From the Post-Gazette:

The state Senate this afternoon voted, 41-9, in favor of a bill that bans smoking in many public places.

The House already had passed the bill, so now it goes to Gov. Ed Rendell for his signature.

What a great day.  Now if we can only convince people who are addicted to smoking how unpleasant it can be to sit next to them for an hour in a somewhat warm conference room, clapping politely while other people win awards.  Now that would be something. 

Promises have been made that Allegheny County will be included in legislation to allow for tighter local controls.  One can only hope.

I wonder if there's been any study on whether this sort of ban actually drove business to smaller venues, business which increased their overall food sales leading to a bump into the bracket of those who must comply with the law?  Wouldn't that be ironic? 

Anyway, the lesbians are doing the happy dance.  Good job, state legislature.  Good job. 

Matthew Fusina of Franklin Park seems a little fed up.

A little foray into the fascinating world of sexual history would reveal that our "[recently] corrupted society" has, in fact, been corrupt at least since the dawn of recorded history. Before Mr. Davis makes such broad historical generalizations in the future, I would encourage him and those who hold staunch opinions based on anecdotal versions of history to become familiar with some of the classics in sexual history. I particularly would recommend works by John Boswell, Thomas Laqueur, Peter Gay and George Chauncey, all highlights of the modern sexual canon. Even if you leave with the same opinion, it will prevent the future course of the marriage debate from being filled with historical half-truths.

Three of five charges against the Reverend Janet Edwards have been dropped.  A trial on the two remaining charges, brought for performing a marriage ceremony for a local lesbian couple, will proceed in October 2008. 

More than 30 observers attended. Most, if not all, were supporters of the Rev. Edwards. During a recess they gathered in a nearby home, where they sang and prayed for her. Among them were Nancy McConn and Brenda Cole of Triadelphia, W.Va., the couple she was on trial for marrying.

The trial "is very hurtful, not just for us but for all gay and lesbian couples. But what the church is doing does not in any way diminish the sacredness of our marriage," Ms. Cole said.

"They do not have that kind of power," said Ms. McConn, who is Presbyterian.

My highly confidential informant found the offending strip.  It is called "The Meaning of Lila" and it is a silly little attempt to translate "Will and Grace" onto the funny pages.  The challenges of extrapolating the gay guy/girlfriend routine are many and Lila makes the classic mistake of assuming she's "in" the group.  Yes, Lila drops the H-bomb.  Right in front of Blondie, Hagar the Horrible and those cute little critters from Mutts. 

Here's the strip ..

The problem here is the classic heterosexual mistake of assuming that you are so gay-friendly, we won't mind if you use terms that are typically offensive. Like fag, dyke and homo.  Those are pretty much "insider" terms which belong to us.  Lila is obviously gay-friendly because her best friend, Boyd, is gay.  Boyd was outed in mid-May.  So it took less than a month for the writers to leapfrog from veiled references to full frontal fag haggisms.  My goodness ...

Maybe I spend too much time with homo-flinger John McIntire, but this doesn't bother me nearly as much as the inherent vacuousness of the whole strip -- I read back a few weeks online and it is just ... sad.  There's none of the warmth and humor that permeated Will and Grace, which was equally vacuous in its own way.  In color.  With Jack. And Karen.

Lila, however, presumes too much when it used the word homo.  It presumed that readers are thoroughly invested in a gay comic strip character (uh-huh) and that Lila's character had proven her gay street cred enough to warrant using the term (???). 

Does the fact that so few people noticed mean that society is indifferent to the gay guy/girlfriend dynamic, that it is still acceptable to drop the term homo in everyday conversation or that very few people actually read this strip?

You decide.