Shocking news: Anti-gay GOP State Senator is gay

[Ben Kenobi]

Yes, if we didn't cut down trees to make money, how else would we pay to save the forests?

This is very true Asher. Modern forestry management does just that, they have a portion of the forests cut down, and silviculture grows it back. 'Farmed trees' are not bad for the environment, and they grow back much more quickly.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

This is very true Asher. Modern forestry management does just that, they have a portion of the forests cut down, and silviculture grows it back. 'Farmed trees' are not bad for the environment, and they grow back much more quickly.

Further to this point, farmed tree areas pose a far reduced risk of forest fire as brush dead trees etc are removed and hence provide much lower fuel loads per acre.

[Asher]

Forest fires are, to a large degree, necessary for ecological balance...

[MrFun]

Calling people bigots another.

What's wrong with calling people for what they really are?

[MrFun]

Maybe poor Ogie doesn't think publicly bashing gay people in speeches is a form of bigotry.

[Provost Harrison]

I thought for a minute the club was called "Faeces"

[Tattila the Hun]

Eh, so he hates what he is. Sound, well, not unusual among people. A bit emo, actually. Which is also not unusual.

This also isn't hypocricy, I should think. If a big spender advocates frugal ways, he can chance his ways, and if doesn't strive to do so, he's a hypocrite. This guy propably can't. So he really isn't.

Or perhaps he was re-affirming his stance by actually exposing himself to the thing he hates? "Myup, still dislike gays. Good, I can go home now and screw the lights out of my wife."

Humm, has my spellchecking borken? Apparently...

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

What's wrong with calling people for what they really are?

I'm sorry that the lessons of pots and kettles is lost on you.

[Ecofarm]

Wait, we cannot call someone a bigot? Or ANYTHING negative? What are you scared of??

Your little "I'm rubber, you're glue" crap might work in primary school, but in the real world you need to defend yourself and be judged. Don't be a puszy about it.



Ohhh, we shouldn't judge people!
Rubber, glue! Rubber, glue!
Pot - kettle!
Grey area! Grey area!!

Sounds like a scumbag to me.

Random friendship and trust might work for you, but I judge people and discriminate accordingly because I'm an adult. Asking people to treat you as children would (without judgement) is pretty fkd up.

[Wezil]

What's wrong with calling people for what they really are?

Alright, how about this?

"Bisexuals" are greedy.

[Ecofarm]

That's true. Everyone knows they are just trying to double their chances.

[Asher]

Shocking news: Vatican choir singer arranges gay sex for straight, married men in Italy

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/06/italy.vatican.government.scandal/index.html?hpt=T1

Lawyer: Leak of sex claims against Italian official is 'shameful'

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Reports that an Italian government official accused of financial corruption allegedly used a Vatican choir singer to arrange gay liaisons for him are "shameful," the official's lawyer told CNN Saturday.

Angelo Balducci is appealing a judge's decision to keep him in prison over allegations of financial corruption, said his lawyer, Franco Coppi.

Police say they learned of the alleged gay liaisons while wiretapping Balducci as part of an investigation into how public-works contracts were awarded.

His lawyer says he is innocent of the corruption charges, and declined to comment on the sex scandal.

"We are talking about things that are personal and private. I can not make any comment and I don't want to make any comment," Coppi said. "It is shameful that private matters are published, matters that have nothing to do with the charges. It is curious to find out how these private matters end up in the press."

Balducci oversaw the Italian government's awarding of construction contracts, including work on the airport at Perugia. He also served in the unpaid role of papal usher.

Italian authorities say they recorded conversations between Balducci and Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 39-year-old Nigerian singer. They were recorded between April 14, 2008, and January 20, 2010.

In addition to working for the government, Balducci served as a "gentleman of His Holiness," also known as a papal usher or "Vatican gentleman." The main responsibility of the ceremonial position is to welcome heads of state to the Vatican and escort them to see the pope.

Balducci is one of three public officials who, along with a businessman, have been jailed on charges related to corruption in the public works department. The public officials are alleged to have awarded contracts to businessmen who offered them favors, money, sex, and/or house remodeling in exchange. The suspects, who deny the charges, are in "cautionary custody" though they have not been charged or indicted.

The Italian news media have nicknamed the scandal "grande opere," which translates as "big works." The transcripts of the wiretaps were made public on Wednesday and widely disseminated in the media.

Ehiem told the Italian weekly magazine Panorama in an interview published Friday that he provided Balducci with men from Italy and abroad, including rugby players, actors, models and seminarians.

Ehiem also told Panorama that he arranged for Balducci to meet escorts at Ehiem's house when the government official was in Rome and in Paris, France; Naples, Italy; and other cities when he was traveling.

"For Balducci, a 26- or 27-year-old man was too young," Ehiem told the magazine. "He preferred older men, above 40 years old."

According to the wiretap transcripts, in a conversation dated April 22, 2008, Ehiem says, "I called you ... because there are ... if you are free ... three or four situations that can be good ... very, very good ..."

Balducci: "...Hmmm!"

Ehiem: "Two black, Cuban men ... really tall, tall, tall ... so ... if you are free ... we can try to organize right away ... that is, I saw both of them, Angelo ... believe me that ... they could be two excellent options."

In another conversation, dated August 21, 2008, Ehiem says: "Look, if you want I can have them come one after the other ... it is possible ... if you have some free time ... I can arrange for the two of them."

Balducci: "Which are the better ones?"

Ehiem: "The better ones are the ones I just told you about ... one from Bologna and the other one from Rome."

Balducci: "All right, then let's do it for 3:30."

Ehiem: "OK."

Ehiem said an escort friend introduced him to the Italian businessman more than a decade ago. "He asked me to do it with him, but I like women and just the thought grossed me out," Ehiem said.

"He asked me if I could procure him other men. He told me that he was married and that it had to be done in great secrecy. I told him that there was the Internet. But he asked me to take care of it because he couldn't do it from his home."

He added, "Sometimes he would ask for two meetings a day."

Ehiem told Panorama he was trying to support his family in Nigeria, and that Balducci sometimes paid him 50 or 100 euros, but "never more than 1,000 to 1,500 per year."

Neither Balducci nor his attorney has commented on Ehiem's interview with Panorama.

A Vatican source who asked not to be identified said Ehiem had been dismissed from his choir duties. Asked about Balducci, the source said, "It is obvious that, while in prison, he cannot exercise his duties as a papal gentleman." But, the source noted, Balducci has not been convicted of any charge.

"If he is convicted, then we will look into it," the source said.

[MrFun]

I'm sorry that the lessons of pots and kettles is lost on you.

This statement of yours is absolutely stupid. What do you call bashing gay people then, in speeches if it's not hate speech or bigotry?

Let's come up with another example of this idiocy - calling a Nazi bigoted for being anti-Semitic makes you yourself bigoted.

[SlowwHand]

That's true. Everyone knows they are just trying to double their chances.

It doubles their chance of rejection, too.

[Elok]

Random friendship and trust might work for you, but I judge people and discriminate accordingly because I'm an adult. Asking people to treat you as children would (without judgement) is pretty fkd up.

Wait, children don't judge other children? What parallel universe did you grow up in?