Enter the Al Qaeda -- Navy? - The Washington Post reports today that Osama is admiral of his own fleet -- 15 tramp steamers used to stealthily move people and materiel around the world. It seems unlikely that any of them would make a port call in the States, but places like Norfolk have been on alert, especially after last year's INS snafu. I also read that local security officials have been installing radiation detectors to guard against the Sum-of-All-Fears scenario.

Good timing - You have to wonder if the Times had this article waiting in the can. The day after the FBI issues another New Year's Eve warning about five possible Arab terrorists, the NYT covers the search for a technological solution to the proliferation of Latinized versions of Arabic names. That's one top of the problem that the men, going by the names Abid Noraiz Ali, Iftikhar Khozmai Ali, Mustafa Khan Owasi, Adil Pervez, and Akbar Jamal, aren't using pseudonyms in the first place.

Goodnight, John Boy - Et tu, Grandpa Walton? In his contribution to the NY Times Magazine's annual review of notable passings, Armistead Maupin outs actor Will Geer as the one-time lover of Harry Hay. I guess a lot of people already knew that, sorry if I've been out of the loop.

Who knew the Koreans would take offense? The North Koreans aren't too busy restarting their plutonium reprocessing plants or violating the DMZ to register their outrage at the latest Bond flick, according to this story in the Washington Post. I suppose the idea of a 007 "boycott" in the Democratic People's Republic is suitably ironic, but what I've never understood is the inscrutible South Korean pseudo-allegiance to their lunatic Communist brethren in the North. If a big chunk of America was controlled by a weird alien society with a bizarre government and culture --- oh, wait, I get it. It's like how we feel about California.

Ring around the Roses - Why am I looking for a house on Capitol Hill again? Christmas Eve brought the Washington Post's cheery recap of the progress made on the war on terror, including the first public mention of a joint technological-military operation in the DC area to detect the presence of atomic or radiological bombs. (Called the "Ring around Washington," it was dismantled because it didn't work.) But the highlight of the article was the gloomy assessment of the likelihood of another attack here. Noting that analysts are discounting al Qaeda operative Ramzi Binalshibh's boast that United Flight 93 had been aimed at Congress, the Post disclosed that "the better evidence points to the White House as the target." It then gave this assessement by the former deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism:

Al Qaeda returned on Sept. 11, 2001, to the World Trade Center, which allied terrorists nearly succeeded in toppling in a 1993 bombing. It failed, then succeeded, in attempts to kill an American diplomat in Amman, Jordan. And after missing the USS The Sullivans in port in Yemen in January 2000, he noted, al Qaeda mounted an identical attack with an explosives-laden boat -- this time successful -- against the USS Cole eight months later.

"These guys continue to go back after targets they have tried to get before," Downing said. "That's why I expect they're going to go back to Washington and why I expect they're going to go back to New York, both because of the symbolic impact of those attacks and the economic effect."

But then the Post delivered the punchline:

The strongest expression of that view came in very personal terms from a participant in efforts against al Qaeda whose office is adjacent to Pennsylvania Avenue. "They are going to kill the White House," the official said. "I have really begun to ask myself whether I want to continue to get up every day and come to work on this block."

Great. Is that the part in the nursery rhyme when we all fall down?

Hunky Santa - With Christmas nearly upon us, Kevin and I headed to the Beverly Center to give our lists to Santa....Hunky Santa, that is! Unfortunately, we missed seeing Young St. Rick, as he's known, at the Bevery Center mall (patronized almost entirely by Japanese tourists and the gays). But while we were there, I did pick up a fab pair of pleather pants for only $9.99 at YMLA! Merry Christmas everyone!

A Mother's Love - No wonder Dr. Laura has to be mean to everyone--apparently, she never got the love she needed from her own mother, now dead and decomposed. As a casual lunchtime-commute listener of the radio program, I do have to say that Laura's gotten more bitter and even less helpful over the years. Maybe it's animosity built up over the fact that Dr. Phil has succeeded where she failed: criticizing people about their behaviors (or "telling it like it is" in Phil-parlance).

Just To Clarify, I Don't Support Rachel Griffiths for Senate Majority Leader - How little do we care about an Australian actress hurling an insult at an Irish actor? With their regular stints adopting nasal American accents, I'd bet the vast majority of people couldn't even tell you that these two are not from the USA. Plus, we all know the Irish are dirty,dumb and lazy, right?

Homo for the Holidays - Inspired by this article how gays balance their romantic relationship with their family obligations during the holidays? Post your story here on Beaverhausen Blog!

Homo TV - In a warning sign for the future of Outlet, comes word from Canada that PrideVision is laying off workers

Boy Scout Ban - There is a report that the California Supreme Court is considering banning judges from being members of the Boy Scouts of America, due to the Scout's discriminatory policies against gays. Any thoughts about the legalities that must be considered with such a decision, John?

Rejoice! - Yes, Friends is returning for a 10th season, even though it will be a loss leader for NBC. The hope is to build the bench strength of existing shows and launch other reliable franchises that can keep the powerhouse NBC Thursday night from going the way of the dodo. And, these enormous sums of money are without the stars getting a raise from their $1M a week paydays! Let's see how much longer they can keep CBS's Survivor-CSI combo at bay.

Safeway - Not learning any lessons from their poorly-executed integration of the Pavillions chain in Los Angeles (who wants Primo Taglio meet when you can get Boar's Head at Bristol Farms?), Safeway is struggling with its expansion and now trying to sell off its Chicago unit, Domick's (where discerning shoppers, such as Robert Ferry, used to enjoy shopping).

Goodbye, Thailand! Congrats to Brian Heidik, the stealth sleazeball, for his Survivor: Thailand win. He's quite lucky his opponents were so dumb.

Brush Up - If you haven't gone to see The Two Towers yet (or even if you have), here's a useful collection of links to reviews, features and "other goodies." Ben and I will check in after the weekend with our thoughts on the movie, which I am pretty confident will have pushed Maid in Manhattan out of the top spot by then.

The View - Slate really delivers with an academic dissection of Barbara Walter's morning gabfest, The View, particularly, the way that younger women are marginalized by the over-40 crowd of hosts, now that Sacramento native Lisa Ling is out of the way. Meanwhile, co-host, Star "Now, I'm a Lawyer" Jones is working a deal of her own where she's not just a celebrity shill (hello, Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas!) but also a participant in crafting the product line and marketing campaign for Payless Shoes.

High School Reunion - With a shout-out to Tom (and jeers to the writer for relying a bit too heavily on that whore Robert Thompson), I proudly present this article about the latest reality series craze about to hit American television, High School Reunion where the elements of great television, like stereotyping and people still petty and bitter 10 years after the fact will be on proud display for the nation to enjoy.

"A Phallo-centric Terrorist Target" - Tongues are wagging about the "bold visions" of the new WTC planners. (To review the proposals, see the NYTimes and the RenewNYC websites for the best primary materials.) The designs are without a doubt conceptually daring visions of the city of tomorrow combined with sombre and contemplative spaces for memorializing the dead.

The NYTimes architecture critic couldn't be more pleased. But as if in direct retort, the paper's new staff entitle their analysis "Architects' Proposals Have Little to Do With Reality," saying "whatever is built there will not resemble what was unveiled yesterday... a bewildering array of crystalline towers, gardens in the sky, bedrock memorial parks 70 feet below street level, and the tallest and largest building in the world."

Laying aside the practicalities of some of the designs -- they pack way too much office space for a city that already has more than it needs -- the deeper problem lies in resistance to modern architecture. Herbert Muschamp notwithstanding, the weird and flighty designs of many of today's modern architects are not popular with the developers and tenants whose money gets things built. This is especially so in the United States and New York City is no exception. Americans show a a surprising tenacity to tradition in their public spaces. Witness another major Manhattan renaissance -- the rebirth of Penn Station within the classical stylings of the Farley Post Office building. Critics howled, but the public seems delighted by the design.

The art project that was unveiled yesterday was certainly a feast for the imagination, and perhaps some of the concepts will make their way into the final plans. But don't plan you garden party in the sky just yet.

The World's Greatest DJ - Sometimes this music stuff goes right over my head, so this article about the meaning of Paul Oakenfold's move to LA is posted just for John.

Blogger Beware - Today everyone seems to be highlighting the hidden dangers of blogging. Glenn Reynolds cites Norah Vincent who is talking about an Australian high court ruling that the web-posted articles of Barron's Online newspaper are subject to Aussie libel law. Meanwhile, back in our corner of the English common law world, the Washington Post has a useful explainer on the perils of blogging:

The same law that relates to publishing in the offline world, generally speaking, applies to material posted publicly on a Web log, legal and human resources experts said. Posting information or opinions on the Internet is not much different from publishing in a newspaper, and if the information is defamatory, compromises trade secrets, or violates copyright or trademark regulations, the publisher could face legal claims and monetary damages.

Better mind what you say, Ben!

A credit to whiny bitchy people everywhere - Last night's final installment of The Amazing Race 3 was enthralling -- like watching a trainwreck. Never have so many Americans witnessed the intimate details of a nervous breakdown, and I know countless psychiatrists were out there thinking "I know some very effective drugs that could help this poor girl." Yet in the end, Flo perservered. No, wait, that's not right. St. Zachary dragged her lazy, complaining butt to the finish line by showing a preternatural ability not to blow his cool and get medieval on her oh-so-deserving ass. No wonder the producers' editing has been showing us Evil Flo for the last three weeks. With everyone on the planet rooting against her, you knew they'd all be tuning in to see if somehow, some way, Terry & Ian or Ken & Gerard could stop her. But alas, it was not to be. As Jamie put it, "how reassuring to see that bad people sometimes do finish first."

I started out loving the premise of this series (the first time I'd seen TAR), but I have to say I'm pretty disgusted by the ending. I realize it's silly to complain about "reality TV" not being real, but there was more underhandedness going on here than mere editing. The game turned out to be far more about luck than I ever would have expected, and, above a certain minimal requirement, there was no need for any true travel savvy or geographical mastery. Moreover, it was profoundly disappointing to see the hand of the producers reaching in repeatedly to "even the playing field," thereby nullifying all the advantage the better teams had built up. In the end it came down to who could catch a cab in Seattle the fastest. And for that, you win a million dollars? The utter unsportsmanship shown by Flo in the last few episodes, her inability to contribute to her own team's victory, and the way in which Zach singlehandedly brought her across the finish line first, made a complete mockery of the premise that the best "team" won.

Word-Spy - Ben, does this define what we do?

Unhooked - Reading Drew's latest post on the 80's retrospective on VH1 this week, I'm reminded how completely out of touch with popular culture he can be. He describes I Love The 80's as "my generation's first stab at nostalgia." Does he ever watch TV or go to movies? Never heard of E! True Hollywood Story or That 80's Show or The Wedding Singer? (Just to name a very few examples that immediately pop to mind). Has he never heard a Flashback Lunch on any of the hundreds of station that have bought into this nostalgic cliche? It just annoys me that someone who always seems to be on top of the political news almost always misfires when it comes to entertainment news.

How about a do-not-spam registry? - Spontaneous street celebrations have greeted the news that Federal regulators have decided to create a National Do-Not-Call Registry. You will be able to block those annoying telemarketers -- a godsend to those of us who work at home -- and up to 60 million American homes are expected to sign up. (That is if this thing goes forward -- it still needs congressional action, and I predict the mother of all lobbyist battles.) According to today's Washington Post, violators may rack up fines of $11,000 per illegal call -- ouch! Watch out, however, for the big loophole for companies "with existing business relationships." No doubt telemarketers will be scrambling to be added to those ubiquitous "friends and partners" permission lists.

A Turning Point? Part II - I'm terribly far behind on my promise to say something more about the decision of the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of Texas's sodomy law. A reminder came today in an email from Lambda Legal, which is the lead group behind the SCOTUS challenge. In an effort to gather evidence of the discriminatory effect of sodomy laws on gays (even those not charged with a violation), Lambda is asking anyone who has a story to come forward. As they note,

Sodomy laws are used as an excuse for generally denying basic rights and equal treatment to LGBT people. We are branded as criminals and treated as second-class citizens. These laws are also widely used to justify discrimination in our everyday lives -- to deny us employment, to block custody or visitation with our children, and even to intimidate us out of exercising our First Amendment rights.

That's certainly the case in Virginia, where reform efforts can't make headway against extremists in charge of General Assembly committees. I don't have a story to tell, but given the uselessness of political action, I can't think of a more effective place to put my charity budget this upcoming season.

The biggest question in my mind is not whether the Supremes will strike down the Texas "homosexual conduct" law -- I'm so certain of that I'll gladly put my money down. Rather, the question is whether the Court will go beyond a minimal ruling that such law, which applies only to gays, is unconstitutional, and instead more broadly overturn its infamous 1986 ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick. The effect of such a ruling would be to invalidate even "sexuality-neutral" sodomy laws, like the one we have here in Virginia and eight other states.

The most significant high court case since Hardwick was 1996's Romer v. Evans, which threw out Colorado's Amendment 2 barring non-discrimination laws at the city and county level in the state. That case did not turn on the controversial (and unwritten) constitutional "right to privacy," but rather on the violation of the equal protection guarantee. The Texas case could be decided on the same basis, but that would reflect far less than the complete victory I believe is within reach. (The Washington Blade has a good analysis of the legal issues this time around.)

It says a great deal about the shift in our society since 1986 that it is exclusively conservatives who now debate the wisdom of sodomy laws. (The left-of-center crowd, and most of the center too, has long since reached unanimity on the subject.) Thus we have FOXNews columnists making the case for sodomy repeal, noting state courts have already done so in such liberal hotbeds as Arkansas and Kentucky. Moreover, when the Wall Street Journal editorial board dismisses the laws as "an anachronism but one that the states themselves can repeal if they're so inclined," the Cato Institute jumps on its case. Not only that, but in both of these examples, the authors write to support a court decision that would invalidate all sodomy laws, not just those explicitly aimed at gays. In doing so, they embrace the idea of privacy inherent in our most traditional notions of personal liberty. Neo-conservatives may not like activists judges, but they don't much agree with government regulation of the bedroom either.

Meanwhile, back in the mainstream, look for Lamba to corral "an unparalleled group" of "the nation's most respected" centrist organizations to file friend-of-the-court briefs supporing its position, starting next month. My guess is the Supremes (or 5/9ths of them, anyway) are already inclined to do the right thing. So who wants to take my bet?

News You Can Use - What a fantastic human interest story from the Orange County Register! Where's teh investigative reporting behind the claim that "Pizza Thursday had been changed to a biweekly lunch because it was thought it would be more special to the students if it were less frequent." Did they do any market research to determine that? Was the decision in any way tied to the recent excitement about childhood obesity?

Sliding Slope - Today's NYTimes's coverage of final passage by New York state of a gay civil rights act contains the following juxtaposed observations:

All morning, the Capitol was crawling with advocates for and against the bill. There were Catholic lobbyists, who said the act was "well-intentioned" but could lead to the legalization of same-sex marriages.

Also making a last-minute appeal was Matt Foreman, the executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, who wore a bright purple tie with his pinstriped suit and made no secret of his goal to eventually see same-sex unions legalized.

The comments reflect a new reality for the foes of gay rights, alluded to in the Colorado story I blogged yesterday. It seems that the anti-gay bunch can no longer win the argument (in places like New York) that gays are second-class citizens undeserving of equality. What they are left with, then, is the great bugaboo of the age -- gay marriage. Their call to arms goes something like this: "If you pass a civil rights bill, don't blame us if you wake up in a few years with gay marriage." It's an effective tactic, if only temporarily. Just as the public has gradually come to see gays as Will & Jack rather than child molesters and park-prowling perverts, the case for gay marriage (or its equivalent) can only progress.

Witness the characters playing the most prominent roles in yesterday's drama -- a sitting Republican governor and a state Senate leader, also Republican. Pataki in particular seems to have embraced the cause, but even Bruno came out of the closet by publicly cajoling his party colleagues to vote in support. The gov's quote would be a dream to hear from even some Democrats here in the South:

It's not upstate, downstate, Republican, Democrat, black, white, straight, gay. We are one New York and I think the passage of this bill is another important step in the confirmation of that.

Alas, there was little mention of those transgendered who have been left behind by this cruel legislation.

Holiday Urban Legend Debunked! - Contrary to popular belief, eating a certain seasonal item will not cause you to die from poison.

What's that phone number again?? - Following up on a previous post of John's, here comes detailed word about how the Total Information Awareness project could affect individuals, specifically, John Poindexter.

Commercial Closet...of a different sort - Look at all these American celebrities who wouldn't dream of sullying their images in the US, but have no problem shilling for gum and beer in Japan!

Molto Bene - Hey, if the hometown of Focus on the Family can give domestic partner benefits to its city employees, can Donald Wildmon's Tupelo, Miss. be far behind? (The Rocky Mountain News has a retrospective on how far Colorado gays have come in the past ten years since FotF and other religious conservatives pushed through the state's infamous Amendment 2.)

Bloggers I Have Known Before - I just discovered that one of the "star" bloggers on the net, Glenn Reynolds, who now teaches at UT Law School, is in fact one of my former UVa Law professors. His blog Instapundit is widely read, especially in neo-conservative/libertarian circles. It is also quoted all the time by the likes of Andrew Sullivan and James Taranto.

Reynolds spent only a year at Virginia as a visiting professor, and I ended up taking both of the classes he taught -- International Business Transactions and Space Law. I recall he had a brilliantly dry and sarcastic wit that often went unappreciated, but it hit home with me. Typical example: When he was introducing the subject of international trade law to our class, Reynolds commented that such law was so irredeemably boring that "it makes ERISA law look like jumping out of airplanes to fight forest fires." Okay, well I laughed.

So I like the guy, even if he did give me only a "B" in Space Law. Space Law! That was my thing back in the day.

Huzzah! Comments are back! - Sorry about the delay, but please do use them. Thanks.

Somebody call Donald Wildmon, stat! - The Wall Street Journal reports that the big bad Hollywood studios have launched a legal attack on the mom-and-pop businesses who edit popular fare by removing violence, sex and profanity and reselling the family-friendly versions to good Christian households. Surely the gay mafia is responsible for this. While the studios were at first reluctant to sue the "out of concerns they would look insensitive to advocates of family entertainment," they have apparently decided they are more concerned about the boogey man of digital video piracy.

Breaking the Code - An eye-opening cliche-breaker of a column from Miami, in an article about how the gay male subculture known as bears are helping the less fortunate in South Florida. Kudos to the Miami Herald for acknowledging diversity within a community. Now, if they'd just do an article about transgendered Eskimos in South Florida...

Star Treks - Kevin and I went to see the latest offering in the Star Trek franchise on Saturday, Star Trek: Nemesis. The film was a bit disappointing, with attempts at heavy-handed messages about nature-vs.-nurture that simply seemed out of place. There were some rather large plot holes, mostly involving the timelines established in the final episodes of the Next Generation series and where the various crew members ended up. There's also the matter of the fact that baddie Picard clone (played by cutie Tom Hardy) doesn't look all that much like Patrick Stewart. My favorite scene was the softly lit shot of Deanna Troi's eyes (through a Vaseline-coated lens) while she violated the mind of an enemy. Reminded me a lot of the type of cinematography seen in any flick starrring-and-directed by Barbra Streisand. It's always kind of sad to see characters that you've known for years be in a script that forces them to take stupid actions and say stupid things. I'll just keep watching the daily marathons on TNN and keep my happy TNG memories.

And it seems like the enthusiasm for Star Trek may be waning. Not only did Nemesis get beat up by the J.Lo. Cinderella retread, Maid in Manhattan, but the current Star Trek TV show, Enterprise, also seems to be struggling. While it's possible that some realignment to attract younger audiences and more women may help save this latest version of the franchise, judging by people I know, they may be missing an untapped market by not explicitly going after the gay crowds. I actually rather enjoy the self-referential storylines on Enterprise which acknowledge a future history, as oxymoronic as that may sound. I just hope that UPN can market it better, because I do think the show has promise, if it can reach the right audience.

Reforming Reform - The NY Times provides a peek into the bureaucratic woes that are keeping the private management of Philadelphia's public schools from turning around. It's one small example of how even with caring, seasoned staff, the red tape and culture built up over the years can seem impossible to overcome.

What about the "T"? - New York State is poised tomorrow to pass a sweeping gay rights bill prohibiting discrimination in housing, credit and public accomodations. It's landmark legislation which will help bring basic civil rights protections to another 19 million Americans, but there's just one tiny hold up. While the bill looks like it could make it through the state Senate for the first time in 31 years, its own sponsors are questioning whether it must first be amended to include the transgendered, according to a story in today's NYTimes.

Now call me an unreconstructed Southern dullard, but when you live in a state that still punishes sodomy as a felony, this seems like a small problem to contend with.

Goose is cooked - The cartoonists have barely started to weigh in on C. Trent Lott, and already the handicappers are saying he's gone. Over the weekend, Lott lost the backing of his Senate second-in-command, and the White House is not coming to his aid. It seems the Mayberry Machiavellis are incensed that Lott is upsetting their plans for outreach to the black community. In a clumsy move, Lott asked Colin Powell and Condi Rice for statements defending him, and they have dissed him. The NYTimes also had a long retrospective on Lott's life "in the shadows of segregation." In a highlight, the story recounts how the pro-integration editor of the local newspaper in Lott's home town once received

a letter from a woman who told him that if he did not publish her letter it would prove "you are truly an integrationist and I hope you not only get a hole through your office door but through your stupid head." It was signed Iona W. Lott — Mr. Lott's mother. "I called her, asked if she'd sent it to me, and she said she certainly had sent it to me and she meant every word," said [the editor], now 84.

Think that's what Lott meant when he asserted:

I could never support — or seek support from — a group that disdained or demeaned people because of their race. I grew up in a home where you didn't treat people that way, and you didn't stand with anyone foolish or cruel enough to do so.

Meanwhile, down in the Delta, local coverage has highlighted the feeling by some Mississippians that the Yankees are picking on them again. Maybe they aren't being paranoid -- but then again, maybe electing someone like Lott is a good reason to get picked on.

Cooking Goose - The NYTimes checks in on how Martha is doing, and finds she's hanging in there.

Boy Band Confidential - It's official: Justin Timberlake is the coolest straight person of 2002. I suppose it's a mere coincidence that the Advocate's December cover article on our "allies" just happened to pick a 21-year-old hottie. (Good move on the haircut, Justin.) I've actually heard good things about his new album Justified, and it can't be bad that Michael Jackson is pissed off that a person whiter than he is being called the new king of pop. And lets not forget that racy photo spread and interview Justin did for tres hip Euro fashion mag Arena Homme Plus last year. True, the edgy Fight Club-inspired images of a bloodied Justin sporting a shaved head were withdrawn in the aftermath of 9/11. Timberlake had defended the pictures, by photog Steven Klein, but after everything changed, he agreed to pulling them off the shelves. Maybe JT is worth the buzz. His Advocate interview shows a remarkably enlightened attitude towards gay friends and gay fans. How far we've come in a decade! (Paging Mark Wahlberg...) And just look at how popular he is with the N'Sync slash crowd.

Legal Times - The Philadelphia Bar Association is touting its nomination of Andrew A. Chirls, a class-action litigator noted for his involvement in the FenPhen cases, as the first openly gay head of a major metropolitan bar.

Gay Chief - Following the election of the second lesbian police chief in the US, comes the outing of the first openly gay police chief, right here in my own backyard of Suisun City, a non-descript place most people travelling between SF and Sacramento have never even noticed. Seems as though coming out may be a ploy to deflect other criticism...so will that mean that the gay community will come to embrace and defend him because he's gay? We'll see how the story plays out.

Meanwhile, reports on bullying and teasing show that gay kids (or kids perceived to be gay) benefit from the assistance of straight allies who help stand up for them. Maybe a first-hand lesson that our friends at Harvard can share with others.

Hahvahd Homos - More fall-out from the Crimson expose of the anti-gay star chamber at 1920's Harvard, previously blogged here. The editor of the Harvard Salient, an undergraduate conservative journal, wrote a caustic letter to the Crimson decrying modern institutional immorality and suggesting that the tribunal's old-style repression of homosexuality was good policy. The author asseted that complaining about "expulsion of homosexual students only serves ... to promote acceptance of lifestyles better ignored and repressed by all of us—including the administration."

Gee, guess what? The letter prompted a veritable firestorm of pro-gay student outrage. (Mostly restricted to postering campaigns and "heated" e-mails in campus discussion groups.) I dare say there'd be a different response at Princeton. It's difficult to judge from the story how much of this is typical Harvard PC-ism, but it is rather interesting that the controversy resulted in the resignation of two staffers at the Salient -- roommates of the letter's author no less. They refused to comment on their action other than to say it was related to the letter. Even the Salient's managing editor shied from endorsing the letter's contents. Princeton's counterpart, the Tory, on the other hand, recently published "Sex Week Strikes Out: Deceit and decadence mark newest addition to LGBT calendar" by Evan Baehr '05. Whatever.

Now, what's up with that Harvard BGLTSA Publicity Chair? Can Marcel A. Q. LaFlamme ’04 really be his name?

Will he stay or will he go? - The Trent-Lott-racism story continues to have traction, and since blog comments are out, I'll post here instead. Howard Kurtz covers the media frenzy in today's Post, his fourth consecutive daily column on the subject. (No one can resist the puns on Trent's last name, can they? Speaking of -- anyone else think Trent is an oddly late-twentieth-century name for a child of the Forties?)

The WP's big story is an analysis of what Lott really thinks about blacks, based on past voting records and personal history. In some respects, it validates my hypothesis that Lott is a "philosophical conservative opposed to federal intrusion on state and local prerogatives." There really are people in the South who hold the good faith belief that the Civil War was fought over states' rights. On the other hand, the Post also cites an abundance of evidence that Lott is a product of his generation of white Mississippians, a group which "waxes nostalgic from time to time" about a different era, when the black people kept to their own. No doubt Lott held different views about desegregation in the past, as did Thurmond, but the Post points out that Lott is in some ways less reconstructed than Strom. In a striking reversal, the latter voted for the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982, but the former did not.

By the way, check out the slur from liberal critic Prof. Jan Humber Robertson, who describes former college cheerleader Lott as "prancing and cheering" at a segregationist political rally. Hey, cheerleading is a little bit gay, huh? Nice. (And let's not forget the percentage of fraternity presidents who are a little bit funny as well.)

Parenting Tips from Drs. James and Laura - Well, the readers of this blog all know the steps our parents took, going out of their way to ensure that their children became homosexual. I'm sure that my parents went out of their way to treat Nathan and me differently, just to see how the results would pan out.

Okay, enough with the sarcasm. Dammit, playing with Barbie and GI Joe, respectively, is not gonna decide someone's sexuality. Looking beyond the arguments of gender stereotyping, I think that clothes and toys cannot be treated as the things that define who someone is or becomes. It's just messing with kid's heads and I find it distasteful. I'll just go back to reading my Nancy Drew cookbook now.

Lottsa Trouble - Conservatives from across the chattering classes continue to pile on poor Trent Lott for his praise of centogenarian Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign. Rarely do right-wingers act so much in lock-step (at least since Bill Clinton left office), but these days they all seem to be working from the same talking points memo. (Sean Hannity is a rare exception.) Even before liberals chime in with "I told you so's," you get the feeling that Lott's comments have already spoiled their fun of winning the House and the Senate in November.

Meanwhile, I've got a theory about what Lott really meant by his comments. (The lack of any detailed explanation from the Senator -- as opposed to apology -- really baffles me.) I think what Trent had in mind was Thurmond's Dixiecrat philosophy of states' rights. Of course that ideology was deployed chiefly to support racial segregation, but there are those who support the policy who aren't bigots -- they just believe the country is better off with a weak Federal government. I'm pretty sure Lott is one of those. Is it so hard to get that explanation out to the media?

It seems like a long shot that Lott would get replaced as Senate majority leader as a result of this fracas. Regardless, here's hoping that a cowed Lott would be less successful at pushing his extreme right-wing agenda.

Oye, que culo tan bonito - This photo, appearing on the front of today's Richmond Times-Dispatch, caught my eye. Remind me again how jungle camo works on a ship on the ocean? Yet somehow, it works.

Smells like 90's nostalgia - What's old is new again, so sayeth the Wall Street Journal, in an article that highlights the return of grunge fashion to teenaged wardrobes. The revival of the sound has been remarked upon in this blog before, but the WSJ focuses on an entire teen aesthetic rising from the ashes. Anti-fashion slackerdom came into its own during the first Bush recession, and the possibility of a resurgence has retailers worried. After the materialism of the later Clinton years,

It's all a little worrisome for retailers, for whom grunge is a touchy subject. In 1992 -- the year grunge gained household status and thus was disowned by its originators -- teen spending on clothing entered a four-year slump. That was due partly to a struggling economy and also to the downmarket appeal of the grunge uniform of flannel shirts, Army surplus pants and thrift-store finds. The switch left retailers like County Seat, Contempo Casuals and Merry-Go-Round (once a $1 billion-dollar-a-year powerhouse) in bankruptcy court by 1996. Other trendy chains, like Limited Inc. and Wet Seal Inc., reeled.

Interestingly, while gay men practically led the way for the post-grunge upscaling of youth couture (a la Abercrombie), I never felt the homos ever "got" the grunge look itself. Ben, maybe you need to skip Armani Exchange next time you're at the mall and check out Buckle instead.

Get 'em up, move 'em out - I can see all sorts of unfortunate wordplay arising out of Marvel Comic's new gay title character, the Rawhide Kid. (Actually, he's a revival of a classic character.) Of course, gay comics have a long tradition, even if most are of the type that could not be sold legally in Cincinnati.)

All Apologies - Sorry the Blog hasn't been updated in awhile -- stupid work getting in the way of our sacred duty to inform, educate and entertain. On behalf of Ben and myself, I do apologize to you, gentle reader(s), and promise to do better in the future.

Also, you'll notice we've got issues with our template. I'm going to work on getting that back to normal as well, but in the meantime this stripped-down version should work okay. Again, sorry for the work in progress.

A secure location? What's going on at the Vice President's residence? The Washington Post reports that deep rumblings of explosive blasts are keeping the neighbors up at night, but the Navy says due to the sensitive nature of the "infrastructure and utility upgrades" in support of national defense and homeland security, details cannot be released. Everyone is betting it's a bunker, although the spooks have been known to have other kinds of projects in the area.

Forensics Fisticuffs - Fox News picked up this story about five University of Pennsylvania students who were charged with beating, kicking and pouring motor oil on a Princeton student visiting for a debate tournament. The campus paper exposes the Owls -- the "secret society" behind the incident, but laments that the story hasn't gotten much attention elsewhere in the Ivies. At Princeton, the news came and went in two days.

Fun at the Mall - Donald Wildmon is such a reliable source for what's hot on TV or at the movies, and now he moves into world of fashion and shopping by critiquing A&F -- the sometimes un-P.C. clothier popular with teens and circuit queens -- for its latest take on holiday cheer. As reported by MSNBC, Abercrombie & Fitch catalog models will be stripped down to their underwear greeting customers when they enter stores this holiday season. Damn -- and I've been too busy at work to get out to the mall! Ben, when you drop by, don't forget to pick Kevin up a copy of A&F's provocative and dependably homoerotic catalog filled with "280 pages of sex and x-mas fun."

A Turning Point? - In what could turn into the biggest gay news of the [first?] Bush administration, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken on appeal the state sodomy conviction in Lawrence v. Texas. I intend to comment more on this story in days to come, but here's an early tidbit: arch-conservative Chief Justice Bill Rehnquist apparently missed the closed door meeting where the justices decided which cases to schedule for argument. Still it takes four Supremes to consider a case, and why would they if they didn't think they had five votes to overturn the conviction? This could be very, very good news.

Heading Backwards - Virginia's Republican attorney-general has issued an opinion making it illegal for localities to prohibit anti-gay discrimination in their own hiring, as this Pilot article explains. This during the same week when the press belatedly picked up news that Cracker Barrel has shifted from fighting for the right to fire gays to adding sexual orientation to their anti-discrimination policy. [by John, for Ben]