Last week, Deb Price of the Detroit Press managed to get the Iraq government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, to now condemn the killing of Iraqi gays, when she demanded, “Does the Iraqi government condemn the killings of Iraqis targeted specifically because they’re homosexual?” The spokesman responded, “Iraqi government condemn each and every killing — whoever are being killed. Definitely we condemn …

Google has launched another innovative service, a free local 411 directory. Dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and they’ll connect you for free to any business. I think my cell phone company charges about a buck for each 411 call. Now I’ve got to figure out what Google is getting out of this.

A male firefighter was awarded $1.7M by a Los Angeles jury for anti-gay discrimination he claims he suffered for coming to the defense of a lesbian firefighter. The firefighter had claimed he was forced out of the fire department after he supported his coworker in her homophobic bias suit against the department. I presume the male firefighter is straight, making …

Holy crap! We got 7.81 inches of rain in Central Park yesterday, the wettest day in NYC in 119 years, and almost breaking the 1888 record. That’s Florida-style rain right there. But there’s no flooding around Manhattan, at least none that I’ve noticed. I guess we’ve got great drainage ’round these parts.

Looking spooky in this rain, the West Village’s Jefferson Market Library was built in 1874 and was used as a courthouse until 1945. The adjoining buildings on the property were used as the New York Women’s House Of Detention. When weather permits, the library has a lovely flower garden open to the public.

I’m proud to report that I have taken my food preparation laziness to new dizzying heights, with the advent of the pre-washed, individually packaged Express Bake PotatOH!, which is ready for immediate microwaving. I don’t know if this is a new gimmick or if I just noticed them, but it pleases me greatly.

Ooo-wah, Ooo-wah. How I hated it. That frenzied, bizarre, dance floor chant that arose during peak moments in gay clubs of the 70’s. Ooo-wah, Ooo-wah. Never once in 30-some odd years have I ooo’d or wah’d. Always it would seem to arise during the exact moment of a song I was particularly enjoying, shattering the moment as I gritted my …

Here’s the alternative video for Erasure’s new single, I Could Fall In Love With You. I’ve been an Erasure fan for 20 years and this new song is already one of my favorites. To paraphrase a friend, if somebody asks you what your favorite Erasure song is, it should be a really difficult decision.

“America is watching Don Imus’s self-immolation in a state of shock and awe. And I’m watching America with wry amusement. Since I’m a second-class citizen — a gay man — my seats for the ballgame of American discourse are way back in the bleachers. I don’t have to wait long for a shock jock or stand-up comedian to slip up …

Last night I attended the first organizational meeting of the Queer Justice League, where about 100 activists gathered to discuss the purpose, structure, rules and procedures of the group. During an interesting opening exercise, attendees were asked to give their first names, preferred gender pronoun, and a one-word description of their mood about the meeting. Curious, optimistic, hopeful, ready, excited, …

The Second Avenue subway, the long-awaited, often-started but never finished subway line down Manhattan’s East Side had its fourth groundbreaking this week. (My “morning view” pics are usually my own, but I grabbed this one from the NY Times.) The tunnel shown was sealed up in the 70’s during NYC’s big financial crisis and has sat empty since. I can’t …

Author Kurt Vonnegut has died at the age of 84. Like most high school and college students in the ’70s, I worshipped Vonnegut, whose Slaughterhouse-Five added fire to the anti-Vietnam War movement. I also rather liked his funky sentence structure and punctuation, something I thought I saw reflected somewhat in the writing of John Rechy, author of my favorite novel …

So I finally have a landline, after six years in NYC with just a cellphone. And very surprisingly, I have a highly prized 212 number, which even shocked the Time-Warner digital phone guy who installed the line, telling me it was only the second 212 he’d ever put in. Even though I haven’t given anybody the new number yet, I …

There will be a meeting of the Queer Justice League tonight at NYC’s Gay Community Center at 7:30pm, which is billed as “a space for long-term ACT UP members and new young activists to come together and discuss the future of the fight for LGBT equality.” Please consider joining the next generation of gay activists. You can subscribe to their …

Today’s NY Times has a feature story about automotive marketers’ attempts to reach out to gay consumers and the perception in the market that some cars are “gayer” than others. Old news to us gay folks, of course, who have always known that the Mazda Miata, for example, is just about as gay as gay can be. Sadly, there is …

Porno Bingo turned out to be a lot of fun last night, the Ninth Avenue Bistro was packed to capacity. One of my own peeps, Little David, won a big goodie bag of porn including memberships to several of those dirty online streaming video sites, which by total coincidence happens to be one of David’s favorite pastimes. Also in the …

My baloney has a first name. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Here’s the tricky part. Everybody doesn’t like something. If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer. You can trust your car to the man who wears the star. Oh, Fab. I’m glad. I miss catchy advertising jingles. All I hear anymore in ads is old pop songs. …

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today that effective immediately, the 146,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq will have their tours of duty extended from one year to 15 months. Admitting that our forces have been “stretched” by the conflict, he denied that the tour extension is the result of poor stateside recruitment efforts. With troop morale in Iraq already said to …

Food Emporium, 1st Avenue, Tuesday 8pmA small boy is running in circles around a produce display, unspooling about 50 feet of plastic bags.Young Mother: You had just better start behaving right this minute or tomorrow morning I’m getting on the phone and calling in Mean Nanny for the rest of the week. Do you want that? Do you want to …

“I think there are four kinds of gays in Hollywood. There’s the openly gay; the gay and everybody knows it but nobody talks about it; the married, closeted gay who doesn’t talk about it; and the screaming ‘I’ll sue you if you say I’m gay’ person. In other words, the no closet, the glass closet, the cast iron closet, and …