Scotland Yard Surmises Murdered M16 Spy May Have Climbed In Sports Bag Before Death, Camille Paglia Laments Lady Gaga, Federal Trial Seeking To Reinstate Discharged Lesbian Air Force Major Begins Monday, Arson Suspected In Blaze That Destroyed Lesbian Couple’s Tennessee Home, Kansas City Police Officer Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Teenage Friend Of Son

The Telegraph reports that Scotland Yard detectives and Home Office pathologists believe that 31 year old Gareth Williams – the M16 spy found murdered August 23rd – climbed into a red North Face bag, possibly as a part of sex game, and that he subsequently suffocated. There also remains a remote chance he was poisoned before his body was placed in the bag. Tests to date have been negative for alcohol or recreational drugs. Authorities have released a security images that captured Williams shopping at Harrods’s and Holland Park on August 14th and 15th, the last time he was seen in public. His badly decomposed body makes it difficult for investigators to determine whether Williams died because of a lack of oxygen to the brain or heart failure. There are no marks on his body, making the cause of death from strangulation unlikely.

Camille Paglia, whose adoration of Madonna borders on obsession, is not a fan of Lady Gaga. Paglia authors a Sunday London Times magazine cover story titled Gaga and The Death of Sex in which she writes “Gaga has borrowed so heavily from Madonna (as in her latest video Alejandro) that it must be asked, at what point does homage become theft? However, the main point is that the young Madonna was on fire. She was indeed the imperious Marlene Dietrich’s true heir. For Gaga, sex is mainly decor and surface; she’s like a laminated piece of ersatz rococo furniture. Alarmingly, Generation Gaga can’t tell the difference. Is it the death of sex? Perhaps the symbolic status that sex had for a century has gone kaput; that blazing trajectory is over ... Gaga seems comet-like, a stimulating burst of novelty, even though she is a ruthless recycler of other people’s work. She is the diva of déjà vu. Gaga has glibly appropriated from performers like Cher, Jane Fonda as Barbarella, Gwen Stefani and Pink, as well as from fashion muses like Isabella Blow and Daphne Guinness. Drag queens, whom Gaga professes to admire, are usually far sexier in many of her over-the-top outfits than she is.”

A federal trial is scheduled to begin Monday in a United States District Court in Tacoma, Washington, to hear the case of former Major Margaret Witt, who is challenging the constitutional validity of her dismissal from the United States armed forces under the policy that bans openly gay men and women service members. In 2004, Witt was suspended and honourably discharged, after an investigation prompted by an e-mail from the husband of a civilian woman. She challenged that firing, and in 2008 a federal court panel ruled that the military could not discharge service members for being gay unless it demonstrated that the dismissal advanced military readiness. Government attorneys – who admit that neither President Obama nor the Justice Department believe that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is good policy – insist that Witt was discharged because of her extramarital affair; an action not consistent with good “officership.”

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department are not releasing many details about a deliberately set fire that destroyed the home and contents of Carol Ann Stutte and her partner Laura Stutte September 4th, except to say that “It is an arson and we are continuing the investigation,” and that “There are people of interest in the case.” The couple, who have been together for over 16 years, were in Nashville celebrating the fifth year anniversary of moving into their home in Vonore, Tennessee, when it was burned. According to Carol, she and Laura have been harassed and threatened by one particular neighbour, on and off, for the five years, but tried to ignore the threats. “We tried to turn the other cheek and overlook it,” said Carol. “When (the most recent threats) finally happened we thought we better go file a police report. (The threats) have really been scaring us for some time.” She added that despite the arson, she and her partner have been surrounded by support from people in the area who have offered assistance.

A Kansas City police officer, 52 year old James R. Silke, has been charged with one count of deviate sexually assault after an alleged attack on a 19 year old male, a friend of Silke’s son. According to reports the alleged assault occurred Friday at Silke’s home. The victim and Silke’s son went to an upstairs bedroom, the victim received a text from Silke inviting him to the basement, where he apparently poured shot after shot of rum for the victim, and then invited him to join him naked in the hot tub. That led to a number of unwanted sexual advances and later the assault. Silke, whose wife was also home at the time, told police that he is heterosexual and that none of the sexual acts would have happened had he not been drinking. He is suspended without pay.