The Malcontent

Happy Gay Day, Hypocrites Edition

So would what happened today in 1980 be like if she were caught on camera saying orange juice tastes like piss?

Happy Gay Day, Leelee Lie Lie Edition

Jump with me, people ...

Hot Scott . . . Fight (!) of the Game

One team is defending a world championship and currently tied for the best record in baseball. The other is nursing a 98 year title drought, while fielding one of the most god awful rosters in baseball.

When the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs got together this afternoon for a bit of interleague play, legions of South Siders salivated over the opportunity to not only rub the Cubs' (and their fans) noses in a world championship, but to use one of the best starting rotations and line-ups in the majors to destroy them utterly.

What could be better? A bench-clearing rumble, for a start. After White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski bowled over Cubs catcher Michael Barrett at home plate, Barrett seemed to think decking Pierzynski in the jaw would soothe the embarrassment of, you know, having to play for the Cubs.

A nearby Scott Podsednik then tackled Barrett and wrestled him to the ground. Scott Podsednik. Fighting. Scott. In a big, beefy manpile. I may need a month to collect myself.

After a piss poor assassination attempt directed at my Scott, White Sox second baseman, Tadahito Iguchi, decided to snuff the humiliated Cubs by hitting a grand slam right after the brawl.

Best. Game. Ever.

[Watch video – 4:21, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 4:21, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Happy Gay Day: Holy Shit, Cher's 60?! Edition

She is an American entertainment icon – a strong, uncompromising woman with whom many gay men have identified, and by whom drag queens have been inspired, for years.  She steadfastly refuses to retire from the business.  And today she celebrates a milestone birthday.

I'm talking, of course, about Mindy Cohn from NBC's "Facts of Life."  Happy 40th Birthday, Natalie!

Malco-Update and Open Thread

I'll be heading down to DC again this evening, so if anyone sees me this weekend, please do say howdy!

I have to apologize for my relatively light posting.  Aside from some work-related crises I've been dealing with, I have spent a lot of my blogging time on getting ready to launch our WordPress site and to leave TypePad behind forever.  I'll probably keep the TypePad site operating for a while to get people migrated over with us, and so that the pictures and such don't all get zapped.  But WP will open up a whole new realm of possibilities.

I've already exported all the content from "here" over "there."  I've started installing plug-ins, like one-click translation for eight different languages.  I have even set up Malcontent forums, but I need to put a little more work into that.  I also need to spend some time on templates, themes and some of the graphic elements.  But all of those changes, and a lot more fun stuff, are on the very near horizon.

So given that dearth of new content, I thought I would try throwing it open to only our second open thread ever, to see if there's anything that we should be talking about, but aren't.

No Pink Triangles?

While the American Left nitters and natters about how our nation is on the road to fascism and President Bush is merely a reincarnation of Hitler, Iran and its maniacal leader are simply going ahead and doing it:

Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes

Though my initial impulse is to scream about the discrimination of it all (as there will be no special minority laws crafted without the gays, damnit! See: California schools), I realized, oh yeah, they just hang us over there.

So really, if our typically quiet gay rights groups could lobby for an Iranian pink triangle, it would actually be a step up for those beleaguered folks.

h/t Chad

Update: The National Post apologizes and retracts its original story. So, Iran only wants to exterminate the Jews and hang homosexuals as a matter of course. Nothing at all like Nazi Germany. Very much my grievous error for implying otherwise. Tch.

Say Good-Night, Gracie — UPDATE

If you didn't watch last night's series finale of "Will & Grace," and you actually care to find out how things transpired on your own, then this post will be filled with spoilers aplenty.  But I will bury all of those after the jump.

It seems a little hard to find more than a handful of gays who are genuinely mourning the passing of W&G.  Many of the older ones feel, as I do, that its best years were long behind it; many of the younger ones simply ask, "Will and who?"

But even if we concede that W&G reinforced stereotypes or consigned gays to sexless, "nonthreatening" roles, it was still a groundbreaking series that brought needed messages to people who might not otherwise have heard them.  And for that, we should be thankful that Will, Grace, Karen and Jack came into our lives at all.

An Oil-Fueled Torch

Leave it to Ex-Sen. Robert "The Torch" Torricelli (D-N.J.) to be the gift that keeps on giving.

The corruption-plagued New Jersey pol, who abruptly dropped out of his 2002 re-election bid, has now been linked to the Oil-for-Food scandal.  Torricelli, then a congressman, allegedly tried to get oil-for-food contracts at favorable terms for David Chang – the same campaign contributor whose ties to the Senator helped precipitate his downfall – and his company, Bright and Bright:

Contacted by telephone, Mr Torricelli, who now runs his own business consulting firm and remains a powerful figure in New Jersey politics and a prominent Democratic party fundraiser, admitted meeting Mr Hamdoun “many times”, “probably both” in Washington and New York “and in Baghdad”. He first denied mentioning Mr Chang or Bright and Bright during his conversations with (former Iraqi ambassador to the UN Nizar) Hamdoun. When told about the Iraqi documents that suggested there had been discussions, he said he did not remember mentioning them.

While the Torch's political career is dead and buried, this is the first indication that Saddam's corrupt influence might have reached even into the U.S. Congress.  Torricelli's history indicates that he would have been just the man to have obliged.

Happy Gay Day, Asian Dictators Edition

Aww, who knew that Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot shared a birthday?  Do you think they ever blew out candles together — or just people's brains?

Rub a Dub Doc

As part of ABC's Fall Schedule presentation, the actors on Grey's Anatomy reworked an infamous scene from earlier in the season. In the original, George dreams of taking a shower with the three attractive female interns he is living with at the time. In this parody clip, the tables are turned as Bailey walks in on a bastion of homoerotic soapiness.

h/t Pop Culture Junkies

Daily Freshness

After the Daily Kos threw the great weight of the moonbat hordes behind a political candidate by appearing in his inexplicable campaign ad, AllahPundit remixed it.

If every Democratic commercial were like that, I admit I'd be sorely tempted to vote for them. What can I say? The theme song is far catchier than any of their current talking points.

Terminology of the Day

When newly minted Philadelphia Eagle and one of the hottest men in creation, Jeremy Bloom, doesn't actually stab the President during a photo opportunity, there is much wailing and gnashing of queer teeth.

"Gay Erectile Dysfunction - When the guy who makes your pee pee stand at attention doesn't hate Bush as much as you do." - Tom, Commenting at Towleroad

Gay Bits - Cold, Rainy, Stupid Chicago Weather Edition

We know Katharine McPhee went seven circles of glittery supernova on this week's American Idol. AOL's Kenneth Hill serves up the other gay moments from this week's show you might have missed.

A Georgia court strikes down that state's gay marriage amendment on a technicality.

Yet another columnist explains why yet another unrelated liberal cause should drain the attention and funds of the gay rights movement.

The Bush administration changes its mind and votes for consultative status for a gay rights organization at the U.N. My gay activist overlords have informed me we may never speak of this matter again.

Mere hours ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Federal Marriage Amendment. Sens. Arlen Specter and Russ Feingold celebrated with bitch-slapping.

Tonight marks the series finale of Will & Grace. When asked for comment, 84.2% of GLBT respondents shrugged and replied, "That show's still on?"

Dean's Pink Poodles

You would think the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights organization, would be spoiling for a fight over the upcoming reintroduction of the Federal Marriage Amendment. You'd be wrong. Instead, Joe Solomnese and others have bowed to the demands of Howard Dean, with gay families offered up on the sacrificial altar of Democratic politics. Washington Blade editor, Chris Crain, is having none of it.

Rather than actually defend gay families and make the case for gay marriage, HRC continues to argue that the American people don't — and shouldn't! — care about marriage equality for gay couples. "Voters want candidates focused on soaring gas prices, a healthcare crisis and national security," Solmonese says in the release, "not putting discrimination in the United States Constitution." What sort of gay rights strategy is it, when the attention of Americans is focused on our issues, to argue that our rights aren't important, and refuse to engage our opponents in the debate over our equality? [. . .] Can you imagine Martin Luther King, Jr., responding to an attempt to rollback the gains of the Civil Rights Movement by arguing that the issue shouldn't be debated because rising gas prices are more important?

The HRC can't raise money to defeat state level amendments, and now they won't debate gay marriage when the nation and the media are focused on Congressional deliberations over the FMA. They can, however, come to the rescue of abortion activists in no uncertain terms.

What, exactly, is it these people do again? Why do we need them? Aside from the gala dinners, influence peddling, and activists enriched on donations from gay people and their families who suffer real injustices outside the glossy New York - Washington axis.

Dan has additional thoughts on how the HRC and others are pissing away the opportunity to make the case for gay marriage to an attentive national audience. I think now, more than ever, one of my first articles on this blog is becoming increasingly relevant to the movement.

Update: How much do I love Chris Crain? Let me count the ways. Mal linked this earlier article from Crain that I've just now spotted. I've always enjoyed Crain's honesty and integrity when addressing gay issues, even when I've not necessarily agreed with him. However, his recent responses to the DNC's routing of gay partisans mark his Duke of Wellington moment. Crain for President of the HRC!

And Then There Were Two

Buh-bye, Elliott.  Tough call, but there are clearly a lot of palsy fans in the nation.

So who will win?  Who should win?  Take our two-question poll.

Or just view the results.

Happy Gay Day, Okla. Senator Not OK Edition

Eight years ago, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) made a stink about the nomination of gay American James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg.

Because we all know what a lofty perch that is from which to advance the "homosexual agenda."

Our Own Private IDAHO

A reader sent in this short film he made in observance of "IDAHO," the International Day Against Homophobia:

Hot Scott Pic of the Game - May 16th

A bit late from yesterday's game. My boy also hit a two-run homer the other day - his first of the season. Dan recently pointed out the following links:

This is perfectly understandable.

This just screams intervention, doesn't it.

Ctrl-Alt-Del, Let There Be Light

Slate's deputy editor, David Plotz, has taken on a curious task:

He is going to blog the Bible.  The entire thing.

Or as much as he gets through before his wife kills him.

Plotz describes himself as a "not terribly observant" Jew, one who read the stories of the Torah long ago and wanted to approach them with a fresh and critical eye. 

My goal is not to find contradictions, mock impossible events, or scoff at hypocrisy. [...] I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based. I think I'm in the same position as many other lazy but faithful people (Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus).

With two posts so far, he is already through Genesis 19 and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Despite his stated goals, he is already unearthing some curious contradictions and little-known nuggets. For example:

• Did you know there was not one, but two versions of Creation?  Among other differences, the two stories place gender roles on very disparate footing.


• God does not always follow through on promises, like the one about killing Adam and Eve as soon as they eat the Forbidden Fruit.


• God hates vegetarians.


• The great flood seems like it was little more than a "fit of pique."


• Abraham was far less apt to kill the innocent than God is.

I'm not sure what to gather so far from two blog entries, but Plotz's fresh take is fascinating.  And it does tend to further undermine biblical literalists (as if such a task were that difficult).

Perhaps a few of them should also give the Good Book a good re-reading, as Plotz is doing.

Judy and Eva Conquer All

I am ever so barely resisting the impulse to gush for paragraphs on end about the transcendent Kat moment on last night's American Idol. Slaves that we are to shrine building when a Judy song - and that Judy song in particular - is done so exquisitely, we'll wait for the proper time and place. It will be difficult.

Elliott, poor Elliott. Rather bland renditions of perfectly neutral songs. The selection may have sunk him. While a Yamin/Hicks finale seemed destined, he faded to an elevator top 40 in the face of his competition. With a vibrato to make steel girders tremble ominously, I look forward to spending hours in the produce section of the local grocery while being serenaded by his inevitable album.

Taylor Hicks was forced to stand there and sing . . . and failed utterly. Despite the drug-addled praise of judges, our resident marionette on acid warbled off-key through "You Are So Beautiful." Sensing danger as an army of housewives came to the slow realization that albums don't come with the freak dancing, Taylor quickly set to work to work repairing the damage via over-laden hypnotic limb jerking.

Katharine. My Katharine. My acapella, Eva Cassidy channeling Katharine. More than politics, more than marriage, more than partisanship. If the gay masses do not lift Katharine McPhee on a golden divan and carry her through the streets to victory, I will hunt you all down with an efficiency to make Fred Phelps blush. Yes, the execrable Clive Davis made her shriek her way through that wretched R. Kelly song. It wasn't her fault. It was sabotage! Come now, my pink hordes. Unleash your powers of fabulousness and bring down the Hicks abomination. He's who straight people want to win. We'll not stand for that sort of thing as a people, will we?

[Watch video – 10:50, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 10:50, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Speaking of the strange and bizarre, the judges were once again tonsil deep in the Jesus juice. We've seen 28 Days Later. We know where Paula's behavior leads. By season's end, Simon will be discussing each contestant's personal journal and how shimmery-shiny their natural selves are. He will generously pepper sentences with "amazing" and "adore" and idly flip through a portfolio from Ace Young's recent photo shoot.

Mal has put together all the weirdest moments, including yet another reason to burn Taylor Hicks in effigy.

[Watch video – 2:02, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 2:02, WMV format, low bandwidth]