Tim Minchin has written a song about Cardinal George Pell, in which he lambasts Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric over the fact he won’t be returning from Rome to testify at the royal commission into institutional child abuse.
“It’s a really nice song, the chorus just goes ‘come home, Cardinal Pell / we hear you’re not feeling well’,” Minchin said at a press conference in Perth on Friday. “There’s also a bit where I call him a fucking coward.”
Pell is due to appear via video link at a royal commission to give evidence about child sex abuse that occurred within his parishes. Victims were hoping Pell’s medical condition would improve so he could appear in person, but on Monday were told he was still too unwell to make the flight from Rome to Melbourne...
The Australian singer-songwriter said his song about Pell, which will “be on the radio in three days”, is also about home. “I think George probably doesn’t realise how much we want him here.” ...
Guardian.
Here's an Australian TV debate between the cardinal and Richard Dawkins on religion and morality and that 4 THE LOLZ!!
Monday, 15 February 2016
Peter Tatchell: You Don't Understand, It's All About Me
Many people have been talking about this for years, can Saint Peter explain why he only thought it became an issue this weekend?
Though presumably you'll now do your usual trick of claiming you started it?
Oh, and why did you sell this to the Telegraph?
Why did you take money for serving their left-bashing right-wing agenda?
PS For someone claiming to have been 'no-platformed', he's sure getting heard a heck of a lot right now - also on BBC News, Newsnight...
Edit: The open letter PT signed last year was, of course, about 'no platforming'. Apologies.
Pee-Wee Herman: Anarchic Queerness
From a New York Times Magazine profile.
A bit silly he still won't say he's a fag, though.
Which is odd cause Pee Wee's Big Holiday looks pretty gay.
PS Pee-Wee's Big Holiday blah blah blah Netflix.
Poppers Ban: The Fightback Begins
John Addy, 67, manufacturers two millions of bottles of the recreational drug every year, but has kept a low profile.
He has now decided to speak out to fight parliamentary plans to ban its sale.
Mr Addy says he decided to talk after gay Tory MP Crispin Blunt, a former prisons minister, gained nationwide attention by admitting in a Commons debate that he used poppers – a drug that enjoys legendary popularity with gay men.
He says the chemicals are sniffed to gain a brief ‘head rush’ and can be used used to facilitate sex.
Mr Addy used to run the gay nightclub Gemini in Huddersfield and has a background in chemistry.
He said he was worried about the possibility of the drug being banned when a new bill – the Psychoactive Substances Bill – comes into force on April 1.
After then sex shop proprietors will face up to seven years’ jail for selling them, reports the Examiner...
Mirror.
Older readers may recall John used to write a most odd 'celebrity gossip' column in the early days of Gay Times.
His nickname was 'Me And', due to his love of name-dropping.
Here she is, on the left, back in the day with some top showbiz pals...
Peter Tatchell: Ignorance
You'd have to be really ignorant to even suspect Peter Tatchell might possibly be racist!
What madness that would be!
PS I really don't think you could say Saint Peter is "racist", cause this...
Note how Miss Modesty stands in front of the camera.MT @alextomo: At Canterbury @PeterTatchell with African LGBTIs outside #Anglican Primates news conference pic.twitter.com/Xlbi4iu3zI @LGCM @hrw— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) January 17, 2016
Oh Peter, you wild colonial child, and tireless defender of Empire!!!
It is politically banal and mendacious to talk about 'no-platforming', when Saint Peter of Tatchell is hogging the platform.
Education: Goodbye Mr Moffat
Above all, the parents objected that he had told children he was gay. Moffat felt he could no longer continue and resigned. Far from retreating to a safe haven, however, he crossed Birmingham to take up an even greater challenge: assistant headteacher at Parkfield Community school, where 98.9% of pupils are from Muslim families...
A gay teacher teaching gay rights to pupils from a faith that believes homosexuality is a sin, punishable by death in some countries? It doesn’t seem possible and yet the school’s Muslim parents appear to have accepted that children can be taught about Britain’s anti-discrimination laws without undermining their religious beliefs. Learning from his unhappy experience at his previous school, Moffat has been careful to centre the policy around the Equality Act 2010, to first gain the support of the governing body, and to keep parents fully informed, inviting them in to see the books that would be used...
Education Guardian.
Sunday, 14 February 2016
Deutschland 83: Das Ist Sehr Gut
And I try to avoid these dark TV drama series in foreign so beloved by the dinner party classes.
You can catch up here - the secret communist plot to undermine the West by bumming their sons is revealed in episode four.
An Ideal Home: A-Ha!
The actors, who previously worked together on 2011's Our Idiot Brother, will star as a troubled married couple with an extravagant life. Coogan plays a celebrity while Rudd is his more hesitant partner and sidekick. But when the grandson that Coogan's character never knew he had shows up at their home with nowhere else to go, the couple reluctantly decide to take him in.
Fleming wrote the script for An Ideal Home, which Remstar Studios and National Bank of Canada are co-financing. Fortitude International is selling the pic in Berlin, and UTA Independent Film Group is handling domestic rights.
Gabriella Tana, Maria Theresa Arida, Maxime Remillard and Aaron Ryder are producing, while Clark Peterson and Lisa Wolofsky will executive produce.
"Comedy stalwarts Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan are reuniting on the big screen as a squabbling married couple in Andrew Fleming’s endearing and hilarious script about modern family, and we are delighted to present this charming film to buyers at EFM," said Fortitude’s Nadine De Barros...
Hollywood Reporter.
I'm not sure if this film has actually been made yet...
Adidas: Why Thank You Massa!
'You won't drop us if we come out?!!'
[Tugs forelock] 'Gawd, bless you, sir.'
The Independent: Paper Free
My thoughts are with the journalists facing redundancy - though surely this can't affect many people. as much of the paper seemed to have been written by silly posh interns.
We feel sure that the Indy's flamboyant bachelor Russian zillionaire proprietor, Evgeny 'Two Beards' Lebedev, knows what is best.
The Economist: The Wages Of Sin
Marieka Klawitter of the University of Washington looked at 29 studies on wages and sexual orientation last year.* On average, they found a 9% earnings premium for lesbians over heterosexual women, compared with a penalty of 11% for gay men relative to straight men. This discrepancy has been borne out by research on America, Britain, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. Even after adjusting for the fact that lesbians are on average more educated than straight women, and less likely to have children, the gap persists.
Research on this topic should be taken with a pinch of salt...
The Economist.
I don't know about lesbians, but one thing is gay men are more likely to do 'female jobs' (the caring professions, hospitality, retail etc) which tend to be badly paid - and perhaps that's where much of the wage discrepancy comes from?
For more research on this see Joe Clark's Gay Money: The Truth About Lesbian And Gay Economics.
Ted Heath: Outed By The Ink Girl
Papers to be kept top-secret until 2042 but obtained by this newspaper under Freedom of Information laws reveal how Heath was ‘plagued’ by what a Foreign Office official called ‘blackmailing and abusive letters’.
Such was the concern over the blackmail plot that it prompted talks at the highest level, including meetings at No 10.
Rumours about the unmarried Heath’s private life dogged him throughout his career. Last year, police opened an inquiry into unsubstantiated allegations of historic child abuse against him, prompting fury from friends.
The blackmailers’ plot came about after a woman belonging to a bizarre cult, The Institute for Personal Development, threw ink over Heath in Brussels in January 1972, an incident that was front-page news at the time.
German-born Karen Cooper, who was living in London and whose real name was Marie-Louise Kwiatkowski, was protesting over a council’s refusal to allow the cult to build a conference hall in Covent Garden. She and the other members held Mr Heath responsible.
She was charged in Brussels with assaulting a head of state, but a series of letters sent in 1972 by her friend and future husband George Martin warned Heath what would happen if the charges were not dropped.
Claiming that Cooper had shouted out ‘You damn homosexual’ during her attack – although this was unreported at the time in the extensive news coverage – Martin made a thinly veiled threat when he wrote that the cult would ‘bring the whole matter to an amicable end’ only if the case did not come to trial.
He warned that he and fellow sect member Anna Darl would brand Heath a homosexual in court, writing: ‘So far as the trial is concerned, may I advise your superiors against it. Does anybody in authority in Belgium and England want all the sensational publicity that such a trial would receive in court and outside the court in Brussels?’
The letter provoked panic in Downing Street and Sir Robert Armstrong, Heath’s principal private secretary, described it as a ‘flagrant and contemptible attempt to pervert the course of Belgian justice’...
Mail On Sunday.
Crikey.
Peter Tatchell Watch: I'm Free
That the man in question is Peter Tatchell – one of the country’s best-known gay rights campaigners, who next year celebrates his 50th year as an activist – is perhaps a mark of how fractured the debate on free speech and sexual politics has become.
In the emails, sent to the organisers of a talk at Canterbury Christ Church University on Monday on the topic of “re-radicalising queers”, Cowling refuses an invitation to speak unless Tatchell, who has also been invited, does not attend. In the emails she cites Tatchell’s signing of an open letter in the Observer last year in support of free speech and against the growing trend of universities to “no-platform” people, such as Germaine Greer, for holding views with which they disagree.
Cowling claims the letter supports the incitement of violence against transgender people. She also made an allegation against him of racism or of using racist language. Tatchell told the Observer that the incident was yet another example of “a witch-hunting, accusatory atmosphere” symptomatic of a decline in “open debate on some university campuses”...
The Observer.
A predictably disingeneous piece about Peter Tatchell.
As the article states this isn't about 'no-platforming', Peter here is just piggy-backing on a current hot topic to serve himself, something he's made an art of for the last 30 years.
Nor, rather obviously, has he been denied of freedom of speech or been censored.
One (1!) student panellist, Fran Cowling, said she wouldn't be attending as she thinks Tatchell's been racist and transphobic.
Perhaps, quite understandably, she just didn't want to be near this awful man?
It's surely more remarkable that other people are still willing to enter into serious discussion with this increasingly silly, erratic and ridiculous self publicist.
It is predictably hypocritical of Saint Peter to wibble on about free speech when, for example, he has argued for no-platforming of Islamic 'hate preachers' at the East London Mosque and the Muslim scholar, Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
He's even had a book withdrawn for commiting the supreme crime; criticising Peter Tatchell!
He's tried to hound other people out of their jobs.
He supported the prosecution of a Northern Ireland bakers who didn't want to make a cake with a pro-gay marriage message on (until two weeks ago!).
He's even tried to have music and musicians banned.
Going crying to The Observer to complain about a young female student who'd dared to criticise him seems part of his infamous arrogant and bullying behaviour.
He must have known this would lead to her being harrassed online - presumably this was his intention?
It's hardly the action of some self-proclaimed champion of free speech.
But observers of Peter Tatchell will know all Peter Tatchell is interested in now is Peter Tatchell.
With his tireless and tiresome yet successful campaign of self-promotion in the media, by reducing a movement to himself, it is hard to think of anyone who has done more damage to furthering the cause of gay activism in this country.
Whilst
One would hope Peter will apologise for his disgusting behaviour - but when has Mr Vain ever done that before?
In the interests of 'free speech', if nothing else, can this odious mentalist 70s gay dinosaur now shut the fuck up and retire?
• Help I'm Being Persecuted: Hypocrisy and free speech, Scott Long 2015.
PS The second half of The Observer feature; a potted biography of Tatchell, where Saint Peter is credited for every advance in gay rights over the last 50 years, is so fawning, ridiculous and uncritical it could have been written by him.
Twincest: Revealed
This is from America's supermarket tabloid World News Daily.
It's made-up.
You might want to check out some of their other 'news stories'.
Ant & Dec: So In Love
And how sweet to have them finally coming out on Valentine's Day.
PS In other thrilling showbiz news Fagburn missed while he was away: Tom Daley backs sugar tax - huge fucking frying pans still okay! Stephen Fry hasn't split up from his child bride yet! Barry Manilow can't sing (or rap)! Louis Smith doesn't care everyone thinks he's a gayer! Sam Smith has lost a bit more weight! Elton John's been given a really good rimming by a journalist from the Evening Standard!
VIP Paedophile Ring: A Serial Liar
The man, in his 50s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, rubbished all of Nick’s claims against powerful public figures.
He slammed allegations that his Army officer dad, Nick’s stepfather, was part of an elite child abuse ring that allegedly included late Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath.
He said: “The closest he ever got to Edward Heath was seeing him on the telly.”
Nick has claimed he was regularly taken from the family home in Wiltshire to be abused at weekend sex parties in London.
But his stepbrother says they only went to London once — and that was a family outing to a museum...
The Met’s crumbling Operation Midland has investigated claims of child abuse against VIPs including Heath, the late Home Secretary Leon Brittan, war hero Lord Bramall and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.
Police found no case to answer against Mr Brittan but did not tell him before he died last January,
The case against Lord Bramall, 92, was dropped after police found not a shred of evidence. Mr Proctor, 69, is still waiting to hear back.
All the allegations stem from Nick, a former NHS middle-manager in his 40s who lost his job and wife shortly before going to cops in 2014.
The stepbrother said: “I think he has jumped on the historic sexual abuse bandwagon, maybe hoping to make some money." ...
Friday's Sun.
Ho hum...
Thursday, 11 February 2016
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Alpha-Homo: Turn To The Right
Our own Faith Goldy has pointed out the pitiful response of Europe’s men towards the recent epidemic of rape and sexual assault.
Of course, there are many men speaking out and fighting back, but often they are smothered by accusations of ‘racism’, ‘mansplaining’ and ‘white privilege’ or just ignored altogether.
Aside from strong women like Marine Le Pen and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the most oppositional voices have come from Europe’s gay men.
A prime example of this is Breitbart editor and leader of the Twitteratti-glitterati, Milo Yianoppolous, who has been strongly outspoken regarding Europe’s current predicament.
On a recent appearance on the BBC’s Big Questions, he made straight men in the room look like damp rags and rightly deserved the right to tweet, "I am one of the very few alpha homosexuals."
It’s not just Milo, but other gay men like Douglas Murray and David Starkey, who are increasingly representing the masculine voice on British television.
The rise in gay men who are concerned about Europe’s future is not just limited to charismatic TV personalities. At the grassroots level too, there is a lot of evidence that Europe’s gay men are leading the way in opposition to Islamification...
These "alpha-homos" remind me very much of Oscar Wilde. When a group of rugby boys arrived at Wilde’s dormitory to destroy his blue and white china, the 6' 3" Wilde picked up the first boy, threw him, and knocked them all down the stairs as if he was playing a game of skittles. Wilde then said, "Well boys, that’s enough of that game, if you want to I shall make you toast with anchovy butter and tell you stories." The rugby boys meekly went back up the stairs, sat and were enraptured by his tales.
We have a moral duty to protect 50 years’ worth of fighting to achieve gay rights. Not only this, but we have a moral duty to maintain Europe as a safe haven for refugee gay men fleeing the least tolerant regions of the world.
James Campbell, The Rebel Blogger.
Uh-huh...
Isis: The Gay Jihadist?
Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service were concerned that should details surrounding Aseel Muthana emerge during a trial of his friends who helped him join Isil it would put his life at risk.
They believed they still had a duty of care under human rights laws to protect the teenager, even though he had run off to join a terror group intent on attacking this country.
The concerns centred on a series of text messages between Muthana, now 19, and Forhad Rahman, 21, who helped pay for him to travel to the war zone in February 2014.
Language in the messages left their “sexuality open to interpretation” after Rahman described Cardiff man Muthana as a “Welsh cutie”.
The pair only met online two months before Muthana left but formed a “profound emotional closeness" and called each other “cutie”, “honey” and “babe” in messages.
With Isil known to murder gay men and women, prosecutors initially discussed the need for reporting restrictions either on Muthana’s name or the details of the messages.
Muthana’s brother Nasser was already in Syria and later appeared in one of Isil’s first propaganda videos in which he encouraged others to join him.
In the end, it could not be ascertained whether Muthana was gay or not and the evidence was not subject to any court order...
Telegraph.
Erm, well this is a bit of an odd one, isn't it?
Born This Way: Born Bad
But what if teaching that gay people are “born that way” isn’t the most effective way to erase homophobia? A new study reveals that even those who believe sexual orientation is not a choice can be homophobic—just as those who know race is not a choice can be racist. Do activists, community leaders, and even parents need to tweak their message?
For the study, published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, researchers from the University of Tennessee and University of Missouri-Colombia recruited 645 college students to answer questions about their beliefs involving sexual orientation. Respondents were presented with statements such as “It is impossible to truly change one’s sexual orientation,” then asked to rate each statement’s validity on a scale of one to five, with one being “strongly disagree” and five being “strongly agree.” Others statements included:
- “Sexual orientation is a category with distinct boundaries: A person is either gay/lesbian or heterosexual.”
- “People who share the same sexual orientation pursue common goals.”
- “It’s useful to group people according to their sexual orientation.”
- Discreteness: Sexual orientation groups are clear and have and non-overlapping boundaries. Thus being gay makes you completely different than being bi or being straight.
- Homogeneity: Believing that members of a certain sexual orientation are all similar to one another.
- Naturalness: Belief that someone did not choose their sexual orientation, but rather they are born that way.
- Informativeness: By knowing someone’s sexual orientation (SO) you can glean other information about them. In other words, their identity is tied to their SO.
The researchers discovered that many participants scored very high on the naturalness scale—meaning they endorsed the idea that being gay is not a choice. However, many simultaneously scored high in the other categories, which measured “homonegative” beliefs.
So what does this reveal? People may be fine saying, “sure, they’re born that way”—but they may also hold beliefs that suggest that being gay makes someone fundamentally different as a human, and thus opens the door for prejudice and discrimination..
Fusion.
It's also a great example of people picking a belief that they find the easiest to live with.
No-one really has a clue what makes us gay.
Adoption: 1 In 12
New figures show a fourfold increase in gay adoption in the past five years, representing a change in attitudes among the public and professionals working in children’s services.
Gay men and women were given the right to adopt in 2002 but they were often passed over in favour of married heterosexual couples in the early years. Reforms of adoption law in 2010 to boost the number, campaigned for by The Times, put pressure on adoption services to find more prospective parents, encouraging them to widen their search to the gay community.
In 2010 only 120 children were adopted by same sex couples in England. Last year the number rose to 450...
The Times.
It's actually not a very big number, is it?
Tuesday, 9 February 2016
Norman Hudis: 1922-2016
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And you believe these figures, presumably just copied from their press release?
Do you not think they might have a vested interest in pushing over-inflated figures about the size of the market?
Sake.
PS I can't see who this is aimed at.
People who don't know how to Google?