"ScAlito"

Oh. Shit.

A judge who thinks women should be legally required to get permission from their husbands before having an abortion (What? Are women still property in your book, your honor?), believes machine guns are perfectly all right for private ownership, and is known "affectionately" as "Saclito" for his resemblence to Justice Antonin Scalia.

What's that ticking sound I hear? Oh, it's just the geiger counter over there by the Rotunda clicking away like mad. Frist probably can't wait to pop his little nuke in the Senate.

Free Software

OK, this was on the front page of Slashdot, so it's not like many of you out there haven't seen it already, but I just have to boggle a bit.

Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria:

"It's easy to focus on cost and say how much is a product, but at the end of the day it's the total impact that's important. You can give people free software or computers, but they won't have the expertise to use it,"

...

Umm. So you propose selling them a bunch of software that they, by your own logic, don't have the expertise to use? Why not use free software and use the money they saved on software licensing to pay for some training?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using commercial/proprietary software when and where it is appropriate, but this seems like a ridiculous no-brainer.

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

Seen on Craigslist this morning:

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong


01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.


Re-post this if you believe love makes a marriage.

this is in or around Salem, OR

Yay Craigslist!

Gaea sez, "Stop that!"

As usual I was laying in bed this morning listening to Morning Addiction and a story came on about the latest energy bill in Congress and how it's been called the "No Oilman Left Behind" by its detractors. Suddenly it hit me:

1. Burning petroleum products adds to global warming.
2. Global warming warms the ocean that fuels larger and larger hurricanes.
3. Huge global warming-fueled storm wipes out oil refineries.
4. Congress passes bill providing huge bags of cash to oil companies to build more refineries so we can have more petroleum to burn.
5. Goto 1

One really does need to wonder if, in order to be elected to national office, one must first give up any knowledge of the scientific method or the principles of cause and effect.

I know, it's not exactly a profound insight, but it's before 9am on a friggin' Saturday morning and I haven't had any coffee yet, so gimme a break!