It’s Not Valentines’ but This is for you Papi

aMUSE me: 

FaceBook Mile High Club } Your Ex Can Choose to Fly Next to You

Hey is this the Dungeons and Dragons red-eye to Boston?

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http://www.limeLife.com

The Mile High Club Just Went Public

If you thought your personal space was already at a minimum while flying, it's about to get a whole lot worse. A major airline has announced it will let fliers use Facebook to find people they want to sit next to, which means that ex you've been avoiding could finally have their chance to corner you for a few hours.

Read: Justin Bieber Is A Security Risk On Flight

KLM Airlines says it will launch its new "Meet and Seat" service sometime next year, which will allow ticket-holders the opportunity to use their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to find someone with similar interests that they can sit next to on their flight.

Of course, just because you "liked" Toddlers and Tiaras on Facebook doesn't mean you're automatically chained to a seat next to some creep with an encyclopedic knowledge of reality shows. The service is completely optional and you can choose whether or not your profile is available publicly.

Read: French Actor Gerard Depardieu Urinates On Flight

And while a good match has sky-high potential for a great plane ride, the chances of you getting stuck next to a salesman who has memorized your LinkedIn contacts makes it way too risky.

I'll take the random chance encounter with a beautiful woman over social network assigned seating any day.

Aftermath of Gruesome Elevator Death in NYC } Are You Afraid Now? I’ll give a Few Tips(video)

Could still slip and fall. Just saying.

 

 By Dan Amira

 Aftermath of the gruesome, tragic death of Young & Rubicam executive Suzanne Hart in a freak elevator accident, the Post reports that some New Yorkers have suddenly found a new appreciation for the good old predictable stairs.

“I’ve been taking the stairs today. I usually take the stairs at home, but not here,” said Lisa Miller, 41, who climbed 10 floors to her office.

Others were willing to take the elevator, but only if they could be assured that, when the inevitable malfunction occurs, other innocent victims would die with them:

“After it happened yesterday, there was a woman who refused to get into the elevator by herself,” said Emmanuel Williams, 28, doorman at 274 Madison Ave. “She said if she was going down, somebody else would be going down with her.”

Why would that even be reassuring? We don't know. It's irrational. But we understand being irrational, and we're sure she's not the only one. If you've been walking up 30 flights of stairs to get to your office this week, share your story in the comments.

Frightened New Yorkers shun elevators after crush horror [NYP]

Marriage Equality Brings it’s Benefits to Health Care

By Eric W. Dolan
  Rawstory.com/rs/

 

Same sex marriage legalization reduces doctor visits and health care costs for gay men, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Laws prohibiting same sex marriage deprive gay couples of many benefits and privileges that heterosexual married couples have under federal and state laws.

“Our results suggest that removing these barriers improves the health of gay and bisexual men,” said Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, PhD, lead author of the study and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

The study surveyed 1,211 patients from a large, community-based health clinic in Massachusetts that focuses on serving sexual minorities.

In the 12 months following the 2003 legalization of same sex marriage in Massachusetts, gay and bisexual men had a significant decrease in medical care visits, mental health care visits, and mental health care costs, compared with the 12 months before the law change. This amounted to a 13 percent reduction in health care visits and a 14 percent reduction in health care costs.

After the legalization of same sex marriage, the researchers also found a reduction in hypertension, depression, and adjustment disorders among gay men. All the conditions are associated with stress.

Previous studies have found that restricting marriage rights for same sex couples creates psychological distress among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults and even their families. LGBT individuals living in states that have banned same sex marriage are more likely to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder.

“These findings suggest that marriage equality may produce broad public health benefits by reducing the occurrence of stress-related health conditions in gay and bisexual men,” Dr. Hatzenbuehler said.

Eric W. Dolan

Eric W. Dolan has served as an editor for Raw Story since August 2010, and is based out of San Diego, California. He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and received a Bachelor of Science from Bradley University. Eric is also the publisher and editor of PsyPost. You can follow him on Twitter @ewdolan.

Zac Efron’s Tshirt for LGBT equality makes statement } we Don’t Know if it was just for the Cams

 By Greg Hernandez  http://greginhollywood.com/

 

Zac Efroncertainly has great taste is clothes, don’t you think?

It’s awfully nice to see one of our most popular young stars taking a public stand for the LGBT community.

I think I’ll buy a ticket to his next movie!

UPDATE: There is debate over whether or not this is photoshopped. I have no idea. Hopefully Zac will clear it up for us via Twitter and either way, make some kind of positive statement about same-sex marriage.

Gay Republicans..what the..} Will be Delegates for the Republican convention Representing all the top Contenders..the ones that say..How Great we Are..yeah

R. Clarke Cooper (Blade photo by Michael Key)

By Lou Chibbaro Jr.washingtonblade.com

The campaigns for Republican presidential contenders Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, and Ron Paul have each selected gay Republicans to run with them as candidates for delegate to the Republican National Convention next year in D.C.’s April 3 presidential primary.

Among the gay delegate candidates selected by Huntsman’s D.C. campaign is R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans.

Cooper said he’s backing Huntsman as an individual, not as Log Cabin’s executive director. He said the national Log Cabin group won’t decide whether to endorse a candidate for president until the Republican convention convenes Aug. 27 in Tampa, Fla.

“Huntsman is a conservative hero who can unite the broader conservative movement and secure the votes necessary to beat Obama in 2012,” Cooper said. “Further, Huntsman believes in the equality of people born under the same constitution and is a strong Republican voice for the LGBT community.”

Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, says he supports civil unions for gays and lesbians, the only GOP presidential contender to back any form of legal recognition for same-sex couples. He is considered the most LGBT-supportive of the Republicans running for president.

But he trails far behind the other candidates in national polls, leading most political observers to conclude he has little chance of capturing the Republican nomination for president.

The Gingrich campaign selected as D.C. delegate candidates gay Republican activists Marc Morgan and Timothy Day. Both ran unsuccessfully in 2010 for seats on the D.C. City Council and both are members of Log Cabin Republicans of Washington.

The Romney campaign, meanwhile, recruited as a delegate candidate Rachel Hoff, who ran as an out lesbian last year for the presidency of the Young Republican Federation, a national GOP youth group.

Hoff finished in second place in that contest but made a positive impression on party leaders, leading to her selection as a member of the D.C. Republican Committee, according to the DCRC’s gay chair, Robert Kabel.

“I’m pretty pleased that we have openly gay people serving on all of these delegations either as delegates or alternates,” Kabel said. “I think that’s terrific. And the campaigns are all going to know that they are putting gay folks on their delegations.”

Morgan said he decided to support Gingrich knowing that the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives opposes same-sex marriage and has declined to support other LGBT civil rights related bills pending in Congress.

But he said Gingrich met with Log Cabin Republican officials during his tenure as House speaker and has been supportive of what Morgan called “very progressive” AIDS-related proposals in Georgia, where Gingrich’s congressional district was located.

“What made me decide to support him is his pro-growth jobs and prosperity plan,” said Morgan, referring to Gingrich’s call for lowering taxes and overhauling the nation’s tax and government regulatory policies. “That made a lot of sense to me and I definitely support that.”

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As of late this week, Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry, the governor of Texas; Michele Bachmann, the congresswoman from Minnesota; and Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, had not filed to run in the D.C. primary. The deadline for filing is Jan. 4.The three have emerged as the most outspoken opponents of LGBT-related issues on the presidential campaign trail.

President Barack Obama’s campaign filed papers last month for Obama to run in the D.C. primary. Under rules established by the D.C. Democratic Party, delegate and alternate delegate candidates pledged to Obama will be selected at a March 3 Democratic caucus on the campus of the University of the District of Columbia. All registered Democrats in D.C. are eligible to vote in the caucus.

As they have in past D.C. presidential election years, many LGBT Democrats are expected to enter their names as delegate candidates at the caucus. In past years, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest LGBT political group, has backed a slate of delegate candidates competing in the Democratic caucus.

Similar to the Republicans, Democratic Party rules require that all delegate candidates be approved by the Democratic presidential campaigns – in this case, the Obama campaign, before they can be eligible to run as a delegate candidate in the D.C. caucus.

The national Republican Party has allocated 16 delegates and 16 alternate delegates for D.C. to represent a presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention. The D.C. Republican Party this year chose to put in place a winner-take-all primary, allowing the candidate winning the most votes in the April 3 primary to take all 16 delegates and 16 alternates.

Under rules established for the primary by the D.C. Republican Committee, the names of the delegate and alternate delegate candidates will not appear on the ballot beside the name of the presidential candidate to whom they are pledged to support.

However, according to Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the D.C. Republican Party, a list of the Republican delegate and alternate delegate candidates’ names will be available at the polls for Republican voters to inspect before they cast their ballot.

In addition to Cooper, who is running as an alternate delegate candidate pledged to Huntsman, gay Republican David Black is running as a delegate candidate for Huntsman.

In addition to Hoff, who is running as a delegate candidate pledged to Romney, gay GOP activists Jose Cunningham and David Trebing are running as alternate delegate candidates pledged to Romney.

Gay Republican Terry Tahir is the only known gay person running on the delegate or alternate slate for the campaign of Ron Paul. Tahir is running as a delegate candidate.

Gay Republican sources said several other gays were running as delegate or alternate candidates for Huntsman and Gingrich, but the Blade could not reach them by press time to confirm whether they were out.

The Nightmare Sexual of Abuser of Hermie Cain } he wants Backkkkkkkkkk

By KIRSTEN BOYD JOHNSON   http://wonkette.com

 

Unemployed dingbat Herman Cain is now, like so many Americans, in search of a new job. Herman Cain has given some consideration to his three main qualifications of “illiterate,” “serial sex creep” and “shit pizza shill,” and according to somemind-numbing teevee interview he gave to Barbara Walters, his resume makes him the best fit for, UH, SURE WHY NOT… “Secretary of Defense.” That’s cool, we were thinking about that position, too. Seems like fun, sort of an entry-level spot where you can “learn on the job” about foreign policy affairs, right? Probably Herman Cain noticed he has no idea what Libya is,what China’s nuclear capabilities are, who if anyone is runningUbekistanolabekistan, and the topography of Iran? We could go onnnnnn with TEH EGG-ZAMPLES, but the main point is, these are all excellent reasons why Herman Cain should be in charge of the military.

From some interview part of a Barbara Walters special year-end collection of idiots she oxyMORONICALLY chose to speak to, on teevee, for being the opposite of “fascinating”:

When asked what Cabinet position he would want, Cain said, “Totally, totally hypothetical: Department of Defense.”

“What?” Walters responded, clearly surprised. “Not Treasury? I mean, you’re the 9-9-9 guy.”
Cain said he wanted to be Defense secretary to help rebuild the military “the way it should be.”

Walters said that to run the Pentagon, he would need a strong knowledge of foreign countries, and reminded him, “You have had some difficulty with that.”

“I have been doing my homework ever since that difficulty,” Cain said.

See, he’s been doing his “homework,” like a good fifth grader. He really wants that “Secretary of Defense” internship, real bad!

  

All Your Rick Perry Gay Sex Stories Collected in One Handy Book

 JOHN COOK  http://gawker.com                

Glen Maxey, the first openly gay member of the Texas State Legislature and longtime Democratic activist, spent most of last summer helping a reporter for a "national news outlet" nail down persistent rumors of Rick Perry's sexual relationships with men. The story got killed. So Maxey has published an e-book laying out the evidence. Among the charges: Rick Perry has a small dick.

In Head Figure Head: The Search for the Hidden Life of Rick Perry, which was published today, Maxey tells the story of a four-month investigation (conducted, oddly, mostly through Facebook messages and chats that he liberally reproduces) he collaborated on with an unnamed reporter. According to Maxey—who, while obviously a partisan, is as far as I can tell not a crank and served 12 years in the state legislature—he located two men who claimed to have had sex with Perry. One was a male prostitute who told associates that Perry had hired him three or four times a year for hotel parties with Perry and an aide. The other was a man who responded to a Craigslist ad allegedly posted by Perry. Along the way, there are dozens of other more tenuous second-hand reports, including one man linked to Perry who pointedly refused to deny the accusations.

It's all very anonymous and hazy and who knows if any of it is true. But the fact that this is coming from a fairly prominent Texas political figure brings it out of the realm of pure rumor and offers an engaging little glimpse into how your news sausage is made (or in this case, not made).

Here's a taste:

"James"

"James" is a real estate agent Maxey tracked down who says he had sex with Perry after responding to Craigslist ad.

The posting asked for someone willing to unlock the door, turn off the lights, and lie face-down on the bed, legs spread. James replied to the ad, and did as instructed. As he lay on his bed in the dark, James heard someone struggling to open the door. Shielding his eyes, he ran out and opened the door.... "He jerked down his shorts," [James said], "It lasted about a minute. He had a little dick. It was the worst fuck of my life. And on top of it all he stunk because he had been jogging. He then pulled up his shorts and put the used condom in his pocket."

As the mystery man tried to leave James' apartment, he struggled with the front door, which had a tendency to jam. The man started yelling for James to help him.... As James opened it...his face was illuminated, and seen by James for the first time.

"Oh my God," thought James. "I just got fucked by Rick Perry!"

According to Maxey, James said he saw a black SUV in the driveway outside his home and a man in jogging clothes with a gun drawn—allegedly a member of Perry's security team who became alarmed when he heard Perry yelling for help opening the door. He withdrew when he saw that Perry was OK.

Maxey writes that James had told the story to the reporter he was working with on the record—he agreed to be quoted using his last name and first initial of his first name—and that he had told numerous friends about the story contemporaneously.

Joey the Hustler

Maxey also says he found a male prostitute who told friends he worked for Perry. A "Gay Businessman" friend of Maxey's emailed him this:

The whole story is that i have a ex friend who hired this kid years ago fro sex and they became friends. I was out at Rain [a gay club in Austin] with my friend and we ran into this hustler kid. He very matter of factly stated thathe had just been hired to spend the weekend at the Driskill with Perry and an assistant of Perrys. He was non chalant about it and said that it happened 3 or 4x a year and he gave some sexual details about Perry and the other guy. This was in the 2000s maybe 03.

Maxey and his reporter managed to find the hustler, "Joey," and engaged in a months-long dance to try to get him to go on the record with his story. Maxey arranged for lawyers to represent Joey, including a nameless female lawyer who sounds a lot like Gloria Allred—she "is always on TV with high profile clients"—so that he could negotiate a good price from theNational Enquirer and other publications that were sniffing around (the "national news outlet" Maxey's reporter friend was working for refused to pay). In the end, Joey cut off communications.

"I suggest you ask Rick Perry."

The longest-standing rumor about Perry—and the one that has received the most public attention—is that his wife Anita caught him sleeping with his Secretary of State Geoff Connor and threatened a divorce. Maxey says that he and the reporter drove to Connor's house to confront him, and here's what Connor said: "I'm no longer a public official and I don't care to comment on that. I suggest you ask Rick Perry."

Among the other leads Maxey and the reporter pursued were reports that a gay mallrat who always wore fancy cloths and jewelry called Rick Perry his "sugar daddy" (he denied it when reached by Maxey), that Perry had an affair with a disgraced gay former legislator who had been convicted for misappropriation of funds (he denied it when reached by the reporter), that there exists a photo of Perry and the convicted legislator together, shirtless in a field of bluebonnets (he never found it), that Perry attended a gay party with a friend who "had his pinkie finger hooked into [Perry's] belt loop...all night long," and that Perry fired three gay staff members in a house-cleaning after the Connor rumors first emerged.

Maxey says the story was written, edited, and placed for publication last October—along with strenuous denials and legal threats from the Perry camp—when the corporate parent of the "national news outlet" killed it, partly due to squeamishness about the story and partly because Perry's campaign collapsed. He at one point promised all the details he had unearthed to a New York Times reporter, but that apparently never happened.

You can buy the book here for $9.99.

[Image via Getty]