I know I’ve been posting a lot today. I know

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This article has been open in my browser all day and I don’t know quite what to say about it. So I’m just going to talk.

Here’s the short version: Fundamentalist Christian minister blames a tornado on gays and months later is outed as gay himself.

I know what you’re thinking: “Harry, around here we call that ‘Tuesday.’ What’s the big deal?”

Here’s the thing: The guy wasn’t caught traveling through Europe with a rentboy.com guy, he wasn’t arrested with a gay sex worker, he wasn’t involved in a long-term relationship with another dude. He was in a 12-step group therapy program to deal with his sexuality, and the writer who outed him attended the therapy sessions under false pretenses.

Not that I have much faith in the “therapy” he’s undergoing. Using an addiction protocol [1] to manage your sexual desires? That makes me suck air through clenched teeth. It sure seems to me that it’s the wrong way to go. I wish the reverend could find a therapy that would help him make peace with who he is, not try to suppress it.

But that’s not really my call. He has to pursue the path that he thinks is best. And those private moments when he is in a supposedly-anonymous group, trying to work out his issues… well, they should have remained private.

Easy for me to say, right? I’m not gay and haven’t been villified the way gays have. I haven’t been blamed for everything from Katrina to 9/11 to pedophilia. I haven’t had to endure that bullshit. I recognize that the reverend’s words are hate speech and the people who outed him consider him an enemy.

I just wish they could have given him the space to work out his private demons in peace. I also wish he could have the public space to stand in front of his congregation and say: “I believe gay sex is a sin, and I believe in loving the sinner but hating the sin. But I know how difficult it is, because I struggle with these feelings myself.”

I don’t know. I don’t have any simple answer here. I just don’t like the whole situation.

Bookslut

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Bookslut is looking for a feminist columnist and an SF columnist.

This was no boating accident!

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Quick question regarding a conversation going on elsewhere: Have you ever walked into the wrong theater at the multiplex (or put the wrong disk in the DVD player) and watched a whole movie that was different than what you thought you were seeing?

This question is prompted by a grandmother and 8yo who sat through the first 15 minutes of GET HIM TO THE GREEK before deciding that they weren’t seeing TOY STORY 3 and leaving the theater. Also by a group of older women who watched all of TRANSFORMERS unsure if it was the chick flick they’d been planning to see.

I’m trying to get a grasp on this. I know that sometimes people don’t see things they don’t expect to see. I know that people try very hard to make shoehorn things into their pre-existing mental models. I also know that people in a group are less likely to jump up and say “This is wrong!” that people who are alone.

Once, I sat through ten minutes of a history channel documentary wondering when they were going to tie the subject of strip mining to the show on ancient Rome I was expecting (wrong night and I’d missed the opening).

But GET HIM TO THE GREEK?? Once Russel Brand dropped his first f-bomb, wouldn’t you get it? I just don’t understand. Has anyone had this experience?

Randomness for 6/23

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1) Carnage on Hoth, the cake.

2) The rule, usually, is “Don’t read the comments,” yes? But look at this post about a delicious salad sandwich and then scroll down to the fourth comment by “Brownhornet”. WTF? I don’t understand that at all.

3) A trailer for all Academy Award Winning Movies. This is funny.

4) So is this: The angry police captain. Seen via the-isb.

5) White guys for rent.

6) Want to have a good-looking kid? Talk to the sperm (and egg, supposedly) donors at beautifulpeople.com. Money quote: “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

7) “Do you think the author wanted you to learn something?”
“No screaming.”

Kolchak, The Night Stalker: Ep 1 The Ripper

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So! Now we move to the first of the actual TV episodes. The rumor is that Darren McGavin enjoyed working in TV movies and only agreed to tie himself to a television show with the promise that he would also be executive producer. Then, on the first day of shooting, he found another executive producer on the set.

According to the story I heard, he felt betrayed and acted as the executive producer anyway. Essentially, the set had two bosses. Things became so contentious that at the end of the first season McGavin begged for the show to be cancelled.

Still, this was the first episode, aired 9/13/74. I wasn’t allowed to watch it, but I did end up seeing it later in syndication. Currently, all episodes of the TV show are available on streaming on Netflix. If you want to switch over to watch it (it’s about 50 minutes long) do so now, because I’m about to post some spoilers.

Really short plot synopsis: Jack the Ripper is loose in modern-day (circa 1974) Chicago, and only Kolchak recognizes him for the super-human killer that he is. Too bad for Our Hero that another reporter has been assigned to the story and he’s been relegated to a week of answering “Dear Emily” letters. Not that Kolchak would let that get in his way. Written by Rudolph Borchert, Directed by Allen Beron.

What happens in detail: Continue reading

Blow out those candles, quick!

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I want to wish Joss Whedon a happy birthd– Oh, damn, it was cancelled before I could finish.