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THE LEFT HAND COLUMN

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Full Ahead, Warp Speed: Mr. Sulu is Gay
Actor and partner have been together for 18 years
(We love you, Sulu!)

"George Takei, who as helmsman Sulu steered the Starship Enterprise through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual..."

"He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation.

“It’s against basic decency and what American values stand for,” he said."

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 28, 2005 11:34 | link | comments

Scoo-TER! Scoo-TER!(via msnbc.com)
(Or: Is this as far as it will go?)

"Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was indicted Friday on five charges that include obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury in the investigation into the leak of a covert CIA agent’s name.

Moments after the indictment was announced, the White House said that Libby had resigned."

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 28, 2005 11:18 | link | comments

MIERS WITHDRAWS

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 27, 2005 08:47 | link | comments

Tom Feeny: From Local Crooked Politician to National Crooked Politician

Computer Expert Testifies Elections in Florida Were Fixed(via alterman, via iwilltryit.com)

"Computer programmer Clinton Curtis testified at the December 13th, 2004 Congressional hearing in Columbus, Ohio naming Republican Congressman Tom Feeney as the person who hired him to prepare vote-rigging software."

"Curtis claims that in those meetings Feeney had "bragged that he had already implemented 'exclusion lists' to reduce the 'black vote'." Feeney also mentioned that 'proper placement of police patrols could further reduce the black vote by as much as 25%.'"

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 26, 2005 16:28 | link | comments

SWOOPS! SWOOPS!
(Or: You GO, Woman)
WNBA's Swoopes tells magazine she's gay

“It’s not something that I want to throw in people’s faces. I’m just at a point in my life where I’m tired of having to pretend to be somebody I’m not,” the 34-year-old Swoopes said. “I’m tired of having to hide my feelings about the person I care about. About the person I love.”

***Addendum: Swoops has alluded to her lover as a former WNBA coach. My guess is Cheryl Miller, who previously coached the Phoenix Mercury.

Besides...she's HOT.

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 26, 2005 15:30 | link | comments

"Give me a girl at an impressionable age..."
WP: Girl, 8, gets year’s 1st bear kill

"I froze up," she recalled. Regaining her composure, Sierra stood behind a tree, waiting until the bear was about 50 yards away, she said. Then she took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The bullet struck the bear behind the shoulder. Unfazed by the rifle's light recoil, she said, she ejected the casing, reloaded and fired another round.

It hit. The bear ran about 150 feet before collapsing.

"I was really, really, really happy," Sierra exclaimed. "They won't eat now. They won't eat a thing."

***The black bear's diet is similar to that of the brown bears, omnivores who will eat almost anything, but it is more markidly herbivorous. Depending on the season and the environment, vegetative matter makes up between 80% and 95% of its diet.***

---

Little Sierra then went out to play "Barbie The Sniper" with her friends.

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 25, 2005 11:15 | link | comments

As a Lesbian I Find this Obvious...

 

You Are 50% Boyish and 50% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 23, 2005 11:49 | link | comments

Why Is This Man Smiling?

So crude. So juvenile. So me. I also note they didn't make Delay take off his toupee. I am SO sure he wears a rug.

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 21, 2005 07:27 | link | comments

More Health Scares
(Or: Religious freedom or polio?)

"State health officials on Wednesday reported that a fifth Amish child in central Minnesota has contracted the polio virus.

The child's family is unrelated to two other families with children who have also tested positive for the virus, said Doug Schultz, a Minnesota Health Department spokesman. The families are all part of the an Amish community near Clarissa.

State epidemiologist Harry Hull last week said he expects more cases of polio infection to turn up as community members are tested. Most were never vaccinated."

So? Do we force vaccinations in opposition to certain religious convictions to ensure the health of others?

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 20, 2005 07:54 | link | comments

Florida Medicaid System Next in Privatization Orgy
(Or: We Don't Care, We Don't Have To)
(via aol.com/vianytimes.com)

"The Bush administration approved a sweeping Medicaid plan for Florida on Wednesday that limits spending for many of the 2.2 million beneficiaries there and gives private health plans new freedom to limit benefits.

"The Florida program, likely to be a model for many other states, shifts from the traditional Medicaid "defined benefit" plan to a "defined contribution" plan, under which the state sets a ceiling on spending for each recipient."

 ...and the poor just keep getting poorer, the uninsured stay uninsured, state and federal benefits continue to be extended to illegal immigrants, and the powerful insurance lobby wins again.

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 I am an unemployed, full-time nursing student. I have no insurance. I don't qualify for Medicaid because Florida is currently only registering pregnant women and children. This information courtesy the man with the nasty attitude who answered the phone at the Good Samaritan Clinic in Pasco county (he was doing me a BIG favor, doncha know). 

I am eternally grateful to the Big Mouse in the House for extending me benefits in another month under my partners' policy via their non-discriminatory employee health plan.  

So screw you, Jeb(!).

< 

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 20, 2005 07:28 | link | comments

"WIIIIIIILMAAA!"

WTNT34 KNHC 191158
TCPAT4
BULLETIN
HURRICANE WILMA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER  16A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
8 AM EDT WED OCT 19 2005

...WILMA MAINTAINING CATEGORY FIVE STATUS...RECORD PRESSURE
CONFIRMED BY AIRCRAFT CREW...

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 19, 2005 08:21 | link | comments

Hey! Did You Know That Dress Codes are Racist?
(Or: When morons use the word 'racist' it marginalizes actual racism)

The NBA came up with a new dress policy to make its players look a little more, uh, professional--even if they can't act like it.

Now the blinging protests begin.

"...guard Stephen Jackson tell(s) ESPN that the league ban on chains worn over clothing is "a racist statement" from the league.

"Jackson said he had no problem with requiring players to dress better. But he drew the line at players being told their chains and necklaces can’t be visible over their clothes.

'I just think that’s attacking young, black males," said Jackson, who wore four chains to the Pacers exhibition game against San Antonio on Tuesday night. “The part about wearing suits, I think we should dress up. A lot of guys have gotten sloppy with the way they dress and I have no problem with that. But the chains, that’s going a little too far.”

Um, Stevie, I played varsity sports in high school--admittedly not YOUR stratosphere--and we were NEVER allowed to wear jewelry during games. It was a safety factor. And our jewelry wasn't even ho-lookin'.

Not so much for ya'll in pro sports. You think nothing of showing up for a game looking like man-whores. You wear 'way too much (and too big) jewelry and those diamond studs in your ears make you look like what my dad used to call "fancy boys." It's sad that almost every top-level black athlete feels the need to conspicuously demonstrate his ability to spend ridiculous amounts of money on bling so we can all (they suppose) swoon with envy. (Thank-you Derrick Brooks for not being a man-whore!)

And to call a rule against jewelry racism is just plain ignorant. 

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 19, 2005 07:48 | link | comments

We're Not Related, Thank God...

...but (again I ask!) why isn't the actual namer of the name in Plamegate, Robert Novak, in jail?

...and does anyone but me remember that one of Gilda Radner's most memorable characters on the old (classic) SNL was the frenetic Brownie named Judy Miller? "It's the Juuuuudeeee Miiiiiillerrrrr Shooooooow," she would warble, bouncing madly on the bed while wearing a half-slip on her head as a wedding veil.

Yup, the Judy Miller Show. I'll bet Gilda is laughing her ass off right about now.

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 18, 2005 13:59 | link | comments

Like Watching Watergate Unfold...(via nydailynews.com)

"A special prosecutor's intensifying focus into who outed a CIA spy has raised questions whether Vice President Cheney himself is involved, knowledgeable sources confirmed yesterday."

When it's all said and done, can I say "F*** you, Mr. Cheney" without being outed?

Oh yeah, I'm already out.

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 18, 2005 13:51 | link | comments (1)

From First Read

"According to data from the Energy Information Administration, NBC's Chris Donovan notes that the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has increased 94% since Bush took office in January 2001 (from $1.47 to $2.85), and the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has increased 40% since the day Bush was re-elected in November 2004 (from $2.03 to $2.85)."

Posted by: Likes2mtnbike at October 18, 2005 13:07 | link | comments