Huge news this morning. Pope Benedict has announced he will resign, citing his desire to "spend time with his family"... oh wait. Sorry, citing "advancing age." Pope fans, not to worry, you can still find him on Twitter!
Baseballer Mike Piazza has a new book out, and he takes time to address those gay rumors
I never actually heard (is that a required part of the outline for celebrity books now?) "I found it hugely insulting that people believed I’d go so far out of my way — living with Playmates, vacationing with actresses, showing up at nightclubs — to act out a lifestyle that would amount to a charade. If I was gay, I’d be gay all the way."
William Shatner recently joined reddit to do an AMA, and to the surprise and delight of many, he's still hanging out on the site, talking to fans. But he's a bit disturbed by the anything goes nature of reddit. "The fact that someone could come here, debase and degrade people based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference because they 'have a right' to do so without worry of any kind of moderation is sending the wrong message, in my humble opinion. I don't pretend to know where the managers of Reddit wish to go with this site but embracing that kind of culture I feel is counterproductive to where this world is heading and I think that is probably hurting this site." He's not just throwing out judgments, but actually engaging with the community on the topic.
Missouri Republican state Rep. Rick Brattin is sponsoring a bill to require schools, including universities, to teach that "destiny" is a valid alternative to evolution. The bill also seeks to redefine such accepted terms as "hypothesis" and "theory" to make science less definitive.
Sullivan High School students in Indiana want a "traditional prom"with the gays banned. But that's nothing compared to the comments from the local special education teacher Diana Medley. "I believe that it was life circumstances and they chose to be that way; God created everyone equal. Homosexual students come to me with their problems, and I don't agree with them, but I care about them. It's the same thing with my special needs kids, I think God puts everyone in our lives for a reason. 'So the same goes for gays? Do you think they have a purpose in life?' No I honestly don't. Sorry, but I don't. "
Madonnais on Instagram.
Belieberscouldn't saveSaturday Night Live this week, with the ratings down 4% in early ratings from the previous outing with Adam Levine.
You can now sign a petition demanding DC Comics not allow noted homophobe Orson Scott Card to write the new Superman series. It's appalling that DC would allow what's largely considered to be a symbol of freedom and fairness to be taken over by a bigot.
As the idea of horsemeat in your food continues to spread, Aldi has confirmed that some of their prepared meals, including their lasagna, have tested between 30% and 100% horsemeat. That new Mr. Ed movie might end up delayed.
MIT baseball's third baseman Sean Carson has felt nothing but love since he came out. He had just come back from a conference and asked the coach to address the team, and the coach thought it was school related. That was when he came out. “They came up and gave me high fives and said they’d have my back and everything. It was so supportive, it was ridiculous.”
Towleroad is reporting that Mayor Mary McAngus of the small village of Pomeroy in Ohio has resigned after making disparaging comments about a new gay officer on the police force. To his credit, police chief Mark Proffitt filed a report with the village council saying her comments would open the village up to suit. Just a taste of what she said? "I don’t like a Queer working for the Village, I might be old-fashioned, but I don’t like it." She went on to harass his coworkers and threaten to run his boyfriend out of town.
Sir David Attenboroughis being accused of straightwashing the animal kingdom. “Heterosexuality is upheld a
s the norm in wildlife documentaries and the idea of the family it presents is one which equates the family with heterosexuality. The central role in documentary stories of pairing, mating and raising offspring commonly rests on assumptions of heterosexuality within the animal kingdom. This is despite a wealth of scientific evidence which demonstrates that many non-human species have complex and changeable forms of sexual activity, with heterosexuality only one of many possible options."
We mentioned last week that sci-fi writer John Scalzi pledged to donate money to three causes, including the Human Rights Campaign, every time his "racist sexist homophobic dipshit" hater invoked him online, up to $1,000. His fans took that and ran with it, adding over $50,000 to the cause in donations in the name of the "racist sexist homophobic dipshit."
Arrow brings us the Doctor Who event fans always dreamed of, Captain Jack and River Song
I wasn't even aware that "Shevine" was a thing, but they're going crazy over this Blake Shelton tweet
This shirt would save me a ton of gym time
The cats and the robots have teamed up, so we're all doomed
Dan Feuerriegel smiles when it's time for dinner
So I have three things I want to touch on with Saturday Night Live and Justin Bieber. First, up, he shouldn't give up his day job for acting, not that the SNL writers gave him much to work with. The opening bit with him playing up Valentine's Day couldn't be saved by a surprise appearance by Whoopi Goldberg, and the bit where he went around the audience giving out roses to women was beyond vain. But it had a nasty moment, best summarized by Vulture. "I was (probably overly) annoyed at the part where Biebs goes into the crowd to sweet-talk moon-eyed fans and ends up yelling at some GUY to sit the hell down. Yes, it's just a joke, but behind that front row of uniformly blonde girls was a row of equally starstruck gay boys who got no love, and it made me sad for them."
The skit I'm going with here is "The Miley Cyrus Show." Bieber poses as the president of the her fan club, and mocks himself, including getting caught smoking pot. But the bit that struck me was when he said that Justin Bieber looked like a "f*ckin' lesbian." Now don't get me wrong, I've made the "Justin Bieber looks like a lesbian" joke, and thought it was funny in an earlier skit when Kate McKinnon popped up as Ellen who looked like Bieber. But there was a nastiness to how he said it, and on top of it, he was sitting with "Miley" who has been quite vocal about people saying she looked like a lesbian when she cut her hair short, and I can't see why her character allowed that to pass unanswered in pop culture commentary.
The Happy Egg Pancake company has created perhaps the least efficient way to make pancakes, and I love it. Besides, the rate that chickens lay eggs would be wonderful for keeping down the carb consumption.
This weekend on Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher addressed Donald Trump suing him, after initially saying that his attorneys had asked him to hold off until after they finished laughing.
Annie and the Gypsy stars Cybill Shepherd and David Burtka, over the course of a night when she throws a Spanish-themed dinner party and deals with the return of a stranger from her past.
Calvin Klein model Matt Terry visited Ellen on Friday, and of course she got him to take off his shirt to the screams of the audience. He's much taller than I expected. She also got him to drop his pants and show his Calvins (thank heavens he didn't put on Hanes by mistake that morning) with the promise of an audience prize, which turned out to be a Calvin Klein gift certificate. In a weird, awkward moment, Ellen asked him if he had a girlfriend, to which he said no, then described what he was looking for without using pronouns, which I'm sure is just marketing to the gays. Just once I'd like to see a host ask "Are you seeing anyone special?" and leave the gender disclosure up to the guest rather than boxing in the answer with a presumptive question.
There really is a dating site out there for just about everyone, even horrible hate groups like the Westboro Baptist Church.
