AFruit4Thought

Controversial New Site - "All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay"

2012-02-26T11:11:00.002-05:00

Funny or offensive?

All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay is a new website allowing users to "Enter a Dead Mormon" to convert to the homosexual deathstyle. Users who don't know any dead Mormons, or who have run out, can have the site choose a dead Mormon for them (the site using an algorithm of random names to make them up).

Almost nothing is known about the creators of the site or their intentions. It is apparent that they are playing on the Mormon practice of proxy, or posthumous, baptisms and the Church of Latter-Day Saints' involvement in promoting Proposition 8. The site is registered to a P.O. Box in Vancouver, Washington, right across the border from Portland, Oregon. Little else is known, and it appears that no one is claiming the site as their own.

Proxy baptism refers to baptizing of the deceased to ensure that they can have access to Heaven. (Ever wonder why Mormons run some of the best genealogy sites on the interwebs?) The practice has come under fire after it was revealed that members of the Mormon church were baptizing Jews killed during the Holocaust. The Church of Latter-Day Saints has promised to stop the practice (and erased about 300,000 Jews listed as proxy baptizified), but members continue to do it on their own.

As for Prop 8, the Mormon church gave a lot of money to fight against same-gender marriage equality. The church continues to fund anti-queer efforts across the country.

If Mormons are offended by the joke-site, maybe it will offer them some perspective as to why other religious denominations are offended by the actual Mormon practice. Who knows? Maybe there will be a great public dialogue. Or Jesus will fly his dinosaur-powered spaceship into the sun. Both seem equally likely.

Humorous? Effective? Worthless? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Text from the site:

"Sadly, many Mormons throughout history have died without having known the joys of homosexuality. With your help, these poor souls can be saved.

Simply enter the name of your favorite dead Mormon* in the form below and click Convert! Presto, they're gay for eternity. There is no undo.

Don't know any dead Mormons? Click the "Choose-a-Mormon" button and we'll find one for you. You're welcome!

No take-backs.

*Holocaust victims are not eligible for conversion."

Link - All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay

What the Hell Happened in New Jersey?

2012-02-20T20:03:00.001-05:00

GSE's Steven Goldstein in a press conference after Assembly vote

Last week:

Monday: Senate passes the Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act.
- Governor Chris Christie calls the vote "theater."
- Senator Gerald Cardinale said same-gender marriage equality could ruin non-romantic relationships, such as daughter-mother care-taking relationships.
- Cardinale admitted his paranoia over the scary gay lobby. (Reminds me of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion)

Thursday: Assembly passes marriage equality bill.
- Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver says, "No one will turn into a pillar of salt because they support marriage equality."
- Assemblyman Sean Connors says, "Seeking a referendum? That's chickening out."
- Assemblyman Jay Webber compares same-gender relationships to the relationships between doctor and patient or a lawyer and client.
- Assemblywoman Alison McHose refers to LGBT identities as a "choice."
- Wrong vote count sent out across the web because one of the Assembly person's voting buttons was stuck. Only in New Jersey.

Friday: Governor Christie vetoes marriage bill.
- Issues a "conditional" veto calling for a civil unions ombudsman. Apparently, the ombudsman (no one really knows what that is) would somehow work towards making civil unions equal to marriages.

"Lively" spectators at the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

All of this happened during a very exciting few weeks in marriage rights and protections for same-gender couples. Proposition 8 was overturned in the 9th Circuit, Washington signed marriage equality into law, Maryland is in the midst of passing it through their legislature, and Rhode Island introduced a marriage bill. Colorado is considering a civil unions bill.

What does all of this mean?
1. Popular referendums will pop up across the country. Minority rights will be subjected to the majority's possible tyranny. Lots of money will be thrown around by both sides. One side will run ads saying that fisting will be taught in schools, queers will gobble up kids, and the world will end. The other side will counter. Blah, blah, blah.
2. The Supreme Court may take up Prop. 8 which could make marriage equality legal in California, or it could de-marry-ify already married same-gender couples.
3. Marriage equality is becoming more ubiquitous. More and more people are being confronted by the possibility of queers existing - the world isn't ending. This is good.
4. With the spread of marriage equality, will the money dry up for other queer causes?
   - Transgender rights
   - Homeless, queer youth
   - Employment discrimination

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Things that amuse the hell out of me...

2012-02-17T20:41:00.000-05:00

I made this based on an NY Daily News article entitled Teacher forces 5th-graders to make Christmas cards for her jailed boyfriend.

Picture says:
"Teacher forces 5th-graders to make Christmas cards for her jailed boyfriend."
Reason #309 Why teaching heterosexual "marriage" in our schools harms children.

_

Whitney Houston dead at 48

2012-02-11T20:55:00.001-05:00

Breaking News: Whitney Houston, famed singer and Jersey girl, died today of unknown causes. The information comes from her publicist speaking to the Associated Press.

It is possible that this is just a malicious rumor. Media outlets can be hoodwinked. However, CBS says they independently confirmed the information.

I was watching the interwebs as this story exploded. 5 minutes after the AP posted the article, I saw a Tweet about Whitney's death that made me check Google news to disprove it. By 7 minutes after the AP article, there were four articles in Google News under "Whitney Houston." It's a little more than 30 minutes later and Twitter is exploding. At 08:43 PM EST, Google News shows about 900 news stories on her death.

My first thought was "Check if it's fake."
2. "I have to get on this news story!"
3. "I'm a god-awful person for thinking of a story."
4. "I'm on my iPad. I better email my boss."
I then checked again to see who had picked this up.
5. "Call my publisher. CBS has confirmed it!"
People on the train are staring at me as I say Whitney Houston is dead. Faces react when I tell my boss it comes from the AP.
6. "I'm horrible."
7. "If we get on this first, we'll be smashed with web hits. She's a Jersey girl, right?"
Checked Wikipedia. Wiki article seemed suspect, so checked a few other sources.
8. "I'm on the train. What am I doing?"
9. "I'm a monster."
10. "I want to be a good reporter."
Tumblr entry's first draft. Type up tags.
11. "This is really sad."
12. "What other synonyms of sad should I use? Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
Send Tumblr, calming down now...

I feel callous, accomplished, sad, anxious...I am full of emotions, and only a few of them relate to her death. I feel like such a horrible person. I'm truly sad that she is dead. I liked her stuff. She was so young.

When did I become so callous?

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NJ Family Policy Council (ie., Dumb People) Makes My Blood Boil

2012-02-10T18:53:00.002-05:00

*bubble, bubble, bubble*

Len Deo (Towleroad)

The past two days has seen my inbox flooded with emails from the NJ Family Policy Council. Most times, I just skim and then hit delete. With the marriage equality vote coming up this Monday (Assembly) and Thursday (Senate), I'm a little more invested in seeing what the opposition has to say. What I've seen makes me angry beyond belief. Let me show you my favorite parts:

A.
Len Deo, the head honcho at the NJFPC, makes the case for every child needing two parents by relying on the age-old "it's natural" bullshit. Lenny D. says that a child needs a mother and a father in order to grow up healthy, saying that studies on same-gender parents are either flawed or non-existent. It's not too hard to find instances where Deo has made stuff up (in fact, it was the first link that popped up).

His three sources that prove his anti-queer attitudes?

1. A 2009 TIME magazine cover story by Caitlin Flanagan, an author.

"And so two more American families discover a truth as old as marriage: a lasting covenant between a man and a woman can be a vehicle for the nurture and protection of each other, the one reliable shelter in an uncaring world — or it can be a matchless tool for the infliction of suffering on the people you supposedly love above all others, most of all on your children."

2. An op-ed in conservative newspaper The Washington Times by Janice Shaw Crouse. "40 years of distorted data and misrepresentation about the questions related to family structure, there are literally thousands of studies agreeing that the best family structure for children’s well-being is the married-couple family with a mom and dad," said Crouse.

What are these flawed studies? Are they flawed because of bias or statistical tomfoolery or because they don't say LGBT parents suck? The reason: they don't prove what Crouse wants them to prove. Social science research has demonstrated, multiple times, that gay and lesbian parents have children that are just as happy and smart, if not better, than the children of heterosexual couples.

3. A study entitled One Parent or Five with Elizabeth Marquardt as principal investigator that says,

"Let me hasten to note that few donor-offspring activists single out gay and lesbian parents as a particular concern. The largest issue that seems to unite most donor offspring is the strong belief that anonymity should be ended, that they have the right to know who their biological parents are. on the question of whether donor conception itself should be available as a means to have children, they are more divided, with some believing that better regulation is enough and others feeling that the practice itself should not occur. When it comes to whether gay and lesbian persons should use these technologies, my impression is that donor-offspring activists generally either feel that donor conception should be available to pretty much anyone so long as far better protections for the child’s right to know are put in place, or they believe that donor conception is not okay and they are against anyone—gay, straight, married, or not—using it. But because some of today’s most vocal proponents of intentional parenthood are found among gay and lesbian leaders and their family law supporters, the debate about whether intentional parenthood really is the most important issue for child well-being necessarily gets tangled up in the debate about gay- and lesbian-headed families" [sic].

Unfortunately, when one reads the study (as I am apt to do), one can see that the issue is about anonymous donors and NOT LGBT families. Yes, the studies authors pass judgement on LGBT families without evidence (and admit themselves that there is no evidence - "Meanwhile, how do children feel when the reproductive functions of mother- hood are split—when they have two women who could be said to be their biological mother and perhaps another legal mother as well? How do they make sense of the concept of motherhood? How does the story of their conception affect their attitudes and values as they themselves approach childbearing age? We have no idea, because nobody has ever asked them."). The study also looks at the impact of divorce and having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 parents. Yes, the 4 or 5 parent households that are mentioned are from queer families. However, the study's authors say that most 3 parent households are historically heterosexual. Both of these statements are made without fact.

In fact, the study's last paragraph begins, "The main point is this: the value of intentional parenthood is not a settled question, but rather a hotly contested one."

Furthermore, I have refrained (reasonably well) from inserting judgement phrases into my sentences. I could have used "selected" to imply that the study's authors picked families that supported their worldview. But I didn't because I'm not a conniving fucker. However...I'm going to blurt a bit of truth instead of using semantics:

The lead researcher is employed by the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values, an anti-gay organization. In fact, the study is sponsored by the Institute for American Values.

B.
Lenny D. sent out another fun email two days ago. He called it the Complementarity Principle. Basically, because men and women have genitals that fit together, they should get married. "Two men or two women engaged in a relationship cannot replicate this conjugal union at all," Deo adds.

I'm confused here. As a gay man, I'm reasonably sure that my genitals will fit with another man. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that maybe God, when He [sexism] created the nasty homosexuals, was actually rewarding gay men. When a man and a woman have penetrative intercourse "naturally," the man is always the "active" partner and the woman the "submissive" (using appropriate sex-ed terms here, sorry). But God has so graced me that I can decide whether I want to top OR to bottom.

How fucking cool?!

C.

Quinlan w/ ex-wife Cheryl. Isn't divorce a sin? (Truth Wins Out)

Greg Quinlan, president of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays), also is sending out emails under NJFPC. Quinlan is doing his best to stop same-gender couples from getting married. Yet, he gets upset when he feels "ex-gays" are discriminated against. (Yes, Greg, I can use quotations to make a class of people look fake.) Last time I checked, you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. You can be accepted as an ex-gay OR you can fight against the freedom to marry. When you try to deny people rights, don't be surprised when no one comes to your aid when your rights are in jeopardy.

I scratch your back, you stab me in mine...that's never worked out all that well.
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Proposition 8 ruled unconstitutional AGAIN!!!

2012-02-07T13:57:00.003-05:00

In an unsurprising ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the California same-gender marriage ban unconstitutional. The decision was 2-1.

In his decision, Judge Stephen Reinhardt said,

“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted.”

There is still a stay on marriages in California, and it's expected that the ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Prop. 8 supporters could appeal to a larger panel of the 9th Circuit.

The U.S. Supreme Court is divided on marriage equality. They have the option of invalidating all same-gender marriages or ruling that marriage is equal across the US...or anything in between. Hell, they could probably change every marriage into a civil union if they want and give the decision to marry to religious organizations - about as likely as Santorum transitioning to female and marrying Sarah Palin in Russia. The two lesbian love-birds would obviously get gay married in D.C.

In a separate ruling, the 9th Circuit found that Judge Walker was right not to recuse himself because of his sexuality.

There are definite implications here for New Jersey's marriage equality bill as well. The ruling (found here) does a great job of invalidating the arguments of anti-equality advocates. Even the dissenting opinion of Judge N. Randy Smith acknowledges that most of the arguments from Prop. 8 supporters were crappy. It's not going to influence Governor Chris Christie's belief that minority rights should be put on the ballot. It will influence legislators who are on the fence about marriage equality and will help queer rights supporters to more effectively shut down arguments from the haters.

On the subject of Judge Smith...I don't even. His legal argument against marriage equality boils down to this: the state has a rational reason to believe that same-sex marriages could harm society. The kicker is that the rational reason doesn't have to be supported or even logical. You just need a "reasonably conceivable state of facts that could provide a rational basis," according to a past decision quoted by Smith. The argument could be "unsupported by by evidence or empirical data."

If the state thinks it could be real, it's enough to keep marriage away from the gays.

The two reasons that Smith believes are enough to keep marriage segregated? 1. "a responsible procreation theory" and 2. "an optimal parenting theory."

Supporters march in San Fran today - Laura A. Oda, San Jose Mercury News

Although the evidence overwhelmingly supports that 1. my marriage won't stop the straights from breeding and that 2. same-gender couples make just as good (if not better in the case of lesbian parents) parents, it doesn't matter because the state can believe whatever the hell it wants. The shitty thing is - it IS within reason to believe a child needs a mother and father. We know kids with two parents do better in life, the world, and everything in it. We're used to those parents being straight because that's the generic image of marriage beaten into our brains. It's "common sense" in our culture, even if it's not only unsupported by empirical data, but also plain erroneous. Just because science proves something, doesn't make it true (evolution, anyone?).

I'm angry. My argument is degrading into rant-i-ness.

Back to the facts - This decision is freakin' awesome. The arguments by the court (i.e. not Smith's) are tight and logical.

I love you.

Unfortunately, it's not likely that the court videos will be released any time soon. Apparently, some of the supporters' arguments are funny as Hell...and probably disturbing. (LARGE SIDE NOTE: Dustin Lance Black's play about Prop. 8, conveniently entitled "8," might be even better for marriage advocates in the end, according to a brief mention in a press call with Americans for Equal Rights that I sat in on today. I like the argument - people want to watch a play with George Clooney, Martin Sheen, and Jamie Lee Curtis. These heavy hitters will be acting in "8" in an L.A. production. I'd much rather watch Clooney reenact real life than watch boring court TV. If anyone can get me a flight there and tickets to the event, I'll SO BE THERE.)

To bring this post back from the brink of sadness and Smithy anger, here's part of the decision as written out by Judge Stephen Reinhardt:

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.

...

'Marriage’ is the name that society gives to the relationship that matters most between two adults. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but to the couple desiring to enter into a committed lifelong relationship, a marriage by the name of ‘registered domestic partnership’ does not” [emphasis mine].

[Edited 18:30 02/07/2012: Added lots of additional content.]

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NJ's Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Ruled Unconstitutional

2012-02-07T01:15:00.000-05:00

By אנדר-ויק, cc

A small, nearly forgotten council has deemed New Jersey's anti-bullying bill unconstitutional because it requires schools to provide materials and training without allocating funding. Allamuchy Township school board (of Warren County) filed the complaint with the Council on Local Mandates because they will pay $9,000 a year more to staff and their training materials cost $6,000 (not the $8,000 reported by the mainstream media). Many schools have not had problems finding the funding or have used free training programs. To be fair, the schools that I have seen succeed on this issue appear to be in some of the better funded district.

Although voting against the bill, members of the Council said that they support the intent of the law. There is no process for appeal.

The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights provides for a "Bullying Prevention Fund" which would give grants to schools to implement the law. Allamuchy said that they applied to the fund, but the legislature put no money into it.

Governor Chris Christie's believes that plenty of funding can be had, saying the new training can be incorporated with old training modules, schools already receive state aid for the bill, and that the bill directs schools to petition the state for any additional costs not covered. The district's two schools currently receive over $35,000 in funding for security issues from the state which can be used for the bullying bill.

Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Bergen, the law’s lead sponsor, said, “This rarely used, shadowy fourth branch of government voted behind closed doors to dismantle a law sponsored by two-thirds of the Legislature and approved and signed into law by the governor,” she said. “Rest assured we will review the council’s decision thoroughly to find a way to make this law workable for everyone.”

The written decision won't be issued until mid-March, and Christie says that there is little he can do without reading it. I think he's right. The law is still in effect during this liminal period, but lawmakers will have to get off their slow asses and attack this.

Read the case from the Council on Local Mandates' official page.
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Happy Birthday to Me!

2012-02-01T16:03:00.000-05:00

It's my birthday! I'm a million years old (in gay years), so I've decided to start to enjoy my retirement. My Tumblr is full of sexy gentlemen as a present to myself.

This mostly naked man greeted the day with me (to be honest, I was still asleep, but you have to love auto-posts.) We did discuss his shoelace problem, and he knows not to go anywhere until he ties them. God forbid he messes up the cake.

“Happy birthday, Tom! I baked you a cake…but that’s not enough of a present for someone like you.”

*Idea!*

/pants

Pastor Says Gay Marriage Caused 9/11, Romney Accepts His Endorsement

2012-01-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

Letter is on Romney's site - here.

So Mitt Romney's campaign is touting the endorsement of a pastor that believes gay marriage ~~killed the dinosaurs~~ caused 9/11.

Dr. Roberto Miranda is part of the COPAHNI Fellowship of Hispanic Pastors of New England and believes that equality ruins the world.

RightWingWatch.org quotes Miranda from 2007:

"Satan has warred mightily against this region, and has effectively neutralized it through the influence of principalities of rationalism, humanism, intellectual pride and spiritual arrogance. Massachusetts, as well as all of New England, has become a cemetery of churches, a breeding ground for heretical doctrine, and intellectual furnace energizing attitudes of godlessness, rational arrogance and secularism. It is no coincidence, of course, that something as dramatically distant from the Christian worldview as gay marriage would be originated in this region.

…

Is it exaggerated to see prophetic significance in the fact that on September 11, 2001 Boston served as the point of departure for the deadly forces that spread so much destruction and havoc in this nation and all over the world? What took place at the material level is now being carried out at the moral and spiritual level, as the virus of homosexuality and gay marriage begins to spread dramatically all over this nation and perhaps the world."

Dr. Roberto Miranda, ThinkProgress

The rest of the letter defends Romney's pro-choice and pro-equality decisions in Massachusetts, basically blaming it all on other people. If Romney has gotten this far, he must be a politically shrewd man. I'm sure he can tell when the weather has changed from its pro-queer Massachusetts sunshine.

This led me to ponder whether or not a politician should dismiss the endorsements of someone who has anti-queer views. Thought experiment - how would I feel if I was endorsed by somebody who said that Latinos caused Hurricane Katrina.

Yeah, I'd disavow the creeper. Now, I get to be disappointed in Mittens.

If you're feeling too happy and want to feel a little crappier/freak yourself out, check out Dr. Miranda's master-plan for Christianity's retaking of Massachusetts.

_

The Queers Might Get Married in Jersey

2012-01-27T21:05:00.000-05:00

The Press - I was part of them!

I was at the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing this past Tuesday. The Committee spent about 4 hours on the marriage equality bill that is up for a vote. For more information, see my article at Out In Jersey.

The battle for marriage equality, same-gender marriage, gay marriage...or "marriage" as I like to call it... Is heating up in the Garden State. Anti-queer religious groups are coming out of the woodwork like so many termites.

The Catholic Church, the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and a handful of Orthodox rabbis have voiced their concern over queers coupling. The Knight of Columbus will probably be collecting signatures outside of NJ Catholic Churches again in an effort to coerce Catholics (a majority of whom support marriage equality) into signing petitions.

Some ostensibly non-religious groups are throwing their hats into the ring. The NJ Family Research Council, whose emails continually ask recipients to pray and sometimes mention Jesus by name, is once again pretending to use "science" to further its theocratic goals. OmnomNOMnom (National Organization for Marriage) has pledged $500,000 to be given to legislators that vote against the right to marry.

Look at those smug equality haters in the front.

At the NJ Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, we heard the same tired arguments used again and again. Gay love is like the love a man has for his dog or his car. Equal marriage will lead to bestiality and polygamy. Children need a mother and a father (despite numerous studies demonstrating that children are healthy in gay and lesbian households).

Acceptance of homosexuality will be taught in schools. Unfortunately for virulent homophobes, NJ schools frown on children beating up little Johnny because he has two mommies. Someone is going to explain to kids what Obama meant when he declared June LGBT Pride month or why Sally has two daddies. If your kid isn't strong enough to resist being informed, maybe it's because the "values" you teach them at home suck. The marriage bill won't really change that.

When anti-queer activists said that the people should vote, they neglected to mention that the Civil Rights Movement would have failed if the people had been allowed to vote. The government had to step in to protect a black girl who wanted to go to school. Heck, women's suffrage (their right to vote) failed in NJ when it was put to the popular vote. People are easily influenced, ignorant, and scared of difference. Many still think of anal sex as their first subconscious thought on being primed with 'gay' or a picture of a gay couple. Many people also subconsciously equate blacks with violence, but we don't remove the right for black people to carry weapons. That's because we're civilized creatures who can override our subconsciouses, just how I can have to pee but refuse to do so in public.

In fact, today I didn't punch the asshole in front of me, defecate on the street, steal a hot dog, or have sex in the train station. I over-rode my natural inclinations, just like monogamous straight men over-ride their natural instinct to spread their seed far and wide.

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Housekeeping - Where'd the ads go?

2012-01-27T20:48:00.003-05:00

The horror!

As you may have noticed, the advertisements that used to grace my page have been removed. Google recently emailed me that I violated their Terms of Service by placing ads on pages with adult themes.

My first thought: Outrage! The fuckers hate the gays!

Second thought: The site will load faster now.

Then, I did some research. I had read the TOS before signing up, but they either changed or I wasn't reading very carefully (quite possibly the latter). My blog may arguably talk about sex too much...what is not arguable is that I link to sites with adult content. I was given 72 hours to remove offending links, and I seriously considered it. My readers are smart enough to find Corbin Fischer if they want to find their evil themselves. I felt a little worse about DCFuk It since that site is so informative and effective, but I could remove those links.

However, I can't, in good conscience, remove links that explain how bottoms can effectively wear a female condom for anal sex. I couldn't remove that entry without feeling like I was doing a disservice to the many people that have viewed that page. Since the entry also describes how to use a female condom, it violates another part of the TOS.

I've voluntarily removed the ads because I don't want to be the kind of person that goes back on his word. I agreed to the TOS and to the TOS I shall abide. I need to figure out how to make the rest of the minimum requirement of AdSense revenue so that they'll actually cut me a check (you have to make $100 before they send you anything - convenient for them, not convenient for us little guys).

I would like to make back the money that I've put into this blog. If you have any ideas that don't involve amateur porn, please throw them at me.

_

NJ to Pass Same-Gender Marriage Only to Have Christie Veto It?

2012-01-24T01:41:00.000-05:00

Phyllis Siegel/Connie Kopelov, by TJ Sengel, cc

NJ Legislators are prepping to make marriage equality for same-gender couples a reality. Senate President Steve Sweeney (D) wants to have the Senate vote on the bill before the March recess.

I'm kind of pissed that some legislators that abstained or voted no on marriage in 2009 have suddenly had a change or heart. Really?! Fucking right now?

In 2009, we had Governor Jon Corzine (D) who had pledged to sign the bill into law. The day of the vote, Sweeney abstained, encouraging his party to suddenly forget where they put their balls.

Jen Beck (R), who we thought was personally with us, voted against gay marriage because that's what she thought her constituents wanted. Well fuck those voters. I'm sure the queers in her district got exactly the opposite of what they wanted.

But, I guess you take the good with the bad. It would be an incredible achievement for marriage equality if the NJ Senate and Assembly can get the 2/3 votes needed to overcome a veto.

This Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary will be deciding whether to bring S.1 to the floor. I'm sure it will pass. However, this is going to be a litmus test for how strong anti-equality support it. As Out In Jersey's News Profiles Editor, I'll be there live-tweeting the forecast is for the marriage fight this year (@OutInJersey). My own personal twitter (@AFruit4Thought) might get a few updates as well.

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US to SOPA Outta My Mouth to Kill Free Speech

2012-01-20T16:05:00.001-05:00

(I really, really like puns.)

My Blacked-Out AFruit4Thought Tumblr

Quick fact: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are aimed at stopping the illegal copying and transferring of copyrighted material. The bills are aimed at attacking "rogue, foreign" websites but would also impact domestic websites that facilitate online sharing.

No More Boing Boing'ing for You

This past Wednesday, my blog, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and my MySpace (only because I don't actually use Myspace) went black to protest the censorship of free speech on the Internet. Basically, I didn't touch my wall or tweet (except some automated tweets that I forgot to stop) to support those who are against the legislation.

The 1st time I remember not being able to read the word "Google" in their images

Participating websites included Wikipedia, Google, Mozilla, Wordpress, Tumblr, Flickr, Vimeo, Reddit, and Imgur. SOPAStrike.com maintains that over 75,000 websites participated. That doesn't include my sites, or other small websites, or Tumblr and Flickr users that voluntarily blocked their personal websites. [UPDATE 01.20.12 16:44] Tumblr staff claim that 650,000 Tumblr blogs were voluntarily blacked-out, generating 140,000 calls to Congress, and 4,200 hours of talk-time with Congressional reps.

One might ask, Why would you want to support taking away money from artists and killing jobs? Big record-labels, the Motion Picture Association of America, and other big businesses are supporting the legislation as a means to hold on to their profits. With the money that these businesses are making, I think their numbers on how many jobs they have to cut are phony. (How many billions of dollars do CEO's need to make anyway?) My answer: I want to protect artists therefore I'm AGAINST SOPA and PIPA.

Why SOPA and PIPA are EVIL:

1. The bills have not been vetted by Internet experts.
   - One provision has already been stripped when legislators realized that it could harm the integrity of the Internet worldwide. Essentially, people the age of my parents and grandparents are trying to fix the internet by arbitrarily cutting wires that are the wrong color.

2. Websites that "facilitate" file-sharing or have information about how to circumvent copyright protections can be shut down if their users share something illegal.
   - If the evil pirate down the street tweets an illegal file-sharing site, Twitter could be shut down.
   - If a single YouTube video violates copyright, the bills would allow the US to shut down all of YouTube.
   - If someone on Blogger shares something illegally, all of blogger (including my site) could be shut down.

3. Websites can be shut down until the courts decide.
   - Here's a hypothetical: Focus on the Family sues me. AFruit4Thought is shut down while we go to court. Our court date is pushed back a year. The court exonerates me because I'm awesome. Focus on the Family just made me pay attorney's .fees and killed my ad revenue (all $5 of it) for an entire year. Sounds like they won this one.

4. Blanket immunity for complying companies.
   - Hypothetical: Lady GaGa tells Blogger that I'm hosting some of her content illegally. Blogger can kick me off my blog and take money that I've made through AdSense back whether I'm guilty or not. It would behoove big sites to comply with removal requests just to keep their feet out of the fire.

5. Chilling of innovation.
   - A big, rich website could shut down the ma & pop with a great idea while they sue them into nonexistence. See above.
   - This means job loss. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and many other billion dollar sites started out with a couple of bucks and some smarty pants. This pull-yourself-up-by-your-boot-straps could become even more impossible.

6. Chilling of free-speech.
   - Remember when places like China and Egypt messed with social networks to hurt the organization of protests? What's to stop the government from killing Twitter if Occupy protesters use it to start a mass protest? The US would only need to allege that one user on Twitter shared something illegal.
   - The government could shut down WikiLeaks.

Without the legislation, the US is still able to shut shit down:

Change.org featured Stop SOPA/PIPA petitions

Yesterday, Megaupload was shut down by the US. The hacktivist group Anonymous is already making denial-of-services attacks on companies supporting SOPA and PIPA. The US is attempting to extradite them to the US. The process could take a year. None of the suspects are US citizens. "The Justice Department, FBI and law enforcement agencies in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands sought court orders and seized servers which hosted Megaupload.com's content."

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that the arrests set 'a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?' "

Furthermore, the site has popped up in the Netherlands and Belize as users host the content elsewhere. Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keyes and Kanye West, artists that must be victims of file-pirates, endorse Megaupload. Megaupload can have legitimate uses - it allows users to send each other files that are too large to send via email.

After the jump is an awesome anti-SOPA/PIPA GIF from The Oatmeal.

Going Black to Oppose Internet Censorship

2012-01-18T00:29:00.001-05:00

This blog is going dark in protest of SOPA, PIPA, and other legislation that would chill free speech, kill websites run by small businesses, and damage the integrity of the Internet.

The Far-Right Thinks About My Sex Life More Than I Do

2012-01-16T17:19:00.000-05:00

I swear, too many people are concerned with my ability to copulate. It makes me wonder how people propose marriage these days. Let's do a thought exercise:

Man goes to his fiancee's parents to ask for her hand in marriage.

"I would like to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage. I strongly would like to copulate with her and have her bear my children. Since I have a penis and she has a vagina, we are compatible. In fact, my sperm and her egg may merge into what will become our child. It's natural.

In my romantic, Disneyland worldview, he's supposed to say, "I would like to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage. I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her."

My comment on this article at NJ.com.

The far-right is changing my vision of this, however. Their obsession with how two men or two women can have sex informs their view on marriage. Last time I checked, married couples aren't doing it all that much anyway.

I'm twenty-something...aren't I supposed to be thinking of sex ALL THE TIME? Apparently, the fundie bunch thinks about my genitals WAY more than I do. Am I doing something wrong?

/thought experiment

Ken and Adrien, Hornblower Cruises and Events

New Jersey lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to bring marriage equality to same-gender couples.

Things have changed since my last post on NJ marriage equality three years ago. The 2009 campaign went poorly in part because the future Senate President, Steve Sweeney (D), abstained from voting, scaring away other Democrats who were in support of marriage equality. Sweeney has since come out in support of marriage equality and said his abstention was the worst decision he's ever made.

Of course, another possible reason for the loss in 2009 was Chris Christie's win in the gubernatorial (governor) race. Knowing that a conservative against marriage equality was coming into office had a chilling effect on supportive legislators. Christie has come out against marriage equality before, but he has yet to make it clear this time around. The majority of New Jerseyans don't oppose marriage equality (see below). However, if Christie wants to run for president on the GOP ticket one day, he'll need to solidify his opposition to equality.

Support for marriage equality (depending on the wording of the question) is increasing in NJ and across the nation.

GayLife.org

“I am not a fan of same-sex marriage. It’s not something that I support,” [Chris] Christie told [Meet the Press] host Dick Gregory.

I'm not a fan of opposite-gender marriage. It just doesn't feel right to me. Therefore, I'm not going to get end. /end of story

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GOP Scapegoats Queers for Society's Ills

2012-01-09T15:54:00.003-05:00

Republican candidates for president are gunning for the "values voters," social conservatives who want to vote according to their personal sense of ethics or morals. I'm not part of the values voters because I'm gay, and gay people don't have morals.

Contenders for Cum Bucket of the Year!

or...

I Have Trouble Being Nice When You Think I'm Yucky

Wikimedia Commons

Rick Santorum - Convicts are better parents than gay men. The repeal of sodomy laws will lead to bestiality and polygamy.

Gage Skidmore

Rick Perry - Obama's administration is conducting a war on religion.

Cberlet

Mitt Romney - Gays can raise kids, but kids should ideally be raised by a mother and father.

(At anti-queer event) Cberlet

Newt Gingrich - Gays should have some sort of contractual arrangement that's not marriage. Religious charities are being discriminated against.

Michelle Bachmann - Not even going to bother.

On the topic of queer values, let me examine some of our dangerous dearth of morals (since we're all the same, much like illegal immigrants). I'll provide some reactions from "science," that farce created by the liberal elite to demonize the healthy views of Christians.

1. Homos are all pedophiles.
- More straight men than gay men are pedophiles. (Gregory Harek of U.C. Davis, for more analysis, see Box Turtle Bulletin).

2. Queers can't raise healthy families. Santorum: "...even fathers in jail who had abandoned their kids were still better than no father at all to have in their children's lives."
- The "development, adjustment, and well-being of children with lesbian and gay parents do not differ markedly from that of children with heterosexual parents" (APA).

3. Gay men are all leather daddies at Pride parades.
- If 4-6% (the liberal elite's common lie about the percentage of homosexuals) is gay or a lesbian, then Pride parades would be massive endeavors that would crush the downtowns of cities across the US in June/July. Similarly, if we ALL are leather daddies, whole herds of cattle would need to be slaughtered to make our chaps and tiny vests.
- Gay men are all fashionistas. Leather doesn't appear to be in this season (I gots no science for any of this.)

4. Homosexuals and cross-dressers attack Christians*. Gingrich: "The bigotry question goes both ways. And there is a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concern on the other side, and none of it gets covered by the news media." Perry: "[Obama] administration's war on religion."
- Hate crimes against LGB people are way more common than those against Christians. Religious hate crimes are by and large committed against Muslim and Jewish victims. In 2010, 18.6% of all hate crimes were because of the offender's bias against LGBs. Although 18.9% were anti-religious, 7.2% were anti-Christian. If we had in the "anti-other religion," the result is still 16.3%, still under 18.6%. FBI hate crime statistics do not include transgender or gender non-conforming victims and rarely includes sexual assault as a hate crime.

The NCAVP (National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs) documents higher rates of anti-LGB violence, including violence against poz (HIV+) and trans people, than the FBI's survey.

"Of the 1,552 victims of an anti-religion hate crime:
- 67.0 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias.
- 12.7 percent were victims of an anti-Islamic bias.
- 4.2 percent were victims of an anti-Catholic bias.
- 3.0 percent were victims of an anti-Protestant bias.
- 0.5 percent were victims of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
- 9.1 percent were victims of a bias against other religions (anti-other religion).
- 3.5 percent were victims of a bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group) (FBI)."

- The disproportionate death by suicide of LGBT youth has been strongly linked to the increased bullying of said youth (Youth Pride, Inc., We Give a Damn, etc.)

5. Gay men spread disease**.
- Yes, gay men make up the majority of new cases of HIV (Gotcha, liberal commies! It's well known that straight people only ever get it because one of their monogamous, married partners has sex-out-of-wedlock with a dirty, gay man.)
- 50% of Americans have genital HPV (CDC). I've seen numbers as high as 75%.
- 90% of Americans will have oral herpes, commonly called cold sores, by the time they are 50 (STDTesting.com and GetSTDTested.com quote the CDC...[the CDC's website is a bitch so I'm done looking - take this with a grain of salt, then])
- (Liberals lie! HIV doesn't cause AIDS, according to expert Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association.)

So, fundies lose on numbers 1 through 4. The socialist, Nazi, fascist, communist, anti-American queers (yes, some of those terms cannot possibly go together) do lose on number 5.

Let it be known that about 43% of men and 36% of women have had anal sex with a partner of the opposite sex (CDC). Kinky! So don't be bringing your butt hate on to the gays.

All in all, this election is going to be a truck load of santorum!

*Using the pejorative because I'm being facetious.

**Almost all scientists (with degrees in their field from an accredited university) agree that AIDS is the result of HIV. Although men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) have a higher likelihood of contracting HIV, the virus is NOT a gay disease. So, just don't have unprotected sex, and you have a great chance of being just fine.
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Vote Canada for President in 2012!

2012-01-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

I think I've found who I'll vote for next year: Canada.

Thank you, Mother Jones.

Looking Back on 2011

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

How did I do on my New Year's Resolutions from last year?

Wikimedia Commons - Semnoz

1. "To be more assertive."

Bing, bing, bing! After GM'ing at a restaurant, I've come very far in the assertiveness category.

Par exemple, a restaurant was supposed to remake my meal. When they sent out the same meal with the charred bits scooped off (I used to expo, and I have a great memory), I flipped shit. Eloquently and calmly. Free meal - and they actually remade it.

2. "To only eat meat if I know (and agree with) where it came from."

Mostly good. I do have trouble if things are fancy - I like to be pretentious. Overall, I give myself an 85% grade.

And...

The Top Ten AFruit4Thought Stories of 2010

1. Mistrial in Lawrence King's Hate Crime Case

2. Lady Gaga Tells Target to Shove It

3. Corbin Fisher - Gay Porn Rakes in the Dough

4. True Blood's Marshall Allman is Really, Really Naked

5. New York Post Loves Them Some "Tacky Trannies"

6. Dude Streaks on Live Weather Channel Report on Hurricane Irene

7. Merry Christmas from AF4T...and the 24 Queers of Christmas

8. Better to be Safe than Sorry - Female Condoms Work for Anal Sex

9. Happy End of Easter!

10. Sometimes, You Just Need a Sugar Daddy - Calvin Klein & Nick Gruber Found True Love at Last

Fun Searches Leading People to AFruit4Thought:

Wikimedia Commons - Shin-改

-"marshall allman naked" brought in a whopping 508 views!

-"daniel radcliffe eye twitch" brought in 28 views! I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the twitch annoying. The eye twitch is gone now.

-"is taylor lautner mormon?" got me 2 views. The answer: Taylor Lautner is NOT Mormon.

-"gay frisky news" brought in 1 viewer...but they must have found what they liked. They stayed for almost 5 minutes! I'm glad that someone could get their frisk on thinking about my blog.
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Follow AFruit4Thought on Tumblr

2012-01-02T14:11:00.001-05:00

Hello, blog buddies!

I'm almost as excited about Tumblr as I was about this cappuccino.

I've added a Tumblr to the AFruit4Thought franchise (one day, I'll be as ubiquitous as Rupert Murdoch!). The AFruit4Thought blog will continue to contain pictures and videos but will focus more on my views and reactions to news. The AFruit4Thought Tumblr will be a little...fluffier? It won't be as serious and will contain information that I want to share but don't necessarily feel the need to comment on. Much like my Twitter (also AFruit4Thought - running theme here?) blasts links that I find awesome/horrifying, my Tumblr will feature vids and pics that are awesome/horrifying.

You can expect hot guys, evil fundies, Mr. Manta, political punditry, tantalizing transfolk, my Sarah Palin dress-ups, sexy ladies, feral feminism, more politics, Oxford commas, and glitter!

Soon to come - AFruit4Thought video-blog! I'm welcoming feedback as to what people would like to see my vlog about!

Please feel free to follow me as I conquer the web!
Tumblr - AFruit4Thought
Twitter - AFruit4Thought
Stumbleupon - AFruit4Thought
Reddit - AFruit4Thought

And, as always, you can email me at AFruit4Thought at gmail dot com.

Enjoy!
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Happy Queer Year's!

2011-12-31T23:58:00.001-05:00

Here's some blurry Beiber!

Girl BLASTS the Gendered Marketing of Toys

2011-12-29T12:34:00.001-05:00

Gender makes me feel pissy, too.

Riley will be receiving an honorary degree in Gender Studies and Awesome from the University of Fruiticus Quattro Thoughticus.

"Some girls like superheroes. Some girls like princesses.
Some boy like superheroes. Some some boy like princesses.
So then why does all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff?"

Riley even hits on how it's okay for girls to buy "boy stuff" but not for boys to buy "girl stuff." Simply inspired!
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Happy Last Night of Hanukkah!

2011-12-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

I hope you enjoy your last night of Hanukkah!

For your viewing pleasure, here's a picture from the set of Men of Israel (a Michael Lucas porno):

Wikimedia Commons

RepubliCAN'T the Game - A New RPG from the Queer Who Brought You Palin's Wardrobe

2011-12-27T14:04:00.000-05:00

Obviously, something has gone wrong in our political system. Phony climate change, soggy freedom fries, fuzzy numbers, young people refusing to get off of my lawn - the world is a shit-show, and it's all because of politics. Or something like that. [EDIT 12/27/11 19:11]

To combat the nastiness this world has mired itself in...

To take America back from the immigrants...

To boldly go where no fruit has gone before...

The Winner of AFruit4Thought's Best Blog of the Year Award

AFruit4Thought brings you

RepubliCAN'T the Game!

Original by Aaron Logan

(*insert canned applause*)

RepubliCan't is a role-playing game (RPG) based off of the Good Old Party (GOP, Republicans, Elephants, etc.). RepubliCAN'T is for 3 or more players, but the rule is not enforced (unless the player's skin does not blend in with off-white walls).

Additions to RepubliCAN'T the Game will be forthcoming. Please comment below with suggestions, critiques, compliments, or crocuses.

Playable Characters:

Yes, those are US flag contacts! AP c/o Examiner.com

Republican, Type 1: Tea Partier
Health - Anywhere from 1 to 100 Hit Points, depending on age, hygiene, and mental stability.
Attack - Guns (5pts)
Defense - Guns (5pts)
Special Ability - MindFck (25pts) -- When thinking out loud, the Tea Partier tends to revel in contradictions such as reducing government size and spending while increasing the defense budget, taking government out of Medicare, and fighting for freedom with racism.
Special Ability - Power-Chair Whirl (10pts)-- A small twitch of the joystick results in a powerful blast of hatergy (hate + energy). Hatergy strength is a direct result of 1.) how much money the government gave the Tea Partier to buy their power-chair, and 2.) how powerful the Tea Partier's urge is to kick government dependents off of the taxpayer's dime.

Birther
Health - 65
Attack - Guns (5pts)
Defense - Guns (5pts)
Special Attack - Papercut (3xD6) -- With ninja-like speed, the Birther whips out a forged copy of a birth certificate, slicing their opponent with thousands of tiny paper cuts.
Special Defense - Literacy Rate (Player's intelligence x 2) -- The Birther's sub-par literacy allows him(her) to ignore much of an attack because they're just not aware that it's happening.

Original - JCWilmore

Fundamentalist
Health - 80
Attack - Bible (2pts) (+1 for King's James)
Defense - Blind faith (10pts)
Special Attack - Sign Rage (20) -- The fundamentalist uses their protest sign to good use, berating their opponent with guilt with beating their opponent with wood.
Special Defense - Selective Hearing (damage reduced by [Blind Faith + Bible]xD6) -- Selective Hearing allows the Fundamentalist to ignore some damage because of their ability to selectively read the Bible.

Tycoon
Health - (current bank balance x 20)
Attack - Hitman (D6)
Defense - Nest Egg (2 x number of properties owned)
Special Attack - Buy-out (current bank balance/5) -- The player uses the force of their money to steal the health of another player. Player's current bank balance is divided by 5. The player takes that many health points from the target player.
Special Ability - Privilege (+10 to Health, Attack, or Defense for one turn) -- The Tycoon's privileged birth allows the player extra points to health, attack, or defense for one turn.

Neocon
Health - 65
Attack - Predator Drone (10)
Defense - Whiskey Flask (D6) -- The Neocon has cut a space in their Bible to hide their whiskey flask from the family. The Neocon therefore gains defense based on the amount of whiskey left in the aforementioned flask. Neocon's have -1 Defense when facing Fundamentalists.
Special Ability - War on Terror -- The Neocon is a war hawk. As such, the Neocon gains an additional attack on each turn.
Special Ability - Flip-flop (steal opponent's card) -- The player has switched political parties faster than Lady Gaga switches her wardrobe. The constant flip-flopping gives the player access to both sides of the aisle. The player chooses a target player and picks a card from their hand at random. That card now belongs to the Neocon.

David H. Montgomery

Log-Cabin Gay
Health - 80
Attack - Irrational Behavior (2 + D6)
Defense - Wealth and Privilege (10) -- W&P allows the player to ignore most game rules aimed at repressing members of the queer community. All rules that mention (or hint at) lesbians, bisexuals, and transfolk may be ignored.
Special Attack - Spit -- The Log-Cabin Gay has a deep well of anger from repression, ex-gay therapy, and denial. The Log-Cabin Gay spits on an opposing player. The target player take -5 damage and rolls a D6. If the die lands on 1, the player has been infected with HIV. HIV subtracts -1 health per turn for the rest of the game. No players may make physical or eye-contact with an opponent infected with HIV - the disease might spread!
Special Ability - Gay Bar, Gay Bar, Gay Bar! -- The Log-Cabin Gay may forfeit his turn to visit a Gay Bar (restore health +20)

SnotRockets

Backwoods Hick
Health - 50
Attack - Shotgun (3 x D6)
Defense - Moonshine (2)
Special Attack - 'ism (4 x Prejudice Score) -- The Player whole-heartedly believes their 'ism of choice (racism, sexism, etc. including homophobia).
Special Ability - In-Breeding -- Once per turn, the Backwoods Hick may role a D6. If die lands on 1, 2 or 3 the player gains 10 pts health, if 4 player does nothing, if 5 or 6 player loses 3 pts health.

Special Characters:

Sarah Palin
[Best played by Tea Partier]
Vulnerable to confrontation by pregnant teenagers (minus 10 pts health).
Special Ability - Super-sight -- Because of Sarah Palin's ability to see distant countries from her backyard, Sarah Palin may choose one opponent per turn. The opposing player chooses one card to reveal to Sarah Palin (the player may choose to show the same card repeatedly).
Special Ability - Bulldog with Lipstick -- Player rolls D6 every turn. If the roll results in a 6, the player may create a Bulldog with Lipstick familiar (stats: 10, 5, 6).

Herman Cain
[Best played by Tycoon]
Herman Cain has a weakness to Neocons (-1 in all statistics when interacting with Neocon)
Special Ability - Baffled -- Focusing on Libya (he's never met her) and other items of presidential import have weakened Herman Cain's ability to think. Player must receive a 9 on a roll of a D6 to start their turn.
Special Ability - 9-9-9 Plan -- Herman Cain may change any dice roll (on any die) to 9 one time per round.
Special Ability - Reward The 1% -- Herman Cain's ingenious 9-9-9 plan allows the wealthiest individuals in the country to ignore taxes on their wealth. This reward to The 1% allows Hermain Cain to control The 1% for a short time. Instead of making a turn, Herman Cain may take over the roll of story-telling for one turn. This ability can only be used once per game and cannot be used to grossly deplete another player's stats or to grossly inflate a player's debts. Of course, "grossly" is a subjective word.

Generic Abilities

LA LA LA - +10 defense against logic-based attacks. Player sticks fingers in their ears and screams until the opposing argument stops.

Moral Panic - +50 attack once a game. The player creates a baseless falsehood that freaks out all other players (ex. WMDs or weapons of mass destruction).

Moderator:

The 1%
The 1% is considered the DM (dungeon master, omniscient story-teller, god) in RepubliCAN'T. The player(s) who is(are) The 1% is responsible for pushing the narrative forward. With a word, The 1% can move remove mountain-tops, level forests, poison oceans, kill citizens, or save puppies. The 1% should be governed by what (s)he thinks is fun not by what is feasible. If The 1% wants their gamers to battle dinosaur-riding aliens (sometimes referred to as immigrants), all The 1% needs is a will, the money, and the power - there will be a way. Jurassic Park in Texas anyone?

Special thanks to Bucky, Dia, Miranda, Nick, Stephen and Greg for their excellent ideas for characters, abilities, and just plain inspiration.

Please don't forget to leave YOUR ideas for RepubliCAN'T the Game in the comment section below.
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Happy First Day of Kwanzaa!

2011-12-27T00:03:00.005-05:00

Bilerico - Isis King (left) and Laverne Cox (right)

The first day of Kwanzaa celebrates Umoja, or unity.

I figured we could celebrate (a few minutes belatedly) with Isis King and Laverne Cox. Both are powerful, black women (male to female transgender) who made a name for themselves in reality television.

The internet is rife with arrows aimed at Kwanzaa. For those who say that Kwanzaa is just a made up holiday: Bugger off!

Of course it's made up - just like Christmas and Arbor Day and every other holiday. Christmas was made up long before Kwanzaa but that doesn't diminish the importance of the message. Unity, self-reliance, community, and culture are something that queer activists can really sink their teeth into.
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Merry Christmas from AF4T...and the 24 Queers of Christmas

2011-12-25T23:02:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas Night, my dear readers! To celebrate this night of tradition, debauchery, capitalism, and family, I've included some special holiday pictures. (Most links are Safe For Work...but the source names generally tell you what's up.)

No Need for Shirts

Kind of looks like Kurt from Glee.

His sweater is fake - damn cheaters ruin everything.

MoreThan4Sides

Lesbian Fiction


Hot Gay Blog

John McCain never liked homosexual sweaters. He's missing out!

Surprise Christmas pedophilia!

A Little Dramatic Boy

Justin Bieber is catching his first snowflake - young lesbians are soooo cute!

pics on Sodahead

Honey, I think your Rudolf is showing.

The Activity Pit

Yeah, I don't get it either.

Bangkok Bois

If a picture of you or that you own has been listed without proper accreditation or consent, please email me for removal or better citations - AFruit4Thought at gmail dot com.
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