Abe Lincoln’s Bromance

Today on the list: the sound and fury of Sarah Palin, Abraham Lincoln’s gay tendencies and Jan Brewer’s WTF debate.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

Flying the flag, faking the news Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, is said to have invented modern propaganda. During the first world war, he was one of a group of influential liberals who mounted a secret government campaign to persuade reluctant Americans to send an army to the bloodbath in Europe. …

Newt Gingrich Teams With Anti-Gay Zealot Lou ‘Uganda’ Engle For U.S. Cyber-‘Revival’ We have entered the era of cyber-organizing by the religious right, and Newt Gingrich, futurist, is all over it.

Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury Even as Sarah Palin’s public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake.

How Dems Are Screwing Up Their Chances in 2010 I’m somewhat pressed for time today, but wanted to note the following items just from the last 24 hours, all of which are significant in their own right and, taken together, make an important point. …

Milestones in WTF? Jan Brewer’s gubernatorial debate:

Turning Your iPad into a Whiteboard Whiteboard HD, by Avici, is an app that does exactly what its name promises: It captures the experience of writing on a whiteboard — even better, the results are legible! The app can also be used to create flowcharts.

Go to Class or Stay in Bed? A Web Site Decides for You Pro: I get to sleep off the hangover. Con: I already skipped the class twice. If you’re a student, chances are you’ve faced a dilemma like this. Well, you no longer have to leave the risks up to chance. That’s the idea behind a new online calculator, which purports to help students decide whether skipping class is a smart move, based on their answers to a series of questions.

Forget Mehlman — What About Lincoln? While the gay media has been awash in unwarranted hosannas over the recent coming-out declaration by former Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman — who has not apologized for running the most homophobic presidential campaign in US history — the LGBT press has been ignoring an infinitely more significant development under way with vastly more important implications for the Republican Party: the increasing acceptance by historians that the loving heart of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator and the first GOP president, found its natural amorous passions overwhelmingly directed toward those of his own sex.

Supreme Court, Congress need new rules for GPS searches The Fourth Amendment protects Americans against “unreasonable searches and seizures.’’ But that protection, the Supreme Court has held consistently for more than 40 years, applies only where there is “a legitimate expectation of privacy.’’ This means, for example, that the police do not need a warrant to follow a suspect as he drives through town, since a person’s public movements are visible to anyone who chooses to look.

Israel ready to cede parts of Jerusalem in peace deal Ahead of start of direct peace talks in Washington, Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods will be part of a Palestinian state; a ‘special regime’ to govern holy sites.