UPDATE: 4/19/2001 Read Richard Metzger: How I, a married, middle-aged man, became an accidental spokesperson for gay rights overnight on Boing Boing

It’s time to clarify a few details about the controversial “Hey Facebook what’s SO wrong with a pic of two men kissing?” story, as it now beginning to be reported in the mainstream media, and not always correctly.

First of all, with regards to the picture:

The photo which was used to illustrate my first post about the John Snow Kiss-In is a promotional still from the British soap opera “Eastenders.” It features one of the main characters from the show (Christian Clarke, played by the actor John Partridge- left) and someone else who I don’t know. I am not a regular viewer so I can’t say if the man on the right is an extra or an actual character. 

This picture has itself caused scandal in the UK, as it was a gay kiss that was broadcast before the watershed, and as such led to a number of complaints to the BBC. However, since this episode aired (October 2008) Christian now has a boyfriend and a few more gay kisses have taken place.

In relation to the John Snow Kiss-In event, I used this particular photo because I considered it to be quite mild (no groping, no tongues). The photos I had considered using before I chose that one are much more racy. Oh the irony!

Secondly, the removal of the Facebook John Snow Kiss-In event:

It turns out that the Facebook event for the John Snow Kiss-In was not blocked by Facebook, but made private by the creator of the event itself. Paul Shetler, the organizer, left this comment on the previous thread:

“Hey I just saw this. Before it goes too far, I just want people to know that FB have NOT removed the kiss-in event page; it’s still there, but _I made the event private after the event_ was over and only visible to those who had been invited as there were starting to be trolls posting abusive nonsense on it.”

Thanks for clearing that up, Paul. Now if Facebook will only reply to Richard’s query about why they removed my original post and photo when he put it up on his wall…

It has been erroneously reported in the media that our own Richard Metzger (who lives in Los Angeles) organized the London “Kiss-In” event, which is untrue, and also unfair to Paul Shetler and the actual organizers. Also, Richard did not state in his post that Facebook HAD taken the event page down, he just questioned IF this was the case and IF there was a connection with MY post about the event being removed from his own wall. This seems to have confused some people.

Here is a report on the John Snow Kiss-In from the Guardian, featuring an interview with Mr Shetler:
 

 
I laughed to myself the other day when I saw longtime Republican pollster/spinmeister Frank Luntz on one of the cable news outlets—probably Fox News, but I can’t recall—giving some GOP talking points a dry run.

Not that he was exactly trying anything new, or innovating. In the context of the budget battle, Obama’s speech and the DOA “Ryan plan” etc., Luntz merely trotted out the by-now familiar threadbare Republican shuck and jive routine about how American families understand that you can’t live beyond your means and that the only remedy for that would be to tighten belts, stop living on credit cards and pay off debts. And the Ryan plan is going to achieve this in Washington by blah blah blah. I don’t even know why he bothered to finish his thought, he just should have said “blah, blah, blah” and everyone still would have understood what exactly he meant, anyway. Who cares? Who gives a shit? We’ve heard this all before, ten thousand times… Enough.

It’s too predictable. Too rote. Too by the numbers. Too old-fashioned. Shtick. The Republican orthodoxy is over-exposed. Transparently obvious. People are sick of hearing it, and when they are forced to listen to it over and over and over again ad infinitum on Fox News and elsewhere, what might have sounded like simple down home “common sense” when Ronald Reagan said it, just sounds like disingenuous bullshit in 2011. Bullshit being dished out, in most instances by mean-looking old white guys on the tee-vee talking about lowering the nation’s prospects, en masse, of living out old age with dignity, in favor of still more tax cuts for the top 1%. The problem with this simplistic focus group-tested “homespun” GOP messaging stuff is that no one buys it anymore except for the very least sophisticated characters amongst us, i.e. the real Republican base: The Dummies.

Republicans need some new material. Badly. With Donald Trump in the race it’s going to take a turn for the “even dumber.” It’s bad not just for them, but for everybody. (Everybody except Obama… and Donald Trump, of course, who is playing everyone, or thinks he is. He wins no matter what!)

A short item that ran on Wonkette, I think, sums up just how stupid the “Republican message” is getting to sound to… the rest of us, when the latest gloss on their talking points goes something like this… Quoting from Team Sarah:

The $60 billion that the Republicans wanted to cut from spending (simple cuts, not “reductions in rates”) was to the Federal Budget what 1/2 of a French Fry would be to a Big Mac Value Meal (medium size). That’s right, 1/2 of a fry. So why did the Dems manage to get the Republicans to cut that down to $38 billion? Do you realize what that amounts to in the same Value Meal? 1/4 of a French Fry. That’s the equivalent amount of calories in the Big Mac Value Meal that the $38 billion represents in terms of government spending. Think about that the next time you get a Value Meal (of any kind) at the fast food drive-thru.

I certainly shall!

Sarah Palin herself has always seemed “one fry short of a Happy Meal” to me—a whole fry, mind you, not half of one—but even accounting for the bottomless pit appetite for the regurgitation of ludicrously simplistic talking points on the right, this is a new, groan-worthy, anti-intellectual low. Even coming from her blinkered camp. Why wouldn’t someone conclude that the Teabaggers are idiots after reading the kinds of… uh… fucking idiocy they espouse?

I mean who can take a metaphor about a Value Meal seriously?

It’s obvious: Dummies.

Below, pro-labor demonstrators nearly drown out Sarah Palin as she screeches nonsense addressing the Tea party faithful some dummies in Madison, WI, on April 15th. She tells them to fight for America, to take their country back and blah, blah, blah…
 

 
This is perplexing. And annoying. And infuriating.

I woke up this morning to an email from Facebook with the subject “Facebook Warning”:

“Hello,

Content that you shared on Facebook has been removed because it violated Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Shares that contain nudity, or any kind of graphic or sexually suggestive content, are not permitted on Facebook.

This message serves as a warning. Additional violations may result in the termination of your account. Please read the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities carefully and refrain from posting abusive material in the future. Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

The Facebook Team”

Ah…yeah… it seems that the sight of two fully-clothed men kissing was too much for Facebook, or too much for some closet-case asshole (Hi Jerry! Remind me why you and I are “friends” again? I sure didn’t ask to be yours, pal…) who complained about it. The photo appeared here on Dangerous Minds in the context of Niall’s post about the “kiss in” demonstration that was cooked up, ironically ON FACEBOOK ITSELF, in London to protest against the rude treatment two gay patrons experienced at a pub called The John Snow. The two men, Jonathan Williams, 26, and Jamie Bull, 23 were sitting in a corner kissing when the owner asked them to leave. Over 750 people signed up for the protest.

Oh, WAIT A MINUTE, I went to check on the Facebook page that organized The John Snow pub protest... and it’s gone, too.

WTF, FB?

I’ve written to Facebook asking them why this content was removed, but have at this point received no reply. I’ll update this post when I do. In the meantime, why not share this photo on FB as much as you can? I’m hoping they’ll restore the post as it was so everyone can pile on the jerk who wrote all the homophobic stuff on my FB wall. I think that’s the best outcome here, Jerry getting a taste of his own medicine…

In any case, the protest went off last night against The John Snow pub, with protesters chanting “We’re here, we’re queer and we won’t buy your beer.” You can see the BBC News report here.

Thank you and have a great weekend. Join Dangerous Minds on Facebook.

UPDATE:

(Thanks for this, Robyn Webb!)
 
UPDATE: 4/18/2011 This was sent in to the comments below:

Paul Shetler says:

Hey I just saw this. Before it goes too far, I just want people to know that FB have NOT removed the kiss-in event page; it’s still there, but _I made the event private after the event_ was over and only visible to those who had been invited as there were starting to be trolls posting abusive nonsense on it.

That’s pathetic, but predictable. However, it still doesn’t explain why Facebook removed the Dangerous Minds post from my profile, of course, with the warning that I had posted “abusive” material. Still waiting for that. I’ve heard nothing thus far from them. Will update again when I have heard from them.

UPDATE: 4/18/2011 Please read our follow up post on this story, which deals with some misreported facts on other news outlets.

UPDATE: 4/19/2001 Read Richard Metzger: How I, a married, middle-aged man, became an accidental spokesperson for gay rights overnight on Boing Boing

 
Mock the Dummy absolutely ream Donald Trump in their latest video and it’s a doozy. Using Trump’s own words fashioned as a blunt instrument they then take to the side of his head, the dummy Trump’s lines below come mostly from an ill-advised letter that the (real life) dummy Trump sent in a grammatically-challenged letter to the New York Times complaining about something Gail Collins had written about him there (see “Donald Trump Gets Weirder,” New York Times, April 1, 2011).

Donald Trump, in the latest poll I’ve seen, is now up a full 9 points higher than the rest of the Republican field.

This asshole? Against Obama? It’s just amazing isn’t it?

Election 2012 is going to play out like a ridiculously awesome reality/comedy show.  A breathtaking Republican freakshow. There is no way that it can be avoided!
 

 
Via Toon the News

 
Media Matters did the dirty deed. This must’ve been absolutely nauseating to compile!

Divided up into the categories: Violent Rhetoric, Breaches Of Common Decency, Paranoid Conspiracy Theories, Apocalyptic Predictions and Attacks On Obama And Other Progressives

I’m sure you’ll all recall this gem, where Beck described his fantasies of poisoning Nancy Pelosi:
 

 
Maine Gov. Paul LePage is the Tea party-supported idiot who squeaked into office with just 38% of the vote in a three-way race last year. Hardly the stuff of a mandate—61 %voted against him, of course—but this didn’t stop LePage—who doesn’t really give the impression that he’s a very bright fellow—from barging right in like a bull in a china shop and disrespecting the working people of his state. For no good reason, either. He’s just a dummy.

Instead of worrying about things like, oh, the state’s economy, the battered tax base, the elderly, state roads or ANYTHING THAT MATTERS, dimwitted LaPage took it upon himself, nay made it his business—after what he described as “complaints” about the supposed “anti-business” atmosphere (which later he admitted consisted of one single anonymous letter!!!) —to remove an eleven-panel mural from Maine’s Department of Labor building depicting actual events in American labor history! He also directed conference rooms be renamed so they won’t honor labor leaders, including one named for Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor under FDR who helped established the first minimum wage laws (and the first woman at a cabinet level in US history).

Incredible.
 

 
Judy Taylor, the artist of the piece who was selected by the Maine Arts Commission, remarked of the mural’s removal: “There was never any intention to be pro-labor or anti-labor. It was a pure depiction of the facts.”

Aside from proving to his constituents that he’s a blustering buffoon—as if there was ever a reason to doubt it—now Tea party-inspired foolishness might cost Maine taxpayers more than $38,000.”>the Department of Labor who granted most of the money for the mural are going to send LePage a bill for violating the terms of the grant. This Tea party-inspired foolishness might cost Maine taxpayers more than $38,000.

That’s… leadership, baby! Republican leadership. Actually, in all fairness, I can’t blame them: LePage is such a fucking goof-ball that he’s even been rebuked by HIS OWN PARTY for being a dickhead! How many times do you ever hear a Republican break ranks to criticize another Republican??? For a low IQ wingnut like Paul LePage (who told the NAACP that they could “kiss his butt” and that he’d “laugh” at anyone who protested the mural’s removal) they will make an exception! That’s right, as unlikely as this sounds, this twit brings shame on all members of the Maine GOP and they told him so in a very public way to disassociate themselves from this political trainwreck. LaPage is the turd in the punchbowl of Maine policitcs and everyone knows it but him.

Ultimately, this mural business, as annoying as it is, is a small matter because when LePage is defeated in the next election cycle—if he runs, he surely will be challenged by a fellow Republican—his Democratic successor in the governor’s mansion is just going to undo everything damned thing this buffoon ever did, including hanging the mural back up and restoring the names of the conference rooms.

In the meantime, temporary Gov. LePage, was bitch-slapped the other day by a guerrilla artist who projected Judy Taylor’s labor history mural onto the exterior of Maine’s Capitol building. Here’s a statement about the video:

We put this video up to remind our peers that you have a voice, as soon as you choose to use it. If your government takes a symbol away and tries to hide history, you can make the truth resonate a thousand times stronger with your own 2 hands.

This is a lesson the labor unions taught us all, though some have chosen to forget it. We will remind you.

The maker of the art is unimportant. What matters is that you see it, and you have the freedom to speak about it.

Help make this video go viral!
 

 
This is so ridiculously plausible! Think about it.

Courtesy of Joel Mathis at his Cup of Joel blog. Give this man a round of applause. Hilarious.

H/T Chris Tackett

 
Completely over the top, utterly ridiculous video for the 2011 National Day of Prayer. Like what is the message here supposed to be? That Christians can somehow stave off the Apocalypse and natural disasters by praying? I thought the end of the world and Jesus coming back were the whole point? Now I’m confused.

And what’s with the shitty bombastic music? Was “Carmina Burana” too expensive to license so they went for a cheapo knock-off instead? Note that the White House (where “that Obama” lives) and San Francisco (an American stand-in for Sodom and Gomorrah perhaps) have the ominous lightning flashes but the little church (which I presume resides somewhere in Sarah Palin’s “real America”) is bathed in a cone of holy light… Lame, but these things always are… Can’t these fucking assholes hurry up and be raptured already?

The funny part (if there is one) about all of the Christian apocalyptic madness of the current age is to consider how silly and dated this sort of superstitious insanity is going to look 100 years from now. Mark my words, after all of us are dead, there will be an ironic cult for Kirk Cameron movies and the Left Behind books. They’ll be collectibles from a less enlightened time for hipsters in the 22nd century.
 

 
Via Christian Nightmares