cobolhacker.com

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/29/us-mississippi-lesbian-student-yearbook-excluded.html

Apparently being a lesbian and wanting to wear a tuxedo for your grad photo is not so cool in Mississippi.

This is Mississippi, so I imagine this whole thing comes down to some kind of Bible argument, but that whole argument is flawed.

God made everything in the Universe and Ceara, if you believe in that kind of stuff. If so, then you have to believe that He made her queer, too. He’s never wrong, He must have done it for a reason and He’s never going to tell us that reason. The usual Christian hardliners would reference stuff in the Bible but God never actually wrote that, we did. It is very possible that we got it all wrong and that God just likes variety.

When we put Deities we can’t prove exist and old books we can’t cross reference aside, we are left with more simple human questions. Why is it bad that this girl wants to wear a tuxedo? Who gets hurt? It’s not like she’s being lecherous, lascivious or obscene. If no one gets hurt, why is it bad? I’ll bet there isn’t a single person responsible for that yearbook who can give me a straight answer any of those questions.

Here’s another question, Mississippi: what if she was straight and wanted to wear a tuxedo?

The Boobquake experiment has begun!  It is an global scientific effort to prove if ‘immodest’ clothing on women can indeed cause earthquakes, as proposed by imam Kazem Sedighi.

The theory is if enough women show enough cleavage, an earthquake should happen somewhere in the world.

I, for one, completely approve of this line of research.  This is right up there with the ISS, the Hubble and the LHC.  I think federal funding at the highest levels should be devoted to it!

I’ve even thought of a theme song! You Shook Me All Night Long, by AC/DC.

Update: She even made it to Colbert.

Eyjafjallajökull.  How do you pronounce the name of that troublesome volcano?  It’s actually not the name of the volcano, but of the glacier on top of it. The word literally means “island mountain glacier.”   It’s easy to say!

ˈeiːjafjatlajœːkʏtl̥

But since you, like me, do not have IPA fully memorized yet, it’s easier if it’s done phonetically:

Aye-uh fyat-luh yoe-kutl

As an added bonus, here is audio of me trying to say that!  Icelanders, I shall apologize in advance.

Double LLs in Icelandic are apparently pronounced like a T in English.  There is also a softish L-like noise at the end of it.  Here’s a handy video that does wonders to explain it.  It’s from Al Jazeera, no less.

I think they should just call the thing ‘Bob’.  Much easier to say.

I just spent 120 bucks on printer ink.  Around 100ml of coloured fluid.  That’s like 10 times the price per millilitre of Dom Pérignon.  That ain’t right.

Well that’s not anything new.  But this time around, they want you to install software that scans your computer for ‘infringing content’, sort of like anti virus software.

Oh, it gets better.  They want to make it illegal for you to not have this software.

Now some who might read this, may be inclined to say, “Relax, Bob, you live in Canada.  Those are crazy American laws.”

ACTA is coming.  It may soon be illegal for Canada to not keep its copyright laws in sync with the U.S.  Guess we’ll see on the 21st.  It’s not like anyone really knows that much about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement because all our various governments have been negotiating the thing in secret.  There is no global oversight.  No public consultation.  The WTO and the WIPO are not involved.  The UN is not involved.

To me, the reason for this secrecy is obvious.  The public don’t want brutal IP laws, so you disguise it as a trade agreement and don’t tell anyone until you’re ready to legislate.  That way no one’s government gets brought down in the meantime.  You can bet your bippy that the agreement will include punishing sanctions for any nation who grows a pair and wants out of it.  In this way, it doesn’t matter if angry voters kick out a government who passes the actual law in their country.  Here’s a great quotation:

Acta will not interfere with a signatory’s ability to respect its citizens’ fundamental rights and liberties.

The whole point of it is to curtail some of your rights and liberties.

Here’s a stock tip.  Invest in companies which build prisons.  I suspect a lot more of them are going to be needed in the coming years.

As he turned the bolt a dozen times, Anderson urged, “Come on, baby. Get on there. Yeah, get ‘er done.”

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/04/11/space-walk.html

If you want to colonize space, that’s the kind of attitude you need.  Interestingly, exactly 40 years ago, Apollo 13 had its famous malfunction.  A willingness to “get ‘er done” by NASA saved those three astronauts.

Comparing Muslim women with bikers is an interesting stretch, but to call out Quebec over trying to restrict how masked people interact with the government is too much.  Let’s be frank here, if you are wearing a niqab, you might as well be wearing a ski-mask.  If I walked into a bank wearing a ski-mask and asked to withdraw some money, what do you think would happen?

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/04/01/what-do-conservative-muslims-and-the-hells-angels-have-in-common/

Women should have every right to go around topless, just as I have every right to leer at them if they do. It should be noted there are no Muslim countries in the world where women can go topless. Maybe Turkey, but even then, it would only be allowed on beaches. And guess what? You have to show your face to receive public services there. When in Rome…

Girls walking around topless has little to do with this, anyway, and neither do bikers. It’s all about identity. If you want to wear a niqab or a burka or whatever, fine, but when the government needs to talk to you about something, they want to know who you are, particularly if you are tapping into public money (which the lady in question was doing, actually).

The kind of scams you can pull on public services are endless when you don’t have to show your face. A single person could pretend they were an entire family; not a bad way to rip off the dole. I’m not saying that Muslims are any more predisposed to this than any other group of people, but you have to admit that having the legal right to hide your face at all times is ripe for abuse, and not just by Muslims. People get all up and arms about kids wearing hoodies for this very reason, I don’t see how this is all that much different.

Also where does religious freedom end, anyway? Arguing for unlimited religious freedom is silly. What if my religion requires people to be sacrificed a couple of times a year? (Aztecs did this, how well do you suppose that would hold up in a court today?) At some point you have to draw a line in the sand and I don’t think Quebec’s line is unreasonable. As I said, when in Rome…

This is the kind of comment that tends to disappear into the ether, but I stand by it.