you enjoy my stories, and I greatly appreciate critiques.  So leave all the coments you can.  My pen name when I write anything is Emer.  Don’t ask why, Haha, it’s a long story.  Just kinda stuck with me a while ago.

So thanks for visiting my page, and I hope you enjoy.

A screenshot from Dracula

Emer writes for many different genres of literature while also being a huge film buff. His faves are Horror and Fantasy. We have watched many a horror movie together that has scarred me for life. (I still can’t look at sheep the same way ever again.) While I’m not a big horror movie fan, Emer has managed to turn his love of the film genre into a writing style filled with intrigue and humor. Here’s an example of one of his stories, A Letter From Count Dracula.

Related articles

• New Dracula 3D Trailer Heavy on CG and Light on Bite (dreadcentral.com)
• Book Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker (ermiliablog.wordpress.com)
• Schlock’s Podcast #12 – Dracula, Pop Culture Destruction – April 2012 (schlockmagazine.net)

Given the economic problems currently facing Iran as well as external pressures regarding other issues, it is not surprising that they would be engaging in a systematic attempt to suppress any activities that they consider immoral.

Iranian human rights lawyer Mehri Jafari stated:

“I am horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men. Not only with regards to the execution that is about to take place, but the fact that is beyond our control.”

“Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad is one of the most undeveloped provinces in Iran and it is obvious that a lack of access to lawyers and fair trial can be considered a serious issue in this case. After this announcement it is very likely that the execution will be carried out soon, and the remote location makes it difficult to exert any influence on the process.”

The chairperson of the Australian-based Oriental Queen Organization said that the ruling “demonstrates the discrepancy between Western and Islamic perception of queer life. The death penalty has failed to eradicate homosexuality from Iran but it was successful to force queer people into the closets. Sooner or later any Islamic community is obliged to integrate queer people.”

Transsexuality is considered to be a birth defect in Iran, and is thus treated medically. Many gay men and lesbians have been known in Iran to undergo sex reassignment surgery in order to avoid the laws banning homosexuality in that nation; however, they still face social problem and discrimination.

Burning suicide bomb cars, Damascus, May 10, 2012, from Sana, the official Syrian news outlet

Originally published May 11, 2012

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said all along that foreign terrorists are invading Syria and he is defending his country. He has been proven right, and those foreign terrorists are destroying any chance the opposition had of getting meaningful reform in Syria.

A deadly double-car bombing in a neighborhood in Damascus that houses a Syrian security building killed over 70 people and injured almost 400 on Thursday. Casualty figures are still being assembled. The recent bombings in Damascus are classic Islamic terrorist tactics, and are reinforcing al-Assad’s position and justifying his actions. They thought they could take advantage of the Syrian rebellion to influence and turn the rebellion to the creation of an Islamic nation like Iran, instead they are ruining everything. On Friday, Syrian security forces shot and killed a man who had 2,645 pounds of explosives in a car. The average car only weighs 3,500 pounds, and can only carry around 1,000 pounds of passengers and cargo. The report doesn’t say if blowing out all the tires gave the bomber away. Friday’s incident took place in Aleppo, the second biggest city in Syria.

Opposition activists both in and outside Syria say that there has been an infiltration of foreign Islamists into Syria who are carrying out these bombing attacks. They are not coming from the Free Syrian Army or citizens opposed to the regime. They are worried that the attacks, and the clear association with Islamic terror organizations, will caused the international support of the opposition to collapse.

Which leads to a difficult question…..What are these Islamists hoping to accomplish? The al-Assad regime has been a supporter of terrorism, most specifically of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s activities against Israel. So, are they hoping to destroy the opposition by proving al-Assad’s position and preserve the regime? Syria is also one of the most secular countries in the Middle East. The ruling regime is made up of members of a minority sect, the Alawites, and there is no government imposition of a specific Islamic sect. There has always been a certain degree of protection in Syria, as there was in Egypt, for Islamic sects and non-Islamic religions. Are they trying to take over the rebellion and turn Syria into an Islamic nation like Iran?

These attacks are shredding the ceasefire agreement. The double bomb in Damascus went off dangerously close to where the United Nations monitors were. There is only one thing the opposition can do to preserve their ability to force change in Syria – they must root out these foreign terrorists and let the regime know where to find them.

The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend. It is necessary to be very selective of which enemy one aligns with. It’s the single greatest lesson for people in the Middle East. Both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were opposed to the emerging independent governance of the Kurdish region of Iraq in 2000-01, but for different reasons. To Hussein, they were defying his rule. To bin Laden, they were not purist establishing a fundamentalist Islamic state. Bin Laden was Hussein’s enemy, because bin Laden wanted to recreate the Caliphate and that meant he would have to personally take over control of Baghdad, one of the five cities of the Arab Golden Age. Hussein stood in the way of bin Laden’s ambition. But to fight the joint enemy of the Kurds, bin Laden and Hussein sometimes exchanged messages at a single al Qaida camp and those communications were used by the Bush administration as part of the justification for invading Iraq.

The al-Assad regime must prove that it is not using these terrorists, who may have ties to organizations supported by the regime, to bolster al-Assad’s claims of defending his nation from an outside invasion. The opposition must prove that these terrorists are not part of their effort to oust the al-Assad family and allies from their forty-year grip on power. This third player must be isolated and destroyed so that the only people who matter in this rebellion can get back to trying to stop the killing and make the reforms.

Update, May 15, 2012:

There are now foreign journalists on the ground in Syria.  Among the stories they have reported in the past three days, while we were off-line, government snipers attacked a funeral, shooting over 20 mourners; around 25 government troops have been killed; bombs have been detonated by the foreign terrorists and a U.N. monitors’ vehicle hit a roadside bomb, no casualties.   Though the killing is described by civilians as “diminished” it is continuing, with conflicting reports as to responsibility. 

Related articles

• 23 troops killed, EU slaps new sanctions on Syria(dailystar.com.lb)

  ---

• The Syria Crisis: Is Al-Qaeda Intervening in the Conflict?(time.com)

  ---

• Syrian Expatriates Organization (SEO) Condemns the Bomb Attacks in Damascus, Holds the Syrian Government Responsible(prweb.com)

  ---

• Islamists Hijacking Conflict In Syria, Bolstering Al-Assad (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Syrian Christians fear Islamist rule if Assad goes (refreshingnews99.blogspot.com)
• Islamists deny Syria attack claim (bbc.co.uk)
• You: How the Arab Spring Beat Al Qaeda (thedailybeast.com)

A chocolate-chip cookie.

Today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.  Did you know? Yeah, me neither. Let’s learn about it. Shall we?

A chocolate chip cookieis a drop cookie that originated in the United States and features chocolate chips as its distinguishing ingredient. The traditional recipe combines a dough composed of butter and both brown and white sugar with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Variations include recipes with other types of chocolate or additional ingredients, such as nuts or oatmeal.

Ruth Graves Wakefield

The chocolate chip cookie was accidentally developed by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1930. She owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts, a very popular restaurant that featured home cooking in the 1930s. Her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York. It included the recipe “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie”, which rapidly became a favorite to be baked in American homes.

Wakefield is said to have been making chocolate cookies and on running out of regular baker’s chocolate, substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate from Nestlé thinking that they would melt and mix into the batter. They did not and the chocolate chip cookie was born. Wakefield sold the recipe to Nestlé in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. Every bag of Nestlé chocolate chips sold in North America has a variation (butter vs. margarine is now a stated option) of her original recipe printed on the back.

Home-made Chocolate Chip Cookies

During WWII, GIs from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from back home with soldiers from other parts of the U.S. Soon, hundreds of GIs were writing home asking their families to send them some Toll House Cookies, and Wakefield was soon inundated with letters from around the world asking for her recipe. Thus began the nation-wide craze for the chocolate chip cookie

Although the Nestlé’sToll House recipe is widely known, every brand of chocolate chips, or “semi-sweet chocolate morsels” in Nestlé parlance, sold in the U.S. and Canada bears a variant of the chocolate chip cookie recipe on its packaging. Almost all baking-oriented cookbooks will contain at least one type of recipe

Raw chocolate chip cookie dough.

.

Practically all commercial bakeries offer their own version of the cookie in packaged baked or ready-to-bake forms. There are at least three national (U.S./North America) chains that sell freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in shopping malls and standalone retail locations. Several businesses—including Doubletree hotels, Citibank, Aloha, and Midwest Airlines—offer freshly baked cookies to their patrons to differentiate themselves from their competition.

Thanks to Sesame Street and the popular character of the Cookie Monster, generations have learned the wonderousness of the chocolate chip cookie. Ask any child or adult and they can sing to you the “C is for Cookie” song. If you don’t know it, here it is;

To honor the cookie’s creation in the state, on July 9, 1997, Massachusetts designated the chocolate chip cookie as the Official State Cookie, after it was proposed by a third-grade class from Somerset, Massachusetts.

So to celebrate, go have some chocolate Chip cookie inspired desserts. I’ll be munching some cookies with my partner while watching Glee. Enjoy!

Related articles

• NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CHIP DAY: This Exists (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (abcnews.go.com)
• National Food Day: Chocolate Chip Day (bakerunlive.com)

Syria

Originally published May 8, 2012

The International Committee of the Red Cross does more than just provide humanitarian aid. It helps international agencies define the nature of a conflict in a particular place. When the rebels in Libya declared themselves in control of Benghazi, and set up a co-ordinated rebellion with an authority structure, the ICRC immediately declared Libya in a state of civil war. The designation is based on three criteria – intensity of the fighting, the duration of the fighting and the level or organization of the rebels.

After nearly 15 months and 9,000 dead, the ICRC has decided that Syria is in a state of “localized civil war.” There are only a few places, most notably the Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs in February and the city of Idlip at this time as meeting those criteria.

The ICRC has been distributing aid to Homs, Idlip, Deraa, Aleppo and the rural areas around Damascus in the past months, though the head of the agency, Jakob Kellenberger, says that their budget for Syrian aid is grossly inadequate. They only have enough money to distribute monthly food packages to about 100,000 Syrians. But the ability of Red Cross workers to access these areas is finally providing an outside evaluation of the situation on the ground and the designation of “civil war” pushes the Syrian rebellion into international standards under the Geneva Conventions.

Kellenberger was clear that the designation of “civil war” does not hold for the whole country, but only those places where the rebels are very organized as they were in Homs and are in Idlip. He also noted that the nature of the rebellion has changed, from the random gunfights to more guerilla tactics like organized assaults on Syrian security forces and the planting of bombs. Unfortunately, the bombs are serving to reinforce President Bashar al-Assad’s assertion that he is fighting foreign terrorists.

Kellenberger is asking for a huge increase in funding for the Syrian relief effort from its current level of $41 million a year. The ICRC still does not have unfettered access to all areas, and will not unless the the United Nations gets its proposed 300 peacekeepers in place and the Syrian government co-operates with them.

The U. N. monitors have been slow to assemble, and there is resistence on the part of the Syrian government to the configuration of the monitoring force. They want only monitors and a command structure sympathetic to the regime, made up only of persons from allied nations. That would restrict the monitors to Russians, Chinese and Iranians. It’s not like Syria has a lot of supporters these days.

Under the Geneva Conventions, both sides of a civil war are expected to assure humane treatment of all prisoners and have a duty to care for the sick and wounded. It also means both parties are allowed to attack military targets, a difficult thing to define in an urban civil war. The Syrian security forces and army leveled Baba Amr and said they were just fighting foreign terrorists and not blanket bombing thousands of Syrian civilians. One of the ICRC’s biggest concern has been attacks on medical personnel trying to treat the wounded in the conflict zones.

Next week, the ICRC is scheduled to visit prisoner in Aleppo’s central jail. The activists representing the rebels claim that 15,000 people have been detained, with no contact with their families. The ICRC tried to visit prisoners in September, but their effort failed because the Syrian security forces would not allow access to prisoners without guards being present. It’s like Bashar al-Assad’s insistence to Barbara Walters that he had visited with the parents of one of the adolescent boys who were beaten, castrated, burned and had their bodies dumped on their parents’ doorsteps. In the presence of guards, these parents told the President their son was not killed in prison by his police. Had they said anything else, they would never had returned to their home.

Kellenberger is very concerned about the fragility of the ceasefire negotiated by mediator Kofi Annan. “I really hope that the U. N. observers will deploy rapidly, not only in Damascus, rapidly in different places. I still hope it will not fail.”

Related articles

• Red Cross: Syria’s Rebels Shifting to Guerrilla Tactics(blogs.voanews.com)

  ---

• UN envoy says world must prevent civil war in Syria(arabnews.com)

  ---

• Annan: Syrian Troops Intensify Mass Arrests(voanews.com)

  ---

Things did not go well at first. Resort officials did inform Higashi that same-sex couples will not be excluded from the plan, but the resort’s officials informed Higashi that one of the participants would have to wear a dress and one a suit because “other visitors will be watching.” Higashi took it to the internet where an immediate backlash ensued. Some who responded called the resort’s response “disappointing.”

The officials at the Tokyo resort contacted their Walt Disney Company’s superiors and got a response that was a lot more encouraging. They contacted Higashi about a week later to inform her that the US-based company had reached a decision allowing same-sex couples to hold wedding ceremonies at the park even if they were wearing the same outfits.

Higashi posted this on Twitter as well, and that got a wave of applause for the company’s “new step forward.” Resort officials stated “Even though same-sex marriages are not legally permitted, we reached the decision that wedding ceremonies can take place.”

Higashi stated in response “Japan still lacks favorable projects when it comes to sexual minorities, but the fact that Disney took this stance publicly means a lot.” Hiroko, Higashi’s girlfriend, also stated “I guess that they anticipated claims, but chose to go with the decision nevertheless, which makes me very happy.”

Mainichi.jp notes:

The two visited Tokyo Disney Resort on May 5 to deliver a thank you message to Mickey Mouse. “We are a couple. We came to express our gratitude,” the pair said to Mickey, who apparently made a banzai pose in response.

Same-sex relationships are common in Japanese manga and anime with varying degrees of seriousness and fan-service. Some yuri (lesbian) and yaoi (gay male) stories delve deeply into the relationships while others are simply there for the titillation of the audience.

Prime Ministere Benjamin Netanyahu

Originally published May 8, 2012

You have to hand it to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The man can pull his own fat out of the fire with the best of history’s political heavy hitters.

A week ago, it looked like Israel was headed for early elections as opposition to Netanyahu’s policies and the economic problems of the country were growing. Now, he has assured he will be in the catbird seat for at least another year. He has negotiated a coalition with the centrist Kadima party to join his existing coalition of right wing parties. He now can control 94 of the 120 votes in the Knesset.

Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz told the press, “This government is good for security, good for the economy and good for the people of Israel.” The new coalition will be redrawing the nation’s budget and “advancing” election reform. “Advancing” is not the same as actually reforming elections. They will also be supervising adjustments to the nation’s conscription law, from which Orthodox Jews are exempt. Netanyahu had formed a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox parties based on his militant stance towards Iran and his settlement program in the West Bank, but it was being strained by any suggestion that Orthodox Jewish men should serve in the military. Many in Israel feel that it is not fair that the people who most support settlement and who cause the greatest friction with the Palestinians would be exempted from defending their country.

At the press conference with Mofaz, Netanyahu said “Lastly, it is to try to advance a responsible peace process….Not all has been agreed but we have a very strong basis for continued action…” He added that he hoped the Palestinians would “spot the opportunity and come sit with us for serious negotiations.” That’s doubtful as long as Israel’s position continues to be that the Palestinians would be confined to about a third of the area of the West Bank spread around the settlements like the white areas of a polka-dot fabric.

“Lastly it is to try to advance a responsible peace process … Not all has been agreed but we have a very strong basis for continued action,” the prime minister said, adding that he hoped the Palestinians would “spot the opportunity and come sit with us for serious negotiations”.

“Of course one of the important issues is Iran,” Netanyahu added in response to a question.

“An election wouldn’t stop Iran’s nuclear program. When a decision is taken to attack or not, it is better to have a broad political front, that unites the public,” he told Israel Radio.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to “use the opportunity provided by the expansion of its coalition government” to expedite a peace accord.

“This requires an immediate halt to all settlement activity throughout the Palestinian Territories,” spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said. “The new coalition government needs to be a coalition of peace and not a coalition for war.”

Peace talks have been suspended for 18 months.

SIGNAL TO IRAN

The coalition accord will be formally ratified later on Tuesday and presented to parliament, officials said.

Mofaz, a former defense minister, will be named vice premier in the new government. He took over leadership of the Kadima party in March from Tzipi Livni.

As deputy prime minister in a former Kadima-headed government in 2008, Mofaz was among the first Israeli officials to publicly moot the possibility of an attack on

Iran.

But the Iranian-born Mofaz has been more circumspect while in the opposition, saying Israel should not hasten to break ranks with war-wary world powers that are trying to pressure Iran through sanctions and negotiations.

Gerald Steinberg, political scientist at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said the coalition deal “sends a very strong signal to Tehran, but also to Europe and the United States, that Israel is united and the leadership is capable of dealing with the threats that are there if and when it becomes necessary”.

Israeli officials say the next year may be crucial in seeing whether Iran will curb its nuclear plans in the face of international condemnation and Western sanctions. Iran will discuss its nuclear program with major powers on May 23.

Israel has regularly hinted it will strike the Islamic republic if Tehran does not pull back. On

Tuesday,

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast dismissed the threats of attack as “propaganda

Iran regularly rejects Israeli and Western accusations that it is working on developing a nuclear bomb, saying its program is focused on generating electricity and other peaceful projects. Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal.

“PREPOSTEROUS ZIGZAG”

The next election was due in October 2013 but Netanyahu had pushed this month for an early poll after divisions emerged in his coalition over the new military conscription law. Parliament was preparing to dissolve itself and clear the decks for a September 4 ballot while the backroom talks with Kadima were under way.

“When it turned out it was possible to set up the biggest government in Israel’s history … I thought we could restore stability without elections, so I decided to set up a broad national

unity government,” Netanyahu said.

The accord stunned the political establishment and drew swift condemnation from the centre-left Labour party, which had been touted in opinion polls to be on course for a resurgence at the expense of Kadima.

“This is a pact of cowards and the most contemptible and preposterous zigzag in Israel’s political history,” Labour party leader Shelly Yachimovich was quoted as saying in the media, where commentators hailed Netanyahu’s political prowess.

Kadima, with 28 seats, will add significant weight to the coalition, but it remains uncertain how it will get along with religious and ultra-right parties also in the cabinet.

Inter-government relations are likely to be tested swiftly over the issue of settlement building after the high court ordered the government on Monday to demolish five apartment buildings in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Many Netanyahu supporters want him to adopt legislation to legalize settlements, such as the Ulpana apartments, which a court has ruled were built on privately owned Palestinian land.

It is not clear if Kadima would support such a move, which would draw international condemnation on Israel.

Related articles

• Netanyahu crowns himself King of Israel(middleeastatemporal.wordpress.com)

  ---

• Israeli PM Netanyahu unveils new unity government(wtvm.com)

  ---

• Israeli PM Netanyahu unveils new government (independent.co.uk)