Category: The Dish

Someone has picked up where Rummy left off.

It was well worth it for the punchline, which temporarily incapacitated me, but the origins of head lice and pubic lice are somewhat different, it appears. Blame gorillas.

What is the result of having your ears and nose cut off by devout, extremist Muslims? Meanwhile, the insurgents are using children as decoys for car-bombs. What a lovely moral code they live by over there.

Sorry for the very slow site recently. We’re looking into it and I’ve been promised real resources to fix it. On a temporary basis, we’ve removed all feedburner links to speed up the process.

A sobering review of a new book about Iraq:

Mr. Agresto argues that Americans too often underestimate the extent to which religious extremism can thwart pragmatic ideas, demonize moderation and undermine stability. He feels that the U.S. government – then and now – has put too much faith in Iraqis, who are culturally unaccustomed to standing up for themselves and taking responsibility for the society that they are a part of. For Mr. Agresto, misguided expectations threaten to destroy much of what America hopes to accomplish in Iraq.

An idealistic faith in the immediate, cure-all power of democracy has been part of the problem, in Mr. Agresto’s view. Granting power to a Shiite majority without developing moderate parties or setting up a mechanism to protect Sunni interests, he says, merely exacerbated sectarian tensions.

The threat of religious extremism is not, of course, exclusive to Iraq.

Wisdom from James Lileks:

If you find yourself living in The Small World, and you do not spend the majority of the day in a building that features the words "High" and "School," you might want to get out more often.

(Hat tip: Insta.)

Gay journalist Ann Rostow asks a few questions about the Human Rights Campaign’s secrecy and unaccountability. HRC recently held a forum in San Francisco and barred reporters and bloggers, just as they barred all media from Hillary Clinton’s speech to their board. They act like a politburo with something to hide, not a civil rights group with a message to send. Rostow asks:

Listen, if Joe Solmonese and HRC can’t handle Michael Petrelis, how the hell are they going to handle the real enemies facing our community? And why wouldn’t Solmonese want one of the most provocative activists on the blogosphere to participate in this meeting? Is this a pep rally or a serious attempt to hear what San Francisco has to say?

HRC still won’t respond to the five basic questions I have asked of them. They refuse to say how many members actually pay the recommended minimum $35 annual membership fee. I’m beneath a response because I have dared to criticize them. A reader comments on Rostow’s analysis, disagreeing that this is a fight between "insider" activists and "outsider" activists:

The basic question isn’t whether we need a "lobbying group in Washington," but whether HRC can meet that need in any meaningful way. In part, HRC is the victim of recent successes (and even a few near-misses) in state legislatures: State GLBT lobby groups have shown signs of success, quite possibly because many of them are actually working for GLBT equality. Compare HRC’s record with Equality California — or even with a group like Equality Virginia, working in one of the most anti- Gay states in the Union — and you wonder just what HRC has been doing with all that cash.

The answer is: not much apart from teddy bears and Cyndi Lauper concerts. If you want real progress, demand more accountability, transparency and effectiveness.

(HRC logo courtesy of Bay Windows.)

Just for the record, I thought last night’s episode, "Lice Capades," was the best I’ve ever seen. Pure genius.

I didn’t know her, but others did. Virginia has a touching tribute. And this one broke my heart.

Give the president what he wants. My advice is here.