I jumped up from the bed and saw the pieces of paper on the floor.
“No! No!” I yelled, and then I realized it wasn’t a dream. Mystery was really gone.
“I should just go home,” I said.
I walked into the bathroom and took a shower. I stared at myself in the mirror and saw a defeated man, a man who had lost his true love. I closed my eyes and opened them again. I was hoping that the man would disappear, but he returned.
“There is no hope for me,” I told the man in the mirror, he nodded back.
I put my clothes on, grabbed my bag, and opened the hotel room door. I looked at the room behind me and thought about and how we spent the night together. I felt a tear slowly falling from my eye. The tear ran down my cheek, but I didn’t stop it. I looked ahead and tried to step out of the room, but I couldn’t move. It was as if someone had glued my shoes to the floor. My body was unmovable although I was determined to leave the room. I leaned my body forward to walk into the hallway, but my legs wouldn’t follow. I thought about it and then the letter.
“Mystery said that she put something under her pillow,” I voiced aloud.
I turned my body to face the room; strangely my body was able to do that. I walked back into the room and my body was loose. I felt like I put oil on my stiff bones. I walked over to Mystery’s side of the bed and lifted up her pillow. To my surprise, there was an envelope, which was sealed, and the money I won from the casino. I shook my head and said in a whisper, “Forgive me, Mystery. I thought you were a thief.”
I scanned the room once more and it brought back painful memories so I closed the door and walked away. When I arrived down to the lobby I walked over to the girl at the front desk. It was the girl who gave me the letter.
I took out the money and envelope from my back jean pocket and paid for the room in cash. I put the remaining money in my back jean pocket and left the counter. I didn’t comment on what she said. I just didn’t want to think about the hotel anymore.
“Sir, Sir,” I heard the girl say. I looked back and saw the girl at the front desk waving at me. I turned around and walked to the desk.
“What’s wrong?” I asked in a concerned voice.
“You forgot the envelope. So it was true. You’re going to give the envelope to the police, right?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said. I took the envelope off the counter and left the hotel.
I walked out into the street. I looked at the people around me looking so happy to be alive while I wanted to be dead.
I walked to my car in the garage. Getting in the car, I turned the key in the ignition, but it wouldn’t start. I tried several times to start the car but nothing happened. I banged my head on the steering wheel and hit the horn, which startled me. I felt a tear fall from my eye. This was more than I could take.
I got out of the car, kicked the front tire, and banged on the hood of the car to let out my frustrations. Looking around, I saw a building that caught my eye, the police station. I took the envelope out of my pocket and looked at it. I looked at the police station again. I remembered the words that Mystery had written on the paper.
“What the hell,” I said aloud.
I walked into the police station and saw a woman at the front desk. I put the envelope on her desk and left.
“Excuse me, sir. What is this?” the woman asked.
I turned around. “Someone told me to leave this here, so that’s what I’m doing.”
I turned around and walked out of the building to my car. I got into my car and to my surprise it started. I took a deep breath and drove home, alone, back to New York City.
I believe we need to help out the GLBT in Africa or we will have another Holocaust on our hands. I went to a GOP mixer, hear my thoughts about that. You will be surprise.
Obama's Kenyan Aunt Makes Second Asylum Request to Avoid Deportation
By DEVIN DWYER
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2010—
When President Obama's Kenyan aunt appears before a U.S. immigration judge in Boston today, she says she will literally be making the case for her life.
Zeituni Onyango, 56, is fighting a 2004 deportation order by seeking asylum in this country a status granted to those who cannot return home out of fear of being persecuted.
But just what persecution Onyango claims to face and whether a judge will find her fears well-founded is uncertain. Onyango first applied for asylum in 2002 "due to violence in Kenya" but was denied and ordered to leave the country.
Instead of returning home, the woman who helped raise the president's half brothers and sister in Kenya and whom Obama affectionately referred to as "Auntie Zeituni" in his memoir, has remained illegally in Boston, living in subsidized public housing.
Now the case, which first surfaced in October 2008, just before the presidential election, is once again drawing international attention and sparking speculation about whether Obama will intervene on her behalf.
"President Obama must either deport his aunt or destroy his own credibility by showing her favoritism," said William Gheen of the conservative Americans for Legal Immigration PAC.
The White House has insisted that it has no involvement with Onyango's case, leaving it to follow an ordinary course before a federal judge who will apply the rule of law. For her part, Onyango told The Associated Press she has not been in contact with anyone from the White House or been contacted by them.
Onyango did not respond to ABC News' requests for interviews.
"She hasn't been in touch with the president. He can't help her," Mike Rogers, spokesman for Onyango's attorney Margaret Wong, told ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security, which is part of the Obama administration, is prosecuting the case, which will be heard in a closed hearing before U.S. Immigration Court Judge Leonard Shapiro.
Shapiro is a civil service employee and not a political appointee, according to the court.
"The lawyers aren't discussing any strategy, but they feel confident," said Rogers. "Margaret Wong feels 95 percent certain that she will prevail."
Will Obama's Kenyan Aunt Get Rare U.S. Asylum?
While details of Onyango's asylum request are not being disclosed, her case was at least compelling enough to convince Shapiro in December 2008 to take the unusual step of reopening the matter and issuing a stay on her deportation.
Experts speculate that Onyango could be claiming that her relationship to Obama makes her a target of Kenya's political tribal factions fearing her perceived influence, or of Islamic extremist groups seeking to inflict harm on the U.S. president's family.
Asylum is granted by law in cases when an individual faces "persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion," according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.
"Certainly, the Kenyan government would not be interested in harming her," said D.C. immigration lawyer Andres Benach, who regularly takes asylum cases, but is not involved in this case. "So she would have to show that it would be persecution by groups that the Kenyan government is unable or unwilling to control -- maybe al Qaeda-like organizations that operate with a measure of impunity in Kenya."
Convincing a judge that Onyango would face persecution because of her familial relationship with Obama will be hard to prove, Benach said.
Most people who apply for asylum don't receive it because the burden of proof for the feared persecution is that it has at least a 10 percent chance of happening.
"Personal vendettas, random crime, conditions everybody is subjected to, do not support asylum," Benach said.
In 2008, the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review completed 46,237 asylum cases -- 10,743 of which were granted, 13,199 were denied, and 22,295 were other closures, agency spokeswoman Lauren Alder Reid told ABC News.
Kenyans have made up a relatively small portion of asylum requests over the past 10 years. Of the 343 applications, only 60 were granted asylum.
At today's hearing, Shapiro will hear arguments and receive evidence including possible witness testimony from both sides. He will then decide whether to grant asylum or reinstate the deportation order.
A Ugandan MP accused of calling for a "gay death penalty" says he has been misrepresented and is only trying to criminalise child abusers.
David Bahati says the new offence of "aggravated homosexuality" is a penalty against "defilement" of under-18s.
"There has been a distortion in the media that we are providing death for gays. That is not true," he said.
"When a homosexual defiles a kid of less than 18 years old, we are providing a penalty for this."
There are estimated to be 500,000 gay people in Uganda, out of a population of about 31 million, according to gay rights groups.
Homosexuality is already illegal in the country. But the new Anti-Homosexuality Bill tabled by Mr Bahati proposes a widening of the definition of homosexual acts.
'Sinners'
It would allow the government to fine or imprison anyone found to be promoting homosexuality and to execute those having gay sex with disabled people or under-18s, or when the accused is HIV-positive.
“ We are not after the sinners, we love them... we are after the sin ” David Bahati MP, Uganda
"We are not after the sinners. We love them. We are after the sin," Mr Bahati told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
"Homosexuality it is not a human right. It is not in-born. It is a behaviour that is learned and it can be unlearned."
His bill states that its provisions are intended to "protect the traditional family by prohibiting any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex".
But this statement was attacked by the Reverend Jide Macaulay from Nigeria, a campaigning gay pastor.
'Hatred'
"Homosexuals have never disturbed the traditional heterosexual family. We are part of the human culture," he said.
“ There is no justification for this bill... it is going to punish so many people ” Rev Jide Macaulay, Nigeria
"The problem is a hatred and lack of understanding of homosexual people."
Mr Macaulay was in London on Thursday attending a protest march marking International Human Rights Day.
"If you had a bill that was going to punish child abusers, I would 110% support that bill," he told Focus on Africa.
"But look at the grain of this bill - it's going to punish so many people.
"Clause 14 in particular will punish same-gender loving people, business people, families and the media.
Obama denounces anti-gay bill in Uganda as 'odious'
(AFP) – 47 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday denounced as "odious" a proposed anti-gay law in Uganda that calls for the death penalty in cases of "aggravated homosexuality."
"We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are, whether it is here in the United States or... more extremely, in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda," Obama said.
The US leader made the remarks at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, a bipartisan gathering of lawmakers and religious leaders in Washington DC.
US presidents traditionally attend the event, but it sparked controversy this year because the Christian group that is a sponsor of the meeting has been linked to Uganda's much-criticized anti-homosexual legislation.
A US ethics group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, wrote a letter to Obama and senior Democratic and Republican lawmakers asking them not to attend the breakfast.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, in town for meetings with US officials, also attended the prayer meeting with Obama and used his address to warn against intolerance.
"I want to defend the right of every person to his moral autonomy, the freedom of all to live with his beloved," he said.
Obama's comments at the meeting came a day after US lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced legislation condemning the controversial Ugandan bill.
The symbolic US measure asserted that "all people possess an intrinsic human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation, and share fundamental human rights," and warned the Ugandan bill, if enacted, "would set a troubling precedent."
Uganda has been criticized by the United States, the European Union and NGOs over the proposed legislation, which would also criminalize public discussion of homosexuality and could penalize an individual who knowingly rents property to a homosexual.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, and punishable by life imprisonment in some instances.
When Joleen Baughman damaged a nerve in her pelvis two years ago in a car accident, she never imagined the outcome would leave her constantly craving sex.
But the 39-year-old mother of two now suffers from restless genital syndrome, which is also known as persistent sexual arousal syndrome, because of the damaged nerve, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Any type of movement — vacuuming, bending over or walking — can leave the New Mexico resident feeling so aroused, "it's embarrassing and it's impossible to concentrate."
Baughman also injured her spine in the accident, and she spent several months recovering at home. She was confused when she started experiencing the intense urges for sex, but she said her husband was happy about it — until he realized how difficult the condition would become for them.
Dr. Sandra Leiblum first defined persistent sexual arousal syndrome as "intense feelings of genital congestion and sensations that are typically unaccompanied by any conscious awareness of sexual desire" in an article published for the Women's Sexual Health Foundation in Cincinnati, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating women and doctors on conditions that may impact sexual health and function.
Sexual activities intended to relieve the symptoms can reinforce the sensations or provide only temporary relief, Leiblum wrote in her report.
"I was very relieved to find out my condition was not psychological," she said. "For a while I thought I was going crazy or that it was somehow my fault. I think a lot of people go through those thoughts with this condition. Being aroused pretty much 24 hours a day is exhausting."
The don't ask, don't tell policy, signed in 1993 by former president Bill Clinton, was implemented as a compromise with legislature which opposed a complete repeal of the prior ban on gays in the military. The death of Seaman Allen Schindler in 1992 brought the issue of gay servicemembers to the forefront. Established under the premise of privacy, discretion and protection, the policy bans gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people from serving in the military and prevents military officials from asking probing questions or pursuing investigations of soldiers suspected of being homosexuals. Any servicemember that openly reveals their homosexuality through words or actions are discharged from service.
Statement from Human Rights Campaign on "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" U.S. Senate Hearing
2/2/2010
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, released the following statement today from HRC President Joe Solmonese:
“Today is a historic step forward in repealing a shameful law that has harmed the military, discharged thousands of talented and patriotic Americans and prevented thousands more from serving their country.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell has been unworkable from the start. When the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense, who also served under President Bush, direct the military to mitigate the pace of discharges while moving toward implementation, we know that Don't Ask Don't Tell is on its way out.
Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen made clear today that this military review is about how, not if this policy will be repealed despite the protest from vocal opponents on the Armed Services Committee. As the Secretary said in his opening statement, "The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how best we prepare for it."
We applaud Chairman Levin's suggestion that the discharges be halted while this review is underway, and we urge the President and Congress to move quickly on this important first step.
We acknowledge and appreciate President Obama's leadership in bringing the military into line with his ideal. Make no mistake -- this would not have happened without his insistence. And we'll need more of that commitment in the months ahead.
Today's announcement blunts the day-to-day damage of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but we call on Congress to rescind this law and give the Pentagon the full authority to close the books on this stain of discrimination. Finally, while we respect the view of our military leaders to limit this review to the military itself, we encourage the Secretary to include outside repeal advocates as well.
We will -- as we always have -- work in partnership with the Obama Administration and our allies on the Hill as we continue to work toward full and final repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
An illegal immigrant who allegedly set the Brooklyn fire that killed five neighbors told cops the demons in his head led him to torch the crowded building, sources said yesterday.
"He confessed to the arson," a police source said. "He didn't indicate any rational motive."
Daniel Ignacio, 27, a Guatemalan national, was charged yesterday with murder and arson. He was ordered held without bail at his arraignment last night.
Ignacio told cops that evil spirits led him to set off the blaze early Saturday in his Bensonhurst building, filled with deeply religious tenants.
"The demons made me do it," he said, according to a police source.
Ignacio also said he was drunk at the time and that he does "stupid things" when he drinks.
He whined to cops that he had fallen into a deep depression in recent weeks — ashamed about making a paltry $8 an hour as a day laborer and heartbroken he lived so far from his family.
Ignacio, who was deported seven years ago but managed to sneak back into the United States, tried to paint himself in a better light when he was walked from the 62nd Precinct.
"I'm not a monster!" he shouted in Spanish to reporters. "I have compassion!"
Ignacio told cops he used paint thinner to set a roll of toilet paper afire with a cigarette lighter in a baby carriage sitting in a hallway near the stairwell, police said.
After setting the blaze, he went upstairs to sleep off his drunken stupor. Flames quickly erupted near the building's front door, cutting off the building's main exit and blocking firefighters from getting upstairs.
Residents awakened to the roaring blaze, which ate through the staircase and collapsed a floor.
Five people perished, including a frantic mother who, with her husband's help, managed to get their two children out of the burning building.
Cops said that when Ignacio realized what he had done, he helped in the dramatic rescue of one of the kids, a 2-year-old boy.
Ignacio, a second-floor tenant, was inside the building as the fire spread. As smoke and flames swept through the structure, he grabbed the boy, Josias Chan, from his parents and safely handed him off to firefighters at a second-floor window. Ignacio then climbed down an FDNY ladder to safety.
Danielle Eaddy, a lawyer who represented Ignacio at the arraignment, praised his client's efforts in rescuing the child. "There are some holes in this case to say the least," she said outside court.
In the days after the fire, survivors, including the boy's widowed father, Miguel Chan, heaped praise on Ignacio.
But Ignacio quickly went from hero to hellion when surveillance video surfaced showing him leaving the 86th Street building, then returning shortly before the fire started.
Chan "feels very betrayed," said the Rev. Erick Salgado, pastor of the Jovenes Cristianos Church, where many of the tenants worship.
"The devil's always going to tell you to do so many things, but you are responsible to choose what to do and what not to do.
"I thanked [Ignacio] for saving Josias. Now I can't believe he's the one who was charged."
Chan's wife, Luisa Ordoñez, 33, died in her husband's arms. Their baby girl remains at a Queens children's hospital with a fractured skull.
Four other people, including Juan Barreno, 28, a construction worker from Guatemala, also died in the blaze.
"Anytime someone starts a fire in a stairwell, it's a deadly fire," an investigator told The Post. "It's the worst you can get. A fire [that starts in an apartment] isn't half as bad."
Cops said Ignacio has at least one prior arrest, for burglary, and was deported back to his native Guatemala in 2003. He sneaked back into the United States a short time later, officials said.
Residents said he moved in two months ago after showing up one day looking for a place to live.
Chan has retained a lawyer for a possible suit. The attorney, Ben Rubinowitz, said Chan wants to know if anyone else can be held responsible for his wife's death.
Officials from the Fire and Buildings departments are continuing to investigate if there were any other contributing factors, such as illegal subdivision, that would have made it more difficult for firefighters to navigate.
The air is cold and dark. People surround a house with cameras, lights and a news van. It is so cold, people breath turn into snowflakes when it hits the air. They are cold; however they need to be ready.
A woman is outside in the spotlight. She is freezing with her wool coat, knitted scarf, and gloves on, with a microphone in her hand. She is ready. She already talked to the police officers who are on the case. She knows the officers are telling her the truth about the case, but she cannot believe. The case is too bizarre.
The reporter stares at the house as if the house did belong there. The house is a normal two-story English Colonial house, with a porch, windows, a front, and front steps. It looks like all the other houses in the neighbor, but it is still out of place. The reporter continues to stare at the house as if the house is calling her name.
“Shari. Shari. Shari,” a cameraman says as he tries to get the reporter’s attention.
The cameraman, who is trying to get the reporter attention, walks over to her and taps her on the shoulder. She jumps and looks at him.
“You scared me,” Shari says in a fright.
“Are you ready to make you mark?” The cameraman asks with his green eyes staring at her.
He beings to stare at the house and shakes his head. He has pain and sorrow emotions on his face, but he snaps out of the trance.
Shari looks at him and asks, “Do I have a choice, Carlos?”
“You are here. We are freezing. I think you need to do it,” the Carlos says with his teeth chattering.
Carlos walks back to his camera and Shari looks at the house for one last time, then she looks into the camera to make her mark in the world of weird journalism.
“We are here at Mr. Zachary Rickman brother’s house. Zachary Rickman killed his brother and his brother's girlfriend with a craving knife over the Thanksgiving holiday. The shock here is, he kept the two dead bodies in this house for three weeks,” Shari says in a professional shock look painted on her face.
“As we can see, the police are taking Mr. Rickman out of the house with handcuffs. This is the weirdest event I ever reported. The police said the woman’s body was…”
Two police officers take Zachary to the police car. Zachary enters into the backseat of the car; willingly without a fight. In the car, he starts to cry and says, “I loved her; I loved her, so why did I kill her?”
When the police officers and Zachary arrives at the station, there are two detectives and an appointed lawyer waiting for him in the interrogation room. When Zachary walks into the station the mood is silent, a person can hear a pin drop on the clement floor. People stop and scare at him as if he is a strange monster from a strange planet. Eyes are following his every move and jester, but the man on display keeps his head down with his tears dropping to the floor. The police officers bring him into the room and orders Zachary to sit down in the chair. He obeys like a little child after a scolding. He sits next to the lawyer and faces the two detectives. The room feels cold without emotion and the man on display lets one of the police officers take off his handcuffs. The man on display looks up at the detectives with his red weary watery eyes that tell a sad story.
“Your name is Zachary Rickman, am I right?” One of the detectives asks the man on display as if he is not capable of understanding English.
“Yes,” Zachary says in a lowly tone that lingers.
“This is your lawyer, Mr. Edward Cohen.”
The lawyer turns to him and says, “Zachary, can you tell me everything that happen, from the beginning.”
Zachary looks at all the men in the room. He puts his head in his hands, starts to cry and shake. He lifts his head up and controls himself with a fight. After a deep breath and a short pray to God, he tells his story.
“My story begins two years ago, when my brother started dating Brenda. When she came over for dinner, I fell in love with her. I do not know if lust entered my mind, but I felt a connection to her. She was beautiful and smart. She was going to college to become a biologist. ‘It is amazing that there are tiny organisms in everything, even in your body,’ she said at dinner. I wonder what she saw in my brother.
“I got the chance to know Brenda better. We both found out we had a lot in common, like the sciences, video games, sports, cartoons, and computers. I always wanted to ask her, 'What do you see in Dion?', but I never did. Whenever, I saw my brother kissing her, I fantasized, she was kissing me.
“One day, Brenda came over to the house to watch a football game with me. My parents were out and my brother was at work. I was happy to have her to myself, maybe I thought, I can make love to her. During the game, I watched her while she watched the game. I wanted to tell her that I loved her, but I did not. After the game, she kissed me on the cheek. I did not want her to leave.”
“Can you stay longer; we can play a board game,” I said.
“No, I must go. I have to meet Dion at the coffee house to go over a test. I will see you see later,” she said.
“I hugged her close and I felt her breasts against my chest. I fantasized that I was taking off her T-shirt and unfastening her bra, and burying my head in her large bosom. I was making love to her and she enjoyed it, by calling out my name named with ecstasy. The daydreaming came to a stop when she pulled away and left out the front door. I hated my brother because he had the girl that I wanted.
“This year, my brother got a house and moved out of our parents’ house. Brenda moved in with my brother, which crushed to my heart. I hoped she wanted to live with me.
“During the spring, the doorbell rang and I opened the door. Brenda was at the door; she was crying and wanted to talk to me. I felt that this was my chance to get Brenda’s attention and get her to leave my brother, since no one was home.
“Brenda and I sat on the couch in the living room. She told me that she had a fight with Dion and he left. I hugged her and stoked her long waving hair. I kissed her neck and told her, 'everything will be ok'. I kissed her cheek and moved on to her lips. We kissed each other passionately and I touched her breast. I lost control. It started out innocent. Guilt entered into my soul, but I wanted her bad so I let the guilt float away. I wanted to be inside of her and soon she became willing participate. She enjoyed being with me at that moment and my purpose was to please her. It was a dream come true, but as all dreams, they don=t last. Brenda opened her eyes, jumped off the couch, and fixed her clothes. She began to cry and said, 'I am sorry, I am sorry', and with that, she left. I felt hurt and ashamed. I hated myself.”
“Mr. Rickman, can you please tell me what happen three weeks ago?” The lawyer asks.
“This is what happened; I went over to my brother's house to have dinner with him and Brenda. At the dinner table there was a whole turkey with stuffing inside, mixed vegetables, butter buns, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and red wine. Dion fixed an excellent dinner. The mood was joyous with a sense of richness. They ate to satisfaction, but I could not. I had to tell Brenda, how my heart would sing when she was around me.
“I could not take looking at the loving couple any longer, as if my seat was hot as a stove, I jumped up and declared my love for Brenda. I told Dion that Brenda and I were secret lovers of the heart. Brenda gave me the look of evil, which I thought was unlikely to happen while Dion was shocked. First, he looked at me and then at Brenda, like a wild animal studying its prey. I was frightened because I knew that my brother had a short temper and nothing could stop him, but I had to tell him what my heart told me everyday.
“Dion stood up and looked down at us like his eyes were stabbing us through the heart. While he stared at us, I took the carving knife off the table. I handled it in my hand under the table. At that moment, I knew it was seconds, but in my mind it was years. Soon, my control left me, I went insane.
“I took the knife and shoved it into in the middle of Dion's neck. A little person inside of
me, told me to put the knife down, but instead I started swing it. I felted something hard and heard Brenda's screamed, which brought me into a sane state. I stopped, I saw Dion head separated from his body while he fell to the floor. I stood over his lifeless body. In a panic, I was out of control again, stabbing him several times in the chest while Brenda screamed. I remembered, I told Brenda I loved her when I got under control. In her eyes that looked like daggers, I saw detested hate for me; I could not stand the feeling. I closed my eyes, said a pray, and stabbed her one time. She died. “After I saw the bloodshed I caused, I felt ashamed. I decided to put Dion's body in the freezer icebox and gave Brenda a bath. While I let her soak, I cleaned the house from top to bottom. After the bath, I put lingerie on her body and laid her on the bed. She looked perfect, like a queen and I was her prince.”
“Mr. Rickman, how did you deal with the smell of the bodies for three weeks?” the detective asks while looking at him as if he is dreadful disease.
“What smell are you talking about? After I cooked for her and had sex with her, I laid her body next Dion since they were still boyfriend and girlfriend, but I treated her as if she was my wife. For almost two years, I waited for these weeks and I loved every minute of it. I also would put perfume on her body, so she could smell like a rose. And...”
“Wait,” the lawyer says as all the men hold their stomachs in their hands. One of the detectives turns pale although his skin color is darker than the night sky. He leaves the room and the two other men try to hold their emotions. “You had sex with her. Meaning, that you had sex with a corpse,” the lawyer continues.
“Yes, I did. In my eyes, she was alive,” Zachary says with sparkles in his eyes.
The detective and lawyer look at him, and see the words mentally ill on Zachary face.
“How did Dion's friend Alex, find out about the murders?” The detective asks.
“Dion's friend was at the house when I was shopping for food. Whenever Alex is in the house, he goes straight to the icebox, for beer or ice cream. Probably, he went into the bedroom and found Brenda's beautiful body. I forgot to put clothes on her. When I got back to the house, I saw police cars and ambulances.
“The truth is I thought if I killed my brother, she would fall in love with me. I killed Brenda because I knew she did not like me, but I still wanted her. Instead of raping her, I killed her and then had sex with her.”
With the last sentence, the other detective starts to get sick. The lawyer gathers his stuff. They walk out of the room to discuss the murders and the charges.
While the lawyer and the detective are talking, Zachary has an idea. He takes off his belt and sees a metal horizontal pole inches below the ceiling. He brings the chair up to the pole, puts his belt around the pole, and buckles the belt. He stands on the chair and puts his head in the loop. After places his head, he kicks the chair out from underneath him.
Suddenly, the belt gives way and Zachary falls to the floor, which makes a loud sound. The lawyer and the detective run back into the room. Zachary is on the clement floor; in pain.
“That son of a gun; almost hang himself,” the lawyer says with chuckle.
“If he was going to hang himself, why can he just do it right? Is he that stupid? Does not he know a belt can’t support his weight? He must be insane! I am going to put him in the slammer now,” the detective says.
The detective calls some officers to pick Zachary off the floor and to put him in a cell by himself. The officers did, and Zachary starts to cry and mumble, “I loved her; I loved her”, repeatedly, until he falls asleep.
I am disappointed in you. You need to learn from your daughter and wife. I could not vote for you now. - Show quoted text -
On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 10:03 PM, John McCain <john@johnmccain.com> wrote:
Special video message from John McCain.
Listen to his thoughts on the State of the Union.
Watch the video My Friend,
Tonight, during his State of the Union speech, President Obama laid out his vision for our nation's future. As you know, the President and I have differing views on the direction we should take the country, and I stand by my conservative values of reduced spending, low taxes, and a strong national defense.
I took a few moments to record a special message for you on the issues facing America and I hope you'll take a moment to watch the video by following this link.
During his first year in office, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have amassed a $12.4 trillion deficit that is growing each day. While the President advocates increased federal spending, I have actively advocated tax cuts, reduced spending and earmark reform to get our economy back on track.
The non-discretionary spending freeze announced by the President is a start, but what he also needs to do is promise to veto bills laden with pork barrel spending and begin creating jobs for the thousands of out-of-work Americans.
We currently face a national unemployment rate of over 10%, and it has only grown during President Obama's time in office. As we have seen, trillion-dollar, big-government stimulus packages are not the answer for creating jobs. To stimulate our economy for job growth, we need payroll tax cuts, tax incentives for small businesses and an assurance that Democrats will not raise taxes.
As a United States Senator, I fight each and every day for these and other conservative values. I won't settle for business-as-usual, behind-closed-doors politics. I'm not afraid to stand up and speak out for the majority of Americans who are angry at the current Democratic leadership in Washington.
But, to continue serving in this capacity, I must win reelection this year. You can help my campaign today by following this link to watch the video I've recorded for you and after, make a generous contribution of any amount to my campaign.
The people of Massachusetts confirmed last week what we have been saying for a long time - the American people want a change in Washington and an end to big government solutions to problems like health care. I was proud to be an early supporter of Senator-elect Scott Brown's campaign. It was a landmark victory and I look forward to working with him to block government-run health care, tax increases and increased federal spending.
I'm proud of my record and service to this country and would like nothing more than to continue serving as a voice for conservative values. Please take a moment to make a donation to my reelection campaign, so that we have the resources to continue fighting. Thank you.
Sincerely,
John McCain
P.S. I've taken a few moments to record an exclusive message for my online community about the issues laid out in President Obama's State of the Union speech. You can follow this link to watch the video. After watching, I ask that you make a donation of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more to my reelection campaign so that I may continue serving as a voice for conservative values. Thank you.
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| Aliya Leigh to John
show details 10:20 PM (1 hour ago)
I am a lesbian and a supporter of your campaign for the Presidency. I love the GOP. My blood bleed Red, like it suppose to be.
Baby Dyke
Baby dyke has two applications. Firstly it refers to someone who has just come out of the closet and a “new” lesbian. Secondly, the term also refers to a young lesbian.
Bisexual
Bisexual refers to a person who is attracted to both males and females.
Boi
Boi refers to a lesbian who has a boyish appearance.
Bulldyke
Bulldyke is thought to be a negative term that refers to a lesbian who is very masculine.
Butch
A Butch also refers to a lesbian with masculine characteristics.
Cougar
Cougar has typically been used by the heterosexuak world to refer to an older woman who likes younger men. It has (although rarely) been used by the lesbian community to refer to an older lesbian that is usually thought to not be desireable.
Crone
Crone is often thought to be a negative term. Crone refers to an older lesbian. The thought is that the older lesbian with more life experience should be shown respect.
Cross Dresser
A cross dresser refers to an individual who wears the clothing of the opposite sex. Typically a cross dresser wears the clothing of their sex during work hours etc. and clothing from the opposite sex during recreational times.
De-dyking the House
De-dyking the house refers to putting away or hiding everything that would reveal that the occupants are in a gay or lesbian relationship. Sometimes partners will have two separate bedrooms set up so that when visitors come over (who do not know about their relationship), that it does not appear that they are in a relationship.
Diesel Dyke
A diesel dyke is a butchy lesbian. The diesel dyke often has an aggressive nature. Typically a diesel dyke will be employed as a truck driver or other such masculine driven industries.
Domestic Partners
Domestic partners means more than the term partner. Partner refers to two people in a relationship. Domestic partner refers to two people who are in a relationship and who live together. People in a domestic partnership are not married, nor are they in a civil union. Typically the term partner had been used for same sex relationships, but more recently it is common to hear opposite sex relationships refer to themselves as partners.
Drag King
A Drag King is a woman that dresses like a man, usually for a performance or act of some kind. Drag Kings are not necessarily lesbians.
Dyke
The term dyke refers to a lesbian. The term is usually acceptable if used by people of bisexual, gay, lesbian or transgender nature. However, dyke is a negative term if used by a heterosexual person.
Ex-Gay Therapy
Ex-gay therapy refers to the belief that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people can be given therapy to change them into a straight person. This movement is typically driven by people of “faith.”
Femme
A Femme is a feminine lesbian.
Gayborhood
Gayborhood refers to a section or location within a City that is gay friendly or that has a lot of gay stores, bars and such where gays and lesbians hang out or live.
Gaydar
Gaydar refers to one’s ability to determine or tell is another person is gay or lesbian.
Gender Identity
Gender identity refers to the sex a person feels like on the inside. A person’s gender identity does not necessarily match the sex that they were born. People of gender identity usually have a gender expression meaning that they will express their gender identity outwardly by the clothes they where or by the way they act (gender variance).
Gender Variance
Gender variance refers to the way a lesbian or gay acts in relation to their gender identity. In other words, a lesbian who feels that their gender identity is that of male typically has a gender variance (or acts) more like a male. Gender variance is opposite to the typical male acting as male and female acting as female.
Girl Crush
A girl crush is a crush between two women that is not of sexual nature.
Gold Star Lesbian
A gold star lesbian refers to a lesbian that has never had sex with the opposite sex.
Hasbian
A hasbian refers to an ex-lesbian.
Homophobia
Homophobia refers to the dislike or distain for people who are not heterosexual.
Lipstck Lesbian
A liptick lesbian refers to a lesbian who is into her lipstick (makeup), clothes and shoes. Sometimes a lipstick lesbian is also called a Barbie Doll lesbian. A lipstick lesbian is usually always seen all “dolled” up.
Lesbian
A lesbian is a woman who is attracted to other women. This same sex attraction is on a sexual and emotional level.
Lone Star Lesbian
A lone star lesbian refers to a lesbian that has only had sex with one woman.
Out of the Closet
Out of the closet refers to someone who is comfortable and open about their sexual orientation.
Pillow Queen
A pillow queen refers to a lesbian who likes to be on the receiving end of sexual pleasure and who does not want or like to return the experience.
Power Dyke
A power dyke is a lesbian in a position of power.
Second Parent Adoption
Second parent adoption refers to when one partner adopts the other partners biological child.
Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation refers to your sexual preference whether is is heterosexual or same sex attraction.
Stone Butch Lesbian
A stone butch lesbian refers to a lesbian who likes to pleasure her partner, but does not like to herself be pleasured.
Switching Teams
Switching teams refers to the switch from a heterosexual lifestyle to a gay or lesbian lifestyle.
Queer
Queer refers to people other than heterosexuals. Queer is a negative term.
Transsexual
Transsexual refers to a person who has the desire to be the opposite sex. Sometimes transsexual people have surgery called reassignment surgery to become the sex they desire to be.
Transgender
Transgender refers to a person who outwardly expresses their gender as the opposite to their born sex.
Trans
Trans refers to transgender and transsexual people. Trans covers people of gender variance.
Two Spirited
Two spirited is an Aboriginal term refering to gays and lesbians. Aboriginal people refer to gays and lesbians as two spirited as it is believed that they have two spirits (one masculine and one feminine) and that is what drives their gay/lesbian sexual and emotional desires.
Why is porn in our society? We can read, see and watch porn. We can even buy sex toys, but why? Is the real thing better then the fake?
I will tell you!
http://www.aliyaleligh.com
http://aliyaleighlive.libsyn.com
The diminutive former "Diff'rent Strokes" star was picked up in his Utah hometown yesterday on a domestic-violence warrant, sources said.
Cops in Santaquin, outside Salt Lake City, would not comment on the arrest, but Utah County jail records indicate that Coleman, 41, was being held in lieu of $1,725 bail for the 2009 warrant.
Coleman, who was arrested in 2008 for allegedly hitting a man with his pickup truck at a Utah bowling alley, did not return calls for comment.
The arrest is the latest blow for 1970s child star.
Coleman's relationship with his wife, actress Shannon Price, has been rocky over the years, although the alleged victim in the current case is not known.
In July, Price, who met Coleman on the set of the 2006 comedy "Church Ball," was nabbed for locking him out during a fight and trashing the house.
In July 2007, Coleman allegedly unleashed a verbal tirade at Price in a parking lot, leading to a disorderly-conduct charge.
The pair appeared on the TV show "Divorce Court" the next year, but later reconciled.
The brother of former Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan is being charged with assaulting their 70-year-old father in Stoneham following a fight over a telephone where police say the younger man thought his dad was “faking it” when he fell to the ground.
The father, Daniel Kerrigan, died from a massive heart attack, his wife tells the Herald.
Mark Kerrigan, 45, now faces one count of assault and battery on a person over 60, according to Woburn District Court Clerk John Teeven.
The criminal complaint lists Daniel Kerrigan of Stoneham as the assault victim, Teeven added. Mark Kerrigan is expected to be arraigned today in the Woburn court.
Nancy Kerrigan’s mother, Brenda Kerrigan , told the Herald this morning her husband died of a massive heart attack.
“My husband had a massive heart attack,” Brenda Kerrigan said. “This is a very difficult time for me.”
A five-page police report of the alleged assault at the Kerrigan Cedar Avenue home in Stoneham states both father and son were yelling and pushing “back and forth” until the elder Kerrigan fell over.
The police report states Brenda Kerrigan told police the two men were battling until her husband fell. Police also report Mark Kerrigan put his “hands around his father’s neck” and he said he thought his dad was “faking it” when he fell to the floor.
Mark Kerrigan had to be subdued with pepper spray, the police report states. He also appeared intoxicated, the report adds.
Police also report spotting blood on the kitchen floor and the elder Kerrigan was found on the floor in the basement. It is not clear why the two men were arguing over the use of the telephone.
Middlesex County District Attorney Gerry Leone and Stoneham Police Chief Richard Bongiorno said yesterday they were probing the death of a man who was found unresponsive at a Cedar Avenue home in Stoneham. The man, who was found unresponsive at 1:30 a.m. yesterday, was taken to Winchester Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Leone said in a statement.
A distraught Brenda Kerrigan said earlier today there is nothing suspicious about her husband’s death.
“My God. He had a heart attack,” she said. “That’s what it was.”
She was contacted before news broke of the charges filed against her son.
Biden's Son Beau Announces He Will Not Run for Senate
Vice President Biden's son Beau announced Monday that he will not run for his father's old Senate seat, leaving the Republican in the race without a Democratic opponent.
Vice President Biden's son Beau announced Monday that he will not run for his father's old Senate seat, leaving the Republican in the race without a Democratic opponent.
In a written statement, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said he had given "serious consideration" to running for Senate but ultimately decided to run for re-election as attorney general.
"My first responsibilities are here in Delaware," he said. "Therefore I cannot and will not run for the United States Senate in 2010."
His decision only adds to Democrats' problems in defending their Senate majority. Democrats on Tuesday lost the Massachusetts special election for the seat once held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
In Delaware, Biden's pass leaves GOP Rep. Mike Castle, a former governor, in the race without Democratic opposition.
The announcement puts to rest mounting speculation about Biden's position.
Harry F. Themal, who's written a column for the Wilmington, Del., News Journal for 20 years, wrote in his Sunday column that the vice president went so far as to urge him to convince his son to run for Senate.
Biden's office denied the report, turning over a transcript to Politico.com that showed Biden was actually trying to solicit Themal to urge placeholder Sen. Ted Kaufman to run should Beau decide not to. The conversation still reflected an expectation that Biden's son would opt out of the race.
Scorned Mistress of Married Obama Adviser Posts Billboards Nationwide
Friday , January 22, 2010
On first glance, it could be the ultimate Valentine's Day card -- a gigantic billboard that towers over New York's Times Square, featuring a happy couple with the text: "You are my soulmate forever, Charles & YaVaughnie."
But as every scorned lover knows, looks can be deceiving. This billboard -- which also has gone up in Atlanta and San Francisco -- is the ultimate act of revenge -- a very public retaliation by a dumped mistress aimed at a very wealthy, and married, businessman who is an adviser to President Obama.
YaVaughnie Wilkins posted the signs after she learned that her lover, Charles E. Phillips — president and director of the tech conglomerate Oracle Corporation and a member of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board — had reconciled with his wife, the New York Post reported.
The billboards -- there are three in New York and one apiece in Atlanta and San Francisco, where Phillips lives -- may have cost Wilkins up to $250,000, at an estimated $50,000 each.
After the billboards surfaced, Phillips fessed up to his longtime affair through a spokesman on Thursday.
"I had an 8-and-a-half-year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins. The relationship with Ms. Wilkins has since ended, and we both wish each other well," he said.
In an Oracle newsletter from 2006, Phillips was described as an ex-marine and "family man" who has a wife and 10-year-old son, Chas, the New York Times reported.
I couldn't be more proud of my mother for posing for the NOH8 campaign," Meghan McCain tweeted about mom Cindy McCain.
Cindy McCain's position stands in contrast to her husband's, the former GOP presidential nominee, who opposes gay marriage.
Sen. McCain's office issued a statement affirming his own stance on gay marriage without addressing the ad campaign directly.
"Senator
McCain respects the views of members of his family," spokesperson
Brooke Buchanan said. "The senator chaired the effort to successfully
pass Arizona Proposition 102, the Marriage Protection Amendment, and
his opposition to gay marriage remains the same. Senator McCain
believes the sanctity of marriage is only defined as between one man
and one woman."
By Abigail Van Buren Abigail Van Buren - Sun Jan 17, 2:16 am ET
DEAR ABBY: After an on-again off-again affair with a married man for almost 10 years, our relationship finally ended today.
During the time we "messed around," I lost most of my friends because we socialized in the same circles, and I felt ashamed of what I was doing, so I stopped going around with any of them. So here I sit, lonely and embarrassed.
How do I explain to people I meet why I don't have many friends? I know time heals, and I need to focus on the good things in my life and move forward, but I feel isolated and stupid.
I never asked him to leave his wife nor did he promise he would. It was just a one-night stand that went on way too long. I did have relationships in between, but I'd always go back to him.
Can you please give me some suggestions on how to rebuild my self-esteem and learn to love myself again? -- KICKING MYSELF IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR KICKING YOURSELF: Gladly. A giant step in the right direction would be to stop kicking yourself because you appear to be plenty bruised already. Then, instead of isolating yourself, get out and get busy: Join a gym. Scout out organizations where you can volunteer.
No one will know whether you have dozens of friends or only a few -- and don't volunteer the information because it's no one's business.
Take a class or two. Join a church if you feel you need spiritual guidance. And make a vow never to involve yourself with a married man again.
Tiger Woods was been spotted for the first time since the November 2009 car crash that led to revelations of his serial infidelity.
A bearded, hooded Woods was photographed at the Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services’ facility called Gentle Path in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
According to The National Enquirer, Woods is undergoing a six-week intensive treatment under the supervision of Dr. Patrick Carnes, an expert on sex addiction.
Woods reportedly entered the facility in late December as part of a bid to save his fiive-year marriage to former bikini model Elin Nordegren. According to the Enquirer, Nordegren demanded Woods enter treatment, or she would divorce him.
The embattled golfer lost several sponsorship deals, including lucrative deals with Gatorade and Accenture, after he was romantically linked to as many as 14 different women, including pancake waitresses, porn stars and club hostesses.
Nordegren, who has since been photographed several times without her wedding ring, moved out of the couple’s home in Florida, but has not filed for divorce.
According to the New York Post, Nordegren will have to spend a week with Woods at Gentle Path, which will include “disclosure day,” where he will have to confess all of his infidelities to her in graphic detail.
But while Nordegren has been all smiles in recent photographs, sources tell RadarOnline.com that Tiger is “totally devastated” and wants to use his time in rehab to show the world he is trying to change.
Woods is planning to return to golf in the spring and hopes his time in rehab will vindicate his name to sponsors, the web site reports.
Article printed from Entertainment: http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com
URL to article: http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/01/21/tiger-woods-photgraphed-at-sex-rehab-facility/
Cindy McCain Takes Part in Pro-Gay Marriage Photo Shoot
Cindy McCain's position stands in contrast to Sen. John McCain's, who opposes gay marriage.
Over the past year, dozens of celebrities from Kristin Cavallari to Steve-O to Kim Zolciak have posed for the "NOH8" photo campaign in an effort to overturn Proposition 8 and legalize same sex marriage in California.
The latest high-profile figure to take part in the initiative is a little more surprising: Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy.
"I couldn't be more proud of my mother for posing for the NOH8 campaign," daughter Meghan McCain tweeted on Wednesday morning. "I think more Republicans need to start taking a stand for and civil rights in this country and set the example that this is not a partisan issue."
Cindy McCain's position stands in contrast to her husband's, the former GOP presidential nominee, who opposes gay marriage.
Sen. McCain's office issued a statement Wednesday evening affirming his own stance on gay marriage without addressing the ad campaign directly.
“Senator McCain respects the views of members of his family. The Senator strongly supported the effort to successfully pass Arizona Proposition 102, the Marriage Protection Amendment, and his opposition to gay marriage remains the same. Senator McCain believes the sanctity of marriage is only defined as between one man and one woman.”
The photo shoot took place in the desert outside of Los Angeles last week, Pop Tarts has learned. Cindy McCain's desire to participate took photographer Adam Bouska by surprise.
"I was shooting the cover for Meghan's tell-all political book that she's writing, and her mother just came along for support, and suddenly asked if it was okay if she lent her face for the cause," Bouska told Pop Tarts. "We were definitely surprised. We always knew where Meghan stood on the issue (she was one of the first to pose and show her support in June last year), but we weren't sure about Cindy. She said it shouldn't matter what political party you are part of, that shouldn't be the issue that divides you."
Bouska also said the response he has received since releasing Cindy's photo has been overwhelming.
"Many people feel that she is taking a more progressive stance on gay marriage than Obama," he added. "I hope this will help people see that it is okay to be gay and a Republican. There are so many bigger issues like war and health care we have to worry about; we shouldn't have to be wasting time on this. It is basic human rights."
Meanwhile Meghan McCain is slated to be the keynote speaker during February's National Equality Week at George Washington University; although there was a misunderstanding as to whether or not she was still invited to attend given her opinion on the issue of gay marriage.
The GW College Republicans withdrew their co-sponsorship of the event after learning that she would be talking about Marriage Equality Week, not "what it means to be a Republican," as they originally were told.
McCain thought this meant her speaking engagement had been canceled, but later tweeted that "until further notice" she was still scheduled to speak at the university.
"The event is still occurring," Rob Noel, Communications Director at GW Republicans, told Pop Tarts. "[But] the GW College Republicans will not be co-sponsoring Meghan McCain's visit to GW to deliver the keynote address during Marriage Equality Week. Ms. McCain's views on marriage equality align with neither the Republican Party nor her father's personal stance. Though we fully supported John McCain's candidacy for President, we feel that Meghan McCain's last name is not near as important as the message she advocates."
Twenty years after he came out, Patrick Muirhead, 41, explains why he is suddenly feeling the appeal of the opposite sex
A minor incident in a barber’s shop last week has helped me to realise that I may no longer be gay. Not a fully fledged homo, anyway; perhaps not even a part-timer who helps the team out when it’s busy. It appears I may be going straight.
I was in Tenterden, the Kentish village where I was brought up and to which I have lately returned, working at a nearby aerodrome as a helicopter pilot. I was waiting my turn for a chatty Latvian to apply the hot towels and razor.
A handsome young dad entered with a small, fair-haired boy at his side. The man took a seat and hoisted the wide-eyed child proudly on to his knee. The first haircut, I speculated inwardly, as an unfamiliar fatherly glow and feeling of mild envy swept over me. I could not tear my attention away from the mirrored reflections.
From time to time, the dad leant forward as they waited and whispered close to his son’s ear, tenderly kissing his fair head. Touching stuff.
But then my eyes lowered and I became transfixed by the sight of the boy’s tiny pink fingers gripping his father’s huge, workman-like fist. And I almost wanted to burst into song.
I think my life changed at that moment.
That’s love, folks. Simple really. A proud dad, an adored little boy and a beautiful display of dependence and responsibility. It was the epiphany I had needed and I emerged with a dashing new haircut and a desire to procreate.
Gays have children these days, of course they do, and not always to accessorise an outfit. Some gay couples adopt; others follow twisting paths to biological parenthood, often quite expensively, with the involvement of test tubes and cash changing hands. It is, really, a sort of snook to the system of nature. Shooting for the net without the chore of running with the ball. It’s just not for me.
And lately I have, almost imperceptibly, been laying the groundwork to make parenthood happen in the old-fashioned way. I have been flirting with someone at my local pub, thinking about her at odd times, making excuses to call her and wondering if she likes me. It’s rather strange.
This will come as a shock to — among others — my male former partner of ten years, gay pals from my former media career, my rabidly heterosexual chums in the aviation industry and, not least, my family (who rather hoped I was going through a phase — albeit for about 20 years). Well, it’s come as a shock to me, too.
I once attended the nuptials of a gay male friend to a girl with whom he had unexpectedly fallen head over heels in love. It was a curious affair: the wedding party was peopled with his ex-lovers — including me, the best man and even the vicar. There is a risk that a wedding guest list of mine could have the same casting issues.
My sexuality was formed behind bike sheds and in school dormitories, a most unimaginatively clichéd pattern of pubescent fumbling. This propelled me into a lifestyle, reinforced by a social milieu of flamboyant media gays. At the BBC, where I worked for seven years, homosexuality was very nearly compulsory.
At these tidings, my sceptical buddies will splutter, “You what?! Miss Patsy, trouser-chaser extraordinaire, has decided she’s now dancing at the other end of the ballroom? Pur-leeeeeeeze!” They have seen little evidence of an interest in the opposite sex during my adult life, nor asked why. And that’s the clincher.
If there had been an interest, it became eclipsed by other more instant, carnal and deliciously taboo temptations, so it never gained light to grow. For 20 years, my life took a track that stifled the fragile stems of a family man that wanted to emerge.
So I will have to face down a tidal wave of doubt as I’m coming out in public. People will look at me strangely now — though I doubt they’ll mutter, “Well, of course, we always wondered. After all, he is interested in real ale and piston engines.”
For it is true: I quite like girls. But there is no pink meteor shower for this announcement; no glittered cabaret or niche community willing to clutch me to its bosom and claim me as a sister. Just a little whiff of suspicion.
Some will dismiss it as heresy. I have long argued that homosexuality is natural but abnormal, to a torrent of hostility from gay friends who refuse to acknowledge that what you are and what stake you hold in society are not the same.
Loving your own sex occurs in nature, without artificial triggers. But it is still not average behaviour. Homosexuality is an aberration; a natural aberration. Gays are a minority and minorities, though sometimes vocal, do not hold sway.
A 12th-century chronicler, quoted by the historian Christopher Hibbert in his History of England, wrote of the homosexual king William Rufus: “All things that are loathsome to God and to earnest men were customary in this land in his time.” In modern times, we have become accustomed to abnormality again.
But two decades of cavorting with my own sex has delivered little that is memorable, except one super-sized sexless friendship with the aforementioned ex-boyf, with whom I spent a decade of my life; numerous hours of internet dating; a dizzying number of casual couplings and a few trips to genitourinary medicine clinics.
I will spare you tales of exploits in the gloaming world of fast gay encounters. You would simply not believe what I have seen and done. You would not want to know.
I can however disclose that I was once pursued in a subterranean gay haunt by the homosexual rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. Scantily clad, he was quite resistible. Like Oscar Wilde, I have “feasted with panthers”. And survived.
In novels such as E. M. Forster’s Maurice, a seminal work of gay literature, the message was tolerance. It was never a charter for parity. Civil partnerships really are little more than theatrical shams involving men making a point in matching wedding cravats, of embarrassed grandparents and monstrously camp multi-tier cakes.
I wince when gays describe boyfriends as “husbands”, subverting a solemn institution created to provide stability for child-rearing. Besides, it seems highly perverse that gays should fight for freedom from the bonds of heterosexual morality and then set to copying their oppressors by creating similar contracts of their own.
I was never convinced of my sexuality. True, I never liked football or fighting and I do make a beautifully light Victoria sponge when the need arises. But I shamble like a bloke, I burp and fart without shame and I’ve never really got Barbra Streisand. There was a little voice, lost long ago in the drowning din of my homosexuality, that still called quietly; the smothered, smaller voice of a boy who liked girls.
And then, two summers ago, I met Olga. She was a knockout-looking Ukrainian, washed ashore as a waitress in a breakfast bar in Ocean City, Maryland, on the East Coast of America. I was working locally as a pilot. A group of aviators slouched in each morning for coffee, eggs and grits. She took a particular interest in my chopper.
We began an e-mail exchange and she would send me numerous pictures of the industrial city of Cherkassy, her hometown, where people who swim in its river find that they glow at night. I liked Olga. She was pretty. Nothing happened, though — I wanted more than a passport-hunter and children whose presence would send Geiger counters into a frenzy.
Pilots have a habit of attracting female attention, as the numerous airline captain/stewardess couplings attest. The phenomenon even has a name: pilotitis. So, when I became a helicopter instructor, I was ready for dilated pupils and blushes when I took female students skywards. OK, I must admit, I am still waiting . . .
But for the first time in my life, I’ve been getting to know girls. It’s been a blast. As a teacher, I find them naturally adept at flying helicopters. They listen and they are good at multi-tasking. They are fun to be around and sometimes they’re pretty.
I had a girlfriend once, 24 years ago, when I was in my late teens. It really wasn’t a great success, as the two decades of uninterrupted homosexuality that followed it possibly demonstrate. We lived together briefly and “did it”. But she wore striped pyjamas and it was confusing. What I’m saying is, I’m ready for another go. No pyjamas, though, this time.
I want a wife to love and a child to protect. And I want to look at them both and know that they are mine and I am needed by both and I can be like the workman’s fist, clutched tightly by the little pink fingers in the barber shop. The rock of the family.
Does this mean that I no longer like men? No, of course not, and I won’t pretend. But in the streets and avenues of this country there must be many husbands whose interests are divided but whose choices are determined not by sexuality but emotionality.
Would I be a good husband? I hope so. Would I keep faith? Well, I would try. The same siren voices to stray call to all men, all the time. I would be no different.
The late jazz singer, art critic and gay-straight convert George Melly was the first celebrity I interviewed as a young radio reporter in my previous career who told me about his Damascene transformation. He was 30 years old, on a country bicycle ride with a group of friends, when it happened. Floridly gay, he suddenly noticed that he was staring at the girls, rather than the boys, and declared to himself, “Oooh, you’re heterosexual now, dearie.” He went on to enjoy a long and happy marriage.
So anything is possible. With the right kind of understanding girl, who loves me and possesses pragmatism and patience, I can picture myself as a good husband and dad.
Next month, I will be embarking on the first step of catch-up, to acquire parenting skills by volunteering as a befriender for children in care via a local charity. After vetting, there is special training and then a two-year commitment to visit and take out a child who needs a friend and a new perspective on adults.
This may be time-consuming, thankless and possibly distressing on the one hand. On the other, I will get free entry to various local zoos and the fabulous children’s JCB digger driving centre near Maidstone — without looking like a weirdo.
How good will it feel to see a smile break across an unhappy child’s face? That is my goal. Surely that is the magic that only parents usually know. And one day perhaps I will see that smile on my own offspring’s face and it will be heaven-sent.
So there was symmetry in rediscovering myself last week in a barber shop in the village of my childhood, the place of my innocence, before life’s twisting turns. As the last line of The Great Gatsby says: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Sometimes, in the past, we rediscover ourselves and new paths to our futures.
Hillary Rodham Clinton blasted China and other countries that restrict Internet access to their citizens in a speech Thursday morning, citing new policy initiatives to foster freedom.
Hillary Rodham Clinton blasted China and other countries that restrict Internet access to their citizens in a speech Thursday morning, citing new policy initiatives to foster freedom.
In the wide-ranging address at Washington's Newseum, Clinton said that in the last year there has been what she called a "spike in threats to the free flow of information." She announced plans to make unrestricted access to the Internet a top foreign-policy priority.
The announcement comes in the wake of accusations last week that Chinese hackers penetrated Google's computer networks.
"We look to the Chinese government to conduct a through and transparent review" following the incident, Clinton said, arguing that countries that restrict free access to information and basic Internet freedom risk walling themselves off in the next century. She said the U.S. would address differences with China on Internet freedom "candidly and consistently."
Clinton cited Tunisia and Uzbekistan for stepping up their censorship of the Internet as well. And she said that in Vietnam, access to popular social networking sites has suddenly disappeared.
The growing role of the Internet in foreign policy became clear last year during protests in Iran after allegations of election fraud. The government tried to crack down on protesters' Internet communications, but they circumvented digital blockades to send out video and Twitter messages about violence against demonstrators.
In one new initiative, the State Department plans to offer financial support to grass-roots movements that promote Internet freedom and advance U.S. diplomatic goals. As part of this, she unveiled a competition to develop the best tools, citing an application form Microsoft that could bring digital health care to remote locations.
Clinton also hopes to diminish the "honor" beatings and killings of women in the Middle East by family members who discover they are using social media on the Internet, such as Facebook or Twitter, said Alec Ross, a senior adviser.
The secretary of state cited plans to convene a high-level meeting on Internet freedom next month with those firms that provide network access, in another effort to foster Internet freedom.
Clinton sees Internet freedom as critical to America's longstanding promotion of democracy abroad, Mr. Ross added. She aims to shrink the proportion of the global population, now 30%, who live in countries that censor the Internet, he said.
"When we sit across the table from governments and talk about what matters to us, this is now on the table," Mr Ross said.
In her remarks, Clinton said it is clear that information technologies are transforming the world, yet it is unclear how that transformation will affect the human rights and welfare of much of the world's population.
MARLBOROUGH, N.H. (AP) - Police said a man and woman from New Hampshire are each facing prostitution charges after the man called police to say he'd paid for sex, but the woman then refused. WMUR-TV reported a 22-year-old woman and 32-year-old man were cited into court at a later date.
Police said the man called Marlborough Police on Monday to say he'd paid the woman and a third party $150 to have sex with him on Sunday, but she wouldn't follow through.
Police said they're still investigating the third party.
EASTON, Pa. (AP) - An eastern Pennsylvania man was charged after he allegedly broke into a home, cut his hair and prepared fried chicken before being discovered. The man was charged with breaking into the home in Easton, about 50 miles north of Philadelphia. According to court documents, the homeowner returned home Sunday to discover him watching TV and cooking chicken.
Authorities said the man threw a rock through a front door window to get inside and appeared to have rummaged through every room in the house. He also took a shower.
The man faces burglary, criminal trespass and other charges and was being held on $15,000 bail.
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Police: Angry man kidnaps snowball-tossing teen ANSONIA, Conn. (AP) - Police said a prank turned potentially dangerous when a man angry about a snowball hitting his car allegedly pulled a knife on a group of youths and kidnapped one of them. No one was injured. Joshua Good, 25, was to be arraigned Monday in Superior Court on charges including first-degree kidnapping, threatening and reckless endangerment. The kidnapping charge carries 10 to 25 years in prison.Police said a group of youths was throwing snowballs near Colony Park Friday night when Good's car was hit. Police say Good threatened the youths with a knife and forced a 13-year-old boy into his car.Authorities say Good drove the boy home and didn't hurt him.Good posted $150,000 bail. He didn't immediately return a phone message Wednesday.___Information from: New Haven Register, http://www.nhregister.com
ANSONIA, Conn. (AP) - Police said a prank turned potentially dangerous when a man angry about a snowball hitting his car allegedly pulled a knife on a group of youths and kidnapped one of them. No one was injured. Joshua Good, 25, was to be arraigned Monday in Superior Court on charges including first-degree kidnapping, threatening and reckless endangerment. The kidnapping charge carries 10 to 25 years in prison.
Police said a group of youths was throwing snowballs near Colony Park Friday night when Good's car was hit. Police say Good threatened the youths with a knife and forced a 13-year-old boy into his car.
Authorities say Good drove the boy home and didn't hurt him.
Good posted $150,000 bail. He didn't immediately return a phone message Wednesday.
DALLAS (AP) - Here are the seven secrets to a long life: Stay away from cigarettes. Keep a slender physique. Get some exercise. Eat a healthy diet and keep your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar in check.
Research shows that most 50-year-olds who do that can live another 40 years free of stroke and heart disease, two of the most common killers, says Dr. Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association. The heart association published the advice online Wednesday in the journal Circulation.
The group also is introducing an online quiz to help people gauge how close they are to the ideal. If you fall a bit short, it offers tips for improving.
"These seven factors- if you can keep them ideal or control them- end up being the fountain of youth for your heart," said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist who was lead author of the statement. "You live longer, you live healthier longer, you have much better quality of life in older age, require less medication, less medical care."
Specifically, those with ideal cardiovascular health can answer yes to the following seven questions:
_ Never smoked or quit more than one year ago.
_ Body mass index less than 25.
_ Get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.
_ Meet at least four of these dietary recommendations: 4 1/2 cups of fruit and vegetables a day; two or more 3.5-ounce servings a week of fish; drink no more than 36 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages a week; three or more 1-ounce servings of fiber-rich whole grains a day; less than 1,500 milligrams a day of salt.
_ Total cholesterol of less than 200.
_ Blood pressure below 120/80.
_ Fasting blood glucose less than 100.
The online quiz calculates a score based on the answers, 10 being the ideal.
Doctors say the quiz is a good way for people to get a handle on how they're doing, especially since people often think they're doing better than they actually are.
The heart association found just that in a recent survey that showed 39 percent of Americans thought they had ideal heart health, yet 54 percent of those had been told they had either a heart disease risk factor or needed to make a lifestyle change to improve heart health, or both.
With America's obesity epidemic, weight especially is a pitfall for patients trying to meet these seven health factors, doctors say.
"Many people are surprised to find out how overweight they may be," said Dr. Randal Thomas, director of the cardiovascular health clinic at the Mayo Clinic.
Lloyd-Jones, also chair of the preventive medicine department at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said, "People I think are far too accepting of their waistlines."
Thomas praises the online tool for giving people a score so they'll have something to work toward. It offers advice for problem areas: for instance, advising someone who's over weight to set a goal of losing a pound a week by burning up to 3,500 more calories than are taken in.
Yancy, the heart association president and medical director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute in Dallas, said the organization has a goal for 2020 of improving cardiovascular health of Americans by 20 percent while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 percent.
He said that in the last decade, there's already been a nearly 40 percent reduction in death from heart disease and a nearly 35 percent reduction in death from stroke. He said those goals were achieved with improvements in treatments and prevention.
Linda Alvarado, 54, of Houston, said she knows how hard- and important- the changes can be. After having a quadruple bypass at the age of 47, she improved her diet and exercise, losing 40 pounds. Recently though, with a new 40-minute commute, some of those diet and exercise commitments have been put aside. While she's kept the lost pounds off, she would like to lose five more pounds.
Editor's note:Elizabeth McAlister is a professor of religion at Wesleyan University.
(CNN) -- We are all sick at heart to witness the unfathomable suffering in Haiti. Why do bad things happen to innocent people? Why Haiti, again? Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said recently, "It is biblical, the tragedy that continues to stalk Haiti and the Haitian people."
How we make meaning of this suffering will be crucial to how we respond, in the long term, as a global community.
My Haitian in-laws, visiting from Boston, Massachusetts, to take some comfort with us, announced that the verse of the day on their favorite Bible Web site is from Revelation 16:18. "And there were voices and thunders and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as has not been since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great."
The word "earthquake" appears sixteen times in the Bible. It was clear to them -- and many other Christians -- that the earthquake was part of God's plan. Why God ordains such disasters is a mystery that is not ours to question. It is only our job to have faith.
iReport: Looking for loves ones in Haiti
A friend who barely escaped the collapse of her house in the quake writes that people in her Port-au-Prince neighborhood are living this time as the apocalypse. They are gathering en masse, singing hymns and praying nonstop as they wait for disaster aid -- and Jesus.
For them, the meaning of their suffering is clear. How else to interpret the collapse of their entire world, earthquake, famine, death, disease and drought? They are God's children living out the last chapter of the Bible.
Fundamentalist Pat Robertson says that the earthquake is the devil's work. Haitians are cursed by a pact with Satan that their ancestors made, he says. Distorting a Haitian national myth, he is referring to a famous Afro-Creole religious service said to have sparked and launched the Haitian War of Independence in 1791. Ironically, historians tell us that such a single ceremony never happened --although surely there were many slave gatherings, and many Afro-Creole religious rituals in the region.
Haitians do not mistake African religiosity for Satanism as Robertson does, so for them the ceremony was a spiritually charged political rally. Slaves gathered to plan and inspire themselves for the outrageous feat they would succeed in performing: a slave revolution, the abolition of slavery, and by 1804, national independence.
Afro-Creole religion, known as Vodou, still underpins the philosophy of many Haitians, though by no means everyone. A spirit-priest I know reads the earthquake as an allegorical message from the spirits who infuse the land. "The land is our mother," he said. When you abuse the land -- deforest her, plant only one crop, overpopulate her, erode her soil -- she explodes, searching for a way to rebalance.
The spirit of the land had become sick with abuse. Her children -- the eldest ones, the ones in charge, the Haitian government -- had no policies, no laws to protect the land or use it wisely. The spirit-mother exploded with fever. "We know this has a scientific cause," said the spirit-priest. "But look how the government buildings caved in. This tells us something."
In the last several years there has been a saying among Haitians that "the country is finished." "Peyi-a fini," they say in Creole. It has been called a dying land, a failed state, a product of irreversible environmental degradation.
For social scientists, there is nothing metaphysical about the question "Why Haiti?" Longstanding structural reasons have produced a dysfunctional system long in crisis. Beginning as a French slave society, the nation was founded at a severe disadvantage. France demanded enormous payment for abandoned property after the revolution, starting a cycle of debt that was never broken.
Deep and abiding racism prevented the U.S. and Europe from recognizing Haiti for 60 years. Trade was never established on even terms. The military ruled the state, culminating in the brutal Duvalier dictatorship, which the U.S. supported.
No robust civil society developed -- there's no vigorous tradition of PTAs and town planning boards. A brain drain evacuated top talent from the country, while the U.S.-subsidized farm industry sent surplus crops to Haiti, undercutting local prices there. Farmers abandoned their lands, flocked to the capital, and built the shanty towns that have now collapsed into rubble, burying the innocent and vulnerable, strong and powerful alike.
The suffering Haitians are enduring is a natural disaster worsened by human-made conditions. It is a spiritual crucible. But it is also a crisis of meaning. For Christians it is to have faith, hope, and charity. For fundamentalist Protestants, it is to convert all souls, give aid, and wait for Jesus' return. For Vodouists, it is to regain balance with the land and the unseen spiritual world.
For many social scientists, it is to strengthen Haitians' capacity for self-government, to relieve the debt Haiti owes, to reforest the land, and to figure out how to divorce aid from dependence.
How we interpret the suffering of the good people of Haiti will lay the groundwork for how we walk forward.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Elizabeth McAlister.
An Agent at the Table: Interview with Adriann Ranta of Wolf Literary Services
by awalls
Have you ever wanted to sit a literary agent down and ask them all those burning questions bouncing around in your brain: How important is the query? What kind of books get you excited? How many author clients do you REALLY find in the slush pile?
So have we. And so we did. Enter Adriann Ranta, newly-arrived agent at Wolf Literary Services who has spent years shepherding writers through the editing and agenting processes. Adriann handled all the hard-hitting writing questions we dished out, and even asked for seconds.
Read on to discover what Adriann considers the best kind of query letters, what she thinks about YA books, and why she loves the word “percussive.” Then it’ll be time to get an agent for yourself! Success never tasted so good!
WordHustler: How did you get your start in the publishing industry?
Adriann Ranta: I graduated with my obligatory, directionless liberal arts degree having no idea what I wanted to do with books, but knowing I had to do something with them since they’re all I’ve really felt passionately about. After considering and quickly declining a phone sex job as an outlet for creativity, I got a job at The Editorial Department, the oldest freelance editing firm in the country, based in Tucson, AZ.
I worked as their managing editor of Between the Lines, gathering info and interviewing professionals in the industry. Eventually, I moved to New York and through a variety of internships, assistant positions, and odd jobs found that agenting is the niche that most suits me.
WH: What’s the main difference between editing and agenting, and why did you decide to make the switch?
AR: I really enjoy the entrepreneurial spirit of agenting. There’s a huge amount of flexibility in what an agent decides to take on, and it’s heavily based on individual sensibilities and gut. An agent is present in most every aspect of publication (from line-editing a rough manuscript to cover consultation and publicity) so it feels impossible to have a boring day.
Then there’s the chance to “discover” breathtaking new books, meet some of the warmest, most passionate people in an industry devoted to something I love, and championing authors through a difficult and unpredictable career. I still enjoy the editing process, but I find agenting more varied and eventful.
WH: What draws you to a fiction book? Non-fiction?
AR: With both, voice is very important to me. There are a lot of aspects of a manuscript that can be fixed through the editing process, but voice seems to be one of those things that you either have or you don’t. If the writing itself is boring, stilted, awkward, unrealistic, or self-conscious I don’t care what it’s about, I can’t read it.
I personally enjoy edgier books with quirky, unique protagonists. I love spunky, fresh narrators that show a different view of the world we see every day. I have a hard time with fantasy with no rooting in the real world.
An engaging voice is crucial in trade non-fiction, and a bizarre topic, new perspective, or unique credibility usually hooks me.
WH: You also represent a fair amount of YA authors. Do you think the YA world is more challenging than the adult world?
AR: The only aspect I find challenging is the misconception that YA is a dumbed-down version of an adult book. The tendency to underestimate what teenagers are capable of reading is especially frustrating. The market for YA, however, has shown to be a thriving genre with tons of exciting new voices.
WH: Who are a few of your favorite authors out there today?
AR: Ugh, I have always struggled with this question! I adore Tana French’s police procedurals, I absolutely devoured Cory Doctorow’s LITTLE BROTHER over the course of a recent weekend, and currently can’t put down Stieg Larsson’s bestselling series. Also Sherman Alexie, Tom Robbins, Junot Diaz, and tons more.
WH: What’s your take on the publishing industry today? In dire straits or blooming? Both? Neither?
AR: I think that publishing is economizing just like other businesses are-neither dire straits nor blooming. I’m interested to see where we go with ebooks (Nathan Bransford recently made an interesting post about this), though I personally can’t imagine ever foregoing a physical, bound book for an electronic one. It’s depressing to think about a world without bookstores everywhere, but the people I speak to are just trying to be informed and flexible.
WH: Let’s get into the nitty-gritty: what percentage of authors that you decide to represent come from the unsolicited submissions?
AR: Since I’m just starting to build my list at Wolf Literary, I’m relying a lot on the slush pile at the moment. Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that I’ll start getting roped into mass emailed submissions rather than personalized, researched queries, so that percentage will get a bit grimmer.
WH: How important is the query letter? Do you want any sample pages or does the query make enough of a first impression?
AR: The query letter is indescribably important! We do ask for the first 50 pages of the manuscript, but if the query letter doesn’t exhibit the author’s skill as a writer or the hook of the manuscript, there’s no reason to read beyond that pitch letter. The query letter should be the apex of an author’s writing skill.
WH: What are three things in a query that make you want to read more?
AR: One of my authors used the word “percussive” in his query letter, which was the absolute perfect, most thought out word choice. So:
1) Clever, elegant word choice 2) Clear, engaging, succinct prose 3) Research into agency guidelines and individual tastes
WH: What are three things that let you know this project/writer isn’t for you?
AR: 1) Lack of professionalism (typos, pink stationary, head shots, scorpions set in acrylic resin…) 2) No research into how we’d prefer to accept queries or what my interests are 3) Obsessive emails/phone calls/faxes/smoke signals beyond just “checking in”
WH: What advice can you give aspiring writers out there?
AR: The representation process is very subjective, which makes personalization and research incredibly important. Sending a manuscript to an agent that pointedly doesn’t represent your genre is a waste of everyone’s time. Be patient, be persistent, be positive-just like any other professional relationship, sometimes random timing is everything. (That was unintentionally alliterative.)
WH: Shameless plug alert: do you think WordHustler helps writers successfully get their work out there and into your hands, professionally and effectively?
AR: I’m a huge fan of any vehicle that helps writers and agents find each other.
You heard it here first, Hustlers. Adriann accepts queries via email, which means you can sign up for our brand new Digital Submission System and be able to access Wolf Literary Services’ contact info and track your submission to them, all in one organized place: WordHustler. Sign up today!
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
martin luther king I have a dream speech
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
martin luther king I have a dream speech
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
1. Upcoming Forum: Writers Examine Google Book Settlement
The Google Book Settlement:
What's In It For Writers?
Wednesday, January 20, 2010, at 2pm
UAW/NWU Conference Room
256 W. 38 Street, 12 Floor
New York City
Contact: Larry Goldbetter, President
National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981)
1.212.254.0279 (ext. 14)
lgoldbetter@nwu.org
Calling all writers! If you’ve ever written anything that might be in the collection of a major library – including authored books, anthology collections, essays and articles – you might be affected by the latest proposed settlement of a lawsuit on copyright infringement involving the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and the owners of Google Book Search.
The National Writers Union (NWU) is involved in organizing two public meetings, one in New York, the other in San Francisco, to update local writers on the pros and cons of the revised settlement pending before the courts. The first of these, The Google Book Settlement: What's In It For Writers, takes place in New York City on Wednesday, January 20, at 2 p.m., 256 West 38 St., 12 floor) and is a collaborative effort of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), and the NWU, three writers groups that oppose the settlement.
The tentative speakers list includes New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann and attorney, author and literary agent Lynn Chu, who served as co-counsel for the NWU, ASJA, in addition to 58 individual authors who objected to the first proposed settlement. A representative of the Authors Guild has also been invited.
The Bay Area forum is in Berkeley, CA (Friday, January 22, 2010, 7 p.m., at 2070 Allston Way. Along with Edward Hasbrouck, co-chair of the NWU's Book Division, invited speakers include U.C. Berkeley Law School professor, Pamela Samuelson, the initiator of a joint letter to the court by academic authors who object to the setlement, and attorney Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who represents authors who object to the proposed settlement on privacy grounds.
NWU President Larry Goldbetter said, “All writers need to be fully aware of the settlement’s provisions in order to make informed decisions. Writers have a second chance, regardless of whether they received official notice or which option they chose regarding the original settlement proposal. This is especially important with the new ‘opt-out’ date set for January 28.”
Google has so far digitized more than 12 million books, using major research libraries like Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan, Oxford and others, without the permission of a single author. The latest proposed settlement is the result of a class action suit filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers since 2005.
Last November, as the case was about to be heard, the initially proposed settlement was withdrawn in the face of over 400 objections from around the world, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which oversees copyrights. The new court date is February 18.
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2. Open Letter: Writer Quits Authors Guild
Ursula K. Le Guin Resigns From Authors Guild
Over Proposed Google Book Settlement
[Editor's Note: Ursula K. Le Guin has published twenty-two novels, seven books of poetry, more than one hundred short stories and four volumes of translation. More information about Ms. Le Guin can be found at www.ursulakleguin.com.]
To Whom it may concern at the Authors Guild:
I have been a member of the Authors Guild since 1972.
At no time during those thirty-seven years was I able to attend the functions, parties, and so forth offered by the Guild to members who happen to live on the other side of the continent. I have naturally resented this geographical discrimination, reflected also in the officership of the Guild, always almost all Easterners. But it was a petty gripe when I compared it to my gratitude to the Guild for the work you were doing in defending writers’ rights. I went on paying top dues and thought it worth it.
And now you have sold us down the river.
I am not going to rehearse any arguments pro and anti the “Google settlement.” You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish I could accept them. I can’t. There are principles involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle.
So, after being a loyal if invisible member for so long, I am resigning from the Guild. I am, however, retaining membership in the National Writers Union and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, both of which opposed the “Google settlement.” They don’t have your clout, but their judgment, I think, is sounder, and their courage greater.
Yours truly,
Ursula K. Le Guin
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3. Random House Claims E-Books Rights
[Editor’s Note: The following e-burst was circulated widely by the Authors Guild. BTL reprints the following verbatim. Please note that the source of the personal pronoun is from the Authors Guild and is so indicated.]
“[Recently,] Random House CEO Markus Dohle sent a two-page letter to many literary agents regarding e-books. Much of the letter is devoted to Random House's efforts and investments to market traditional and electronic books.
”On the second page, Mr. Dohle gets to the point. After noting that most of Random House's backlist titles grant the publisher electronic book rights (we [AG] agree, since most backlist titles are from the past ten years, a period in which authors have generally licensed electronic rights in tandem with their print rights), he writes that ‘there have been some misunderstandings concerning ebook rights in older backlist titles.’ He then proceeds to argue that older contracts granting rights to publish ‘in book form’ or ‘in all editions’ grant electronic rights to Random House.
”The misunderstandings reside entirely with Random House. Random House quite famously changed its standard contract to include e-book rights in 1994. (We [AG] remember it well – Random House tried to secure these rights for royalties of 5% of net proceeds, a pittance. We [AG] called it a ‘Land Grab on the Electronic Frontier’ in our [AG] press release headline.) Random House felt the need to change its contract, quite plainly, because its authors did not grant those rights to it under Random House's standard contracts prior to 1994.
”A fundamental principle of book contracts is that the grant of rights is limited. Publishers acquire only the rights that they bargain for; authors retain rights they have not expressly granted to publishers. E-book rights, under older book contracts, were retained by the authors. There's no need to take our word for this, however. A federal court in 2001 examined this precise matter in Random House v. Rosetta Books. Judge Stein of the Southern District of New York was unequivocal in his 10-page decision: authors did not grant publishers the e-book rights in the old book contracts at issue. Judge Stein specifically dismissed notions, raised by Mr. Dohle in his letter to agents, that the non-compete clauses of these old contracts in some manner acted to grant Random House electronic rights to the works, saying that this ‘reasoning turns the analysis on its head.’ The court pointed out that the license of rights comes solely from the contract's grant language, not from the non-compete clause, and that non-competition clauses, to be enforceable, have to be narrowly construed. Using the non-compete clause to secure future rights is unsustainable. An appellate court affirmed Judge Stein's decision.
“We [AG] are sympathetic with the difficult position the publishing industry is in at the moment. The recession has been tough on book publishing, as it has been on many industries. And everyone with knowledge of the dynamics of the industry properly fears that Amazon's dominance of the online markets for traditional and especially e-books will give it a chokehold on industry profits. Difficult times, however, do not justify this attempt at a retroactive rights grab.
”It's regrettable and unhelpful that Random House has chosen to try to intimidate authors and agents over these old book contracts. With such a weak legal hand, it would be well advised to stick to its strength – the advantages that its marketing muscle can provide owners of e-book rights. It should also start offering a fair royalty for those rights. Authors and publishers have traditionally split the proceeds from book sales. Most sublicenses, for example, provide for a 50/50 split of proceeds, and the standard trade book royalty of 15% of the hardcover retail price, back in the days that industry standard was established, represented about 50% of the net proceeds of the sale of the book. We're confident that the current practice of paying 25% of net on e-books will not, in the long run, prevail. Savvy agents are well aware of this. The only reason e-book royalty rates are so low right now is that so little attention has been paid to them: sales were simply too low to scrap over. That's beginning to change.
”If you have an old book contract in which you haven't granted e-book rights, patience is likely to pay off. The e-book industry is still young – there's no need to jump in. And we strongly suspect e-royalty rates are at a low-water mark.”
[This message was sent to you as a member of the Authors Guild… The Authors Guild, 31 E 32nd St., Fl 7, New York, NY 10016, US….]
MESA, Ariz. -- Authorities said a woman who offered to trade her daughter for a gun is in the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, Phoenix station KPHO-TV reported.
Deputies claim Tanya Nareau, 33, offered to give to her daughter to one of the girl's relatives in exchange for a gun.
Deputies got a tip about the offer and arrested Nareau on Tuesday.
The girl"s family members told KPHO that Nareau originally made the offer during a phone call last week.
They said Nareau unexpectedly showed up at the relative’s workplace Monday and handed him her daughter. He did not give her a gun.
It is unclear why Nareau wanted a gun, but she cannot legally buy or own a firearm because she is a convicted felon.
Nareau did explain why she wanted to give her daughter away, according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Doug Matteson.
"She told sheriff’s deputies she felt that she couldn’t raise the daughter adequately, so she would give the daughter to someone who could,” he said.
He said the girl is now safe and will stay with her father’s family members.
Nareau is in a Maricopa County jail, charged with unlawful sale of a child and solicitation to commit possession of weapon by prohibited possessor.
Wyclef Jean Haiti relief group Yele may get $3M donation from Tiger Woods
BY Simone Weichselbaum and Samuel Goldsmith
Originally Published:Thursday, January 14th 2010, 12:37 PM Updated: Thursday, January 14th 2010, 2:08 PM
Wyclef Jean Haiti relief group Yele may get $3M donation from Tiger Woods.
Russel Simmons and representatives from Wyclef Jean's Haitian relief organization Yele have asked Woods to support the effort.
Tiger Woods is considering a $3 million donation that would send doctors and supplies to Haiti, rap icon Russell Simmons told the Daily News.
"Tiger Woods is working on sending a mobile hospital with 50 EMTs to go set up a triage," Simmons said Wednesday night.
Simmons and representatives from Wyclef Jean's Haitian relief organization Yele have asked Woods to support the effort. Simmons spokesman has been in touch with Woods managment team and they are "excited" about the idea.
"I am waiting to have the conversation [with Tiger] tomorrow morning," Simmons' spokesman Marcus Harris said. "I am hopeful that it is a yes."
"I am just asking for his heart and his hand," he said.
"Just to meet the needs of the people."
Simmons wants celebrities and hip hop artists to join the relief effort in the wake of the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, killing untold thousands and destroying the city.
He reached out to several big names in the hip hop community to discuss producing a song for the country, he said. "Wyclef shouldn't be the only face of this," said Harris.
"If you can get a great song by a superstar it will be a cry for help. It will be an everlasting memory. A strong song will inspire."
A Haitian relief effort would be Woods first foray into public life since he took an indefinite leave of absence from golf following a massive sex scandal.
The Tiger Woods Foundation has put millions toward education and support projects for children around the world since 1996.
To be a celebrity nowadays, you have to sleep with a celebrity, be addicted to plastic surgery, give birth to 8 kids at one time or act like a complete jackass. The talentless is getting the fame and we know why, DRAMA!!!!!
January 14, 2010 U.S. Mobilizes to Help Haiti By HELENE COOPER and LIZ ROBBINS
WASHINGTON — President Obama, facing the first large-scale humanitarian crisis of his presidency, moved quickly to send help to Haiti, pledging Wednesday that the Haitians and their devastated island nation would have the “unwavering support” of the United States.
Within hours of Mr. Obama being informed of the quake in Haiti on Tuesday, United States officials were plotting a response that included ships, transport planes, helicopters and thousands of Marines. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton decided Wednesday night to cancel the rest of her Pacific trip and return to Washington.
Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of the United States Southern Command, said that one of the Navy’s large amphibious ships would probably be sent to Haiti, with a Marine expeditionary unit aboard, and that other American military forces were on alert, including a brigade of 3,500 troops. He said the Pentagon was “seriously looking” at sending thousands of Marines to help the disaster effort.
The Navy aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was deployed from Norfolk, Va.; military commanders said it should arrive in two days. In addition, White House officials said the military was looking into sending the Southern Command’s hospital ship, the Comfort, in light of reports that most of Haiti’s medical facilities were severely damaged if not destroyed. The Coast Guard also dispatched four cutters.
As the United States mobilized, other governments and aid agencies around the world began marshaling supplies and manpower and overwhelmed rescue workers in Haiti scrambled to set up makeshift clinics. Medical workers from Doctors Without Borders, which had 800 people in Haiti before the quake, said they were mobbed everywhere they went by people who had suffered severe traumas and crushed limbs, and by others begging for help in rescuing trapped relatives.
France said that it would send three military transport planes, including one from nearby Fort-de-France, Martinique, with aid supplies, and that 100 troops based in the French West Indies would be sent, according to TF1, a French television network. Britain and Germany were sending governmental assessment teams, and Germany said it would make available 1.5 million euros, or about $2.2 million, for emergency assistance.
On Wednesday, relief organizations developed aid plans from their headquarters outside of Haiti and quickly raised millions of dollars through social networking sites and donations by cellphone. But they were still struggling to get workers and supplies into Haiti, where operations at the capital’s port were shut down and runways at the main airport were open only to limited traffic because the control tower had collapsed.
“We’re looking at private charter options, looking at getting people through the Dominican Republic,” said Paul McPhun, a director of the emergency management team for Doctors Without Borders. “We need to get people in, and get people fast. There’s not a shortage of getting people to go, but it’s how to get them there.”
Mr. Obama did not make a specific aid pledge, and administration officials said they were still trying to figure out what Haiti needed. But he urged Americans to dig into their pockets and to go to www.whitehouse.gov to learn ways to donate money.
“This is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday, speaking in the White House diplomatic reception room with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at his side.
He described the reports of thousands buried under the rubble in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as “truly heart-wrenching,” a tragedy made more cruel by Haiti’s desperate poverty.
Robyn Fieser, the regional information officer for Catholic Relief Services, said, “All they heard last night was chanting and praying,” describing reports from some of her organization’s relief workers who were in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday night. “They did not hear any emergency vehicles or emergency efforts at all. All they saw was people doing rescue work on their own, with their bare hands.”
White House officials were clearly conscious that Mr. Obama’s response to the first major humanitarian disaster of his presidency would be closely watched. President George W. Bush learned that lesson the hard way, when his initial response to the December 2004 tsunami in Asia that killed 226,000 people was derided as paltry, and a year after that when his White House fumbled its response to Hurricane Katrina.
Mr. Obama canceled a trip to Lanham, Md., scheduled for Wednesday afternoon so he could make telephone calls to discuss the relief effort with staff members and foreign diplomats, White House aides said.
Mr. Obama was informed about the quake at 5:52 p.m. Tuesday by Denis McDonough, his national security chief of staff; he told aides that he wanted the United States to move “fast and aggressively,” one White House official said. By 6:22 p.m. the White House had issued a statement from the president that the United States was “closely monitoring the situation” and stood “ready to assist the people of Haiti.”
The Coast Guard cutter Forward was at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba when the earthquake hit on Tuesday, causing the 270-foot ship to rock back and forth even though it was more than 200 miles from the epicenter. The Forward arrived in Port-au-Prince early Wednesday morning, the first American military ship on the scene and the only large vessel in the harbor, Diane W. Durham, commander of the Forward, said in a telephone interview.
Commander Durham described extraordinary devastation, with collapsed buildings reaching from the port into the hills above, and said that Haitian officials had told her that half of the 80 Haitian coast guard staff members stationed at the port were killed in the earthquake.
The Department of Homeland Security said it was halting the deportations of Haitians back to the island “for the time being.” Refugee and immigration rights groups said the United States should grant temporary protective status that would allow Haitians who are now in the United States to stay here.
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Liz Robbins from New York. Eric Lipton contributed reporting from Washington.
My dating life is sad. I should have a reality TV show that has my friends and booty calls pick my dates. My dating has gone down hill with sadness. Plus, I need to talk about the Reid comment. WHAT THE HELL?
The Arizona day is hot as hell. Torrid heat fills the air, forcing steam to surge from the pavement like vapor from a boiling pot of water. North Phoenix appears deserted as people wander into stores and public buildings attempting to evade the oppressive heat.
A cab rolls quickly down a main street with a girl inside. She’s uncomfortable and the cab driver isn’t helping matters but she has no choice. She doesn’t share the reasons for her apprehension with him though he inquires about her state of mind several times.
From the moment he picks her up, he senses that something is wrong. Her presence makes the atmosphere of the vehicle dense and overwhelming. He’s tempted to tell her that she needs to exit the cab, yet he worries there’s something amiss. She clearly needs help, in spite of her attempts to hide it.
When the driver initially picks her up alongside a narrow two-lane highway in Casa Grande, she seems frightened. Unsettled, but intent on showing the cab driver exactly who was in control, she snaps at him several times during the ride from Casa Grande to North Phoenix. As the vehicle approaches Chandler, the girl manages to calm down and relax, but in North Phoenix, she again becomes tense.
“Girl, are you okay?” he asks again.
“Stop asking me questions. Just get me there,” she answers impatiently.
“Okay,” he replies with a glaring look through the rearview mirror.
He drives as fast as he can towards her destination, just as anxious to get rid of her as she is of him. She didn’t give him an address, but he instinctually knows where to go. Nervously the girl looks out the windows to see if anyone was following them or looking at her. When the cab stops for a red light she panics.
“Move you jackass! Hell, I know you run red lights all the time!” she chides.
Unable to withstand her abuse any longer the driver vows internally that she has snapped at him for the last time.
“Listen, I am not getting a ticket because of you. Sit down and shut the hell up!” He can’t understand why she is so rude but he has had enough of her verbal abuse.
Momentarily shocked that the cab driver talked to her in that manner, the girl clamps her lips tightly together. She needs to get to her destination, and fast, before she had another weird headache, which wouldn’t be good.
“Just drive the car,” she manages wearily.
“This is my car; remember that. When I get you to your destination, then we can part ways, no charge,” he lectures.
“Okay, fine, whatever, just shut up. Shut up, now!” she barks. The light turns green and the girl once more peers out the car windows.
“Go! Go now and drive faster!” she urged desperately.
The cab driver mumbles words under his breath, loud enough for her to hear this time, making her even more agitated.
“I don’t need this,” the girl exclaims angrily.
Suddenly, she can’t breathe. Something inside her body is trying to make its way out. Putting her fingers on her temples, she rubs her head. What she is experiencing is worse than any headache, but she can’t find the words to describe it. She’s dizzy and wants to scream but knows she needs to relax and calm down; she must at least seem normal rather than crazy. Her thoughts are so intense she’s compelled to smack the side of her head with extreme force. It gives her a headache, but she doesn’t care. She needs to banish the thoughts before they drive her insane.
Unable to stand the cab or the driver any longer, she unlocks the car door and kicks it open while the car is still in motion. She rolls out and eventually comes to a painful halt on the scorching sidewalk. People in the stores run up to help, but she refuses.
“Leave me alone! Get away from me!” she shouts.
The pounding in her head worsens until she can’t open her eyes. Thoughts swirl ridiculously; she wants to be left alone because she doesn’t know these people. She can’t explain the logic in her head…doesn’t make sense. She didn’t know the cab driver, yet she trusted him to pick her up from a remote location and drive her over 50 miles. Now on a city street strangers are offering to help, but she can’t trust them at all.
Frightened of the bystanders coming to her aid, the girl screams. There are absurd images in her mind as if she were in a tightly confined little room where she can only stand erect. Doors made of strong plastic sheets hold people on the outside and keep them from tearing a way into the box to reach her. It’s impossible to break through and she sees imprints, feeling people on the other side of the doors trying to grab her. Not knowing what they want or what they are thinking, she’s terrorized and needs to be saved.
A man emerging from a fast food restaurant down the street notices the commotion on the sidewalk ahead of him. Hearing the screams and recognizing the voice he drops his food and sprints over.
When he reaches her he takes control of the crowd of people surrounding her.
“Leave her alone! Step back!” he shouts at them as he shoves his way through.
The girl looks up and struggles to see the clear image of the man in front of her. Her head is pounding and the sun is in her eyes but she recognizes his voice.
“I know who did it. I’ll tell you everything, I promise, but you need to promise me one thing.”
“What?” the man asked.
“I’ll tell you in your office.”
“The truth?” the man asks.
“Yes, the truth.”
He helps her to her feet, but she starts to collapse as soon as she tries to walk. Catching her quickly, he picks her up and carries her into the nearby police station. She knows she has cuts on her face and her arm feels broken. Her leg is hurt but it hardly registers. Feeling deeply dehydrated the girl doesn’t care if her face and body are scarred for life.
“Nathan, meet me in the interviewing room and bring four bottles of water,” the man says to another detective.
Her rescuer carries her into a sparse room and helps her into a chair. She’d been there before with the same two detectives. Before today, she had been unwilling to tell them anything about herself or the game.
“Are you okay?” the man asks.
“I don’t care about myself, just help me. I promise, this time, I will tell you the truth.” She tries to focus on him but sounds a bit incoherent.
Nathan enters the room with a pad of paper, pen, and some bottled water. He studies her carefully as he unscrews the water and hands it to her. Drinking hurriedly, she finishes the entire bottle.
“Are you okay, Emma?” Nathan asks.
Scanning the room, the girl searches for a feel of the activity that she can’t explain, not even to herself. Temporarily relieved of the inexplicable pounding headache and overwhelming feelings within, she is still deathly afraid.
Emma wants to tell the detectives everything about what happened to the students, but she knows they won’t believe her. Even she finds it hard to believe when she thinks about what transpired; she is a big part of its reality. Knowing the danger of relating the events, she is frightened of what could happen to her, but she must tell them the whole truth.
“Yes, I’m okay; but now I’m in danger,” Emma replied softly.
“How much danger?” the man asks.
“I could die.”
“You didn’t care about the students that were killed, but now that your life is in danger, you want to help us?” he asks incredulously.
“Yes. I know it sounds bad, but I was scared. I didn’t know how to explain about the game, or if you would even believe me. I’m willing to tell you everything now, but you need to help me.”
“Help you with what?” Nathan replies impatiently.
“I need to get out of here. Out of the state or out of the country, choose whatever; I don’t care. I need four bodyguards, two women and two men – the best. I need a full-time doctor onsite – the best. They will look after me until the person dies. I mean it. This is not a joke. I am serious about this. If you can do this, I will tell you everything. I will give you the name of the person responsible,” Emma said.
“Andrew, she’s serious. Can we do this?” Nathan inquired.
Andrew thinks about everything the girl said. He ponders it carefully because she has lied to him before when the first body was found.
He takes a deep, hard look at Emma. Her face now has cuts on it and her nose bleeds as she wipes it with her hand. When she lifted her left arm, it hurt so terribly that she wanted to cry, especially when she used it to wipe her nose. She is as pale as a ghost and shakes as though she were withdrawing from drugs. This is a different Emma than before. The first time she was in the interviewing room, she acted like a rich, spoiled brat and didn’t have a care in the world about anyone. She was insulting towards the detectives and the police department.
“Okay, we’ll do it, but you need to tell us everything,” Andrew stated firmly.
“I will tell you everything, I promise,” Emma said.
“So who killed those students?” Andrew asked.
“Well, this may sound crazy, but it was the game master of MUDD. In theory, it was the players of MUDD,” Emma said.
Andrew and Nathan stared at each other and then looked at Emma. Their faces showed the questions they had on their minds and what she needed to explain to them.
“MUDD. What is that?” Andrew asked.
“It’s a game that is played on the Internet. You download the game software onto your computer; then you connect to the Internet through the software and play the game with people on the Internet,” Emma said.
“So, were you one of the players?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, I was.”
“So, you’re saying you killed the students,” Andrew said.
“Yes and no,” Emma said trying not to sound evasive.
She turned pale; her blood ran cold and her heart was beating hard and fast.
“What do you mean?” Andrew asked.
“The game master killed the people, but there is another side to it,” Emma said.
“Tell me,” Andrew prodded.
“I am part of a group of pirates,” Emma said.
Nathan chuckled and could not look at Emma. Emma stared ahead and continued.
“As I said before, I am part of a group of pirates. We download movies, games, software and music from the Internet,” Emma said.
She began to sit up straight in her chair and her skin was changing back to her normal skin color.
“You know what I’m talking about. The commercial with the actor that was part of that Lord of the Rings movie; he’s asking people not to download illegal movies because movies help pay the salary of millions of people that worked on the movie. Well, I feel this way; I believe that the top actors and actresses should split their pay with the people who work underneath them. The movie industry should make better movies, so people would not illegally download them. Why should I pay ten dollars to see a bad movie when I can see it for free? Think about this; society pays actors by watching their movies. If I was working and I did an inadequate job at my place of employment, should my employer pay me a salary? When actors improve their performances, then I will pay for the movies. The music industry should make better music. Why should I pay twenty dollars for a CD when I only like one song? Concerning software, I do not like Bill Gates. I use a Linux system at home. I download Microsoft software, so I can make the nerds beg for it. Nerds are willing to do anything for the crappy software. If you saw my hard drive, your penis would salute me.”
She smiled at the detectives. She was proud to be one of the best pirates on the Internet. She always thought that if you were going to be a pirate, be a good one. With that in mind, she felt this was the reason why she was never caught and arrested for any computer crime. She was proud of her network system at home, even though it wasn’t a lack of funds prompting her actions. She did not brag about her network system to feel better about herself, but to find a worthy challenger.
Talking to the detectives about her network system and piracy made her feel at ease. Taking another bottle of water she unscrewed the cap and drained completely. She placed the empty bottle on the table and looked at the detectives with a self satisfied smile. When she had entered the interviewing room she was white as a ghost and shaking, but now, she seemed comfortable and calm, as though she were having a friendly conversation about the weather. The detectives looked at each other and continued to write notes on their pads.
Andrew glanced uncertainly at Emma. He didn’t know what he had expected to hear from her. He wasn’t sure if he should treat her like a know-it-all spoiled brat or a scared girl who was trying to regain her composure so she could tell the story.
Oddly enough Andrew felt a bit protective of Emma like a father towards a daughter. He knew he could be Emma’s father because his son was her age. Maybe that was why he was afraid of what Emma would reveal about her involvement in the student’s deaths. He didn’t want to think of her being capable of murdering her other classmates.
“So you pirate software, music, movies, and games to teach these industries a lesson, correct?” Andrew asked.
“Yes and no,” Emma answered.
“So, what then?” Andrew persisted.
“It’s my high. See, when I want something, I’m going to get it. I search for it and consider it fair play. When I find what I am looking for, I download it, and that part gets me excited because I don’t know what to expect. When the download finishes, I lay back in my chair to see if the item transfers properly. When I open the item, it gives me a rush,” Emma told them.
Leaning back into her chair she closed her eyes and smiled. The detectives knew what she was thinking.
“So, anyone can download this game, right?” Andrew asked.
Emma opened her eyes and sat up straight.
“No, only hardcore pirates can download the game. Think about it - most of the students that died were honor students. The game master picks you and gives you a subject. You have to find the title and then the game within your subject. Each person is given a different subject. What gives you the high is the attempt to find the game. After you download the game and install it, you can play it. The game is addictive. At first, you are having the time of your life, but then you realize the game is not only a game…”
Stopping suddenly Emma’s skin turns pale. The thought of what she had just said to the detectives scared her. She felt herself getting cold again. Scanning the room once more she looked at the detectives nervously. This time, she was looking for technology. Being afraid of it surprised her since she lives on the edge of technology every minute of the hour.
“Remember, if I tell you everything, you will protect me, right?” Emma said.
“Who is the game master?” Andrew asked.
“It’s a woman. An evil woman with power,” Emma said.
Emma shook her head up and down rapidly, which she herself could not explain. It was as if someone took control over her body.
“What do you mean?” Andrew asked.
“She can get to you through any electronic means, even through a cell phone. She can hear and see you anywhere,” Emma said.
Andrew and Nathan sat dumbfounded shaking their heads.
Emma’s story had to be convincing. She knew in the back of her mind that the detectives wouldn’t believe her and she would be arrested, even if she could bring the evil woman to the police station. Even if the evil woman told the detectives that she herself killed the students, the detectives would still arrest Emma because they’d never believe the woman.
“Emma, start from the beginning. When did you find out about this program?” Andrew began.
I went to church
today and there was a presence over the building which made me feel,
I was in heaven standing before God. I felt so bless the be
there.
When I got up this morning, I was tired and was having
the strangest dream ever. I was dreaming, I was in this crappy
hotel room with a person and I was planning to have sex with this
person, but the hotel was so nasty and disgusting, we decided not to
have sex. Then, I woke up. I don't know what the dream
meant, but I knew I had to get up for church.
I was
dragging this morning, but I'm happy I went. Rev. Patrick gave
the most faith building sermon that made God stand at attention and
praise his own name. It was about cleaning and rebuilding your
house.
Now, your house or temple is your body. We live
in our bodies, but sometimes we don't like to clean it and it gets
cluttered. Sometimes we have to tear the house down and rebuild
again - which is so true.
We keeping doing the same old same
old, day in and out; we don't get further in our goals because we are
afraid or refuse to change. Then, we wonder why the same old,
same old keeps happening to us over and over.
I know,
I'm changing and improving myself with the help of my friends and God
in whom I trust. I have put my life in God's hands, even though
I still have my trust issues and my insecurities.
We
all need to take the crap out of ourselves and fill it in with good
and positive things. Like a cavity in our mouth, the dentist
have to drill out the cavity and clean out the decaying part of the
tooth and then replace it with a filling.
It's hard to change
our lives for the better and it takes strength and guts to do so. You
have to be determine and have friends pushing you along and having
your back. That's why, the type of friends you have are so
important. These are the people who can tear you down or build
you up.
Even the partner, you choose in your life is so
important. Your partner will be the closest person in your life
next to yourself. Find a partner who loves, support and cares about
you and YOU have to do the same. It's a give and take
partnership until the day you or the other person dies.
For
me, I'm still my crazy self and the life of the party. I try to
stay positive everyday with a thought, a smile or a saying. We
have one life, so make the most of it. Love yourself and the
others around you.
Be yourself and Be happy because you
don't know what tomorrow may bring. Trust in your higher power and
listen to its voice. Have faith and light in yourself and in
your friends.
Do what YOU want to do and be safe about
it. We always think about what other people would think; which
is wrong. They don't live in your shoes or pay your bills. We
need to live for ourselves instead of living through other people
lives. If that person insults you and make you feel bad about
yourself, drop them like a bad habit.
Because, remember
"LIFE IS ABOUT YOU AND ONLY YOU."
New York City officials say security during the trial for suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Stepped-up security measures for the upcoming trial of the suspects in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are now expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars -- a far heftier price tag than originally thought.
In a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Mayor Michael Bloomberg put the cost at $216 million for the first year after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects arrive in Manhattan from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After that, the mayor said it would cost $200 million annually for as long as the men are detained in the city -- mainly overtime for extra New York Police Department patrols.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had given an initial estimate of $75 million a year but later warned it could be higher. A recent NYPD analysis came up with the totals cited by the mayor.
City officials and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., have called on the federal government to foot the bill.
"As 9/11 was an attack on the entire nation, we need the federal government to shoulder the significant costs we will incur and ease this burden," Bloomberg wrote in the letter dated Tuesday to the Office of Management and Budget in Washington.
Schumer has asked the Obama administration to include the trial security costs for the NYPD, the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service as a separate item in the proposed 2011 federal budget.
"Not a nickel of these costs should be borne by the New York taxpayers because terrorism is a federal responsibility and this is a federal trial," the senator said Wednesday in a statement.
Federal officials have said they're still determining the security costs and how they will be paid. No date has been set for the trial.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced last month that Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the 2001 attacks, and four accused of being al-Qaida henchmen would be tried in federal court in lower Manhattan. The court complex, including a jail that would hold the men, is just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the attack on Sept 11, 2001.
Believing the high-profile trial could inspire another attack, the NYPD has planned a show of force involving thousands of officers. The department expects to establish a frozen zone around the courthouse protected by car check points, bomb-sniffing dogs, rooftop sharpshooters and helicopter patrols.
In life, we are all actors playing a
role, but do you know your “Real” self. Sometimes, we forget who
we are inside. Who we are is important, in our lives. If we forget
who we are, we will be playing a character with out an ending.
So, JUST BE YOURSELF. Remember, we all
fart, sniff, tap on our bellies like a drum, burp and all the other
body functions that makes us human. There is a time and place for
all the bodily functions, so be careful.
We also need to improve ourselves.
For women (examples):
Makeup
Working Out
Yoga
Massage
Going to the salon
Day Spa (For the whole day)
Shopping
Cleaning your house nude
Getting a sex toy
Watching porn
For men (examples):
Working Out
Getting a massage
Having a man day out
Buying a new suit
Watching porn
Color your hair
Take a dancing class
Play fantasy football
Shopping
Buying a hot tub
See, it can be a little thing or a big
thing to put a smile on your face and skip in your step.
When you feel good about yourself, life
can be sweet.
NEW YORK — Do you want to learn a safer way to shoot heroin? New York City has a guide for that.
The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spent $32,000 of tax money on 70,000 copies that offer information on how to prepare drugs carefully and care for veins to avoid infection.
"This is a tremendous misuse of city funds, and I'm going to see what I can do to stop it," Democratic New York City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. told the New York Post. "It's sick."
And, it's not just taxpayers who are angry.
The state's top official with the Drug Enforcement Administration calls the "Take Charge Take Care" guide a "step-by-step instruction on how to inject a poison."
DEA special agent-in-charge John Gilbride says the handout is disturbing.
"It concerns me that the city would produce a how-to on using drugs," Gilbride told the Post. "Heroin is extremely potent. You may only get the chance to use it once. To suggest there is a method of using that alleviates the dangers, that's very disturbing."
The 16-page booklet features seven comics-like illustrations and offers such advice as "Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins," and "Find the vein before you try to inject."
A health official says the goal is to promote health and save lives. Assistant Commissioner Daliah Heller says instructions on how to perform injections were included because there's "a less harmful way to inject."
The illustrated guidebook offers information on HIV testing and the dangers of sharing needles.
A sexual quest that has for years baffled millions of women, and men, may have been in vain. A study by British scientists has found that the mysterious G-spot, the sexual pleasure zone said to be possessed by some women but not all, may not exist at all.
The scientists at King’s College London who carried out the study claim there is no evidence for the existence of the G-spot, supposedly a cluster of internal nerve endings, outside the imagination of women influenced by magazines and sex therapists. They reached their conclusions after a survey of more than 1,800 British women.
"Women may argue that having a G-spot is due to diet or exercise, but in fact it is virtually impossible to find real traits," said Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology, who co-authored the research. "This is by far the biggest study ever carried out and it shows fairly conclusively that the idea of a G-spot is subjective."
In the research, 1,804 British women aged 23-83 answered questionnaires. All were pairs of identical or non-identical twins. Identical twins share all their genes, while non-identical pairs share 50 percent of theirs. If one identical twin reported having a G-spot, this would make it far more likely that her sister would give the same answer. But no such pattern emerged, suggesting the G-spot is a matter of the woman’s subjective opinion.
While 56 percent of women overall claimed to have a G-spot, they tended to be younger and more sexually active. Identical twins were no more likely to share the characteristic than non-identical twins.
Andrea Burri, who led the research, said she was anxious to remove feelings of "inadequacy or underachievement" that might affect women who feared they lacked a G-spot.
"It is rather irresponsible to claim the existence of an entity that has never really been proven and pressurise women - and men, too," she said.
We
all need to feel good about ourselves, but it's so hard. Why?
Because maybe we are going through problems in our lives, weight,
race, color, how we were raised and other things.
We may feel
so bad about ourselves that we bring our overly happy friends down
and become a Debbie Downer, then a loner. Who wants to be around a
person who thinks so negative about the world, themselves and
others? And when you are alone, there's no one but the four
walls who become your best friends in life. You get into a rut
and then you're alone with no one, and in the end, accomplished
nothing.
God or whoever you pray too, gave us life and
the will to do something about it, so in the end, we have family and
friends missing us when we die.
True story, my great
Native American aunt, told me tribal stories about life, death and
mother earth. She forced me to learn the traditions of my
people, even though I didn't care. She was strong Indian woman,
she could have been Geronimo's perfect wife. When she got older, her friends
and family members were dieing off, one by one. Her husband
died young and left her childless. Her best friends died in
their prime and coming from a 13 children family, my grandfather and
her were the only ones left. So, she was completely alone.
The family put her in a nursing home, in Flushing, Queens.
She loved the nursing home because the people there were funny.
There was an old homosexual man in a wheel chair, still trying to get
laid. I don't know his name, but he would sit in his wheel chair and
wait for the fresh meat to roll in on a bed or chair. He tried
to have sex with this one guy, but the guy wasn't gay. They
fought and the gay guy looked for someone else. A playa will
always be a playa.
When my great aunt turned 94 years old,
she said, "I'm ready to die." She was serious.
She mentioned all the things she had done in life and how full her
life was. She was bless to have a life on Virginia farm where
she was raised with means and workers, she went to college (I think
she went to Virginia Tech with her other sister), traveled, had fun,
partied hard, loved hard and lived the hi life. She was ready,
but there was one last thing she had to do. On her future death
bed, she completely told off my grandfather (everything she held
inside came out. Her face was so red, she looked like a Redskin) and
died two days later.
That's how I want to die. I
want to live a full life and then die. But, to live a full
life, we need to know how to live; it starts with YOU.
How
you feel about yourself, is how you are going to live and who your
friend are.
1. Wake up with a good thought. It
may sound stupid, but when you have a good simple thought in your
mind, it makes you smile. With a smile, your life feel
uplifted. A thought, email, scripture, saying or sex can put
you in a good mood.
2. Think of some positive. With
a good thought, positivity will come and your day will be smoother.
3. Do something to build yourself up. I go to the gym
and swingers parties to build my self-esteem. Why, swinger parties?
Because, I have to strip nude in front of people, even though I don't
want to have sex with them. One or two girls who are lesbians
may show up, but I don't think about that. In my mind, I have
to strip and walk around nude, it's freeing me. When I am nude, I
have to let people see me in the most venerable state. NO ONE has the
perfect body, only Photoshop. I go to the gym to work out and
to feel good about myself.
In my tweets, I mentioned
about my picture on the social networks. This picture and the
other pictures in my calendar are so important to me. I used to be
overweight and ugly, plus I come from a family which suffers from
eating disorders. As a teenager, I was bulimic. I would throw
up before school, during school and after dinner. I was smart
with my bulimia, I would always carry my tooth brush to brush my
stomach acid from my teeth. I was a throw up pro. I was also
taking diet pills, laxatives and throwing up all at the same time.
My teeth were OK, but my hair was falling out by the hand full.
I didn't love myself and didn't care. All I cared about
was my college classes and working. I had boyfriends, but it seemed
that I was forced to date them. I never kissed them and my
mother promise them a fortune and high social status if they married
me.
I was such a geek. I was so much
a geek, my mother paid the popular girls in my social group to take
me to the popular parties. At the parties, I would be social,
but I found my gift; people would tell me their secrets and I could
sell them for money.
When I accepted myself as a lesbian, I
became free. I started to love myself.
We all want our
lives to be better, but it takes self-esteem, love, hard work and
confident in order to get the good life. Be happy and be around good
friends and people. Smile. Think good thoughts.
Hi. I am in a hotel after a night of clubbing. I didn't what to drive
to Phoenix tonight. If you are not following me of twitter, I'm in
Tucson watching Adult Swim. Funny stuff.
When I was getting my nails done, I was watching the news and they were hi-lighting what happen this year.
This year has been the sadness year ever, in my lifetime. We had our
ups and downs. We cried, we laughed, we drank, we sulked, we smiled
and we all cried inside.
Our friends lost their jobs, their houses and their cars. Some of us,
were forced to have roommates or live with our parents. We were depressed
and sad, but we looked for a light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone did. We all knew life will be better.
We lost soldiers and friends. We loved and hated. We improved and failed.
We learned true friendship and a meaning in life. We learned that it's
important to have health, good life and peace mind; instead of bills we
can't pay and stress.
I remember when Obama was elected in office, I went to Hot Flash (a
party for older lesbians) and people were happy, seeing hope, seeing a
change in the system and in our community. You felt the good energy
among to lesbians as they danced, shouted and drank. The energy made
me drunk with life and love, like in the 60's during the flower power
movement. I wasn't thought of then, but my mom told me stories about
the 60's and how it changed her. On the news, The Man wanted us to
think the 2009 is equal to the 60's and the power movement. We got
change, we got a black man in the highest office in the land. Life was
going to be good; the best. Now, I was happy to have a black man in
office, but was he the right choice?
Now, yes, I am a republican and I voted for McCain. I just felt, Obama
was not telling me HOW and WHEN he was going to do something. But, I am
happy, a black man became President. It's showed a change in this
country. But, we still have stupid people who hate black people and
think blacks don't know proper manners.
But, since then, some of us, lost hope. We have lost jobs, our houses
and ours cars. Some don't know how to deal with life because they are
not used to being poor. We have found our true friends and said
"Goodbye" to the ones that only liked us for our material things.
MJ died; which was a shock for all of us. We can still remember the
day and the time he died. We cry and remember the impact he made in
our lives and in our hearts. Tiger Woods was not the clean geek we
thought he was. We can dine with President with no problem because his
security people don't care. Facebook and Twitter became our best
friends and work mates. We realized anything can be news, even a big
balloon that traveled a long distance as a hoax. The Octomon and Jon
and Kate makes 8, people desperate to get on TV to make a sad name for
themselves. During this time, we forgot who our true actors were and
focused our time on the Reality Shows and people with no talent. Obama
became a celeb as his VP became Bush. We had heroes and we had
terrorists. We had pirates and their names were not Orlando Bloom and
Johnny Depp.
2009 was the year we saw the ugly, the sad, the lonely and the happy.
2010, I hope, it will be a good year and I know it will be. We survive
the worst, so when it gets better we will be more grateful.
I pray, everyone have happiness, peace, love, life, health and wealth.
I pray for my listens and readers everyday. Yes, I do. I am grateful
for my fans and I pray for you. I love you.
Remember to love yourself and your friends. Be close with your family. We will survive 2010. It have to get better.
LOVE YOU. Please don't drink and drive. Get a taxi. I want you guys safe.
Today, I was getting all my business done. I called a PR firm, my bank in Tucson and researched some information about something that was on my mind. But, so what?
I have a problem and I realized what it is. TRUST. The only person I can trust is myself. No one else and this is the reason, I'm not married.
It's so easy to have sex with a person you don't have a connection with because you don't care. There is no feelings involved, so you not going to get hurt.
So, you have sex with a brunch people, but in the end, you are still alone with no one to help you through the hard and painful times.
I love friends because they know me. I don't have to be so proper and act a certain way. I can just be myself.
When you are yourself around a certain group of people, then are your among true friends. They are the ones who will help you, love you, tell you and comfort you. These are the friends you can trust and love.
I went on a date with a latina and she was hot. Short straight hair, toned and looked like she was from the middle east. You know the Bollywood, princesses of film. She was smart, funny and sexy. We would talk on the phone and it was great, but she saw me and laid down the rules. I cut her off after that.
No relationship should have rules. You should be comfortable saying and doing anything around the one you love.
For example, you set a list rules for a partner, then you are making them become a person who they are not. Do you want that? Is it love to put a person in a box that you made? No.
In every relationship, a person should feel they can say or do anything and their partner will understand. That is love.
You need a partner who gets you for you. I need a partner who gets me for me.
For me, it's so hard for me to trust because I don't want to get my heart broken again. I have not found anyone to fill that void.
This woman, who I call Special Ops, told me she loved me. I knew it was joke and I was right. I did play along with act because it was great to have a girlfriend who likes me for me and don't care how many people I slept with or my job schedule. For that moment, I felt alive but I knew it was short lived.
It will be nice to feel that way for years and years, but I need to find the right person. Will I find the right person, I don't know because I'm guarded and I need that person to break down my walls and let themselves in.
The last person who I allowed in, broke my heart and trampled on it.
It's so hard to date someone new because you have to learn and understand the new person in your life.
I can say, trust in someone takes alot encourage and honesty in yourself because you are opening yourself to a foreign object.
Loving a foreign object takes guts too because it's foreign thing and you don't know what will happen in the future.
I wish we as people could know what will happen in the future, but we can't, we have to live.
I have to live and learn. Hopefully, I will be able to trust.
I had to go to the dmv today. See, I get a camera ticket for running a red light, but I was turning right on a red; which is legal. Well, anyway, I got a ticket, but didn't know I had to go to TSS school. So, I went to school to get my credit.
Today, I took the train to the DMV in Phoenix. Well, this is what happen. There was a homeless man who got on the train. I told him that GLBT community helps the homeless in Phoenix. OMG, why did I say that. He told me, it's ok for women to be lesbians but men should never be gay. He refuse to get help from the GLBT community.
Now, think about this, you are homeless and a community is trying to help you, but you refuse help because the people are gay. I don't get it.
If I was homeless and someone helped me out, I would take it.
I do get it, are gay people the savage beasts on the earth or are we caring people?
British ministers are criticizing the BBC for hosting an online debate asking whether homosexuals should be executed.
The debate on the Have Your Say website, which was originally entitled "Should homosexuals face execution", has attracted more than 600 comments, only 200 of which were deemed suitable for publication. Last night it was listed as the most popular forum on the BBC's Web site.
The corporation changed the headline to "Should Uganda debate gay execution?" after lobbying by the BBC Pride board, which is composed of gay and lesbian staff at the corporation.
The forum"s introduction said: "Should homosexuals face execution? Yes, we accept it is a stark and disturbing question. But this is the reality behind an Anti-Homosexuality Bill being debated on Friday by the Ugandan Parliament which would see some homosexual offences punishable by death."
While many contributors expressed shock that the question was up for discussion, some agreed with the notion that gay people should be put to death.
Chris from Guildford, wrote: "Totally agree. Ought to be imposed in the UK too, asap. Bring back some respectable family values. Why do we have to suffer 'gay pride’ festivals? Would I be allowed to organise a ‘straight pride’ festival? No, thought as much!! If homosexuality is natural, as we are forced to believe, how can they sustain the species? I suggest all gays are put on a remote island and left for a generation — after which, theoretically there should be none left!"
Another, from Aaron in Freetown, said: "Bravo to the Ugandans for this wise decision, a bright step in eliminating this menace from your society. We hope other African nations will also follow your bold step."
D.C. Council approves bill legalizing gay marriage Bill heads to Fenty's desk, still must survive congressional review period
By Tim Craig Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 15, 2009; 3:30 PM
The D.C. Council gave final approval Tuesday to a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, setting off a wave of excitement in the gay community even as opponents vow to continue the fight on Capitol Hill.
The bill, approved by a vote of 11 to 2, will now go to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who is expected to sign it before Christmas. The bill will become law in the spring if it survives a 30-day legislative review period.
After the vote, dozens same-sex marriage supporters rose to their feet and began cheering in the council chamber, despite council rules prohibiting public demonstrations.
"In many ways, this is the final prize," said council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), one of two openly gay council members.
To block the legislation, the Democratic-controlled House and Senate and President Obama would all have to sign off on a disapproval resolution within 30 legislative days, which advocates say is not likely.
"We believe we are firmly rooted in the right side of history, and I know we are going to prevail," said council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who is also gay and sponsored the bill. "But we are going to have to remain vigilant to protect this right."
During the debate, council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) said he could not support the bill but acknowledged the body was making history.
"This must be a proud day for you David, Mr. Graham," said Barry, a onetime civil rights leader, "Just as it was a proud day for me when the voting rights bill was passed in 1965. But this is a democracy and I reserve the right to disagree."
Council member Yvette D. Alexander (D-Ward 7), who like Barry represents neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, also voted against the legislation, saying her constituents have told her they oppose same-sex marriage.
The Rev. Anthony Evans, associate minister of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, said he and other ministers will not relent in their efforts to block the legislation. Led by Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church, opponents of the bill have sued in Superior Court to try to force a referendum to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
"We are going to exercise our constitutional rights," Evans said. "This is not a win today. This is an insignificant blimp that cannot become law until the process ends, and we are going to stop it in every way we can."
But gay rights leaders, who say they have prepared for this moment for decades, heralded the vote as a historic day in the worldwide struggle for gay rights. The Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization, is teaming with the D.C. Council to host a celebration tonight at the Longview Gallery in Shaw.
On Monday night, about 350 same-sex marriage supporters held a pre-vote rally at a city recreational center in Shaw. Some of those who attended were religious leaders, underscoring how more than 200 faith leaders in the District have endorsed same-sex marriage.
Deacon Maccubbin, 66, the owner of the Lamba Rising book store on Connecticut Avenue in Dupont Circle, said he never thought he would be alive to see same-sex marriage be legal in the District.
"I'm really blown away by this," Maccubbin said. "When I came to Washington in 1966, we didn't even have basic civil rights. We didn't even have a police department that would talk to us, but we had a supportive community and that continues to this day."
Maccubbin had a "holy union ceremony" with his longtime partner, Jim Bennett, the co-owner of Lamba Rising, in 1982. The two plan to get married as soon as the same-sex marriage bill becomes law.
"This is a moment in history that I think all gay people have been waiting for," Erika Zommer, 27, of Northeast, said in an interview at the rally. "But I think with my generation, I knew this day would come."
Is up and running. The store is selling 2010 calendars with sexy pictures of me and also uplighting words for each month, to help you get through the year. Included in the store are posters, mouse pads, mugs, tee-shirts and bags. The merchandise is so cool, I'm a fan. The store can be found, http://www.zazzle.com/aliyaleigh
Aliya Leigh -- Book Store
"Mystery" By Aliya Leigh
Jeremy and Julie met by pure fate, but can their love stand the test of time and death? Jeremy is a player of women with the motto: “You need to screw and then lose. Marriage is for the deranged and insane.” But, a road trip with a beautiful mysterious dark-skinned woman with crystal blue eyes, made him fall in love. In the end, he became broken. Mystery is a story of hope, life, survival and living in the moment. It reminds you; life doesn't have a redo button. So live for today as if it was your last.
Bruce Springsteen has thrown his support behind legislation backing same-sex marriage in his home state of New Jersey, with a note posted Tuesday night on his website. The proposal is due to be voted on Thursday by the state’s Senate.
“Like many of you who live in New Jersey, I've been following the progress of the marriage-equality legislation currently being considered in Trenton,” Springsteen writes. “I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and fully agree with Governor [Jon] Corzine when he writes that, ‘The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is -- a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law.’ "
Springsteen continues, "I couldn't agree more with that statement and urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard now.”
Chris Christie, the state’s incoming Republican governor, however, has said he will veto the measure if it is passed, despite classifying himself as a Springsteen fan. On Monday, the bill was approved by one vote by a state Senate committee, according to the Associated Press, but Democrats are saying they may not have the 21 votes needed for it to pass in the Senate.
-- Randy Lewis
Photo: Bruce Springsteen at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 2007. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
Updated: Friday, 04 Dec 2009, 5:26 PM EST Published : Friday, 04 Dec 2009, 5:26 PM EST
Edited By: Leigha Baugham | myfoxatlanta.com
NEWNAN, Ga. (MyFOX ATLANTA) - Newnan police were called to an area Wal-Mart store Friday after someone reported a disturbance involving comedian Katt Williams. Authorities questioned Williams for hours about the incident.
Police said they responded to a disturbance call at Wal-Mart store parking lot in Newnan Friday afternoon.
Investigators said Williams was involved in the disturbance, and was held for questioning in the incident.
As of Friday afternoon, there had been no arrests in the incident, but police were still on the scene.
For those of you who think the world should no longer care about a celebrity love triangle that resolved itself years ago, you might want to avoid bookstores for a few weeks.
Montreal author/professional rabble-rouser Ian Halperin released his latest explosive celebrity exposé, Brangelina: The Untold Story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, on Tuesday, unleashing a whole new wave of juicy Brangelina gossip on the unsuspecting public.
Halperin's been making the media rounds to promote his book, and is standing behind his allegations, telling PopEater: "If anyone can prove one factual error in the book, I'll sleep naked in Times Square for a month. That's how much I believe in this book."
Here are some of the most surprising things revealed by the author, who claims to have interviewed more than 900 sources for the book:
Angelina is a master media manipulator. Halperin says the first hints that Jolie tightly controls her public image came after the Golden Globes in 2000, where she was repeatedly spotted kissing her brother, James Haven.
According to the author, she immediately deflected the scandal by creating another one - stealing Billy Bob Thornton away from actress Laura Dern. He tells PopEater: "She's what magicians would call misdirection. That's what she's a master of in her camp. She checks herself into a mental institution, and next thing you know, she elopes with Billy Bob Thornton, and that was a very concerted effort to make sure she was never with James Haven again, because Hollywood was ready to blacklist Angie."
Halperin also says Jolie spread lies about Jennifer Aniston in the media, planting a story that claimed Pitt broke up with his wife because she didn't want to have his children.
"It was Angelina who came up with the whole story about Jennifer not wanting to have kids," a source connected to 20th Century Fox, which produced Mr. and Mrs. Smith, told Halperin. "She was convinced that is the story that would resonate with all these women who saw her as a man-stealing bitch."
In fact, Halperin claims Aniston desperately wanted Pitt's children, built a dream nursery in their Beverly Hills mansion and even suffered two miscarriages during their marriage.
Jennifer Aniston is just as saintly as she would have you believe. Halperin claims Jolie went out of her way to vilify Aniston and spread lies about her in the media, but Aniston handled the divorce drama with grace.
The author tells PopEater: "What she did was perhaps the most commendable way I've ever seen a Hollywood star deal with such devastation. She was able to keep quiet about it all, get into spiritual counselling, and really move forward slowly but surely, without sounding like a victim or sour grapes. She could have come out and lambasted Jolie, and she chose not to."
Halperin also claims Pitt's family prefers Aniston over Jolie. "I talked to several people in Brad's family who wished they'd break up today," he told the New York Post.
Brangelina have hot, hot sex. Okay, so maybe this isn't really surprising. Halperin tells the Post that their physical attraction on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith convinced Pitt to leave Aniston for Jolie. "Brad had never had such incredible sex. My sources say that they sometimes spent 18 to 20 hours a day in bed." He also interviewed a limo driver who witnessed them "going at it in the back seat" twice.
Brangelina aren't hands-on parents.
In his book, Halperin claims Brangelina employ a "multicultural" team of nannies, and Shiloh was once overheard referring to one of her caretakers as "Mommy." But the power couple are careful to shield the help from the public. An employee Halperin interviews says: "Stars will never allow the nanny to be photographed with their kids. ... Sometimes, you'll even have the nanny crouched down in the back seat of a car. It's quite comical."
The relationship already has an expiry date. Halperin is convinced the relationship won't last long. He tells PopEater: "I'll bet my last dollar on it. ... It was paradise at the beginning. But look at Pitt today; he looks like he's been hit by a truck, compared to four years ago. She has brought a lot of good things to him - the children, for example - but he didn't know what he was getting into, and that's why I think they're going to split. I hope it plays out well, because there's six children involved, but I don't think it will. I give them 15 to 18 months."
Tiger Woods apologized Wednesday for hurting his family as more women were romantically linked to the married golfer.
In a written statement, Woods said, “I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings.”
Last week, two days before Woods crashed his sport utility vehicle into a fire hydrant and tree outside his house, the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess, and that they were recently together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.
The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods.
Since then, San Diego cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs told to Us magazine that she had a 31-month-long affair with the golf champ, and Life & Style magazine has a story claiming Woods had a sexual relationship with Vegas nightclub manager Kalika Moquin.
The allegations of infidelity continue to multiply as the ramifications from his accident recede. The world's most famous golfer will only be cited for careless driving outside his home in the exclusive gated community of Isleworth. It will add four points to his driving record, but he will not face criminal charges, the Florida Highway Patrol said Tuesday.
Woods, 33, who was briefly unconscious after the crash, did not speak with investigators at the time of the accident. Authorities said he complied with Florida law by providing his driver's license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance to investigators.
Florida "is not pursuing criminal charges in this matter nor is there any testimony or other evidence to support any additional charges of any kind other than the charge of careless driving," said Sgt. Kim Montes, a spokesman for the highway patrol.
But while Woods will not face criminal charges, he may face backlash from fans, and even sponsors, if new details of alleged sordid affairs continue to surface.
Us magazine obtained a frantic voicemail from Woods to Grubbs begging the 24-year-old to take her name off her phone.
"My wife went through my phone and may be calling you," he told Grubbs on the recording. "So if you can, please take your name off that. Just have it as a number on the voicemail. You got to do this for me. Huge. Quickly. Bye."
Grubbs shared some of the 300 racy text messages between her and Woods, including requests for "naughty" photos and promises to "wear you out."
Woods was reportedly willing to pay for Grubbs' travel expenses and, according to Radar Online, did the same for Uchitel. Radar reports that it was Tiger's organization that booked and paid for Uchitel's stay in Australia.
But the National Enquirer's report on the Uchitel affair may not have been the first time the magazine had dirt on the billionaire golfer. According to the New York Post, the Enquirer covered up a story of a steamy extramarital affair two years ago in exchange for an exclusive cover story for sister magazine Men's Fitness.
Former Fitness editor Neal Boulton told the Post that he left the magazine after the "seedy" deal went through in 2007.
"We were going to [do a quid pro quo with] America's favorite sports star, just to get his name on the cover of a magazine," Boulton said. "That was too much for me. That's when I high-tailed it out of there."
In his statement, Woods pledged to be a better father and husband, all while denouncing the press' scrutiny of his private life.
"No matter how intense curiosity about public figures can be, there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy. I realize there are some who don't share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one's own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions.
"I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology."
New York lawmakers have rejected a bill to legalize gay marriage.
The Senate decision Wednesday comes after months of delays and arm twisting of lawmakers sympathetic to the bill but representing conservative districts. It follows a referendum in Maine earlier this month that struck down a gay marriage law before it took effect.
Advocates say they aren't surprised by the decision. Most, including Gov. David Paterson, say they at least wanted a floor debate and vote.
Gay marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont. A New Hampshire law takes effect Jan. 1.
Gay marriage is not on the ballot in Atlanta today, but the issue could make a difference in the race for Mayor. The ongoing gay marriage and gay rights debate has become a flashpoint in an election that could seat the city's first white mayor since 1973. Both candidates have been pushed into a struggle to prove who is more gay-friendly to win the coveted vote of Atlanta's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community.
Former Georgia State Senator Kasim Reed and current City Council member Mary Norwood have been sparring over gay rights and gay marriage since the November 3rd general election, trying to win over a voting bloc that could decide a run-off election that otherwise has been split loosely along racial lines. Reed, a black man, is expected to win Atlanta's African-American majority, while Norwood, a white woman, is predicted to do well with white voters, especially in the city's northern suburbs. But, ironically, it's the gay vote that could be the deciding factor of this election in the heart of the mostly conservative Bible Belt.
Atlanta ranks third in the nation for the percentage of gay residents, making up approximately 12 percent of the city's population. Gay and Lesbian activists have looked to both candidates for a definitive stance on gay marriage and gay rights.
Norwood has been very vocal in her push to support gay marriage and the LGBT community. She recently protested in a rally on the steps of the state capital against Proposition 8 -- California's controversial anti-gay marriage law, participated in Atlanta's Gay Pride parade and held fundraisers at several gay bars and nightclubs. Although Reed does not support gay marriage, he says he does favor civil unions. He has also thrown support behind issues important to the gay community at the state capital, by sponsoring a hate crimes bill that would have extended protection to gays. The issue of who supports the gay community more became a flashpoint in a recent televised debate between the two. Reed, trying to chip away at Norwood's gay marriage stance, accused her of missing an important vote on pension benefits for domestic partners of city employees. Norwood dismissed the attack as an unimportant vote that was largely ceremonial and had no bearing on city policy.
Some political analysts say the gay community should produce a large turnout today as two other openly gay candidates are also on the ballot in Atlanta. Simone Bell, who lives with her partner in Southeast Atlanta is running for a State House seat while Alex Wan is hoping to grab an at-large city council seat in Midtown, the center of the gay community.
(CNN) -- Adam Lambert says his recent outrageous behavior is due to finally gaining some much-needed self-esteem after slimming down from 250 pounds.
The former "American Idol" finalist explained some of his onstage antics at the American Music Awards by telling a radio show last week that he continues to overcome image issues from his youth.
"I suffered from a little bit of an ugly-duckling complex in my early 20s. When I was in high school I was 250 pounds and that creates some stuff ... some body image stuff, some confidence issues. And I got a lot of my confidence from the validation I got as a performer," Lambert told the Morning Jolt's Larry Flick on Sirius satellite radio.
The singer does believe he could have made a better first impression to follow up his successful run on "American Idol" than he did with the much-maligned risqué dance sequence he did on the AMAs.
"I think in hindsight I look back on it and I go, OK, maybe that wasn't the best first impression to make again, the first second impression. I mean, I had fun up there," Lambert told Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show Tuesday.
The singer said he was concerned that fans who watched his performance -- in which he kissed a male band member and simulated oral sex with a dancer onstage -- felt "disrespected," he told DeGeneres.
"I respect people and feel like people walked away from that feeling disrespected. I would never intend to disrespect anybody. So that was not my intention," Lambert said.
The former "American Idol" finalist also said that his performance was shocking to some people because he broke away from the typical media-friendly portrayal of gay men.
"People aren't used to seeing gay man portrayed that way on TV. The gay male image in the media tends to be ... safe," Lambert said. "I was putting on a character, putting on a persona, being this kind of rock star, kind of dangerous kind of guy. ... I don't know, something came over me and got caught up in the moment and maybe went a little too far."
ABC, the network that broadcast the AMAs, received more than 1,500 complaints over Lambert's behavior on the program. The network subsequently canceled a scheduled live performance by Lambert on "Good Morning America" later in the week. CBS's "The Early Show" invited Lambert to speak and perform on that program following ABC's cancellation.
On "The Early Show," Lambert was joined by his mother, Leila, who said she was a little taken aback by her son's performance on the AMAs. She said she ultimately just went with the flow and was proud of him for being so inspiring to his fans.
His father took a harsher stance, Lambert told DeGeneres.
"My dad was like, 'Maybe you should apologize, Adam,' " Lambert said.
He said he told his father, "I don't feel like I did anything wrong -- it just wasn't maybe the right judgment call. It's a taste thing more than an obscenity thing. I think it's just a taste level."
But Lambert said he didn't fault "Good Morning America" for canceling his performance.
"I don't blame them. I got carried away. It was stuff that I did not do in rehearsal, so they were probably a little bit taken aback," he said. "They gave me a great opportunity to close the AMAs and I would never want to smack that gift horse in the mouth. I think they were taking a leap of faith having me do that, and it unfortunately it didn't work out as we all thought it would."
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama got some political cover Sunday for his upcoming announcement on sending more troops to Afghanistan.
A report released by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee blamed the Bush administration for failing to capture or kill Osama bin Laden when the al Qaeda leader was cornered in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountain region in December 2001. The report, released Sunday, said the situation in Afghanistan presented greater problems today because of the failure to nab bin Laden eight years ago.
Bin Laden had written his will, apparently sensing he was trapped, but the lack of sufficient forces to close in for the kill allowed him to escape to tribal areas in Pakistan, according to the report.
It said former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top U.S. commander Gen. Tommy Franks held back the necessary forces for a "classic sweep-and-block maneuver" that could have prevented bin Laden's escape.
"It would have been a dangerous fight across treacherous terrain, and the injection of more U.S. troops and the resulting casualties would have contradicted the risk-averse, 'light footprint' model formulated by Rumsfeld and Franks," the report said.
When criticized later for not zeroing in on bin Laden, administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, responded that the al Qaeda leader's location was uncertain.
"But the review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants underlying this report removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora," the report said.
On Tuesday, Obama will travel to West Point, New York, to announce his decision on a request by his commanding general in Afghanistan for up to 40,000 additional troops.
Obama is expected to send more than 30,000 U.S. troops and seek further troop commitments from NATO allies as part of a counterinsurgency strategy to wipe out al Qaeda elements and stabilize the country while training Afghan forces.
By releasing the report Sunday, Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focused attention on the past failure of the Bush administration to take out bin Laden, saying that had created a greater problem today.
"Our inability to finish the job in late 2001 has contributed to a conflict today that endangers not just our troops and those of our allies, but the stability of a volatile and vital region," Kerry, D-Massachusetts, wrote in a letter of transmittal for the report.
When Kerry was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, he argued that the Bush administration botched the pursuit of bin Laden and that then-President George W. Bush "took his eye off the ball" in Afghanistan to invade Iraq.
The accusations were hotly disputed by Bush supporters and Franks. However, Gary Berntsen, the CIA operative who led the pursuit of bin Laden at Tora Bora, said in 2005 that his request for up to 800 U.S. troops to cut off the al Qaeda leader's escape route was denied.
Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations committee, told CNN's "State of the Union" that the new report "does serve as a convenient way for, perhaps, Democrats to say once again, there's another failing of the past administration" and that "all the problems have accumulated."
"I think we have to accept that there were many failings," said Lugar, of Indiana. "But the problem right now is, what do we do presently? What will the president's plan be? How much confidence do we have in this president and this plan?"
Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, responding to Lugar's comment, told CNN that Obama faced "the culmination of decisions that were made eight years" earlier, which he said "made the situation much more difficult" today.
According to the report, "removing the al Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat."
"But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide," it said.
The report called bin Laden's escape "a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism, leaving the American people more vulnerable to terrorism, laying the foundation for today's protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan."
The report also highlighted bin Laden's will, dated December 14, 2001, as an indication of the dire situation he faced.
"Bin Laden expected to die," it said, noting that a copy of the will that surfaced later is regarded as authentic.
"Allah commended to us that when death approaches any of us that we make a bequest to parents and next of kin and to Muslims as a whole," the report quoted bin Laden's will as saying, adding that he "instructed his wives not to remarry and apologized to his children for devoting himself to" holy war.
However, the report said, "fewer than 100 American commandos were on the scene with their Afghan allies and calls for reinforcements to launch an assault were rejected."
"Requests were also turned down for U.S. troops to block the mountain paths leading to sanctuary a few miles away in Pakistan," it continued. "The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines. Instead, the U.S. command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias to attack bin Laden and on Pakistan's loosely organized Frontier Corps to seal his escape routes.
"On or around December 16, two days after writing his will, bin Laden and an entourage of bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area. Most analysts say he is still there today."
Facebook and MySpace have terminated the accounts of 3,533 convicted sex offenders in the state of New York after they submitted their account information to the state under 2008’s Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP) law, the New York Daily News reports.
The law requires the state’s 30,000 convicted sex offenders to file their home, e-mail and social networking addresses with the state. Out of that pool, only about 27 percent revealed e-mail addresses or social-networking usernames to authorities, and only 10 percent divulged a Facebook or MySpace username.
The remaining 22,000 or so registered sex offenders who did not supply online identity information are either in prison or homeless, lack computer access or simply chose not to respond, an unidentified state Division of Criminal Justice Services representative told the New York Daily News.
The e-STOP system only works if criminals volunteer their social networking identities, as they are required to do within 10 days of creating a new account under penalty of new felony charges. Proponents of the law have declared it a success.
“Before e-STOP, sexual predators freely lurked in social networking sites trolling for innocent victims,” said executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law and the Crime Victims Center Laura Ahearn to the Daily News. “With e-STOP, Attorney General Cuomo has sent a clear message that there is a new sheriff in the cyberworld protecting our most vulnerable.”
New York State supplied the account names to Facebook and MySpace over the past two months as part of the first stage of the e-STOP sweep. The next step is to check whether any of the offenders violated the terms of their early release from prison by setting up a profile on the sites.
Incidentally, sex offenders — like many others — appear to favor Facebook over MySpace. Out of the 3,533 offenders whose accounts were terminated, 79 percent were on Facebook and 51 percent were on MySpace. Many had accounts on both networks, while 21 percent used MySpace exclusively and 49 percent used Facebook exclusively.
(Update: the final paragraph of this article originally failed to distinguish between the number of social networking accounts and the number of account holders; those percentages have since been corrected.)
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If a girl is causing you trouble, just say Bitch Please!
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It was been a year for Lesbian Life. I want to thank my fans. Thank you so much. I want everyone to be themselves and don't let anyone judge you. If they do, that means, they don't love themselves. -- Aliya Leigh
BE WHO YOU ARE!
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Megan McCain really wants the Republican party to accept the GLBT community. I'm a Republican and a lesbian, why? Because I do believe in the freedom of this country, small government and fiscal responsibility.
I also feel, the Democratic party doesn't accept the GLBT community, as well. Think about, if the democratic party cared so much for our rights, we would have them by now.
Maine is Democratic and they are voting against gay marriage, so it takes a person not a party to stand up for rights.
Megan McCain is on a mission to accept the GLBT community into the Republican party. Little does she knows, they are already there.
Investigators in New York City raided circulation offices at some of the nation's largest newspapers Tuesday as part of a union corruption probe, a law enforcement official said.
Police officers working with the Manhattan district attorney's office searched circulation offices of The New York Times in Queens, the New York Post and the Daily News in Manhattan, and El Diario in Brooklyn, the official said, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Investigators were seeking paperwork related to the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which packages and delivers newspapers across the region.
Calls to the union's headquarters were not answered Tuesday. The news deliverers' parent union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, referred inquiries to the local union.
The New York Times issued a statement saying that the office of an employee at its plant in Queens' College Point area had been searched but that its news side was not part of the investigation.
Rosana Rosado, publisher of El Diario-La Prensa, also said that the Spanish-language newspaper is not a subject of the investigation and that the search warrant was seeking information into allegations of corruption at the union.
Bob Leonard of Dan Klores Communications, speaking for the Daily News, declined to comment on the raid. A call to the Post was not returned.
The 1,600-member union wields considerable power over news companies that rely on their drivers to deliver hundreds of thousands of papers each day, and allegations of connections to organized crime are not new.
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau charged that the union was under mob control more than a decade ago, after an investigation that also involved a 1992 search of the Post and Daily News offices.
The probe led to criminal charges against union members including then-President Douglas LaChance, who authorities accused of being an associate of the Luchese crime family. He was acquitted in 1995 of strong-arming the Post into switching delivery companies.
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Saturday morning was a race, but Saturday night was the DRAMA and UNDERSTANDING.
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There is a banging outside and how I brought my computer
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The
New Face of Psychotic, Twisted, Gory,
Experimental Crafted Horror
Phoenix,
AZ (November 11,
2009)
- Aliya
Leigh,
is a hot sexy lesbian republican scriptwriter,blogger,
podcaster, voice over actress and author; who speaks her mind about
anything. Her
message comes from world events, her heart and life. She will make
you laugh, cry and be in shock. From titles like, “Drink Urine and
Lose Weight”, “We
Need Abortion”, and “Gay McCain”. With
a new film script, she
is the psychotic demented horror writer with a score to settle.
Aliya
Leigh is announcing her first major film script, called “I Love
You”. "I Love You", Brenda Lopez was raised by a mother who sold her to men, but found love when she met Alex. Zack tells his brother Alex his feelings towards Brenda; which starts a psychotic, twisted, graphic, gory experimental game of the mind and physical strength.
Will Brenda and Zack survive?
“People have described the script, as a bad acid trip without the acid,” Aliya Leigh says.
In
addition to writing horror scripts, she is looking to workfor
a film or television production companyor
studio, as a writer or editor, and looking for voice over work.
The
film script, “I Love You”, is ready to be sold to production
companies and studios.
About
Aliya Leigh
Aliya
Leigh is the host of a podcast called, “Lesbian Life”,
(http://aliyaleighlive.libsyn.com).
Since February 2008 to today, her listeners has grown from 500 to
40,000 downloads a day. With the success of “Lesbian Life”, she
started a weekly show based on fairy tales characters with attitude,
teenage problems and
lack of
common
sense called “Wonderland” (http://wonderland.podbean.com).
In “Wonderland”, she perform all the voices for the show, from
simple minded Alice to Deville the Prince of Darkness to Strawberry
Shortcake the Muslim. She is a contributing writer for Carpe Diem
Fashion Magazine. She has written books and treatments for
television. She also produces and workson
indie films around Arizona.
Aliya
Leigh performs community service around her community and a Trustee
on the National Writer’s Union board. She make appearances at
literary award shows, speaks at seminars about copyrighting and other
topics which plagues the writing world, and acts
as a fundraiser for causes.
In
her spare time, she plays video games, hang out with friends, travels
and plays
her violin. She is a member of Log Cabin (Republican group in the
LGBT community), ASCAP, National Writer’s Union and an
active
member of her church.
###
If
you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an
interview with Aliya Leigh, please contact:
Some of the most innovative, interesting, and, well, strange tech has nothing to do with computing monoliths like Google or Microsoft. And it's just around the corner.
Here's our list of the tech trends, products, and innovations that are available today — or coming online shortly — and how they'll affect your life next year.
1. You'll attend an online funeral Sites such as Otrib.com and Tributes.com let you leave a memorial to loved ones who have passed on. But some people are holding the funeral itself online, using webcasting services at sites such as Funeralrecording.com and Funeralone.com. This lets anyone attend, from anywhere.
Why the trend is important: Webcasting a funeral might sound morbid, but it means more people can share in the life of someone without the expense of travel.
2. You'll start life-casting
Given the confluence of ubiquitous cell phone use, high-speed 3G service, and a growing desire to connect with people in more tangible ways, life-casting has finally arrived. Services such as Qik.com let you stream a live video from your cell to the world without the usual video hiccups and complex setup.
Why the trend is important: YouTube videos are static. They capture a fleeting moment, but not as it happens in real-time. Life-casting is the true expression of our own self-worth (ahem).
3. Your body will control video games
Microsoft is championing a new Xbox controller: you. The technology, called Project Natal, lets you perform dance movies or kick a ball, while a camera tracks your movements using infrared and shows the results on screen. A microphone can also capture voice commands. Meanwhile, Sony has announced the PlayStation Motion Controller, a wand that helps accomplish the same you-as-the-controller goal.
Why the trend is important: It's about time someone invented a better way to shoot bad guys than the same joysticks and gamepads we've used for the last few decades.
4. You'll leave your tape measure at home
A new service called GeoEstimator uses satellites and aerial photographs to make roof measurements that are just as accurate as making the measurements in person. The service can help contractors, insurance companies, and estimators avoid crawling up on roofs.
Why the trend is important: Virtual measurements save time, sure, but they also pave the way for the further integration of satellite data in our lives, such as determining exact property boundaries.
5. You'll (finally) use a content aggregator
You probably already know about Digg.com and other services that help you find interesting stories and pictures. And plenty of sites — such as YouTube.com — let you share goofy videos. Toobla.com is different: It's an aggregator for videos, photos, documents and Web sites, so you can not only store videos and photos but share them online. It's also more visual than a storage service such as Box.net.
Why the trend is important: We're all inundated with too many digital files, and Toobla does a good job of making the storage more interesting and accessible for your friends and family members.
6. You'll burn your business cards
Salespeople hand them out at trade shows and they might help you win a free lunch. That's right: business cards just won't die. Several iPhone apps – such as Beezcard and SnapDat – allow you to share contact details, but not everyone has an iPhone. A Swiss company has made the PokenZoo, a cute, inexpensive device you touch to another Poken to swap contacts.
Why the trend is important: Saves paper, but also finally alleviates business workers from having to carry these annoying cards around whether they go.
7. You'll chat with faceless minions
One new trend regurgitates an age-old concept: On sites such as Omegle.com, you can chat with complete strangers. AOL has provided this capability for eons (isn't that what chat boards are all about?), but Omegle.com puts a random spin on it, pairing you safely and anonymously with an arbitrary total stranger. You can chat with some dude in Norway or Japan in less than 5 seconds.
Why the trend is important: Other than the fun factor, Omegle indicates the final piece in the globalization puzzle.
8. Your gadgets will have gadgets
Cell-phone boosters have become popular in the past few years, purporting to improve coverage and signal quality. Most have added, oh, one bar at most. The zBoost ONE (www.wi-ex.com) can boost your connection up three bars. The device is so innovative, it won a Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) award recently.
Why the trend is important: People in rural areas and deep within office complexes often can't participate in the mobile revolution. A booster makes high-speed access viable for everyone.
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code “W-O-W” at http://www.Adamandeve.com * Check out http://www.yourgayhistory.com To celebrity OUR GLBT HISTORY
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Gay activists were frustrated that Obama, who insists he staunchly supports their overall civil rights agenda, didn't speak out forcefully in defense of Maine's marriage law before Tuesday's referendum.
SAN FRANCISCO - Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate.
Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage.
"Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian legal group. "Maine dramatically illustrates the will of the people, and politicians should wake up and listen."
Gay activists were frustrated that Obama, who insists he staunchly supports their overall civil rights agenda, didn't speak out forcefully in defense of Maine's marriage law before Tuesday's referendum. The law was repealed in a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent.
"President Obama missed an opportunity to state his position against these discriminatory attacks with the clarity and moral imperative that would have helped in this close fight," said Evan Wolfson of the national advocacy group Freedom to Marry. "The anti-gay forces are throwing millions of dollars into various unsubtle ads aimed at scaring people, so subtle statements from the White House are not enough."
The White House, asked about the criticism, had no immediate comment.
The marriage debate is simmering in at least a half-dozen states where a same-sex marriage bill is pending or where a court ruling or existing law is being eyed by conservatives for possible challenge.
Had Maine's law been upheld by voters, it would have become the sixth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to affirm it by popular vote. In Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Iowa, gay marriage resulted from court decisions or legislation.
California is sure to be a major battleground over the next several years. Last year, conservatives succeeded in winning public approval of Proposition 8, which overturned a state court ruling allowing gay marriage. Gay rights groups want to take the issue back to the voters but are divided on a timetable.
In the aftermath of the Maine vote, some California activists appealed to their supporters for money to help them put a measure on the 2010 ballot. Other activist leaders want to wait until 2012.
"It's never too early to go back to right a fundamental wrong," said Chaz Lowe of Yes! on Equality, who favors shooting for 2010. "A lot of people are angry, a lot of people are upset. It at least has the potential to be a mobilization for the grass roots."
Some California activists said the outcome in Maine strengthened their belief that it will fall to the U.S. Supreme Court — not the voters — to make gay marriage legal. A federal lawsuit challenging Prop. 8 is scheduled to go to trial in January, the first step in a legal journey that is expected to reach the high court in a few years.
"The results in Maine underscore exactly why we are challenging California's same-sex marriage ban," said Chad Griffin, president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the Los Angeles group spearheading the lawsuit. "The U.S. Constitution guarantees equal rights to every American, and when those rights are violated, it is the role of our courts to protect us, regardless of what the polls say."
The situation elsewhere:
_ In New Jersey, the election Tuesday of Republican Chris Christie as governor puts extra pressure on gay rights supporters to win passage of a pending same-sex marriage bill before the legislative session ends in January. Christie says he would veto such a bill, while lame-duck Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, says he would sign it.
_ In Iowa, where the state Supreme Court legalized gay marriage last April, conservatives have no quick way to overturn the ruling. Their only option would be to amend the state constitution through a ballot measure — in 2014 at the earliest — and that effort would need approval from a legislature whose current Democratic leaders don't even want to debate the issue.
_ In New Hampshire, conservatives have filed legislation to repeal the state's new gay-marriage law and amend the constitution to ban such unions. Kevin Smith, executive director of the conservative Cornerstone Policy Research, said he doubts the measures will pass, but hopes the vote in Maine will give gay-marriage opponents ammunition for the 2010 elections.
"It gives us more fodder to go back to people and say, 'Look, they aren't letting you vote on it,'" Smith said.
_ In Washington, D.C., conservatives are trying to force a popular vote on a bill headed toward City Council approval that would legalize gay marriage. Michael Crawford, one of the leaders of the local pro-gay marriage campaign, said the result in Maine increased his determination to avoid a ballot measure.
"The same cabal of anti-gay groups who stripped away marriage equality from our families in California and Maine now have their sights on D.C.," he said.
Crawford was among numerous gay rights leaders complaining about the campaign tactics of the groups that opposed same-sex marriage in Maine and California.
In both states, California-based political strategist Frank Schubert oversaw an advertising campaign warning that "homosexual marriage" would be taught in public schools.
The campaign to defend gay marriage countered that Maine's state curriculum guidelines contain no reference to marriage, and the state's Democratic attorney general, Janet Mills, issued an opinion backing that up. But the ads continued.
"It is infuriating to see that the same fear-mongering ads that were used to pass Prop. 8 a year ago have triumphed again at the expense of so many," said Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay rights group.
Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, came away with a different message.
"Over and over again, the American people have affirmed marriage at the ballot box and turned aside the demands of a movement that remains largely driven by Hollywood, some extreme activists and a few activist judges," he said. "We hope the message sent by Maine's voters will be heard in Washington and state capitals around the nation."
Why do the celebs make announcements about their drug use? What is the point? But, here I am talking about my little crazy drug story.
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Interested in
getting the CD or downloading it... This CD is on iTunes, Amazon mp3,
Cdbaby.com/cd/sharelle as well as other online outlets. They can also
order the CD right from the Official Sharelle Web site listed below.
Interested in
getting the CD or downloading it... This CD is on iTunes, Amazon mp3,
Cdbaby.com/cd/sharelle as well as other online outlets. They can also
order the CD right from the Official Sharelle Web site listed below.
Interested in
getting the CD or downloading it... This CD is on iTunes, Amazon mp3,
Cdbaby.com/cd/sharelle as well as other online outlets. They can also
order the CD right from the Official Sharelle Web site listed below.
Interested in
getting the CD or downloading it... This CD is on iTunes, Amazon mp3,
Cdbaby.com/cd/sharelle as well as other online outlets. They can also
order the CD right from the Official Sharelle Web site listed below.
Interested in
getting the CD or downloading it... This CD is on iTunes, Amazon mp3,
Cdbaby.com/cd/sharelle as well as other online outlets. They can also
order the CD right from the Official Sharelle Web site listed below.
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Why do people need to be in control? Just let it go!
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Despite the collective outings of Ellen DeGeneres, Elton John, Rosie
O'Donnell and Olympic diver Greg Louganis, homophobia is alive and well
-- especially in the small towns of the Deep South. Focusing on the
day-to-day struggles of two Mississippi gay bars and the grateful
patrons who often travel hundreds of miles to find them, filmmaker Malcolm Ingram reveals a surprisingly close community that treats its residents like family members.
----------------
I saw film on
Netflix. Everyone needs to watch this film because it's raw and it's life.
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Spirit Journeys: Mystics & Muses
Friday & Saturday: December 11 & 12, 2009, 7:30 pm Faith Lutheran Church 801 E. Camelback, Phoenix
Sunday, December 13, 2009, 4:00pm Church of the Epiphany 2222 S. Price Road, Tempe
Join
us as we honor and celebrate the winter holidays of Chanukah,
Christmas, Kwanzaa and Winter Solstice. Our Spirit Journeys, both as a
society and individuals, often contain a dual nature: the more serious
spiritual element circumscribed in mystery and expressed through a
mystical nature, and the lighter side of the holidays, found in the
creative "imp.” Along with a performance of pieces from Benjamin
Brittain's Ceremony of Carols, we will also bring you an
arrangement of Silver Bells and a piece entitled Deck the Halls in 7/8,
which is a rhythmic version of the holiday classic.
**Faith Lutheran does not have accessible bathroom.
Exquisite Journey: Fierce Beauty
Friday & Saturday, March 12 & 13, 2010, 7:30 pm Faith Lutheran Church 801 E. Camelback, Phoenix
The
March concert is presented in honor of Women"s History Month and will
examine the journey of fear, chaos and even joy that comes with a life
threatening illness. Our desire is to present the intensity and
fierceness that the human spirit displays during these times. The
centerpiece of the concert will be Diane Benjamin’s Where I Live: A Breast Cancer Oratorio.
This sublime work brings together strings, percussion, choir, soloist
and narrator in a stunning musical/spoken word offering that leads us
through the uncertain journey of illness and recovery. The second half
of the concert offers music that will be a celebration of the
determination and resiliency of the human spirit. Plan now to be part
of this very moving event.
**Faith Lutheran does not have accessible bathroom.
Passionate Journeys: Passionate Kisses!
Friday & Saturday, June 11 & 12, 2010, 7:30 pm Faith Lutheran Church 801 E. Camelback, Phoenix
We
will close our season with our traditional concert about love and
relationships. With music that covers a multitude of genres, we will
present songs of love and relationships and the often ensuing chaos
each one brings. We
might even hear a song or two about love of a different kind...
chocolate anyone?
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Hello. This is Aliya Leigh. I, Aliya Leigh, is no longer with Empire Talent and Model Agency. We decided to part ways.
Empire Talent and Model Agency, I think, is fine for modeling because I do not have the knowledge on how they treat their models.
Me, personally, the agency does not have the resources and time for scriptwriters and authors. The owner of the agency told me, herself, she does not have the time to represent writers.
The owner is planning to be a producer of scripts and will require a producer fee first before shopping the script; which I do not agree with; which also made my decision simple.
I wish the agency love, happiness, harmony, peace, light and fortune.
Currently, I'm in the market to belong to an agency, who's trustworthy, honest, career-driven, hungry to make the next deal and willing work with a client to create more revenue.
My film script "I Love You", will be given to the highest bidder.
"I Love You", is about a sick, psychotic, twisted, suspenseful holiday love story thriller;
which will question your state of mind.
When mild retarded Zack falls in love with his brother Alex's
girlfriend named Brenda, Alex decides to use them for a sick, demonic puzzle experiment which
will leave you questioning to the bitter end.
My email is aliyaleigh@gmail.com and my number is 520-405-2724
You should never allow a person to take control of your emotions. It just suck to deal with people who love drama.
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Today, I talk about Church, God, SEX (of course) and life. Remember, always have faith and trust in yourself. Look to the power within you; with faith and trust you will succeed
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A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.
Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."
Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.
Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.
"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."
If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.
"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.
Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.
Beth Humphrey, 30, and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.
Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.
"That was one thing that made this so unbelievable," she said. "It's not something you expect in this day and age."
Humphrey said she called Bardwell on Oct. 6 to inquire about getting a marriage license signed. She says Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell will not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples. Bardwell suggested the couple go to another justice of the peace in the parish who agreed to marry them.
"We are looking forward to having children," Humphrey said. "And all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we're typical happy newlyweds."
"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. "The Supreme Court ruled as far back as 1963 that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."
The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending "the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice."
"He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it," Schwartzmann said.
According to the clerk of court's office, application for a marriage license must be made three days before the ceremony because there is a 72-hour waiting period. The applicants are asked if they have previously been married. If so, they must show how the marriage ended, such as divorce.
Other than that, all they need is a birth certificate and Social Security card.
The license fee is $35, and the license must be signed by a Louisiana minister, justice of the peace or judge. The original is returned to the clerk's office.
"I've been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don't think I've mistreated anybody," Bardwell said. "I've made some mistakes, but you have too. I didn't tell this couple they couldn't get married. I just told them I wouldn't do it."
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Forget Sarah Palin. The maverick female of the Republican Party is Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe.
The 62-year-old, moderate Maine lawmaker announced Tuesday she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party and giving a major boost to President Barack Obama's goal of expanding coverage.
"When history calls, history calls," Snowe told her colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee, several hours into the debate.
Snowe had kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote. She had not even let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in on her secret.
Then she captured all of Washington's attention.
"The status quo approach has produced one glaring common denominator, that is that we have a problem that is growing worse not better," she said in explaining her support for the bill.
While she described the legislation as flawed, she said it bolsters what works in the nation's health care system as well as trying to rein in the rising costs of health care.
Democrats, aware that Snowe could be the only Republican in Congress to vote for their health care overhaul, have spent months addressing her concerns about making it affordable and how to pay for it. Obama has sought her vote in phone calls and meetings.
Snowe made clear to her Democratic colleagues that her support could be a one-shot deal.
"My vote today is my vote today. It does not forecast my vote tomorrow," she said.
With her support, however, Democrats might have the 60th vote required to overcome Republican objections to the bill. Snowe's support would mean that the final version of the bill could _ technically _ be called bipartisan, a key tenet of Obama's agenda.
Snowe has broken with her party on several occasions.
Earlier this year, she was one of three Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Before that, she defied then-President George W. Bush and voted for legislation he eventually vetoed _ but that later passed under Obama _ providing health care to millions of children.
Snowe also was one of the "Gang of 14" Democratic and Republican senators who resolved a standoff over judicial nominations.
In Maine, former Gov. Angus King, a political independent, compared Snowe's decision to the late Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" speech in which she called for the nation _ and her own party _ to reject McCarthyism.
"This is a vote of conscience and a vote of concern for her constituents and concern for the country. And I think it took plenty of courage. I don't think it's possible for any of us to fully appreciate the pressure she's under and has been under to vote with her Republican colleagues," King said. "The fact that she was willing to split with them, I think, is a real testament to her integrity."
____
Associated Press writer David Sharp in Portland, Maine contributed to this report.
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PHOENIX - State employees in Arizona can take advantage of domestic-partner benefits for the next 12 months even though the Legislature's last budget took them away.
The Department of Administration says the benefit will be available until October 2010, because cutting it before then might put the state in violation of contract laws.
The benefit was to be cut off when the state's insurance plan began Oct. 1, but the budget won't take effect until nearly two months into the contract period.
An opinion by the Attorney General's Office concluded the benefit's elimination during this fiscal year would conflict with employees' expectations.
The administration of former Gov. Janet Napolitano created the benefit through a policy change and won its approval from a board.
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The crazy white woman strikes again and please be in control.
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NEW YORK — New York City police say a 49-year-old gay man leaving a corner deli near his home was beaten by two men in an apparent hate crime.
Jack Price remains in a medically induced coma. He is in serious but stable condition.
Police say the two suspects taunted Price and yelled anti-gay slurs while he was in the store early Friday. They attacked him outside, not far from his home in the middle-class Queens neighborhood of College Point.
Twenty-six-year-old Daniel Aleman was arrested Sunday and charged with assault and aggravated assault as a hate crime. The name of his attorney was not on record.
A second suspect is being sought. The police department's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.
----------------
It's out goal to stop this!!!!
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Saw Daniela Sea at The Cash tonight. There was a long line.Why do people put someone else higher than themselves, since we are all created equal. Also how to get friends.
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Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been
honoring men and women from all corners of the globe
for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine,
literature, and for work in peace.
The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel
wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment
of the Nobel Prize. But who was Alfred Nobel? Articles, photographs,
a slide show and poetry written by Nobel himself are presented here
to give a glimpse of a man whose varied interests are reflected in
the prize he established. Meet Alfred Nobel - scientist, inventor,
entrepreneur, author and pacifist.
Qualified Nominators
The right to submit proposals for the
Nobel Peace Prize shall, by statute, be enjoyed by:
1.
Members of national
assemblies and governments of states;
2.
Members of international
courts;
3.
University rectors;
professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and
theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign
policy institutes;
4.
Persons who have been
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
5.
Board members of
organizations who have been awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize;
6.
Active and former members
of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (proposals by members of
the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first
meeting of the Committee after February 1) and
7.
Former advisers appointed
by the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
The Nobel Peace Prize may also be awarded
to institutions and associations.
Source: http://nobelprize.org
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How to get into your date's head and keep yourself there
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1 and 1o Youth Services is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving and assisting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (lgbt) youth. We provide youth with a tools to improve self-esteem and acceptance of who they are,
The youth we work with range in age from 14 to 22. We create a safe space, mentally and physically, for youth of all socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Our weekly discussion groups cover a wide range of social, educational, health, and community issues. Youth with particular needs have the option to speak with peers or volunteers one-on-one, in a supervised setting. We offer resources for healthy living and making healthy choices, as well as social networking opportunities appropriate for developing leadership skills and having fun.
Contact 411:
Phone: 602-475-7456 Email: coordinator@1n10.org or jen@1n10.org Website: http://www.1n10.org/ Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/1n10youth or http://www.myspace.com/yeb_phoenix
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HCG
is an acronym for the hormone Human Chorio Gonadotropin, which is found
in both men and women, though pregnant women have the highest levels of
HCG in their bodies. HCG injections or supplements are typically given
to women who need help ovulating and to men who want to increase their
sperm count. A daily HCG injection is also one component of the
controversial HCG diet plan.
The HCG hormone can be made synthetically or extracted from a
pregnant woman's urine and then processed for use by other humans. The
HCG diet shots are said to benefit both men and women similarly, though
experts don't recommend that women get the injections if they are
already pregnant or nursing, and thus already have elevated HCG levels.
Related Articles
Detox Diet
South Beach Diet
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Advocates
of the HCG diet believe that, by adhering to the diet plan and taking
daily injections of HCG, participants can successfully reach their
targeted weight. They say that dieters following the HCG diet should
expect to lose somewhere between a half pound and 3 pounds (.23 to 1.36
kilograms) each day on the low-calorie, high-fiber plan [source: HCG Diet Info].
The diet has its fair share of believers. After all, any eating plan
that consists of a mere 500 calories will most likely result in weight
loss. But, at the same time, some people have found that the injections
made no difference [source: Sylvester]. And the drug lacks substantial research, so exposing your body to such a restrictive diet may not be in your best interests.
To know if the HCG diet is right for you, be sure to read about
the specifics of the plan and the possible dangers. Check out the next
page for information on the day-to-day dieting plan.
HCG Diet Plan
Long Time Coming
HCG diet ideas have been around since the early 1950s, which is when
Dr. ATW Simeons presented the diet plan to the public [source: HCG Weight Loss].
Shifting
into the HCG diet is likely to be quite a lifestyle change.
Participants are required to cut their caloric intake to roughly 500
calories and take a daily injection of HCG hormones. More water,
vegetables and fiber in the daily meal plan is said to accelerate the
weight loss [source: HCG Weight Loss].
There is no established exercise regimen, and the duration of the diet
is up to the individual, as the plan dictates that the rules be
followed until the target goal is reached.
The original HCG diet plan is quite restrictive and particular. For
breakfast, you can have only tea or coffee without sugar. The diet puts
a one-tablespoon limit on how much milk you can consume each day, so if
you require milk with your coffee and tea, you'll want to keep this in
mind. For lunch and dinner, you can cook 100 grams (.22 pounds) of lean
meat or seafood and pair it with one vegetable from this list of 13:
asparagus, beet greens, cabbage, celery, chard, chicory, cucumbers,
fennel, green salad, onions, red radishes, spinach and tomatoes. For
lunch and dinner, you can eat one toast cracker and an orange, apple,
half a grapefruit or strawberries [source: Goldsmith].
Advocates of the HCG Diet say that combining the extremely
low-calorie diet with the HCG hormone injections will lead to immediate
weight loss without the common side effects of many restrictive diets,
such as hunger pains, headaches and nausea. They believe that because
the HCG injections burn fat, the hormone provides the body with
necessary energy while reducing hunger and keeping the body out of
starvation mode [source: Derma Health Institute].
Read the next page to explore the other component of this diet, the HGC hormone injections.
HCG Diet Injections
Don't Try to Dodge the HCG Shots
The diet plan that is recommended for those who are entering the HCG
diet is quite strict. It limits you to 500 calories per day, which is
far below the recommended daily value. Proponents of the HCG diet
suggest that this kind of low-calorie diet is not safe unless combined
with the HCG injections. Don't attempt a 500-calorie diet plan without
the injections and certainly not without talking to your doctor first
[source: Brennan].
The HCG diet's success rests on its namesake -- the HCG hormone.
Before starting, it's in your best interest to understand how the
hormone is administered and what it does. Administration is usually
through two methods -- either an oral supplement or a liquid injection.
An injection for weight loss contains somewhere between 125 IU and 200
IU [source: HCG Weight Loss].
The best places for HCG injections are just beneath the skin or
straight into a muscle. For your safety and comfort, you may want to
ask your doctor to demonstrate the correct injection technique before
trying it on yourself [source: Drugs].
You also need to understand what the hypothalamus
is. This gland is responsible for regulating your body's fat storage
and metabolism. The HCG shots are said to command your hypothalamus to
release fat from storage, which triggers your body to combine that fat
and your 500 calories as energy. Then the shots should help your body
get rid of excess fat by burning it daily [source: HCG Diet Info].
After dedicating yourself to the daily 500-calorie diet and the HCG
injections, advocates say you'll have better eating habits for the rest
of your life. Once you've achieved your target weight, it's a good idea
to leave the drastic diet but maintain a sustainable, healthy lifestyle
[source: HCG Diet Info].
After all, you can't count on your body to maintain your goal weight if
you immediately fall back into your old eating habits.
Click to the next page to find out what dangers exist if you decide to go on the HCG diet.
HCG Diet Dangers
Take Caution before Taking HCG
Before using HCG injections for dieting purposes, be sure to check with
your doctor and review your medical history. Certain health conditions,
such as early puberty or any cancer that affects hormone levels, will
likely mean your body isn't fit for HCG. In these cases, professionals
will likely advise you to skip the injections [source: Drugs].
The
FDA has approved HCG injections for use in fertility issues, but not in
dieting. There haven't been enough comprehensive studies to test and
ensure its capabilities. While advocates claim that lower doses of the
hormone are used for dieting, the scientific and medical communities
still lack substantial evidence that the HCG shots are safe over an
extended period of time [source: Goldsmith].
There are a few dangers that come with injecting HCG into your body.
First of all, you want to make sure the medication hasn't gone bad,
either by changing color or accumulating particles. As with any
injected medication, the potential for blood clots exists. Some women
who have injected HCG have experienced a serious condition called ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome
(OHSS). OHSS can be deadly, so you should take note of symptoms like
pelvic pain and stomach, arm or leg swelling. Other less serious side
effects might be headaches and depression. Young boys taking HCG might
experience premature puberty [source: Drugs]. Pregnant or nursing women could cause harm to their babies if the hormone is passed on [source: HCG Diet Info].
And although advocates claim that HCG keeps the body functioning
properly, a diet of 500 calories is below virtually any healthy amount
recommended by most doctors. Weight loss is almost guaranteed when
you're eating so much less than the recommended daily allowance, but
you may risk your health. And although the HCG is supposed to help with
side effects, in one study the HCG injections showed no different
feelings or results than a placebo injection [source: Sylvester].
The HCG diet has the potential for incredible results, but not
without the risk of significant side effects. As with any diet, you
should always talk to your doctor before implementing any significant
change. To learn more, visit the links on the following page.
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Have Faith and you will have the perfect life and the perfect friends.
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Hello, everyone. Please check out Booty Call Love. It talks about one of my booty calls who I have not talked to in a while, made me think about life, love and my future. Check it out. Plus, I will be podcasting tonight. So, be ready and willing to view my crazy life.
I emailed a girl who I cared about, deeply and I will shared that with you. Plus, the drama in the AZ.
OH LORD.
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* Seek first the kingdom in your heart and everything else will follow
* The kingdom is within yourself. Do whatever makes you happy.
* Do whatever lifts your spirts in life.
* You choose if you want to live happy or sad. It's your life, you live it how you want.
* How do you feel about yourself? If you like yourself continue doing what you are doing. If you dislike yourself, then change for the better.
* BE BALANCE
* BE AWARE
* BE RESPONISBLE
Love yourself
Aliya Leigh!!!
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Sometimes a booty call can teach you more about yourself and can be a gift from God. Just kill your ego and apply the advice. I learned so much.
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President Obama will speak to a gathering of gay rights activists this weekend, a day before thousands of people are expected to march on Washington in a demonstration calling for greater legal protections for gays, lesbians and transgendered Americans.
Many gay rights activists have become increasingly vocal about their frustration over what they see as tepid support from Mr. Obama. While the president has professed support for overturning the ban on gays in the military and called the law that precludes federal recognition of same-sex marriages discriminatory, he has not engaged on gay rights issues as actively as some had hoped.
The Justice Department is defending the federal marriage law, known as Defense of Marriage Act, much to the dismay of many gay rights advocates. And Mr. Obama has been noncommittal about when he will move to end the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. In June, he acknowledged their irritations at the slow pace of change at a gathering of about 250 gay rights leaders who had been invited to the White House.
While it remains to be seen what Mr. Obama’s appearance at the dinner will do to his standing in the eyes of gay rights activists, his speech may mollify some of their concerns.
His appearance will mark only the second time a sitting president has spoken to the Human Rights Campaign. The first time was in 1997 when Bill Clinton spoke to the group. That was the first time a sitting president had ever addressed a gay rights organization.
A person with knowledge of Mr. Obama’s plans confirmed his appearance at the dinner. But this person spoke on the condition of anonymity because a formal announcement is expected later today.
The White House had no comment. A spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
Mr. Obama’s speech will coincide with the National Equality March, which is taking place on Sunday and is expected to draw thousands of gay rights supporters to the National Mall.
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What to keep that special? It takes work, believe me.
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Went to the Rainbow fest and people asked me about Pussy Care. So here it is!!!!
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Support the GLBT family. I am having problems. Soon I will be hiring staff and I am still STRESS.
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Yes, I am on http://www.match.com. Dating is so hard to do.
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Yesterday, I realized, people don't know what respect means and how to apply it to their lives.
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Sorry about the blog. Something came up. Talk later about it and it deals with ABUSE!
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To have a great relationship, both parties need to:
1) RESPECT! 2) NO ABUSE!!! 3) NO CHEATING!
This is important to remember and to understand, but sooo hard to do!
See,
we as humans are not happy all the time, we have emotions. So we can be angry,
sad, depress, happy or sexual. If you follow me on twitter, you have
witness all of my emotions.
To me, when my partner follows
the three rules, I feel safe and secure to be around them. I know there
will be no judging, hitting, abuse and no STDs.
What does respect means (from http://www.m-w.com):
A relation or reference to a particular thing or situation <remarks having respect to an earlier plan> 2 : an act of giving particular attention : consideration 3 a : high or special regard : esteem b : the quality or state of being esteemed c plural : expressions of respect or deference <paid our respects> 4 : particular, detail <a good plan in some respects>
So,
respect is having a high regard for your partner or date. When both
parties have respect for one another, then you have open communcation,
trust, love, honor and security. Everyone from the big hairy guy,
little guy, fairy, drag queen, drag king, butch, femme, straight women,
straight men, trans and bi's want to be respected and secure.
It takes both parties to respect each other; which can build or destroy a relationship.
For
example, the girl who I was speaking to told me, "The best good looking
black girls are in Altana, Georgia." Now, she's try to dating me and
she told me that. How would you feel, if a person YOU were dating or
YOUR partner told you this statement?
You'll feel hurt because now you see they don't see as good looking as the girls in Altana, Georgia.
Another
example, my ex-love Sharon told me, "I love working out at the
Scottsdale gym because I see good looking women." Again, she didn't see
me in high regard.
After Sharon, I told myself, the next time
I fall in love with person, they need to respect me. I won't take
anything less. Another example, my sugra momma, always told me, "Hi,
beautiful. You're so beautiful." See, that's respect and I respect her
the same way, but we saw the future in different eyes, but this is
proof, you can have respect in a relationship, even if, it's a booty
call.
So, please respect yourself and your date or partner because it does wonders in the bedroom.
Also
with respect, if your partner goes to a strip club, you don't have to
worry. If your partner goes on a long trip, you don't have to worry.
If your partner, see a person who looks good, you don't have to worry.
Respect, will always allow you to keep a sound mind and a joyful heart.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about NO ABUSE!!!!!
I
did speak to the girl today, it didn't end good. See, I got two free
passes to see "Fame". "Fame" (the series), impacted a big part of my
life because it went into detail about living life for a dream, so I
wanted to go. I asked the girl to if she wanted to go, but she was
busy. Ok, no problem. So I took my cousin. Her husband is a Army
Officer, who's station in Iraq.
Today, I spoke to the girl
and she was upset with me because she couldn't go. I had to tell her,
it wasn't a big deal and I took someone else and I didn't have time to
tell her, it was my cousin.
The confusing part is, we are NOT
together. I have tried to see her and do activities with her, but she
wants to be with her friends. I don't care, if she wants to hang out
with her friends; I just want to know her more. So, I put in the
effort to arrange dates, but no show. What else, can a girl do?
I did text her because, seriously, I don't think she was mad at me, she was mad at something else.
If she doesn't want to talk me, fine. I just want her to find the right partner for her because no one should ever be alone.
I may go the Mercury game tomorrow night. If you see me, say "Hi".
Love you guys and remember, respect yourself and others.
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Most of our straight friends and family, wished they never heard those words. But, it happens.
I was at the home office today, because I was sick. You know when you walk to your kitchen from your bedroom and you don't know how you got there?
I was watching the Tara Banks show and they're going to have show tomorrow about how to cure gay people. But, do we need to be cured? Why are we gay? And is something wrong with us?
These are good questions and they have great answers. Gay people were born gay. I can prove it. My father's sister and my first cousins are gay, plus my mother admitted she thought about being gay when she was younger. So, there's a gay gene. But, unfortunately, people who are not part of the GLBT community look down on us, if we were freaks of the year; which is not cool.
I knew I was gay for a long time and I didn't want to admitted because of family and religion, but when I came clean to myself, then I became a whole people.
It's funny, when you're in the closet, you feel so confined as if you're in a prison cell. When you except yourself as you are, then you feel a release of mind, body and soul.
One thing, I can't stand is people putting God into hating something or someone. If God talked to us on earth, we will be shocked to hear, "I love everyone." It's Godlike to tell someone, "God Hates YOU!!!", when you're not being Godlike yourself?
The bottom line is, YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT YOURSELF.
Without accepting yourself as whatever you are, you're not doing yourself justice.
When I was at the end of grade and Jr.High, I didn't love myself. I tried to kill myself several times because I knew I was different and God didn't want me to be different. I figure, if I ended my life, I will no longer embarrass my family. But, acceptance helped me to heal and love myself. Unfortunately, society had brain damaged us to think a certain way, instead of thinking for ourselves.
If you are gay and you don't want have relationship with the same sex, that's fine, but accept the fact, you are gay. Some people refuse to have sex or a relationship with the same sex because of religion and/or family. There's a lot of people doing this and they are STILL HAPPY.
For me, you know where I stand. I love being with a person of my own sex.
I wish the world was different, but everyone has opinions. Opinions is what makes this country great, but we need to respect each other for their differences; which makes life great.
People may hate, love and just deal with us, but the main thing is to respect each other with love and understanding. It sounds simple, but it's difficult to do, when our own egos get in the way.
When I first met Nitara, the film director, she was married to a man and had a son. When I first shook her hand, I knew she was gay. She was so deep into the closet, she was like those old clothes you saved, but couldn't wear in years. She looked confined and so confused, like a lost child in a mega mall. I felt sorry for her and her husband. And yes, I did speak to the husband, but never told him, "Your wife is gay."
A year later, I saw her at a gay club. She's out of the closet and so happy. Her creativity is much stronger then ever, she is more open and less stress. Because she accepted herself, she became a whole person.
But, sadly some decides they need to kill themselves to be happy. It's not true. If you believe killing yourself is the answer, please get help.
Remember, "God loves everyone and you are special to him or her because YOU are a gift from God."
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This is the oldest riddle in life. When something is in front of us, we do want it. But, when we can't have it, we want it more.
Why?
I don't know, but it's true. I remember when I first met Kathleen. It was at the Older Lesbian Single party. She was cute and there was something about her. You know when you have a feeling about someone who you can't understand. That's Kathleen, she's a mystery. She has curly long red hair, tan skin and acts like she is high society, but down to earth. Meeting her, you wouldn't think she was a published wealth lesbian author. She's kind and wonderful, but takes control. I love her to death, but remember I said, when we can't have it we want it more.
Kathleen was head over heels in lust (not love) for a woman name W. I knew W very well. W was my ex-love, Sharon good friend. The true was, I hated W for a while. I couldn't stand her. My ex-love told me, she was in love with W and I was her last choice, since W had a girlfriend. Through, I ex-love, W gave her some crazy advice about my relationship with Sharon.
So, think about this, Katleen wants to go out with W and I can't stand W. How can I be around W, since I can't stand her. Looking at her made me sick, but I was hurting too.
Lesbians are known for talking, just like the women on The View. We talk about each other and other people, but we are still family.
W found out how I felt about her. She talked to me and found out, Sharon lied. It just goes to show, you need to go to the source of the information instead of the hear say.
Anyway, Kathleen wanted W in the worst way, but W was dating K. K is a wonderful person with life and crazy mixed in. She reminds me of a person who would go to a Buddhism temple to chant, search for the meaning of life, start a company and go to party. I can see her having business meetings at The Cash, while conducting important business. W is more structured and I can totally understand.
So, Kathleen wanted her, but couldn't have her; which made W more desirable. Me and W, we're good friends. Sharon is history.
Anyway, it's happening to me. All this time, the girl didn't want to see me and bring me anywhere, but since she had to leave for business, I'm on her mind. Crazy.
Why do we torture ourselves this way? I don't get it, but we still do it. Why can't we desire the thing want in the moment, until it's gone. It just proves we need to live in the moment and desire the things we have. I know I have a problem with regret. When I have something, I wonder if there is something better on the other side. I have learned to stop it and just be happy with what you got. Because you will be search for the next high and never be content for the important things of life.
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Today was crazy. Busy, busy, busy. I hope my agent got me a job or several. I have to take my pictures. Nude pics this time. Ok, what happen today. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.
The girl called me several times today, but I couldn't get to the phone. This morning, I was coughing and sneezing. She called me in the morning. She called me in the afternoon, but I didn't have my phone on me. I had to go to the post office a second time to renew my passport. The first time, I mailed it, it didn't get to passport office because an employee mis weighed the package. Then I need to deposit some checks and because I didn't take the card out of the ATM in time, the machine ate me card. Ok, so I had a crazy day. Ok. So what.
Anyway, I got voicemail messages from the girl. It was insane. It was like she was forcing me to call her or else. I was in shocked. The only person that told me that was Sharon, ex love. But, we were together.
With this girl, I never had sex with her or even kissed her. All we did was talk and hug. That's it!!!!
So, I called her back and told her that I didn't listen to the messages.
Well, the bottom line is that she is gone. She had to go out of town today. I wanted to see me before she left; which is amazing.
So, when I want to see her, she's always with her friends. But, if she wants to see me, I have to drop everything to see her. Hell no. Please.
Women are so much drama to point that it doesn't make sense that God made lesbians, but he/she did.
I still think of God being a dude.
But, today, something did happen. I felt appreciated. I have a straight big wig boss. He knows, I'm gay. He has a bitch of a girlfriend. If she was gay, she would get a big dike butch. She's so mean, I think of Blair from Gossip Girl or the BITCH from Melrose place. One look from her eyes, will make the biggest baddest Butch cry like a little scared child.
My boss told me, I help him alot. That makes me feel good. I wanted to said something witty, but I left it alone. Sometimes, you should say, "Thank you" and walk away. That's what I did.
Knowing that people do care about your work, makes you feel so happy.
I try to treat my employees with happiness and love. I love each and everyone of them. I didn't even sleep with any of them. Ha Ha.
Life is crazy and we need to live it crazy. Take a drive, see a movie by yourself, hug a friend, love yourself and smile. Life is so short, why waste it on stupidity.
My friend Nitara is a film director. Very good. She has a girlfriend now. I heard she is HOT!!!!. My friend Jackie saw her. Jackie description her - I though she was talking about the goddess Venus. I can't wait to meet her.
Tomorrow, I canceled my violin lesson and I'm getting ready for the Mercury game. Playoff baby.
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How to break up with a person? That's a good question?
Amy broke up with me because she that her month was over. She told me that I was speaking to her through my blog. I have to admit, that was a great break up line.
As humans, we all suffer through a break up, more so than others. It's crazy, we spend so much time with a person and then we don't see them anymore.
But, with Amy, we dated and now we are good friends. Crazy. Right.
In the Lesbian World, breakups can be so dramatic and emotional. It can be liken to a depress lesbian on the edge of a cliff wanting to jump off into an abyss of darkness.
Tomorrow, I was planning to spend time with the girl, but I don't want too. After we met, things went down hill. The only thing, I can think of, is that my car was dirty inside. But, anyway I know we are not good together.
Almost every woman wants a excellent leader in their lives, like me. I don't want to take the lead. I don't have the energy or will too. I want a good lead to lead me through life, but not a mother.
One woman older who I was with was more like my mother then someone to date. She would treat me like a child. Who wants to be treat like child, when you own a house?
But, breakup is a part of life. Here are my breakup line; which I have use:
1) I want to get marry and have children. (My favorite, Said it) 2) I'm moving out of Arizona. (Said it) 3) It's the end of the world and I need to get right with God. (My favorite, Said it) 4) My cat doesn't like you. (Never used this one) 5) I'm so busy, I don't have time to pee.(Said it) 6) I go insane during PMS. (Never used this one) 7) You can find someone better than me. (My favorite, Said it) 8) I'm the hoe of Phoenix, I have done almost everyone here at the club.(My favorite Said it,) 9) I'm needing. (Never used this one) 10) My job is writing about my life and you. (My favorite, Said it) 11) I travel alot . (My favorite, Said it) 12) I love porn Japanese cartoons. (Amine) (My favorite, Said it) 13) I'm cheap. (My favorite, Said it) 14) I'm into threesomes. (My favorite, Said it) 15) (pointing at a woman) I couldn't date her, so I'm stuck with you. (A friend said this to her date.) 16) It's not you. It's me. (My favorite, Said it) 17) I don't want to hold you down because I want you to succeed in life. 18) I'm into choking.(My favorite, Said it) 19) I don't like dating out of my race. (A white girl told this to me after we had sex) 20) I'm shallow. I need someone like me. (Never used this one) 21) I'm a Republican. TEAM MCCAIN. (My favorite) 22) I see dead people.(Never used this one) 23) You are going to cheat on me anyway.(One ex said this to me) 24) I shouldn't have to work during sex. 25) You live too far. (Said it) 26) I'm into animal sex. (Never used this one) 27) I'm a good digger. (Never used this one) 28) People live inside of me. (Never used this one) 29) You don't like organic food, so I can't be with you. (A girl said this to me) 30) My wife told me to stop cheating on her. (Never used this one) 31) I believe Glenn Beck is the Christ.(Never used this one) 32) I believe, stalking my girlfriend is the same of loving my girlfriend. (Never used this one) 33) I'm not gay anymore. I love having sex with men. (One ex said this to me) 34) You're just with me because you feel sorry for me. (Never used this one) 35) I know, we just met last week. I believe, we have a strong connection. I want you to move in with me, today. (Never used this one)
----------- Do you have a cool break up line? Have you ever dumped your lover through email, txt, fax, twitter or voicemail? Have you been dumped through email, txt, fax, twitter or voicemail?
I want to hear your story.
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I spoke to my editor today, Rheah today. She's such a good friend and a wonderful editor. Love you to pieces.
Now, I twittered about this; What is a relationship killer?
Twitter is mess-up right now, so I can't give you answers from other people, but let me tell you this.
I spoke to the girl this morning, but let me set it up.
I woke up this morning, tried. My cat, Sheba, was jumping all over me as if I was a bouncing castle. I rolled out of bed, alone. No, no, no booty call last night. I didn't even play with myself. By the way, I brought this pleasure-enhancing tingling lubricant. It doesn't work, just burns as if I have a bad STD. Thank god for toys. Anyway, I got up and got dress. Wet my hair and put it up.
When I am out and about, I just wear whatever, but at functions, I look good because I have more time to get dress.
Well, I called the girl who I am seeing. Here are some relationships killers:
1) I need to go to Atlanta, GA because they have some good looking black females there.
2) I may go to The Cash one day
3) (After talking about my birthday party at The Cash), "My birthday party, I was so trash. It lasted for a week."
So, after the phone call, I did some work, went the gym and thought. I called Rheah and she gave me some good advice.
One thing is, I can have sex with anyone and proved it. But, this girl is not worth my time, unfortunately, I already gave her a playoff ticket to the Mercury game. BUMMER.
I have to find the girl for me. Kathleen always finds the girl for her and she is a pro. That's why I love her as a friend of course. To me, it seems she is more emotionally attached to her novels then to a girl.
I used to be that, but the word "relationship" got into my world. It seems that I lost myself and who I am.
It's funny. I love to have sex, have money, have respect for myself even though it seems that I don't.
I have to get my body ready for my photo shoot soon because I want to do some nude shots.
I broke it off with the Latina. God bless her and I hope she always follow her dreams.
PEACE OUT.
BTW, if you want to a song track on my blog go to: http://limelinx.com/ and email your track to aliyaleigh@gmail.com. The subject line: PLAY MY DAMN TRACK.
You will get full credit and people will be able to contact you.
Peace, Love and Harmony. I will be more positive in the future.
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The Latina, who's moving to Florida. I let her go. We were txting back and forth about this. But, I had to let her go, even though I don't want too. She needs to pursit her dreams and I will just be in the way.
But, stay tuned for more drama in the AZ!
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This morning, I talked with the girl who I'm talking too; which I felt sad about. But, I'm going to write about it. Because this is one big mistake people make if they want to get close or have sex with a person. My booty call thing is coming out and the relationship person, in dying inside.
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Women and weight is like a marriage made in hell. Women will spend money or do anything in order to lose weight that they need to lose or lose weight they don't have.
Why is weight so important? I don't know. And when you lose the weight, do you began to love yourself?
Today, I was sitting at my desk in front of a big sandwich, cookies and salad. I felt so hot and bothered by it, like it was a beautiful sexy half naked woman begging me to have sex with her in the worst way. Now, granted I have not had sex in a month, so I'm going through withdrawals.
My mouth began to water, my lips wanted to touch the sweet roasted beef and my tongue wanted to taste the juices. I stared at the sandwich as if it was a desired object for my own sexual desires.
I ate sandwich, I ate four large chocolate chips cookies and the salad. After eating over my full, I wanted to throw up. I thought about it, but I didn't; which is a win for me.
Since the sixth grade, all of jr. high school and the beginning of high school, I was bulimic. Meaning, I would eat and then throw up. I always had a tooth brush and tooth paste with me because after you throw up, you have to brush your teeth. See, your stomach has acid and you throw up the food and the acid. If the acid stays on your teeth, it can erode the enamel.
My point was, if you are thin, you look good and people with love you. That was my crazy thinking.
I can remember back in jr. high, a black teacher told the class; "Black girls don't have eating disorders." So, in my mind, I didn't have a eating disorder. When I think back, I did.
In society, it seems we as people always have to live to a standard that someone put into motion. But, who? I don't know, but it seems fashion decides how you should look and feel. The celebrities, also decides the standard of how we should live. But, did you know, celebrities have problems in their own lives. So, why should we follow after people who have problems with reality?
Celebrities and fashion models are paid to look good because that's their job. If you are a teacher, you need to prepare a lesson plan and practice how to teach the plan in front of your class. The same goes for celebrities and fashion models. If you really saw them for real, some of them are butt ugly.
So, if you are skinny and wear all the high class fashion, will you love yourself even more? NO! You have to love yourself for yourself, not for other people. I have to learned that.
In grade school and jr. high school, I can teased alot, plus I had to deal with my own demons. Believe it or not, my nickname was "Monkey" and I was ugly. I was like the ugly girl in the class, who you don't want to be friends with. During lunch time, if the school had banana day, I will get all the bananas. Down to this day, I can't eat bananas or anything with bananas in it. Bananas make me sick.
I had to learn to love myself and I'm still learning, everyday. It doesn't matter how heavy you are, thin you are, your friends, your clothes or status in life. It's matter on your insides and how you treat people.
For example, I go to The Cash; which is voted the best Lesbian Club in the valley; there are some celebrities are regulars there. For example, one of the Biggest Losers winners. As I understand, she was 300 pounds, now she's thin. She has a line of protein drinks and other merchandising. To me, it seems she is so stuck up, it's not even funny. I said hello to her once and she answered back, but it was because she was someone. To me, she just won a contest and that's why she gets notice. So what? I don't care, who you are just be friendly for once. She has to remember that she is a lesbian, and the crazy church leaders and others believe that she's going to hell, regardless of her fame.
Losing weight doesn't make you happy because I know. I lost alot weight without throwing up and I still have problems with myself, but my have friends to make me snap out of it. When you love yourself, almost everyone loves you.
But, what makes me love myself even more. Taking my clothes off in front of people and going to a nudist resort. Around, Lesbians have seen me in the nude, so what. I feel this way, if I am in the nude in front of people, they see me as I am. If I feel comfortable around people naked, I'll feel more comfortable around people with clothes on. Plus, being nice to people helps out alot, too. One thing two, is going to the gym. The gym helps me to focus on myself and helps me to be sexy. It makes me happy and wonderful inside. It's like my drug. Be a bitch, you be alone, plain and simple. Plus, be yourself. Not everyone is going to love you, if that was the case; we will be robots. I know, I had to learn to love life and don't care about people or my family. I know, it's hard but you have force yourself.
On Sunday, I was taking home my script editor named Rheah from The Cash. She talked about her weight because she's full figure. She wants to lose weight, but can't stand people trying to help her lose weight. She's trying out this Hoodia Gum to control her cravings for sugar. One thing for sure, she gets more sex then me.
So, just loving yourself makes you the center of attention. I still learning to love myself fully. I love my life sometimes, but it can also be a pain in the neck.
It goes to show, everyone has problems even if your admit it or not. But, try not lose yourself in it. Just scream as loud as you can, cry, laugh and get the pain out of your system. Yeah, those same feelings may come back because you are human. Scream, cry, laugh and live another day.
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When your new love meet your friends, this in the most critical time in a new relationship. It telling your new love, you want to graduate to the next level in your relationship because your circle of friends is so important to you. Why? Because you can you let loose with them without judgment.
In a new relationship, we tend to put on an academy award winning performance for your new love because of our need to impress. We need to say and do the right things in the relationship that we tend to create a character, who is the opposite of our real self. It's like you are confined in a small box and you locked it. For example, I was watching South Park and people were exploding because they didn't want to break wind in their date, so the mayor made farting fashionable; even though farting is a normal human function. We just tend not let your new love see the best of us and hid the worst of us.
So when should the new love meet your friends? I don't know. To me, it's an important step because that's when the worlds unite into one world. It's like saying, "I am so serious about this person that she/he is the most important person in my life". It's like co-living with the new love because the new love is weaving deeper into your life. They are now invited to see the true you around your friends and to see what you and your friends are all about.
So date tend to judge the person who you are dating based on friends because they believe, "Birds of a feather flock together." So when you let the new love meet your friends, it should not be taken lightly.
The girl, who I'm dating now was planning to meet my friends at The Cash on Saturday night. Seriously, I didn't want her meet them because I'm not ready to have the two worlds unite. I feel when she meets my friends, she is part of my life and I'm force to commit to a person who I'm not sure about.
See, let me explain. If I let the new girl meet my friends, then they become her friends; she's in my circle of friends. She will know all my secrets, desires and see my wild side up close. Plus, if we break up, I still have to see her because she's in my circle of friends.
Now, do you see how important the meeting of friends is. It's an important step in a relationship, so don't take it lightly. If he or she likes your friends, who you nothing to worry about because your are full stream ahead into a long term relationship.
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Hello everyone.How are you doing today?I’m so so.Why?Because today in Sept 11. You may or may not know this, but I am a proud New Yorker.I grew up in Rosedale, NY (Queens) and was raised there.
In High School, I did a year of internship at Smith Barney as a computer programmer.The building was located in downtown Manhattan; which was a few blocks from the Twins Towers.
Sometimes, I had to run errands at the Twins Towers a lot, but I didn’t care.It was cool being out of the office. In the Twins Towers, you had the New York and New Jersey train systems, an underground mall and offices.So I did window shopping in the Twin Towers and I got to see my friends.
In my circle of friends, it was a honor working in the Twin Towers because it meant you were making good money and had a steady job.It was just cool saying, “I work in the World Trade Center” aka “I wok in the World Trade Centa” (in New York language).
Before I left New York City to move to a backward country place called Arizona,I was offered a job at ILX in the World Trade Center.I didn’t take it and moved to Arizona.Now, thinking back, I could have died on Sept 11, 2001.13 of my friends died on that day, my uncle was buried alive but found and my brother had to see a therapist because he saw the planes go into the buildings and the damage it caused.
But, as New Yorkers do, we survive, but it’s hard to forget.I never went to my friends memorials because how can someone died like that, it only happens in the movies.But, it did happen.
From a New Yorker point of view, New York has changed.There is more security in the streets.You have to ask a cop if you can take a picture of a landmark. When I go to ground zero, there is dead silence.New York has become a military country, within the US.It’s sad.
When I went back to NYC after Sept 11, I had to get used to the new New York City and now when I visit, I got used to the security which is sad and heart breaking because I miss my old New York and the mindset.I miss the rudeness, busy life, running to work,no security cameras following you and no metal detectors and searches before you go into the Empire State Building.
When I was young and before Sept 11, I would watch New York City getting blown up and damaged in the movies and on TV because I knew it will never happen in real life.But it did.
The movie Cloverfield, will be a movie I will never forget and should get award for giving us a reality check.Before Cloverfield, I could watch New York getting destroy and laughing about because who would think New York City would suffer a terrorist attack and when Sept 11 made us change our thinking.With Cloverfield, it made me enjoy seeing New York City getting damage on the big screen.Crazy monsters like Godzilla destroying New York, that’s funny and not real.
Sept 11, made me change myself.It told me, breathing air and living is not a right, but a privilege you should not take likely. Live life and enjoy it.Hug your friends and be open about your feelings.Tell your friends, lovers, families and spouses how much they mean to you in your life because you made not see them again.
For example, I was a bride’s maid in a wedding, in New York City.The bride was a real bitch.After the $30,000 wedding in Garden City, she piss off the whole wedding party. One of the bride’s maids, named Vicki was a good friend who used to take me to parties and functions.I was a geek at the time and she was the popular girl.She helped me to become popular, like all those teenage movies.
After the reception, I told her goodbye and she needs to visit me in Arizona.She said, “I will, because I need to see the Grand Canyon.”She never called me because she died in the World Trade Center; two months later.The bride never got the chance to say, “I’m so sorry, I was a bitch.”Now, the bride has a son, divorce and living with her mother.I never spoke to the bride again after the wedding because I don’t need craziness in my life.
For Vicki, she left behind a husband and young 1 year old child. Now, her husband moved to the South, got remarried and the child is doing well.
So, we need this day to reflect on our lives and thank God that you are blessed. Sometimes I forget, but I have Sept 11 and my friends to remind me.
So, be determine to live life to the fullest and enjoy it because tomorrow you may day.I want to die with a smile on my face because I know I have done everything to that point in my life and enjoyed it.
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Day after day, it seems to me we follow the same ritual. We get up, go to work, go home, party, spend time with family or a lover and then we die. Some of us have children and some don't. But, in all we still follow the same MO with our lives.
On my facebook, I saw pictures of a boy I went to school with. Now, he is a man with a girlfriend. He works and it seems he has a child. When I look back on my childhood, I never that about working, owning a house, owning a car, having a girlfriend or anything of that sort because I was kid. Now, with time passing by, I'm now an adult.
But, what makes you into an adult? Family, kids, age, career or other. I don't know. I still feel like a kid with responsibilities.
It's just so funny to see people you went to school with and now they have families and responsibilities of their own, as if we are now becoming our parents.
We have to worry about a mortgage, bills, work and other things, instead of finding the new Metallica cd, getting a computer, the latest video game, doing good in school and does he or she likes me.
Back in the 80's and 90's, life for a kid was so simple and innocent. Now, a child have to go through so much drama just to get out of the bed in the morning.
What happen to the simple times? Will they return? I don't think so. I don't have any kids, but I would like one. My parents think differently since I'm gay. But, I would love to have a child, a wife and a happy home. But, when I think of my life as a kid, I ask myself "Where have the time gone? How did I get here?"
It's so funny. And that's life. Live life without any regrets. And just be happy. You only live once so live it right.
Looking at people who I went to High School with, is amazing to see because we are now adults and have our own lives. We may have done things differently, but we are still striving to live the best way we can.
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The Latina date texted me today. She wanted to know if I was busy tomorrow. I have not answered her yet. Why? Well, I like her and told her, but the response was, "I'm moving, but I like you too."
To me, it was like she was moving next week or so, but she's still here. Why? I don't know.
I want love without the BS, you know. With a booty call, I can kiss a girl and I know not to trust her, even though it's ok to do her. The reason for my thinking is, when it's a booty, you are not thinking about commitment, speaking to the person again or anything else. You don't care about the future only the moment for the real raw sexual escape journey you will have with that person.
You are so wrapped up in the moment, you don't care about that person. You only care about your needs being met.
After you are done, when you move on without any feelings.
When you are in a relationship or just dating that person. You want to get to know them. See what makes them be who they are and planning a future with them. In a relationship, feelings and emotions are involve; which makes the sex much better.
In a relationship, you must put your guard down. I know this is hard because I have trouble with this too. I hate letting person into my little world because I don't want to get hurt anymore. I just breakdown because when I allow people into my little world of Aliya Leigh, it means that I can trust you and I understand you. As I tell people,"I can't trust my own mother, so it will be hard to trust you."
Trust is so important in a relationship. When you can't trust that person you are with, you have to use that extra energy to out think them, meaning you always have to see where they are coming from and what they are truly thinking.
I already over think too much, so I hate to think with the girl who I am with. When you are with someone, they are suppose to make you feel safe and comfort, not trying to second guess a person.
I just want to feel safe in a person's arms, give them sweet kisses and F*&k hard.
Just thinking about it makes wet. Kissing, touching, fondling, whispering sweet nothings in my lover's ear and just feeling alive, like a new born baby.
I don't know what to tell her, but I have to tell her soon.
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Hi. This holiday weekend, I drove to Utah. It was a six hour trip. I drove from Phoenix to the edge of Northern Arizona. It was an amazing drive. I got to see the Navajo Indians and the landscape of this great state. But, I also got to think about my life.
Since I have been dating and relying on my girlfriends to take me out or to arrange a date, I have lost myself.
Before, the series of dating so many people, I would do everything I wanted to do, but I still had friends to talk too. I used to take road trips all the time by myself to think and to clear my mind.
So, on this road trip, I got to clear my mind and understand where I am headed.
I have lost myself. People have been making so many decisions for me and all I do is said "yes".
I love my life and the people who are in it, but I lost myself in the mix and what I am all about.
I remember when I was young, my family wanted me to act a certain way. I was never myself. When I moved to Arizona, I saw freedom to express myself, but then it got lost.
It's true, people just loose themselves and then they wake up and see a strange life that they lived. It's crazy but true.
We need to take control of ourselves and figure out what we want to do with it.
I have been searching and searching for the next big thing in life and forgot about what I want in life.
Slowly, I am coming back to my senses and loving it. I'm talking to this girl over the phone. She seems to be cool but I don't know. I am just going live and see where life takes me.
I have some control over my life and I'm so happy. Sometimes, it good to take a road trip by yourself to think and to clear your mind because you never know who you will meet and what thoughts will pop into your mind.
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I can't believe this. I'm in another car accident. WTF? I don't get it. But, anyway. I was suppose to go out on a date yesterday. It was your normal movie date.
I wanted to see Public Enemy with Johnny Depp. I love that man. He can be my child's father all I need is the sperm. But, the girl could not go on the date, she had to work late. Totally understand, but got me to think about my life.
Since I have been dating, I lost myself. What do I mean? Before, I was seriously dating, I used to do things on my own without anyone. Monday, I went home and relaxed. Tuesday's was always movie night, when I treat myself to a movie and dinner. The rest of the week, I would go to the gym or do anything I want.
Since, I have been dating, I got into the habit of asking first and then do. If the date or girlfriend was not able to make it, then what should I do?
Yesterday, I went to the movie without her. I enjoyed myself. I didn't think about anything or any person. It was me, only me.
I forgot how to have fun by yourself. Just you, thinking about life, love and you as a person. I was at the movies, writing in my book, dreaming about have Johnny Depp's child and my future.
I don't know what the future holds for me. I don't care about relationships or being alone. I have friends and I'm working. I'm happy.
My friends are all in this relationship crap. As I was talking to friend, I was ok being the hoe of Phoenix. Just having sex with different women. The game does get tried, so you relax and then start again.
Being the hoe, I didn't have to deal with emotions, feelings or anything like that. Just be safe and happy.
I'm going to cancel my membership with www.match.com and just go with www.tangowire.com.
I just want to be happy and alive. I just got a poster with the help of God. The poster is New York City with the Twins. I remember always going into the Twin Towers. Before moving to Arizona, I was supposed to work for ILX in the Twin Towers, but I moved to Cowboy Country instead.
I was suppose to died in Twins, I don't know. My friends did and I do get sad about that. But, it taught me to live life to the fullest and be happy. Just to live life.
How
do you want the date to end, is the real question. Now, the date
depends on you, not your friends, family or a magazine because they
are not you. I can't stand how people judge me about be
dating. For example, some people just want the booty call, while
others are looking for that special someone. So, before you go the
first date with someone new, you need to ask yourself, "How do I
want the date to end?”
You
can end the date in different ways, for example, “the hook up”,
“just friends”, “no way”, “booty call”
and “you're so special, I like you”.
The
hook up date, is my favorite and specialty date. It has my name
all over it. So, what is “the hook up” date? It's a date where
you just want to have sex after a dinner or any type of function. The
mistake people have with “the hook up”, is that after the hook
up, you have a relationship; which is not true. Sometimes, the hook
up doesn't turn into a long lasting relationship. On a hook up date,
you prepare yourself and your body, meaning you know you look hot and
you feel hot to the point that everyone will stare at you and wish
you were with them. During the date, you feel the mood. Think with
your gut not your head. If the date is going well, then you have
nothing to worry about, just be yourself. When you start making out
in the car, you know it's on. Now, at this point you can control the
situation. You can just make out or go all the way, but you need to
remember, you may not have a second date and to always have
protection.
The
just friends date, is OK. I had a few myself. It's a date you or
the other person want to establish a date, but at the end you become
friends. Again, you need to trust your gut and to give hints to see
what direction the date is going. When you became friends it's cool
because more friends and more people to talk too, plus sometimes
friends become lovers. So, if the date turns into friends, don't
worry about it. There are millions of fish in the sea.
The
no way date, is easy to spot. During the date, if the person you
are with or you yourself starts talking on the phone with a friend or
texting, then this is a no way date, meaning that basically you are
just wasting time and money on something you don't care about. When
it is a no way date, just end it. You can be the ass or let the other
person be the ass. For example, I was on a date and the person was
just texting friends while we were eating. When you know, it's a no
way date, just end it and throw away the number because wasting time
is not good. Now, if you just want the date to be a booty call, then
talk about it and if each party agrees to the terms; during sex DON'T
TALK, JUST DO.
The
booty call date is easy. If each party agrees to the terms then
just have fun. Just be safe and stick with the terms. With a booty
call, don't let feelings get into the way because it's just physical
relationship. When emotions get involve, talk to the other person and
let the relationship go, if you can't handle it anymore. It's better
to leave then to stay in a relationship and the other party doesn't
feel the same way.
The
you're so special date is the best. So I save the best for last.
It's a date when the two parties feel a connection to point they can
say, “I want you”, meaning you two belong with each other.
Sometimes the relationship will blossom in the moment you meet or at
the end of the date. Remember to trust your gut. You will know, when
the right person comes along. Romance novels ideas come from real
life relationships, so your love story will happen, just be patience
and keep your options open.
Dating
is dating. How you act on the date is your business, not your friends
or a magazine. I hate it when people base your lives for a romance
novels, movies and their own friends. Novels and movies are loosely
based on real life. Your friends may seem happy when you see them,
but you don't know the drama in their house. So base your love life
on yourself and gut. Remember, cause and effect. What you cause has
an effect, so whatever you put out into the universes will come back
to you.
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Mass. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy Dies After a Yearlong Battle With Cancer
Edward M. Kennedy, one of the most powerful and influential senators in
American history and one of three brothers whose political triumphs and
personal tragedies captivated the nation for decades, died at 77.
I told the girl who I was out with on Sunday, how I felt about her. You should always be upfront with someone, so nothing is not guessing game. The answer may be favorable or not, but you have to take that chance.
I did. I don't know if she feels the same way, but I told her.
After September 11, when the Twins went down, I learned, to live in the moment and just tell that special someone how you are feeling at that time.
Why because you may never see that person again.
For example, I was a brides maid in a wedding with some other friends. The bride was bitch and after the wedding, we never talked to her again. Before the wedding, the bride was able to piss everyone. One brides maid, worked in the twins towers and died in Sept 11th attacks. She was on the floor where the plane made contact with the building.
The bride never told anyone how sorry she acted and then it was too late for the sorry.
Always tell your friends how you feel about them and also the person you love, in the moment you are thinking about it.
Life is short, so live it with value, happiness and love. Never take time for granted.
Hello everyone. The script is almost ready for the agent. Tomorrow is d day. I am sorry, I have not written on the blog or have done a podcast. I felt I needed to take some time for myself. I do blog on twitter: @Lesbianlife, so check me out.
Anyway, as you may know, I am in the dating again. This time, I'm on www.match.com.
The funny thing about dating (and I don't care if you are straight or gay); but when we are dating, we are still looking for this next best thing, even though, it's not there.
As humans, it's natural to always be looking and not being satisfied with what you have in front of you.
I met this girl on match.com; well she found me. She emailed me and I gave her my number because I don't like txting. We had a first date and yes, I was a dork, but we hit it off. We went on a date today. It was cool.
But, that's not the end of it.
Another girl called me from match.com. Now, I really like the first girl, but again, as humans we are never satisfied. I spoke to second girl and she is a doctor. My parents always wanted me to married a doctor. But, the problem is, she is fem like me.
For straight people, what I am about to tell you will be weird. "Women with Women can't be in a serious relationship." For Lesbians, you understand what I am saying.
For straight people, Female type, like the girly girl type is a woman, in the Lesbian world. I am fem and proud to be fem. I love wear skirts, dresses, heels and make-up. Butches or Fe-Butches are not like that. They are more manly and they mostly take the lead in the relationship.
The doctor seems so nice and she can be a good friend, but I can't see a future with her because Fems don't take the lead. I need to be lead.
At that moment, I realizes that people search and search for that one person to love, but not realizes that the person God give them is right under their nose.
We are always searching for the most perfect mate in our lives. We search for the image in our minds and try to find that one person. But, sadly, when can't find that on person, we tend to settle for anything; which is wrong and sad.
When we get settle for a person who we don't care about, we hurt ourselves and the person we are with.
We need to date blind. I'm not talking about wearing blindfold and taking out your eyeballs, but date blind.
Don't worry about status and how they look because at the mostly crazy times of your life that person may save you from the drama and pain.
I went on a date with a girl. She was cool. I wasn't dress perfect. I had a Foo Fighters t-shirt, hat, jeans and sneakers. She didn't like the way I looked. She didn't want me and I was ok with that. But, the point is, she could have gain friend, but since she's high and mighty, she will never know.
We need to judge people from the inside not the outside. Another example is, my ex-love was so hot, Latina hot.I loved her so much and I still do, but inside she is ugly.
The bottom line is, we tend to look and look and look, when the person is right standing next to you. Don't settle and be real. Reality is not a fairy tale.
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The sugar mama likes this new girl who lives in London. Believe it or not, they talk everyday. The phone bills must be high. So, I talked to the sugar mama at the gym, today. ON THE PHONE! We talked about the new London girl. Believe me, I'm happy for her. We had our fun, but I want something solid and real, you know. I want a steady relationship with someone who will love me and I can love them. Plus, someone who acts young but it practical and understand responsibilities. It is so hard to find someone like that. But, I'm on eharmony and match.com to find the one woman for me.
But, while talking to the sugar mama, I asked her, "You need to get something special to impress her." She said, "I don't need to impress anyone." See that is THE FIRST MISTAKE.
Smart people, (I will tell you why I said smart people) what to be special. They want to be treated like princess, like they are important in life. Like they matter in your life. When someone believes they are important to you, they will do anything for you. That is caring, not love but caring. Meaning that you care for that person. Love is a deeper meaning and should not be taken lightly.
So, listen to the person and understand them, like why they like this or that. Feel their emotion about objects, places or songs. Sometimes the cheapest gifts are the most valuable.
For example, I love this Hello Kitty pencil sharper. It's a star shape and green with glitter. It cost around 1.00, but that sharper followed me from Jr.High, High School, College and my jobs. It was my computer programmer sharper.
When I program in any computer language I know, like C, SQL, Perl, Java and JavaScript (I'm old school), I have to write out code with a pencil and paper before I typed it on the computer. That sharper helped me through my tough times of debugging code.
See how something so meaningless, means the world to someone else.
So remember that.
Oh, remember the smart people comment. My ex is Jewish and she was having a bad week, so in the Jewish religion, if you get a Kosher pray box for a person; it gives them good luck. Now, she told me this several times.
Now, it was during passover and Jewish people are not suppose to work. I search for a Jewish temple and found someone who were willing to talk to me during the passover. Hard as hell. I found someone, I had to pay them extra, plus the pray box that needed to be bless by a Rabbi on passover, then the pray paper in the pray box need to be bless and Kosher by a Rabbi. It was a four day process and I work several jobs.
I give it her and she like it, but I was not a diamond ring. Now, we only dated for 6 months, I'm NOT buying her a diamond ring. But, after we broke up and I don't care about her, the pray box has given her luck. Good things do happen.
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I worked today and I just zoned out the drama of the office. Sometimes you have to do it and you will go crazy.
In the office, it like High School all over again. You have the popular people, the geeks, the weirdos, the ones who think they are important but not and the teacher's pets.
I don't get it. I loved High School. I had so much fun. In High School, I wrote for the school paper, two friends and I started a Zine which lasted a semester and I was part of several clubs. But, it was High School.
Now, I'm not saying the proper job is working in a office, but after High School you have responsibilities as a grown adult. With this thought in mind, you grow up.
After High School and College, I knew I had to grow up, so I needed to move away from New York. Moving to Arizona, forced me to grow up and I am so happy for it. If I had to, I would do it all again.
I was forced to pay rent, get my own job instead of calling in a favor, my furniture and make new friends.
It taught me, so much of myself and who I really am as person. I learned about my weakness and my strengths. I learned who Aliya Leigh is.
Remember, don't take people and your situation for granted. There is reason for everything in life, you can beat it or let it suck the life out of you. Everyone in life will help you learn a lesson in life, you just go with the flow and file it in your brain.
Like today, I spoke to one of my cousins. His mother's husband killed her. Before she die, she was known to be a mentally strong person because of all she had to go through.
For example, she was from Denmark, you know, white with blond hair and blue eyes. She married into my family and had two sons who both look black. The first marriage didn't last and she had to move to Florida with two young black boys, crazy picture, huh. She got married a second time, but it didn't last. She and the boys move to Denmark to be with her family. She had to work full-time and teach her children Danish and the Danish way of life. She move back to America with two teenage boys and got married again, but this time the husband killed her.
I still think about her and all she dealt with in life, which I use as an example guiding me in my life. She was strong so I have to be stronger. She was beautiful so I have to be more beautiful. She was determined so I have to be more determined. She made mistakes so I don't make her mistakes.
Life is funny. It teaches, helps, loves, understands and make sure we have fun.
So, when you are around your friends and just people, see how you can learn a positive thing for them because life is about learning, until that last moment of life you smile because you did everything in life you wanted to do with no regrets.
A Florida man told authorities his cat was responsible for more than 1,000 images of alleged child pornography found on his home computer, the Martin County Sheriff's Department reports.
Keith Griffin of Jensen Beach is charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. He told investigators he was downloading music and his cat jumped on the keyboard after he had left the room. When he returned, he found "strange things" on his computer, according to the sheriff's report.
Griffin, 48, is being held on $250,000 bond. A neighbor is taking care of the cat — who has not been charged.
----------
So watch you cats around the computer because they are so super smart and have fingers
I love my life. I try to look at my life as if I was a third person. They women I have been with, women I loved and lost and my job. I look at it and say, " I live a pretty good life."
Everyone's life has its ups and downs, I don't care how famous or rich or poor or alone you are. It's life.
As beings, we create our own life. So, go out there in the world and create. Because we only have one life, so make the best out of it.
NEW YORK — DEVLEOPING: A hacker attack shut down Twitter on Thursday morning, and Facebook also said it was "looking into" possible site problems.
Twitter said in its status blog Thursday that it was "defending against a denial-of-service attack," in which hackers command scores of computers to a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through.
For users of the fast-growing messaging service, the outage means no tweeting about lunch plans, the weather or the fact that Twitter is down.
also seemed to be experiencing problems, at least intermittently. Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker said the company was looking into it and would have an update "as soon as possible."
The Twitter outage began at about 9 a.m. EDT, said Ken Godskind, chief strategy officer at Web performance monitoring company AlertSite. The site still had access problems late morning.
The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.
In a resolution adopted by the APA's governing council, and in an accompanying report, the association issued its most comprehensive repudiation of "reparative therapy" — a concept espoused by a small but persistent group of therapists, often allied with religious conservatives, who maintain gays can change.
No solid evidence exists that such change is likely, says the resolution, adopted by a 125-4 vote. The APA said some research suggests that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies.
Instead of seeking such change, the APA urged therapists to consider multiple options — that could range from celibacy to switching churches — for helping clients live spiritually rewarding lives in instances where their sexual orientation and religious faith conflict.
The APA had criticized reparative therapy in the past, but a six-member task force added weight to this position by examining 83 studies on sexual orientation change conducted since 1960. Its report was endorsed by the APA's governing council in Toronto, where the 150,000-member association's annual meeting is being held this weekend.
The report breaks new ground in its detailed and nuanced assessment of how therapists should deal with gay clients struggling to remain loyal to a religious faith that disapproves of homosexuality.
Judith Glassgold, a Highland Park, New Jersey, psychologist who chaired the task force, said she hoped the document could help calm the polarized debate between religious conservatives who believe in the possibility of changing sexual orientation and the many mental health professionals who reject that option.
"Both sides have to educate themselves better," Glassgold said in an interview. "The religious psychotherapists have to open up their eyes to the potential positive aspects of being gay or lesbian. Secular therapists have to recognize that some people will choose their faith over their sexuality."
In dealing with gay clients from conservative faiths, says the report, therapists should be "very cautious" about suggesting treatments aimed at altering their same-sex attractions.
"Practitioners can assist clients through therapies that do not attempt to change sexual orientation, but rather involve acceptance, support and identity exploration and development without imposing a specific identity outcome," the report says.
"We have to challenge people to be creative," said Glassgold.
She suggested that devout clients could focus on overarching aspects of religion such as hope and forgiveness to transcend negative beliefs about homosexuality, and either remain part of their original faith within its limits — for example, by embracing celibacy — or find a faith that welcomes gays.
"There's no evidence to say that change therapies work, but these vulnerable people are tempted to try them, and when they don't work, they feel doubly terrified," Glassgold said. "You should be honest with people and say, 'This is not likely to change your sexual orientation, but we can help explore what options you have."'
One of the largest organizations promoting the possibility of changing sexual orientation is Exodus International, a network of ministries whose core message is "Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."
Its president, Alan Chambers, describes himself as someone who "overcame unwanted same-sex attraction." He and other evangelicals met with APA representatives after the task force formed in 2007, and he expressed satisfaction with parts of the report that emerged.
"It's a positive step — simply respecting someone's faith is a huge leap in the right direction," Chambers said. "But I'd go further. Don't deny the possibility that someone's feelings might change."
An evangelical psychologist, Mark Yarhouse of Regent University, praised the APA report for urging a creative approach to gay clients' religious beliefs but — like Chambers — disagreed with its skepticism about changing sexual orientation.
Yarhouse and a colleague, Professor Stanton Jones of Wheaton College, will be releasing findings at the APA meeting Friday from their six-year study of people who went through Exodus programs. More than half of 61 subjects either converted to heterosexuality or "disidentified" with homosexuality while embracing chastity, their study said.
To Jones and Yarhouse, their findings prove change is possible for some people, and on average the attempt to change will not be harmful.
The APA task force took as a starting point the belief that homosexuality is a normal variant of human sexuality, not a disorder, and that it nonetheless remains stigmatized in ways that can have negative consequences.
The report said the subgroup of gays interested in changing their sexual orientation has evolved over the decades and now is comprised mostly of well-educated white men whose religion is an important part of their lives and who participate in conservative faiths that frown on homosexuality.
"Religious faith and psychology do not have to be seen as being opposed to each other," the report says, endorsing approaches "that integrate concepts from the psychology of religion and the modern psychology of sexual orientation."
Perry Halkitis, a New York University psychologist who chairs the APA committee dealing with gay and lesbian issues, praised the report for its balance.
"Anyone who makes decisions based on good science will be satisfied," he said. "As a clinician, you have to deal with the whole person, and for some people, faith is a very important aspect of who they are."
The report also addressed the issue of whether adolescents should be subjected to therapy aimed at altering their sexual orientation. Any such approach should "maximize self-determination" and be undertaken only with the youth's consent, the report said.
Wayne Besen, a gay-rights activist who has sought to discredit the so-called "ex-gay" movement, welcomed the APA findings.
"Ex-gay therapy is a profound travesty that has led to pointless tragedies, and we are pleased that the APA has addressed this psychological scourge," Besen said.
In celebration of "National Coming Out Day," in 1000 words or less, Phoenix Pride wants to know your coming OUT story.
Top
five stories will be selected by a panel of Phoenix Pride
representatives. Each of the five authors will receive a 30th
Anniversary Phoenix Pride Party Pack, special coverage from 'N Touch
Magazine, a professional photo shoot and feature story in Echo
Magazine's 20th Anniversary Special Edition.
Throughout the month of October, LGBT History Month, over 100 stories will be featured on the Phoenix Pride website.
SUBMIT YOUR STORY AT
www.pride-outdayphx.org
Keep it under 1000 words, BE CREATIVE and don't forget to use proper grammar and punctuation.
OPEN TO ALL AGES Essay deadline: September 1st, 2009
*If your story is selected as a top 5 story or for our website you will be notified no later than September 7th, 2009
Hi. Two weekends ago, I went to a religious thing down in Tucson, Arizona. I did it for my parents, so we can have something to talk about. I stay at the religious thing from Saturday to Sunday. Just goes to show you, I love my parents.
I saw so old friends and met new ones. But, one thing, I learned from the whole thing was REGRETS.
If you listen to my podcasts, you would know, I'm a once a month girl. I date a girl for only a month. I didn't know why, until I thought about it. I have a problem with commitments. My friends know about this bad problem I have.
My ex-love who was hot and juicy was the only one that made me commit and I have happy about it. She just went crazy and started hating Blacks and Hispanics. "Hello, I'm BLACK".
I thought about it, I was happy to be with her and to be part of her life, but I was thinking about the future too much instead of think about today. That was the key.
My ex-love mess-up me and I had to deal with it. So, now, when I date a woman, I think about when she's going to leave me, she's so old and I may have to change her Depends, or maybe I can find someone better. Than I also feel, I couldn't have came out of the closet.
Now, I was thinking about this during the religious thing. When we broke for lunch, I walked to Subway. I met a guy who talked to me about the bible and life. I told him, I could not join the religion because of my lifestyle. He thought, I was into drugs and crime, you know. The bad things people go to jail for and find God. I told him, "I'm a lesbian". He was shocked.
One thing I CANT STAND IS WHEN I STRAIGHT PERSON SAYS "You choose to be gay."
WTF? I didn't choose this and then regret enter into my mind. I thought about it. I told him, "This is who I am. And as God is my witness, I am NOT going back into the closet."
I spent too many good years in the closet. Now, I'm more free then before. I'm so happy.
I'm whole and I don't have any regrets about it. I am who I am. But, I need to slow down. I know it. I'm going to make commitments. My profile is on Match.com.
Remember, my sugar mama, she went to Europe and found the love of her life in London, after three weeks. I'm so happy for her. She will be going back to London soon to see the woman. I'm happy for her, but I don't think it's going to last. My opinion. But opinions are like aholes, everyone has one.
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PHOENIX - A Liberian diplomat arrived in Phoenix Wednesday to
meet with everyone involved in the alleged rape of an 8-year-old
Liberian refugee girl.
Edwin Sele touched down at Sky Harbor Airport hours after two
of the four suspects in the case, also Liberian refugees, appeared in
Maricopa County Juvenile Court. Judges said it was up to attorneys
whether the suspects could meet with Sele.
Sele said he wanted to meet with the Liberian community in Phoenix, and also the victim and the suspects.
"I'm a father, I'm a grandfather, I wouldn't want this to happen
to my child, and Liberians don't think that way," Sele said, refuting
reports that rape is condoned in Liberia and the victim often is
blamed.
The young rape suspects, in handcuffs and shackles, went before
separate judges, who ordered them kept in custody while the crime is
investigated further.
One of the boys slouched in his oversized chair and was
expressionless for most of the hearing. But, he began crying when Judge
Aimee Anderson told him she was proud of his accomplishments while he
was in custody and that she realized it was tough for him to be
detained. The boy's age is uncertain because of paperwork
discrepancies; he is either 9 or 10 years old.
A 9-year-old boy charged in the case appeared before another judge.
The two judges left prosecutors the option of changing sexual assault charges against the boys to sexual conduct with a minor.
The boys will return to court Aug. 18 for a mental competency hearing.
The court proceedings revealed the two boys are cousins and that
their parents have returned to Africa. Other family members were in
court, but decided not to speak to reporters and were escorted out by
security personnel. One of the uncles drove toward reporters with horn
blaring and stopped just short of the pack to pick up family members.
A third suspect, 14 years old, has been charged as an adult,
and prosecutors moved this week to have a fourth suspect, 13 years old,
also tried as an adult.
The father of the alleged victim said Tuesday that he knew
nothing about the ambassador's visit and that he had no opinion about
trying the suspects as adults.
"I have nothing to say," he told News/Talk 92-3 KTAR.
Martha Riveria, who lived next door to the 13-year-old suspect, did have a comment.
"I'm so proud justice is served. She's a little girl and she
deserves to be protected and if parents are not there to do it, justice
is doing what needs to be done."
Riveria said the 13-year-old should be tried as an adult.
"At age 13, you already know what you're doing, what is wrong and what is right."
Riveria said the suspect's family moved out of the complex last weekend.
The rape was not reported for a week and officials said cultural
differences caused the victim's family to blame her instead of her
attackers.
Sele said the Liberian government does not condone rape, as some media reports have said.
"We think this is a special, isolated case," he said, adding,
"We are very concerned about the well-being of the 8-year-old girl, who
only is a baby."
The suspects all are Liberian refugees, like the victim.
Police said the four boys lured the girl to an empty
storage shed July 16 with the promise of chewing gum, then restrained her and took turns raping her.
The suspects were arrested July 21.
The 14-year-old faces charges of kidnapping, sexual assault,
attempted sexual conduct with a minor and four counts of sexual conduct
with a minor. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 10.
The case ignited an international outcry after Phoenix police
reported the girl's parents said they were ashamed of her and didn't
want her back, which led Child Protective Services to take custody of
her.
The family's pastor says the father's statements were all a
misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier and that the family desperately wants her back.
(Copyright 2008 Bonneville International Corporation. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed. AP contributed to this report.)
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TUESDAY UPDATE.... Multiple sources tell me the toxicology report on Michael Jackson is complete and that the Coroner's Office has submitted it's report to the LAPD.
I am told the report was finished very recently and most of the tests were conducted at the Coroner's Office and samples were for the most part not sent to outside labs. The Coroner's Office is not holding a press conference as they had originally planned, but is waiting for direction from the LAPD.
That doesn't mean they won't release cause of death, but the Coroner's Office doesn't want to jeopardize the investigation and is waiting for LAPD guidance.
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: One of our sources has told me for a couple of days that he does believe the release of the toxicology report will come next week. Having said that, anything can happen, so we remain prepared to cover the release when it is anounced. This all comes as we also prepare for the court battle coming Monday over custody of the Jackson children and control of his will. I have just been e-mailed this statement from the Special Administrators listed in the 2002 Jackson will, who are preparing for that courtroom battle on Monday. Since being appointed by the Probate Court as Special Administrators of the Estate of Michael Jackson, John Branca and John McClain, who were specifically designated by Michael Jackson in his will to be executors of his Estate, have been focused on preserving Michael's legacy and carrying out his wishes. According to two of my sources from different offices involved in this search.....They insist, this is NOT a raid. A raid "is when we go in with guns, knock down doors and arrest people." He continues, "This is serving a search warrant as part of an intense ongoing investigation."
The Special Administrators have and will continue to provide timely information to Mrs. Jackson's counsel regarding potential business opportunities for the Estate. Any inference that we have not been forthcoming in providing information to Katherine Jackson's attorneys is not accurate.
There is one agreement being requested by Mrs. Jackson's attorneys where the other party to the contract has agreed to provide the document to Mrs. Jackson and her attorneys but requested that the terms be kept confidential and not be shared with third parties. Mrs. Jackson's lawyers have refused that offer.
Based on comments made on The Today Show by one of Mrs. Jackson's attorneys it appears that they want to rewrite Michael's will to make Mrs. Jackson "Guardian of the Estate" and have her appointed as an Executor and Trustee of Michael Jackson's Estate.
In his will Michael was very specific that his mother act as the Guardian of his children and that Mr. Branca and Mr. McClain be the Executors of his Will and Trustees of his Trust.
FROM TUESDAY:
The reason why the raid is taking place in Las Vegas today and not last week is due to complications with obtaining a search warrant on Dr. Murray's home. As one tells me "Justice is sometimes slow and there is a strict protocol and method we have to follow. This is not a totalitarian state and we have to absolutely respect the right of someone being investigated like Dr. Murray."
6 Agencies are taking part (state, Fed and local). This is very similar to last weeks search warrant in Houston. It is under seal, initiated by Las Vegas Police and led by LAPD. The investigators are looking for documents and records. They are building a very detailed case and much of this stuff can't easily be destroyed without obvious.
The DEA is taking part in this investigation NOT due to a possible manslaughter investigation. They are strictly looking at Doctor Murray and his connection to the drugs involved in this case and possibly others.
Remember, last week we reported there might be more searches of locations connected to Dr. Murray.
I am also told: Investigators DO NOT feel that Dr. Murray is a flight risk. As of right now, they don't expect to arrest him any time soon, but that could always change on short notice. They suggest this investigation closely resembles the Anna Nicole investigation, which took months to wrap up.
I am also told, "prosecuting a person in a case like this is extremely difficult and some prosecutors would argue almost impossible. It is so hard to prove."
Multiple sources tell me the toxicology report on Michael Jackson is complete and that the Coroner's Office has submitted it's report to the LAPD. I am told the report was finished very recently and most of the tests were conducted at the Coroner's Office and samples were for the most part not sent to outside labs. The Coroner's Office is not holding a press conference as they had originally planned, but is waiting for direction from the LAPD. That doesn't mean they won't release cause of death, but the Coroner's Office doesn't want to jeopardize the investigation and is waiting for LAPD guidance.
Multiple sources tell me the toxicology report on Michael Jackson is complete and that the Coroner's Office has submitted it's report to the LAPD. I am told the report was finished very recently and most of the tests were conducted at the Coroner's Office and samples were for the most part not sent to outside labs. The Coroner's Office is not holding a press conference as they had originally planned, but is waiting for direction from the LAPD. That doesn't mean they won't release cause of death, but the Coroner's Office doesn't want to jeopardize the investigation and is waiting for LAPD guidance.
And the Oscar for biggest ne'er-do-well brat child of a legendary acting family goes to — Cameron Douglas.
The son of Academy Award winner Michael Douglas has been arrested once again — this time in the Big Apple for getting in the middle of a deal to sell an eye-popping pile of crystal meth, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
The 30-year-old sometime-actor/sometime-DJ was busted on July 28 at the Gansevoort Hotel in the Meatpacking District by a DEA task force, the sources said.
He had been staying at the hotel for some time in a room rented by his father, and when authorities barged in, they found the place a mess and Cameron Douglas "very strung out," according to the sources.
An informant had told the investigators that Douglas — grandson of Kirk Douglas — was the middleman in a deal to move a half-pound of crystal meth from California to New York to sell.
New Sherlock Holmes Film to Explore Homoerotic Relationship Between Lead Characters
Guy Ritchie's plan to put a gay spin on the relationship of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in his new movie about the detective and his sidekick could backfire.
Robert Downey Jr., who plays Holmes, has revealed the crimebuster will sleep with and have sweaty grappling scenes with Watson, played by Jude Law, in "Sherlock Holmes," due out Christmas Day.
"We're two men who happen to be roommates, wrestle a lot and share a bed. It's bad-ass," Downey told Britain's News of the World. Added much-in-the-news Law: "Guy wanted to make this about the relationship between Watson and Holmes. They're both mean and complicated."
But Michael Medved, a former Post movie critic, says Downey and Law must be joking. "There's not a seething, bubbling hunger to see straight stars impersonating homosexuals," Medved told us. "I think they're just trying to generate controversy . . . They know that making Holmes and Watson homosexual will take away two-thirds of their box office. Who is going to want to see Downey Jr. and Law make out? I don't think it would be appealing to women. Straight men don't want to see it."
Roger Johnson, editor of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, observed that in Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories, "Watson is something of a ladies' man, but a faithful husband to his wife. And Holmes is essentially asexual, with no erotic interest in women or men."
This weekend was crazy. My brother called me and said that the world is ending and Obama banned religion. When he called me, I was half sleep. He kept talking on and on about how the world is ending and I need to listen to the news more often. I just blew it off. He talked to my mother the same day and made her cry. So, of course, I talked to her today.
My mother and I talked for three hours about being gay. She mention that being gay is a choice. But, I could hear in voice that she also leaned to the gay life, but lives straight. She loves my father too much. She's straight, but it's funny that she thought about being gay.
My mom accepts me, but wish I was straight. She doesn't want me to practice being gay. But, you don't have to have sex to be gay.
It's like when a black man will do anything to be white. It can't happen. The same way, a true gay person tries to be straight.
This weekend, I when to a straight swinger party because I bi girl was telling me about it. I never been to one, so I decided to check it out. I felt so out of place. I was the only Lesbian and guys wanted to have sex with me. I felt so uncomfortable and so uneasy, I just watched and looked. I when home to sleep. It also made me see, I want a long-term relationship, instead playing the field. I did fool around with one girl, but it I didn't have sex with her. It was crazy and weird. It just proves that GLBT people don't choose, but they are.
Talking to my mother and understanding her point of view, I love her. She loves to be Queen Bitch, but she's making efforts to understand my feelings and thoughts about my life.
For the first time, she told me that God loves me and that means alot from her. My mom will not be joining PFLAG anytime soon.
I still have not been on a date yet, but still looking.
I went out drinking with some co-workers and friends. My friends were the lesbian and her partner and a gay guy who I work with. My friend the lesbian has been with her partner for 20 years. Wow. That's a long time, but it can happen.
I want to date, but I am so afraid because I don't want to get hurt again. See, if you date random women, you can't get hurt because you don't feel anything, just sex. You don't care about them and they don't care about you. So, it is perfect.
But, I do want that special person in my life, but I'm a just guard my heart. I hate to feel this way, but it is so true. I am looking for that person who can break down my walls and make me whole.
My last true love did a number on me, but I feel sorry for her. I just want her to tell me, "I am truly sorry. I wish, I could make things better and I learned for my mistakes."
That's all I want for her. Also, I want her to feel great about herself. She is so beautiful, sexy and hot. Thinking about her, make me wet, but when she opens her mouth, I just want to throw up.
I just pray, she will love herself and know that she is a wonderful and loving person when she wants to be. That is why, I feel in love with her because she had a good heart, but for some reason her heart turned into a big black ice cube.
So, I am going to fight my fear like a butch woman and find the woman for me, who love me for me. I am looking for friend who I can tell anything too. I'm looking for comfort and love. Because I will love her the same.
Hi, Guys. What's up with you? I'm ok. I decided to join a dating service. The site is www.compatible.com. It's suppose to be the Eharmony for the gays. Well, I will be on there.
I need to have steady girlfriend. The chasing after different girls is getting old. It one girl after the next. The same old same old. You meet, have sex and they leave. Maybe you will talk a few times or you don't, I never cared. I would talk about them anyway.
With some girls, the sex is exciting, dull, down right boring, weird and sick. I have done it all and had my fill.
Now, I'm ready to settle down and have a family. But, I need to find the right girl first. I know she is out there, but where?
January 14, 2010
Buy your calendar 
CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY
Why do people need to be in control? Just let it go!
