Dear Ron: Regarding your article in the March Apollo Newsletter, you are so right about news on TV. I see it as another example of the dumbing down of America. Something else came to mind as I read your article: The people who deliver the news are all young and attractive.

This just shows how we keep blending entertainment with news each day. All the young people (as you ask, what ever happened to the Edward R. Murrow's?) are interchangeable and look more as if they'd rather be in the movies. All of them look like Julia Roberts, not I blame them, but where is the individuality? Don't any of the black females want to show up for work in their natural hair? Perhaps they are aware of the black female anchor in San Francisco some years ago who showed up for work in corn rows and quickly got fired. Is there a standard in TV news for how their reporters are supposed to look - and how young they need to be? The problem then results in our getting stories from people who probably don't fully know or understand what they are talking about so they do not bring much credibility to their reporting. A young 23-year old reporter telling us that a famous star of the 30s has passed away is nothing more than reading for her, and I am surprised that they sometimes manage to get the pronunciations correct for they probably know nothing about that person or don't really care.

From Ron: Everyone is encouraged to take the current poll on TV News at right.

Vatican Choir Boy procures gay sex for High Government Officer

Almost unbelievably, this true story takes place at the Vatican under the noses of hundreds of priests and the pope. A choir boy was procuring for several years gay prostitutes for a man (Balducci) with an important office in the Italian government. This buyer of male sex was also an Usher at the Vatican. An usher is a honorific position (no pay) whose responsibilities it is to to usher important people to see the pope. (At right: Mug Shot of California State Senator caught drunk driving with a young man. See story below.)

A gay kiss is not a kiss when it ends up on the editing room floor. On a recent episode of "Law & Order SUV," comedian Kathy Griffin played a militant lesbian who in one scene with Olivia (Mariska Hargitay, daughter of Jayne Mansfield) planted a hot kiss on the Emmy winning star's lips. For reasons passed understanding, the kiss was cut, but at show's end Kathy also planted a kiss on the male star, Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni. (At right: Meloni, while not gay, is on many gay lists of hot men.)

Having Kathy (herself a very pro gay rights activist) kissing both the male and female stars has a symmetric theme. After Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock's famous public lip lock kiss, the world is used to women kissing.

Gay marriage opponents fought it to the the US Supreme Court, where yesterday conservative Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that the high court would not intervene in local laws. At the same time Roberts pointed out that gay marriage could be legally overturned by a public referendum. (At Right: The Washington Mall, the location where tens of thousands of gay people have demonstrated for gay rights.)

Today gay couples will be lining up for their marriage applications. Due to the required wait period, the first gay marriages services will begin next week.

Washington, DC, joins the ranks of places where gay marriage may be performed in the United States:

Arthur Schopenhauer, 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860. (At right: The young German philosopher who never married. Said he: "Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties")

"Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death."

"Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection."

"Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal."

"Compassion is the basis of morality."

Have you compared what you are paying for your prescription drugs with competing drug stores? Probably not, because almost all pharmacies will not give you the cost "Until I check with your insurance." I asked for and was denied the cost of nasal spray once, and when the order was filled, I was presented with a $36.00 bill for nose spray. I told them they could keep it and bought some off the counter. A gay friend of mine was told after the prescription was filled at WalMart that he had to buy it. Wrong! (At right: a month's supple of PROZAC costs $1.16 at a Costco store but $18.72 at a Detroit WalMart and $46.69 at a CVS!)

To Ron: I did not know that you used to be a minister. I was the organist at my church in Washington,DC, when one Sunday, the leader of the church came up to me and said: "It has come to our attention that you are a homosexual, that is not in keeping with the membership, and we request you withdraw your letter of membership." (At Right: The Presbyterian Church now allows gay people to be ministers if they are celibate, their equivalent of the Catholic priest.)

To Ron: Concerning the present poll on Long Distance Relationships, these relationships usually end up as "fill in the blanks." Each party builds a picture in their mind of the perfect person. This is done because they lack the experience of personal contact. Everything is wonderful on paper or email, but the real test is being together with a person. In most cases each party is rudely awakened. (At Right: The characters in the film, "Brokeback Mountain," dealt with lovers separated by distance.)

Two-thirds of Americans support allowing gays and lesbians to form civil unions, according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll released Friday. In addition, the poll found 47 percent of Americans support legalizing same-sex marriage.

In a forthcoming article in the "International Journal of Epidemiology," experts say there's a possibility that the more bored you are, the more likely you are to die early.

Two researchers from Martin Shipley of University College London caution that boredom alone isn't likely to kill you – but it could be a symptom of other risky behavior like drinking, smoking, taking drugs or having a psychological problem. (At Right: A bored boy often turns into a bored man.