Yesterday around 6PM I was in a cab stopped at a light in the West Village, just about to cross 6th Avenue at 9th Street. Looked out the window and three feet away was Sen. Joe Lieberman and his wife getting into their car. He couldn’t open his car door until we moved, so he kinda gave us a look. …

Some outfit called the Center For An Urban Future has conducted what it’s calling the first ever count of all retail chain outlets in NYC. You’ll have to embiggen to see the chart. The chain with the most outlets in Manhattan is, unsurprisingly, Starbucks. Most in all five boroughs: Dunkin’ Donuts. The complete list (PDF) includes all chains that have …

Dr. Jeff grabbed this shot as we were crossing Lexington Avenue. Those overpasses connect the buildings of Hunter College.

The CDC says that due to better reporting and improved blood tests, they now estimate the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States to 40% higher than previously thought. The number of Americans infected by the AIDS virus each year is much higher than the government has been estimating, U.S. health officials reported Sunday, acknowledging that their …

The Farmboyz and I did one of our outer borough explorations today, venturing out into the wilds of far Queens. We usually take our bikes on the subway, but Farmboy C (above) blew a tire so we spent the afternoon hoofing around Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (site of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs), which today was hosting the 18th Annual …

What a weird last few days on teh interwebs, a regular triple play of nonsense. First Haloscan crashes, then Google locked thousands of bloggers out of their accounts, then on Friday afternoon any site with the Sitemeter script on it would no longer open in IE, affecting many thousands of sites. We got a heads-up from the CEO of JS-Kit, …

Obviously the comments counter has been broken all day. Your comments are being saved but the counter isn’t updating. Haloscan’s new owners, JS-Kit, have been unresponsive to emailed requests for status info and to comments placed on their help forum. It’s seriously time to get another commenting system. I’d hate to lose a half-million comments or whatever, but what are …

Police won’t release the contents of the letter left by the Knoxville church shooter and the local gay church wants to know what it says. The man who ministers to East Tennessee’s largest gay and lesbian congregation says his church won’t rest easy until members know what Jim David Adkisson wrote. “The more clarity, the better,” said the Rev. Bob …

The ACLU has bagged big victories on two different LGBT issues at Florida high schools. Victory One: At a rural Florida high school a federal judge has finally overruled the local school board and allowed the Gay-Straight Alliance to meet on campus. In a move the American Civil Liberties Union is calling “groundbreaking,” a federal judge has ruled in favor …

Remember how the right-wing eviscerated John Edwards for his $400 haircuts? John McCain wears $500 Ferragamos and lefty blogland is revenging itself into a tizzy. Nation blogger Christopher Hayes notes: If I were a right-wing blogger, and I found out that Barack Obama was wearing Ferragamo loafers that cost $520, I would spend about 50% of my waking hours making …

The confessed killer of Angie Zapata, the 20 year old transgender woman murdered in Colorado last week, says that he became so enraged when he discovered a penis under Zapata’s clothes, that he grabbed a fire extinguisher and beat “it” to death. The man arrested in the murder of a 20-year-old transgender person was on date with a person he …

Interesting finding in Austria regarding female-to-male transexuals. A gene variant has been identified that could explain female-to-male transexuality. The variation is found within the gene for an enzyme called cytochrome P17, which is utilised in the metabolism of sex hormones. According to researchers it leads to a high tissue concentrations of the hormones which could then influence the development of …

California does not permit proxy marriages, both parties must be present. Therefore male and female prisoners have not been allowed to marry each other. But what if both parties are in the same prison? If prisoners in the same prison apply for permission to marry, the California proxy law doesn’t apply. State officials are scrambling to come up with a …

In what AIDS activists are hailing as one of the true positive legacies of his administration, yesterday George Bush signed the most extensive global AIDS relief bill in history. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), hailed President Bush for signing legislation to re-authorize PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). The measure, which was signed in a formal signing ceremony earlier …

Hansom cabs line up along Central Park South for rides through the park and around midtown. Most of the colorful carriages are made in Amish Country. The movement to ban horse carriages in Manhattan gained steam in 2006 when a spooked horse ran headfirst into a parked car, critically injuring the carriage driver. The horse had to be euthanized. While …

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“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business. I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time. I cannot think there are many people who are in favor of using limited federal resources in law enforcement to arrest people because those people decide to smoke marijuana.” …

And the incredibly stupid attack ads keep rolling in.