It's rather breathtaking looking at the side-by-side front pages of the right-wing New York Post and the more liberal New York Daily News. The News correctly plays up the #1 story—President Obama endorsing marriage equality—while the Post obscenely focuses instead on new developments in closet case John Travolta's massault case and Tan Mom with only a tiny strip at the bottom noting the historic statement by the president.

Seeing these two things side by side is a great illustration of progressive vs. conservative, with the former celebrating movement forward on a major issue and the latter gloating over a public figure mired in an old-fashioned sex scandal, one made worse by the fact that the acts are homosexual.

Grudging points to the Daily News for choosing this shot

I was in Texas and not blogging much this past week, but was happy to see that closet-case hypocrite Sen. Roberto Arango (R, basically—Puerto Rico) did eventually resign in disgrace over his Grindr photos, in which he posed with his ass in the air. His claim that he'd done it in order to show off his weight loss did not fly, but Arango did—right out of Puerto Rico and into hiding.

Getty Images; New York Daily News photo illustration

This illustration stands alone (as does this one!), but it makes for a great accessory to Mike Lupica's take-down of Rick Perry, the latest in a series of remarkably dumb people attempting to win the Republican nomination. He just might outdo them all, though, in the smarminess department.

Lupica writes:

I've known for years the print media was going to become extinct—I just never guessed I'd be doing the same thing right along with it!

See you in hell.

Spidey to NYC crix: "Kiss my ass!"

The reviews of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have been like a big spritz of Orkin. The New York Times, Daily News and New York Post (2.5 out of 4) agree it's a tangled web.

With headlines like "DEAD ON ARRIVAL" and worse, why didn't they just go with "PIECE OF SHIT, DIRECTED BY A CRAZY BITCH?" It wouldn't have been much meaner.

Anyone see it?

Poor little Emmit, the 10-pound Yorkie whose intemperate choice to bite his mistress Ashley Yeater's boyfriend Joseph Graves earned him a severe beating with a belt buckle and with said boyfriend's foot, just can't win. First he's savaged while left in the care of Graves, then he's denied a trip to the vet for two days until he's at death's door and now, after his attacker served 40 days in jail and lost his banking job, his fucking owner has taken the boyfriend back and forgives him!

Yeater says:

"I hope one day we will all be back to normal, the three of us, with little Emmit...I'm relieved. We are moving on. Never once have I thought that he was a bad person or that he wanted to murder my dog."

This kind of irrational behavior really and truly begs for atrocious commentary and dark hopes for a similar fate to befall Yeater, who was away with the touring company of A Chorus Line when this all happened, something along the lines of, "God, I hope she gets it...I hope she gets it." But I don't hope she gets it in that sense. I just hope one day she gets that what this guy did was not some normal little mistake. He needs therapy, not a free pass (jail was a good punishment, but now he needs help). I hope that dog is never, ever given back to a person with such poor judgment.

According to a new book, Madonna got played when she was selling her stake in Maverick in 2003—she wanted $60 million, then $200 million, was sued when she balked at $15 million...but wound up taking $17 million in the end. I wish I were this "foolish!"

Also of note—when her bosses wanted to placate her after the fact, they gave her diamonds, over which she reportedly cooed. But for me, the ultimate lesson is that Madonna eventually left Warner Bros. anyway.

I almost did a Michael Jackson tribute magazine (I know, but I'm a pro, you'd never have known I was at best ambivalent behind the keyboard!) having done them on Princess Diana and JFK Jr. in the past, so I'm quite interested in those that do come out. Newsweek (July 13, 2009) has him on its cover, but it's not a full issue. Interesting quote of the day:

"True, for a while he was the King of Pop—a term apparently originated by his friend Elizabeth Taylor—and he's the last we're ever likely to have. Before Michael Jackson came Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles; after him has come absolutely no one, however brilliant or however popular, who couldn't be ignored by vast segments of an ever-more-fragmented audience. Not Kurt Cobain, not Puffy, not Mariah Carey, not Céline Dion, not Beyoncé, not Radiohead—not even Madonna, his closest competitor."—David Gates (with Raina Kelley)