¡Yo quiero “Breaking Bad!”
While on “Conan” Tuesday, Dean Norris, a.k.a. Hank from “Breaking Bad,” was introduced to the Mexican version of the hit show, even getting to see a picture of his counterpart from south of the border. Norris is all for it, but then host Conan O’Brien tells him about another country’s version, and this one looks a little methed up.
“Conan” airs weeknights at 11:00 p.m. ET on TBS.
WASHINGTON — A North Carolina lawmaker tried to convince his colleagues Tuesday that if they want to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, they’re going to be protecting people who practice incest, bestiality and pedophilia as well.
During a debate over a charter school bill, the North Carolina House considered an amendment that would have included protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and banned schools from discriminating on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
During the proceedings, state House Speaker Pro Tem Paul “Skip” Stam (R) distributed a handout to his colleagues that asked, “What Is Sexual Orientation?” and listed 30 categories, including heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality, as well as coprophilia, exhibitionism, apotemnophilia and necrophilia.
“Sexual orientation is not defined anywhere. I have here 30 different types of sexual orientation,” Stam said on the House floor, adding that he thought it was necessary to specify and “exclude pedophilia, masochism, and sadism, which are sexual orientations.”
“Many, many sexual orientations are not ones you want to have teaching kids in school. You may think you know what you mean by this, but you don’t. I encourage you to vote against this amendment,” he said.
Stam did not return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
The list he handed out came from a version of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that was published in 2000. At the time, the APA didn’t even list these 30 categories as sexual orientations, but instead classified them as disorders. What’s more, the manual was updated in 2013, and the new version clearly defines sexual orientation as follows:
Sexual orientation refers to the sex of those to whom one is sexually and romantically attracted. Categories of sexual orientation typically have included attraction to members of one’s own sex (gay men or lesbians), attraction to members of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members of both sexes (bisexuals). While these categories continue to be widely used, research has suggested that sexual orientation does not always appear in such definable categories and instead occurs on a continuum (e.g., Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953; Klein, 1993; Klein, Sepekoff, & Wolff, 1985; Shiveley & DeCecco, 1977) In addition, some research indicates that sexual orientation is fluid for some people; this may be especially true for women (e.g., Diamond, 2007; Golden, 1987; Peplau & Garnets, 2000).
State Rep. Marcus Brandon (D), who is the legislature’s only openly gay member, told local TV station WRAL that he was sick of LGBT people being treated like “second-class citizens” in North Carolina. The state has no law prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. (There is also no such law at the federal level, although many states have enacted their own statutes.)
“Pedophilia is not a sexuality, and we cannot continue in this body to keep calling things something [they’re] not. It’s offensive to a whole group of people,” Brandon said. “It is a disease and a problem that has to be addressed outside of this body.”
State House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is running for U.S. Senate, told WRAL that Stam’s actions were “not helpful.”
In 2011, Stam spoke out against the legalization of same-sex marriage, saying it would lead to polygamy.
It seems simple enough, even a little romantic, a little American-dreamy: I’m looking to buy some property.
Northward. Woodsy. Modernrusticsexycool. Just the sweetest and most perfect getaway property ever, is all, something about an hour or two from San Francisco, up in the more lushly arboreal regions of Sonoma or Napa counties, remote enough to quell the City’s roar but not so remote to be inhaling all the off-gasses from regional meth labs or suffering any gunfire from Mendocino’s cranky pot kingpins.
Is it too much to ask? A modest home-slash-retreat space on a few acres that can maybe house a handful of yoga students and/or writers for a long weekend, accessible to civilization but not so snobbish that you can’t run around naked and covered in chocolate and bourbon and dreams, and all of it on columnist/yoga teacher’s budget?
It might be. Obvious Problem No. 1: I don’t work for Google, or Oracle, or FaceTwitChat, and therefore am not up to my flaccid fleece hoodie in mountains of tech-bro cash that I can throw around like Monopoly money; I don’t even have an extra $2 million to buy a closet-sized condo in the Mission. It makes things a little rough.
But I’m not bitter. Just… realistic. There’s still plenty of lovely opportunities to be had, even if prices have leapt into the near-stratosphere pretty much everywhere. Translation: from what I’ve seen so far, my modest budget limits me to places that are a little hardscrabble, a little rough-hewn, a little needful of significant upkeep of their aging septic systems, coarse landscapes and, invariably, spring-fed water.
Wait, what? Right, the water. The Looming Issue. The Unexpected Fear. Water – or rather, the potential lack thereof – is something I didn’t realize I’d be quite so worried about when I started my search. But now? It’s damn near unavoidable.
Problem is, I work in media. Every day I see the stories. Every day I read the reports, scan the graphs, am stunned by charts showing nearly the entire state of California – not to mention huge swaths of the world – drenched in dark purple or blood red, hovering somewhere between “severe drought,” “exceptional drought” and “OMG we are so fucked.”
Did you know this past May was the hottest May the world has ever known? Did you read it was just 110 degrees in Mumbai… at 1:00 in the morning? Did you know global warming is no longer a preventable possibility, but a exceedingly brutal reality? The Southwest’s savage drought is just the beginning.
How about the fact that California’s record drought just got worse, given how the meager winter snowpack is gone and hence the fire danger is already at ridiculous levels? There is no more fire season, per se. It’s now just one continuous threat that never ends.
The facts swirl and threaten, mingle and conflict. What to believe? How fearful and anxious to be, exactly? Forget skyrocketing real estate prices. Is it just too risky to buy rural property around here anymore? How long until all those wells and springs run dry? Until the big lakes no longer feed the reservoirs? Until fire danger is out of control? Did you know, just this past January, before the meager rains finally came, that 17 California counties were at risk of completely running out of water within two to four months?
It’s hard to know where to look for answers. I do know, for example, that something like 85 percent of CA’s water goes to agribusiness. And much of that goes to grow grain, to feed industrial cattle, to supply fast-food addictions and excess beef consumption. The basic rule persists: Want to save the most water? Stop eating so much meat. And almonds. And California rice. And so on.
Despite this fact, San Francisco just launched a “sexy” new water-saving ad campaign, encouraging urbanites to cut back 10 percent by “making it a quickie” in the shower, which is all cute and fun until you learn that SF actually uses the least water of any major county in the state, less than a fifth of what Sacramento gulps per capita. And even Sacto’s gluttony is half of what Palm Desert sucks away for all those ridiculous lawns, golf courses and pools.
But all of California’s urbanites combined come nowhere near to the amount of water that goes to big agribusiness – and by and large, they have little or no regulation at all. Bottom line: even if SF cuts back 10 percent, we’re only saving what, about one percent of the total? Two?…
Read the rest of this column by clicking here
Mark Morford is an award-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate, the author of The Daring Spectacle: Adventures in Deviant Journalism, and the creator of the Mark Morford’s Apothecary iOS app. He’s also a very well-known ERYT yoga instructor at San Francisco’s Yoga Tree, and the creator of the Yoga for Writers series of workshops and retreats. Join him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or email him.
On Tuesday, June 24, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) held its quarter-century commemoration at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., within sight of the U.S. Capitol dome. We were gathered with partners and supporters to reflect upon progress that we have made toward our mission of ending AIDS in children.
One measurement of that progress is our recent achievement of having reached 20 million women with services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Myriad supporters can be credited with helping us reach those women — and saving millions lives in the process. On this occasion we honored Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi with our Congressional Global Champion Award. Leader Pelosi has been a friend and partner of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation from its earliest days.
It is significant that we met with our friends and allies in Washington, D.C., the city where we held our very first event in June 1989, when the AIDS crisis was burning across the United States. From that moment, the U.S. government has played an unparalleled role in changing the course of the pandemic, thanks to strong bipartisan leadership, investment in science, and dramatic scale-up of prevention and treatment efforts.
Here in the capital of the United States, the Ryan White Care Act was passed in 1991, with the solid support of Leader Pelosi. It was a watershed moment in the fight against AIDS, providing hope to individuals and families in this country who lack the means to pay for HIV treatment. The Ryan White Care Program still supports thousands of people living with and affected by AIDS today.
The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), launched in 2003 with tremendous assistance from Leader Pelosi, represents another watershed moment. Rarely has the United States been more forward-thinking. The transformational PEPFAR program has long enjoyed strong bipartisan support and has provided our organization with the ability to expand to countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic–largely in sub-Saharan Africa. The continued and sustained success of PEPFAR illustrates the good that can be accomplished in Washington, D.C.
Today it is rare that a child in the United States is born with HIV. The early advocacy efforts of Elizabeth Glaser and the organization that today bears her name paved the way for this–but truly, much credit for that accomplishment must be given to leaders in Congress, Democrats and Republicans, working with the White House to ensure that women in the United States have access to services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
That progress has continued across the globe. New infections in children worldwide have been cut in half in the past few years–an extraordinary accomplishment. Last summer, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that more than 1 million children had been born HIV-free because of PEPFAR. Due in no small part to that program, we have been able to announce that our organization has reached 20 million women with services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
We are proud of these milestones and are deeply grateful for the support that we have received from individuals, corporate donors, and government partners around the world over the past 25 years. Everyone who has contributed in any way to our work shares credit for these achievements.
Charles Lyons is the president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Obamacare is going to have to return its hero’s cape, and we’re all going to have to learn to think twice before we over-react to shaky economic data.
Two months ago, President Barack Obama’s signature health-care reform law was widely credited with saving the U.S. economy from shrinking in the first quarter by giving a huge jolt to health-care spending. On Wednesday, we found out that had all been a mirage.
Using more-solid data than it had two months ago, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis found that health spending actually shrank in the first quarter, weakening overall consumer spending and contributing to a terrible quarter for the broader economy. Gross domestic product shrank at a 2.9 percent annualized rate in the quarter, the worst since the depths of the Great Recession, with health spending alone shaving 0.16 percentage points from growth.
What a difference from two months ago, when the BEA first guesstimated that health spending soared at a 9.9 percent rate in the quarter, helping to keep the economy out of the dumpster. Many news outlets, including yours truly, ran headlines like this:
Other outlets, with differing ideologies, zeroed in on the alleged spending surge as a bad thing, pointing out that one of the goals of Obamacare was to reduce such spending.
We were all wrong. It turns out that health-care spending actually fell, as apparently millions of new Obamacare and Medicaid enrollees boosted their total health-care spending much, much less than the BEA had guessed they would.
We should have listened to our own health-care reporter Jeffrey Young, who wrote when the first data came out:
Because everything with the words “health care” in it have been intensely politicized since 2009 when Congress started writing what eventually became the Affordable Care Act, every number that comes out has a tendency to be overanalyzed, and people on the left and the right have a tendency to draw grand conclusions from what can be pretty meager, preliminary information.
Young also pointed out that the long-term trajectory of health-care spending should be higher, anyway, given an improving economy, an aging population and other factors. On Wednesday, the White House suggested that health spending should pick up, but health prices should stay low, both of which the White House naturally attributed to Obamacare.
And we might not really have seen the full impact of Obamacare sign-ups on the economy yet, particularly as large numbers of them happened at the tail end of the first quarter, for insurance that actually couldn’t be used until April — the second quarter — at the earliest.
Anyway, this episode highlights the risk we run every month of giving too much weight to any one economic number — especially big, politically charged numbers like the unemployment rate and health-care spending. These numbers are often just best guesses that are revised completely beyond recognition in short order, and yet they can cause wild mood swings in consumers, politicians and financial markets. Better to be patient and stay focused on the big picture.
“Happy anniversary,” I whisper, kissing my husband’s jawline. I love this spot, this scruff, his warmth.
“Mmmhmm,” he says, rolling over to his other side. I’m not offended. It’s really early, I’m up, he’s not. This is how our schedule works right now.
I tiptoe downstairs, see the notes our girls have sprinkled for us — one by the stairway, one on the counter, one on my desk. They’ve been working on these all week. “Happy anniversary” is written in their pretty print surrounding photographs from our wedding they found a few days ago.
We sat on the floor with the ridiculously big box of pictures between us. Their slender fingers picked up one photo at a time. Who’s this? What are you doing here? Are you kissing?! They asked, their voices threading over mine as I told them things they already knew. Sharing stories of their dad and I before they were born is a favorite gift I happily give.
Jason walked in right then and settled by my side. “Mom was scared right here,” he said, pointing to a wedding picture, moment and memory that I love so very much. It does, indeed, look like I’m scared in that photo, but for the record, so does he!
I swatted at him, he moved, I missed, we laughed. Twelve years later, he’s still the one that makes me laugh in the best way — with memories and moments, our past and future glittering between us.
Not taking ourselves too seriously is one thing that keeps us happily together. Here are 12 other secrets about being happily married that I’ve learned from 12 years of marriage.
1. You’re on the same team.
Why this secret works: Most bad moods, bad moments and bad words have nothing to do with the other person or the marriage. So you learn how to let go of (most of) the piddling fights from your first few years together. He doesn’t leave his socks out at you just like you don’t overspend at him. When you face hard times and hard conversations assuming you’re on the same team, it changes your approach (for the better).
2. “I choose you” is a mantra.
Why this secret works: Knowing that there’s someone out there that would choose you over anyone else makes this world feel sweeter and safer. People who feel sweet and safe are happier. Make this a given.
3. Yes is more important than no.
Why this secret works: Take this as you will. We were told this on our wedding day and still remind each other of it as needed. It’s important in all arenas of marriage (maybe life?). Coming from a place of yes and assuming your partner will, too, takes defensiveness out of the equation.
4. Having at least one interest of your own and at least one shared interest (besides your children) is key.
Why this secret works: Whole people are happy people. We’re both smitten with our hobbies and it’s ridiculously fun coming back together and sharing what we’ve been doing separately. I understand as much about beer making as he does about yoga; Just enough to ask good questions, but to let the other person be the know-it-all at their “thing.” The places we overlap — running, cooking, politics — keep us puzzle-pieced.
5. At any given time, one of you will be the dream chaser and one of you will be the dream gifter.
Why this secret works: Letting dreams grow is a confidence and happiness booster and everyone has passions they need to (and should) follow. Support each other in these and gift each other resources and time, guilt-free. Young families are stretched and busy, so this may mean that only one of you can free fall into a dream at a time. No worries, this will ebb and flow.
6. Simple kindness is the only way.
Why this secret works: Kindness makes the world go round. I think we could all soften our edges a little bit and this is your person, who better to be soft for (and with)? Remember how you treated each other when you first met? Treat them that way today and be kind with the wild abandon usually attached to young love. Simple kindness is bringing me a glass of water, filling my gas tank, making his lunch, knowing how he likes his coffee. Giving and receiving kindness are equally happiness-inducing. And is there really any another way that makes sense?
7. Everyday politeness matters.
Why this secret works: Say good morning, kiss goodnight, remember pleases and thank yous, hug when he enters the room and squeeze when he leaves. Make eye contact, answer questions, return texts and emails and phone calls. These are the things we do to show people that they mean something to us and that their presence makes (our) world a better place. The habit of politeness sets the foundation for how you treat each other. And it does matter.
8. Laughter is a deal maker and breaker.
Why this secret works: Laughing together just feels good. It’s putting your armor down and your happiness first. It’s shared time, shared experience and shared fun.
9. Daily talking, listening and touching are mandatory.
Why this secret works: Keeping the conversation going means you know what’s going on with the other person. You recognize what a look or an intonation mean which threads you tighter. Holding hands, brushing elbows, sitting on the same couch cushion — all of these work in the same way as listening and talking do. They keep your focus and effort on closeness. And this closeness creates the most important kind of knowing I can think of. The feelings of knowing and being known are unparalleled.
10. Staying in today makes a difference.
Why this secret works: Anniversaries and marriages look different pre-kids, with a newborn, with tweens and the ensuing activities and schedules that come along with them. Don’t waste time being wistful for who you once were. Instead, stay grateful for who you are to each other today. Being grateful and present sheds the right light on everything and everyone.
11. Fighting is a skill.
Why this secret works: Here’s the rub with fighting: Know each other’s soft spots and leave them alone. There’s a coveted vulnerability within relationships. But it only stays coveted when it’s treated with respect. Argue issues. Have a backbone and an opinion and a voice. But use all three to make points, not jabs. There’s a difference. Don’t fight each other. Same team, remember?
12. You have to be each other’s lift and soft landing.
Why this secret works: You are ultimately responsible for your own happiness and can’t find it in anyone or anything else. But knowing you have someone to turn to for a push or a lift or a soft place to land when things feel hard is what it’s all about. Be that someone for each other.
All marriages have their golden moments and their tarnished ones. When we’ve found ourselves wavering, its been because we loosened our grip on one of these secrets, so whenever we can, we thread these between us. And when we can’t, we work at it until we find our way back to each other.
What secret would you add?
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To celebrate the release of the fourth series of Game of Thrones on blinkbox, the company created this amusing video starring three pugs. It is titled The Pugs of Westeros, and stars Roxy, Blue and Bono playing dog versions of all of the main characters.
You’ll see Pug Joffrey Baratheon, Daenerys Targaryen, Eddard Stark and Jon Snow. Oddly, no Hound, which is a strange oversight. I was also disappointed that the couldn’t find a giant pug to play The Mountain, but I’m just a stickler for detail.
Pug fans will find the whole thing adorable. They need new house phrases now. A Lannister always chews his bone. Or flea dip is coming!
[via Geeks Are Sexy]
Google showed off a few new features of the next version of Android. While the company didn’t say all that much about the new features and instead focused on the new design language, Google director of engineering Dave Burke did show off Android’s new personal login feature. Read More
It’s been years since Google has given its Android platform as fresh a face as this. But today we got our first look at Android’s next big shakeup. It doesn’t have a name yet (lollipop?) but it’s here to tie things together.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
