Steve Dyer

deerpong:

Justin Timberlake looks morose as his own center of gravity attracts a child’s basketball

dog tries out new walking shoes [video]

“Which is more important: LGBT or border security? I’ll tell you what my priorities are,” – Senator John McCain.

But how on earth are the two contradictory? Allowing same-sex spouses the same immigration rights as opposite-sex spouses would make not an iota of difference to border security, or to anything else to do with immigration. But telling an American citizen that he or she can only live with his husband or her wife if they emigrate to another country violates basic humanity and equal protection of the laws.

Remember those two ideas?

alternate title: young children gawk at flaming homosexuals

Logo beats CNN in prime time ...

"I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers," - Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, September 13th, 2008.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the institution of marriage was a direct response to the unique tendency of opposite-sex relationships to produce unplanned and unintended offspring ... Only opposite-sex relationships have the tendency to produce children without such advance planning (indeed, especially without advance planning)," - Paul Clement, January 22, 2013, making the Republican House's argument for keeping civil marriage exclusively for heterosexuals.

I'd say you can't make this shit up, but Tina Fey actually did!

Former Congressman Barney Frank, who made known his desire to be picked as interim U.S. Senator from Massachusetts replacing John Kerry, was passed over by Governor Deval Patrick in favor of Patrick's former chief of staff William "Mo" Cowan.

Frank told the Washington Blade he had concerns about the process:

“But let me tell you, there was one thing that sort of troubled me in the discussion about it — nobody was particularly quoted; they attributed something to governor’s office and others — was that the governor would want to appoint someone who’s either a minority or a woman,” Frank added. “And what troubled me is the question of LGBT people was just kind of swept out. I’ve never asked for any appointment based on me being gay, but when they begin talk about the importance of diversity and leave us out, that troubles me.”

While Cowan’s appointment was hailed a milestone for diversity in terms of race because he’s black, Frank said the lack of attention to being LGBT as a diversity factor suggests those involved with the decision were unaware of President Obama’s inaugural address in which he mentioned the 1969 Stonewall riots in the same line as other iconic civil rights moments.

“It’s almost as if some people didn’t listen to the president when he said, ‘Seneca, Stonewall and Selma,’ and didn’t hear the Stonewall part,” Frank said.

Andrew Beaujon describes an ambitious new campaign:

Chicago’s WBEZ wants its listeners to make more listeners. The agency Xi Chicago designed the $400,000 "2032 Membership Drive," which "inspires interesting people to hook up with interesting people and make more interesting people, thereby creating the next generation of listeners." ... [T]he ads will appear in print, online, at train platforms and bus stops, on taxis and T-shirts, with these taglines:

- Do it. For Chicago.
- We want listeners tomorrow. Go make babies today.
- Hey Interesting People, get a room already. And then put a crib in it.
- To anyone NOT currently running a virtual farm: GoMakeBabies.com
- You’re an interesting person. Pass it on. Like, literally. Through your DNA.

Last night's episode of The Office took a surprising turn in the last few moments. For those who missed it, Jim and Pam had an emotional fight over the phone. After Pam hangs up, a new character, Brian the good-looking boom mic operator on the documentary (played by The Three Stooges' Chris Diamantopoulos) comes over and comforts her. It's the first we've seen of the documentary crew on the show during its nine-year run, but it definitely won't be the last. Greg Daniels told reporters last week that the final few episodes will "start to break down what's going on with this documentary and see [the] behind the scenes of who's involved." Brian's presence doesn't really give any hints at why the documentary is being made or who's responsible for it, but it does seem like the writers are setting him up to be some sort of romantic rival to Jim. There only 12 episodes of The Office left, so you can expect more surprises like this and for the documentary crew to continue to come into focus.

So, what did you think of the decision to introduce the documentary crew? Is it too late in the show's run to add this huge element to the characters' world? Or is it nice to finally get an idea of what's going on behind the scenes? Either way, it has people talking about The Office again.

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Opening thousands of front line positions, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has lifted the ban on women in combat, the AP reports.

Pilot season is underway, as the major networks are all buying up new shows in bulk to become potential series in the fall. CBS just purchased three new comedies, two created by Raising Hope/My Name Is Earl/Yes, Dear head honcho Greg Garcia and another from Brian Gallivan (pictured), a Second City vet and a writer for Happy Endings. Gallivan's pilot is The McCarthys, a single-camera family comedy written by Gallivan and loosely based on his life as the only gay son of a sports-loving Irish-Catholic family in Boston. It sounds promising and not like the type of show you usually get on CBS. If it gets picked up, it'll be the network's first single-camera comedy since the short-lived sitcom Worst Week in 2008.

Greg Garcia's two shows are a multi-camera pilot called Super Clyde about a shy fast food worker who decides to become a superhero and an untitled single-camera show about a recently-divorced guy whose parents unexpectedly move in with him. Garcia's commitment to his Fox series Raising Hope is over at the end of the show's third season in May, although it's expected to be renewed. Let's just hope he combines his two pilots into one so it's about a shy fast food worker who becomes a superhero after getting a divorce and having his parents move in with him.

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Bill Clinton in awe of President Knowles

via

A reader tries to wrap his head around this story:

Why is it that there is so little speculation that Manti Te'o may be in the closet? This seems like the perfect cover-up story. Te'o is Mormon, so obviously being gay is against his religion. Notre Dame is defending his story of being a victim of a hoax, but is it a surprise that the Catholic institution would want to keep his sexuality under cover?

It's the perfect cover story (if it wasn't completely fake). I mean ... if the woman he loves died tragically, he has a long-term excuse for not being involved with any other women for years. It seems to me that many people close to him are complicit in advancing the story, to the point that it seemed much of his family had met "her" and were in communication with "her". The Deadspin story links all of the various Twitter accounts, photos of "Lennay", and much of the basis of the whole story to Te'o, his family, and friends or other acquaintances. He claimed to have met her (after a game at Stanford, visited her in Hawaii), but now says it was purely an online relationship? It all makes very little sense as described in most news stories I've read or watched so far.

To me, the only explanation for this seems to be that he is in the closet, and his friends and family went a bit overboard in perpetuating a cover-up story. Why is there no speculation about this possibility in the many news stories airing on every news and sports channel?

Another:

If it were true, the poor kid may be forced out of the closet. But he will also likely be drafted highly, and he could open the floodgates to all the major American male sports finally starting to accept openly gay players.

Update from another speculative reader:

I've been obsessed with the Manti Te'o story since it broke on Deadspin in a way that news stories don't usually grab me. It's a combination of being drawn to stories in which the truth turns out to be far more complicated than a simplistic story, a delight when hoaxes are unmasked, and a strong dislike of the human interest stories that seem to make up so much of popular sports coverage. So I've been reading everything I can about this story, and I have my own theory:

I don't think Manti Te'o is gay. I think he greatly embellished his telling of his supposed relationship, but I think it's completely consistent for a devout Mormon to be completely earnest, amazingly naive, and generally out of touch with the way in which normal relationships, gay or straight, usually proceed. But the general story of him being deceived, I think, is true. 

If Te'o'a account is true, there is a hoaxer who was spending an enormous amount of time online and on the phone with him. Both the Deadspin article, and further reporting from TMZ.com make it clear that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was involved in the hoax and probably the instigator. On a Utah sports talk radio show, Te'o's uncle claimed that Ronaiah was trying to get close to Te'o in order to make money, using a fake leukemia foundation as cover.

Tuiasosopo comes from a big football family, and although he played high school football, his career never went beyond that. At present, he is a self-described actor, singer, dancer, and musician. He auditioned for The Voice, also telling a sob story involving a car accident.

I think Rohaiah Tuiasosopo is gay, and was living out his fantasy of a romantic relationship with a star football player through the online persona of Lennay Kekua. Te'o wasn't the first football player that the Lennay Kekua persona interacted with. And other than a potential moneymaking scheme - and the elaborate detail of the hoax seems awfully inefficient if money was the only incentive -this is the only reason I can think of why a hoaxer would invest as much time as was reportedly spent courting Te'o.

An Australian man playing at a new hobby—gold prospecting—found a really big piece of gold. It looks kind of like Africa. It is worth $300,000. What are your hobbies? I like to read. That is fun for me.