Seattle gay bars receive threatening letters

Some bars in Seattle have received letters from a domestic terrorist who is threatening to kill patrons with ricin.

This is why Obama's choice of Rick Warren for the Inaugural, and all the publicity about his views about homosexuals is very troubling - giving a forum to hate speech brings out crazies who threaten or do violence to gays.

We saw it in the 80s and 90s with Helms, Falwell and others, and now, Obama's encouraging it again.

article at the Slog with scan of one of the letters

Annoy your friends and coworkers...

... with the online David Lee Roth soundboard.

http://www.thetyser.com/

Obama puts gay at head of secretarial pool

After inviting dullard blowhard Rick Warren to convocate at the Inauguration, Obama promptly pissed off many LGBTs, since Warren equates homosexuality with bestiality and pedophilia (and was an active campaigner against Prop 8).

The Obama camp saw the outrage of LGBTs and said "Meh...big deal. We're inclusive because we have a Gay marching band at the Inaugural!"

Now that LGBTs have continued to be rather disgusted with Warren and Obama's embracing of this slick, tv preacher that's really no better than deceased blowhard Jerry Falwell, Obama seems to be reaching out to LGBTs to make amends.

It seems that Gays have a role model now in the White House. Someone in a position to aspire to.

Yes, amongst all the positions appointed in the new administration, there's an actual GAY person.

What is this person doing, you might ask?

Well, he's managing the White House secretarial pool.

Sorry, Obama team - I'm still planning to change my voter registration to "Independent" and make a donation to the Green Party on Inaugration Day.

I'll vote for Democrats again when they show LGBTs some respect. Sheesh. Wish I'd never voted for the guy and just stayed home in November.

Creepiness at the DOD

The Department of Defense has put out a call for proposals for software to do a "virtual simulation" of deployed service members that can interact with family members. For example, a "virtual dad" that can read bedtime stories to his kids back home.

article at Slate

It sucks living in cities

For the first time in human history, more people live in cities than in rural areas.

Some scientist types have confirmed that being in the city isn't good for your brain.

article at Boston Globe

The economy sucks (as if you didn't already know)

After news stories before Christmas about US ports filled with automobiles that can't go to dealers because the dealers can't sell cars comes this news about Toyota.

We're screwed, economically speaking.

The car maker is going on an 11 day shutdown. Toyota's sales are down 37% in the past year, compared to just over 30% for Ford and Chrysler. Auto sales in Japan are the lowest in 34 years.

The last time Toyota Motor Corp. halted production at all its Japan plants was in August 1993, when demand plunged because of a rising yen, and that was for only one day, according to the company.

A global economic downturn has hammered the auto industry in Japan and elsewhere, forcing carmakers to cut staff, lower production and delay new models. Major automakers in the U.S. had teetered on the brink of collapse until securing a multibillion dollar government lifeline.

"We are coping with a slump in global sales," Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma said Tuesday. "Demand in the world auto market is so depressed that every model is falling sharply in sales."

article at Huffington Post

And if that isn't sucky enough for you, Slate has a blog entry about empty malls - it's similar to what I've seen locally.

blog entry at Slate

Robinson Crusoe diary

An explorer, Woodes Rogers, who was friends with Dafoe and who found a man stranded on an island that inspired "Robinson Crusoe" kept a diary of his voyages that was published in a very rare book; a copy was recently found.

I'd love to see this one on one of the free public domain ebook sites.

article at UK Telegraph