T Town Tommy

The Osbourne Collection Goes on the Auction Block for Charity

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne will be auctioning off personal belongings, many seen on their hit television series "The Osbournes" on E Bay Live Auctions starting November 30^th. Over 500 personal items ranging from fine furniture, dresses, and Ozzy's wire frame glasses to a custom 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur will be on the auction block. The starting bid for the Bentley will only set you back $160,000. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. To check out what's up for auction go to The Osbourne Collection by Juliens Auctions.

I want these!

Skull and cross bones cuff links, made of sterling silver and designed by Robin Rotenier.

Monday Morning Humor - A Happy Apple User ... How Cute

John Cena in a Thong, Need I say more?

Hat tip to Toby at vividblurry

Ten Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage would be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

I Nominate Boy George for the Freak of the Year Award

This has got to rank up as one of the most bizarre celebrity stories of 2007. Boy George who has been out there in way left field since the 80's is getting old and sad; however this is just weird.

(London) A British judge has ruled there is sufficient evidence against openly gay performer Boy George for a trial on charges of falsely imprisoning a 28-year-old man. The trial against the 47-year old singer and DJ, whose real name is George O'Dowd, will begin February 25. The charge stems from an incident last April where a male escort claimed to have been chained to a wall in George's London apartment.

Auden Carlsen, 28, claims to have met the singer on a popular British gay dating site. He said that he agreed to go to George's apartment to pose for photographs for a fee of about $750 and on the stipulation there would be no sex. But after he arrived at the apartment Carlsen claims to have been attacked by George and another man. "I was convinced I was going to die," he told the tabloid The Mirror in April.

"George handcuffed me to a hook by the bed as they held me down." Carlsen said he managed to get the hook out of the wall and escape in only his underwear.  He called police from a local news vendor's stand.

Rest of the story with 365Gay.com

Possible Anti-Gay Hate Crime Murder in Oklahoma City

OKLAHOMA CITY — A 62-year-old Edmond man whose body was found in a McClain County ditch earlier this month may have been the victim of a hate crime, according to investigators.

Police have not named a suspect in the death of Steven Domer, who was last seen alive near several gay bars. But police have searched the home of a McClain County man who authorities have said belongs to a white supremacist gang that may be connected with the killing.

Domer was last seen leaving what an investigator called a “gay neighborhood” of northwest Oklahoma City on Oct. 26, according to an affidavit filed by Joe Lahue, an agent for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Rest of the Story with gay news blog

How It All Turned Out

Well all that's left is a half carved turkey carcass and about half of each casserole. I started cooking at 7 am and am pleased to report by 2:30 pm I had a full spread of thanksgiving goodness.

(Click image to enlarge)

So What’s On The Menu?

Rarely do I go to the trouble of a Thanksgiving meal at home with all the trimmings. However this year for some reason I decided a meal at home would be fun and could be enjoyed by my friends in town alone for Thanksgiving. I have the hassle and culinary challenge of making almost everything myself but I can enjoy the day without lines, crying kids, and crowded restaurants. Things always taste better made at home with a little bit of effort and some creativity.

My Thanksgiving Menu for 2007

• The World's Best Champagne Turkey
• Homemade Cornbread Dressing
• Fresh Orange Cranberry Sauce
• Broccoli Cheese Casserole
• Baked Sweet Potatoes with Ginger and Honey
• Green Bean Bake Revisited
• Baked Beans with Honey
• Relish Dish / Deluxe Deviled Eggs
• Giblet Gravy
• Yeast Rolls
• Pumpkin Pie
• Chocolate Cream Pie

Those highlighted are dishes I am making myself with links to the recipe. Wish me luck!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone hopefully one of these recipes can help with a jam in the kitchen today! Leave a comment with your results if you try one of these dishes would love to hear how it worked out.

 

Clinton Promises to End Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

Hillary Clinton on Monday took sides in a social debate surrounding gay and lesbian Americans serving in the Armed Forces.

In Tama, an Air Force veteran asked Clinton about her support for allowing gays to serve openly in the military. How would privacy be protected, he asked?

Clinton said she believed all service members, including gays, must be expected to observe the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which determines appropriate behavior.

"I feel strongly that if someone wants to serve their country, if they're a patriot, if they'll comply with the code of military justice and have appropriate behavior, they should not be disqualified simply because they are gay," she said. -365Gay.com

Take Part in a Study about Gay Identity Development

This just in from the monthly Oklahomans for Equality News Letter:

Benjamin Donner, a clinical psychology doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, is researching on gay identity development across cultural groups in the United States. Donner says, "As you may know, academic studies into the developmental experiences of gay, bisexual, and questioning men are extremely scarce. It is my hope that this research project will shed greater light on those experiences that may be unique to specific cultural groups of GBQ males in the U.S. so that clinicians and organizations are ultimately better equipped to both assist and appreciate our strengths and needs." Participants must be biological males, age 18 or over, residents of the United States, and attracted to other biological males. The survey should take between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. All responses will be entirely anonymous - email and IP addresses will not be requested or even identifiable - and will be kept in the strictest of confidence. To take the survey, click here. For questions, email Benjamin Donner.

Quality Blogging

I am not AWOL from my blog or part of the writer's strike! Seems many bloggers both in and out of the GLBT world are recently absent from their post. I have seen a ton of stories in the past few weeks that I wanted to share and comment on but lately my life offline has taken up the majority of my time. Between selling my home and doing all the honey-do's I have been putting off and getting ready for upcoming surgery while running a business; time has slipped by and the days have been a blur. I cannot believe Thanksgiving is this Thursday!

Like many bloggers running a blog with daily content of quality takes several hours out of the day with research, writing, graphics and editing/proofing. If the time can't be spent producing something with some merit or interest then don't waste the readers or your stretched time.

Things are settling down with the projects around the house including painting, plumbing, electrical and some carpentry work. I think we have a water leak in the slab somewhere, God forbid I have people jack hammering up my house inside before I can sell it. Not being one to fear trying something new and challenging I saved some major money doing things myself. Finding water leaks in slabs is not on the list of do it yourself home projects.

There is some recent news I do want to briefly touch on one being a growing problem in the US and the other being a scam sending waves through the GLBT blogging community.

The FBI has released the 2006 hate crime statistics and after a decade low the number of crimes against minorities has jumped 8%. 51% where based upon racial bias and 15% percent based on the victims sexual orientation. This trend shows a dangerous path back toward bigotry and intolerance and must be stopped by passing strong hate crime legislation to protect those not in the majority of American society.

The 7.7 percent increase means hate crime offenses reported in 2006 rose to 9,080, compared with 8,380 incidents the previous year. The number of incidents reported in 2005 was the lowest reported in a decade, according to the FBI. – ABC News

 

This past week the mystery behind the disappearance of one the GLBT blogging community's most successful blogs was revealed. Brat Boy School, for those who are not familiar with the blog, was a chronicle about a struggling fashion model turned conservative political and social blogger. Think of a gay male bloggers version of Tila Tequila that writes at times like Pat Buchanan and whose only other talent is to pose in various underwear and provocative shots to go along with many of the various blog posts. The model/blogger Ethan Reynolds appeared on the front cover of Internationally syndicated Instinct Magazine, a respected Gay news magazine, with an article saying too many of the right things to a gay male audience and almost overnight what was presented as his blog, Brat Boy School started drawing millions of hits daily.

A following of gay men online world wide started reading daily and in some cases interacting online with whom they thought was the model in the hundreds of pictures over a period of almost three years. With the growth of the blog and the increasing audience Brat Boy School grew to encompass MySpace, AOL and Yahoo chats, Amazon.com, postal mail, broadcast emails, modeling, appearance contracts and corporate sponsors. A blog sold as being created by a very cute Las Vegas blogger about his life, modeling career and conservative political views became a business. The blog went as far as providing a complete background bio and photos before the blog was created. For almost three years the charade continued until one of the online characters involved with the growing business blew the whistle when, according to online accounts, items sold on the blog site never got to readers. An investigation started and personal appearances by Gerald Reynolds, playing Ethan Reynolds the face and body of Brat Boy School started to go wrong.

Turns out Brat Boy School and the character of Ethan Reynolds was the brain child of the 40 something year old room-mate turned manager of a Gerald Reynolds the supposed model in the hundreds of pictures archived on the Brat Boy School site. The 27 year old model never wrote a single word of any of the blog post, emails, online chats, or MySpace correspondence and stayed mum to that fact to the news media and online readers for almost three years.

I was personally scammed into thinking that the online character/blogger was who I thought he was when my blog, T Town Tommy, happened to be featured in a few posts and was put on the blog roll for Brat Boy School. I have been a frequent visitor to Las Vegas since the early 70's when my Grandparents lived near downtown. Never missing a chance to keep up the illusion of blogger Ethan Reynolds the roommate/manager went as far as to suggest to me a fellow GLBT blogger new places to dine during my trips back to Las Vegas but always had an excuse to dodge a face to face meeting. The site is now deleted and the truth is out, caveat emptor has been proven to be truer now more than ever, buyer beware. Brat Boy School is an amazing example of using the internet and the online blogging GBLT community to create a total fabrication and fool millions of people worldwide for not days or weeks but for years.

 

Monday Morning Humor – Famous Football Quotes

"At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat. That costs money and we don't have any."

Erk Russell / Georgia Southern.

"Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas."

Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.

"After you retire, there's only one big event left....and I ain't ready for that."

Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it."

Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"When you win, nothing hurts."

Joe Namath / Alabama

"Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated."

Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, tide, roll!"

Bear Bryant / Alabama

"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall."

Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."

Woody Hayes / Ohio State

"I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation."

Bob Devaney / Nebraska

"In Alabama, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant."

Wally Butts / Georgia

"You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life."

Paul Dietzel / LSU

"It's kind of hard to rally around a math class."

Bear Bryant / Alabama

When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world. "No, but you can see it from here."

Lou Holtz / Arkansas...

"I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game."

Bear Bryant / Alabama

"There's one sure way to stop us from scoring-give us the ball near the goal line."

Matty Bell / SMU

"Lads, you're not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died."

Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's."

Alex Karras / Iowa

"My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor."

Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee

"I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades."

Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

"Always remember ..... Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David."

Shug Jordan / Auburn

"They cut us up like boarding house pie. And that's real small pieces."

Darrell Royal / Texas

"Show me a good and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure."

Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"They whipped us like a tied up goat."

Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me and he said: "Well, Walt, we took a look at you and you weren't any good."

Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State

"Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel."

Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"Football is not a contact sport - it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport."

Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his postgame message to his team: "All those who need showers, take them."

John McKay / USC

"If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education."

Murray Warmath / Minnesota

"The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb."

Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon."

Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"It isn't necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it."

Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches."

Darrell Royal / Texas

"We didn't tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking."

John McKay / USC

"Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad."

Darrell Royal / University of Texas

"I've found that prayers work best when you have big players."

Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football"

John Heisman

Bigger Authority Steps into the Oral Roberts University Scandal

AP reported today that the US Senate is probing into possible financial misconduct by six televangelists. Included in the investigation are three members of The Oral Roberts University Board of Regents.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent televangelist ministries for possible financial misconduct.

The six ministries identified as being under investigation by the (Congressional) committee are led by: Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Three of the six - Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar - also sit on the Board of Regents for the Oral Roberts University.  AP 

The news could not have come at a worse time for ORU who Congress has been keeping an eye on apparently for the last two years. Lawsuits were filed by former ORU instructors alleging several misconduct charges by ORU regents this past month. It has been also reported that ORU is now over $50 million in debt.

According to reports Dallas, TX based religious watch dog group "Trinity Foundation" has been working with Sen. Charles Grassley on the Senate Finance Committee for the last two years. The group leaders claim to have already submitted enough evidence of wrongdoing to "fill a Volkswagen "involving the televangelist committing fraud.

New Oklahoma Medical Statistics and Some Low Ranking Health Scores

A study released this week by the United Health Foundation ranks Oklahoma 47^th out of 50 states in its America's Health Rankings 2007. The organization took into account:

various factors, such as smoking, binge drinking, high school graduation rates, children in poverty, access to care and incidence of preventable disease, to a community's health.  The report is based on data from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Commerce, Education and Labor; American Medical Association; Dartmouth Atlas Project; and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

The report indicated Oklahomans suffer from cardiovascular related deaths and obesity at higher rates than the rest of the nation. Oklahomans also score low on availability of primary care physicians for their families. Last week Forbes published their "20 most sedentary cities in the US" and Oklahoma City came in 15^th. In regards to women's health care in 2007, Oklahoma ranks in at 48^th out of the 50 states.

Monday Morning Humor - The Scots and Bono

At a recent U2 concert in Glasgow, Scotland, lead singer Bono asked the audience for total quiet. Then, in the silence, he started to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds. Holding the audience in total silence, he said into the microphone, "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies."

A voice with a broad Scottish accent from the front of the crowd pierced the quiet... "Well, foockin' stop doin it then, ya evil bastard!"

Ah, I love my Scottish Ancestors and Family.....