The Republic of T.

What’s up? Well, now we know. First Dumbledor, now this.

Only a week after the announcement that the character Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series is gay, the fictional world is again shocked with the revelation by Steven Blanc, son of voice artist Mel Blanc, that the perennial prankster “Bugs” Bunny of Looney Tunes cartoons is also gay. This announcement, while unexpected, give new and clearer meaning to many of the on-screen exchanges between the smart-aleck “wacky wabbit” and his put-upon nemesis, Elmer Fudd.

Bugs Bunny was in love with his male rival, Steven Blanc says.

The author of “Bugs and Elmer: A Forbidden Love,” stunned fans at the Academy of Motion Pictures annual Warner Brothers Looney Tunes Night, when he answered one young reader’s question about Bugs by saying that he was gay and had been in love with Elmer Fudd for years.

I wonder if the Fundies have heard about this yet, and if they’ve called the Cartoon Network yet. If not, somebody tell ‘em, quick. It might keep them busy for a while

Technorati Tags: bugs bunny, humor, gay, gay rights, television, cartoons

Update: Carlson has responded with the following message to Media Matters.

Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men’s room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men’s room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.

Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That’s absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn’t angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.

In classic Craig-like fashion, Carlson’s response raises more questions than it answers.

First, it’s markedly different from what he said on MSNBC. How did it go from “hit[ting] him against the stall with his head” to holding him until the police arrived?

So, what was last night? Macho posturing for “the boys”? Why embellish the story with violence that he now says didn’t happen? And as for fighting back, Carlson “yelled and pulled away from him” and was already gone. Long gone. For 25 minutes. Why then would he return? Did he know the guy would still be there? How did he know the guy would still be there?

And was it unsolicited sexual attack or an unwanted advance, of the kind that most women have experienced at some point or another? Would Carlson have reacted the same way to a woman making the same kind of sexual advance to him?

And while I’m asking questions, what park does Carlson take his kid to that has a thriving “tearoom”? I’ve got a five year old myself, and I’m pretty familiar with area parks. But he doesn’t go into public restrooms unless one of us goes with him, and I’ve yet to go into one where there’s any cruising action going on? And if I did, I probably wouldn’t take my kid back to that park.

Like I said, Tucker just raises more questions than he answers.

Technorati Tags: anti-gay violence, celebrities, current events, gay bashing, homophobia, politics, television

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Well, the song says “There’s Got to Be a Morning After,” and here we are. Six candidates in on night. The sheets are a mess, but at least there’s leftover OJ and bagels since no one hung around for breakfast this time. And there are six phone numbers on the dresser. So, who made it a night to remember, who would we rather forget, and who — if any — get’s a call back?

Obama? Edwards? Kucinich? Gravel? Richardson? Clinton? Two who support full equality, and four who support … something else. If I’m ever in a room with Obama, Edwards, Richardson, or Clinton, and I have an opportunity to ask a question, I just have one. They all essentially said that the country is moving inevitably towards full equality. So my question for them is this: How can you lead the country on the path to full equality without actually supporting full equality yourself? (Of course, I realize that by saying this I’ve all but killed whatever chance I had of being in a room with any of the candidates and have an opportunity to ask that question.)

I watched the forum, took notes (yes, I’m that much of a nerd), and recorded it so I could go back and review each candidate’s performance in the cold light of morning. So, grab a bagel, schmear on some cream cheese, pour some left over OJ, and lets compare notes.

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, civil unions, gay marriage, gay rights, marriage, obama, politics, religion, television

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Via Crooks & Liars.

Fox attacks blogs. Blogs …. blog back. I’ve never been attacked by Bill O”Reilly personally (probably he just doesn’t know I exist), but if people are taking on Fox over its distortions, I’m down.

A whole bunch of people are signing up to fight back.

Technorati Tags: blogs, current events, media, politics, television, web

It probably seems like I’m mining the Washington Express for content today, but it just happens a couple of items in the Express caught my eye today. The first I already posted, the second was actually a comment in the Express’ Blog Log, from a Defamer reader, on Paris Hilton’s interview with Larry King yesterday.

She is not stupid, just a completely uninformed human being. She is what happens when you are not pushed to be challenged.

Maybe I’ve been reading way to much about George W. Bush lately but it strikes me that Paris has that quality in common with the prez, and it might make her uniquely qualified to occupy the oval office some day.

Technorati Tags: books, bush, celebrities, economics, elections, media, politics

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is it me, or would eliminating the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine have made a difference in the Whit House too? Know what I mean?

Now the New Orleans/Katrina question is a huge one. Of course there should be a guaranteed right to return, and of course the no-bid contracts to Republican/Bush cronies should stop, but no one

asking those of the candidates who are also members of Congress what they are doing about it. Or why they’re not doing anything about it as African American Political Pundit notes.

Who is watching the store? not Congress, not the Congressional Black Caucus, not Fox News, not the American people. Now do you really understand why the troops are no coming home?

It’s all about the money folks, its all about the money.

Meanwhile, Republicans are giddy over their “pick-up” opportunity in New Orleans.

On Darfur, definitely agree with everything said re: Africa. And if we get a Democrat in office can we finally do away with the “abstinence-only” debacle we’ve been exporting to Africa, which in its own way a kind of slow genocide? And once we “stop the rapes” can we also restore funding to the women’s clinics that offer care to women who end up with fistulas as a result of multiple rapes? The funding that the Bush administration cut?

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, courts, crime, current events, elections, politics, race

[Ed. Note: Updated once I realized that I had the wrong link for Richardson's education issue page.] Richardson just gave an answer on education that has one major problem. He wants to “fix No Child Left Behind.” If by “fix” he means “take it out behind the barn and shoot it” or “turn it into something completely different and unrecognizable” then he might be on to something.

Of all the candidates, Kucinich is probably the only one I could whole heartedly support. If only he actually had a chance of winning.

Gravel actually made some sense when he pointed out how many scholarships could have been funded by the amount spend on the war in Iraq.

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, blogs, current events, education, elections, politics, race

Deval Patrick, a black governor who supports marriage equality, just stepped onto the stage. It’s the only issue not likely to be debated tonight, since it appears nowhere in the Covenant with Black America, and I suppose that’s a small blessing all things considered. It probably would not be pretty. And Democratic candidates are not leading on the issue anyway, and at a time when even Republicans are trending more progressive in gay issues.

On the other hand, the first question out of the box is one about whether racism is still a problem. So, here, at a forum where the civil rights movement will be invoked over and over again, and the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision has already been invoked, we can talk about one prejudice that almost no one would say is no longer a problem, but we cannot talk about another prejudice that is almost certainly a problem for black gays and lesbians.

Dodd just brought up discrimination. Well.

Edwards brought up healthcare, and there are black gay & lesbian couples who cannot get health benefits because they can’t get married. Economic disparities are worse, too.

As Gravel just asked, “When will we learn? When will we learn?” (Albeit concerning a different issue.)

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, blogs, current events, media, politics, race, television

Well, that didn’t take long. No sooner did I sit down, open up my iBook and get online than I learned that there’s been an apparent about-face at PBS. I though Luntz was let go, but apparently the Republican consultant and only the Republican consultant will be giving post-debate analysis after the Democratic candidates forum.

On the June 28 edition of New York Public Radio station WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, PBS host Tavis Smiley, who was scheduled to moderate a Democratic presidential forum later that day, confirmed that Republican pollster Frank Luntz will be PBS’ and the Tavis Smiley program’s sole provider of focus group analysis for the forum coverage. Asked by host Brian Lehrer, “Just Luntz or do you have a Democratic pollster there too?” Smiley responded: “[J]ust Luntz.”

Just for the sake of being “fair and balanced” I’m going to suggest that when the Republican candidates forum rolls around PBS hire Susan Estrich and only Susan Estrich, or Donna Brazile and only Donna Brazile, or James Carville and only James Carville — you get the idea by now — to do the post debate analysis. And Carville should get special consideration. After all, he’s married to a Republican consultant.

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, blogs, economics, politics, race, television

Wow. That didn’t take long. I just found out via Pam that the Republican consultant PBS hired to do post-debate analysis after tonight’s presidential forum has been dropped. PBS initially defended the choice of Lutz (and Lutz alone, apparently) as the post-debate analyst.

“It’s just helpful to have someone who does this for a living explain to viewers what it means,” Kendall said. “I don’t understand why if someone has been a consultant for Republicans they’re incapable of conducting a focus group. If anyone has a concern about the objectivity of Friday night’s program, I invite them to tune in and see for themselves.”

The objectivity of the program wouldn’t be a concern if the choice of commentators had been more balanced in the first place. So there are still questions that need to be answered by PBS, as Media Matters pointed out.

While Media Matters for America is pleased with PBS’ announcement this morning that discredited Republican pollster Frank Luntz will not appear on its Thursday-night programming, PBS has yet to address the fundamental problem with its choice of Luntz to participate in analysis of the PBS forum.

Luntz’s Republican ties, his history of being criticized by his peers for misrepresenting polling data, and his past personal and professional affiliation with GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani make him an inappropriate choice to provide the sole voice of expert analysis on Mr. Smiley’s program in the wake of a Democratic presidential primary forum. The fact that PBS has not acknowledged Luntz’s partisan affiliation — either in its original press release or in today’s statement — makes PBS’ use of him in this way all the more troubling.

Given PBS’ bent for telling “both sides of the story” on issues like the Iraq war and church/state separation, why they didn’t also choose a Democratic commentator to balance Luntz is somewhat mystifying. Only slightly more mystifying is their apparent surprise that anyone would have an objection in the first place.

Oh well, we’ll see how things go tonight.

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, current events, elections, media, politics, race, television

I haven’t said much about the Isaiah Washington debacle at Grey’s Anatomy, which ended with his being fired. To be honest, I’ve never watched the show. (Being married to a doctor, I don’t watch many medical shows — at least not while he’s awake — because they either remind him too much of work or drive him crazy with the details they get wrong.) But I’ve followed the controversy over his outburst, his rehab, his firing, and the petition to get him rehired.

I didn’t feel the need to say anything until I read this.

Washington, who has traveled to various parts of Africa multiple times for charity work, explained his passion for the continent. “Once you get awareness of who you are and how you’re here, then I believe there’s a responsibility that you have,” he said. “And seeing that I can afford to take part in that, I have to be responsible.”

Asked if there were any misconceptions about him, he said: “I don’t know. Maybe for 50 years and the history of media and television I represent something that’s supposed to not exist. … This happened to Malcolm X, this happened to Paul Robeson – this misconception can happen to any man of power that loves himself and wants to spread that love and that humanity throughout the world.”

Now, I’m not knocking his charity work. In fact, he deserves to praised for it. But if he’s drawing a connection between that and his termination from Grey’s Anatomy (and identifying himself with Malcolm X and Paul Robeson in the process), and suggesting that one has something to do with the other, he may have lost his mind or gone into deep denial.

It’s just as likely that he was fired because he has a problem with his temper, and that this outburst was just the first one to make the news in a big way.

Technorati Tags: celebrities, current events, gay, gay bashing, gay rights, politics, race, television

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I think I’ve mentioned before that right after 9/11 I stopped watching television news. In fact, it was right around then that I turned to the web as an alternative means of getting news I felt I could trust more than what I was seeing on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. That became even more true as the drumbeat for war in Iraq started up, and the media seemed to support going to war almost without question or challenge. So I guess you could say I agree with Michael Moore on media complicity in Iraq.

“Had ABC News, NBC News, CBS News been more aggressive in confronting the government with what they were telling us back in 2003 about Iraq, you might have prevented this war,” Moore said. “3500 soldiers that are dead today may not have had to die had our news media done its job. … The media didn’t ask the questions. The media got embedded and went on board for a little thrill ride.”

“It’s not a thrill ride,” objected host Chris Cuomo. “Those men and women put themselves in danger. … To say the media is complicit in the death of soldiers –”

“This media is complicit,” insisted Moore. “The media didn’t ask the questions that should have been asked.”

Think he’s wrong? Remember Ashleigh Banfield?

Technorati Tags: celebrities, current events, iraq, media, politics, television, war on terror

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I can’t remember when I became aware of the reality that there are adults who prey on children sexually. I think the first glimmer I got was one summer at camp, when an adult staff member was “asked to leave” after complaints of “inappropriate touching.” I don’t remember if anything happened to him, but I do recall no one ever speaking of it again. And, given the amount of space available in my burgeoning adolescent gay brain to process the whole thing, I’m sure I filed it away and forgot about it since I needed those brain cells for lusting after and daydreaming about my favorite camp counselor.

Later, as an adult gay man, I was aware that in some people’s minds being a gay man made me a suspect, but since I wasn’t a child predator, I didn’t give the subject much thought. Until I became a parent. Actually, from the moment I starting thinking about parenthood. Then, subject seemed to be everywhere. Now I find myself pausing to read every local news article about pedophiles and child predators, even the ones that weren’t exactly in my back yard, like the series of indecent exposures at a park in Virginia.

Technorati Tags: crime, current events, family, parenting, predators, sex, television

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In case it hasn’t been apparent lately, I’m running a little low on blog mojo these days. Or maybe I’m running a little low on sleep. Maybe both. Lately I find myself still up at 2:30am or even 3:00am, often catching up on blog reading or writing a post that’s been knocking around in my head for a while but that’s too long and/or too deeply linked to write between breaks at work or at home. (You’d be amazed at the number of posts that are published during daylight hours were actually written in the wee hours of the night/morning.) Thats fine, in a way. I’ve always been a night owl, staying up past everyone else’s bed time because that’s time that’s almost guaranteed to belong to me. I can indulge my own interests without worrying about stealing time from something else. At least until my body rebels and starts shutting down.

Of course, if you work and have kids, you know what I’m talking about. You clock out and go home, but you don’t really clock out until well after the kids have gone to bed and you’ve caught up with your spouse or partner (because, if you want to have a healthy relationship you kinda hafta talk to each other once in a while). So, round about 10:00 pm, in my case, is when I can really focus on some stuff I want to do.The problem is, I’m often physically and mentally exhausted. Plus the stuff that keeps my brain functioning in almost-normal mode wears off by then. So, there’s the problem of being able to focus when I finally have the time.

But I’m not getting enough sleep. (Guess where I’m stealing time from now) I end up getting 4 – 5 hours of sleep a night. Six would be optimal for me. But I can’t manage to get in everything I want to get in — read everything I want to read, write everything I want to write, etc. — and get enough sleep. So, I end up with a backlog. For example, I meant to blog about all of this when I saw an article a couple of weeks ago that there are a lot people who are sleepless in D.C.

In the Washington area, there are a lot of highly educated white-collar workers who have come from all over to get ahead.

Dr. David Gross, a pulmonologist who specializes in sleep issues, said there are three keys to good health: diet, exercise, and sleep.

“Americans are very aware of the fact that exercise is important and diet is important. They don’t do it necessarily, but they know they should do it,” Gross said. “Sleep is something special because they don’t even realize that sleep is important. And they don’t do it.”

According to Gross, lack of sleep is a problem. He said it’s a contributor to diabetes, high blood pressure, weight gain, and to depression.

Gross said not getting enough sleep can dull your performance, make you a lot less efficient and it can make you irritable.

To get enough sleep Gross said people have to change their priorities.

Dull performance? Yeah, probably. Irritable? Definitely. Change my priorities? There’s a lot more than that to change if I’m going to get more sleep.

Technorati Tags: family, health, life, movies, sleep, television

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What’s your first impression of this commercial?

Now, what’s your reaction to this one?

Technorati Tags: culture, current events, feminism, gender, politics, television

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It’s something I’ve always wondered about, and it occurred to me again last night. Tired of browsing through all the channels on satellite TV, just to find the ones we usually watch, I finally created a “favorites” list. That means we don’t have to browse through all of the channels we never watch anyway — mostly sports channels and religious programming — but as I went through the process of not choosing channels like God TV and Trinity Broadcasting I realized that even though I’m not watching them I’m still paying for them.

Why’s that? I mean, don’t I already support religious programs with my tax dollars, thanks to Bush’s faith-based initiative? Do I have to subscribe to their television channels too? Why can’t I choose the channels I subscribe to, or don’t? IfI could, I certainly wouldn’t subscribe to World Harvest Television or the Church Channel. Turns out, that choice for cable/satellite viewers is being debated in Congress.

Technorati Tags: bush, campaign finance, current events, falwell, politics, fcc, religion, television

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(With a nod to Nezua, from whom I’m borrowing the title of this post.)



It had been in the back of my mind, as it always is after another school shooting hits the news. I thought of it for a second when I heard about the Virginia Tech shootings, but I pushed it into the back of my mind. Until yesterday, when a discussion on the LGBT listserv referenced a story about Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter. By then, I’d read his plays, his mental health assessment, and seen his video manifesto, all of which brought up that uncomfortable feeling I’d been trying to repress since Tuesday.

Then I looked at the calendar and remembered what today was.

I was at work that morning, about 10:10 am EST, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold began their shooting rampage at Columbine. I wandered down to the conference room with several coworkers and watched the news reports on television. As I watched the video of students running from the school, and heard more and more about Harris and Klebold, I thought to myself, “I know why they’re doing it.”

I identified with them. I didn’t want to, but I did. I didn’t want to identify with Cho Seung-Hui either. But I did. Because though I didn’t know him, I knew something about him.

Technorati Tags: bullying, crime, culture, current events, education, politics, va tech

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Because the inquisition didn’t happen. Or if it did, there was good reason. At least that’s what I gather from this column that makes it sound like an episode of Law & Order.

The Inquisition was initiated to defend the Church against the revisionists of an earlier era. In short, it aimed to protect the truth against lies that claimed to be truer. In contemporary secular America we tolerate all sorts of heresies, preferring the freedom to hold opinions that are fashionable at the moment. Christendom held, on the contrary, that in the matter of salvation only the truth can make us free.

In 13th century France the Cathar sect created new requirements for being a faithful Christian _ forbidding marriage, commerce, and bloodshed, and confining themselves to a vegan diet, insisting that this was the only way of life worthy of salvation. The Inquisition originated to defend ordinary Christians against these purer-than-thou puritans.

In subsequent centuries the Inquisition’ power was abused, but more by politicians than by the Church. Still, during the ages of Faith, the civil penalty for stealing a sheep was to be hanged, whereas the inquisitors were typically content to give a penance to a repentant heretic.

The era of Inquisition has not passed. Congressional hearings demand the truth under threat of imprisonment. When we try terrorists, we do so because their violence is based on a revisionist reading of their religious faith. Fortunately, most Christians remain immune to the revisionists.

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I went on about Sanjaya Malakar and American Idol last week, drawing some parallels between the show and American politics, and I didn’t expect to be blogging about it again, but I just read that the show’s music director says Sanjaya could actually win the whole thing.

“Not only did “American Idol’s” little-contestant-that-could impress Simon Cowell and Jennifer Lopez this week, but the show’s musical director Rickey Minor now says it’s possible that Sanjaya Malakar can win the entire competition.

“You know what? I think that he could win the show,” Minor told The New York Post. “He’s gotten this far because he really is what he is – he’s got this huge smile, he’s a handsome guy and is really likable. People are pulling for him – and people really care about him.”

For the first time since the show entered the final 12 phase, folks got a glimpse of the pipes that impressed the judges during auditions during Tuesday night’s performance of a song in Spanglish.

“I can tell you he can sing,” says Minor, now in his third season as “Idol” musical director. “I think there are people who are naysayers, but I’ve run into a lot of credible people who really enjoy his voice. He has a connection to the lyrics and people are pleasantly surprised.

“This isn’t a singing competition alone. It’s for a star to emerge,” he says. “Sanjaya has a huge likability factor. I think it’s possible for him to win based on the way he’s moving through the competition.”

That alone did my heart good, then I heard Sanjaya sing “Besame Mucho.”

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I’d always heard about this moment, when Marvin Gaye sang the National Anthem at the 1983 NBA All Star Game. Except, I must have heard it wrong, because I always thought he’d sung it at the Superbowl. What I did hear correctly is that it was phenomenal. But I’d never seen it. Or, rather, I’d never heard it until now.

I also didn’t know that it turned out to be the last time we saw Marvin on television. At least that’s what Stevie Wonder told Thomas Dolby in 1985. They were supposed to “perform” a pre-recorded version of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Grammys that year. Dolby suggested a version similar to Marvin’s, and Stevie told him the story.

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