OK, I admit I've been slack here in WRITING some posts and using videos as a quick daily drop of interest or info, but it is valuable!
Well she did, and it cost her. Apparently her personal feelings and her need to be true to herself cost her the Miss USA crown. She is supposed to represent ALL of us and apparently gay and lesbians don't count.
I love America for the rights we have, one of them being Freedom of Speech, but this was not a personal question, it was a question that as a representative of all of us, she was supposed to answer.
Here is a question posed to Miss California by blogger Perez Hilton:
As one of our most revered presidents said,
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt"
- Abraham Lincoln
Mind you, I have an open mind and as I expressed, admire her for "sticking to her guns" and what she believes. Would love to hear your feedback and opinions, keep it tame please!
On Tuesday, State Rep. Betty Brown, a Republican, caused a firestorm during House testimony on voter identification legislation when she said that Asian-Americans should change their names because they’re too hard to pronounce:
“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.
Brown later told [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey] Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”
Yesterday, Brown continued to resist calls to apologize. Her spokesman said that Democrats “want this to just be about race.”
The former British Prime Minster has called for a "quiet revolution in thinking," suggesting that the Pope might not be as in touch with public opinion as he could be.
Especially when it comes to homosexuality!
Blair says, "There are many good and great things the Catholic Church does, and there are many fantastic things this Pope stands for, but I think what is interesting is that if you went into any Catholic Church, particularly a wellattended one, on any Sunday here and did a poll of the congregation, you’d be surprised at how liberal-minded people were."
Blair converted to Catholicism in 2007.
The new convert says, "When people quote the passages in Leviticus condemning homosexuality, I say to them — if you read the whole of the Old Testament and took everything that was there in a literal way, as being what God and religion is about, you’d have some pretty tough policies across the whole of the piece."
Traveling on behalf of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which aims to promote understanding of different faiths, Blair says he believes it is time for religious leaders to reevaluate their texts as more metaphorical than literal, and come to terms with homosexuality, because that's the direction the next generation is moving in anyway.
He says, "I think there is a generational shift that is happening. If you talk to the older generation, yes, you will still get a lot of pushback, and parts of the Bible quoted, and so on. But if you look at the younger generation of evangelicals, this is increasingly for them something that they wish to be out of — at least in terms of having their position confined to being anti-gay."
U.S. officials have taken "very seriously" a plot to assassinate President Barack Obama involving a Syrian man who was arrested late last week in Turkey, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
But the officials strongly cautioned that American presidents are frequent targets of threats that are all watched very carefully, and in this case the alleged plotter did not appear to get anywhere close to Obama during his European tour.
The officials also noted that while Obama gets more threats than usual as the first African-American U.S. president, this particular threat did not force any change to his schedule.
"Life goes on," said one of the officials familiar with the matter, who suggested the threat may be getting more attention because there has been a heavy international focus on Obama's first overseas trip since taking office.
The plot was first reported by the Saudi Arabian newspaper al-Watan, which revealed that Turkish security services arrested a man of Syrian origins Friday in connection with a plan to kill Obama during his visit to Turkey. Obama was in Strasbourg, France, on Friday for a NATO summit and did not arrive in Turkey for the final leg of his trip until Sunday.
The Saudi paper reported the suspect, who was carrying an Al-Jazeera TV press credential in the name of "M.G.," confessed to authorities after his arrest that he and three alleged accomplices plotted to stab Obama with a knife during the Alliance of Civilizations Summit in Istanbul, which Obama attended on Monday evening. The U.S. officials confirmed those allegations, but stressed to CNN that the information provided by the man is still being verified.
Iowa's Supreme Court just ruled today that gay marriage is and will be legal in the state. The decision makes Iowa the first Midwestern state, and the fourth nationwide, to allow same-sex marriages.
What's up with California already?
I read that the Iowa Supreme Court’s web site was hit with more than 350,000 visitors this morning. Steve Davis, a court spokesman, said administrators added extra computer servers to handle the expected increase in web traffic, but “this is unprecedented,” Davis said.
Richard Socarides, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton on gay civil rights, said today’s decision could set the stage for other states. Socarides was a senior political assistant for Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin in the early 1990s.
“I think it’s significant because Iowa is considered a Midwest state in the mainstream of American thought,” Socarides said. “Unlike states on the coasts, there’s nothing more American than Iowa. As they say during the presidential caucuses, 'As Iowa goes, so goes the nation.’”
Three years ago after 25 years together, my partner Dave and I celebrated with friends and had a commitment ceremony. We did this for us and to thank our friends for being in our lives. We'll see if this ever happens in California and EVERYONE has equality in the land of the free.
Always irreverent, Sacha Baron Cohen has brought the laughs with such characters as Ali and Borat. Now comes Bruno, a not so straight model ready to wreak havoc on fashion and the world. Look out, coming to a theater near you soon!
The peace treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin on March 26, 1979. Islamists were enraged by Sadat's Sinai treaty with Israel, particularly the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
Unfortunately not long thereafter was Anwar Sadat's assassination on October 6, 1981. He was gunned down at the annual victory parade in Cairo and it was a shock to the democratic world. His successor was then Vice President Hosni Mubarek.
On a recent trip I was able to tour the area and snapped these images of the memorial that was later built in his honor. Peace is the answer and his forward thinking is not forgotten.
(The following has been reported from a JTA.org staff writer)
Egypt's president reiterated his commitment to peace with Israel on the 30th anniversary of the Egypt-Israel peace deal. Speaking by telephone with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he has no intention of changing his policies with regard to peace with Israel, and that "whoever seeks war has never felt what war really is."
Thought I'd share this article written by L. K. Regan:
In its waning days in December of 2008, the Bush administration refused to sign a United Nations declaration demanding the universal decriminalization of homosexuality the world over. Yesterday, in a key reversal of Bush administration policy, the United States formally endorsed the UN statement, joining all of its western allies in support of a fundamental human rights policy.
"Nothing quite says unconditional love like the evil glare of a Christian bookstore clerk when asked where the Gay Parenting section is."
Hopefully things like that will change with the advancement of our country's thinking, our government's new direction, and letting go of the ridiculous notion that gays and lesbians can't make good parents or would damage the institution of marriage. We need to overturn Prop Hate.
I mean really, how many marriages do you know that have ended in divorce? Last stat I saw was that 45.5% of marriages end in divorce, some say 1 in 3! Whatever the number, it makes one think of bailout, but that's another topic. So much for the sanctity of marriage and taking that vow seriously, right?
So why stop two loving individuals from enjoying the same thing? It boils down to equality, plain and simple. My money is green and I pay taxes, too. I am not a second class citizen.
I've been in the same fun, loving relationship, continuously now with the same person, Dave, for 28 years now. We have no plans on getting married. We have all legal documents covered for our power of attorney and medical issues, but that right needs to be changed. Three years ago we celebrated 25 years and had a ceremony to celebrate with friends. Funny thing we probably had more heterosexual friends there than gay! We are blessed to be surrounded by some amazing, loving and supporting people. I wish the rest of the country had that support.
Believe it or not, but President Obama is going to be on Jay Leno's Tonight show this Thursday evening. He is believed to be the first president in office to ever make an in-studio appearance on any late-night talk show!
This coincides with his Southern California day and a half tour, which includes a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa and a tour of an electric vehicle plant in Pomona.
