Alexa demographics: Facebook vs. MySpace

[Click on images to enlarge them] [Source]

[Click on images to enlarge them.]

Whatever Happened to Anita Bryant?

“As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children.” ... “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.” “Crowned Miss America in 1958, Anita Bryant was a wholesome, 30-something singer in the 1970s who was voted ‘Most Admired Woman in America’ by Good Housekeeping magazine three years in a row. She parlayed her wholesome image into a successful career in the Florida Citrus campaign (‘Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine’).” “But many of us remember her for her infamous 1977 ‘Save our Children’ campaign to repeal a Dade County, Florida gay rights ordinance. She led a particularly nasty campaign, complete with charges that gay men and women were only interested in recruiting children. That campaign quickly led Florida legislators to pass a law banning gay adoptions — a ban that is still in place today. Eventually, the controversy over her anti-gay activism ruined her career and her personal life. Her citrus contract was not renewed, she and her husband divorced, and she moved back to her native Oklahoma where she fell off the national radar. “The St. Petersburg Times caught up with her a few years ago. Bryant remarried and has tried, without success, to revive her career, first in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Branson, Missouri. That failed in 1997, and she was forced to declare bankruptcy. “Anita and her husband then moved to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where history repeats itself. She opened the Music Mansion, a Branson-style theater, and put on a show where she sang songs from her 1950’s and 1960’s heyday and preached her Christian beliefs. She was well-liked among her conservative Christian followers, but popularity remained elusive. Attendance was sparse; even on her best days the theater was never more than 25% full. Salaries went unpaid, bills piled up, promises were broken, and the theater eventually closed amid hard feelings and anger. Yet Bryant seems to remain unfazed by all the damage she has done.” Read more here. Source: Box Turtle Bulletin

(Source)
She looks like a dike now, alas.

Gaga debuts new song on 'Today Show'

(Source)

'A Single Man'

Watched a movie on Comcast last night, "A Single Man," based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood and produced by the fashion designer Tom Ford, who also wrote the screenplay and directed. Wonderful movie. Glad it was offered on Comcast, since it's one movie I'd really wanted to see. You can read all about it here. Excellent performances by the actors, with Colin Firth in the lead role. More at IMDB here. (I'll watch it again tonight.)
Ellen DeGeneres interviews below.

Tom Ford

Colin Firth

Matthew Goode

Google vs. Bing image search

I searched for a photo of Jurij Sennecke, Candice Olson's (of HGTV fame) husband. (He's even taller than she is!)

Google image search results here.

Bing image search results here.

This is the best image the Google search could produce.

I got this image through Bing (but not the image above).

U.K. Doctors Deem Gay 'Cure' Therapies Harmful

From The Advocate here.

Therapies that purport to “cure” gay people were denounced as harmful during the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, reports Pink News.
At the Thursday session, the majority of physicians attending agreed that the Royal College of Psychiatrists and other mental health standard-setting organizations should reject and ban the treatments.

“Sexuality is such a fundamental part of who a person is that attempts to change it just result in significant confusion, depression and even suicide,” said Tom Dolphin, vice-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee. “You can’t just wish away same-sex attraction no matter how inconvenient it might be.”

Why Do Middle-Age Men Cheat?

From Andrew Sullivan here.

Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá continue to plug their book on the evolution of human sexuality. On infidelity:

With the caveat that every situation is different, one factor we think deserves more attention is the role of testosterone (T) in middle-aged men’s eroticism. In their twenties, men’s T levels begin a long decline, often experienced as diminished passion and appetite for life. Suppressed T levels are associated with depression, heart attacks, dementia, and overall mortality rates from 88 to 250 percent higher. One of the few things that can reliably and immediately revive a man’s sagging testosterone is exposure to a new woman. One researcher found that even a brief chat with an attractive woman raised men’s testosterone levels by fourteen percent within minutes. In Sex at Dawn, we suggest that many men may be confusing the hormonal changes triggered by an affair with actual “love,” thus leading them to make ill-advised decisions catastrophic to their families, their marriages, and eventually themselves.

BUSTED: The Economist Photoshops Obama To Make Him Look More Depressed And Alone

I wouldn't subscribe to this magazine in the first place, but this would be a good reason for canceling. From TPM here.

It's just not quite the same for a president to be glancing down at the water while chatting with others on the beach as it is for the president to be solemn and depressed and alone while contemplating oil-soaked sand.

But the Economist didn't have a picture of the latter. So they made one:

Baby zebra is born at Zoo Miami

From the Herald here (includes more pics).

Recently, the community at Zoo Miami celebrated the birth of a baby giraffe. On June 26, they added another cutie to their animal family: a baby zebra.

These photos of the baby zebra were taken Wednesday by Ron Magill, zoo spokesman.

According to Magill, the male foal was born to a 5-year-old female named Priscilla but had been kept in a holding pen until Wednesday when it got its first chance to run and explore its exhibit. The father is an 11-year-old stallion named Andy. . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge it.)

Chelsea Clinton's July 31 Wedding at Opulent Astor Courts

From Politics Daily here.

The closely held details of Chelsea Clinton's wedding have begun to leak out, and the first major morsel may well be the venue.

She will marry investment banker Marc Mezvinksy, 31, at Astor Courts, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece overlooking the Hudson River designed in 1902 by famed architect Stanford White for American oligarch John Jacob Astor IV. From the outside, it evokes Louis XIV's Grand Trianon at Versailles. And inside? It's straight out of an Edith Wharton novel.

Speculation about everything from Chelsea's wedding gown (Vera Wang? Oscar de la Renta?) to the officiant (a Protestant minister? A rabbi? Both? Neither? ) to the honeymoon destination (still a secret) have been swirling around the publicity-shy only child of former president Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for months. . . .

[See Astor Courts here.]

Glenn Beck Starts His Own University

He didn't even go to college and now he's starting his own "university"? What a deluded crackpot. I still fail to understand how anyone can take him seriously. Like calling Obama a "racist," when he must know that Obama is half white and was raised by his white grandparents. It makes no sense. Is it enough just to be provocative, while ignoring reality?* (Same with the "birther" nonsense.) Maybe a "real" university education would have bestowed on him some intellectual honesty.** (Now I'll cease giving him the attention he apparently craves (yet doesn't merit).) (You'll note I usually have very little to say about him, since I myself don't take him seriously.) This is from The Daily Banter here.

No seriously. Glenn Beck is starting his own online university to counter all the 'liberal lies' about American history. From his website:

School may be out for the summer, but for Glenn Beck class is just starting.

This July, while others are relaxing poolside, head back to the classroom - from the comfort of your own home. That may sound like an oxymoron but Glenn’s new academic program is only available online.

Offered exclusively to Insider Extreme subscribers, Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics. Through captivating lectures and interactive online discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.

Beck even has a spanking new emblem for his virtual school:

Does this man's ego know no bounds? I'm betting he will announce his deity within the next two years, start a church (available only to 'Insider Extreme' subscribers) and have a statue of himself carved out of gold where people bring their babies to be healed.

[See here too.]

_______________
*“Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” (Stephen Colbert)
**See "intellectual dishonesty" here.

GOPers in Florida Gov. race are fighting over a possible gay dating site

Again, homophobia rages in governor's race. From Americablog here.

In Florida, Republicans are engaging in a bitter intra-party cat fight for the GOP's gubernatorial nomination. And, whenever the GOPers are fighting amongst themselves, they often manage to bring it back to the gays. But, this Florida fight between Bill McCollum and Rick Scott is bizarre even by GOP standards:

Now McCollum’s campaign is pointing out that Scott is an investor in a social networking site that, among other things, features the profiles of gay men.

QuePasa.com bills itself as “one of the world’s largest trilingual Latino Social Networks online” serving users in the U.S., Mexico and Latin America. It features content on entertainment, sports and music.

But as McCollum’s campaign ties Scott to the site, it points out that gays also use the site for dating.

Kristy Campbell, communications director for McCollum, acknowledged to CNN the campaign is pointing out Scott’s ties to QuePasa.com. But Campbell said it was in response to the e-mail from Scott’s campaign.

“The hypocrisy and bizarre desperate attacks against Attorney General McCollum by Rick Scott in this campaign know no bounds,” Campbell told CNN.

America's Nastiest Primary? GOP's Florida Gov Race Takes It To The Next Level

Homophobia rages in governor's race. From TPM here.

You might not expect a race between the uber-boring Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and the uber-rich former hospital exec Rick Scott to be a barn-burner. But the Florida Republican gubernatorial primary -- a race no one really expected to happen in the first place -- is making a strong claim for the title of nastiest primary race of the year.

Here's a quick overview of the past couple weeks. McCollum, trailing in the polls to the self-funded Scott, turned it up to 11 with a mailer that says Scott, who made his millions as the CEO of Columbia HCA, "profited from abortion," thanks to the fact that the procedure was performed at some Columbia-run hospitals. In response, Scott fired off a press release attacking McCollum for supporting Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 presidential race. How does a tie to America's Mayor hurt McCollum in Scott's eyes, you might ask? Like this: Scott says McCollum isn't conservative enough because he "endorsed pro-abortion and pro-homosexual rights candidate" Giuliani.

Like I said, nasty. . . .

Republicans would probably rather not have Scott -- who brings with him a ton of baggage -- as their nominee. But Scott seems to have caught fire with some voters down in Florida, and that means McCollum has to get scrappy to fight him off. Expect this race to stay nasty all the way to the finish line.

From a commenter on the story:

Geez. And McCollum's the one who may have broken the law by funneling money to George "Rentboy" Rekers to bash gay adoption. Florida doesn't seem like a state where two candidates preparing for the general election by trying to out-homophobe each other makes a lot of sense.

Columbia/HCA's violations while Rick Scott was CEO

The list of violations

In two huge settlements, Columbia/HCA hospitals paid the federal government $1.7 billion to settle allegations of a broad range of frauds against Medicare committed by the company while Rick Scott was chief executive.

The civil fines included settling these allegations:

• Upcoding, or claiming patients were sicker than they were to get more money from Medicare: $403 million

• Inflated hospital cost reporting to get more money out of Medicare:
$356 million

• Physician kickbacks: $225.5 million

• Improper billing of patients for home health visits:
$106 million

• False cost reports involving the purchase of home health agencies: $90 million

• False cost reports concerning marketing expenses: $50 million

• False cost reports on Curative Wound Care Centers: $17 million

• False cost reports on Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce:
$5 million

• False billing for transferred patients: $5 million

• False cost reports involving Cedars Medical Center in Miami: $950,000

Criminal fines against two HCA subsidiaries:
$95.3 million

Source: Department of Justice

The illegal kickbacks

In a lawsuit filed in 1999, the Justice Department accused Columbia/HCA of making illegal payments to almost 250 doctors in Florida and Texas in exchange for patient referrals from the doctors — a violation of antikickback laws, government lawyers said. The company later pleaded guilty to one criminal charge of illegal kickbacks and paid a $30 million fine. Neither Rick Scott nor any other company executive was criminally charged.

Florida hospitals

Columbia/HCA Hospital	Illegal Payments	Doctors Paid	Medicare Referrals
Aventura Hospital & Medial Center	$1.3 million	18	$8 million
Miami Heart Institute	$3.3 million	16	$34.1 million
Plantation General Hospital	$326,000	8	$800,000
Palms West Hospital (Palm Beach County)	$2 million	23	$5 million
Southwest Florida Regional Hospital (Lee County)	$907,000	17	$2.8 million
Florida total	$7.9 million	82	$50.8 million

Texas hospitals

El Paso area hospitals	$6.9 million	77	$103.3 million
Corpus Christi area hospitals	$2.3 million	75	$19.9 million

Source: Federal court records

[Last modified: Jun 27, 2010 01:37 AM] [SOURCE]

We don't need a crook running Florida

This guy has lived in Florida all of seven years and he's aggressively promoting oil-drilling off our coasts and calling for Arizona-style immigration laws. We don't need this. St. Pete Times article here ("Rick Scott touts CEO experience in run for Florida governor, to a degree").

"As I have said repeatedly, Columbia/HCA made mistakes, and I take responsibility for what happened on my watch as CEO," Scott said in a written statement Friday. He has denied knowing frauds were taking place while he was there, and he was never charged with any crimes.

However, federal investigators found that Scott took part in business practices at Columbia/HCA that were later found to be illegal — specifically, that Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, in violation of federal law, according to lawsuits the Justice Department filed against the company in 2001.

The doctor payments were among 10 different kinds of fraud identified by the Justice Department in its 10-year probe of the company, records show. Three years after Scott left Columbia/HCA, the company admitted wrongdoing, pleading guilty to 14 felonies — most committed during Scott's tenure — in addition to paying two sets of fines totaling $1.7 billion. . . .

On his campaign website, Scott said that he would have corrected any problems at the company "immediately'' had he known about them. But a former company insider told the Miami Herald that he warned Scott in a meeting of "significant problems'' at least six months before Scott's resignation, which came nine days after the FBI raided 33 Columbia hospitals and offices in six states.

The insider, attorney Jerre Frazier, who was brought in by a Columbia/HCA board member to root out the company's problems, said he did not believe Scott personally approved any illegal conduct. But, he said: "Rick is a bright guy, and he picked up on what was happening."

The Scott campaign dismissed Frazier as a "disgruntled former employee."

Whether or not Scott was aware of his company's questionable conduct, the breadth of the problems raises questions about Scott's leadership, management experts say.

Nell Minow of the Corporate Library, a watchdog group, put it this way: "Being ignorant of all that doesn't inspire confidence." In judging a CEO, she said, "it's no better to be a schnook than a crook." . . .

(Emphasis added.) Read the complete article for more information. List of violations here. (Post on Arizona here.)

New bike stuff

Was at the bike shop and Sports Authority today.

New super-light Giro helmet and gloves. (Wore helmet on ride tonight.)

New horn and helmet. Wanted a bell but couldn't get one at bike shop or Sports Authority.

I ended up getting these gloves when I wasn't able to return a Kryptonite lock I'd bought at the bike shop (found something cheaper and just as good at Sports Authority). I can use these at the gym, since my old ones are wearing out.

Gel pads on palm. They had extra-large for a perfect fit.

'Tea party in the Sonora'

'For the future of G.O.P. governance, look to Arizona.' Full story by Ken Silverstein in the July Harper's Magazine is here. Excerpt:

The general unsightliness of the capitol makes it a fitting home for today’s Arizona legislature, which is composed almost entirely of dimwits, racists, and cranks. Collectively they have bankrupted the state through a combination of ideological fanaticism on the Republican right and acquiescence and timidity on the part of G.O.P. moderates and Democrats. Although dozens of states are facing budget crises, the situation in Arizona is arguably the nation’s worst, graver even than in California. A horrific budget deficit has been papered over with massive borrowing and accounting gimmickry, and the state may yet have to issue IOUs to employees and vendors. All-day kindergarten has been eliminated statewide, and some districts have adopted a four-day school week. Arizona’s state parks, despite bringing in 2 million visitors and $266 million annually, have lost 80 percent of their budget, with up to two thirds of the parks now in danger of closure. The legislature slashed the budget for the Department of Revenue, which required the agency to fire hundreds of state auditors and tax collectors; lawmakers boasted that these measures saved $25 million, but a top official in the department estimated that the state would miss out on $174 million in tax collections as a result. . . .

[T]o raise cash, the legislature has pursued a series of wild sell-offs and budget cuts. It privatized the capitol building and leased it back from its new owner, an arrangement that brought in substantial revenue but over time will cost Arizona far more. The legislature has sold off numerous other state properties at bargain prices, and has put up future lottery revenues as collateral on a $450 million loan. Meanwhile, Arizona removed more than 300,000 adults from state health coverage and terminated one health-care program for 47,000 poor children. Funding was slashed at the agency that deals with reports of child abuse and neglect, and also at Children’s Rehabilitative Services, so that parents of children with cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, and a number of other conditions are now required to pay 100 percent of treatment costs. . . .

Read the whole story. (Pictured: Old Capitol at left; House of Representatives building at right.)

Father's Day - Bike ride

Called father (he'd received my card and was doing well), then headed down the road at around 7:00 p.m. Was back by 8:00, before sunset. Weather was pleasant - not too hot. (Click on photos to enlarge them.)

Entrance to nature preserve

Inside nature preserve (that's my bike)

They cut channels across an old through road in the process of reclaiming the area for the preserve

Sleek boat on Intracoastal Waterway

Bridge across Haulover Inlet (Atlantic Ocean beyond); Village of Bal Harbour at right

Florida International University (North Miami campus) in distance

Towers of Sunny Isles Beach beyond Oleta River State Park

Go slow for Manatees

Dude chillin'

Back into the nature preserve

Back out of the nature preserve

My German friend Karl lived here years ago. House full of Biedermeier furniture, but lots of stairs, and he limped as it was. He ended up moving to a condo on the Ocean in Ft. Lauderdale.

I lived here with an ex. We found the place together.

The Young Albert

Enjoyed watching "The Young Victoria" on Comcast last night (early this morning, actually). I'd not seen it in the theater. Except for the part where Albert gets shot, from what I've read the movie is an accurate account. Even the shooting incident wasn't pulled from thin air:

During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year-old Edward Oxford attempted to assassinate the Queen while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert in London. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. He was tried for high treason, but was acquitted on the grounds of insanity.

(From Wikipedia here; footnotes removed) (I spent quite a while digging through Wikipedia after watching the movie.)

Based on photographs I saw, it appears Albert was even better looking than the actor who portrayed him in the movie (Rupert Friend). Victoria writes this about him: "'[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful.' She also wrote to her maternal uncle Leopold I of Belgium to thank him 'for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert ... He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.' . . . '...dear Albert... He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see.'" On the other hand, Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, another suitable marriage prospect, Victoria found "very plain." Victoria and Albert had nine children together before Albert died in 1861 at the age of 42. (Albert was four months younger than Victoria.) The photo at left is the first ever taken of Albert, in 1842, two years after his marriage to Victoria. Below are the royal couple with their children (all nine -- count 'em). [Click on the photos to enlarge them.]

What impressed me the most about Albert, however, was his progressive ideas, which Victoria also embraced.

[H]e adopted many public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slavery . . . [still legal in the U.S. at the time and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution]

Albert used his position as Chancellor [at Cambridge] to campaign successfully for reformed and more modern university curricula, expanding the subjects taught beyond the traditional mathematics and classics to include modern history and the natural sciences. . . .

In a speech to the Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the Labouring Classes, of which he was President, he expressed his "sympathy and interest for that class of our community who have most of the toil and fewest of the enjoyments of this world". It was the "duty of those who, under the blessings of Divine Providence, enjoy station, wealth, and education" to assist those less fortunate than themselves.

A man of progressive and relatively liberal ideas, Albert not only led reforms in university education, welfare, the royal finances and slavery, he had a special interest in applying science and art to the manufacturing industry. The Great Exhibition of 1851 arose from the annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts, of which Albert was President from 1843, and owed the greater part of its success to his efforts to promote it. Albert served as president of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and had to fight for every stage of the project. In the House of Lords, Lord Brougham fulminated against the proposal to hold the exhibition in Hyde Park. Opponents of the exhibition prophesied that foreign rogues and revolutionists would overrun England, subvert the morals of the people, and destroy their faith. Albert thought such talk absurd and quietly persevered, trusting always that British manufacturing would benefit from exposure to the best products of foreign countries.

The Queen opened the exhibition in a specially designed and built glass building known as the Crystal Palace on 1 May 1851. It proved a colossal success. A surplus of £180,000 was raised, which went to purchase land in South Kensington and establish educational and cultural institutions there – including what would later be named the Victoria and Albert Museum. The area was referred to as "Albertopolis" by sceptics. . . .

Albert involved himself in promoting many public educational institutions. Chiefly at meetings in connection with these he spoke of the need for better schooling. A collection of his speeches was published in 1857. Recognised as a supporter of education and technological progress, he was invited to speak at scientific meetings, such as the memorable address he delivered as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science when it met at Aberdeen in 1859. His espousal of science spawned opposition from the Church. His proposal of a knighthood for Charles Darwin, after the publication of On the Origin of Species, was rejected.

The movie, by the way, won an Oscar this year for Best Achievement in Costume Design.

French & Saunders - Parodies