Like a blob that absorbs anything standing in its way, Sarah Palin's crazy inability to say anything rational when faced with even slightly difficult questions has overtaken her favorite running mate/father figure, destroying John McCain's mavericky image.

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Gay poet Ifti Nasim's won critical acclaim the world over, but his Muslim peers aren't necessarily hopping on the band wagon.

While some of his fellow Pakistani nationals appreciate his perspective, Nasim insists he's still many steps away from acceptance:

Success makes the world accept you on your own terms,” said Nasim. But being an openly gay person in the conservative Muslim community has not been easy. “They never totally accept you,” the 50 plus Nasim told IANS, “they just about tolerate you.”

Nasim, who fled to America to live an openly gay life, hasn't even gained the approval of his own family. Said his brother-in-law: “I respect his views. He has earned the respect he has today. But I wish he was a little more modest (about being gay).”

Believe it or not, we've seen people who are way more gay than Nasim.

Benazir Bhutto served as Pakistan's prime minister during two separate terms between 1988 and 1996. Her return earlier this year struck an ideological and political blow against President Pervez Musharraf's military rule. She was killed today:

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack at a campaign rally that also killed at least 20 others, aides said.
…
The death of the charismatic 54-year-old former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections into chaos and created fears of mass protests and violence across the nuclear-armed nation, an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism.

No person or organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency over the weekend. As part of his constitution suspension and power grab, Musharraf has ordered his soldiers to round up political opposition. An estimated 500 people have been detained thus far, including gay rights activist Asma Jahangir.

Gay rights advocate Asma Jahangir, former United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions and now special rapporteur on religious intolerance, is among the many who have been arrested in Pakistan this afternoon following the suspension of the country’s constitution and the imposition of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf.

Asma Jahangir “is an incredible activist and together with her sister, Hina Jilani, has been one of the strongest forces pushing LGBT issues in the [United Nations] system,” Scott Long of Human Rights Watch in New York said by email.

Ms. Jahangir has been detained along with other members of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.

The United States government's in a bit of bind right now: we've been supporting Musharraf's government for its alleged help in the protracted, impossible war on terror. Though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she'll "review aid" to the nation, she and her colleagues have made no promises to turn the screw on Pakistan's democracy.

• Jared Leto and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance got close at lMTV Europe's music awards last night.

• Why aren't people more pissed off about Hillary Clinton's anti-gay connections?

• Pakistani rent boys playing dangerous game.

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• Jill Holtzman Vogel's anti-gay senatorial campaign takes on lipstick wearing lesbian opponent, Karen Schultz.

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There's some trans drama over in Pakistan, where police arrested a couple after a court found out the husband used to be a woman. 31-year old Shumail Raj underwent a sex-change surgery 16 years ago and lived life as a man.

Though he has no penis - and his vagina has been sealed shut - Raj married a 26-year old woman named Shahzina Tariq, who claims her family planned to sell her to settle her uncle's gambling debts. Looking for protection, Tariq asked Raj for his hand. She explains, "I knew that Shumail was not a male. She had some problem due to the operations, but I begged her for protection."

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A Pakistani man has been denied refugee status in Australia after officials doubted his sexual orientation.

Ali Humayun first arrived in Australia back in 2000 to study information technology. As cash ran short, Humayun took a job - a violation of his bridging visa. When authorities caught him, they stuck him in the Villawood detention center, where he started dating a man. Pleading his case, Humayun - who converted to Christianity in 2001 and also identifies as gay - told Australian officials that he faces severe consequences if deported back to Pakistan:

I'm worried for my life if I am deported home. The men in my family, they are really fundamentalist types. Muslims. My lifestyle is totally in contrast to what they believe.

Tribunal official Giles Short, however, found Humayun's "lifestyle" to be fraudulent:

The applicant was not in fact bisexual … [his relationship] was simply the product of the situation where only partners of the same sex were available and said nothing about his sexual orientation.

Short also dismissed Humayun's plans to marry his lover, who has just been granted asylum. Speaking to the court, Short called Humayan's wedding bell dreams "a contrived attempt to make their relationship appear more serious". With no other option, Humayun's now writing to Australia's Minister of Immigration for an appeal. Good luck on that one.

Bisexuality a result of detention, detainee told [Brisbane Times]
Bisexuality a result of detention, detainee told [Sydney Morning Herald]

• The war on gay adoption continues. Because being an orphan is better than living with gay parents. [CSM]

• Televangelist-turned-gay-activist Tammy Faye Messner appeared on Larry King again, to say she's now in Stage 4 cancer. Things don't look good. [Popbytes]

• The new gay playground: Pakistan?!? [Guardian]

• Sex toys are illegal in Mississippi. Note to Mississippi: when Pakistan is more fun than you, you know it's time to lighten up. [AP]

• Sex changes are no longer paid for by Medicaid. Which means, at one time they were?…[Seattle P.I.]

• A gay film set in the 60's and 70's wins tons of accolades and it ain't Brokeback? Canucks have a gay hit movie of their own. [CBC]

• You just know that if Judge Judy gets behind gay marriage that it must be ok. It's only going to end with the filing of divorce papers anyway. Thanks Jordy.

• Pakistan performs its first unofficial gay "marriage". Unfortunately, they got the “don’t marry pubescent boys barely out of puberty” part all wrong.

• A Socialite’s Life has some snapshots of what Kenny Chesney’s “fraud” might just very well look like.

• Apple is rumored to be considering an iPod that plays video. Perfect! Portable porn.

• We too have always wondered what Melissa Etheridge's life might have been like had she "not left to find (her) fame and fortune, and stayed in Kansas and became a teacher and been gay and dealt with life there." ABC wants to chronicle that imaginary lesbian life for the tube.