AdamSmith

(This was posted to Facebook, deadpan, by an escort friend of mine. )

Well, it's Bezos' money. And he still has plenty left to help save the world with, if he wants to.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien was in long-term gay relationship, claims 'partner' Formerly Britain's most senior Catholic cleric O'Brien is renowned for railing against homosexuality The Independent Thursday 21 March 2013 Cardinal Keith O’Brien, formerly Britain’s most senior Catholic cleric and a man renowned for railing against homosexuality, was in a “longstanding physical relationship” with one of the men whose recent allegations brought about his downfall, it has been claimed. According to a report in The Herald newspaper, Cardinal O’Brien confessed to the relationship after it was recently revealed there had been several complaints to the Vatican about his sexual behaviour towards priests in the 1980s. The paper claims that the length of the relationship explains why the 75-year-old Cardinal spoke of his time as a “priest, bishop and Cardinal” when he made his brief apology earlier this month admitting that his “sexual conduct” had fallen below the standards expected of him. It is believed the man, who was due to speak to the newspaper before being advised otherwise by his bishop, currently lives outside Scotland. The report will pile further pressure on the Cardinal to make a much more detailed public response to the allegations against him. Britain’s most senior serving cleric stepped down one week after accusations against him first surfaced in public from four unnamed priests who said he had approached them sexually in the 1980s. The allegations were initially made to the Vatican’s ambassador to Britain and passed up the chain to Rome but they became public when a newspaper printed details last month. Cardinal O’Brien initially stepped down from the church without admitting that there was any substance to the allegations. However a week later he released a brief apology which suggested there was some truth in what the priests were saying. But the statement lacked any precise detail. According to The Herald, the man who had been in a long term relationship with the Cardinal is known to have been in regular telephone contact with him until recently and was a frequent visitor to St Benets, his official residence in Edinburgh's Morningside. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cardinal-keith-obrien-was-in-longterm-gay-relationship-claims-partner-8544536.html

And then I say, 'I didn't do it anyway!'

You don't, and shouldn't. Same here. Just the pleasure of a little free schadenfreude when it comes along.

The market speaks, the bitch recants. Will anyone swallow it? Michelle Shocked 'damn sorry' for anti-gay commentsSinger says her San Francisco outburst was merely reporting homophobic views she does not share Sean Michaels guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 March 2013 06.25 EDT Michelle Shocked has responded to reports that she went on a homophobic rant at a recent gig, insisting she has been misunderstood. "My support for the LGBT community … has never wavered," she said in an open letter sent out by her publicist, claiming she was simply trying to speak up for "Christians with opinions I in no way share". "I do not, nor have I ever, said or believed that God hates homosexuals (or anyone else)," Shocked wrote on Wednesday. "I said that some of His followers believe that." Unfortunately for Shocked, her statement follows the release of audio from the 17 March show, obtained by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. While the recording is a little hard to follow, Shocked clearly drew a line between California's gay marriage legislation and a Christian apocalypse. "From their vantage point – and I really shouldn't say 'their', because it's mine too – we are nearly at the end of time," she is heard to say, "and from our vantage point, we're gonna be – I think maybe Chinese water torture is going to be the method. Once Prop 8 gets [repealed] and once preachers are held at gunpoint and forced to marry the homosexuals, I'm pretty sure that that will be the signal for Jesus to come on back." "You are going to leave here and tell people 'Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots,'" Shocked declared. The venue's employees eventually stopped the gig by cutting the sound and lights. On Wednesday, Shocked tried to distance herself from those remarks. "My statement equating repeal of [Proposition] 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a description of how some folks – not me – feel about gay marriage," she wrote. "I believe intolerance comes from fear, and these folks are genuinely scared." "I believe in a God who loves everyone," Shocked went on, "and my faith tells me to do my best to also love everyone. Everyone: gay or straight, stridently gay, self-righteously faithful." Just as she does not "judge … homosexuality", she refuses to judge the evangelical Christians who revile it. "I may disagree with someone's most fervently held belief, but I will not hate them." For Shocked, who is a born-again Christian, this is a key distinction: hating the belief, not the believer. "I am damn sorry," she wrote. "If I could repeat the evening, I would make a clearer distinction between a set of beliefs I abhor, and my human sympathy for the folks who hold them … In this controversy, [my position] means speaking for Christians with opinions I in no way share about homosexuality. Will I endorse them? Never. Will I disavow them? Never." Members of the singer's audience who "applauded my so-called stance that 'God hates faggots'" should offer gay people "mercy, not hate", Shocked wrote. "And I hope that what remains of my audience will meet that intolerance with understanding, even of those who might hate them." It remains to be seen whether Shocked's fans will heed her advice and show "understanding" . It also remains to be seen whether Shocked will be able to resume her US tour. All 11 of the remaining scheduled dates have reportedly been called off by the promoters, including an appearance at the Telluride Bluegrass festival. The singer's website still shows a calendar of European appearances, but most of these are described as "tentative" and at least one, Germany's Burg Herzberg festival, has dropped her from the bill. "To those fans who are disappointed by what they've heard or think I said, I'm very sorry," Shocked wrote. "I don't always express myself as clearly as I should … I'd like to say this was a publicity stunt, but I'm really not that clever, and I'm definitely not that cynical." http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/mar/21/michelle-shocked-sorry-anti-gay-comments

Words fail me...

Thank you!

Good to know (speaking as a former StiffNights junkie, before the FDA nixed it). What organic products would you recommend? And where to get them?

This may be useful, either as caution or as brand recommendation... Sexual Enhancement Supplements Contain Hidden Drugs, FDA Warns The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers today that several supplements advertised as sexual enhancements contain hidden drugs. A supplement called “Stiff Days” contains sildenafil, the active ingredient in prescription drug Viagra, which used to treat erectile dysfunction, “Rock-It Man” contains a similar compound called hydroxythiohomosildenafil, and “Libido Sexual Enhancer” contains both of those ingredients as well tadalafil, which is the active ingredient in the prescription drug Cialis, according to the FDA. "These undeclared ingredients may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs, such as nitroglycerin, and may lower blood pressure to dangerous levels. Men with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease often take nitrates," the agency said on its website. The products are sold online and in some retail stores. There is a growing trend of dietary supplements — often promoted for sexual enhancement, weight loss, and body building — that contain with hidden drugs and chemicals, although they are often represented as being “all natural,” the agency said. Consumers should be careful about purchasing such products, the FDA said, because the agency is unable to test and identify all products on the market that marketed as dietary supplements but have potentially harmful hidden ingredients. Pass it on: Sexual enhancement supplements may contain hidden drugs. http://news.yahoo.com/sexual-enhancement-supplements-contain-hidden-drugs-fda-warns-135531335.html

Sorry, my mistake. The ownership point was from other articles, e.g., "...The engines, which remain the property of the U.S. government, will be restored and put on public display..." http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/21/us-space-apollo-idUSBRE92K00420130321

Well, I agree with your last sentence. The question is what is the market, and what is misrepresentative of it. The "going rate" I interpret as the typical or average rate. In NYC $1000-1200 for an overnight certainly is that. Hourly, guys there who can command more than $300 (even that) are few and far between these days. This phenomenon exists everywhere. So? Again, it just does not represent "the market." It describes a very small number of guys who have of course some natural assets, and either the smarts or luck to have access to some rich, generous or gullible clients. (Thinking about a few working guys I know who have serviced the very wealthy, it seems even those clients seldom throw money away. The whole package may include extended engagements at good fees; 5-star food, drink and accommodations naturally; often clothes and gifts, and so on. But it is demanding work, of its kind; they earn every penny, I think. And of course not without its own risks in terms of career arc: pricing themselves out of the broad market -- something to consider when the Gilded Age client capriciously decides he has had enough; re-entry into the more workaday market as Damaged Goods; etc. It has befallen more than one. But that is another thread...)

Yes, as the article EXPAT cited says, Bezos and NASA agreed beforehand they will be put on public display, one at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, and one in Seattle. All agree they remain NASA property. The article also notes Bezos saying we don't actually know which Apollo mission these components are from, due to serial numbers being eroded; restoration efforts may or may not reveal this. But in any case, a moving event for us space devotees.

I know this should be in the Politics forum, but what the hey.

Even if not a sturm und drang trooper. In any event, thanks. I think!

Agree 'breeders' is offensive. Re Shocked, reports are that since her outburst, some 8 of her upcoming gigs have been canceled by the venues. Who knew she was still even that popular?

Agree the escort was in the right here. I don't even like to reuse my own sex toys.

As do many things in German, come to think.

Pentagon Papers lawyer on Obama, secrecy and press freedoms: 'worse than Nixon' Career First Amendment and transparency advocate James Goodale sounds the alarm about the current president Glenn Greenwald guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 March 2013 17.40 EDT In 1971, when the New York Times decided to publish the Pentagon Papers leaked to it by Daniel Ellsberg, it knew it was triggering a major fight with the secrecy-obsessed Nixon administration. As expected, the Nixon administration sued the NYT in an attempt to ban it from publishing the documents, but the US Supreme Court, in a landmark decision for press freedom, ruled the prior restraint unconstitutional. The paper's general counsel at the time, James Goodale, said that he counseled the paper to publish despite "the more likely scenario that everyone feared was the fact that they could have gone to jail," and he subsequently became an outspoken defender of press freedoms. He now has a new book entitled "Fighting for the Press" in which he argues, as the Columbia Journalism Review puts it, that "Obama is worse for press freedom than former President Richard Nixon was." CJR has an amazing interview with Goodale, some relevant excerpts from which relate to many topics written about here: Let's talk about some of the challenges to press freedom now. "The biggest challenge to the press today is the threatened prosecution of WikiLeaks, and it's absolutely frightening. . . . "The one case that is troublesome and is still out there as we speak is the case of James Risen, who was a journalist who was leaked national security information in respect to the warrantless wiretapping program, which was disclosed by The New York Times. "He's won his case, but most people are going to be surprised if he can win it on appeal. It's been sitting on appeal for a year. Now what's going to happen — if the shoe drops and we're back to Judy Miller, it means Risen goes to jail. And if in fact it doesn't turn out that way and it turns out well, we'll have the question of whether the government will go to the Supreme Court and we will always have the question whether it will turn out well for the next Risen. And who's behind this one? Obama." Could you talk a bit about President Obama's approach to classified information and press freedom? "Antediluvian, conservative, backwards. Worse than Nixon. He thinks that anyone who leaks is a spy! I mean, it's cuckoo." Could you compare what we see in the Pentagon Papers and what we see in WikiLeaks? "Well, I think it's very much the same thing. We have a leak of classified information. And by the way — you've got to remember [bradley] Manning's the leaker. Everyone says Assange is a leaker. He's not a leaker. He's the person who gets the information. "So why we're so concerned about the prosecution of Assange is what he did is the same as what the Times did in the Pentagon Papers, and indeed what they did with WikiLeaks. The Times published on its website the very same material WikiLeaks published on its website. So if you go after the WikiLeaks criminally, you go after the Times. That's the criminalization of the whole process." So you think that if John McCain or Mitt Romney were the president and doing this, there would be a different response? "We'd be screaming and yelling and the journalists would be going crazy. And that doesn't speak well of journalists." Read the entire excellent interview here. This is from somebody who has worked on press freedom and excessive government secrecy for his entire career, including during the Bush years when he told PBS: "I think that Bush is as anti-press as the Nixon administration [was]". But citing Obama's unprecedented war on whistleblowers, targeting of core journalism, and expansion of radical secrecy doctrines, he's now sounding the alarm that Obama is worse to the point where basic press freedoms and transparency are seriously threatened. UPDATE One of the last chapters of Goodale's book deals specifically with Obama's record on press freedom and secrecy, while the other deals with the Obama DOJ's pursuit of WikiLeaks and Manning; and in those, he writes: "President Barack Obama has seamlessly carried forward the main ingredients of Bush's war against the press. . . . There is no easy way to explain why Obama the president is so different from Obama the candidate on national security matters. . . . Whatever the reason, Obama became a national security hawk. . . . "Obama is no better than Bush in many aspects of the war against the press––and in some respects he is worse. He has used the criminal system to plug leaks to the press in an unprecedented fashion. He has watered down a proposed federal shield law. He has asked a New York Times reporter to disclose sources. But there may be more anti-press action to come from the Obama presidency. Obama is presently pursuing Julian Assange for publishing information leaked to him by Bradley Manning. If he succeeds in this effort, he will have succeeded where Richard Nixon failed." Goodale is particularly compelling when documenting in detail all of the positions Obama claimed to believe in on these issues while in the Senate, and the way he has systematically breached all of them. None of this is new to readers here, of course, but the fact that Goodale is making this case, and making it with such ample documentation and detail, and so unblinkingly, is significant indeed. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/19/goodale-obama-press-freedoms-secrecy-nixon