World of Suck

The story in a nutshell: French boy is raped by locals. The Dubai government tells him and his family to shut up about it or they'll throw the boy in prison for being a homosexual. In addition one of the rapists tested positive for AIDS, something they neglected to tell the parents for months. After threatening the family and eventually facing outrage from France itself Dubai is making some mutterings about it being a "crime".

The mother has taken out a website and started a page. Feel free to show your support:
boycottdubai.com

I have to hand it to the Bush administration, they constantly come up with new ways to expand my horizons. In this case it happens to be with a fabulously transparent, imitation press conference. Here's the brief:

Having been lambasted for a pathetic response to Katrina, FEMA wanted to be seen as pro-active with regards to the wildfires in California. So, they decided to host a press conference to discuss how well they were handling the situation. Only having a real press conference was too risky, since real reporters might actually ask real questions. Thus FEMA staged a "fake" press conference where FEMA employees posed as reporters using scripted queries.

Oh the press were there, well they were invited at the last minute... but they were only allowed to listen by calling in on an 800 number and not ask any questions.

The excuse behind this charade was "to get information out as soon as possible".

cha·rade
Pronunciation[shuh-reyd; especially Brit. shuh-rahd]

noun 1. charades, (used with a singular verb) a game in which the players are typically divided into two teams, members of which take turns at acting out in pantomime a word, phrase, title, etc., which the members of their own team must guess.
2. a word or phrase acted out in this game.
3. a blatant pretense or deception, esp. something so full of pretense as to be a travesty.

Of course once this event was exposed for the fully scripted vignette it was, administration officials took the high road and claimed complete ignorance and disgust at the event.

Do you think they would have been as outraged if they hadn't been caught?

The Week Daily:

FROM THE MAGAZINE

Only in America

A Pennsylvania woman is facing up to 90 days in jail for swearing at an overflowing toilet in her own home. Dawn Herb admits she used some four-letter words near an open window when she discovered that her toilet was leaking down into her kitchen. Her neighbor, a police officer, took offense, and had her cited for disorderly conduct. “It doesn’t make any sense,” says Herb. “I was in my house. It’s not like I was outside or drunk.”

Guess I better make sure my windows are closed if I feel a fit of potty mouth coming on !!!

Author J.K. Rowling stated, when a young fan asked if the solitary Dumbledore would ever find true love: “I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” I'm not up on my Harry Potter lore, but I gather that Mr. Dumbledore has had terrible luck in the love department. If he never had a romantic (or lusting after someone) scene in the entire series, how is his sexuality relevant? And she chooses now to make this revelation now because???

There are many gay people that are in very happy relationships; therefore, being gay does not prohibit someone from finding true love. Her answer does not answer the question posed to her. Perhaps his loneliness is the result of a terribly broken heart (which from what I understand is eluded to), which can happen to homo- and hetero-sexual people alike.

In addition, one joy of books is filling in some of the blanks yourself. Also,we don't always know the private lives of everyone in our life. For example, I don't know with surety the sexual orientation of all my co-worker, my dentist, my docter, my old teachers, etc., etc. Should be likewise with characters in a good book. Maybe Ms. Rowling misses that point.

Furthermore, although many are claiming that this helps an attitude of tolerance toward gays, I see it as almost the opposite. How does a lonely old gay guy, who may have not ever had a meaningful relationship foster tolerance? To me it is says: "Gay people are doomed to grow old, alone, and without love." Tolerance, but only tolerance of someone who is effectively asexual in their homosexually - kind of like how gay priests are supposed to be, and we all know how well that works out in most cases.

Ms. Rowling, have your books not created enough controversy? Need to create a bit more with this little gem? Witchcraft and fags - the Christian right wing-dings now have more or a reason to use your book for kindling.

I have a friend who is a great guy. He is hard working, intelligent, thoughtful, and trusting. He is dating a woman. That woman's sister said "What are you doing dating a black man?" Yup, my friend is black and his new girlfriend is white. They are both well into their 40's and definitely able to decide for themselves what human beings are worth spending time with. When he recounted this story to me I told him that unfortunately the media has painted black males in particular harsh tones. His girlfriend needs to set her sister straight.

Think about it. While most African-Americans in this country are overcoming and surpassed all kinds of awful stereotypes, the media clamors to a few bad apples. And stupid teenagers of all races are using the few bad apples as role models. However, thankfully, I have heard that "gangsta" rap sales are down - way down.

Perhaps the novelty of calling women bitches and 'ho's and glorifying violent crime has passed. One can hope. Maybe now people can get to living their lives in harmony rather than acting like a bunch of felons. I'm not so naive to think it will happen, but one can hope, can't one?

Gods how I hate Barbie. That pink plastic is the scourge of any toy store I enter. Lately, however the toy designers at Mattel have stooped to an all time low: "Will that be cash or credit?" the little girl with the deaths-head grin plastered to her face says to her playmate.

Yes there have been plenty of toy cash registers in the past, but this one is especially vile. Built in the loathsome pink, with Barbie money and Barbie credit cards. The kids don't even have to add or subtract to make purchases, they simply "swipe" a barcode or press a button with the item's picture beside it and the digital amount is immediately displayed.

"Yeah Mommie that's what I want to do when I grow up - I want to Shop till I Drop", which, coincidentally happens to be the actual name of the toy.

Fuck Barbie and Fuck Mattel. Want the toy to have some actual value? Then include an option where the toy store can come and repossess the toy after a month or so. "Sorry, that's what really happens when you Shop till you Drop, and you don't have a job." Job-skill toys? No Barbie doesn't have any of that... unless you count the "Let's Look like a Ho" makeup sets.

I guess that's a valid profession for a Barbie girl.

There's hardly much to add to the AP News blurb... so I'll just let them do it for me. Take it away Associated Press!

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Women in several countries have begun sending their panties to Myanmar embassies in a culturally insulting gesture of protest against the recent brutal crackdown there, a campaign supporter said Friday.

"It's an extremely strong message in Burmese and in all Southeast Asian culture," said Liz Hilton, who supports an activist group that launched the "Panties for Peace" drive earlier this week.

The group, Lanna Action for Burma, says the country's superstitious generals, especially junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, also believe that contact with women's underwear saps them of power.

[...]

"You can post, deliver or fling your panties at the closest Burmese Embassy any day from today. Send early, send often!" the Lanna Action for Burma Web site urges.

Robs them of their powers eh? I wonder if you get double damage if you send panties with.... ok even I won't go there.

Who is Michael Heath? No one you should know. Basically he's some religious freak that has taken issue with the fact that King Middle School (also in Maine) can provide contraception for children who have parental permission to see a doctor. The dig is that because this school serves predominantly middle and lower-class kids, the health services is located in the school.

What the Idiot At Large fails to grasp is the "parental" part of all this. Kids cannot just get pills at random, they need permission from their parents first, to even see a doctor. As to why the school is offering contraception, the answer is because they had 17 pregnancies in the school (kids aged 11 to 13) in the previous year.

I fail to grasp why Christian conservatives get so angry when other adults decide what is right for their kids. It never is, or was about what the kids have access to - it's about what other parents can decide. And apparently the concept of being free to choose what can help your kid isn't an "American" ideal to this type of zealot. In their world only their values, including intolerance and bigotry is what is "right" for America.

54% of the school's children qualify for free lunch, meaning that 54% of the school is considered poor. Since clearly these kids are sexually active, and again quite clearly they don't have access to contraception why isn't it a reasonable alternative to offer counseling and medication at the school with parental consent?

These are kids, and if they're having sex they need help to prevent a pregnancy which would be physically and mentally harmful. In addition, according to their current policy a whole 5 kids out of 510 would have qualified for the program anyway.

So what's the big deal?

Ellen DeGeneres adopts a dog named Iggy. Iggy and the household's cats don't get along. Ellen's hairdresser takes Iggy in. Here's the rub, Mutts and Moms, the pet adoption agency Ellen got the dog from has an issue with Ellen giving little Iggy to her hairdresser. They take Iggy back.

Many pet adoption agencies have many rules that they wield with an iron fist. I chose to adopt my cats from the humane society rather than one of these adoption groups because of their rules and long list of questions. Ask anyone who knows me and they know my cats are my 4-legged, furry children. However, for example, I was not going to have someone tell me that I couldn't de-claw my cats if they became destructive. All of the adoption groups seem to have extensive "rules" to which adoptive human
mommies and daddies must adhere.

I am not disputing these groups rights to make rules. However, do any of the people running these places ever ask themselves whether finding a home that adheres strictly to their guidelines will make their furry charges happier than finding a home that might be a bit less than what they, the human operators of these groups , would find purrr-fect? I think it comes down to pure arrogance on the part of many of these people.

Lets use my de-claw example - If you were a cat, would you rather be de-clawed living in a warm home with ample food and clean water or stuck in a 3 ft by 3 ft cage hoping someone finds you cute? People like me, who would provide and nice safe home to an animal companion are turned away in favor of leaving the animals in cages or less than ideally "homelike" foster homes where people may be taxed to the brink with the number of foster animals they have. Doesn't make much sense to me and the reason I went elsewhere.

I hope Iggy winds up in a good, stable, home.

I went to the human society instead of one of these pet and I couldn't be happier with my furry companions. Oh, and by the way, everyone should do their part to limit the number of unwanted dogs and cats and spay and neuter you pets. There is nothing macho or cool about letting you pets procreate unless you are a professional breeder.

Remember the hoopla when the muslims in Nigeria set back the global eradication of Polio by refusing to vaccinate their children? As a result of religious stupidity and asinine posturing children died, suffered and the disease spread to many other countries that had almost become Polio-free.

It's one thing to laugh at uneducated and unwashed peoples who live in mud huts and fear the wrath of tribal elders. It's not so funny when it's idiots here at home.

Like who? Like Rachel Magni, "a 35-year-old stay-at-home mother in Newton, Mass." She won't vaccinate her kids because... she's afraid. But clearly she's not too afraid of what it could do to the children of the people around her. It's one thing to take a risk with your own life and your own child, it's quite another to do it to someone else.

What she's doing is lying to the state of Massachusetts by claiming an exemption from vaccinations for "religious reasons" where none exist. "I felt that the risk of the vaccine was worse than the risk of the actual disease". I wish there were a vaccination for your stupidity as well.

Honestly I have no problem at all if people don't want to protect their children from life-threatening diseases, so long as they keep the hell away from everyone else. No vaccine? Fine, then no public school for you. Homeschool your kids. Everyone will be happy.

Excepting of course your children when they do get some horrific disease and ask you "But Mom the other kids aren't getting sick - why is it just me?"

On the other hand, I hear property is pretty cheap in Nigeria...

On another blog, a post about former Iranian president and current Chairman of the Assembly of Experts statement that Hitler’s treatment of Jewish people in Europe was due in part to their being “a pain in the neck" quickly became a post about the Holocaust. I posted the following.

I think one message that could be learned from the holocaust that gets forgotten is - Don't isolate yourself.

A relative of mine lived in Germany until the late 1940's. She said that she personally didn't know any Jewish people so she was frankly unaware that any were disappearing. They were around, but at the periphery of her life. If someone that never speaks to you and avoids any real interaction with you disappears, how likely are you to ask where they went? Also consider that many Jews that survived the holocaust survived because they interacted with others, because their friends were not limited to those of their own faith.

Many people still have not learned this lesson. I have gotten down right distrustful, just this side of hostile, stares in Hasidic communities, even when I smile and say hello. The stares made me feel very uncomfortable and self-conscience. I doubt I would be aware if any of the people in those neighborhoods were to start disappearing and I wouldn't much care. Although cruel, it is human nature to care less for people treat you with disdain than those that treat you with kindness. Nor do I suspect, given how they seem to regard me, they would give a hoot if I were to disappear. Replace "Hasidic" with many other groups and the result is the same - it is a "we" / "them" mentality.

Even in less insular communities, our life styles isolates us. How long would it take for you to know if your neighbor disappeared? I live in a small village and I would have no idea if any of them disappeared for quite a while. And if I disappeared? My neighbors wouldn't have a clue for at least a month - until the grass got long. The only people that might notice sooner or care are my friends, who are busy with work during the week, and my co-workers. Who would miss you?

Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy got pissed when the Boston Herald misquoted him as telling a rape victim to "get over it". He then acted within the rules when he sued and won a libel suit against the paper. Apparently that wasn't enough so he started sending the paper letters, the content of which have landed him at the pointy end of ethical charges. One letter demanded that the publisher deliver a check for $3.26 million - ostensibly to speed the case to closure rather than dealing with the appeals process.

Ok, poor judgement on the part of the Judge but the really big flub came when he told the news how the whole event affected his family.

Murphy choked up as he described how the libel case took a severe toll on him and his family.

After Herald columnist Howie Carr criticized him, a posting in a Herald chat room suggested "maybe my daughters ought to be raped," Murphy recalled. The judge said after that, his 14-year-old daughter began wetting the bed and both of his daughters required therapy.

It's not like his family wasn't stressed enough but he's now told the entire world that his 14-year-old is wetting the bed. Brilliant. Even if her friends and classmates didn't know, they sure know now.

Based on that alone I think this guy needs to take a leave of absence based on an obvious lack of judgement.

I recently had surgery. Outpatient type deal. No big deal.

But the billing is cracking me up. Fortunately for me, my insurance is covering most of the bill, which allows me to laugh. If it didn't, this wouldn't be funny.

The first bill I get is my anesthesiologist. Before anyone else, his bill is front and center. It's pretty simple. $1200 for his services. Simple.

A few weeks pass and I get my surgeons bill. Another simple bill. $1100 for her services. I'm on board with all of this.

Then I get the hospital bill. And this thing is fucking priceless. it's 15 entries. Not that bad. 1 of them is listed as 'Outpatient Anesthesia'. The other 14 are all 'Hospital Incidentals'. They range from $2.21 to $3,764.00 I mean, seriously... this is just fucking lazy. I mean, I think there should be SOME separation of this bill. A little more clarity. I don't think an aspirin should fall under the same category as the cost of the operating room. $3,761.79 is a pretty wide range for the same cost code, right?

Seriously. How can they expect someone to just blindly pay for shit and assume it's ok? Maybe there are people out there that just pay the bill and make it go away, but I'm really not one of them. I like to make sure they're not billing me for a drug they didn't actually give me.

Maybe I'm just silly that way?

It's easy to hate airports. The stench of sweat, jet exhaust, and sickly sweet or desperately salty odors of cheap, awful food. It's more or less the same for the people, tired, wired or otherwise jaded, yapping on phones or giving you a hostile glare for taking the only remaining seat (which, as chance would have it, happened to be next to *them*). The only real comfort is the fact that there's lots of people to watch. And when you get tired or run out of pulp to read at least there's something to gawk at. Lots to gawk at actually.

"No, I don't want you to be working 40 hours a week.."
"But Mom!"

I was privy to this conversation that was going on right behind my head. Mom and her two sons, one clearly in his later teens and one in his earlier looked like direct relatives of the great Ozzy himself. One of the boys sported altogether the worst pair of pants I'd ever seen.

On the previous flight I'd been gifted with a full view of patterned boxers when the baggy-jeans wearing kid behind me bent over to fiddle with his backpack. Full indeed. His pants were a good foot lower than his hips, leading me to wonder just how he'd make it down the isle without getting tangled. However, maybe just because the whole-baggy look is so old I wasn't nearly as piqued as later when I encountered this woman and her progeny.

In this case the pants were low - way low - but insanely tight. True, the kid had no leg muscles to speak of, giving the Parisian models a run for their emaciated aura. But with the "waist" and belt effectively cinching his legs together right below the crotch I had to believe that some mystical force propelled him forward when clearly no normal motion could occur.

Not baggy, but too low to walk? Not tight around the ass but tourniquet-ed about the top of the thighs? Damn but those really are some bad pants...

And by the way," he said, "we have gotten information from these high-value detainees that have helped protect you."

He who? You know, Herr Bush. The concept here being that although the US does not use or condone torture, *somehow* they got critical information from them. Sure...

I find is most especially hard to believe considering the quality of the highly publicized cases thus far. Had our government actually prevented some massive effort we would have heard about it with much flag waving and fanfare. Hell, we've heard about serious plots in Britain and Germany. But here? Uh no.

Yeah go on, like you really need an excuse to do whatever the hell you want anyway. We all knew you were torturing people. Why not just find your balls and state the fact that you don't care if you have to hurt or abuse someone so long as you feel you're doing your job?

At least that would be the honest truth.

I won't buy Vista.

There's lots of good reasons why. Good, solid, valid reasons. And most of all they're *my* reasons. I don't want it, I don't like it and I don't have to have it.

Microsoft of course is pissed about this because I'm not in a minority. Vista, since its launch, has sucked. It's been made fun of, and deservedly so.

So what's an almighty software giant like Microsoft to do?

Simple. Try and use their clout in other markets to force people to change.

What people?... Well gamers.

When I picked up a copy of Halo 2 for the PC I discovered this abusive campaign under the guise of "Games for Windows". In essence it was "either you play this game (which was released a stupid amount of time after the xbox version) on *our* terms or you don't play it at all." Basically a variant of the infantile: "Well either we play with my toys my way - or you can all just go home."

(Note that this is especially amusing since Microsoft has just recently enabled a path to "downgrade" to XP - admitting that yeah, Vista really does blow dead dogs.)

Honestly you think they'd know better. There isn't a more stubborn, truculent, mulish group than PC gamers. Numbers decimated by console offerings, we remain the few, the dedicated, the unyielding. Trying to lead us along by waving bright, shiny objects, such as Bioshock for example, simply isn't enough to make us want to renovate our precious computers with Vista filth.

As bad as it seems, in fact they did me a favor. I'd been torn between trying ET: Quake Wars or Halo 2. Now I didn't have to decide at all...

The smoking bans have reached epic heights. Let me just say that I personally hate cigarette smoke and I would love it if everybody quit. But I am a realist, the 20% of Americans that smoke are not just going to quit. However, I do have a bit of sympathy for someone who is told they can not smoke in a place they OWN.

For many years, landlords have banned smoking. My parents owned a rental property about 20 years ago and would not rent to smokers after renting to one for 3 yrs. From a purely business perspective this makes sense. Smoking is a fire hazard so insurance is higher. Smoking makes the windows and walls completely gross and cleaning up after a smoker who has moved is time consuming, smelly and thankless. Furthermore, smoke-free appeals to the 80% who do not smoke. However, smoking bans aren't just for tenants anymore.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-02-nosmoke_N.htm

Now some condo associations are banning smoking. Since most don't grandfather people in, it doesn't matter if you bought your unit 3 months ago or 10 yrs ago. If one buys a condo or a home in any other restricted community, one realizes that they will have rules to live by in their own home. However, should those rules be changed on someone? Now some municipalities are passing laws banning smoking in apartments and condos. I do not think its fair, no matter how much I hate smoking.

Think about this - the government is passing a law on what you can do within the four walls of the home you own. Something that is not inherently illegal. People tend not to squawk unless the right being taken away is something they like having the right to do. If the government can ban smoking in someone's home, a privately owned residence, where will the erosion of our rights end?