ILLBFIRE - Archived Blog Posts

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I will be posting from now on all the new and upcoming events involving the gay adult business.

 

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Same-sex marriage ban rejected in Arizona in historic first


Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban same-sex marriage Tuesday, bucking a strong national trend by refusing to change its constitution to define marriage as a one-man, one-woman institution. The measure also would have forbidden civil unions and domestic partnerships.

''We knew all along that once voters were informed about the true impact ... they would oppose this hurtful initiative,'' said Steve May, treasurer for Arizona Together, which organized opposition to the measure. ''They made the right decision.''

A total of eight states voted on amendments to ban same-sex marriage: Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin approved them. Similar amendments have passed previously in all 20 states to consider them.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, noted that the bans that succeeded won by much narrower margins, on average, than in the past. He said it was a sign that ''fear-mongering around same-sex marriage is fizzling out.''

Conservatives had hoped the same-sex marriage bans might increase turnout for Republicans, though the GOP had a rough night, losing control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years, with the Senate majority still to be determined. (David Crary, AP)

 

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Israeli gays braved vehement opposition from religious fundamentalists and held a large rally Friday in Jerusalem, complete with live rock music, dancing, and declarations of pride.

The event, originally planned as a march through the city, was held behind fences at a university sports stadium on the holy city's outskirts after organizers bowed to police fears of violent protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Nearly 4,000 revelers flocked to the stadium, about the same number as attended last year's gay pride march in the city, where Jewish, Muslim, and Christian opposition to such events runs high.

Most participants were dressed in regular street
clothes, making it a far more staid affair than gay pride events in the more permissive city of Tel Aviv, although one bearded man sported the black hat and jacket usually worn by ultra-Orthodox men, but with a magenta-colored taffeta skirt and candy-striped tights.

Police said 3,000 officers were deployed to secure the rally. Five protesters, some of them armed with knives and batons, were arrested during a brief scuffle with a small group of gay activists who tried to march along the planned route, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Another was arrested after calling out homophobic slurs in the stadium, he said.

Last year's march was marred by bloodshed when an ultra-Orthodox man stabbed and wounded three participants. In the past week hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews battled police and torched vehicles and trash bins in the streets to protest the planned march, threatening further violence if the parade proceeded.

Police security worries spiraled after errant Israeli artillery shells killed 19 civilians in Gaza on Wednesday and Palestinian militants vowed to carry out suicide bombings in Israel in retaliation.

Responding to those concerns, gay pride organizers agreed to turn the parade into a rally, held inside the fenced-in stadium of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, which was ringed by mounted police and antiriot units. Gay demonstrators' numbers were bolstered by heterosexual supporters, some in protest of the ultra-Orthodox pressure to cancel the event and others just enjoying the carnival atmosphere in bright autumn sunshine.

''I'm not gay, but I came to show solidarity, to support freedom of expression, and to party,'' said one 17-year-old girl who did not want to be identified because she had skipped school to attend.

Several men and women wore T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan ''Straight and proud.''

Israeli rock and rap band Dag Nahash played onstage while people danced on the running track. Others, some pushing infants in strollers or walking their dogs, bought hot dogs and beer and browsed the stalls for belts and wristbands embroidered in the rainbow colors of the gay movement.
Representatives of a leading condom manufacturer handed out free samples, and civil rights groups distributed leaflets and T-shirts. The parade dispute has become a flash point in the battle for gay rights in Israel, highlighting differences not only between secular liberals and religious conservatives but also among religious Jews.

Rabbi Yosef Elnikaveh, a prominent orthodox Jewish leader, has called homosexuality a ''mental illness,'' while others have described it as ''an abomination.''

At the stadium Friday, a group of observant Jews from the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism held placards pleading for peaceful coexistence.

''We want to pass on a message of tolerance and rejection of violence,'' said one of them, Gershon Bar-Yaakov. Some religious leaders proposed holding the event in Tel Aviv, but in an interview published Friday in the Haaretz daily, Orthodox Jewish lesbian Avigail Sperber said that to move the venue would be to miss the point.

''Despite the caustic reactions, the religious community is finally talking about the subject and is beginning to realize it has homosexual and lesbian members,'' she said. ''It's more important to hold a gay pride parade in Jerusalem than in Tel Aviv because being gay in Tel Aviv is not much of a problem.''

Addressing the rally, Elena Canetti of the Jerusalem Open House, the gay rights group behind the event, answered accusations that holding it was an unnecessary provocation.

"As a lesbian, as a woman, as a Jew, and simply as a human being, I have the right to live my life as a lesbian in Jerusalem, openly in my city, close to my family, my friends, my neighbors, and my work mates,'' she said. ''If we flee to another city, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, or San Francisco, we shall find ourselves centimeter by centimeter giving way to bullies and violence." (AP)

 

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Bill on Ted H.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

 

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WASHINGTON — Below is a statement from Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, on the announcement today that Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., will head the Republican National Committee.

"Senator Martinez was elected in 2004 by taking page one out of Karl Rove’s gay-baiting playbook. His campaign was one of the most anti-gay, bigoted and divisive campaigns in the nation’s history. We are deeply troubled that this kind of senator has been chosen to lead the Republican Party.

"For him to be tapped as the head of the Republican Party sends yet another message to our community and the country that the Republican leadership is continuing their old ways of rewarding slash-and-burn politics instead of being interested in uniting the country."

Sen. Mel Martinez’s Record on Equality and Fairness:
Scored a zero on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2006 Congressional Scorecard measuring support for equality and fairness in the 109th Congress.

An ardent supporter and co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. Martinez has been on the record opposing Republican Sen. John McCain’s states-rights stance on the issue, saying, "It isn't good enough to say, ‘Leave it up to the states.’ If we leave it up to the states we will see the erosion of marriage that we've seen by activist courts, which we otherwise will not see if we protect the institution of marriage at the federal level."

Attacked his 2004 Republican primary opponent for supporting hate crimes legislation accusing him of catering to the "radical homosexual lobby."

Ran a 2004 campaign that was so anti-gay and divisive that Florida’s Republican governor, Jeb Bush, called on him to stop the attacks. Also because of his anti-gay tactics, The St. Petersburg Times revoked its endorsement after Martinez sent a mailer against his opponent calling him "the new darling of the homosexual extremists."

 

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High schools across San Francisco soon will no longer have Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs after officials decided to eliminate them because of the Pentagon's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy regarding gay service members. The Board of Education voted 4–2 late Tuesday to phase out the JROTC from schools over the next two years, despite protest from hundreds of students who rallied outside the meeting.

The resolution passed says the military's ban on openly gay soldiers violates the school district's equal rights policy for gays. The school district and the military currently share the $1.6 million annual cost of the program. Currently about 1,600 San Francisco students participate in JROTC at seven high schools across the district.

Cadets and instructors who spoke at the meeting and rallied outside argued that the program teaches leadership, organizational skills, personal responsibility, and other important values. ''This is where the kids feel safe, the one place they feel safe,'' said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor. ''You're going to take that away from them?''

Mayor Gavin Newsom called severing ties with the JROTC ''a bad idea'' that penalized students without having any practical effect on the Pentagon's policy on gays in the military. ''If people want to participate in it and their families want them to participate, I think they have a right to participate without putting them in the political peril of being in this ideological debate,'' he said.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, has said he didn't know of any other school district having barred JROTC from its campuses. (AP)

 

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The sheriff's department in Clayton County, Ga., has charged an Emory School of Medicine doctor with a felony for not revealing his HIV-positive status to a 16-year-old boy who says he had sex with the physician.

Adam Lebowitz, 47, a resident at Emory School of Medicine and an emergency room doctor at Grady Memorial Hospital, was arrested November 2 for soliciting sex from another teenage boy. He was released on $50,000 bond but was arrested again Wednesday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. At the time he had an airplane ticket to Hawaii.
That arrest was for battery charges in DeKalb County, in a case of road rage against a woman.

FBI spokesman Stephen Emmet said the bureau has joined a probe by Clayton and Coweta counties into Lebowitz's past. He said federal charges are possible against the doctor, but declined to say for what.
Coweta County assistant district attorney Ray Mayer said Thursday that federal agents are considering charging Lebowitz with the possession of child pornography.

Clayton County sherriff Victor Hill says the case remains under investigation.
Emory has placed Lebowitz on leave pending an investigation. Lebowitz lives in Decatur, just east of Atlanta. (AP)

 

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Police are appealing for information and warning the gay community to be on their guard after a man was raped after a night out with friends in Manchester's Gay Village.

At about 4.30am on Monday 6 November 2006 the 27-year-old victim got into a car with a man in Port Street in the city centre after a night out on Canal Street.

The man took the victim to an unknown location where he locked the victim in the car, threatened him that he had a knife and forced him to take off his clothes.

He then raped him in the car. He then drove the victim to another unknown location where he subjected him to a second serious sexual assault.

The victim finally managed to escape on Lord Sheldon Way, Ashton-under-Lyne, after the offender made demands for money.

The victim was helped by a security guard who gave him a coat and contacted police.

The offender is described as white, 5'8", about 30 years old with short black hair, a chubby face and muscular arms.He had a deep accent which may have been Mancunian.

He has a tattoo on his right arm with writing on the inside between his wrist and elbow.

At the time of the attack he was wearing a stripy top and brown jeans or cords.

The man's car was a dark coloured vehicle.

Detective Constable Pete Slater said: "This was a horrific attack on a man who had been having a night out with friends.

"He is understandably devastated that someone has done this to him and we want to make sure the man responsible is held to account for his actions.

"I know that some people may be reluctant to come forward as this area is known to be one where men meet for sex.

"We understand those concerns. But we would like to assure you that our priority is to catch this man.

"We treat all allegations of rape very seriously and any information you may have will be treated in the strictest confidence.

"Please get in touch with us if you know anything about this attack or if you suspect you know who the offender is.

"You can contact us here at the CID office, or if you feel more comfortable you could get in touch with our team of dedicated officers based in the Gay Village.

"Alternatively you can contact Crimestoppers in confidence.

"I would also ask members of the gay community to be vigilant around this area as this man may attempt this again.

"I must stress that assaults of this nature are very rare.

"However, for gay people who use this area, I would urge you to please be aware of your surroundings and take steps to keep yourself safe."

Anyone with information about this attack can contact DC Slater at Ashton CID on 0161 856 9255.

 

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The gay sex polaroids with Tom Cruise and his former landlord

By Ernest Cunningham

Mark Bellinghaus left a successful acting career in Germany in 1995 to study in Los Angeles at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. But almost immediately he fell in with bad company. He met Jacobo 'Yasha- Nicolayevsky, a Russian/Jewish multi-millionaire, a Beverly Hills resident born in Mexico. Mr. Nicolayevsky, 70, is a married father of three, with a strong sexual appetite for good-looking males.

Mr. Nicolayevsky, who moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s, he resides in Aron Spelling's former mansion, knew his way around, from Fire Island to Malibu, and West Hollywood apartment buildings. He is close to Calvin Klein and photographer Bruce Weber, who are providing Nicolayevsky with young male models, ever since the ‘80s. He was a landlord to struggling actors like Viggo Mortensen and Tom Cruise, who Yasha claimed to have worked out special arrangements to pay their rent. To prove his claims, he showed Mark four sexually explicit Polaroids of himself having sex with Tom Cruisewho was instantly identified by Mark Bellinghaus. They showed the world's biggest star in his early Hollywood days, young and almost innocent.

Mark wanted to resume acting classes, the original reason why he moved to Hollywood, but Yasha tempted him away, with lunches at expensive restaurants, trips to Mexico. He then introduced him to drugs, and viciously raped and molested him numerous times. When Mark made many efforts to get away from Yasha, he would officially hire him in his real estate business and make him depend even more on him.

He made more demands, he threatened to cut Mark off his financial support, if he gained any weightdriving him into a severe case of bulimia. Mark has a color medical image taken during an emergency examination after he threw up blood and his esophagus was broken; blood filled Mark's stomach and he almost died.

The more Mark tried to get away from him, the more Yasha would threaten him - with deportation, and even murder. Yasha successfully destroyed Mark's marriage of three years. His wife became pregnant with another man's baby. Mark got divorced and was threatened by the jealous man again. At some point Mark called Yasha's wife Phylis and tried to come clean with her and his own life; what would follow, was a disaster.
But--the more threats Yasha made, the stronger Mark became.

Mark began putting his life savings and his father's inheritence into Marilyn Monroe memorabilia. He studied her styles and colors and favorites, and became a Marilyn experthe advised several auction houses, for example Christie's in terms of their items authenticity and photographic proof.

In November 2005, 'Marilyn Monroethe exhibit- opened on the Queen Mary ocean liner in Long Beach, Californiawhich Mark's attended as a press photographer. He identified the collection as being up to 90% fraudulent. He alerted the newspapers and TV news shows, with little results. Mark saw that it was a scam in the making, a total crime, as the exhibit was to tour the world for the coming twelve years.

Mark exposed the exhibit crime though a sensational blog story, which was supported by proof and hard facts, only.

Spending his own money, and going into major debt, Mark hired a lawyer, who filed a class action law suit, which ultimately stopped the exhibit from its continuation for good. Almost single-handedly, he stopped an estimated $100 million dollar fraud. It now was clear, that the media was pranked by people like Robert Otto, Mark Roesler and June DiMaggio and Mary Jane Popp at exhibit opening in November 2005. Even Playboy supported this obvious crime.

Mark worked effortlessly and for an entire year, many thousands of unpaid hours to hunt the fraudsters down and he finally succeeded, when the class action lawsuit was filed on May 26, 2006, in which I am a plaintiff against the crime.

While working on our investigation, in June 2006 I also witnessed one of the death treats, spoken out toward Markover the phone, by Yasha Nicolayevsky. He would threaten Mark with the Russian, the Jewish and also the Mexican mafia. Mark Nathanson was also used to intimidateto threaten Mark Bellinghaus with murder.

As Mark became emotionally stronger, more self-reliant, and began developing good connections to the media, Yasha seemed to become more nervous about Mark's growing self-pride and assurance.
He sent his lawyer around to propose that Mark keep quiet about their relationship, offering a woefully inadequate settlement to keep quiet. Mark did not want to sell himself outhe rejected the offer.

And Mark Bellinghaus went to the Police Department on November 16, 2006, and filed a complaint and Police report against Jacobo 'Yasha- Nicolayevsky.
Los Angeles billionaire Marc Nathanson is also mentioned in the Police report, as Mr. Nicolayevsky was using his name for his latest death threats.

Photos are in Mark's possession which show himself naked in Mr. Nathanson's Malibu home, in December 1995 when he was put on drugs and sexually molested by Mr. Nicolayevsky.

Understandably, Mark is trying to completely avoid the media coverage of Mr. Cruise's Scientology wedding, as any imageany news about this actor, is bringing back the personal, eleven year odyssey, the nightmare of Mark Bellinghaus' Hollywood experience.

 

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(Juneau, Alaska) Alaska Republicans have drawn a line in the sand, refusing to obey a court order mandating health and other benefits for the same-sex domestic partners of state employees and retirees.

Called into a special session this week by Gov. Frank Murkowski to approve a benefits package worked out by the Department of Administration to comply with the order the legislature the House voted instead to tie the governor's hands on the issue.

It passed a bill prohibiting Murkowski's administration from granting any court-ordered health and retirement benefits for same-sex partners of state employees.

The House then passed a second bill that would put the issue to a statewide plebiscite, asking voters if a constitutional amendment barring gay benefits should go on the 2008 ballot.

Alaska already has a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state. An attempt to extend that to include benefits failed earlier in the House.

Following Friday's vote the House adjourned.
Both measures now go to the Senate. It is unclear how the upper house will vote.

If it concurs with the House it is likely the whole issue of benefits would return to the state Supreme Court. But, if the court overturns the bills it would leave it up to voters.

Democrats were outraged by Friday's House vote.
"I think history will look back and say this Legislature tried to stop the march of progress, the march of civil rights, the march of health care," said Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz, D-Anchorage.

Last year the state Supreme Court ruled the state must establish benefits to same-sex partners of its employees in response to an action filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and nine Alaska couples.

The high court ruled that because same-sex couples are prohibited from marrying in Alaska, denying them rights extended to married couples deprives them of equal protection guaranteed under the Alaska Constitution.

 

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American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have announced that the historic San Francisco building housing the city's LGBT community center will receive $50,000 for preservation and repairs. Thousands of Bay Area residents participated in selecting 13 historic buildings to receive portions of American Express's $1 million Bay Area preservation grant.

The Fallon building, home to the San Francisco LGBT center since 1984, was built in the Queen Anne style in 1894 and survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It also marks the farthest edge of the great fire's devastation on Market Street.

"The citizens of the Bay Area have always been noted for their strong community spirit and local pride, but the level of interest and excitement that surrounded the Partners in Preservation campaign far exceeded our expectations," said Bill Glenn, president of Establishment Services North America and Global Merchant Network Group for the American Express Company.

Other sites chosen include Berkeley's First Church of Christ Scientist, the Japanese YWCA building in San Francisco, and the Cleveland Cascade Park in Oakland. (The Advocate)

 

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Arizona senator John McCain, a front-runner for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, told the ABC News show This Week on Sunday that although he doesn't personally support same-sex marriage, he believes it is an issue best left up to the states to decide.

''I'm a federalist,'' McCain said on the program. ''Just as I believe that the issue of gay marriage should be decided by the states, so do I believe that we would be better off by having Roe v. Wade return to the states. And I don't believe the Supreme Court should be legislating in the way that they did on Roe v. Wade.''

McCain also called the military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy toward gays ''very effective'' and said that he supported civil unions: ''People ought to be able to enter into contracts, exchange powers of attorney, other ways that people who have a relationship can enter into.'' (Hope Yen, AP)

 

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Howard Dean, head of the Democratic Party, said the group needs to look beyond the goal of getting gays and minorities a place at the table and instead work toward getting them on the ballot.

''We've got to share power, not just responsibility, from now on,'' Dean told about 200 people Saturday in Houston at the International Gay and Lesbian Leadership Conference, an annual gathering of gay public officials.

Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said little about issues such as same-sex marriage or civil rights and instead addressed broader Democratic agendas such as raising the minimum wage.

Flush from big Democratic gains in the midterm election, Dean emphasized that the ''new Democratic Party'' reaches out to all citizens, even those less likely to vote for them.

The downfall of the ''old Democratic Party,'' he said, had been its acceptance of representing half the nation.

''We've got to take the attitude 'Everyone's our boss,''' Dean said.

He then outlined the issues he believes the party should focus on now that Democrats control Congress, including increasing college financial assistance and passing an energy independence bill. (AP

 

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Our house is full of my family members but they are leaving today. I will restart this coming monday.

 

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In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC's All My Children this week will introduce a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman. The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday's episode of the daytime drama.

There have been a handful of post-surgical transgender characters in television shows, including a college professor in the 2001 prime-time CBS series The Education of Max Bickford and a model in the short-lived ABC soap opera The City in 1996, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Showtime's The L Word currently features a character changing from a woman into a man.

All My Children was looking for something new, and knows its audience is always interested in anything to do with sexuality, said Julie Hanan Carruthers, the show's executive producer. ''After 36 years, you start rehashing,'' she said. ''It's inevitable. We didn't want to fall back on the baby-switch story again.''

The show wasn't interested in doing something just to be sensational, she said. GLAAD and some transgendered people were brought in as consultants in shaping the character, teaching the producers when it is appropriate to call a character ''she'' even before surgery, she said.

Damon Romine, a spokesman for GLAAD, said he hasn't seen the show yet but feels people involved were genuinely interested in telling the story with dignity. Emotions are so close to the surface in soap operas, and this story can serve a purpose by showing what transgendered people go through, he said.

''I think it's groundbreaking and breakthrough television for daytime to put a spotlight on transgender people and tell their story,'' he said.

All My Children could use some attention. Mirroring the decline of daytime dramas in general, its average audience has slipped from 8.2 million in 1991-92 to 3.1 million last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. Particularly last summer, All My Children has tried several new characters, said Carolyn Hinsey, editor of Soap Opera Weekly.

''They're trying really hard and they're throwing a whole lot of desperate stuff against the wall to see what sticks,'' she said.

Actor Jeffrey Carlson portrays Zarf, an American who nonetheless speaks in an exaggerated British accent. He was on the show for one day last summer and was surprised to get a call pitching him the new story.

Carlson said it can be intimidating feeling that he is representing the entire transgender community. ''I worry about missing something, but I guess that would be the same with any character,'' he said. ''I want the All My Children audience to go along. It's not for shock value. It's just another person who's story is being told in Pine Valley.''

After Zarf establishes a bond with Bianca that leads to the kiss, an angry Bianca tells him she's a lesbian. It triggers something within Zarf about why it made such sense to be falling in love with a lesbian.

It's not clear, Carruthers said, whether All My Children will stick with the Zarf character through any surgery; one suspects the reaction of the soap's audience to the story will have a lot to do with it.

''She talks about peace so much,'' Carlson said of his character. ''I hope that she finds some peace.'' (David Bauder, AP)

 

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Conservative Republican lawmaker is considering whether to stop blocking a judicial nominee over concerns that her appearance at a lesbian commitment ceremony betrayed her legal views on same-sex marriage.

Notoriously antigay U.S. senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said Michigan court of appeals judge Janet T. Neff should not be disqualified automatically for having attended the ceremony. But Brownback made clear it raises doubts in his mind.

''But what I want to know is, What does it do to her look at the law? What does she consider the law on same-sex marriage, on civil unions, and I'd want to consider that,'' Brownback said Sunday during an appearance on ABC's This Week.

President Bush nominated Neff, who has a liberal reputation, to be a U.S. district court judge as part of a compromise struck with Democrats. Neff's nomination is pending before the full Senate; Brownback has stalled it because of her attendance at the 2002 ceremony in Massachusetts. ''I'm still looking at the Neff situation, and I will in the future,'' Brownback said.

Neff has said she attended as a friend of one of the two women, a longtime neighbor. Neff has declined to answer Brownback's queries on whether the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage or civil unions, saying it would be improper to address questions that might come before her as a federal judge.

Brownback called same-sex marriage a developing area of the law that should not be left to the judiciary. ''To me, these issues should be decided by the legislative bodies, not by the judicial bodies, and it seems to me this may indicate some view of hers on the legal issue. And that's what I'm concerned about here, is her view of the legal issue involving same-sex marriage,'' Brownback said.

Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois urged taking a step back, away from ''the political agenda,'' in considering judicial appointees. ''You know, these are important lifetime appointments. These men and women who serve on the bench, we really trust their judgment and their wisdom, and giving these political litmus tests I don't think is in the best interest of justice in America,'' said Durbin, who will be the number 2 Democrat in the Senate.

In an October 12 letter to Brownback, Neff said a minister presided over the ceremony and she insisted her attendance would not affect her ability to act fairly as a federal judge. ''The ceremony, which was entirely private, took place in Massachusetts, where I had no authority to act in any official capacity and where, in any event, the ceremony had no legal effect,'' Neff wrote. (AP)

 

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With winter break two weeks away, I will only be posting twice a week. Those two days will be Monday and Friday.

Sorry for the delay.

 

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In a public rebuke of the Episcopal Church, a conservative diocese voted Saturday to affirm its membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion after distancing itself from the national church over the ordination of gays and women. San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield called it a first step toward a formal break with the U.S. Anglican denomination, though the proposal makes just minor changes to the diocese's status.

''We have given a signal as to what direction we intend to take,'' Schofield said Saturday. ''We are now in a position to take seriously any offer the archbishops around the world should come up with.''

Delegates also approved rewriting the Diocese of San Joaquin's constitution to bring its trust fund under the bishop's control, a move immediately questioned by Episcopal leaders. The denomination's canons don't give local dioceses sole ownership of church property, said Robert Williams, a spokesman for the Episcopal Church. ''The hope of many is that reconciling dialogue will continue,'' he said.

Divisions erupted in 2003 when the Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member Anglican family, consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Traditionalists contend that gay partnerships violate Scripture.

Schofield, who refuses to ordain women and gays, has publicly accused the church's first female leader, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, of promoting ''heresy.'' Under his leadership, the Fresno-based diocese has cut back funds sent to the national church and considered a plan to affiliate with an Anglican diocese in Argentina.

The San Joaquin diocese's proposal to distance itself from the American denomination was approved by a majority of the 204 clergy and lay delegates. It formalizes the diocese's identity as a member of the Anglican Communion, rather than a member of the Episcopal Church, but it and other resolutions approved Saturday won't become final unless they receive a two-thirds majority vote at a meeting at a diocesan convention next year.

The amendment was noticeably weaker than one pulled this week that proposed a formal split with the U.S. denomination, which would have set off a legal battle over the diocese's millions of dollars in real estate throughout central California.

National church leaders had been putting pressure on Schofield and other conservatives to ease off their threats to break with the denomination. They proposed creating a leadership position called a ''primatial vicar,'' who would work with conservative dioceses, performing functions that normally fall to Jefferts Schori, including consecrating local bishops. Schofield called that offer ''absolutely inadequate,'' but suggested a truce was not off the table.

Six other conservative dioceses also have rejected Jefferts Schori's authority but have stopped short of secession. The 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church estimates that nearly 115,000 people left the church from 2003 to 2005. At least one-third of those departures stemmed from parish conflicts over Robinson. (Garance Burke, AP)

 

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School has been taking over my life for the past few days guys.

I really want to pass this semester so I will post when I get some time off.

 

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Here are the best(and only) videos of Johnny doing what he does best(aside from porn).

The best of them all!



His first try!



His second video.