Hey, kids. I will be out of the office for the remainder of the week, which means blogging from me will be sporadic, at best. Hopefully, the other bloggers will pick up the slack. If they don't, then their pay for blogging will be withheld. Of course, they don't get paid, but still, it's .... um ... the thought that counts?

Never mind.

Yesterday Dan Marries from KOLD Channel 13 came over to my colorful house and interviewed me about Tucson Greyhound Park's missing 158 dogs. The AZ Department of Racing's top investigator told me that is how many were documented so I'll stick with that number for now.

For 20 minutes, I answered questions and perhaps got 15 seconds of air time. However, I'm not complaining. Rather, I'm ecstatic that the case of the missing greyhounds is not just being dusted under the rug.

Although I'd rather express myself by writing or talking on radio, this is the second time I have been on television talking about the missing greyhounds. So if you want to see the interview which includes my beautiful greyhounds and Rick Favreau's lame rhetoric as to not clearly remembering what he did with the dogs ... click here.  

While I was not at this debate, I have to say that the exchange between Randy Graf and Gabrielle Giffords regarding sex offenders, as reported by Daniel Scarpinato, was pretty damn funny:

After Graf criticized Giffords in his opening statement as being soft on sex offenders, she shot back, referring to his former campaign manager, Steve Aiken. Graf fired Aiken in June after it surfaced that he had been convicted of having sex with a minor in the mid-'90s. Though initially the incident was viewed as a liability, Graf has received little public criticism over it during the campaign — until Tuesday.

"Explain that to the voters of Arizona," Giffords said of Aikens' employment with his campaign.

Graf didn't provide a direct explanation, but accused Giffords of "taking a cheap shot based on information you got off of a blog. Congratulations."

Randy, Randy, Randy ... face it: You hired a sex offender. You made a mistake; fess up to it, and move on. The fact that Aiken's little problem was first reported on a blog is moot; it was true.

Politicans sure can be a hoot, can't they? God bless 'em.

So on Sunday, the Arizona Daily Star editorial board went and endorsed Jon Kyl, even though the same idiot board has taken positions that are 180 degrees from Kyl's positions on gay marriage, Iraq, George W. Bush, immigration, etc., etc.

I am not opposed to a board endorsing Kyl. I am just stunned at the inconsistency shown by the Star's board.

The worst editorial page in America keeps getting worse. If it weren't for Dave Fitzsimmons, the page would be completely lacking a redeeming quality. And Tucson suffers for it.

If you're faint of heart or don't like the thought of eating animals (in this case, dogs or bulls or snakes), skip this message.

A sicko friend sent this to me, and on some level, I thought it was worth sharing, because it demonstrates the differences in cultural dining habits. Let's call it Noshing Around in Beijing. 

I found this story out of the Miami Herald to be totally fascinating. Once again, America's making news—because of a sex scandal. Sigh.

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned an appeals court ruling that blocked the voter-ID law from being in effect this November. In other words, 2004's Proposition 200 requirement that voters show government IDs at the polls will be in effect for the general election.

This isn't to say the ultimate constitutionality of the requirement has been decided; far from it. All this ruling means is that the U.S. Supreme Court thought the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was off base when it blocked the law from being in effect in November.

Because stuff like this can happen.

Looking for some gay theater this weekend? Well, are you in luck?

You have Homoneurotic at Hotel Congress.

You have First Words: Relativity festival at ZUZI's Theater.

You have Dirty Secrets, in its second and final week, at ArtFare.

And you have the Odyssey Storytelling Series chiming in with "Coming Out: Elders and Youth Tell Their Stories."

Holy crap.

As a person of the gay persuasion who happens to like theater, it's a horrible shame that all these things are happening this weekend. I'd like to go to all of these things, but given other commitments and whatnot, I'll only be able to attend one—and that's because I said I'd be on a post-play panel for First Words: Relativity.

I hope these events all succeed and get the audiences they deserve. But let's face it: They probably won't, because there's only so much audience to go around. What a shame.

This interesting twist of events over at The Stranger in Seattle is rather cringe-inducing. Seems they were letting someone in the advertising department write for the music section, which creates all kinds of messy conflict of interest problems.

Conflicts of interest possibilities abound when writing about any sort of local community—in order to have an authentic voice for that community, one kind of has to be a part of it. So, you disclose any connection and stay away from writing about really sticky ones. Like, you won't see me raving about my husband's band in print or anything.

But if you're selling ads AND writing content ... well, that's kind of a no-brainer no-no. But, I do have to say, this heightens my already high esteem for The Stranger—I've worked at a paper, which will remain nameless, that basically sabotaged my section because we weren't selling ads. So the ads got precedent over the content, which, while realistic, totally and completely sucks. It's nice to know that in the interest of maintaining unbiased and insightful content, The Stranger lays out their dirty laundry, and everyone bows out gracefully.