Dinner with Joe and Mike.

Last night, we had a fun dinner with Mike Jones (the man who outed Ted Haggard, and who was in town for a taping of the Montel Show) and Joe.My.God., my favorite blogger on the net (and who helped find Mike Jones, setting up a support fund link for him after the election and everyone had forgotten all about him).

AND I FORGOT MY CAMERA BECAUSE I WAS RACING TO GET OUT THE DOOR. ARRGGGHH!!!

Joe is lively and funny and full of stories in person. It's our first time to really just hang out. We promised to get together again before Jim and I take off from New York.

Mike told us about the Montel taping and I hope, when they edit the piece, it's as good as he described. For one thing, they invited several "exgay" types to join him. One couple backed out when they heard that Montel was going to talk about the husband's number of sexual couplings (over 500) before getting married to a girl.

On the air, though, Exodus shill Alan Chambers got nailed by Montel for his frequent dissemblings. Alan has this problem, see. He never tells the story exactly the same way twice. When he's on right wing political sites, the number of "exgays" is in the "hundreds of thousands." Then when he's elsewhere, the number goes down to "tens of thousands." When he's in the mainstream media, the number goes down to "thousands." Daniel, over at Ex-Gay Watch has put together, for instance, this video demonstrating Alan's inability to be consistent:



I'm not saying Alan himself is a bad person. But I am saying that their movement is designed around propaganda and their belief that they are SO right that they have to support their rightness by saying whatever they need to say to keep the contributions flowing and to keep parents of gay kids turning out for their dog and pony shows in conjunction with Focus on the Family. (Actual gay kids almost never attend these conferences -- it's all about corrupting the minds of the parents).

They are in a mode of thought one can only be described as "the ends justifies the means." They'll say ANYTHING to keep the farce of their movement afloat.

Mike told me that Montel became so frustrated with Chambers that he had his staff go to the Exodus website and print out Alan's words. Then he thrust them in his face during the taping. I hope all this gets into the final edit.

Mike said, also, that his book is going to reveal a lot of things about our Rev. Ted Haggard which is going to be quite incendiary. For the record, I adore Mike Jones. He's a simple, easy and sweet guy. But he is also smart and sharp and funny, with a great wit. He's not some simpleton himbo by any means. No matter what you might think of people in his former profession, this man is not a pushover and not stupid. Behind those blue eyes is a very honest and forthright person who spoke out because, in his words, "he had to."

BTW, he is putting his massage table up on eBay -- a massage table I said belonged in the Smithsonian -- and all the proceeds are going to Project Angel Heart in Denver, which feeds people with AIDS and other life debilitating diseases. Look for it.