Oh, god, the cute has melted my ice-coated heart

Baby orangutans. Baby tigers. Together!

After being abandoned by their mothers shortly after birth, the four play fight, nipping and teasing each other, and cuddling up for a shared nap when they are worn out.

Awww!

Today's non-story

Mansions use more energy to heat/cool/maintain/whatever than normal-sized houses!

Holy crap, NO WAY!

However, if you A) take great steps to minimize your energy consumption and B) counter what you do use by purchasing carbon offsets, you're contributing a lot less to the problem than most people in most average houses.

Sigh. Thank you, Drudge Report. Thank you, America, for yet another stunning dive into "it's still true even if I lie by omission".

Baffling headline...

Lawmakers pass roads, slavery bill.

The Virginia legislature talked about transportation, blah blah blah. And then they apologized for slavery.

Can I just point out that the majority of people in the VA legislature (hell, in any American legislature) are people who, a hundred years ago, would've been asking why the hell those colored folks would want to vote? And a hundred and fifty years ago, would've been asking what's so wrong with slavery anyway?

On the one hand: that's progress that they're actually apologizing. On the other hand - they're still the ones in the position of power. Hm.

CNN...

The latest big news on CNN:

1. Abducted boy freed bonds to escape, police say

2. NASA plans for psychotic astronaut with duct tape
3. Squealing pigs pulled from snow-flattened barn
4. Ban upheld on dancing in N.Y. bars
5. Woman's been hiccupping 24/7 for a month

So...slow news day, I guess. I especially like the clarification in the first headline. I'd personally sort of assume that escaping tends to mean a freeing of bonds, but maybe that's just me.

Ah, America.

Oh holy *crap*

A large, 330-foot deep sinkhole just spontaneously opened up in Guatemala City. It consumed, for lack of a better word, at least two houses, three people, and a truck.

I know what I'm going to have nightmares about tonight! The ground suddenly not being there, sending me plummeting hundreds of feet to my death!

Conservapedia

Oh, America. Apparently, Wikipedia (which, uh, anyone can edit) is helplessly biased towards liberals. Thankfully, now we've got Conservapedia! For example:

Wikipedia often uses foreign spelling of words, even though most English speaking users are American. Look up "Most Favored Nation" on Wikipedia and it automatically converts the spelling to the British spelling "Most Favoured Nation", even there there are far more American than British users. Look up "Division of labor" on Wikipedia and it automatically converts to the British spelling "Division of labour," then insists on the British spelling for "specialization" also.^[3]. Enter "Hapsburg" (the European ruling family) and Wikipedia automatically changes the spelling to Habsburg, even though the American spelling has always been "Hapsburg". Within entries British spellings appear in the silliest of places, even when the topic is American. Conservapedia favors American spellings of words.

Uh. Yeah. Sure. (the Habsburg family, apparently, went out of power sometime in the mid-1800's, if you're wondering).

From their main page:

Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept? Add to the explanation of what it means, and how it does not exist on other religions.

...what? No, seriously - what?

The concept of faith is also strongly emphasized in other major religions, although this is by no means true of all major non-Christian religions.

Same can be said for the concept of organized worship. So?

While faith is mentioned 229 times in the Bible's New Testament, the concept is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament (KJV) which forms part of the basis for the Jewish religion.

Because A) of course there's no chance this could be a translation error, and B) because that particular word isn't used, obviously it's not an important concept.

Their entry on atheism is actually not as bad as I'd expect. Probably because in the past day or two the site's been 'discovered' by bloggers and I'm sure plenty of editing is going on.

Atheist morality is based upon emotion, experience and empirically derived ethics, such as those promoted by secular humanism. Atheists hold that the Bible cannot be our source of morality as it contains countless calls for immoral behavior such as killing any who try to convert you, stoning homosexuals and adulterers to death, and the institution of slavery. Instead, most Christians actually rely on their own innate philanthropic sense (which has evolved as a necessary element of communal living over millions of years) to cherry pick the pleasant parts of the Bible and ignore the rest.

Yes, of course every atheist everywhere thinks that the bible can't be used as a moral compass. And all Christians "cherry pick" bits and pieces out. (Wouldn't that be called hypocrisy?)

Oh, Britain...

Britain is like that relative that so many people have, who you by and large adore, and they're cool and cultured and sophisticated and different enough from your immediate family to totally rock - but every so often they go ahead and do something that makes you go "Britain - dude, what?"

Or (very possibly) that's just me.

Anyway - Blair's announced that they're going to start pulling British troops out of Iraq, hoping to have them all back home by October. Apparently, Denmark is also withdrawing their troops (Denmark has, uh, soldiers? Huh.) at the same time. This is good. Blair's finally admitting that maybe he sort of screwed this one up and it wasn't the best idea. Great. Better to show up late to the party than not at all, right? I'm pretty excited about this.

Then, what should greet me on the BBC News homepage this morning but this? "Entirely unimportant rich white boy to go to Iraq".

I'm very curious about the timing of this announcement. "Yes, we're going to withdraw our troops because this war is stupid and pointless and an astonishingly bad idea that's just not working for us. But - wait! America! Look! We're sending some of our favorite gossip fodder! So even if you guys screw up and bomb us again and end up killing him, we'll still benefit because by god our newspapers love that type of thing!"

Or, if I want to be optimistic about it, maybe it's part of Blair's Cunning Plan to do away with such a stupidly archaic system as monarchy. I can dream, can't I?

Overreaction much?

Imagine, if you will, that you're a middle-school principal.

A student of yours brings to school a homemade slingshot: the top of a plastic bottle, some rubber bands, and a balloon. Another student is hit in the chest by a little pellet fired from said slingshot and suffers "a welt". The shooter claims it was an accident.

What is the appropriate reaction at this point? Do you A) reprimand the shooter, confiscate his homemade "weapon", and give him detention/call his parents/etc, or B) call the police and have him charged with a felony?

Hint: It's not B.

If he brought in a BB gun and shot someone with it, I could see it being appropriate. If he has a long history of dangerous outbursts, I can see the reaction as being justified. But:

Mysinger [the sheriff office's spokesman] said too much focus has been placed on the wording of the charge. The statute Kevin Cottle was charged under covers severe injury or great bodily harm.

An 11-year-old boy playing with a slingshot most likely does not have the slightest intent to cause "severe injury or great bodily harm". I personally rather doubt that a slingshot in the hands of a little kid could cause that. Maybe if you shot someone in the eye at close range, or somehow flung flaming arrows with it.

So, yeah. An 11-year-old spent 72 hours in a juvenile prison and is going to be under trial for a felony for playing with a slingshot.

Am I surprised that this took place in Florida? Not in the least.

The Magic Flute: What?

Apparently, Mozart's The Magic Flute makes some degree of sense if either A) you're a Freemason, and/or B) You know ahead of time that it's about Freemasonry. Or something.

If neither of the above apply to you and you, say, watch a recording of a production of it in music class, you will spend the entire time getting progressively more and more confused. A giant snake? Why is a Classical-era composer writing an opera about what very much seem like Pagan beliefs? Why are we praising Isis and Osiris? The good guy is the bad guy and vice versa? What is going on?

We'll be discussing it on Friday in class, and I'm certainly looking forward to that. I actually found it hard to concentrate on the musical aspect of it, as I was so totally baffled by the plot. Isis? What is up with those kids? Weird.

Britain to withdraw troops from Iraq

Details will be announced soon by a certain Mr. Blair.

Finally.

Happy.

Same-sex civil unions have started in New Jersey.

Sure, it's not equal rights, we're still a long way from that, but it's a step in the right direction. So I'm happy with it.

The painful joy of procrastination and the Tube.

I love my Wikipedia. London Underground Trivia, anyone?

The shortest distance between two stations is 250 metres (0.16 miles), between Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line. Some say that with all the time spent going up and down the escalators, it's faster to walk between the two. Travel between these stations paid for by a cash ticket costs £25 per mile (£4 ticket) in 2007.

Only two people are known to have had their coffins transported on the Underground: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo.

A fragrance called "Madeleine" was introduced at St James's Park, Euston and Piccadilly Circus stations on 23 March 2001, in an effort to make the Underground smell better. It was discontinued the next day as it was making people feel sick.

St John's Wood is the only station which contains none of the letters of the word 'mackerel' (as the word Saint is not spelt out). Pimlico is the only station which contains none of the letters of the word 'badger', at least until the proposed 2010 opening of Hoxton, which will then be the only station containing none of the letters of either word. Wapping is the only station with no letters in common with 'lobster'. And Redbridge is the only station without 'Walnut'!

The Jubilee Line is the only line that intersects all others. The District Line meets all other lines except the Metropolitan Line—which it misses by approximately 20 m at Aldgate.

The return journey from King's Cross St Pancras and Euston and back again can be made travelling only in nominally "northbound" trains. The northbound Northern Line runs from King's Cross to Euston and the northbound Victoria Line runs from Euston to King's Cross. It is also possible to make the same round trip on "southbound" trains only.

Note: Oh god the number of times I found myself on the wrong Northern Line. *shakes fist*

Breaking news from London:

Kensington is still by and large populated by people with far too much time and far too much money. They'd much rather get rid of the first to save the latter than suck it up and either stop driving their Masaratis around or just pay a couple extra quid per day.

Thing I hate the most right now:

The phrase "homosexual agenda". Sometimes phrased as "gay agenda".

Could someone please explain to me what this is? As far as I can gather, people think non-heteros want to be able to get married solely for the purpose of ruining the foundation of American society. Ignore the lack of connection and you've still got a problem: I was always taught that the foundation of American society is more along the lines of "liberty and justice for all", or "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", or, if you're from Massachusetts, "no taxation without representation". It was not "to have and to hold", I must have missed that day of history class.

Seriously, though: how do you ascribe an agenda to such a staggeringly diverse group of people? Is there a heterosexual agenda?

Political warp-up

(The title was going to be "Political wrap-up", but I think warp really works.)

1. John Street - the current mayor of Philadelphia - has a brother named Milton. Last year he tried to run for PA House, but was denied the opportunity owing to the fact the he, uh, lives in New Jersey. He's currently waiting for a trial to start in which he's the defendant: allegedly he pocked a few million bucks last year and neglected to, you know, mention it to the IRS or other concerned parties.

Now he's running for mayor! Of Philly! Whoo-hoo! This is gonna be great fun!

2. On the far other end of the spectrum, John McCain, backslider galore, has a new website for his new campaign. To his credit, it's strikingly different from most political candidates websites, with the distinct lack of red-white-and-blue, and nary an eagle to be seen. But that weird star thing over his name makes it look like a car dealership, and the black-and-white color-scheme makes it look like a slick Battlestar Galactica fansite.

3. Over across the pond, they want to waive the TV license fee for poor people.

Because, obviously, that's going to help fight poverty. Or something.

Political warp-up

(The title was going to be "Political wrap-up", but I think warp really works.)

1. John Street - the current mayor of Philadelphia - has a brother named Milton. Last year he tried to run for PA House, but was denied the opportunity owing to the fact the he, uh, lives in New Jersey. He's currently waiting for a trial to start in which he's the defendant: allegedly he pocked a few million bucks last year and neglected to, you know, mention it to the IRS or other concerned parties.

Now he's running for mayor! Of Philly! Whoo-hoo! This is gonna be great fun!

2. On the far other end of the spectrum, John McCain, backslider galore, has a new website for his new campaign. To his credit, it's strikingly different from most political candidates websites, with the distinct lack of red-white-and-blue, and nary an eagle to be seen. But that weird star thing over his name makes it look like a car dealership, and the black-and-white color-scheme makes it look like a slick Battlestar Galactica fansite.

3. Over across the pond, they want to waive the TV license fee for poor people.

Because, obviously, that's going to help fight poverty. Or something.

At long last

A judge has ruled that a person (and, if said person is a minor, their parents) are responsible for their online safety, not social networking sites.

Hurray for personal responsibility!

Oh god...

I'm (*cough* not procrastinating!) poking around the website for CTY, an academic summer program ("nerd camp") which I attended, in some form, every summer between fifth and tenth grade.

You are eligible for CTY courses for 7th grade and above if you:

• completed 7th grade and are 12 years old by June 30, 2007
• do not turn 17 before September 1, 2007

AND

• have required minimum scores on the SAT, combination of SAT and Spatial Test Battery (STB), or ACT. Minimum PSAT scores are also accepted.

Someone born in 1995 meets the minimum age requirement.

I was born in 1986.

That is a difference of nine years. People born nine years after I was are now in middle school.

I'm not old yet - that only happens, I've decided, once you're done with school - but oh god.

"When I was the president's husband..."

Hillary Clinton is problematic for me.

I really feel like I ought to like her, because she really infuriates the far right. I'm not entirely certain why they get so pissed off at her existence, but they do. Generally, things that anger the far right (gay marriage, freedom of [including from] religion, evolution, common sense) are things I'm very strongly for.

Other than Hillary.

I don't like her based primarily on her politics. I wish I was a strong enough person to solely judge political candidates based on that, but alas, I am a weak and fleshy human. I dislike her general attitude, and I dislike her constant reliance on hyping the other Clinton. Why?

After some thought I think I've figured it out: it's demeaning to herself. She's illuminating her political goals and accomplishments in someone else's light, so to speak. Her experience, however great or limited it may be, should be her political experience. It should not be "what I watched my husband do" or even "what I helped my husband do." It's hard enough for a woman to gain respect in politics: I think Clinton's just making it harder for herself by highlighting that she got her start as a hanger-on.

Goldeneye

I want a Soviet Death Train like James Bond attacks in Goldeneye. That scene? Where Bond parks a tank on the train tracks and then shoots a missile at the train so it's not just a Soviet Death Train but a flaming Soviet Death Train? With a helicopter stored on it? Which then turns into Bomb-Laden Sealed Room of Death (with hacking)? And then blows up?

That's pretty badass.

Ugh.

Is there anything at all that's not just vile about the endlessly-ongoing Plame/Libby/Cheney/Etc debacle?

It's not often I advocate this, but can't we just throw our hands up in surrender, declare everyone involved a poo-head, and move on? Because no one is going to come out of this looking remote clean.

Interesting factoids:

There are two countries which have signed but not ratified the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, a human-rights document. Those two countries are Somalia and the United States.

Countries that, since 1990, have executed people for offenses committed as a minor: China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

A Valentine's Day celebration I can get behind...

Apparently in California, there's a V-day tradition. County clerks often issue "Certificates of Inequality" to same-sex couples, to commemorate that while the state endorses heterosexual partnership, having two sets of similar genitalia apparently makes a couple worthless.

Sometimes I sort of love California.

Global warming *does* have a solution.

Newsweek's Robert Samuelson is going on about global warming, saying that politicians et al don't really care and aren't willing to make the sacrifices required to help fix the problem.

I'm not going to argue with that. I think there's a distressing level of apathy in governments around the world about the problem, and if the populace expects politicians to take the first steps, they're going to be disappointed.

But I hate the fatalist attitude he's exhibiting here. So the government's not going to do anything? That sucks, but that doesn't mean no progress can be made. Know how the majority of hugely-influential movements in the modern world started? A bunch of average Joes started doing what they thought was right. The then-government didn't start with much enthusiasm for America, for god's sake: a bunch of people saw a problem and took it upon themselves to fix it.

Here's what the average person can do to fight our inevitable drowning: Write letters to your congressional representatives. Walk up to the post office to mail it; don't drive. Even better, show some support and take public transportation to the post office if you can. Spend a few extra bucks when you need to replace a lightbulb and use a compact fluorescent one - you can get one at Wal-Mart or any hardware store. Call your congressional representatives, your governor, your state representatives. When it starts getting warm, turn off the air conditioner and open the windows instead. Carpool to work. Write another couple letters to your senator. Call your representatives. Unplug your TV and read a book instead. Keep your TV unplugged when you're not using it. Write a letter to your governor. Next time you have to run up to the store for some orange juice and bread, skip the plastic bag. Skip the paper bag, too - surely you've got a backpack or a tote bag or a messenger bag or even a stash of plastic bags sitting around at home. When you get home and put your bread away, write another letter to your representatives telling them what you're doing and maybe the should get off their asses as well. Delay turning your lights on for an extra twenty minutes and watch the sunset instead.

See? It's easy.

Don't get me wrong - it would be pretty great if the American government would at least take some slight environmentally-friendly steps. In Ireland if you want a bag for your groceries, you're going to pay extra for it - even something like that's a step in the right direction. But we don't need to sit around waiting for the government to initiate large-scale initiatives. If a big enough number of people start helping out in little ways, it's going to add up, and it's going to set an example for the government: this is want we want. Listen to the people.

Note to Congressional Democrats:

Please read this before we proceed any further. I've added a bit of emphasis. It's from a rather important document known as the American Constitution. This bit of paper very clearly and explicitly describes what you may and may not do.

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces

See, here's the thing. You and you alone can declare war. You and you alone can give the military money that they don't by any definition need. You can say "Yes, we'll cheerfully spend some godawful amount of taxpayers money on two years of war."

Then, after those two years, the theory is you stop, you take a look around, and you say, "Should we really keep spending our money on this?"

If the answer to that question is "no", or even "I'm not quite certain", know what you should do? STOP FUNDING SOME IDIOTIC WAR. If they run out of money (which, for some inexplicably reason they can't get of the normal DoD budget), our Army is going to give up and come home. That is a good thing.

The solution is not to sit around with your thumbs inserted into certain bodily orifices and say, "Hmmm, I'm not so sure I approve of this. Let's pass a bill saying so." Because guess what? The president knows that. The DoD knows that. EVERYONE knows that!

Really, it's a lovely gesture the same way that those free Live Aid concerts were. You're making your stance very clear on the off-chance it wasn't before (ie, poverty is bad, war is bad, our soldiers are a bunch of ignorant monkeys and maybe we should stop paying for them to shoot innocent children). But it's not doing anything. Know how much of a "difference" a bunch of concerts led by Bono did? Nothing, really. Raised awareness, maybe, so now we've got a bunch more armchair protesters clucking their tongues in disgust at the G8 countries. And now we've got a bunch of Democrats saying, "Yep. Iraq war is bad." Which they were already saying.

Can we try a new tactic? That is, don't just vote to say you don't support the war, but stop supporting the war?

Thoughts on Santa Fe

It seems that, to some, Santa Fe has some bizarre hypnotic quality to it. People come here, and don't ever leave.

To a certain extent I understand. The view as I walk down the stairs to class every morning is something that people travel cross-country to see. The sunsets are, on average, breathtaking. The weather is pretty decent, provided you like lots of sunshine and very little humidity. People here are pretty friendly.

But there are huge drawbacks, too. For such a small town Santa Fe is absurdly expensive. It's big and poorly-laid-out, a prime example of suburban sprawl. The demographics are staggeringly bizarre: at times it seems this place is equal parts "fairly poor people" (including huge numbers of homeless people) and "rather wealthy old retirees". And unless you're into huge quantities of generally unremarkable art galleries, there's not a whole lot to do here. Maybe that's why so many artsy types migrate here: there's natural beauty but not much to distract you from it.

Then there are the weird people, and I'm thoroughly convinced that Santa Fe has more weirdos per capita than most American cities, other than maybe New York and LA (and the state of Florida; they're all crazy down there). There's about a half-dozen health-food stores in Santa Fe. Looking at the back page ads of the local alt-weekly is like a trip into La-La Land. Want your aura read? Your chakras realigned? Want to study under three different self-declared meditation gurus? Interested in Buddhism, white-man style? Curious about finding your inner spirit? Looking to co-opt any number of Eastern cultural traditions under the guise of "self-development"? Santa Fe is the place for you!

It was weird when I came out here the first time, because there's a highly noticeable difference between Philly and Santa Fe (more mountains here; "fuck you" is not considered a polite greeting out west). But coming back here after living in London is just...bizarre. I know that Santa Fe has not changed notably in my absence, so obviously it's my perspective. Now Santa Fe feels very much to me like a rebellious teenager. "I don't wanna be mainstream!" shouted, with a stomp of the foot. It's almost as if the vast majority of people in this town are trying too hard to be "The city different", and way overshooting, ending up in a land where everyone, apparently, wants their spirit read by a white woman who's actually from Michigan.

No coins for you!

Americans are steadfast in their refusal to accept coins like normal civilized nations.

Perhaps it's because the proposed design features a zombie George Washington.

Campus security only works on-campus

Outrage du jour: college students who live off-campus aren't protected by campus security while living off campus.

My initial reaction was: Well, obviously. That's why most schools have campus security departments.

Then I thought: But I can sort of see the argument, I guess, because sometimes not everyone who wants to live on campus gets to. I almost didn't get on-campus housing this semester.

But, I'm not convinced. Once you graduate, know who's going to be responsible for your personal safety? You. When I was living in London, it didn't ever occur to me to hold the program that provided my visa responsible for finding me a safe place to live with an alarm system. It was mine to deal with.

Similarly - you're in college; grow up. If you're incredibly uncomfortable living where you are off-campus, move. If you for some reason can't, then maybe you should reconsider your choice in school. It's not the administration's responsibility to make sure you have a nice white picket fence to hide behind.

Today's stupid complaint....

Woman goes into town hall.

Woman takes a piece of candy from a candy jar.

Woman manages to crack a tooth.

Woman demands town to pay part of her dental bill.

Personal responsibility vanishes from the mind of yet another American...

Holy sweet jeebus!

The bad: nearly 100 inches of snow.

The worse: Nearly 100 inches of snow in five days.

The 'dear sweet god, why do people live there?': They're predicting even more snow.

''You know, it was neat when it started because we hadn't gotten any snow in December or January,'' Bateman added. ''It's getting old now.''

...Yes, I would imagine that five days of up to three inches of snow per hour would get rather old rather fast. Me? I'd be trying desperately to rent a tank or something, so I could get to the nearest operating airport, and spend however much money would be required for a one-way flight to someplace in the Caribbean with warm, sandy beaches and green green mountains.

The US recently spent $12,000,000,000 in cash.

Yes, twelve billion dollars. In cash. Hundred dollar bills.

How and where did they spend this money, you may ask. Was it on our failing school systems? Promoting the arts? Anti-poverty movements? Nutrition? Health care?

Of course not.

What they did was this: Filled a bunch of military cargo planes with piles of cash. Flew said planes to Iraq. Handed out cash.

Oh, but surely they must have kept good records and carefully investigated who they were giving the money to, asking probing questions about the identities of the recipients, their ties to unsavory organizations we normally do not hand cash to, and what they intended to do with the cash, right?

Psh. This is the American Department of Defense, not some pansy-ass pencil pushers! (Please do ignore the fact that we spend billions of dollars on clerks, engineers, lawyers, secretaries, and other desk-jockeys who are paid at least, if not more, than people who actually need military training [ie, soldiers]).

Choice excerpt from the memo revealing this:

One official was given $6.75m in cash, and was ordered to spend it in one week before the interim Iraqi government took control of Iraqi funds.

I try to maintain decent language and an acceptable level of civility here, but seriously, the only reaction I have to this is: WHAT. THE. FUCK?!

This pisses me off. Forget "terrorists" and "insurgents": the most dangerous thing to our safety are the unspeakably idiotic people we give not only guns, but extremely high-ranking positions from which they command thousands of other idiots with guns.

As soon as the veins in my forehead stop throbbing I'm going go A) wonder why I'm just hearing about this now and what happened to real investigative journalism, and B) find a way to move to Canada.

Target: Low priced crimestoppers.

Apparently.

In 2006, The Washington Post revealed that Target is operating two sophisticated criminal forensics laboratories, one at their headquarters, the other in Las Vegas, NV.^[45] Originally, the lab was created as an internal need for the company to investigate instances of theft and fraud and other criminal actions that occurred on its own properties. Eventually, the company began offering pro bono services to law enforcement agencies across the country. Target's Forensic Services has assisted agencies at all levels of government, including Federal agencies such as the Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The labs have become such a popular resource for law enforcement that Target has had to restrict the cases it assists in to only violent felonies

I don't know, I think that maybe Wikipedia is jerking me around. You tease, Wiki!

*blink*

1. Woman hails a cab in NYC.

2. Woman pays cab fare of $11. Tips $0.30.

3. Cab driver discovers a bag full of diamond rings in cab.

4. Cab driver tracks down previous fare, returns diamond rings.

Oh, New York. What will you come up with next - common civility?

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle...

A government is determined to do something productive to promote safe sex!

Of course it's not the Americans, because, uh, if you repeat it enough times to yourself and sleep with your PJs inside out, American teens believe in abstinence until marriage. Really.

But Brazil realizes that teenagers may in fact have sex. It's better for them to have sex with a condom than without, as condoms help prevent all sorts of unpleasant things, such as pregnancy at the age of 15 and AIDS and herpes and hepatitis and whatnot.

Brazil, apparently, is doing pretty damn well on the AIDS fight. Their infection rate, according to the CIA World Factbook, is 0.7%. Ours in the US is 0.6%. Consider that there's a proven link between poverty (ie, people who can't afford education/doctors/condoms) and AIDS infection it's pretty impressive. 31% of Brazilians (same source) live below the poverty line; 12% of Americans do. That there's a 0.1% difference in AIDS infection rate tells me that either A) Brazil is doing something right, B) America is doing something wrong, or C) Both A and B.

What the hell, CNN?

CNN on atheists. Read it, watch it, weep.

If I had a million dollars...

Slate's got an interesting piece on the DoD budget which is certainly worth a read. The general gist of it is that the government spends a crapload more than we need on stupid, bloated programs that may or may not have any use. My favorite bit, re: stealth fighters:

The Pentagon plans to buy 177 F-22s at a total cost of more than $65 billion (measured in real 2005 dollars). Plans for the F-35 are a bit shakier, but they hover around 2,500 aircraft costing more than $100 billion.

Right now, no prospective enemy can shoot down our non-stealthy planes. We already have a handful of F-35s, dozens of F-22s, and a few dozen stealthy B-1 and B-2 bombers. Certainly we could at least postpone further production and use the money to address more urgent threats (or simply to save the money).

Yep. God bless the USA. "We need more planes!" "Uh, why?" *beat* "Why do you hate America?"

Let's just shoot without looking!

When there's a major conflict (ie, Palestinians v Israelis), that's not good.

It's probably even worse when one side of that conflict (ie, Palestinians) are even at each others' throats.

Sometimes it really does look hopeless.

Oh how the mighty fall...

One Senator McCain continues his fall from grace.

He was the darling of moderates everywhere. McCain was, at one point, one of those rare politicians that people truly respected, because he'd earned that respect. The man did his time in the military. Regardless how you feel about it there's something admirable about a politician who's actually been in the thick of things when they go south. He voted not according to what the Republican leadership told him to do but according to what he thought was right. He wasn't afraid of pissing off the Democrats or the Republicans.

And now. Now this.

I'd already lost most of my respect for him when he wavered on the torture issue. This is a man who himself was tortured. I'm quite certain he's the only person in congress who's been there: people were counting on him to stand up for victims of torture everywhere. He didn't, probably because 2008 was beginning to shine brightly into his eyes.

This, now. It's also inexcusable, because you know what it is? It's pandering. It's supporting some stupid, unethical war that's making the rest of the world hate us. It's putting him dangerously close to being just another senator, who shouts to support our troops and obey "The Decider", because he's the boss.

There's no excuse for this, but at least it's clarified my view of McCain.

A great man...

Beethoven is fantastic.

Seriously: the man was amazing. Completely ravingly insane? By most accounts, yes. Perhaps emotionally stunted? Again, most accounts agree. One of the most brilliant composers ever? Hell yeah.

"Eroica" is, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular works of music. It's just absolutely incredible.

Another reason to be annoyed by America

Our complete lack of transportation. We have cars in America. Big, ugly, crappy, inefficient cars. And highways to go with them. And then, we have...nothing else.

My spring break is 10 Mar - 25 Mar. I'm looking at flights, which will get me from Albuquerque to Philadelphia in about six or seven hours. But I hate flying; let's look at other options. Maybe I can find something cheaper than $270 or so round-trip.

There's Amtrak. If I take Amtrak, it'll take me about 41 hours to get from Lamy, NM (inexplicably the only town in New Mexico that Amtrak goes to). It'll take me 23 hours on the train from Lamy to Chicago. Mapquest says that if I drive that, it takes me about 20 hours. (Hint: most places, trains are in fact faster than driving). Cost for round-trip? $344.

Okay, I don't really want to spend upwards of $300 to go cross-country very very slowly. Let's check out our nation's fine bus service, Greyhound. They do have a station in Santa Fe. They say it'll take me two days and a couple hours to get from Santa Fe to Mt. Laurel, New Jersey (the closest Greyhound station to home). Looks like I could pay $240 if I got the ticket seven days in advance. I'd get to see exciting places such as Denver (30 minutes), Kansas City (1 hour), St. Louis (2:35), and Pittsburgh (1 hour).

*sigh*