Monday, February 24, 2014

THEY ALSO TAKE UP ALL THE GOOD SEATS AT THE PIANO BAR.

At National Review Quin Hillyer has a fairly classic "Why Do All These Homosexuals Keep Sucking My Cock" essay. There's plenty of laughs in it, including Hillyer's suggestion that gay people want only to be left alone "but the activists and media chorus won’t let them," and a climactic lament over the degraded culture as represented by Beyonce and Shirley Jones.  But here's the best part: Hillyer's denunciation of "figure-skating announcer Johnny Weir":
His antics are appalling. The problem is not that he’s homosexual; it’s that he advertises his sexuality to the extent that it makes him (his choice of makeup, jewelry, and extravagant dresses or furs) more of a story than the athletes he is supposed to cover.
Can't Hillyer enjoy his ice dancing without some flamboyant homosexual getting in the way? Next Olympics let's get Terry Bradshaw.

UPDATE: Quin dumbles down!
I think if I were a figure skater, I would want the focus to be on my athleticism.
Yeah, that's what keeps ice dancers up at night -- the thought that audiences will somehow get the impression that their punishing routines don't require athleticism, but are merely the icebound version of mincing, because the booth announcer doesn't resemble Dave Madden.
And if you’ve got somebody– I mean, who cares if he’s homosexual? The question is, by dressing as a woman and bringing that image of femininity to the sport, does that feed the image of it as somehow less than a fete of athleticism?
"FĂȘte of athleticism" is how I'll think of ice dancing from now on. I wonder if he'd have the same problem with Martina Navratilova?

177 comments:

  1. DN Nation12:12 PM

    "Despite being projected as merely a fourth- or fifth-round pick, Sam topped sportscasts nationwide last weekend while projected first-round picks were entirely ignored."


    Tim Tebow.


    And we're done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I may be giving NBC more credit than they're due, but I can't help thinking that they took Weir aside and said "You pick your wardrobe, and let's see how many Russian Olympic officials we can get to melt down." Also this:

    www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/sochi/2014/02/22/figure-skating-tara-and-johnny/5728939/

    ReplyDelete
  3. waspuppet12:27 PM

    "OK, he's gay, but does he have to be SO gay?"

    It's sort of a cousin to the conservative reaction to Michael Sam and now Jason Collins: "Fine. Whatever. Who cares? It's not a story. It's NOT a STORY NO IT ISN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT."

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cheap Jim12:31 PM

    Shirley Jones? Marion the Librarian Shirley Jones?

    Who is the Hilyer, Hemione Gingold?

    ReplyDelete
  5. tinheart12:32 PM

    Check, and mate.

    ReplyDelete
  6. gay people want only to be left alone "but the activists and media chorus won’t let them,"


    Yeah, they keep trying to invalidate gay people's marriages and impose new Jim Crow laws ... Wait, which activists is Hillyer talking about?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Funny you should mention that - the parts of that NRO piece that aren't about Weir are about Michael Sam. In fact, it's his picture that opens the piece.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bizarro Mike12:53 PM

    Not just gay, Johnny is full-on queer. I think this is what I like best about him. He's not quietly homosexual in a pattern that people like Hillyer can normalize, he's outside of that. I do think Johnny challenges people to have a more open mind about all of this. He's also pretty funny, and goddamn the winter olympics could use an announcer who treats the sports with the gravity they deserve.

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  9. The problem is not that he’s homosexual; it’s that he advertises his sexuality

    the public sphere, how does that work?

    ReplyDelete
  10. whetstone1:04 PM

    it makes him (his choice of makeup, jewelry, and extravagant dresses or
    furs) more of a story than the athletes he is supposed to cover


    How dare that Johnny Weir distract from the rugged, minimalist display of heterosexuality that is figure skating. The blinding gayness of his jewelry makes it incredibly difficult to concentrate on people ice dancing to Hollywood musicals.

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  11. whetstone1:07 PM

    He's also just a good announcer. He explained the whole controversy (technically, a nontroversy) about the scoring in the women's long-form competition in about 30 seconds better than anything I'd read about it.

    Of course, he was dressed like a Victorian undertaker, so I couldn't tell you what he actually said because all I heard was "gay gay gay gay."

    ReplyDelete
  12. BigHank531:10 PM

    "Advertises" isn't really the word Mr. Hillyer wanted to use, just the one he thinks carries the most negative connotations with his audience. The thing that's really salting Hillyer's slug is that gay people don't feel ashamed about being gay anymore. One might ask why Hillyer thinks they should.

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  13. whetstone1:13 PM

    Next Olympics let's get Terry Bradshaw.


    Ooh, I know, let's get Craig Sager. That would be a fun test for Quin Hillyer's gaydar.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps1:17 PM

    The dream matchup is Craig Sager vs. Don Cherry.

    ReplyDelete
  15. redoubtagain1:17 PM

    I personally can't wait to see how our Opus Dei judiciary handles Loving-Loving v. Kansas.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Mooser1:20 PM

    Marion the Librarian, and Ma Partridge, too! What did she do?

    ReplyDelete
  17. redoubtagain1:20 PM

    Well, there's always hockey. Oh wait. . .

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mooser1:23 PM

    "Check, and mate."


    Better still, sacked behind the line of scrimmage.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mooser1:25 PM

    Thank God no male or female heterosexual has ever done that! If they learn that kind of flaunting from gays, who knows what we will see?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Mooser1:27 PM

    Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I suddenly have the desire to watch Mitzi Gaynor TV specials on You-Tube.

    ReplyDelete
  21. coozledad1:29 PM

    That's what totally killed the Ballet Russe for me. Not just the offstage clusterfuck, but Dhiagelev out in the audience heliographing hanky code with his monocle.


    Nicholas II Best Asses in Ballet Today Quarterly, summer 1912

    ReplyDelete
  22. whetstone1:33 PM

    This essay is amazing.

    pushing active homosexuality

    Quin's more of a bottom, I guess.

    The Missouri defensive lineman, for example, may ask at the combine to
    be treated “as Michael Sam the football player instead of Michael Sam
    the gay football player,” but the media will no doubt continue pegging
    him as the latter.


    "Quin, I think your mind is wandering here a bit. Let's change 'pegging' to 'describing.'"

    No one needs to read Shirley Jones’s disclosures, detailed in her recent
    memoir, about threesomes with her former husband or about how much her
    current husband enjoys her, uh, upper assets.


    You can read more in Quin Hillyer's forthcoming Penthouse Letters compendium, Sex Acts We Shouldn't Be Writing About.

    Likewise with the raunch of urban rappers

    Quin will hook you up with an amazing mixtape of suburban rappers, Montclair's Finest ("I'm from N-E-W Jers / where plenty of minor traffic incidents occurs").

    That link to "urban rappers," incidentally, goes to another Quin Hillyer special in which he freaks out about Beyonce's Super Bowl Sextime Show but praises Kate Upton's "creative" car wash ad.

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  23. waspuppet1:37 PM

    Of course. It is VERY IMPORTANT that everybody UNDERSTAND that these are NON-STORIES and we ALL HAVE TO STOP TALKING ABOUT THEM RIGHT NOW.

    Or else we're the real bigots.

    ReplyDelete
  24. DN Nation1:55 PM

    EVEN better still, wobbly-spiral pass misses WR by five yards.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Spaghetti Lee1:55 PM

    Remember when Terry Bradshaw beat John Wayne and Robert Redford for the skating gold in '72? Man, those were the days.

    ReplyDelete
  26. LookWhosInTheFreezer1:55 PM

    Why can't Johnny Weir be more like a manly football man?

    http://pmchollywoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/joe-namath-fur-coat-lead.jpg?w=600

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  27. ScottRS1:57 PM

    And Lulu Bains in "Elmer Gantry", for something completely different...

    ReplyDelete
  28. Jay B.1:58 PM

    Quentin Crisp didn't think about dick as much as Quin Hillyer does.

    ReplyDelete
  29. "And gay men should be equally annoyed that Weir furthers the stereotype that male homosexuals are flamingly feminine."


    Translation: "I don't remember giving you people permission to stop playing good faggot/bad faggot."

    ReplyDelete
  30. marindenver2:01 PM

    "frightening the horses".


    Be hard to find a better indication that what he really wants is to go back a couple of centuries to where the gheys knew better than to let their presence be known and the wimmens kept their flirtatiousness to minor flashings of ankle now and then.

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  31. smut clyde2:05 PM

    salting Hillyer's slug
    Upvoted for the new euphemism.

    ReplyDelete
  32. smut clyde2:07 PM

    "Quin, I think your mind is wandering here a bit. Let's change 'pegging' to 'describing.'"
    I daren't check the Urban DIctionary to see if there's an entry for 'pigeon-holing'.

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  33. Gromet2:09 PM

    The latest flash point in the gay-rights legal wars involves refusals by photographers and cake makers to provide their services for same-sex marriages. Can anyone doubt that the Left would rush to the defense of a Muslim photographer who refused to take pictures at a Jewish wedding, or a Muslim caterer who refused to serve pork?


    Let's set aside fantasies of Eric Holder shoving down our throats a Muslim "right" to not cook bacon at decent American weddings. Let's get real. Look, Leftists, it's SIMPLE: If you want bacon, you don't hire the halal cook! (Or the kosher one, but let's leave Jews out of this because it will complicate my point emotionally.) SAME THING WITH CAKE! If you want a gay cake, you don't hire the church-going bak-- what's that? Cakes aren't gay? Well, it depend who eats them! It doesn't? Pretty sure the Bible says it does! Read Kings. Oh. Not even there? Okay, fine, but my point still stands. No gay cakes! And you know what? The hell of it is, I'd be super happy to bake gays all the cakes they want, if only they'd look drab and miserable and conform to my very specific, arbitrary notion of how all people should act in public and carry soul-deadening shame in private. CIVILIZATION DEPENDS ON IT.

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  34. whetstone2:11 PM

    I don't mind him using the word "pegging" in private conversation and emails, but when he flamboyantly inserts it into an NRO piece, I can't not think of him being pleasured from behind by a dildo.

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  35. smut clyde2:11 PM

    "And gay men should be equally annoyed that Weir furthers the stereotype that male homosexuals are flamingly feminine."


    And I'm equally annoyed that Hillyer furthers the stereotype that white guys are bigoted morons.
    ...Well, it's an association in my mind, that makes it a widespread stereotype, right?

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  36. smut clyde2:18 PM

    refusals by photographers and cake makers to provide their services for same-sex marriages
    Are there any actual, non-hypothetical examples of such cases? I mean, if you are recruiting for someone to bring their aesthetic gifts and technical skills to the task of accentuating and immortalising your nuptuals, you don't go to someone who hates your guts.

    Though Mooser may have some stories along those lines.

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  37. All he does is win and praise the lord.

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  38. You sound pretty sophisticated, to me, coozledad. Are you sure you are texting this shit in from rurality?

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  39. A bigger problem with this line of argument seems to be that Hillyer seems to be arguing that Johnny Weir is infringing on Michael Sams's attempt to un-further or re-retrograde "the stereotype that male homosexuals are flamingly feminine." But if Michale Sams needs to stfu about being gay but not flaming doesn't that cede the field, as it were, to the limp wristed succubus that is Weir? And if we force Weir back into the closet are we decieving the public into thinking no gay men are flamers and all are manly footballers?

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  40. I'm guessing the best bakers, photographers, floral arrangers, decorators and event planners are gay-friendly, if not the president of the local Gay Club.

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  41. Helmut Monotreme3:29 PM

    What they would like is a return of sumptuary laws, so that the only men who get to wear tacky gold jewelry and fabulous flowing clothing in public are the legendarily heterosexual bishops and cardinals of the catholic church.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Gromet3:29 PM

    No one needs to read Shirley Jones’s disclosures



    True. Reading her book is optional. I hadn't even heard of it until Hillyer shoved it down my throat.


    But I'm definitely going to pick up a copy of his book, Let's Pretend Humans Don't Like Sexy Stuff.

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  43. Gromet3:32 PM

    This goes to his point. There shouldn't BE a Gay Club! Gays should exist not closeted but invisibly. They most certainly should not have clubs, or organizations, or things they like to do!

    ReplyDelete
  44. nomoremister3:40 PM

    Yeah, Wilt Chamberlain would never have done that.

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  45. They keep talking about the photographers and the cake bakers but the law also includes tons of other provisions--its true you can go to another baker or photographer for your wedding, but you can't necessarily go to another police officer to file your hate crimes complaint, or to another apartment manager to rent your apartment, or any of the other exceptions they have carved out.

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  46. tigrismus3:55 PM

    NO ONE needs to read THOSE disclosures!

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  47. stepped_pyramids4:10 PM

    Speaking for the entire left, no, I would not rush to the defense of any photographer of any religion who refused to take pictures at a Jewish wedding because it was a Jewish wedding. That's ridiculous.


    This is these bozos taking their "special privileged protected classes" rhetoric seriously.

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  48. tigrismus4:10 PM

    Indeed, and shame also on Weir for distracting people from the serious business on the ice by turning their thoughts to costuming, which they never would have considered otherwise.

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  49. edroso4:19 PM

    I was wondering when someone would bring up Broadway Joe. And what about his pantyhose?

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  50. sophronia4:21 PM

    I always thought she looked a little bit freaky. Notably unlike Mrs. Brady.
    (Actually, I was a preschooler when that show was on, so I may be exaggerating here. But I did think the Partridge family bus was supercool, and I did ask my parents if we could paint our Chevy II to match it.)

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  51. LookWhosInTheFreezer4:36 PM

    Wait til they see what Jonny did to the masculine past-time of fishing!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKPSPhzBPW8

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  52. dstatton4:53 PM

    Shorter Hillyer: Gays are OK, I guess, but they need to know their place.

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  53. Gromet5:01 PM

    Right? He seriously asks "Can anyone imagine the Left not doing X" -- and there is not one instance this entire century of "the Left" doing the X that he finds so typical of them. That is weird, but it is genuinely the least weird thing in this essay.

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  54. Formerly_Nom_De_Plume5:20 PM

    Would he [Michael Sam] blame it all on discrimination against his homosexuality (as if
    NFL teams would actually deny themselves the services of a player who
    could help them on the field)?

    Yeah, when has the NFL ever denied themselves the services of a player due to discrimination? That's just wacky talk!

    ReplyDelete
  55. Gromet5:25 PM

    It is all so perverse. If the New Law says Christians are allowed to refuse service and housing and merchandise to people who they find insufficiently Christian, doesn't that allow anyone to abide by their religion's precepts rather than sharing the public space with all creeds? I'd predict supporters of this law include those people most terrified about Sharia Law in the US -- and here they are arguing for a legal framework to make it more likely. It makes zero sense.


    They also enjoined an effort some years ago to have "secular humanism" characterized legally as a belief system (rather than as a lack of one), so are these people now arguing that agnostics can refuse business to anyone wearing a cross or spotted attending church? Talk about your War on Christmas. What if Amazon starts asking your religion and refuses to ship packages to certain ones? What do these jerks imagine they are calling for with this law?


    I suppose the answer is that their imagination extends to "you can't make me approve of things I wasn't raised to approve of" and ends right there. A very decent conservative once told me he wanted prayer in schools; he allowed that once a week there could also be an Old Testament reading so Jewish kids wouldn't feel discriminated against. It is about that level of well-thought-out.

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  56. glennisw5:30 PM

    The question is, by dressing as a woman and bringing that image of femininity to the sport, does that feed the image of it as somehow less than a fete of athleticism?
    Gosh, I'm sure that question kept Peggy Fleming, Nancy Kerrigan, Dorothy Hamill, and Kristi Yamaguchi awake nights.

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  57. smut clyde5:34 PM

    "FĂȘte of athleticism"
    The proverbial fĂȘte worse than death.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Gromet5:38 PM

    Hillyer claims he's mainly upset not by gayness, but at the coarsening of our culture. And his solution to that coarsening is to encourage people to exclude other human beings from their businesses and from the airwaves, based on who they are; he wants to increase discrimination, bitterness, and public shaming, and get us all to agree to a lie that humanity is not a diverse species that finds happiness in many different ways -- and that's not coarse?

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  59. TGuerrant5:47 PM

    By the way, Quin doesn't loathe Barack Obama for being black, either. You're obviously bigots if you think otherwise.

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  60. TomParmenter5:49 PM

    Much to the dismay of some on the left.

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  61. whetstone5:52 PM

    I think if I were a figure skater, I would want the focus to be on my athleticism.

    Which is why his ice dancing costume looks like Hanz's and Franz's.

    ReplyDelete
  62. AngryWarthogBreath6:05 PM

    I think if I were a figure skater, I would want the focus to be on my athleticism.


    Maybe you would, buddy. But you're not. And the prominent contenders of those who are wear costumes both frilly and fabulous. "If I was X, I would Y" doesn't hold water when all of X are instead Zing.

    ReplyDelete
  63. M. Krebs6:08 PM

    Yeah, I'm totally not getting the Shirley Jones reference.


    Thanks for reminding me of Hermione Gingold, although I have no clue why she was a household name when I was nine.

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  64. M. Krebs6:22 PM

    Ah, man. MDA. What I would give for a cupboard full of that now.

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  65. M. Krebs6:25 PM

    I gotta get that Shirley Jones book.

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  66. M. Krebs6:28 PM

    Now there was a goddamn quarterback.

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  67. ChrisV826:30 PM

    The athleticism of female skaters are routinely diminished by the sequins and skirts they wear. They should wear jeans and a Raiders football jersey. Of course, that just might confuse Hillyer further. Maybe women and gays should just be banned from sports, period.

    Also, Roy, did you mean Dave Madden of the Patridge Family or John Madden, the guy who once cooked a chicken and duck inside of a turkey?

    ReplyDelete
  68. M. Krebs6:37 PM

    For one thing, an anti-semitic wedding photographer would probably just say he's busy that day and refer the couple to someone else.

    ReplyDelete
  69. William Miller6:41 PM

    Sounds like somebody's pissed Shirley wasn't banging him.

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  70. M. Krebs6:41 PM

    Surely he meant "feat," not "fĂȘte." Right? Or did he? DAMN YOU, HILLYER!

    ReplyDelete
  71. M. Krebs7:14 PM

    True story: My junior year in high school, my art class was making props for a Christmas play of some sort. My buds and I made Santa's sleigh out of a big cardboard box. On the back we put a big license plate with the letters "MDA" on it, with "DEALER" written vertically. No one else had a clue.

    ReplyDelete
  72. M. Krebs7:52 PM

    Taking a minute to clean up some chocolate he had just eaten off his hands, [Hillyer] told TheBlaze Blogthat “shame” isn’t the word he would use to characterize Weir’s effect on figure skating’s perception.



    Uh huh.

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  73. M. Krebs8:01 PM

    What's this "ditch weed" you mentioned. Surely you don't mean Jimson weed.

    ReplyDelete
  74. ADHDJ8:09 PM

    Oh man, I would watch the shit out of Walt "Clyde" Frazier calling the Olympics. Any sport, really.

    "Frazier plans his outfits a season in advance, often looking through women's catalogs for ideas. "You can see what you're getting more than in men's magazines."

    http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/04/15/sports/CLYDE-FRAZIER-WARDROBE.html

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  75. coozledad8:10 PM

    Cheap, seed filled pot. I was never tempted to try datura.


    If LSD taught me anything, it was that I didn't have what it takes to be a psychonaut.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Mooser8:12 PM

    "that feed the image of it as somehow less than a fete of athleticism?"


    Fetes do your stuff.

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  77. Mooser8:21 PM

    Never mind, maybe Google can tell me.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person8:21 PM

    I think if I were a figure skater, I would want the focus to be on my athleticism.

    It is, for normal people.

    The question is, by dressing as a woman and bringing that image of
    femininity to the sport, does that feed the image of it as somehow less
    than a fete of athleticism?


    No. I'll add that figure skating, being divided as it is between, basically, babes in skimpy costumes and muscular hunks in snug tuxes, has always had something to offer everybody, no matter which way they swang. The announcers could all dress up like a Gay Pride parade, and it wouldn't affect the actual sport at all, though it would certainly ruin *your* day, Quin. And for that reason alone, I say Johnny Weir should try to outdo Liberace and Jessy Ventura together. Gold lame and feather boas, just for starters, and work from there.

    I think, further, that since figure skating is basically ballet on ice, some testosterone-addled homophobes probably always felt a bit odd liking it, and needed a whipping boy for their guilt. They should be glad to have Weir out there. And they probably are. Back there in the back of the closet where nobody can see...

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  79. coozledad8:29 PM

    The athleticism that dare not speak its name.

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  80. coozledad8:50 PM

    Was it a clambake?

    ReplyDelete
  81. Jebeniah Proulx9:00 PM

    I'm relieved someone in addition to me found the Dave Madden reference confusing.

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  82. bekabot9:01 PM

    Quin Hillyer about Liberace:

    "I think if were a pianist, I would concentrate on my fingering. Um, that didn't come out quite the way I intended."

    ReplyDelete
  83. redoubtagain9:06 PM

    Because "jĂȘte of athleticism" would completely give the game away.

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  84. redoubtagain9:10 PM

    Forget it, Jake, it's NRO. Die Freude ist verboten.

    ReplyDelete
  85. El Manquécito9:15 PM

    Doesn't matter now, it's a fĂȘte accompli.

    ReplyDelete
  86. philadelphialawyer9:18 PM

    I get your point, but Weir, and his sidekick Lipinski, actually do treat their sport seriously. They break down all the jumping technicalities, explain the scoring system, and make astute, insightful comments about the individual skaters. This one is good at such and such, but no so and so. This one, given his looks and his style, might do better if he chose this kind of music, rather than that kind. And so on. They treat figure skating with a combination of the expert, technical expertise and the passion of the former participant that it doesn't always get.
    I love the winter Olympics, and, think the sports in it do deserve to be covered seriously, but, nevertheless, in my view, Weir was still one of the best announcers in the entire Games. Not only does he get a big thumbs up with me for his queer and not ashamed of it attitude, and his humor, but for his actual sportscasting as well.
    And he was also quite cool about the whole gays in Russia thing too. Stating, that, of course, he was against the laws that discriminate against gays, but refusing to blame Russia, Russians, and Russian society tout court for those laws. Saying he had a great time in Sochi and that regular Russian folks were quite friendly and warm. Unlike most of the NBC crew, starting with Costas, and working on down to that Vladimir Pozner guy, Weir had the grace and chops to NOT make the Games about politics, while at the same time not brown nosing or Tomming it up either.

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  87. Dont frighten the horses was as much to say "an thou frighten no horses/do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" at english hose parties where mass bed swapping was the rule.

    ReplyDelete
  88. davdoodles9:27 PM

    I think it's very brave that a wingnut bloviator spends several hours thinking and writing about man sex, announces that he prefers thinking for hours about sex with athletic, understated discrete men, and that he doesn't so much want spend hours thinking and writing and reading about having sex with effeminate, flamboyant loud-n-proud queens.
    .
    Because some people might take him the wrong way.
    .
    So to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  89. "She salted your slug, man. What a bummer!"

    ReplyDelete
  90. M. Krebs10:14 PM

    Ever tried slug without salt? Uggh. No amount of lemon juice is going to help.

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  91. Tehanu10:28 PM

    For a quick look at the wonder of Hermione Gingold, see her performance in the movie Gigi, especially her duet with Maurice Chevalier. I share a birthday with her and Margaret Hamilton (Dec. 9, fyi) who are tops on my Feisty Ladies list.

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  92. Tehanu10:35 PM

    It's like slavery, in the sense that while being a slave is horrible, being a slaveholder is actually worse. It's not good for people to behave cruelly, irrespective of who or what they're behaving cruelly to.

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  93. Warren_Terra10:58 PM

    FĂȘte of athleticismHe's just longing for the glory days of manliness, with Dubya's Mission Accompli.

    ReplyDelete
  94. I'm a hick who went to school at the Harvard of the Midwest.


    Northeast Missouri State University? It supposedly had a pretty good Russian program back in my day, but I don't recall any unusually numerous Lutheran contingent.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Warren_Terra11:01 PM

    Fetes don't fail me now?

    ReplyDelete
  96. Blueb4sunrise11:11 PM

    FĂȘte Israel?

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  97. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person12:06 AM

    I remember when the skaters' sequins were hell on the old B&W cameras...

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  98. Warren_Terra12:09 AM

    FĂȘte of athleticismDoes this mean a triple axel is a twist of fete?

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  99. MBouffant12:31 AM

    Yeah, bugger that Canucki imitation. We know which D.C. is real!!

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  100. MBouffant12:41 AM

    Flo Henderson is no Shrinking Violet herself, though I'm w/ you on who looked like more potential fun.

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  101. smut clyde3:04 AM

    Thanks.
    Here the situation is covered under contract law, if I understand correctly... by advertising your trade in a service, you have (as it were) offered a contract. Then if you renege on that contract because someone comes along to avail themselves of that service and you do not like their religion or their skin colour or their sexual preference, the law does not look kindly on it.

    So I find it hard to wrap my head around the US situation.

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  102. MikeJ3:39 AM

    The wingers may start finding him suspicious if his autocorrect is configured to suggest french over english.

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  103. MikeJ3:43 AM

    "Getting your slug salted, what's that?"
    "$20, same as in town."

    ReplyDelete
  104. philadelphialawyer3:48 AM

    Yeah, it is perhaps a little confusing, but it is not so much contract law, at least in the USA. Advertising and such like does not really constitute a formal offer for a contract under US law. Rather, it is more like an invitation for the contract making process to begin. Again, that is the way US law sees it, anyway. Breach of contract is not the basis of the suits against the photographers, cake bakers, florists, and so on.
    Instead, under the Civil Rights laws (Federal and State) businesses that present themselves as open to the general public cannot discriminate when it comes to offering or making contracts with persons because of specified reasons (usually, the statutory language is actually more in terms of denying goods and services, and doesn't even really get into contract law technicalities or terminology). The most common of these reasons and the first on the scene, as it were, is race. Over the years, gender, age, religion, disabilities, and so on have been added. And now sexual orientation (at the State level, anyway).
    The photographer in New Mexico advertised in the phone book and on the internet, and in other ways. And indicated that she works for hire in documenting weddings, graduations, and other big life events and their accompanying parties. That's a big part of why she has been found to be subject to the civil rights law.
    If you fly under the radar, if you only do work on a limited basis, for friends and family, or get business by word of mouth, if you work part time or sporadically at something, and don't have an official business address or legal entity, and don't advertise to the general public, then you can probably get away with discriminating on the basis of the otherwise prohibited reasons. But if you hold yourself out to the general public as, say, a wedding photographer, then you can't turn around and say, "But not for gays (or Blacks, or Jews, etc)."
    And, if you do so hold yourself out to the general public, you are subject to those Civil Rights laws, and those laws are the basis for the suits in Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico. Not breach of contract, but refusal to provide goods and services for a prohibited reason by a business subject to the CR statute.

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  105. Washington U. The music was courtesy of a grad student I met through I a mutual friend, and the Lutheran girl was a ministers' daughter from small-town Bergen county, New Joisy.

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  106. Oh, he'd have salted his own slug.

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  107. Halloween_Jack9:38 AM

    So now they're at the bargaining stage: you call off the gay celebrities, we'll call off the straight ones. And never mind the whole double standard about LGBTs "flaunting their sexuality" as straight couples cook up ever-more-elaborate-and-ostentatious weddings, because that's totes not the same thing. Besides, our country was founded on the freedom of religion as an excuse to hate people! Or something.

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  108. Howlin Wolfe9:39 AM

    I love Don Cherry -- sad he died, he wasn't that old. He was Ornette's alter ego for so many years.

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  109. rothbriele9:43 AM

    How challenge that Arthur Weir disturb from the strong, simple show of heterosexuality that is figure boarding. The stunning gayness of his jewellery makes it extremely difficult to focus on people ice dance to The show biz industry musicals.




    Die Alle Zwei Tage DiÀt

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  110. LittlePig9:57 AM

    It's the Henrik Ibsen talking.

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  111. I can neve agree that "being a slaveholder is actually worse." I mean, except in a moral sense but since its not morally wrong to be a slave that still doesn't make any sense to me. Being a slaveholder may be terrible for the soul of the slaveholder, but its not as bad for the slaveholder as actually being a slave is destructive to the life, liberty, and soul of the slave. I mean--among other things being a slaveholder has to be considered more or less voluntary, a status which is chosen and enjoyed and pursued for its benefits, given how hard slave holders have always fought to maintain the privilige.

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  112. LittlePig10:05 AM

    And you'd think Jarheads would be a natural...

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  113. This reminds me of how very upset the right wing was at Barack Obama (especially during the run up to the first election when they thought they might control the debate about blackness and Obama) "using" his black half when his, as they saw it, african father had never suffered being black in an american context. The fact that he'd married an African American woman, and lived as an actual black man in US culture for his entire life, still made them complain about his inauthenticity and his pushiness in claiming a public identity (taking up public space again!) as black person running for office. How rude!

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  114. Good point. The vogue for over the top proposals--like the guy who gets everyone he knows to sing and dance along behind a car in which his girlfriend is sitting, in the position of the zoom camera, is getting way out of hand.

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  115. I think Simels gets royalties on that.

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  116. XeckyGilchrist11:46 AM

    It really is. I agree with the position I've read here and there about that that's coercive.

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  117. I think you may have confused talking about loins with talking lions.

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  118. BG, dismayed leftie12:33 PM

    it’s that he advertises his sexuality to the extent that it makes him (his choice of makeup, jewelry, and extravagant dresses or furs) more of a story than the athletes he is supposed to cover.



    Dear Mr. Hilyer,


    Here's an idea: STOP REPORTING ON IT, and the "story" will go away.


    Sincerely,
    BG

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  119. Yes, I remember Steve Sailor or some other such execrable figure referring to how unfortunate it was that Democrats had to run an "exotic" for president and not a "real" black person. This remark was delivered in the tone of more in sadness than in anger but disguised a real frustration at not getting to run their candidate against some stereotypical Republican caricature, the African-American as an uneducated gangbanger from inferior stock, someone whose blackness makes him easily vulnerable to defeat simply by holding up signs depicting him eating fried chicken and watermelon and listening to rap.

    In other words, they didn't get to leverage their secret electoral weapon of racism as much as they'd hoped because Obama didn't come from a slave lineage or from the inner city, both of which are easy targets ripe for the kind of untermenschen ridicule which really gets your average Republican enthused. So they were forced to mock Kenya instead, which just doesn't move as many votes, no matter how many Obama-as-witch-doctor emails you pass around.

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  120. I really like slugveche

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  121. PulletSurprise12:55 PM

    He and Lipinski also had the sense to STFU rather than their yabbering taking center stage during every single performance and saved some of the commentary until the replays. It was an especially nice change that I wish more would incorporate into their coverage.

    (I'm looking at you, Scott Flappingums Hamilton... you don't get paid by the word.)

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  122. Aimai darling, Tehanu was joking.

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  123. Gromet1:18 PM

    That is one of the weirder dimensions of this. I'm sure a lot of business owners have seen someone come through the door they'd rather not deal with -- not for race or religion, but just because the person seems like they are going to be way more hassle than the payday can justify. So most business owners are probably clever enough to brush someone off as you say. But that's not good enough for these right-wingers. They want the whole world to know why they are refusing a service. There is something very coarse and in-your-face about it -- and that's not a bug, that's a feature. "If they're going to shove their existence down our throats, then we're going to counter-shove what A-holes we are right down theirs!"

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  124. Oops. Too much internet. I'll go hide now.

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  125. Still. They made a shitload of lemonade from those lemons.

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  126. ohsopolite2:38 PM

    Now you've done it--unleash the Mull clips! Also apropos:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsmyIzmpiPk

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  127. Helmut Monotreme3:03 PM

    No, they had a huge lemon party.

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  128. smut clyde3:05 PM

    When I am in charge of the Winter Olympics, all ice-skating events will be performed in pantomime horse suits.

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  129. Truly. Regressity is the mother of contention.

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  130. Wait, what?

    [Examines television, hurriedly changes channel]

    ... Whoops.

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  131. Bethany Spencer3:28 PM

    I actually made that joke ages and ages ago about Tyler Perry. So really you should love me, Aimai. Just don't be flamboyant about it.

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  132. satch4:10 PM

    And so secure in his masculinity!

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  133. satch4:32 PM

    You seem like the guy to ask about this sort of question: how does a restaurant get away with a "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" sign? Public health concerns? And the whole "restaurant refusing to serve gays" thing seems weird. On what basis is the proprietor making the judgement that "these" customers are gay and "those" customers are straight? It could be considered pretty obvious that two guys looking for a photographer to video their wedding are probably gay, but restaurant customers? Hardware store customers? Shooting range customers? Unless it's a very small town, and the business serves the same two dozen customers day after day, it seems pretty bizarre.

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  134. satch4:51 PM

    I gotta find a time machine and get back to the 70's.

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  135. marindenver6:12 PM

    A bakery in the Denver area, Masterpieces, got sued because they refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. The couple had married in Massachusetts and wanted to have a celebration here with their friends. The bakery lost - I don't know if they will appeal. Their lawyer had a whiny "freedumb of religion" explanation and complained that if they can't refuse to make cakes for all the ghey they will go out of business and his family will starve. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24672077/judge-orders-colorado-cake-maker-serve-gay-couples

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  136. philadelphialawyer6:14 PM

    I wasn't quite sure what to make of Tehanu's comment either, if that is any consolation!

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  137. I bet you'll also do something crazy, like holding them in July!

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  138. philadelphialawyer6:17 PM

    I agree. And I also think that Weir and Lipinski were unusually and refreshingly generous to all the competitors, finding something positive to say about even the skaters least likely to win and even the ones who skated below expectations.

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  139. M. Krebs6:31 PM

    And this has to be the coolest album cover ever.

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  140. KatWillow6:33 PM

    But what about "no shoes, no shirt" ?

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  141. Mooser6:36 PM

    Eggs-ackly!

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  142. M. Krebs6:37 PM

    The purest example of Poe's Law I've ever seen.

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  143. Mooser6:37 PM

    What has Shirley Jones been up to?

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  144. smut clyde6:39 PM

    WITCH: Oh, would you two shut up! Would you like some Turkish Delight, my child?
    VYVYAN: Not particularly! Got any kebabs?

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  145. smut clyde6:46 PM

    "Where did all this refreshing cordial come from?"
    "A lemon tree, my dear Watson."

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  146. M. Krebs6:53 PM

    Dunno, but WikipĂŠdia sez she's turning 80 soon, and she's made several appearances on TV in the last few years. Who knew?

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  147. Poor Hilyer, it's always last call, but there are never any NSA hookups.

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  148. M. Krebs7:01 PM

    Including hockey I hope.

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  149. M. Krebs7:04 PM

    Mercy!

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  150. satch7:05 PM

    As for the restaurants, there's this:
    www.huffingtonpost.com/...garys-chicaros-oklahoma-restaurant-serve-gays_n_4746095.html

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  151. Jay Schiavone7:12 PM

    "...the booth announcer doesn't resemble Dave Madden"
    Maybe it's a Shirley Jones tie-in, but don't you mean John Madden?

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  152. M. Krebs7:14 PM

    I used to love this song.

    http://youtu.be/DRNvoJu76oU

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  153. M. Krebs7:18 PM

    Dude.

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  154. Jay Schiavone7:19 PM

    It's only you, Maynard.

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  155. philadelphialawyer8:19 PM

    OK. In the Oklahoma case, the State law does not appear to cover sexual orientation. So the owner can legally discriminate on that basis. That raises your other point....how does he know who is gay? He says he can tell, but I think we can discount that. So, then the issue becomes, what, I was thrown out of the restaurant for being gay....if I am gay, apparently, there is no recourse, because the law does not cover sexual orientation....if I am not gay, I still don't think there is much of a case, because the law does not cover "mistake of sexual orientation" either. Again, without some kind of all embracing State law common carrier doctrine, and barring an actual violation of the civil rights statute, a business CAN refuse service to a would be customer for a good reason, a bad reason or for no reason at all. Perhaps there would be some sort of defamation suit available, based on the false accusation of homosexuality.
    Now, that said, this guy appears to be a nut job, and such folks tend to hang themselves in court. According to the article, he may in fact be violating the racial provisions of the law. Also, there are laws that govern how service is refused too. This guy might very well commit and assault or battery in the course of doing so. And a court might be quick, quicker than it normally is, to throw the book at him, because he is such an all around asshole.
    Much the same for the proposed Arizona law. If it passes, it would make it legal to discriminate against gays. Arguably, it is already legal to do so, just as it is in Oklahoma, because the State civil rights law does not include sexual orientation.
    A Federal challenge will be difficult. The Federal statute also does not mention sexual orientation. And a Federal Constitutional challenge will run into big problems. First of all, the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires "State action" (under SCOTUS doctrine) to apply. The State merely allowing other, private parties to discriminate, rather than discriminating itself, is probably not going to "count" in this regard. Also, the mumbo jumbo about protecting religious freedom might stand as a backup if any question is raised about the intent of explicitly codifying what seems to be the present rule. Arizona will say we needed to pass the law to make it clear that folks' religious consciences could not be overridden.
    Not cheerful, sorry. But I hope it is helpful.

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  156. Ok, I love you too.

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  157. Tehanu9:26 PM

    I guess what I mean is that being the slaveholder is more destructive to the soul, even though it's not more destructive to the life & liberty. Or maybe another way to put it is, slavery ought to be forbidden not just because it's bad for the slaves, but because it's bad for everyone, including even those not directly involved either way. There's somebody in a book, I can't remember exactly right now, who says they don't even want to be a kind mistress of willing slaves.

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  158. AGoodQuestion11:36 PM

    Those Lutheran girls really knock me out
    They leave the West behind.

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  159. AGoodQuestion12:03 AM

    Any friends who try to strongarm me into joining in their asinine wedding proposals are dead to me. That's my rule.

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  160. I get the idea, Tehanu, and I've definitely seen it before. Its basically "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends absolutely to corrupt." But there are people who don't find that a problem--its a feature, not a bug. And though I agree in the other famous expression that "to keep a man in the gutter you've got to get right down in there with him" again, I think there are people for whom that is not a problem at all but, even, a goal. So though I feel sorry for them, and for us if they are part of our society, I don't pity them, exactly--because often they are incapable of grasping the evil that they are doing to themselves because, frankly, they are enjoying the evil that they can do to others.

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  161. Howlin Wolfe9:21 AM

    Yeah, with the forlorn looking Charlie Haden on the right. I always wondered what was going through his mind, looking askance at the other players.He sure filled Scott LaFaro's shoes, though.
    "Ornette on Tenor" is my favorite recording of his, being a tenor player myself, but I took to his music right away. As you are alluding to in your earlier comment, Krebs, I thought the idea of doing away with a set chord progression was the ultimate conclusion of bebop.

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  162. M. Krebs11:31 AM

    Not sure Haden looks forlorn. To me it's more like "you do not want to fuck with me."

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  163. Howlin Wolfe11:41 AM

    I gots happy fetes!

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  164. Emerald12:13 PM

    I wonder if Hillyer can jump up in the air, spin around four times, and land on ice without falling over. And make it look easy. Because Johnny Weir can.

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  165. realinterrobang2:12 PM

    How about this Don Cherry, also a veritable paragon of rinkside masculinity?

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  166. Chocolate Covered Cotton4:31 PM

    Please, people! This is supposed to be a happy occasion! Let's not bicker and argue over who loves who!

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  167. As I understand it--its the american way.

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  168. But even without this new law, only certain forms of discrimination are legally proscribed. A photographer could still refuse to shoot a wedding between ugly people, and I'm sure that would still feel like a slap in the face.

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  169. I might even watch that.

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  170. M. Krebs7:43 PM

    Hey! There's a goddamn U.S. Senator in that picture.

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  171. But of course, he's always been known as a manly man. :-)

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  172. pedro8:35 AM

    buen articulo, muchas gracias por la informacion! ha seguid trabajando asi!
    cursos de ingles en el extranjero

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