It’s been a while since we last heard from the American Family Association and its endless efforts to boycott companies that bother the group. As long-time readers may recall, every once in a while, Wildmon and the AFA will draw headlines for attacking a group or company for being insufficiently “pro-family,” though most of their complaints come across more as bizarre rants from extremists than anything else.

The targets from recent years include, but are by no means limited to, Wal-Mart (for promoting “Brokeback Mountain” DVDs), Target (for not having Salvation Army bell-ringers during the Christmas season), Ford Motor Company (for purchasing ads in gay-oriented publications), and the movie “Shark Tale” (which the AFA believed was intended to “brainwash children” into accepting gay rights). Last year, the AFA was particularly bold when it tried to block U.S. troops’ access to adult materials.

This week, the AFA decided McDonald’s is the new national scourge.

The “problem,” if you want to call it that, is the company’s vice president of communications, Richard Ellis, who has joined the board of directors for the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. In an “action alert” sent to supporters yesterday, the AFA’s Wildmon expressed his outrage.

According to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, McDonald’s will aggressively promote the homosexual agenda. In remarks on McDonald’s Web site concerning the company becoming a member of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), Skinner wrote: “Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world … and we do.”

Regardless, I hope McDonald’s has the good sense to ignore the AFA’s complaints.

Words of Power: Bush ignores Darfur, and so do we all.

Inarticulate Fumblings: A wonderful personal triumph.

Mombian: Wow, it turns out there is a difference between parenthood and lesbian Turkish oil wrestling.

Father Jake stops the world: How 'bout taking care of the earth for Lent?

The Opinion Mill: Sunday Bookchat

...BG filling in for Mike today only. Continue to send tips to finnsagain AT aol DOT com...

Hey folks, it's Blue Gal, with a special "great blogs with unusual names" round up:

Princess Sparkle Pony - dissecting Robin Givhans as she dissects John McCain's "gay sweaters."

Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes - dishes on Dinesh d'Souza. With grade B maple on top. Yum.

Circle Jerk at the Square Dance - The Bush administration can't tell you what classified information they're destroying because that's classified.

And don't forget Thrift Store Adventures , Carpe You Some Diem!, and of course, The Nefarious Lair of Lesbian Gangs Packing Pink Pistols, Inc.

PageOneQ h/t Group News Blog:

Jill Holzman Vogel is a nationally recognized lawyer in Republican political circles. She has held senior posts in the Republican Party and in the Bush administration, including Chief Counsel to the Republican National Committee and Deputy Counsel at the Department of Energy. Call it a payoff for her work during November and December of 2000, when Jill served as counsel in the Florida Presidential Recount, acting on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign in West Palm Beach and in Osceola County.

She's running for Virginia State Senate, and during this last weekend of the primary campaign she has unleashed an anti-gay, anti-Muslim campaign flyer, with little to no time left for a rebuttal from her opponent.

The flyer is here, and it quotes advertising used by the image consultant hired by Vogel's opponent.

There is no earthly reason to do this except to point out that this consultant is proud of its record getting a Muslim candidate elected, as well as a lesbian candidate. Playing the anti-gay, anti-Muslim cards is the reason for this flyer, period.

Ironically (?) Vogel's husband is a lobbyist for Viacom. Viacom, which airs Queer as Folk, The L Word, TransGeneration, and the cartoon Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All The World, some of the most gay-friendly programming on TV today.

Really, this is such a stinking hypocritical and typically Republican cesspool you really have to read it for yourself.

ARRGH! Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, also known in the blogosphere as Link to Cap'n Dyke Day. Cap'n Dyke is the most worthy lesbian pirate queen that sails the blogosphere seas.

By the way, what does Anderson Cooper see when he looks in the mirror?

2 Political Junkies: Greenspan Update about how liberal blogs have gone all crazy about one sentence in a five hundred page book, so Alan G. says about twenty more sentences on the TV circuit that prove he said the one sentence, and...

...so why aren't we talking about oil running out? Because Iraq bombed the World Trade Center? Ask any kid. Or the Commander in Chief and his right-wing blogger friends..

Off the beaten path, very, very, guilty pleasure edition: Hot Chicks with Douchebags. Oh, wait. Here's a set they missed..

Guest blogged by Blue Gal, My email is bluegalsblog AT gmail DOT com, unless you're a Nigerian royal in need of urgent banking help. Or Neil Cavuto.

I'll warn you now, this post will pretty much piss you off from beginning to end. I was watching CSPAN this evening and caught a disturbing and insulting anti-left hate fest disguised as a lecture by former president of the LA Chapter of NOW and FOX NEWS analyst, Tammy Bruce. Bruce, who calls herself a pro-gun, pro-choice, Bush lovin', non-Christian, lesbian Republican, spoke to a group of students belonging to the Young America's Foundation in Santa Barbara last week. I think it's safe to say that this is one confused and bitter person. There are so many things wrong with this clip that I'm not even going to try to list or analyze them all so have at it in the comments.

Download | play Download | play

As for the Young America's Foundation -- I won't link to their disturbing little site. I'll just leave you with the picture that darkens the top of their homepage which will tell you everything you need to know about this group...

(Click here to see the picture)

Continue reading »

I don't know why, but this cracked me up...

NZ Herald: Female koalas indulge in lesbian "sex sessions", rejecting male suitors and attempting to mate with each other, sometimes up to five at a time, according to researchers.

The furry, eucalyptus-eating creatures appear to develop this tendency for same-sex liaisons when they are in captivity. In the wild, they remain heterosexual.

Scientists monitoring the marsupials with digital cameras counted three homosexual interactions for every heterosexual one.

"Some females rejected the advances of males that were in their enclosures, only to become willing participants in homosexual encounters immediately after," say the researchers.

"On several occasions more than one pair of females shared the same pole, and multiple females mounted each other simultaneously. At least one multiple encounter involved five female koalas.

My husband cautioned me not to make a snarky remark about the necessity of men when all your needs are seen to by others lest you think I was being disingenuous with my Valentine's dedication, so for his sake, I'll refrain. I can just imagine homophobes' heads spinning when they bring their little impressionable children to the zoo and find the cute koalas in a five way lesbian encounter.

Some last minute reactions to the Preznit's speech. Interesting the Decider didn't mention he's locked up only the "Bad Arabs" for over five years without a trial. So then Bush goes off to "sell" his plan...at Fort Benning?!?

Eric Reeves: "2007 gives all signs of being the most destructive year to date in the Darfur genocide." (h/t Daily Darfur).

On-topic, why does the Governor of New Mexico have more diplomatic competence than the Secretary of State? Nevermind.

Ave Cassandra : response to Ahnold's healthcare plan.

Off the Beaten Path: "Straight but not narrow" edition: The Lesbian Blog Award nominations are open. There are some great, and I mean great, writers over there.

P.S. I'm glad someone misses Fafblog as much as I do...

Guest round-up by Blue Gal

I've said before that BAGnewsNotes is one of my favorite sites. Michael of BAGnews recently covered the latest Newsweek cover of photographer Annie Leibovitz, on the occasion of the publication of her new book. Michael dives head on into Newsweek's coverage of the long-term relationship between Leibovitz and the late, great Susan Sontag, with all the schoolgirl-like snickering about this lesbian relationship, which up until recently I don't believe was widely known. He also questions the editorial choice to include a post-mortem picture of Sontag, but that wasn't the aspect of the story that struck me most.

What struck me was the fact that the Newsweek team opted to put Annie Leibovitz on the cover at all. Not that she isn't a brilliant photographer, but because what they had chosen for the cover on the non-American editions.

Think about this. Americans have roughly 150,000 troops currently stationed in the Middle East fighting in a warzone. Each one of them has a mother, father, spouse, sister, brother and/or child home, worrying about them. And what Newsweek thinks will sell far more magazines here is Annie Leibovitz.

How's that for supporting our troops?

CBS, NBC Refuse To Air Church's TV Ad World Faith Network

United Church of Christ ad highlighting Jesus' extravagant welcome called
'too controversial'

CLEVELAND -- The CBS and NBC television networks are refusing to run a 30-second television ad from the United Church of Christ because its all-inclusive welcome has been deemed "too controversial."
The ad, part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ (UCC) seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.
According to a written explanation from CBS, the United Church of Christ is being denied network access because its ad implies acceptance of gay and lesbian couples -- among other minority constituencies -- and is, therefore, too "controversial."
"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."

Similarly, a rejection by NBC declared the spot "too controversial."

"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," says the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president. "What's going on here?"

Negotiations between network officials and the church's representatives broke down today (Nov. 30), the day before the ad campaign begins airing nationwide on a combination of broadcast and cable networks. The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick@Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land, among others. More