Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Monday, July 1, 2024
Olympians
Paul Juda Cries Happy Tears After Securing Spot on Team USA for 2024 Paris Olympics: 'My Heart Was Just Pounding'
Paul Juda shed tears after earning his way into the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Saturday, June 29, the 22-year-old athlete secured his spot on Team USA after placing fourth with 168.850 points at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, according to NBC Sports.
Opening up to reporters immediately after the highest scores were announced, Juda became emotional, tearing up as the crowd in Minneapolis cheered for him as he tried to hold back tears of joy.
"I only had one goal, and it was to hit all my routines and leave here healthy," Juda told NBC following his final event, holding flowers and standing next to his future Olympic teammate Asher Hong.
“So, I'm happy to do that and more," he finished, before shouting: "Go, Team USA!”
Juda, an alum of the University of Michigan and a 2023 World team bronze medalist, will join his four teammates as he travels to Paris to compete in July.
"My phone’s blowing up and I’m thinking about how I’m going to hug my mom and dad," he told NBC right after it was announced he had secured his spot at his first Olympics. "Every time I think about the word Olympian ... it's just a lot. Yeah, I can't even put it into words."
Juda's four teammates — Hong, Frederick Richard, Brody Malone and Stephen Nedoroscik — will now strategize on how best to approach the competition in Paris.
“Now it's just putting our heads together and figuring out where we best fit in as far as our performance and what events we're going to be doing,” Malone said previously.
Speaking on Saturday, Juda, also an NCAA floor exercise champion, said that he began to tear up the moment he heard the first syllable of his name announced over the loudspeaker system.
“I wish I could say I was calm, cool and collected," Juda said. "I might've been that on the outside, but my heart was just pounding."
"I was the first name called, and the second I heard 'Pa—,' I started crying right away," Juda told reporters.
The first-time Olympian also told reporters that he had hoped for this moment for years — and even wrote down his goal on a vision board to help keep him on track.
"I'm really glad that I wrote on my whiteboard — ‘Become an Olympian,' " Juda said through his tears. "I had fell short on a couple other goals that I wrote on that whiteboard and I was starting to think if I should erase the one that said Olympian because I guess maybe it won't come true."
"But I’m going home and I’m putting a massive check mark on there, and I'm glad that it went there, that I kept it there," he said.
Friday, June 28, 2024
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Biden pardons potentially thousands of ex-service members convicted under now-repealed gay sex ban
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pardoned potentially thousands of former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, saying Wednesday that he is “righting an historic wrong” to clear the way for them to regain lost benefits.
Biden’s action grants a pardon to service members who were convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s former Article 125, which criminalized sodomy. The law, which has been on the books since 1951, was rewritten in 2013 to prohibit only forcible acts.
Those covered by the pardon will be able to apply to receive proof that their conviction has been erased, petition to have their discharges from the military upgraded and move to recover lost pay and benefits.
“Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” Biden said in a statement. “We have a sacred obligation to all of our service members –- including our brave LGBTQI+ service members: to properly prepare and equip them when they are sent into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home. Today we are making progress in that pursuit.”
The president’s use of his pardon powers is occurring during Pride Month and his action comes just days before he is set to hold a high-profile fundraiser with LGBTQ donors in New York on Friday. Biden is trying to rally support within the Democratic-leaning community ahead of the presidential election.
Modern Military, the nation’s largest organization of LGBTQ+ service members and their families, said the decision was “historic step towards justice and equality,” and called on the miliary to approve the pardons quickly.
Biden’s proclamation is “a significant move in recognizing and righting the wrongs inflicted upon LGBTQ+ service members who faced discrimination and unjust convictions under policies such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the organization said in a statement after the pardon announcement. “These brave individuals stood on the front lines of freedom, risking their lives to defend our country, only to be met with injustice at home.”
Administration officials declined to say why Biden did not act on the pardons sooner.
This is the third categorial pardon by Biden — using his clemency powers to cover a broad group of people convicted of particular crimes — after moves in 2022 and 2023 to pardon those convicted federally for possessing marijuana.
The White House estimates that several thousand service members will be covered — the majority convicted before the military instituted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 1993 that eased the way for LGBTQ troops to serve if they didn’t disclose their sexual orientation. That policy was repealed in 2011, when Congress allowed for their open service in the military.
Service members convicted of nonconsensual acts are not covered by Biden’s pardon action. And those convicted under other articles of the military justice code, which may have been used as pretext to punish or force-out LGBTQ troops, would need to request clemency through the normal Department of Justice pardon process.
Biden had previously ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to move to provide benefits to service members who were other than honorably discharged because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pardoned potentially thousands of former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, saying Wednesday that he is “righting an historic wrong” to clear the way for them to regain lost benefits.
Those covered by the pardon will be able to apply to receive proof that their conviction has been erased, petition to have their discharges from the military upgraded and move to recover lost pay and benefits.
“Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” Biden said in a statement. “We have a sacred obligation to all of our service members –- including our brave LGBTQI+ service members: to properly prepare and equip them when they are sent into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home. Today we are making progress in that pursuit.”
Modern Military, the nation’s largest organization of LGBTQ+ service members and their families, said the decision was “historic step towards justice and equality,” and called on the miliary to approve the pardons quickly.
Administration officials declined to say why Biden did not act on the pardons sooner.
This is the third categorial pardon by Biden — using his clemency powers to cover a broad group of people convicted of particular crimes — after moves in 2022 and 2023 to pardon those convicted federally for possessing marijuana.
The White House estimates that several thousand service members will be covered — the majority convicted before the military instituted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 1993 that eased the way for LGBTQ troops to serve if they didn’t disclose their sexual orientation. That policy was repealed in 2011, when Congress allowed for their open service in the military.
Service members convicted of nonconsensual acts are not covered by Biden’s pardon action. And those convicted under other articles of the military justice code, which may have been used as pretext to punish or force-out LGBTQ troops, would need to request clemency through the normal Department of Justice pardon process.
Biden had previously ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to move to provide benefits to service members who were other than honorably discharged because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.
Friday, June 21, 2024
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
LOL . . .
'Help! I Live Next Door To A Loud Masturbator'
We asked an etiquette expert how to handle a neighbor who has loud solo sex.
What's the protocol on telling a neighbor you can hear them masturbating?
With a population of over 8 million people ― many of them living in older apartments with paper-thin walls ― there’s bound to be some issues with noisy neighbors in the city that never sleeps.
This column’s question comes from a New Yorker who’s feeling secondhand embarrassment for her new neighbor ― a man who hasn’t learned to use his indoor voice while masturbating.
Help! I live in a New York City studio apartment with cement walls that are apparently a little too thin. I know it’s expected that when you share walls with neighbors you’ll hear, uh, intimate noises from time to time, but I have a new neighbor whose solo activities are so vigorous that I can hear the festivities quite regularly. It doesn’t bother me personally, but I’m embarrassed for him and wondering if he has any idea he has so little privacy. Should I somehow let him know by slipping an anonymous note under his door? Or do I let him go on and mind my own business? ― Blushing In Brooklyn
We asked Thomas P. Farley ― a nationally regarded etiquette expert who goes by Mister Manners ― to tackle this very specific noise complaint. (Loud neighbor sex we’ve heard of, but loud neighbor masturbation is a different story.)
"Noise issues arising from a space beyond one’s own walls are among the most sensitive of topics for neighbors to discuss. As a member of my building’s co-op board, I have heard innumerable tales of grief as adjacent neighbors recount the commotion emanating from above, next door or below ― from crying babies to loud music, piano lessons to hard-soled foot traffic. And yes, lest we forget, lovemaking. (Or in this case, masturbation.)
The typical trajectory of these matters runs the course of surprise, annoyance, exasperation, and finally, either eruption or resignation. Vexingly, the neighbor generating the noise is often completely unaware they are making any disturbance at all.
This devolution is unfortunate. I believe firmly that if approached directly, politely and considerately, many (though certainly not all) offending parties will take steps to reduce ― if not completely eliminate ― clamorous incursions.
Specifically in the case of loud solo sex, I advise the affected party to weigh the gravity of the matter and then tread carefully if at all. Is the peal of passion something you hear once or twice a month? Or is it morning, noon and night daily? A white-noise machine or a fan can drown out a whole lot. A pair of headphones even more. But if these tactics are incapable of restoring your peace and quiet, it is probably time to have a gentle word with your building’s noisy masturbator.
Find a time outside of work hours (perhaps midday on a Saturday or Sunday) to knock on the individual’s door and have a brief conversation that ― once the pleasantries have been exchanged ― segues into a version of: ‘I’m sure you’re not aware, and forgive me, because I know this is a bit awkward, but I’ve been having difficulty getting a decent night’s sleep the past several weeks because of the activity that seems to be coming from your apartment around [fill in time] each night. I know sound travels in our building, and I’m wondering if there’s anything you might be able to do to reduce the noise at all?’ In the ideal world, the neighbor will apologize immediately and offer to make some significant adjustments. To which the petitioning neighbor should express great gratitude.
Could an anonymous note do the job? In the interest of candor and transparency, I would counsel the neighbors have a respectful face-to-face conversation versus slipping any letter under the door of the self-loving apartment dweller. The moment a note is passed, a guessing game will begin and two possible outcomes may follow —neither ideal. First, the noisy neighbor may wrongly assume it was someone else who wrote the note and begin acting awkwardly around them with no hint as to why. Alternatively, by process of elimination, they may figure out the actual note-writer and — as their feelings quickly morph from embarrassment to incredulity — decide to take their decibels to the next level.
If the neighbor is not conciliatory or makes a brief change only to lapse again into raucousness, the distressed party can elect to escalate the matter to a landlord or managing agent as a potential violation of a lease or of the building’s house rules. In such scenarios, be aware that punitive action may be slow to happen ― if it happens at all. In this unfortunate instance, grim acceptance may wind up being the least contentious way forward, chalking the moans up to being among the many annoyances that arise when residing in such intensely close proximity with eight million other people.”
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Monday, June 17, 2024
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Camping Conversation
Camping out with other str8 teen bros, conversation overheard after the campfire died down and we crawled into our tents:
Buddy #1: Bro, everybody's asleep, how 'bout if I suck your dick?
Buddy #2: I don't care.
The Cock (Kiss)
You've seen it elsewhere and I've posted this picture before. Wolfgang Tillmans is the German photographer who took the 2002 image called The Cock (Kiss). Taken at a gay nightclub in London, it's an intimate, close-up image of two men kissing. Though it's 20 years old, the image's power continues to resonate: Following the 2016 mass shootings at Pulse nightclub, it made viral rounds on the internet. The Cock (Kiss) explores themes often found in Tillmans' photographs: youth, innocence, and joy. It's also the cover image for the novel by Douglas Stuart -- Young Mungo -- I'm wrapping up.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/wolfgang-tillmans-looks-without-fear-180980734/
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