Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

Judges Plead Guilty in Payoffs for Jailing Youths – NYTimes.com.

Yeah, you read that correctly – the judges received kickbacks in exchange for sentencing teenagers to serve time in private juvenile detention centers. What the hell have we come to as a nation when kids are sold into months of imprisonment for such minor infractions as setting up a spoof MySpace profile (with a disclaimer) of her school’s vice principal?

I’ve seen calls for a steeper punishment for these judges, who will be serving about 87 months (a little over 7 years) for their crime. If that was their only punishment, I would say it is not harsh enough. But the judges will be disbarred (meaning they cannot work as lawyers or judges again), and will lose their pensions (a harsh blow considering they’re damned near retirement), and will presumably be vulnerable to countless civil law suits on behalf of the kids who were detained. It seems like the punishment is fitting the crime, in a way – they imprisoned these kids for financial gain, and instead they face financial ruin. Seems appropriate to me! Just like the kids who were only imprisoned for a short time but will be dealing with the ramifications forever, these guys will get to reap what they sowed for years after they serve their prison terms.

Someday our children will look up at us, shake their little heads, and say, “Did the federal government learn nothing from Prohibition? I’m so glad we live in a more enlightened era.”

Cenk Uygur: Why Firing Phelps Might Cost Kellogg’s More Customers.

Yes, there is still a certain percentage of the country that is mental about this. They have no problem if their son drinks two gallons of alcohol, but a joint and they lose it. I think this is a cultural thing more than anything else. I think pot represents hippies, liberals and all that’s wrong with America to them. And yes, this is about 25% of the country.

But what about the other 75%? You annoy them when you side with the prudish minority. You offend their sensibilities when you kowtow to the puritan zealots. Every single person I have spoken to says they are less likely to buy Kellogg products now that they have fired Michael Phelps. Not because we love Michael Phelps, not because we think you can make pants out of hemp, but because it seems like they are choosing sides in the culture war. And it’s the wrong side.

Sean Carman: Suddenly, It All Makes Sense.

If there’s any justice in the world, the Olympic committee will give Phelps another gold medal, just for doing more in the Olympics than we knew at the time. Forget all those athletes on performance-enhancing drugs. Phelps won 8 golds on one of the most potent performance-diminishing drugs known to man.

Paul Armentano: Why Are We Condemning Michael Phelps’ Pot Use?.

Sure, there will be some who will say that this latest chapter in Phelp’s life is deserving of criticism because the 14-time gold medalist is sending a poor message to young children. And what message would that be? That you can occasionally smoke marijuana and still be successful in life. Well sorry if the truth hurts.

Keli Goff: Michael Phelps Deserves a Spanking, But Not for Getting Caught with Pot.

This article is pretty much in line with the email I sent to Kellogg’s – I think it’s ridiculous that they hired him knowing he had a DUI arrest in his recent background (at age 19, no less), but somehow that’s perfectly acceptable, while smoking some marijuana (and NOT driving) is an offense worthy of termination.

Prop 8 donor map.

This is fantastic. I love GoogleMaps. Look up your address and see if your neighbors secretly hate you! What a fun and depressing tool!

Medical marijuana supporters fuming over Westside dispensary raids – Los Angeles Times.

Fuming? You’re damned right. Fuck them. Fuck them to FUCKING hell. This is the kind of fascist bullshit that should have STOPPED with the new administration. So President Obama, what are you going to do about the fact that people all over the country are suffering from addiction, dying, and being murdered over TRULY dangerous drugs, kids are popping their parents’ Vicodin and Xanax like Tic-Tacs, and the DEA’s henchmen are sticking to the cushy job of robbing legitimate tax-paying businesses and stealing medicine from the disabled?

I am truly disgusted, and you would be too if you knew how these raids are conducted. They are little more than armed robberies; a team of agents bust into the place with huge guns. Nobody is arrested, but all of the medication, money, and valuables are stolen while the employees and patients watch helplessly. The employees, who are patients themselves, are frequently placed in handcuffs so they can watch while everything is torn apart, and then are released once there’s nothing left for the agents to steal.

It’s nothing more than government-sanctioned piracy.

The DEA ought to be out there stopping criminals and breaking up drug cartels instead of playing the cowards and attacking innocent, LAWFUL tax-paying businesses that provide crucial services to people with disabilities and terminal illnesses.

This NEEDS to stop.

California Courts: Courts: Supreme Court: High Profile Case: Proposition 8 Supreme Court Filings.

Supporters of the institution of marriage had better hope that the court strikes down Prop 8. ‘Cause if it doesn’t? I don’t know about you, but my next big political cause will be civil unions for everybody – and I’m far from alone in that. After all, marriage is a *religious* institution, right?

As far as I’m concerned, the ultimate goal is equality, and I don’t care what form it comes in. So what are you willing to give up in order to protect marriage from me and my wife?

Under pressure, Mormon leaders finally admit spending almost $200,000 of church money to on Prop 8.

Well, no surprise there. First it was $2,000. Now it’s $200,000. Are they finally being open and honest? Nah. They’re fronting to hide a much bigger expenditure. At this rate, by next month they’ll finally admit to the true figure, which I am thinking is at least a seven-digit sum.

Tax exempt what?

Commentary: Ridiculous items in stimulus plan – CNN.com.

Quote of the day:

There is nothing more private — that is, none of the government's business — than the personal decision that a family makes about how many children to have.

Whoa ho ho! That’s a hefty statement coming from a conservative… should I take this hissy fit about the sanctity of familial privacy to imply that Republicans are now going to back out of couples’ private childbearing decisions?

Eh?

Yeah. I didn’t think so.

School can expel lesbian students, court rules – Los Angeles Times.

Fuck letting them stay in the school – they should have a case for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

May this principal be blessed with gay children.

Hullabaloo is reporting on the Christian Coalition’s latest tirade. Sayeth the CC:

Our political leaders should do all within their power to protect, support and encourage America’s children, not crush and destroy them.

This policy would lay the foundation for racism and eugenics because it would seek to reduce the number of children to the nation’s poorest economic groups, which tend to be persons of color and other minorities.

WOW. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at this sudden outpouring of support for our nation’s impoverished children. After all, everybody knows that social conservatives are ALL about supporting the nation’s poorest and most underprivileged little ones.

Until they’re, you know, BORN. After that, you’re on your own, kids! Have fun storming the castle!

Yeah. Slashing funding for public education, TANF, arts and music programs, and children’s healthcare, on the other hand, has NOTHING to do with crushing and destroying our nation’s children, right? Oh, wait.

How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address | David Bergman — ALL ACCESS — sports, concert, and music photographer.

I take it back. THIS is the best comment on that post…

I wish I knew about "provider conscience rules" when I was a teller.

"You want to withdraw how much? And what are you going to be buying? TruckNutz? Billy The Singing Bass? Sorry, pal. But I can't give you the three hundred you asked for, my conscience won't allow it. Here's twenty. That should cover your needs for today."

Pharyngula: They have a conscientious need to control your ovaries.

Great argument from the comments:

The most important reason to keep government out of the abortion business is that, if government has the power to ban abortions, it also has the power to compel them.

Oops, I accidentally pulled out your IUD! – Broadsheet – Salon.com.

Great. Next, wingnut pharmacists will start filling people’s birth control prescriptions with sugar pills… damn, people? Do you want to reduce the occurrence of abortions or not?!

That was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Thank god it finally did.

107-year-old: ‘Nothing but the greatest!’ – CNN.com.

😀

Congratulations, America!

Join the First Virtual March for LGBT Equality – Learn the 1138 Reasons Equality Matters.

YouTube – Anti-Gay Marriage Petition Fraud Caught on Camera.

Riots erupt in Oakland after slain father laid to rest – CNN.com.

The cops had the guy face down on the ground and one held him down while the other shot him in the back. Aren’t we glad the police are here to protect us?

Some are speculating that the cop might have mistaken his gun for a Taser. Yeah, right. Trained cops don’t know the difference between a gun and a Taser? Bullshit. In any case, does it make it any better if it was a Taser? I mean, yeah, it would be better because the guy would still be alive, but is it any less of an excuse? Don’t police know how to do anything without a Taser these days?!

‘Safest’ seat remarks gets Muslim family kicked off plane – CNN.com.

Oh please. The airline can’t possibly believe it behaved appropriately, particularly since even the freakin’ FBI told them everything was fine. If a white family was discussing the safest place to sit on an airplane, people would just chuckle and think they were a bit paranoid and plane-phobic. A Muslim family discusses the safest place to sit on an airplane, and suddenly they’re terrorists? God forbid people should just be a little freaked out about hurtling hundreds of miles per hour through the sky in a giant hunk of metal?

Besides, not to be crude, but how often do terrorist hijackers worry about the safest place for them to sit on a plane they’re going to crash?

Who’s 2008’s Homo Hero of the Year? / Queerty.

As one of the protesters, I personally saw the changes in the way the LAPD treated the crowds. Following a march in Silver Lake through mostly empty corporate buildings, a group of 300 or so protesters, including your editor, felt that protesting was more about taking your message to everyday people than preaching to the choir and so left the area and marched on Hollywood. The police responded quickly and blocked the advancing path of protesters. For a few minutes, the police stood shoulder-to-shoulder, inches away from a crowd shouting to let them pass.

And then a call came. Everyone could tell something had changed as the police started to relax. An officer on a bullhorn shouted, “We’re going to let you march. We just need to set up the route. We thank you for your cooperation.” There was no doubt who ordered the go-ahead: It was LAPD Chief William Bratton.

In that moment, in the eyes of those marching, the LAPD became an ally of the gay community. When a mobile signboard appeared in front of protesters saying “Please move the right. We’ll be moving shortly,” they laughed at how quickly a tense stand-off had turn to mutual cooperation. When another group marched from downtown LA to Hollywood on the National Day of Impact, the exhausted group of protesters blocking the intersection of Hollywood & Highland thanked the LAPD for escorting them and broke into a sustained applause for LA’s finest.

Pam’s House Blend:: Echoes From A Birmingham Jail (Part One).

To me, a Black Gay man who has endured both racism and heterosexism, and who sees no difference in the kind of discrimination they generate, this debate has always sounded silly. That said, I find it outrageous that some anti-segregation veterans would argue that Black folk have an exclusive claim to the term Civil Rights, and that no other movement dare use it. Excuse me? Have these folks never heard of the Women’s Rights movement? The Farmworkers’ movement? The Disabled Rights movement? I don’t recall hearing any objections to those groups using the language. I find it even more outrageous that some idiotic Lesbian and Gay pundits lend this argument credence.

The Problem for Gays with Rick Warren — and Obama – TIME.

The Bilerico Project | Please Don’t Divorce….

Amazing pictorial project by the Courage Campaign…

Prop 8 proponents seek to nullify same-sex marriages – CNN.com.

BASTARDS! No surprise, though. They said they were not going to do this, so of course that meant that we should expect it any day.

Gay leaders furious with Obama – Ben Smith and Nia-Malika Henderson – Politico.com.

Hopefully not a sign of things to come!

Muslim’s scarf leads to arrest at courthouse | ajc.com.

I don’t know what freaks me out more – that this judge thinks he can get away with kicking Muslim women out of his courtroom for exercising their 1st Amendment rights, or that on the news article’s survey asking, “Should Muslim women be required to removed their head scarves before they can enter a courtroom?” 41.42% (roughly 3,000 right now) of people responding answered, “Yes, what the judge says, goes.”