By the way, if you're a gay guy who wants to be called 'Daddy,' you don't necessarily have to get married to a woman. I'm just saying.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Anderson Cooper mocks that anti-gay pastor who has been trolling Ellen
Along the way, after ridiculing conservative fantasies of a coherent 'gay agenda,' he takes a couple swipes at the execrable new TLC 'reality' show My Husband's Not Gay and the desire of one of the show's characters, who is either deeply confused or a very cynical fame whore:
AKSARBENT has a recommendation for the podcaster about to be excommunicated by the Mormon church
The disciplinary council hearing for Mormon Stories podcaster John Dehlin (reason: apostasy, because he supports gay marriage and ordination of women) has been delayed, but his expulsion is all but certain.
Dehlin says he won't appeal a ruling to oust him from the church, as that is LDS' prerogative.
AKSARBENT has always been fond of the story about the gay Mormon who went to his disciplinary council hearing in drag and we recommend that Mr. Dehlin do that, even if he's not gay and even if he doesn't particularly like dressing up in women's clothes, although one of Brigham Young's (many) sons, Brigham Morris Young, certainly did.
Dehlin says he won't appeal a ruling to oust him from the church, as that is LDS' prerogative.
AKSARBENT has always been fond of the story about the gay Mormon who went to his disciplinary council hearing in drag and we recommend that Mr. Dehlin do that, even if he's not gay and even if he doesn't particularly like dressing up in women's clothes, although one of Brigham Young's (many) sons, Brigham Morris Young, certainly did.
George Takei mocks TLC Salt Lake City 'reality' show, My Husband's Not Gay
The parody is about as creepy as what it lampoons.
KS Sec'y of State shows up in NE to push GOP voter supression bill
Anti-gay Kris Kobach, Kansas' Secretary of State, turned up in Lincoln Thursday to plug a voter suppression bill (the worst of two pending), sold in the guise of Voter ID legislation to help solve the nonexistent problem of fraudulent voting. Here's how Kobach blocks votes via software.
Such initiatives have already been beaten back twice in the Cornhusker state, but the GOP is still trying.
And you thought Kansas was too broke to send its officials on voter disenfranchisement search-and-destroy missions to sell initiatives furthering the GOP agenda, didn't you?
From Fred Knap at NET
Such initiatives have already been beaten back twice in the Cornhusker state, but the GOP is still trying.
And you thought Kansas was too broke to send its officials on voter disenfranchisement search-and-destroy missions to sell initiatives furthering the GOP agenda, didn't you?
Among those testifying in favor of the idea was Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach said similar legislation passed in Kansas in 2011 had not suppressed voter turnout. "It actually went up from 2010 to 2014. You’re comparing two nonpresidential election years. Our turnout in 2010 was 50 percent; our turnout in 2014 was 51 percent," Kobach said. "We also exceeded the turnout in our surrounding states. Here in Nebraska your turnout was 47 percent; our turnout was 51 percent, again, with photo ID."From Legislative Update:
But Bri McClarty of Nebraskans for Civic Reform cited a report from the Government Accountability Office that found, after controlling for varying degrees of competitive elections, turnout declined by 1.9 to 3.2 percent in Kansas and Tennessee.
...Bri McLarty, director of voting rights for Nebraskans for Civic Reform, testified in opposition to both bills. The ID requirements disproportionally would impact rural voters, she said, adding that some rural DMV offices are open only once a month or are not open over the noon hour.
In addition, she said, increasing the number of provisional ballots will increase the cost of elections.
“Other states are spending millions on this kind of legislation,” McLarty said.
Amy Miller of ACLU Nebraska also testified in opposition to LB111 and the voter ID provisions of LB121. She said the courts repeatedly have ruled that vague concerns about voter fraud cannot justify placing burdens on the constitutional right to vote.
“The burden is on the government to prove that the voter ID law is necessary,” she said, adding that there have been “zero examples” of voter fraud in Nebraska.
“Until you have a record of fraud, this bill should not be advanced forward,” Miller said.
The committee took no immediate action on the bills.
Friday, January 23, 2015
An important announcement to AKSARBENT readers
No customer service guarantees are made here in respect of reader requests or outrage, but if you are a woman who is subject to untoward and unwanted advances by a gent like the one below while reading this blog, AKSARBENT will gallantly take your place and give the ill-mannered interloper a taste of his own medicine. Chin up.
Hillary Clinton: 'You won't get me to talk about Keystone XL'
In Winnipeg at a Q&A, Clinton refused to take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline, a project her State Department secretly encouraged, colluding with TransCanada in emails obtained by Friends Of The Earth and in Wikileaks documents released by Chelsea Manning, now in prison.
The Clinton State Department twice issued white-washed environmental reports about Keystone XL, both of which were criticized by the EPA.
The Clinton State Department twice issued white-washed environmental reports about Keystone XL, both of which were criticized by the EPA.
Alabama gay marriage ban overruled in just 10 pages, with no stay, by judge appointed by George W. Bush
From the Washington Blade:
In a 10-page decision on Friday, U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade, an appointee of George W. Bush, issued summary judgement in favor of a plaintiff same-sex couple, finding Alabama marriage laws violate the couple’s right to due process and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.Here's the conclusion of the (relatively) terse ruling which turns the table on "for the children" arguments of gay marriage opponents:
“There has been no evidence presented that these marriage laws have any effect on the choices of couples to have or raise children, whether they are same-sex couples or opposite-sex couples,” Granade writes. “In sum, the laws in question are an irrational way of promoting biological relationships in Alabama.”
If anything, Alabama’s prohibition of same-sex marriage detracts from its goal of promoting optimal environments for children. Those children currently being raised by same-sex parents in Alabama are just as worthy of protection and recognition by the State as are the children being raised by opposite-sex parents. Yet Alabama’s Sanctity laws harms the children of same-sex couples for the same reasons that the Supreme Court found that the Defense of Marriage Act harmed the children of same-sex couples. Such a law “humiliates [ ] thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. The law in question makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives.” Windsor, 133 S.Ct. at 2694. Alabama’s prohibition and non-recognition of same-sex marriage “also brings financial harm to children of same-sex couples.” id. at 2695, because it denies the families of these children a panoply of benefits that the State and the federal government offer to families who are legally wed. Additionally, these laws further injures those children of all couples who are themselves gay or lesbian, and who will grow up knowing that Alabama does not believe they are as capable of creating a family as their heterosexual friends.
For all of these reasons, the court finds that Alabama’s marriage laws violate the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Stewart skewers GOP SOTU peanut gallery responses
Joni Ernst response has been compared to a flight attendant performance; Ted Cruz was mocked by Stewart as akin to a hostage video retake.
Aussies cheer indefatigable seagull at cricket match
And AKSARBENT thinks it should get a point or two for not using the word "plucky" in our headline.
The cheap GOP semantics Ben Sasse and Deb Fischer are using to deny the human cause of global warming
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What the GOP won't point to are the two previous votes on the propositions that "Climate change is real; and human activity contributes to climate change" and "climate change is real (and) human activity significantly contributes to climate change"
Senators Deb Fischer, Ben Sasse and Joni Ernst all voted for the not-a-hoax pronouncement and against the statements acknowledging human complicity in global warming.
None of them — not even Joni Ernst — is that dumb. All of them are that dishonest, that reckless and that corrupted by Big Oil and the Republican Party's deepest reserves of lethal amorality on a global scale.
The civilization whose destruction they hasten will be one of hunger, strife and desperate misery.
As Agnostics, we dearly wish there really were an eternal hell to which Sasse, Ernst and Fischer could be dispatched at the end of their conniving lives, but even that would not indemnify the billions of futures they are helping to wreck.
Nebraska: 3 bills addressing LGBT bias now pending
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| ConAgra Foods (brands here) sent one of its VPs to support LGBTs in its home state and among its 33,000 employees. |
WOWT (NBC) and KPTM (Fox) aired no estimates because they didn't show up. (WOWT might still be mad at Teh Gays because of the terrible thing Andrew Rannells did to the poor station this week on Seth Myers.)
 |
| Freshman state senator Adam Morfeld, of Lincoln, who defeated openly gay James Michael Bowers last fall with 68% of the vote, has introduced LB586, a bill to outlaw LGBT employment bias. |
Nebraska is home to some of the most well-known companies in America: Union Pacific, TD Ameritrade, Mutual of Omaha and Berkshire Hathaway, the Warren Buffett behemoth, but only one, ConAgra, (HRC rating: 100%) dispatched a representative to appear on camera to support its LGBT employees and customers.
Speaking of HRC, it issued a statement from Nebraska Field Organizer Drew Heckman:
A welcome mat must be dropped at Nebraska’s front door step to tell the nation our state is a place for all people; it is imperative that LGBT people have legal protections and a fair chance to reach their goals and desires, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.Fred Knapp, of NET, had this to say (you can hear him here):
Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks was one of several senators to address a crowd of several hundred gay rights supporters in the Capitol Rotunda. She referred to a proposal that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to other characteristics, like race and religion, that could not be used to discriminate in hiring or keeping employees. Pansing Brooks said with businesses needing more workers, not having such protections doesn’t make sense. "For us as a state to discriminate and limit part of the working pool that’s available to us is purely shortsighted and stupid," she said, to laughter and applause.
Another bill would prohibit the state Department of Health and Human Services from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity when placing state wards in out-of-home care. A third would allow two people, regardless of their marital status, to adopt children. Similar bills have been unsuccessful in the past, but Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld, introducer of the employment bill, said he thinks this year will be different. "I think that this issue’s time has come. Personally, I think it’s past, in the sense of we should have taken care of this a long time ago. But I think the issue’s time has come and I think the crowd that we see in the Capitol here tonight (sic) displays that," Morfeld said after the lunchtime gathering.
KOLN, Lincoln's CBS affiliate, published the following, from Jeff Beck, Finance Director of Saddle Creek Records (the ConAgra of Indie Rock!), on its website:
Saddle Creek and Slowdown support the workplace equality legislation because it mirrors our commitment to providing a diverse, creative and vibrant community in which everyone feels open and able to focus on their jobs.
NE GOP's zombie voter disenfranchisement bill, LB111, introduced by Tyson Larson
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| NE State Sen. Tyson Larson |
Larson (@TysonLarson) refused to cite a single example of voter fraud in Nebraska when asked to by UNL's Daily Nebraskan, saying it was not the issue.Nebraskans for Civic reform will be fighting this — again.
The Defeat of Voter ID in Nebraska from Adam Morfeld on Vimeo.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
1969 recording of Bill Cosby joking about drugging women
The Denver Post reports that 40% of the tickets for Cosby's recent appearance in the mile-high city were returned for refunds and that in a letter, attorney Gloria Allred said witnesses saw
security representatives for the Buell throwing money in the donation
bucket for a pair of brass players, who she claimed were drowning out the
protestors "freedom of speech."
John Boehner's worst nightmare introduces law yanking Keystone XL eminent domain options in NE
In none of the seven states atop the Ogallala aquifer has opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline been more militant than in Nebraska because no state has more pristine water at risk in the event of a spill. (Keystone 1 leaked 12-14 times in its first year of operation.)
This month's 4-3 Nebraska Supreme Court decision agreed with landowners that LB1163 was unconstitutional in granting the governor pipeline siting authority instead of the Public Service Commission, and only failed to overturn the law because such action requires a supermajority of 5 votes in the state. Plaintiffs have refiled the lawsuit to resolve a "standing" issue. (Some were no longer in the pipeline's path after TransCanada moved the route.)
Nebraska's Unicameral is the only single-body legislature in the U.S.A. and storied Senator Ernie Chambers is its only black member, but when he, the emperor of Cornhusker filibustering, hates a bill, it rarely gets passed. Or, if he really wants a bill passed, he'll hold another one hostage.
Remember the legislator who sued God? That was Chambers and he's not crazy. (He was protesting constitutional provisions that preclude banning certain kinds of frivolous lawsuits.)
This week Chambers introduced LB473, which will cancel the authority of TransCanada to file eminent domain proceedings in Nebraska as it has elsewhere.
Deena Winter of Nebraska Watchdog recalled a memorable filibuster by Chambers in 2005 against legislation which later passed anyway, via referendum:
...He famously blocked a constitutional amendment in 2005 protecting the right to hunt and fish by introducing amendment after amendment protecting the right to do things such as create, recreate, converse, procreate, sit on the porch and drink lemonade, laugh, cough, itch, scratch, shear and “hunt for the link between Noah’s Ark, Joan of Arc and Archimedes.”
Here's Chambers in 1966 in the Oscar-nominated documentary A Time For Burning.
Below, in 2013, he got wound up over LGBT rights, which he vigorously defends:
Disclaimer: subtitles may not exactly reflect thoughts of subjects in video below:
Highlights:
3:30 Mail-order minister and self-declared atheist Chambers trolls for lawyers to help him find a gay couple to marry so he can sue Nebraska for not granting a marriage license
3:44 Calls Nebraska backward, among other things
4:38 Recounts his lawsuit to get chaplain out of legislature
7:18 Sen. Christensen takes the bait, expounds on "homersexuals"
10:26 Chambers talks about Thomas Jefferson and statutory rape, notes that like Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry, he also likes black women. (Chambers is black.)
13:22 Chambers drops the gay F-bomb
16:14 Chambers gets the
17:37 Sen. Christensen gets some payback from Chambers, who never forgets anything, over a stray comment he made at a previous hearing about a gay neighbor
22:20 Impatient heterosexual supremacists revolt, fearing that they won't get to testify by the 2 pm cutoff of the five-hour hearing, as there is no end in sight to Chambers' monologue; Judiciary Committee Chairman Brad Ashford quells the insurrection
Unpublished, personal Alan Turing notebook left to intimate friend may fetch seven figures at upcoming New York auction
 |
| Robin Gandy |
From the auction house's press release:
In 1977, Gandy deposited the papers at the Archive Center at King's College, Cambridge, Turing's old college – where they have been available to scholars for research ever since. He did, however, retain one item – this manuscript. In the blank center pages of the notebook between Alan's writing, Gandy wrote his dream journal. The contents of the journal are intensely personal, so it is not a surprise that he would want to keep the journal private, and in fact, it remained hidden amongst his personal effects until his death. As he wrote at the beginning of this journal, "It seems a suitable disguise to write in between these notes of Alan's on notation, but possibly a little sinister; a dead father figure, some of whose thoughts I most completely inherited."
Deb Fischer: Obama 'clinging to a reactionary foreign policy that has shaken the faith of our allies'
Suffice it to say that for Fischer to accuse any Democrat of being reactionary is like Bill Cosby accusing Bill Clinton of disrespecting women.
Maybe she just doesn't know what the word reactionary means to most people who speak English.
Maybe she meant reactive.
Fischer's video response to the SOTU address had washed-out highlights and a rumble in the audio (maybe she lets TransCanada drill for oil under her office). It had been viewed a whopping 189 times when we looked.
Orange is the new black: Boehner now darker than Obama
Repubs apparently are now pissed at Obama's unscripted snark about beating them twice in presidential elections, which is just too bad, since they trolled Obama in the first place by clapping when he said he had no more campaigns to run.
Nebraska drug dog traffic stop case to be heard by U.S. Supreme Court today
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| Source |
If even half the anonymous accusations on the Internet about him are true, then officer Struble, who made the stop at issue in this case, has a very interesting personal life and/or some serious ex-girlfriend issues.
Non-gun enthusiasts visit a shooting range and some find an inner Ted Nugent they weren't looking for
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| I get it. I didn't get it and now I get it. Guns are really fucking fun. |
Nonetheless, the allure of shooting inexplicably pulls many dudes, including those who thought they would loathe the experience.
Not every experimenter's view of firearms improves,
One nonshooter said: It changed me. I don't think that I am as pro-gun as I used to be.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Superman's hero is a sniper?
We're not fans of the right-wing Cain and were about to describe him as the cad who bragged about being the first to bag Brooke Shields at Princeton, but then we found out it was Shields who first wrote about their affair and described Cain as a nice guy, so now we can't diss him on that score.
Below is an excerpt from Laura Miller's piece in Salon about sniper Chris Kyle. Miller is somewhat less impressed with Kyle's character than easier-to-impress Cain, who once went shooting with Kyle and seemed totally enthralled by the experience, which was televised.
In “American Sniper,” Kyle describes killing as “fun” and something he “loved” to do. This pleasure was no doubt facilitated by his utter conviction that every person he shot was a “bad guy.” Fallujah and Ramadi, where he saw the most action, were certainly crawling with insurgents and foreign Islamist militants, and Kyle swears that every man he picked off with his sniper rifle was manifestly up to no good. But his bloodthirstiness and general indifference to the Iraqis and their country don’t suggest that he was highly motivated to make sure.
GOP claps when Obama says he has no more campaigns to run, gets one-upped by uncapped
POTUS snark
Poor John Boehner wasn't able to enjoy any of this. He looks like a miserable, angry schoolboy in detention.
Watch live: President Obama's 2014 State of the Union address
Play State of the Union Bingo! Download card here: boldnebraska.org/bingo
Are mean ABC co-anchors trying to throw shade on that nice John Travolta?
TJ Holmes: We've all had our celebrity sitings, but how many can say it was a celebrity that wanted to chat us up?
GMA's Michael Rothman:
Two days ago, he [Justin Jones] was at the gym and a familiar face walked up and introduced himself.
"'Hi I'm John [Travolta],' he said. That's exactly how it happened," Jones told ABC News.
...Jones has been watching some of Travolta's classic "Welcome Back, Kotter" episodes and he told him he was a fan.
"He seemed very flattered by that," Jones added.
"He asked a lot of questions about if I was married and If I had kids. The time just flew by..."
"I went on my Facebook and posted it as my profile pic," he said. "She [Jones' wife] asked, 'What the hell happened last night?'"
Monday, January 19, 2015
Distaste for politics of American Sniper grows as film makes huge box office haul
American Sniper Complaints Grow in Hollywood;
The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero?
Ed Schultz interviewed Robert Greenwald, director of Brave New Films, and Patrick Murphy, the first veteran of the Iraq war to serve in Congress:
Ed, this movie has a strong political agenda. It's a neocon fantasy and there's no good Iraqi except the dead Iraqi. And I think what we will learn from this, why the movie is in fact dangerous propaganda, is that we gotta go to war, we gotta kill people and and that's gonna make democracy safer. Well it's nonsense. It's not true. It hasn't been true. And the concern I had after watching the film was the number of people who said "yeah, we did the right thing. We went out and killed a bunch of killers, including the only good children are dead Iraqi children, which is portrayed in the film. — Robert Greenwald
Slate explains why Two and a Half Men gay-married Walden and Alan
“We all believe that people should have the freedom to marry who they love, but there is that wonderful wrinkle. ... It's a new era we're living in, and we got a chance to play with that,” he said.Walden explained to Alan that even though he had nine of the 10 things Walden wanted in a wife, one aspect of married life was off the table: “We will actually be a same-sex married couple, and like most married couples, we will not have sex."
Anti-gay activists losing on marriage, so they're attacking gays via public accommodation and employment in state after state
But the prospect of certain defeat on marriage hasn't stopped state attorneys-general from running up big legal fees to delay the inevitable.
Hollywood idiotically snubs acclaimed documentary bio of man whose life was devoted to cinema
Inexplicably, Academy voters did not even nominate the acclaimed Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself, an appreciative (but clear-eyed) valentine to a life devoted to cinema. How fucked up is that?
The Oscars are, at the end of the day, a PR exercise for a movie industry which now can't be bothered to recognize an honored biography of a man who championed cinema art via television in ways no previous critics had ever done. What is wrong with these people?
They did gave Charlie Siskel — the nephew of Ebert's movie reviewing partner, the late Gene Siskel, a best documentary nomination for Finding Vivian Maier, which he co-directed with John Maloof. Said The Hollywood Reporter:
While I am sad and disappointed that "Life Itself" was not nominated for an Academy Award, I take comfort in knowing that anyone who has seen the movie knows what an achievement it is, and what a great job Steve James did in making it. This is a movie for the ages; Roger's messages about love and living your life with passion no matter what challenges befall you will resonate for a long long time.
What Roger found in his 46 years of championing the movies and in his 71 years of life itself, is that it is not divisions or fear that push us forward, but love. Love in the face of all the unforeseen challenges is the binding force that brings people together, and helps us develop empathy and compassion for each other.
I congratulate all the nominees in the Documentary category, as I see the documentary filmmakers and the people and issues they bring to our attention as needed heroes in today’s world. And I send out a particularly affectionate congratulations to Charlie Siskel, Gene Siskel’s nephew, for his nomination for “Finding Vivian Maier.”
And I express one sadness, that Ava DuVernay was not nominated for her amazing achievement in directing “Selma.” I applaud its inclusion in the Best Picture category.
Finally, as I reflect on the nominations, I am actually smiling as I know that the person most proud of “Life Itself” has no need for trophies these days. On his deathbed, Roger spoke of visiting this beautiful place where the past, present and future exist simultaneously and where there is a divine oneness that binds us all together, more vastly beautiful than we could ever comprehend. I think he has all the trophies he will ever need.
The Oscars are, at the end of the day, a PR exercise for a movie industry which now can't be bothered to recognize an honored biography of a man who championed cinema art via television in ways no previous critics had ever done. What is wrong with these people?
They did gave Charlie Siskel — the nephew of Ebert's movie reviewing partner, the late Gene Siskel, a best documentary nomination for Finding Vivian Maier, which he co-directed with John Maloof. Said The Hollywood Reporter:
Chaz Ebert, the legendary critic's wife, on her blog site Thursday said she was "sad and disappointed" Life Itself failed to secure a nomination. But she added "a particularly affectionate congratulations" to Charlie Siskel for his Oscar nod for Finding Vivian Maier.Her gracious statement:
While I am sad and disappointed that "Life Itself" was not nominated for an Academy Award, I take comfort in knowing that anyone who has seen the movie knows what an achievement it is, and what a great job Steve James did in making it. This is a movie for the ages; Roger's messages about love and living your life with passion no matter what challenges befall you will resonate for a long long time.
What Roger found in his 46 years of championing the movies and in his 71 years of life itself, is that it is not divisions or fear that push us forward, but love. Love in the face of all the unforeseen challenges is the binding force that brings people together, and helps us develop empathy and compassion for each other.
I congratulate all the nominees in the Documentary category, as I see the documentary filmmakers and the people and issues they bring to our attention as needed heroes in today’s world. And I send out a particularly affectionate congratulations to Charlie Siskel, Gene Siskel’s nephew, for his nomination for “Finding Vivian Maier.”
And I express one sadness, that Ava DuVernay was not nominated for her amazing achievement in directing “Selma.” I applaud its inclusion in the Best Picture category.
Finally, as I reflect on the nominations, I am actually smiling as I know that the person most proud of “Life Itself” has no need for trophies these days. On his deathbed, Roger spoke of visiting this beautiful place where the past, present and future exist simultaneously and where there is a divine oneness that binds us all together, more vastly beautiful than we could ever comprehend. I think he has all the trophies he will ever need.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
John Oliver examines police civil asset forfeitures; a NE deputy who teaches cops how to seize motorists' cash
In the video below Oliver mentions an influential Washington Post examination of civil asset forfeitures. In that WaPo expose was a video of a lawyer analyzing the outrageous behavior of a Seward, NE deputy who teaches police how to seize cash from motorists.
Dame Edna stoops to conquer NPR's
Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!
From the transcript:SAGAL: Later on, we're going to be joined by our special guest Dame Edna Everage, international susperstar. Now if you don't know her, Dame Edna is the creation of the great Australian comedian Barry Humphries. Now we've never interviewed anybody quite like her, so all of us are going to be performing as characters ourselves to make Dame Edna more comfortable. For example, Bill Kurtis right here will be appearing as the adorable Lady Annabel Fotheringay.
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