…Two projects with lots of neighborhood opposition.

The first, a proposed four-story garage on the west side of the Woodland Park Zoo, was the subject of a meeting of city council member David Della’s parks committee earlier this evening, where dozens (and dozens, and dozens) of speakers lined up to express one of two points of view. According to one group, the zoo garage is an absolutely necessary amenity that will benefit the neighborhood by providing necessary parking for visitors to the regional facility, many of whom now park on residential streets. According to the other, the zoo garage is a blight that will sap the neighborhood of its character and cater to cars at the expense of innovative solutions—like a shuttle—for moving people in and out of the zoo.

Slightly more speakers seemed to oppose the garage than supported it, although those who spoke in favor of the new garage uniformly described the zoo as a regional facility that serves families, the disabled, and out-of-towners who simply can’t or aren’t willing to park on city streets and walk several blocks to the zoo. (Never mind that visiting the zoo itself requires walking, or at least exposure to the elements.) Steve Leahy, president of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, said that the garage would be both less “intrusive than some people may fear” and necessary for those who drive to Seattle from other cities. Others, such as erstwhile council candidate and former parks commissioner Bruce Bentley, cited the “need to serve all the families in our city.” And still others, such as former zoo board member Maggie Walker, argued (somewhat incredibly) that the parking garage would allow people to more easily drive to the zoo to experience plants and animals, thus promoting environmental awareness and conservation.

It won’t surprise frequent Slog readers to learn that the arguments against the garage, although frequently shrill, struck me as far more compelling than the arguments in favor. Neighborhood residents argued that the garage was unnecessary, because of the ample amount of street parking in the area; typical was Phinney Ridge resident Irene Wall, who told the council that “the residents of Phinney Ridge have made it clear that we are willing to manage more cars in our neighborhood.” (Her lengthy tirade was cut off repeatedly by Della, a garage supporter.) Another Phinney Ridge resident, Esther Barfteld, said “free parking [on neighborhood streets] is just too tempting” to make a four-story paid garage pencil out. Several others argued against building a monument to cars and global warming in the middle of a park in the self-proclaimed greenest city in America. Seattle “has made a strong commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Rob Johnson, policy director for the Transportation Choices Coalition. “I think that requires a lot of really tough choices.”

I could have listened to lots more along those lines, but I had to run out the door to make it to the POWHAT (Pine-Olive Way-Howell-Area Triangle neighborhood association) meeting on Capitol Hill, where residents and couple of business owners gathered in the chilly basement of the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church to discuss strategies that could improve the block-long development on East Pine Street between Summit and Belmont, where seven small bars and retail businesses currently stand.

The meeting, led by the indefatigable Jennifer Powers, was by turns depressing, combative, and hopeful—although, ultimately, mostly the former. The problem with strategizing against a massive development is that the law is always in the developer’s favor—developers have the money, the permits, and the ability to more easily prevail in court if challenged, making it hard for a little neighborhood group (at its strongest, the meeting numbered 30 folks) to wield much leverage against even the most egregiously out-of-character development (and this one, if ever one did, fits the bill). Powers began the meeting by tacitly acknowledging all that, saying, “If we just go, ‘Oh, [the development] makes us cranky and we hate it,’ no one’s going to listen.”

A few things emerged during the meeting.

1) The design for the block is getting worse, not better.

The latest renderings show a six-story, block-long structure with tiny balconies, several different colors of siding (how original!)and almost no green or open space. “It doesn’t fit into the neighborhood so well,” Powers said. The developer’s plans would require four variances from city regulations. First, the developers want out of the city’s Green Factor standards, which require the building to meet certain green-building standards. Second, they want to take up more of the lot than the maximum allowable depth. Third, they want to provide only half the open space required by city regulations. And fourth, they want to reduce the sight lines around the large entrance to the underground garage to less than the city minimum.

2) The city’s design review process offers very few opportunities for meaningful opposition, a fact that frustrated some residents and led them to lash out at developers and developers’ lawyers in attendance.

“The whole thing has to pencil out,” said Liz Dunn, a member of the Pike-Pine Neighborhood and developer of several buildings that feature local business on 12th Avenue. “They’ve paid a fortune for the land. That deal is done.” Dunn’s comments prompted a tirade from hill resident Dennis Saxman, who accused Dunn of “saying this deal is done and so there’s no point complaining.” After Powers had restored order (which took a while), Dunn suggested that Capitol Hill activists consider pushing for a conservation district, which would allow the neighborhood to restrict certain types of signage but would be less restrictive (and easier to obtain) than historic-district designation. “It turns out that when you eliminate a lot of signage criteria you eliminate a lot of chain stores, because [bright plastic underlit signs are] their corporate signage,” Dunn said.

3) Variance requests by developers give neighborhood residents leverage. The developer’s requests to be exempted from local land-use laws aren’t automatic, and neighborhood residents could (and should) use them to their advantage. Whatever the neighborhood ultimately decides is most important—green space, or neighborhood-friendly retail, or soundproofing in new condos—the best leverage they have is the variances from city rules the developers are requesting.

The House passed the domestic partnership bill 63-35. It passed the Senate 28-19 last month. So, now it’s off to Governor Gregoire’s desk. She has said she supports the bill and is expected to sign it.

Sponsor, gay Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle), already coming off of last year’s gay civil rights bill, issued this statement:

In 1998, this Legislature shamefully blocked the door of equality for gay and lesbian families,” said Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the bill’s prime sponsor. “With the passage of this legislation, we begin to slowly open that door and provide much-needed protections for the tens of thousands of gay and lesbian families in Washington. This marks a beginning – not an end – of the work ahead us in achieving full marriage equality.

Protections offered under SB 5336 include: hospital visitation rights, the right to make health care decisions for an incapacitated loved one, the right to make funeral arrangements funerals and inheritance rights when there is no will.

I did a longer interview with Sen. Murray (who voiced concerns about the political strength of the gay marriage movement), and that interview will be in tomorrow’s paper.

Meanwhile, this evening’s press release also gives the microphone to the lead sponsors in the House, gay Reps. Jamie Pedersen and Rep. Joe McDermott, both from Seattle.

Our dialogue with the public has been successful,” said McDermott, noting that a public opinion poll conducted by independent pollster Stuart Elway in early February found nearly 60 percent of Washington voters approve of same-sex domestic partnership rights. “Marriage equality is still the goal, and so the conversation continues.”

And Rep. Pedersen:

“The Legislature passed the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act in 1998 and codified discrimination against gay and lesbian families,” said Pedersen. “The state Supreme Court upheld discrimination last summer and now the Legislature is responsible for correcting the injustice. This bill includes only a small fraction of the rights and protections associated with marriage. Each year, we will be back to add more of those rights and protections until the public understands that it’s only fair to allow gay and lesbian people to marry.”

I love the daily featured videos on ArtsJournal—little bits of Joshua Bell playing his violin or Joan Didion talking about turning The Year of Magical Thinking into a play.

Today’s feature is Jen Graves and Kelly O’s video interview with SAM conservator Nicholas Dorman, who talked about restoring The Triumph of Valor Over Time which was painted by Tiepolo, the Venetian son of a sailor who also painted this:

Over the weekend I had to kill a half hour in a train station in Oregon. There were these two copies of a magazine called Awake! sitting on a bench. On the cover of one is a crying little girl in a pink shirt and, in the corners, images of explosions, helicopters, tornadoes, and flooding. The cover text: “WHY?” And in smaller letters: “Answering the Hardest of Questions.”

Intrigued, I flipped it open right to an article titled “Young People Ask… How Can I Conquer This Habit?” The accompanying photo is of a man sitting in a leather chair with his chin in his hand. The first sentence:

Perhaps you, like Luiz, have been enslaved to the habit of masturbation. You know that Jehovah would be pleased with you if you resisted the urge and exercised self-control, a fruit of God’s holy spirit…

Jehovah? Oh, Jehovah! As in the Witnesses! Those crazy kids known for “door-to-door preaching, their objection to blood transfusions, and for not celebrating birthdays or holidays.” (And also smelling weird and being opposed to their children going to college and learning things, if the few of them I’ve known are any sample.)

Naturally, I was riveted. Third paragraph:

If your feelings are similar to those of Luiz, Pedro, or André, take courage. You’re not alone, and your case is not hopeless! Many young people—and older ones—have struggled with masturbation and have been able to overcome it. You can too.*

The asterisk corresponds to this footnote:

Although the people quoted in this article are males, many females also struggle with masturbation. Hence, the advice given pertains to both genders. Note, too, that this article discusses masturbating oneself. Doing it outside of marriage to another person is included in what the Bible calls fornication, a very serious sin in God’s eyes.—See the article “Young People Ask…What’s Wrong With Premarital Sex?” in our issue of July 22, 2004, pages 12-14.”

Person who left these magazines for me on the bench, why oh why couldn’t you leave the July 22, 2004 issue? I want to read what’s wrong with premarital sex!

One more quote from the article and I’ll let you have your Slog back:

One Christian who struggled with masturbation for several years commented: “How I wish I could have summed the courage to talk to someone about it when I was a youth! Feelings of guilt plagued me for many years, and it seriously affected my relationships with others and, above all, with Jehovah.”

Mmm. Yeah. But it’s okay One Christian. Just don’t go to college or get a blood transfusion and I think Jehovah will be okay with you.

Man, I feel so alive after reading this magazine. I feel like a youth again!

In a bid for more attention (eventually) one of the states that tends to be most overlooked by prospective presidential candidates has approved pulling out of the electoral college altogether:

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland officially became the first state on Tuesday to approve a plan to give its electoral votes for president to the winner of the national popular vote instead of the candidate chosen by state voters.

It’s live online now. Listen here.

The topic is Iraq, and the guests, in order of appearance, are: John Edwards, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, and Barack Obama.

The House is voting on the domestic partnership bill this afternoon. There were 56 co-sponsors for the original bill in the House (today’s vote is a House vote on the bill that cleared the Senate in March ). So, it seems like a sure thing.

Congrats to gays, lesbians, and het seniors.

The bill would grant about 10 rights to domestic partners—like allow domestic partners to have hospital visitation rights; allow domestic partners to give informed consent on hospital decisions; allow partners to make funeral arrangements; and allow domestic partners to inherit property in the absence of a will.

It leaves a host (423 and counting according to the latest study) of other rights off the table, like access to your partner’s health care or your parnter’s pension benefits; the ability to file a wrongful death suit if you partner is killed; and the right of “spousal privilege” —which would shield a domestic partner (like a husband or wife) from being compelled to testify against one another.

The key legislators on the bill, Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) and Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D-43, Seattle), are taking a bite size approach and promised in January, when they introduced the legislation, to come back for more bites next year… and the next…

As for you weirdo straights under 65 that just. don’t. want. to get married, well, SOL.

Andrew W.K. Mystery: Is there a partying impostor? Ari and Eric try to crack the case.

Welcome Home, Trashies!: Their final corn-dog-fueled installment from the road.

Whole Lotta Guitar Lessons: Become the next Jimmy Page.

Grand Archives (Again): Sub Pop, not surprisingly, snatches up the local buzz band.

Before Lady Marmallade: The man behind the hits.

Attention Vinyl Lovers: New blog on the block.

And now a moment of cuteness from this baby hedgehog:

Not the US but the EU is the terminal of history. Fukuyama:

The End of History was never linked to a specifically American model of social or political organization. Following Alexandre Kojève, the Russian-French philosopher who inspired my original argument, I believe that the European Union more accurately reflects what the world will look like at the end of history than the contemporary United States. The EU’s attempt to transcend sovereignty and traditional power politics by establishing a transnational rule of law is much more in line with a ‘post-historical’ world than the Americans’ continuing belief in God, national sovereignty, and their military.

Why the confusion and constant adjustments? The problem in all of this is the notion of the end itself. Fukuyama just has to let it go. The adjustments and modifications wont stop until he lets the idea go and comes up with a completely new one. One that begins by seeing there is no end in sight, no end to “the voiceless wailing,/No end to the withering of withered flowers,/To the movement of pain that is painless and motionless,/To the drift of the sea and the drifting wreckage…” Not an end of anything but a constant addition to everything. Jean-Luc Nancy is right to speak of the restlessness of history, rather than its completion, its return home, its end.

Go to Line Out to weigh in.

A study conducted by Cardiff University and published in Applied Economics has established a strong link between the price of beer and violence.

The researchers examined admissions to 58 hospital accident and emergency departments over a five year period and found that as the price of beer increased, violence-related injuries decreased.

In general, studies have found that alcohol consumption increases both the risk of being a victim of violence and the perpetrator of it. There are three main theories on why alcohol and violence are linked: i) due to the drug effects on the brain; ii) because people use alcohol as an excuse for violent behaviour; iii) because people who use alcohol might be more likely to be violent, perhaps due to personality factors like sensation-seeking, impulsivity or risk-taking.

As Andrew Sullivan points out, similar studies on the use of marijuana have not been conducted, nor would our government fund one, because pot—pot use—is not associated with violence. Alcohol makes people aggressive while lowering their inhibitions—an explosive combo in some. Pot, on the other hand, mellows people out while making them hungry. So which would you rather have, say, your teenage son experiment with? Pot or beer?

I say pot—and I said it on Fox News when Skipping Towards Gomorrah was published, which damn near caused Judith Regan’s head to explode.

Two Seattle cops under investigation for botching a Belltown drug bust have beaten the rap, but it’s still unclear what happened during the bust.

The inquest started after an African-American man in a wheelchair claimed the officers planted crack rocks on his lap and then arrested him using excessive force. Those allegations were followed by decisive action: dismissal of the man’s case, suspension of about 17 other cases, and an internal investigation of the two officers’ conduct. But the investigation found one misstep punishable only by letter of reprimand.

Chief Gil Kerlikowske said both claims proved to be unfounded. “I can tell you this case was investigated very thoroughly,” he said.

The officers are expected to be disciplined for failing to report they briefly handcuffed and detained a second man during the arrest.

That’s odd. When the PI broke the story in March, the prosecutor’s office indicated there were other problems with the case.

The man’s defense attorney, Ramona Brandes, said that when she pressed for a better reason, the deputy prosecutor told her: “Your client will know why.”

Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, also would not elaborate beyond what was said in court. “We felt we had proof problems on this case,” he said.

If failing to document a temporary detainment created “proof problems” that were grounds for a major investigation, why would Kerlikowske practically exonerate the officers when they’re found guilty? Claims of excessive force are fairly common but probes of this scope are rare, so I doubt that suspect’s complaint on its own triggered the investigation.

It seems to me that police investigators and prosecutors genuinely suspected a greater malfeasance but couldn’t quite prove it. Video evidence of the scene apparently didn’t shed any light on things – it mostly showed the officers’ backs.

I’m very busy Tuesdays, so I haven’t had a chance to read the aforementioned NYT article. But I do note that it appears not very many Slog readers noticed my intentionally inflammatory book review of March 14. It follows.

Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics by Jennifer Baumgardner (FSG) $24

Coauthor of the third-wave handbook Manifesta, Jennifer Baumgardner (the one who was dating Amy Ray, not the one who had an abortion) has written one of the first general-interest books on female bisexuality. It’s ridiculous that it’s taken so long. Popular terms like “girl crush” (which Baumgardner, a former Ms. editor and second-waver in spirit, professes to find “cloying”) and LUG (lesbian until graduation) are politically incorrect acknowledgments of an easily observed truth: Female sexuality is fluid and adaptable. It doesn’t take a jail cell or a whaling vessel to turn a straight girl on to other women, whether it’s for a semester or 50 years. The converse, while even touchier, is also true: Self-professed lesbians stray every day. Drawing lightly from psychoanalysis (Freud via Marjorie Garber) and heavily from her own life, Baumgardner breezes from the political lesbianism of the ’70s to the sudden efflorescence of pop-culture bisexuality in the ’90s. She attempts to recuperate bizarro Anne Heche, lavishes perhaps too many pages on confessional CEO Ani DiFranco, and tells her own story in serially monogamous anecdotes. In the exhausted tradition of consciousness raising, Look Both Ways is ultimately more memoir than treatise. But it’s still a provocative heads-up. ANNIE WAGNER

Last Thursday afternoon, there was a big fight in an apartment complex near Rainier Beach High School. Multiple cops cars, multiple arrests, lots of noise.

A young drama instructor named Rajnii Eddins was headed to the high school, saw the aftermath of the fight, and one of his students, who looked upset because one of her friends had been arrested.

He approached the police to ask after the girl, was arrested, taken to King County jail, dressed in prison reds, and held until midnight. Why?

According to Eddins: “Just because I’m a black man and asking a question about one of my students, a 14-year-old girl.”

According to Officer Richard Nelson’s police report: “I advised him he was under arrest for obstructing a police officer.”

Eddins and the police report disagree with just about everything—Eddins said he identified himself as a drama instructor, that he was at Rainier Beach to direct a play, that he just wanted to know what the girl was being charged with and whether her parents had been notified yet. He said that the police told him to step back, so he did and repeated his question. The cops told him to step back again, he did, and repeated his question. Eddins says he was then searched, told he was being arrested for “interfering” and held at the precinct for a half an hour before his rights were read.

“I was not rash or hostile,” Eddins said. “I’m not an aggressive person. I highly doubt that if I was in Bellevue and white that I wouldn’t have been just given the information” about the arrested student.

The police report tells a different story: That Eddins walked up to the squad car, talked to the student, refused to explain who he was or why he was there, and wouldn’t move away from the car when asked. “I perceived his non-compliance and actions as a serious threat to my Officer safety and escorted him to the front of my patrol car,” Officer Nelson wrote. “[Eddins] later informed [Officer] Atofau that he is employed with a drama company which contracts with the Seattle public schools.” (Eddins works with Arts Corps, Youth Speaks, and other youth-art-advocacy organizations.)

It’s an unusual case of he said/he said: teacher versus cop.

Eddins has a hearing this afternoon. I’ll keep you posted.

Larry Birkhead, the celebrity photographer who willingly had sex with Anna Nicole Smith, has been confirmed as the biological father of celebrity orphan-no-more Danielynn Smith.

Attention talented freaks and those who love to gawk at them: This Thursday, April 12 at the Crocodile Cafe, The Stranger will be presenting its first-ever Gong Show, hosted by yours truly.

This means we’re looking for any and all unique and entertaining acts hungry to strut their stuff before a panel of drunken judges for fabulous prizes. This means jugglers, magicians, yodelers, strongmen, stand-up comics, clog dancers, air bands, contortionists, jug bands, sword swallowers, vaudeville acts, and anyone else with an act that’s under four minutes long and doesn’t involve fire or minors. (The Croc is a bar.)

For more info and to sign up for the competition, go here. Talent may also sign-up at the door the night of the show, starting at 7pm.

And if you just want to gawk/cheer/heckle the drunken celebrity judges (including Sarah Rudinoff, Kerri Harrop, Dave Meinert, On the Boards artistic director Lane Czaplinski, and Stranger music editor Jonathan Zwickel) show up at the Crocodile on Thursday, April 12 for the fabulous and totally free freak parade kicking off at 9pm.

In the meantime, please enjoy this archival Gong Show footage of the greatest Gong Show act ever, featuring an aghast cameo by guest judge Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Just a quick note to say that I had my first experience with Ezell’s fried chicken last night.

FUCK YES.

The spicy blend was actually spicy, not like most weak-ass “spicy” eats I’ve found in Seattle in the couple months I’ve been here. The skin was perfectly crisped, the flesh perfectly moist and tender, the overall sensation perfectly delicious and homey (because I was eating take-out at home).

I sing the praises of Ezell’s!

One reason the NYT’s piece on sexuality is, as Jen pointed out, so muddled and confusing, is that scientists are just beginning to study female sexuality. They really don’t know much about it yet. Thus we get paragraphs like the following:

What was the feminine equivalent of an erection anyway? Was it vaginal swelling and lubrication, or something else entirely? Women are generally smaller and less muscular than men. What might the feeling of being physically threatened do to enhance or hamper a woman’s sexual appetite?

Elsewhere, the story says researchers were confused by women’s failure to adhere to culturally approved norms—the widespread belief, for example, that women can’t get turned on when they’re sad, or that women shy away from images of genitals (and thus don’t like porn), or that women don’t care what men look like.

Conventional wisdom has it that a woman’s libido is stifled by unhappiness, anxiety or anger, but the survey showed that about 25 percent of women used sex to lift them out of a bad mood or to resolve a marital spat.

Women also differed in the importance they accorded a man’s physical appearance, with many expressing a comparatively greater likelihood of being aroused by evidence of talent or intelligence — say, while watching a man deliver a great speech.

Well, what of it? The Times observes these behaviors, but fails to reach any conclusions. These are not minor points—female arousal, for example, is currently assessed based on vaginal swelling and lubrication (a byproduct of male sex research that assesses arousal based on whether a man gets an erection). If it’s “something else entirely,” perhaps the Times’s other conclusions—such as the assumption that men simply have “higher sex drives”—might also prove untrue. (And don’t even get me started on the “women-just-don’t-want-sex” myth, which asserts that women lack sexual desire while ignoring the many cultural factors that might make it so.*)

The same thing goes for all the researchers’ other “surprising” conclusions. Maybe the fact that women are turned on by different things than men doesn’t speak to our mysterious. Sphinxlike complexity and otherness, but the fact that researchers are asking the wrong questions. Perhaps the real story here is that researchers are finally getting around to studying women’s sexuality—and the surprise isn’t that what turns women on is “different,” but that no one’s ever bothered asking us.

* I think this also speaks to the researchers Jen mentions who say men are “stubborn” about the type of sex they want to pursue, while women are more “flexible.” When you go through your entire life being told your sexual desires don’t matter, and that you need to be flexible and easygoing in all things, including but not limited to sex, it might follow that you’d be more pliant in the sack as well. Then again, maybe us girls are all just bi.

Cross-posted.

A New Fuel (Conflict of Interest) Dani Cone wrote for The Stranger before opening the first Fuel—a gem of a coffee shop—on 19th Avenue East in 2005. A second Fuel opened in Montlake in 2006. This week, a third Fuel opens in Wallingford. Cone has a knack for creating hip-but-comfortable spaces, and the new Fuel features her trademark rough-edged industrial theme. The opening art show is also a conflict of interest: Peter Kearns is The Stranger’s club ad rep—and a talented photographer (www.pkearns.com). (Fuel Coffee, 1705 N 45th St, 634-2700. Grand opening Sat April 7, 2-—9 pm.) DAN SAVAGE

See what else the Stranger Suggests this week.

Matt Dillon of Sitka & Spruce (prescient, fervent, very-first-ever review by yours truly here) has been named one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs (also of local note: Gabriel Rucker of Portland’s Le Pigeon). Matt is making lunch at Sitka & Spruce RIGHT NOW. He just got back from New York (photo session, etc.); he sounds sleepy but happy. They have oysters.

You know, everytime I bash hippies on this blog, a bunch of long-haired soap-scared hippie freaks crawl out of the woodwork, and accuse ME of being close-minded. AND YET? I keep finding proof that I’m absolutely correct in my assumption that hippies are effing GROSS and STUPID. Today’s proof comes from a 1967 episode of LOST IN SPACE, in which the crew are obviously under the ill effects of a real marijuana freakout. Watch this clip and decide for yourself: IS WILL ROBINSON “A SQUARE”? (I think you know my answer.)

Thanks, Cracked.

I picked up my New York Times Science Times today to discover—in the midst of layers and layers of other completely uninteresting reporting about sex, as if the Times discovered sex existed a few days ago and rushed to deadline with the vaguest of scoops—that only men are hetero or homo.

The scientists refer to this as a hardwired sexual female “flexibility.”

Whether women describe themselves as straight or lesbian, “Their sexual arousal seems to be relatively indiscriminate — they get aroused by both male and female images,” Dr. Bailey said. “I’m not even sure females have a sexual orientation. But they have sexual preferences. Women are very picky, and most choose to have sex with men.”

Dr. Bailey believes that the systems for sexual orientation and arousal make men go out and find people to have sex with, whereas women are more focused on accepting or rejecting those who seek sex with them.

Similar differences between the sexes are seen by Marc Breedlove, a neuroscientist at Michigan State University. “Most males are quite stubborn in their ideas about which sex they want to pursue, while women seem more flexible,” he said.

Was this not worth its own story? Or is the research too flimsy to base an entire story on, so you bury it in another one? Seems like a big story when you’re declaring that half the population is incapable of having a sexual orientation.

If it were the male half, wouldn’t this be on the front page? Is it buried here because women are just considered such creatures of indecision anyway that a little matter of sexual ambidextrousness is like a tough choice between colors of nail polish?

There’s more—in another story in the section, written by a different reporter and citing a different scientist. Is this becoming common wisdom?:

Women’s sexual fluidity extends beyond the strength of desire, he said, to encompass the objects of that desire. In his survey, heterosexual women who rated their sex drive as high turned out to have an increased attraction to women as well as to men.

“This is not to say that all women are bisexual,” Dr. Lippa said. “Most of the heterosexual women would still describe themselves as more attracted to men than to women.” Still, the mere presence of a hearty sexual appetite seemed to expand a heterosexual woman’s appreciation of her fellow women’s forms. By contrast, the men were more black-and-white in their predilections. If they were straight and had an especially high sex drive, that concupiscence applied only to women; if gay, to other men.

Dr. Diamond of the University of Utah also has evidence that women’s sexual attractions are, as she put it, “more nonexclusive than men’s.”

And then it starts to get messy:

One factor that may contribute to women’s sexual ambidextrousness, some researchers suggest, is the intriguing and poorly understood nonspecificity of women’s physical reactions to sexual stimuli. As Dr. Chivers of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health and other researchers have found, women and men show very divergent patterns of genital arousal while viewing material with sexual content.

For men, there is a strong concordance between their physiological and psychological states. If they are looking at images that they describe as sexually arousing, they get erections. When the images are not to their expressed taste or sexual orientation, however, their genitals remain unmoved.

For women, the correlation between pelvic and psychic excitement is virtually nil. Women’s genitals, it seems, respond to all sex, all the time. Show a woman scenes of a man and a woman having sex, or two women having sex, or two men, or even two bonobos, Dr. Chivers said, and as a rule her genitals will become measurably congested and lubricated, although in many cases she may not be aware of the response.

Ask her what she thinks of the material viewed, however, and she will firmly declare that she liked this scene, found that one repellent, and, frankly, the chimpanzee bit didn’t do it for her at all. Regardless of declared sexual orientation, Dr. Chivers said, “with women, there’s a discrepancy between stated preference and physiological arousal, and this discrepancy has been seen consistently across studies.”

Now, in addition to being indecisive biologically, our various systems are not even connected. (Even though when you ask us what we want, we know.)

I’d write more, except that this office is full of interesting men and women. It’s all I can do to figure out which ones I am attracted to today.

Today’s The PI has the final chapter on the condo conversion legislation we’ve been following this session that Seattle activists and City Council Members were pushing in Olympia.

In short: It’s dead for now.

So much for conventional wisdom east of the mountains that Seattle runs the show in Olympia. Heck, even with the urban Democrats in the supermajority (not to mention a House speaker from the urbane 43rd District), the legislation didn’t pass.

The bill would have provided relocation assistance and notice guidelines to tenants displaced by condo conversions.

There were 2,352 condo conversions in Seattle in 2006, which is particularly alarming for low-rent renters given that 3,900 lower-priced rentals have been either converted to condos or filed for conversion in the last two years. The average price of new condos is $250,000.

The version of the bill that got iced didn’t even include an earlier provision that would have put a limit on condo conversions. Dems took out that provision as a compromise to move the legislation. Yeah, that worked.

Ejaculation turns off men’s brains.

Matt Sanchez—the former gay porn star/male escort turned marine/conservative poster boy—told Radar magazine late last month that he “doesn’t remember” if he ever sucked cock on film. Which means he can’t really be all that gay.

Clearly Sanchez has been paying attention to the way the Bush administration handles scandal. Never deny anything, never admit to anything—just claim to have an unreliable memory. Did I attend meetings at which the politically-motivated firings of eight US attorneys were discussed? Alberto doesn’t remember. Did I out a covert CIA operative working on weapons of mass destruction? Scooter can’t recall when exactly he first forgot. Did George W. Bush ever meet with Jack Abramoff, give Ken Lay a nickname, or fuck the shit out of Jeff Gannon? Bush has no specific recollection of having met, nicknamed, or fucked any of these men.

The faulty memory defense doesn’t work as well for Sanchez—after all, we’re talking about whether or not he sucked cock in one of the pornos in which he appeared. Remembering what Ronald Reagan had to say about the Soviets—trust but verify—Jack at GayPornBlog went to the videotape.

Here’s a NSFW—well, your workplace, not mine—image of Matt Sanchez sucking cock. And eating ass—literally, not the way he ate it on O’Reilly.

This, from Caryn over at art.blogging.la, is a great watch, and a perfect counterpart to Christian Marclay’s Video Quartet. In fact, Baldessari’s performance would have fit right in with Eric Fredericksen’s entire current show at Western Bridge, Kit Bashing. (I review it in tomorrow’s paper.)

Down in my Chris Crocker post from yesterday morning, there’s a high-minded discussion brewing about the threshold for claiming to have haters.

Can the common man (and woman) claim to have haters? Or is it a privilege/affliction reserved for the the infamous, the famous, the mildly famous, and the somewhat known in some circles (including the writers and bloggers of this here publication)?

An excerpt:

I have to disagree with robotslave. No matter who you are or how insignificant you feel, there will always be someone out there ready to hate you.

Posted by mattymatt | April 9, 2007 03:52 PM

mattymatt, I think you deliberately elide the significant difference between having someone somewhere out there ready to hate oneself, and actually having so many vocal, antagonistic observers that one can say one “has haters.”

I would never say that most people don’t do anything hateworthy, or that people by and large don’t hate; I am suggesting, rather, that only public figures, or those with aspirations to fame, are at all likely to think they “have haters,” and reflexively use a phrase like “You Think You Have haters….”

Posted by robotslave | April 9, 2007 06:13 PM

And now, a NSFW word from Mr. Crocker on haters. (And another word—actually, a bunch of identical words—from one of his many YouTube imitators. And another. And another.)

It’s a miracle! Charlene Cothran has been freed from the bondage of lesbianism! We could write her off as just another weak, silly, insecure homo finally undone by the zap family (disowned when she came out) and religion (raised in a deeply homophobic faith) put on her head. But Cothran is also the founder and publisher of Venus, a lifestyle magazine for black lesbians. If God can make someone like Cothran straight—because that’s what ex-gay is, right? ex-gay = straight, right?—then miracles do happen and anything is possible through God and no one has to be gay and can I get an “amen!” and blah blah fuckin’ blah.

But check out Clay Cane’s interview with Cothran—we know you’re out there reading, Rev. Hutcherson, and I’m ordering you in particular to go read Cane’s interview with Cothran. Here are some choice quotes:

So, what about you now really makes you heterosexual?

Charlene: Nothing. You’ve spoken a piece of truth. Right now I am completely satisfied with my walk, which is me and God. My prayer wasn’t—Lord make me heterosexual. My prayer was not fix me, repair me and make me straight—that was not my prayer. My prayer was God make me whole in every sense of the word, make me whole mentally, make me whole spiritually, make me whole completely….

Are you saying that you are not heterosexual?

Charlene: I am saying that I am celibate right now. I’m not saying there won’t ever be a man in my life. You’re asking me about where I am and that’s all I can speak to. Today I am celibate. Again, I don’t say I will never have a man in my life, I’m not saying I will never be married to a man. Who knows what the Lord has in store for me. But…there is one thing I can say and one thing I will go on record and say—I will never be entangled with the bondage of lesbianism again….

Are you physically attracted to men?

Charlene: [pauses] I am physically attracted to the spirit of Christ right now. You’re trying to take me down a road that I won’t go down right now.

Oh no, I’m just trying to ask the questions that I know people have been asking.

Charlene: Right now I’m in a place where I won’t even allow myself to think about attraction to men….

Are you still attracted to women or is that attraction completely gone?

Charlene: I would say after 29 years of walking in the sin of lesbianism that if the devil were going to try and tempt me that he’s probably not going to send a football player, if you will, because that didn’t do it for me. You follow me?

It’s nice to know that ex-lesbian Charlene Cothran is in a place where she isn’t allowed to think about attraction to men. My office is down the street from just such a place—it’s called the Wildrose, Seattle’s only dyke bar. I’ll buy you a beer, Charlene, the next time you’re in town.

And Rev. Hutcherson? You may fool some straight people—particularly the straight fools in your congregation—with your talk about “ex-gays,” and the healing power of Christ, and miracles, and getting right with God. But sane, secure gay people—the vast majority of us—don’t buy it. We know being “ex-gay” doesn’t “free” a weak, silly, and insecure homosexual from her homosexuality. It only “liberates” her from the possibility of a full, adult, intimate relationship. She doesn’t get to be straight…. she gets to be celibate. Wow. That’s enticing.

So while Charlene may have reunited her with her bigoted family and “gotten right” with her fictional boogeyman of a savior, she hasn’t become straight. She’s still a ‘mo—a slow ‘mo, but a ‘mo.

Two other quick observations: Venus used to be a lifestyle magazine for lesbians. Now it’s… what? A lifestyle magazine for lesbians that want to leave the lesbian lifestyle? I’m not sure there’s a big market for that.

And you gotta love the cover text: “REDEEMED! 10 Ways to Get Out of ‘The Life’ if You Want Out!” It would appear that Cothran attended the same magazine publishing seminars as the editors and publishers of Seattle’s idiotic “lifestyle” magazines. “10 Ways Out of the Gay Lifestyle!” “25 Up and Coming Neighborhoods!” “367 Top Doctors!” “Seattle’s 100 Best Restaurants!” Lists, lists, lists. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Don Imus’s racist outburst about the Rutgers women’s basketball team brings us right back to where we started:

In 1956, the North Alabama Citizens Council—after picketing an integrated concert bill at Birmingham’s Municipal Auditorium starring the Platters, Bo Diddley, Clyde McPhatter, and Bill Haley & the Comets (!)—forced Birmingham to pass legislation instructing the venue, “not to book any shows, basketball games, or any other type of event that had mixed races in the personnel.”

Although, for once, let’s exculpate mid-20th Century Alabama. Last night, I read this excellent story about Bessemer, Alabama: In 1960, when Don’s Teen Town announced they were canceling the evening’s show because the Ku Klux Klan had threatened to assault that evening’s entertainment—local black rock and roll disc jockey, Shelley Stewart— the all-white, teen audience overwhelmed the Klan contingent, beating them up and scaring them away.

Housing: Nationwide boom linked in part to skeezy mortgages.

Slapped Wrists: Don Imus suspended two weeks for calling Rutgers basketball players “nappy-headed hos.”

Piracy: The U.S. puts China on notice.

Profits: Britain tells former captive sailors they can’t sell their stories.

May 1: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s deadline for taking control over his country’s oil fields.

Obesity: Americans 100lbs. or more overweight are the country’s ”fastest-growing group of overweight people.”

2007: The year Turner County High School in Georgia finally de-segregated its prom.

North Korea: Already missing deadlines for nuclear dismantlement.

Imagine That: Appeals court says President Bush’s save-the-salmon plan is “sleight of hand.”

Servants: Southern California millionaires are having trouble finding good help.

Fort Lewis: Contaminated water may be poisoning family homes.

The Shield: Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske won’t spend the $120,000 the City Council gave him to hire a sergeant to investigate officer misconduct.

Seattle Sonics: One step closer to boondoggling Renton.

Voting: On-line registration awaiting signature on Governor Gregoire’s desk.

Sexy Presidential Fact of the Day: From Edmund Morris’s Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan:

Reagan tried to kiss Pat[ricia Neal] once, more out of duty than desire, and she fended him off easily: “Oh, Ronnie, no!” She was neither the first nor the last woman to find him more attractive than desirable. Joy Hodges once told me a similar story, and said that Dutch en s’excitant gave her a curious urge to giggle.