General

We’re losing in the polls. Will it be a repeat of California’s scenario– Laws allowing gay marriage overturned by the voters? Here’s the breakdown of the latest poll.

To interpret, note that a yes vote takes away the right of same-sex couples to marry. A no vote keeps the right of same-sex couples to marry. The poll asked if the election were held today would you vote YES or NO?

The result:

48% Yes
46% No

Click here for the rest of the poll results on the Maine’s gay marriage ballot initiative.

I love the Daily Kos write-up on the poll: “The forces of bigotry have a 2-point lead, but it’s within the margin of error. This thing is statistically tied. It’s a toss-up. It’s a battle between the side who can best bring out its supporters to the polls. And it’s a battle to persuade that tiny percent of undecideds to vote for equality. In fact, millions will be spent by both sides to bring that 6 percent home.”

No on 1.

The heart of her speech about gay marriage:

It’s important because when a country has different laws for different categories of people, it sends its population a message–that a different group of people with lesser rights are somehow inferior and less deserving respect and are in fact not wholly human. And that message is heard loud and clear by the worst elements in our society. And it instructs them that if they’re looking for somebody to bully, beat or kill….

From Digital Spy:

“In a recent chat with DS, the British actor, who plays vampire Bill Compton on the HBO series, joked that he is hoping for a bedroom scene with Alexander Skarsgård’s Eric Northman. ‘Alex is a good friend of mine and a fantastic actor and I love working with Alex and I don’t get to do it as much as I would love to,’ he revealed. ‘You never know – whether they’ll stick Eric and Bill in bed together, I don’t know. But here’s hoping!’ Moyer, 39, also voiced his approval over the Bill-Sookie-Eric love triangle. ‘One thing about great drama is that you can’t watch two characters be happy for… well, sometimes half a season is too much. I think there has to be obstacles put in there way. I think the Bill and Eric characters are great.'”

Bill wants a hookup scene with Eric? Now THERE’S a role you can sink your teeth into…

True Blood Store

Is Hollywood defending Roman Polanski? Conservatives think so and they point to Whoopi Goldberg’s comment that a 43 year-old man drugging a 13 year-old and forcing her to have sex wasn’t “Rape-Rape” (see what Whoopi Goldberg said about Roman Polanski).

Studio head Harvey Weinstein also threw a little Grey Goose into the fire when he called Polanski’s rape of the teen girl a “so-called crime.” And they point to “Defend Polanski” petitions being signed by the thing scariest to the black helicopter brigade–The Hollywood Elite. Petition signees include Steven Soderbergh, Neil Jordan, Sam Mendes, Taylor Hackford, and Mike Nichols; writer Salman Rushdie; author Milan Kundera; and stylist Diane von Furstenberg. Here’s the best known petition demanding the release of Roman Polanski.

So conservatives are right, no? [Read more…] about Right Smears Hollywood Over Roman Polanski.

Really, people, do you have any legal, moral or ethical reason to defend him?

a. He was 43. She was 13.
b. He plied her with alcohol and qualuudes.
c. He penetrated her ANALLY because he was afraid of getting her pregnant.
d. Asked why she did not more forcefully resist Polanski, the teenager told the D.A. “Because I was afraid of him.”
e. Polanski plead GUILTY. He does not maintain his innocence.

Read the recently released transcripts of the 13-year-old’s grand jury testimony here.

Oh, and apropos of nothing, a couple of interesting tidbits that speak to Polanski’s character:

* Polanski had an affair with 15 year old Natasha Kinsky.
* Woody Allen, he who married his barely of age step-daughter, signed a petition on behalf of Polanski’s release.

What’s there to defend?

From the New York Times:

The Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam, which preserves the memory of the young diarist who died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, posted the only known film footage of Anne Frank on a new YouTube channel launched last week. According to the museum, the film was shot on July 22, 1941, to record the wedding of a woman who lived next door to the Franks. About nine seconds in to the silent film embedded above, the camera tilts up from the bride and groom to show young Anne leaning out of the window of her house to see them.

In the five days since the channel was launched, the video has already been viewed more than 1.6 million times.

The Blonde One and I are collaborating on a book so we dashed off to Highlands, North Carolina to work on it.  With my old dog and her older cat.

As we careened down the rocky, half-mile driveway down to a friend’s house (estate is more like it), the absolute darkness gave Hollis the spooks.  “This is where you intend to fillet me like something out of an episode of Dexter, aren’t you?”  she asked looking out the window, grasping the door handle, seriously thinking of doing a Duck, Drop & Roll out of the car.

“No,”  I said.  “I hate getting blood under my fingernails.”  The deeper we got into the woods the more scared she got.   Between the mist, my speed and the near-blind darkness, the car almost slipped into a ravine.  “Sweet Jesus,” she said, “We’re going to spend the night clutching our pets for warmth!”

Relax, I tell her. We’re almost there.  Suddenly, my friend’s house loomed out of the darkness.  Hollis gasps.  Because there’ll be no clutching of pets or because the place is so beautiful?

We walk up to the door.  It’s pitch black.  “Hollis,” I say, trying to scare her.  “What if there’s a rapist in there?”

She grabs my hand and says, “Let’s hope he’s gay.”

They’ve designed a new series of sex toys for men and women to use as a couple (I guess gay couples can use it if one of the partners grows a clitoris).

They don’t vibrate, according to Phillips; they “purr.” Also, they heat up.

It’s a pretty dazzling set--a His & Hers collection bringing a new level of ergonomics to sex toys. They look beautiful, and they’re small– designed to be held effortlessly, so you can wiggle it just a little bit when you’re getting jiggy.

I wonder if this will prompt Apple to release an iVibrator?