[PHOTO] Free Marc Emery

""Free Marc Emery", the slogan spray-painted on the sidewalk next to a clutch of cannabis leaves proclaims.

[BRIEF NOTE] On the import, or lack thereof, of Azealia Banks' Twitter fight

Azealia Banks, the talented rapper whose brilliant song "212" was a summer anthem and contributed guest vocals to (among others) the Scissor Sisters' track "Shady Love", got into a lot of trouble over a fight on Twitter.

One of the biggest gay advocacy organisations in the US has criticised Azealia Banks for her use of a homophobic slur. Banks, who called blogger Perez Hilton "a messy faggot", had initially refused to retract the remark: "Really not as moved by this 'f word' thing as u all want me to be," she wrote. "I meant what I meant." She did, however, say sorry: "My most sincere apologies to anyone who was indirectly offended by my foul language."

The offensive remark came at the end of a week that saw two relative peers, rappers Banks and Angel Haze, lashing out at each other in a pair of diss tracks. Hilton took Haze's side in the fight, prompting Banks to get ugly. "@PerezHilton lol what a messy faggot you are," she tweeted.

After Hilton and other observers decried Banks's language, she became indignant. "A faggot is not a homosexual male. A faggot is any male who acts like a female. There's a BIG difference," she wrote. "As a bisexual person I knew what I meant when I used that word … When I said acts like a female I should've said acts like a cunt." Her only apology was appended with a "lol".

That's when the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad) entered the fray. Despite having hailed Banks as a "notable coming-out story", it condemned her use of the f-word. "Regardless of [Azealia's] intent or her personal definition … there are gay kids who follow her on Twitter who hear this word in an entirely different context," wrote associate director Matt Kane. "This word is used almost universally by bullies, often as part of a larger verbal or physical assault. This word hurts those kids, no matter what Banks meant by it."

Reports on gossip websites suggested that the remarks may have led to Banks being dropped by her US label Interscope. However a spokesman for the rapper denied this was the case, saying: "Azealia Banks is currently in the studio recording her debut album, which will be released this year through Interscope in the US and Polydor in the UK."

I agree with the sentiments Keo Nozari's Huffington Post article.

GLAAD is obviously an important organization in battling true homophobia and celebrating those who encourage gay equality. But when they involve themselves in things of this nature they diminish their considerable cache. We can't be outraged when a 34-year-old gay man who built his career on bullying is in turn 'bullied' by a 21-year-old bisexual woman employing his same methods. It was, after all, just in June 2009 that Hilton himself called will.i.am a "f*****" to his face. Defending Hilton is the equivalent of coming to defend sextape-made-me-famous Kim Kardashian if she claimed to be a victim of someone showing her some porn.

Hilton has talked a lot of his intention to change his tone online this past year, including an Oprah appearance on her "Life Class" show along with Deepak Chopra. Many had hoped this was a genuine shift in consciousness for him. However, would Winfrey and Chopra have conducted themselves like this, inserting themselves into a rapper's cat fight? Would they then have tweeted other celebrities to attempt to involve them, claim victimhood and escalate the feud? An argument could be made this type of bad behavior is far more detrimental to gay people than Azealia's actual use of a gay slur.

One celebrity who chose to run to Hilton's defense -- and to the tune of great irony -- was Scissor Sister's frontman Jake Shears. He tweeted: "Oh yeah. 'F*****.' Totally cool. Give me a fucking break." Yet Shears himself somehow found the word fine to use in his own song "Step Aside a Man"? Sure the context is different, but he's still choosing to propagate the ugly and hurtful word himself (even if it's under the guise of 'reclaiming' the word). It's equally sad to see him so easily throw his collaborator under the bus. (Banks guested on an album track of his just last year.)

Oddly enough, the only voice of reason to chime into the argument was the notoriously snarky Gawker. In Rich Juzwiak's piece, he clearly makes a case that while Banks is reckless, she is no homophobe. But it's a sad day when Gawker is the voice of reason in the gay community.

The teachable moment here isn't 'sensitizing' Banks or for that matter Hilton to the error of their ways. They are likely not to change because these types of feuds are hallmarks in their careers. Instead, it's about the need for gay people and their organizations to learn to pick their battles. "Ladies, play nice," would have been a far more appropriate comment for GLAAD to make for the level of maturity these folks are acting from. It's like when a foul-mouthed drag queen makes an inappropriate aside, you're not meant to get 'offended' by what they say. As Bill Maher argued brilliantly in a New York Times Op-ed piece last year, America gets 'offended' way too easily. He suggests we need to learn instead to co-exist with each other and people that have different opinions that we do. And in this spirit of co-existing, the gay community needs some sober, mature, thoughtful leaders who are able to transcend the silliness that the far too often permeates gay life and get on with the real issues.

You?

[LINK] On the exoplanets and debris belts of Vega and Fomalhaut

Science Daily has an extended article on Fomalhaut b. Orbiting the young, bright star Fomalhaut 25 light years away, it turns out that Fomalhaut b has a very eccentric orbit.

Astronomers are surprised to find the debris belt is wider than previously known, spanning a section of space from 14 to nearly 20 billion miles from the star. Even more surprisingly, the latest Hubble images have allowed a team of astronomers to calculate the planet follows an unusual elliptical orbit that carries it on a potentially destructive path through the vast dust ring.

The planet, called Fomalhaut b, swings as close to its star as 4.6 billion miles, and the outermost point of its orbit is 27 billion miles away from the star. The orbit was recalculated from the newest Hubble observation made last year.

"We are shocked. This is not what we expected," said Paul Kalas of the University of California at Berkeley and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

The Fomalhaut team led by Kalas considers this circumstantial evidence there may be other planet-like bodies in the system that gravitationally disturbed Fomalhaut b to place it in such a highly eccentric orbit. The team presented its finding Tuesday at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif.

[. . .]

Hubble also found the dust and ice belt encircling the star Fomalhaut has an apparent gap slicing across the belt. This might have been carved by another undetected planet. Hubble's exquisite view of the dust belt shows irregularities that strongly motivate a search for other planets in the system.

If its orbit lies in the same plane with the dust belt, then Fomalhaut b will intersect the belt around 2032 on the outbound leg of its orbit. During the crossing, icy and rocky debris in the belt could crash into the planet's atmosphere and create the type of cosmic fireworks seen when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter. Most of the fireworks from collisions will be seen in infrared light. However, if Fomalhaut b is not co-planar with the belt, the only thing to be seen will be a gradual dimming of Fomalhaut b as it travels farther from the star.

Elsewhere, a NASA press release notes the joint NASA-ESA discovery of an asteroid belt orbiting Vega, a star quite similar to Fomalhaut. Yes, planets are there, too.

Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a large asteroid belt around the star Vega, the second brightest star in northern night skies. The scientists used data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, in which NASA plays an important role.

The discovery of an asteroid belt-like band of debris around Vega makes the star similar to another observed star called Fomalhaut. The data are consistent with both stars having inner, warm belts and outer, cool belts separated by a gap. This architecture is similar to the asteroid and Kuiper belts in our own solar system.

What is maintaining the gap between the warm and cool belts around Vega and Fomalhaut? The results strongly suggest the answer is multiple planets. Our solar system's asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, is maintained by the gravity of the terrestrial planets and the giant planets, and the outer Kuiper belt is sculpted by the giant planets.

"Our findings echo recent results showing multiple-planet systems are common beyond our sun," said Kate Su, an astronomer at the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Su presented the results Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, Calif., and is lead author of a paper on the findings accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

Vega and Fomalhaut are similar in other ways. Both are about twice the mass of our sun and burn a hotter, bluer color in visible light. Both stars are relatively nearby, at about 25 light-years away. The stars are thought to be around 400 million years old, but Vega could be closer to its 600 millionth birthday. Fomalhaut has a single candidate planet orbiting it, Fomalhaut b, which orbits at the inner edge of its cometary belt.

[LINK] Two links from the Toronto Star on the future of the Liberal Party

I owe thanks to Mike from Facebook for linking to these two Toronto Star articles on the prospects of the Liberal Party of Canada, federally and otherwise. First comes Chantal Hébert's "Liberal fortunes rest with Quebec/Ontario/Ottawa triangle".

The election later this month of a successor to Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty is only the opening act in a Liberal play that could determine the relative place of the party in 21st century Canada.

And a happy ending is not guaranteed.

The Ontario leadership vote will be followed seven weeks later by the selection of a new Quebec Liberal leader. In mid-April the federal Liberals will choose a successor to Michael Ignatieff.

The Quebec/Ontario/Ottawa triangle is central to Liberal fortunes in Canada. More than half of all elected Liberals provincially and federally hail from the country’s two largest provinces.

Simultaneous campaigns for the leadership of the Liberal parties of Ontario, Quebec and Canada are unprecedented. So is the fact that, to varying degrees, all three are in trouble.

At this juncture, it is hard to determine which of the incoming leaders will be handed the most poisoned chalice.

[. . .]

As a final note, some telling numbers: Today across Canada, 436 MPs and MLAs serve under a Conservative banner (including the Saskatchewan Party and Alberta Wildrose party.) At 247 and 246 each, the NDP and the Liberals are virtually tied for second place, but for how long?

The British Columbia Liberals are facing long re-election odds this spring; the party’s hold on power at Queen’s Park is tenuous; the future of the Liberal brand is more uncertain than ever in Quebec. In 2013, the Liberals will have to cling to the belief that the darkest hour is just before dawn.

Next comes the article from the Star's Queen's Park bureau writers Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson, "Ontario Liberal leadership: Candidates in secret one-on-one talks". Noteworthy, as Mike pointed out, is the relative strength of the various candidates. From the perspective of out politicians in Ontario--I've blogged about this before (1, 2)--it's noteworthy that Kathleen Wynne is in the lead while Glen Murray is badly behind.

The seven would-be successors to Premier Dalton McGuinty are holding secret one-on-one meetings with an eye toward building alliances for the Jan. 25-27 leadership convention, the Star has learned.

Sources say candidates have been huddling in restaurants, hotel bars and even in each other’s houses and condos over home-cooked meals in recent days to discuss strategy for the delegated Maple Leaf Gardens convention.

[. . .]

This weekend, 1,712 delegates will be elected in 107 ridings. An additional 419 ex officio members — such as MPPs, defeated candidates, and party brass — and 144 youth representatives from 18 campus clubs and eight women’s club delegates can also vote.

That means 2,283 Liberals will directly determine the next premier of Ontario.

[. . .]

Looking ahead to this weekend’s delegate election meetings, preliminary party data suggests Don Valley West MPP Kathleen Wynne leads with 1,533 backers running to be delegates in all 107 ridings.

Pupatello has 1,281 in 106 ridings.

Gerard Kennedy, the former Parkdale—High Park MP and MPP who finished second to McGuinty in the Liberals’ 1996 leadership contest, has 846 in 97 ridings.

Mississauga South MPP Charles Sousa has 778 in 92 ridings and St. Paul’s MPP Eric Hoskins has 714 in 97 ridings.

Murray has 461 in 82 ridings and Mississauga Erindale MPP Harinder Takhar has 456 delegate candidates in 54 ridings.