Quick News & Notes

• Dan Savage: Obama “Goddamned Wrong” on DADT. The Advocate posts video of Dan Savage discussing “don’t ask, don’t tell" on Olbermann. "How many more retrograde bigots do we need to wait for to come up to speed?"

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• AARP? Yes, AARP. The American Association For Retired Persons, an organization I know only because my father loved saving money, has an excellent "Stonewall 40th Anniversary" tribute page. It includes "Stonewall: Gay @ 50 +." Definitely worth a look!

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• "One of the Most Qualified Gay Soldiers Ever to Be Fired from the U.S. Military." Read Michael A. Jones' piece on Lt. Dan Choi. His trial is today. Of course, it's just a formality, as we know what the result will be.

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• 60% of gays say faith is important to them. USA Today reports, "A significant majority of gays and lesbians — six in 10 — say faith is important in their lives, but heterosexuals generally state such commitments more often, according to a new survey by a Christian research firm.
  "People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts," said George Barna, founder of the Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif.-based research company."

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• Paul Krugman On Republicans. The New York Times' Nobel award-winning columnist, in "Sex and the married politician,"

  "First of all, there’s a difference in what bothers them. When a liberal politician engages in sexual betrayal, what bothers his erstwhile supporters is the betrayal. When a conservative politician does it, what bothers the supporters is the sex.

  "And after watching a series of scandals unfold, I’ve come to the conclusion that the liberal reaction — that the hypocrisy of the moralizers undermines their cause — just doesn’t come to grips with the conservative worldview.

  "From their point of view the cause, the need to police what people do in bed, is, by definition, right, because it’s literally God-given. So the fact that some of those trying to police what other people do in bed are themselves doing nasty things does not reflect on the cause itself — on the contrary, it shows just how necessary more bed-snooping is.

  "It’s also notable that conservatives are, in practice, more forgiving of their politicians’ sins than liberals. John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer ended their political careers; Ensign and Vitter are still in the Senate, and Newt Gingrich is out there on the Sunday shows, speaking for the GOP. Why? Because where liberals see gross hypocrisy, conservatives see men doing the Lord’s work — which partially excuses their own failings. Liberals think that a man who has an affair is worse if he preaches moral values; conservatives think he’s better. You might say that as they see it, if he interferes with what enough other people do in bed, it doesn’t matter what he does himself.

  "So left is left and right is right, and never the twain shall meet."

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• U.S. HIV Travel Ban May Be Removed Soon. Steve Rothaus' Gay South Florida reports an HRC press release that announces tomorrow will begin the process of removing the travel ban against HIV-positive persons from entering this country without a wavier, which is short-term only.

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