Reason 5082 why I dislike living in Arizona: online newspaper anonymous comments

It's absolutely disgusting to read the comments posted with online newspaper articles. Just about every US newspaper participates in this trend. Some police the commentary better than others. The Arizona Republic does precious little to police their site.

It's obvious why the newspapers do it: viewers will "stick" to the site longer with more page views - meaning the ads associated with those pages are viewed more. But the general public just doesn't have a lot constructive to add to most stories.

"Burglary Suspect Gave Police False Age, Identity" was simply the headline. Four pages of hardly 'intelligent' commentary follow. Comments range from "at least he wasn't another latino," to overtly racist, jump around to how criminals and gang members are in the military and then wind up with this little gem:

"(inappropriate term) ALL OF YOU SORRY SACK OF (inappropriate term) CUM GUZZLIN (inappropriate term)!!!! YOU DONT EVEN KNOW HIM LIKE THAT TO BE JUDGING HIM AND TALKING (inappropriate term)!!! ALL OF YOU ARE STUID FUKING RACISTS ASSES!! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO READ A STORY AND COMMENT AND ASSUME LIKE YOU KNOW HIM PERSONALLY AS A FAGGET OF THE GAY COMMUNITY AND EX BOY FRIEND I DONT LIKE THE COMMENTS OR THE (inappropriate term) IM READING AND FOR HIS MOTHER SHE IS PROUD HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED MORE THEN YOU OR YOUR (inappropriate term) UP FAMILY HAS IN YOUR LIFE. AND ALSO IF IT WERE YOUR FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER UP HEAR YOU WOULDN BE SO QUICK TO JUDGE OR TALK DOWN ABOUT HIM!!! AND AS HIS FRIEND DONUT SAID YOU OTHER TWO SORRY SACKS OF (inappropriate term) COME FORWARD AND MAN UP YOU WANT TO BE MAN ENOUGH TO GO INTO SOMEONES HOME BUT YOUR NOT MAN ENOUGH TO TAKE THE FAULT FOR IT YOU SORRY SACKS OF (inappropriate term)!!!!!AND AS FOR LAWRENCE IT DONT GOT (inappropriate term) TO DO WITH SKIN COLOR YOU (inappropriate term) DUMB ASS WE DONT BE TALKING ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE SHOOTING THEM SELFS OR DOING COKE AND METH AND SLEPPING WITH THEIR OWN FAMILY OR DOING STUPID (inappropriate term) LIK COMMITING SUICIDE OR SHOOTHING UP FUKING SCHOOLS!!! SO DONT (inappropriate term) JUST ASSUME BECAUSE HE IS BLACK IS THE REASON WHY HE IS STEALING SO GO TO HELL YOU (inappropriate term) BITCH!! AND AS FAR AS DALG1 DONT CALL HIM A LOW LIFE SCUM BECASUE YOU DONT KNOW HIM DO YOU BELEIVE EVERYTHING THAT YOU READ????IF THEY SAID DALG 1 WAS COUGHT JACKING OFF TO CHILD GAY PORN WOULDNT YOU WANT PEOPLE TO BELEIVE THE FIST THING THEY READ?? NO I DONT FUKING THINK SO!! AND HE IS NOT SCUM SO YOU CAN CUT THAT (inappropriate term) OUT BEFORE THE WRONG PERSON READS THIS AND SCUMS ON YOUR FACE!! SO FOR ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY AND WANT TO HAVE HIS NAME IN YOUR MOUTH BEFORE YOU KNOW HIM OR EVEN KNOW WHAT THE REAL STORY IS HOW ABOUT YOU DO WHAT YOU DO BEST AND SWALLOW IT AND GO (inappropriate term) YOUR MOTHERS (inappropriate term)
SINCERLEY YOUR AMERICAN FAGG!!"

Wow. A simple article about a black kid that robbed a house degenerates into that lovely drunken illiterate rant. Welcome to Arizona! Half the population here could have written that. This guy should be writing copy to attract tourists to the state or even better, the announcements on the Amber Alert signs over the freeways.

The paper should track this guy down - he'd make a perfect instructor for a "Creative writing for douchebags," course. Learn to write in ALL CAPS and make sure that each sentence has a subject and at least three things to offend EVERYONE.

H8 is Enough - actually hearing the idea of 2nd-class citizen out of someone else's mouth

I haven't attended any kind of political protest since the 90's. Oh sure, in 2000-2003 (what I thought would be my last years living in the USA) I was involved in my share of politics. Had more than enough of it actually. But today was different, today was raw.

Sure, Obama won. I was in my car when I heard the news and I literally had to pull over into a parking lot because I was so overcome with emotion.

But it was bittersweet. The voters of my current "home" (I say home with a bit of a contemptuous tone) state voted definitively to AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION to define marriage as being one man and one woman. It was a vote that absolutely snuffed out a possible right I might have in this state, because as a Gay man - I would never marry a woman.

The same thing happened in California. I think the GLBT community in California is kidding itself a bit with the lawsuits they have filed holding out hope of overturning pretty much the same thing in their state. I will be very surprised if judges overrule that vote based on a procedural nuance of California law - although it'll cost the Mor(m)on "Church" another $20 million if it happens.

Even as I was watching Obama's victory speech in Grant Park from Chicago I was distracting myself with various thoughts to keep myself on that cloud of victory. I just knew that either CA or AZ was going to have bad news to deal with.

It wound up being both. I told myself - you can't take this so personally. After all, as with most things in life I'd already done the gay marriage thing. And as with most things in life - I did it too fast and too young. But it absolutely seemed to be the right thing to do at the time. I don't regret it one little bit. I told myself - there's already a certificate on file in another state tying you to another person. Thank god we are still extremely close friends. But Vermont does not have a mechanism by which a civil union done by two non-residents can be dissolved.

So the constitutional amendments didn't really affect me - there was a much larger barrier. It's not like I have anyone special in my life. Quite the opposite - I'm very happy to have a dog as a companion.

But a couple of things today struck a chord. Getting up at 8am in the morning and rushing to buy posterboard, locating permanent markers and doing last-minute assembly of some kind of protest sign. The result is part of this post.

It took me right back to the early 90's when I protested with ACT-UP! At the time it was an important issue because it was so obvious to me that the US government was not going to take it seriously. I DEFINITELY had that 2nd-class-citizen feeling going on at that time - and for many good reasons. Hundreds of thousands of men and women died (and continue to die) because money wasn't spent on research or accessibility.

Life came full circle in 2003 when a close friend was diagnosed as HIV+. I really feel like in some very small way I'd made a difference because he was able to get access to medication - by that time advances in research had turned HIV from a death sentence into a living hell of pills with side effects but the promise of life. (I call it like I saw - and continue to see - it.)

So this morning as I was driving downtown Phoenix all of this was knocking around in my head. The current movement is not just about marriage - it's equal to the civil rights movement in the 1960's. That's how it seems to be evolving. I hope the momentum keeps up. But it was just something to do today until I heard the phrase "2nd class citizen" over the P.A. system. It re-awakened something.

I thought I left all that 2nd class citizen crap behind in December 2003 when I boarded a plane to emigrate from the USA to Uruguay. I thought it would become a new home. I wasn't so much running FROM anything - but definitely running TO the possibility of a new life. It has evolved into a new life - strangely, back in the USA - but not quite in the way I expected.

I have a lot on my plate right now and am hesitant to add more - but Monday night I will be at the organizing meeting for further protests and activism in Arizona.

I AM mad as hell. Now that Pandora's box has been opened with the magic words "2nd class citizen," the fight is ON. Goals:

Make the state and the people of Utah feel the financial squeeze above and beyond the current recession. To squeeze Utah to to squeeze the LDS cult.

Get the LDS cult's 501(c)3 tax exempt status revoked.

Work like hell to regain and demand equal rights. It may not happen in my lifetime but I think it will.

I've taken some initial steps. Most of my extended family in Southern California voted YES on this abomination. The idea of having Thanksgiving dinner with them is absolute anathema. This evening I called and said that odds were 90% against my making any appearance as well as explained why.

I don't know what future relationship, if any, I will have with many of them. The only words I would say to any of them directly are: "SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!"

I have several much-higher-priority issues in life. (To my last ex: if you think you're a priority, you're simply a matter that's been outsourced to my attorney.) But this issue of 2nd-class-citizenship in my own country will now be a priority.

No comment - just a subtle message...

Late night USA cable TV - you have to check out "shop erotic!" just once if you get the Oxygen channel

These two very average women do this shop at home schtick.

They are very modestly dressed and are just completely deadpan about the items on offer:

Some examples -
Original Jack Rabbit 6 1/2" dong w/ Suction Cup and bonus "Pink Water"
10" dong with suction cup "that you can attach to the shower wall, a chair or wherever"
(Just don't stick it to the windshield of your car in California, suction cup attachments to the windshield are illegal. Suction cupped anywhere else in your car is probably fine...)
Loveclone Vibrating Stroker
Glow in the Dark Clone-a-Willy Kit "Make an exact vibrating rubber copy of any penis."

But a picture is worth thousands of words. Mostly safe for work...

Caribou Barbie (Palin) gets OWNED in Canada

From AP:
TORONTO - Sarah Palin unwittingly took a prank call Saturday from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and telling her she would make a good president someday.

"Maybe in eight years," replies a laughing Palin.

The Republican vice presidential nominee discusses politics, the perils of hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney, and Sarkozy's "beautiful wife," in a recording of the six-minute call released Saturday and set to air Monday on a Quebec radio station.

Palin campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt confirmed she had received the prank call.

"Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie," she said.

The call was made by a well-known Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel. Known as the Masked Avengers, the two are notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state.

Audette, posing as Sarkozy, speaks in an exaggerated French accent and drops ample hints that the conversation is a joke. But Palin seemingly does not pick up on them.

He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor.

"I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," the fake Sarkozy says.

He proposes they go hunting together by helicopter, something he says he has never done.

"Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done," Palin counters. "We can kill two birds with one stone that way."

The comedian jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney along on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.

"I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin.

Playing off the governor's much-mocked comment in an early television interview that she had insights into foreign policy because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," the caller tells her: "You know we have a lot in common also, because ... from my house I can see Belgium."

She replies: "Well, see, we're right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes."

When Audette refers to Canadian singer Steph Carse as Canada's prime minister, Palin replies: "Well, he's doing fine and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder." Canada's prime minister is Stephen Harper.

Palin praises Sarkozy throughout the call and also mentions his wife Carla Bruni, a model-turned-songwriter.

"You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife," Palin says. "Oh my goodness, you've added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours."

The Sarkozy impersonator tells Palin his wife is "so hot in bed" and then informs her that Bruni has written a song for her about Joe the Plumber entitled "Du rouge a levres sur une cochonne" — which translates as "Lipstick on a Pig."

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama derided his Republican challenger John McCain's call for change in Washington as "lipstick on a pig," days after Palin made a lipstick joke at the Republican convention. The McCain-Palin campaign then released an ad implying Obama was calling Palin a pig with that remark.

The caller asks Palin if Joe the Plumber is her husband and adds: "We have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It's called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit."

He also tells the Alaska governor that he loved the "documentary" made about her and referred to a pornographic film with a Palin look-alike made by Hustler founder Larry Flynt.

She answers tentatively, "Ohh, good, thank you, yes."

The callers then reveal the prank and identify themselves and their radio station.

"Ohhh, have we been pranked?" Palin asks before handing the phone to an aide who ends the call.

Obama's campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs, commenting on the prank, said: "I'm glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama."

Anne Rice is trying to become a "Christian author"

This bit of news was, to say the least - disturbing.

Years ago I was a member of her fan club. So was my troglodyte roommate from whom I was renting a room in his Chicago condo. (Location: right off Lake Shore Drive on the little bit of Sheridan Road that runs east-west before it becomes a north-south street.)

I'd abbreviate Lake Shore Drive but it would be misunderstood.

Anyway, me and the troglodyte rented theatrical costumes and in October 1995 went to an INCREDIBLE Halloween party Anne threw for her fan club. She'd bought the St. Elizabeth's orphanage and totally re-did it. 13 years and 75 kilos ago I made a kickass Lestat - would have gotten totally laid too had the troglodyte not stuck to me like a big cancerous blob all night.

Now fast forward ten years later and she's telling CNN...

"To be able to take the tools, the apprenticeship, whatever I learned from being a vampire writer, or whatever I was -- to be able to take those tools now and put them in the service of God is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful opportunity," she said. "And I hope I can redeem myself in that way. I hope that the Lord will accept the books I am writing now."

VOMIT. Oh well, she's made her fortune off the vampire series. The Christian books will NOT fly off the shelves. The Lord may accept the books but I don't think he buys many, nor will the public. Dammit, dammit, dammit - another lost to that awful dogma.