News & Media

It is a pretty common story — “christians” protest other people having fun. In this case, a church in Ohio decided that it is their business to protest a strip club and to harass its patrons. What makes the story uncommon — the strippers decided to protest the church.

The motivation for this law is noble – who doesn’t want college kids to consent before sex? If SB-967 passes, then California colleges will be required to adopt policies that require “an affirmative, unambiguous and conscious decision” by each participant. If one of them is silent or expresses no resistance, that’s not enough. If the accused party wants to claim that there was consent, it won’t fly if the other party was asleep, unconscious, drunk, or on drugs. “No means no” makes plenty of sense. Some of the bill makes plenty of sense too. But, there is some question as to whether we want to have college administrators acting as rape-investigators. On one hand, this is Law Enforcement’s job. On

It wasn’t much of a surprise that a Key West judge ruled that Florida’s ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional. Miami-Dade was a crapshoot. Now a Broward County judge held the same thing — but going beyond, recognizing same sex marriages outside of Florida. (source)

An Ohio mom called animal control to take away a feral mother cat and her kittens. So, in front of her kids, he pulled out a gun and shot them. Police Chief Mike Freeman defended the shooting as a method of euthanasia and defended the action of the officers, stating that, “the officers will not face any disciplinary actions.” (source) I was pretty sure that this was something from The Onion when I first saw the headline. It is not.

Two men in the United Kingdom were sentenced to a £500 fine and a two year suspended sentence for possession of “disturbing” pornographic images. The images were described as “extreme pornographic image[s] likely to cause injury,” and “pornographic images involving animals.” (source) The men claimed that they did not view the pornography, nor did they seek it out, but that the videos were sent to them via WhatsApp. When your receive a video or an image from that (or other messaging services) it often gets automatically added to a smartphone’s camera roll. The men were unaware of this fact, and carried the porn around for months before getting caught with it.

According to Alba Waba, there is a loophole in Islam that allows “Halal Hookers.” The loophole is Nikāḥ al-Mutʿah (Arabic: نكاح المتعة‎), which is a “temporary marriage,” where the duration of the marriage is pre-determined, and the dowry pre-set, and the husband can give the wife money, if he wants. (source) Unfortunately, it is bullshit.

This is a horrifying story. A little girl in Somalia was born to a couple who are no longer together. The father believes in a practice where they remove a portion of the girl’s genitalia at birth. The mother does not share those beliefs. Despite her efforts to save her daughter from genital mutilation, for the past 3 1/2 years, a local Sharia court has ruled in the father’s favor. The Sharia court ordered that the father can have the little girl’s vagina mutilated, but to make matters worse, the Sharia Judge ruled that the mother was not allowed to even lead the little girl to believe that she was not in favor of having her daughter’s genitals mutilated. To

Today’s top 10 search terms leading people to the Satyricon.

“Black’s … are more defensive in nature and attempt to undermine White’s initial advantage.”  (source)  

This issue seems to come up every so often — the Turks & Caicos islands joining Canada as the 11th province. (source) Some refer to the dream as “Canada’s Hawaii.” In fact, the idea has been bouncing around since World War I. In 1917, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden first proposed Canadian Annexation of the archipelago. (source) However, Great Britain was not amused. In 2004, Nova Scotia discussed inviting the Turks & Caicos to become part of that province. But, nothing has yet come of this nearly 100 year quest for a Canadian outpost in the warmer climates. But that doesn’t stop the deluge of blog posts and news reports discsussing the potential for the Islands to become “Canada’s 11th

Perhaps I sound like a neo-Luddite, but I think the time has come for a little bit of retrograde thinking when it comes to technology. We are in a bad relationship with a mistress made of silicon, and maybe it is time to break up with her. A recent story reported on a gentleman who made a wrong turn onto train tracks, where he narrowly escaped death. Why did he drive down the train tracks? Because his GPS told him to. Donald Sterling learned that our ubiquitous smartphones can be more than that, and can be electronic archivists of our stupidity. The European Court of Justice recently found a “right to be forgotten” (for Europeans anyway). Nevertheless, having technology that

Marc Randazza’s article on CNN regarding Google’s defeat in the European High Court, which requires it to remove links to outdated information that is not a matter of public interest when asked to do so by the subject of those links.

Apropos to this morning’s poast. Vice article on how common it is to arrest kids in America.

On May 10, Italian Carabinieri responded to a call Telse Terme, Italy (just inland from Naples) from a grocery store owner. Two women had just absconded with two packages of hamburger meat. The women explained that they stole the meat because they were broke, had four young children, and nothing to eat. The Carabinieri, after listening to the story, paid the grocer for the hamburger and moved on to deal with real crimes. (source) It is ironic that this story came across my screen today, as just today I was eating a $26 hamburger at lunch (instead of lettuce and onions, it had sea eel and foie gras on it) and told the story of my short career as a

If you try and keep a handle on your privacy online, that makes the NSA think you’re suspicious. (source)

I usually wouldn’t post a video of such a length. But, if you find yourself with 43 minutes to spare, you really should listen to this lecture by James Baldwin and Dick Gregory in 1969. Even if you disagree with what they have to say, your mind will be larger once you do watch/listen. H/T to Connolly for bringing this to my attention. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryuAW_gnjYQ]

Then click here.  

I think that is sorta the definition of a douchebag. Ok, or it is one of the definitions of a douchebag. You know, you look at two people who are totally into each other. They want to be happy and to just go get married or just fuck each other for fun, or whatever. Nobody is getting hurt. Everyone involved is having a grand old time. Except you — the spectator. If it bothers you, then don’t watch. This sorta sums it up, at least in the gay marriage context. Or maybe this sums it up even better: There is an even better photo of them here at an article about their big win in Arkansas. If that bothers you…

Its not even porny. Totally G-rated, but fucking awesome. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h37xswCoY0#t=149] If you can watch this and not smile your ass off, then you and me are not much alike. Which is not the same as me saying I don’t like you, but you’re definitely the weird one.