Mary Mary – Shackles (Praise You) – (Thanks RuPaul!)

I watched my first episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race tonight and it was fucking brilliant (sadly, there’s only one more episode) and during the lip-sync-off (yeah, that’s right), they used this fabulous track that I had never heard before. (RuPaul said it was one of her favorites, so I owe her one…)

“Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise you
I just wanna praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I’m gonna praise you
I’m gonna praise you”

Mmm, it makes me want to put the top down and drive to the Cape.

Mary Mary – Shackles (Praise You)

Enjoy!

Britney Announces Wardrobe Malfunction On Live Mic

Thank god this wasn’t the Super Bowl… (Audio NSFW)

News Corp. Turns Up The 21st Century Marketing

I can’t find anything in the news about this but you may remember me being impressed on Friday that Fox had released via their official YouTube channel a 55-second clip from the Family Guy episode that was to air two days later.

The clip was hilarious and I have to admit that it totally worked: I learned that I was interested in the episode’s topic (gays) and it reminded me to tune in at 9:00 PM on Sunday for an episode that, based on the clip, was going to be especially hilarious.

Then today, I receive an e-mail from “MySpace Video” asking if I had watched last night’s Family Guy. At first I found this weird  slash creepy since a) I haven’t been on MySpace in ages and b) MySpace didn’t know I had embedded the clip on my blog and had actually been ‘all about’ last night’s episode.

But then I remembered that my MySpace profile surely lists “Family Guy” as one of my favorite shows and that the e-mail was probably automatically generated in response to that data. I also remembered that both MySpace and the Fox Network, on which Family Guy airs, are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Pretty slick, huh? Well, it gets better.

But first to review: Fox releases to the web viral promotional videos of Family Guy to create interest in the upcoming episode and the series in general; in case that fails, they then mine data on MySpace to target self-described fans (the perfect target audience) and get them to watch the episode  they may have missed online at MySpace Video-On-Demand, which is hosted by Hulu, which is owned by none other than – wait for it – News Corp.

Saudis Order 40 Lashes For Elderly Woman Caught “Mingling”

CNN:

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.

According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, troubles for the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, began last year when a member of the religious police entered her house in the city of Al-Chamli and found her with two unrelated men, “Fahd” and “Hadian.”

Fahd told the policeman that he had the right to be there, because Sawadi had breast-fed him as a baby and was therefore considered to be a son to her in Islam, according to Al-Watan. Fahd, 24, added that his friend Hadian was escorting him as he delivered bread for the elderly woman. The policeman then arrested both men.

It was revealed in court that Fahd was never breast-fed by the woman. Fahd was sentenced to 4 months in prison and 40 lashes; Hadian was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 60 lashes.

The strict Islamic law the  viciously sexist Saudi Arabia follows prohibits “mingling” with non-familiar members of the opposite sex because it’s 2009 and mingling would clearly cause the world to instantly implode.

As the article notes, the religious police also came under scrutiny in 2007 when their actions led to the prosecution of a 19-year-old gang rape victim. (Her sentence of 200 lashes and 6 months in jail was pardoned after international outrage).

A teenager interviewed about this story said that the powers of the religious police need to be scaled back because their actions are “giving a bad reputation to the country.” Um, “giving?” Yeah, a little too late for the present tense there, buddy.

I know I’m heavy on the religous postings today, but how does anyone still subscribe to this garbage?! Barbarians.

New “Star Trek,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” Trailers

Practically no one knows this about me, but I’m a total closet “Star Trek” fan, although almost exclusively of “The Next Generation” series. That said, I’m curious to see what they do with the upcoming (May ’09) movie, which focuses on the Captain Kirk/Spock days.

Here’s the film’s just-released third trailer:

More: Official site / “Star Trek” Trailers in HD at Apple.com

Also coming out in May ’09 is “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” for which a second trailer has just been released:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

More: Official site

Let’s Play “Who Do You Excommunicate?”

On today’s episode:

– A nine-year-old girl weighing 80 pounds, who was raped and impregnated by her step father and is now carrying twins. Doctors say she will not survive the child birth and receives an abortion.

Now, who do you excommunicate from the Catholic church?

A) The girl’s mother, who authorized the abortion
B) The girl’s doctors, who performed the abortion
C) The girl’s step father, who raped and impregnated his nine year old step daughter

If your answers were “A” and “B,” you must be regional Brazilian archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho who authorized the excommunications or senior Vatican official Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who defended the excommunications!

Why is the step father still a welcome member of the Catholic church, you ask?

Because “the crime [the step father] is alleged to have committed, although deplorable, was not as bad as ending a fetus’s life.”

What is wrong with these people?!

More: NY Times / CBC

Thanks to Dan Savage at Slog.

Why *Do* Terminators Have To Transport Naked?

Great stuff from College Humor.com:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I have fond, fond, fond memories of the transport scene in T2.  Sigh.

Non-religious Americans Now Rank Third In Size Behind Catholics, Baptists

London's "Atheist Buses" by the British Humanist Association

According to a new study, the percentage of non-religious Americans has grown 6.8% since 1990 while most major religious groups lost membership. Non-religious Americans now constitute an estimated 15% of the population, with Catholics and Baptists representing 25.1% and 15.8%, respectively.

The “Christian” category (which included non-denominational, unspecified Christian and Protestant, and evangelical/born-again) is estimated at 14.2%, a 0.6% decrease since 1990.

“Mainline Protestants” and Baptists accounted for the largest decreases since 1990, at 5.8% and 3.5%, respectively.

The religious groups with the largest gains? “Protestant denominations” (i.e., Churches of Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventist) and “Eastern religions,” which both saw modest 0.5% gains.

Article and full data (check the table at the bottom of the article) at USA Today.

Via JMG.

Great Achievements In Chest Hair

I’m thinking more and more about doing this for Halloween next year…

I’m sorry, is that Jesus in your chest hair? AWESOME.

Click above to enlarge or go here for more.

2010 Census To Gays: You Are Not Married, You Are Not A Family

Further highlighting the need for Federal-level recognition of gay unions/marriages, gay married couples in Massachusettes and Vermont (the only two states where gay marriage is permitted) will not be reported as such because the Defense of Marriage Act that Clinton signed in 1996 does not recognize unions sanctioned only on the state level. Instead, these couples will be counted as “unmarried partners,” since, to the Federal government, that’s all they are.

Furthermore, “same-sex couples with children will not be categorized as ‘families‘ on the census. Children will be counted as belonging to single parents, those ‘unmarried partners.'”

US Census SpokesDouche Cynthia Endo added, “This is all about the numbers. This not about lifestyle or anything else.” And by numbers, she doesn’t mean accurate numbers, just numbers.

Acknowledging that we exists is, of course, the first step on that dangerously slippery slope of giving us rights.

Source: Contra Costa Times, via Towleroad.