John Travolta in Drag and with EXtraTerrestials

Homophobic National Enquirer is showing a picture in their cover showing John Travolta in drag and therefore proof that he dresses in women clothes. How stupid!!! One thing is to claim he likes boys and there are boys out there out to get some of his mula$, another thing is to say that because a man dressed in drag for a party he likes or always wears women clothes. These bunch of azZes are going beyond all common sense…for people that have common sense that is. Travolta most be feeling vindicated if this is the junk they are throwing at him.  What ass hole searches for this stuff? But here it is,  on the net and in the stands. I was really hopping to hear how he made out with some extraterrestrials and how they probe him through the nose with a rubber hose.
Adam for adamfoxie*

Conversion Group Uses Sports To Make Men 'Not Gay'

This weekend a group of men will gather at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to how learn to throw a spiral, make a three-point shot and hit a long ball — and to resist homosexual urges.
Courage, a Catholic group that encourages people with same-sex attraction to remain celibate, is holding its 13th annual sports camp in which “men physically compete on the field while enriching their souls through a daily regimen of prayer, confessions, mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours,” according to the group’s website.
“They think that in offering people with same sex attraction the chance to learn how to play sports they will learn to be manlier,” said Ed Coffin, director of Peace Advocacy Network, a Philadelphia group which plans to protest outside the seminary on City and E. Wynnewood Avenues Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The camp runs today through Sunday. Previous camps have attracted several dozen men from across the country.
“It’s a ludicrous assertion. There are many, many out gay athletes and many gay men who play sports,” he said.
Courage director Rev. Paul Check did not return a call for comment. A member of the local chapter said Rev. Check had given the sports camp coordinators permission to speak but that they declined.
The member, who asked not to be identified, said the weekend was a “tutorial sports event” and “not some sort of brainwashing camp that tries to make someone into something they’re not.”
He also said all different kinds of people were expected to attend, including married men “who had this issue in the past” and those who face “social blockades” because of their ineptitude when it came to sports. While no drinking is allowed, according to the registration form, in previous years participants celebrated at the end of the week with cigars and cognac.
The Courage website says it helps people with same sex attraction — the word gay is not used — develop “an interior life of chastity ... and move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity.” It is filled with advice from doctors, psychologists and ordinary people on living a chaste single life.
However, some of those affiliated with the group believe that people can change their sexual orientation. Therapist Paul Kleponis of the Institute for Marital Healing in West Conshohocken has said at Courage conferences that he believes homosexuality was rooted in childhood rejection and trauma and that through therapy people could develop an attraction for the opposite sex. He declined to comment for this story.
Some of that rejection, at least for men, can be linked to failure at sports, the group maintains. Robert Fitzgibbons, a therapist who runs the Marital Institute and has written extensively about what he calls healing homosexual attraction, said in an article on the Catholic Education Resource Center that boys who are rejected because they can’t play sports “begin to identify with the female instead of the male.”
At the root of the problem, he contends, is poor eye-hand coordination. Fitzgibbons spoke at a 2006 sports camp in St. Louis.
“Fortunately, Catholic spirituality, combined with good psychotherapy, can result in a complete healing of those with this disorder,” he wrote in a paper presented at the Conference on Family and Education in Toronto in 1996.
His secretary said he was unavailable for comment yesterday.
The camp is being held following a week of strong criticism of antigay, or conversion therapy. The California state legislature is debating a bill to ban the therapy as dangerous and the World Health Organization called it “a serious threat to the health and well-being — and even the lives — of affected people.”
Then the psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer, author of acontroversial 2001 study that claimed that some highly motivated gay people could become heterosexual with therapy, this week said he was wrong and apologized to the gay community.
“It’s been a really bad week for this whole movement to change one’s sexual orientation,” said Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, which fights against antigay theory and religious extremism.
The idea that gay people are bad at sports “is an insult to common sense and is contradicted by reality,” he said. “The idea that sports has anything to do with one’s sexuality is confusing science with stereotypes.”
Billy Bean, a former Major League baseball player who made headlines when he came out as gay in 1999 and wrote about his experience — including dealing with the sudden death of his partner — in the book, Going the Other Way, said in an e-mail that Courage’s take on sports “is discrimination and archaic stereotypical belief, that is inexcusable. We are born the way we are born. I find it heartbreaking that anyone would subject a young man into believing he should suppress who he is, in a way that is so potentially damaging.”
Now a Miami realtor, he also said he “could bring 1000 male athletes, who happen to be gay, that would disprove this ridiculous organization.”
Another Courage member, who only wanted to be identified as Al, noted that much of Courage’s theory about sports and homosexuality came from Fitzgibbons’ research, which also maintains that gay men lack confidence because of rejection by parents and others.
“I never met a man with same sex attraction that had a healthy relationship with his father,” said Al, who runs a Courage support group in Scranton.
The thinking, he said, is that because a boy was not introduced into the world of men by his father he eventually “winds up looking at other men as exotic, rather than looking at women that way,” Al said.
Since sports is a big part of male culture the boy may become “a little uncoordinated and the last person to be picked for games,” he said.
That was the experience of Robert, who provided a testimony about the sports camp for the Courage website.
“Because of my lack of athletic confidence, I’ve often felt less than a man,” he wrote.
At sports camp he faced his fears and was accepted by the other men.
“It felt so true and good to see myself as a peer and competitor to the other men instead of believing that I didn’t belong with the other members of my own sex,” he wrote. “Instead of feeling intimidated or repulsed by the physical contact, I liked it ... One time a teammate gave me a sweaty celebratory hug. He was humbly secure in himself, just as he was, selflessly and joyfully showing affection to others. I also liked when one man, whom I’d felt intimated by, gave me a pat on my belly, meaning “way to go!” His touch made me feel accepted as one of the guys.”

Male Reporter Apology for Kissing Will Smith -Vid

Sediuk issued a lengthy apology to the actor admitting that his behavior was 'too much.'

'I can say it was it was an emotional impulse,' he explained. 'Will Smith is a person whom I deeply respect as an actor, I've been watching him since my childhood and of course when I met him in Moscow finally I just wanted to do something, not extraordinary, but to impress him.'

Sediuk explained that his actions were a 'Slovak tradition.'

'Of course I don't do that often - I don't kiss every man or woman when I meet him or her on the street,' he said. 'But that time I decided to do that.'

As far as getting slapped by Smith as retaliation, Sediuk said: 'I don't take offense and of course we have different mentalities, ethics, stuff like that, and it's not a big deal for me to say, 'I'm sorry, Will.'

'It was a splash of emotion,' he concluded. 'It was an emotional moment, and I'm sorry for that.' Next time if I meet him, I'll just shake his hand and then we'll be fine.'

Video of the incident quickly went viral:

Elton John ILL With Respiratory Infection

Elton John spent a day in a Los Angeles hospital for a "serious respiratory infection" that forced the premature end to the legendary singer's Las Vegas show.

John became ill last weekend while performing his show, "The Million Dollar Piano," at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace, according to a statement on his website.

"This week the condition worsened, even with medication and rest," the statement said.

The singer spent Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for "extensive tests" that resulted in a doctor's recommendation John take a week of rest and antibiotics to "cure his respiratory infection and prevent any damage."

He will miss the final four concerts scheduled at the Colosseum, abruptly ending the first of three years of performances scheduled at Caesars Palace. The singer and his band will leave Las Vegas for a summer tour in Europe, which kicks off June 1 in Germany.

"It feels strange not to be able to perform these 'Million Dollar Piano' concerts at the Colosseum," John said in the statement. "I love performing this show and I will be thrilled when we return."

"All I can say to the fans is sorry I can't be with you," he added.

"The Million Dollar Piano" will resume in Las Vegas in October. Officials at Caesars Palace said tickets to the canceled shows could be exchanged or refunded.

Is Adam Lambert First Openly-Gay Male Artist to Score #1 U.S. Album?

RCA Records

Adam Lambert's new album Trespassing apparently isn't just historic because it marks the first time one American Idol alum has replaced another at #1 on the album chart.  According to the website AfterElton.com, Adam is now the first openly-gay male artist ever to score a number-one album in t
As AfterElton.com reports, other gay male performers have had number-one albums, likeElton John and George Michael, but those number-ones arrived before they came out of the closet, and the artists haven't managed the feat since.

Though Elton John admitted in 1976 that he was bisexual, he didn't come out as gay until 1988.  Since then, AfterElton is correct: he hasn't had a #1 album in the U.S.  Although all six albums Elton released from 1972 to 1975 topped the U.S. album chart, 1976's Blue Moves -- the first one released after he admitted his bisexuality -- rose no higher than #3.  As for George Michael, his only #1 album in the U.S. was Faith, and that was long before he came out of the closet. 

Clay Aiken also seems to have followed this pattern.  His debut album hit #1 in 2003; he came out in 2008. No number-one albums since then, but to be fair, his album sales in general had already been in decline for some time.  Other openly-gay male artists who failed to return to #1 after coming out include Ricky Martin, Lance Bass of 'N SYNC and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.

The Village Voice was the first publication to point out Adam's achievement, and Adam's record label tells ABC News Radio that they believe The Voice's claim to be correct.  Adam tweeted, "Thank you to the Glamily for helping me make HISTORY!" but it's unclear if he was referring to this particular claim.

It's worth noting that, while Queen did top the chart in 1980 with the album The Game, and their frontman Freddie Mercury told an interviewer in 1974 that he was gay, The Village Voice doesn't count them.  Why? The paper argues that at the time Mercury made that comment, Queen were unknown in the U.S., so it had little impact on the U.S. record-buying public. 

Then, in the years that followed, The Voice claims that Mercury couldn't be considered "openly gay" because he never directly addressed his sexuality again in an interview, asked journalists not to mention his boyfriends, and denied he was HIV positive until just days before he died of AIDS in 1991.

  ABC News Radio

BLacks Gays And The Church: A Complex Relationship

by COREY DADE



Fairly or not, African-Americans have become the public face of resistance to same-sex marriage, owing to their religious beliefs and the outspoken opposition of many black pastors.

Yet the presence of gays and lesbians in black churches is common. And the fact that they often hold leadership positions in their congregations is the worst kept secret in black America.

While many black pastors condemn gays and lesbians from the pulpit, the choir lofts behind them often are filled with gay singers and musicians. Some male pastors themselves have been entangled in scandals involving alleged affairs with men.

"Persons who are in the closet serve on the deacon boards, serve in the ministry, serve in every capacity in the church," the Rev. Dennis W. Wiley, pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ in Maryland, says of black churches. Wiley is a prominent advocate of gay marriage. "I do believe a certain hypocrisy is there."

Persons who are in the closet serve on the deacon boards, serve in the ministry, serve in every capacity in the church. ... I do believe a certain hypocrisy is there.
- The Rev. Dennis W. Wiley, pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ
President Obama's recent announcement that he supports same-sex marriage turned the spotlight on reservations many blacks harbor about gay rights. Most polls show African-Americans evenly divided about gay marriage, but the vocal opposition, led by preachers, has gained more attention.

"This particular decision I find appalling, and I could not disagree with the president more on it," the Rev. Patrick Wooden, senior pastor of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in North Carolina, said on NPR's All Things Considered. Wooden helped lead the recent campaign that outlawed gay marriage in his state.

Last week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People passed a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage as a civil right to be protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Churches Reap Benefits

Some say pastors' hostility cuts hard against the history of how countless black churches have flourished. The virtuosity of gay singers, musicians and composers has been the driving force in developing popular gospel choirs — even chart-topping, Grammy-winning acts — that make money for a church, help expand congregations and raise the profiles of pastors.

It all happens under an unspoken "don't ask, don't tell" custom that allows gay people to be active in the church, though closeted, and churches to reap the benefits of their membership.

Some say the arrangement is not only hypocritical, but exploitative.

"On the one hand, you're nurtured in the choir but you also have to sit through some of those fire and brimstone sermons about homosexuality being an abomination," says E. Patrick Johnson, an openly gay gospel singer and author of Sweet Tea: An Oral History of Black Gay Men of the South.


EnlargeDrew Alexander/Courtesy of E. Patrick Johnson
E. Patrick Johnson, who is openly gay, says modern gospel music is largely defined by the artistry of black gay men.
"But a lot of these choirs or choir directors, or ministers of music, will not be open about their sexuality for fear of repercussion from their pastors and church members, but they allow the church to exploit their talent," says Johnson, also a Northwestern University professor whose expertise includes black studies and sexuality.

Johnson and others believe that modern gospel music itself is largely defined by the artistry of black gay men.

Bishop Yvette Flunder of Oakland, Calif., is openly gay and the founder of The Fellowship, an organization of black pastors and churches openly welcoming of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members. Flunder once said during a 2010 interview that gospel choirs "always" have been havens for LGBT people: "In our indigenous expression, that wasn't a problem. It was Christianity that demonized gay people."

As Johnson puts it, "You can't throw a shoe back through history without hitting gay and lesbian women and even transgender singers."

Johnson describes church choirs as a welcoming community within a community "where you meet other gay people, so it becomes a form of socializing."

Commentator Keith Boykin, who is African-American and gay, calls it a paradox: "The church might be the most homophobic and most homotolerant of any institution in the black community."

Wooden, the pastor in North Carolina, agrees that the presence of gays and lesbians in choirs or other church ministries reveals the "duplicity and, frankly, the hypocrisy of the black church. ... The thing that troubles me is these people are almost taken advantage of. As long as they can sing, people look the other way."

However, Wooden insists "we are not all homophobic." He says he welcomes members of the LGBT community to worship at his church. He says his church also has continued to support gay members who have contracted HIV/AIDS, unlike some other churches that ostracize them — a practice many people on both sides of the issue say has been common.

But that's where Wooden's self-described sense of fairness ends. He forbids LGBT people from participating in the choir or any other church ministries.


EnlargeCourtesy of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ
The Rev. Dennis Wiley of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ in Maryland is a prominent advocate of gay marriage.
"If you love them — truly love them — you will tell them the truth on the front side," Wooden says. "We believe homosexuality is a sin. Those who serve, you want their lifestyles to uphold the standards of the church. This is not limited to homosexuals or lesbians. If I know an individual is committing adultery or living with a member of the opposite sex who they're not married to, they can't serve either."

Consequences, Whether Closeted Or Out

A small but growing number of churches, such as the Rev. Wiley's and Flunder's City of Refuge United Church of Christ, publicly welcome LGBT members, and their ranks are swelling with people leaving intolerant churches.

But many others say they are torn between their allegiance to their churches, which form the cultural and institutional backbone of black communities, and their desire to live free of homophobia. They often chose the former, convinced that their sexuality is a sin.

"They would rather suppress their identity than denounce their church," says Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, an LGBT advocacy group. "I've seen people refuse to divorce themselves from their church in spite of the ignorance that spews from the pulpit. ... It's their way of repenting. They victimize themselves through self-oppression."

Gospel music superstar and megachurch pastor Donnie McClurkin shocked the non-gospel world years ago by revealing in a 2001 book that God "delivered" him from a gay "lifestyle" that he said was a result of being sexually abused as a boy.

McClurkin, who has said being gay is a choice, was criticized by the gay community for setting back the LGBT goal of gaining acceptance.

When gospel music star Tonex (Anthony Charles Williams II) came out in 2009, the gospel music world turned on him, and his record sales plummeted. He left his family church, where he'd been a pastor, and reinvented himself as B. Slade, now a favorite in the LGBT music scene.

Rise Of Black Homophobia: Morality Turns Political

For decades, black ministers addressed LGBT people in their sermons only occasionally. This was true even as HIV/AIDS began claiming the lives of numerous African-American men in black churches, especially gospel singers in the early 1990s.

By 2004, a number of high-profile black ministers emerged as outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage as part of their alignment with the conservative Christian movement, which helped re-elect President George W. Bush that year. Black ministers and black lawmakers helped pass gay marriage bans in several states. In exchange, ministers received federal funds for their community programs through Bush's faith-based initiative.

In 2006, the National Black Justice Coalition held its first Black Church Summit in Atlanta, at which the Rev. Al Sharpton became the highest-profile pastor to denounced homophobia and call for greater inclusion of LGBT people.

Pastors No Strangers To Gay Sex Scandals

The sexual behavior of some male pastors, many of them also gospel singers, also has stoked rumors or led to scandal.

Bishop Eddie Long, the leader of one of the nation's largest black churches, in suburban Atlanta, was sued in 2010 by three young men who claimed Long coerced them into sexual relationships. Long denied the accusations and the cases were settled out of court.

The controversy was all the more notable because Long was a prominent supporter of Georgia's gay marriage ban, passed in 2004, and a proposed U.S. constitutional ban. He rankled many civil rights veterans when he and the Rev. Bernice King, a daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King (who supported gay marriage), led a march to protest same-sex marriage that started at the King family crypt.

"Some of my colleagues protest too greatly," Wiley says.

Prior to the accusations against Long, most controversies rarely escaped mention inside black communities and gospel music circles.

The Bay Area in the 1970s had arguably the most visible presence of LGBT members in black churches, just as the broader gay rights movement had gained momentum in the region. The Love Center Church in Oakland, Calif., founded by the late Bishop Walter Hawkins, one of gospel music's biggest stars in the 1970s and 1980s, made waves for welcoming black gays and lesbians.

Following the 1991 death of the Rev. James Cleveland, the gospel music legend still regarded as the "king" of the genre, a male member of Cleveland's choir sued his estate claiming that he contracted HIV due to his five-year sexual relationship with the singing icon. The lawsuit was settled out of court.

Many NFL Players Would Be Supportive of a Gay Team Mate

Members of Outsports, a site for gay athletes and sport fans, attended the NFLPA Rookie Premiere Events last week and were “welcomed with open arms” by NFL players.

While the NFL still doesn't have an openly gay player, it appears that the current generation of football players wouldn't have a problem if that changed.

Check out what some of these players had to say about accepting potentially gay teammates after the jump!

Outsports spoke to roughly a dozen NFL players from various teams from around the country, each of whom seemed to share the same viewpoint: Sexual orientation doesn't matter on the field.

When asked whether they’d be willing to accept a gay teammate, established players like Jevon Kearse of the Tenessee Titans, said that “In the game of football, it’s like a war out there. Once you get out on the field, all that stuff is to the side. You’re on my side. I played in the NFL for 11 years, I’m sure there were at least one or two guys along the line that were gay.”

Touching on former player Michael Strahan and team owner Steve Tisch publicly supporting New York’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2011, Antonio Pierce of the New York Giants said, “Some guys have come out publicly and stated how they feel about that. You’ve got to give them credit, because that’s a tough situation. Just look at what Obama did recently.”

Pierce continues, “You have to accept it because he is a part of your team. He’s one of the 53 guys. Obviously he’s put in the sweat and the blood and the pain to get there. I’ll never knock him. As long as we can win a football game, I don’t care. As long as we’re winning football games and winning championships, that’s all that matters.”

Rookies like Trent Richardson of the Cleveland Browns, expressed similar sentiments, stating:

“I never pay attention to it. They do what they do. I don’t have a problem with them. As long as they’re playing good football and contributing to the team, I don’t have nothing to do with that. It is what it is. I don’t have any problem with any sexuality or whatever they’ve got going on. That’s them. That’s what they want to do. That’s their life.”

For a sport that's presumed to be pretty homophobic, it sounds like the current crop of players (and even former ones) are becoming more and more open-minded and accepting.

Sounds like an exciting time to be a gay athlete!

Let's leave it all on the football court!

In Italy Gays Start Their Own party for Next Elections

 BY DANIELE GUIDO GESSA

Photo courtesy of Gay Center, Rome.

Italian LGBT activsts are taking homophobic politicians head-on by forming their own gay political party.

It will compete in local and national elections and is going to be organized by Rome’s Gay Center, a group of activists in the capital of the country.

The news has been released, today, by the left-wing magazine L’Espresso, which reports that the discussions in the gay association are ‘advanced’.

Italy’s general elections – for parliament and government – will be in 2013. The Gay Center plans to present the party's symbol, probably next month, and start preparing to run for office in these elections.

According to L’Espresso, the political movement will be part of the Italian ‘antipolitica’. The recent local elections have showned the victory of new parties which claim to be ‘totally new’ and want to reform Italian politics, reducing the cost to the taxpayer.

One of these parties, Beppe Grillo’s Movimento 5 Stelle, which was born on Facebook, won its first mayors on Monday (21 May). So, according to the left-wing magazine, the new ‘gay party’ is going to follow the same ideas.

Young politicians with no links with ‘the old elephants’ of Italian politics and loads of social networking and new communication strategies characterize the new wave. The ‘gay party’ is said to be surfing this wave.

Gay Center’s spokesman, Fabrizio Marrazzo, said: ‘As the new survey by Istituto Nazionale di Statistica showed, almost half of Italians are in favour of gay marriage, but our politicians deny it. It’s time to change their minds.’  gaystarnews.com

General Powell Talks About Gay Marriage } Watch Watch He Says

The Next Robotic President 2012-13

EnlargeiStockphoto

While American politicians may be scripted, they're not this robotic. But whoever wins the presidency this year will preside over a U.S. economy where automation is becoming increasingly important.

 

As many folks know, Bill Clinton was called the First Black President by Toni Morrison in The New Yorker. Barack Obama has been dubbed the First Gay President by Andrew Sullivan inNewsweek and the First Female President by Dana Milbank in The Washington Post.

But no matter which man wins the next election — Obama or presumed challenger Mitt Romney — he may well go down in history as the First Robot President.

This is not because people have found each guy to be robot-like on occasion — though they have.

As far back as 2009, Fox Nation posted a video featuring Obama's never-changing smile and asking, "Is Obama a Robot?"

And Romney is often ribbed about his robotic behavior. For example, Greg Gutfeld of Fox News said that Romney's "flaws are robotic malfunction that prevents him from seeing words beyond their basic utility, like Robby the Robot from Lost in Space, he sees no emotional import in his phrasing, so even when he's right, he sounds wrong."

No. The next humanoid in the White House may be called the First Robot President because he will be reckoning with the increasing influx and influence of robots in our everyday lives.

The Politics Of Robotics

Perhaps you have noticed: Robots are everywhere. They are working on farms and serving us coffee. They are cleaning our rugs and grading students' exams.

We are suddenly surrounded — by dancing droids, soccerbots, robot cars and drones that do all kinds of work for us and watch our every move.

The politics of robotics, however, is a tricky thing.

To support the development of robotics can be viewed as denigrating to the work of humans; robots take jobs from people. On the other hand, to rant against the research and development of robotics could be viewed by voters as shortsighted, unimaginative and Ludditical.

There has never been much political currency in opposing technological change in the U.S., says David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And "generally that's good. Politicians are happy to rail against foreign workers, but they almost never rail against innovation, at least here. Perhaps that's because a lot of the innovation happens in the U.S. So we get the benefits as well as the costs."

But when the day comes that labor-saving robotics are introduced on a large scale "there will be winners and losers," Autor says. "There almost always are with technical advances."

For example, the Luddites — groups of workers in 19th century England who destroyed machines because they threatened people's jobs — were justified in worrying about the impact on the labor force of textile industry innovations such as the "flying shuttle" and "spinning jenny," Autor says. "These technologies very likely reduced their earning power — even as they increased total societal wealth by making more 'stuff' with less work."

EnlargeEric Risberg/AP

Interest in the domestic use of unmanned drones is surging among public agencies, raising privacy concerns. Here, a Ritewing Zephyr II flies with mounted camera in Berkeley, Calif.

If Apple or Wal-Mart suddenly introduced "a $1,000 robot that could clean houses, cut grass, cook meals and chauffeur the kids to school," Autor says, "this would be hugely welfare-improving for people who currently do these tasks themselves or pay others to do them. But it would be devastating to people who make a living doing these tasks."

The problem, he explains, is not one of overall societal wealth but of income distribution. "For most of us, our primary asset is ownership of our labor, which commands a wage in the marketplace that supports a decent standard of living," Autor explains. "If the task that we are most productive at doing suddenly became cheap and abundant because it can be done by low-cost machinery, this would be hugely disruptive."

Labor-saving devices continue to proliferate. In Japan, for instance, the Fanuc Corp. operates a factory in which robots build other robots. It's called "lights out" manufacturing because no lighting is needed in the factory.

Still, Autor points out, the total robotification of labor is a long way off because many simple tasks performed by humans are actually quite complicated for machines.

Innovation Nation

So, how do the candidates feel about robots? During his first term, Obama has shown great ardor for the R2D2 population. He has rallied the Roomba types by launching the National Robotics Initiative that provides up to $70 million in research grants for robotics. "Robots are working for us every day, in countless ways," according to the White House. "At home, at work, and on the battlefield, robots are increasingly lifting the burdens of tasks that are dull, dirty or dangerous. ... But they could do even more."

EnlargeJim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Students show President Obama inventions they entered in a robotics competition at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., last September.

The post continues: "Robotics can address a broad range of national needs such as advanced manufacturing, logistics, services, transportation, homeland security, defense, medicine, health care, space exploration, environmental monitoring and agriculture."

Through such high-tech programs, Obama was quick to point out during the officialannouncement, the National Robotics Initiative will "make our businesses more competitive and create new, high-quality manufacturing jobs."

Romney, too, is an outspoken advocate of ingenuity. Though the former Massachusetts governor may not have issued any official statements on the place of robotics in society, he has waxed poetic on the futurific premise — and promise — of labor-saving innovation.

Speaking to an audience of more than 900 technology folks in Northern Virginia in February, Romney regaled the group with a historic tale of American innovation. He spoke of reading At Home by Bill Bryson last summer.

"It's actually kind of a fun book," he said.

Gesturing enthusiastically, Romney told the crowd about Bryson's description of a worldwide expo in London in 1850 when nations were invited to send samples of their accomplishments. "From all over the world came art — art, music and so forth," Romney said. But America "sent over several large crates ... and they put together what was a McCormick Reaper. This is what came from America, all right. This is what we were most proud of."

The McCormick Reaper, Romney said, "was able to do the work of 70 men in agriculture, 70 people could be replaced by one machine. By virtue of that innovation and others like it, agriculture did no longer require the entire population to feed the population. And so people could move to cities, begin the Industrial Age and change the world."

Bryson actually writes that the machine could replace 40 men. But the point is the same: One machine doing the work of many people is a positive step.

And, at another juncture, while speaking to a town hall-style meeting in February, Romney roused the crowd by praising the future-oriented spirit of the American people. "Great entrepreneurs and innovators and thought-leaders," he said, "have made this the greatest nation in the history of the Earth."

He got a standing ovation. He was speaking in Shelby Township, Mich., at the Eagle Manufacturing Co. They make robots.

by LINTON WEEKS, NPR

Iran Accused Eurovison 2012 of Hosting 'Gay Parade'

Iran has recalled its ambassador to Azerbaijan, having accused the Eurovision 2012 host of staging a ‘gay parade’ for the flamboyant contest this Saturday.

The move comes after Azerbaijan had accused the Islamic Republic of slander over the accusations, saying there was no word in their language for gay parade.

Today, Iran said it had withdrawn its ambassador from Baku, where the contest will be held, on account of “insulting of religious saints.”

One senior cleric, Ayatolla Sobhani, has issued a statement urging Muslims in the region to protest: ”We heard that the government of Azerbaijan is hosting the international Eurovision Song Contest and that during this contest there will also be a gay parade.”

However, the government of Azerbaijan has denied that any such event will take place. “They are making statements about something that does not exist. We are holding Eurovision, not a gay parade,” one official said on Monday.

There have been subsequent protests against Iran in Baku, where demonstrators carried pictures of the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with banners that read: “Azerbaijan does not need clerics — homosexuals!”

This year’s Eurovision song contest, particularly popular among the LGBT community, was seen by the International Lesbian and Gay Association as an opportunity for the country to ‘move towards openness’ after concerns over the country’s gay rights record.

Azerbaijan has a large Muslim population, but the government is secular. Homosexuality was decriminalised in the country in 2001. Azeri officials have privately blamed Iran for Islam’s growing influence in the country.

The Eurovision website and the independent Escotoday site were recently hacked by a group calling itself ‘The Devotees of Azerbaijan,’ which also took exception to Azerbaijan’s allegedly hosting a gay pride parade. The country won the right to host Eurovision this year after Ell and Nikki won last year’s contest.

by Edmund Broch 

pink news uk

by 

Ravi Bullying Case About Gay Rights, Privacy

 This is a post by the conservative US &n News Report.  I though despite being a conservative publication it offers a good view from the other side; After all this is a case that affects everyone, because we as Americans and most of the world civilized nations see Privacy rights as a corner stone of democracy and having every one including the government know not to cross that line that invades someone right to privacy.  Without the right to privacy there is no democracy.  Just ask one of those nations in which the government wants to everything about it’s citizens including how they dress and what they say.  The lack of privacy is used to keep people in line and a despot government in power.

(To see what adamfoxie* is published about this please click here) You can follow another link once in that page with more on this case.

Former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi

The relatively brief jail sentence imposed on a Rutgers University student who tormented his gay roommate has caused debate, even within the gay community: Was 30 days too few for Dharun Ravi, who secretly filmed his roommate, Tyler Clementi, in a sexual encounter with another man, then encouraged others to watch the video? Or was Ravi just a basic, immature college kid whose stupid prank should not be blamed for the distress of Clementi, who committed suicide after the episode?

Both questions can arguably be answered in the affirmative. Suicides do not occur when otherwise perfectly mentally healthy people pushed to tragic self-destruction over the idiotic and highly offensive behavior of one other person. Depression is more complicated than that, and the horrifying decision to take one's own life cannot be traced to one incident, as much as that might make suicide easier for us to comprehend. And yet when one thinks of the behavior and later demeanor of Ravi—whom the sentencing judge noted did not apologize once, even while jury members uttered the word "guilty" 288 times—it's hard not to be so enraged, so eager to make an example, that you want the twit locked up for a decade. Both reactions are driven by understandable emotion, and neither is rational.

But the Ravi-Clementi case raises deeper issues, and ones that coincidentally are part of the current national debate: equal rights for gays, and the right to privacy.

President Obama's declaration in support of gay marriage, while controversial, has had startlingly little impact on his re-election prospects. Sure, some people believe he has sanctioned a moral abomination, but those people weren't voting for Obama anyway. Even former Gov. Mitt Romney, who opposes gay marriage, said he's OK with gays adopting children. It's been a slow move towards tolerance, but the country has been moving toward accepting the reality that some people are simply born gay. The attitude is even more prevalent among young people, making it even more jarring that a college student—even one from another culture—would behave in such a hateful manner.

And yet, judge Glenn Berman was careful to state, this wasn't a hate crime. It was a bias crime. There was no evidence that Ravi hated Clementi, though that's hardly consolation for the dead young man's family.

College students are often foolishly less focused on their right to privacy, which may or may not explain why Ravi thought it was OK to film anyone—gay or straight—in an intimate or romantic encounter. Many young people vastly overshare in college newspaper sex columns, or on their Facebook pages. Perhaps they believe this is the new information era, and that personal details and images are impossible to keep quiet. They may very much regret, later on, having not only accepted but accommodated that standard. Was it Sex and the City that made college journalists think it was a good idea to detail their sexual escapades in school newspapers? Maybe, but one wonders if the authors are thinking about how that will look when they go applying for jobs in the real world. But some digital disclosures are not voluntary, which is why Congress is discussing Internet privacy standards.

Bullying, too, has taken on a whole new level of cruelty and cowardice with the advent of the Internet age, with high school students taunting classmates online. That behavior starts long before college, and needs to be thwarted long before then.

None of this fully explains why Ravi would do something so utterly cruel and insensitive. The invasion of privacy is equally offensive, whether it's a heterosexual couple or a gay couple being filmed having some alone time. But the fact that Ravi seemed to want to embarrass his roommate not for having sex, but for being intimate with another man. That adds a component of bias—and even, perhaps, hate, despite what the judge said. But if it's unfair for Ravi to judge Clementi more harshly for gay sex, is it fair to judge Ravi more harshly for filming a gay encounter, as opposed to a male-female one?

Ravi should be punished with some time behind bars, if for no other reason than to force him to think about how badly he behaved and what drove him to it. Meanwhile, parents and school administrators need to take a no-tolerance view of bullying. They could also impress upon young people the importance of privacy—their own, along with everyone else's.