So I was driving to school today and I saw a bumper sticker that said “Save God. Stop the ACLU.” And all I could think in response was “How pathetic is your god if he needs saving from a roomful of lawyers?” Many lawyers are clever folk, but for them to be able to take on a god must mean one of two things. Either the people working for the ACLU are superlawyers bordering on demigods, which given my experience within the organization I know to be nonsense, or this man’s god makes my 8-month-old nephew seem like Hercules.

And if they are so powerful that they can take on a god, why haven’t they had more success persuing their agenda? After all, a group capable of challenging a god ought to be able to wrangle the wills of us mere mortals without breaking a sweat. Surely a group with such power could, say, prevent a man from being elected President of the United States, abolish the death penalty in this country, legalize drugs and prostitution and all sorts of mean nasty ugly things that God-fearin folk won’t stand for. So why don’t they?

I challenge the ACLU to show us their superhuman powers and exercise them to their fullest extent. Show people like the man whose bumper sticker started this rant that you have more power than any god! You don’t need gods, courts, or any of those things! The stars are aligned, and now it’s time to take your seat at the throne of Earth and feast on the heads of those who nay-say you! Arise I say!

“Welcome to our 3000th show tonight. We did our first show in May of 1992; a man named George Bush was president, his approval rating was only 39 percent, and someone named Clinton wanted to replace him in the White House. So nothing has changed really.”
– Jay Leno

Yet more proof that Singapore borders on totalitarianism at times.

In August, five junior college students who posted derogatory remarks about their teachers and vice-principal on their blogs, or online journals, were suspended for three days, the Straits Times reported.

[...] Blogging, writing in online journals, has become huge popular among the young in tech-savvy Singapore, where over 65 percent of the city-state’s 4.2 million people are wired to the Internet.

But with libellous blogs emerging as a hot legal issue, one has to be careful with what is written.

In May, a Singapore student shut down his blog after a government agency threatened to sue for what it said were untrue and serious accusations.

Not that such behavior is really suprising in a country where corporal punishment is still practiced for crimes ranging from littering and vandalism to oral sex and drug trafficking is a capital offense.

“Can I suggest something that doesn’t involve violence, or is this the wrong crowd for that?”
– Hoban Washburn

For those of you who’ve been living in a cave for the past few months, the movie Serenity, based on the tragically cancelled Firefly, is coming out this Friday. So make sure you go see it! I mean, c’mon, even the New York Times has deigned to notice the opening and interview Joss Whedon.

So don’t forget. Friday. September 30. Serenity. Trust me, you’ll like it.

(link via Geek Philosophy)

Once more, life imitates a bad Sci-Fi movie. Apparently there may be killer dolphins loose in the Gulf of Mexico.

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy’s cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying ‘toxic dart’ guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet’s smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

[...]

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government’s marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

‘My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,’ he said. ‘The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?’

Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. ‘The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?’ said Sheridan.

I for one welcome our new dolphin overlords, and remind them that as a noted blogger, I could be helpful in rounding up others to work in their undersea tuna farms.

(link via Warren Ellis)

“It’s weird. I’ve made my bones with vampires, but I’ve never really associated anything I did with Goth that much, except that I’ve kind of made fun of them.”
– Joss Whedon

Okay, does anybody know of a good plug-in for WordPress for dealing with all the stupid comment spam? My daily battle with comment spam sours my mood and makes me much less inclined to post anything. Additionally, my battles today seem to have taken out about 5-10 legitimate recent comments, which also annoys me to no end, because I like knowing what other people out there are thinking.

So please, any help would be appreciated!

“When we are in competition with ourselves, and match our todays against our yesterdays, we derive encouragement from past misfortunes and blemishes. Moreover, the competition with ourselves leaves unimpaired our benevolence toward our fellow men.”
– Eric Hoffer

“The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.”
– Bertrand Russell