Dan Savage on Slog
Friday, November 20, 2009
News Pit Bulls!
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 1:01 PM
Politics Teabaggers Turn On Palin
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:48 PM
This is pretty delicious...
I guess the Noblesville, Indiana Going Rogue book signing didn’t go very well yesterday because 300* or so of the 1000 people with wristbands were asked not to tread on Sarah Palin and then she tried to make a getaway with Baby Trig and several duffel bags full of cash but wingnuts have learned to protest about everything these days, so they were having none of it. This is the best thing you will see about horrible, horrible Sarah Palin on the internets all day and until the end of time.
Go to Rumproast to read angry comments left on Sarah Palin's Facebook page by some real disappointed real Americans.
Sex Do Your Balls Hang Low?
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Sure they do. But why do they hang low? And why don't they hang lower? Why isn't your scrotum bright red? Why doesn't your scrotum have feathers? Science has the answer.
Savage Love SL Letter of the Day: Hot & Drunk
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:06 PM
I met a guy about two months ago through weird and serendipitous circumstances on my last visit back home to Tucson and he's great in so many ways. We get along really well, have a lot of common interests, his friends and family that I've met so far I like and they like me. It gets cuter: we're both musicians and we make beautiful music together and have played two shows together. I kind of gave up hope on sharing any of my kinky proclivities with new guys I meet so as not to scare them off (electricity, needles, knives), but he's down and even has some kinks of his own that I haven't tried but think I could get into (watersports). I had given up my dream on getting to peg someone that I was really attracted to... and this guy is down... and it's awesome. I really love giving head, and he really loves eating snatch and I never knew 69 to be so good. We're GGG sluts for each other.This is where the sad part comes into play: he's the most severe alcoholic I've ever met. He's really young (22, I'm 25), but he's in so deep with alcoholism that he has the DTs on a regular basis.
The rest of TSO's long letter—and my short response—after the jump.
Homo Becoming a Man
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 8:50 AM
The newly male Chaz Bono makes his debut on Good Morning America...
News Life and Death in a Recliner in South Carolina
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 8:42 AM
At least a hundred people have forwarded me a link to this story, suggesting it for Slog since it has so many hilarious details. A morbidly obese man in South Carolina who couldn't get out of the recliner in his living room, his wife of two years who cleaned the recliner every morning because her morbidly obese husband used the chair as a toilet, the morbidly obese man, a former preacher, passing his time in the recliner "posting sermons online" and "talking about religion to other people on the Internet." And when the man died on his second wedding anniversary—of a heart attack at age 33—his wife telling the AP that she "had the worst anniversary" but her husband "had the best one he ever had because he's with Jesus now."
Hilarious?
Sorry, no. The story is an indictment of the American "health care" system. That man needed to be in a bed in a hospital, not in a recliner in a mobile home. Here are really damning details: Daniel Webb was in that recliner because paramedics deposited him there after bringing him home from the hospital. He'd been in the hospital for the emergency treatment of a weight-related knee injury. "Ada Webb said she begged hospital officials to keep him after doctors treated his knee injury in March. But the couple had no way to pay and were sent home." Webb was in the recliner for eight months, dying by inches, and didn't seek help "because he... didn't have health insurance."
Webb was a sick man who needed to be in a hospital—and, I'm sorry, but it sounds like he needed to be far away from his loving wife. In the eight months he was in that recliner Webb went from 550 pounds to "about 800 pounds," according to police. Webb had no health insurance and a feeder and/or enabler at home. I'm sorry, Slog tippers, but I don't think this story is particularly funny. I think it's a sad indictment of our health care "system."
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Homo / Religion Hate Crimes Down in Los Angeles County With One Exception....
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 2:58 PM
Remember how anti-Mormon, anti-Christian hate crimes totally skyrocketed in California after Prop 8 because gays and lesbians are so angry and violent and hateful and intolerant? LA Times:
Los Angeles County saw an overall 4% drop in hate crimes last year, while crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people increased, prompted in part by last November’s highly charged Proposition 8 initiative, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California, according to a new report released today.There were 134 sexual-orientation hate crimes reported last year, up from 111 in 2007, and [anti-gay hate crimes] were more likely to be violent than hate crimes motivated by race or religion, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.
Gay people sure are violent—just look at how we're always throwing our faces at the fists of gay bashers and how we make conservative religious people look bad by forcing them to strip us of our civil rights. How do we sleep at night?
Sex All The Best Men Are Taken
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 2:25 PM
"I think your response to No Figuring Women this week was dead on," writes Slog tipper Jim. "But some recent research by Melissa Burkley of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater may suggest something else is at play."
A new study provides evidence for what many have long suspected: that single women are much keener on pursuing a man who's already taken than a singleton.... They asked 184 heterosexual students at the university to participate in a study on sexual attraction and told the volunteers that a computer program would match them with an ideal partner. Half the participants were single and half attached, with equal numbers of men and women in each group. Unknown to the participants, everyone was offered a fictitious candidate partner who had been tailored to match their interests exactly. The photograph of "Mr Right" was the same for all women participants, as was that of the ideal women presented to the men. Half the participants were told their ideal mate was single, and the other half that he or she was already in a romantic relationship."Everything was the same across all participants, except whether their ideal mate was already attached or not," says Burkley.
The most striking result was in the responses of single women. Offered a single man, 59 per cent were interested in pursuing a relationship. But when he was attached, 90 per cent said they were up for the chase.
The researcher theorizes that women are more attracted to attached guys because their current girlfriends—the fact that they have girlfriends at all—essentially "vouches for" the guy. He's relationship material. The fact that he's in a relationship proves it and women want guys who are relationship material... even if they have to destroy a guy's current relationship to get him.
Women are eeeeeeeevil.
Politics $2,600,000,000
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 1:24 PM
That's Washington state's projected budget deficit for next year. It's going to get ugly in Olympia this winter. And no one could've predicted that the state GOP would take this position:
Republicans warn that going to the tax well now is a bad idea, with the economic recovery still fragile.
When times are bad and budgets are in the red, the GOP says we can't raise taxes because people will suffer. When times are good and budgets are in the black, the GOP says we have to cut the taxes of people who aren't suffering. See how that works? Thank God we've got a Democratic governor and Democratic supermajorities in the legislature! With Dems in charge the state budget won't be balanced on the backs of the most vulnerable and those who are already suffering...
The governor says she's seriously looking at eliminating entire programs to close the budget hole. Cuts may include state subsidized health insurance for the working poor and a welfare program for single adults with mental or physical disabilities.
Jesus—why do we bother electing Democrats at all?
Homo / Religion U.S. Catholic Bishops: "These unions pose a serious threat to the fabric of society that affects all people."
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 11:57 AM
And they're not talking about labor unions.
The letter defines marriage as "a natural institution established by God the Creator" and called it "a permanent, faithful, fruitful partnership between one man and one woman" that has two purposes: "the good of the spouses" and "the procreation and education of children." ... "Since marriage and same-sex unions are different realities, it is not unjust discrimination to oppose the legal recognition of same-sex unions," the letter says. "These unions pose a serious threat to the fabric of society that affects all people."
The reality, of course, is that marriage is an institution created by humans, not supernatural superfriends, and that the institution of marriage has evolved over the ages to accommodate changing realities and changing cultural values. Why aren't women property anymore? Why is love central to our understanding of marriage? Why are women allowed to have custody of their children in the event of a divorce? Because the institution of marriage has evolved and changed. Marriage, as practiced by heterosexuals today, may be permanent, may be faithful, and may be fruitful. But heterosexuals are not required to remain in marriages that make them unhappy, they are not required to be monogamous, they are not required to procreate. Some more from me—and my enormous, illuminated nose—on marriage...
Back to the Baltimore Sun's write-up...
While "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan" does not represent new Catholic teaching, bishops said the pastoral letter would address a need for an authoritative source to which church leaders may refer as they campaign against divorce, unmarried couples living together and same-sex unions.
The Catholic Church is campaigning against divorce and cohabitation? Really? Is there any evidence of that? Is the Catholic Church funding ballot initiatives that would make divorce illegal? Are they pushing legislation that would make it illegal for landlords to rent apartments to unmarried heterosexual couples? Is the Catholic Church demanding that opposite-sex couples provide proof that they're married before they're allowed to check into hotels?
Please. The Catholic Church is only "campaigning" against the rights of gay couples. They want discrimination against gay couples enshrined in secular law. The Catholic Church does make gentle suggestions to opposite-sex Catholic couples—pretty please don't get divorced, pretty please don't shack up—but they'll annul a Catholic's first marriage (or second or third) for a fee, and they'll still marry straight Catholic couples who are already living together. There is no "campaign" being waged by the U.S. Asshole Catholic Bishops against the rights of straight couples. Please.
Enviro Chemicals in Plastics Turn Boys Into Sissies
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 11:24 AM
It's getting hard to keep track of all the different ways humanity is trying to drive itself to extinction:
Chemicals in plastics alter the brains of baby boys, making them "more feminine," say US researchers. Males exposed to high doses in the womb went on to be less likely to play with boys' toys like cars or to join in rough and tumble games, they found. The University of Rochester team's latest work adds to concerns about the safety of phthalates, found in vinyl flooring and PVC shower curtains.... Phthalates have the ability to disrupt hormones, and have been banned in toys in the EU for some years. However, they are still widely used in many different household items, including plastic furniture and packaging. There are many different types and some mimic the female hormone estrogen.The same researchers have already shown that this can mean boys are born with genital abnormalities.
Now they say certain phthalates also impact on the developing brain, by knocking out the action of the male hormone testosterone
It's bad news in the long run for the survival of the species, I suppose, but it's good news in short run for gay guys who like sissies—we're out there—and girls who like sensitive straight boys.
Life The View From My Window
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 11:15 AM
I'm sorry, black truck, but days like this require drugs.
Savage Love SL Letter of the Day: My Dick Is Bent
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Hello. I'm 16, almost 17, and I'm a gay boy. I'm cool with it, though I'm sort of in the closet right now. I don't think I "look" gay, people don't ask, and I don't go telling. My mom knows, sort of, hope that counts as being out even if my dad doesn't (they don't live together). My problem is this: My penis is bent. It's been like that since I can remember, maybe since I was 5. Somehow I didn't really notice until I was in 7th grade, which is about the same time I really realized I was gay.I've had more ups and downs thinking about my penis than thinking about being gay. I never picture my own penis in sexual fantasies, for instance; and for a long time I tried to switch the hand I used to masturbate so that it might "even things up." It didn't work and I don't think it was meant to work, since my penis has been like that from before I began masturbate; then again, when I was 6 or 7 a cousin masturbated me a few times. I used to think he might have bent it, and hated him for that, but now I think that's not possible. My penis was bent before.
It's not circumcised, I don't have phimosis (yeah, I know what that is). It's bent downwards and it has the shape of a banana. You can't really tell when it's not hard, but when it is, it's obvious.
The rest of BENTT's letter—and my response and an assist from a similarly equipped dude—after the jump.
Politics Unreal Americans
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 7:59 AM
The GOP base lines up to meet Sarah Palin in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Celeb Something Has To Be Done...
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 4:19 PM
Savage Love SL Letters of the Day: Thank-You Notes
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 4:01 PM
I'm a pretty regular reader of your column, and this week I was looking through the archives for things I'd missed. Two columns prompted me to write and thank you for helping me navigate a difficult situation. The first was a letter from a sex-deprived man essentially begging you for permission to cheat on his wife. He used the acronym LDS, which is of course an immediate indication that he, like me, belongs to that gay-bashing, magic-underwear wearing religion based in Utah. The other was the two-part column on sappy endings, wherein you showed that two people with very different sexual interests can make things work and be happy. ["Sappy Endings," February 15, 2007; "Sappy Endings II," February 22, 2007.]Lest you misunderstand, I spent 40 years as a participating, card-carrying, self-loathing Mormon, complete with the creepy underwear thing. I'm now 45 and have been out of the church for 5 years, though out of respect for my wife's wishes I haven't formally resigned my church membership. All during those years I suppressed my sexuality to a ridiculous degree. Mormons are terribly sexophobic, with one "prophet" telling us that masturbation inevitably leads to homosexuality. And of course it was a Mormon bishop who explained to me what masturbation was when I was 12 (they don't think twice about having a grown man regularly interviewing young boys and girls behind closed doors about their sexual habits). Needless to say, I grew up with some terrible sexual hangups and fears.
The rest of TFE's letter—and another nice thank-you note that arrived in the mail today—after the jump.
Homo Gay Priests Are Like People!
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 1:51 PM
A few years ago my mother gave me a book of cartoons about Catholic priests—"Priests Are Like People"—that was published in 1954. The cartoons, by Joe Lane, originally appeared in Extension Magazine, an old Catholic magazine that still exists. ("Promoting the missionary spirit of America's Catholics.") My good Catholic mother—my good Irish Catholic mother (black sense of humor)—felt that some of Joe Lane's old cartoons were newly relevant thanks to the sex scandals rocking the church. Her favorites:
Click the 'toons for a larger version. The middle one was her favorite. But Lane's cartoons seem a little less relevant today:
A preliminary report commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops to investigate the clergy sex abuse scandal has found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clergy to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday.
Despite the fact that most of the victims of clergy sex abuse were boys, the study—commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops—found that sexual identity was not "a predictor of abuse." What was? According to the authors of the study the Church has to distinguish between sexual identity and behavior and be on guard against pedophile priests, not gay priests, "and to look at who the offender had access to when seeking victims." This study is going to throw a serious wrench in the Vatican's efforts to pin the whole clergy sex abuse scandals on teh gays.
Savage Love Joe Newton's "Savage Love" Illustrations
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Joe Newton has been doing charming, hilarious, creepy, and sometimes charmingly hilarious and creepy illustrations—or are they hilariously creepy and charming illustrations?—for "Savage Love" in the Stranger for years now. Joe recently created an online archive of all of his "Savage Love" illos, with links back to the original columns, which you can see here. Joe's tiny "Savage Love" illos are beautiful but readers who take the time to examine them closely will be rewarded: a Joe Newton illo almost always include a sly joke, a visual pun, or Joe's own subtle commentary about the people and problems that appear in "Savage Love." More of Joe's work can be found here.
Health Health at Every Size
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:51 AM
From a puff piece on the fat acceptance movement in the NYT last week:
Heavier Americans are pushing back now with newfound vigor in the policy debate, lobbying legislators and trying to move public opinion to recognize their point of view: that thin does not necessarily equal fit, and that people can be healthy at any size.... “I get so angry when I feel people pushing a weight-loss agenda,” said Linda Bacon, a nutrition professor at City College of San Francisco and author of “Health at Every Size,” a book published last year whose title has become the rallying cry of the fat pride community. “What we’re doing in public health care policy is harmful. We give a direct and clear message that there’s something wrong with being fat.”
And in today's NYT:
While Congress searches for ways to slow the growth of health care spending, a new study suggests that its efforts may be overwhelmed by the surging prevalence of obesity. The report, to be issued Tuesday, projects that if current trends continue 103 million American adults will be considered obese by 2018. That would be 43 percent of adults, compared to 31 percent in 2008, according to the research by Kenneth E. Thorpe of Emory University, an authority on the cost of treating chronic disease.Mr. Thorpe concluded that the prevalence of obesity is growing faster than that of any other public health condition in the country’s history. Health care costs related to obesity—which is associated with conditions like hypertension and diabetes—would total $344 billion in 2018, or more than one in five dollars spent on health care, if the trends continue. If the obesity rate were held to its current level, the country would save nearly $200 billion a year by 2018, according to the study.
Mr. Thorpe said in an interview that the health care bills in Congress limit their attack on obesity to a few community-centered pilot programs with insufficient funding. Congress has steered clear of measures that might have a more direct impact, like taxing sugary sodas and fat-laden snacks.
Politics Going Rogue: Andrew Sullivan Takes His Time
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:07 AM
There's been nothing new posted to Andrew Sullivan's blog this morning. Usually there's a dozen or more posts up by 10 AM. But this just went up:
This is only the second time in its nearly ten-year history that the Dish has gone silent. The reason now is the same as the reason then. When dealing with a delusional fantasist like Sarah Palin, it takes time to absorb and make sense of the various competing narratives that she tells about her life. There are so many fabrications and delusions in the book, mixed in with facts, that just making sense of it—and comparing it with objective reality as we know it, and the subjective reality she has previously provided—is a bewildering task.... There is a possibility here of such a huge scandal that we would be crazy not to take our time either to debunk it or move it forward for further examination. We have only one commitment: to get this right. Please bear with us as we do the best we can.
Fingers crossed.
Homo / Religion Outing Catholic Priests
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 8:34 AM
Gay activists in Washington D.C. are launching an outing campaign targeting Catholic priests.
This site was created to provide you with an outlet to save LGBT children from the hypocrisy of priests in the Archdiocese of Washington who engage in romantic and sexual relationships, and yet stand silent while Archbishop Wuerl and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops increase their dogmatic war against all LGBT children of God. If you know that one of the priests in the Archdiocese is gay, or having a heterosexual affair, please share your story.
Was it something I said?
Homo The Gay Panic Offense
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 7:45 AM
A man claims he had no choice but to murder, decapitate, dismember, and burn the remains of a gay teenager—the kid made a pass at him, the alleged killer alleges, and deadly force is the only appropriate response to an unwelcome advance. It's why women are always killing straight men. More—and more depressing—details at Towleroad.
Politics / Religion "Let his days be few... Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow."
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 6:46 AM
They're trying to get him killed—they're praying for his death.
For the record: those of us who've criticized the president from the left—because he's not delivering the change he promised—are the same people out there condemning the assholes who are trying to get the president killed. I've been a prominent critic of the president for his inaction on his promises to the gay community—as has Rachel Maddow—and here I am months ago on Countdown calling out the haters on the religious right. We can do both: hold the president accountable, express our displeasure and impatience in reasoned and reasonable ways, while condemning and marginalizing the haters on the right. We can't let the worst people in the world get away with threatening the life of the president—where's the Secret Service?—and allow their threats to hold us and our politics hostage too. That's what they want.
And remember, kids: there is no morality without religion.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Homo / TV Last Night's Colbert Report
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 7:50 PM
"The Word" is required viewing...
Kind of heartbreaking in a way, isn't it?
Sex Comment of the Day
Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 5:57 PM
Pope Urbane in the comments thread about the 10-year-old who won't recite the pledge of allegiance...
Great kid. I didn't get any sex ed until 7th grade. That'd be around 1978. My freshman year in Highschool we were taught how to put on a condom using a cucumber. I spent the next 6 months thinking I must have the smallest penis in the school.
That made me laugh out loud. On the bus.
RSS
Facebook
Twitter