NBC News reports: George Kennedy, who won an Academy Award for his bruising performance in “Cool Hand Luke” and later starred in the goofy “Naked Gun” franchise,” died Sunday in Idaho. He was 91. Cory Schenkel, Kennedy’s grandson, told the Associated Press that he died of old age. Kennedy, who stood nearly 6½ feet tall, was a World War II …

The Age reports: Social media giant Facebook has waded into the divisive same-sex marriage debate in an unprecedented partnership with Australian marriage equality advocates. From Tuesday, Facebook will give its 14 million Australian users the option of adding an Australian Marriage Equality banner to their profile pictures, in what AME hopes will demonstrate “the mainstream support” for the reform. The …

The man whose imprisonment for being gay helped lead to the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada will be posthumously pardoned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The CBC reports: Trudeau intends to posthumously pardon Everett George Klippert who, because he admitted to police in the 1960s that he was gay, was deemed a dangerous sexual offender and sent to prison. “The …

Two weeks ago Marco Rubio recruited a slew of anti-LGBT activists to sit on his “religious liberty” advisory board. This afternoon hate group leader Tony Perkins announced that he will chair a similar advisory board for Ted Cruz. Curiously, Heritage Foundation hater Ryan Anderson sits on both boards. From Perkins: Ted Cruz announced today the creation of a 19-member Religious …

Anti-LGBT activist and Foundation For Moral Law head Kayla Moore, the wife of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, has endorsed Ted Cruz. From the Cruz campaign: “Very rarely do I get involved in other political races,” Moore said. “However, our nation is at a crossroads. If we do not choose wisely, we may forever lose our country. Many …

Speaking at a rally in Virgina today Donald Trump repeated his completely debunked century-old fable about Americans having once executed Muslims with bullets soaked in pigs’ blood in order to discourage future violence. Watch below. Trump knows the incident never happened and is surely aware that Politifact last week gave his claim their “Pants On Fire” rating. He just doesn’t …

From the Daily Beast: A reporter was allegedly kicked and choked by security Monday afternoon at a rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump in Radford, Virginia. Fellow reporters have identified the manhandled member of the press as Time photographer Chris Morris. Details on what led to the confrontation are scant. Breitbart is claiming it was the Secret Service agent that …

JMG reader Jude points us to an unconfirmed Twitter report that the Rubio campaign has posted the above message on Grindr Tinder, which expresses hope that everybody is enjoying their one man/one woman hook-ups and that they reject extremism and fake hair. Winky! (I totally had to look up Tinder’s rules to find out which swiping direction was negative.)

“Look at the example of Josiah, King Josiah, in the Old Testament. The people of Israel, where judgment was imminent, because a godly man, a man that brought the people back to the law – and what just happened is judgment was deferred, and so it restored confidence in the people. All we need is a leader that will take …

With Scalia gone, Clarence Thomas finally finds his voice. The Daily Beast reports: The famously quiet Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly spoke up Monday morning and asked questions during oral arguments Monday in a case about gun ownership. Thomas has refrained from asking questions from the bench during Supreme Court hearings for the past ten years. According to a Bloomberg reporter, …

Oh brother. Via The Hill: Donald Trump on Monday blamed a poor earpiece for sparking a misunderstanding over white nationalist David Duke’s support of the GOP presidential front-runner. “I’m sitting in a house in Florida with a very bad earpiece they gave me,” he told hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “Today” show “I sit down and I …

Mediaite recaps the highlight of Jimmy Kimmel’s post-Oscars special: Perhaps the greatest moment of the night occurred when he had Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their legendary roles from The Producers to poke fun at Donald Trump in a big way. The original musical focuses on two Broadway producing con-artists who plot to create a show guaranteed to fail …

See the ad below. Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue probably shot every TV in his house last night after Spotlight won the Oscar for best picture. But this morning he’s in the news, literally, with a full-page ad in the New York Times that slams Disney-ABC for next week’s debut of The Real O’Neals, a sitcom loosely based on the …

Indonesia’s crackdown on its LGBT population continues. Gay Star News reports: Indonesia has banned men from behaving effeminately or dressing in women’s clothing on TV. The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) issued a directive Tuesday (23 February) after receiving complaints from viewers. The directive specifically banned: Men wearing feminine fashion. Men wearing feminine make-up. Feminine body language exhibited by men, including, …

From a lengthy piece posted this morning by Politico: Bernie Sanders’ campaign is desperately fighting to prove that Super Tuesday isn’t his final stand. The outlook is grim: He likely needs comfortable wins in at least five states to realistically keep pace in the delegate hunt. Coming off a deflating loss in Nevada and a thorough pummeling in South Carolina, …

Via World Net Daily: The CEO and founder of Hobby Lobby, the company at the heart of one of the court battles for religious freedom in this country – via a case that sought exemption from a government mandate to provide abortion-inducing drugs in employee health-care plans – gave his thumbs-up to Sen. Marco Rubio for president, calling front-runner Donald …

The race to the bottom continues. Via NBC News: Marco Rubio again unleashed an array of sharp attacks on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, jabbing at his “small hands” and “spray tan.” In response to the property mogul calling him “little Rubio,” Rubio conceded that Trump was taller than him. However, the Florida senator suggested Trump had small hands for his …

The Hill reports: Donald Trump increased his lead atop the GOP presidential field in a new national poll, attracting 49 percent support among Republican voters. Trump holds a 33-point lead over his closest competitor, Marco Rubio, in a CNN/ORC International poll released Monday morning, one day before ballots are cast on Super Tuesday. Pollsters also found that GOP voters are …

The Washington Post notes that last night John Oliver devoted 22 “brutal” minutes to eviscerating Donald Trump. Oliver also has a plan: Oliver offered a novel strategy for those who wish to battle Trump: refer to the candidate by “Drumpf,” what one biographer said the Trump family name was before it “evolved over the centuries.” Indeed, Gwenda Blair, the author …

All of the nominees and winners are listed below, but first here’s the deal with Sam Smith’s mostly-wonderful acceptance speech. Via Vanity Fair: When Sam Smith took the stage on Sunday night to accept his Oscar for best original song, for the Spectre theme he co-wrote with James Napier, he incorrectly paraphrased a statement Ian McKellen made about the lack …