Today's Messages (off)
| Unanswered Messages (on)
|
Forum: General Talk
|
|
Topic: Seven Year Itch
|
|
|
|
Topic: Well-known LGBs (Marc and/or E.J.)
|
|
|
|
|
Marc, I think it's your turn.
If Marc would rather not come up with another one, then I think the baton passes to E.J. as he got very close to naming our last famous lesbian.
David
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: "Associativeware"
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
 |
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
I have at last found the source of the aggravating popups "ilead.itrack.it"
They were associated with the free nedstat counter I used to use on the site. I have killed that counter.
I hope Nedstat now vanishes up its own fundament.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Manners?
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
a new poll
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: I hope I am not out of line posting this link.
|
|
|
|
|
If anyone enjoys Picture’s, JEPEG’s etc. 99 & 9/10 non sexual I am attaching a Yahoo Group Link:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Graphics_N_Stuff/
This group is by mail only and is high volume. But I think many of the pictures are great.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Now I dont want you to think....
|
|
|
Guest
|
 |
On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
|
|
|
That all we do is play with our hamster but, Judging from the two tests we have due tomorrow that haven't been started I suppose all we really do, do is play with our hamster. I really like the little guy though he makes me pretty happy.
We updated the site Saturday and then we have some more drawn comics coming up on Tuesday. Someone from home lent Alex and me a Wacom Tablet so we might pull out some more sillyness using that see how we like it ya know. Anyway, Thats enough self publication for tonight I think. Catch yall later
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Charlie (Finding Tim) and I acceded to a request
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
We did this with pleasure, and it was some labour for each of us.
His story refers to a camp, a camp which does not exist, exactly, but which had initially a name similar to a programme run in conjunction with the Boy Scouts of America. We were asked with great politeness, and no antu gay bias of any description, if it would be possible to alter the name of the camp in the story
Charlie and I had a pleasant correspondence with the gentleman and agreed that the name of Charlie's camp was not sacrosanct, and could be altered.
Now we have done it I have written to the requestor confirming that it has been done. And I have taken the oppotrunity to ask him, whatever his personal or religious beliefs may be about homosexuality, to seek to ensure that his leadership and mentoring programme trests gay boys and girls precisely the same as heterosexual boys and girls. Not as a "debt", not even out of "honour", but to do so as a fellow human being.
I have asked him to make sure thay gay kids are as safe in his care as str8 kids, and that he "listens to their issues" without taking any action that he woudl not take on behalf of a heterosexual kid.
I have no idea, and have told him I have no idea, whether he already does this. He may refuse. But he may also think while ghe refuses. He may accept the thoughts and do it. Either way we have done ourselves no harm, and may have done some good in getting gay kids accepted too.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: caption competition
|
|
|
|
huwar
|
 |
Getting started |
Registered: May 2004
Messages: 13
|
|
|
what kind of snake is THAT?
don't ask the way to peace; peace is the way
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Creed
|
|
|
|
|
Beat me,
whip me,
use me,
but if you mess up my hair, YOU DIE!
I believe in Karma....what you give is what you get returned........
Affirmation........Savage Garden
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Ex-Gay Cowboys
|
|
|
|
Guest
|
|
On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
|
|
|
This was posted in the Friday Feb 10 edition of the New York Times
Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Ex-Gay Cowboys
By DAN SAVAGE
Published: February 10, 2006
Seattle
FIRST, a little of that full disclosure stuff: I have not actually seen "Brokeback Mountain" or "End of the Spear," both of which I'm going to discuss here.
But since when did not seeing a film prevent anyone from sharing his or her strong opinions about it? Before the posters for "Brokeback Mountain" were even printed, everyone from the blogger Mickey Kaus to the Concerned Women for America to gay men all over the country had already said a lot about the film. (Their opinions were, respectively, con, con and pro.)
So, let's get to it: Remember when straight actors who played gay were the ones taking a professional risk? Those days are over. Shortly after Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, both straight, received Oscar nominations for playing gay cowboys in "Brokeback Mountain," conservative Christians were upset when they learned that a gay actor, Chad Allen, was playing a straight missionary in "End of the Spear."
"End of the Spear" tells what happened after five American missionaries were murdered in 1956 by a tribe in Ecuador.
Instead of seeking retribution, the missionaries' families reached out to the tribe, forgave the killers and eventually converted them to Christianity. An evangelical film company, Every Tribe Entertainment, brought the story to the screen. In a glowing review, Marcus Yoars, a film critic for Focus on the Family, noted that the "martyrdom" of the slain missionaries has "inspired thousands if not millions of Christians." But after conservatives took acloser look at the cast list, the protests began. Many felt Chad Allen's presence in the film negated any positive message.
The pastors claim they're worried about what will happen when their children rush home from the movies, Google Chad Allen's name, and discover that he's a "gay activist." ("Gay activist" is a term evangelicals apply to any homosexual who isn't a gay doormat.) They needn't be too concerned. Straight boys who have unsupervised access to the Internet aren't Googling the names of middle-aged male actors gay or straight — not when Paris Hilton's sex tapes are still out there.
Frankly, I can't help but be perplexed by the criticisms of Mr. Allen from the Christian right. After all, isn't playing straight what evangelicals have been urging gaymen to do?
That's precisely what Jack and Ennis attempt to do in "Brokeback Mountain"— at least, according to people I know who have actually seen the film. These gay cowboys try, as best they can, to quit one another. They marry women, start families. But their wives are crushed when they realize their husbands don't, and can't, ever really love them. "Brokeback Mountain" makes clear that it would have been better for all concerned if Jack and Ennis had lived in a world where they could simply be together.
That world didn't exist when Jack and Ennis were pitching tents together, but it does now — even in the American West. Today, the tiny and stable percentage of men who are gay are free to live openly, and those who want to settle down and start families can do so without having to deceive some poor, unsuspecting woman.
Straight audiences are watching and loving "Brokeback Mountain"— that's troubling to evangelical Christians who have invested a decade and millions of dollars promoting the notion that gay men can be converted to heterosexuality, or become "ex-gay." It is, they insist, an ex-gay movement, although I've never met a gay man who was moved to join it.
This "movement" demands more from gay men than simply playing straight. Once a man can really pass as ex-gay — once he's got some Dockers, an expired gym membership and a bad haircut — he's supposed to become, in effect, an ex-gay missionary, reaching out to the hostile gay tribes in such inhospitable places as Chelsea and West Hollywood.
What should really trouble evangelicals, however, is this: even if every gay man became ex-gay tomorrow, there still wouldn't be an ex-lesbian tomboy out therefor every ex-gay cowboy. Instead, millions of straight women would wake up one morning to discover that they had married a Jack or an Ennis.
Restaurant hostesses and receptionists at hair salons would be especially vulnerable.
Sometimes I wonder if evangelicals really believe that gay men can go straight. If they don't think Chad Allen can play straight convincingly for 108 minutes, do they honestly imagine that gay men who aren't actors can play straight for a lifetime? And if anyone reading this believes that gay men can actually become ex-gay men, I have just one question for you: Would you want your daughter to marry one?
Evangelical Christians seem sincere in their desire to help build healthy, lasting marriages. Well, if that's their goal, encouraging gay men to enter into straight marriages is a peculiar strategy. Every straight marriage that includes a gay husband is one Web-browser-history check away from an ugly divorce.
If anything, supporters of traditional marriage should want gay men out of the heterosexual marriage market entirely. And the best way to do that is to see that we're safely married off — to each other, not to your daughters. Let gay actors like Chad Allen only play it straight in the movies.
Dan Savage is the editor of The Stranger, a Seattle newsweekly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: We've Had 'Em (redux)
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you, Deeeeeeeeeeeeej, for picking up on the omissions. Here is the consolidated consolidated list:
Chad ALLEN (1974->>) American actor.
Hans Christian ANDERSEN (1805-1875); Danish author and poet.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC) Athenian philosopher.
Wystan Hugh AUDEN (1907-1973) British poet.
James BALDWIN (1924-1987) American novelist.
Lionel BART (1930-1999) British composer & lyricist.
Dirk BOGARDE (1921-1999) ; British movie actor.
Wilfrid BRAMBELL (1912-1985) ; Irish character actor.
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976) ; British classical composer.
Eric BROUMAN (?- >>) ; American comic entertainer & magician.
Michelangelo BUONAROTTI (1475-1564) Renaissance sculptor, artist, poet.
Raymond BURR (1917-1993) ; Canadian movie & TV actor.
Simon CALLOW (1949- >>) ; British movie, TV & theatrical actor.
Truman CAPOTE (1924-1984) American writer.
Edward CARPENTER (1844-1929) ; British poet & philosopher.
Richard CHAMBERLAIN (1934- ) American actor.
Graham CHAPMAN (1941-1989); British comedian and writer.
Julian CLEARY (1959->>) British TV personality.
Montgomery CLIFT (1920-1966) ; American movie & theatrical actor.
Aaron COPLAND (1900-1990) American composer.
Noel COWARD (1899-1973) ; British playwright, actor & songwriter.
John CURRY (1949-1994); British ice skater.
Stephen DALDRY (1961- >>) ; British movie & theatrical director.
DANA INTERNATIONAL Israeli transgendered singer, Eurovision winner.
Leonardo DA VINCI (1452-1519) ; Italian architect, sculptor, painter, inventor & all-round genius.
Jaye DAVIDSON (1968- >>); British former actor (born in USA).
Russell T. DAVIES (1963- >>) ; British TV writer & producer.
Digby Augustus Stewart Mackworth DOLBEN (1848-1867) British poet.
Brian Samuel EPSTEIN (1934-1967) British Businessman and Beatles manager.
EURYALUS & NISUS (ancient Greece) ; Trojan characters in Virgil's Aeneid.
Kenny EVERETT [Maurice Cole] (1943-1995); British DJ and entertainer.
Justin FASHANU (1961-1998 ); British soccer player.
Mark FEEHILY (1980->>) Irish singer (Westlife)
Edna FERBER (1885-1968; American novelist & playwright.
Edward Morgan FORSTER (1879-1970); British novelist and essayist.
Barney FRANK (1940->>) ; American politician.
Greta Lovisa [Gustafson] GARBO (1905-1990) Swedish movie actress.
Jean GENET (1910-1986); French writer & political activist.
Jason GOULD (1966- >>); American movie actor.
Percy GRAINGER (1882-1961) Australian/American pianist & composer.
Arthur John GUILGUD [also Gielgud] (1904-2000) British actor.
Alec GUINNESS (1914-2000) British Movie actor.
Traianus Caesar HADRIANUS Augustus (76-138 ); Roman emperor.
Russell HARTY (1934-1988; British TV presenter.
Sir Nigel HAWTHORNE (1929-2001) British actor.
Gerard Manley HOPKINS (1844-1889) British poet.
Frankie HOWERD [Francis Alex Howard] (1917-1992); British comedian and comic actor.
Rock HUDSON (1925-1985) American actor.
Tab HUNTER (1931->>) American actor & singer.
Christopher ISHERWOOD (1904-1986) British/American novelist & playwright.
Chester KALLMAN (1921-1975); American poet, librettist & translator.
John Maynard KEYNES (1883-1946); British economist.
Billy Jean KING (1943->>); American tennis ace.
William Rufus KING (1786-1853) American vice-president.
Friedrich Alfred KRUPP (1854-1902) German industrialist.
Wladzio LIBERACE (1919-1987); American pianist & entertainer.
LUDVIG II (1845-1886) King of Bavaria.
Thomas MANN (1875-1955); German novelist & essayist.
Robert MAPPLETHORPE (1946->>); American photographer.
Christopher MARLOWE (1564-1593) British poet, dramatist, drunkard & spy.
Somerset MAUGHAM (1874-1965) British novelist.
Armistead MAUPIN (1944->>) American novelist.
Nicholas McGEGAN (??->>) English musician and orchestral conductor.
Stephen MERRITT (1966->>) American songwriter.
Hector Hugh MONROE [Saki] (1870-1916) British writer & novelist.
Gian-Maria del MONTE [Julius III] (1487-1555) Italian pope.
Stephen Patrick MORRISSEY (1959->>) English popular singer.
Ivor NOVELLO [David Ivor DAVIES] (1893-1951) British composer and lyricist.
Joe ORTON (1933-1967) British playwright.
Bob PARIS (1983->>) American bodybuilder & activist.
Anthony PERKINS (1932-1992) American actor.
Danny PINTAURO (1976->>); American TV & theatrical actor.
Edward PLANTAGENET [Edward II] (1284-1327); English king.
Cole PORTER (1891-1964); American songwriter.
Marcel PROUST (1871-1922); French novelist & essayist.
Mary RENAULT (1905-1983); British novelist.
Arthur RIMBAUD (1854-1891); French poet.
Elio di RUPO (1951->>) Belgian politician.
Camille SAINT-SAENS (1835-1921); French classical composer.
Franz Peter SCHUBERT (1797-1828 ); Austrian composer.
Billy STRAYHORN (1915-1967); American pianist & composer.
James STUART (1566-1625) [James VI of Scotland & I of England]; British king.
George Hosato TAKEI (1937->>) American actor.
Pyoter Ilyitch TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893); Russian classical composer.
Jeremy THORPE (1929->>) British politician.
Michael TIPPETT (1905-199; British classical composer.
Alan TURING (1912-1954); British mathematician & computer pioneer.
James WHALE (1889-1957) British movie director.
Walt WHITMAN (1819-1892); American poet.
Kenneth WILLIAMS (1926-1988 ); British comic movie & radio actor.
Tennessee WILLIAMS (1911-1983); American playwright.
George WINDSOR (1902-1942); British Royal; 4th son of George V.
Jeanette WINTERSON (1959->>) British novelist.
Peter WYNGARDE (1933- >>); British/French TV actor.
Marguerite YOURCENAR (1903-1987); Belgian/French novelist.
Franco ZEFFIRELLI (1923->>) Italian movie & opera director.
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Gay person
|
|
|
|
marc
|
 |
Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
|
|
|
No Message Body
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: John and Bob's Story, by Kiwi
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
Now I don't want to give the plot away. I just wanted to say that I think it is an unusual and oddly gentle tale. I suspect all Kiwi's will be gentle. I aksed him about the ending to that tale and he had not realised that it could be interpreted differently.
The thing is, why not let's let him know what we each think happened, by email?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: A prayer for you
|
|
|
|
Guest
|
|
On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
|
|
|
I maynot know and may never meet you. But do know how to pray and that I shall do. I know with all my heat that God is able to heal you of all that you ask of Him. He has heal me and my family many times. Take your trust in Him and will be right. Richard
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Birthday
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
He may have constructed this place but he never comes here. So the only way to wish megaman a happy birthday on the 15th is to email megaman@iomfats.org
He's very private, may be embarrassed to get messages, may not even answer you. But I do know he'd like to be wished a happy birthday.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Hi Doug
|
|
|
|
|
to a very special friend, someone I like very very much
Brian
I believe in Karma....what you give is what you get returned........
Affirmation........Savage Garden
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: This is a little off topic, but
|
|
|
|
|
I think it may be of a more general interest. At any rate, it shows that in some countries there is considerable freedom for young creativity.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3193674,00.html
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: A new poll
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
Over Christmas I popped another poll online:
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Private and public life
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
I just wanted to let the person who posted a very sweet note in the "wrong guestbook" on the 28th know that I truly appreciate the message. I have had to delete it because it might embarrass my family. You see I am not out except to those to whom I have chosen to come out to. My wofe is embarrassed about my orientation, and hates it. It is her right to be embarrassed and to hate it. She does not want people to know, not really.
I don't feel "an example" to gay men really, you know. Living a straight lifestyle is th eonkly orientation "choice" a gay man can make, but it is not an example I suggest anyone follows. It is hard on me and very hard on my wife. In an ideal world we woudl be compatible. She is sweet and feminine and slim and gorgeous, even rising 50. She turns heads when she walks donw the street, though she does not believe it. And I fell in love with her deeply and genuinely.
But the strain of being gay is very hard. Imagine a heterosexual person forcing himself to make love to a man and you get the issues well. I don't exactly mean "forcing", because love does conquer all, but I mean not having the "right appendages".
Now imagine a woman feeling that she is "wrong" for the gay man she is married to and fell in love with. Take poor self esteem and beat it about the head with the dead codfish of the news that her husband is gay. Women do not hear "I love you, I can't explain it but I do, and you arouse me" Instead they hear "I married a queer", and they feel odd about it. Or mine does.
So I deleted the message on that site. It is not that I hide exactly. I just prefer to keep them separate.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Asia remembers tsunami disaster with prayer, silence
|
|
|
|
|
Asia remembers tsunami disaster with prayer, silence
By Tomi Soetjipto
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Mourners from across the world wept, prayed and observed moments of silence along ravaged Indian Ocean coastlines on Monday to remember those killed by one of nature's deadliest disasters.
A year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, a huge recovery operation has brought hope to hundreds of thousands of survivors. But the sorrow, pain and trauma remain strong -- along with fears that monster waves could come again.
"We think about the lost lives, lost property and lost jobs," said Kanagalingan Janenthra, 19, in Sri Lanka's eastern town of Batticaloa. "We are in fear. Some of us think it might come again."
About 230,000 people were killed or disappeared in 13 Indian Ocean countries, nearly three quarters of them in Indonesia's Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra, according to tallies made by individual countries.
Survivors, friends and relatives joined national leaders and foreign dignitaries for memorials in the worst affected countries of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
In Aceh, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set off a siren at 8:16 a.m. to begin a minute of silence.
"It was under the same blue sky exactly a year ago that Mother Earth unleashed the most destructive power among us," Yudhoyono said in a flattened suburb of the capital Banda Aceh.
STILL DISPLACED
A 9.15 magnitude earthquake, which lasted eight minutes, set off waves 33 feet high that smashed into shorelines as far away as East Africa, sweeping holidaymakers off beaches and erasing entire towns and villages.
A year later, four out of five of the two million people displaced are still living in tents, temporary shelters or piled in with family and friends across the region.
Many people who took part in evening prayers in Banda Aceh said survivors were still living in tents and wooden barracks.
"I would like to ask the president for a house because right now it's in a bad condition," said Marriati, 39, whose house was destroyed. "I had to build a house by myself."
After a much criticized slow start to reconstruction, officials and aid groups say a big chunk of the $13.6 billion in pledged donations -- the most generously funded humanitarian effort in history -- will be deployed for projects next year.
The toll has been difficult to pin down because countries are still trying to update figures. Some women still hope their children will be found.
"In my heart, I still believe they are alive," said Yasrati, 38, who placed smiling photos of her 13-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son in a local newspaper.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra laid a foundation stone for a memorial at Khao Lak, a beach resort in southern Thailand where many foreigners died. Swedes waded into the sea to float wreaths after singing the ABBA hit "I Have A Dream".
In Sweden, which lost 543 people and was worst hit of non-Asian countries, relatives of the dead lit candles and wept as snow fell in a central park in the capital Stockholm.
"The unthinkable happened and nothing can undo it," said Martin Jamtlid, who lost nine family members.
Amid the commemorations were stories of courage. British schoolgirl Tilly Smith, dubbed the "Angel of the Beach", is credited for saving scores of lives at Khao Lak.
The 11-year-old knew what was happening when she saw the sea recede because she had learned about tsunamis in school. Her adamant warning is believed to have saved 100 lives.
PRAYERS
In Sri Lanka's southern town of Peraliya, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Muslim priests chanted blessings at the site where 1,000 people died when their train was hit by the tsunami.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse oversaw two minutes' silence and placed a floral wreath at the foot of a cresting wave-shaped memorial for the 35,000 who died in the tsunami.
Thousands lit traditional coconut oil lamps on beaches on the southern coast after dark, including tourists who escaped the tsunami and returned to the island to mark the anniversary.
On the east coast, hardest hit by the disaster, friends and relatives clustered around candles while hundreds of people gathered in Colombo's central Independence Square for their own candle-lit vigil.
In India's Nagapattinam district, where the tsunami took half of India's 12,405 known dead, fishermen stayed away from the sea to pray for the departed.
In the Andaman and Nicobar islands, home to some of the world's most primitive tribes, groups of people walked from village to village observing silence in memory of those killed and lit candles in their hamlets.
Indonesia tested a tsunami warning system for the first time on Monday, sounding warning sirens on a beach in the West Sumatra town of Padang. Officials urged residents to run along organized evacuation routes.
Experts say many lives could have been saved if a tsunami early warning system, similar to that in the Pacific, had been in place.
(Additional reporting by Peter Apps and Simon Gardner in Sri Lanka, Ed Cropley and Darren Schuettler in Thailand, YP Rajesh in New Delhi and Patrick Lannin in Stockholm)
© Reuters 2005
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Merry Christmas
|
|
|
|
Guest
|
|
On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
|
|
|
I don't always write, but I always read your work as soon as I know it has been posted. I think I have read every word that has been posted. I am always impressed with your work and to think that you are so young makes the quality of your work even more impressive.
Just Hit Send is a story I have followed since I first found it over three years ago. It has captivated me and I look forward to each and every chapter.
Thank you for the Christmas Present of the latest chapter.
I wish you and all of your readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Scott
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: A better pic :-)
|
|
|
|
Guest
|
|
On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
|
|
|
But what's he holding in his hand ? Has the poor guy had a TERRIBLE accident ? Cheers
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Good news United Kingdomers
|
|
|
|
|
http://uk.gay.com/headlines/9365
The date for new laws that could protect lesbian and gay people from discrimination has been announced, to the delight of campaigners.
The planned implementation date will be October 2006, the government says, surprising campaigners who thought the date would be much later.
The laws will outlaw discrimination in the goods and services sector and will be part of the Equality Bill, which is currently progressing through parliament.
Protection for lesbian and gay people was only included after pressure from gay rights groups and peers including Lord Waheed Alli, who said the protections would be necessary.
Despite being initially resistant to changing the bill, the government finally accepted the amendments in the autumn.
If passed, the laws will mean the end to lesbian and gay people being refused service in hotels and B&Bs, as well as close loopholes in other service providers.
The laws will also protect religious minorities.
Public consultation is expected to begin early in the new year, with the laws expected to be passed without a problem in parliament.
“We’re extremely pleased that Ministers have agreed to introduce these urgently needed measures swiftly,” said Ben Summerskill, Stonewall chief executive.
“It sends a clear message that the Government takes protection of gay people seriously and is no longer prepared to allow them to receive second class treatment from services such as the NHS.”
He said campaigners should “continue to press for the new regulations to be both robust and comprehensive”.
A truth told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent
-William Blake
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: 'Fessing Up
|
|
|
|
|
"Bless me Father", the boy said, "For I have sinned. I have been with another boy."
The priest asked, "Is that you, Giovanni Parisi?"
"Yes, Father, it is."
"And who was the boy you were with?"
"I can't tell you, Father. I don't want to out him."
"Well, Giovanni, I'm sure to find out his name sooner or later, so you may as well tell me now."
No response.
"Was it Riccardo Minetti?"
"I cannot say."
"Was it Giacomo Volpe?"
"I'll never tell."
"Was it Franco Cappelli?"
"I'm sorry, Father, but I will not name him."
"Was it Pietro Piriano?"
"My lips are sealed."
"Was it Vincenzo Di Angelo, then?"
"Please, Father, I cannot tell you."
The priest sighs in frustration. "You're very tight lipped, Giovanni Parisi and I admire that. But you've sinned and have to atone. You cannot attend church services for four months. Now you go and behave yourself."
Giovanni walks back to his pew, and his friend Nino slides over and
whispers, "What'd you get?"
"Four months vacation and five good leads..."
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: "Fight AIDS @ home" (distributed computing project)
|
|
|
|
|
Simply donate the time your computer is turned on, but would normally lie idle, for projects that benefit humanity.
The "FightAIDS@home" project (which has been running for several years) has today changed both the application it uses, and the contact website. It is now part of the World Community Grid. Further details on joining are at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp , and details of the FightAIDS@home are on http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/projects_showcase/viewFaahResearch.do
If your computer spends a lot of time turned on but idle, please consider joining the project. If you are involved in any way with events for World AIDS Day on 1st December, please mention the FightAIDS@home project in any relevant publicity if you can!
Thanks
NW
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Re: Age of Consent
|
|
|
|
|
I have to agree that marc is right in saying that it is illegal to the dot if one partner suddenly ages over this red line in the UK and i think the US as well (?), but i beleive in my country there is a law ( I am not shure ) that if one partner goes over the legal age for gay sex (19 years of age) or a heterosexual couple (17 years of age for sex) and they have been in a managomous relationship for one year proir to the eldest going over the red line, while the other is still under, it is legal. and it unquestionably legal to have sex, under SA law, if you are married, irrespectable of age. The problem lies that under 18's need permision from a guirdian to marry. And, although it is quite legal (for 7 months now) for gay people to marry, i doubt strongly that a guirdian would give his permision for someone to marry his mate if he is gay and under 18.
A truth told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent
-William Blake
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: "Have ???????, Will Travel"?
|
|
|
|
|
Isn't this one of the most interesting Tourist ploys yet? 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3169556,00.html
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Circumcision should be a choice of the Circumcised.
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1602139,00.html is the article, which I reproduce below verbatim:
Sore point
Circumcision - beloved by the Victorians, crucial to two of the world's great religions, arguably a health boon - can be a cause of great anguish. Richard Johnson meets men finding ways to reverse a cut they wish they'd never had
Saturday October 29, 2005
The Guardian
Skin constantly renews itself. Foreskin is no different: stretch it, and it will grow. Which is why eight circumcised men are meeting in Watford town hall. They want new foreskins. "When people come to my house," says Laurie, "I don't go 'Hello there, I'm Laurie, I'm growing my foreskin', but I've often got research papers out on the table, so word gets out. I do find people are really very interested in what I'm doing."
Article continues
Laurie is sharing his experience of restoration, as the process of foreskin renewal is called, with fellow members of NORM-UK. In the US, where NORM was born (and where circumcision rates are somewhere around three-quarters of the male population, far higher than in Britain), it stands for National Organisation of Restoring Men. NORM-UK is about more than that, but Laurie is on a roll. And the others don't want to interrupt him - after all, in two and a half years, Laurie has achieved glans coverage when flaccid. In the world of restoration, that is major.
NORM-UK meetings are small and intimate. Not usually as small and intimate as this one, but there's been a pile-up on the M1. There are a few handshakes, but otherwise little in the way of physical display - "People are always worried we're going to drop our trousers," says general manager David Smith. Laurie wouldn't be averse to the idea, to show off his stretching. Women stretch skin for reconstruction after a mastectomy. So why shouldn't men stretch a foreskin?
Some men can't restore - they are too tightly circumcised and have no tissue left to grow, but others can and are availing themselves of products such as the TLC Tugger, Tug Ahoy and the Your-Skin cone. Some have found their own DIY solutions, using funnels and gaskets to stretch the foreskin, and sash-window weights to provide traction.
The whole idea of restoration sounds funny, like the time that Laurie was having a go with sticky tape, the most primitive of the restoration methods. He pulled what skin he had left over his glans, and taped it down. "I only had the tape on for half an hour", says Laurie, "but it was hell. I was walking down the high street and suddenly had to dive into the nearest toilet to check my penis hadn't gone black, green or blue. Or dropped off altogether."
It sounds funny, but it isn't. Not if it's happening to you. Smith remembers sitting through the scene in the film East Is East in which the father tries to catch the son and take him to be circumcised. "I remember the cinema was in hysterics," says Smith, "and they were laughing when he was wheeled into the operating theatre, but all I could hear was the boy's screams. My wife turned to me and said, 'I've got to go - I can't watch this.'"
When the foreskin is removed, it leaves the glans exposed and that can be difficult - removing a protective layer and sometimes creating soreness. "I always had a problem with my penis giving me stimulation I didn't want," says Kevin, recalling how, as a boy, "I had to keep adjusting it through my pocket. I was near the climbing frame in the playground when, all of a sudden, everyone started chanting 'Kevin is dirty - he's always playing with himself'. I didn't like the feeling of being odd, of being deformed. Suicide would have been a good option."
Kevin is now 56 with a fully restored foreskin. But he's left with the question, why was he circumcised in the first place? His mother read the Bible and went to Sunday school. "But I was conceived out of wedlock when she was 17. And my father was a divorcee. They wanted to get married in church, so I think I was circumcised as some kind of apology to Jesus. My father wasn't circumcised himself, so I really don't understand." And that is a feeling he shares with many members of NORM-UK.
Meetings are on a first-name-only basis because members don't like to be identified. "Many men who come to meetings won't even speak to their families about the pain they're suffering - we are dealing with victims of abuse here," says Smith.
NORM-UK currently has just short of 300 members. Less than one inquiry in 10 results in membership, but it isn't strictly about the numbers. "Men often want the information to restore," says Smith, "but they want to keep it to themselves. They are frightened about being found out. When they ring me up, they say, 'Please ensure that the information is in plain envelopes and don't put me on a mailing list.'"
John D was like that. He felt abused because his circumcision was unnecessary - a course of antibiotics had already cleared up his urinary infection. "But my father agreed with the doctor, and told me I was going to have a minor operation," he says. "I remember the nurses giggling as I was taken off to theatre. They wore these big sickly grins, and said, 'We're taking you to be done up now. Hee hee hee.' I was eight, but suffice it to say that they knew what was happening to me and I did not ... I remember waking up," says John D, "after the general anaesthetic had worn off, and looking down. My beloved penis had been replaced with wrinkled skin, a collar of thorns - the black stitches - and an ugly great dome on top. I experienced shock at first, later deep anger and resentment. The stitches disappeared, but the mutilation didn't. My father said, 'I didn't think it would look like that.' It was misinformed consent."
There are lots of horror stories about circumcision. Like the time in Baltimore in 1964 that it went so badly wrong that the doctors decided to change the child's sex. Or the time in London in 1991 when a 16-year-old was circumcised so badly that he bled all night and died. But these cases are extraordinary, and far from typical. Even for adults, circumcision is reckoned a safe and easy operation. Opponents of the procedure, however, don't see it like that.
John E is blind. But it's not his blindness that keeps him from meetings. "It's the fact I feel I've been more devastated than everyone else," he says. "They've got their lives in order. And they've got sexual partners. I haven't. My life has been ruined by circumcision, although I hate that word. I prefer 'foreskin amputation'. It's not an operation - there's no medical benefit. It's a rite. A faith crime."
In the Bible, circumcision was God's covenant with Abraham and the Jewish people. Of all of the commandments in Judaism, the brit milah (literally, covenant of circumcision) is probably the most universally observed. And although circumcision isn't actually mentioned in the Qur'an, it is mentioned in other Islamic texts. Most Muslims believe it's fundamental because Allah ordered Muhammad to follow the way of Abraham.
Asked if NORM-UK has Jewish and Muslim members, Smith replies, "Yes we do, but it is difficult to estimate the number because if someone joins us we do not ask their religion, nor are we really interested."
Religious circumcisions are frequently performed without anaesthetic, and are painful, even when performed on newborn babies. Adults can testify to the pain for themselves and can give their informed consent - but children can't. If, as opponents claim, circumcision is traumatic, and can result in lifelong damage - including psychological problems and a reduced sex drive - why are religious circumcisions still allowed?
NORM-UK says, actually, they aren't allowed: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child declares that violence to children cannot be justified on grounds of "religion, culture or tradition". Children are not the possessions of their parents to do with as they please - or submit to surgery unless absolutely necessary. We make an exception for circumcision because it's mentioned in Genesis.
Dr Zuhair Zarifa, from Docklands in east London, is one of the few surgeons prepared to advertise the fact that he will circumcise males for religious or ethnic reasons. "Why not?" he says. "The operations are permitted by the General Medical Council. And they will happen whether I do them or not. It's much better for the operations to happen in my surgery under clinical conditions with anaesthetic, where I can provide all the necessary aftercare."
Even nonpractising Jews tend to circumcise their sons. It was, after all, the first command given to Abraham and the defining physical mark of the Jewish people. Circumcision involves "Hatafat Dam Brit" - a drop of blood that seals a covenant. Which does, for some, suggest that removing the foreskin goes beyond what is required by God. But, according to Rabbi Dr Jeremy Rosen, that is to miss the point.
"People are always trying to find rational reasons for Jewish laws," says Rosen. "They ask if our dietary laws improve hygiene. They ask if observing the Sabbath helps mental relaxation. And they ask if circumcision prevents STDs. But even if these rational reasons stood up to objective scrutiny, they wouldn't be a reason for keeping - or abandoning - our laws. One keeps to these rules out of religious commitment. I have no medical expertise," adds Rosen, who runs the London branch of the liberal Yakar Educational Foundation, "but I am convinced that circumcision is harmless, and not traumatic. But even if it is, we Jews have done pretty well on it over the years - and so indeed have Muslims."
Circumcision on females was made illegal in the UK in 1985. The same protection is not extended to males precisely because it would involve taking on two of the world's great religions. Most forms of female circumcision are, certainly, more damaging than male circumcision, but the distinction in law between male and female circumcision just can't be justified objectively. It is a double standard.
Circumcision was not practised in Britain until the 18th century and it really only gained popularity in the 19th century, after claims that it stopped the vile habit of masturbation. By stopping masturbation, Victorians thought circumcision would cure everything from epilepsy and hip trouble to asthma and alcoholism. In the first world war it was hailed as a defence against venereal disease, and by the second world war it had become an emblem of status; most of the middle and upper classes were eagerly circumcising their sons. Only in the late 1940s, with the introduction of the National Health Service, did numbers begin to fall - it is now estimated that around 20% of the current male population in the UK are circumcised.
But whenever a new disease becomes a matter of social concern, circumcision is wheeled out as the cure. A recent paper in the British Medical Journal found a link between an intact foreskin and HIV infection - but a paper in the British Journal Of Urology found exactly the opposite. There is clear medical evidence that circumcision reduces the incidence of cancer of the penis, and of the cervix for the women whose partners are circumcised, but even this is disputed by NORM-UK. It argues that the research is out of date and that a lack of cleanliness is more important to the transmission of disease than the lack of a foreskin.
The organisation doesn't want to see circumcision banned altogether. It accepts there are a few medical conditions where it is necessary. The others can be treated by simple, nonsurgical means."We need to educate the medical profession," says Smith, "because they seem unaware of the alternatives to circumcision. They are certainly unaware of the problems that it is causing."
John D is typical of NORM-UK members in that circumcision when he was a young boy changed his entire persona. "I became less sociable, and I started talking to myself. I was fearful of changing rooms. I had no close relationship with the opposite sex until I was 41, and I still haven't been able to reach orgasm through sexual intercourse. Over the years, I've had real problems with depression, and I'm sure I could trace it back to that day."
These are not the issues foremost in doctors' minds. Take a look at the General Practice notebook, an online medical encyclopaedia used by GPs, and its listing for phimosis - a condition where the foreskin won't retract. Most infants are born with a foreskin that can't be retracted and the foreskin is often tight until after puberty. Phimosis disappears in almost all cases given time. A fully retractable foreskin occurs on its own in 99% of 18-year-olds. But the notebook recommends circumcision.
The notebook makes no mention whatever of the noninvasive solutions to the problem - such as stretching, steroid cream or a simpler operation. Similarly, there are nonsurgical solutions to balanitis, a condition where the foreskin retracts too tightly, causing the glans to swell. "It sounds silly," says John D, "but balanitis can be cured by putting the penis in a bowl of sugar. The swelling goes down, and the foreskin returns to its resting position."
Zarifa isn't sure about the bowl of sugar - but he insists that doctors always explore noninvasive options first. "The truth of the matter is that stretching can be quite painful," he says. "And it's quite an undertaking for a small child. For some boys, the pain of the stretching is as bad as the pain of the circumcision. And I would say that 40-50% of boys who use steroid cream end up having a circumcision in the end. But it's always the last option."
The BMA supports conservative solutions where possible. But unnecessary circumcisions are still happening. And, as the Commons health committee noted, they are happening "because doctors don't understand the natural history of the foreskin".
Circumcision for babies and for older people is dismissed as "the snip", but it can still result in serious bleeding, or an adverse reaction to the anaesthetic. "And you cannot cut off normal, healthy, sexually-functioning tissue without cutting off normal, healthy, sexual functioning," says Marilyn Milos, a nurse and director of the National Organisation of Circumcision Information Resource Centres in the US. "It's a sexual issue, and it's a human rights issue." The foreskin isn't a useless flap that evolution should have got rid of long, long ago - it's skin that is rich with blood vessels, highly innervated, and uniquely endowed with stretch receptors. These contribute greatly to the sexual response of the intact male. The stretching of the foreskin over the glans activates nerve endings, enhances sexual excitability, and contributes to the ejaculatory reflex. There's no escaping it - the foreskin is sexual tissue.
Laurie can laugh now, but he missed his foreskin (it was removed when he was two). He was getting on for 60, and rapidly losing the feeling in his penis. "To be honest," he says, "sex was like pushing a rolling pin in. And I'm not referring to size when I say 'rolling pin' - you can get little rolling pins. I just could not feel a thing." His glans had been badly desensitised after years of rattling around - so much so that he could have an orgasm and not even feel it. That is when he approached NORM-UK.
During heterosexual intercourse with a circumcised man, the penis removes natural lubrication as it moves in and out of the vagina. "So my poor wife was buying artificial lubricant by the gallon," says Laurie. During heterosexual intercourse with an uncircumcised man, the glans moves but the foreskin stays put. And so does the lubrication. The woman doesn't feel friction at all - what she does feel is a variation in pressure.
Laurie is delighted. "And so is my wife," he says. "The skin grew in jumps. I did a lot of work for a long time and nothing happened, like with the sticky tape, but suddenly I woke up one morning and thought 'Where's that come from?' " The new foreskin didn't have the nerve endings it once did, but the glans recovered all its sensitivity. "For 40 years my wife and I had to use lubrication. Not any more. We're delighted."
David Smith is NORM-UK's one paid employee. He started admitting he worked for the charity only after his parents died - he couldn't bear the questions. (The Charity Commission put the organisation on probation for 12 months to ensure that it was not a cover for pornography.) Smith's wages come out of a grant from Lloyds TSB. But, apart from him, the trustees are all volunteers. Running NORM-UK is a big job: liaising with Great Ormond Street to correct the circumcision "fact file" on the hospital website, setting up meetings with the Family Planning Clinic, and doing mail-outs to midwives, recommending the alternatives to circumcision.
Meet the members of NORM-UK and you'll understand that it's more important to look at the complications of circumcision, and its physical and psychological side effects. In time, campaigners hope that routine circumcision will come to be seen as yet another deluded fad, along with bleeding, electro-convulsive therapy and the frontal lobotomy.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Odd Domains please
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
I'm searching for odd domain names.
For example there is a uk bank at firstdirect.com, but there is a different style of site altogether at fistdirect.com. There is gartner.com, but a very different (and now far milder) site at garter.com.
I am looking for the regual.r site and its near neighbour. The typical site will be simply a typo from the other one, a letter missed, or added, or changed. M instead of N, that sort of thing.
The regualr site should be a well enough known brand and the typo site could be anything from legit to downright obscene.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: News on Tennessee "Ex-Gay" Facility
|
|
|
|
|
Judge Rejects Love in Action Injunction
by The Associated Press
(Memphis, Tennessee) A federal judge has refused to allow Love In Action ministry, which claims to counsel gay clients to turn straight, to continue "treating people".
An injunction was sought against an order from the state Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities, which found that the organization's two Memphis facilities were controlling patients' access to their prescription medication and thus needed to be licensed as a mental health facility.
Love In Action International Inc. has sued the state to oppose being required to get a license. It claims that the facility did not restrict access to medication, but kept it in a central location to prevent theft and tampering. The ministry is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal organization, that regularly fights gay rights issues.
U.S. District Judge Bernice Donald denied the motion Friday, The Commercial Appeal reported.
"We're still very encouraged and we believe the court will eventually rule in our favor," said Nathan Kellum, counsel for LIA. "There are no disputed facts, it's just a question of the state misapplying the statute of licensure."
Love In Action's stated mission is "the prevention or remediation of unhealthy and destructive behaviors facing families, adults and adolescents," including promiscuity, pornography and homosexuality.
The company has drawn protests from gay rights advocates, who Love In Action claims were instrumental in getting the state to inspect the facility and push for its closing.
The Love In Action organization came to national attention earlier this year when a teenager complained he was being sent to the facility by his parents in an attempt to "turn him straight."
On his web log 16-year-old from Bartlett, Tenn., and said his parents "tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me. ... I'm a big screwup to them, who isn't on the path God wants me to be on. So I'm sitting here in tears ... and I can't help it."
©365Gay.com 2005
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: This may interest you:
|
|
|
|
|
I offer this link merely for purposes of information, since I think a few/several/many/lots of readers and lurkers here might find it useful and even congenial
http://ga3.org/campaign/teachscience2?
(I believe that only US citizens need apply.)
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: If Bush will "spend whatever it takes"......
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
Will he complete the work to restore Florida from last year? or will the work finish when the TV crews leave?
How many contracts will come under the Haliburton empire?
How many years and what category of hurricane will the levee reinforcements be designed for?
How much of this money will go to Alabama, to Mississippi? To the refuge areas in Texas and elsewhere?
And doesn't he walk oddly? "Thunderbirds are GOOOOOO!"
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Way to go, Tommy!
|
|
|
|
|
The British army will provide married quarters for gay soldiers who have effected a civil union!
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13436120,00.html
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: " 'Ad 'Im "
|
|
|
|
|
An update of cossies list of those we've already "had", cos I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds it difficult to remember sometimes!
Chad ALLEN (1974- ) US Actor
Wystan Hugh AUDEN (1907-1973) ; British Poet.
James BALDWIN (1924-1987) ; American Novelist.
Dirk BOGARDE (1921-1999) ; British Film Actor.
Wilfrid BRAMBELL (1912-1985) ; Irish Character Actor.
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976) ; British Classical Composer.
Eric BROUMAN (?- >>) ; American Comic Entertainer.
Raymond BURR (1917-1993) ; Canadian Film and Television Actor.
Simon CALLOW (1949- >>) ; British Film, Television and Theatrical Actor.
Edward CARPENTER (1844-1929) ; British Socialist Poet and Philosopher.
Richard CHAMBERLAIN (1934- ) US Actor
Montgomery CLIFT (1920-1966) ; American Film and Theatrical Actor.
Aaron COPLAND (1900-1990) US Composer
Noel COWARD (1899-1973) ; British Playwright, Actor and Songwriter.
Stephen DALDRY (1961- >>) ; British Film and Theatrical Director.
DANA INTERNATIONAL Israeli transgendered singer, Eurovision contestant.
Leonardo DA VINCI (1452-1519) ; Italian Architect and All-Round Genius.
Russell T. DAVIES (1963- >>) ; British Relevision Writer and Producer.
EURYALUS and NISUS (Ancient Greece) ; Trojan characters in Virgil's Aeneid.
Mark FEEHILY (1980 - ) Irish Singer (Westlife)
Edna FERBER (1885-196 ; American Novelist and Playwright.
Barney FRANK (1940- >>) ; American Politician.
Jean GENET (1910-1986); French Writer and Political Activist.
Jason GOULD (1966- >>); American Film Actor.
Russell HARTY (1934-198; British Television Presenter.
Sir Nigel HAWTHORNE (1929-2001) British Actor
Christopher ISHERWOOD (1904-1986) British/American Novelist.
Chester KALLMAN (1921-1975); American Poet, Librettist and Translator.
John Maynard KEYNES (1883-1946); British Economist.
Wladzio LIBERACE (1919-1987); American Pianist and Entertainer.
"Mad" King LUDVIG (1845-1886) King of Bavaria, castlebuilder.
Thomas MANN (1875-1955); German Novelist and Essayist.
Christopher MARLOWE (1564-1593) UK Poet, dramatist, drunkard, spy.
MICHELANGELO Buonarotti (1475-1564) Renaissance sculptor, artist, painter, poet.
Danny PINTAURO (1976- >>); American Television and Theatrical Actor.
Edward PLANTAGENET (1284-1327); King Edward II of England.
Cole PORTER (1891-1964); American Songwiter and Composer.
Marcel PROUST (1871-1922); French Novelist and Essayist.
Mary RENAULT (1905-1983); British Novelist.
Arthur RIMBAUD (1854-1891); French Poet.
Camille SAINT-SAENS (1835-1921); French Classical Composer.
Billy STRAYHORN (1915-1967); American Pianist, Composer and Arranger.
James STUART (1566-1625); King James VI of Scotland and James I of England.
Peter TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893); Russian Classical Composer.
Michael TIPPETT (1905-199; British Classical Composer.
Alan TURING (1912-1954); British Mathematician and Computer Pioneer.
Walt WHITMAN (1819-1892); American Poet.
Kenneth WILLIAMS (1926-198; British Comic Film and Radio Actor.
Tennessee WILLIAMS (1911-1983); American Playwright.
George WINDSOR (1902-1942); British Royal; Fourth Son of King George V.
Peter WYNGARDE (1933- >>); British/French Television Actor.
(E&OE).
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: I have just been briefed by a relief run driver
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
They took water.
It is awful.
There is food and water, but it is not getting through to the right people.
He is exhausted, and he is going back as soon as he has another load.
Churches etc are collecting water. Canned food is needed. There is too much decomposing filth in the water to make purifying tablets viable yet.
Bush hugging two black girls does not make this a presidential success. India handles stuff like this better than the US appears to be doing
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Something from someone that lives there...... or did...
|
|
|
|
marc
|
|
Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
|
|
|
Hello,
A huge, heartfelt, squinty-eyed-with-emotion "thanks" to all of you
who have written either myself, or the bar that employs me as manager
(the Phoenix Bar), to inquire about how we are doing, and how the bar
and its staff are doing. You have no idea how very much it has done
for my outlook to observe the outpouring of worry and support in the
aftermath of Katrina.
First, let me apologize that this is a bulk email. I promise to those
of you who are family or close friends that a personal email will
follow when time allows. Right now, time just does not allow. I am
lucky just to have this chance to be online for that matter.
Now let me try to answer all the many questions, one at a time.
My partner Billy and I are alive and well. So are our two cats. We
evacuated New Orleans on Sunday afternoon and got as far as we could.
Due to traffic, that was not as far as would have been, well, better.
Long story short, we ended up in a tiny hotel south of Hattiesburg.
That is actually just 30 or 40 or so miles from the coast? Or
something like that. The traffic was a nightmare and it was the best
we could do. And long story turned ugly, the storm track changed a bit
at the last minute, good for New Orleans (which was devastated even
after this little turn) but not good at all for Mississippi. It
tracked directly over us! I guess we can say we evacuated, AND rode it
out.
I have never seen this sort of region-wide devastation in my life. I
need to keep this short as far as our personal tale goes, so let me
just say, the situation in places like Hattiesburg right now is far
grimmer than what you might read on the news, and also more desperate.
After the worst 96 hours of my life, we are safe in a hotel in
Jackson. We will shortly head for Memphis, and then loop down wide
around the destruction zone to a place offered to us for a while
outside Lafayette.
I know you are eager for inside info, so let me just give this example
of the desperation of people down here. We left our hotel at one
point, and when we came back, a road block was up. We were not allowed
back into the area where we had been allowed to check into a hotel.
Humm. So for three days I had no id, no wallet, little cash, and a car
with little gas, plus no way to reach our hotel, where our possessions
such as cats and laptops were stuck without us. Men with M16s and
stern looks seemed to think that people from New Orleans with no place
to sleep were the enemy, not the people they were supposed to help. I
met a woman with a baby who took some shade with Billy and I on
Wednesday, by a building, when it was 96 degrees. Like us, she had not
bathed probably since Saturday. She wanted her baby to not get
sunburned. She said someone had said she needed to pay more attention
to her personal hygiene. Also smelling like barnyard animals, we
joined her in a hearty laugh on the cosmic tragicomedy of what was all
around us. She'd slept with her baby in the Wal-Mart parking lot the
night before, right on the pavement, and someone told her to work on
her hygiene. Funny, yes, but today I felt sad to read about the guy
who shot his sister in Hattiesburg that same day over a bag of ice.
That is how grim it was down there. I would like to erase those 96 or
so hours from my memory. Yet let me say I feel Billy and I are lucky,
very lucky. We have our lives and each other. We are not separated,
wondering if the other one is alive, or where. We are well aware of
the much greater (much, much greater) suffering of so many others and
deeply appreciative just to be here. However that said I will not lie
and say that we are not basically a total mess of depression and grief
over what feels something like a psychic amputation. That is how we
described it to each other in the car at one point, like having our
lives amputated, city, community, homes, bars, possessions, friends,
and all. So thanks for caring, because it does truly help me remember
that this will pass. The feeling that all is hopelessly lost is just
that, a feeling. Thanks for making that so clear.
Enough about us. Many of you have written to inquire about the status
of the Phoenix Bar. Well, all I can say is, information is extremely
hard to come by regarding the level of flooding and wind destruction
in our neighborhood. After spending this morning trawling the web for
information, taking breaks because it is just too awful to see all
that death and destruction and know it was where you lived, all I can
say is that there is basis for a shred of optimism, and not much more.
It seems that the immediate area of the Phoenix flooded no more than
three to six feet, which is not enough the ruin the bar. However, we
have no information at all on the physical status of the bar. It might
be intact, or completely destroyed. We just do not know. We know that
looters completely ransacked the nearby grocery, and pharmacy, as well
as many homes right there, and another bar in the area, so I have to
assume the Phoenix has been emptied of any valuable contents, being a
bar after all. But I do not know that. Maybe we got lucky. Also, just
now, a post to a mailing list for that neighborhood seemed to imply
that the bars in the area were mostly intact, which would suggest the
Phoenix is standing.
In any case, as much as I and so many of you love the Phoenix, it
truly is not my first concern right now. I and the recent new owners
of the Phoenix, Tim and Bobby, are much, much more worried about the
health and welfare of my staff, the neighborhood residents, and the
people of the city in general, many of whom were our steady customers
and friends.
In that regard, the new owners and myself were adamant that the bar
close promptly when it became clear everybody really needed to leave.
We made it clear on Saturday night we would be closed by midday Sunday
and encouraged everyone, staff and customers, to leave while they
could. The Phoenix has never closed in over 23 years, not once, so I
think this woke some people up. I sure hope so. Anyway, I can tell you
that all of the staff did evacuate, except for possibly:
* Red ~ I got an answering machine every time I called to urge her
to do so, which makes me hopeful she did evacuate.
* Ron, who was tending to his mother in Arabi ~ I do not know
whether he moved with her to the Superdome or not, and I am deeply
worried for him.
* Bartenders Darron, Erick, and KaCey intended to stay in an
industrial warehouse where KaCey works. I had a text message from
Darron indicating they were okay "so far" during the peak of the storm
hit on New Orleans, and I have not heard from any of them since. Even
though I know they would not likely have the ability to reply right
now, this is weighing on me heavily.
* Tony, the DJ, could not be reached at all. He knew we were
closing, having worked the Saturday night before, and I recall him
saying he was making plans, but I do not know what he did and I feel
worried for him, too.
I have lived in New Orleans over three years and it always struck me
that people were terribly jaded about the possibility of the Big One.
I can tell you though that as it became evident the Big One was upon
us, people who never before could be persuaded to leave, did leave.
The future? It is becoming very clear that New Orleans is going to be
completely emptied of people and then will not be inhabited by anybody
except disaster recovery personnel for at least two to three months,
and maybe longer. So, I just cannot tell you when or whether the
Phoenix will re-open. So much depends on the recovery effort related
to the city overall. I will say that it is my personal belief that the
community of which the Phoenix is but one part, will eventually
recover, and grow again, and I sincerely hope that the Phoenix will be
a part of that slow return to life again. This is the best I can
offer, is hope. I do hope that there will be new post-Katrina memories
to be had in the Phoenix, and in New Orleans, as this awful event
becomes history.
But right now, we have to focus on helping those in dire need. Many of
you have asked what you can do. Well, on a larger level, please take
my word for it (I have witnessed it firsthand, painfully so) that
THERE IS AN OVERWHELMING NEED FOR BASIC LIVING ASSISTANCE in a huge
swath of the Gulf coast region and I am talking about things like
water, food, and a place to sleep, much less things like clothes, the
luxury of information about the world outside the mosquito infested
baking hot hell that surrounds you, or a place to stay long-term while
you get your life back together after everything you ever had is
toast. I am not talking about me here, but people I have seen. I will
always remember the time between Monday morning and Wednesday night as
the worst little spell of hell I ever had to endure, but what Billy
and I went through was nothing compared to what we saw others having
to deal with, such as people separated from their family or loved
ones, or with kids in tow, and so on.
PLEASE donate to the Red Cross. PLEASE get your spare clothes
together. PLEASE listen to the local offices of the Red Cross about
what they need and how you can help, and do it. The misery out there
is so intense, I can hardly stand to think about it, and it is going
to get worse. It is hot, muggy, and sunny down in these parts. There
is no power, no gas, no food, no shelters, no phones ... apparently
New Orleans felt that just evacuating to other people's homes was a
great solution, while the other people felt they did not need to
prepare for hurricanes at all, much less make a plan to deal with all
the folks from New Orleans. The result is a giant mess of suffering,
and it just has to be seen to be believed, in terms of the scale of
devastation and lack of preparedness to cope.
So PLEASE go to the Red Cross site and donate. It is here:
http://www.redcross.org/
Many of you have offered personal assistance to myself and Billy, and
for that, I am so grateful and I wish I could find words to tell you
how greatly these offers have mattered to me, and not on the material
level you might think.
I've always believed that people were fundamentally good and that we
as a people had it in us to build a better world, and that we would ~
that we were. Unfortunately there were times in the last few days when
I marveled at the sheer lack of caring and compassion demonstrated by
so many people we encountered. What most amazed me, as well, was how
the people who were most interested in helping others out, were the
ones who had very little to offer except words of assurance, or maybe
something to drink, or a borrowed gas can, or what not. We folks from
New Orleans were all eager to try to help each other out as we could,
while, well, let's not throw stones and just say it was amazing to
feel like a very much unwanted refugee in one's own country. Aren't we
all Americans? Anyway, the number of people who acted in line with my
fundamental beliefs about "how people are" was, well, so far less than
I ever imagined in a natural disaster situation. It shook my basic
notions of humanity.
Finally being somewhere normal (bed, shower, TCP/IP connection to
world network ) and observing the outpouring of concern and
support from what felt like the whole world, as my inbox filled, for
everyone associated with this little old bar called the Phoenix, has
somewhat reassured me.
Now, as to assistance to particular persons associated with the
Phoenix ~ I am not yet able to reach other staff, though I have been
trying. Keep in mind the basic phone and telecommunications network
across the South is disrupted. But I think it is likely a lot of the
staff will need help with temporary housing, income, the whole nine
yards. I will let you know as I know, what the situation is. In the
meantime, if you want to hear from me further about the Phoenix staff
and their recovery and about the bar, I need you to send me a NEW (not
reply to this) email with JUST your chosen email address in the body
of the message. Send it to newlist@phoenixbar.com. I will collect
these and make a new distribution list for people who want to be
informed of Phoenix-related news as it develops.
Separately from your request to be on that email list, you are welcome
to send me your thoughts and any information you might have about the
Katrina aftermath. And by all means, if you want to volunteer
temporary shelter and possibly employment opportunities for Phoenix
staff, preferably still within a day's drive of the city, that would
be great.
But please remember that the city is devastated, and it will be a
while before there is any Phoenix to visit again. Please focus on the
whole population and its dire need, and give to the relief effort for
everyone.
Oh, and to the guy who wanted to know if the bar would be open this
weekend, and did I get his resume: Yes, I got your resume. No, we will
not be open this weekend. I'm sorry, but what planet did you say you
were from? Turn on the TV!
I have to go get gas for the road tomorrow. (This may take many
hours.) Thanks again to all who wrote. I will send more as I learn
more about the Phoenix and the future of the city.
Warmly and Thankfully Yours,
DB | The Phoenix Bar
webmaster@phoenixbar.com
http://www.phoenixbar.com
P. S. Remember, to get further emails from me about the recovery as
far as it concerns the Phoenix and our staff, send a NEW email with no
content except your preferred email address, to newlist@phoenixbar.com.
What amazes me is the (not unexpected) lack of preparation... Go figure...
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: removal of a poster and posts
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
We have, yet again, had robert bryce here. The posts have been removed, yet again. He was banned for good reason and he remains banned. This time he posted under the name "paladin".
This ban will not be lifted. Not now and not ever. He is unwelcome on almost all the messagebaords I know and has been banned from them all because of abusive and strident behaviour.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Asexuality and coincidences
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
My world is full of odd coincidences right now.
One friend asked me to place a link to an asexuality website in my links page. An author asked me to post a story that includes a lot about asexuality. That story links me to places of my childhood. Those places were featured on a BBC TV documentary this evening.
I'm wondering if and how that loop will close
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Asexuality
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13756
|
|
|
I have just added a page to the Links page that is outside my experience. A link about asexuality, drawn to my attention by a friend and again by a story that will go onto the site in the next day or two.
It is as hard for me to visualise this as it is for a heterosexual perosn to visualise being gay. I commend the link to you
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic: Re: A Must Read
|
|
|
|
John_W
|
|
Getting started |
Location: Wilmington NC
Registered: October 2004
Messages: 13
|
|
|
It is a very good series and a far cry from "gay porn". His "Return of the Sun" is also a good read.
John
|
|
|
|
|
Pages (28): [ 18 ]
|
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
Merry Christmas 
'Fessing Up 
Odd Domains please 