10 Members of Congress Pose for NOH8 Campaign

The NOH8 Campaign focused its camera on the nation’s capitol earlier this month, with 10 members of Congress donning white to pose for “NOH8 on the Hill."

The members of Congress who participated represent the District of Columbia, California, Oregon, Colorado, Massachusetts and Ohio, including Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the former Democratic presidential candidate who encouraged the photo campaign's venture to Capitol Hill and was the first to sit for the shoot.

"Our nation was founded upon the principle of equality,” he said in a statement released with his photo. “It is imperative that we work for equal rights for all in order to make that principle a reality. Love isn't gay or straight, tall or short, black or white; it is for everyone."

All of the 10 lawmakers photographed were Democrats, and although the shoot was open to any member of Congress, no Republicans chose to participate. Among the pictures is one member of the LGBT caucus. On the following pages, see all of the photos and the lawmakers' accompanying statements about why they chose to pose.  [The Advocate, NOH8 Campaign]

"On the same week that Maryland and Washington stepped up for marriage equality, I stood with NOH8 in solidarity with those who are fighting Prop 8 in California. Gay and lesbian Americans are part of the fabric that makes this country strong. The notion that we could ask these men and women to do everything from paying taxes to serving our country in uniform while denying them the right to marry is offensive to everything I believe in as a public servant. I won’t stop working for equal rights in Congress until they have been extended to every American."
- Rep. Earl Blumenauer

"The reason why I support the NOH8 Campaign is simple: our country rests on the principle that all people are equal, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. If we deny that fact then we are no longer the Land of the Free. The most important freedom is the freedom to be the person you truly are and embrace the life you want to live. It’s my hope that LGBT youth across the country and in Massachusetts feel our encouragement and support. They are not alone. I stand firmly behind them, and the important message that NOH8 is spreading."  
- Rep. William Keating

"I’m proud to join over 20,000 participants who’ve posed in NOH8 photos depicting the silencing of equality by California’s Prop 8 and similar legislation around the world.   These pictures speak volumes about the will of the American people to be treated the same, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation." 
- Rep. Judy Chu

"Hate does not belong in our communities, families, schools, the workplace and certainly not in our government.” 
- Rep. Barbara Lee

Check out the other five members and their statements after the jump.

Goldeneye 64 in Real Life

This blog is for my gamers.  You know who you are.  The ones who stay up till 3 in the morning with the controls in their hands, as you sit there crushing zombie after zombie.  Dont lie.  lol.

I have no idea who or what is Goldeneye 64, but the fan-made video below does remind of the games Ryan used to play, so I had to share it.  It was quite humorous watching the player inadvertently kill the character Natalya several times before getting to his destination.

I Want a Dyke For President by Zoe Leonard

20 years ago the AIDS crisis was at an all time high, people were anxious, and it didn't help that lies about the disease were spreading like wildfire.  Today, so many young people have no clue as to how desperate the situation was becoming. They have no idea that people like me worried that having sex might kill you. But even if you're too young to get that part of Zoe Leonard’s expression in the document below, you can’t help but feel the urgency and fury of the rest of it.  I couldn't wait to share this with my readers, because it makes me hope and believe that a whole new generation of angry young people will express themselves with the same amount of poignant clarity when they say aloud, “This is who I want for president."

Who Is Zoe Leonard?

Cyanide and Happiness: Diabetic

Post Secret Fridays - Issue 096

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

 See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.

 Want to see older Post Secret Friday issues? Go here.

It's Purely Animal - Issue No. 50 - Sit, Piggy, Sit

Awww, this is too cute. I think I'm starting to love piggies again.  Growing up on a farm my sister and I had pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits, you name it - we had them all!  The only thing is, my dad would slaughter our pigs for dinner and I was left in an emotional wreck every time.  Hence my disdain for owning farm animals grew.  

Well, as you've heard many of times already, Ryan wants a piggy some day, and by golly I'm going to get him one come hell or high water. lol.

Disney Prince of the Week 007

In today's issue, and for the next 13 weeks I'll be posting a Disney Prince of the Week.  Can you guess the movie and the name of the character who played this week's Prince? 

WTF Has Obama Done? - Issue No. 019 - Scientific & Medical Research

Don't listen to what the REDs (Republicans) are telling you.  Scientific and medical research are two of the most important, if not the most important topics when it comes to our future health and well-being.  Without them, we wouldn't have the medications we have today, without them we wouldn't have the technology that has helped billions around the world.  Without them we wouldn't have space exploration, mapping, and all the wonders we come across each and every day.  We live longer lives because of Scientific and Medical research, don't let the REDs tell you otherwise.  Yeah I'm calling them REDs from now on.

Did you know that the majority of the people who vote against government intervention and against the policies President Obama sets forth, are the same people who use the system?  I'm not lying.  And did you know that the majority of the red-states are actually the people with the most welfare recipients?  So yeah, don't go saying "we don't want government" when the majority of you are the ones using it.

Sorry for getting off the subject at hand, but the REDs are driving me nuts.  Over the last three years President Obama has issued three broad policies, two funding and three targeted actions in regard to scientific and medical research.  I will post one achievement from each category today.

WTF-55

Removed restrictions and provided support for embryonic stem-cell research and new biomedical research.

Pledging that his administration will “make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology,” President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration’s strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research. [Read More-1, Read More-2]

"I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations," Obama wrote in response to a questionnaire from a consortium of scientific groups. 

"As president, I will lift the current administration"s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001, through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight," he said. [Read More]

The Obama administration has begun approving new lines of human embryonic stem cells that are eligible for federally funded experiments, opening the way for millions of taxpayer dollars to be used to conduct research that was put off-limits by President George W. Bush. [Read More]

WTF-56

Provided new federal funding for science and research labs.

President Barack Obama pledged Monday to spend more money on scientific research and improve science education.

In a speech to the National Academy of Sciences, Mr. Obama said federal funding in the physical sciences as a portion of GDP has fallen by nearly half in the past 25 years. Students in Singapore, Japan, England, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and South Korea are outperforming their American peers, he added.

"Other countries are now beginning to pull ahead in the pursuit of this generation's great discoveries," Mr. Obama said. [Read More]

Nuclear energy and energy research are among the big winners in the proposed $28.4 billion Energy Department fiscal 2011 budget the White House unveiled in February, 2010.

In keeping with his theme that the United States is at risk of falling behind the rest of the world in clean energy, Obama said those programs will produce the "jobs of the future" in the United States.

"We also continue to lay a new foundation for lasting growth, which is essential, as well," Obama said today at the White House. "Just as it would be a terrible mistake to borrow against our children's future to pay our way today, it would be equally wrong to neglect their future by failing to invest in areas that will determine our economic success in this new century." [Read More]

Obama's Budget Gives a Boost to Science - While other federal departments face budget cuts, science agencies get more money [Read More]
 

WTF-57

Appointed an assistant to the president for science and technology policy.

"Will appoint an Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Policy who will report directly to the president, and be deeply involved in establishing research priorities that reflect the nation's needs based on the best available advice from experts around the country." Obama promised during his campaign in 2008.

And continuing with his list of promises kept, President Barack Obama appointed John P. Holdren to three different positions involving science. Holdren is assistant to the president for science and technology; the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President; and co-chair of the President"s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST).  [Read More]

I promise to come back to this topic in another issue, until then, please feel free to read my previous issues by clicking here.

Make sure to read the next issue
Issue No. 020 -Space Exploration & Space Station

WTF Has Obama Done is an ongoing series posted daily or weekly on BLADE 7184 until Election Day, 2012!

FA-18 Breaks Sound Barrier and Leaves Beach Goers in Shock and Awe

Want to see something really cool?  An FA-18 Super Hornet broke the sound barrier at an air show in New York in 2009.  To say the spectators were in "awe" is an understatement.  They were more like, "whoa" and in shock I think. LOL.  

The F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets (F/A for Fighter/Attack).[ref]

Special Poster of the Week: Chess

Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Pineapple Tree

99.999% of people
don't know how a
pineapple tree looks
like.

90% of you think it looks
like this...

the rest of you,

like this...

But there is no

pineapple

tree!

Things That Make You Go Hmmm...