I used to argue that Fascism ala Germany or China's Cultural revolution, was something which could happen just about anywhere, given not so unlikely changes in the culture/political climate. Now, though, I think I may be coming around to the (nice and racist) idea that, in fact, Germans - like Walt Disney and Mayor Quimby's nephew - simply have the evil gene.... http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/139 2 quotes if you don't want to read the whole thing: "a court in the Westphalian county of Gütersloh sentenced a couple to imprisonent, six days for the mother followed by six days for the father, because the parents had refused to let their children attend a Christmas school play" "politician Ute Schäfer ... stated that the obligation to attend a government approved school follows from the “right of a child to free education and maturation.” "

John stossel doesn't exactly inspire confidence for some reason I can't quite put my finger on (Maybe it is his tv-magazine tendency to make statements I know he can't back up, or maybe it is just the mustache), but when you are right, you are right.... http://youtube.com/watch?v=pfRUMmTs0ZA pretty much sums it up.

Ha Ha! Screw you weblog spammers. My new handy dandy Human Detection Scheme will FOIL your evil plans! Comment posting now requires a user to fill in a code from an image. Thanks to Pascal Rehfeldt for the php Class that makes this possible.

Man sentenced to death for defending his home and daughter during a home invasion. (url updated)

some asshole's bot spammed the fuck out of this page. As a result anonymous commenting has been turned off. People suck. (as if you didn't know).

as usual Michael Kinsey hits it on the nose: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090901829.html?sub=AR

sell MXO 5.25 Buy WDC 12.89 (prices at close today). WDC is underpriced and MXO is getting a deserved reputation for being unreliable.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200501%5CNAT20050113c.html

Pretty soon all workers are going to be as hen-pecked as Tech Support/Customer Service workers are now... www.aligo.com/products/workTrack/ Anyone read that sci fi story that was going around the net a while back? It was a dystopian future where the computers ran the world - kinda. Really, it was a socialist utopian story, but the first 90% was this dystopia where the few wealthy business owners lived in luxury while the computers they owned ruled the country. Anyway, it had many flaws in the Xtopian part, but the computers running (at first it was only) the fast food chains I thought was really neat and well thought out as far as plausibility goes. And while the story painted a bleak picture of computers cracking down on workers, all I thought about was the fact that every fast food worker I've known complained mostly about his BOSS. Having a computer tell you what to do seems to me far more pleasant than having some irrational human doing it, and I can't help but thinking now - every time i go into a fast food joint - how much nicer it would be if it was being run by a computer :-) Of course, what I (and the story) failed to realize, is that the first step will just be all the monitoring tools that are so ominous in the story, *but* not in the hands of impartial computers - who aren't yet smart enough to do anything with that data - but in the hands of PHBs! Now that's an actual dystopia.

This is the kind of moral decay that really ticks me off...
What kind of a scumbag has sex with a hot teacher and then rats her out?
It is despicable enough to kiss and testify, but does this kid have no concern for the younger children? What about the next batch of students? and the next!? Hell, this teacher is only 23, she is going to be hot for at least another 10 years or so...
- wedding picts of her and her hubby: http://www.mjmorningshow.com/morning_DebraPics2.html
good link + police report: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0628042teach1.html - In all seriousness, The only people who should be punished are the undeserving twit of a child and his jealous cousin who rolled over on this little girl from cherry lane. The only person harmed was the husband, and I'd bet he would rather have not suffered the further humiliation of national attention that is the result of this prosecution. - Now, I don't expect this from any of my readers, but before someone goes and makes the brilliant observation that I have a double standard, let me just answer in advance: 1.) no, I have (at least) a triple standard. One for males, one for females, and one for females who are related to me. 2.) I would be loath to jail anyone for consensual sex, regardless of the particular combo. The lack of harm, though, is not so obvious in all cases as it is in this one. 3.) If you really think this teacher harmed this "child" then you might want to consider the possibility that you are an idiot. (and/or a religious nut). - Finally, it is not unreasonable to have a prohibition against sleeping with students. However this should result in the woman being fired, not jailed.