This man has the luck of the Irish...

The good kind that is:



Amazing...

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Round-up...

Here are some DADT-related items I've recently come across...

Don’t Ask Inspires Anti-Gay Bank Fight - I believe these folks are missing the point. Personally, I don't want sexuality in the workplace either beyond what is generally accepted. However, this is about gays not losing their jobs because of their sexual orientation - not for the 'right' to hold White Parties next to the water cooler. Leave it to the Religious Right to take a discriminatory policy like DADT and seek to have it enforced in the private sector as well. Morons.

UPDATE: Wells Fargo shareholders easily defeated this proposal. Back to the anti-gay drawing board Dobson!

Interview With Former Quartermaster Brian Downey - yeah okay, queers in the Navy is a bit of a joke but it was nice to see that the PBS documentary Carrier didn't follow DADT in speaking about it.

Here's the trailer for the new soon-to-be-released documentary Ask Not:



Given the gross absurdity of how the military is lets felons in while gays are prohibited from openly serving, this film is timely. Great to see Alex Nicholson of Servicemembers United on film again! Way to go Alex!

Last, but certainly not least, the DADT Podcast has a new show out! John & Joe are really great on this podcast and not too shabby looking either.

When Galaxies Collide...

Arp 81 is a strongly interacting pair of galaxies, seen about 100 million years after their closest approach. It consists of NGC 6621 (to the left) and NGC 6622 (to the right). NGC 6621 is the larger of the two, and is a very disturbed spiral galaxy.

Pretty cool images from the Hubble Space Telescope of various colliding galaxies . If you haven't seen the Hubblecast vidcast, I highly recommend it.

Rick Monday's Greatest Play

Thirty-two years ago today...



h/t QandO & Hot Air

Gay Sci-Fi?

Who knew that such a genre in literature even existed? I've always been a bit of a sci-fi nut (yeah, like that isn't obvious) but most of the books I've seen with a gay character weren't very good. Either the writing was poor or the plot sub-standard. Almost as bad, the gay characters are sluts or lack any depth other than their sexuality. However, thanks to Darker Projects I found a good sci-fi audio drama that not only has a gay character, but he's the hero of the story. Even better, his sexuality is incidental to the story and not the main focus. Check out The Falcon Banner, based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Patrick Lydon:

By the twenty-second century, mankind had stretched forth its hand to command the stars. Other races were discovered, and, as the human sphere of influence expanded, they were happy to live in peaceful coexistence, and humanity was on the verge of an evolutionary leap.

The Terran emperor was the first to ascend to the next step of human evolution. His advisors, who now styled themselves holy clerics, sought to force the other races to see the light of their religion. They began to subjugate the other races to the will of the empire. The Amsus, who saw the Empire as decadent, illogical and chaotic, waged war upon it. Admiral VonGrippen, the brightest military mind in centuries, betrayed the empire, and removed the entire home fleet, collapsing the jump gate after them, leaving Earth and the Empire to be squashed under the heel of Amsus oppression.

Now, three hundred years after the fall of the Terran Empire, humans find themselves the subject race, Stagnating on their own world unable to evolve either technologically or otherwise. It is into this oppressive world, that the most unlikely of men are thrust into the roles of heros.

If you enjoy this audio version of the story, you might want to get all the books in the series: The Falcon Banner, Sigil of the Wolf, The Lion's Pride, The Balance of Judgement, The Fifth Column and Queen of Ice (prequel).

Of course, unlike the audio version the books aren't free but their cost is reasonable. I bought all of them today and will enjoy reading this series. Check it out for yourselves...

Star Trek Enterprise - In A Mirror Darkly

Pretty cool episode.

All about Jedi terrorist scum from an Imperial grunt

Pretty damn funny podcast which gives A Different Point of View on the Rebellion by the no-nonsense Imperial Stormtrooper TD-0013. Lucas would be proud.