Couldn’t have said it much better myself

Just spreading “hate,” or something. . .

Original sources unknown

Just sayin'

Original source unknown

On This Day in History

c/o Library of Congress

AD 37 – Nero, fifth Emperor of the Roman Empire, was born in present-day Anzio, Italy. Known for a reign filled with excessiveness and despotism, Nero is also noted for seemingly countless executions, including those of his mother, his stepbrother, and many of the early Christians against whom he placed blame for the Great Fire of Rome. With assassination all but imminent, Nero committed suicide in AD 68, bringing the 54-year rule of Julio-Claudian dynasty to an end.

1791 – Authored and introduced to the 1st United States Congress by James Madison as the limitations on our government in regard to personal liberties, the first 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution (better known as the Bill of Rights, pictured) became law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly, providing the three-fourths needed by the States to make it official.

1939 – Gone with the Wind premiered at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. The film earned 10 Academy Awards (a record that stood for 20 years) and is ranked sixth in the American Film Institute’s list of the Top 100 Best American Films of All Time. It was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1989.

1966 – Walt Disney died in Burbank, California 10 days after his 65th birthday.

1973 – Facing pressure from members of the Gay Liberation Front and psychiatrist/gay rights activist Ronald Bayer, among others, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association voted 13-0 to remove homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The APA, for the record, has been criticized (more than once) for employing an inferior diagnostic process in lieu of a more unempirical structure that elevates the opinions of the prominent few. Author and psychiatrist Dr. William Glasser has referred to the DSM as “phony diagnostic categories,” arguing that “it was developed to help psychiatrists . . . make money.”

2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa was reopened to the public after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous slant (3.97 degrees, or 3.9 meters). Engineers expect the nearly 700-year-old freestanding bell tower to remain stable for another 200 years.

2005 – The parliament of Latvia (northeast Europe) amended its national constitution with Article 110, formally eliminating same-sex couples from being entitled to marry and adopt.

Information initially obtained from Wikipedia; confirmed and revised (when necessary) through various sources.

On This Day in History

 c/o Den of Décor

1189 – European Crusaders launched the Siege of Acre against Saladin's Ayyubid dynasty in present day northern Israel, by which the Christians achieved a conclusive triumph amid the Third Crusade nearly two years later.

Ultimately Richard the Lionheart and his army, which included the Knights Templar, made considerable headway throughout the region, and Saladin himself failed to defeat Richard in any military engagement.

1609 – English maritime explorer Henry Hudson, for lack of a better way of describing it, discovered the Delaware Bay.  Initially selected by the Dutch East India Company to find an easterly passage to Asia, Hudson was unable to complete the predetermined route due to excessive ice blockage.

Hudson redirected while he and his crew were near Norway's North Cape and pointed his ship west to find another passage, this time through North America.  Hudson landed in the Bay some three months later.

1845 – The first issue of Scientific American is published.  After 166 years, the magazine can boast of a circulation that approaches three-quarters of a million.

1862 – Outnumbered by 12,000 troops, Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia engaged U.S. Army Maj. General John Pope and his Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run/Second Manassas.  The South earned a decisive victory two days later.

1898 – Though Coca-Cola gets all the press for being a uniquely Southern beverage, a pharmacist named Caleb Bradham developed the recipe for what would become known as Pepsi-Cola at a drug store in New Bern, North Carolina.  PepsiCo was incorporated four years later, which, at present, generates net revenues that exceed $40 billion annually.

1957 – Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) began a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957.  He stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, which remains longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.

1965 – The lovely and vivacious Shania Twain was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

1981 – The Centers for Disease Control revealed a high rate of incidence among gay men for both pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma.  The resulting immune disorder was soon identified as AIDS for the first time.

Most information obtained via Wikipedia; revised (when necessary) and confirmed through various sources.

Sunday's Quote: Gaga for GaGa

Good luck trying to comprehend the success Lady GaGa has garnered over the past couple of years.  Sure, the New York City native has become a media darling who enjoys the full support of both a massive record label (Interscope/UMG) and an impassioned Far Left base, whom she unwaveringly champions, that has coronated her as the newest co-Queen of pop music alongside Britney Spears and Madonna.  Yet for all her self-exploitive chicanery -- the infamous "meat dress" comes to mind -- I find myself struggling to grasp the scope of her relentless and seemingly unlimited mass appeal.  And as luck would have it, I am in good company:

"Why does Lady GaGa provoke so many questions in me?  How can she be so fascinating while being so utterly boring?  Why is she so famous?  How is it possible that I can hear a ringtone of 'Poker Face' during the intermission of a classical piano concert at Carnegie Hall one week and the same song blaring from a decrepit radio in a tin-roof fruit stand in the cloud forest of Costa Rica the next?

"How has she become as recognized and as global as the American dollar?  How can she mean so little and so much to so many?  And how does she contain so many contradictions that seem to pass unnoticed by both her high-art sycophants and her mass audience?  For example: How has she become a sex symbol when she has no tits and no ass?  How can she be called a musical pioneer when she produces the blandest and most forgettable music, not just of our time but perhaps of all time?

"Aren't her fifteen minutes up yet?"
-- from the opening to "Lady GaGa: Fifty-Nine Questions" by Stephen Marche; Esquire, May 2011

Just Thinking Out Loud: Convoluted vitriol

I'm not an advocate of the alternative lifestyle, but people such as Andrew Shirvell and the Westboro "Baptist Church" have become textbook exemplars of what not to do and how not to be.  Whereas opposition shouldn't necessarily denote hatred or extremism, this handful of loons make standing for authentic Truth in this jaded and ever-changing world that much tougher.  And because of their increasing presence, Believers must always make it a point to vocally reject their twisted dogma, as this brand of self-righteousness does considerably more harm than good by creating enemies who might otherwise be friends.

On This Day in History

70 AD – Climaxing the First Jewish-Roman War, forces under Roman Emperor Titus sack Jerusalem.  Judea would remain under Roman control for over 550 years until Jerusalem was captured by the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate in 637.

1504 – Michelangelo's 17-foot sculpture of David is unveiled outside the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence, Italy.  It has been located at the Accademia Gallery, also in Florence, since 1873.

1565 – Outnumbered by as much as five-to-one, the Knights Hospitaller -- a Christian military order similar to the Templars -- turned back the Islamic Ottoman Empire's attempted siege on Malta in southern Europe.

1863 – At the mouth of the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana border, a small Confederate force thwarted the Federal invasion of Texas at the Second Battle of Sabine Pass.

1892 – The original Pledge of Allegiance is first published in The Youth's Companion as part of the celebration of Columbus Day: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."  The Pledge would be revised four times until finally settled upon by President Eisenhower in 1954.

1968 – The Beatles perform "Hey Jude" (pictured above) on The David Frost Show for their final performance on live television.

1975 – U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant [E-6] Leonard Matlovich appeared in uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline, "I Am A Homosexual."  Matlovich was later given a general discharge for his cover story.  He died of complications from HIV/AIDS on June 22, 1988.

There's no crying in softball

Bellevue Baptist Church, a Memphis area megachurch with a membership somewhere around 30,000 people, has recently come under scrutiny for disallowing a lesbian softball coach and her team from participating in its league.

At the center of this contention is Jana Jacobson, who says she was told by Bellevue officials that "her 'deviant' lifestyle" was not in accordance with church doctrine, and because allowing Jacobson and her team to play could be considered a de facto endorsement of an alternative lifestyle that is clearly written about in the Old and New Testaments (not just Leviticus 18:22), Bellevue was essentially forced to take a stand that far too many in the Christian community lack the fortitude to make.

I know a little something about Bellevue.  I was an active member for 17 years, and at times I experienced a certain rigidness that went beyond Christ's example.  But I also know what the Word says.  Indeed I have written about the impasse between (authentic) Christianity and homosexuality before.  In essence, it is not our job to be cool.  It's our responsibility to be right about such matters, as Spurgeon reminded us repeatedly.

Being unpopular among the self-proclaimed tolerant comes with the territory.  Tangled confusion arises only when we yield to that against which we have been warned.  Only those who refuse to see the evidence directly in front of their faces will remain blind.  Hence when Bellevue speaks of a "deviant lifestyle," they are probably referring to something like this:

"West Hollywood (California), with a gay population of 41%, has been disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic which has ravaged the gay male population since the early 1980s.  The city funds or subsidizes a vast array of services for those living with HIV or AIDS.  The AIDS Healthcare Foundation parks a Mobile HIV/STD testing van outside of the city’s busiest nightclubs on Friday and Saturday nights, and again on Sunday afternoons."

-- from various sources (1, 2, 3)

Stay strong Bellevue.

On This Day in History: June 5

70 AD: Amid the first Jewish-Roman War, legions of the Roman Empire breach the middle wall of Jerusalem, conquering the city and sacking the Second Temple, which, according to traditional rabbinic literature, stood for 420 years.

1956: Elvis Presley sings "Hound Dog" on The Milton Berle Show in a performance best remembered for The King's suggestive hip movements which, at the time, was considered highly scandalous.

1968: Presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY, pictured) is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by a Jordanian nationalist named Sirhan Sirhan.  RFK died the next day.

1977: Running at 1 MHz with 4 kB of RAM and an audio cassette interface for loading programs and storing data, the Apple II -- recognized as the first practical personal computer -- is made available to the public at a base price of $1,298.

1981: The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five people in Los Angeles are infected with a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with severely weakened immune systems.  Initially referred to as "The Gay Plague" by Michael VerMeulen in the May 1982 issue of New York magazine, and later called gay pneumonia, gay cancer, and GRIDS (Gay-related immune deficiency syndrome), the five patients turn out to be the first recognized cases of AIDS.

"At this moment, one in four gay men in New York City is infected with HIV, an incurable disease that has infected more than 100,000 men in New York City, 20,000 of whom have no idea they have even been infected.  In the last six years, new diagnoses of the disease among gay men in New York City under the age of 30 rose by 33 percent.  Among gay males between the ages of 13 and 19, the rate of infection has doubled."

-- from "The Plague Returns," New York Press; October 3, 2007

America's Most Unusual and Politically Correct College Courses

I'm currently working on piece tentatively entitled, "Only a Liberal can think that," and an offering from the Los Angeles Times I recently rediscovered only confirms my case.  Listed below are just some of the college courses that could only arise from the Left Wing:

* "Taking Marx Seriously: Should Marx be given another chance?" -- Amherst College

* "The Phallus" -- Occidental College

* "Sex Change City: Theorizing History in Genderqueer San Francisco" -- University of California, Berkeley

* "Queer Musicology" -- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

* "Border Crossings, Borderlands: Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Immigration" -- University of Washington

* "Adultery Novel" -- University of Pennsylvania

* "Drag: Theories of Transgenderism and Performance" -- Hollins University

* "Nonviolent Responses to Terrorism" -- Swarthmore College

* "Sex, Rugs, Salt, & Coal" -- Cornell University

* "Lesbian Pulp Fiction" -- Hollins University

A "New South" indeed

This is what I get for listening to The Howard Stern Show -- 

It was brought to my attention, just today, that the LGBT publication The Advocate came out with its list of the 15 "gayest" cities in the U.S.  And coming in at #1 is Atlanta, Georgia.

Says the article, "...Atlanta is undoubtedly our gayest city -- with 29 gay bars here, there's a reason it's dubbed Hotlanta.  Atlanta's several queer events includes one of the nation's largest Prides in October (returning to Piedmont Park this year), and MondoHomo, a May event celebrating art, drag, burlesque, film, and BBQ."

I'm sure Franklin Garrett and Lewis Grizzard would be thrilled.

A lovable group of Jackass(es)

The third installment of the Jackass movie franchise, tenatively entitled Jackass 3D, was scheduled to begin filming today with a theater release targeted for October 15.

Perhaps this should fall under the "Guilty Pleasures" label, but the hell these lunatics endure just to make us laugh, and themselves wealthy -- the first two movies' combined domestic take exceeded $164 million on smallish production budgets -- is worthy of note for doing things that would never enter my mind.  Hopefully nobody dies.

Sunday's Quote: The extra mile

The Associated Press did a story last Sunday about the Boy Scouts of America. Having trained an estimated 112 million in the virtues of God and country over the past 100 years, the BSA is currently at a crossroads with declining membership (that still tops 2.8 million) and demands from numerous pressure groups to include atheists and homosexuals.

Because this bastion of Americana promotes some of the attributes of what makes our nation great, I thought a quote from a former member of the BSA board of directors would be in order...

"Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work."
-- William Arthur Ward (1921-1994), Christian author and longtime columnist of Pertinent Proverbs

Ripping the Bible

Legendary British actor Sir Ian McKellen confirmed in a recent interview with Details that he tears the page that contains Leviticus 18:22 out of copies of The Bible in his hotel rooms. Openly gay for the past 20 years, McKellen said, "I do, absolutely. I'm not proudly defacing the book, but it's a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible."

Often pointed out by critics as an example of antiquated dogma, Leviticus 18:22 states, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination." (Leviticus 20:13 records a similar position.) Few realize, however, that this is not the first reference to homosexuality in the Bible.

Amid the mass depravity in Sodom (near the Jordan River in present-day southwest Asia), a group of men approached Lot, the righteous nephew of Abraham, and said in Genesis 19:5, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally."

It is no coincidence that the destruction of Sodom (and Gomorrah) is recorded in the same chapter, just 19 verses later.

The New Testament offers something about the alternative lifestyle as well. Perhaps most potently, Romans 1:26-27 asserts:

"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due."

Comparable New Testament verses are also found in I Corinthians 6:9, I Timothy 1:10 and Jude 1:7. Why these are commonly overlooked is anyone's guess, but it most likely has something to do with a prevailing sense of Biblical ignorance.

Fortunately -- and I'm being factitious here -- McKellen didn't rip portions of which he might not approve from the Talmud, Confucius' Analects, the Tao Te Ching, Krishna's Bhagavata Purana, the Hindu Veda and Upanishads, Buddhism's Tripitaka, or the Koran (which also forbids homosexuality).

That, of course, would amount to intolerance.