Inaugural Committee Releases CD/DVD with Obama Speeches and Music

Get your Commemorative Inauguration CD/DVD | The Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden

Obama Supported Gay Marriage

Obama’s answer to the 1996 Outlines question was very clear: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” There was no use of “civil unions,” no compromise whatsoever.

Windy City Times – Obama changed views on gay marriage.

Time Out: Sophie Tucker’s 125th Birthday

“I will never forget it, ya know!”

Sophie Tucker was born 125 years ago today.

Bette Midler, who introduced most of us to “Soph.” Sophie Tucker joke history and jokes at about 3:15.

Also includes a performance of “In the Mood.”

Because Drugs Are Really Expensive

How to hallucinate with ping-pong balls and a radio:

Boston.com – Ideas – Globe

LGBT need to come out to lead America and stop playing victims

Obama Press Secretary Pledges Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”  |  Advocate.com

When the press secretary for the new administration answers the question “Is the new administration going to get rid of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy?” with a one word answer: “Yes,” commenters still doubt the administration wants it to happen.

It amazes me how because so many people have been hurt for so long by politicians, they are unwilling to give the new president any chance. LGBT people were disappointed by the results of the Clinton years and have been bashed to second-class citizenship under Bush & Co.

Is this a form of internalized homophobia? Instead of expecting to be the victim and the castaway, these people should be standing up and saying “Good! Tell us Robert, What can we do to help make this happen?” I’m afraid these complainers instead will be the ones who do nothing to put pressure on the congress, nothing to pressure hate groups, nothing to support the incoming administration who supports us. Then they will look for every potential hurdle or setback and call it a betrayal by the Obama team and look for some cave to crawl in to to lick their wounds.

I say enough of that! We have a new administration who has made commitments to us, and we need to follow through with our commitment to them. We need to pressure the legislature directly. We need to pressure hate groups directly. We need to come out! Why!? Why is it that so many of us are afraid?

I know how it is. I know how a small or medium sized town has only one bar with all of the people in the community hating and loving one another at the same time. I know how even in large towns a community exists from the bars, where we struggle because the alcohol is plentiful, the hustlers take advantage of lonely old men (or the other way around), the meth is contagious, and the sex is seductive. We live in these worlds because they give us some sense of belonging to something, because we feel we don’t belong any where else. I know why we hide in these places.

Too many people hide in this environment and think that is what “the gay community” is all about. This is not limited to small or medium sized towns either. New young people come to DC to escape from home and live an out lifestyle. Good. That’s what the cities are for. Our communities in the cities will continue to thrive. We need to continue to gay it forward. But we can’t allow the cities to be a gay ghetto where we can escape from our families and let them forget us.

Don’t you dare tell your parents you have a new “roommate!” Grab that phone and call your parents and say, “Mom, you know while I was here I met someone and I think I’m falling in love. We are going to move in together.” Mom will likely not be as surprised as you think and may only be waiting for you to tell her. She may be shocked, horrified and disgusted. But  you know what? You are not going to change! So you might as well get the pain over with and let the healing begin now so you can be a happy family again in a few years.

What does coming out have to do with DADT? Everything. The gay community is up in arms because of some pastor who is giving a prayer, but where are posts strategizing how to send letters to repeal DADT? Where is the grass-roots organization to enact ENDA? We’re so damn victimized, we are missing these tremendous opportunities.

Being out gives us strength. It gives us political strength, personal strength, and financial strength because we learn to live on our own. The LGBT community is lacking strength right now, but we are making demands. We need to first show we have the position from where we can make demands. We need to push through a repeal of DADT. We need to push through an all-inclusive ENDA. We need to repeal DOMA. We need to make gay marriage legal by definition in law. Obama cannot do this. America’s laws come from the legislature. When they start there, they have the strength of being backed by the people. LGBT people need to lead in the legislature.

Being out allows us to say to our families, “This is what is important to me. This is my family. This is why marriage is important. This is why my job need to be secured. This is why I can’t join the Army. This is who I am and I am part of America too.”

I have outrage fatigue, too. I am tired of being outraged and I want a new direction. We cannot wait for Obama. We must lead ourselves. We must lead America.

Knicks’ Eddy Curry quote on lawsuit

“Everyone who knows me knows I’m not a racist,” Curry told reporters following New York’s 101-99 victory over the host New Orleans Hornets on Monday. “I have never made a comment like that — playing or nothing.

“Aside from the fact I wouldn’t do it because I’m not racist, I wouldn’t do it because I wouldn’t want someone to play with me like that. That is incredible, man.”

Portraying the lawsuit as a ploy to extract money from him, Curry confirmed that he employed Kuchinsky for three years before they severed ties last October.

“It is like a prime example of you got to watch who is around you,” Curry said. “This is a guy who I really thought he was my friend up until the last four, five months.

“I can’t even believe this happened … I can’t believe it went this far. I can’t believe someone would represent something like that.”

Knicks’ Curry sued by former driver.

Obama to act early to close Guantanamo

Change you can believe in. Barack Obama taking immediate action to right the wrongs of the Bush years without putting us at risk.

Barack Obama will issue an executive order within days of entering the White House to close the Guantanamo detention centre, senior advisers have confirmed.

Mr Obama, who is due to be inaugurated as US president on 20 January, has repeatedly promised to close the camp, where some 250 inmates remain.

The signing of the order is unlikely to be followed by immediate closure.

On Sunday, Mr Obama indicated that closing Guantanamo was a “challenge” and would take time.

“It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realise,” Mr Obama told the ABC TV network.

“We’re going to get it done, but part of the challenge that you have is that you have got a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be very dangerous, who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication.”

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Obama to act early on Guantanamo.

Financial Advisor Marcus Schrenker Takes a Plunge – Is on the Loose

The modern day equilvalent to the “Stock brokers jumping off buildings” legend of the Great Depression, except this one is true!

We’ll say to future generations, “Why, it was so bad that back in Oh-nine some financial advisor jumped from a falling plane to fake his own death!”

The police in three states were looking for the pilot, identified as Marcus Schrenker, 38.

No one was hurt in the crash. According to the police in Santa Rosa County in the Florida Panhandle, where the plane went down, Mr. Schrenker turned up safely about 220 miles north of there. And there is evidence that Mr. Schrenker was an experienced pilot who might have been trying to fake his own death.

His life seemed to be unraveling. Court records show that Mr. Schrenker’s wife filed for divorce on Dec. 30. A Maryland court recently issued a judgment of more than $500,000 against one of three Indiana companies registered in his name — and all three are being investigated for securities fraud by the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office, a spokesman, Jim Gavin, said.

Pilot Fakes Distress and Flees Before Crash – NYTimes.com.

Study: Sleeping well fights off a cold

I’m glad I went to bed early last night.

The study supports the theory that sleep is important to immune function, said Sheldon Cohen and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Volunteers who spent less time in bed, or who spent their time in bed tossing and turning instead of snoozing, were much more likely to catch a cold when viruses were dripped into their noses, they found.

People who slept longer and more soundly resisted infection better, they reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Sleepless nights equal more colds in U.S. study | Reuters

Gay NBA Sexual Harrassment Suit

He doesn’t deny the sexual allegations?

New York Knicks center Eddy Curry

Stunning court papers charge that (New York Knicks center Eddy) Curry, a married father of several kids, repeatedly approached chauffeur David Kuchinsky “in the nude,” saying, “Look at me, Dave, look” and, “Come and touch it, Dave.”

KNICK GETS CALLED FOR SEX FOUL – New York Post