Sources told ESPN.com on Tuesday that the Nets, who feel they're getting everything they expected from Collins when they signed him for frontcourt depth Feb. 23, are already operating under the premise that the 34-year-old will finish the season with them even though his second 10-day deal doesn't expire until after Friday. Sources say that the internal expectation all along was that Collins would be a Net for the rest of the season, from the moment he signed his first 10-day deal, as long he proved that he could still be an effective defender, which he did immediately. Collins is averaging 9.8 minutes per game off the bench in eight appearances since his historic debut against the Los Angeles Lakers last month, which made him the first openly gay athlete in North America's four recognized major team sports. He most recently provided the Nets with some meaningful minutes defending against DeMarcus Cousins, logging 20 minutes in a 104-89 win over Sacramento last Sunday.
At a joint press conference today, United Methodist Bishop Martin McLee and Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree announced that the church was dropping the case against Dr. Ogletree for officiating at his son’s wedding. In a huge victory for the Methodist movement that is organizing ministry to all couples on an equal basis in open defiance of church law, the bishop dropped the case without any conditions. Furthermore, Bishop McLee said in his statement “I call for and commit to cessation of trials,” the first time ever a sitting United Methodist bishop has categorically declared he will not prosecute pastors for ministering to LGBTQ people. “I am grateful that Bishop McLee has withdrawn this case and the church is no longer prosecuting me for an act of pastoral faithfulness and fatherly love,” said Dr. Ogletree. “But I am even more grateful that he is vowing not to prosecute others who have been likewise faithful in ministry to LGBTQ people. May our bishop’s commitment to cease such prosecutions be the beginning of the end of the United Methodist Church’s misguided era of discriminating against LGBTQ people.”There's gonna be a big ole pile of sadz about this.
With a combined net worth of nearly $16 billion, the select group of LGBT ten-figure fortunes includes media mogul David Geffen, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Hyatt hotel beneficiary Jennifer Pritzker, one of the Pritzker family’s 11 billionaires. In August 2013, Jennifer became the first and only transgender billionaire in the world when she announced she would be identifying herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings. A retired army lieutenant colonel, she is CEO of private wealth management firm Tawani Enterprises in Chicago and has a personal net worth of $1.8 billion. “This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly,” a statement in Crain’s Chicago Business explained. Among the openly-gay hyper-wealthy are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the duo behind fashion power house Dolce & Gabbana. The retail-rich pair are joined by Michael Kors, who became a billionaire this year. Some of these businessmen and women have used their fortunes to advocate for gay rights. Jon Stryker, heir to the Stryker Corp. medical equipment family fortune, is one of the world’s most prolific donors to LGBT charities.The seven listed above represent 0.4% of Forbes' list of 1645 billionaires worldwide.
The propagandists involved in this show, represented most conspicuously by Seth MacFarlane, told viewers last night that “the Roman Catholic Church maintained a system of courts known as the Inquisition and its sole purpose was to investigate and torment anyone who dared voice views that differed from theirs. And it wasn’t long before [Giordano] Bruno fell into the clutches of the thought police.” The ignorance is appalling. “The Catholic Church as an institution had almost nothing to do with [the Inquisition],” writes Dayton historian Thomas Madden. “One of the most enduring myths of the Inquisition,” he says, “is that it was a tool of oppression imposed on unwilling Europeans by a power-hungry Church. Nothing could be more wrong.” Because the Inquisition brought order and justice where there was none, it actually “saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.” (His emphasis.)All that torture and disemboweling? Good thing! Cardinal Fang, fetch the comfy chair for Bill.
Grief
might be, in some ways, the long aftermath of love, the internal work
of knowing, holding, more fully valuing what we have lost.
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Buddhist practice pulls both ways. From one perspective, it is a discreet activity, something we do.
From another perspective, one which tends to emerge more clearly with
time, it seems less something we do and more something we are;
less a piece of life and more all of life. The good news may be
precisely that our lives will never 'work out,' no matter how well we
arrange the pieces or play the game, whether of career, relationships,
or indeed practice. Buddhist practice is especially recalcitrant; it
just won’t 'do' what we want, at least not for long, because what we
want is the problem.
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Truth
has no action. Truth is weak. Truth is not utilitarian, truth cannot be
organized. It is like the wind: You cannot catch it, you cannot take
hold of it in your fist and say, ‘I have caught it.’ Therefore it is
tremendously vulnerable, impotent like the blade of grass on the
roadside—you can kill it, you can destroy it. But we want it as a thing
to be used for a better structure of society. And I am afraid you cannot
use it, you cannot—it is like love, love is never potent. It is there
for you, take it or leave it.
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The Internal Revenue Service released a new YouTube video designed to provide useful tax tips to married same-sex couples. The new video, less than two minutes long, is available in English, Spanish and American Sign Language and can be accessed via IRS.gov. It joins an array of online products, including answers to frequently-asked questions, designed to help same-sex couples file their federal income tax returns. Following last summer’s Supreme Court decision invalidating a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, the IRS ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, are now treated as married for federal tax purposes. The ruling applies to all federal tax provisions where marriage is a factor, including filing status, claiming personal and dependency exemptions, taking the standard deduction, employee benefits, contributing to an IRA and claiming the earned income tax credit or child tax credit.
This past weekend, King told local TV station WHO-TV that these “self-professed” gays could just as easily be straight people “setting up a case” against a business that tries to discriminate them. Colbert recounted that familiar scenario in which someone pretends to come out to their family, then pretends to fall in love, then pretends to get engaged, just so they can sue their potential florist at the last minute. “As Steve King knows, even if gays do exist, it’s nearly impossible to prove it,” Colbert said. That’s why he’s asking gays from around the country to “send photos and/or videos to Steve King, proving that you are gay.” He went ahead and provided to address on screen to make it that much easier for everyone. “Be sure to label your envelope campaign contributions, so you know that he’ll read it,” Colbert added.Watch the video at the link.
To
decide that a certain teaching is worthwhile simply because it echoes
our established opinion is very unwise. Along that easy course there is
no new discovery of truth, only more stale habit.
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The Pope reiterated the church's longstanding teaching that "marriage is between a man and a woman." However, he said, "We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety." For instance, civil unions provide financial security to cohabitating couples, "as for instance in medical care," the Pope said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily. A number of Catholic bishops have supported civil unions for same-sex couples, including Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2010, according to reports in National Catholic Reporter and The New York Times. This is the first time a Pope has "indicated even tentative acceptance of civil unions," according to Catholic News Service.In January the Vatican denied reports that Pope Francis supported civil unions. Will slippery slope blowhards like Bill Donohue now denounce the Pope?
Half of all Americans believe that gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll in which a large majority also said businesses should not be able to deny serving gays for religious reasons. Fifty percent say the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection gives gays the right to marry, while 41 percent say it does not. Beyond the constitutional questions, a record-high 59 percent say they support same-sex marriage, while 34 percent are opposed, the widest margin tracked in Post-ABC polling. The poll was conducted in the wake of a series of rulings by federal judges that state bans on same-sex marriage and prohibitions on recognizing marriages performed elsewhere are unconstitutional.NOTE: A press release about this story mistakenly linked an earlier ABC/WaPo poll. I've replaced that graphic with today's poll result and corrected the link. The full poll results are here.
During
a lecture while I was interpreting for the Dalai Lama, he said in what
seemed to me to be broken English, 'Kindness is society.' I wasn’t smart
enough to think he was saying kindness is society. I thought he meant
kindness is important to society; kindness is vital to society; but he
was saying that kindness is so important that we cannot have society
without it. Society is impossible without it. Thus, kindness IS society;
society IS kindness. Without concern for other people it’s impossible
to have society.
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One
way to read the injunction for Right Conduct, an essential part of the
Eightfold Path, is to see it as calling us—as citizens—to translate the
dharma into specific acts of social responsibility.
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A person with knowledge of the situation says the Brooklyn Nets will sign Jason Collins to a second 10-day contract. Collins signed his original deal on Feb. 23, becoming the NBA's first openly gay player, and it expires Tuesday. The Nets then will re-sign him for another 10 days on Wednesday, the person tells The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the plans haven't been made public. After that, the Nets would have to sign him for the rest of the season if they wanted to keep him.Tonight's game against the Chicago Bulls starts at 7:30PM. If you're in NYC, the game is being broadcast on Time Warner channel 753, Verizon channel 576, and Comcast channel 212. Hit this link for channel numbers outside of NYC.
Scotland is to offer asylum to Ugandans facing persecution under the country's oppressive new legislation against its gay population. Humza Yousaf, Minister For External Affairs, has written to UK Foreign Secretary William Hague detailing the Scottish Government's gesture to welcome "any Ugandan" persecuted by the new laws. It comes on the back of an outcry from the international community at the Ugandan anti-gay legislation and concern over the welcome being extended to countries with anti-gay laws during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. With prominent members of the Ugandan government due in Glasgow this summer, the Scottish Government will also meet representatives of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) groups to discuss proposals on handling human rights issues during the event.Reading the above-linked article, it's not clear if the Scottish government actually has the power to offer asylum independent of UK approval. Readers?
The NBA plans to donate proceeds from sales of Jason Collins jerseys to the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. Collins became the league's first openly gay player when he signed with the Brooklyn Nets last Sunday, and his No. 98 jersey has been the top seller on NBAStore.com. He chose the number in tribute to Shepard, who was killed in a gay hate crime in 1998. Collins met Shepard's parents on Thursday when the Nets played in Denver. The league says Friday the donations will total no less than $100,000, and it will also auction off Collins' autographed, game-worn jerseys to benefit the same organizations.Collins says he is "thrilled" by the decision. His jersey is the NBA's top-seller since he was picked up by the Brooklyn Nets several days ago.
Walking
the path toward the complete ending of clinging and suffering is the
noblest thing a person can do. It opens the fist of the mind, and allows
a person to walk in the world with gift-bestowing hands.
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We
should be compassionate to all. But compassion sometimes has to be
harsh. How else can we pinpoint where the problem really lies? Hatred’s
hold on us is so strong. Simple coddling will not do the job.
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"That's a personal matter. People who have a special tradition, you should follow according to your own tradition. ... But non-believer, that's up to them. Different form of sex? So long as it's safe, okay! And fully agreed, okay! Bullied? Abused? That's what is wrong. That's a violation of human rights."When asked about same-sex marriage rights, the Dalai Lama replies:
"That's up to the countries' laws. It's okay, I think individual business. If a couple really feels that way, practical, satisfaction ... if both sides fully agree, then okay!"
“I am deeply concerned by the decision of President (Yoweri) Museveni of Uganda to sign into law the anti-homosexuality bill,” Senator Patrick Leahy, the most senior member of the chamber and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “Much of US assistance to Uganda is for the people of Uganda, including those in the Ugandan LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community whose human rights are being so tragically violated,” he added. Washington is among Uganda’s largest international donors. The State Department said that in current fiscal year some $485 million in bilateral assistance had been provided to Uganda with most of the funds going towards health programs, as well as education, food security and military training. The State Department has signalled it is looking at a range of options to respond to the law, while White House spokesman Jay Carney said “we are undertaking a review of our relationship with Uganda in light of this decision.”With the aid of Western governments and NGOs, Uganda has seen a remarkable decline in HIV infections compared to its neighbors. Some US and European HIV/AIDS activists oppose cutting financial aid despite the latest law. Yesterday a prominent Ugandan LGBT activist begged that aid not be cut, saying such a move would only create a stronger backlash against LGBT people in his country.
Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, has said he does not support aid cuts. ‘We can’t afford to create new victims,’ he said on Twitter this week. ‘We should go after the crazy politicians! Not innocent Ugandans.’ In February this year, prominent Ugandan LGBTI rights activist Abbey Kiwanuka petitioned the Dutch foreign affairs committee to use other ways to persuade Uganda not to make the bill law instead of cutting aid. His pleas were turned down. Edwin Sesange, director of the African LGBTI Out and Proud Diamond Group, said in a Gay Star News comment piece: ‘Aid in various forms helps all ordinary Ugandans, including LGBTI people who we are campaigning for. ‘Therefore the consequences of not being able to access those services financed by foreign aid will directly impact gay, lesbian, trans and bi Ugandans wellbeing.'RELATED: Sexual Minorities Uganda is the group suing Scott Lively for crimes against humanity.
"We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected by the enactment of this new law," World Bank spokesman David Theis said in an email. Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay bill earlier this week that strengthens already strict laws against homosexuals by imposing a life sentence for certain violations and making it a crime to not report anyone who breaks the law. The World Bank, a poverty-fighting institution based in Washington, usually refrains from getting involved in countries' internal politics or in issues such as gay rights to avoid antagonising any of its 188 member countries. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, however, sent an email to bank staff saying the bank opposes discrimination, and would protect the safety of all employees.Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands have also cut aid to Uganda's government and say they will redirect funding to private groups.
