[Quote:]

The current censorship debate is, as usual, fuelled mainly by people who haven’t read the book – The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron – and have no intention of reading it.

Dana Nilsson, for example, a teacher and librarian from Durango, Colorado, does not seem to have noticed that the objectionable word in the book – scrotum – applies to the anatomy of a dog. “I don’t want to start an issue about censorship,�? she writes. “But you won’t find men’s genitalia in quality literature . . . At least not for children.�?

[Quote:]

As I sat down recently with a senior Iranian government official, he urgently waved a column by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times in my face, one about how the United States and Iran need to engage each other.

”Natural allies,” this official said.

It was a surprising choice of words considering the barbs Washington and Tehran have been trading of late.

“We are not after conflict. We are not after crisis. We are not after war,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we don’t know whether the same is true in the U.S. or not. If the same is true on the U.S. side, the first step must be to end this vicious cycle that can lead to dangerous action — war.”

[..]

“We are natural allies. Why?” he said. “Because now the major threat for both Iran and the U.S.A. is al Qaeda.”

He said al Qaeda had attacked the “symbol of our faith” when it struck the Golden Dome mosque — the Al-Askariya Mosque — in the Iraqi city of Samarra last February, setting off much of the sectarian violence that has plagued the war-torn nation over the last year. Similarly, he said, al Qaeda struck the “symbols of American power” on 9/11.

“Why is the U.S. forcing us to enter a struggle with them that is only in al Qaeda’s interest?” he said.

I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing “fairly well” for my age. A little concerned about that comment, I couldn’t resist asking him, “Do you think I’ll live to be 84?”

He asked, “Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer or wine?” “Oh no,” I replied. “I’m not doing drugs, either.” Then he asked, “Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?” I said, “No, my former doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!”

“Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?” No, I don’t,” I said. He asked, “Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?” “No,” I said. “I don’t do any of those things.”

He looked at me and said, “Then, why the fuck do you want to live to be 84?”

[Quote:]

State officials have postponed the severe weather drill planned for today because of bad weather. The drill is now scheduled for Friday.

[Quote:]

A father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest heard yesterday.

Mohammed Riaz, 49, found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages.

On Hallowe’en last year he sprayed petrol throughout their terraced home in Accrington, Lancs, and set it alight.

Caneze Riaz, 39, woke and tried to protect her three-year-old child, Hannah, who was sleeping with her, but was overcome by fumes. Her other daughters, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, and Alisha, 10, died elsewhere in the house.

Riaz, who had spent the evening drinking, set himself on fire and died two days later.

Clockwise from top left: Caneze Riaz with daughters Sayrah, Alisha and Sophia, Father killed family for being too western
Clockwise from top left: Caneze Riaz with daughters Sayrah, Alisha and Sophia

Relatives broke the news to the couple’s son, Adam, 17, as he lay terminally ill with cancer at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. He died six weeks later.

[Quote:]

Yesterday I made a post about the teenagers that murdered the homeless guy and then blamed it on violent games. These kids have given the media their angle and just like all the other cases where games are mentioned no one will ever look any further. No one will ask what their family life was like, what their parents were like, what the kid was like before all this happened. Games did it and that’s the end of the story.

In my post I took the absolute extreme opposite approach. I laid blame completely on the parents and that was intentional. Penny Arcade is a satire site and people come here to laugh or get angry and that’s what we try to provide. I will admit that deep down as the father of a two year old I also want to believe that I as a parent can shape my kid into a decent human being. If I don’t believe that then…well I just have to believe that right now.

With that said I’m perfectly aware that the reality of the situation was somewhere between the two extremes. I know full well that violent games did not create this killer and I also know that his parents did not make him a murderer. Nothing outside of a comic strip and a goofy blog is ever that simple.

The sad truth is that the reality we’re talking about here would probably never actually see the light of day. The media will tell the story they want to tell regardless and that story will be about violent games. The parents of these kids will be lucky to get two lines in an article about the crime. If they tell a reporter that their son hardly played games or that he was fucked up long before they bought a Playstation do you really think that will make it into the final article? You’d never see that side of the story, not in a million years.

But you’re about to.

I am about to share with you an email I received from a Penny Arcade reader. She also happens to be involved in this case but obviously she’d like to remain anonymous. She has agreed to let me share her email with all of you and I can’t thank her enough for that. Like I said before, I know why most people come to Penny Arcade. You come every other day looking for a joke and a laugh. What you’re about to read isn’t a joke. It’s an extremely personal email sent by a very brave woman and I’m honored to share it with you.

Obviously I’m not going to post the whole thing here, but I urge you to go over there and read the letter. And then think about how this whole thing is treated. By the media, by the police, by childcare services. This kid is obviously a psychopath, and should never return to society. And, it should never have gotten this far.

[Quote:]

Most people think East Germany ceased to exist in 1990, when the (East) German Democratic Republic was absorbed by the Federal Republic of (West) Germany. So did I. Turns out I was wrong: the GDR lives on, and in a very comfortable climate to boot: a small island off Cuba is the last official territory of the good old Deutsche Demokratische Republik.

In a military exclusion zone in the Gulf of Cazones, not far to the south-west of the infamous Bay of Pigs, lies a small island formerly known as Cayo Blanco de Sur. The island is 15 km long, but never more than 500 metres wide (although another source claims it is 24 km long and 1 km wide). It is uninhabited but for the iguanas and birds that are indigenous there, and the occasional tourists stopping over. The area is very biodiverse, hosting several endangered species of fish and coral. The reefs make the island inaccessible to any but the smallest boats, and even then landing often involves wading ashore.

In June 1972, Fidel Castro while on a state visit to East Berlin gifted the island to East Germany. Cuba renamed it Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann, after the German communist politician. Ernst Thälmann (German spelling) was leader of the German Communist Party (KPD) during much of the Weimar era, unsuccessfully stood for the presidency against Hitler and was imprisoned without trial from 1933 until his execution in 1944.

The southern beach of the island was renamed Playa RDA (‘GDR Beach’), and in August 1972, the East German ambassador to Cuba erected a bust of Ernst Thälmann on communist Germany’s one and only foothold in the tropics. In 1975, East German Schlager singer Frank Schöbel traveled to the island to record ‘Insel im Golf von Cazones’ on the spot – a musical effort which apparently has been lost to posterity. The island wasn’t mentioned in the treaty unifying both Germanys, which makes it at least thinkable that at present it’s the last remaining piece of East German territory. For the reunified (and capitalist) Germany post-1990 never made any formal claims on the island.In 1998, the island was severely battered by hurricane ‘Mitch’ – the bust of Thälmann fell over and hasn’t been replaced since. In 2001, the German online newspaper ‘Thema 1’ learned of the existence of Ernst Thälmann Insel and attempted to parcel it up for sale. The renewed interest by a re-united, ‘capitalist’ Germany embarrassed Cuba, which denied German journalists access to the island and declared that the 1972 transfer was ‘symbolic’ only…

[Quote:]

Professor John Nemecek picked tough ground to make a stand in his journey to womanhood.

Christian-based Spring Arbor University is firing the transgender professor, effective June 1, choosing not to tolerate Nemecek’s transformation from John to Julie Marie.

After a half-century of internal conflict, Nemecek, an associate dean of adult studies, began to appear as a woman on campus in late 2005.

The small, private college, likewise, was pushed into a most uncomfortable corner.

“We expect our faculty to model Christian character as an example for our students,” read a university statement issued by a public-relations firm. Faculty who “persist with activities that are inconsistent with the Christian faith” are subject to firing.

[..]

On its Academic Affairs Web site, the university pledges: “We will seek ways to invite and welcome diversity into our community.”

They will, indeed, seek ways. Just not very hard.

Perhaps somebody should send them a dictionary with the words “bigotry” and “hypocrisy” in them.

[Quote:]

Has the war in Iraq increased jihadist terrorism? The Bush administration has offered two responses: First, the moths-to-aflame argument, which says that Iraq draws terrorists who would otherwise “be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders,�? as President Bush put it in 2005. Second, the hard-to-say position: “Are more terrorists being created in the world?�? then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked at a press conference in September 2006. “We don’t know. The world doesn’t know. There are not good metrics to determine how many people are being trained in a radical madrasa school in some country.�?

In fact, as Rumsfeld knew well, there are plenty of publicly available figures on the incidence and gravity of jihadist attacks. But until now, no one has done a serious statistical analysis of whether an “Iraq effect�? does exist. We have undertaken such a study, drawing on data in the mipt-rand Terrorism database (terrorismknowledgebase .org), widely considered the best unclassified database on terrorism incidents.

[Quote:]

A second US soldier’s plea of guilty to the gang rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her and her family has been accepted by a judge.

Sgt Paul Cortez admitted four murders, rape and conspiracy to rape. His plea means he will avoid the death penalty.

In November, Specialist James Barker, 24, admitted rape and murder over the killings and was jailed for 90 years.

Cortez broke down as he confessed to raping the girl as her parents and sister were shot dead in another room.

[..]

He said: “During the time me and Barker were raping Abeer, I heard five or six gunshots that came from the bedroom.

“After Barker was done, Green came out of the bedroom and said that he had killed them all, that all of them were dead.”

Cortez added: “Green then placed himself between Abeer’s legs to rape her. When Green was finished, he stood up and shot Abeer in the head two or three times.”

The entire crime took about five minutes and the girl knew her parents and sister had been shot while she was being raped, the hearing heard.

[Quote:]

Most facts surrounding the reported rape that has become Iraq’s latest political firestorm remain in dispute. But this much is clear:

Three Iraqi policemen, in the span of a few hours, went from being rape suspects to distinguished officers in the eyes of the Shiite-led government.

[Quote:]

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to recognise Jedi Knights as a religion on par with Christianity, Islam and other beliefs.

Details of petition:

“The belief of Jedi Knights in ‘the Force’ is no more irrational than any other religious belief – but with less bigotry.”

• Read the petition
• Petitions home page

The Government’s response:

The Government has no overarching role in regulating or recognising personal belief or faith. The UK has a long held commitment to freedom of worship and belief, and people are free to form religions and free to follow their own practices and beliefs provided they remain within the law.

May the Force be with you.