My World Cup pick

I'm rooting for the team whose fans kill the fewest people.

You know what really pisses me off...

...about this story? Well, read it first.

U.S. teenagers charged over suicide of Irish 'new girl' targeted in 'relentless' school bullying campaign

Nine U.S. teenagers have been charged with driving a 15-year-old 'new girl' from Ireland to kill herself, it has been revealed. Phoebe Prince faced an 'unrelenting' bullying campaign from fellow pupils after she started school in the Massachusetts town of South Hadley last year. The teenager, who had emigrated to the U.S. from County Clare with her mother and three sisters, was stalked and harassed from September until she killed herself on January 14. Pheobe was found hanging by her younger sister in a stairwell at the family home. She was still wearing her school clothes.

The 15-year-old was allegedly targeted by a group known as the 'Mean Girls' after she started dating a popular senior football player at her school. Pupils said Phoebe was called 'Irish slut' and 'whore' on Twitter, Craigslist, Facebook and Formspring. Her books were knocked out of her hands, items were flung at her, her face was scribbled out of photographs on the school walls, and threatening text messages were sent to her cell phone.

Announcing the charges, prosecutor Elizabeth Scheibel said: 'Their conduct far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship-related quarrels. 'The investigation revealed relentless activities directed towards Phoebe to make it impossible for her to stay at school. The bullying for her was intolerable. 'The actions of these students were primarily conducted on school grounds during school hours and while school was in session.' Mrs Scheibel revealed the Phoebe had suffered a 'tortuous' day when she decided to take her own life. She added: 'From information known to investigators thus far, it appears that Phoebe's death on January 14 followed a tortuous day for her, in which she was subjected to verbal harassment and threatened physical abuse. 'The harassment occurred while she studied in the school's library around lunch period, walked in the school's hallways near the end of the school day and after school, as she walked toward her home.' She added that numerous faculty members, staff members and administrators at South Hadley High School were aware of the bullying - some even witnessed physical abuse - and did nothing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262487/Phoebe-Prince-9-US-teenagers-charged-suicide-death-Irish-new-girl.html

Ok, beyond the obvious need to take the nine utterly worthless excuses for human beings that tormented the poor girl and remove them from the planet, there is so much more about this story that pisses me off, and so many more people than the nine defendants who need to pay for this crime. 

The story showed an inspiring photo of a candlelight vigil of students at her school, showing how much they cared, and how much they miss their dear Phoebe. WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU WHEN SHE WAS GETTING BULLIED EVERY FRIGGING DAY IN FRONT OF YOUR NOSES? Laughing nervously or moving off would be my bet. Cowardly hypocrites, every friggin' one of you. You let her die just as much as if you stood on the dock watching her drown. Go ahead, tack every cute fluffy teddy bear on Earth to her fence, it won't ever make up for letting her be bullied to death. You'd better not call yourselves Americans in my hearing, because Americans don't allow bullying of the weak, you cowards.

And how can it be possible that "numerous faculty members, staff members and administrators at South Hadley High School were aware of the bullying - some even witnessed physical abuse - and did nothing"? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? And if it is true that staff did nothing, how can they retain their jobs while at the same time the school asks parents to believe that their children are kept safe at Hadley School? Someone from Hadley School wanna explain THAT one to me?

Here's the part that really, really makes me think that someone should bulldoze that school, and the town it sits in, and probably the state as well, and if they need a driver, let me be the first to apply: 

"Mrs Scheibel said the investigation looked at whether the adults' failure to help Phoebe amounted to criminal behavior. 'In our opinion, it did not,' she said. 'Nevertheless, the actions - or inactions - of some adults at the school are troublesome.' An anti-bullying expert has said anti-bullying policies at Phoebe's school were not rigorous enough.

"Not criminal"? Doesn't Massachusetts have a "Good Samaritan" law that requires you to help? They put Seinfeld away with it in the last episode, didn't they? And "Troublesome"? Excuse me? You find it "troublesome" that supposed "educators" stood around doing nothing while they watched a girl be tormented into suicide? What is that, British understatement? It's a hell of lot more than "troublesome" to me, and I don't even have kids! DO NOT PROTECT THOSE CRIMINAL STAFF MEMBERS WHO ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN!

"Anti-bullying policies at Phoebe's school were not rigorous enough". And "But Marlene Snyder of Clemson University's Institute on Family and Neighbourhood Life said laws and policies don't necessarily help if schools don't follow through with intensive training for teachers and staff. 'In defence of teachers, very few of them have ever had training on bullying prevention, much less how to intervene without making the situation worse,' she said. 'Some people don't understand the dramatic and devastating effect that this kind of treatment can have on a child.'"

You've got to be shitting me. Not enough training? Ummm, does the fucking word COLUMBINE ring any bells with you so-called "teachers"? Do you really, really, really need to write down in the fucking school handbook that it's not permissible to knock people's books out of their hands, threaten and beat on them all day, call them "Irish slut", and follow them home? Really? Do you fucking so-called progressive, enlightened "teachers" REALLY need someone to tell you to step in and stop a fight before someone dies? Bulldoze the whole state. I'm serious.

They'll just have to buy bigger guns.

Or maybe a Hummvee.

Police barred from penis enlargement

Fri Apr 23, 12:10 pm ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Forget about getting a job as a police officer in Indonesia's Papua if you have had your penis enlarged. You won't get it, according to local media reports citing the Papua police chief.

An applicant "will be asked whether or not his vital organ has been enlarged," said Papua police chief Bekto Suprapto, quoted on local website Kompas.com.

"If he has, he will be considered unfit to join the police or the military."

The ban was applied since the unnatural size causes "hindrance during training," said police spokesman Zainuri Lubis in Jakarta, quoted by news portal Detik.com.

Indonesia's remote easternmost province is home to Papuan tribes, many of whom are known for wearing penis gourds.

A low-level separatist insurgency has waged in the resources-rich part of Indonesia for decades and there is a heavy police and military presence there.

Papuans use a local technique to achieve the enlargement, according to a sexologist quoted by local newspaper Jakarta Globe, wrapping the penis with leaves from the "gatal-gatal" (itchy) tree so that it swells up "like it has been stung by a bee," the expert said.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Sara Webb and Sanjeev Miglani)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100423/od_nm/us_indonesia_police

For all of you who couldn't afford to take driver's ed.

These are some things that the drivers around me have obviously never been taught.

1. Turn signals are warning devices for other drivers of what you ARE ABOUT TO DO. Not what you're already doing. Therefore, turning them on after you've already hit the brakes for your turn is useless, rude, dangerous, and stupid. So turn on your friggin' blinker BEFORE you start to do whatever it is your blinker is warning us of. Morons.

2. On-ramps are designed to give you the time and room to get up to the speed of the cars you're about to merge with, and to pick a safe spot to merge into them. That means that you should be actually LOOKING at the traffic on the highway for an empty spot LONG BEFORE YOU GET THERE. Waddling up the on-ramp at 30 miles per hour, redoing your eye makeup (yes, I've seen it), waiting until you get within thirty feet of a string of cars doing 75 before you look or accelerate, is useless, rude, dangerous, and stupid. So wake the hell up and LOOK, and look early for a spot to blend into, at THEIR SPEED. Idiots.

2. b. On-ramps are designed to give the guy behind you the time and room to get up to the speed of the cars he's about to merge with, and to pick a safe spot to merge into them, without being forced to wait for the last thirty feet of ramp to go from 30 to 75. Dragging your ass, making him and those behind him pile up behind you, so that all 5 of you reach the highway in a chunk together at 30 mph to merge with a string of cars doing 75 is useless, rude, dangerous, and stupid.  So speed the hell up and pick a spot early to smoothly blend in with the highway traffic, at their speed. Dumbasses.

2. c. On-ramps are designed to give the guy ahead of you the time and room to get up to the speed of the cars he's about to merge with, and to pick a safe spot to merge into them without being pushed into a bad spot in traffic from behind. His adjustments in speed while picking his spot could mean braking. Sitting on his ass without allowing some space for his potential braking (and your accelerating) is useless, rude, dangerous, and stupid.  So slow the hell down at first, let the guy ahead of you get some space, and pick a spot early to smoothly blend in with the highway traffic, at their speed. Retards. 

3. Do I really have to mention cell phones? Ok, texting has been found to slow reaction time more than alcohol or marijuana. U cn wait 2 fnd out wat ur bff's bf hd fr lnch. Pinheads.

4. If you or your car are unable to do the speed limit, stay the fuck home. You useless, rude, dangerous, and stupid dimwits.

5. Passing lanes are for exactly that: passing. Loafing along at 60 in the passing lane, especially when you're staying in formation with the guy on your right, while cars pile up behind you is useless, rude, dangerous, and stupid. Get moving or get out of the way. Dolts.

I may add to this later. Ninnies.

If only this would work with women...

'Lame' mosquitoes to stop dengue

Scientists are breeding a genetically altered strain of mosquito in an effort to curb the spread of dengue fever. The dengue virus is spread by the bite of infected female mosquitoes and there is no vaccine or treatment. Experts say the illness affects up to 100 million people a year and threatens over a third of the world's population. Scientists hope their genetically altered males will mate with females to create female offspring that will inherit a gene limiting wing growth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8528417.stm

So the male mosquitoes carry a gene that limits the size of the wings on their female offspring. Girl mosquitoes won't be able to fly. Stuck in their little stagnant ponds 'n swamps, barefoot n' pregnant. Unable to leave and infect the world with their evil...

Makes me wonder what all the bats will eat.

Learn to friggin' check, will ya people?

I got forwarded another alarmist email today, with an attached video about Muslim population growth. The narrator, in a dry documentary voice heavy with evil portent (almost wallowing, sensually squirming around in the inevitability of disaster like a movie trailer, although he didn't get to say "In A World...") told of how the population growth of Muslim immigrants in Europe was so much greater than their host countries' that within a "few short years", Europe would cease to exist except as a Muslim continent. It is a pretty alarming video, especially with the drum heavy, Muslim-ish-sounding music playing in the background, and fluttering red Flags of Islam dominating the demographic-graphics of little black construction-paper cutouts of 2.11 and 1.8 people. But it's false. The stats at their best are out-of-context and misleading, and at their worst are utter fabrications. Faked quotes, even.

To learn the truth took just one quick trip to snopes.com.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/demographics.asp

Now don't get me wrong. There are some alarming trends involving the effects of Muslim immigration that I AM concerned with, things like Sharia Law being somehow "added" to existing Common Law like what is being done in Great Britain. Or should I say TO Great Britain. I'm no expert on how it works, but being American, religious "law" of any kind being afforded any kind of legal equality with real law bothers the hell out of me. Religious "laws" MUST only be applied to those who voluntarily choose to follow them by joining that religion, and must not be applied to or have obedience expected from non-believers, and MUST NOT be enforceable by methods which violate the real law. Like "honor" killings (which show the exact opposite of honor; foolish pride). Nuh uh, nope, no killing your sister for rumors of fooling around, even if they're true!

Another thing that bothers me is the growing perception, nay expectation that criticism of Islam in any form is somehow "worse" than criticism of any other religious, political or ethnic body and should therefore be punishable. Death for drawing a cartoon? I don't friggin' think so. Made me want to draw some, except I suck at drawing.

But that has little to do with this video. Islam is not about to hump Europe out of existence.

So please. Friends, family, members of my bitter political argument email club (you're all wrong about everything, you know...), please, when you get something in your email that sounds like Al Gore's next Nobel Prize For Powerpoint presentation, or the next Dennis Quaid disaster movie, please do me a favor and check Snopes.com. Or Factcheck.org. Or somebody. I'm tired of doing it for you.

Thoughts on religion

I was raised Catholic but it didn't stick.

The question of god's existence is unanswerable. God requires faith. Faith requires the absence of evidence. Evidence of god destroys faith in god. God requires faith. Evidence of god destroys god. Poof.

I'll play the odds dictated by the evidence (and lack thereof). There is no evidence of a god. Not even a partial print for Abby from the crime scene that is Earth. No carpet fibers from the trunk of God's car pulled off the trash bags in which "His" Haitians are being buried in their shallow mass graves. No divine DNA swabbed from the rectum of humanity. The beauty of a sunset is not evidence. The complexity of DNA is not evidence. The assumed improbability of what is called "randomness" being responsible for life is not evidence. The fact that we haven't yet found every fossil needed to close the case for evolution is not evidence. The fact that we don't yet understand everything is not evidence. Bird poop on your windshield shaped like Jesus isn't evidence.

Saying that the inconsistencies surrounding god are "part of 'God's Plan'", and that "we can't comprehend it" is not a trump card, it's a Trump card.
 
Religious people always say something like "I see evidence of god all around me", but they never share any of that "evidence".
 
What the evidence does say is that if there IS a god ruling the universe, he's either an alien with a chemistry set, or he's a complete asshole with a needy ego almost as large as Obama's, or he's a little kid making mud pies and poofing ants with a magnifying glass. None of them are worthy of worship.
 
When you submit to mythology, you're submitting to men. Plain, greedy men. Read the ten commandments. More of them are about worship and submission than good behavior.
 
Religion is just a third party, and it sure ain't Independent.
 
Religion is like Oil for Food; The premise sounds good, but it's a false premise administered by greedy, power-hungry men with much less altruistic agendas than stated.
 
Religion is a replacement for a healthy self-image, and a way to avoid responsibility.
 
As Religious Belief approaches 100%, the Coefficients of Rationality and Responsibility both approach zero.
 
If I have to appear in "God's Court" to be judged, I intend to countersue. And ask for punitive damages.
 
Here's a creation theory as plausible and well-thought-out as any: God is a lonely-but-elitist being who created the Earth solely for company, and designed it so that when we evolve to the point where we can figure everything out, we will be God's equal and therefore someone worth talking to. Once in a while God gets bored of waiting for us to smarten up and pokes a fault line with a stick, or mixes up the red and black ants to watch them fight. Oh, and God looks like Rene Russo. Maybe I'll build a museum down south somewhere (since it's not sinful to make shitloads of money when you're doing the Ant-lord's work).
 
Here's another Plausible Creation Theory: God is a small, underfunded department in the Galactic Bureaucracy of Love and Taxes, and are responsible for the raising of livestock on Feeder Planets. The Serpent was a remote cattle-monitoring/behavioral control droid, the Segmented Emoting Remote-Piloted Enhanced Neuronic Tranceiver (with Incendiary Shrubbery Defoliant upgrade), Eve was a redheaded guerilla from the Resistance, the Apple was Science, and humans were only allowed to obtain it because the dumbass monitoring in the Earth cubicle got his feet tangled in the network cables (about 15 God-minutes ago). And the Alpha Quandrant's IT Dept. is having their Teambuilding Diversity Retreat today, so we're on our own until after God-lunch. Boy, The Boss is gonna be pissed.