Pansy Bait

I despise politics. I loathe most politicians. I am particularly nauseated by the vomitous mania over the numerous faults of the two Democratic candidates, and the fart-gas free ride McCramps is getting.

Between the Wright brouhaha, and the Pansy blurt endorsement it's all rather stupid.

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley used the word “pansy” in his Hillary Clinton endorsement. Said Easley, “[Mrs. Clinton] makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.”

Fuck you, Easley, you little weed. And Fuck Clinton for standing by for this idiocy. Rev. Wright, STFU. McCain, you're just a gigolo to Cindy's millions.

They're all whores, filthy dirty two-faced split-tongued whores.

Now you see why I don't blog about politics.

Mixed Out

The Chron has a funny article about the death of the Mix Tape Age.

Yesterday, we had a block sale on my street, and we basically blocked all car traffic with a couple of lawn chairs. Twas cool. I got rid of some stuff. But the saddest are the tumbled pile of cassette tapes I haven't touched in years, sort of melting in the sun.

I still have my mix tapes, more than 100, with colorful labels that typify the mood of the tapes, or titles like Halloween 94, Lunge, Desert Air, etc.

I was discussing the technical hoohaw of converting these mixes onto disc or mp3s, etc., for a while, but nobody's mentioned a specific product that will do it. Any assistance appreciated. I hate shopping at Circuit City without knowing what I should get.

Anyway, it's incredibly sunny again. I'm going shopping for simpler things; vegetables.

Gay Toys

Have None of Gunrunning

Some people still don't get the breadth of China's damage on the world. Not only are they killing Tibetans and repressing their state, they're the world's worst polluter, and they sell guns to terrorist dictatorships, specifically Zimbabwe.

Athlete and activist Leigh-Ann Naidoo, one of the most inspirational people I met and interviewed at Gay Games VII, reminds us about a petition effort to at least make ourselves more aware, and bring a voice of protest to the continued genocide in Africa, supported by China.

Dockworkers in South Africa have blocked a Chinese arms boat from reaching Zimbabwe... but the crackdown continues. As the ship moves up the Southern African coast looking for a new port--and China weighs whether to recall the weapons--African unions, citizen groups, and church organizations are launching a campaign to stop arms from fueling the Zimbabwe crisis.

Avaaz is joining with them and a global coalition including Oxfam, Amnesty, and IANSA to build support throughout Africa and round the world. Stopping the arms is a concrete step leaders can take to help bring justice to Zimbabwe. Add your name below now--we hope to unveil the petition in Southern Africa before next week!

Update: Desmond Tutu has joined the call.

Sign up now.

Moving On

For the past few weeks, for some reason, or no reason, I've been meeting, in person, and online, old ACT UP alumni.

On MySpace, LinkIn, Facebook (not Friendster; I haven't been there in months), it seems a lot of old friends, which really should be recategorized as distant acquaintances, have clicked a button to "connect" with me.

Frankly, I've never felt so disconnected with these people in my life. I scan the popular blogs like JoeMyGod, TowleRoad and Queerty to see the same day's gay and gayish news posted, and rarely feel the need to repost more of the same. Go there, read it, "move on" as it were.

And then, one of Joe's popular pals, the earnest and adorable Eric Leven, posted a few items about NYC ACT UP alumni events, with pics, and it got me all nostalgic for the good old horrible days when we were passionate about life and activism, but of course, dying in droves and protesting. We protested, not because it was fun, although parts of it were fun, but because we had to do it.

And amid all this, a few weeks ago, one of the ACT UP alums with whom I was never close, but thought I admired, showed up in SF. After an initial polite greeting, the second time I saw him, I made a reference to our having a communal activist past as I introduced him to a friend, to which the guy said, "You need to move on."

Um, dude? I have; 3,000 miles and 17 years, in fact. Everybody else with whom I've sorta reconnected didn't seem to have a problem mentioning "the old days," and some back in New York were happy to talk on a panel (last night) about those days. It also seemed worthy of some media attention.

And while Cyclizen is by no means a bestseller, it's interested some people who are still curious about that strange vibrant desperate time in our culture.

At the same time, some people want to put it all away. They may not be ashamed of their past, but we certainly couldn't get away with half of the things we did in those days, or we'd end up in Guantanamo gulag.

I even passed on participating in Sarah Schulman's ACT UP Oral History Project, not because I was ashamed, but I wanted to tell my version of things my way, i.e. through my last two novels, not as an online talking head cornered into participating out of some form of obligation.

My participation wasn't that pivotal or important, "decorations committee" I like to say. Maybe it was the fact that Sarah and her crew got $200,000 in grant money and participants got nothing.

Maybe it was having no control over what would go in ("Unedited tapes of the interviews can be viewed at the San Francisco Main Library and the New York Public Library"), and like my past discussions with other alums that were either nostalgic or unpleasant, I didn't want to have to explain why I haven't done much since then, except write two somewhat ignored novels about it all.

Maybe it was the fact that at the time (2003) I wasn't getting much work at the time, and having Google results for my link to a radical activist organization wasn't a swift career move, just like having been on the staff of OutWeek, while historically fabulous, wasn't great to have at the top of my resume back in 1992, which was part of why I left New York and moved to San Francisco.

Maybe it was the forceful way Sarah invited herself to come to my home to do the interview, when I wanted to do it somewhere else, and I'd just done about half a dozen TV/film interviews in those years about the LGBT sports movement that were so chopped up and unflattering that I wasn't interested in doing anything like that again, and suddenly got all "Amish" about having myself captured on tape.

Or maybe, as that bitchy "Swim Team" ACT UP alum suggested, I'd already "moved on."

Pervaliterary

Yes, I've fallen under the influence of the "Perverts Put Out" gang (actually I volunteered) and will be reading selected scenes - the sex scenes- from my third novel, Cyclizen (about a horny bike messenger suffering from post-activist ennui). At least, I'll read some of them, the best ones, maybe just the strange ones. Have I mentioned that there's a lot of sex in Cyclizen?

I haven't been part of a reading where people [pay money, so I figure I should make mine worth at least $3. I feel so cheap and valuable at the same time.

Also reading will be these illustrious talents: Kirk Read, Steven Schwartz, horehound stillpoint and Fran Varian.

Simon Sheppard and Dr. Carol Queen cohost Saturday, April 19, 7:30pm, at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 Mission St. at 11th. $10-$15. www.sexandculture.org

[No, the comic book cover has nothing to do with this post.]

Nazinger Invades

New York and Washington D.C. are under thick armed cop, SWAT and Federal agent security, and you're paying for it!

Why? Because the world's most evil drag queen, Pope Nazinger, has swooped in with his minions to make a lame excuse for being the mastermind of the biggest child sex abuse scandal in global history. Nazinger is also meeting with Chimpoleon, the grandson of the U.S.' biggest Nazi money-launderer, Prescott Bush. They have a lot in common, but Nazinger snubbed him by not eating at the same table. Smell her!

Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'
The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

The Panorama special, Sex Crimes And The Vatican, investigates the details of this little-known document for the first time. The programme also accuses the Catholic Church of knowingly harbouring paedophile clergymen. It reveals that priests accused of child abuse are generally not struck off or arrested but simply moved to another parish, often to reoffend. It gives examples of hush funds being used to silence the victims.

Before being elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, the pontiff was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger who had, for 24 years, been the head of the powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of The Faith, the department of the Roman Catholic Church charged with promoting Catholic teachings on morals and matters of faith. An arch-Conservative, he was regarded as the 'enforcer' of Pope John Paul II in cracking down on liberal challenges to traditional Catholic teachings.

Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis - Latin for The Crime of Solicitation - which laid down the Vatican's strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.

So, what are the gullible Catholics doing? Filling two stadiums, waving flags and bowing down before the Prada slipper-wearing former Nazi.

But really, is anyone ever an ex-Nazi?

McBush

Big 'Mo

Dale Earnhart Jr.'s a Big 'mo and so am I.
Excuse me, he's mo' (more, i.e., the ridiculously named candy bar has more chocolate in it or something) and I'm a 'mo (homo, as in -sexual).
It's amazing how an apostrophe can change everything.

It's a beautiful sunny day. I'm off to get my spare bike fixed, and ride around on the other one.

Go outside. Do it now, ya big 'mo.

Tibet and Torches

UPDATE: Oh my, a messy chaotic shell game was played downtown for the fiasco of a torch run.

Overhead at work, the frickin' media choppers are fluttering away, and after the first torch runner was guided into a Pier building, she disappeared.

It's MIA for Torchy. The following bait and switch, seen as a grand plan by Mayor Gavin Newsom and USOC's Peter Ubberroth, is actually a clear example of the deceitful tactics of the Bejing Olympics host.

What a mess. Hundreds of pro-China flag wavers, bused in from the 'burbs, and cordoned pro-Tibet peeps, are separated in a police state Embarcadero.


Of course, an amusing form of infiltration activism occured when Majora Carter, a prominent activist from The Bronx, took out a concealed Tibet flag before being abruptly shoved away by Chinese "Torch Security Guards," who many torchbearers in other cities called "thugs."

Since the route was cut in half, torchbearers were paired off. Carter happened to be paired with gay HIV-positive Latino John Caldera.

For replay coverage, including blathering old guard apologist doublespeak and pro-China crap, as well as obsessive helicopter shots, visit ABC 7 News.com.

According to CBS News, the Chinese media reported that the relay went without a hitch, and the route was never changed.
----

Last night, I stopped by the early part of the Tibet vigil at UN Plaza. It's so nice to live near "Protest Central." It was cold, I was hungry, and didn't stay long, and the official media bleachers blocked pretty much everybody's view. But it got the message out.

I haven't downloaded my pics yet, but SF Gate has some great coverage. The local media's going way long on their coverage.

Right now, people are downtown, protesting, while thousands of others line the Embarcadero to watch 79 people hand off a burning stick in a ritual that was actually re-introduced to the modern Olympics by - guess who? the Nazis. Foolish people who say "The Olympics aren't about politics" need to be reminded of that fact.

Down in Flames?

Olympic Torch Protesters Scale Golden Gate Bridge
Three people protesting China's human rights record and the impending arrival of the Beijing Olympic torch climbed up the Golden Gate Bridge Monday and tied the Tibetan flag and two banners to its cables.

The banners read "One World, One Dream. Free Tibet" and "Free Tibet '08."

One of the climbers was Laurel Sutherlin from the San Francisco
Bay area. Speaking to CBS 5 live via his cell phone while hanging from a bridge cable, Sutherlin said he and his fellow climbers were urging the International Olympic Committee to ask China not to allow the torch to go through Tibet.

"We're demanding that the International Olympic committee immediately removes Tibet from the torch relay route," added Kate Waznow, campaign manager for Students of Free Tibet, which staged the demonstration.

The protesters wore helmets and harnesses as they made their way up the cables running next to the south tower of the famed span that connects the city of San Francisco to Marin County.

The climb had the group suspended about 150 feet above traffic, said Mary Ziegenbien, a spokeswoman with the California Highway Patrol.

The torch arrives in SF on Wednesday, but things are already getting interesting.




Torch draws protest fury in London's Olympic run

In a fresh bid by protesters to use the Beijing Summer Olympics as an opportunity to highlight China's human rights record, thousands of demonstrators crowded into the streets of central London on Sunday and turned the Olympic torch relay into a series of angry scuffles and melees. The police said that at least 30 people had been arrested.



Protests halt Paris torch relay early

Organizers canceled the final leg of the Olympic run through Paris after chaotic protests Monday, snuffing out the torch and putting it aboard a bus in a humiliating concession to protesters decrying China's human rights record.

Worried officials extinguished the torch and placed it on the bus five times throughout the day as protesters tried to grab the torch and block the relay. At least two activists got almost an arm's length away before they were seized by police.

Another protester threw water at the torch but failed to put it out before being taken away.


Clinton: Bush should not open Olympics
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on President Bush to stay away from the Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing this summer.

The Democratic presidential candidate cites the recent unrest in Tibet and questions about China's relationship with Sudan.

The New York senator said Monday, "The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for presidential leadership." She said Bush should not plan on attending the ceremonies "absent major changes by the Chinese government."

City taps lesbian, gay man as Olympic torch bearers
San Francisco has included at least two members of the LGBT community in its picks of Olympic torchbearers: award-winning journalist Helen Zia and longtime AIDS survivor John Caldera.

Another 46 people will help carry the Olympic flame Wednesday, April 9 as it makes its way along a six-mile course along San Francisco's waterfront. The additional torchbearers were selected by Newsom; Beijing organizers; the United States Olympic Committee; and the relay's corporate sponsors: the Coca-Cola Company, Lenovo, and Samsung.

While he said he did consider dropping out due to the violence in Tibet, ultimately Caldera decided he could not let the opportunity pass by.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. No one in my family has been a torchbearer," said Caldera. "Those who want to protest should be able to protest. I just hope I don't get hit with tomatoes."

Your Gayest Look

I'm a week late on this, but here's the chronology:

1. Jay Leno's been telling stupid-ass gay jokes for years, while GLAAD and others give him an easy pass when he comes to their gala events.

2. Actor Ryan Phillippe was on his show. Jay mentioned his playing a gay character on a soap years back. Jay said, "Give me your gayest look." Phillippe had none of it, and told Leno to stop it.

3. Avenue Q creator Jeff Whitty, who had already made video responses to Leno's dumbassery, posts again, giving Leno the finger.

4. Melissa McEwen follows up, and they start My Gayest Look.

5. Hundreds of people post pics of themselves flipping the bird to Leno.

6. GLAAD wakes up and issues a lame-ass scolding press release. Leno issues lame-ass apology.

7. I finally caught up, sent a pic, but posted one here of Eric Levin, since he's so cute.

8. You take a picture of yourself and send it to My Gayest Look, giving Jay "your gayest look," complain to NBC execs (info, video of the show, on My Gayest Look) and join the blog-olution of people who've had it with BigChin's idiocy.

9. In a few months, Jay will make even more lame-ass gay jokes.

Saud-omy

Saudi Arabia is prime source of terror funds, U.S. says

Treasury official expresses frustrations with the administration's efforts to force action by the kingdom. A Senate panel orders a review.

by Josh Meyer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 2, 2008

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia remains the world's leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow, the Bush administration's top financial counter-terrorism official said Tuesday.

Stuart A. Levey, a Treasury undersecretary, told a Senate committee that the Saudi government had not taken important steps to go after those who finance terrorist organizations or to prevent wealthy donors from bankrolling extremism through charitable contributions, sometimes unwittingly.

"Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and to the Taliban than any other place in the world," Levey said under questioning.

U.S. officials have previously identified Saudi Arabia as a major source of funding for extremism. But Levey's comments were notable because, although reluctant to directly criticize a close U.S. ally, he acknowledged frustration with administration efforts to persuade the Saudis and others to act.


Saudis 'brace for nuclear war' after Cheney visit.

Popular government-guided Saudi newspaper Okaz recently reported that the Saudi Shura Council approved of nuclear fallout preparation plans only a day after US Vice President Dick Cheney met with the Kingdom's high ranking officials, including King Abdullah.

Bush's $20 billion arms deal with Saudis.

Earlier, in the United Arab Emirates, Bush told a gathering of entrepreneurs and others that he wanted them to understand that America respects their religion.

"We want to work together for the sake of freedom and peace," he said.