May Who Ever Says “ I love You” Be Someone You Know"

Let this picture Introduce You to a Good Weekend and May Who ever Says “I love You” Be Someone You Know.  Otherwise You Live in the illusions of strangers. AF*

Matt Bomer joins cast of “The Normal Heart”

  

By Greg Hernandez  

It has taken many, many years for Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart to come together as a feature film but finally it is happening with Ryan Murphyas director.

The movie details the rise of HIV/AIDS in New York’s gay community in the 1980s and won a Tony Award last year for best revival of a play.

(Kramer famously slammed Barbra Streisand who held the rights for many years and she has defended herselfagainst his harsh words)

Anyway, Mark Ruffalo had already been announced in the lead role of Ned Weeks and now comes word that White Collar hunk Matt Bomer will also be in the cast.

Bomer will portray Felix Turner, a gay fashion journalist who becomes Weeks’ boyfriend and contracts the disease. Bomer will be stepping into the shoes that won John Benjamin Hickey a Tony Award last year.

Bomer, whose star is rising higher than ever, also has a role in the male stripper film Magic Mike to be released in June. That’s a face – and body – we want to see on the big screen!

http://greginhollywood.com/

Bradley Manning's Fate

 The soldier accused of giving files to WikiLeaks will likely face a court-martial -- we explain how it works

BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT

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This week, Bradley Manning came one step closer to being tried for allegedly leaking a trove of secret American cables to WikiLeaks when a military officer made the formal recommendation that Manning should face a court-martial on 22 criminal charges.

One of the counts, aiding the enemy, carries the possibility of the death penalty, but prosecutors have already said they will not seek it in Manning’s case.

The recommendation this week was made to Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, who is what is known as the convening authority in the case. The military justice system has important differences from the civilian system, so I spoke to Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, to explain the basics.

We’ve now had the investigating officer as well as another officer this week recommend a court-martial to the Military District of Washington commander. What’s the next step?

A convening authority, which is a general officer, will decide whether to refer the case to a court-martial. There’s no designated time frame for this, but I think it will be in the next couple of weeks. A court-martial is a military criminal court that will have serious punishment powers. There will be a military judge presiding over it, who is a uniformed lawyer. There’s a prosecutor. There’s defense counsel. Unless Manning waives the jury, there will be a jury of at least five people.

Who makes up the jury?

The jury is selected by the convening authority. It’s not random selection. The general will select the members; it’s supposed to be a blue ribbon group. They are supposed to be the best qualified people with respect to education, experience, judicial temperament and so on. Because Manning is an enlisted man, he has a right to enlisted representation on the court. That means that at least one-third of the jury would have to be enlisted men or women.

In the civilian trial setting, there’s usually a lot of argument over who sits on the jury. How does that work in a court-martial?

The same thing happens. There’s an opportunity for the lawyers on both sides to question the jurors — who are actually called “members” in a court-martial — to determine whether they are capable of acting impartially. Each side has a right to challenge a member not only for cause, but also peremptorily, in other words for no reason.

To convict a defendant in a non-capital case requires only a two-thirds vote of the members. How the vote breaks down depends on how many members there are. The minimum is five, but there’s something called the numbers game that the lawyers on both sides are aware of. That is, that you want to use your right to challenge a member in order to manipulate the size of the court to maximize the chances of either conviction or acquittal, depending on your perspective. The number slightly tweaks the percentage. Two-thirds of five members is four, meaning the government would need 80 percent to convict. Two-thirds of six members is also four, which means the government would need only 66 percent to convict.

What about the judge — how is he or she different than a judge in a civilian case?

Once the case is referred to a court-martial, and a judge is assigned, the convening authority’s power becomes subject to review, and a judge sort of takes charge of the case. Until that happens — until the case is referred to trial — the convening authority really rules the roost.

The big difference as compared to a civilian federal judge is that a military judge doesn’t have life tenure. The judge in an Army court-martial is guaranteed tenure for only three years, which in my opinion is inadequate. Individually the judges may be perfectly independent, but in terms of the structural protections, the U.S. system is highly deficient in this area.

So the concern is that these judges might be worried about their later career and that affects how they hear cases?

Yeah, that’s the theory. Three years is shorter than any comparable criminal court in this country.

Turning to the trial itself, are the rules different than in a civilian court?

No, the rules are essentially the same as a federal district court. The rules of evidence are a virtual carbon copy, the rules of how people conduct themselves, and so on. Courts-martial are also open to the public, except to the extent that classified information is involved. Even then, only the bare minimum needed to protect the information is closed to the public.

If Manning is ultimately found guilty, how does the sentencing work? 

If there is a jury, the jury will do sentencing. Remember, he can waive the jury. But he can’t waive only on sentencing; he would have to waive it on guilt-or-innocence and sentencing together. If he waives the jury, the judge will decide both guilt or innocence and determine the sentence. If Manning goes with a jury, the sentence is determined by the jury. And anything in excess of 10 years has to be decided by a three-fourths vote. If it were a capital case — which it’s not — there would have to be 12 members of the jury and they would have to be unanimous.

What about appeals — can he appeal if he is found guilty?

The first level of review after a case is tried and there is a sentence is to the convening authority. He or she can disapprove the conviction, can cut the sentence and so forth. He or she can overturn the result of the trial. After the convening authority acts, it goes automatically to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, which is made up of military officers who sit in northern Virginia. There are lawyers on both sides, and briefs are filed, and there may be oral argument. Then they will issue a decision. From there, assuming the case is affirmed, Manning would have the right to petition for discretionary review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. That’s a civilian court of five judges who sit in Washington, D.C., with proceedings open to the public. If they granted review, there would be an oral argument, and the case would result in a decision. If that court grants review, then the case becomes eligible for review by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court can refuse to hear it, but at least Manning would have the right to ask the Supreme Court for review.

http://www.salon.com

Costa Rica’s LGBT Community Mourns Death of Abelardo

Abelardo Araya helped draft a same-sex marriage bill currently before the Legislative Assembly.

Ajita Chowhan

A friend pays his respects to LGBT leader Abelardo Araya, who died of a heart attack on Wednesday. Araya helped found the Movimiento Diversidad (Diversity Movement), a political group that worked to promote LGBT rights in Costa Rica.

Renowned Costa Rican LGBT activist Abelardo Araya died Wednesday of an apparent heart attack at the age of 42. He was found in his home on Thursday.

On Friday, family members, friends and LGBT activists held a funeral ceremony for the human rights leader in Alajuela, northwest of San José. Araya was diabetic and had cardiac disease, family members said.

Araya will be remembered for his work promoting gay rights in Costa Rica, including the founding of Movimiento Diversidad (Diversity Movement), a political movement aimed at furthering LGBT rights. In 2006, the group presented a same-sex civil-marriage bill in the Legislative Assembly. 

“We have lost a leader in the fight for human rights that are still not recognized by the Costa Rican government or society," said former Broad Front Party lawmaker José Merino, who supported the 2006 bill. "He was a courageous man who was willing to face attacks because he knew the value of his work in the movement.” 

Merino described Araya as courageous, smart and humble. He said Araya had lived a life of poverty as was fully dedicated to the promotion of LGBT rights.

“Despite his young age, he had been a gay-rights activist for the past 25 years. He left us at a time when we are finally seeing a step forward with the gay marriage bill in Congress. We will have to take drastic measures to be able to replace him in the movement, since he became one of those people who make themselves irreplaceable,” Movimiento Diversidad lawyer Marco Castillo said.

Araya’s funeral was paid for by contributions from friends and supporters, who collected enough money for the service in less than 24 hours, a testament, they say, to Araya’s importance in the community.

http://www.ticotimes.net/

Cold Night Hot Dude } Do You Like Commercials? You Will Like This One

On a Cold Night,  A Hot guy from Deep Dish

Do You Like Commercials? You will like this one:

New Features or Improved Current Ones

Hi. I just wanted to convey that Adamfoxie* Blog International has now improved filtering for comments. What that means is that more of you ( except spammers) will be allowed to leave messages  ready for  immediate release in most cases. I hope that will encourage the reader to leave their thoughts for everyone to see.

Also, as many of you know this site is available for cell/smart phone. You don’t need to download any ‘special' software and the site is both available in cell and web formats.

There are many around the world that use iphone, ipods, tablets, Droids and others.  That leaves up to you of when you are anywhere and would like to contact the site to read or comment, message is perfectly ok too.
I wont comment on your comment unless you ask me to, or I personally know you.

The blog is gone back to showing you the most popular blogs at the bottom plus it the archive for ever single post ever published.  You have the blogs arranged by tittle at the bottom and by month. You can go back and check any posting, either by tittle or label.

Thank you for following me and clicking on those commercials.

Adam
Adamfoxie* Blog International

adamfoxie*blog International: He Once Had The Most Ripped Body } Changed Mind He...

adamfoxie*blog International: He Once Had The Most Ripped Body } Changed Mind He...: By IONA KIRBY He once had a ripped body that could rival bodybuilders. But Aaron Carter clearly decided that all the hard work t...

Marriage For me } You Eat Crumbs

Dale Carpenter   

John Corvino, a philosophy professor, notes a potential complication for Newt Gingrich’s claim that he has repented, namely, that he continues to commit adultery in the form of remarriage:

Gingrich speaks with a straight face about the sanctity of “one man, one woman” marriage. . .  His defenders from the religious right . . . claim that Jesus offers forgiveness and redemption to repentant sinners. Presumably, in their minds, anyone in a committed same-sex relationship counts as unrepentant. . . . 

Yes, the Bible speaks of forgiveness and redemption. But if marriage really is “until death do us part,” then Gingrich is still committing adultery with Callista. But don’t take my word for it, take Jesus’:

“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10: 11–12)

This double standard is worth pointing out, frequently, publicly and forcefully. 

Under the traditional natural-law and Catholic view, marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life. Nevertheless, those who commit adultery and get divorced are certainly not disqualified from the presidency. More to the point, under the civil law, we even permit them to marry. 

I assume Gingrich agrees that this latter violation of the natural law — divorce and remarriage — should be allowed under civil law.  (It would be interesting to know if he does not.)  Yet he has certainly not joined a crusade of constitutional amendment-making to prohibit divorce and remarriage, nor so much as uttered a word in support of such an effort. He wants his own preferred marriage practices to be free and legal, but wants to prohibit the marriages of same-sex couples.  I can imagine reasons for that distinction, but Gingrich has never explained them before the audiences that drown him in cheers. And I am at a loss to find a justification for supporting civil remarriage — while opposing civil gay marriage – in the religious and philosophical teachings he claims as his own.

Michael Fastender Proudly Takes It All Off (Not on adamfoxie*) May be?

  

LEADING MAN

ACTOR MICHAEL FASSBENDER HAS EMERGED AS AN INTENSELY FOCUSED ARTIST BY PROUDLY BARING IT ALL.

By Lynn Hirschberg 
Photograph by Jeff Burton

“From the start of my career, I’ve been naked,” Michael ­Fassbender said with a laugh. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor of his hotel room in downtown Manhattan, tearing into a breakfast of eggs, potatoes, bacon, and toast from a room service tray atop an upholstered bench at the foot of the bed. “My first job was a commercial for SAS airlines,” he continued, as he pushed the bacon to the side. “In the spot, I wake up in a pink room next to a beautiful blonde girl and get out of bed naked. From that point forward, it’s been in all of my contracts: He must be naked in this film.”

Fassbender, 34, dressed in a pair of worn jeans, a blue button-down shirt, and a leather bomber jacket, laughed again. He is Irish and has a lilting flair for leavening the serious with humor. Though in person Fassbender’s blue eyes contain mischief and an infectious lightness, they mask what is often a brooding, secretive darkness on film, along with a startling intensity.

In the past year especially, he has emerged as a versatile and endlessly fascinating leading man in roles as diverse as Magneto in X-Men: First Class, the mysterious Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, and the complicated Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method. His most haunting performance, though, is as the sex-addicted Brandon in Shame. And while Shame is ostensibly the story of one man in present-day Manhattan, its broader theme is urban dislocation and acute loneliness.

When Steve McQueen, the film’s director, approached Fassbender in 2008 about playing the part, the actor was immediately intrigued. The two had just worked together on Hunger, for which Fassbender dropped 40 pounds from his already slender frame to play Bobby Sands, the IRA activist who died in prison during a starvation protest. “Steve told me the story of Shame,” Fassbender recalled, “and I said, ‘That’s it—I’m in. Let’s start the research immediately.’ ”

Fassbender smiled: “I must admit—I initially thought it might be fun. You hear ‘sex,’ and you think…sex!” he said. “But this was definitely the hardest job I’ve done. I can usually shake a character off, but I couldn’t shake Brandon. He had no sensual enjoyment in his life, and since we filmed the movie so quickly, I found myself living in his skin. Keeping him close to me was exhausting, cold, horrible.” He pushed away his food. “As Brandon, I never ate. He had one container of Chinese food in his fridge. All that sex and he didn’t have any pleasure.” Fassbender paused. “That sad container of noodles tells you more about Brandon than any nudity.”

 

Randy Robert Pots from Oral Roberts } Im Gay!

 I have posted about Randy. I have him as a friend in a Social Network, but Im sure he doesn’t know Im here, which is ok because I know he is partnered. But Iam happy to post when I hear he is on the news anywhere. adamfoxie*

BY EVAN LAMBERT

Randy Roberts Potts talks being queer in a famously religious family

Imagine you’re listening to a sermon. The preacher is charismatic, the audience is murmuring its approval, and there are a lot of references to God.

In other words, nothing out of the ordinary. But wait, there’s one thing that’s off. Did the preacher just say it’s okay to be gay?

That’s what a sermon is like when you have Randy Roberts Potts as your preacher, according to a story running in the February issue of DETAILS. In “Grandson of a Preacher Man,” Jonathan Miles tells the engaging story of how 37-year-old Potts—whose late grandfather was the celebrity televangelist Oral Roberts—has grown from closeted married family man to outspoken pro-gay preacher, albeit one estranged fromhis family.

Seeking to undo all of the work that his famously homophobic grandfather did before him, Potts has been telling his story in churches around the country in order to spread the message that gay is good. He also has a performance art piece, The Gay Agenda, which features him and his boyfriend (or another couple) going about their daily chores in a glass cage.

As Potts puts it in Miles’ story: "It's a visual that people haven't ever really seen in conservative towns… A lot of people immediately jump to images of sex or a pride parade. Well, here's another visual.”

There are plenty of gems in Miles’ story. For instance, Oral Roberts was apparently so obsessed with the family name that he paid his daughter Roberta $1, 000 to make Randy’s middle name Roberts. (Too bad Oral’s already passed, otherwise there would be thousands of people lining up outside of civil courts to request legal name changes right now.)

There are also a good deal of sad family-related anecdotes, but not to fret—the story has a happy ending. Potts has a boyfriend, his ex-wife doesn’t completely hate him, and he’s not completely ruling out reconciliation with his mother. Also, there’s a lovely moment when Potts realizes that the work he’s done has genuinely helped people—but to find out how, you’ll have to click over to DETAILS.

NYC } Ratio of Single Men to Single Women

via

​Should you be one of those people who assumes that your dating "issues" in the city stem from the fact that there are fewer men than women here, there's a map for that, and, no, we're not saying you have issues. But there is an interesting new twist. Economists at the NYCEDC ran the numbers, and, according to the latest census data, New York City's population is 53% female and 47% male. But, of unmarried singles between 20 and 34, men actually outnumbered women, 742,400 to 729,500. As for people over 34, they are geriatrics too old for love and unworthy of acknowledgment.

Hear that? More men than women! WORLDS...SHIFTING...

There's also a cool map breakdown (above) of the neighborhoods that, we suppose, could be used to target the singles of interest to you.

On the Upper East Side, young single women outnumber young single men nearly 2 to 1. Jackson Heights, Queens is on the other end of the spectrum--where there are 1.7 males for every female. The neighborhoods with ratios of 1 to 1? Jamaica, Queens and Pelham Gardens in the Bronx.

Gender normative map translation: Pink is lady-ville. Blue is boy-town.

Also fascinating: 21- and over-age New Yorkers spend an average of $140 a year at bars, "which is 58% higher than in the United States as a whole" and maybe our bar tab for a week, if we're being realistic. Map that, NYCEDC!

Ratio of Single Men to Single Women in NYC [NYCEDC]