Hey, That’s My Name

607

Data courtesy of the Washington Post.

4,168

Data courtesy of the Washington Post.

Variety reported last week that Lifetime, the network famous for made for TV tearjerkers came out on top in a competitive bidding war for the rights to air reruns of the criminally underrated CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

I’m of two minds about this. I’m happy that HIMYM will be getting some play elsewhere, as syndication is generally a good thing for shows that are still in production (though it’s currently not scheduled to start until September 2010, I’m crossing my fingers that Mother‘s still on the air then). However, I can’t help but be a bit snooty about this. Lifetime? Really? I mean, it’s been awhile since I’ve even accidentally found myself resting on that channel (it’s not in my customized guide so, therefore, it does not exist to my eyes), but the memory I have of it doesn’t gel with the audience that HIMYM speaks to. I’ve always kind of thought that Lifetime was affiliated with Kleenex, in an effort to make middle-aged, stay-at-home moms rub their noses raw while watching weepy stories about women fighting back against various forms oppression (rape, spousal abuse, single motherhood and on and on). There are a myriad of reasons why HIMYM doesn’t fit this mold, but for starters lets point out the obvious one: the main character is a dude! Granted, Ted Mosby started the series desperately searching for the bride of his dreams (kind of chick plotline, that), so maybe he counts as half woman. Which, I suppose, would make the numbers even. Mother‘s also a young show. The characters are all young professionals just starting to make they’re way in the world, no one has kids and for the first two years of the show, no one is married. The show looks and feels young, even if the narrator is a thirty or fortysomething guy talking to his teenage kids. I mean, has the average Lifetime viewer ever even played laser tag?

Still, Lifetime wanted the show bad. Variety says the sum they paid is second only to Two and Half Men (blech!) for the first cycle of exclusive cable rights. Perhaps the network’s trying to give their brand a newer, younger, funnier face. Lets hope.

Well, you know, facts do seem to be having quite the liberal bias these days.

A group of 61 Nobel Laureates have gotten together to endorse Barack Obama for President. Their letter and the signatories are below. This is the largest number of Nobel Laureates to ever endorse a candidate for office, more than endorsed either Gore or Kerry. (Kerry had 48 total.)

[From A Vote For Science : 61 Nobel Laureates in Science Endorse Obama]

I read this news last night and it just made me want to cry.

This morning, I received news from Iraq that the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT in Baghdad, Bashar, aged 27, a university student, has been assassinated in a barber shop.

Militias burst in and sprayed his body with bullets at point blank range.

He was the organiser of the safe houses for gays and lesbians in Baghdad. His efforts saved the lives of dozens of people.

“Homosexuality was generally tolerated under Saddam,” Hali, founder of Iraqi LGBT, said in 2007. “There certainly was no danger of gay people being assassinated in the street by police. … Life in Iraq now is hell for all LGBT people; no one can be openly gay and alive.”

[From Think Progress » Iraqi gay leader gunned down.]