It’s an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread… 
So, this is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob have been looking at since our last This & That post.
• In a MetroWeekly‘s piece, entitled State of Play, writer Chris Geidner described comments made by Mara Keisling as “harsh but not altogether negative.” Here’s some quotes from Mara Keisling found in this article:
I failed.
* * * * *
Congress and the president have lots of priorities, they really do. They have to be working on the economy, they have to be working on health care, they have to be working on the environment – and they have to be working on LGBT rights. ‘Their job is to work all those priorities together. Our job is to make sure they put our rights in their priorities. … And you know what? We weren’t able to do that this year.
We had a colossal fail this year. But it is simplistic and unhelpful to say that any particular person failed, because every single one of us failed.
The community failed. The movement failed. The organizations failed. Congress failed. The president failed. Government failed — part of why government failed is because they didn’t prioritize us. Partially that’s because we didn’t make them, partially it’s because the Republicans were just obstructing everything, partially it’s because our community didn’t step up enough, partially it was because our community was scattered in what they wanted. But we failed together.
* * * * *
We still made a lot of progress, we really did. We still got more done in the last two years than we’ve ever gotten done in two years before.
The entire Chris Geidner piece is worth the read.
• Following up on the Patricia Dye story, Gay LGBT reports the following in Time catches up with woman posing as teen boy to seduce underage girl:
Turns out 31 is not the new 14.
Patricia Dye, 31, has been sentenced to six months in jail for posing as a much younger, male version of herself in order to seduce an unsuspecting young girl, According to CBS News.
Dye pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts on Wednesday: sexual imposition, attempted sexual imposition and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Jezebel.com describes sexual imposition as:
“‘Sexual contact’ wherein ‘the offender knows that the other person’s, or one of the other person’s, ability to appraise the nature of or control the offender’s or touching person’s conduct is substantially impaired.’ In this case, the teen’s ability to appraise the nature of sex was pretty obviously impaired by Dye’s subterfuge.’
Dye is now a classified sexual offender and will be on probation for the next two years.
That Patricia Dye is identified as a woman at this point and not as a man — or even a trans man — well, one can only wonder what her sentence would have been if she had been identified as male. If she were a male-identified criminal who had engaged in a similar sort of crime, my guess would be that the jailhouse portion of her sentence would have been significantly lengthier.
• YouTube‘s It Gets Better, says Kate Bornstein:
Kate Bornstein, the author of Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws, and the blog Kate Bornstein’s Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws, made a video contribution to Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project. That contribution is her video above.
• Mormon Times‘ A call for civility following President Boyd K. Packer’s address:
…To any affected by such tragedy we express sorrow and we condemn the incivility that violated the dignity of these youth.
This week, activists for the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) community have attempted to raise our community’s consciousness about the challenges facing LGBT youth. This consciousness raising has been styled as a reaction to a talk by President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints given at the Church’s Semiannual General Conference last Sunday.
This focused attention on the LDS Church is deeply ironic given the Church’s shared condemnation of hate and violence toward gays and lesbians, its mutual support of anti-discrimination laws for gays and lesbians, and its compassionate ministry to LDS Church members who have same gender attraction…
…[T]actics used this week ostensibly to accomplish these purposes were counterproductive. Instead of seeking genuine common ground around issues of mutual concern, activists began this week with a grossly misguided caricature of the LDS Church’s support of traditional morality.
The tactic is now all-too familiar: take a statement out of context, embellish it with selective interpretation, presume hostile intent, and then use the distortion to isolate an entire group, in this case a church.
We encourage all to read President Packer’s talk rather than simply rely on the media interpretations and selective quotations. It stretches all credulity to find in President Packer’s pastoral counsel what some are calling a hateful message “that can lead some kids to bully and others to commit suicide.” Contrary to what some have written in provocative press releases, nothing in President Packer’s talk says that “violence and/or discrimination against LGBT people is acceptable.”
So, I recommend reading the talk the LDS church hierarchy linked to in the paragraph above, and remember what other statements LDS Apostle Boyd K. Packer has made in the past.
You can judge for yourself if you believe Apostle Packer speaks in terms of bigotry and/or hate, and as the article writer recommends, you can judge for yourself whether Apostle Packer’s statements contribute to the hostile school and/or home environment that many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students find themselves living in.
• Our Wiener Story Of The Day: The Gainesville Sun‘s :
…Those who oppose the practice of manipulating genes to make the foods we eat bigger, tastier or have a longer shelf life counter that the fruits and vegetables on the family table should come from the farm, not from some biotech researcher’s laboratory.
Genetically engineered foods have been in the news in recent days, thanks to the Atlantic salmon.
To build a better salmon, scientists spliced into the DNA of Atlantic salmon a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon and a piece of DNA from another food fish, the ocean pout, which acts as a switch to “turn on” the Chinook salmon gene. The result is that the Atlantic salmon grows faster and reaches harvest size in half the time while consuming less feed. The biotech company that developed the super salmon is awaiting a green light from the FDA to market the fish…
…According to the Center for Food Safety, 75 percent of the processed foods found in the supermarket contain genetically engineered ingredients. They are in bread, cereal, frozen pizzas, hot dogs, sodas and more. Our squash, potatoes and papaya have been engineered to resist plant diseases…
As always, “The weenie tempts you,” but perhaps it is a Frankenweenie that tempts you.
Note: You might take note of who the Costume and Wardrobe Department is for the film, “Frankenweenie,” linked to in my silly comment above. My Dad (who passed in 2002) was actually one of the credited costumers for “Frankenweenie.” 
So anywho…It’s an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?
And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because…it’s an open thread! Woo-hoo! 
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