Friday, August 22, 2008 - Posts
-
sponsorship
Just heard that Biden is "definitely the guy,'' which makes so much sense that I worry it might not be true. ... No sighting of a bumper-sticker, though.
Update: CNN's Candy Crowley reports that there is nothing today's young folk like more than text messages. Larry King advises viewers hoping to learn Obama's VP pick in this manner to "remember to check your things.'' Former McCain press guy (and more recently, Fred Thompson adviser) Todd Harris thinks Joe Biden would be a horrible pick because he's gaffe-prone and you never know what he's going to say next. Sort of like George W. Bush? And here I thought that's what people used to like about him.
-
sponsorship
Does roll off the tongue, though I was sort of hoping they'd spell it Obama-Bi ...
Not sure I'm convinced by that Obama-Bayh bumper sticker Trailhead posted on, which looks a little like the one from ‘04 that said "Bush-Voldemort." Or that's what I'm hoping, anyway, because Bayh is somehow both too much the sort of Steady Eddie who's your fallback date to prom—and an unhappy reminder of his former jogging partner, John Edwards. And does Obama really want to make "Vanilla: Still America's Favorite" the motto of the change election?
-
sponsorship
Doing research on something else entirely, I came across this item in the Phnom Penh Post's police blotter for August 22, 2008 (today):
MOTHER SEPARATES RUNAWAY LESBIANS
Oun Malis, 35, and Toucha Tith Thida, 25, a lesbian couple with Oun Malis in the role of the husband, were separated by one of the girl's mothers in Takhmao, Kandal province on Monday. The women met when they both got jobs as security guards just over a year ago. Before the couple fell in love, Toucha Tith Thida married a Korean man who later left her to return to Korea. Toucha Tith Thida's mother tricked the girl into coming back home by telling her that her husband had returned from Korea and wished to see her. Oun Malis has told Toucha Tith Thida that she will kill herself if she does not return to her within a week.KOH SANTEPHEAP
Now, I don't know any of the facts here. My heart breaks for these two, if all this is true. We would have called this "baby dyke drama," once upon a time, had it happened here in the states. But the context is obviously very different—why in the world is this in the police blotter, of all things?—so I can only wonder what's going on.
But it reminds me of a spate of runaway lesbian weddings in India a few years ago, in which young adult women ran away from home to be together, marrying in informal ceremonies. The surprise was that, when the families went to the police to try to break up the couples, the police or the judge would side with the young women. It was part of a shift in attitude toward gay rights, I learned in 2005 from Aditya Bondyopadhyay, a fearless and amazing gay rights organizer based in India (who risks violence there, as well as in his work in Pakistan and Nepal). I will write to Aditya to find out more about what's going on in Cambodia, but he may not know. If any XX Factor reader happens to know something, please send it along.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?