Quote of the day

"Does Viagra facilitate desire (the view of Pfizer’s scientists), or create it? What is 'natural' in sexual life? If, before the discovery of Viagra, it was 'nature’s course to diminish sexual power in men once their peak reproductive fitness had passed'—as  Sylvanus Stall wrote in a 1901 book—is it 'unnatural' to change that aspect of senior-citizen life through drugs? 

Or is drug-assisted virility simply better living through chemistry—like raising life expectancies from 45 to 75? Is the appropriate meaning of 'natural' not what existed in the past, but anything that can be achieved through physical means at any time? How does one integrate the complaints of older women, documented by studies, about the frequency of desire in Viagra-fueled mates, and the lengthened duration of lovemaking itself?" -- Carlin Romano

Grief bacon

Kummerspeck (German): literally, grief bacon; excess weight gained from emotional overeating.

See 14 others here.

Stephen Colbert on the "Muslim" attack in Norway

Hate group is "alarmed"

Parents’ Voice member Homara Ahmad is "alarmed," according to the hate group's latest press release.  The group was created to oppose the Burnaby School Board's anti-homophobia policy.

According to the release, Parents' Voice members decided to file a freedom of information (FOI) request after reading a story in The Province about a student being bullied because he was skinny:

"Parents’ Voice members wanted to know the extent of the 'bullying' problem: who the perpetrators are--staff or students--and their targets."

It is unclear why Parents' Voice twice decided to use scare quotes around the word "bullying."

Allegedly, group member and spokesperson (they all seem to be spokespeople) Homara Ahmad made an FOI request for "copies of all reports, incidents recorded, and/or complaints made involving students, staff or any other person related to the operation of the Burnaby School District, that has been party to any form of bullying, assault, harassment, verbal abuse or any form of mean-spirited conduct, that has occurred on or near any property owned, managed or operated by School District 41," and demanded an exemption from fees, which was refused, leading the group to lose its collective mind.

Gordon World, another "spokesman," said:

"it seems highly unlikely that the incidents of reported bullying will justify the special attention directed to the political agenda of the sex activists involved in creating Policy 5.45. I believe this last point is the real issue. If the claims of sex activists were true, and a disproportionate number of children were being attacked based on sexual orientation, wouldn't the Burnaby School Board be more than willing to release this information to back up their claim?"

World is known for his outrageous homophobic lies, such as claiming that the murder of Aaron Webster was not an anti-gay hate crime and that gay men are responsible for most HIV infections and have a significantly shorter lifespan.

In another staggering display of homophobia, the press release goes on to add:

"Burnaby trustees, and others in positions of trust, should know better by now than to rely upon data and research generated by homosexual and other sex activists. Our children deserve better than to have policies developed by hyperbolic-spin propaganda, masquerading as research, generated by sex activists who want to promulgate their version of diversity politics and practices among our children, via the public education system. Parents’ Voice is against all forms of child abuse, including bullying, the political sexualization of children and the intellectual abuse of children by indoctrinating them with propaganda that falsely portrays sexual and emotional practices that can and do result in provable harm, as being 'acceptable.'"

Not coincidentally, this hate-filled press release coincides with the Outgames and Vancouver Pride.

Singapore: The Caning Country

Beating with a 1.2-metre, 1.27cm thick rattan cane soaked in water to maximize its weight and make it more flexible. This  punishment is mandated not only by the Singaporean military and court system, but in secondary schools across the nation-state.


Caning is a legal punishment for all males under the age of 50, with a maximum of 24 strokes.  In 2007, 6,404 offenders were sentenced to caning.  Caning is performed on male members of the Singapore Armed Forces, again to a maximum of 24 strokes.   Caning is also used to punish boys in Singaporean schools. In May of 2004, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Acting Minister for Education, encouraged schools to

“punish boys by caning for such offences as fighting, smoking, cheating, gangsterism, disrespect or vandalism.”

Students can receive up to 6 strokes.  According to a survey by The Straits Times, 20 per cent of parents in Singapore use caning for punishment.

Read the whole thing here, and watch the disturbing video below.

X-Ray Specs

Rana el Kaliouby and Rosalind Picard have created special glasses that help the wearer interpret emotional cues.  The glasses use a tiny camera and software that analyses facial expressions.  El Kaliouby began to develop the glasses as an aid for autistic people, who often find it hard to pick up on other people's emotions.  She and fellow Cambridge student Simon Baron-Cohen hired actors to mime expressions, and volunteers to describe their meaning, using the most popular responses.

The glasses' camera tracks 24 "feature points" on your conversation partner's face, and software developed by Picard analyses their expressions.

According to Picard, these glasses could become "augmented-reality glasses, which would overlay computer graphics onto the scene in front of the wearer."

Read the whole fascinating article here.

iPhone app helps you predict which seat will become vacant on the train

 A new iPhone app called Densha de Suwaru (sitting down on the train) by Velc helps you make a database of strangers you commute with regularly.  For every passenger you create a list of features, such as which stations they ride between, at what days and times and on which line, along with gender, age, and other identifying details.  The app allows you to make a cartoon-like image of each of your fellow passengers.

The more data you add, the better you will become at predicting which seated passenger will be the next to leave the train.

In Japan, particularly in Tokyo, where it is not uncommon for people to spend 2 hours or more commuting by train every day, finding a seat is an important concern.  In 2005, a book about how to find seats on packed trains became a best-seller book.

The app can be purchased at the iTunes store, but it is unclear whether it is available in languages other than Japanese.

A San Francisco judge has struck an anti-circumcision measure from the city's November ballot.  The measure would have banned non-medical circumcision of male children.  Superior Court judge Loretta Giorgi said the proposed law violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom. San Francisco would have been the first U.S. city to hold a public vote on outlawing the circumcision of minors.

Michael Kinane, an attorney for the proponents, had argued that circumcision is not usually performed for medical reasons, and that the ballot measure included an exception for medical circumcisions.  The measure did not include exemptions for religious rituals.  The ban's sponsor, anti-circumcision activist Lloyd Schofield, said he is considering an appeal.

Religious groups argued that it is up to parents to decide whether or not to circumcise their children.  Many anti-circumcision activists consider male circumcision just as much a form of genital mutilation as female circumcision.  The US government bans female genital cutting for any non-medical reason.

No professional association of physicians currently recommends routine circumcision, and many argue that it adversely affects penile function and sexual pleasure, is extremely painful, and is a violation of human rights.  The British Medical Association stated in 2006 that "it is now widely accepted, including by the BMA, that this surgical procedure has medical and psychological risks."  A 2002 review by Boyle et al. stated that

"the genitally intact male has thousands of fine touch receptors and other highly erogenous nerve endings—many of which are lost to circumcision, with an inevitable reduction in sexual sensation experienced by circumcised males . . . intercourse is less satisfying for both partners when the man is circumcised."

Neo-natal circumcision was introduced as a way to curb masturbation.  Today, globally 30 per cent of males over 15 are circumcised, and 70 per cent of these are Muslim.  Circumcision is not a condition for converting to Islam or for carrying out religious duties.  Muslim circumcisions are performed as early as 7 days after birth or as late as the onset of puberty and are often done in a medical setting.  Among Jews, ritual circumcision is performed on the 8th day after birth by a man or woman called a mohel, using a knife.  Under Jewish law, a mohel must draw blood from the circumcision wound; some use their mouth for this purpose; the practice has resulted in the spreading of herpes to infants, at least one of which suffered brain damage and another died as a result.

Comic books and trading cards featuring evil Jewish characters distributed by the measure's proponents made the measure even more controversial.

Be civil when flying

By Gene Wiengarten.

Australian Jesus cult

A creepy cult is coming to prominence in Australia, led by a man who thinks he's the son of god and woman who thinks she's the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene.

Richard Dawkins to present award to Christopher Hitchens

The Atheist Alliance of America has announced that Christopher Hitchens has been selected to receive the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award in October.  The award will be presented by
Dawkins himself.

The Richard Dawkins Award has been presented annually since 2003 for work on behalf of promoting atheism and freethought around the world.   Nick Lee, President of Atheist Alliance of America said,

“The Atheist Alliance of America is proud to recognize Mr. Hitchens for his prominent role in the public debate over the impact of religion in modern society.”

Hitchens is a prolific writer and leading proponent of atheism.  His books include God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice.

New Zealand bans Lucifer

New Zealand's Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has banned the name Lucifer after getting three such requests.  It has banned an additional 101 names in the last 2 years, including Baron, Bishop, Duke, General, Judge, Justice, King, Knight and Mr, which were deemed too similar to titles; Messiah; 89; and C, D, I and T. Additionally, the agency has sensibly refused full stops, asterisks and other punctuation marks in names.

In 2008, a New Zealand court allowed a 9 year-old girl named Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii to legally change her name.

High school boys death battle

Made using over 2500 still photographs for a school project.

The world's most expensive car wash...

...will set you back £10,000 or about $16,300 US, which is more than or only slightly less than the median annual household income in most of the top 34-ranked countries worldwide.  To clean a car.  Is there really anything more to say about this ridiculousness?

An area of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has an unusually high number of pedestrian fatalities. So, in it's latest stupid decision,Vancouver city council has voted to reduce the speed limit along six Downton Eastside blocks of East Hastings Street from 50km/h to 30 km/h.  The new slow zone (between the two red marks on the map, left) is a major artery into and out of the downtown core, heavily travelled by buses, cars, taxis and delivery vehicles.

The new slow zone's halfway point is Hastings and Main which, not coincidentally, is also the location of the city's largest open drug market, where narcotics are bought, sold, and consumed openly approximately one block from a large police station and a courthouse.  As anyone who has ever driven along Hastings Street between Cambie Street and Glen Drive will tell you, the issue along the stretch is not speeding drivers, and surveys have confirmed this.  Rather, the problem is the high proportion of junkies, alcoholics and mentally ill people who live and congregate in the area, and who regularly run out into the street without warning or--whether because they're too high or too sick to care about their own safety or anyone else's--simply wander into the road without looking.

Instead of doing something useful, sensible, and effective, such as installing barriers that prevent people from crossing the street except at controlled crosswalks like they do on dangerous streets in other major cities, in its latest idiotic decision, city councilors have decided to punish drivers who are already obeying the law.  Even worse, they have ignored studies going back as far as 1998 which show that changing speed limits on low and moderate speed roads has no significant effect on traffic speed or the number of crashes. 

Of course, new road rules require education and enforcement, and both cost money, but there has been no word on where the money will come from.

Are Torontonians finally realizing they made a mistake with Rob Ford?

The Globe and Mail's Marcus Gee reports that the tide may be turning against Toronto mayor Rob Ford. 

Known for his inappropriate remarks, Ford is coming under increasing fire for controversial behaviour and policies.  First, he boycotted Pride, becoming the first Toronto mayor in years not to attend.  Then he attracted complaints for his handling of the budget review at City Hall.  Residents are growing increasingly uneasy about talk of increasing taxes, cutting street cleaning, and closing public libraries and children's attractions.

Ford's brother, Councillor Doug Ford, has stated that he would close at least one Etobicoke library (he pronounces the word "lie-berry") in a “heartbeat.” When he was reminded that Margaret Atwood is a save-the-libraries campaign supporter, he declared: “she could walk by me, I wouldn’t have a clue who she is.”

Meanwhile, Ottilie Mason claims she was driving on Dundas with her child in the car when she saw Rob Ford talking on his cellphone while driving. When she made a thumbs-down gesture, she says he gave her the finger.  Ford has admitted that he was on the phone but denies making the rude gesture.  Gee reports that when Ford was caught drunkenly shouting insults at an out-of-town couple during a 2006 hockey game, he denied that too, only to admit it later and apologize.

Harper government controls, silences scientists

In another example of how Steve "Detective Stephen" Harper is undermining and silencing scientists, Ottawa bureaucrats are preventing a fisheries scientist who heads a $6 million salmon genetics project at the federal Pacific Biological Station on Vancouver Island from talking about a discovery that could help revive plummeting Canadian salmon stocks, a study potentially so important that journalists from all over the world have been clamouring to speak with her.

The Privy Council Office, the secretariat of the federal cabinet, which provides advice and support to the prime minister and leadership, has allegedly forbidden Kristi Miller from talking about her findings, which have already been published in the top research journal Science. Science considers the work so significant it notified more than 7000 journalists about Miller's "Suffering Salmon" study, advising them to contact her for interviews. 

Not only has the Privy Council Office said no to the interviews, it has also blocked a Fisheries Department news release about the study, and Miller herself is not allowed to speak publicly about her discovery, according to documents obtained by Postmedia News under the Access to Information Act. 

Jeffrey Hutchings, senior fisheries scientist at Halifax's Dalhousie University, said:

"There is no question in my mind it's muzzling. When the lead author of a paper in Science is not permitted to speak about her work, that is suppression. There [are] simply no ifs, ands or buts about that." 

The idiot Harper is known for his government's strict control over federal scientists, whose work is financed by Canadian taxpayers.  Issues have included climate change and the environment, but in one bizarre case last year, scientist Scott Dallimore was forced to wait for "pre-clearance" to speak about a study on a northern Canada flood that occurred at the end of the last ice age.  Under der Diktator's the prime minister's rule, researchers, who have always been free to discuss their projects, are now subject to a complicated protocol of "media lines" and approvals by communications officers, strategists and ministerial staff in Ottawa who vet media requests, demand reporters' questions in advance and dictate when (and if!) researchers may give interview.  Most creepily of all, "media officers" record the few interviews scientists are permitted to give.  It is unknown what the penalties are for scientists who do not comply with these ridiculous Communist dictator-style rules.

The government did release 762 pages of documents relating to the Miller study to Postmedia News following their freedom of information request, but many passages and entire pages were blacked out.

Thousands may not have received BC HST ballots

Image courtesy of FightHST.com

Fight HST leaders are asking the B.C. government to intervene in the referendum on the hated Harmonized Sales Tax, saying thousands of people still haven't received their mail-in ballots. Fight HST strategist Bill Tieleman said:

"We are concerned that literally thousands of British Columbians may not get to vote in this referendum who want to vote." 

Fight HST has received complaints from "hundreds of people who have requested a ballot, but haven't received one."  To be counted in the referendum, ballots must be received by Elections BC by August 5.

Tieleman said that the government should direct Elections BC to ensure that anyone who signs a statutory declaration saying that they requested a ballot but have no received one be allowed to get a ballot and vote.

Eighty-two percent of British Columbians opposed the HST, which was forced through by the Liberals after they claimed they would not do so.

Quote of the day

"[The kind of people who elect Michelle Bachmann:] Scum of the earth. Parts of Michele Bachmann's district contain the most smug, pious, conservative rat-buggering jerks on the planet (like Marcus Bachmann and his anti-gay "clinic", for instance). And the symptoms are beginning to show: the Anoka-Hennepin school district, part of Bachmann's domain, home of the Elmer Gantry-wannabe Bradley Dean, is also the epicenter of an epidemic of teen suicides, 9 in the last two years. These are kids who were bullied for being gay, or suspected of being gay, or not fitting in to the their inbred little community (and who would want to?), and the school district has been acquiescing to pressure from religious groups to maintain a policy of intolerance and even demonization of gays." -- PZ Meyers

Italy rejects anti-discrimination bill

Italy’s parliament has rejected a bill which would have extended protection from discrimination to LGBT people.

The Chamber of Deputies voted July 26.  The result was 250 votes in favour and 293 votes opposed.  Gay rights supporters have called on the European Union to intervene.  Gay couples in Italy cannot marry or adopt children.

Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi opposes gay rights.  He has an extensive record of criminal allegations--including mafia collusion, false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery of police officers and judges--and sexual scandals.

Image of the day

$10K offered for proof Marcus Bachmann has had sex with a man

Website Pure Film Creative has offered a $10,000 reward for proof that homophobe Marcus Bachmann, husband of US presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann, has had sex with a man:

"PFC will award $10,000.00 (ten thousand US dollars and zero cents) to any man who has solid, verifiable proof that he has had sex with Marcus Bachmann.  We’ll consider another arrangement if you were just propositioned."

And the Teabaggers lose their minds in 5...4...3....

World's narrowest house

Poland--The world's narrowest house is set to be constructed in the space between two buildings in Warsaw (see image).

Known as the Keret House, its interior will be 122cm (4ft) at its widest and a mere 72cm (28in) at its narrowest spot.  It will function as a workspace and studio for invited guests.

A white triangle of steel, plywood, styrofoam and concrete cloth, it will have water and sewage technology independent from city systems, and the electricity will be delivered by a neighboring building.

The house will be classed as an art installation, since it doesn’t meet building codes for a home.

Unwanted body hair can be such a disaster

In possibly the most crass, tasteless, offensive print advertisements in the history of universe, Braun is using images of actual disasters to advertise its electric razors with the tagline

"Unwanted body hair can be such a disaster. Get rid of it with the new Silk épil Expressive."

One ad features a drawing of the Titanic moments before sinking, while another features an image of the Hindenburg engulfed in flames.  1517 people died when Titanic sank in gelid waters in 1912, while 37 people died when Hindenburg was engulfed in flames in 1937.

A third ad features an image of dinosaurs with a fast-approaching meteor in the background.

The ads are by Impact BBDO, UAE.  How they ever made it past the pitch is anyone's guess.

World's most expensive medication

Garrett Shakespeare, a 23-year-old North Vancouverite, suffers from paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare blood disease that attacks red blood cells.  The treatment consists of intravenous doses of Soliris; a single 45-minute treatment costs $17,000.  According to Forbes magazine, Soliris, at US $409,500 a year, is the world's single most expensive drug.

British Columbia initially refused to fund Shakespeare's treatment, but a Canada-wide lobbying effort by PNH patients has resulted in an agreement to fund treatment, which was announced at the meeting of Canadian premiers in Vancouver.  There are approximately 90 PNH patients in Canada who need the drug.  Symptoms include red urine, tiredness, shortness of breath, and palpitations, abdominal pain, difficulty swallowing and pain during swallowing, erectile dysfunction, blood clots, and stroke.  PNH can be life-threatening.

Homosexuality is a treatable disorder: chief psychiatrist

Ghana--Homosexuality is a psychiatric disorder which can be treated, according to Akwasi Osei, Chief Psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Modern Ghana reports.

"The way forward is to let these people accept that they have a problem and that they can be treated."

"Conversion," "reparative" or "reorientation" therapy, while promoted by some conservative and extremist religious groups, is considered unethical and harmful by all the major mainstream psychological, psychiatric and medical organizations, and there has been no scientifically adequate demonstration of its efficacy.  Male same-sex sexual acts are illegal in Ghana.  Under the Criminal Code 1960– Chapter 6, Sexual Offences Article 105:

"Whoever is guilty of unnatural carnal knowledge— (a) of any person without his consent, is guilty of first degree felony; (b) of any person with his consent, or of any animal, is guilty of a misdemeanor."

Female same-sex sexual activity is not addressed by the law.

On July 21, 2011, Paul Evans Aidoo, the Western Region Minister, called for all gay people in the west of the country to be rounded up and arrested, and for landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspected of being gay.

Glenn Beck: Norway victims like "Hitler Youth"

American right-wing nutjob Glenn Beck, a favourite of the Tea Party, has compared Utøya victims of the Norwegian right-wing nutjob Anders Behring Breivik to the Nazi party's youth wing:

"There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler youth, or, whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics. Disturbing."

Torbjørn Eriksen, former press secretary to Norwegian PM Jens Stoltenberg, described the comment as "a new low" for Beck, adding:

"Young political activists have gathered at Utøya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about. Glenn Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful."

Beck lost his show on Fox when his increasingly crazy claims began to result in lower ratings and advertiser pullouts.  He accused US president Barack Obama of being a racist, and claimed that George Soros helped "send Jews to the death camps."

The Tea Party organizes summer camps at which children are taught about God, the US constitution and "the defence of economic liberty."

Worlds most expensive--and most useless--photocopier

Designer Yogi Proctor has recreated a Canon photocopier machine in gold.  Here's the catch: the gold-plated copier has a neon light which goes back and forth to give the impression of a working copier (see video below), but it doesn't actually make copies.

The copier isn't for sale.

A Liter of Light

An innovative new project to bring light to shanty towns using empty pop bottles.  Watch the video below, and check out the website here.

Quote of the day

"Like any mother, I want life to run smoothly for all my darling daughters, or at the least I want a level playing field for Holly, Tiffany, and their little girl. I don’t want them to have to worry about legal property or inheritance problems in the event of a death or a split or any of the other brickbats that life might throw at them. I want them to be able to get insurance and mortgages and health care as a family.

Holly intends to adopt Huckleberry, but until she does, she has no legal right to her as a mother, and by the same token I have no real right to call myself her granny. But I am, and I do."

Wait... Huckleberry?

Read the whole thing here.

Anti-gay groups seek to reverse NY marriage equality law

Twenty-four hours after New York's first legal same-sex marriages were conducted, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn it the marriage equality law.  The group claims the Senate violated the state’s Open Meetings Law and ignored the constitutionally mandated three-day waiting period before a bill can be acted upon.  They also claimed that lawmakers approved the legislation in exchange for campaign contributions from "Wall Street financiers."

Gov. Cuomo's spokesman Josh Vlasto said "The plaintiffs lack a basic understanding of the laws of the state of New York. The suit is without merit.”

Meanwhile, State Senator Ruben Diaz, a minister and the only Democrat to vote against the marriage equality law, said that he would try to get Sunday’s marriages annulled claiming that judges broke the law by waiving the 24-hour waiting period without a good reason.

The Undefeated soundly defeated

Even as Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated has increased its showings by 40 percent, its box office revenues have declined by more than 63 percent, and the film will soon be available on pay per view.  It played in 14 Tea Party-friendly locations this weekend but grossed an embarrassing $24,000.

Written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Victory Film Group co-founder Glenn Bracken Evans and Dan Fleuette, "The Undefeated" was independently financed by Victory Film Group and its partners.

Washington Times condemns Pearl Harbor Tea Ceremony

Sen Genshitsu offers tea to Pearl Harbor victims.

In an "Analysis/Opinion" piece titled "Crashing the Party at Pearl Harbor" in right-wing "propaganda sheet" The Washington Times on Friday, former editor Wesley Pruden condemns a historic tea ceremony conducted by Dr. Sen Genshitsu, who served in the Japanese naval air force during World War II, (though not at Pearl Harbor), the 15th generation grand master of the  Urasenke school, as "political correctness run amok" and "misplaced sentiment."

In a short piece throbbing with ignorance and barely disguised racism, Pruden writes:

"The grand tea master of something called the Urasenke School of Tea in Japan brewed up a pot of ceremonial green tea and presented two bowls of it to the ghosts of the 1,177 men whose names are engraved in marble above their ship as 'the gallant men here entombed and their shipmates who gave their lives in action on December 7, 1941.' Genshitsu Sen XV, now 88, was a Japanese airman during World War II, though not at Pearl, and said his tea ceremony was a gesture of respect toward the dead, an attempt to make sure sacrifice was not forgotten, as well as a few words of ritual blah blah about world peace, mutual understanding, reconciliation and all that good stuff. Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii went all starry-eyed and applied more goo-goo in response . . . The governor thinks the tea pots even hold a lesson for 'other people and countries warring with as much enmity and mutual misunderstanding as we once experienced ourselves.' Maybe it does, though to expect such an example to make friends of radical Muslims in the Middle East is to expect a lot from a little tea and sympathy."

The Urasenke school, which dates to the 16th century, is the largest school of traditional Japanese tea ceremony on Earth.  The current grand master is the 16th hereditary head of the school, which has branches all over the world, and also runs two accredited universities. 

In Japanese tea ceremony, tea is not "brewed" in a pot, as Pruden would have learned had he bothered to do 30 seconds of research; instead, it is prepared ceremonially by whisking powdered tea and water, in this case in a ceremony over a millennium and a half old, specifically for honouring the dead.  "Ceremonial tea-sipping at the USS Arizona" (had it actually taken place; sources indicate that it did not: bowls of tea were presented to the dead and for world peace) is not, therefore, "akin to crashing the funeral, as Pruden writes; instead, it is performing a memorial.  Not one the painfully parochial Pruden bothered to try to understand, evidently, but no less appropriate, symbolic, and heartfelt for it.

Pruden then goes compare the ceremony to Ronald Reagan's remarks about "another old foe now friendly, sort of," invoking that president's remarks about German soldiers:

"The SS troopers were human, perhaps, but [Reagan] was more than a few inches over the top to mourn storm troopers. They were the crushers working for the 'vicious ideology,' not the crushees [sic] . . . The Japanese tea master said his ceremony was meant to 'heal,' invoking the favorite soothing syrup of the therapeutic age, and no doubt it was. (Cue applause.) But some wounds can't be healed by a pot of tea, hot or iced. A tea party aboard the remains of the USS Arizona, however well-meant, is sentiment misplaced, and a little bit creepy. To think otherwise demeans the sacrifice of the men at the bottom of Pearl Harbor."

Pruden is known for his racism.  On November 17, 2009, he published an opinion piece titled "Obama bows, the nation cringes," in which he railed about what he claimed were President Obama's breaches of etiquette committed on his tour of Asia, such as bowing to Emperor Akihito of Japan.  Since Obama was "sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii," Pruden wrote, he "has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what [America] is about."

Pakistani Senate condemns LGBT function at US embassy

ISLAMABAD - The Senate has severely condemned the hosting of a gay pride ceremony at the US embassy in Pakistan, and has sent the matter to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs for discussion.

The Committee will determine whether any kind of action could be initiated against the organisers of the LGBT function. One lawmaker from every parliamentary party will sit in the committee.

World headlines were made last month when US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador Richard Hoagland and members of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFFA) hosted the first ever LGBT Pride Celebration at the US Embassy in Islamabad on June 26, at which the Chargé d’Affaires addressed the Pakistani LGBT community, acknowledging their struggle for rights.  He said:

“I want to be clear. The US embassy is here to support you and stand by your side every step of the way.”

Pakistan has no laws prohibiting discrimination or harassment on the basis of real or perceived sexual orientation, and no legal recognition of same-sex relationships.  The Pakistan Penal Code of 1860, originally developed under British rule, punishes acts of "sodomy" with imprisonment. Under Articles 377 and 496,

"Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than two years nor more than ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offense described in this section . . . Whoever, dishonestly or with a fraudulent intention, goes through the ceremony of being married, knowing that he is not thereby lawfully married, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall be liable to fine."

Worse, under Islamic laws, the maximum punishment for sodomy is death.  LGBTs are subject to police blackmail, harassment, fines and threats of imprisonment. 

In condemning the event at the embassy, lawmakers said that homosexuality is against the basic principles of Islam and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and hence could not be allowed.

Surrey mayor Diane Watts injured

Diane Watts has been injured in a horse-riding accident, breaking two vertebrae, the Vancouver Sun reports.  While the extent of her injuries are unclear, doctors say she still has movement in all her limbs.

Japanese company pulls ads featuring blue-eyed, big-nosed foreigners

Photo via Japan Probe

Japanese distiller Choya has pulled a TV advertisement for its Kokuto Umeshu in which a Japanese woman "transforms" into a foreigner by growing a giant nose.  After the ad was featured on Japan Probe some readers of the blog complained.

Those who complained in English received a letter stating:

"The product in the commercial is Kokuto Umeshu, a major characteristic of which is its smooth and velvety texture, or 'torori' in Japanese. To communicate this to the public, we had the idea of making a play on words of calling someone who likes this 'torori' a 'tororisuki (torori lover)', and suggesting that you will gain like-minded . . . (friends) by drinking the product. Because of the sound of the word 'tororisuki', we introduced the word as a foreign character, and thought up the story of three female Japanese friends drinking Kokuto Umeshu and becoming 'tororisuki friends', and therefore foreigners, themselves. The first two characters do transform into 'tororisuki', but in the performance of the commercial, the third character failed to turn into a tororisuki. Instead, her theatrically oversized 'blue eyes' and 'eminent nose' illustrate that she has not been able to become a tororisuki. In other words, the theatrical 'blue eyes' and 'eminent nose' represent that she has failed to turn into a tororisuki and are not an attempt to portray an actual foreigner. It is certainly not a case of making fun of any particular country, race or person.

Watch the original video below:


Racism by peakfloods

Quote of the day

Religious beliefs are lazy jokes with bad punchlines. Why do you have to chop off the skin at the end of your penis? Because god says so . . . Why do you have to revere a bit of dry biscuit? Because it magically turns into a god when a priest mutters over it. Why do I have to be good? Because if you aren't, a god will set you on fire for all eternity. These are ridiculous propositions. The whole business of religious is clownshoes freakin' moonshine, hallowed by nothing but unthinking tradition, fear and superstitious behavior, and an establishment of con artists who have dedicated their lives to propping up a sense of self-importance by claiming to talk to an invisible big kahuna. It's not just fact-free, it's all nonsense. -- PZ Meyers

Toronto public school: menstruating girls must sit at the back

For three years, Valley Park Middle School has allowed a local imam to conduct Muslim prayer services in its cafeteria on Fridays. Students who choose to participate are allowed to miss time from classes, supposedly because this is more practical than allowing students go to a nearby mosque.  The National Post reports that 80-90 percent of the student body are children of Muslims.

As Jackson Doughart persuasively argues,

[A]llowing Islamic religious services to be conducted in a public school is unfair to non-Muslims, non-believers, and even Muslims themselves. If students are to be categorized based on their parents’ religion (itself a mistake), then the school board is obligated to treat all such groups equally. There are only two possible ways to do this: open the school to every [religion], or erect a wall of separation between public schools and religion.                                                        
Choosing the first option would fundamentally alter the character of public schools.    

First, it would involve the inclusion of religious officials into the school environment who are not educators and who may not be accountable to school regulations. This is one of the problems facing Valley Park Middle School, as the imam who conducts the prayer sessions is not a teacher but rather a religious official selected by a group of Muslim parents.

Second, this model opens the door to religious proselytizing in schools, from which all students should be protected.

Third, it would undermine state education as a public institution by creating autonomous groups that act outside of government supervision. In this case, the school board has acknowledged that it does not involve itself with the prayer exercises in any way, even though staff members from the school convert the cafeteria to a makeshift mosque every Friday afternoon. 

Finally, the doctrines that are promoted by some religious groups directly compromise the social objectives of public education, including the promotion of gender equality, the alleviation of social pressures on gay students (many Muslim imams and Christian priests vociferously object to equal rights for homosexuals) and the full integration of students from different backgrounds. Identifying groups of students by the religion of their parents, and subsequently inviting religious officials into schools, serves only to divide students. Social exclusion is explicit in this current case, as non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the cafeteria during the prayer sessions.

It is admirable that Doughart goes to the trouble to differentiate between children and their parents' chosen religions.  But what he doesn't mention is that at Valley Park Middle School prayer sessions, students are segregated based on gender: boys pray at the front; girls pray behind the boys, separated by tables.  Even worse, girls who are menstruating must sit on their own at the back of the room and may not participate in the prayer, as shown in the image above.

The Toronto District School Board claims it is obligated to provide accommodation for students' faith needs, but does not address how this policy of segregation (and, some would argue, public shaming) violates laws on discrimination.

The Muslim Canadian Congress is threatening legal action. Founder Tarek Fatah has said that the Toronto District School Board is using tax money to tell girls that they are "second-class citizens":

"Deep inside is a racist view that Muslims are not considered equal human beings, and that they can treat women how they want, and it’s nobody else’s concern."

Go here to sign a petition calling on the Toronto School District Board to end this odious practice.

Gay blogger calls gays Nazis

Via Joe.My.God

Joe.My.God posts this screenshot of a tweet by Gay Patriot, a self-described "independent, political and opinion-based Weblog created by Bruce Carroll that is a forum focusing on gay conservative issues, themes, culture and ideas," which likens gay people to Nazis:

"Statement: Labeling the Gay Leftist [sic] radicals as the 'Gay Gestapo' is appropriate given their history of tactics.  Discuss."

We reported last week that Loree Rudd, sister of former Australian PM Kevin Rudd, has come under fire for accusing Labor members of being brainwashed by a "global gay Gestapo" to accept same-sex marriage.

The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany. It maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps, where millions of gay men were executed along with Jews, political dissidents and others. The organization's normal methods of investigation included blackmail, threats, extortion, harassment, and torture. The Anti Defamation Commission has demanded an apology from Rudd, saying:

"It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of one of the most active and feared arms of the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes. To use [the Gestapo's] name in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse. It is highly offensive, and we call upon Ms Rudd to apologise immediately and unreservedly."

JMG notes that Gay Patriot "got ALL bent out of shape" when he referred to gay conservative group GOProud as kapos and Quislings because that was "'defamatory language' directed at fellow gays."  GOProud has recently made the news for announcing its support for viciously homophobic US presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann.

Amy Winehouse has died

Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her London home.  She would have been 28 on September 14.

Five-time Grammy winner Winehouse's album "Back to Black" has sold millions of copies, but she was perhaps best known for her addictions and her run-ins with police, cancelled shows, and disheveled appearance.

The cause of death has not been released, but she had reportedly sought treatment for drug and alcohol abuse and early-stage emphysema.

Céline Dion demands Ridiculous Pictures of Céline Dion shut down

The owner of a Tumblr blog titled Ridiculous Pictures of Céline Dion has received a threatening letter from the singer's lawyers demanding the blog be shut down:

"céline dion found our blog, and she didn’t like it. we just got a letter from céline’s lawyers that the blog has to be shut down. though this blog is well within the realm of ‘fair use’, i don’t have the money or time to get a lawyer to respond. the dream is over."

The blog owner goes on to clarify that it was not Dion herself who found the blog and initiated contacted, blaming her "publicity and legal team."

The blog has been scrubbed of all but one ridiculous picture of Céline Dion (left).

Fair use is an exception to copyright law.  It allows for limited use of copyrighted material without permission, for things such as  commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. The term "fair use" originated in the United States, but similar exceptions exist in many other jurisdictions.

This certainly appears to be a case where fair use is a legitimate argument for using the photos on the blog, and it's a no less egregious example of the super-rich circumventing laws by virtue of their ability to spend a lot of money for the small size and insignificant nature of the blog.

There is, however, a bright side: a Google images search for "ridiculous photos of Celine Dion" returned 4,160,000 totally ridiculous results, while a Google web search for "ridiculous pictures of celine dion" returned nearly as many, most lamenting the demise of the site and lambasting the over the top singer.

First same-sex NY couples marry

Just after 12:00am this morning, the first same-sex couples were married in New York.  Gay rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd were tied the knot at a rainbow-lit Niagara Falls just after the stroke of midnight, while across New York, marriage license offices will be open today to couples can get the necessary paperwork, while dozens of judges have volunteered to officiate so that people do not have to wait until tomorrow to get married.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg will officiate at the wedding of two colleagues at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence.

New York City has planned several weeks of festivities including a giant wedding event next Sunday in Central Park.

Convicted rapist claims to be gay to avoid deportation

Scotland--A Ugandan man convicted of raping a woman is reportedly seeking asylum on the grounds that he is gay.  John Ssewagudde, 21, admitted to the rape on the woman's Facebook page.

Ssewagudde has submitted a request for asylum which claims he is gay and will be killed if returned home.  Uganda is one of the most homophobic places on Earth.  LBGT people are frequently beaten, murdered and imprisoned there, and the government is known for attempting to pass a notorious "kill the gays" bill.

City wants to remove viaducts

The City of Vancouver wants to tear down the Georgia and Dunsmuir Street viaducts.  The viaducts are key traffic arteries for commuters who work downtown.

Councillor Geoff Meggs says the area between Yaletown and Chinatown has the potential for  development and green space.  So did the site of BC Place Stadium, one of two underused stadiums in Vancouver's downtown, but the city opted to give it a half-billion dollar face lift instead.  Have we mentioned recently that British Columbia has Canada's highest rate of child poverty?

Meggs claimed:

"Right now Chinatown is cut off and quite isolated from the downtown core, and so is the Downtown Eastside.  This area is poised for change.  We turned down the casino proposal but there will be re-development coming around BC Place and Rogers Arena."

This is, of course, not really true.  As can be easily seen from the map at left, Chinatown and the Downtown East Side are actually directly connected to the downtown peninsula, the only parts of the city that are.  On the north side, one can actually drive along Hastings Street right from Chinatown, through the DTS, and right into the central business district.  On the east side, taking the Dunsmuir Viaduct will take one right from Chinatown to the heart of downtown.

In fact, the Georgia (which is eastbound, out of downtown) and Dunsmuir (northwest-bound, into downtown) Viaducts are two of only four bridges connecting the downtown peninsula with Vancouver (the Lions Gate Bridge connects downtown with North Vancouver).  Removing them will place additional pressure on the Burrard, Granville and Cambie bridges, and Quebec Street/Expo Boulevard (which runs through a residential area and connects with the Cambie Bridge offramp) and Hastings Street.

The current options being considered are ending the viaducts at Main Street, tearing them down altogether, or building ramps to connect Georgia Street with Pacific Boulevard and Dunsmuir Street with Expo Boulevard.

Meggs says that the viaducts were closed during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games with little disruption to the surrounding areas.  This is true.  Meggs fails, however, to note the fact that nearly no private vehicles were permitted to enter or even get near the downtown core during the Olympics, and that even business deliveries were restricted to nighttime and early morning hours, when there was less traffic anyway.  A $300,000 study has already been completed, but the city wants another one.

Gregor "Green at Any Cost" Robertson

Gregor Robertson's pet project, the pointless and underused bike lanes in rainy Vancouver's downtown core, have cost local businesses $2.4 million so far, a loss that is being spun as "relatively moderate."

Charles Gauthier, executive director of the DVBIA, said this “moderate” economic impact cannot be taken lightly:

“It is clear the separated bike lanes do have an economic impact.”

Helen and Bong Chung have owned the Edelweiss Cafe on Hornby for 18 years.  They say business is down 30 per cent because of the bike lane: 

“These bike lanes have not been good for business.” 

The Chungs say they may be forced to close.

The city says the bike lanes should stay while additional data is collected.  Its solution is to "encourage" cyclists to "frequent businesses along the bike routes."

The study shows the bike lanes have resulted in increased travel time, and overall public opposition to the lanes remains the same.

Hi, little girl. Want some candy?

A woman in Edmonton is outraged after members of a church approached her child in a play area offering candy and a Bible verse, and promising the girl more candy if she memorized the passage.  Evidently these church-going nitwits have never heard that strangers approaching children with offers of sweets is just a little bit totally fucking creepy.  According to Kathleen Crowe, her nine year-old was playing in MacEwan Park when she was approached by a couple from the Victory Christian Center.

Church representatives declined to be interviewed, but released a statement saying: "The program is based on something churches have been doing for more than 20 years throughout Canada and the U.S. ... Our team was given the OK to do this and that's what was done."  In fact, the church has a permit allowing it to host activities like crafts and singing, but not for handling out religious materials.

A library of smells?

Think of some of your most powerful memories, and there’s likely a smell attached: the aroma of suntan lotion at the beach, the sharpness of freshly mown grass, the floral trail of your mother’s perfume. “Scents are very much linked to memory,” says perfumer Christophe Laudamiel. “They are linked to remembering the past but also learning from experiences.”  But despite its primacy in our lives, our sense of smell is often overlooked when we record our history. We tend to connect with the past visually - we look at objects displayed in a museum, photographs in a documentary, the writing in a manuscript. Sometimes we might hear a vintage speech, or touch an ancient artifact and imagine what it was like to use it. But our knowledge of the past is almost completely deodorized.
It seems far-fetched to think we could actually start to smell the past - or somehow preserve a whiff of our daily lives. But increasingly, technology is making it possible, and historians, scientists, and perfumers are now taking the idea of smells as historical artifacts more seriously. They argue that it’s time to delve into our olfactory past, trying harder to understand how people experienced the world with their noses - and even save scents for posterity. Their efforts have already made it possible to smell fragrances worn a century ago, to re-create the smell of a rare flower even if it goes extinct, and to better understand the smells that ancient cultures appreciated or detested.

Read the whole article.

Rachel Maddow on Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum's Google problem

Stephen "ordinary people don't care about the arts" Harper to appear on "Murdoch"

For reasons nobody understands, Stephen "Lego™ man hair" Harper will appear on tonight's episode of "Murdoch Mysteries."  Canada's supreme dictator for life prime minister is known for his disdain for the arts, cutting $45 million from arts and culture programmes, attempting to limit tax funding for Canadian film productions by denying credits to those with so-called objectionable content, and reducing funding to the CBC.  Meanwhile, the Harper government has hiked spending on military projects like new ‎fighter jets.

The idiot Harper will play a bit role as a desk clerk on tonight's "Murdoch," the latest in a series of bizarre, horrible, and some would argue cynical and calculated attempts to appear interested in and engaged with arts, or at least the popular entertainment scene.  These have included performing embarrassing renditions of classic rock songs at Conservative gala dinners and appearing for reporters with 10 year-old Maria Aragon, a little girl who found sudden internet fame after posting a video of herself singing Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" on YouTube.

The latter performance is one that stands out for its sheer audacity and lack of taste: a hard-right, nationalist, pro-military, religious conservative responsible for millions in arts cuts singing John Lennon's "Imagine," a song whose message goes against everything Harper stands for.  The mind reels.

Luckily that is one video that won't be seen again: it was removed from YouTube for "copyright reasons." Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow and a noted anti-war activist, owns the rights to the song (thousands of other cover versions of remain on YouTube).  You can, however, see a clip of Harper on "Murdoch," if you really want to:



Update: Worst. Episode. Ever.

Americans still ignorant about HIV

Fully 25% of Americans believe HIV can be transmitted by sharing drinking glasses. 16% believe it can be transmitted by sharing toilet seats. And perhaps most alarmingly of all, 12% believe that they can contract HIV by swimming in the same pool as a carrier. These figures perhaps explain why a majority of Americans--51%-- would not be "very comfortable" working with someone who has AIDS. See the whole thing here.

Bachmann's anti-gay clinic in terrifying glitter attack

That shit is hard to get out.

US anti-gay conservative nutjob Michele Bachmann’s Christian counseling clinic, Bachmann & Associates, was the focus of a glitter attack by a more than a dozen "barbarians" Thursday morning.  The clinic is run by Bachmann's possibly gay husband Marcus, who is on record using the term "barbarians" for LGBT people.

The group was protesting the publicly funded clinic's practice of offering so-called "reparative therapy," an approach rejected by all mainstream science, to "cure" people of their homosexuality.  The clinic has taken in more than $137,000 in government funds despite Bachmann's strong opposition to government involvement in health care.

The group's aim was to glitter "Dr." Marcus Bachmann; since he wasn't available, the "glitterati"  glittered the waiting room instead, shouting, “You can’t pray away the gay — baby, I was born this way!”

Update: watch the whole thing on video:

Take the train from 1-800-Got-Junk? Station

Metro Vancouver mayors are considering a plan to sell naming rights to SkyTrain stations in the Lower Mainland.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says naming revenue could help play for the $1.4 billion Evergreen Line, and criteria could be set out to keep the names "thoughtful and tasteful."  Would those be the same "thoughtful," "tasteful" criteria that gave Victoria the Save On Foods Memorial Centre?

Possibly: "For instance," said Watts, "you look at Stadium Station. The natural fit would be ‘Rogers Stadium Station,' so something as simple as that."  Actually, the current name of that station is Stadium–Chinatown Station.  So it would be Rogers Stadium–Chinatown Station?  The Chinatown Business Improvement Association is going to love that.  Watts's response? "I'm sure there are people who aren't going to like this, but they also don't want to pay higher taxes."  No, they don't.  But they do want a TransLink that isn't a "disaster circus," doesn't mismanage everything it does, and doesn't keep raising fares and taxes and levying additional fees on people who are already struggling in a province with the country's lowest minimum wage, highest cost of living, and largest number of children living in poverty.  And they don't want to have to board the train at Jenny Craig Station or get off at Canadian Tire Station either.

And worst of all, even if this terrible idea is approved the two-cents-per-litre gas tax increase proposal approved by the Mayors' Council last week would not be scuppered.

In 2009 it was alleged that Watts's husband was running a business from their home in a residential area without a license.

Japan Times: court translators often lack necessary skills

Lindsay Hawker

The Japan Times reports that many errors by a court interpreter were observed in the trial of Tatsuya Ishihashi for the murder of Briton Lindsay Hawker, whose body was found buried in a bathtub full of sand on her killer's balcony in 2007.

Under Japanese law, when a defendant or witness does not speak Japanese, the court is required to hire an interpreter proficient in the language used by the parties involved.  In this case, an interpreter was hired for the benefit of the Hawker family, not just to translate their testimony but to translate the entire proceedings.


When Hawker's mother Julia was questioned about the impact of her daughter's death on the family, she said she had been unable to take a bath for two years; the court interpreter translated the phrase as "I cannot take back the two years."  Later, a prosecutor asked how coverage of the case has influenced British perceptions of Japan.  She testified that many now feel "Japan was a less safe place to come," which was translated as "Japan was the most unsafe place to come."

Because the translator was not being officially monitored most of her mistakes were not corrected, except when Motoyama Naoki, a professor emeritus of Chiba University who testified for the defense,  asked the court if he could make a correction in the translation: "I'm not a specialist of fertilizer as the interpreter said. I specialize in pesticides."

A request had been made to the court to appoint two interpreters, which is now becoming the norm in lay judge trials when defendants are non-Japanese, but only one was appointed.  There is no professional title or qualification for Japanese court interpreters, and their skills vary widely.  According to Japanese research, errors such as differences in nuance can influence the decisions of lay judges, resulting in sentencing differences of up to two to three years.