It’s an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread… Autumn Sandeen

Bookworm BobFeeling healthier today, thank the gawds!

But anywho, below is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob & I have been looking at since Tuesday:

• Wow. As someone who at earlier places in my life considered myself a low level US Navy and a low level Department of Veteran Affairs bureaucrat, this move really looks like “Bureaucrat speed” action. From the Los Angeles Times Boy, now he’s in real trouble; Obama administration revokes U.S. visa of accused Nigerian bomber:

Under the category of looks-like-about-12-days-too-late, the State Department has announced it is revoking the U.S. visa for suspected Nigerian underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

That will show him and who knows how many others that the Obama administration really means business.

The 23-year-old al-Qaeda-trained terrorist was on a terrorist watch list because he had traveled to Yemen for training. His father also warned U.S. officials he was dangerous. President Obama admitted Tuesday that U.S. intelligence experts knew much about the man but “failed to connect the dots” causing a “potentially disastrous” situation.

“Intelligence was not fully utilized and not fully leveraged,” the Democratic president said sternly. “We have to do better, and we have to do it quickly.” Obama said he found the lapses “unacceptable.” And he ordered even more reviews.

So with his visa revoked, we’re going to send the underwear bomber back to Nigeria, right? Eyes roll *Sigh.*

• RenewAmerica‘s Rev. Clenard Childress gives us the piece entitled The hijacking of the civil rights movement; Julian Bond testifies in Trenton on behalf of same-sex marriage — From the article:

The perpetual slide down the slippery slope of irrelevancy for the NAACP was never more clearly seen then when Julian Bond testified before the New Jersey State Legislature on the behalf of Same-Sex Marriage rights. If LoJack could be installed on the legacy of the Civil Rights movement, the alarm would have surely sounded December 7th, 2009, and you would have found the engine running at that state’s judicial hearing. It should be quite evident to all that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community, and its supporters, will go to no end to hijack the legacy of the Civil Rights movement to further their agenda. Such prostitution of those representing this legacy should outrage its members, and the demand for accountability of such, should now be at the forefront of discussion. The obvious ploy to dupe the state legislators of New Jersey into being sympathetic to legislation for gay marriage by the mercenary – Cha-Ching – use of this iconic figure, was despicable. I say ‘obvious’ due to this simple fact: the NAACP has taken no position on the issue! How could it when all sociological data overwhelmingly reveals that African-Americans oppose gay marriage by as much as 70%. The question was even posed to Mr. Bond by a legislator who asked, what was the position of the NAACP on gay marriage, which Bond sheepishly had to respond that the NAACP has taken no position.

What! Let us look at the absurdity here for a moment. The NAACP, a Civil Rights organization, the name of which means, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has not taken a position on gay marriage and the national board director of the organization, Julian Bond, is in Trenton brow-beating state legislators in the name of Civil Rights to pass the bill that the NAACP has not taken a position on…. What! …

One name needs to be added to Clenard Childress list of African American and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) civil rights activists: Bayard Rustin. And, Rev. Childress needs read Rustin’s essay From Montgomery to Stonewall (that’s found in the book Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin).

Rev. Childress: Learn your civil rights history. LGBT people are not hijacking the civil rights movement. Instead, we are following through with Bayard Rustin’s take on gay — and by extension LGBT — civil rights activism.

H/t: One More Lesbian Hat tip

• Another story from the Los Angeles Times: Male prostitution is Nevada’s newest legal profession; After months of debate in the state’s surprisingly squeamish brothel community, Nye County officials agree to let Shady Lady Ranch near Death Valley hire men:

Brothel owner Bobbi Davis got the go-ahead Tuesday to hire what her website cheekily calls “a few good men.”

Her Shady Lady Ranch is searching for “service-oriented” guys willing to become Nevada’s first legal male sex workers.

“I personally feel, as do the many other women who have made contact with me since I started this, that this is a service whose time has come,” Davis said in a letter to Nye County officials.

A county board’s vote Tuesday affirming that Davis could offer “shady men” to her clientele followed months of rancorous debate among the state’s legal brothel community. The industry, in its own peculiar way, is somewhat conservative: Considered an anachronism of bawdy mining camps by some Nevada newcomers, it often balks at change…

That is a peculiar — that the legal brothel industry in Nevada is “somewhat conservative” about hiring men. Popcorn It does seem to be a rather odd kind of convoluted sexism.

• Helen Boyd at en/gender: Who We Lost 2009:

There are a lot of lists of who died last year, but I haven’t seen any specific to LGBTQ and feminist communities, so here goes:

• Mike Penner / Christine Daniels – transgender sports writer

• Michele La Freniere – transgender activist

• Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick = queer theorist

• Bea Arthur – lesbian actor

• Dr. George Tiller – abortion doctor

• Virginia Prince – crossdressing pioneer

• Ted Kennedy – key legislator on LGBT rights

• Dottie Laing – crossdresser’s wife & out trans partner

Stars, all. Rest in peace.

• Our Wiener Story Of The Day is the Denver Post‘s “Smart” ski tickets lead to more pass-fraud busts in Colorado:

Removed due to the Righthaven lawsuit

Those crazy scofflaws that even pretend to be transsexuals — that’s a sign that the stigma of being associated with the letter T is diminishing, right? Jaw drop Enh, I don’t think so. Shrugs

But, in a round about way, this is a story that has something to do with one couple and wieners, right? Disbelief (I know, some days I’m just awful!)

So anywho…It’s an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?

And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because…it’s an open thread! Woo-hoo! Happy dance