Down East will be taking a small holiday vacation this week, but I wanted to take time to thank you for reading and to wish you a happy holiday season.

In the spirit of giving and sharing, here are two of my favourite Christmas songs. 

Enjoy, and be well.

Activism can sometimes involve a certain amount of danger. That danger can sometimes manifest itself as legal repercussions, such as prosecution or jail time. Whether those possibilities are worth the time depends on all kinds of factors, but for some people, the risk is worth it.

In the case of this next story, if it is proven to be true, then a teenager could be facing jail time.

According to Wired magazine, a teenaged hacker who goes by the name Cosmo the God has decided that attacking the Westboro Baptist Church is worth the risk of possible incarceration. The youth is apparently on probation for a recent hack he engineered. One of the conditions of his probation is that he is not permitted unsupervised access to a computer.

However, Wired claims it has proof that the 15-year-old hacked into two separate WBC Twitter accounts and even hacked into one of the church's members' DVR, leaving gay porn on it.

At least this hacker has an alleged sense of humour.

If Dickens's Tiny Tim were around today, he would say, "God bless Conan O'Brien and his writers."

On a recent episode of Conan's show, his sidekick, Andy Richter, extolls the virtues of his latest business endeavour: he will tell your family that you're gay. 

But if that's not good enough, he'll bring along George Takei to help seal the deal. Oh my.

As Joel Plaskett once said, "There are reasons that I love this town."

But I don't think he necessarily meant this.

A Halifax artist has taken to Kijiji to sell their wares. Now, this may not be newsworthy unto itself, but take a look at what they're selling.

How about now?

Yup.

The Haligonian artist is selling the meme-laden painting for $60 on Kijiji. In the meantime, the painting itself is receiving a lot of media attention on sites like Reddit and even The Huffington Post. 

I do love this town.

It was recently announced that the members of the Westboro Baptist Church are planning to picket the funerals of the children and adults who were killed in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday.

As a response, Anonymous, the hacker collective, decided to respond with its own protest: publishing the names of the members of the church, with their phone numbers, email addresses and even home addresses.

Anonymous also posted a video detailing its views on Westboro and their actions.

But the members of the collective aren't the only ones taking issue with Westboro. There is also a US petition to have Westboro Baptist Church recognized as a hate group. The petition has nearly 100,000 signatures so far.

A teaser for Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, Los Amantes Pasajeros (I'm So Excited), was released yesterday on YouTube.

It doesn't matter what the film is about; it's Almodovar. It will be kooky, funny, strange, beautiful and bent.

Which is the way it should be.

Check it out.

A few months back, a hairy cub with big glasses and a penchant for Disney samples (how much did that cost? - sample clearance ed.) dropped "Drip Drop" onto the world, and a collective "WTF" was heard online.

We listened, we got hooked on the sample, some of us liked it, some of us didn't. But we began to see more and more of Mr Dipper. He has appeared in Out magazine, The Huff Po and more. 

The Big D is back with a new video, this time for "Meat Quotient," a NSFW queer hip-hop anthem to all things phallic and juicy.

The Reading List returns with all sorts of goodies to tempt your brain and your heart.

First, a serious note from a serious site: Poynter, a website by and for journalists, discusses how a Christian college in the US banned a blog by gay students. 

Halifax's Dalhousie University has new gender-neutral washrooms on its campuses. (via CBC)

When the push is on, it's on. Amanda Seyfried goes on Letterman to plug the new film adaptation of Les Mis. She ends up talking about how drunk she is, but in the most charming fashion. 

We often talk about how art imitates life. But what happens when pop culture imitates itself? At the recent American Country Awards, Kristin Chenoweth dressed up as Honey Boo Boo. And nailed it. The mind reels. (via Just Jared)

And remember that story about the little boy and girl who wanted the Easy-Bake Oven in gender-neutral colours? Well, a bunch of chefs got together to show their support.

Yesterday, the Halifax Youth Project announced on their Facebook page that they had recently been the victims of a series of thefts. 

[We] feel we have no choice but to close [our drop in services] for the time being. We're very saddened, disappointed and a little angry that someone would choose to do this to a non-profit, especially around the holiday season. The ones impacted the most by this will be LGBTQ youth, who will lose resources and opportunities. We will announce when our space is back open, because we know the holiday break is the time we see a lot of YP returnees! We want to see you, give us some time to bounce back and re-open. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact us.

Down East spoke with Sheena Jamieson, the Youth Project's support services coordinator about the recent happenings. "We're still making an inventory of everything. As for what we know has been stolen, there is a Wii, a Play Station, as well as their accessories and games, a camera and battery, power tools, cash and a student visa card." Jamieson believes the thefts took place over a few days, most probably while the Youth Project was organizing a GSA conference here in the city.   

As for Halifax's queer youth who are looking to gain access to the Youth Project, Jamieson says that for the next few weeks, youth will have to contact the YP to organize times that they can come and gain access to the space.  

However, with all of this bad luck, she notes, "People have been supportive in asking what we need and seeing if they can help recoup items." Jamieson also notes that the local community was "amazingly generous" at a recent auction that the YP held last month.

If you'd like to help out, check out The Youth Project's donate page.

GQ has decided to team up with the gang from Parks and Rec to pay homage to that gayest of all shows, Hollywood Squares.