NYU’s first gay fraternity, Delta Lambda Phi, received approval from the Interfraternity Council last night, giving it permission to begin its three-semester trial phase. Delta Lambda Phi is now a colony of the larger Delta Lambda Phi organization and will become an official chapter after it successfully completes its trial. “NYU welcomed us with open arms and we’re excited to be working with NYU,” colony vice president and Steinhardt sophomore Philip Elson said after hearing the IFC’s decision. The fraternity started in Washington D.C. in 1986. While a traditional fraternity that participates in the Greek community and holds parties and social mixers, the organization is also geared toward gay recognition and equality. It is open to gay, bisexual and progressive men, according to the national organization’s website. NYU’s colony currently has eight members from various years and schools at NYU.  More of First gay fraternity approved Washington Square News, NY

Come to the Music Center to re-learn and play those notes in the company of other lapsed musicians like you! Make music again

You can hear the oral argument in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood here. (Link requires, and launches, Real Player.) The case, heard today by the U.S. Supreme Court, concerns the “constitutionality” of a New Hampshire statute requiring that a parent be informed when a minor child seeks an abortion. I put constitutionality in quotation marks because of course the statute is constitutional. (Where in the text or history of the Federal Constitution can you find injunction against a state statute requiring that parents be told when their children seek medical treatment?) The real question is whether the statute can be reconciled with the relevant body of constitutional law, as refined mostly recently by Associate Legislator Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. If the Court invalidates New Hampshire’s statute, as I think likely, I’d re-pass a modified version that requires parents be informed after their child has an had an abortion. Is there a “constitutional right” for a child to not only have an abortion, but to also keep it a secret from her parents? The absurdity of the Court’s abortion jurisprudence should in all instances be highlighted.

ERUSALEM (Reuters) - A scientist who helped to discover the HIV virus said he has made progress toward producing an AIDS vaccine and hopes to launch a clinical trial in about a year. Dr. Robert Gallo, the director of the University of Maryland's Institute for Human Virology, said results from animal studies were encouraging. "I think we've made some advances in making antibodies that will react with the variety of strains of HIV," he told Reuters, referring to the virus that causes AIDS. Scientists believe a vaccine is the best hope for ending the global AIDS pandemic that has killed about 3.1 million people this year. But defeating the virus has proved more difficult than researchers had expected. Gallo, in Israel to accept an award from Bar-Ilan University in advance of World AIDS day on Thursday, said it was still too early to say when a vaccine could be produced for humans. Researchers believe an effective AIDS vaccine is still many years away. "We have had some interesting results in the monkeys that show we can make an immune response,", Gallo said, noting potential progress on overcoming the problem of mutation of the virus. But the antibodies produced in his experiments lasted only up to four months, which is far less than needed for an effective vaccine. "We are making progress with a preventive vaccine, but we are not there yet," added Gallo, who discovered the AIDS virus with France's Luc Montagnier. Earlier this week Europe's biggest drug maker GlaxoSmithKline Plc announced a plan to develop an experimental AIDS vaccine along with France's Institut Pasteur. More of AIDS expert sees vaccine progress @ Reuters

(Chicago, Illinois) A conservative Illinois group trying to collect enough signatures to have a gay marriage ban put to voters is finding little interest in the issue. The Illinois Family Institute must collect about 280,000 signatures by April 20th. At the halfway point in their campaign they have collected fewer than 50,000. Even if they were to get the necessary signatures, got the issue on the ballot and approved by voters, it would be non binding under the Illinois constitution.  It would only call on the legislature to enact an amendment and then submit that version to voters. Earlier this month the legislature rejected an attempt to pass an amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Polls show that most voters believe a law already in place to prevent same-sex couples is enough. The most recent poll, taken in June, indicates that while most voters oppose gay weddings, they would reject enshrining that in the state constitution. (story) Still the Institute presses on. Read more of Illinois Anti-Gay Amendment Fizzles @ 365Gay.com

Rebel Prince posted a photo: 22 Nov 2005: Lobby at Caesars Palace. Las Vegas, Nev.

Rebel Prince posted a photo: 22 Nov 2005: Lobby at Caesars Palace. Las Vegas, Nev.

Rebel Prince posted a photo: 22 Nov 2005: Caesars Palace. Las Vegas, Nev.

Tom and James and Randy and Moye convene in the conference room and conference Fenton from London. Fantasy Christmas gifts (or gift ideas) are exchanged. Fenton raves about the black Christmas tree fad in England. Black trees with blue...

OTTAWA - Stephen Harper opened the door to the volatile same-sex issue Tuesday, promising that married gay couples would continue to be recognized if the next Parliament opts to repeal federal legislation that enshrines the controversial unions, the Conservative leader said on his first day on the campaign trail. Speaking outside the House of Commons moments after Prime Minister Paul Martin announced the Jan. 23, 2006, election date, Harper made a point to clarify a position that has loomed over his party and was judged to have hurt the Tories the last time the country went to the polls. Harper said a Conservative government would propose that Parliament repeal same-sex marriage legislation that was passed through the Commons last spring, adding that it would be a "free vote'' that allows all MPs to support or oppose the motion with their conscience, rather than along party lines. "When I'm prime minister I will not whip our cabinet, Harper said, effectively setting off the first policy debate of the winter campaign. "I would simply ask the House of Commons in a motion whether they want to table legislation on the marriage issue to change the definition of marriage. If the motion is defeated, we won't proceed. If it's passed, we will proceed. But ... if the House wants legislation on the traditional definition of marriage, that legislation will have to preserve same-sex marriages that presently exist.'' The Liberals were quick with their retort, asking if the Tories would invoke the notwithstanding clause contained in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to "roll back'' equal marriage.  More of Harper resurrects controversial gay marriage debate @ Vancouver Sun (subscription), Canada 

Recap after Lost...

Is Free Trade taxing on a country's identity?             *or* Where have the Empanadas gone? I am a guy from the US that is now living in Santiago, Chile. This is my day to day life and observations looking back at the US. I will be posting daily.

"For decades, the cognitive and neural sciences have treated mental processes as though they involved passing discrete packets of information in a strictly feed-forward fashion from one cognitive module to the next or in a string of individuated binary symbols -- like a digital computer," said Spivey. "More recently, however, a growing number of studies, such as ours, support dynamical-systems approaches to the mind. In this model, perception and cognition are mathematically described as a continuous trajectory through a high-dimensional mental space; the neural activation patterns flow back and forth to produce nonlinear, self-organized, emergent properties -- like a biological organism."

I am starving.On a good note... I got to leave work early! :DI don't seem to write much substantive content anymore. That makes me sad.Happy birthday fairydude69 You're probably hamming up the town, Mr. Jerry.

I wouldn't buy a used toilet if Jerry Garcia sat on it himself! Oh....Wait a minute: Jerry Garcia's three toilets up for grabs TIBURON, Calif., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Southern California charitable auction is offering three toilets and a bidet from the mansion of late Grateful Dead rocker Jerry Garcia. Poor Jerry.

THIS 'N' THAT FROM THIS MONTH'S PERIODICALS 1. It was Marilu Henner, of all people, who taught me one of the most important "rules of thumb" when dressing for a big event. It was in the movie LA Story...

I’ll be back home in Shawnee/Overland Park until Friday night helping get Mom’s Open House for the practice all set up and happy. While I’m gone, I’ll be online maybe once or twice depending on what all I need to do on a computer. You can, as always, contact me in the usual manner of email, [...]

I shaved my head last night. I got tired of having to wash and style it every day. You have no idea how much more convenient being bald is. I know I’ll have some disappointed friends and viewers, some of whom were very excited when I started growing my hair out. [...]

New Orleans is finally starting to shake off the effects of Hurricane Katrina. So while you make your plans for the biggest, best Mardi Gras in history next February, take a look back at the festivities from the Eighties and Nineties through the lens of boyTV, a renegade Web-only archive now up at TonyHayden.com, that "weekly ME-ality series" blog we adore (you know, the one with the hot stud at the helm.) Tony's friend, the delicious host Thomas Hauser, took boyTV to Mardi Gras to capture the gay and hetero abandon that revelers used to crank to legendary heights. Over the course of the first ten-chapter flick, you'll watch the requisite Atlanta boys in their underwear, drag queens in evening wear, and everyone else a little worse for wear after days of nonstop partying. The beads only grow in numbers as the outrageous outfits get more complex: Michael the Archangel is our hunky favorite, but you have to be amazed by the bitch who built an entire Creole townhouse on her head, complete with Barbies showing their tits. There's lots of grainy, lowbrow footage with aerobicized asses, wieners of epic proportions and of course, the oddly charming David Spade-like host. And at the end, maybe you too will have a tear in your eye for what?s happened since to the City that Care Forgot. Watch it all, then click over to MardiGras.com and make sure you sign up for your patriotic duty to life, liberty and the pursuit of beads. BOYTV AND MARDI GRAS [TonyHayden.com]

Get out your wallets because it's time to start booking some fun for Ascent 2006! You are the first to know that comedian Kathy Griffin (right) is bringing her Midwest roots to the mountains. She will perform at the newly named MontBleu (it?s OK to still call it Caesars Tahoe for now) on Friday, March 3, at 9 p.m. Just added to this bill - ANT (left), hyper, irreverent, and, in his words "?so gay, I can put a lisp in the word 'cracker.'" Buy these tickets now .

(Cape Town, South Africa) South Africa's Constitutional Court will announce Thursday whether same-sex couples can marry. If the court rules in favor of gay marriage it would make the country the fifth in the world to permit same-sex couples to wed. The Department of Home Affairs argued that the appeal court violated the rule of the separation of powers by usurping Parliament's power by making law. More of South African Court To Announce Gay Marriage Ruling @ 365Gay.com - USA

I'm usually not a big fan of just posting song lyrics, but this came on my iPod today and it's such a well written song. Some battles you just can't win. I'd forgotten how much I like the song. Uncertain Smile by The The Peeling the skin back from my eyes I felt surprised that the time on the clock was the time I usually retired to the place where I cleaned my head of you but just for today I think I lie here and dream of you I've got you under my skin where the rain can't get in But if the sweat pours out, just shout I'll try to swim and pull you out A howling wind that blows the litter as the rain flows as street lights pour orange coloured shapes through your windows A broken soul stares from a pair of watering eyes uncertain emotions force an uncertain smile

Well, it's finally starting to feel like Christmas. 12/23 @ Iota: The Slickee Boys w/ Switchblade Life Of The Party Here To Stay Jailbait Janet

Bob's show at The Birchmere last night was fantastic. The addition of special guests Amy Domingues (cello) and Rich Morel (keyboards) made it quite the special event. Amy's cello on the Workbook era songs gave them a rich, haunting quality that literally gave me goose-bumps at one point. Rich added lots of color and a fullness to the sound that fell somewhere between Workbook and Body of Song. The first-time-ever performance of "Days of Rain" was stellar. It certainly appeared that Bob was digging the whole gig as well. He even mentioned that even if he wasn't on stage, he would have wanted to see that show himself. Great night. Thanks Bob.Oh yeah - Kristin was really good too. I'm not that familiar with her, but she put on a nice solo acoustic set. Must investigate further.

Bates military boots (they're waterproof), pleated navy Dockers, medium navy stripe shirt, lineman logo long sleeve shirt, black boxer briefs, usual socks. Cowboy boots on morning break.