Sunday morning amusements...
While I'm waiting for my brain to rev up, here are some entertaining things to think about.
1) The US Government is giving away $2 trillion in emergency loans, but refuses to disclose to whom the loans are being given or why. This is, of course, in the hallmark "Fuck you" fashion of the last eight years that I pray will fade in the coming years. The position the Fed seems to be taking is that if they tell us where all that money is going (and where the HELL do they think we're going to get $2 trillion dollars from, anyway?) we might get our pretty little heads upset about some of the problems we're having. Damn right we will, and we'll be even more pissed off if we have to wait ten or fifteen years only to find out that the money was completely misspent - which it almost certainly will be. I'd rather find out now, while the people responsible can still be punished.
2) I've never liked the Taser, and now I seem to be at least somewhat vindicated. Since becoming standard equipment for police across the country, the Taser has killed at least 400 people. This pretty much invalidates the company's claim that the Taser is completely non-lethal, as well as the aphorism regarding power and corruption. Give a portable lightning bolt to a person who is trained to believe that he or she is always in the right, and people are going to get hurt. Now that we know that Tasers can indeed be lethal, perhaps it's time for police departments to rein in its use as a compliance device and make sure it's only used as a defense weapon.
3) Here's a look at who started the "War on Christmas" that just makes me want to start burning things. Mainly because there is no war on Christmas. Culture trolls like O'Reilly invented it to raise their ratings. That's it. The reason retailers say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" is because they have no way of knowing which December holiday - Christmas, Hannukah, Kwaanza, Dinali, Saturnalia, Festivus, None Of The Above - any given customer might be celebrating. So it is safer and less offensive to use the generic than the specific. That's it. Nothing else.
4) More proof that theocratic sex-ed just doesn't work. The rise in kids taking "Abstinence pledges" - a moral pledge not to have sex until they're married - coincides with a rise in anal sex. Without condoms, more often than not. It's really funny, see - these kids think that getting it up the pooper isn't really having sex! As long as they don't have sex through those beautiful, sacred vaginae, they're both still virgins! Oh, and oral sex doesn't count either. This goes to show that telling kids "Just don't do it" doesn't work. Teenagers are biologically hard-wired to want to have sex, and neither Man nor God is going to stop them, with, of course, the occasional exception.
I have no problem with teenagers having sex, as long as they are doing so with the knowledge of the physical and emotional issues that go with it, and are using the proper safeguards to reduce their risks of pregnancy and disease. So call your local school board, let them know you want kids to have proper, comprehensive sex education. Don't let the theocrats and their sin issues turn any more kids into backdoor bandits. Unless they want to be, of course, in which case feel free. Just remember to wrap up and lube generously.
5) And finally, if you're driving down Route 1 in Maine, be sure to be on the lookout for the Maine Solar System Model, built by Aroostook County. It's the largest solar system model in the world, 40 miles long at 1:93,000,000 scale. AND it includes Pluto. So there. Kudos to Aroostook County, the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the Northern Maine Museum of Science!
That's it. The Brain seems to be puttering along a little better - I should be at about 85% once I get to work - so it's time to go. Have a good one....
1) The US Government is giving away $2 trillion in emergency loans, but refuses to disclose to whom the loans are being given or why. This is, of course, in the hallmark "Fuck you" fashion of the last eight years that I pray will fade in the coming years. The position the Fed seems to be taking is that if they tell us where all that money is going (and where the HELL do they think we're going to get $2 trillion dollars from, anyway?) we might get our pretty little heads upset about some of the problems we're having. Damn right we will, and we'll be even more pissed off if we have to wait ten or fifteen years only to find out that the money was completely misspent - which it almost certainly will be. I'd rather find out now, while the people responsible can still be punished.
2) I've never liked the Taser, and now I seem to be at least somewhat vindicated. Since becoming standard equipment for police across the country, the Taser has killed at least 400 people. This pretty much invalidates the company's claim that the Taser is completely non-lethal, as well as the aphorism regarding power and corruption. Give a portable lightning bolt to a person who is trained to believe that he or she is always in the right, and people are going to get hurt. Now that we know that Tasers can indeed be lethal, perhaps it's time for police departments to rein in its use as a compliance device and make sure it's only used as a defense weapon.
3) Here's a look at who started the "War on Christmas" that just makes me want to start burning things. Mainly because there is no war on Christmas. Culture trolls like O'Reilly invented it to raise their ratings. That's it. The reason retailers say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" is because they have no way of knowing which December holiday - Christmas, Hannukah, Kwaanza, Dinali, Saturnalia, Festivus, None Of The Above - any given customer might be celebrating. So it is safer and less offensive to use the generic than the specific. That's it. Nothing else.
4) More proof that theocratic sex-ed just doesn't work. The rise in kids taking "Abstinence pledges" - a moral pledge not to have sex until they're married - coincides with a rise in anal sex. Without condoms, more often than not. It's really funny, see - these kids think that getting it up the pooper isn't really having sex! As long as they don't have sex through those beautiful, sacred vaginae, they're both still virgins! Oh, and oral sex doesn't count either. This goes to show that telling kids "Just don't do it" doesn't work. Teenagers are biologically hard-wired to want to have sex, and neither Man nor God is going to stop them, with, of course, the occasional exception.
I have no problem with teenagers having sex, as long as they are doing so with the knowledge of the physical and emotional issues that go with it, and are using the proper safeguards to reduce their risks of pregnancy and disease. So call your local school board, let them know you want kids to have proper, comprehensive sex education. Don't let the theocrats and their sin issues turn any more kids into backdoor bandits. Unless they want to be, of course, in which case feel free. Just remember to wrap up and lube generously.
5) And finally, if you're driving down Route 1 in Maine, be sure to be on the lookout for the Maine Solar System Model, built by Aroostook County. It's the largest solar system model in the world, 40 miles long at 1:93,000,000 scale. AND it includes Pluto. So there. Kudos to Aroostook County, the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the Northern Maine Museum of Science!
That's it. The Brain seems to be puttering along a little better - I should be at about 85% once I get to work - so it's time to go. Have a good one....