Happily, in these cases of “deception,” wasps don’t “panic” and orchidphobic violence is not a result …

Orchids that mimic female wasps may not only waste the time of the male wasps they lure into spreading their pollen — they also seduce them into wasting valuable sperm, Australian researchers reported on Wednesday.

And the flowers benefit twice — getting help in their own reproduction, and perhaps indirectly producing more male pollinators in the process.

Some of the most exotic orchids are known to have evolved their convoluted shapes to attract insects, who unwittingly collect and transfer pollen as they try to mate with the flowers.

“The effect of deception on pollinators has been considered negligible, but we show that pollinators may suffer considerable costs,” Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney and colleagues reported.

“Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and waste copious sperm,” they wrote in a report in The American Naturalist.

It is not harmless to the wasps, who may suffer more than an inconvenience. “Male pollinators can prefer orchids to real females, prematurely end a copulation with a real female to visit an orchid, or be unable to find real female mates among false orchid signals,” the researchers wrote.

“Unquestionably, producing sperm, ejaculate, or seminal fluids is costly for many animals. The energetic demands of sperm production can result in reduced body mass, a shortened life span, or limited lifetime sperm production,” they added.

But this arms race of sexual trickery works in more than one way for the flower. “We also show that orchid species provoking such extreme pollinator behavior have the highest pollination success,” they added.

“How can deception persist, given the costs to pollinators?”

They found that the wasps who frequent these flowers are haplodiploid species. Like bees, ants and similar species, offspring produced by sexual unions are female, while females can also produce males asexually.

“Therefore, female insects deprived of matings by orchid deception could still produce male offspring, which may even enhance orchid pollination,” the researchers wrote.

Gaskett’s team examined flowers after wasps visited them and found the hoodwinked males did eventually learn their lesson.

“With experience, male Lissopimpla excelsa wasps become less likely to copulate with and pollinate sexually deceptive Cryptostylis orchids,” they wrote.

Sexy orchids do more than embarrass wasps?

The orchid, by the way, gets its name from the Greek όρχις orchis, meaning “testicle.”

On the Bushs and the Clintons … the tide’s outward rush from these fair shores (speaking broadly and metaphorically) will continue unchecked and unabated by the presumptive, next King Canute.

To the surprise of probably no one, Sen. Obama has pulled ahead of Sen. Clinton in the number of superdelegates.

Senator Barack Obama has passed his opponent, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the count of superdelegates, the first time since the outset of the race that Mrs. Clinton has lost the lead in one of her few remaining trump cards.

Mr. Obama picked up endorsements on Friday from four more superdelegates, the Democratic Party insiders who are granted autonomy to support whomever they wish at the convention in August. One, a New Jersey congressman, switched his allegiance away from Mrs. Clinton, allowing the Illinois senator to pull ahead of his rival, according to the latest New York Times count.

The Times’s tally shows Mr. Obama with 264 superdelegates against 263 for Mrs. Clinton, based on telephone polls conducted with CBS News as well as public endorsements. A separate count by The Associated Press shows Mr. Obama still trailing by fewer than four votes. And a measure by ABC News shows the Illinois senator already ahead, 267 to 265.

The tide turns in yet one more election metric — in Sen. Obama’s favor.

From the Bay Area Reporter:

A shareholder proposal to amend Verizon Communications Inc.’s written equal employment policy to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity was voted down May 1, but backers of the plan say they were encouraged by the amount of support it got, and the group that proposed the resolution will bring it back next year.

Preliminary results showed that the resolution, which was opposed by the company’s board of directors, won 17 percent of shareholder approval. It takes 3 percent for a proposal to come back, which it achieved. According to Alberto Canal, of Verizon media relations, more than 2 billion votes were cast. Canal said the company has 340 employees in the Bay Area.

I believe the most disheartening piece of news from the Bay Area Reporter piece was the position of the LGBT employee group at Verizon — they apparently supported the board position (emphasis added):

When asked about the board’s stance on the resolution, Verizon’s Canal reiterated the company’s “zero tolerance” policy. He also said that GLOBE, the company’s LGBT employee resource group, supported the position.

As a customer that identifies as transgender and transsexual, next month I’ll be cancelling my service with Verizon — no matter what the financial cost. I won’t do business with a company where even its LGBT group won’t support a written policy of employment equality for its transgender employees.

~~~~~
Related:
* DiversityInc’s No. 1 Employer Is Against Gender Identity/Expression In Non-Discrimination Policy
* Verizon’s GLOBE President Responds

In 1973, Homosexuality was was removed as a disorder from the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Second Edition (DSM-II). It was the step that recognized that individuals whose sexual interests are directed primarily toward people of the same sex weren’t afflicted with a psychiatric disorder.

When we flash forward to 2008, we find Gender Identity Disorder — the diagnosis for transsexuals and gender-variant children — is found in DSM-IV TR. When the DSM is revised in a couple of years for DSM-V, Gender Identity Disorder will likely still be there. And, with the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis for children will further the American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) approval of conversion therapy for children, used in an attempt to gender norm gender-variant/LGBT children (Think Zach).

The reason for concern is found some of the names in the work group committee — the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group. The press release identifies Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard as members of the group.

Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D., is a name that every gay man and lesbian woman should know, especially if they were treated to become “straight” at a camp or a ex-gay affirming psychologist’s office. Sadly, almost no one in the LGBT community knows about the papers on gender identity by Zucker and Bradley, and the broader impact of these papers on LGBT community — especially on LGBT youth.

For those who aren’t aware, Gender Identity Disorder of Children is considered a pre-homosexual condition.

Without reinventing the wheel on the problems with Dr. Kenneth Zucker’s participation in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, let me recommend reading Donna Rose’s blog entry Zucker revisited: The lunatics rule the asylum.

In her piece, Donna refers to National Public Radio’s Two Families Grapple with Sons’ Gender Preferences; Psychologists Take Radically Different Approaches in Therapy. One of the two stories in the article and podcast is about a child having conversion therapy — at the recommendation of Dr. Zucker.

Another of the key players identified in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group is Ray Blanchard, famous for his transsexual diagnosis of autogynephilia. As Madeline Wyndzen, Ph.D., writes,

Blanchard’s model categorizes transsexuals into two types based on sexual orientation: “homosexual” (those attracted to their biological sex) and “non-homosexual.” A mis-directed sex drive causes transsexuality. The mis-directed sex-drive among “non-homosexual” transsexuals is called “autogynephilia.”

In other words, Blanchard believes it’s the mis-directed sexual orientation of men that causes transsexuality…

Several researchers and therapists have been surprised when I mention that Blanchard makes a causal argument: a mis-directed sex-drive (e.g., autogynephilia) causes gender dysphoria. His causal claims are what allows him to form categories of transsexuals based on sexual orientation. This is also the basis of his ability to explain cross-dressing and transsexuality within the same theory even in cases where transsexuals have no history of cross-dressing. That is a very impressive feat. Blanchard’s theory would not be able to account for this if, for example, he meant autogynephilia as a type of fantasy many non-homosexual transsexuals have to compensate for not being able to be their target sex (i.e. a reverse of the causal direction). The following quotations illustrate Blanchard’s causal claims as well as showing how this causal claim is an organizing principle for his entire theory.

For a other takes on the make-up of the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group and what’s at state from an transgender/intersexual perspective, I’d recommend Donna Rose’s GID, DSM, HRC, and more: A cornucopia of TLA’s, and Zoe Brain’s Transsexual Causation, the American Psychiatric Association, and Interpol.

Needless to say, gender-variant LGBT and straight youth, as well as transsexual adults, will likely have to deal with another decade plus of being considered seriously disordered — with its conversion therapy implication for children. Reform models for, or different takes on Gender Identity Disorder in DSM-V aren’t likely to be seriously considered with Zucker and Blanchard on the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group.

~~~~~Update~~~~~
Suggested course of action from Josephine Tittsworth:

It is important that we as a community respond to this news release. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) will be actively working very hard to create the newest version of the “Diagnotic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” version V (DSM V) which is scheduled to be available some time in, or shortly after, 2010. If Dr. Zucker is allowed on the committee to define the guidelines for diagnosing someone as Gender Identity Disorder (GID) then he will do it as a homosexual issue not GID and then implement his Reparative Therapy guide as the treatment. He will not allow the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines be the method on working with GID. Granted there are Pros and Cons as to whether GID should even be in the DSM to start with but as long as it is in the DSM we as a community need to respond to the APA with our comments and concerns. We can join together and write letters to APA stating our concerns and disputes with having a Biased staffing of a committee to determine the criteria for GID. Here is the address to send letters:

APA
1000 Wilson Blvd, Suite 1825
Arlington, Virginia 22209

We need to send letters and lotz of them to APA. We need to address the seriousness of staffing the committee to determine the GID criteria with a biased committee membership. Why for example are there not any Social Workers on that committee; there was one on the committee for the DSM IV?

Please post this notice to all groups across the globe!! This is very urgent!!!

Josephine Tittsworth, LMSW
Ph.D Student Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston
NTAC Board of Directors,Research Chair
PFLAG-TNET Board of Directors, West Sector Coordinator

This is a list (which I posted at Transgender News) of gender, transgender and intersex-related books slated for release from now until the end of the year. (The list of publishers and titles is culled from Publisher’s Weekly’s “Lesbian and Gay Titles May-December 2008: Complete Listings.”) …

ARSENAL PULP PRESS

queersexlife: Autobiographical Notes on Sexuality, Gender & Identity
(May, $19.95) by Terry Goldie is the York University English
professor’s frank and intimate collection of responses to theories of
queer sexuality and identity.

–

CITY LIGHTS

So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (Sept., $16 paper) by Mattilda Bernstein
Sycamore is set San Francisco, where a young gay man struggles to find
hope in the ruins of the everyday. Bernstein Sycamore is the
gender-bending author of the highly praised novel, Pulling Taffy, and
the editor of four nonfiction anthologies.

–

CLEIS PRESS

The Transgender Child (June, $16.95 paper) by Stephanie Brill and
Rachel Pepper is a comprehensive guidebook for parents and
professionals exploring the challenges of raising a transgender child.
Brill is founder of Gender Spectrum Education and Training and Pepper
is coordinator of LGBT Studies at Yale University.

–

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience (Oct.,
$23.95 hardcover) by Katrina A. Karkazis examines contemporary
controversies over the medical management of intersexuality in the
U.S. from the perspectives of patients, parents and clinicians.

–

FEMINIST PRESS AT CUNY

Trans (Dec., $22 hardcover) edited by Susan Stryker, Lisa-Jean Moore &
Paisley Currah explores the meaning of “trans” as it relates to
nationality, culture, race, and gender. Currah teaches at Brooklyn
College; Moore teaches at Purchase College; and Stryker won an Emmy
for her documentary Screaming Queens.

–

FIREBRAND BOOKS

Read My Lips: Second Edition (Nov., $14.95 paper) by Riki Wilchins
weaves theory and personal experience into a story of self-discovery
for lesbians, feminists, queer academics, activists and transpeople.
Wilchins is cofounder of the Transexual Menace and Executive Director
of GenderPAC.

–

HYPERION

Smile as They Bow (Sept., $24.95 hardcover) by Nu Nu Yi was
shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize. It’s the
mesmerizing, lush story of a gay transvestite, his young assistant,
and a beautiful beggar girl, set among the gay spirit mediums of
Burma. One of Burma’s leading writers, Nu Nu Yi is the author of more
than 15 novels and 100 short stories.

–

ST. MARTIN’S/GRIFFIN

Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit (Sept. $14.95 paper) by Catherine
James is the former Wilhemina model’s memoir of how, after she had
escaped her miserable childhood, her father revealed himself to be not
just a cross-dresser but a transsexual, and her mother came back into
her life just in time to die, but not to change her attitude toward
her only daughter.

–

SUSPECT THOUGHTS PRESS (dist. by Small Press Distribution)

Dying for a Change (Aug., $17 paper) by Sean Reynolds is set in summer
1965, when Miss Dive, a famous drag queen from Chicago’s North Side,
is murdered, sending fierce drag queen Henrietta Wild Child and sexy
black butch Chan Parker on a mad romp, from low life bars to mob dens,
to find the killer.

–

UNIV. OF WISCONSIN PRESS

The Gendering of Men, 1600–1750: Volume 2, Queer Articulations (July,
$65 hardcover) by Brandeis Univ. Professor Thomas A. Kin looks at the
emergence of male homosexuals in early modern England analyzes the
perception of masculinity and effeminacy in the 18th century.

–

HENRY HOLT

Debbie Harry Sings in French (May, $16.95) by Meagan Brothers. A
troubled teenage boy finds strength in the music of Blondie and in
dressing like the band’s lead singer. (14-up)

–

LITTLE, BROWN

Luna (Sept., $7.99 paper) by Julie Anne Peters is a paperback reprint
of Peters’s 2004 novel about a transgender teen’s transition from girl
to boy. (12-up)

–

PENGUIN/SPEAK

Freak Show (Oct., $8.99 paper) by James St. James. The author’s 2007
novel about a teenage drag queen’s new life in Florida returns in this
paperback reprint. (14-up)

–

RANDOM HOUSE

Cycler (Aug., $17.99 hardcover) by Lauren McLaughlin. For four days
each month, high school student Jill turns into a boy. (14-up)

I’m sure many of you weren’t aware that now homosexuality is widely accepted — you know, because only about half the states have employment and/or housing protections for LGB folk — but apparently all y’all gay activists have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams. In fact, you’ve been so successful that now you are turning [your] attention to normalizing transgenderism by gaining legal status for what [you] call gender identity or expression.

See, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink guy Caleb H. Price says that right here:

[N]ow that homosexuality is widely accepted, activists are turning their attention to normalizing transgenderism by gaining legal status for what they call gender identity or expression.

Specifically, they’re demanding that “transgender” people be added to hate-crimes and nondiscrimination laws. And although “transgenders” number less than a fraction of 1 percent of the population, the goal is to radically deconstruct the biblical and biological understanding of “sex” and teach that gender is “fluid” and changeable. We’re being called to toss aside biological sex in favor of a person’s feelings or self-identification about their gender — whether or not these perceptions conform to biological reality!

Ironically, the same activists who tell us that sexual orientation can’t be changed want us now to believe that somehow gender can be changed!

So how should we — as Christians — respond?

Umm…Do to others as you would have others do to you? Perhaps some love your neighbor as yourself?

Naaaaaw…

Read the rest of this entry »

(Oops, this didn’t post last night … )

The road to somewhere is paved with good intentions … It doesn’t look, at the moment, like there’ll be a (certainly not a) timely posting of a last week’s “transgender news in review,” which I just started last week and hope to do regularly.

Primary voting day tomorrow in North Carolina … first time that I can recall a primary here having (any Presidential) significance. Am I happy with my choices? No. But, I’ll be voting for HC, for what it’s worth. I’m hoping to get my father, who’s in his ’90’s now, out to vote. He hasn’t missed getting to the polls ever that I remember, but … this time might be the first … he’s been a bit worse for the wear recently. Bummer.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought there were some positives in the news story about the transgender youngster in the Philadelphia Inquirer today (about which Autumn commented earlier today) — parent Valerie Huff’s comment that “The kids don’t make any big deal about it at all” and that of Mary Beth Lauer, the school district’s director of community relations, that the “students seem to be accepting their classmate’s change” — for example. On the flip side, aside from the issues that Autumn addressed, using bete noire Paul McHugh for the oppositional viewpoint, was a mighty big turnoff to me.

I was much distressed by Eight Belles’ breakdown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, but PETA doesn’t seem to me to have much of a clue about horse racing, frankly, and its criticisms (”euthanized in the dirt where she lay,” “Eight Belles’ jockey whipped her mercilessly,” etc.) of that day’s events are more than a bit out of touch and way over the top.

Good question: “If it’s so great to be smart, why have most animals remained dumb?”

Because it works: “Watching Bush speak you realize he’s a really dumb person who thinks everyone in the room is even dumber than he is.” (Don’t tell me it took anyone over seven years to realize that.)

Joelle Farrell and John Sullivan are the bylined writers of a Philadelphia Inquirer (Philly.com) piece entitled School challenge: Transgender student is age 9. Incredibly, the article gave out information that could help identify the specific daytime whereabouts and nighttime neighborhood of a nine year old transgender youth.

In addition to functionally outing a nine year old, the Philadelphia Inquirer also ignored reputable journalistic standards for how to refer to transgender people. They showed disrespect for the article’s transgender youth by to referring to her with male pronouns in a manner inconsistent with the Associated Press Stylebook’s guidelines on how to refer to transgender people:

Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

So, while writing about how the Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to the outing of a nine year old, remember that they called her a “him” in the process of outing her.

The decision to disrespect the child by referring to her by male pronouns was made by Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com Education Editor Rose Ciotta. Along with the publisher, Editor Ciotta is also responsible for deciding to publish the name of the elementary school the nine year old attended. The paper indicated to me that they obtained the name of the school from a much less well read Haverford Township blog — it strikes me as incredulous that the editor and newspaper believe that finding the name of the child’s school in a blog gave them license to publish this information that could endanger the youth.

Although neither the elementary school (which sent out a flier to parents indicating there was a transgender nine year old attending the elementary school), the Haverford Township blog, or Philadelphia Inquirer directly released the name of this transgender child to the general public, we do see a chain of events which led to a print media outlet publishing the name of the elementary school that the transgender youth attends. Think of it this way — when a print media outlet writes about a sexual assault victim, as a rule they don’t tell you where the sexual assault victim was employed, or in what neighborhood sexual assault victim lived. Yet within the pages of their hard copy and electronic newspapers, the Philadelphia Inquirer identified the elementary school the transgender youth attended to the general public. The publication told the public where this nine year old spends each school day, and the neighborhood where this nine year old lives.

One can only guess the Philadelphia Inquirer has never though about how that violence related to a youth’s gender variance is a real possiblility, or that conservative Christian adults may encourage mockery of (or even violence towards) a transgender child specifically because a child is transgender.

Refering to the child as “him,” publishing her daytime location and identifying where she and her family can face possible verbal and physical harassment — If I were the publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, I’d be very embarassed and ashamed that my publications published this article.

[What to do after the fold.]

Stories on transgender youth seem to be reaching the media more frequently these days; I’m not the only one who thinks the lack of concern for the privacy and safety of transgender youth is a problem. I spoke to Cindi Creager of GLAAD earlier this evening, I learned that GLAAD is very seriously considering adding a section on reporting on transgender youth for their 2008 update to the GLAAD Media Reference Guide. I suggested that they might want to discuss the issue of underage transgender youth story guidelines with the Associated Press at their next meeting too — Ms. Creager told me that was being thought about as an agenda item for their next meeting with the AP as well. I really believe guidelines for reporting on transgender youth have of late become incredibly necessary. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s piece a reason why guidelines are incredibly necessary.

Please also consider letting the Haverford Township blog and the Philadelphia Inquirer know that they should treat information that could be used to out an LGBT youth with much more sensitivity and seriousness than they did in this case. And, should you contact these organizations, please don’t harass them with profanity or threaten them with violence — using profanity or the threat of violence to complain about possible harassment of, or violence towards transgender youth would make us as much the bullies as we don’t want any others to be.

- Philadelphia Inquirer Write to Us: Letters and Op-Eds
- Harvard Blog Contact Information

~~
Kim Pearson of TYFA provided background information for this diary.

~~~~~
Related:
* Outing #2: When You Endanger A Child For The Sensationalism Of It
* Literally Demonizing Transyouth
* Defense attorney of Lawrence King’s murderer: it’s the victim’s fault
* Parents confront officials about Lawrence King shooting
* Tired
* We Wouldn’t Want To Actually Tolerate Transgender People, Would We?

This is an absolute hoot, in so many ways …

Residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have launched a legal action to demand the exclusive right to call themselves Lesbians.

The inhabitants of the island are attempting to ban the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union from bearing the name “lesbian”.

Residents of Lesbos now suffer “psychological and moral rape” from the “seizure” of their island’s name by gays, according to the complaint by Dimitris Lambrou, a local activist.

He has set out his argument in “The Misfortune of Being Lesbian”, published on his website, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Lambrou, who has the support of a member of a nationalist pagan association, said that the case was likely to come before a court in Athens in June.

But Evangelia Vlam, a spokesman for Olke, dismissed the claim.

“This affair is totally ridiculous,” she said. “But if we are summoned by the courts, we will be heard.”

Lesbos is synonymous with the love verses of the poet Sappho, who expressed her love of other women in poetry written in the early sixth century BC.

Islanders are ‘only true Lesbians’

And, by the way, Sappho was not gay anyway, according to Lambrou.

Wow. I didn’t even know Guam voted before this election season, but apparently the island voted in their primary today.

Democrat Barack Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton by just seven votes in Guam’s nominating contest after record numbers of residents voted in the tiny U.S. territory’s primary, officials said on Sunday.

Results after more than 12 hours of manual counting showed Obama took 2,264 votes to 2,257 for Clinton. In the last Democratic primary in 2004 only 1,500 people took part.

“Clearly, both of them are quite popular and we should celebrate that,” Josh Tenorio, Obama’s campaign manager on the territory told Reuters. “It’s a good day for Guam.”

With only four votes at the Democratic convention at stake, the contest on Guam, a Pacific island more than 20 hours by plane from Washington, will barely register in the protracted duel for the party’s presidential ticket.

…Residents cannot vote in the presidential election but Guam, which is less than a fifth of the size of the smallest U.S. state of Rhode Island, sends eight delegates with half a vote each to the Democratic convention in August.

…Guam, which goes by the slogan, “Where America’s Day Begins”, will also send five superdelegates to the Democratic convention.

I don’t believe the vote in Guam will change much of anything — especially since the vote was so even — still, an impressive turnout compared to 2004.

From Dolly Parton, as quoted in the New York Times in its review today of her performance at Radio City Music Hall in NYC last Thursday …

“Someone told me I should run for president. I said, don’t you think that we’ve had enough boobs in the White House?”

What I’m referring to here is the tendency of the mainstream media to focus on and give extensive coverage to a certain kind of trans or gender-related news. Generally, it seems these stories invariably involve celebrities (think back many years to Eddie Murphy and the “transvestite prostitute” story, for instance) or “oddities.” Last month, there was the “pregnant man” story. Vying for that media attention this month, there appear to be actually two news stories …

RONALDO, ONE OF the world’s best soccer players, is up to his knee-socks in scandal today after his run-in with a pair of transvestite prostitutes wound up on YouTube.

The Brazilian superstar told cops he had no idea the “ladies” he picked up were men until he brought them to a hot sheets hotel early Monday.

Footage of Ronaldo recoiling from them was taken by the spurned hookers, one of whom is under investigation for trying to extort $30,000 from the superstar, Brazilian media reported.

Andre Albertini, who goes by the name Andrea, denied he tried to blackmail Ronaldo and insisted the soccer star tried to buy his silence.

…

She-male kick in head for Ronaldo

(To say that headline writers often have a bit of fun with these stories is stating the obvious. The Times, on Ronaldo, “Three Ronaldo girls all had men’s tackle,” or The Standard’s “What a balls-up” are examples.)

… and …

Dude looked like a lady.

That’s what has puzzled researchers for years about Akhenaten, the famed pharaoh who introduced radical monotheism to ancient Egypt. While he fathered at least at least a half-dozen children, his body form was distinctly feminine.

Now Dr. Irwin Braverman, a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten, has a new theory on why. He was due to present his findings yesterday at an annual conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the ailments and deaths of historic figures.

The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh’s body to convert more male hormones to female hormones, Braverman said. The pharaoh had “an androgynous appearance. He had a female physique with wide hips and breasts, but he was male and he was fertile and he had six daughters. But nevertheless, he looked like he had a female physique.”

…

Egypt’s pharaoh was king of queens

It was not all that long ago, by the way, that another Egyptian “gender-bender,” Hatshepsut, was in the news.

Are we fighting in the middle east for what many of us have suspected for years? Are we really spilling blood for oil? Sen. McCain said as much today.

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.
–Sen. John McCain, May 2, 2008.

Well, apparently he’s claiming he misspoke,, or was misinterpreted somehow. The “clarification” by Sen. McCain given later today:

The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn’t mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

“No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons,” McCain told reporters.

One reason was Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, he said. “But also we didn’t want him to have control over the oil, and that part of the world is critical to us because of our dependency on foreign oil, and it’s more important than any other part of the world,” he said.

“If the word `again’ was misconstrued, I want us to remove our dependency on foreign oil for national security reasons, and that’s all I mean,” McCain said.

“The Congressional Record is very clear: I said we went to war in Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

McCain is a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, although he criticizes the early handling of it by the Bush administration.

I feel soooooo much better about the Iraq War. Four-thousand plus dead, thirty-thousand plus wounded, and an incredible cost estimate of three trillion dollars to pay for the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan — and it was either for oil, or for those non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Super.

There is a reason we refer to WorldNetDaily as WingNutDaily, and a recent commentary by WingNutDaily contributor David Kupelian highlights the bat-sh*ttery. Here’s what Mr. Kupelian says in his May 2nd piece How Hillary will lead America into hell:

[T]ry to imagine Hillary Clinton as president – and Bill as first lady. The toxic cultural/governmental environment would be almost beyond imagination with the elevation of “the queen of darkness” as “father of our country.”

What, per WingNutDaily, could we expect with a Hillary Clinton presidency?

You could expect a radical increase in shocking, self-destructive and criminal acting-out by lost souls lashing out blindly in a desperate expression of revenge toward the contemptible society that could dare elect such a person as president. Perhaps a huge upsurge in mass shootings, such as we’ve seen recently. Or maybe more “bug-chasing” – that’s where people actively try to get infected with AIDS. Maybe homegrown suicide bombers committing horrific terrorist acts – not for Allah, but just for kicks, for non-specific revenge against the human race. No one can say what form it will take, but expect more and more weird, destructive behaviors designed for maximum shock.

More Wing-Nuttery after the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »