Hey, It IS Pride Week

They say all's fair in love and war; and they say team sports are about battling your opponents.

Mitch Marner, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, had this to say about what he intends to do this summer and fall: “I want to make sure I feel comfortable enough to go out against men and play hard, and make sure I can go out there and do the things that I like to do.”

The boy and his mentor choose a suitable mate or position

Don't let anyone get in the way of your dream, Mitch. Go hard against those men and do what you like to do.

Chickenshit Fil-A

There's a petition making the rounds in Canada these days about/against Chick-Fil-A opening its first Canadian branch inside the Calgary airport, and people want to stop them.

A letter is not going to stop them.

A letter shows how fucking weak their opposition is. A petition shows them how hundreds of thousands of anonymous nobodies may or may not (but would prefer not to have the option to) frequent their establishments.

We're talking about a company whose owner donated two million dollars to anti-gay groups in the U.S. to try to stop homosexuals from having the right to marry, something that doesn't sit well with a majority of Canadians (though you could argue the best place to start a franchise is in Calgary).

What the petition does is give Chick-Fil-A free publicity. I had no idea they were coming - and probably neither did most Canadians.

What should have happened is people physically going there and protesting the store, warning its patrons as to where their food money might be going (again, perhaps not as efficient in Alberta as anywhere else in Canada); the only petition worth writing is one demanding for a competing chain right in front of Chick-Fil-A's, to have the option to spend our money where our allegiances lie - and to show them right in their face that we do have money to spend, and are choosing to spend it elsewhere.

If you don't agree with someone who is as powerful and determined as their CEO Dan T. Cathy, who is aggressive in taking action, the only way to fight him is to bring him down, and stop him from having money in the first place - make him go bankrupt, buy elsewhere. Don't send him letters and petitions that he can frame and masturbate to when he's tired of fucking human rights in the ass.

Sochi, Day One

I guess we know, now...

It was the opening ceremonies at the Sochi Olympic and, perhaps because of Russia's anti-gay-propaganda law, the top-right ring of the Olympic logo refused to come out, by fear of getting arrested and/or beaten.

Karma or terrorism/activism?

The Thing About Russians (Very Brief History)

At the bottom of their heart, one-on-one, people of earth all pretty much all the same. Their opinions may differ, but there's a way to hold a conversation with anyone, on almost any topic. The differences come not from DNA per se, and especially not skin colour or language, but mostly how they're raised, in their family and peoples' historical context.

That being said, Russians are a different breed. Made tough by 75 years of what we in the West have deemed a ''communist regime'' (though actually pretty far removed from Marxism and actually more of a cross between a monarchy, centralism, totalitarianism, and what I call absolutionism - the government also being the main employer and corporation) in which civilians mostly had to take shit all the time and just continue on with their lives in a more-than-military fashion or risk prison/expulsion to work camps mixed with almost-extreme poverty, they are fearless, and seemingly impervious to pain. And nothing rattles them.

Case in point:







Yeah, it's almost like those redneck videos and redneck inventions. Except they fucking make it work.

So when Russia made their anti-homosexuality law (actually an anti-homosexuality-propaganda law, they're not going to jail folks engaging in what they're doing at home, but they are restricting free public speech, marriages and even clothing - no rainbows), there was bound to be an in-home reaction. Particularly a year after the Pussy Riot trials.

And so, months prior to the Sotchi Games, at the Moscow World Athletics Championships, a public display of affection was bound to rock the international press...

Russians Fight Back With A Kiss

As I mentioned in the previous post, it would take the world of sports to pass the first very public message of dissent against the Russian anti-homosexuality-propaganda law...

... unless that was just a Russian kiss, like the hockey players would give themselves after each goal during the 1972 Summit Series. For seemingly immutable peoples, Russians display glee in stoic-yet-affectionate ways Westerners aren't used to - like cold Sicilians.

Still, the mostly-male-dominated Western media had a field day (and possibly a hard-on) at the sight of Kseniya Ryzhova and Yulia Gushchina kissing on the podium, though it wasn't the first kiss (as can be attested in the video, Tatyana Firova, far right, was the first recipient, kind of like how at the 2003 MTV VMAs, people remember Britney Spears making out with Madonna but forget that Christina Aguilera got Mrs. Ciccone's first tonguing).

If Toyota were an American brand, all four of these ladies would have had a brand new car waiting for them outside the locker room. Had the athletes been men and this would have happened in the U.S., an army of hard-line Christians would have been there picketing.

Whether it was a statement or not, this will probably end up being the Picture Of The Year, barring some unforeseen natural disasters of epic proportions, a Presidential murder, or a nuclear war.

Hero of The Day: Jason Collins

I know next to nothing about basketball. I mean, I know the rules for having played it a bit in high school, and I'm aware that in order to win, a team must score more points than its opponent, and that some baskets are worth 1 point, others 2, the trickiest farthest 3.

Like baseball, I stopped following the pros over a decade ago, so while I watched a lot of games involving Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Larry Bird when I was younger, I haven't seen Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James or Dwayne Wade play.

I stopped caring when the Toronto Raptors came in, and when Shaquille O'Neal became a superstar. Not because of those events, but around the same time. I went from casual fan to not caring at all. So that's for context.

What changed? Not much. I likely won't watch a game any time soon, but my respect for its players has increased a tad now that Jason Collins has come out of the closet. For a while now, basketball players were up there with football players as athletes whose egos got so big they thought they were above the law: allegations of rape, selling drugs, gun violence, robberies, gang affiliations... the only ones who didn't get prison time settled out of court - not exactly a plea of ''not guilty''.

And yet, just when everybody was looking at the NFL for the first openly gay in the top-4 of North American pro team sports, in comes a basketball player to take a stand. We'll see where that gets him, though, because as of the end of the season, he'll be a free agent. His twin brother - Jarron Collins - became a free agent two seasons ago and never got hitched to a team; now teams would have an extra reason to exclude Jason if they had any inclination in that direction...

Speaking of Jarron, he was completely unaware of his brother's orientation. So much for twin telepathy!

Hopefully, this starts a chain reaction of coming out and acceptance, and we can get back to what really matters: the sports themselves. And when we focus on the athletes and try to figure out what type of person they are, we can assess how they treat those they get in bed with (i.e. 'not a rapist', 'doesn't cheat on his wife'), and not bother with their gender.

He Left His Heart Out Of San Francisco

I was going to title this ''What A Fag!'', sarcastically of course, to bring the point home even more, but didn't for two reasons: 1. I'm not a stand-up comedian and probably wouldn't be able to get away with it, and 2. there are still too many stupid people around who would not bother to read on and would get angered up by taking away exactly the opposite of what I was going to say.

Also, I think we've used that word with its demeaning meaning for long enough and enough times to not be allowed to use it ever again.It should be retired and put in the Hall Of Fame of shitty derogatory terms as a first-ballot entry.

So ''Generic Fucking Title'' it is.

The stereotype about San Francisco is that it's ''all fun and gay games'', a paradise of civil rights, human rights, parties, free speech and health, full of hippies and homosexuals and winning sports teams that beat the shit out of your regular Houston Texans, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks - everything a Republican would like to make illegal.

The reality is otherwise: a mere bridge across from Oakland, one of the harshest ghettos cities on the West Coast, both cities are stricken with extreme poverty. With poverty come social issues , class warfare, and often a reduction of peoples' rights privileges entitlements equality programs. California - one of the U.S.' most liberal states - is bankrupt, and with a lack of funds usually comes cuts and disputes.

Add that boiling mixture to pro football's machismo culture and the stigma associated with homosexuality in African-American communities and you get the statistical anomaly we had during Super Bowl week, when the San Francisco 49ers' Chris Culliver said this, when asked about a recent campaign of players coming out in favour of gay marriage:

No, we don’t got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do.

What most people who say that type of comment fail to realize is that they all hurt the same, and they're all born out of fear and a ''divide and conquer'' mentality for those who can take advantage of it. Replace the word ''gay'' by any one of the following to realize just how much: Black, Hispanic, Jewish, retarded, handicapped. It's also true for other groups: women, Quebecers (most notably in hockey or Canadian politics), miners, smokers, AIDS patients.

To make amends, Culliver spent time with a LGBT group last week, ''learning'', and ''using his high profile as an athlete to help''.

Fine. But why do I feel like as soon as he got home, he took an hour-long bath in Purell?

Come Out And Play

Two North American soccer players have come out of the closet in recent years, only to stop playing: the Montréal Impact's David Tiesto, and now 25-year old Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew, Leeds United). That's right - he's retiring. From sports. At 25.

Why coward out and wait until your career's over, though? Especially athletes - they spend most of their lives being watched by crowds anyway, they should know how to handle pressure, know they have a shot at being role models. The more of them wait until it's over - and some even ending it prematurely - the more the message to people stepping into their footsteps is ''hide who you are 'cause it won't be accepted'', which in this day and age, is pretty dumb weak.

Some black soccer players still get taunted - some even get bananas thrown at them! - in Europe, and this type of situation just makes it seem like some ''irregular'' white guys are trying to make believe they'd get it as bad in this ''macho'' sports where players fake near-death injuries all the time - what's so macho about that?

Man up and be yourself, whether you prefer men or not, and don't waste your talent in its prime. As individuals, we all have something that's going to piss off others. Some are gay, others are black; some are flashy like P.K. Subban, others are opinionated and refuse to meet the President like Tim Thomas; some like rock, others like rap; some go to jail like Michael Vick, others become lawyers like Stu Grimson. Some even kill their fucking wives.

When Bigots Are Criminals

After my post earlier this week about Republican candidate Eric Bodenweister's indictment on 113 counts of sexual crimes came this story, about Christian/anti-gay lawyer/activist Lisa Biron: a member of the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund, which has filed numerous lawsuits in opposition to LGBT rights nationwide, she has been arrested on multiple felony charges related to child pornography.

In fact, what she was in possession of was evidence of a sexual encounter she had with a female minor, which she took to Canada to film and fuck. So, all told, here's what happened:

FBI agents swiftly arrested Lisa Biron yesterday morning as she awaited a hearing on child pornography charges at Manchester’s district court. About 9 a.m. FBI agents entered the courtroom, told Biron to leave her belongings and took her into an adjoining conference room where she remained for several minutes before coming out in handcuffs.

Outside, Biron ducked her head below the backseat window of a white vehicle as it was driven away from the courthouse.

A few hours later in U.S. District Court in Concord, Biron, who is associated with a national coalition of Christian lawyers, was formally told of the federal charges against her: transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, possession of child pornography and five counts of sexual exploitation of children.

So I guess in her opinion - a ''respectable'' one since she's a lawyer and all - same-sex sex is wrong, unless it's done with a minor, in which case I assume it's just ''experimenting''. I'm sure her God would agree, since he's the same one who is prayed to from pedophile priests and Republicans...

These people have no clue are the reason why folks no longer believe in the Institutions, public office, or anyone with power and/or authority. Their so-called morals shame them, and in turn, they try to ruin life for everyone else by trying to ban everything. That, and they keep putting themselves in positions of authority to gain access to their victims. Here's another charge that should be brought against people like that: being fucking assholes, worth three years in prison to be added to the rest of their sentence.

When Republicans Are Criminals

This one predates the (U.S.) election by a few days, and I just hadn't gotten around to it - I'm pretty late on a lot of things I've wanted to share/do/work on.

It's about a candidate for senate who had a hard stance on homosexuality, and as is often the case when those bastards try to regulate stuff that should be of no concern to others, he turned out to actually be worse than what he was against - he didn't just enjoy the company of males, he liked them underage, which I think is the only illegal/sinful thing in that sentence. Oh, and he wasn't just indicted on one count, either... 113.

It has been reported by delawareonline.com that Eric Bodenweister's indictment included 74 counts of unlawful sexual contact, a felony in the second degree. Also attached were 39 first-degree felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Yeah. Hypocrisy at its worst. Plus, his name sounds like a bad beer that claims it's the King Of Beers - another case of lies and hypocrisy. Should have seen that one coming...

Ann Coulter: Foot In Mouth Disease, Part 98

I don't know if Ann Coulter says stupid things just to get the Left riled up and the Right to defend her (and move them even more to the right...), but in a year, she can easily say 300 noteworthy idiocies - and get paid to tell them, be it on Fox News or in conferences.

Thi time, she took to Twitter to spew easy hatred on homosexuals in ''reaction'' to last week's ''Coming Out Day''...

Could she be any more of a cliché? Or a dick?

Plus, you know how often hard-line Conservatives usually end up getting caught as the one thing they were trying hardest to eradicate...?

R.I.P. Sally Ride

Sally Ride, the first woman in space, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer.

Mitt Romney had this to say about her, to try to gain capital on her demise:

Today, America lost one of its greatest pioneers. The first American woman in space, Sally Ride inspired millions of Americans with her determination to break the mold of her time. She was a profile in courage, and while she will be missed, her accomplishments will never be forgotten.

The thing is, she ''broke the mold of her time'' in more ways than just jumping a shuttle and flying above the planet: she was also in a same-sex relationship, and her partner of 27 years Tam O'Shaughnessy will not be allowed to receive any federal benefit because, well, they are of the same sex.

I think it's safe to say that when you've co-authored 4 books, lived together and been a couple for 27 years, it's a stable relationship...

At least one blog took offense:

Memo to Mr. Romney: If you don’t support our most fundamental relationships — if, in fact, you dedicate a significant amount of your political career to undermining those relationships, and make political hash out of marginalizing us and playing on people’s fears and hatred of us — you don’t get to speak about us with sentimental gushing after we’re dead.

Second memo to Mr. Romney: Fuck you.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Now, since she decided to keep her sexual orientation on the down-low, can't we all just let her go away in peace?

When Even Fox News Says You're Retarded...

United Colours Of Irrelevance

Ooh, man-on-man love. How daring, risqué, original, fun.

Ooh, religious leaders - and definitely not religious icons.

Ooh, a brand that hasn't mattered in 20 years.

There's a reason why it took me two days to report on it: I truly, honestly didn't give a fuck about it. But it seems the internet isn't quick enough, and some people still hadn't seen it. You're welcome.

Now, on to more important stuff.

Rick Perry Feels The Heat

Rick Perry is seeing Mitt Romney pass him in the polls. Pressure is mounting.

Maybe that's why he visited a church today, and had a special message to convey to God, via a third party made famous by Michaelangelo...

He's hungry for the presidency!

Name In Vain

Michelle Bachmann said more stupid things recently when she claimed Hurricane Irene was a ''message from God'':





Her handlers have since tried to make us believe it was a joke. Real funny. Go tell it to those who lost everything they had.

And what happened to that commandment of not taking the Lord's name in vain? Jesus Christ, lady, for an über-Christian on the far-right of the political spectrum for most of what you stand for, you sure know how to fuck things up for yourself.

And yet, you remain in the race. Which doesn't speak well of your supporters' IQs. Just sayin'. How's your gay husband doing?

Two In The Win Column For Common Sense (And People's Rights)

The one time Sean Avery says something intelligent - well, that makes common sense, at least - and I am referring to his public support for gay marriage alongside many other famous New Yorkers such as Michael Bloomberg, Bill Clinton and Julianne Moore - got a player agent (Todd Reynolds) so angry he tweeted his disagreement.

Many people reacted, most condemning him for being dumb and behind the times, a few in support. Sportsnet's Damian Godard was fired after supporting the agent, because we thought Canadians were more evolved than Americans on the matter.

Yesterday, former NBA superstar Charles Barkley, ever the quotable man, said he'd probably played alongside homosexual basketball players on at least two teams. And that he was fine with it (which surprised me a bit, I must admit).

Academy Awards 2011: Meh...

Goddamn are the Oscars ever getting safe.

Best actor, director, screenplay and film - all from the same film - The King's Speech - which, essentially, is: the story of a guy. He's a guy who happens to be King of England, but he's a guy. The movie does everything it can to bring him down to our level, the level of ''just a guy'', with a speech impediment. Lo and fucking behold, at the end of the fucking movie, he can deliver a goddamn speech. It took him two hours of intense training, he even doubted himself at some point, but in the end, he fucking prevailed. Based on a true story.

You know what else was based on a true story, about a fucking guy who wanted something, but something else stood in the fucking way, but two hours later he fucking prevailed? The Fighter. The Social Network. In 2010? The Wrestler. Benjamin Button.

It's the recipe for every fucking damn safe film ever made.

This year, Toy Story 3 was robbed of its Best Picture Oscar, and Inception was robbed for Best Original Screenplay. Keyword: original. Toy Story was more touching and genuinely heart-breaking than any of its live-action counterparts this year. It's a little miracle of a piece of art. And Inception captured the minds of movie-goers for 8 months - and just about no other movie looked as good. Well, Alice In Wonderland looked great, but it was boring as fuck.

I mean, I knew The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus was way too ''out there'' for Academy voters although it was the best, most original, brilliant, inspiring, ground-breaking and eternal film of this year's crop, but Inception was its more viewer-friendly distant cousin of sorts. And it got a lot of the technical awards, which it deserved.

It's just that in general, this year's crop of winners were too safe: give the huge studios their candy, give a few to the independent films, and give the British period piece the good shit. Melissa Leo's acceptance speech was the best, and no one thanked God. And a few thanked their same-sex life partners (in the Year Of Lesbian Films, no less) - which will probably get the right-wing sociopaths pundits to say the godless Hollywood elite rewarded themselves again - and everyone thanked their parents. Which is good - and safe.

The only person who did exactly what he wanted, the way he wanted to do it, without censoring himself was Kirk Douglas, who hit on every woman in sight and seemed to grab Melissa Leo's boob as he escorted her backstage. Because he doesn't give a fuck, and because he is fully aware that he's lived longer than he has left, and he'll let no one get in his way or in the way of what he wants to do.

Host-wise, Anne Hathaway was alright, but pretty-boy James Franco seemed at times stiff as a corpse, and other times too stoned to function. I miss Jon Stewart and Chris Rock, but perhaps the Academy should think of trying out Stephen Colbert, Jon Lovitz or Johnny Depp - people who would do nothing to displease the mass audience but could also have a second degree for people who like to think. Or why not George Clooney? He's Hollywood royalty and is a definite charmer and crowd pleaser.

When the winners are bland, with no Kathryn Bigelow (first female director), no Halle Berry (first black woman), no Michael Moore (politically active and hugely outspoken on current issues), no Roberto Benigni (the surprise winner who walks over people to get his prize), no ground-breaking and genre-changing film à la Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, the hosts have to provide the entertainment, steal the show, stir the pot. This year's eye candy did not.

Should the Academy insist on having two hosts at once, here are a few suggestions: Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston; Snoop Dogg and Cheech Marin; Trey Parker and Matt Stone; or Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith. And, especially for the last two couples, let them write their own scripts. Then go nuts and nominate innovative films. It'll feel like the 60s and 70s again - good.