Newly appointed openly gay San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. Click image to enlarge.
AMERICA’S EIGHTH LARGEST CITY today has a new leader who also happens to be gay. In San Diego, former City Council President Todd Gloria took over as interim mayor at 01:00 GMT on Saturday, when disgraced former Mayor Bob Filner resigned after weeks of turmoil that drew national attention in the U.S.
WATCH GLORIA’S COMING OUT VIDEO BELOW THE FOLD.
MEET SOME OF ITS HABITUÉS IN THE VIDEO The world-famous Venice Beach, California, and its incomparable Boardwalk features daily some of the weirdest, most wonderful and wackiest people on the planet. In our video presentation, you will meet some of the folks who populate the Boardwalk every day of the week. Sit back take a few minutes off your weekend, and take a virtual trip down the Boardwalk at the world-famous Venice Beach, California.
PREPARATIONS BEING MADE FOR GAS ATTACK Israel – alas – is used to violent conflict, both within its borders and in the neighboring countries. Perhaps this is why the entire country is calm but deliberately planning for the worst but hoping for the best. From all signs, there is no panic; more just a resignation that continuation of a 5,000-year-old conflict is inevitable. But the calculations of U.S. policy makers must take into account the potential of any military strike against Syria to have adverse unintended consequences for the Jewish state.
Due to the Labor Day weekend in the U.S. posting will be light over the next few days. We deserve a break from our labors! Don’t you?
HUMAN SUFFERING MUST BE MINIMZED, BLOWBACK AVOIDED As the U.S. drifts ever closer to a military strike against Syria, the complexity of the issue demands our close attention. None of the options facing President Obama is good; alas, all he can do is choose the “least bad.” May Allah be with us – and everyone – on this complex and imminent decision. The best we can hope for is limited human suffering and at least a temporary end to the slaughter in Syria.
HHS SECRETARY SIBELIUS TOUTS BENEFITS BEING IMPLEMENTED The battle over the Affordable Care Act – aka Obamcare ¬– threatens to intensify just after Labor Day when Tea Party radicals plan a rally at the House Speaker’s office. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is fighting back with a public relations blitz. And a poll released Wednesday found a huge majority of Americans oppose defunding the program. This is the GOP’s worst nightmare come true, as we reported here Aug. 20.
IN IRONIC TWIST, REPORTERS ATTACK EACH OTHER The media spotlight has turned back on the journalists who have been involved in the publication of major government secrets this summer In a remarkable analysis “War on Leaks Is Pitting Journalist vs. Journalist” David Carr of The New York Times focuses on the issue. But he omits one vital point. Judith Miller was the biggest stooge of all time. And he knows it. The issue of who is a journalist is no longer in its infancy. The definition should be drawn as broadly as possible, to encompass everyone who works to publish information of vital public interest, irrespective of the media, the technology or who signs their paycheck.
IN KARACHI, SAME-SEX PARTNERS EASY TO FIND, MEDIA REPORT It is a most unlikely discovery: in a country where only two percent of the people accept homosexuality, a gay community is thriving. It is in a city of over 21 million people: Karachi, Pakistan. The “official” religious bent of the population denies the most basic right of all – continued life – to gay people, yet homosexuals risk life and limb to express their sexuality. Gay sex is easy to find, several media outlets report. “Karachi pretty much fails on every metric of gay life except for one: man-on-man sex.” Yet openly expressing one’s sexuality could be a death sentence. What a paradox.
RACE IS ON TO OFFER SCHEDULED SUBORBITAL FLIGHTS It has long been relegated to the realms of science fiction and fantasy, but space tourism on regularly scheduled flights is inching closer – and may be as little as one year away. With Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceport in New Mexico well under way, and all the activity in California, there can be no doubt that a new space race is taking place. It is a certain bet that within the lifetimes of most of us under 70 today, space tourism will turn from science fiction into science fact – for those with a wad of cash to spare.
ALL THE BLAME GOES TO THE GOP IN CONGRESS As many have predicted, a disaster of gargantuan proportions is unfolding before our eyes as the effects of the so-called budget “sequester” ripple across America. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says it is increasing unemployment and lowering GDP. The lunatics responsible are ALL the Republican members of both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. There are none so blind as those who will not see. The numbskulls in Congress that allowed the sequester to happen, and keep doing nothing about it must be as blind as bats.
TEXT MESSAGES PURPORTEDLY FROM ME ARE FAKE Two officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have just left my home after taking a report that my identity has been stolen. Don’t let this happen to you. It is frightening indeed. I wish to alert anyone and everyone that communications purportedly from me should be examined with great care, especially text messages, which I use infrequently. If you have any doubt about any electronic communications from me, please contact me at once and we shall investigate. Click the link “Read the rest of this story” for more details.
