Does anyone have a link for the series one soundtrack for Dance Academy?
Our real first gay president
The new issue of Newsweek features a cover photo of President Obama topped by a rainbow-colored halo and captioned “The First Gay President.” The halo and caption strike me as cheap sensationalism. I realize airport travelers look at a magazine for 2.2 seconds before moving on to the next one. I grant that this cover will probably get Newsweek a 4.4 second glance. I also understand that Newsweek is desperate for sales. Nevertheless, I doubt that the Newsweek of old, before it was sold for a dollar, would have pandered as shallowly.
The caption is a superficial way to characterize an important development of thought that the president — along with the country — has been making over recent years. It is also entirely wrong. Like the mini-furor a couple of months back about the claim that Richard Nixon was our first gay president, the story simply ignores that the U.S. already had a gay president more than a century ago.
There can be no doubt that James Buchanan was gay, before, during and after his four years in the White House. Moreover, the nation knew it, too — he was not far into the closet.
Today, I know no historian who has studied the matter and thinks Buchanan was heterosexual. Fifteen years ago, historian John Howard, author of “Men Like That,” a pioneering study of queer culture in Mississippi, shared with me the key documents, including Buchanan’s May 13, 1844, letter to a Mrs. Roosevelt. Describing his deteriorating social life after his great love, William Rufus King, senator from Alabama, had moved to Paris to become our ambassador to France, Buchanan wrote:
I am now “solitary and alone,” having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection.
“To love each other even when we hate each other. No running. Ever. Nobody walks out. No matter what happens. We’ll take care of each other…even when we’re old, and smelly and senile.” THIS IS FOREVER
Happy 3rd Post-it Wedding Anniversary (May 14th 2009)
John was in a Ripley’s Believe It or Not comic! How rad!
OH MAN! I was so obsessed with Ripley’s as a kid. This makes me love him even more (how is that possible?)
I think I make it pretty clear in my video today that I don’t understand why we’re even talking about this. I don’t understand the arguments of people who oppose gay marriage, and I’m usually pretty good at understanding people’s viewpoints.
The arguments are so silly and uninteresting that…
I really don’t like Stats.
I had a moment of wondering how this person graphed this. Before I realized it was probably free-drawn, the Calculus nerd I left behind six years ago woke up inside of me…
Also, why did Zola have a bee costume? She wasn’t there on Halloween! Unless they just bought it because it’s adorable, in which case, okay
1. Can we please acknowledge Mer grew up in Boston?
2. Yet again, I called something in an old fanfic. Meredith being sick during an observation for her fellowship. Same fic I wrote about Mer and Der having a baby with Spina Bifida, and in which Cristina adopted a baby from abroad. Shonda and I think way too alike.
3. I like the parallel to the pilot with Mer being sick. The scene in the promo where Cristina watches her run off is even closer.
