The financial costs to the U.S. military for discharging and replacing gay service members under the nation's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are nearly twice what the government estimated last year, according to a new University of California report. I find it odd that South Korea only discharged eight gay servicemen last year by comparison. Anyway, speaking of protecting the homeland, on the backs of people of color, I find it very disconcerting that the Justice Department asked a judge to approve Patriot Act e-mail monitoring without any evidence of criminal behavior - and instead of asking to eavesdrop on the contents of the e-mail messages, which would require some evidence of wrongdoing, prosecutors requested the identities of the correspondents. [Gay terrorist photo snagged from Robotic Kid's rather genius self-portrait collection.]