Up In Smoke?

I'm not sure how many of you have been keeping track of this, but the latest scandal regards photos published of Michael Phelps sparking it up at a party at the University of South Carolina. There was a resulting furor that the 23-year old Phelps is acting, well, like a 23 year old. Some have opined that this is just horrible and shocking and that this somehow erases all of Phelps's accomplishments and spells the end of his career. Phelps recently released a statement acknowledging the truth of the photo and expressing his regret over his "bad judgment" and "regrettable" behavior and swears never to do it again. Mea culpa, mea culpa.

How insane is this? Phelps should have released a statement explaining that all he does is eat, sleep and swim and if he decides he wants to spark up a bowl and act like a normal college-aged student, then congratulations for trying to have some semblance of a normal life. Yes, it sounds like he was a bit out of control but that's what happens when you spend your life trying to be superhuman and miss all the things that make life enjoyable. These outraged moralizers need to get a life and mind their own damn business.

Reefer Madness

While Phoenix isn't known for it's art scene, this year I've made it a point to seek out more cultural experiences in town. The latest is Nearly Naked Theatre's production of Reefer Madness: The Musical. This was the second of NNT's I've seen -- the last being their production of As Bees In Honey Drown.

NNT stages their production in the Phoenix Little Theatre -- located in the Phoenix Art Museum complex, the Phoenix Little Theatre is a small, intimate space that puts the audience almost on top of the actors. Seating a little under 150, I was pleased to find out that the weekend's shows were sold out.

Reefer Madness is a perfect show for NNT - it's campy and goofy, which lends itself to a relatively inexperienced cast. NNT is clearly a labor of love an Phoenix can use more of those.

Apocalypse

So it's almost 10pm on June 16, 2008. Gays began marrying at 5:01pm in California, not long after the California Supreme Court's ruling that struck down the state's ban on gay marriage. God's retribution was swift and sure, as several large meteors devastated the Golden State, wiping out most of the state's large population centers. To make sure He wasn't missing anyone, the Divine mutated most of the state's agriculture to turn the rest of the population into monstrous, flesh eating zombies. The Rev. Fred Phelps, of Westboro Baptist Church, finally having been vindicated after many long years of being called a hate-crazed lunatic, issued a statement: "I told you so. We were right about the gays, now maybe you'll believe me when I tell you that God hates shrimp."

Wait a second... I guess that didn't happen -- it was an odd amalgamation of the plots of Deep Impact and The Happening ("oh. my. god. we're. all. going. to. die. *yawn*") that came in a dream I had during a nap I took earlier. Heh. The funny thing is that the picture of Meteor Crater comes from a funky creation science website that strives to help push creationism into public schools. This is, of course, preposterous, as we all know that the Earth and all of creation was touched by the FSM's noodly appendage. When will these heathens see the Divine noodly goodness of the FSM? Fortunately, the FSM is much more merciful than some of the other false gods out there.

Incarcerex

Insubordination!

There's nothing quite so alarming to conservatives as the realization that their children are beginning to think for themselves. The scene: Woodburn, Indiana - in the northeastern part of the state, near the border with Ohio. Megan Chase, a sophomore at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School wrote a student editorial for her school newspaper, the Woodlan Tomahawk, urging understanding and acceptance for gays.

Her article concludes, "I don't understand why we would put so much pressure on those people, that they would feel that they have to end their lives because of their sexuality. Would it be so hard to just accept them as human beings who have feelings just like everyone else? Being homosexual doesn't make a person inhuman, it makes them just a little bit different than the rest of the world. And for living in a society that tells you to always be yourself, it's(sic) a hard price to pay."

Cue the authorities going berzerko. True to form, the school's principal, Edwin Yoder, demanded that he approve each future issue of the paper and accused the students' journalism teacher, Amy Sorrell, of insubordination, exposing her students to inappropriate materials, failing to carry out her responsibilities as a teacher and threatening to fire her if she does not comply with his orders. Sorrell explained, "I didn’t think it was going to be an issue at all. I didn’t think anybody would be upset about it."

The students, doing what students do, are appealing Yoder's decision, have petitioned the school board, requesting that the school board implement a non-discrimination policy including gays and lesbians. The school board, of course, has done its best to ignore the students as best it can.

Despite the authorities' angry response, it seems clear that their overreaction will only serve to galvinize the students. That is, once again, what students do. Anyone who is frustrated at the slow pace of change when it comes to gay rights, here's another reminder that the battle is already won...

(via Towleroad.)

Don't Mess With Texas!

You can't buy a dildo in Texas but you can buy an "educational model" and a butt plug. Be careful, though, you can't own more than 5 "educational models."

One Percent

According to a recent government study, around "1 percent of Web sites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit..." The study, part of the federal government's attempt to revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act that was struck down by the US Supreme Court in 2004, after having struck down another Congressional attempt to restrict internet porn in 1997. Despite the fact that filtering software can block over 90% of explicit material from minors, the government is still trying to limit what we adults can view... because, as we can see from the government's adult abstinance programs, adults are just kids... only a little older... and therefore we should all be treated as children, right?

This study leads me to the inevitable question... just what is this mythical 99% of non-porn internet content? And does anyone really look at it?