The American Civil Liberties Union, however, said that policy was a violation of civil rights.  The ACLU's point had already been decided in Fricke v. Lynch, 491 f. Supp. 381, way back in 1980.  So the school district made a decision: rather than let one girl wear a tuxedo, they cancelled the prom for everyone.

The report didn't actually say it was because of that, but "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events."

Apparently, in that county in Mississippi, learning about civil rights is a distraction to what they consider a proper education. 

Read the story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date

Image used is at http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-13517.html/ and appears at http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-13517.html/ No threat to its copyright is intended.

"Iron Chef" Daniel Angerer said necessity is the mother of invention--and in this case the source of milk.  He had and wife Lori Mason had a freezer full of her breast milk, and were running out of room.  Rather than waste it, he decided to serve cheese made from it with figs and Hungarian pepper at Klee Brasserie.

Of course some people are shocked.  Even the New York City Health Department advised him to stop serving it.  They didn't have a law against it, but you know if they work hard enough they can make up--I mean find--something.

It's actually odd that it would seem odd.  People think nothing of swallowing bodily fluid from a fat, four footed creature that regurgitates matter from its stomach, then chews it and shallows it and regurgitates it again.  But humans drinking a drink that's specifically designed to fill the nutritional needs of humans?  Horrors!

And if it starts with getting adults to consume breast milk, it won't end there!  Before you know it, they'll be having teenagers, preteens and young children doing it.  Can you imagine the atrocity of having babies breast feeding?

Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35778477/ns/today-today_food_and_wine/

For all our entries that touch on breast feeding, click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=breast+feed  The PETA story is at http://loveshade.org/blog/2008/09/will_ice_cream_made_from_breas.html

The cheese breast image is at http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/cheese.jpg and appears in the article http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2008/04/10/human-breast-milk-cheese/.  No threat to its copyright is intended.

The same-sex marriage ceremonies don't conclude with being pronounced "husband and wife;" instead the happy couples are now pronounced "legally married."

See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35776970/ns/us_news-life for more info.

Photo from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Triumphant_newlyweds.jpg

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For all our entries on same-sex marriage, click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=same-sex+marriage

Because of an extradition agreement with Mexico which, like most of the civilized world, doesn't allow executions, he will not be executed.  But for conviction on the rape, murder and aggravated criminal sodomy, he will face life in prison when sentenced on March 31.

Sander was an 18-year-old Kansas secretary and college student whose death drew national attention when it was revealed she posed naked as Zoey Zane.  Her friend, who posts online as Perlie the Pony Girl, said "I'm glad they aren't going to kill him. I don't believe in that and Emily didn't either. She was such a wonderful girl. I hope people remember her that way."

Zoey Zane was not a "porn star," but a young woman who posed for a few photos and who was working to make a better life for herself.  We hope she'll be remember that way, too.

See more at http://www.kansas.com/news/featured/story/1177964.html

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To see all our entries on Emily Sander, click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=emily+sander

See Perlie the Pony Girl's tribute to her friend Emily at http://discordia.loveshade.org/xtra/emily.html

Attempts to get Davis' case retried have repeatedly run into legal obstacles and entanglements.  Davis' attorneys are currently trying to get access to police files.

For more information, see http://savannahnow.com/crime/2010-02-05/troy-davis-lawyers-cry-foul

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A website for Troy Davis is at http://troyanthonydavis.org/

To see all our entries on Troy Anthony Davis, click on http://loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=troy+anthony+davis

For those who aren't familiar with Air America, it began in April of 2004.  It was broadcast on over 100 radio stations, and broadcast during a time when disagreeing with policies such as America beginning a war with Iraq were considered "un-American."  It had already dealt with bankruptcy in 2006, but was sold and saved.

It wasn't an unbiased medium--it featured Democrat Al Franken (recently elected senator in Minnesota after months of debate about who won) and Rachel Maddow, who at the beginning of Air America was not well known.  It called itself "the only full-time progressive voice in the mainstream broadcast media world."

It will supply "encore programming" from 6 p.m. Eastern time today, 21 January, through 9 p.m. EST on Monday, January 25.  It will be missed.

See more info at http://airamerica.com/ and at http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9628724

Photo is from http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/974abbd0-9266-430b-a664-83df4c425299_mn.jpg No threat to its copyright is intended.

California approved it after a court decision there, but it changed after Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage passed in November 2008.  It left California in the odd position of having legally approved same-sex marriages that were now against the constitution, which also didn't allow the state to force divorces on those already married.

Regardless of how this case of two same-sex couples is decided, the decision is likely to be appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court.  America's final court may then well make a decision that will greatly affect marriage through all of America.

In a fundamental question in the current case, District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker asked lawyer Ted Olson about state-controlled marriage.  Olson, who is arguing in favor of same-sex marriage, was key to getting George W. Bush elected president by, essentially, one vote in the U. S. Supreme Court after a recounting of the inaccurate Florida voting was denied.  Walker asked if the goverment could get out of the marriage business.  Olson responded, Yes, I believe it could."

Here, we largely agree with Olson.  Why can't marriage be returned to being a social and/or religious institution, and not something completely controlled by big government?  Participants could sign a contract on how their assets and child custody could be handled, and would have a choice of contracts.  Now, the government tells you who you can marry and how.  Couldn't that be a decision guided by your own conscience?

For more information, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34801259/ns/us_news-life/.

To see all our entries on gay marriage, click on http://www.loveshade.org/blog-mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=gay+marriage

Image is from http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/g-cvr-100111-marriage1-9a.hmedium.jpg. No threat to its copyright is intended.

Why can't you ride the subway without pants?

That's the question asked for the ninth annual No Pants Subway Ride on Sunday, 10 January. Begun by Improv Everywhere in New York, this year it was also held in various parts of the United States and the world, with participants in a reported 16 countries. A few thousand people took off their pants in New York, and others dropped them in Baltimore, Washington D.C., and, of course, San Francisco. Other places included Lisbon, Portugal, and Buenos Aires.

But it's actually related to an earlier tradition called No Pants Day celebrated by The Knighthood of BUH at the University of Texas, Austin, since 1997. And some claim it began even earlier, around 1985 or 1986. It's often celebrated on the first Friday in May.

In both No Pants Day and No Pants Subway Ride, particpants may act like nothing unusual's going on. If questioned, act as if they forgot to wear their pants, but that's no big deal. Other celebrants make a point of being pantsless, even wearing T-shirts celebrating wearing no pants. How you celebrate is up to you (but for most areas, you're safer if your nether regions are covered by underwear. "Pants" in the United Kingdom means underwear, but in America it means trousers).

See Links:

Check out the No Pants Day site at http://www.nopantsday.com/wp/

Read a report at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34799796/?GT1=43001

Watch the ZeitGeist version at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26852192/vp/34805765#34805765

The photo above is from http://improveverywhere.com/images/nopants7_17.jpg. No  threat to its copyright is intended.

That is from the blog of Saul Landau, an Emmy-award winning documentary producer I had the priviledge to work under as head writer of a university-produced, English-language telenovela.  Landau, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, is an internationally-known filmmaker, television producer and author who focuses on domestic and foreign policy.  Discordians might be interested to know he won a Golden Apple award for "The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas," a film that was a major inspiration to both myself and Reverend Loveshade.  Saul is also a man who, like many of us here, was thoroughly investigated because he knew the "wrong" people and asked the "wrong" questions.

You can read a short bio on Landau, who can be profound and entertaining at the same time, at http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=971:saul-landau&catid=42:our-columnists&Itemid=60

At that page you can click on "Show Other Articles By This Author" to read his blog entries, including the one on Obama quoted above, which is at http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1364:almost-one-year-assessment&catid=40:lastest-news&Itemid=59

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Other links:

His homepage is at http://saullandau.com

For those who don't believe anything outside of Wikipedia, there's an article on him (which previously mentioned me but currently doesn't) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Landau

The image of Saul Landau above is from http://progreso-weekly.com/2/images/semana0/landau1.png. No threat to its copyright is intended.

The blocking law was passed in 1987, back when ignorant Americans (and apparently their elected officials) thought HIV/AIDS could be passed by handshakes and hugs.  It became the late 20th century equivalent of an earlier America's "C-word" (cancer), or America's equivalent of the biblical leprosy.

But Americans, unlike the enlightened bibical writers of a few thousand years ago, were ignorant of current medical knowledge.  Even in the late 1980s, the evidence was that HIV/AIDS could not be spread by casual contact.

And even if it was justified in the panicked 1980s, how could it have taken 22 years for HIV to be moved out of the category of highly contagious diseases spread by casual contact?  The United States was one of only about 12 countries to have such a ban.  Others include Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Libya.

It's another example of how American politics are often rooted in superstition, and how many years it can take to correct a misguided law that those in the know, in this case the medical community, had long said was not helpful and was, in fact, harmful.

Finally, after 22 years, familes who have been separated have a chance to come together again.  Assuming members have not died from legally-sanctioned second-hand smoke.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/dec/01/travel/chi-hiv-travel-ban-01-dec01

I know you've all been waiting for this all year, so here it is.

Here are my predictions for 2010 (actually, other members of The Loveshade Family contributed to this; they just don't want to admit it):

* The HEALTH CARE REFORM so praised by Americans (that is, those who don't have health care), will not work as planned.  Detractors will say it's a huge waste of money, and will put America in the toilet.  However, supporters will say it's at least better than it was, and it will continue to get better.  Rush Limbaugh will say at least I'm still alive.

* ELVIS PRESLEY will be spotted in a shopping mall in New Jersey.

* The AMERICAN ECONOMY will show significant improvement; Democrats will claim it's because of their fine work, while Republicans will claim it's because of improvements made while George W. Bush was still president.

* An American group will work very hard to prove that BARACK OBAMA DOESN'T QUALIFY AS PRESIDENT.  The group will be suspected of having ties to a dissident group overseas.

* The supposedly dim-witted PARIS HILTON will still maintain the facade of being dim-witted, but will none-the-less cleverly manage to get herself in the news for yet another scandal.

* A male AMERICAN ICON of purity and wholesomeness will be caught with his hand somewhere people don't think it belongs; i.e., in someone else's pocket.

* A female BRITISH ICON of purity and wholesomeness will be caught exposing a portion of her anatomy that the prudish will not think should be exposed.

* The Law that DEATHS ALWAYS HAPPEN IN FIVES will once again be proven this year.  At least of those deaths will be unexpected, a famous singer, and a famous actor.

* QUEEN ELIZABETH I will not die, but will have a significant medical problem.  (Sorry, your Majesty).

* A major figure in the MIDDLE EAST will be violently killed.

* In the United Kingdom, there will be renewed interest in an ANCIENT ACTIVITY.  It will be something that's been popular in North America for years.

* HIP HOP will still be popular with many, and still hated by many others.

* I will perform a legally-recognized DISCORDIAN WEDDING, and there will be much rejoicing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR,

THE LOVESHADE FAMILY

Her primary opponent, Gene Locke, is male, but is also a Democrat in the non-partisan race.  Also, he's black.

Admittedly, things are changing in America.  A year ago, the top president-vice president candidates were a black and white man running for office with a white man, and a white man running with a white women.  And Texas has had two woman governors, the most recent being Anne Richards, who was elected to office for 1991 to 1995 as a Democrat.

But the image of the typical conservative southern Democrat was already fading then, and she was replaced as governor by none other than relatively conservative turned ultra conservative Republican George W. Bush.

Right now, Texas is a state where it's very difficult in most areas to get elected as a Democrat, even as a judge.  Travel through a small Texas town when elections are nearing, and you'll see many campaign signs proclaiming Republican in big letters, and maybe a few whispering Democrat in much smaller letters (many Democrats don't even put their party affliation on their signs).

Woman; maybe have a chance in a small Texas town.  But gay?  Highly unlikely.

But Houston is a big city, the fourth largest in the United States.  And large cities draw people from all over the country, and even from other countries.  Large U.S. cities are almost by definition cosmopolitan, more open to accepting people who don't fit the stereotypical "proper type."  Even though it was a city, there was a lot of anti-homosexual rhetoric.

But still, this is a very significant election.  Let's hope things go well for Annise Parker, the city of Houston, and ultimately for Texas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34399468/?GT1=43001

Apparently, some of the people behind the bill (possibly the author) are associated with The Family, a conservative Christian organization.

See the video at www.loveshade.org/blog/uganda_hang_gays.html

Thanks to Vernon Avaritt for pointing this out to us.

After all, didn't some 13-year-old girl commit suicide over it?

No.  She wasn't a victim of sending nude photos of herself, she was a victim of vicious cyberbullying.  People who could be helped with counseling for self-esteem issues brought on by hormonal changes and, often, non-supportive parents, need help.  But they can get an easy release by harassing people online.  After all, it takes no courage attacking someone who can't really attack you back (plant your attacks, then log off).

The old "sticks and stones may break my bones, but your dirty words can't hurt me" is a great philosophy to live by, but it doesn't reflect the reality that human beings are a social species.

But can't you get arrested?  Yes.  As we've reported here before, young people have been arrested and charged with promoting child pornography for sending pictures of themselves.  The criminal and the victim become the same person.

David Rovics asks that and questions the Christian justification for war in "Who Would Jesus Bomb?"  Even though most of the Portland, Oregon resident is copyrighted, he let's individuals download his songs and poems for free, and performs in various parts of the world.  With his social commentary and protests, musical storytelling, acoustic guitar and recordings that aren't artifically made perfect in studio, he reminds us a little of the early Bob Dylan.

In addition to "Who Would Jesus Bomb?," you might also want to listen to his song "John Brown" about the extremely controversial abolutionist and folk hero who led armed insurrection to end slavery in 19th century America.

You can check Rovics' website, download songs for free and donate to support the artist who lets you download for free at http://www.davidrovics.com.  One person's video of "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU0OvaBqSwo&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

Thanks to Vernon Avaritt for telling us about this artist and the song.

This article includes Nick Ut's Puliter Prize winning photo of people running, including the naked Napalm victim 9-year-old Kim Phuc.  No threat to the iconic photo's copyright is intended.