In the wake of Haiti’s earthquake this article briefly looks back on the photojournalism of tragedies that happened to ‘non-Americans’.

Chicago Now’s Lavender Menace writes about an incredible experience with a student in response to CBS’s decision to show that ‘I didn’t have an abortion even against medical advice and decades later I’m rolling in NFL money and so can you!’ Tebow ad. And yes, I had the misfortune of dating a high school teacher and WOW, I’ve never wanted to not be a teacher so hard after hearing her stories. Brave souls.

RIch at fourfour has a hilariously scathing post about ‘Small Wonder’, the show I watched as a kid when I was home sick from school and no other time because even then I knew how wretched it was, because someone answered no one’s demands to get it released on DVD (this week).

‘You may think that Small Wonder is a show about the trials and tribulations of a family (the Lawsons) that lives with a robot girl, V.I.C.I., whom they can’t seem to shut off and aren’t interested in trying, anyway, despite the burden it is to pretend that she is human and related to them 24/7. However, Small Wonder is mostly about people screaming at each other. Seriously, I’d be willing to bet that to prepare for her role as terrible actress Sheila Albertson in Waiting for Guffman, Catherine O’Hara studied the Lawsons’ next-door neighbor Harriet. Fucking Harriet, the most deserving target for any misguided, bigoted rage for red-headed stepchildren that you may have inside of you.’

So McCain backed away from his previous consistent opinion that DADT should be up to military leaders, leaders who are now in support of repealing it. Not a surprise that he’d do this as he’s getting competition in Arizona and he lost big time in the election last year, the winner of which he’s going to oppose no matter what the issue. My question is, why is no one challenging them to be specific with why exactly gays pose a threat? Conservatives are either being vague about it:

“At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” [McCain] said bluntly, before describing it as “imperfect but effective.” -WaPo

Effective with what??

Or just fucking ridiculous:

“In my opinion,” [Chambliss] said, “the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would very likely create an unacceptable risk to those high standards.” -TPM

He went on to include some risks: alcohol use, adultery and body art. Shouldn’t they be forced to include research into why this would result from being around homos? There’s a missing step here, at the very least they should be made to say out loud how homo behavior will negatively affect the troops. Like, are we going to seduce them with our homo charms and force them to enter a life of non-stop barracks sex because we always be cruising for same-sex booty? Did they find out turning every soldier gay was #4 on the gay agenda? Of course, women serve in the military too but you don’t see them getting all bothered about their vulnerability to sexual harassment..instead they oppose prohibiting contracted companies from forcing rape victims to stay out of criminal court without calling for ways to stop sexual abuse in the military. I really want them to say it for the record if they’re going to accuse a large group of people of something so serious that our mere presence will diminish the country’s protection from terrorists. Make them say it and make sure they know they’ll be on the record forever so everyone can see how far some people will go to hate on difference. I know it’s not a court of law, but there must be some sort of standard and someone like, I don’t know, the President who called for the repeal in his SOTU, should be calling them out every time they pop up to ensure these morons don’t hijack the debate so that everyone’s arguing over HIV rates in gay men or how much lesbians love piercings and tattoos.