Can you actually sue for this?
Okay. So the priest decided, by whatever authority was vested in him, that the dead guy at the funeral was going straight to Hell.

So the family is suing.

How exactly does that work? I mean, inside the heirarchy of churches, isn't the priest allowed to make a judgment of that variety? Or is everyone entitled to a hopeful verdict as to the final disposition of their soul? That seems like a bit of a lie, considering the state of the general population's morals relative to Roman Catholic doctrine, or any Christian denomination that is tightly rule-bound.

However, if the funeral is actually about the family, as opposed to the dearly departed, then I imagine this pronouncement could definitely be very disturbing.

Being neither family nor dead, I just find it funny. I wonder who will win.

Masturbation is healthy!
Wow. Gay marriage in Canada, maybe in Massachusetts. Homos getting it legally in Texas and other dens of Ashcroftian moral stultification. What could increase the wave of bliss sweeping the land?

Masturbation fights prostate cancer!

That's why I do it. And the pot is for my glaucoma, too.

Still Alive!
Hey folks. Still here. Been busy. Quitting work. Going back to school. Physics.

Boyfriend! YAY!

Substance will begin to reappear here shortly.

I told you I'd find it
Challenging the speed of light. Interesting article here.

I can't muster any outrage. I'm all out.
So, the WH wants to give the CIA and Pentagon domestic policing powers? Isn't that...not right? *sigh*

I think I've already said this.
But not as well!

Our problematic experience in the Philippines need not discourage us from taking on greater international responsibilities—or even from giving empire another shot, if necessary, to establish a beneficial Pax Americana. But before we embark on so ambitious a project, it might be useful to make a closer study of our earlier imperial adventure and its unintended consequences, some of which were quite severe.

The Matrix Revisited!
Chris Suellentrop writes an interesting article about The Matrix:

The real source of the fascination with The Matrix is that, despite all appearances, the movie is not a dystopia. Rather, it's a utopia, a geek paradise. The Matrix is a sci-fi John Hughes movie, in which a misfit learns that he's actually cool. (Think Harry Potter with guns.) At the software company where Keanu Reeves works, his boss might as well be the principal castigating Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club when he says: "You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson. You believe that you are special. That somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously, you are mistaken." Of course, we learn that the oppressive Figure of Authority is the one who is mistaken. But instead of going to the prom, Keanu gets to pack heat, learn kung fu, wear a black trench coat and sunglasses, and, to top it off, he gets a hot, ass-kicking girlfriend who sports fetish wear. What kind of dystopia is this? No one wants to be Winston Smith in 1984, but everyone wants to be Neo (or Trinity, or Morpheus) in The Matrix.

Read it here! YAY, Slate!

Bonus: The Rich Dialogue of Neo. It ain't Masterpiece Theatre, folks.

Is smoking pot as hazardous to your health as cigarettes?
I've often had arguments concerning this subject with some close friends of mine, often taking the affirmative. If you read the article past the first paragraph, however, you get this...

However, Professor Henry, in an editorial for the British Medical Journal, said that if, as many scientists suspected, regular cannabis smoking was as dangerous as tobacco smoking in the long term, the annual death toll from using the drug could be substantial.

He wrote: "It may be argued that the extrapolation from small numbers of individual studies to potential large scale effects amounts to scaremongering."

This may or may not be true. Keep the science coming folks...

From the Beeb.

Speechless, yet appreciative.
In a move that could dramatically reduce air pollution in much of rural California, the Bush administration proposed tough new emissions regulations Tuesday for diesel-powered farm and construction equipment.

*blink* They did what?

Empire in Denial
Maureen Dowd sez...

Whether the tacky tyrant is MOAB dust or has a new face, he's gone. And we now own his country for the bargain down payment of $79 billion. America broke away from the British empire, and now it's building its own British-style empire. We are, as Niall Ferguson, the author of "Empire," put it, "an empire in denial."
...
The government should have taken 20 seconds, when it was awarding the Halliburton contract, to protect the art, the books and the hospital supplies.

Quite. Read here!

Hey! Sexy galaxies too!
Must be the springtime thing. Astronomical jigginess.

Three "naked" galaxies, not surrounded by cloaks of dark matter, have been found by an international team of astronomers.

Here.

Sexy worms fight cancer.
Or something like that.

Worms contaminated by radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident have started having sex with each other instead of on their own.

According to Ukrainian scientists, they may have changed their sexual behaviour to increase their chances of survival. It is one of the first pieces of direct evidence on how wildlife is affected by radioactive pollution.

Yeah, baby.

Poincare is his bitch, yo.
Yum! Three dimenional manifolds!

As for Poincare's Conjecture itself...scintillating reading here.

YAY, gourds!
I find this oddly interesting. Every god should have fangs and a staff. This I decree. Shitty picture here of the Staff God..

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- The image of a fanged deity inscribed on a 4,000-year-old Peruvian gourd indicates an early Andean civilization practiced religion a thousand years earlier than previously believed, scientists said on Monday

Viceroy Jay Garner weighs in on Viet Nam
The soon-to-be top dog in Iraq served in Vietnam and says he's learned valuable lessons from the failures of that conflict. "We should have taken the war north instead of waiting in the south. Just like here," said Garner, who then added, "If President Bush had been president, we would have won."

Here, at bottom.

What happens...
...when you sympathize with the terrorists? I do. Come and get me Tom Ridge!

Actually, I think the anti-war thing is a bit dated now...it's SO March 2003. The SUV vandalism is amusing, however. Quite.

And hey! Did you know there's an organization called Northern California War Tax Resistance? I didn't, until I read this.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to pay for this shit.
This. Outrage now!

Who's opposed to that?
I'm absolutely amazed that Mr. Bennett can actually take this tack:

William Bennett, education secretary under President Reagan and author of "The Book of Virtues," came to Paige's defense.
"He'd prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community. Who's opposed to that?" Bennett said.

I just don't understand how he can be so utterly ignorant of the concept of a secular state. It doesn't prohibit individual worship, but it definitely doesn't support enculturation outside what's necessary to create a good citizen. Christianity, as proven thoughout history, is not a prerequisite for good citizenship.

Be appalled.

Mega-banteng!
I'm picturing abnormally massive ungulates stalking the land...

It's actually kinda cute. Too bad it's a freak of science!