Doesn't he look a little like Travis Bickle?

Believe it or not, the little prick pictured carrying the sign, Andrew Shirvell, is a Michigan Assistant Attorney General, a serious job intended for people without serious mental defects.

Shirvell has fixated on openly gay current University of Michigan Ann Arbor student president Christopher Armstrong, organizing demonstrations, following him around campus, and blogging about him weirdly. Armstrong obviously feels threatened by this strange little toad-like person's attentions, and has filed to get a restraining order, maintaining that Shirvell "has been following (him) around throughout U of M's campus and Ann Arbor unnecessarily, blogging about (him) extensively using bias and bigotry and poses a threat to (his)...personal safety", according to the court papers. The University apparently concurs, and have taken the extraordinary step of banning him from the UM campus, after warning him about criminal trespass. For his part, Shirvell somehow appeared on CNN the other night, claiming that Armstrong was intent on establishing some sort of "radical homosexual agenda" and apparently insinuated that Armstrong has been hosting Gay Sex parties to "indoctrinate" straight students into a "homosexual lifestyle."

His boss, Michigan Attorney General (and failed Christianist heterosexual) Mike Cox, thinks the situation is hunky-dory. "Here in America, we have this thing called the First Amendment, which allows people to express what they think and engage in political and social speech," he told Anderson Cooper, before asking him how often he exfoliated. (People of Michigan: this is what you fucking get when you elect Republicans to these offices).

Here's hoping Armstrong gets his restraining order, though it's only fair to hope that Shirvell gets what he deserves, too (go here to urge his removal from the public trough). It's tempting to think that somehow the little pustule is merely scratching his itch, the only way he knows how—reacting to his own lack (he's never been kissed—you know, in the right way—the way he yearns for). If so, perhaps there's someone out there whose own self-loathing matches his—one day, on the picket, as they handcraft hate-speech onto poster board, they will reach for the same magic marker. Their hands will glance, and real magic will ensue...(Yeah, I know—double-fucking-ICK...the idea of Republicans screwing is best left in a far corner. Very far. Behind lots and lots of stuff. Unexamined and uncontemplated.).

Far as the Gay Sex parties, though, isn't that rightly a community relations project? Can't everyone agree that anything that keeps frat-boys off the street is a good thing?