Legal Issues and Politics 1/26

J Edgar and Social Network star Armie Hammer was arrested for pot possession. He was caught with marijuana in his car at a border patrol checkpoint in West Texas.

Former Late Night with Jimmy Fallon employee Paul Tarascio is suing both Jimmy and NBC Universal for discrimination. He claims the he was fired from his position as first stage manager and replaced by a “totally incompetent woman” in 2010. The reason is that Jimmy “prefers to take direction from a woman.” He is also claiming that the director “knowingly fabricated alleged performance issues.”

The New Hampshire legislature will consider a bill that would allow Christian businesses to refuse service to gay couples. Rep. Frank Sapareto says anybody that opposes his bill is “intolerant.” (Yep, because if you don’t believe in discrimination, you are the one who is intolerant.)

Earlier this week, Ecuador’s government announced that they’ll be shutting down ex-gay clinical programs which were basically “torturing and abusing people with promises to cure them of homosexuality.” The state realized this is not the best thing for their citizens and their tax dollars.

Two new studies have confirmed that the mouth swab test for HIV was just as effective as a traditional blood screening. So OraQuick, the at home test, is about 99% accurate. Here is the dilemma in my opinion: by having an at-home test, hopefully more people will get tested BUT I’m afraid of people finding out results all by themselves. If someone gets a positive result, they might kill themselves thinking it is a death sentence when nowadays people with HIV can live full lives.

Newt Gingrich in Florida: “By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," Gingrich said to applause. He said the development would include commercial and private efforts, and will make apparent, "we clearly have the capacity that Chinese and the Russians will never come anywhere close to us." Gingrich also said he would push to develop propulsion technology that would get man to Mars. He emphasized that it doesn't have to be expensive, exploration in partnership with private companies can lower the cost.”

An initiative that started in Suffolk County, New York has now moved to several other states. The Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty of Animals was the first in the country to actually set up an animal abuser registry similar to what sex offenders have to do. Convicted animal abusers must provide a photo and their current address for ten years and pay a $50 a year fee. New York state is considering picking up the law as well as Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Maryland.

I don’t know if this is a good thing… The Westboro Baptist Church has endorsed Obama. Their reasoning? He is the lesser of two evils. “Newt Gingrich is a liar, thief and adulterer and Mitt Romney isn’t a true follower of Christ, instead believing Jews magically appeared in America.”

Yesterday, New York Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell and his partner John Banta finally got their marriage license after 31 years together. O’Donnell was one of the chief architects of marriage equality in New York having led his chamber to approve the issue in three consecutive years.

Last week, Oklahoma State Senator Ralph Shortey introduced a bill that would ban “the manufacturing and selling of food or products which use aborted human fetuses.” Ummm… Which companies are using these fetuses in their food? What the hell is the point of this bill? NPR speculates that Shortey’s bill has to do with a recent boycott aimed at PepsiCo for working with a company called Senomyx that “has been accused of using proteins derived from human embryonic kidney cells in its research.” (Hey, idiot, even if this bill passes, you aren’t solving the problem. They are using the cells for research and not in the actual food.)

Google has joined fellow corporate giants Starbucks and Microsoft in backing Washington state’s pending marriage equality bill. Also new to the ever-growing list is aluminum manufacturer Alcoa, which supplies much of the state’s aircraft industry. (PS: As you may suspect, Crazy Right groups have been emailing their followers begging them to boycott Starbucks, Microsoft and Google. Good luck with that! LOL!)

As I've noted here on several occasions, Brooklyn's Hasidic communities have been increasing their attempts to impose religious law on their neighborhoods. We've seen demands that women sit at the back of public buses and we've seen street signs commanding women to step aside for approaching men. We've seen attempts to ban bike lanes so that "immodestly dressed" female bikers don't "flaunt their bodies" as they pass through Hasidic neighborhoods. And now we have an open letter from one Lubavich landlord demanding that other landlords stop renting to non-Jews.