Star Trek Beyond: Hikaru Sulu is Gay.

Image: Star Trek Beyond poster, Paramount

Image: Star Trek Beyond poster, Paramount

Sulu Is Gay in Star Trek Beyond and It’s Not a Big Deal.

Or, at least, Star Trek Beyond is presenting it like it’s not a big deal and praying fans follow suit.

The news comes from the Australian paper the Herald Sun, which says that the movie—rightfully—treats Sulu’s private life, in which he has a male partner and a child, as no big deal. (This daughter had better be Demora, is all I’m saying. Because Demora is awesome and deserves to exist in the alternate universe, too.)

According to John Cho, the decision was of course a nod to the original Sulu, everyone’s favorite Facebooking dad, George Takei. “I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations,” Cho told the Herald Sun.

YES! Full story here.

The Christian Contagion.

We’ve all been watching the rise of white nationalism, going on everywhere, not just in uStates. The march of wannabe fascism is never alone though, it’s always hand in hand with a religion. This is hardly the tidal wave Christians make it out to be, but it’s not nothing, either. When times are interesting, people often turn to religion, and the times we are living in are interesting, to say the least.

People from all over Europe flocked to Nantes, France, last week to seek the Lord at the Grande Conference.

The purpose of the conference this year was to call an increasingly secular Europe back to a true relationship with God.

The key phrase of the conference was “mercy triumphs over judgment,” a banner declaring God’s ability to heal and restore Europe.

Chris Gore, a minister from Bethel Church in California spoke at the event and posted about it on Facebook. He says hundreds of people encountered the gospel and surrendered their hearts to Christ.

“The first session of the conference, over 70 percent of over 1,000 people gave their lives to Jesus for the first time,” Gore writes. “The hope of this nation is the gospel.”

Not only did hundreds of people give their lives to Christ, thousands more experienced life-changing miracles.

“Europe is alive for Jesus! What an incredible night in France. We saw tonight around 2,000 miracles and exactly 100 reports of deaf ears opening,” Gore posted along with a video of an auditorium full of people praising God.

The revival comes in a time when most news headlines bear grim news about Europe. Gore believes the key to overcoming the darkness surrounding Europe is equipping believers to be the light of the world.

[…]

The revival is not just staying in France. Gore and other ministers from around the world are also traveling to conferences in Germany and Austria later this month to change the spiritual condition of Europe with the power of the gospel.

It’s important to remember history here. Wannabe fascists have never  been shy about grabbing onto religion and using it as a vehicle to attain their rise. Here in the States, we’re already watching that one take place. Full Story Here.

White and Black.

Shutterstock.

Shutterstock.

When a white guy is seen wandering around in public waving a gun, the police usually try to talk him down; he’s probably just having a bad day. Even if the white guy happens to be pointing his gun directly at an officer, his interaction with the police is unlikely to end in the exchange of gunfire. This is called white privilege.

Recent history suggests there’s a certain methodology for how police handle nearly identical gun-related incidents: white guys get arrested, while black guys get shot. Outraged? If not, you need to pay attention.

1. Armed White Guy Has Standoff With Police, Then Gets His Gun Back.

Last May, an armed Michigan man had a standoff with the police as he stood in front of a Dairy Queen waving a loaded rifle around and angrily shouting. When cops arrived, the man, Joseph Houseman, refused to identify himself, grabbed his crotch, flipped the bird, and cursed them out. Houseman was intoxicated and didn’t have an ID. For 40 minutes, the police tried to get the belligerent man to put his weapon down. All the while, he was screaming, “The revolution is coming,” and accusing the cops of being a “gang.” He told the police he had a legal right to “threaten” police officers and their families.

There’s an excerpt from their encounter at the full story link.

2. White Guy Points Gun at Police Officers and Children During Hour-Long Standoff. Video and summary at full story link.

3. White Man Arrested Twice For Road Rage With a Gun.

In October, a Tennessee man was arrested for waving a loaded gun during a road rage incident involving another man and his son. E.J. Watson confronted the pair when they came to a stop, exited his vehicle with his pistol tucked in the front of his pants and was very belligerent, cursing and making derogatory remarks.

The victims called 911, and police pulled Watson over a few miles from the weapon-wielding episode. His car was littered with empty beer cans as well as a loaded Smith & Wesson revolver. Watson refused to exit his vehicle and had to be physically removed. Only three months earlier, he was arrested for a separate drunken road rage incident.

Good thing for Watson he was white—otherwise he might not be alive today.

4. White Guy Arrested for Firing BB Gun at Officers.

A 22-year-old from New Hampshire faces one count of reckless conduct after firing a BB gun at Concord police in September. The two police officers were making a routine traffic stop at an intersection when the man opened fire from a nearby apartment building. They arrested the culprit, Jesse Deflorio, who was on already on probation for a similar incident. The judge residing over the case commented that he was worried about the white guy’s safety following the most recent BB gun-firing episode. Poor white guy.

Tamir Rice, 12, was walking around a Cleveland park, holding a toy gun that uses nonlethal plastic pellets. A police cruiser pulled up and within two seconds Rice was shot and killed by rookie officer Timothy Loehmann.

5. Two White Men Shoot Up Walmart With BB Gun and Live to Tell the Tale.

6. White Guy Arrested After Pointing Gun at Pennsylvania Police Officers.

7. White Woman Dressed In Body Armor Arrested After Shooting Into Cars and Pointing Gun at Police.

8. White Man Arrested After Pointing Gun at Phoenix Firefighters During Hour-Long Standoff.

Full story, summaries, videos, and links here. If you’re one of those people who insists racism, cops, and guns aren’t a problem, do some fucking homework. Read until reality seeps into your brainpan.

Birth of a Thunderstorm.

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A developing thunderstorm climbs high into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean south of Panama. (Santiago Borja)

Click for full size. This astonishing photo was taken by a pilot.

Taken from a plane at the moment of a lightning flash, it illustrates both the ferocity of a turbulent atmosphere and the beauty of Mother Nature. A strong, roiling updraft; a smooth, flat anvil; and the overshooting top — all features of intense developing thunderstorms.

The photo was taken over the Pacific Ocean from the cockpit of an airplane. The photographer and pilot, Santiago Borja, says he was circling around it at 37,000 feet altitude en route to South America when he captured this spectacular view.

Borja said it was difficult to get the shot in near-darkness and during a bumpy ride. “Storms are tricky because the lightning is so fast, there is no tripod and there is a lot of reflection from inside lights,” Borja told The Washington Post in an email.

“I like this photo so much because you can feel the amazing size of the storm and its power,” Borja said. “But at the same time it’s wonderful how peacefully you can fly around it in still air without touching it.”

[…]

The photo was taken with his Nikon D750 camera south of Panama on a Boeing 767-300.

Full story at Washington Post.

California: Vaccine Mandate.

Shutterstock.

Shutterstock.

With California’s strict vaccine mandate now in place, opponents are fighting to overturn the law in court.

The new law, which took effect Friday, bars parents from citing religion or other personal beliefs as reasons to not vaccinate their kids. SB 277 is one of the toughest mandatory vaccination laws in the country and drew many protesters when it was debated in Sacramento.

A group of parents and the nonprofit Education 4 All filed a suit Friday to overturn the law in U.S. District Court in San Diego. The suit claims that the law violates California children’s right to an education under the state’s constitution.

“SB 277 has made second-class citizens out of children who for very compelling reasons are not vaccinated according to the CDC schedule,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert T. Moxley, said in a statement. “We are hoping the court will grant us an injunction while the judicial process takes place to see if this law is constitutional, which it most certainly does not seem to be.”

[…]

About 80,000 California students claim personal belief exemptions for vaccines annually.

First, good for you, California! It’s about damn time this ‘religious belief / personal belief’ crap was tossed out. No surprise that anti-vaxxers are fighting this mandate, but on the basis of violating a child’s right to an education? How does that work, when it is a parent’s refusal to vaccinate which bars a child from a public school? Your child doesn’t go to school in a vacuum, there are a whole lot of other children and their health at stake, and no, you don’t get to count on all the other kids being vaccinated as an okay for your little snowflake to run about in a possibly contagious state. I’m not all that comfortable with home-schooled kids not being vaccinated, because again, those kids aren’t in a magic bubble, never coming into contact with others. I was vaccinated, but I got nailed by chickenpox anyway. It was much milder and shorter lived than it would have been minus the vaccination, and it was not at all fun. I just don’t understand how any parent would be willing to see their child with such an illness.

I was also gobsmacked by the 80,000 personal belief exemption claims. Seriously? I know, in the scheme of the total population it’s not all that much, but in terms of a potential epidemic, it’s a huge number. I don’t have any personal reason to be concerned about these diseases anymore, but I am glad I’m not in SoCal anymore, either.

Via Raw Story.

Gay Pothead Zombies with Wackadoddle Things.

Gay Pothead Zombies, aka Christians in disguise.

GPZC

Adorable, aren’t they? Unfortunately, what they were doing, not so adorable. As usual, Christians once again prove they have no compunction whatsoever about being dishonest and deceitful, in order to spread their lies for Jesus.

Yes, as reported by Lifesite News, those at the Toronto Gay Pride parade thought they were getting free condoms and some helpful sex tips. They should have realized something was up when Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association was the group trying to do that.

Instead, they were getting fake condoms and info packets that told of the “physical and spiritual dangers of homosexual practices” from a group of Christians in disguise.

Bill Whatcott was leading the charge and the group, better known as GZCCA, as they registered for the parade under that named. They figured it would be easier to pass their message along if they were in disguises that included rainbow tutus and rainbow flags worn as capes.

The group had a couple of specific goals in mind, and the first was to be prophetic and unambiguous witnesses against the celebration of homosexuality. As if that wasn’t enough, they had a second reason for coming together, and it was to offer those partaking in homosexuality a way out.

That way out was to repent and turn to Jesus Christ so that they could be saved. Dressing in the costumes and appearing as gay pothead zombies was a move that Whatcott called “a bit creative” since it allowed them to hand out pamphlets to thousands of people instead of just a small few.

“I asked them if they wanted ‘Zombie safe sex.’ Everyone loved it. But, if you try to give out a Gospel pamphlet, they swear at you and throw slushies on your forehead. But, give them some wackadoddle thing that looks like a condom, and they really can’t grab it fast enough. I had three thousand out in 20 minutes.”

Whatcott’s blog, Free North America, has more pictures of the GZCCA handing out the fake condoms and pamphlets. There are also some looks at the pamphlets, but be warned that many of the images could be considered quite graphic.

Many of the images on Whatcott’s pamphlet show some of the diseases that are associated with homosexuality such as AIDS and numerous others. He believes that people who are attracted to the same sex need to know the medical facts about the practices they are partaking in.

“We don’t feel that this message should be closeted and that we should be bullied into silence.”

Mr. Whatcott, you were never bullied into silence. Christians such as yourself barely shut up long enough to breathe. As you don’t want to be closeted and silenced, you should perhaps have a great deal of empathy for those are repeatedly bullied in an attempt to silence them and shove them back in a closet and lock the door. Shame on you, not only for your deceit, but the lies and misinformation you spread.

Via  Inquisitr.

Paper and Fire.

Caine-giveaway

For those of you who read the first book in Rachel Caine’s The Great Library series, Ink and Bone, the second book, Paper and Fire, came out yesterday. I stayed up much too late reading. Not finished yet, but the 2nd book is as interesting as the first, with considerably more tension, and that’s saying something, considering the tension in the first book.

Mikko Lagerstedt.

“Capturing emotion of places through photographs.” That’s the tagline on Mikko Lagerstedt’s website, and it is delivered with power and beauty.

Stillness of Night.

STILLNESS OF NIGHT

 

The Whole Universe Surrenders

THE WHOLE UNIVERSE SURRENDERS

 

PATHWAY

PATHWAY

Spending an entire evening under the stars in near pitch darkness, photographer Mikko Lagerstedt captures spectacular landscapes of frozen tundra and misty mornings of Iceland and his native Finland. With a camera mounted on a tripod he takes a multitude of exposures as the light gradually changes. Certain elements are then stitched together digitally and enhanced with Photoshop and Lightroom—a process he candidly shares in tutorials and presets he sells on his website and blog. The resulting images are a result of hours of photography, editing, and a keen sense of color and composition to create heavily modified images that are almost hyper-realistic.

Mikko Lagerstedt’s galleries are to be lost in, gazing with wonder, awe, and near heartache from the sheer beauty of this planet of ours. To say the emotion of the landscapes is well captured is a complete understatement.

Via Colossal Art.

TV: trying to make everybody f*cking gay.

Boosie Badazz.

Boosie Badazz.

So, this person I had not heard of before has decided that the world at large has just gone too far – the gay is in cartoons, oh no! Why, it’s a terrible thing for kids to see themselves represented as normal.

“Gay panic” hysteria over LGBT-inclusive children’s programming is usually the purview of the falsely named One Million Moms, but rapper Boosie Badazz recently brought those fears into the mainstream when he told VladTV that cartoons are making kids gay.

The Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based rapper told DJ Vlad last month that television in general is “trying to make everybody fucking gay.”

“They’re putting it everywhere,” he continued. “Gay stuff is everywhere. … You got cartoons that have gays. On cartoons! These are kids. Let kids make their own decision if they wanna go that way. Six- and seven-year-old, five-year-old, shouldn’t be turned onto gay cartoons when their mind not even developed yet. What if they like how that cartoon talk? Now, you’re forcing them to be gay. Every TV show has gays. They’re kissing each other. It’s out of hand.”

Oh, kissing. Yes, that’s terrible. All those hetero people better stop that, right now. None of that hand holding, either.

“Everywhere you go, they’re forcing this gay stuff,” he said. “It wasn’t like that when I was coming up. The Ninja Turtles wasn’t kissing. You know what I’m saying? It wasn’t like that. The Flintstones wasn’t — they didn’t have two men on The Flintstones kissing, you know. The Jetsons wasn’t kissing. Everywhere you go they trying to do that, and they doing it for monetary gain. They not doing it cause they love the gays.”

Last time I looked, no one was making me, or anyone else watch television, let alone specific programs. I’m pretty sure you can still hang in the stone ages with Fred if you really want to do so.

But those sobering statistics appear to be lost on Badazz, who concluded his rant on VladTV by promising that if his child was gay,”I would probably slap his ass back straight.”

“I’m gonna kick his ass,” the rapper continued. “Maybe he’ll realize he’s not gay. But if I can’t stop him from being gay, I’m not gonna ban my son from my life. I’ll just have to find some crazy ass way to deal with it.”

Later during the same interview with VladTV, Badazz, a father of seven, said that he was looking for women with whom he could have three more children, so that he could make good on a promise he made to his grandmother to give her 10 great-grandchildren.

Though Badazz says he “doesn’t hate gay people at all,” it’s no secret that hostile attitudes like those the rapper is espousing contribute to the perception that LGBT lives, sexualities, and gender identities are deviant and inherently not kid-friendly.

If you ever wonder why bigotry just doesn’t die, there’s why.

The Advocate has the full story.

Anal Sex Ignorance.

12517960641912882309Man-and-woman-icon-alt.svg.medIgnorance isn’t good, and in this case, it’s spreading.

A recent study on heterosexual anal intercourse suggests that couples feel that it is a safe way to avoid HIV and other STIs. The study was  presented at the 2016 American Congress of Obstetricians & Gynocologists (ACOG) annual meeting by a team of physicians from the University of Washington in Seatle. One of the authors of the study, Dr. Lyndsey Benson, talked with Plus about the study, its results, and what it means.

The study, named Survey of Motivations for Anal Sex among Heterosexuals (SMASH), surveyed 5,000 American men and women aged 15-50 years old. The study began after a previous study by Benson highlighted “many knowledge gaps” in regards to what Americans knew about anal sex, including information about condom use, frequency of engaging in anal versus penis into vagina (PIV) sexual practices, and knowledge of HIV risks. Benson, the lead researcher, explained that this study was particularly important, as the majority (84 perccent) of new HIV cases in women can be “attributed to heterosexual contact.”

[…]

The researchers also discovered that a disconcerting number of Americans were engaging in hetero anal sex as a way to avoid sexually transmitted infections including HIV. More than 70 percent of adults in the study incorrectly believe that vaginal intercourse is higher risk than receptive anal intercourse. Among those that had anal sex, 10 percent reported they had done so as a form of contraception at least once.

The Advocate has the full story. This goes right back to Siobhan’s recent post about Canadian Blood Service’s new policies. Heterosexuals continue to be seen as low risk when it comes to blood donation, but gay men and transgender women are still being restricted and banned.