The District Court document is an amusing and profane look at the world's favorite four-letter word, from its origins in 1500 to today's frequent use of the term by Eminem, Chris Rock, and Lenny Kravitz.

I just read a statement from someone (an American, in case you wondered) regarding crime and punishment. He stated that he thinks the law should LITERALLY extract exact "punishment" from wrongdoers. You know, literally do the "eye for an eye" thing (which, by the way, was meant as a limitation, not necessarily as an absolute demand, but that's another discussion).

He also stated that we should not only impose the death penalty on, well, pretty much everyone, I guess, but we should torture them first. Yes, he was serious.

I'm actually nauseaus. This is someone who is walking around in society right now. He's advocating torture, mutilation, etc., as a matter of law. To hell with humane treatment (yes, he basically said that), and apparently to hell with the right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. Let's just TORTURE the bastards and then kill them, probably slowly in gruesome ways.

He has actually literally advocated putting people on the rack. Of course, I doubt sincerely he has any idea what the rack actually does to people (he also has asserted that other "Western" nations don't have real freedom of speech and that only Americans do, so that shows just how educated he is).

The thing that disturbs me is not that someone would advocate this. People have been doing this sort of thing since they crawled out of the primordial soup. No, the thing that disturbs me is that people are walking around in supposedly civilized society believing, actually believing, that it's okay to torture people. That when someone commits a crime or crimes (even evil, horrible, vile ones) they give up their right to be treated humanely.

This, of course, is pretty much the justification that abusers use. The victim did something to "deserve" the treatment they got. You talked back, you didn't do your homework, you forgot to buy beer, whatever. You gave up your right to be treated reasonably because you transgressed the rules (real or imagined or even made up on the spot), and therefore you deserved it.

I just feel sick at the moment. Coming face to face with someone who apparently genuinely believes that people deserve to be tortured is very disturbing and deeply troubling.

I got an email in my spam filter that had the title, "The Magic of Artistic Paper-Cuts". I figured it was spam (it was), but I was intrigued, so I had a peek inside. Amid the JavaScript, image links, and other crap (which is just gibberish since my mail reader and my spam filtering system are both 100% plain text), I found this jewel of a paragraph:

We are one of the biggest arts providers based in China. We can supply you with high-quality, artistic, and customized paper-cuts. Our paper-cuts are developed for all kinds of use in both daily life and business. We will also meet any design challenge!

Still, now I have this image of a new type of body modification, delicate scarification via papercuts...

I'm starting to regard people who shout, "But it's my constitutional right!" in the same kind of way I regard people who shout, "But it's in the Bible!" as a means to justify their arguments.

NOT that I don't believe in the U.S. Constitution. Quite the contrary. I'm a huge fan of civil liberties. And I've got nothing against the Bible, either, while we're at it. We've got some twelve or fourteen different English versions of it and a couple of Greek New Testaments and a Hebrew Old Testament (or two).

No, it's that when certain people can't come up with any sort of logical or factual support for their position, they suddenly shout that it's their RIGHT because The Constitution Says So (even though they've probably never read the Bill of Rights or Constitutional Amendments). Same thing happens with the Bible. Can't suport your argument or position? Just say, "It's in the Bible!" and then when someone points out that your argument is full of holes, call them a heretic (or unamerican, whichever seems the most appropriate).

I'm trying to think of some approptriately pithy ending for this little mini-rant, and I can't seem to do it. But I don't really have to. The Constitution guarantees that I don't have to end my rants on a sensible note. Or is it the Bible? I can never remember...

Tell me. What about THIS is ambiguous:

PLEASE NOTE: This is a mailform. Sending information through this form merely sends an email to the ring manager(s), and nothing else. Please use this form to submit potential member websites for the ring manager(s) to visit. There is absolutely no point in sending nonsense or empty messages through this form. If you need to contact the ring manager(s), you may do so, but sending a blank or garbage message just wastes everyone's time, including yours. Thanks.

Has it worked? Somewhat. The ratio has gone down to about three to one now. Part of the problem is the subject matter of the webring (certain subjects appeal to a wider range of people, and therefore to more STUPID people, since a certain percentage of people are stupid). Part of the problem is that some people are so stupid that a clearly worded message telling them to use the form ONLY to submit their website or to communicate with the ring manager(s) doesn't work.

I just wonder, what do they think I'm going to do? Write them a nice little note in reply to their blank message? "Hi, thanks for sending me an annoying blank message!" or do they think they'll get a prize or something? (Be the lucky tenth person to send me a garbage email and I'll send you a genie in a lamp!) What on earth do they think they'lll accomplish? And WHY would someone send their email address to random persons on the net, anyway?

I dunno. I've never understood how stupid people think (probably a good thing, now that I come to look at it).

Go here: UnPlug n'Pray. Read the stuff. Run the program.

Then go here: xp-AntiSpy and download that. It's a very handly little tool for tweaking Windows XP.

Well, they say simple things amuse simple minds. I guess I'm simple minded, because I found Dancing Bush really, really funny (requires Flash).

I'm a big supporter of artists' rights and all that, but when a band tries to sue someone for using "two chords the band has been using since 1982", that's way over the top. Apparently, though, Metallica think they have exclusive rights to the chords E and F...

Although, since I can't seem to find this article on MTV.com (it may be there, but I can't seem to locate it), this may be a big sendup. I certainly hope so!

EDITED TO ADD:

Yes, it's a hoax. I have heard from a friend (hi, Kat!) that the site on which it appears is a satire site (which I would have figured out if I'd bothered to look there, but I was too lazy to do it), and the link to "MTV" in the article originally went to a fake MTV site.

There's a discussion thread about it on Fark.com if you want to read a bit more on the subject.

The descriptions that accompany this collection of illustrations from the 1950s had me laughing until I had tears in my eyes. Mind you, the illustrations are very, very odd, bordering on fetish. Okay, not bordering on. The "artist" (and I use that term loosely) had some serious fixations with women whose underpants suddenly fall down in public (intrigued yet?). But, these being from the 1950s, they're quite tame as these things go, and like I said, the descriptions are hilarious.

Finally, we have some solid clues as to the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Hundreds of Loop Fans submitted excellent suggestions, which we'll be forwarding to the appropriate authorities.
 
Here are the top 10 entries, in no particular ranking...

My best friend (Lori, for those of you just tuning in) has a distinctively American accent. She sounds like she's from the Seattle area because, well, she is, pretty much. She's lived in Melbourne for more than ten years, and despite the fact that she now says "tuh-MAH-to" instead of "tuh-MAY-to" (I do that, too), her accent is still pretty crisp and definitely noticible (particularly to Australians).

And now I'm going to quote her:

"I was told yesterday by two different people that I have a Canadian accent. Since we live in a democracy, I can only conclude that the two of them are right and the one of me has just been laboring under the delusion that it's an American accent."

I sometimes joke that I'm going to tell people I'm Canadian because no one hates Canadians (and they don't wage wars based on faulty information, but that's another discussion entirely), but so far no one's ever told me I have a Canadian accent.

I can, though, if I want to. I can sound precisely like someone from southwestern Ontario, eh?

Saw this list in someone's profile and thought it was interesting. Here are my answers:

Current Age: 39

Current Residence: Melbourne, Australia

Interests: History, art, art history, cinema, parenting, comparative religions, spiritual growth, computers, internet culture, chocolate, not necessarily in that order

Favorite movie: Currently, My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Favorite band or musician: The Eagles

Favorite genre of music: Toss up between rock/pop and classical

Favorite poet or writer: Depends on the genre. I like Anne Rice, Jude Deveraux, Terry Pratchett, Neal Stephenson, and Antonia Fraser, just to name a few (and they're all in entirely and completely different fields/genres)

Favorite style of digital art: Depends on my mood. I like high-quality fractals a lot, but I also like well-done figurative stuff (photographic or rendered)

Operating System: Windows XP

MP3 player of choice: None. I haven't got even one MP3.

Shell of choice: Bash (well, who doesn't like bash for their shell?)

Favorite cartoon character: D'oh! Homer Simpson.

Personal Quote: Do you know where I put my car keys?

Okay, apparently it's actually a dense cloud of gas and dust about 8000 light years away, but maybe the universe (or God) is giving us a message...

What is it about mailforms that seem to draw morons like magnets? Or is it just me? (Me who draws morons, not me who IS a moron. No comments from the peanut gallery, either. Ahem.)

Checked my mail and have no fewer than FIVE copies of totally and utterly stupid and empty mail, all from the same IP address, but it's not just "an honest mistake" where they kept clicking and clicking. Oh, no. The first two are from "JULIE" and the next one is from "FRED" and the next two are from "Eric" (apparently the idiot figured out how to unlock his capslock key by that point).

And the content of the messages? Just nonsense. The first two have an email address put in (probably not a valid one, but it's there), the other three have just a screen name (Can you please picture me sneering and rolling my eyes at this, please?). None of them have a URL.

This is a mailform for an invitation-only webring, folks. The mailform is on the bottom of the page, which explains in details what the ring is and what the form is for. To any person who can read even a little English and who has an IQ in the "normal" range, it's crystal clear what the purpose of the site and the form are. I know this because I don't generally get a lot of junk through that particular form, which usually means that people are actually reading the page and understanding it (and I do get regular mail through it, and the site gets adequate traffic, two more factors that tell me that the page is understandable and clear).

Well, in any event, JULIE FRED Eric has had their IP address banned from that domain and this one (just because I'm feeling bitchy).

Sometimes I just wonder how stupid people actually are. And when I see examples of this sort of moronic behavior, I just feel so dismayed. And annoyed. I don't like stupid people... although I do sometimes get a smirk out of their email.

Well, we picked up the repaired car today. It's smoooooth. It did need a new fuel pump, and also there was a computer controlled sensor that had gone bad (which is possibly what caused the fuel pump to die). So we had that fixed, and we got a tune up. No more rough idle when it's cold, no more "tappa tappa tappa" at slow speeds, yay!

I had a bit of a crappy time earlier today. The car wouldn't start and Zoë was crying incessantly in her car seat, and that made Miranda cry, and it all just pushed me over the edge. Thankfully, we have another car we can use and we already had an appointment to get the car serviced on Monday and we've got RACV (Royal Auto Club of Victoria, like the AAA in the States) so we can even get free towing. But it was annoying and extremely nerve-wracking and I just lost it for a little while.

Once we got the other car sorted out and everything was a bit calmer and we were going out (we had actually intended to go to the market, but by the time we got moving, it was too late), I decided I needed to get out of my foul mood. I decided to find five things to be grateful for.

The first was easy. There was the most amazing, splendid, gorgeous firey orange sunset I've seen in a long time. The clouds were the thin, icy sort that reflect the light and it was amazingly intense and just incredibly beautiful.

The next was that we already had the car appointment and that it's school holidays so that I don't have to worry about taking Zoë anywhere while the car's out of commission.

The next was that we had a really nice dinner in the city, quite on a whim, in a very pleasant restaurant where they had a live piano player and a very enjoyable atmosphere.

Then, when we had a walk in the city, I was grateful that I could walk without pain, and that the weather was nice enough to have a pleasant walk.

Finally, I'm grateful for my family. Andrew took me out to dinner because he thought I needed it (and he wanted to go, as well), and Zoë, despite being somewhat difficult at times (she does NOT handle disappointment and/or frustration well!), is clever and a really charming, fun little kid, and that Miranda is a good-natured, cute, and happy little toddler, and, most of all, that they're all mine to enjoy.

Life IS good. Even if circumstances sometimes really, really annoy me for a little while.

According to a spam I just reported (it was caught in my filter, bwahahah):

INCREASE YOUR SPERM VOLUME UP TO 300 % Bonni

Companies that are major users of telemarketing calls are preparing to shift efforts to e-mail and direct mail once a new federal "do-not-call" list takes effect in October, according to a published report.

Citing the need to safeguard "America's most vital institutions and politicians" against potentially devastating attacks, President Bush asked Congress to sign off Monday on a $30 billion funding package to help fight the ongoing War On Criticism.
 
"Sadly, the threat of criticism is still with us," Bush told members of Congress during a 2 p.m. televised address. "We thought we had defeated criticism with our successes in Afghanistan and Iraq. We thought we had struck at its very heart with the broad discretionary powers of the USA Patriot Act. And we thought that the ratings victory of Fox News, America's News Channel, might signal the beginning of a lasting peace with the media. Yet, despite all this, criticism abounds."