There's just no pleasing some people. Saddam's trial continues apace, proving that fascist dictators tend to be nothing more than giant drama queens with delusions of grandeur. Saddam "boycotted" his own trial on Wednesday, and as usual had one of his henchman do the dirty work of explaining why: "We are prisoners of the wealthiest and most powerful nation, yet, since four months ago, they are giving me six cigarettes a day from the worst brands." Prison without good cigarettes? It does sound rather unAmerican, to be honest. Chad from Cake or Death had fun poking the madman with a stick: "The judge quickly sentenced Hussein to a time-out in the corner, where he remained for the duration of the session, slouched over with his back to the cameras quietly picking at a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos." Isn't it about time we just threw him into one of the giant people shredders that no doubt stands idle in the evidence room?
Josh blew me away with an insightful post about ideology and terrorism. "I believe we need to focus in on the ideology behind Islamism and attack that at its foundations: only its proven, complete moral bankruptcy will ever result in its diminishment. While that seems impossible now, it is by no means hopeless: in the 1970’s, we thought the Soviets and communism would be around forever, and now that toxic ideology is relegated to a few isolated states, one of which (China) isn’t even communist any more." I'm very fond of Josh, because he makes me feel rather dumb sometimes, which is always a nice change of pace. I did have to disagree with him about the "We All Have AIDS" campaign, however. This is the most deeply offensive campaign I have ever seen. If you don't have AIDS, for real, you are not allowed to say you do just to satisfy some weird Hollywood desire to create a faux sense of solidarity with us. Just shut the hell up and donate some money to your local AIDS service organization. And could someone please put Larry Kramer out of his misery already? He brings new meaning to the word lame.
In keeping with my contrarian streak, I also found myself disagreeing with Robbie over at The Malcontent about Ford and their recent decision to stop marketing to LGBT media and cater to the foul American Family Association instead. Sometimes an evil right-wing plot really is more than a cigar, and the gay dollar is a powerful lobbying tool that we should never allow anyone to underestimate. His NYC-based partner in crime The Malcontent himself agreed, "OK, so the left overdoes it, but that doesn't mean that they're not right about how wrong Ford is. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day." Robbie redeemed himself with an adorable post about the strange psychosis that grips mothers during the holiday card-writing season:
"Frightening enough, but then came the cards addressed to ex-boyfriends' families. How long had this been going on? With a curiosity driven by pure fear, I opened one of the envelopes to read . . . well, my life story inscribed therein. Where I'm working, what I'm doing, where I'm living, relationship status - more information about my life than even I'm currently aware of."
Blogger hottie Ethan at the Brat Boy School is in a three-way race to win the Weblog Awards in the LGBT category. I've voted for both him and The Malcontent on successive days, but it looks like Ethan has a much better chance of actually taking it so I would encourage you to go vote for him here. And don't forget to check him out on the cover of Instinct Magazine soon....
Sullivan continues his round-the-clock coverage of the torture issue, which has many right-leaning gay bloggers up in arms. It seems to me that Sullivan has pulled a pretty deft maneuver in choosing this as a pet cause. It's difficult to criticize him for harping on this issue to the point of near obsessiveness without standing accused of somehow being "pro-torture". But seriously Sully, we get it. Torture bad. Is that really the only thing on your mind?
Speaking of flooding the zone, Towleroad has been the unofficial Brokeback Mountain fansite for months now, and he's been climaxing all over the release today. He posts a link to the original New Yorker story by Annie Proulx, which is definitely worth a read.
So git along, lil' doggies! Have a Marlboro for Saddam, won't you? After all, we're all on trial for mass murder!
*feels the Aatom love*
=)
Posted by: Robbie | Monday, December 12, 2005 at 08:10 PM