Using the Internet to democratize revolutions

How about this: Put up a website which asks Iraqis or North Koreans if they want someone to overthrow their government. Put up a list of proposals from different countries, NGOs and the UN. For example, the US will take over your country, find and imprison Saddam. In exchange, you give US rights for some oil or some such. And you guarantee that you will put down insurgency. With a mixed ethnic, religious country, then you would need majority votes from all ethnic groups. Proposals would thus have to be modified to accomodate all groups. If this out in the open, then no one can complain that it wasn't the will of the people. People just need some way to access the internet to vote. Multi-national companies would overthrow governments for profit. It wouldn't be the US, then it would be corporations. Crazy? Yeah, I guess so.

Colbert New Comic-in-Chief

Wow. Colbert stands up for America. You gotta watch this amazing display of guts to believe it. Colbert gives Bush and the administration a withering attack right in front of the President and everyone else. For some reason my machine was crashing, I think the secret service is trying to corrupt the video stream... Okay, maybe I'm just being paranoid, but you gotta see this masterpiece. It's on CSPAN, too.

None of the major newspapers have covered it in detail. Is that because of threats from the White House? I agree with Colbert: it's criminal the self-censorship of the press. It's so sad that the only place covering Colbert's performance is slashdot (of all places) and other blogs.

Transcript here.

Since the mainstream press is sooo afraid of being disinvited to the white house (at least for the next couple of years), I'm hoping it will go viral. Track progress on the net: at Google blogsearch.

The slashdot posting:
Colbert New Comic-in-Chief: "scottzak writes 'Hail to the Chief! Stephen Colbert addressed the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday (attended by the President, the elite of Washington politics, and the White House Press Corps) and told the truth. Jaws dropped. Eyes popped. The live audience gasped. Scalia laughed his ass off. You want to see a brilliant comic display some real courage? Look no further. Enjoy the reaction shots, and Colbert's audition for Press Secretary job.' The BBC covers the act just prior to Mr. Colbert's, where the President and a look-alike took turns making fun of his speaking skills.

-- updated May 1

The only places I could find comment on this other than blogs:
HuffingtonPost.com and
Editor and Publisher with letters from readers -- some appear pretty pissed... so I think Colbert must have scored.

I can't believe no one else treated this even as a news story. At least they could have said that he bombed.

-- updated May 2

The New York Times finally gets the guts to mention it...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/arts/03colb.html

-- updated May 8

SF Indy Media (whoever they are -- not mainstream media, I guess) gives more details.

NY Times covers the move of the video from YouTube to Cspan.org and Google video.

-- updated May 21

Audio portion available for $2 at audible.com. But the video is still free to download from Google video.

NYTimes editor says it was wrong not to anticipate a reaction to the clip and write a news story about it.

When things go bad, scapegoats ... immigrants and gays

I seem to recall there is a tendency for politicians and people to find scapegoats when things go wrong. Usually these scapegoats are minorities of all flavors. Immigrants are the current diversion tactic. Sometimes, as in the case of gas prices, Democratic politicians try to put it on big business to show their regular people populism. But under a conservative administration usually all the blame gets put on the little guys on the fringe of every flavor and color. The Constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriage -- discussion of it says, look it's not my privileged straight ass' fault, it's the gays' fault. I'm not predicting anything, but things are so bad that I don't doubt that all except the core of this administration's target demographic will be blamed.

I, for one, think we should turn it around. This time around it's not scapegoating. It's the truth. And it's not the fault of the fringe, it's the fault of the big middle. The damn red-state, church-going idiots of this country are to be blamed. For starters, they should take their medicine having control of both houses of congress taken away from their corrupt minions.

U.S. Backs A Gayer U.N. (Finally!)

Previously, US did not back UN recognition of gay groups saying they were linked to pedophiles. But now the US has changed it's tune, probably they weren't paying attention as Queerty says below. My previous post on this.

Copy of the Queerty post:

U.S. Backs A Gayer U.N. (Finally!): "The United States is quietly switching its position on the acknowledgment of gays here on planet Earth: for years, gay organizations have attempted to achieve 'consultative status' with the United Nations, which would allow them to voice opinions on issues concerning the rights of LGBT people. Currently there is no such organization with the UN. Obviously.

In the past the US has always voted against giving giving these organizations official recognition; no word on why our beloved country has suddenly changed its mind. Whatever the reason, we're thrilled, as are the millions of oppressed people in countries where there is no one to stand up for their rights. We presume George Bush is asleep at the wheel again, letting other people do his job for him, and someone decided to sneak this one in. Shh. Don't wake him up.

Bush and polls

Was reading that people are now very negative on Bush because of his handling of gas prices. Of all the mistakes of the Bush administration: Why gas? Because people refuse to admit they were wrong. If they said they didn't support him about Iraq, that would be admitting a flaw in their own judgement about him...

.. So they register their disapproval of Bush, but they misrepresent the reasons to hide their own stupidity.

-- updated 5/9

NYTimes poll shows Americans actually are finally admitting Iraq was the wrong thing to do.

I should take back what I said above. People are wiseing up. My fellow Americans are smarter than they look. :)

Intelligence officials: CIA operative Valerie Plame working on Iran

Consolidated posting by gay blogger Andy Towle on Valerie Plame working on Iran anti-nuclear proliferation when the Administration blew her cover.

Intelligence officials: CIA operative Valerie Plame working on: " Intelligence officials: CIA operative Valerie Plame working on tracking Iran's nuclear program when she was outed. AmericaBlog: 'Karl Rove personally set back this nation's efforts to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. We are at war. And we are about to get involved in our third war, specifically because we don't have enough information about Iran's nuclear program, and part of the reason we don't is Karl Rove. What Karl Rove did is an offense worth of treason. And what is George Bush's response to the fact that one of his top aides intentionally and maliciously hurt our ability to stop Iran from getting nukes?? Nothing. Rove is still working out of the White House, with George Bush's blessing.' Crooks & Liars: 'If Iran is such a threat, why does Bush still have on his staff a man (Rover) who betrayed the identity of a CIA agent that was working on this very serious issue?'"

Retired US Army Major General from Iraq says Rumsfeld is Incompetent

He wrote a New York Times opinion piece. I get the feeling Eaton would even agree with the statement that Rumsfeld is an idiot.

-- updated 4/11

A third general (Zinni was the second) suggests Rumsfeld step down:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/world/middleeast/10military.html

-- updated 4/14

A fifth general asks for Rumsfeld ouster...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/washington/13cnd-military.html

Doesn't seem like an isolated case of a disgruntled general does it now?

-- updated 4/15

I just rewatched "Fog of War" on the life of Robert McNamara. I was trying to picture Rumsfeld having a movie on his life and accomplishments. I don't think it would be anything like this movie.

With new PM, Italy may join other gay-friendly European countries

I think Netherlands, Britian, Spain, France are already very gay-friendly. Italy would be great.

West Sacramento Major says he is Gay

The FreeRepublic article here. Don't know if FreeRepublic is a reliable source.

Strangely, prayer doesn't seem to help the sick (actually it might make them worse off)

NYTimes Article. One might think it should.

Blogger Creates Parody of Exodus Billboard

Exodus is the homosexual "conversion" joint; I.e. parents send their kids to be modified to be straight. Scary stuff -- I mean, it's common knowledge that sexual orientation generally cannot be changed. Exodus has created a billboard which says: "Gay? Unhappy?" and provides a link: "www.exodus.to".

A heterosexual blogger, Justin Watt, was so upset about the message such a billboard projected that he created a hilarious parody image. As this is a newsworthy item, I am linking the image he created (actually, without permission from him -- nevertheless, Justin Watt seems to have granted permission to others without requiring any payment or attribution):

.

The blogger was sent a threatening letter from the Exodus lawyer. He has removed the copyrighted Exodus 'e' in the background.

From a legal perspective Exodus does need to protect their copyrighted elements or everyone would feel free to violate their copyright (unclear why anyone would do so, it's definitely not a valuable brand I don't think). Exodus was probably honestly proud of the way the billboard was put together. It is actually clear and concise and simple. Too bad the message is so evil and full of implied homophobia. It's strange that the Exodus folks may be so clueless that they actually think they are helping people.

Anyway, click on the image to see what the hoopla is about. There are a ton of comments.

-- updated 3/27/06

NYTimes runs an article about this: at this link.

Boy Scouts using non-discriminatory front org to funnel Donations

Advocate article.

Straights misled by old gay stereotypes

Jon Stewart gave a sarcastic introduction to the Oscar montage of gay suggestive cowboy film clips, saying that he felt the old western macho ideal was tarnished by Brokeback Mountain. However, many may have agreed with his comments -- and thought they were not sarcastic (until the montage started). Even people I've talked to say that there probably aren't gay cowboys and the movie is just a fictional tale which has nothing to do with real life. They also say that there aren't gay baseball players or football players.

I'm not sure what is the best way to dispel this myth. Also, let's consider what is gained by doing so.

To address the second question, many straights feel that gays cannot truly be masculine. And despite the gains by feminists in saying that women can be as strong, smart, or powerful as men; this can lead to the assumption that gay males are not men and are inferior to them. What can be gained by dispelling this myth is remaking of the gay image away from the effete New York intellectual to encompass all sorts of people -- a more accurate image, and perhaps one less prone to damaging stereotypes. This may be a marginal improvement in the gay image, but anyway.

But how to dispel the myth... One could cite gay porn (what little I've seen of it, tee hee). Most of the guys in those masterpieces of filmmaking are physically impressive, muscular and often very masculine, and pointedly not straight. But no straights have seen the stuff. Perhaps, the few out ex-professional players could be cited: Billy Bean, Esera Tuaolo and Roy Simmons. You could say these are the brave ones who have come out, surely there are others who haven't bothered or are too scared. Perhaps I could cite a list of masculine gay people. Hmmm. I could include myself. I was MVP on the cross country team. Still, I guess cross country isn't the most masculine of sports. There's Rock Hudson who was physically big, but he was an actor not a football player.

Based on my social interactions with various activist and social groups, I would say gay guys are about average in masculinity. Perhaps their lack of visibility or participation in predominantly male activities such as baseball is due to two factors: (1) these activities require an extra heavy duty closet (term: "passing as straight") because of the locker room access and the not-so-real privacy threat it poses [it's not like we haven't see it before], and (2) the actor effect -- the perceived or real greater acceptance of gay persons in drama or music classes in school. I really sort of doubt the 2nd factor is really very strong at all, but the first one is a real killer. Take, for example, the military. The US military has basically 'legalized'/required a closet. One can not openly acknowledge that one is gay in the macho military or one's career there is toast. Sure, they'll send you into battle now because they're just so short on soldiers, but you'll get a nice discharge after they don't need you for the dirty work (and if you don't die first). There have been a large number of discharges of translators because of don't ask, don't tell. I have heard it has been the same for regular troops as well. Maybe the troops are better at hiding out in the closet than the translators.

-- added 3/19

Now, many folks will object that all the gay men they know on tv (e.g. Jack McFarland on Will & Grace) are actually stereotypically feminine or display some feminine behaviors. I guess there are some number of gays who are most comfortable with displaying this sort of 'fabulous' feminine behavior. But I think some of it is displayed because it is useful to distinguish them from straight males. Gays would want to do this because if they acted stereotypically masculine, it would be more difficult for other gays to find them. Obviously, such feminine acting gays are not in the closet. In addition, straights who might act in this manner normally, are strongly discouraged from doing so because of the prejudice against gays and being identified as one, and also the annoyance of being mistaken for gay by other gays. Now, I must admit that some gay men seem unusually feminine. I think a lot of this is particular to the gay culture; it's not an instinctual behavior. But I might be wrong about this. Sounds like an area worth studying...

-- added 3/20

Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys doesn't see the gay 'feminine/camp' stereotype applying to him as written at this link.

Military quietly letting out gays fight in Iraq

-- sep 14

Looks like the military is saying that having gays serve in Iraq is fine even though violations of don't ask, don't tell are occurring. It's a manuever which feels wrong in that it only benefits the military in getting bodies fighting in Iraq but does not erase official condemnation and exclusion that is reflected by don't ask don't tell which more or less explicitly says that gays are not fit to serve in the military due to their impact on 'morale'. This new policy allowing out gays would not have been implemented if indeed there was a negative impact. For consistency, I think eventually don't ask, don't tell ban should be lifted considering this current policy is being implemented and soldiers are serving without any observed negative impact.

-- oct 12

An Advocate columnist says that gays shouldn't fight in the military since the military doesn't allow them to be open about a key part of themselves. A little case of easier said than done; I would guess many gays in the military have made a career of it and maybe even enjoy it with the great caveats. Not something you throw away easily just on principle. Plus, if one suddenly relishes the principle of honesty, it doesn't get one out of combat service these days... We need the military to openly accept gays and stop this hypocrisy.

I read today that Thailand's military will now accept gays. It's sad that we're socially behind Thailand.

-- mar 16, 2006

The Royal Navy will allow officers to wear their uniforms in a pride parade.

Brokeback Marriages

NYTimes Article on closeted gay men who marry and their wives.

A good cause for those who can get out of military service in Israel

The Israel Defense Forces allow openly gay individuals to serve. Service is generally required, but if an exemption is granted, say for medical reasons, it is nice that such individuals can join an organization dedicated to advancing their interests.

Does brain difference remove 'choice' from homosexuality and why we don't care

A recent study showed more evidence of a genetic backing behind human sexual preference. The gay male brains reaction to male pheromone (derivative of male sweat/testosterone) was the same as female brains reaction. In addition, the gay male brains did not react to female pheromone (derivative of estrogen). This difference in reaction could indicate a brain difference predetermined before birth or at very early childhood. If this is the case, it indicates genetic source behind sexual preference. And if there is a genetic reason behind sexual preference, it removes the idea that there is choice in being gay.

However despite all this, does it matter whether homosexuality's source is genetics or choice? I think not. Interfering in (or discriminating based-on) others non-harming behavior is distinctly un-cool.

-- added 9/16/05 --

Many scientific papers have been written to try to understand how homosexuality arises. This is good, but only as a distracting side-argument to counter flawed arguments by social conservatives who insist being gay is a choice and can be changed. When confronted with the general idea that two adults should be able to do as they please in the privacy of their own homes, social conservatives retreat to saying they don't see why government should support gays by allowing them to marry. The argument then revolves around children and family and protecting this unit. But there are plenty of heterosexual couples who don't have children. Why does government support this simple potentiality without it actually becoming a reality and also, laws do not currently preclude gay couples from adopting or going to a sperm bank, and there are currently many gay parents. Why not support them?

-- updated 02/21/06

An Advocate article discusses a UCLA study where it appears the mothers of more than one gay son tend to have turned off large portions of one of her two X chromosomes. It's bio-speak for: there could be a genetic basis for homosexuality.

Northwest Airlines refuses to honor award tickets to gay couple

It seems Northwest insists on being discriminatory in it's attitude towards employees and customers. Might I suggest to avoid using Northwest Airlines.

-- updated 2/28/06

http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid26232.asp

Okay, so Northwest explains that the ticket was part of an interline exchange where reciprocal honoring of domestic partner benefits was asked for fairness. It was Air New Zealand's refusal to honor Northwest domestic partner requests that caused this. I suppose it is a bit much for Northwest to refuse to do business with Air New Zealand over their discriminatory policies.

Christian Churches Celebrate Darwin's Birthday

Wow, what's this all about? I guess not all Christians are interested in alienating themselves from science.

Christian Churches Celebrate Darwin's Birthday: "kthejoker writes 'Today is the 197th anniversary of the great biologist Charles Darwin's birth. In response, some 450 Christian churches are celebrating Darwin's birth, saying, 'Darwin`s theory of biological evolution is compatible with faith and that Christians have no need to choose between religion and science.' There's also an interesting perspective on Darwinism and Christianity in the San Jose Mercury News.'"

UN refuses to hear application for Gay groups admission to Economic and Social Council

The US joined Iran and Zimbabwe in refusing to hear the applications at all. Not a surprise I suppose considering Bush's neo-con Bolton is the ambassador and anti-minority Condi as state department head.

The US claims one of the groups had ties to pedophiles. The ILGA group severed ties with the 'north american man boy love association' in 1994 which is some time ago. The Danish group had no such ties. Why not just call all gays pedophiles and leave it at that? This seems to be what the US state department wants to imply.

If the US government is so imprecise in it's messaging, I would think it appropriate to just go ahead and call all people the Bush adminstration doesn't like -- such as Muslims, Jews, African-Americans, Chinese, hispanics, poor people, and gays -- pedophiles and be done with it.