Rosie O’Donnell: "When she was good, she was very, very…"

Rosie O’Donnell might be viewed by an uncharitable person as someone who keeps trying to fill a large hole with something: she’s keeps adopting kids, new ones with new spouses, as the original set age out; new houses; new spouses, who are actually spouses, not just lovers; food; drink; money; and disappearances from and reappearances in, TV shows like The View.

My natural inclinations do include those toward the uncharitable, because Rosie is one of those half wit, ill educated, fools, who get to influence the public in a pincer movement (the other side being state funded and credentialed academia).  Like Sandra Bernhard, Jon Stewart, Patricia Arquette, Roseanne Barr, and Ellen Degeneres, Rosie’s formal education was acquired in bars, comedy clubs, and popular magazines, before she got promoted to being educated by proglodyte cocktail parties and leftover network entertainment execs.

I really liked her original TV show, though Ellen did eclipse it in the same way Oprah was better than Donahue.  It had some problems.  The running gag, before she came out, where she claimed to be infatuated with the very heterosexual Tom Cruise, got old.  Since Degeneres was already out by the time she became a talk show queen of nice, she never had to do that.

Rosie has an HBO special in rotation this month that explains a lot of this drama.  She originally left her talk show to spend more time with her kids (in this special, which is mainly biographical and about her family life, her now teen daughter, upset that her mom can no longer intorduce her to the likes of Justin Bieber, tells her this was a “bad decision”).  She started The View when the kids got old enough to not need two at home moms, then left it when she got divorced.  She returned to the show when the kids got older.  She then married, nursed her new lipstick lesbian wife through cancer, adopted another baby, had a heart attack, and then left the show again when she divorced.  Now she is selling one of her houses.

But the special is good as comedy, somewhat free of political preaching, though horrifying in some of its details of her personal life.  It begins with a rather crude and thoughtless story about her son’s circumcision.  She thought she had; she told the doctor to do so.  Her friend Rita Wilson asked her why she didn’t, and Rosie, unfamiliar with what penises look like, said she didn’t realize the baby was uncircumcised.  So they call in Kate Capeshaw and Steven Speilberg’s mohel and did it later.  So the baby woudn’t “look different” or “have a funny penis.”  An odd choice for a preacher for gender non-conformity.

The bits pile up.  All well written, well timed, funny, and well delivered.  But somewhat horrifying, like her depiction of the competitive victim-off she has with her new wife (in a short lived marriage) over whether Rosie’s heart attack or the wife’s cancer was worse.

The set ends with Rosie saying God saved her after she prayed for the first time in years, with the intercession of her observant Catholic mother’s ghost, so she could be here to advocate for women’s cardiac health.  Somehow I don’t think Rosie would allow any conservative politician to make the same type of theological claims.

Largest LGTB Libertarian event to date planned for Valentine’s Eve

At the 2015 International Students for Liberty Conference held in Washington, DC, February 13-15, gay and lesbian libertarian students will hold a dance at Town, a popular nightlife spot in DC’s U Street Corridor.

Organizers believe this will be the largest libertarian gay and lesbian event ever held.

• Show Map Town Danceboutique 2009 8th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20001

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls (…and gender non-conforming individuals), we are pleased to announce the first official LGBT libertarian social at the The 8th Annual International Students For Liberty Conference! If you’re queer or queer-friendly, come on down to Town for a night of dancing, drag shows, new friends, and “networking.” Let’s get to #twerk!

HERE’S THE PLAN:
9:30 PM — We’ll congregate at the lobby of the Marriott Wardman Parkafter the opening social for the ISFLC officially ends.
9:45 PM — We’ll depart via Uber to Town Danceboutique on U Street (approximately a 10-minute ride).
10:00 PM — We’ll enter the club ($10 cover for 21+, $12 for 18-21).
10:30 PM — The drag show begins! Grab a drank and enjoy the entertainment.
11:00 PM — We’ll dance the night away! A quieter side room is also available for those late-night libertarian debates.

TAKE NOTE:
—Town is 18+ on Friday night, so those of you who aren’t quite of drinking age can still enjoy the fun!
—Although this is branded as an LGBT event, Town is totally inclusive to anyone and everyone who is gay friendly. You don’t need to be queer to enjoy the cheer!

How To Read An Ellen Page

Guest commentary from gay Objectivist novelist and playwright Richard Gleaves

Richard Gleaves

To anyone who is “bored” by all the coming-outs lately.

The applause properly given to newly out gay celebrities isn’t meant for them. It isn’t meant for you. It’s a message to a third party. It’s a message to the bigots. And more importantly it’s a message to the closeted.

Let me paint a picture.

See the innocent sixteen year old who loves the boy in trig class, who sits and draws their initials in his book even though he knows somewhere in the back of his head that if he ever acted on his longing he’d be beaten up by the very person he has a crush on. See that kid go home after school and pretend to whistle at the girls on TV so his parents don’t ship him off for electric shock therapy or black both his eyes. See that kid who is innocent of anything but wanting to be loved and of feeling what his body (or psychology) demands. He has no one to speak to, no one to ask questions of, all kinds of self doubt.

Now imagine him being called “c*cksucker” by his own father, or brother, or grandma. See him sitting in a McDonalds, smiling along as his supposed friends make fun of some “sissy” they know, laughing to each other, lisping elaborately. Watch him flip the channels, trying to find someone like himself on television. Watch him sit in church, as his mother nods along to some preacher’s “God Hates Fags” speech. Watch him suppress and repress and hate his own sexuality, just as his body is sending powerful signals to act act act on it. Watch him break down, try to kiss the wrong person, and end up in the morgue.

To my mind, such a boy — who often turns out to be one of the kindest and most productive members of society– IS a hero when he comes out. When the desire to live authentically conflicts with every other value he holds — life, limb, security, family– when integrity demands he speak up and name himself to the world– yes, I think that’s heroism. It’s an act of integrity beyond anything most people ever have to do in their lives. It is an “I Am Spartacus” moment. It is Jean Valjean confessing to being 24601 rather than see an innocent man swing. Unless you’ve had to do it yourself, I doubt you’d see the heroism in the act. But believe me, when you have to do it in the face of decades of hiding and with the real possibility of losing everything, it’s worthy of “Mister Smith goes to Washington”.

So I’m really sorry if the comings-out bore you, my friends. They’re not for you, and the applause we send to the gay celebrity is really directed as encouragement to those boys (and girls) out there who need to know it’s safe to join the human race.