Bar Fights. Date Nights. Women's Rights.

Up in Ohio, Warren County Sheriff's deputies are investigating whether an attack that left a young man bloodied, his nose shattered, is a hate crime; the victim is gay.

Ronnie Robertson's nose is broken, he has deep cuts and scratches around his eyes and cheeks. All this because he chose to go out with friends to a so-called 'straight' bar.

Kelly Coffey says her friends, a mix of gay and straight people chose Tabby's bar to play sand volleyball, but were harassed by a man who continued to ask who in the group was gay. When her brother finally admitted he was gay, the man "lost it, went crazy and started attacking my brother and pushing him out of the bar."

Two women, Sarah Goldsberry, and Tammy Lingle ,were arrested on the spot and charged with felony assault, and disrupting police business. They say it was just an ordinary bar fight. The sheriff's office is reviewing the security tapes to look at what happened and for the two men also involved.

Saddest of all, Ohio's hate crime laws do not include gays and lesbians as a protected class.

So, if you're gay and in Ohio, you're fair game for a beatin'.

Be warned.

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This story, well, not the story, but the Repug reaction to it, pisses me off.

Here's the gist:

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama made a promise to Michelle, that if he won the election he'd take her to New York to see a Broadway play. And this past weekend he did just that.

The president and first lady took a date night flight to New York late Saturday afternoon, aides and media in tow, and, after dining at Blue Hill, a West Village restaurant, the Obamas headed to the Belasco Theater to see "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."

As the motorcade drove through the city, crowds of people waved as the Obamas passed. Some cheered. Cab drivers opened their doors and stood on the frames of their taxis to glimpse the president and first lady.

Sounds lovely, no?

Not to the Repugs who blasted Obama for using taxpayer money for his date night.

Seriously? This is all you got, Repugs? Date night rantings? Where were your rants when, during the first eight months of his presidency, before the 9/11 attacks, when George W. Bush spent roughly 30% of his presidency on vacation?

Where was your outrage then?

Oh yeah, outrage is partisan. My bad.

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A 51-year-old Johnson County man, Scott P. Roeder, could be charged with murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of abortion doctor George Tiller. Tiller was shot inside his church on Sunday. The gunman also threatened to shoot two men who tried to apprehend him.

Roeder was arrested about three hours later, three hundred miles away.

Now, this is what I don't get. These pro-Life folks who have no concern for the life of anyone other than a fetus. I mean, if you're going to call yourself pro-Life, at least be pro life. And that means the life of anyone, whether it be an unborn child or an adult with whom you have some grievance, whether it be because they are Pro-Choice, or even a prisoner on death row.

How is the life of this doctor, of any human being, any less valuable than the life of the unborn child.

If, as the Pro-life groups are always saying, a life is a life, then why don't they care about life after birth?

Now, before anyone gets all hot'n'bothered and twisted up, let me say that I consider myself a pro-Choice individual, but also one who is against abortion. I just wish woman had more options, from early sex education classes so they can prepare themselves for having sex and all that that entails; from support for her decision to give up the child if that's her choice; and support for her if she chooses abortion. And what about prevention?

I don't think any woman takes the thought of abortion lightly.

But it is her choice. Choice.