Big Three Bailout

I saw this posted on a blog I enjoy reading. You can click the image to enlarge.

Study: Virginity Rings Don't Work

I've long been suspicious of the abstinence movement, especially when coupled with virginity rings, abstinence pledges, and a lack of proper sex education.

A new study has shown that the concept is in fact just as stupid as I always thought it was.

Specifically, the study found that virginity pledgers have sex for the first time at similar ages to those who don't take a pledge or wear a moron ring. They are just as likely to engage in vaginal, anal or oral sex. They are just as likely to have STDs.

In fact the only real difference the study discovered is that pledgers are 10% less likely to use a condom, and less likely to use any form of birth control than non-pledgers (thus proving their ignorance and stupidity).

The study also found that five years after taking the pledge 80% denied ever having made such a promise or pledge. Showing that not only are they gullible, immature and stupid, they are also more likely to lie.

With any luck the new government will stop peddling this religious-based abstinence crap on our kids and return to teaching facts.

Call Of Duty 5: World At War - First Impressions

In April of 2008 I decided to treat myself to a Sony PS3. The price had finally come down to a reasonable level, GTA:IV was about to be released, and Bluray seemed like a nice addition to my HDTV.

I purchased the PS3 a few weeks before Grand Theft Auto came out, so found myself with a cool new games console and no games.

I took a trip to a local game store and asked the geek behind the counter to recommend a game. He instantly began a torrent of enthusiasm about Call of Duty 4, claiming it to be last years game of the year, blah blah. And I have to say, he was right. I've logged a fair few hours online reaching the gold cross level, and more recently getting my gold AK-47.

This fall Call of Duty 5 came out, and I decided to put a copy on my Amazon.com wish list. A relative purchased it for me, and on Christmas day I was able to try it for the first time.

Apparently this was a popular game for Christmas because I've never seen fewer than 70,000 people logged in at any time of the day or night. I also keep getting the unbelievably annoying Activision Error 33, which is basically some kind of overload when too many people are trying to play. This annoying error makes it impossible to play online, and as far as I know, the only fix is to wait and try again later.

I've not played the game a lot, maybe a few hours. But I have a few initial observations.

The single player game is a good way to pass time when the Activision Error 33 prevents you from playing online. Although frankly, if it were not for the multiplayer option I would not own the game.

The multiplayer option (when working) does seem a shade smoother than Call of Duty 4, although the makers have made a number of changes I am not especially thrilled about.

I don't like the lighting of the game. I can see what they are trying to do, recreate the washed out color look of old movies or something. But I suspect that for the people who were actually fighting in World War II, the sun looked pretty much the same as it does now.

The maps are big and detailed, probably twice the size of the COD4 maps, although my unfamiliarity of them may make them seem bigger than they actually are.

Much of the features COD4 players know and love are still there. UAV is replaced with a recognisance plane. The air strike is now a mortar attack. The helicopter attacks are now rather amusingly replaced with attack dogs that you can shoot.

But I think one of my biggest issues with the game is the weapons. Certainly in the lower ranks the choice of weapons seems limited. It is harder to get the equivalent of the red dot sights. There are fewer automatic weapons and a lot more slow loading bolt action things. I guess they have to remain true to the era, which is why I am not convinced they should have gone back to WWII.

It appears they still have ten levels of prestige, but have also added ten more ranks, so now you have to get to level 65 (not 55) before you can prestige up.

You can still get bonus experience (XP) points for head shots, but I don't think you can get different weapon designs (blue tiger, red tiger, gold etc) like you can on COD4.

It is now possible to drive a tank, or operate the machine gun on a tank, which is new (COD4 had no vehicles).

I guess my biggest concern at this stage is whether the weapons I have yet to unlock will make up for the general suckiness of the weapons I have already tried. This in turn has another point of concern attached. Even if the later weapons are as cool as they should be, it looks like I will have to play the game for long portions of time with sucky weapons each time I prestige (assuming that the good weapons are locked again, once you level up).

At least with COD4 you could get a nice LMG, and quickly level up to the good assault rifles nice and quick. But with COD5 you have to get 75 kills with a single gun (not 25 like in COD4) to unlock the optical sights (the red dot equivalent).

I'll need quite a few more hours to figure out if I really like the game or not. To me it all hinges on how much more effort is needed to unlock the later weapons, and how good they are.

Most importantly, I need them to fix the Error 33 that prevents me from actually playing the game at least 50% of the times I have tried to.

In the meantime I'll be playing COD4 (decided to get my gold LMG), and Tiger Woods 09, which is very good. I'm not a golfer, but I've always enjoyed that game, and I have not purchased a new version since the 2005 version I had for the PS2. So far the changes and improvements have been quite impressive, but that's probably another post at some point.

Samsung Impress, So Far...

In 2006 I purchased a new Samsung monitor at Best Buy. It was quite expensive at the time and was one of the larger ones being 20" or so.

Everything was fine until the fall of this year when I noticed it was beginning to take longer and longer to switch on each morning. It seems to 'warm up' much like an old CRT. Once it has warmed up, it works just fine.

Annoyed with this I began shopping around for a new monitor and was contemplating spending some Christmas gift money on an upgrade. Perhaps a 22" widescreen by HP.

However, today I noticed that some of the new Samsung monitors had a three year warranty on them. So I went to the Samsung web site on the off chance and typed in the serial number for my monitor and told them about the problem I was having. They immediately told me that my monitor was still under warranty and agreed to ship a refurbished monitor to my nearest UPS store for collection. The deal is, I take my old monitor to the UPS store, give it to them, take my new monitor home and the problem is solved.

It sounds too good to be true at this point, and I am still a little skeptical. But certainly from first impressions it sounds like an astonishingly zero cost zero hassle way of taking care of my problem without blowing $300 or so on a new monitor.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens here, but I am certainly intrigued by what appears to be extremely easy hassle free service.

Frankly, once an electronic product is a year old, I never expect to receive any meaningful support for it. So for Samsung to stand behind a nearly three year old purchase, and agree to replace it for free (not even a shipping cost), is pretty neat. I don't even know where my receipt is at this point.

For those of you excited by such stories I will keep you posted on how long it takes Samsung to replace my monitor, and also to let you know if the replacement is up to scratch. I figure it's worth giving them a shot at taking care of the issue before I waste my hard earned cash.

My concern however is that the monitor they send will be faulty, or not up to the standards or quality of my current monitor. I also don't like the term 'refurbished.' Conjures up images of a broken unit they have dusted off and shipped out. And since the exchange will take place at the UPS store, I won't really know how good the replacement is until I get it home, at which point I will no longer have my old monitor.

Bet Your Life Savings On Roulette

An Englishman sells everything he owns, travels to Vegas and bets it all ($136,000) on a single spin of the roulette wheel. This is his bizarre story.

Not a new story, but I thought it was an interesting video.

Bye Bye Bush - The Shoe

Baydan Shoes is a company in Istanbul. For the last ten years they have been making a show called the Model 271.

However, an angry reporter has given them the kind of publicity that money can't buy. It was the Model 271 that was thrown at George Bush during his now infamous farewell tour of Iraq.

Once the shoes had been identified Baydan Shoes found themselves swamped with orders from all over the world from people wishing to own a pair to commemorate the Bush shoeing. In fact their product is now so popular they have had to hire 100 extra workers to cope with demand. They have renamed their shoe the Bye Bye Bush!

Perhaps all we need now is for GM to hurl a car at him, and maybe we can solve their little financial crisis. Bye Bye Bush Escalade Hybrid anyone?

Girl Of Eight Refused Divorce

An eight year old child in Saudi Arabia has been refused permission to get divorced from her 58 year old husband.

Apparently, the girl's father was a little bit hard up for cash, so he sold his eight year old daughter to a 58 year old man, on the condition that the marriage may not be consummated until the girl is 18 (and her husband is 68). In exchange the girl's father received around $7,000.

The child's mother was a little upset about all this, and so went to court and asked that the marriage be dissolved. However the court, that operates on the crazy concepts of Sharia Law, sided with the men (imagine that), and said that the mother had no right to challenge the marriage. Although conceded that they might be willing to hear the case when the child reaches puberty, at which point she may file her own appeal.

In the meantime the eight year old girl is still living with the mother and attending school, unaware of her fucked up country and her disgusting marriage.

It may sound like a sick and twisted made up story, but this is in fact what is going on in Saudi Arabia in 2008. The country that brought us the 9/11 terrorists. The country we like to pretend are our friends.

Star Trek's Majel Barrett Dies At 76

The woman known as the first lady of Star Trek has died at the age of 76, after a battle with leukemia.

Majel Barrett was in the first ever episode of Star Trek back in 1966. She later played nurse Christine Chapel and during that time became romantically involved with the creator of the show Gene Roddenberry. The couple married in Japan in 1969 after the show was canceled.

Majel continued to play small roles in most of the Star Trek spin off shows, but was perhaps most noted for playing the voice of the ship's computer in almost every show and movie. Her voice is featured in the upcoming Star Trek movie due out next summer.

Gene Roddenberry passed away in 1991, but Majel Barrett continued to build on her husband's legacy, campaigning to keep the franchise alive and well.

She is survived by her only son Eugene Roddenberry Jr.

Crazy Family Has Another Kid

A crazy family from Arkansas has announced the birth of their 18th child.

In a statement, the father said that the birth of Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar was 'The ultimate Christmas gift from God.'

Jim Bob Duggar is 43, a year older than his wife. Their oldest child, Joshua, is 20.

The other Duggar children, in between Joshua and Jordyn-Grace, are Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 17; Jessa, 16; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 12; Joy-Anna, 11; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 8; James, 7; Justin, 6; Jackson, 4; Johannah, 3; and Jennifer, 1.

In an attempt to cash in on their stupidity, the family have been working on a reality show on TLC called '17 kids and counting...'

*** UPDATE *** 12/21/11

It's been a while since I wrote this post.  In recent weeks Mrs. Duggar, ignoring her advancing years and her doctor's advice, got pregnant again with her 20th child.  She miscarried the baby four months early, and her family held a funeral service which included taking photographs of the premature baby corpse which was then leaked to the media via a family member.

While I hate to write something negative about a family after such an unfortunate incident, it has to be said that the Duggars are behaving despicably at this point.  Creating a media circus over a miscarriage is pretty sick, as is the action of parading dead baby pictures in front of their children.  And exploiting this mentally ill family for their perverse baby experiment is equally disgusting.

It's about time someone staged an intervention before Mrs. Duggar kills herself and wrecks the lives of the 19 children she has brought into this world.  Then again, with parents as stupid and irresponsible as this, maybe the children would be better off with a different role model.

Pokerstars World Record Attempt

The world's largest online poker site Poker Stars is attempting to set a new Guinness world record for the largest poker tournament ever held.

On December 28th, 2008 at 15:30 EST they will attempt to get 30,000 people to play in the same online poker tournament.

The tournament will cost $11 to enter. The prize pool will be guaranteed at $500,000. The winner will receive at least $30,000. Anyone who finishes in the top 8,750 will win a prize, the smallest of which will be $20. As is usual with poker tournaments the prizes grow exponentially as you get closer to the final table and first place.

Players will start with 3,000 in tournament chips, and the blind levels will be at 10 minute intervals.

You can join or sign up for Poker Stars here.

You Can't Steal My Christmas

YOU CAN'T STEAL MY **CHRISTMAS*

Poem by Sharon Steege

I don't know who they are
Saying I can't greet the crowd
The way that I want to
Can't say **CHRISTMAS** out loud.

I walk into a business place
See things that I rather not see
But dare I not say **CHRISTMAS**
And ask for a 'holiday' tree.

What happened to freedom of speech
And living in the land of the free
How can they take my **CHRISTMAS** money
But can't say **MERRY CHRISTMAS** to me.

Men and women have given their lives
So we could still go free
I wonder how they would feel
At saying HOLIDAY TREE.

Come on AMERICA let's wake up
Don't let our freedom escape
If they get by with doing this
What else will they take.

This is starting to get out of hand,
And I've begun to keep track
Well I've just about had enough
I'M TAKING CHRISTMAS BACK.*

So MERRY CHRISTMAS AMERICA **
I hope this gets all over the net
If we all stand united and take freedom back
'Twill be our best CHRISTMAS YET!

Merrrrry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus !

***

Someone I know sent me the above email. It's the same old nonsense we hear every year. Christmas is being stolen blah blah blah. War on Christmas blah blah.

First off, there is no war on Christmas. The only reason that some businesses choose to use a more generic term is because we live in a society where non-Christians live. These businesses would like to include all non-Christians in an enjoyable celebration (slash consumer orgy). It's not that they are 'afraid' or that they hate Jesus, it is simply trying to be nice to everyone. Nice meaning wishing to take money equally from all consumers.

Secondly, the footnote about Jesus' birthday is clearly misguided. There is no compelling evidence in the Bible that Jesus was born on December 25th. None whatsoever.

The fact is there was no knowledge when the Bible was written as to when exactly Jesus was born. So the church simply selected celebration day of the Roman god Sol (god of the Sun).

The book of Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph were forced to travel to Bethlehem to as part of a government census ordered by Caesar Augustus. But such an order would be hugely impractical in December, due to the harsh weather at that time of the year.

If you take the time to do the research, consider what the shepherds were doing at the time, consider the astrological evidence regarding a big noticeable star. It all points to Jesus NOT being born on December 25th.

So let's not pretend there is a war on Christmas, especially here in America. And let's not try and pretend that Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem on December 25th. Because even the Bible doesn't support that theory.

And finally, since when did an asterisk become part of an acceptable poem structure?

Time To Arrest War Criminal Dick Cheney?

Dick Cheney went on record this week admitting to ABC News that he knew about waterboarding being used as a method of torture at Guantanamo Bay, and said the American owned torture camp should remain open until the War on Terror had ended.

When asked if he thought torturing people by making them feel like they are drowning went to far, he said, "I don't."

When asked about a specific prisoner of war being tortured with waterboarding, he stated that such action by the United States was appropriate.

When asked if he was aware of the United States program of waterboarding torture beforehand he said, "I was aware of the program...And I supported it..."

He finished by acknowledging that he liked the concept of Guantanamo Bay because if 'unlawful combatants' and 'terrorists' were brought to the United States "...they are entitled to all kinds of rights..."

My question is, when are we going to arrest this war criminal?

Bush Makes Final Trip To Iraq

George Bush made his final (hopefully one way) trip to Iraq this weekend. While giving a press conference a man threw his shoes at the President, but unfortunately missed. The same man also called him a 'dog' before being removed by security.

I guess this guy didn't get the memo about the surge working or being greeted as liberators.

As a side note the War in Iraq counter towards the bottom right of this page is closing on $580Bn.

The image above of George Bush is constructed from the faces of some of some of the Americans who have died following Bush's failed plans in Iraq. You can click the image to enlarge.

Playstation Home

Sony finally launched their Playstation Home software yesterday, into what they are calling an open beta.

The software is exclusively available free to all Playstation 3 owners, and allows people to go online and interact with others in a virtual 3D world.

It's still very buggy and has a long way to go to become really impressive. But I have high hopes that a year from now it will be far bigger, better and more stable than it is right now.

On Thursday when it was launched I was unable to get online with it, and received a multitude of errors. But by this evening I was able to go online long enough to create two custom avatars and explore a few of the 3D areas, my home, the mall and the bar. There are still download errors on the other areas.

I have to admit I am a sucker for creating avatars, and enjoy messing around with the many features of this avatar creation software. I made a couple of nice pretty people (pictured above) and wandered around with them.

All in all, it's a neat idea. I can't see myself using it alot, but I'm sure for people who like this sort of thing it will be very popular.

If nothing else it is a really cool demonstration of the power of the Playstation 3.

Please note the picture quality above is pretty poor due to the fact I took the images with my iPhone off the TV in a dark room. In real life the images are outstanding high definition and very pretty.

Miley Cyrus Turns 16 Gets Porsche

I'm not what you'd call an expert on Miley Cyrus. I am after all over the age of 21 and not a pedophile.

However I saw her on one of the late night talk shows a few weeks back, and was shocked at how much of a bimbo she is. Of course, she was only 15 at the time, so it is only partially her fault.

She recently turned 16 and had a lavish party at Disneyland. She had asked for a new Mercedes, but in the end her mother decided to give her a Porsche instead. Apparently, her mother's old car.

To me this answers a number of questions right there, and may explain why Miley is a bimbo.

Just how stupid do you have to be to give a 16 year old child a Porsche?

I've driven a couple of Porsches in my time, one was a Porsche Boxter standard, and the other was a Porsche 911 non-turbo. Both vehicles were unbelievably fast, and incredibly dangerous in the hands of a child. And those are some of the slower Porsches out there.

The article I read didn't say which specific model Miley had been given, but it doesn't really matter. A Porsche is a high performance sports car, and simply isn't a sensible first vehicle for a child.

Apart from the stupidity of giving a child a Porsche, it also smells a bit like parents spending the kids money on themselves. Because I'm guessing that once she has given away her car, the mother will be off car shopping for something shiny and new for herself.

It's all very sad. Let's hope that Miley has a lot more maturity than she appears to, and gets some advanced driving lessons very soon, or that may be her last vehicle.

Bettie Page Dies At 85

Former model and Playboy Playmate Bettie Page has died at the age of 85.

The controversial model was one of the first ever Playboy Playmates and raised a few eyebrows with her fetish modeling work that was considered quite extreme for the 1950s.

By the 1960's she decided to become more Christian, and less modelly. She volunteered to become a Christian missionary in Africa, but was rejected by her church because she was a divorcee.

She disappeared from the spotlight in the 1960s and didn't really resurface until the 90s. Sadly she was exploited by management and found herself missing a lot of money she should have been entitled to from her work, leaving her as she put it 'penniless and infamous.'

In 1993 she fired her useless agency and signed with one that was able to pursue money she was owed, and gave her some more financial security. In recent years she had hired lawyers to recover money being made from the use of her likeness.

In many ways it's a sad tale of a woman who was screwed over by the system. But in other ways it is a positive story of a woman who refused to be bound by the oppression of women in that era.

Her life was chronicled in the move The Notorious Bettie Page, although some critics claimed the movie failed to really explore the depth of the real Bettie Page.

Sure Paris, Whatever You Say

"I'm very intelligent. I'm capable of doing everything put to me. I've launched a perfume and want my own hotel chain. I'm living proof blondes are not stupid." - Paris Hilton

I hate to burst your bubble Paris, but people judge you on your actions, not the fact you 'want' to open a hotel chain. I'd like to do that too, but I am not rich and don't have the connections you have (and have squandered). And merely wanting to do something is not really an indication of intelligence. I'd like to own a few billion dollars worth of real estate, does that make me smart?

What you are Paris is a very well paid stripper. I've nothing against that, but you have a long way to go to earning people's respect for your mind rather than your naked or semi-naked body.

The picture above was taken from a new product Paris intends to launch soon; Champagne in a can (yes like soda). And surprise surprise she decided to get naked to promote it. Brilliant 'thinking' there.

Finally Got My Gold AK47!

I got my Playstation 3 in April of this year. Since then, with just a brief break to complete Grand Theft Auto: IV, I've been playing Call of Duty 4. After lots of hard 'work' I ranked up to a Gold Cross Commander, and finally got my gold AK47 tonight.

It's a pain to get. You need 150 head shots with each weapon from the assault class before you are granted access to the gold AK. And that takes some time.

I never bothered to go for gold weapons once I started going prestige because I knew I would just lose them again. Although before I went prestige for the first time I did get a gold light machine gun, which is pretty easy to get. Once I got my gold cross, I decided a gold AK47 was a much needed accessory.

Now I am an 'expert' on the assault rifles, I thought I'd give them a run down. My comments are based on using stopping power, and playing Mercenary Team Deathmatch, which is my game of choice. I also use the red dot sight on all these weapons, when available.

M16A4

Fires in three round bursts. Very powerful and deadly. Quite accurate too. I set my personal record of 41 confirmed kills (and one assist) on Countdown, using this weapon.

AK-47

Fully automatic, and although it has a little up and down recoil, it is very powerful and pretty accurate. It's probably my favorite weapon, especially since you can get it in gold.

G3

This is a nasty little single shot gun. It's pretty accurate, but it lacks power, so you can end up getting killed before you can down your opponent. I really hated this gun by the time I had reached my red tiger.

G36C

I really love this gun. It fires automatic and very fast with negligible recoil. It's a pretty deadly thing. My only real beef with it is that without the red dot sight I find it hard to use. The iron sights block a lot of what you are trying to shoot, so this weapon with a silencer is no use to me.

M4 Carbine

Basically just like the M16 but on full auto, and little less powerful. Another favorite of mine, a joy to use. No real recoil, accurate, not too noisy, smooth, clean, other words ;)

M14

I wasn't looking forward to using this one, as I don't much like single shot weapons. But I was surprised by the power of this thing. It is actually the most dangerous round for round of any of the assault rifles. Of course an automatic weapon tends to have the advantage of hitting the target multiple times, whereas this requires you to manually make that happen. But that said, I leveled up with this gun much quicker than I expected, and really quite enjoyed it. It's much like the G3, only bigger and far more powerful.

MP44

Hate is a strong word, but it is appropriate here. I hate this fucking gun. It is slow to load, inaccurate, weak, ugly, and just to be evil Infinity Ward ensured that you cannot put a scope or sights of any kind on it. I've read it is some throwback to WWII and earlier COD games. It needs to stay there, and if this is the kind of shit I'm going to have to use in COD5, I might just be taking the game back to the store!

Once you aim the gun, the crappy iron sights obscure a lot of what you are trying to see. Once you fire it, the muzzle flash and recoil means that you are basically shooting blind and just hoping to hit something. If you are lucky enough to kill someone with it, you are likely to die while taking forever to reload this thing.

I am so glad to see the back of this evil bastard of a gun.

I've now taken the game about as far as I intend to. I wanted a gold cross and gold AK, and now I have them. I don't intend to get a gold sub machine gun, because they give you the Uzi, which is not a gun I like. I doubt I will bother with trying to get a gold sniper rifle, because I'm not a great sniper. I'm not far off red tiger on the M21 though.

Ultimately though, I have to say, this is truly an excellent game. It really represents value for money. The multi-player game just keeps on giving and will easily gobble up a few hundred hours of game play if you let it. But that's fair enough. PS3 games are not cheap, so they should last a while. I can definitely say I've gotten my money's worth with this game. In fact I have not played a game as much as this since I bough San Andreas for the PS2. I played though that game twice it was so good.

I am going to get COD5 this Christmas, so time will tell if it can live up to COD4. If the multi player is similarly absorbing, I suspect I'll be playing it a lot. In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy showing off my golden gun.

American Health Care ER Problems

During the election I was amazed at the number of Americans who kept arguing that the health care system is doing great and doesn't need to be reformed.

But in another report out this week there is more shocking news for McCain voters to ignore.

The report found that Emergency Room conditions were a 'ticking time bomb.' Standards are so low that 90% of states have a mediocre or failing grades. Not a single state got an A, A- or even B+.

The rating for Americans' accessibility to emergency health care was overall a D-.

On the same day the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a separate report concluding that America was unprepared for a natural disaster, biological attack or pandemic.

I wonder how many reports like this will be ignored by right wing idiots before they will start to question why the richest nation on the planet continues to operate such a sub-standard health care system?

Bratz Loses Slutty Catfight

In the battle to objectify women in doll form, it seems we have a winner.

In 2001 a young upstart known as the Bratz doll tried to corner the whore doll market with her daring new slutty look that made 50-something year old Barbie blush. But that didn't stop misguided parents from buying their little darlings millions of dollars worth of the things. Even when they continued to make them progressively more slutty, it didn't matter, the sales kept rolling in.

Barbie's owner, Mattel, didn't take very kindly to this competition from Bratz, especially given that the concept of Bratz was the brainchild of one of their ex-employees. As is pretty typical, the man in question had signed a contract stating that any ideas he came up with while working for Mattel belonged to the company, and not to him.

So Mattel decided to flex their corporate muscles and filed a lawsuit demanding that Bratz sales stop immediately. Last week, a judge agreed, and now the future doesn't look so bright for Bratz. According to the ruling, sales of the dolls will have to stop in the new year; a devastating blow for the Bratz company MGA. Especially on the back of losing a copyright infringement lawsuit in August that is likely to cost them $100m.

This Christmas may be your last chance to teach your little girls the value of a slutty outfit, so I suggest you buy your Bratz now, while you still can.

Mecca Time

I missed this story from back in April, but it just came to my attention.

Muslim 'scientists' have concluded that Mecca is in fact the the center of the Earth, with a perfect alignment to magnetic north.

As such they have extrapolated that the international standard of Greenwich Mean Time should be replaced with Mecca Time, since the British imposed their concept of time on the rest of the world during imperial times, and there is no scientific reason for its use as a basis for international time references.

They further concluded that all watches and clocks should run anti-clockwise, in the opposite direction to the way they run now, to assist Muslims find Mecca for prayer

This form of 'science' is called Ijaz al-Koran, where 'scientists' discover 'scientific facts' from the Koran in order to further prove the miraculous (and scientifically accurate nature of their holy book).

I think I'll pass on this one. I'm quite happy with my watch that runs clockwise. I also prefer a society that treats women as equal, and doesn't use 'science' to prove magic.

Share Christian Christmas Joy With Your Neighbors

The Daily Show last night showed this astonishing product for sale for $82 on the American Family Association web site.

I think it is designed for Christians who are completely oblivious to anything about living in modern society, and want to advertise that ignorance to their friends and neighbors. But I think one of the reviews of the product posted on the AFA's own web site says it best:

Doesn't anyone there notice the similarity to a BURNING CROSS!?!? Why would you EVER want to even remotely chance the connection to a dark and evil part of American History with this wretched thing? And what if your neighbors happen to be -- GASP! -- African-American? And what about the confusion over the inherent symbology [sic] -- the Cross is a symbol of EASTER and Christ's Death, not Christmas and His birth. All you do with this is emphasize the degradation of Biblical knowledge and understanding of history. Not to mention the crass commercialism inherent in such a tacky, ostentatious display of overly exuberant publicly immodest crassness. I can only suspect that purchasers of this obnoxious monstrosity will proudly display it alongside the plastic pink flamingos and tastelessly overdone garden gnomes in their front yards.

The AFA proudly display their agenda on their web site. Among some of the things they brag about:

• Getting the 'pro-homosexual' show Ellen cancelled.
• Sponsored a rally to support Judge Roy Moore of Alabama who refused to remove the ten commandments from his court house.
• Attacking the Howard Stern Show to make it cleaner.
• Promoting Pornography Awareness Week.
• Fighting to remove pornography availability from prisons.
• In 1994 they launched a War On Divorce. I'm sure that's going great.
• The AFA promote censorship by trying to organize boycotts on advertisers who buy advertising space during TV shows that include adult material including profanity, nudity, sex or violence.
• They claim to reach out to 'homosexuals' offering 'healing' and 'love' at the 'Cross of Christ.'

They also have a series of other 'issues' they like to keep track on that basically appear to be your usual right wing fundamentalist crap. The typical fare of pretending Christians in America are horribly persecuted, and then whining about freedom to indulge in things they consider immoral such as gambling, pornography, sex education, equal rights for gay people, abortion etc.

Put me down for a couple of burning crosses, just in time for Christmas.

The Real State of the Union Speech

Dollar Tree Screws Dead Black Woman

Taneka Talley, an African American woman working for Dollar Tree has been screwed over, first by a deranged racist killer, and then by her employee insurance.

In March 2006 Taneka was working as a cashier at the Dollar Tree when a man brandishing a knife walked into the store and stabbed her to death. The only reason he gave was that she was black.

The insurance company that covers Dollar Tree employees decided that this was the perfect excuse not to pay $250,000 in death benefits to the woman's 11-year-old son. They claimed that because the attack was purely racially motivated it was 'personal' as opposed to work related, despite the fact that the killer and his victim had never met before, and the fact that if she had not been at work she would likely still be alive.

The alleged killer, Tommy Joe Thompson, is scheduled to go to trial this month and faces life in prison. Thompson also went to jail in the 90s for beating his young son.

Several things shock me about this story. I find it hard to comprehend that someone is so racist that they would rather spend the rest of their life in jail, just so they can kill a random black person. It's also hard to believe the lengths that insurance companies will go to to worm their way of out paying claims, even using racism as an excuse.

The fact is this woman was insured by her employer. Had she not been at work that day she would still be alive. I wonder if the victim had been a white man, killed by a racist man hating black woman, if the insurance would have paid out. I'm guessing it would.

State Trooper vs. Pregnant Woman

Trooper Michael Galluccio of Boston was on duty on November 18th when he saw a vehicle driving down the emergency lane of the highway in an effort to avoid the gridlocked traffic. He approached the car and asked them for an explanation. The distressed passenger said she was in labor and about to give birth. Her contractions were just three minutes apart, and she was clearly in distress.

Not wasting a moment the state trooper ushered the couple into his police car and with sirens blaring and lights flashing, he rushed them to the hospital ensuring the safety of the mother to be, and her loving husband.

It's a heartwarming story of community policing. Unfortunately, it is not true.

What actually happened is Trooper Michael Galluccio wrote them a $100 ticket, and made them wait while he finished writing someone else a ticket. He also demanded that the distressed pregnant woman prove she was pregnant by showing him her pregnant belly.

Two other troopers had spotted the couple making their way to the hospital and had encouraged them to use the emergency lane slowly and carefully using their hazard lights.

Apparently the third trooper disagreed with the first two and decided that being an unbelievable dick was a better strategy.

Despite the asshole trooper they met along the way, the couple made it to the hospital with time to spare. The woman gave birth to her child five hours after checking in to the hospital.

Saxby Chambliss Gropes Granddaughter

The always amusing Daily Show with Jon Stewart uncovered a rather embarrassing gaffe from Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss last night.

To appeal to the rank stupidity of right wing white Georgians, they even shipped Sarah Palin in to rally the electorate.

Frankly, any time you need Sarah Palin to support your point of view, you have clearly lost any semblance of an intelligent argument. Although with that said, the Democratic opponent brought in the rapper Ludacris to support his position. Call me cynical, but I have a hard time believing that the sixty-five year old Democrat can name even three of his songs.

Automaker CEOs Ditch The Jets

Last month the CEOs of the big three American automakers went to Washington D.C. to ask the government for billions of dollars in handouts to protect them from bankruptcy (or postpone the inevitable).

Unfortunately their begging for money had a bit of a hollow ring to it, when it was discovered that each man had traveled to D.C. on private corporate jets. When asked if any of them would be willing to fly back on a commercial airline, no one volunteered. After all, who wants to slum it in first class when there's a luxury private jet waiting to take you home?

But having been called out on their bullshit Ford, GM and Chrysler have announced the closure of their fleet of private jets, at least to give the impression that they give a shit.

For the next meeting in Washington each CEO has agreed to make the ultimate sacrifice; they are going to drive in vehicles made by their own factories. That's mighty big of them.

As this fiasco continues to unfold, I just have less and less sympathy for them. Each of these men earn millions of dollars, and none of them can realistically be judged as having done anything approaching a decent job.

When you take a company like GM, and run it into the ground, then have to go to the government to beg for a bail out, it hardly seems reasonable to accept a multi-million dollar remuneration package.

But that's what these guys are doing, all the while churning out useless shit that no one wants to buy.

In my opinion it's time to let nature take its course. The weak die, the strong survive. The American auto makers have buried their heads in the sand, and stood by while foreign companies have led the way. And worse than that, not only have the big three churned out shitty cars for so many years now, they have been dishonest with the American people. They claim to support American workers, yet we've seen GM especially outsourcing jobs to Mexico and Canada in a bid to save money.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution to this horrible situation. If the government does nothing, bankruptcy looks inevitable for one or more of the big three. However, if radical changes are not made, this bailout will only postpone the inevitable.

No matter what happens, it seems like time to question the absurd financial packages enjoyed by American CEOs. It's one thing for a successful executive to be rewarded handsomely for the success of his or her company. But when the company falling apart due to bad management, and billions of dollars are needed just to keep the company afloat, it doesn't seem right that the man in charge is being rewarded so extravagantly for their utter failure.

Apple Users Less Smug

Despite loving my new iPhone, I have often been irritated with the smug look on the faces of Mac users who have long claimed that their precious Apple computer is invulnerable to viruses and other mal-ware.

But it seems that the honeymoon is over. Apple have stopped short of recommending anti-virus software, but they 'encourage' users to take precautions.

I wonder if they will feature this new revelation on their irritating but amusing TV commercials. "I'm a Mac, I seem to have this rash..."

British Sluts!

The British are SLUTS!* That's the scientific opinion of a new study just published.

The study compared sexual attitudes in a comprehensive anonymous survey conducted in 48 countries, involving 14,000 participants.

Despite the stereotype that the British are repressed and reserved, it turns out that in the Western world, they are more promiscuous and more likely to have a one night stand than any other Westerner.

But as well as being slutty, it was also discovered that British people are more likely to steal their partners from committed relationships. 28% of British women stole their boyfriends from committed relationships. 33% of British men stole their girlfriends from committed relationships.

The study also confirmed that in more liberal countries like the UK, women were becoming more overtly sexual, discarding old fashioned sexist stereotypes that women should be chaste.

The slut index of the major countries looked like this:

1. United Kingdom
2. Germany
3. Netherlands
4. Czech Republic
5. Australia
6. USA
7. France
8. Turkey
9. Mexico
10. Canada
11. Italy
12. Poland
13. Spain
14. Greece
15. Portugal

* Please note that the word slut used in this post refers to promiscuous sexual behavior in both males and females, and does not constitute a slur against sexually active women.