Wolf Blitzer Asks Tornado-Surviving Atheist if She Thanked the Lord: VIDEO

Awkward.

Saved by the polite survivor: “We are here and you know, I don’t blame anybody for thanking the lord.”

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Posted May. 22,2013 at 10:06 AM EST by Andy Towle in Atheism, News, Tornado | Permalink | Comments (43)

Jon Stewart is High on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford: VIDEO

On Friday, news emerged that uber-homophobe Toronto Mayor Rob Ford had been captured on a video smoking crack-cocaine. Jon Stewart thinks we should give Ford a break because perhaps it's just a plan by the mayor to clean up the city's crack problem by smoking all of it himself.

He also takes a look at two other videos of Ford that may be just as humiliating.

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Posted May. 22,2013 at 9:46 AM EST by Andy Towle in Jon Stewart, Toronto | Permalink | Comments (13)

Vatican Denies Pope Performed Exorcism After Footage Emerges: VIDEO

Pope Francis is denying that he performed an exorcism on a young man in St. Peter's Square.

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The Independent reports:

The astonishing footage, taken immediately after Pentecostal mass on Sunday 19th May, shows the Pontiff approach the second of two wheelchair bound people, whose face is pixelled out.

After a priest leans across the boy or young man to tell Francis something, the Pope’s expression becomes more serious, the voice-over notes. He then grips the top of the subject’s head firmly and is seen pushing him down into his wheel chair. As this is happening the Pontiff recites an intense prayer, and the boy’s mouth drops wide open and he exhales sharply, Italian press reports added this morning.

Francis’s usual smile then returns and he continues with the traditional – and more gentle — Sunday greetings for sick or disabled visitors to St Peter’s.

Euronews adds:

Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said it had merely been a normal prayer for a sick or disabled visitor. "Pope Francis did absolutely not intend to perform an exorcism on this occasion. As he frequently does with the sick and the suffering who come his way, he intended simply to pray for a suffering person who had been brought before him."

The allegation came from the director who had been filming Francis at the time. In his commentary he had said the boy's shouting as he was being blessed looked like an exorcism.

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Posted May. 22,2013 at 9:20 AM EST by Andy Towle in Catholic Church, News, Pope Francis | Permalink | Comments (21)

On Harvey Milk Day, Activists Remind Us That His Words are More Powerful Than Ever: VIDEO

Videographer and activist Sean Chapin, along with Andrea Shorter, Randall Mann, Sister Roma, Courtney Walsh, and Aaron Wimmer, produced a powerful reading of Harvey Milk's famous "Hope" speech at the top of the Castro in honor of today, Harvey Milk Day in California.

Walsh and Wimmer are two actors from Dear Harvey, the recent New Conservatory Theater play about Milk's life, Mann is a local poet and winner of the 2003 Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry,Sister Roman is a 20 year veteran of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and Shorter is a  lesbian political consultant who serves on the city's Commission on the Status of Women.

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Chapin writes:

"What came to be called 'The Hope Speech' was initially conceived as a stump address, wherein Milk attempted to embolden a strong GLBTQ nationalism within the Castro, while also appealing for an alliance with other disenfranchised groups and straight folks," wrote Jason Edward Black and Charles E. Morris III in their anthology An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings (University of California Press, 2013). Milk would revise the speech and recite it several more times at various appearances, according to the introduction written by Black and Morris to the version they included in their book. It was a defiant speech about gay self-acceptance that included Milk's call for LGBT people to come out of the closet and inspire others to do so. For as Milk said, particularly of LGBT youth, "And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope for a place to go if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be alright."

Milk would have been 83-years-old today.

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Posted May. 22,2013 at 8:42 AM EST by Andy Towle in Harvey Milk, News, Sean Chapin | Permalink | Comments (3)

NOM President Brian Brown Condemns Murder of Gay Man in NYC

Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, released the following statement yesterday:

"We condemn in the strongest possible way the murder of a gay man in New York by a killer who apparently hurled anti-gay insults at him moments before the killing. This senseless act cannot be condoned in America or anywhere, and we urge that the perpetrator be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Our heart goes out to the family of the victim, and we hold them in our prayers. While this killing appears to have no connection to the current debate about redefining marriage, there is no room for violence toward any American — whether they support traditional marriage or not. No person should be subjected to violence because they are gay or lesbian or because they believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. There is no place for violence, period."

Posted May. 22,2013 at 8:20 AM EST by Andy Towle in Brian Brown, Gay Marriage, New York, News, NOM | Permalink | Comments (23)

Arrest Made in NYC Attack on Gay Man Amid 'Alarming Spike': VIDEO

ABC7 last night took a look at anti-gay hate crimes in NYC after two more, one against a nightlife promoter in NYC's East Village and one against a couple in Soho, were reported.

CBS2 spoke with that nightlife promoter, Dan Contarino, about the attack that sent him to the hospital.

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Contarino's attacker, has been arrested. ABC7 has more:

In one incident, the victim, 45 year old Dan Contarino, and the suspect both live at a nearby homeless shelter, on Avenue D. They left the shelter to have drinks and then went to get pizza.

Police said the victim said at some point they had a conversation about homosexually. The suspect became enranged, yelled anti gay remarks and struck the victim several times in the face. Contarino went unconscious and woke up at Bellevue Medical Center.

The suspect, 39-year-old Gornell Roman turned himself in to a police precinct in the Bronx late Tuesday night. Roman is charged with felony assault, felony aggravated harassment and misdemeanor assault, all as hate crimes. Roman has more than two dozen prior arrests, many drug-related charges. Roman is charged with assaulting 45 year old Dan Contarino after they went out for drinks and pizza in the East Village Monday night.

They started up a conversation about homosexuality while walking back to a homeless shelter where they both were staying. Roman assaulted Contarino on the way back to the shelter, yelling anti gay remarks and striking the victim several times in the face. Contarino went unconscious and woke up at Bellevue Medical Center, where he was treated.

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Posted May. 22,2013 at 7:58 AM EST by Andy Towle in Crime, New York, News | Permalink | Comments (20)