The charter is vague to the point of vacuousness in its most basic proclamations. Article 2 reads:

Islam is the official religion of state and a fundamental source for legislation.
(a) No law may contravene the essential verities of Islamic law.
(b) No law may contravene the principles of democracy.
(c) No law may contravene the rights and basic liberties enumerated in this constitution.

Actually, by the rules as listed here, they're trying to build a government which is proscribed from doing anything. Weimar Republic anyone?

Articles of Consternation - Iraq's infuriatingly vague constitution. By Fred Kaplan

"There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time."

How about Chavez being the elected president of Venezuela Pat? How about we tried to run a military coup on the guy and failed? How about you go back to doing what you know, which is bilking senior citizens out of their social security checks.

Pat Robertson Says He Was Misinterpreted - Yahoo! News

Okay, it's wrong, but so what.

Kitten Cannon - Presented by Addicting Games

"The Aristocrats" is -- how shall I put it? -- an essay film, a work of painstaking and penetrating scholarship, and, as such, one of the most original and rigorous pieces of criticism in any medium I have encountered in quite some time.

Perhaps I should add that "The Aristocrats" is also possibly the filthiest, vilest, most extravagantly obscene documentary ever made.

The five second review, if you aren't afraid to have every sensability insulted, you'll laugh, otherwise, you'll leave (like some of the people there). Worth my eight bucks.

A Filthy Theme And Variations

For those of you who laugh in the face of hypersonic shards of plastic puncturing your spleen, here’s an intimate look at how I’ve kept myself busy for the past week: building a PVC flamethrower.

And now for this week's entry in the "Don't Try This at Home" sweepstakes and a certain future Darwin award...

Chaffinch Shoelace :: Make Your Own Flame Thrower

I thought I was in halfway not awful shape. Three days later I find out I'm so wrong... The damn thing is kicking my ass.

A couple weeks later, it's still kicking my ass, but it's upgaded the workouts since I've gotten better (and even lost a couple pounds that I didn't need!)

yourself!fitness; A fitness program combining the best of exercise and video games for your xbox

The survey also found that teens who say they watch three or more R-rated movies in a typical month — about 43 percent — are seven times likelier to smoke cigarettes and six times likelier to try alcohol than teens who do not watch R-rated movies.

The correlation between R-rated movie watching and the risk of substance-abuse remains even after controlling for age, the report said. This was the first time the annual survey asked about R-rated movies.

I'm just waiting for some dumbass politico to jump on this. Why not see if there is something else going on that gives access to the movies, like I don't know, parents who don't pay any damn attention to their kids? I'd be willing to bet that the group in this quote from the article,

The report found that teens who confided in their parents were at much lower risk of drug abuse than teens who turn first to another adult.

and the group watching the movies, has virtually no match up.

Want to keep your kids off drugs? Spend more time talking to them and less time bitching about how all the "evil" things in the world are trying to get your kids hooked.

Survey Finds Fewer Drug-Free Schools

Wiccan parents MAY teach their children their religion, a court of Appeals ruled in Indiana. It is crazy to me that the court of appeals ever had to hear this case in the first place!

Did you forget this is Jesusland?

Court limits on parent's faith limited

"What this is about is the degradation of the scientific method. If we allow preconceived, hopelessly biased arguments to be taught as science - WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE TRUE - we are weakening the scientific method, and we're putting everyone who relies on science - all of us - at risk."

This is exactly why ID is bad. Science might not be provable, but it IS disprovable. ID is not provable and by the way it is defined can also never be disproved. That makes it not science, and something that has as much business in a science classroom as alchemy or astrology.

Spaghetti Monster Stringing Us Along

The Bush administration is objecting to the creation of a .xxx domain, saying it has concerns about a virtual red-light district reserved exclusively for Internet pornography.

"The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children," Gallagher said in a letter that was made public on Monday.

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ICANN's vote this year represents an abrupt turnabout from the group's earlier stance. In November 2000, the ICANN staff objected to the .xxx domain and rejected ICM Registry's first application.

At the time, politicians lambasted ICANN's move. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., demanded to know why ICANN didn't approve .xxx "as a means of protecting our kids from the awful, awful filth, which is sometimes widespread on the Internet." Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., told a federal commission that .xxx was necessary to force adult Webmasters to "abide by the same standard as the proprietor of an X-rated movie theater."

They were damned either way.

This is stupid. If they're labeled .xxx it's real easy to set email filters to block the junk or set browsers to block the domain. NOT approving this means MORE porn being sent out that DOESN'T get blocked because it's showing up under a .com or .net address. Screw "legitimizing" it, it's there, it's not going away, and doing this makes it easier to ID, meaning parents can add some measure of protection.

The people blocking this from going into effect don't give a damn about doing something useful about porn, they want to make sure it's still there to rail against and bring money in for them.

Bush administration objects to .xxx domains | CNET News.com