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[SCD]

Okay, so I'm looking over the pond to the UK, where There's a bit of huff and puff over how many people were cut off from polling stations at 10pm.

I'm shocked, not that people were cut off at that time, but how there has been little explanation on the subject over why these people chose to go to the polling stations in the evenings, considering that the phrase "Vote early, vote often" came from those parts.

A couple things I noticed:

1) in the videos, a complete lack of old people (or in other articles for that matter)
2) In all the polling stations, everyone who complained in the press about not getting in the booth arrived at 9pm.  A lot of people arrived at 9pm

This leads me to believe that while Americans are bigoted and in many cases uneducated, us canuckis are dense as all shit, the British are just plain stupid.  

My apologies to the queen.  I don't know how she puts up with that shit.

[Büge]

Yes because the Queen is worried about elections.

[Büge]

American Academy of Pediatrics Is Advocating for U.S. Pediatricians to Perform Certain Types of Female Genital Mutilation

[TA]

This makes a lot of sense, actually.  You provide an officially recognized and standardized procedure to appease the people who might otherwise perform more violent forms of FGM in a less sterile and less monitored environment.

And then when a parent expresses an interest in having this done, you take the child away from them.  Fucking hell.  You don't compromise with inhumanity.

[Shinra]

American Academy of Pediatrics Is Advocating for U.S. Pediatricians to Perform Certain Types of Female Genital Mutilation

Playing devil's advocate here, but there's a big difference between full on genital mutilation and 'a ritual nicking'. Within a paragraph of the AAP's statement is a description of 'destruction or removal of the clitoris', and I have never equated 'nicking' with 'cutting off or otherwise destroying'. I don't lose part of my face every time I shave. Also note that they're not broadly suggesting this for all girls at birth (like they did with circumcision in the 80s for men, by the way) but instead they're suggesting reaching out to religious parents who might be inclined to get an uncle to do it in a back room with a box of razorblades and some rubbing alcohol, which is usually how these things are done in America.

I'm not saying I support the idea - furthering this barbaric practice in any way, even a compromise, is beyond stupid and is another sign of how stunningly out of touch the AAP is. Having said that, organizations like Equality Now don't endear themselves to me or make me even want to side with them, no matter how much I agree, because they can't say anything without resorting to extremes. "Well, if they're going to mutilate their daughter's genitals anyway, we can offer to do it in a safe environment that will do minimal, possibly repairable damage" does not equate to "We're advocating the complete removal of a girl's clitoris." The first statement was suggesting something stupid and insensitive, sure, but it's what they actually said. Another example? Rockstar's "Kill the Haitians" mission in GTA:VC. Maybe naming a gang after an entire racial group was a bad idea. After all, "Kill the Jews" or "Kill the Blacks" would have gone over like a wet fart and probably prevented the game from it ever hitting shelves in the first place. But the advocacy groups were saying things like "GTA:VC is a game about killing haitian people" and "GTA:VC is advocating haitian genocide", neither statement is true, and either just makes me roll my eyes and not want to take them seriously.

[Shinra]

This makes a lot of sense, actually.  You provide an officially recognized and standardized procedure to appease the people who might otherwise perform more violent forms of FGM in a less sterile and less monitored environment.

And then when a parent expresses an interest in having this done, you take the child away from them.  Fucking hell.  You don't compromise with inhumanity.

^^^ This.

[JDigital]

I imagine the official procedure would be, "Lets not, and say we did."

[Defenestration]

http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/04/is-youtube-right-to-take-down-hitler-parodies/

Not that it's surprising that a movie company is trying to kill a meme that's several years old that uses footage from one of their movies, but now it's delightfully meta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBO5dh9qrIQ

I mean, what's right if we can't make fun of Hitler? As Twain said, time and tragedy is humor. Even in the real world Hitler is pretty much a Saturday morning cartoon villain.

[Brentai]

It's not all bad.  We got the first Hitler parody I've actually laughed at out of it.

[Defenestration]

I thought the one about the TF2 halos was pretty rich.

[Defenestration]

Florida law to outlaw bestiality fails to pass in Florida Senate.

Lawmakers said they did not want to be accused of wasting time addressing a rare crime when Floridians needed them to help create jobs.

Er, if it got to the floor, wouldn't they be wasting time in *not* passing it? What other possible reason could you have for

They also did not want to debate the icky subject in public meetings occasionally frequented by children.

[Disposable Ninja]

Couldn't bestiality fall under the purview of animal cruelty laws?

Unless, wait, they want to make it a sex crime. Lord knows there aren't enough people forced to live under that bridge in Miami.

[TA]

So, officials at the California Department of Corrections, in violation of both state and federal law, sent out documents to the families and friends of suspected parole violators, offering amnesty for parole violations and discharge of parole for the offender if they come fill out a form.  The part where this is criminal and repugnant is where those documents were packs of lies, and they just arrested everybody who showed up for violations of parole.

[Mongrel]

Leaving aside the obvious legal and moral issues, I'd kinda like to say "Haha, good on them for being devious assholes.", only their little gambit kind of destroys the long-term ability of the California Parole board to do it damn job. Never mind the fact that these guys are probably all gonna go free now.  

It's a one-trick pony. An incredibly dangerous one at that. Way to go you stupid fucks!


Kind of reminds me of the old saw about how if you don't offer surrender as a legit option, then no one will ever surrender.

[Büge]

Couldn't they have just sent out notices that the parolees had won a motorboat, and book 'em when they walked in the door?

[patito]

The article says they did something like the motorboat one before, so I guess they wanted to spice things up a bit.

[TA]

"You won a boat, come to the police station to pick it up!" is an entirely different animal from a letter from the DoC, on DoC stationary, signed by a DoC official, claiming to grant something that the DoC does have the authority to grant.

[patito]

Oh, I'm not saying the thing they did now was smart, kind of like the thing somebody did in Colombia or somewhere where the army guys doing the sting on a guerrilla where disguised as the Red Cross. It pretty much undermines the trust in those institutions.

[Thad]

...are you guys seriously debating the legal ramifications of a fucking Simpsons reference?

[Royal☭]

I think it's the "We'll lure them in with promises of amnesty" that are shit-brained.

Anyway, SCOTUS: It's perfectly fine to hold sexual criminals, who've served their time, indefinitely.  I loathe any court decision that has me siding with Scalia and Thomas, but there you go.