Quips and Quotations (Served with Distinction Edition)

 

1940-2026

I'm used to being in the minority. I'm a left-handed gay Jew. I've never felt, automatically, a member of any majority.

--Barney Frank, 16-term congressman from Massachusetts. 

Is There a Surgeon General in the House?

 

 

According to a recent American Medical Association study, LGBTQ people smoke cigarettes at much higher rates than their heteronormative counterparts. Now, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The lives of gays and trans folk can be very stressful at times, and tobacco does seem to have a calming effect on the nerves. Unfortunately, the overall impact smoking has on health--everything from emphysema to heart disease to, most notoriously, lung cancer--negates any temporary relief to the nervous system. I do wish more queer people would just kick the habit.

Now, this homophobe's recent promotion isn't bound to help matters any. In fact, I suddenly have the urge to light one up!

Graphic Grandeur (Whose Majority Is It, Anyway Edition)

 

Mike Luckovich's take on GOP soul-searching.

Born to Run

 

The Beltway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive, but Nancy Pelosi ain't one of them. After a remarkable, sometimes dangerous (for her and her family) thirty-five years in Congress, which included two stints as Speaker of the House, this is one hero stepping down from power fully intact.