LGBTQ news and entertainment
Katherine McPhee sings “Beautiful” in this advance video from the upcoming NBC series SMASH about the journey of a cast and creative team bringing a production to Broadway.
Love the scenes on a real Broadway stage and in rehearsal rooms where I’ve actually auditioned.
The more I see about the project, the more I think I’ll like it. I’m hoping the series gets close to the reality of what it’s like to pursue a career on Broadway.
We’ll see…
The Associated Press has a story where it estimates the costs of police securing for the various ongoing protest occupations across the country. The AP roughly estimates that these occupations over two months in eighteen major cities cost taxpayers $13 million. Right-wing media outlets are already using this number to claim that the protests are too costly to maintain.
However, context is neccessary to put this number into perspective.
• The 2004 Republican National Committee protests, which lasted for a single week and took place in a single location, cost $50 million to secure.
• A small tea party rally in November 2010 that attracted only a few dozen people cost $14,000, paid for by official congressional money.
• The recession caused by Wall Street’s misdeeds destroyed $50 trillion of wealth globally by 2009, $20 trillion of that wealth in the United States alone.
Additionally, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $13 million every 40 minutes this year, and the multibillionaire magnate Koch Brothers increase their wealth by $13 million every eleven hours.
None of this invalidates a discussion about the costs of securing the protests, but it does put it in context.
Additionally, if the Associated Press wants to probe the costs of the demonstrations, it might also ask why police are using such expensive and heavy-handed tactics against demonstrators.
Anti-gay Maggie Gallagher shows you how to defend your anti-gay, anti-equality views at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
Can you believe she took the time to make this video?
Can you believe she let someone cut her hair like that?
Great behind the scenes video of what it’s like at Chippendales at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino.
Fairleigh Dickinson University recently questioned 612 adults in New Jersey about how they get their news, offering as options traditional outlets like newspapers and local and national television news, or blogs, websites and even Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
They then asked a series of factual questions about the major events of the last year, from the “Arab Spring” to the Republican race for president.
For example, respondents were first asked whether, opposition groups in Egypt had been successful in bringing down the Mubarak regime.
Among NPR listeners, 68% correctly said they had been; only 49% of Fox News viewers answered correctly.
In fact, the survey found, Fox viewers were 18 percentage points less likely to answer correctly than those who watched no news at all.
“The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all,” said Dan Cassino, a political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson.
Those who watched Sunday public affairs shows tended to be the best informed on current events, the survey found. Readers of national newspapers also were more likely to respond correctly.
Police closed the Jamey Rodemeyer case today without prosecuting any of his bullies, saying they lacked proof he’d been harassed.
Rodemeyer killed himself in September after facing bullying that he “could never escape,” he said in posts on the Internet. But Amherst Police Chief John Askey said that despite the 14-year-old’s complaints online about bullying, there wasn’t enough evidence of what happened, and it couldn’t be pinned to any single student.
“In most cases, you need a victim and a complaint,” Askey told the Buffalo News, noting that he isn’t satisfied with the outcome.
After their son’s death, Rodemeyer’s parents shared a story on the Today show of how their daughter had gone to a school dance to take her mind off the death of her brother only to be met with taunts of “better off dead.” The superintendent identified the student responsible for the chants and issued a suspension, taking the punishment “to the fullest extent allowed under education law.”
That appears to be where the punishment will stop in the Rodemeyer case. The superintendent said he planned more education about the effects of bullying.
More at the Advocate.com
Last night, Fox News hosts Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly attempted to defend a UC Davis police officer’s use of pepper spray against nonviolent protesters.
“I don’t think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police,” O’Reilly said, “particularly at a place like UC Davis, which is a fairly liberal campus.” He didn’t explain why the abuse of violent force might be more necessary or justified against liberal students.
Kelly went even further in dismissing the suffering of students attacked by the pepper spray, speculating that it’s not that harmful because “it’s like a derivative of actual pepper. It’s a food product, essentially.”
That statement has created a new viral phrase all of the Twitter world. Here are a few of the best ones:
“Mustard gas: it’s a hot dog condiment, essentially!”
“Unemployment: it’s free vacation, essentially.”
“Prison: it’s free room and board, essentially!”
“Stonings: They’re microdermabrasion, basically.”
“Waterboarding: It’s a really high-powered shower, essentially!”
“Beheadings: They’re really close haircuts, essentially!”
“Yellow cake uranium is a dessert, essentially”
“Rape, it’s just surprise sex, essentially.”
From ThinkProgress: Yesterday, Mitt Romney released his first campaign ad, which quotes President Obama saying “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”
But those weren’t Obama’s words; he was quoting a strategist for Sen. John McCain in 2008.
In response, the Romney campaign has defended this blatantly dishonest campaign tactic as “not out of bounds.”
Thus, ThinkProgress has created this completely in-bounds “advertisement” quoting Romney, in his own words.
Kinda funny, isn’t it? Now – how do you think Mitt Romney feels knowing some people may hear him quoting others out of context, and think these are his thoughts?
Things that make you “hmmm…”
But remember – Mitt Romney’s team says this is “not out of bounds.”