Dancing Chimps - Saturday Silliness

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Strange dancing Russian chimps clip. Good trick photography.

Yo-Yo Ma Meets Lil Buck - Video

It isn't often a video will bring me to tears, but this one is so beautiful it had me weeping with joy.  Director Spike Jonez videoed this performance as two distinctly different worlds meet and rather than colliding, they create something new and wonderful.  The performance was part of the opening ceremony of an initiative to bring art back into schools in LA.  With amazing art like this, it has to succeed!

Fur Coat at Circus Roncalli

My friend Paul sent me this clip.  I saw Circus Roncalli when I was in Vienna a few years ago, but sadly this act was not part of the performance.  Really funny trick!  And after learning how it was done, no animals were harmed in this performance, so don't even start with me.  Enjoy!

Senator Kyl Now "Misspoke" About Planned Parenthood

OK the press secretary for Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is taking one for the team.  Previously he said that when Senator Kyl said Planned Parenthood's business consists of 90% abortions, it was "not intended to me a factual statement".  In other words he lied.  But wait there's more.

Now he says that actually made no sense and that the Senator merely "misspoke".  In other words lied.

No matter how they spin it, it's big fat lying. He stated, "If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does."

The truth is almost exactly the opposite, a whopping 3% of their funds go toward abortions. 

I suspect Kyl thought he could just read his lie into the Congressional Record with impunity.  One hitch, Steven Colbert started a hash-tag flurry on Twitter "#notintendedtobeafactualstatement" and thousands of tweets followed.  Kyl looks like the liar he is and now he has to weasel his way out. 

Here he is on the floor of the US Senate MISSPEAKING the truth.

State Rep. Leo Bermann Wants to Pass Laws Based on What He Heard on the Radio!

I really think it's time for Texas state Rep. Leo Berman (R) to retire.  He actually tried to get an anti-sharia law passed because he heard something about Sharia on the radio.  Either he is a gullible idiot or he is just plain daft.

Berman alluded to his belief that judges in Dearborn Michigan "are using and allowing to be used Sharia law.”

The clueless Berman went on to say, "I heard it on a radio station here on my way in to the Capitol one day... I don’t know Dearborn, Michigan but I heard it (Sharia is accepted law here) on the radio. Isn’t that true?“

Well Rep. Berman, it's not true.  The mayor of Dearborn debunks this clap-trap regularly.

Infamous Words? In 2001 Bush Promised the National Debt Would Be Paid Off in 10 Years

Ah, those were the days.  When we blindly listened to a supply-side president who actually believed his own rhetoric and promised the national debt would be gone in 10 years. I didn't believe it then and I was right.  The Bush years and tax cuts have put us where we are today.  Here is the man in his own words:

"My budget has funded a responsible increase in our ongoing operations. It has funded our Nation’s important priorities. It has protected Social Security and Medicare. And our surpluses are big enough that there is still money left over.

Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national debt. I listened, and I agree. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to act now, and I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. At the end of those 10 years, we will have paid down all the debt that is available to retire. That is more debt repaid more quickly than has ever been repaid by any nation at any time in history."

Yeah, right!

Glowing Pork Found In China

Now there is a dish that I have never seen on any menu, glowing pork.  Apparently a woman in Shanghai left some pork chops out overnight and notice a blue glow coming from them in the darkened kitchen.  First, I have to wonder why you would leave pork out overnight, but aside from that the news story, which was obviously translated by a machine, gives the details.

My bet is it's bacterial contamination.  Just to give you an idea of how cavalier Chinese authorities are in these cases, they have already stated that the glowing pork is safe to eat.  What? 
To quote the story in Chinenglish:

This reporter, by method of several checks from the dim and light, in actuality do see the pork emit a faint blue light, that apart by method of the pig’s skin, the whole product of pork was suffused with blue light, as well as a faint blue glow could be also observed on fingers that experienced handled the pork. This reporter afterward intentionally washed this product of pork with consuming water and once more checked in a really dim place, however the pork nevertheless emitted a blue glow, only just slightly extra faint.

Activists Create Guerilla Leather Bar in Straight Bar

The Eagle Tavern in San Francisco is in danger of folding and becoming yet another straight bar. Owners of the Skylark have offered more for the space than the curent tennant, the Eagle and so the landlord is taking the money without regard to the legacy or the community. In protest a group of folks are planning to turn the Skylark bar into a leather bar for the evening. They want to show the owners what happens when you try to take over "queer space". Wish I was there to participate!

Worst Religious Painting Ever?

OK, I am not a big fan of contemporary religious paintings. Most of them are sappy or just plain weird. This one takes the cake.  Found on Jesus Needs New PR blog.

The challenge?  Write a caption for this mess.

More Dangerous Heterosexuals - Child Molesters!

The former pastor of Midway Assembly of God Church in Fairview, Oklahoma is sitting in jail right now.  He is just another example of the dangers posed to our children by heterosexuals.  Yes this "straight" man is charged with molesting his 3 adopted daughters.

In a story from Channel 9 News:  

According to the affidavit, the girl told her mother Pitts had touched her private parts. Pitts' wife then questioned the couple's 12-year-old adopted daughter. She initially denied anything was happening, but when her adoptive mother said the youngest child had already told her the truth, the 12-year-old broke down and admitted Pitts had molested her, as well.

Pitts faces 15 counts of first-degree rape, 15 counts of rape by instrumentation, 20 counts of lewd acts with a child under 16, and 20 counts of forcible sodomy.

Once again it seems obvious that heterosexuals are dangerous predatory beings and should be denied their rights.

(Though I wrote that last sentence with a keen sense of irony, it makes about as much sense as any of the arguments against LGBT rights.)

Donald Trump - Brither

I have long believed that Donald Trump was a narcissistic megalomaniac, but not until today did I believe he is either stupid or just liar.  My bet is on liar since I doubt he is as stupid as he sounds.

Why>?  Well Trump in his silly bid for the presidential nomination has jumped on the "birther" bandwagon and is drinking as much of the kool-aid as he can stomach.

His latest interview is just silly.  He claims President Obama's grandparents "planted" the birth announcement to secure him citizenship and welfare.  Problem is the hospital made the announcement and having a mother with US citizenship makes his access to public programs in the US a given. 

My suspicion is the whole "welfare" angle is intended to play into the right-wing narrative about "welfare queens" and is a less than subtle dig at his race.

Trump is pretty much a jerk, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this kind of crap form him, but most encouraging was that someone in the press actually called him on the lie.  In this interview his lies are refuted and all he can say is "well that was 50 years ago...."  As if 1960 was a time when we kept records with cave paintings that were open to interpretation.

It's time for "the Donald" to go back to investing and get out of the limelight.  Yeah, that will happen!

A Different Light Bookstore in San Francisco Closing?

That's the rumor. Sometime this spring the beacon of independent LGBT booksellers will disappear and with it an era of LGBT literature might just fade as well. In Dallas, our local LGBT bookstore, Crossroads Market shuttered last year and the gayborhood has not been the same since.

Not only are these niche bookstore important outlets for LGBT literature, they are a nexus of community activity. A Different light and Crossroads Market fulfilled much the same purpose as the Country Store in a small town. It was an outpost offering necessities but equally as important it offered a place to convene and connect with others in the community. It was an outpost of civility on the frontier. The LGBT bookstore/coffeeshop was an outpost of friendliness in a hostile straight frontier.

Now we can indeed find books much faster on Amazon.com, but we will lose yet another connection to the age of networks, and though we might be wired, we are essentially alone. Online communities are illusions not realities, and few things compare with chatting face to face.