A grisly but important story in the NYT today about the effects of smoking crystal meth on your teeth. Here’s an obvious ad campaign directed toward image-conscious gay men tempted to try meth. Let’s have lots of posters with photos of beautiful men smiling with rotten teeth. It’s worth trying.
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “Your attention to the Koran abuse is entirely well placed. But let’s try to keep it in perspective. 15,000,000 Iraqi Shiite MOSLEMS are now able to practice their religion freely after years of repression. Just after the overthrow of Saddam, Iraqi Shiites (who are Moslems) celebrated Ashura for the first time in, oh, about 20 years. On the balance, what we have done to help the practice of Islam far exceeds what was done at Guantanamo. And remember, the people who are most angry with us never raised their voices when Saddam restricted the observance of most of the Moslems in his country.” This is absolutely true, and it’s why I still support the liberation of Iraq. And it’s why it’s so distressing to see such good undermined by such stupidity.
WHOPPER OF THE DAY: “He had accumulated many weeks of leave and had decided to resign and take the summer off to spend the time with his family,” – Bush administration statement on the resignation of Philip Cooney, a petroleum lobbyist with no scientific training who had edited government reports to remove references to the posited link between greenhouse gases and global warming.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I would rather you commit suicide than have you leave Love In Action wanting to return to the gay lifestyle. In a physical death you could still have a spiritual resurrection; whereas, returning to homosexuality you are yielding yourself to a spiritual death from which there is no recovery.” – John Smid, Director, Love In Action (LIA), San Rafael’s “ex-gay” organization. The quote is denied by Smid, but asserted by a former inmate of the “Straight Camp” run by Smid who said Smid told him exactly that. Smid runs “camps” where gay kids and teens are sent by their parents for compulsory “re-orientation” toward heterosexuality. Here’s one note from one of the persecuted children, writing home:
I haven’t been on a computer, phone, nor have I seen any friends in a week almost– Soon. Soon, this will be all over. My mother has said the worst things to me for three days straight… three days. I went numb. That’s the only way I can get through this. I agree, if you’re thinking that these posts might be dramatized.. but the proof of the program’s ideas are sitting in the rules. I pray this blows over. I can’t take this… noone can… not really, this kind of thing tears you apart emotionally. To introduce THIS subject… I’m not a suicidal person… really I’m not.. I think it’s stupid – really. But.. I can’t help it, no im not going to commit suicide, all I can think about is killing my mother and myself. It’s so horrible. This is what it’s doing to me… I have this horrible feeling all of the time… I wish this on no person…
To my mind, this is child abuse. What we need are some really dedicated Act-Up types to find these places and liberate the kids. But you can send your moral support to the abused kid here. Blogs can be oases of freedom in totalitarian societies, and also in fundamentalist boot camps.
VIRUS UPDATE: This past first week of meds has not been as side-effect-free as I’d hoped. Most afternoons leave me drained and needing sleep for a couple of hours. It may be just an adjustment, and I’m free of diarrhea and nausea. Yay! But I said I’d keep you posted. So here it is.
The Dish 