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''There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual,'' Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote in the opinion.

This quote is in regard to the recent verdict handed down by the Arkansas High Court. For most of us who can read this the reaction is "Well - DUH".

In addition, the court said, the testimony of a Child Welfare Agency Review Board member demonstrated that ''the driving force between adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children but rather based upon the board's views of morality and its bias against homosexuals.''

In this case double-DUH.

The problem is what with the "In your face" rulings, the courts find themselves at odds with the cock-munching politico's that love to beat the family agenda bullshit platform and cry foul when their attempt to legislate morality runs amok of the law. Justices are blasted for "from the hip" judgements, as opposed to a thoughtful reexamination of the laws that they're paid to interpret. From being shot at in family courts to being threatened by the stripping of jurisdiction - justices today aren't being evaluated by their skill in doing their job but instead on the popularlity of their decisions.

Yep, this is America today - where it's not what you do but how popular you are that matters.

The Supreme Court today slapped the president's hand and told him not to make up the laws as he goes along. In essence his attempt to try military/political detainees with tribunals violates not just our laws but the Geneva Convention. 9/11 and the flurry of hastily cobbled laws that resulted did not "hand the president a blank check", and thus the current treatment of the prisoners rights has been a violation of basic laws.

That's it in a nutshell.

Of course the justices also pretty much summarily dismissed the attempt to strip them of their position of judgement on the topic as well. Congress needed to get a fucking grip before trying to push that one through - the Supreme Court is the Supreme Court. It rules on all issues, not just the ones that congress doesn't want examined (ignore the man behind the curtain).

Mr. Stamp said the court had ignored its own precedents justifying the use of tribunals instead of courts martial, and was substituting its own judgment for the president's in his role of commander in chief. "For the court to step into the war-making arena, where it has no expertise, is inappropriate," he said.

Ok, Mr. Stamp - whoever he is - is a fucking retard. A prisoner, by definition is no longer IN a war-making arena. Otherwise he wouldn't be a fucking prisoner. Once someone moves from combatant to prisoner the laws - both ours and the Geneva Convention are patently clear on the issue. Idiot. And in my opinion (and I'd bet anyone else in the world) had to put money on the better judgement of nine supreme court justices versus our current president I sure as shit know who would win.

I find it insulting that the dictatorial bent has been justified as a "return to the original intent of presidential authority". Bullshit. It's just a fucking unrestrained power grab by a president backed by a republican majority under the guise of a self-inflicted, revenge-oriented war.

Supreme court 1: Clown 0.

Amazingly enough democracy actually prevailed, at least my interpretation of democracy. But it didn't prevail by any significant amount. In fact this act if preservation only survived by one vote. What am I referring to? The "desecration of the flag" amendment. By a vote of 66 to 34 America retained her liberty to expression - which in my mind means that the symbol of our nation and what it stands for cannot be infused in an object but exists in the minds of her people.

Americans are what make this America, not a symbol, not a place, not even (imho) the written copies of the Declaration of Independence. Even if you removed all copies today 'We, the People' would be able to re-create it from memory, from heart, from instinct.

Any senator or politician that believes that we need a constitutional amendment to protect our ideals from "desecration" is purely pandering because they know, that a flag doesn't represent who we are (unlike, say our actions which patently show what we stand for). 30 democrats, 3 republicans and 1 independent proved themselves to be ~truly American yesterday. They defended our bill of rights, and provided safekeeping for the ideal that the transfer of ideas, through speech, graphics and writings, though actions, assembly and demonstration remains available to all.

It's pathetic that not all senators can get away from the urge to pose like prima donna's for the press. The bile-inducing toadying and sycophantic behavior in the name of patriotism has risen to an all-time high in the face of increasingly skeptical sentiment from the public. As a thinking member of american society it's been hard and harder to swallow the red/white and blue pabulum that keeps getting shoved down our throat.

There is a silver lining however. Those that remember the restrictions and incursions on liberty from the 50's are getting fewer and fewer. There are generations from the 70's to the 90's who had no idea that ideological witch hunts could exist here... until recently. Will it generate a backlash like the 60's? It's hard to say. But most of the time the pendulum does swing both ways.

Just because you pay someone a lot of money does NOT mean that you'll get the equivalent value in return. You can pay anyone a lot of money, hell, pay it to me. At least I promise to appreciate it.

Our current administration likes to take people who have been paid a lot of money in the past and pay them more. It's a theme with them. It helps if the job they're being overpaid for is somehow faintly related to work they might have done in the past. The kid who worked on the campain making the ass statements about NASA, the former FEMA chief, those are good examples of "W'all he looks lahk a decent sorta guy, let's give him a trahy" mentality of our current president.

Lets take a look-see at the current bio for Donald "Andy" (Andy? - why does everyone in the administration have to have nick-names?) Purdy Jr the current director of Homeland Security for Cyber Security.

1. Getting paid $577,000 for 2 years ($245,481 from the government, $43,320 from Carnegie Mellon University)
2. Technical background: Attourney. Has held previous jobs in state and federal legal positions... and has some management skills.
3. No formal technical background in computer security.

That's right. None. He's been on the job now for 21 months, and to my assessment (and several members of Congress) the guy fucking blows chunks, as does the department in general.

He also claims he can get paid better in the private sector. Well I'm sure, given that his resume now has Cybersecurity Chief on it. Personally now that his contract is up for a review I think it's a good time to take him up on that.

For my money I'd hire someone that actually HAS a technical degree to manage the position. But hell, that's just me. Oh, as an aside - Carnegie Mellon has contracts with the government for cyber-security related work. $411 million actually. Pretty keen eh?

...that foreigners are coming to the US to get gender-specific invitro? Yep it's banned in China, India and many other countries but it's perflectly legal here in the US - so wealthy foreigners are coming here to ensure they get their custom kids.

I wonder, with all the anti-stem cell, anti-abortion rhetoric that gets tossed about so easily why this topic has gone unnoticed.

The War.

It's not popular is it? They don't want us there and at this point we don't want to be there. "We the People" that is, not "We the ruling party". The president and a significant number of our honestly elected officials don't want us to leave yet, but the problem is troops do need to come home at some point and those that leave need to be replaced. That's where recruiting come in, but these days enlisting is about as popular as the war its self. That is to say, it's not.

If there's anything that's been a hallmark of the past 6 years it's been craftiness. The current administration is sneaky, and pretty damn good at it. The press does keep catching them out, and they get pissed at it and howl anti-patriotic epithets at the writers and publishers but the fact is if they were being honest and above board there wouldn't be anything to be caught at. That's not to say that there aren't government activities that require secrecy, certainly there are. But the idea of processing public information, tapping calls, digging through bank records, tracking Internet usage, digging into public library records isn't in that same category....still that's not what this rant is about, it's about what I mentioned before. Recruiting.

Now where is the largest source of young, inexperienced males to be found these days? Well schools. High schools. Colleges too (though less popular because those men will probably be smart enough to decide for them that being at the business end of a gun isn't going to get your chicks, beer or money). High schools. The military likes 'em young and impressionable, preferably without dependants. But in schools most boys are still being influenced by parents and the idea of giving your child to the government to have him killed isn't very popular. So the government has given up waving the 9/11 banner as a motivation to PROTECT YOUR MOTHER COUNTRY. Their sneaky-experts looked for the next big influence in a high-school aged boy's life. The Teachers.

Apparently the government is very busy these days wooing teachers. Giving them helicopter trips, letting them handle the weapons, having them run simulations. Yes the government is throwing the "cool" factor of war at teachers in an effort to bypass parental influence and get straight to their goals - the kids. It's a slick idea really. Teachers get rides and pictures in a quarter of a billion, state of the art helicopter and in return Mr.Smith, your 12 grade gym teacher (who thinks you really have some talent there kid... what will you be doing after you graduate?) is willing to plug the benefits of enlisting. Sure your parents might not like it, but hell he understands you better than they do right? Wouldn't you like to ride in a helicopter like he did? He's been there and let me tell you - it's the shit.

It's funny how the current administration prides its self on its "family" values. Pride of course stopping at the line where it's more important to drive a wedge between the potential enlisted newb and someone's son.

"Congress was briefed," Mr. Bush said. "And what we did was fully authorized under the law. And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America."

Ah smell that Cold War.... Smells kinda like mothballs doesn't it?

I feel sorry for the upcoming generation of women, high school girls especially. It seems that parents are less inclined to get their boys circumcised these days. The current rate is down and it's dropping (I don't recall the actual numbers). Sure there's lots of facets on this problem both religious and emotional but usually the argument boils down to the question - does it really benefit men medically?

The medical viewpoint is pretty neutral. If it does provide a medical benefit it's pretty small, but when it comes to a guy's dick maybe decreasing the risk of getting and transmitting AIDS or getting cancer, curing chronic inflammation, etc. is worth it. Some articles point to decreased sensitivity (is that a good thing or a bad thing?). Some articles insist that it's easier for parents who were raised in a generation of circumcision to maintain for a child.

Putting aside the whole religious issue, and Popes who have weighed in on the touchy subject (to the contrary btw - three Popes and the Mormons said that being circumcised had no bearing on faith), "art" seems to have a very definite opinion.

Take a look at most male nudes, at least the famous ones, and you'll see that esthetics deem a circumcised male to be a handsome male - well at least that portion of him. It's not like I have census data on the matter, but from the discussions I can recall at college it seems that most of the females who discussed the topic would agree. I can clearly recall several women who blandly stated that they would never "do" an uncircumcised man, obviously they had their preferences. I can also recall one woman who said she preferred circumcised men because they didn't "jump up and run off to the bathroom to wash the minute they were done". The post-coital cuddle being an essential part that uncircumcised men were missing.

I suppose the saddest story in the current news on the topic is the divorced couple that has gone to court over the proposed circumcision of their son. The boy is 8 and has had several bouts of inflammation. The mom, whom he lives with and has the rights over his medical care, has decided he needs to have this done because it's chronic. Her Ex-husband has fought this because her new husband is a Jew and claims they are only doing this for religious reasons. Sad. Imaging having your parents in court when you're 8 arguing about your dick. Kid is destined to be an axe murderer if there ever was one. I feel for him.

It's difficult I guess, for some people to make the decision when they have a baby. And of course you can't exactly ~ask the infant what his preferences are going to be 20 years from now when it might have an opinion on the matter. Yes it's something you can't exactly give back, but then again - if it's something you never had... how can you miss it?

This is less of a rant and more of a grudge-ridden acceptance of reality. At the core of the matter is the little bit of sand and metal that runs so much of our lives - silicon. Silicon is the new gold - we need it, love it, depend on it, it runs so many aspects of our lives, our cars, our homes, hospitals, national defense, credit cards, gas stations... the list goes on and on. Gold still may be the unit that upholds our currency, but silicon is what runs our lives and keeps things in order. The thing is - unlike gold which is an inert metal (barring electrical contacts) silicon is a 'performing' element. We shape it into rectangles, mix it with exotic ingredients and voila - produce chips. But not all chips are created equal.

There are multiple grades of chips; worthless crap, shitty, Ok and damn good. More like toy grade, consumer grade, automotive grade and military grade if you want the real categories. The bins are allocated by the ability to perform in different ranges of temperature, and they categorize a chip by testing it. Yep, that's right one batch could suck and be consumer, the next could be military. But what happens when the chip is right on the edge? That's when someone is going to have a fucking hell of a time, kind of like I did the other night.

The goal was to build a new computer, pretty simple really once you pick all the compatible parts. A few screws here, a few connectors there, snap, snap, plug, plug, and poof - instant computer. We managed to assemble all the parts in maybe an hour or two at the most... but the fun came when trying to load up the OS. I say fun in a masochistic sense of course, but I'm sure you sensed that.

So lets jump into this little vignette. It's 8pm and the essential hardware is assembled, Motherboard, CPU, Video, CD/DVD drives, hard drives, even a floppy drive. It's wired, it's powered, it boots and... run through the bios without a hitch. It's a digital happyland, until we stick in the OS CD. The OS begins to load and... pukes up a big blue hairball. Nice. Let the debugging begin.

So if you're reasonably certain that you've assembled the hardware correctly (double and n-tuple checking in the process) and it seems to boot where do you start? Well if it's having trouble copying files to the hard drive then it must be the hard drives fault yes?

If you agreed with me you need to be bitch slapped like I was with a big, stanky, wet fish - a red herring to be exact. I spent hours tracking down leads on the bios, on the SATA interface, swapping in IDE drives, swapping them back out. We had 2 different OS CDs and they didn't react the same - which lead to further confusion and suspicion on the part of the innocent hard drive. One wouldn't load, the other would load but not copy files. Bios settings? Uh, where to start? So many inscrutable options, so many possibilities to screw things royally. The night went on and on in a blur of manufacturer FAQ's, forums and Google News Groups.

The next morning the digital heavens opened when it was discovered that the CD/RW drive was... partially defective. It wasn't broken enough to fail completely - but just enough to prevent the proper operation of any other device on the same bus AND faulty enough not to fully read material it was stuffed with. Once it was removed from the bus and the OS CD was put into the remaining drive things went back to business as usual, OS installed, drivers configured, things went without a hitch.

For the record the CD drive had ASUS branding. In the past I've bought Sony's and not seen any issue, but then again I have 5 - 8 year old CD drives by no-name manufacturers lying around that still work as well. Maybe you get what you pay for, the ASUS drive was cheaper than the other drives but then again since it was a partial failure all you can say what that the manufacturer didn't fully burn in the drive to test it.

I'd like to say I resent the time wasted by the crappy drive, but I really can't. Yes it's nice when everything works perfectly the first time, but while it was annoying it was also challenging and a test of endurance that I have to admit was enjoyable in some masochistic sense. In the end organic matter won over silicon, at least in this round.

I was driving through an area that's predominantly light industry or technology this morning. Something caught my eye as I passed by that made me realize that every strata of society can be easily identified by what it considers disposable waste.

In a slum you might see disgarded food bags, six-pack holders, broken plastic toys. In a middle class neighborhood you might see carboard boxes from bulk stores for paper towels, diapers or toilet paper. In rich neighborhoods you probably dont see any trash, but I imagine if there were it would be foam packing for plasma TV's or empty bottles of expensive beer in recycling containers.

The item I saw this morning as I drove past was a large gray static bag, complete with yellow sticker flipping along in the breeze. It reminded me that trash is not just part of the environment, but a hallmark of those that occupy it as well.

Everyone who has religion has an image of "their" god. It's "theirs" because it's not the same as some other religions god. And obviously it has to be different because if they were the same god then the where would the difference in religion be? A christian god, a jewish god, a muslim god, and sub-flavors as well, catholic god, lutheran god, liberal god, universalist god, vengeful god, apathetic god, it goes on and on.

So when it comes to identifying the good, the positive in a religion, the god belongs solely to that particular denomination of worshipper. Theirs. Ours. Mine. For me, not you. You're wrong, I'm right. Whatever.

The funny part is if you ask either side of a religious divide what the evil was, where the bad came from, what represents the demonic they'd easily agree... it was the other person. Who's the force of Satan if you're jewish? Who's the minion of Hell of you're muslim? What are the forces of the unholy if you're christian? It's those other guys, the ones with the other god.

I find that incredibly humorous, that humans can immediately identify the evil as human, but have trouble agreeing on the source or identity of good.

The world is my ashtray

The world is my ashtray and I shall not care
To dispose of my ashes or butts anywhere
I can fling them aside, as I drive or I walk
I can let the sparks fall to the grass as I talk

The beaches are there for my butts to stub
Looks of loathing or hate from non-smokers I snub
Forest fires in summer, give me no pause
It's my right to my smoke that alone is my cause

It's glamorous, sexy, risque, oh so chic
Smoking makes me thin, my teeth white, my hair sleek
It's beautiful to smoke, I look and feel great,
Air is free, unpossessed, so I don't get the hate

From non-smokers, from children, who all cry their rights
Are violated when I blow smoke from my 'lights
In restaurants, in airplanes, in busses and cars
I especially don't like when they try and restrict bars

It's my life, I don't care, I'll do what I will
It's not my fault if you're exposed to crap that can kill
The world is my ashtray and my smoke's in your face
I'll share my cancer to you and the whole human race.

So after a hectic afternoon I decide to take the family and two friends out to dinner to unwind. It's a nice thing to do on a shitty weekday after running around like a loon. So I call a local Italian chain place, good enough for a moderately priced meal, brick oven offerings, plenty acceptable when the other choice is to cook and clean up.

I call ahead. It's the practical thing to do. Ten minutes? Sure we can do that. Hop in the car, drive over get in and... there's two tables that can fit more than four and they have families with small kids. I mean toddlerites. Well it's not fucking going to be 10 minutes anything. I call an alternative place, hell at least they're honest... 25 minutes. Sure I'll stick it out here, everyone else is game.

So we wait. It seems like the other families (well moms with their tykes) are aware of our presence and go to extra lengths to take longer. The manager comes over an apologizes. Twice. Whatever. Eventually one family gets their act in gear when presented with the bill and we get a seat. But during this wait I had ample opportunity to observe the group in the first booth.

Two women, probably in their 30's, richer than they deserve with nice hair, fake tans, coach bags and accessories. I mean the kids. The kids were accessories because they sure the fuck didn't treat them in any way I'd recognize as parents. One little girl was at the window, or in the entry vestibule with a crayon in her hand drawing on the goddamn glass and standing in everyone's way. People trying to enter or exit the restaurant had to try and get past her without hurting her or letting her out. The other toddler had a salt shaker/grinder in both hands and her mouth firmly clamped to the top. I watched in complete horror as the "mother" took the shaker with ropes of salt induced spit trailing from it, wipe it briefly and hand it back. Hand it back!??!?! This was the property of the restaurant and I promise that no customer after them wanted their salt suspended in a spit solution.

Our booth was on the other side of these whores and I kept looking daggers at these fucking bitchbags and their spawn. They're happily chatting away, picking at their long-cold plates letting everyone else in the restaurant be responsible for their offspring. No real mother would let a toddler out of their sight for more than 15 seconds much less let hover at the door with patrons entering and exiting and a busy street five paces beyond.

It became even further apparent that these self-invested bitches lacked any sort of maternal skills when the smaller of the two brats tried to climb on a chair for waiting patrons and took a tumble. They look dumbly at each other, 'OMG how did everyone ELSE let this happen to MY child?' One goes and scoops up the wailing child, suddenly the second brat kicks in as well. It's a safety mechanism humans still retain - babies will take up sympathetic wailing if they feel the group is endangered even if they aren't directly injured or threatened. Ffs the kids knew that they were the victims of shoddy nurturing. They had no sense of security even WITH their own mothers holding them. I wanted to cheer. Instead when one "mother" looks up at me for support so I sarcastically say "Way to go" and give her the glare. I think she didn't even parse it. It was pretty impressive since by then my hate was palpable.

Brats finally settled, these momdroids decide to keep the brats penned in the booth with them. The one on our side decides to hang over the top of the seat into our area. The little monster even starts playing with the hair of someone on our side. Then it spied the hot rolls on our table and started making sounds and reaching for them. Slowly, glaring at this infestation I take out a roll and begin to eat it, staring daggers. The vile progeny starts to cry again the mother-creature pulls it partly back into the booth, surprised I guess by the fact that we refused to amuse her child for her.

They did eventually leave, but I was so put off that I didn't enjoy my dinner at all. It must be a nice life to marry some guy for his money, pretty much ensure you'll be set for life by having one of his kids and then spend the rest of your life shopping, tanning and letting paid professionals or society at large nurture and raise your child. You know their children will continue the pattern, since obviously they will never know what it's like have a real mother.

Listen up bitches, if I'm ever alone, or with someone else I know who feels like I do I WILL give you my attitude and a double-fucking handful of it as well. Maybe a hostile adult cursing you out in front of your kids will wake you up, probably not, but hell it's worth a try especially if it makes me feel better.

Whores. For real.

I was stuck in traffic the other day with little else to do than ponder life's immutable mysteries and I found myself laughing at one little concept that popped into my head.

What if facial piercings interacted with cell phone usage... in a negative way? What if all of a sudden people with a lot of metal shit in their faces suddenly had their heads explode? Personally I think it's a hilarious idea. Definitely one worth starting an urban legend about. One could make up all sorts of bogus dilutions of physics along the lines of "well the stainless steel used in piercings sets up an exponential feedback which induces a vibration in the power supply of the phone that results in detonation" and "this only happens with new ultra-slim phones due to the more powerful, smaller batteries they carry", and of course this doesn't happen to people with just earrings because "gold is more or less a neutral element, and silver earrings just don't have sufficient density to set off the reaction....unlike 420 Stainless". There could be warning signs made up with little icons of barbels and cell phones with a plus sign between them and an equals a skull after. There could be slomo animations of people talking on their phones with their heads splattering like the Super-Fly flash from Joe Cartoon.

I'd love to see goth chicks holding their phones at arms length and screaming into them. It would be fucking hysterical.

Anyway I was kinda bored and this kept me amused for a few minutes.

New York wants to take a new approach in treating AIDS in a similar way as other communicable disease. The benefit of that would be that doctors would have more resources to testing for, and monitoring the disease in infected patients. You would think that something that would provide easier access to testing and thus potentially serve more people would please AIDS activists, but guess again. They're pissed. Why? Because they want to maintain the status quo - that quo being that if you had AIDS you were "special".

Here's a quote from an AP article that caught my eye...

"To imagine that it's just like every other disease -- like cancer or diabetes -- is false," said Tracy Welsh, executive director of the HIV Law Project. "Getting a positive test result is something that turns somebody's life upside down."

Amazing. See the problem here? Having AIDS makes you MORE special than someone dying of cancer of diabetes. I'm certain that people diagnosed with either of those conditions just go along their merry way, their lives "not being turned upside down".

Twat.

The only thing "special" about someone who has AIDS is that they weren't genetically pre-disposed to get it. It wasn't a ticking time bomb in their bodies. In a vast number of cases in the US people with AIDS took the chance willingly, and lost. I suppose making stupid personal choices could make you special.

The "specialness" actually stems from that fact, that other people who have terminal diseases who had no choice in the matter might resent their peers with AIDS wanting to remain anonymous. Yes there IS a stigma that comes along with the disease, but that stigma is going away as time has progressed. The idea now that people are running screaming from an infected elementary school child who got AIDS from a blood transfusion is gone. Yes people are going to act differently around that child, but no more so than a child with some other communicable disease.

To me that's more the issue than anything else. Cancer and diabetes is not communicable - AIDS is. Having people running around not knowing they have AIDS only means that there will be more cases that could have been prevented. If you have AIDS you -do- require monitoring, and if that means more people know who you are, then that's just how it is. AIDS simply isn't special any more. The laws protect you. It's time to stop being "special", and be more like anyone else with a deadly, communicable disease. It's time to start being "responsible".

If you're a Bushublican read no further, I'm going to bash here.

I find it fascinating that America is just now waking up to what the rest of the world already knows. America's investment in Iraq has cost us bargaining power with every other nation, leaving us with basically nothing. Globally we're not very fucking popular. Nationally we're not very unified. Physically basically adds up to tax payer money paying to stabilize a violently chaotic system with the ultimate price in American lives and our reputation.

My point isn't to say this isn't a winnable war, or even suggest what the definition of a winnable war might be. My goal is to point out that given our investment in Iraq we have nothing left over to bargain with Iran, North Korea or anyone else for that matter.

And they damn well know it.

Iran has been more or less doing whatever the fuck they want, with no consequences. Chances are they'll continue to do it. Can we invade Iran? No. We simply do not have the resources for it, regardless of any limited support from the rest of the world. Even if it was confirmed tomorrow that Iran had nukes - what the hell could we do about it?

With all our physical and economic resources being bled off into at attempt to stabilize Iraq, America is left with very little extra to support a real crisis. Katrina has shown that crises do happen, massively. If you combine another storm like Katrina with support for the war in Iraq and top it off with another terrorist attack within the US..... where does that leave us?

It doesn't leave us with much. Could we depend on help from outside? I doubt it. Not when so many people would like to see us fail.

Scary? Fuck yes.

In the ever downward spiral of allocation of responsibility the FDA has released a commissioned report that simply says "Americans are too infantile to control their eating habits". A suggested solution is that restaurants should be the ones responsible for ensuring their customers eat correctly.

Ok ok, let's say it together here "that's stupid".

The report, prepared by the Keystone Center a "an education and public group based in Keystone, Colorado" says that because Americans eat out so much they need to be supervised. Why? Because we're fat motherfuckers. More than half of American is overweight and 30% are too fucking fat for their own good (re:obese). The report seems to think that if restaurants acted like good mommies and daddies in limiting food portions and making sure that yucky fruits and greens were supplied with the burgers and fries America would suddenly get healthier. What the ghey people?

Again, stating the obvious - people are only going to buy what they want to eat. (And hammering it home) if a restaurant doesn't serve what people want then they will go somewhere else. Ever heard the old adage "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink?" well fucking learn it. Even if every McDonalds and Wendies suddenly made their burgers postage stamp size and forced fruit salads on their customers people would only:

- buy more itty bitty burgers and
- throw away the fruit salad.

Other restaurants that didn't feel so obligated to the American waistline, and more concerned with making a profit would open and serve ONLY fries and burgers (extra grease please). I mean ffs the whole POINT of eating out is to enjoy something you like, not eat creamed spinach like your mom used to make.

The bottom line is you can't force Americans to eat better by trying to control what they buy. Either you need to beat it into their heads that 'being fat = being dead', make fun of them through an add campaign by showing cottage-cheese ass on the cover of every paper and TV commercial "IS THIS WHAT YOU SEE IN THE MIRROR"? or just subsidizing the fat people to eat more fatty foods and die - thus setting a more abundant example to the rest of the population.

My message to the FDA: Until you cure our lazy ass ways you won't be able to make America any thinner. Duh people.

I nearly fell out of my chair this morning when I read this one:

U.S. Wants Companies to Keep Web Usage Records

The Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do so.

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales held a meeting in Washington last Friday where they offered a general proposal on record-keeping to a group of senior executives from Internet companies, said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the department. The meeting included representatives from America Online, Microsoft, Google, Verizon and Comcast.

I really had a hard time getting past the first paragraph. Honestly it makes me so insanely mad that I have a hard time not sputtering epithets incoherently. In fact humor me here, I have to... just to get it out of my system, but I'll try and start politely.

Dear Mr.Mueller and Gonzales, were you always fucking douche bags or was it something you had to learn? A true civil servant wouldn't look for access to rump-fuck our American privacy with a cake server. Can you even understand that your idiotic attempts to rip into our daily lives through copying our phone records, monitoring what books we check out of the library and FUCKING TRAILING US THROUGH THE NET is so amazingly retarded that it shows just how unqualified you are for your jobs? Ok that said, back to the less abrasive side of things.

You know it's charming, in a retarded-kids having sex kinda way how they keep trying to make the same asinine mistakes over and over. The whole collection of calling data was idiotic. It's too much data to actually learn anything from. They haven't seemed to grasp the concept even though it's been spelled out for them. And now they're trying to do the same thing all over again.

Keep track of web surfing activities? Hello? STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. Just look at a fucking history file - how big it gets for one person. Then multiply that times all the users a company has? Again it's volumes and volumes of data. 99.9999% meaningless. Are they going to check every site on every list to see if it has "subversive material"? You sure the fuck can't tell by the name that www.strawberryshortcake.com might be a site about dolls, hentai or blowing up the SF Bay Bridge.

There's redirects. There's computers in freekin Finland that you can hide your browsing. There's software you can use that scrambles your urls. WHAT THE FUCKING GAY YOU MORONS. Again you can tell these idiots had no idea about the volume of data they just asked for, nor how to make it meaningful... not that you ever could.

Personally I have a great idea. I think that AOL -should- set these guys up with a 30 day free version of just what they asked for, and simply email all the data to their accounts at work and at home. And do it every second. Maybe the massively huge, router crushing inundation of data will teach them once and for all what drinking from a fire hose is all about....