News: iPhone, Shemar Moore, DADT, Sudan, Michael Christopher

· iPhone mania becomes iSnafu. As consumers across the world snap up the new 3G, many American buyers "left stores on Friday frustrated because their new gadgets did not work due to problems activating service. A spokesman for AT&T Inc, the sole U.S. carrier for the iPhone, blamed problems synchronizing the phone with Apple's iTunes online music and software store."

· Gizmodo publishes two reviews and a gallery.

"Apple has eliminated so many annoying little hang-ups that you might run into when using the old one. The GPS pinpoints to meters instead of blocks. The 3G connection slashes web loading times by minutes to seconds. The more rounded case feels great in the hand. And most importantly the new software polishes the OS and opens the phone up to nearly unlimited capabilities through the countless programs that are already being written by the brilliant legions of faithful developers. It's kind of cool."

· Obama considers sponsoring Sprint Cup Car in NASCAR.

· South Carolina tourism agency has buyers remorse after commissioning an "overseas advertising campaign targeting gay tourists. The campaign, tied to gay pride week celebrations in London, included ads that proclaimed 'South Carolina is so gay' " and promoted its "gay beaches."

· JFK Airport has second near-collision in a week.

· Shemar Moore on the secrets of his abs to TV Guide. "I like being pushed to my limit.''

· Kevin Naff at the Washington Blade says farewell to an icon of hate. "Maybe the prospect of Barack Obama as president was too much for [Jesse Helms] to bear and so he shuffled off this mortal coil. His death—and Obama’s candidacy—marks a historic turning point in race relations for the country. National public figures like sitting senators can no longer get away with open expressions of racism. We are on the verge of electing a black man president. Gay couples are marrying legally on both coasts. It must have been a scary world for Helms."

· House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee will hold hearings on the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy—the first such hearings since the policy was enacted in 1993.

· Meanwhile, an editorial in today's Washington Post says DADT must be repealed. "The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy that continues the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military was wrong when President Clinton signed it into law in 1993, and it's wrong today. The only difference between then and now is that more people are now coming around to that conclusion."

· Michael Christopher (Living the Life, From Top to Bottom) talks to Southern Voice and Steven G. Fullwood about his new novel Unspeakable, which explores the effects of childhood sexual abuse on black gay men.

· Report: "One or more Republican senators" are considering opposing proposal to repeal 15-year-old HIV travel ban.

· Housing crisis become even more critical. Federal regulators shut down mortgage lender IndyMac, "the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history." Earlier in the day, stocks fell sharply "on concerns about the stability of mortgage industry giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

· The International Criminal Court will seek the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur. United Nations in an uproar "with the Sudanese ambassador accusing the court of trying to destabilize his country and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressing concern about the safety of United Nations personnel in the African nation."

Comments

[Derrick Voss]

That new iPhone is gorgeous. Are those characters in Japanese or Chinese?

[ID]

Oooooh. I love Shemar Moore. He should have been on the cover instead of Mario Lopez.

[OLIVER W]

South Carolina is very gay. At least Savannah is.

[A. Ronald]

Well, I'm assuming that is not your phone or we would have seen the pictures. Are you an iPhone guy? For some reason you struck me as a Blackberry type, I think you have posted that. I read the Gizmodo review and apparently the new 3G has a feature compatible with the BB push email.

[ROD MC]

Yep, I'm a PC/Blackberry man. The iPhone is very compelling. I have the iTouch and it is more user friendly than the Blackberry. If the 3G has a push email function like the Blackberry, I will have to9 check it out.

[id]

I love the iPhone galleries. More tech news, please!

[Jimmy]

Shemar said, "The 38-year-old Criminal Minds star has to keep up his membership -- due to a tendency to gain weight in all the wrong places. ``My butt will get bigger. My thighs will get thicker. My face will get chubbier."

YES, YES, YES! I say he lose the membership.

[elg]

So many of the black gay men I've known over the years have told me they were sexually abused when they were children. The abuser was usually someone in the family (older brothers, uncles, etc.), someone close to the family (mom's "boyfriend") or someone in the neighborhood.

Several of the black gay men who told me their secret have said they believe the sexual molestation "caused" them to be gay. I'm looking forward to reading Michael Christopher's book to see what insights he has to offer.

[Derrick from Philly]

It is interestting and sad, elg. Sometimes the rapist will use the excuse of the boy's "gayness" as the reason for the assault.

"you wanna be a girl anyway" is what the bastard will say.

I believe the rapist of "soft" boys are often NOT classic pedophiles. (I know I'll get into trouble for saying that). Most of the gay guys I know who were assaulted were already gay before they were attacked.

"...already gay"? Meaning they were already attracted to boys, not girls. Still, the assault on a gay boy is just as horrible as an assault on a straight boy, but the assault doesn't make you gay. If that was the case we'd be 50% of the population, not 5%.