San Francisco Gay Pride Parade 2011

Photos at San Francisco Chronicle, and also, "S.F. Pride - a grown-up vibe, cheers for New York."

And an excerpt from Shane Phelan literature review, at the American Political Science Review, "Queer Liberalism" (June 2000):

The problems of orthodox liberalism led gays and lesbians, along with other new social movements, to explore other theoretical resources. Gay liberation theory grew out of Marxism, in particular Marcuse's treatment of sexuality in Eros and Civilization (1955), and focused on the relation between sexuality and capitalism. Dennis Altman ([1971] 1993), Mario Mieli (1977), and Guy Hocquenghem (1978) each offered analyses suggesting that without the guilt and renunciation demanded by capitalist discipline we would all be polymorphously perverse, free to experience pleasure with a variety of different partners. This "liberationist" theorizing is now virtually unknown and/or discredited even by students who see themselves as radical (Lehring 1997). In academic circles Marxism was pushed aside not by liberalism, however, but by poststructuralism. This shift marked the decline of utopian or universalist theories that aimed at the end of repression in favor of theories that sought to account for the particular constructions of self and society that include not only repression but also forces of desire, meaning, and agency -- that is, theories that understand the heterosexual self not simply as one forced to abandon its homosexual desires upon pain of expulsion but as a self created and given meaning precisely by the lure of belonging to the "normal."

Homosexual Activists Outraged at Not Getting a Google 'Doodle' for This Year's Gay Pride Month

It's amazing the level of nitpicking, but gay rights groups are mad at Google for not getting a "doodle"?

At PC World, "Google Fights Perception it Doesn't do Enough to Support Gays."

Just read it all at the link. New York passes a gay marriage bill and all hell breaks loose. And Google sponsored this "It Gets Better" campaign earlier this year. Kinda manipulative. Google gives, and gay rights accuse them of discrimination. Figures.

Beyoncé's Exclusive Pop Star Deal at Target

The question is why, considering Lady Gaga bailed out three months ago.

Needed the money, I guess. She's less controversial, in any case.

At Brand Channel, "Target Safe On Beyonce Deal, Not On LGBT Pride Events Sponsorship."

The "Telephone" video is here ("clean version").

Lady Gaga's Gay Pride Gig in Rome?

I had no idea? Much less the fact that the State Department sponsored. Rim-station diplomacy. Who knew?

At CNS News, "Hillary: State Dept. ‘Instrumental in Sealing Deal’ For Lady Gaga’s Gay Pride Gig in Rome":

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that the State Department played an instrumental role in “sealing the deal” for pop-rock star Lady Gaga to perform at a gay pride rally in Rome, Italy.

Clinton specifically pointed to a letter that David Thorne, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, sent to Lady Gaga urging her to participate in the event.

“And then there is the work that our embassy team in Rome has been doing,” Clinton said. “Two weeks ago they played an instrumental role in bringing Lady Gaga to Italy for a Euro Pride concert.

“Now as many of you know Lady Gaga is Italian American and a strong supporter of LGBT rights,” said Clinton. “And the organizers of the Euro Pride event desperately wanted her to perform and a letter to her from Ambassador Thorne was instrumental in sealing the deal.”

Via Memeorandum and Weasel Zippers.

Romney, Bachmann Lead Republican Field in Iowa

At Des Moines Register, "Iowa Poll: Romney, Bachmann lead Republican pack":

Two-time candidate Mitt Romney and tea party upstart Michele Bachmann are neck and neck leading the pack, and retired pizza chief Herman Cain is in third place in a new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll of likely participants in the state’s Republican presidential caucuses.

The results are bad news for the earnest Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor who is in single digits despite a full-throttle campaign.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and business executive, claims 23 percent, and Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman and evangelical conservative, garners 22 percent. Neither has done heavy lifting in Iowa.

The rest of the Republican field is at least 12 points behind them.

Bachmann's lit a fire on the prairie. She's the one to watch.

Israeli Actor Impersonated Activist in Video Attacking Gaza Flotilla

At New York Times, "Israeli Video Blog Exposed as a Hoax."

The funny thing about this is that for progressives to denounce what's apparently a hoax, they also have to reject the message at the video, and the Israel-hating left is all too ready to do that. Indeed, Max Blumenthal, that conspiracy-driven self-hating Jew extraordinaire, was the first to point out the discrepancies. Check the link, in any case. Progressives are eating this up, so you know they're jonesin' for some PR victories.

San Francisco May Ban Pet Sales

This is the practical effect of the animal rights movement. People will take away your pets, and not just guppies.

At Los Angeles Times, "San Francisco considers banning the sale of all pets."

The first vision was simple and straightforward: To curtail puppy mills and kitten factories, the sale of cats and dogs should be banned in San Francisco, where the loving guardians of animal companions come to regular blows — politically — with the loving parents of children.

The ban was put on hold last year after animal advocates broadened it to include anything with fur or feathers. Now it's back, with a new name and a new strategy: More is more. The Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal is on its way to the Board of Supervisors, and it hopes to protect everything from Great Danes to goldfish.

Yes, goldfish. And guppies, gobies, gouramies, glowlight tetras, German blue rams. No fish, no fowl, no reptiles, no amphibians, no cats, no dogs, no gerbils, no rats. If it flies, crawls, runs, swims or slithers, you would not be able to buy it in the city named for the patron saint of animals.

Representatives of the $45-billion to $50-billion-a-year pet industry call the San Francisco proposal "by far the most radical ban we've seen" nationwide and argue that it would force small operators to close. Animal activists say it will save small but important lives, along with taxpayer money, and end needless suffering.

More at the link above, and interestingly, the Los Angeles Times has come out against San Francisco's proposed ban on circumcision: "Ban the circumcision ban."

Wikipedia Removes Thomas Ball Page

And Dr. Helen Smith asks, "Why has Wikipedia removed the Thomas Ball page?"

Following the link takes us to A Voice for Men.

Now, lets imagine a world so totally twisted that the media totally blanks this as a news item. That dismissive and scant reporting of this act of political self immolation is written off with throw away lines calling you, the burned corpse – a deadbeat, a lone nut.

Imagine all that. It's pretty far-fetched, but try.

At the video, the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc in Saigon, June 11, 1963.

A Voice for Men made a copy of Thomas Ball's page.

Update on Allegations Against David Prosser

Reading at Althouse's yesterday, some sockpuppet left this comment:

Althouse would like you to believe that Bradley is to blame because her neck got in the way of Prosser's fists. And note too, how AA turns the story around to shoot the messenger. I'm just waiting for the dirt to be dug up on Bradley now. There doesn't seem to be much but there's plenty on Prosser's violence against women. But AA won't let that get in the way of a good smear on the writer now and Bradley next.

I responded at the thread, demanding evidence for the claim of "Prosser's violence against women." That's pretty strong, and while tooling around yesterday for videos I came across this clip from One Wisconsin Now, a far left Soros-styled thug outfit:

Turns out Prosser's apparently got a temper, although I don't see anywhere about alleged violence against women: "Prosser’s conduct unbefitting a justice." This might explain why progressives jumped on the allegations before anything was really known. It's an epic smear job designed to force Prosser from office, not unlike some of the other stories I've been reporting earlier, like the PC attack against Paul Mirengoff in January, and the recent campaign against me at my college, in which progressive bloggers have falsely accused me of sexual harassment.

Anyway, Althouse has a new report, "'D]o you think that a woman like Bradley, who seriously considered calling the cops because Prosser used a profanity about another justice...'" Althouse links to Darleen Click at Protein Wisdom, and here's the full context:

It appears Bradley is now upping the ante by specifically alleging to the press that, Prosser put her in a “choke hold.”

Funny thing, though …

Prosser told the newspaper in March that he had used profanity in a meeting the month before and threatened to destroy Abrahamson.

Bradley sent all the justices an email after that meeting, saying Prosser’s behavior was unacceptable. She said later that she considered making a report to law enforcement but decided against it.

… do you think that a woman like Bradley, who seriously considered calling the cops because Prosser used a profanity about another justice would not call the cops if she was the victim of an unprovoked, physical assault in front of witnesses?

Yeah, me neither.

So, Prosser uses profanity in public. It's not something I'd do, but he's on the up and ups about it, which is admirable. But Darleen really gets to the nub here, which is that Justice Bradley certainly would like to have Prosser hauled into the dock. There's some extreme animosity going on at the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and it's going to be playing out for some time. Indeed, William Jacobson makes a prediction: "Wisconsin will be losing a Supreme Court Justice, we just don’t know which one yet." There's a police investigation going on, so stayed tuned. See also, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Dane County Sheriff's office investigating Bradley claim."

Gay Marriage and Sexual Exclusivity

David Frum gets all wishy washy, "I was wrong about same-sex marriage." (Via Memeorandum.) Frum indicates that he'd long opposed gay marriage, and he'd engaged Andrew Sullivan on the topic in online debates. But he's had a change of heart. Here's the gist of Frum's argument:

... I find myself strangely untroubled by New York state's vote to authorize same-sex marriage -- a vote that probably signals that most of "blue" states will follow within the next 10 years.

I don't think I'm alone in my reaction either. Most conservatives have reacted with calm -- if not outright approval -- to New York's dramatic decision.

Why?

The short answer is that the case against same-sex marriage has been tested against reality. The case has not passed its test.

Since 1997, same-sex marriage has evolved from talk to fact.

If people like me had been right, we should have seen the American family become radically more unstable over the subsequent decade and a half.

Instead -- while American family stability has continued to deteriorate -- it has deteriorated much more slowly than it did in the 1970s and 1980s before same-sex marriage was ever seriously thought of.

It keeps going like that, on the not-so-bad decline of the traditional family structure in America. But it's a lousy argument. I wrote on families the other day. In California just 23.4 percent of households include a traditional married family with children. The causes are complex, but making same-sex marriage easier will cause those numbers to further erode.

I don't think David Frum has a clue. More likely, he's just consolidating his shift away from the conservative right-wing. And this seems like a losing proposition, since it's not like there aren't enough incisive and influential commentators on the left, which is where Frum's headed. He's basically doing a Charles Johnson, except that he was a major pundit and conservative insider rather than a husky pony-tailed psychotic narcissist.

Anway, since Frum's using data from the mid-2000s, let's flash back to an article from 2004, by David Tubbs and Robert P. George "Redefining Marriage Away":

Conservative advocates of same-sex marriage insist that their goal is not a radical alteration of the institution itself. They favor the legal recognition of same-sex partnerships as marriages in order to secure "equal rights," they say. Their goal in redefining marriage is not to weaken or abolish it but to expand access to it, while leaving its core features intact. Far from harming marriage, they contend, the move to same-sex marriage would strengthen the institution.

Though this argument has a certain superficial appeal, it is profoundly mistaken. The issue is not one of equality or the right to participate in a valuable social institution. What divides defenders of traditional marriage from those who would redefine it is a disagreement about the nature of the institution itself. Redefining marriage will, of course, fundamentally change the posture of law and public policy toward the meaning and significance of human sexuality, procreation, and the bond between the sexes. Even more important, there are powerful reasons to fear that the proposed redefinition of marriage will destabilize and undermine this already battered institution.

To understand the destabilizing effects, consider this scenario. A young man and woman are engaged to be married. A month before the wedding, the man approaches his fiancée to ask whether she will consider an "open marriage," in which they will free each other from the duty to be sexually faithful.

Even today, the man's proposal is shocking, and his bride-to-be will almost surely be horrified by it. Nearly everyone would say that what the man has proposed is something other than a true marriage, since the norm of sexual exclusivity within marriage is essential to the institution. That is why the overwhelming majority of couples entering marriage do not even discuss whether they will follow the norm; they simply accept it.

Do most American husbands and wives honor the principle of sexual exclusivity in practice? The best evidence says yes. In their rigorous and acclaimed 1994 study on American sexual behavior, University of Chicago sociologist Edward Laumann and his associates found that 65 to 85 percent of American men and more than 80 percent of American women (in every age group) had no sex partners other than their spouses while married. These figures are remarkable, especially if we recall the many ways in which popular culture has mocked or trivialized human sexuality and the demands of marriage in recent decades.

But do most same-sex couples accept the norm of sexual exclusivity? In a 1999 survey of such couples in Massachusetts, sociologist Gretchen Stiers found that only 10 percent of the men and 32 percent of the women thought that a "committed" intimate relationship entailed sexual exclusivity. An essay called "Queer Liberalism?" in the June 2000 American Political Science Review reviewed six books that discussed same-sex marriage. None of the six authors affirmed sexual exclusivity as a precondition of same-sex marriage, and most rejected the idea that sexual fidelity should be expected of "married" homosexual partners. For more than a decade, a wide array of authors who favor redefining marriage to include same-sex partners have advanced similar views. In a 1996 essay in the Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan law professor David Chambers even suggested that marriage should be redefined to include sexual unions of three or more people--so-called polyamorous relationships.

Sorry, David Frum. That's decidedly NOT keeping families stable. What an idiot.

Anyway, I cited news reports earlier that the battle for gay marriage has a long way to go nationwide, and I'll be writing more on this, since New York has energized the Democratic Party's rim-station base.

Meanwhile, Robert George had a major research paper out last year, which updates some of the arguments above, "What is Marriage?"

Michele Bachmann Makes Formal Presidential Announcement in Waterloo, Iowa

At New York Times, "Bachmann Is In, Officially" (via Mememorandum).

My Fox Chicago has video and text of the speech, "Michele Bachmann's Presidential Announcement Speech."

Andrew Breitbart is New York Times' Blogger Provocateur

Well, he should be. He's declared war on the Democrat-Media-Complex.

See, "The Right’s Blogger Provocateur."

The Other McCain responds: "The Semi-Smear."

Below, as promised, is the video from the Breitbart talk in Newport Beach. And buy a copy of Righteous Indignation here.

'José, Can You See?' U.S. Soccer Team Booed at Gold Cup Final, Rose Bowl, Pasadena

You get used to it. You're a foreigner in your own country sometimes. You get the feeling in many parts of Southern California. And in some of the small agricultural towns in the Central Valley you might as well be in Mexico. Democrats and progressives don't care, except to the extent that it keeps them in power, but we've long ago basically undergone a foreign invasion of people whose primary loyalty remains to the countries of their origin. The Los Angeles Times has the report, from Bill Plaschke, "In Gold Cup final, it's red, white and boo again." The U.S team was booed. Here's a quote from the piece (via Memeorandum):

Most of these hostile visitors didn't live in another country. Most, in fact, were not visitors at all, many of them being U.S. residents whose lives are here but whose sporting souls remain elsewhere.

Welcome to another unveiling of that social portrait known as a U.S.-Mexico soccer match, streaked as always in deep colors of red, white, blue, green … and gray.

"I love this country, it has given me everything that I have, and I'm proud to be part of it," said Victor Sanchez, a 37-year-old Monrovia resident wearing a Mexico jersey. "But yet, I didn't have a choice to come here, I was born in Mexico, and that is where my heart will always be."

Right.

This is an old debate, largely taboo for discussion in polite company, like academic departments. But it's not a new thing, at all. Recall Samuel Huntington's seminal essay in 2004, "The Hispanic Challenge"

Massive Hispanic immigration affects the United States in two significant ways: Important portions of the country become predominantly Hispanic in language and culture, and the nation as a whole becomes bilingual and bicultural. The most important area where Hispanization is proceeding rapidly is, of course, the Southwest. As historian Kennedy argues, Mexican Americans in the Southwest will soon have “sufficient coherence and critical mass in a defined region so that, if they choose, they can preserve their distinctive culture indefinitely. They could also eventually undertake to do what no previous immigrant group could have dreamed of doing: challenge the existing cultural, political, legal, commercial, and educational systems to change fundamentally not only the language but also the very institutions in which they do business.”

Anecdotal evidence of such challenges abounds. In 1994, Mexican Americans vigorously demonstrated against California's Proposition 187—which limited welfare benefits to children of illegal immigrants—by marching through the streets of Los Angeles waving scores of Mexican flags and carrying U.S. flags upside down. In 1998, at a Mexico-United States soccer match in Los Angeles, Mexican Americans booed the U.S. national anthem and assaulted U.S. players. Such dramatic rejections of the United States and assertions of Mexican identity are not limited to an extremist minority in the Mexican-American community. Many Mexican immigrants and their offspring simply do not appear to identify primarily with the United States.

Déjà vu.

RELATED: At Pamela's, "US SOCCER TEAM VICIOUSLY BOOED IN L.A. -- MEXICO WAS "HOME TEAM" - ENEMEDIA CALLS IT "UNIQUELY AMERICAN'."

'The Local Government Pension Squeeze'

We're going to be hearing more and more about stuff like this, particularly as the Obama Depression deepens.

From Stephen Malanga, at Wall Street Journal (via RealClearPolitics).

RELATED: The process is playing out in one of the cities right next door to where I live. See NBC News Los Angeles, "Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Talks About Unprecedented City Cuts." And at Los Angeles Times, "Costa Mesa's police chief abruptly quits over council's plan to slash workforce," and O.C. Weekly, "Costa Mesa Police Chief Resigns With a Letter, Calling City Council 'Incompetent' and the City's Fiscal Crisis a Lie."

BONUS: "Republicans promote Costa Mesa as a pension-slashing leader."

Power Line Making Switch-Over to Wordpress

John Hinderaker has the announcement, "COMING SOON: POWER LINE 3.0."

Power Line's been on a Movable Type platform for almost ten years, not Blogger, so it's interesting in light of the other recent upgrades, at Legal Insurrection, for example. But what I noticed at Power Line, at the bottom of the page, is that all three of the original bloggers are listed, John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson, Paul Mirengoff. But recall that Mirengoff's no longer a Power Line blogger. He's no longer featured at the "About Us" page. There is a partial archive for Mirengoff, but the timeline cutoff seems totally arbitrary. Entries are available up through February 2009, and it's something worth an explanation in the context of the shameful campaign of PC destruction against Mirengoff early this year, when he criticized the memorial services for Gabrielle Giffords at the University of Arizona in Tuscon. I watched live, and personally thought the opening blessing delivered by Dr. Carlos Gonzales of the University of Arizona College Medicine was a politically correct nightmare. It was a indigenous time-waster of Native American PC overkill, and frankly, Dr. Gonzales seemed like an amateur in performing the ritual. But you can't criticize criticize stuff like that in the U.S., or not if you want to keep your job. Mirengoff wrote a post, long since deleted, strongly criticizing the event, "An evening in Tucson — the good, the bad, and the ugly":

…I didn't appreciate the president of the University of Arizona (and master of ceremonies) telling us how lucky we are to have Barack Obama as our president and Janet Napolitano as our Homeland Security chief. Nor did the frequent raucous cheering by the huge crowd seem appropriate at what was, at least in part, a memorial service.

As for the "ugly," I'm afraid I must cite the opening "prayer" by Native American Carlos Gonzales. It was apparently was some sort of Yaqui Indian tribal thing, with lots of references to "the creator"
but no mention of God. Several of the victims were, as I understand it, quite religious in that quaint Christian kind of way (none, to my knowledge, was a Yaqui). They (and their families) likely would have appreciated a prayer more closely aligned with their religious beliefs.

But it wasn't just Gonzales's prayer that was "ugly" under the circumstances. Before he ever got to the prayer, Gonzales provided us with a mini-biography of himself and his family and made several references to Mexico, the country from which (he informed us) his family came to Arizona in the mid 19th century.

The reaction was fierce. Here's the headline at Right Wing Watch, "Right Wing Blogger In Trouble for Insulting Native American Prayer at Tucson Memorial." And here's this from a PC ayatollah at Crime & Federalism, "Paul Mirengoff Humiliates Himself and Akin Gump":

If you, Paul Mirengoff, honestly do not understand why calling someone's religious invocation "ugly" is insulting, then your professional judgment is suspect. You are a total dipshit moron whom I would never trust to handle a parking ticket for me.

Anyhow, here's hoping Mirengoff gets all the negative publicity he deserves.

Yeah, negative publicity. It happens, but in this case it was costly, because Mirengoff's firm had major contracts with Native American tribes. The backlash came swiftly and forced Mirengoff off the blog. William Jacobson, a law professor who was previously in private practice, criticized Akin Gump's handling of the complaints, "Big Law Firm Takes Down Big Conservative Blogger." Read the whole thing, and note especially William's update: "Eric Boehlert of Media Matters is practically jumping for joy that Mirengoff no longer is blogging, which is what Boehlert had been hoping would happen, 'Note To RW Bloggers: Could Obama Derangement Syndrome Cost You Your Day Job?'" (That post went down the memory hole at Media Matters, most likely because it was way too honest about the progressive program of destruction against people who break from the acceptable narrative --- more about that stuff later, as I'm still working with my lawyer about the related progressive campaigns against American Power.)

Anyway, more at The Other McCain, "Power Line Gets Scalped: Did Indian Tribe Money Influence Akin Gump Decision?," and Pope Hat, "I, Paul Mirengoff, Offer Heap Big Apology To My Indian Brothers."

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz Married!

What a couple!

I like them both a lot.

At London's Daily Mail, "The name's Craig, Mrs Craig: Rachel Weisz marries James Bond star Daniel."

The Bond films are great, although I liked Craig in "Defiance," which I wrote about at the time, a couple of years back:

And I enjoyed Rachel Weisz's sexy, stoical character in "Enemy at the Gates," a thrilling World War II film. Both of Weisz's parents escaped the Holocaust:

Planned Parenthood Takes on the States

From Charmaine Yoest and Denise Burke, at Wall Street Journal, "A majority of Americans tell pollsters they do not want taxpayer dollars to subsidize abortions."

Without a doubt, measures to defund the abortion industry will remain a top priority for states in 2011 and will re-emerge in 2012. Legislators are responding to the majority of Americans—72% in a 2009 Quinnipiac University poll—who say that they do not want taxpayer dollars to be used to directly provide or indirectly subsidize abortions. Planned Parenthood and the administration appear committed to obstructing these efforts. Clearly, they prefer the status quo of taxpayer-funded largess for abortion providers—a bounty that amounts to $363 million annually in federal and state funds for Planned Parenthood alone.

RELATED: At Life News, "Judge Blocks Indiana Law Stopping Planned Parenthood Funding."

New York City Gay Pride Parade 2011

At Detroit Free Press, "New York Gay Pride parade follows legalization of same-sex marriage":

And the morning after, at New York Times, "For Gay Marriage Movement, Momentum but Challenges." And at Wall Street Journal, "New York Gay Marriage Vote Alters Political Battle Lines."

VIDEO: Katy Perry Rolling Stone Photo Shoot

At London's Daily Mail, "'I wanted to lose my ample curves': Katy Perry reveals her unusual teenage dream to Rolling Stone."

And at Rolling Stone, "Katy Perry Talks Body Image, Fame and Politics in Rolling Stone Cover Story."

Angie Harmon at The Daley Gator

I promised to do more Angie Harmon blogging, and I like the slideshow technology: "DaleyGator DaleyBabe Angie Harmon" (via Wombat's Rule 5 Roundup).