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.
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.
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.
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.
BBC SAYS JOHANNESBURG UNDERGOING REBIRTH The first 10 minute segment on BBC Newsnight this weekend was about the surprising rebirth of a city in which I lived for six months in 1974: Johannesburg, South Africa. This story about one of the most violent cities on earth, however, was truly a surprise. Riddled with crime, the inner city is apparently undergoing an urban renaissance. Get In the (K)now … here, now
ZEN AND THE ART OF VIDEO EDITING Editing video involves several mental processes, some occurring simultaneously, others sequentially. It requires total concentration: It is this complete immersion that cleanses the mind. All the stresses and strains of the past and future vanish as one processes 30 frames per second, finding just the right ones to include, making split second decisions on where to cut and what to leave out. It can be called the Zen of video editing.
BLOGGER’S VIEWS ON MANNING CASE AIRED BY ALJZEERA It is rare that us mere mortals are afforded the same opportunity that folks like Scott Pelly (of CBS) and Brian Williams (of NBC) get every evening. They speak daily to an audience of millions about the most important issues in the news. Today, I was afforded the same opportunity. In a segment on the Listening Post show on Al Jazeera English. I was featured as a guest on the Global Village Voices slot speaking about the Bradley Manning case. Watch the full statement in the video.
UBER-LEAKER DENIES BEING SOURCE FOR MAJOR STORY ABOUT SPYING The Edward Snowden drama took a bizarre twist this morning when dueling articles were published in Britain’s two leading newspapers. One was a dramatic revelation in the Independent that the U.K. has a major spying outpost in the Middle East to intercept and monitor vast amounts of internet traffic. Then came a rebuttal in The Guardian claiming the British government has itself leaked the story, denying that Snowden had been the source. Who, then, leaked the data? That is a very good question indeed. It’s a made-for-television mini-series.
