DC's Green Lantern of Earth Two is Gay

"Coming out" in the DC Universe apparently causes
a great deal of pain! Image from Rolling Stone.

My first thought about DC Comics' Earth Two version of Green Lantern being gay was: "But, isn't he like 100?" Yes, he would be. But this is a re-boot of Earth Two, which follows the umpteenth reboot of the DC Universe. My comics obsession culminated in the first reboot, Crisis on Infinite Earths, which came about because of some tangled history, and the progressing age of some characters. Since then, there has been a string of other reboots, which I couldn't hope to untangle.

The original Green Lantern. Image from (I'm not
kidding, but it is appropriate) Green Lantern
Butts Forever!

Which makes the gay revelation of Alan Scott, the new Earth Two's Green Lantern kind of a letdown. Sure, he's a character who first appeared in 1940. A character whose son (in earlier continuity) was an early gay comics character. But this isn't the same guy, he just shares a name. And he was second-string, even in his heyday. It's cool that DC was willing to do it, and I'm sure they won't get much blowback, except for those who already screech about anything concerning "the gay." And hey, at least it wasn't The Creeper or Brother Power, The Geek!

[Excerpt]

Green Lantern comes out as gay in DC Comics' 'Earth Two'


When DC Comics relaunched its fictional world from scratch last fall, some aspects of the DC mythos temporarily fell by the wayside, such as the notion of parallel worlds featuring different versions of the company's iconic heroes. . .

Read more at: Rolling Stone

I'm a Birther (Wouldn't You Like to be a Birther Too?)

Another one on the nose from Rocky Mountain Mike (formerly Mike in Raleigh of The Stephanie Miller Show). This one is--obviously, if you were alive in the 70s--a parody of Dr. Pepper's Be a Pepper.

Jesus Christ! Clean Your Shower! (Again)

One more time, you--I'm sure, earnest and heartfelt--crazy freaking religious nutjobs:

Nobody knows what Jesus looked like. Or Mary either, for that matter. You may have your perfect, blond, white, blue-eyed underwear-model Jesus in your mind, but it's at best a guess. A really inappropriate guess, based on the location and time. And some Renaissance painting of Mary, in her splendiferous shawls? Completely made up. So, when you see something like this shower scum, realize it's just pattern recognition. Or, maybe it's John Lennon, Tommy Chong or Frank Zappa. Jesus!

Previously:
Jesus! That's Pizza Sauce!
Jesus Appears on a Steam Iron

Jesus on a Pickup Truck!

Virgin Mary Appears in a Brain Scan?

News of the Weird: Jesus! Clean Your Shower!

The Second Coming of Cheesus!

Cheesus: Jesus Found in a Cheetos Bag

Jesus Found in Potato!

Jesus Found in Slab of Granite

Jesus Christ on a Pancake!

Jesus is Everywhere!

Republican Talking Point: The Sun is an Obama Crony!

Duffy, the voice guy on The Randi Rhodes Show has an amazing voice, and some pretty funny schtick. I don't know if he writes his own material, but he is a definite talent.

Rachel Maddow Straight Up Calls Mitt Romney a Liar

It's one thing to have a gibbering, screechy right-wing radio host like Mark Levin calling President Obama a liar. He's a reeking ball of negativity. But outside of people like that, it's rare to hear pundits and commentators actually use the "lie" word. There are lots of euphemisms for lying, like misspoke, misconstrued, obfuscated, muddied the waters, played fast and loose and the phrase "to limbaugh." So, when somebody like Rachel Maddow--generally polite, amiable, respectful--calls Mitt Romney a liar. . .my ears perk up.

And she wouldn't do it without evidence. Here's the clip that gets right to the heart of the matter, followed by her lead-in clip with copious lead-in and build-up. They're out of order, because though I'm a fan, not everybody appreciates Rachel's patter. I don't know what's wrong with such people, but there you go.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mike in Raleigh Rocky Mountain Mike: Naked Face Eating Guy & Siri

Mike in Raleigh (of The Stephanie Miller Show) has moved from the seemingly bigoted/homophobic environs in North Carolina, and has re-christened himself Rocky Mountain Mike. And he's kept his sense of humor intact. While I feel really bad for the poor guy who got his face eaten in Florida (and wonder if it is the start of the zombie apocalypse we all knew was coming), there is no denying that the extreme WTF-iness of the whole thing lends itself to squicky, icky humor. To wit. . .

Rick Scott Purging Elligible Voters in Florida

Image from Wonkette

Florida's Rick Scott (pricelessly pictured with his lookalike, Voldemort) is one of the odious GOP Governors class of 2010. Though he had a hideous past, and seemed thoroughly unlikeable, he benefited from 2010's dual political realities: disaffected, apathetic Democrats and Tea Party, Obama-hating Republicans. So, we got a whole boatload of arch-right, ideology-first Republican Governors. They all seem to think that being as nasty and mean as possible is the key to political fortunes.

Scott is second only in my book to Wisconsin Governor Scott Wanker Walker for douchiness. And he's proving it now by purging thousands of Florida voters from the rolls under the guise of preventing "voter fraud." Voter fraud is a vanishingly rare occurrence in the United States, but politicians like Scott have used very rational-sounding arguments to ram through many voter rights restricting laws in the short time since they gathered power. But now, Scott is going further. He's purging actual legitimate voters. And if they don't take the effort and time to prove that they are eligible, they just won't get to vote. If they didn't get the memo? Tough. They don't get to vote.

I can hardly think of anything more un-American. And he's getting away with it.

[Excerpt]


Rick Scott Bravely Purges 91-Year-Old War Hero Criminal From Voting Rolls

Oh look, there they go again! By “they” we mean the Democrats, always crying about voter suppression. Look, is it our fault that their supporters are all vicious thugs, pot smokers, illegal immigrants, white slavers, people whose names end in vowels or “z,” vicious illegal immigrant thugs, and liberals? . . .

Read more at: Wonkette

FOX "News" Now Producing Their Own Attack Ads

I'm sure there are FOX Fans out there who would immediately react to that headline with cries of "MSNBC is the same from the left!" and that FOX "News" has Democrats on for counterpoints in a show of "fair and balanced." But there is nothing like this on the left. Even if I conceded--as FOX Fans insist--that all other media is leftward-canted, you'd have to add them all together to even approach the tilt of FOX "News." And here's a hint FOX defenders: MSNBC doesn't have "news" in its name.

[Excerpt]

Fox News Is Now Producing Its Own Anti-Obama Attack Ads

This morning on Fox & Friends, Fox News aired a straight-up, unadulterated four-minute attack ad mocking Obama's "Hope and Change" message and cataloguing the purported failures of his administration, complete with ominous music, depressing charts, and voiceover audio of Mitt Romney attacking him. Not someone else's ad, mind you—this was actually an in-house production of Fox News, involving weeks of work by a Fox staffer. . .

Read more at: Gawker

In Case You Missed It: Mitt Romney's "AMERCIA"

One of the bad things about being a part-time blogger with a full-time job, is that I often am doing something else when something I'd normally post happens. The Mitt Romney campaign's AMERCIA gaffe is right in my sweet spot: political flubs by graphic artists.

See, I'm a graphic artist, and if I made a mistake like this at work--usually--it would be no big deal. After all, every job goes through stages: concept, options, prototypes, revisions (revisions, revisions, revisions), with client input along the way, finally only producing the final product with the clients' express approval. Sometimes, there are multiple people signing off! So, if there's a typo on the 1,200-piece order, it's the client's fault! Oh, who am I kidding. . .it's the artist's fault, even when it isn't. No matter how many people signed of on AMERCIA (say it with me in your best Jan Brady voice, "Amercia, Amercia, Amercia!"), it is the artist who took this one in the shorts. And not in a good way.

[Excerpt]


Romney’s ‘Amercia’ and 7 More Political Gaffes Rooted in Technology

Mitt Romney has a technology problem. Not the sort of problem that Rick Santorum had with Google search results, but with his latest app called With Mitt. Apparently, his developers had trouble spelling the word “America.” Whoops. That’s an important word to know how to spell when you’re trying to become a U.S. president. . .

Read more at: Wired

Mitt Romney Releases His Birth Certificate

I would have expected an owner's manual with Mitt. Image from MSNBC.

Ha-ha! Isn't that a hoot? Willard Mitt Romney has released his (ha-ha!) birth certificate! You see, it's funny because. . .oh, shit, I don't know. . .because a sizable chunk of the Republican base is stupid (and racist) enough to believe in birtherism. Ah, but Willard's little joke may contain a bit of a problem for him: his dad being born in Mexico! Yes, we already knew that, but this puts it right out there.

You see, as the birth certificate branch of birthers lost some steam, they were overtaken by the "two citizen parents" faction. Some take this to mean that both parents must've been born in the USA, some just say they both must have been naturalized before the candidate's birth. No law says either thing, just to be clear. There are several other tangents in the birther conspiracy corner, and some cancel each other out, but are still sometimes held by the same people! Yeah, nobody said conspiracy theories have to make sense.

[Excerpt]


Romney's birth certificate evokes his father's controversy 

Finally, there is definitive proof: The presidential candidate was born in the United States, and his father was not.Yes, Republican Mitt Romney appears eligible to be president, according to a copy of Romney's birth certificate released to Reuters by his campaign. Willard Mitt Romney, the certificate says, was born in Detroit on March 12, 1947. . .

Read more at: MSNBC.com


PS. If the birthers are going to be consistent, they're going to have to examine the above image with a fine-toothed comb. They're going to need to take it into PhotoShop, Illustrator, maybe Inkscape. They'll need to zoom in, enhance, unmask, ungroup. What's with the "VOIDVOIDVOID" business? Huh? and look at the left side of the document. Clearly it's been cut off. What are they hiding? What are they hiding?

Lawrence O'Donnell on "Bloviating Ignoramus" Donald Trump

Three posts in a row about Donald Trump is at least two too many, but I couldn't resist adding this one. Nobody, but nobody does a better deconstruction of the "bloviating ignoramus" (™ George Will) than Lawrence O'Donnell. I don't know if there is something between Trump and O'Donnell from the past, or if O'Donnell just likes to deflate monstrous egos. But it doesn't matter, whatever it is about, it produces great television.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Donald Trump is a Moron, Mitt Romney a Chump

This should be embarrassing. This, at least. I know that politics--at least on the Republican side--is scarcely different from professional wrestling. But something should be a bridge too far, something should be off the list. That a buffoon like Donald Trump tries to bigfoot his way into politics is not surprising. But that the now official nominee on the Republican side would actively court Trump's endorsement; to effectively use him as a campaign surrogate. . .that should be embarrassing.

And let me be clear. It isn't just that the Donald is a birther. That's stupid enough, of course. There isn't a shred of legitimacy in that loony nest of self-contradictory conspiracy theories. But it's that he's a bad birther. He loosely strings together snippets of birtherism, mangles them and gets them wrong. He talks about Obama's grandmother saying Obama was born in Kenya. . .but it was a step-grandmother, one who was mistranslated, one who corrected the record in the same interview. And he doesn't just get shit wrong, he lies at the same time. Is there anyone gullible enough to believe that Trump really hired investigators and sent them to Hawaii? Or that if he did (he didn't), he won't talk about it now, because it's "old news?" I know birthers are thick, but even they should see through this clown. And Romney should have backed away long ago.

Mitt Romney and The Donald and Birthers

Willard will do anything for votes. Clearly. Image from CNN.

I'm not sure how to parse this Mitt Romney statement, regarding Donald Trump:

“You know, I don't agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don't all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney said. “But I need to get 50.1% or more and I'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

So, the people he's latching on to are there to get him votes. . .even if Mitt himself isn't on board with those peoples' agendas? How does this work? I seriously don't get it. In this case, you've got Trump who is espousing the ludicrous (and largely racist) "Birther" nonsense. So, Mitt, you're cool with that if it gets you votes?

Source: CNN

Blast from the Past: ABBA Gold, Pt. 2

As the long Memorial Day weekend comes to a close, I've reluctantly dragged myself back to the computer for my (day late) weekly installment of Blast from the Past. Back in early April, I ran the first part of an ABBA discography. I'm finally getting back to part two. In the meantime, YouTube has changed something, and my old method of posting these clips has been muddied up. If you followed that link, you see what I mean. So, I will simultaneously write part two while figuring out how to post them! Here we go. . .

After SOS, the biggest ABBA song for me was. . .

1. Bang-a-Boomarang, which wasn't a hit song anywhere. But it was on the Greatest Hits album I got at 10 years old, and became one of my favorites. It's actually pretty amazing that it wasn't a hit. The "dum-de-dum-dum" may have been lazy lyrically, but it sure was catchy.

2. Mama Mia followed, and I thought it was a hit, probably because of that album, but also because my babysitter had the 45 and played it endlessly. It was a hit around the world, but barely cracked the top 40 in the United States, maxxing out at 32.



3. Fernando did quite a bit better, but surprisingly still only hit number 12.

4. But the blew the doors off with Dancing Queen. This one is a huge hit, and is often included--oddly enough--on disco compilations from the 70s. ABBA wasn't really disco, but whatever.

5. Money, Money, Money continued ABBA's fascination with repetitive titles, and also again crashed and burned on the US charts, though it was a hit everywhere else.

6. Knowing Me, Knowing You brought ABBA back to the US top twenty.



7. The Name of the Game did just as well, and the song that followed. . .

8. Take a Chance on Me was almost as popular as Dancing Queen.



And with that one, we've really hit ABBA's heyday. The next installment will bring the decline.  But the songs were always good! Meanwhile, welcome back to work everybody! At least we get to start on a Tuesday!

Wisconsin: Looking for a Reason to Vote Against Scott Walker? Here are 18.

Governor Scott Wanker Walker. Image from source.

Oddly, though Wisconsinites were able to amass huge numbers to get Governor Scott Walker forced into a recall election, Walker seems to be getting support now. What do you know, if people like Karl Rove get their billionaire benefactors to spend gazillions there, it has a measure of affect on the matter.

Regardless, it bears repeating that Walker very, very quickly became very, very unpopular in Wisconsin for taking his 2010 electoral victory, and using it to steamroll every arch-conservative policy ever imagined, though he didn't campaign on most of it. He's one of several of the class of 2010 GOP Governors, but at the head of the class for extreme douchiness (and in this crowd, that is really saying something). I am not confident that the poorer anti-Walker contingent will prevail in this fight, but I hope they do. And there are many reasons. . .


[Excerpt]

18 Reasons Why The People Of Wisconsin Should Vote Against Scott Walker In The Recall Election

There is an extremely pivotal statewide election coming up on June 5, 2012 in Wisconsin. After turning in nearly one million signatures, the people of Wisconsin have a chance to end Governor Scott Walker’s oppressive regime and replace him with someone more attuned to the needs of Wisconsinites. More than likely, there are voters in Wisconsin who are undecided, but if they need to be convinced to vote against Scott Walker in June, here are 18 reasons why Walker should be kicked out of office in shame. . .

Read more at: Addicting Info

Over Time with Bill Maher, May 25, 2012

Ep. 250: May 25, 2012 - Overtime

Anderson Cooper Schools Anti-Gay Bigot

Remember that Pastor Charles Worley guy, who thought it'd be nifty to put "lesbians, queers and hom-a-seck-shulls" behind an electric fence, until they "die out?" Well, obviously, nobody would ever go on national television to defend such a thing, so. . .what? Somebody did? Oh dear, that couldn't have gone well, could it?

Actually, it's very instructive. Anderson Cooper is meticulously rational, measured and logical. And this horrible woman is impervious to all of it. She's got her own version of Wonder Woman's bracelets, except hers are logic deflectors! It's obvious how badly she's beaten by her snipe at Cooper right at the end there. I'd love to hear Cooper's internal monologue. . .he ought to have been proud of himself for this one.

What Happens in Vegas: Goodbye to Stupid Monkey Planet

I've just left Rev. and Mrs. Stu of Stupid Monkey Planet, at a going away party of sorts. Earlier, I helped the good Rev. with some of their heavier items, and they should be on the road to their new environs by early Saturday morning.

Packing to go. . .

I've known them both for over 15 years, and they've been very good friends. They may be psuedonymous here, but they're very real, quite wonderful people. The Las Vegas valley wasn't very nice to them in recent years, and they decided to find a better place and a new adventure. Fortunately, while this was a physical (and embarrassingly weepy) goodbye, today's interconnected world means that we'll still be in contact. The Stupid Monkey Planet Church of Primatheism will continue on Facebook, and from time to time Rev. Stu will cover for me here, as always.

Truth be told, our relationship has been largely online for some time, since his former residence was all the way across town. It was Mrs. Stu that I may have been weepiest about, since we've been having lunch every Wednesday for nearly a decade (sometimes with her husband). That will be a weekly reminder that they aren't here anymore, and that will continue to make me sad (crying again as I type this). I'm not a particularly emotional person--I've been told I have the compassion of a rock--but this one got me.

I want to wish both of my dear friends the best of luck, and am hopeful that this journey leads to great rewards, or at least boundless happiness. I know their menagerie of pets will enjoy their destination, if not the trip itself. And I'm confident that their new town will be better with the two of them in it. And it is Las Vegas' loss. It's not going to be the same around here without them.

Bye, guys.





Stupid Monkey Planet and Greenlee Gazette can be liked on Facebook using the buttons at the upper left of this screen.

Elizabeth Warren's 30-second Take-down of Mitt Romney

People are focused on the Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin, and to date I still don't understand why the national Democrats aren't more invested in it. But for me, the real fight is in Massachusetts. That's where the seemingly eternal Ted Kennedy Senate seat was usurped by super-sexy former Cosmopolitan centerfold, Scott Brown. He's only had a partial term, and is now up for re-election. He's running against Elizabeth Warren, one of the most well-spoken, intelligent, educated, awesome women I've ever seen run for office. I'd vote for her for whatever she was running for!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What Happens in Vegas: Siegfried's Roy Accused of Sexual Assault

Sigh. Okay, I wouldn't call this a gay thing exactly. After all, Sigfried and Roy are not officially gay, right? It sounds more to me like a older celebrity sex thing. If Joan Collins groped her chauffeur, would he sue her for sexual assault? Okay, maybe. . .whatever. In any event, after Roy's brain injury (being mauled by a tiger and whatnot), I would think a guilty verdict would be anything but certain. But as a gay Las Vegan. . .well. . .sigh.

[Excerpt]

I'm pretty sure Death Becomes Her was based on their
life story. Image from FOX "News."

Tape of Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy allegedly sexually assaulting staff being shopped, report says


A graphic video purportedly showing Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy groping his employees is being shopped, according to a report from TMZ. Horn, who was mauled by a tiger in 2003, has been going through rehabilitation to strengthen the left side of his body. TMZ staff has reportedly viewed. . .

Read more at (of all places): FOX "News"