It has been an interesting weekend news wise and I will try to hit the major high and low points. I suppose I should start with the good news which is that SOPA/PIPA is basically dead in the water as the bills have been shelved in Congress. This is a spectacular win for the Internet because "but it is the first time that the Internet flexed its muscles in such a conspicuous fashion and the first time we won." The quote is from this post by Myrddin on Americablog. As the post points out, we have won this round but the fight for a free Internet is not yet over and vigilance on this front is still required.
The bad news is that the good people of South Carolina are obviously still stuck in the past with the lust for prejudice in politics as exemplified by the results of the Republican primary held on Saturday. The winner by a wide margin was race-baiting serial adulterer Newt Gingrich with 40% of the vote. Coming in a distant second was flip-flopping Mormon cultist Mitt Romney with 28% of the vote. Even further behind was the despicable homophobic Rick Santorum with 17% and racist/homophobic Ron Paul in fourth place with 13% of the vote. This throws the whole Republican nomination into a tizzy as this is the first time in Republican primary history that 3 different candidates have won the Iowa Caucuses (Santorum), and the New Hampshire (Romney) and South Carolina (Gingrich) primaries ensuring a prolonged contest with no real winner as yet. Any one of the prospective nominees would be bad news for us as LGBT folks as any of them would work to curtail or strip us of any civil liberties we now have or hope to have in the future. The race bears watching, but we should actively advocate the defeat of any of the Republicans who might win the nomination. The reelection of Barack Obama is the only reasonable choice for those of us who hope to continue our march to true equality with our heterosexual brothers and sisters.
Finally the sad news is that we have lost another beautiful light in the world to homophobic bullying with the death last week of Phillip Parker, 14, of Gordonsville, Tennessee by suicide. His parents told WSMV-TV that Phillip was constantly bullied for being Gay. They reported the incidents of bullying to Gordonsville High School multiple times but the bullying kept getting worse. A Facebook page has been set up by friends to honor and remember "the boy who told everyone they’re beautiful." This is another reason we must stand strong and fight homophobia/bullying wherever we find it. Please, "If you or someone you know needs support, please don’t hesitate to call the Trevor Project‘s Lifeline at 866-488-7386." My heart goes out to the family and friends of this young man in their time of loss and grief.
I was going to add some sports news about who is going to the Super Bowl, but in light of the rest of the news, a glorification of overpaid athletes in the annual excess that is the Super Bowl seems superfluous and irrelevant. So I will move on to today's featured composer, Alexander Glazunov with a play list that encompasses two of his lesser know works. The first is the Kremlin, Opus 30 performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Konstantin Krimets and the second The Sea, Opus 28 performed by the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Igor Golovchin. The play list is followed by this week's edition of Monday's Undies for your visual appreciation. Thanks for the visit, come again tomorrow and bring your friends. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
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