Pimp My Wry

Tainted Love: Stewart Mocks Cain

Jon Stewart examines the Cain controversy better than anyone so far, and makes the point that will matter most from here on out: Everything Cain will do or say in the months ahead will be tainted -- sexually and hilariously so.

Is Herman Cain Able to Tell the Truth?

More on the allegations that the GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed female employees during his tenure as head of the National Restaurant Association.

"What is the truth about these allegations of sexual harassment or sexual misconduct? Have you ever been accused, at any time, of either?" GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain was asked by a Fox News correspondent this morning. (Link to clip of interview below.)

"Yes," Cain answered. "I have never sexually harassed anyone. Let's say that. Secondlly, um, I have never sexually harassed anyone."

Ah, right. Nothing suspicious about that. And, um, nothing suspicious about that.

He continued. "And, yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association," he said, "and I say falsely because it turned out, after the investigation, to be baseless..." (Watch a clip of the interview below.)

The Huffington Post followed up with this:

When asked if he has ever had to deal with sexual harassment claims, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza reiterated his innocence.

"Outside of the Restaurant Association, absolutely not ... If the restaurant did a settle I wasn't even aware of it," Cain said. "And I hope it wasn’t for much because nothing happened. So if there was a settlement it was handled by some of the other officers that worked for me at the Association."

As for any future troubles, Cain was steadfast, noting that no other allegations of this nature are tied to his past.

"Absolutely not," the GOP hopeful said. "If more allegations come I assure you people will simply make them up ... The only other allegations will be trumped up allegations -- there’s nothing else."

I don't buy any of it. Innocent people don't pay off accusers in return for silence.

Watch the video on HuffPost:

 

Bride Answers Text At Alter

Words would just spoil this. Watch.

 

Gropegate!

Another family values Christian is being accused of behavior that isn't exactly Christlike or family-approved.

GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain has denied a Politico report that alleges he sexually harassed women during his time as head of the National Restaurant Association.

Whether there was any groping involved remains to be seen, but given that financial payouts were handed over in exchange for silence, I'm willing to bet that Cain's hands kneaded more than dough.

During Herman Cain’s tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, at least two female employees complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior by Cain, ultimately leaving their jobs at the trade group, multiple sources confirm to POLITICO.

The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.

Cain's campaign insists that Politico is "dredging up thinly sourced allegations." Spokesman J.D. Gordon told the AP that the claims include "unsubstantiated personal attacks," adding that the press is "casting aspersions on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts."

Prop 8: Using Religion To Legalize Discrimination

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker lifted the stay on Proposition 8, but postponed official same-sex marriages until next Wednesday, Aug. 18. By delaying gay marriages, Walker is simply allowing the legal process to play out. And I think it's a good call.

Given that the religious proponents of Prop 8 (and their supporters) want to crucify Walker for his rulings so far, it's best that he err on the side of caution.

But that is not to suggest that I believe Prop 8 proponents have a legitimate defense. In my view, anyone who supports Prop 8 has only one goal in mind — to legalize discrimination.

I've written many times before about the ways in which religion is used to justify homophobia, how gays and lesbians are demonized in religious arguments that are based on faith and not facts, and how American history is steeped with the "family values" of bigots and hypocrites, and I'll continue to do so until gays and lesbians achieve full equality.

Below is my latest essay on the efforts to block equal rights and legalize discrimination via religion. It was published in my local paper, the Sonoma Index-Tribune, this week in two parts — part one is here; part two is here. But because it's easier to read in one chunk, I've pasted it in its entirety below:

"The Kids Are All Right" ... And So Are The Lesbians

What? Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as lesbians in a Lisa Cholodenko film? In another apparently excellent Lisa Cholodenko film? And it's not even my birthday?

Whoa!

Just in case you're not already dying to see the much anticipated "The Kids Are All Right," I offer up Mick LaSalle's review from today's San Francisco Chronicle. (Spoiler: He, like most critics, liked it. A lot.)

One of the best scenes of any film this year takes place in "The Kids Are All Right." The setting is a small dinner party at which Annette Bening, as a lesbian with a longtime partner (Julianne Moore), seems on the verge of some kind of breakdown. She is talking nonstop. She is being excessively ingratiating. Every word out of her mouth suddenly sounds strangely inauthentic, and you wonder what's happening to her. She's wondering, too.


The scene resonates so well because it presents, with accuracy and subtlety, something that we've all experienced, but that is rarely depicted onscreen, and even then, almost never this well. It's the phenomenon of knowing something without knowing it - without even knowing what it is that you know. Though not consciously registering what's bothering her, this woman is picking up on a dynamic in the room, and with all her mental force and might - with every capacity she has for evasion and distraction - she is trying to keep that realization buried... The scene is an example of the rich and psychologically truthful work that [Cholodenko] does without being flashy and calling attention to it.

That's the good news. The bad news, according to Brett Hartinger at AfterElton (and others), is that "there's a very hoary lesbian stereotype at the dead center of this movie."

Perez Hilton, Miley Cyrus And Me

Perez Hilton is to journalism what BP is to environmentalism: A disgrace, to say the very least. I'm no Hilton supporter, and I've made no secret of that. In fact, of all the sentences I've written in my career, there are three that are quoted more often than any others, and they are about him.

Here's just one example taken from a 2006 essay that was published on AfterEllen.com, as quoted in the Perez Hilton Wikipedia entry:

I have to question the character of a man who attacks others on such deeply personal levels, without provocation and for self-benefit, monetary or otherwise....If he's emotionally incapable of exhibiting even the tiniest bit of compassion for closeted people, if he can't be sensitive to the fact that coming out is a very personal decision and that the process can be difficult for some — especially celebrities — I feel sorry for him. If his juvenile behavior is his shtick, I think it makes him a much more pathetic figure, and one the gay and lesbian community should not support...If we support behavior like Hilton's, we applaud shallowness, arrogance, rage and invasion of privacy, and risk becoming what we despise.

I mention this because two of those sentences were quoted in this Huffington Post story published yesterday regarding Hilton's lack of character pertaining to his decision to Tweet allegedly fake pictures of 17-year-old Miley Cyrus' private parts. He's taken the photos down because he doesn't "want to go to jail." But what's done is done. There's no unringing that slimy bell.

There's also no need for me to go in to detail how I feel about his attack on Miley and celebrities in general. The man is scum and my feelings about him will survive us both, no doubt. And that's perfectly fine with me.

Scathing review of the "The Real L Word" From The Washington Post

The Washington Post's Hank Steuver is no fan of "L Word" skipper Ilene Chaiken's maiden voyage into the world of reality programming, and he's certainly no fan of the lesbians she chose to (all together now!) "tell our stories":

"The Real L Word," a new reality series premiering Sunday night on Showtime, hatches from a horrifying alien egg laid by the network's defunct scripted series "The L Word," which in six seasons journeyed from lipstick-lesbian plausibility into lipstick-lesbian melodrama.... It clings to stereotypes of its own invention and self-regard, relying on codespeak about "pumps" vs. "pants," and "femmes" and "futches" and the like. It's a bunch of adult women who never got to act like 12-year-olds when they were 12, so they're going to do it now.

It's odd how mainstream America (and lesbian America) cannot resist the notion of the Sapphic glamazon and the idea that a "pretty" lesbian is the gold standard. "The Real L Word" has been conjured up as a way of insisting that the imaginary world of the original series is, in fact, true.