Page 1 Consider (06/06)

I'm Not an Astronaut: A Nashville middle school teacher who equated calling something "gay" with the use of the N word has been suspended for three days without pay. Stephen Henry, a sixth-grade teacher at Creswell Arts Magnet School, overheard a black student describe something as "gay." Henry approached the girl and asked her how she would feel if he were to use the N word. The girl later complained to her parents. Jesus. Let's hope Mr. Henry won't be teaching analogies when he comes back (HELLO, BERNARD!!!!). (Source)

Extreme Makeover: Has President Bush nominated one person in over six years who didn't hold extremist views? Earlier this week we heard about his judicial nominee to the 5th Circuit, Leslie Southwick, who joined a ruling in 2001 that upheld a lower court decision to take an 8-year-old girl away from her mother and award custody to the father largely because the mother was living with another woman in a "lesbian home." Southwick's concurrence extolled Mississippi’s right under "the principles of Federalism" to treat "homosexual persons" as second-class citizens (this coming from a man named Leslie???). Now comes Bush's surgeon general nominee, Dr. James Holsinger Jr. of the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, who authored a paper titled “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality,” in which he stated that his understanding of biology and anatomy prevented him from believing that gays and lesbians deserved equality. Oh, Mr. Bush: always the uniter and never the divider. (Advocate)

Cupcakes Gone Wild: Magnolia Bakery fever has infected the Left Coast, causing Hollywood types to give up life on the set with J.Lo and Madonna and try their hand at baking. As much as I wanna love these places -- Billy's Bakery is just so adorable -- the Latchkey Kid who eats nothing but packaged food in me's heart still belongs to Hostess. (NYT)

Mama Mia! Meat sauce is my favorite yet I don't get excited about meatballs. Am I missing something? (NYT)

Tragic U.K. Ending: A coroner's court has heard the final details of the suicide of a Welsh teen whose family says was driven to his death by homophobic taunting. Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Reynolds sent his family a final text message minutes before he lay down on the tracks in front of train traveling at 85 miles an hour. "Tell everyone that this is for anybody who eva said anything bad about me, see I do have feelings too. Blame the people who were horrible and injust 2 me. This is because of them, I am human just like them. I hope they rot in hell 4 what they made me do. They know who they are," said the message to his father and his 14-year-old sister. (Source)

Queer Cinema: More details on this month's gay film festival over on Turner Classic Movies. (Advocate)

Life Imitates Art: Did you see hot daddy Gators basketball coach Billy Donovan decided to back out on moving to coach the Orlando Magic? I could have sworn I just saw Coach Taylor pull a similar stunt on the season finale of "Friday Night Lights." (AP)

RIP: Steven Gilliard Jr., the political journalist who found his calling as a combative and influential blogger on the left writing The News Blog, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 42. (NYT)