Your Next President

 i love watching her momentum build up. interesting as well how she and dave went from a very serious topic to a fairly hilarious Top Ten without missing a beat.

Tappy Tap Tap

I’ve received a bizillion suggestions to put the South Carolina (yah homestate!) pageant contestant’s bumbling performance up, but it literally hits too close to home. Instead. . .

God I can’t count the times I’ve wasted in an airport playing that stupid bathroom stall game, foot going tappy tap tap. Actually I can count the times. Never mind.  Criticial diff being, I suppose, a) i never got caught b) i’m not married to a woman and c) i am not in the Republican party.

Lozers.
The GOP’s Bathroom Problem

The Nation
Mon Aug 27, 8:13 PM ET

The Nation — What’s up with Republican politicos getting arrested by undercover cops for soliciting sex in public restrooms? First, Florida state representative Bob Allen, formerly John McCain’s state campaign co-chair, was arrested in July after he offered a police officer $20 for the privilege of performing oral sex. And today, news broke that back in June, Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho), long the subject of gay rumors, was arrested in a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes cop investigating lewd conduct in the men’s bathroom. Both men are married–to women. (See Max Blumenthal at Campaign Matters for more details.)

The moment is so thick with irony, I scarcely know where to begin. But let’s start with their incredibly lame attempts at damage control. Upon arrest, both Allen and Craig attempted to use their positions of power to escape charges (Craig handed over his US Senate business card to the officer and asked, “What do you think about that?).

Post-arrest, Allen, appealing at once to homophobia and racism, mounted a “black (gay) panic” defense. You see he wasn’t really interested in giving head, he was just trying to save his neck. Apparently, the cop was “a pretty stocky black guy” and “there were nothing but other black guys around in the park.” Fearing he was “about to become a statistic,” Allen did what any other, rational, straight (straight!), white man would do if he just so happened to find himself cruising a public restroom full of black men: fork over a Jackson and drop to your knees.

Less hysterical, but equally flimsy, is Craig’s story. Through his spokesman, Craig said that the whole incident was just a “he said/he said misunderstanding.” Last year, when gay blogger Mike Rogers alleged that Craig had engaged in same-sex relations, Craig called the story “absolutely ridiculous, almost laughable.” I wonder if Craig was laughing on August 8–when he plead guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges in a Minnesota County Court.

Of course, both Republicans have a long history of support for anti-gay legislation–in Craig’s case votes for the Federal Marriage Amendment and in Allen’s a court brief against gay adoption and authorship of a failed bill to ratchet up penalties for “unnatural and lascivious acts.”

I’m sure as the press digests the Craig scandal, you’ll hear a lot about “hypocrisy,” “repressed homosexuality” and “internalized homophobia.” Good enough, I suppose, for making a somewhat cheap political point and sweeping these undeniably creepy, tragic guys back into the Brokeback Mountain days from whence they apparently came. But I wonder if the GOP’s burgeoning “bathroom problem” isn’t reflective of something larger than just a bunch of conservative dudes who couldn’t come out of the closet. There’s something palpably sad to me about what happened to Allen and Craig too, something oddly touching about their misplaced faith in the fading world of secret, anonymous gay sex. That world–once found in bathrooms, parks, piers and adult bookstores; the furtive refuges of adventuresome queers, married men, the curious–has been swept away by so many police raids, privatization schemes, quality of life campaigns and internet dating services. But mostly, it’s fallen away as gays have become increasingly integrated into the mainstream, and also, paradoxically, more marked than ever. “You’re either gay or you’re not” seems to be the equation.

Until someone like Craig, Allen, Mark Foley, Ted Haggard or Jim McGreevey shows up to ripple momentarily the waters of public discourse on sex. These guys have problems, no doubt. But we might also pause to wonder if there’s some cultural knot that gay liberation–despite its original and best intentions–has left in place. At the very least the link between public power and domestic heterosexuality–with all the fetishistic displays of family life that entails–has yet to be completely severed. Just ask Rudy Guiliani, or Hillary Clinton! Moreover, that knot, perhaps best described as sexual propriety, is what fuels the moral campaigns against homosexuality that have become one of the Republican Party’s identifying causes–loyally supported by the likes of Craig, Haggard, Foley, et. al. It’s also what leads Bob Allen to the stunning and revealing calculation that it would be better to be seen in the public eye as an avowed racist than as someone who likes to have sex with men sometimes.

WoW is 4 Women

Anyone else find this headline/angle more than a little odd?

1 in 3 World of Warcraft Players Attracted to One Another

By: Psych Central Senior News Editor
on Wednesday, Aug, 22, 2007

Reviewed by: John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
on August 22, 2007 at 1:15 pm

New research suggests that online interactive game-playing, such as World of Warcraft, is not only “highly socially interactive” for most players, but on average, 1 in 3 players have found themselves to be attracted to another player.

The study found approximately 75% of players made “good friends” with someone else in the game environment.

Over 42% of women and 26% of men who play online games find themselves attracted to another player, the researchers found.

Nearly 40% said they would discuss sensitive issues with their online gaming friends, issues they wouldn’t discuss with their real-life friends. Women were more likely to do so then men.

The study, led by Helena Cole and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University in the U.K., was based upon a survey answered by 912 self-selected massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMOPRG) players from 45 countries.

Most subjects who answered the survey were male (70%) and played World of Warcraft (49%). City of Heroes, Ultima Online, EverQuest, Lineage II and RuneScape players were also represented in the survey. World of Warcraft was more popular among women participants (60.5%) versus male participants (44%). World of Warcraft is the largest MMOPRG today, with over 9 million players.

The survey found that the average time spent playing a game online was nearly 23 hours/week.

The mean average age of people who answered the survey was 23.6 years old and 28.2% of survey respondents were over 25 years old.

Researchers said that online game players revealed that that they feel “more themselves” online because they are not judged by their appearance, gender, age, or other personal information.

The study showed that nearly 43% of participants had met with online friends in real-life situations. The researchers wrote that this suggests that online gaming is a social activity or facilitates social activity. Ten percent of players said they developed a physical relationship with another game player.

Male players make more friends online, but females are more likely to meet with online friends.

Only 1 in 5 participants believed their online game playing had a negative impact in relationships with people whom they did not play with.

The researchers concluded, “The virtual world that these games offer allows players to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because
of their appearance, gender, sexuality, age, or other factors. They also offer a place where teamwork, encouragement, and fun can be experienced.”

The study was published in the August 2007 issue of CyberPsychology and Behavior.

Bored of Warcraft

Bored of Warcraft and waiting for Warhammer. . .without a game going on, I tend to make up my own. My most recent is this uberlozer fest. . .

I open my gmail to a random email from ages ago, don’t read the email or who it is to or from, and then based soley on the contextual Google keyword ads to the right of my email, try and guess the context of the email.

It isn’t as easy as it sounds.  A brief email with the boyfriend recently produced this:

What Type of Mom Are You?
15 fun questions that will tell you what type of parent you are!
www.AreYouASlackerMom.com

What Causes Fibromyalgia?
Learn More About the Causes of Fibromyalgia at Revolution Health.
RevolutionHealth.com

Night Sweats ?
Night Sweats can be stopped See what our customers have to say
www.bedfan.com

What Causes Fatigue?
Solve the underlying cause of fatigue in women, naturally.
www.womentowomen.com

More about…

Lupus Symptoms »
Causes of Fatigue »
Severe Headaches »
Insomnia Causes »

About these links

Bear Force One!

With the BF in helly hot China this week, I’ll be staying cool indoors here in SF, drinking all his likker and learning the dance moves to this goodness. Bring your white pants over if you wanna join. It’s so good!

Gaming FTW

Game-Playing Eclipses Social Networks, Online Video

By K.C. Jones
InformationWeek

Fri Aug 17, 4:10 PM ET

Social networks like MySpace and viewing short video clips on YouTube may be extremely popular, but online games eclipse both as America’s favorite Internet activity, according to a new report.

The research and analysis company Parks Associates announced Friday that games are still the most popular Internet activity in the United States. The report, “Casual Gaming Market Update”, found that 34% of U.S. adult Internet users play online games each week, compared with 29% who watch short online videos and 19% who visit social networking sites.

So, gaming is up from 19% in the second quarter last year. Thirteen percent of Internet-connected households reported viewing video clips and visiting social networking sites in the second quarter of last year.

“Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities,” James Kuai, a research analyst at Parks Associates, said in a prepared statement. Kuai said that gaming also has business advantages.

“Unlike sites for social networking and video streaming, which rely solely on advertising revenue, casual gaming has more mature and heterogeneous revenue models, including Web-based and in-game advertising, try-before-you-buy, subscriptions, and micro-transactions,” he said.

The report found that year-over-year growth rate for frequent online gamers was 79%, while the growth rate for users of social networking stood at 46%, but users of video streaming sites increased by 123%.

“The casual gaming industry cannot rest on its laurels,” Kuai said. “In order to counter the growing competition from other online activities, the industry needs to continue to grow its fan base and find ways to better monetize its existing audience.”

See original article on InformationWeek.com

Alien Peep Show

For those of you into str8 cawk, you might envy my Canadian friend’s recent weekend, if you can make it through all his boring cocktail talk.

Jeff: benben

me: hi hi

Jeff: how are you?

me: i’m doing alright. how bout u?

Jeff: I’m good. I went camping last week

me: how was that? how rustic

Jeff: lol it was in a cottage with me and like 30 friends

me: ah. gay camping. nice

Jeff: we had running water and electricity and a jacuzzi. hahahhaah

me: right. gay camping

Jeff: And I drank Caesars for breakfast

me: what is that? bloody mary based right?

Jeff: A Caesar is like a bloody mary its clamato juice with vodka, worcestire, tabasco and salt and pepper

me: i’d heard of it just not had one. bet they are delicious

Jeff: everyone I know loves them. I’ve never drank clamato juice though. i cant get past the whole making juice out of fish thing

me: you have no future as a lesbian

Jeff: vile! I’d probably eat vagina before I’d eat clam juice

me: women worldwide rejoice at the news

Jeff: HAHAHHAHA

Jeff: hehe. omg I got so drunk that weekend! we drank in the mornings cause it was all we could do to end the pain.

I also saw more cock than I ever wanted to in one sitting becuase our friends take their clothes off when they drink so me and like 18 naked straight boys

me: god the things str8 dudes do to get to see and display cawk. Was it torture or was it like ‘ok already’

Jeff: you know straight cock interests me like 0%

me: true. me too mostly

Jeff: Especially if they’re my friends I’m just like “god put it away”

me: tho if a hot naked one backed up to me making truck-in-reverse beeping noises, I probably wouldn’t say no

BEEP

Jeff: hahahahah

me: BEEP

Jeff: yeah. They all do tricks with their penises too

me: like?

Jeff: Like weird living “sculptures” or something.

me: “Dragon Spits Fire” what was the best one you saw?

Jeff: The alien peep show: My friend ben stuffed his balls up inside himself then tucked his penis backwards and pulled his then empty ballsac forward around it

It was fucking gross

me: Ah. Did you see the classic ‘alien brain’ too?

Jeff: He does everything! Yes! anyway I have to go away for a bit I’ll be back later

me: Sigh. Most interesting thing you’ve said in ages and now you have to go

Yet Again

Fuck, this irritates the shit out of me. Another fine example of how stupid fuckin bridge-and-tunnel breeders continue to fuck up queer traditions and neighborhoods.

No Castro Halloween this year, and no official S.F. alternative

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, August 9, 2007

The Great Pumpkin will skip San Francisco this year.

City officials said Wednesday that there will be no official Halloween celebration anywhere in San Francisco in October – not in the Castro neighborhood, the traditional home of the event, and not at a parking lot near AT&T Park, which had been considered as an alternate site.

“There will be no party,” said Audrey Joseph, president of the city’s Entertainment Commission.

Officials had been quietly working on plans to snuff out the Castro event, where a shooting last year injured nine people. The goal had been to instead hold a large outdoor concert near the ballpark. But the concert promoter has pulled out of the effort, and there is not enough time to find another, Joseph said.

But officials are still trying to prevent any festivities in the Castro. On Wednesday, Supervisor Bevan Dufty sent a letter to 110 owners of bars, restaurants and stores in the Castro, asking them to close shop on Halloween night to discourage partygoers.

The Halloween event was marred by violence last year after the shooting near the main stage on Market Street. Another person was injured as the crowd fled the area. Dufty and other city leaders had already been concerned about violence at the event, including the potential for attacks on members of the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population.

Halloween traditionally has been a major community event – sometimes referred to as the “gay Christmas” – but Dufty said that era has passed.

“It’s not a holiday in the Castro. It’s a night in which the neighborhood is overrun by people who come to gawk, not celebrate, and unfortunately it turns into gang night out in the Castro,” he said.

Sort of Like

Eating My Veggies

You’d think, on paper, that the 4th Annual Rough Trade Summer Meatspace social would be rowdier than Gboy’s school cohort bbq, and may be in some ways it was.

Even though, I was later reminded, there was an orgy of sorts after the Rough Trade bash, at no point during it did Gboy shake his booty like he did here with a school chum.

Also, at no point during the gay gamer festivities did an intoxicated classmate of Gboy’s let us stick uneaten veggie n’ dip veggies up his arse. Nor did at any point I eat the parsley out of said classmate’s ass either.

Rough Traders, despite the following feel-up fest and all-night grope-a-thon, must feel cheated.

For which I humbly apologize.