Fair Park Fountains -Cool Vision on a Hot Day

The new fountains on the esplanade at Fair Park are spectacular by any measure.  This footage was from 2009 and the water choreography is wonderful.  Enjoy and imagine sitting in the midst of the cool spray!

Water Flowing on Mars - Video from NASA

This is very exciting to see what is very likely flowing water evidence on Mars from the orbiting observatory.

Last Pink Triangle Passes Away - Rudolph Brazda RIP

Rudolph Brazda, the last known gay survivor of the Nazi concentration camps has died.  His story is important and luckily he was interviewed for a French documentary recently.  The following clip is a wonderful legacy from this survivor of the Nazi persecution of gays and lesbians during World War II.

American Family Association Tries Rewriting History Again - Hitler & Nazis & Homos Oh My!

In the magical land of Oz that Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association live in Hitler and the Nazis were all gay.  Never mind the facts that Hitler had gays purged from his ranks, or that he sent gays to concentration camps to be exterminated, the AFA wants you to believe that WWII was because of those nasty homosexuals.  No wonder this is considered a hate group.  Enjoy this 4 minutes of hate if you can keep from throwing up.  It's good to know our enemies.

Mayor of Vilnius Fights Illegally Parked Cars

Interesting way to make a point, don't park in the bike lane, no matter how much money you have!

Evolve Already - Video to President Obama

Hug The Gay Away? More Ex-Gay Tripe.

NPR has been doing a delightful expose of the whole bogus ex-gay therapy industry.  Much of the attention to this discredited "therapy" comes from the fact that Michele Bachmann's husband runs one such practice.  Now Salon.com has expanded the look into one of the fringe treatments offered by these hucksters, "cuddle therapy".

I have previously blogged about the bizarre practices of the group called JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) and it's founder Allan Downing. He has been accused of having clients stand naked in front of him and masturbate.  This would somehow desensitize them or some such clap-trap.  What it most likely did was give Downing a nice thrill.

Meanwhile, the Journey into Manhood, a weekend retreat where men hug, wrestle and then beat pillows with baseball bats.  All part of some sort of connecting with their absent fathers crap.  For the record, my father and I were close, he hugged me and we spent lots of time together, and I am still gay.

It's a good thing that these bunco artists are being reexamined, because apparently exposing them in the news and on the Daily Show didn't take.  These therapists are most likely, in my opinion, troubled gay men who can't reconcile their attractions with their rigid fundamentalist beliefs, so they act out by trying to project their "cure" on other unhappy gay men.  The problem is not because they are gay, the problem is because they cannot accept their sexuality and that is a sad truth for a lot of people both straight and gay.

Electro-Pimping - New Trend, Sugar Daddy Sites

Imagine a site filled with beautiful young girls all seeking help paying off their college loans, student debt, etc. No need to imagine, a site called SeekingArrangement.com is just that.  A web site full of young women seeking sugar daddies to help them pay off their college loans.  In earlier times we would just call these people prostitutes and more recently the term I use would be sex worker.  It's an honest profession and I have no problem with it as long as those who engage are doing it of their own volition.

Truth be told I have friends who are sex workers and I love and respect them.  My problem with this new version of the oldest profession is it's wink-wink, nudge-nudge pretending that what is going on here is not just plain old sex work.  The bigger problem is many of these women are doing this because they can find no other way to pay off their gigantic student loans.  Seriously, I am not making this up!

The site operates in the grey area of the law since it doesn't explicitly detail sex for money services.  Perhaps this will be a growing trend, who knows.  It is a pity that the burden of student loans is so great that graduates feel forced into these kinds of arrangements.  Like I said, sex work is a valid career choice, but my problem is the coercive aspect of the transaction and the illusion that it is anything but what it is.

Oh well, you say "ba-nah-na," I say "ba-nan-uh." We live in interesting times.

Sean Hayes Returns to TV Sitcoms

One of my favorite actors, Sean Hayes will be returning to television in a new sitcom on NBC.  Details have not been announced, but I will be delighted to see him back.  His most memorable role was that of "Jack" on the ground-breaking sitcom, Will & Grace.

Can't wait!

Huffington Post/AOL Uses Photo from Folsom Street Fair to Illustrate Singapore Caning

OK, this is just bad journalism and a slap in the face to human rights advocates and the BDSM community. Huffington Post/AOL ran a story today about a tourist in Singapore who groped a woman in a nightclub and was sentences to a caning.  As anyone who understands the brutal system of justice in Singapore knows caning as practiced by the police there is not consensual and leaved permanent scars and often broken bones. 

To use a photo from a celebration of consensual BDSM/Leather as an illustration is either just ignorant or intentionally misleading. 

I would expect better from Huffington Post, but I guess truth is not an issue anymore since they sold to AOL.