Saturday is a Jewish conspiracy

Iraqis are demonstrating against having Saturday as a day off on account if it being a Jewish holiday.

This is just too funny. I wonder if we can also convince Islamic terrorists that Jews invented all the exposives. Or, better yet, point at some place in the desert and say: "All martyrs for the cause of Allah please blow yourselves up here. If you don't then your momma is a Jew."

The weekend that was too short

The weekend is almost over and I am already tired.

On Friday I was too tired to go anywhere but luckily Anu came over and we got properly drunk and I told her a lot of things I don't normally tell people. It felt very strange but good. (Those were things about my sex life, not about where I'd hidden Osama's body. And no, I am not going to repeat them here. Might ruin my reputation or something...)

Went to Ilana's party on Saturday. I was tired and did not really feel like it, but I hadn't seen Ilana in a million years so I decided to go. The party with a lot of scary strangers was maybe a bit too much for me last night, but it was great to see Ilana and Jarmo and their new house which is very beautiful in a funky way but located somewhere in the wilderness beyond Kehä III. There were some friends there, and the strangers did not turn out to be all that scary. There were even some Buffy fans among them.

This was, BTW, the first time ever I passed out already on the way to the party.

Today was planning to stay home and do nothing and not think about work. Not thinking about work did not quite work out because Kaius called me in the morning and was debugging the software that I did not manage to debug on Friday and wanted me to fix some things. I don't blame him, in fact I am quite grateful to him for debugging the damn thing, but I spent the rest of the day stressing about work to the point of being pretty much unable to concentrate on anything longer than a 22-minute 70s show episode. This sucked.

The only distraction for a day was the fire alarm that went off when I tried to grill some goat cheese, and I didn't even burn the stuff. It started screaming like all hell got loose, and my place is almost 4 meters high, so I had to bring the ladder from the kitchen and somehow climb up there to silence it, except that it did not want to get silenced and I had to take it down and the battery out, and now gotta put it back.

It's cold as hell and all my warm underwear has hidden itself somewhere. It seems to be around all the time except when I want to use it, when it magically disappears. I am sure as soon as it gets warm I see my long underpants lying in and enjoying the spring sun.

Where do I buy a Geiger counter in Finland and how much do they cost? I always wanted one.

Life sucks a bit, but then there is the weekend

Life sucks, my EJBs don't want to deploy, I had a fight with Benka and the mood is not very good, but the weekend is coming and I feel better already thinking of it.

Kaius gave me almost the same advice Benka usually does: "comment everything out and then they will deploy", but they don't. Probably should go over them once again sometime this weekend.

Benka said something that really pisses me off, and she knows it. I wish I could just pay no attention, but I cannot. If it were somebody else I could, but when somebody who knows you very well says something that has invariably caused you to explode and start yelling the last 1268 times, the natural emotional conclusion is that they want you to explode and start yelling. This is probably not the case, but I was pissed off anyway. And so was she after I yelled at her. Oska tried to be a peacekeeping force, mostly successfully.

But the weekend looms ahead, and wine and good company.

A wannabe terrorist and his education

The 23-year-old American who was indicted for plotting to kill our chimp-in-chief and other terrorist activities is named Ahmed Abu Ali, which is of course a coincidence and has absolutely nothing to do with the world's most peaceful religion.

He was a valedictorian of his high school, which is located in Virginia and called St. Elizabeth Catholic School... just kidding... no, it's not called Maimonides either, or Bumfuck High, it's Islamic Saudi Academy. This is a private Saudi-government-funded institution, previously known for teaching intolerance towards religions other than Islam.

A quote from Shvarts's Dragon comes to my mind: "Everybody was taught this way. But why did you asshole have to be the best student?"

Axis of evil

The gay marriage is a part of "a new ideology of evil", says the world's most famous 84-year-old dress-wearing celibate man.

This brings us to the question: is every gay man's penis an axis of evil?

Foreign students: a step forward, a step backward...

The rumors about charging tuition from foreign students are in the air again. Don't know whether it is true or not, but does not seem all that unlikely.

I don't blame the universities for wanting all the money they can get. Hell, we all like money and universities are no exception. But since if the tuition fees come it would be a state policy enquiring minds want to know how it fits with the government's recent plans of getting more foreign students to come to Finland and stay here after completing their studies.

Official Finland's attitude to foreign students has sure change a lot since I came here eleven years ago, and has changed in many directions too. When I came here I heard many times that I would be expected to go back after graduating, so as not to deprive Finns of their jobs and not to cause brain drain in the United States. (I expected to go back too, but this place kind of grows on you, and the men are so damn cute.) Apart from these constant reminders and the yearly 4-to-6-months residence permit application drama everything was quite well. Nobody was talking about tuition fees, KELA gave me a KELA-card which gave the right to some of its services, most importantly the national health insurance, and foreign students were allowed to work for 20 hours a week during the school terms and full-time during vacations without any need for a work permit.

Then came the year 1995, when somebody up there has decided that foreign students don't have to be given KELA cards anymore, and KELA did not renew my card. I called them and asked them why not. "Well, you are a foreign student. You can leave the country at any time," - answered the KELA woman. I told her that I was not aware that people who are not foreign students are somehow not allowed to leave the country at any time. She told me to bugger off. I called somebody higher up in KELA, and they told me that this is indeed the new rule, but that it applies only to the newcomers, not to the students who are already here and trying to renew their KELA card, so I got my card and lived happily ever after.

It is still the case that each city is allowed to decide whether or not to give foreign students a KELA card. Last time I heard, which was a few months ago, they gave foreign students KELA cards in Helsinki and Vantaa, but not in Espoo. Living in Finland without a KELA card is a disaster waiting to happen, and it happens the moment you need some medical help not provided by YTHS or your employer. Insurance companies do not sell health insurance (or accident, or even continuous travel insurance) to people who do not have KELA cards, and some (Sampo) do not sell it even to people who have KELA cards that are renewable each year. If you get seriously sick without an insurance, you are seriously fucked. But I digress...

The rest of my student years passed mostly uneventfully in the official sense. The instances that deal with residence permits told me I would be expected to leave the country after my studies and not steal the jobs, all the other instances told me that I was unworthy since I would meanly run away after my studies instead of staying and contributing to the Finnish economy, and the life went on. It did become a bit more complicated after I got a full-time job. It was not hard to get a work permit, but they still wanted to give me student resident permits even though I was working full-time, since they did not like to give workers' residence permits to people who have not graduated yet. As the result every year they told me that I can't get a worker's residence permit because I am still a student, and can't get a student's residence permit because I don't study enough. The solution to this problem always was to run and take as many test as I could, after which they decided that I was a worthy student and gave me a student residence permit with a full-time work permit.

Around those times the media and the politicians started talking about getting educated foreigners to come to work here. Apparently they wanted these educated foreigners to be educated somewhere else, because at the same time they were trying to get the foreign students who graduated here to go away. The practice softened with times, however. They warned me many times that I will have to go back to the US after graduation and get my worker's residence permit from there, but in fact they did give it to me here.

Lately they became nicer in many ways, and the new Aliens law is in most ways an improvement. For example somebody finally figured out that the Finnish-educated foreign students might in fact constitute a part of the educated foreign workforce that they want to come here, and they eased many residence and work permit rules for them. Too late for me, of course, but hey, better late than never. Of course the new law doubled the time needed for a permanent residence permit, probably in fear of the onslaught of that foreign educated workforce.

The latest trend in the treatment of foreigners is very interesting indeed. On one hand, the authorities tightened up the control on employers, trying to make sure that they don't treat foreign workers any worse than the Finnish ones. On the other hand, the authorities themselves seem to practice a lot less equal treatment then eleven years ago, what with KELA cards and lack thereof and all the current talk about tuition fees. Don't discriminate against the foreigners privately! Only the officials are allowed to do so!

The one government office that has never treated me as a foreigner was the Tax Office. I mean, they have never contacted me and said that I don't need to pay as much taxes as Finns on account of not being allowed to use all the services, or because they expect me to leave here and never collect the elderly benefit, or for any reason. (Not that I'd expect them to, of course.) That's a very commendable commitment to equality from them. Other instances take notice!

Androgyny and dislike thereof

My tastes in men's looks run rather strongly towards androgynous in many ways, and always have. I have always received some amount of unconstructive criticism about the fact, mostly from women and from men who are not sufficiently androgynous for my taste. The latter is understandable for evolutionary reasons, but why the women?

Also, the amount of flak I have gotten for it has significantly reduced with age. It would be interesting to know whether this is a function of me moving from one place to another, of a general culture change, or of the change in my age.

Also, when I was young the accusations ran towards "you must be a closet lesbian", and now they run towards "you must be a closet pedophile". I wonder whether that change came about because you can't easily accuse a teenage girl of being a pedophile, or because it's not politically correct nowadays to express one's disapproval by accusing somebody of being a closet lesbian.

Argh!

There is somebody sawing something inside and some machines drilling rock outside. Impossible to concentrate.

Weird hairy things

In my quest for The Perfect Haircolor I have been reading several hair-related web forums lately, and they turned out to be so interesting that I'll probably find a few more. It's quite fun to read about all the unnatural acts that people perform on their hair, and to read all the unbelievable questions (such as "I am trying to grow my hair long, I trim a centimeter off every month, how come it's not growing?"), but the social observations are a lot more fun:

One board had an off-topic discussion on whether women prefer men with a lot of body hair or without (the results were that 35% like body hair, 29% dislike it and 36% don't care). Of the women who like body hair on men about a third have commented that they want "a real man", "a manly man", "a man and not a teenage boy", etc., in other word implied that hairless men are somehow "lesser" than hairy ones. It's not unusual for people to somehow praise their own preferences and disparage those of other people, but the interesting thing was that only the women who preferred the hairy men did that: none of the ones who prefer hairless men made any comparisons with gorillas, and even the ones who don't care either way did not chew other people out for caring.

Another weird thing that is talked about on hair boards: disobedient hairdressers. The reports of hairdressers who do thing A when told to do thing B are very common. This is quite amazing in itself, but the more amazing thing is that people who report it almost universally say that they paid for the haircut and then went home to cry without expressing their disapproval in any way, as opposed to, say, leaping out of the chair and readjusting the hairdresser's attitude with a heavy or sharp object, or at least yelling and demanding to see the manager. What's wrong with these people? Some of them even said that they were afraid to hurt the hairdresser's feelings. I don't understand it. If you told the hairdresser to cut 2 cm off and they cut off 15 cm, you should not be afraid to hurt their feelings. You should be afraid of hurting them physically, and that only because of all the trouble with the police and the courts. I'd probably hurt them physically anyway, but then I don't go to hairdressers.

One more weird social thingie: apparently many long-haired people in the US get advice from family, coworkers and random strangers telling them to donate their hair to a charity called Locks of Love. This is too weird to even contemplate. (Not that such a charity exists, but that somebody would tell somebody else to donate to it.)

The little camera that couldn't

My camera (Nikon CoolPix 775) stopped working on Thursday. When I tried to boot it it made a weird motor sound, the lens did not come out and the screen said "System error".

When several reboots did not help, I searched on Google and found out that this is a common problem for these cameras and the way to fix it is to bring it to a trained professional and pay big bucks, which kind of sucked because you can probably get a new one for that amount of money. A couple of people, however, said they managed to fix it themselves, so I figured I could do it too.

I armed myself with a screwdriver and opened the camera. It was not a very trivial trick, because neither the front cover nor the back cover come off completely, they remain attached by ribbons that should not be broken, and also if the camera has a holding string attached it has to come off before you can open the camera. Then I unscrewed the lens thing from the camera and tested the motor that moves it and figured that the motor still works when the lens is not there. Then I put the whole thing back together, which was not easy, and I still have some extra screws left, but now it works.

After that I started wondering: how come opening a computer or a camera and trying to fix it is such a natural idea to me, but opening a washing machine seems like a weird thing to do?

The weekend

The weekend was good, although wanted to do some work and never got around to it.

On Thursday Kristiina came over and we drank and talked. On Friday went out for one beer with a lot of nice people, and it really was just one beer, which is probably a sign of too much work stress. On Saturday went to Rhia's party, which was very good. There was a lot of people but not too many, and a lot of good cake and booze, and a really sweet dog and a weird-shaped lamp.

On Sunday I had a hangover, and then Killeri came over, and we had sex and now my neck is sore. Don't know why.

Being determines consciousness

Being determines consciousness, said uncle Marx, and he was right. A new aircraft fuel tex is suggested by the European Commission, and, surprise, the countries that suggest it are France and Germany, two of the most centrally located countries in the EU, fairly densely populated and with well-developed train networks. By an amazing coincidence the diaspproval comes from the countries that are located on the outskirts of EU, such as Finland, Ireland and Greece, where people generally need to rely on air travel to get almost anywhere sensible.

This is such a cool game. Maybe next time Finland and Sweden should propose taxes on air conditioning? Or on orange-growing, or on any other activity that is not generally practiced here in the north due to geographical realities. On the other hand, maybe not. In revenge the southern countries will probably hit us with a huge tax on warm underwear.

Laske bloggajastatuksesi

Näkymä rannalla tarjoaa bloggajastatuslaskurin. (Via Kolikon kääntöpuoli).

• On opiskelija (0 p)
  
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• Höh, matkustamisesta muualle kuin Kanarialle tai Rodokselle ei saa pisteitä.
  
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Kas, 295 pistettä, ja nekin lähinnä ampumisen, bailaamisen ja Daniel Moscnyn syytä. Saanko palkkioksi suklaata?

Big Bada Boom!

A big blast somewhere in the south of Iran. Looks like they are making good on their promise to make the country a burning hell before invaders arrive, but it seems to me they are a bit ahead of schedule here.

OTOH, knowing our Air Force's brilliant map-reading skills, maybe it was us after all.

Gaah

Lots of work to be done, and I am still sick. It's bad for your concentration when you have to stop every once in a while to figure out which way is up and which way is down.

SuSE 9.2 is up and running OK. For some reason the new version of Konqueror has a problem: the bookmark toolbar opens the lists of bookmarks on mouse-over, instead of opening them on left click. This renders the toolbar pretty much unusable or at least very annoying. If you know how to solve this problem, please do tell.

BitTorrent and BitTornado are both constipated for mysterious reasons. Downloaded Azureus, tried it once. So far so good.

Sistani

Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, has a webpage in English where he gives people good advice on Islamic matters. (Thanks to Ilkka for the link.)

Sistani is rather liberal:

Question:Is playing a chess allowed?
Answer:It is absolutely unlawful.

Question:I want to ask about talking to ones fiancee on telephone, is it permissible or not?
Answer:If talking is free of provocative words and if there is no fear of falling in sin, there is no objection.

Hey, as long as they are not talking about chess...

Question:What is an orgy?
Answer:It's forbidden.

Question:Is oral sex by husband or wife allowed?
Answer:It is permissible provided no liquid out swallowed.

Question:Is it permissible to talk to a non-Mahram girl with the intention for seeking consent to marry her in future?
Answer:Due to probably committing sins is not permissible.

Question:If my wife wants me to masturbate in front of her, is it then allowed?
Answer:You are not allowed to do it with hand, but your wife is.

Question: Is anal intercourse permissible.?
Answer:Permission is bound to wife’s agreement, but it is strongly undesirable.

Question:Can a Muslim Listen to music?
Answer:It is permissible to listen to music which is not fit for diversion and play.


Hmm, which artists would that be...

Sistani also informs readers that, unlike the sinful chess, cricket is quite OK, that one can use perfume that contains alcohol, own a dog, have cosmetic surgery, donate blood, eat in a restaurant that has non-Moslem employees (under certain circumstances), eat mushrooms, drink milk in India, kiss children, marry a Sunni (as long as there is no fear of being misled) or marry a Jewish or Christian woman temporarily, but not permanently. OTOH, it's not allowed to be friends with women (if one is a man), use silverware or wear trousers that instigate strangers.

The most psychedelic entry:

Question: Whether men and woman are allowed to work together in the same organization?
Answer: This is not permissible. He who steals government property will be indebted for the electricity bill. However, if the person is compelled to do, he may refer to the next “most knowledgeable” Mujtahed.

There was an article title on Google news saying "Gaddafi's nuke plea to N Korea", and I read it as "Gaddafi's plea to nuke N Korea". I blame this sudden attack of dyslexia on blood pressure.

Saudi Valentine's day

CNN has an article about secret Valentine's day celebrations in Saudi Arabia. Apparently this holiday is making its way even there.

"Like Valentine's Day, all Christian and even most Muslim feasts are banned in the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, because they're considered an unorthodox creation Islam doesn't sanction," - says the article. Muttawa - the religious police - raid the stores for roses, chocolates and anything red.

"Sheik Ibrahim al-Ghaith, chief of the 5,000-man religious police, told Al-Hayat newspaper his men were "acting upon instructions to confiscate manifestations" of Valentine's Day, birthdays and other celebrations.

"The feast of love is based on love and passion and things that are not proper for a Muslim to respond to," he told the paper."

I wonder whether this guy would ban sex altogether if he could?

Elections

Iraqi election is over, the votes have been counted, Shiites won the most votes though not an absolute majority. These are for the most part the guys who would like to turn Iraq into Iran, and I am quite sure it's not what we wanted. Sorry for being such a cynical bitch, but what exactly is the point of establishing democracy by force if the buggers are still not gonna vote the way we want them to?

Saudi Arabia had its first male municipal election (meaning that only men were allowed to run and vote, not that citizens were elected to become men), and it was apparently mostly won by islamists. I wonder how fundamentalist do you have to be to be considered an islamist in Saudi Arabia...

Vittu perkele

Voi sitä voimattomuuden tunnetta kun on juuri asentanut uuden distron ja tajuaa ettei ole yhtään editoria ellei openofficea lasketa, ja nettikään ei toimi...

Mikä vitun terroristidistro se on, missä on lentosimulaattori, ja emacsia sen sijaan ei ole?

Asensin siis eilen uuden SuSE:n (9.2) niiden asennusDVD:lta, ja huomasin että siellä on hieman omituinen softavalikoima, ja muitakin omituisuuksia. Musta tuntuu että mun seuraava SuSE tulee olemaan Debian tai joku muu distro.

No, auttoihan se ainakin matalaan verenpaineseen. Olisin tiennyt, olisin asentanut sen jo keskiviikkona.

A new story

Finally written my third story. Warnings: a lot of melodrama, unromantic sex acts, some violence and severe hangovers. Also some cute animals.

Relationship: the update

Had a more of less successful discussion of our relationship with Killeri today. The main point is that we have discussed the problems (both his and mine) and the risks and we both would like to continue.

The best thing about growling at men for their transgressions is that they try to make it up to you in bed, and mostly succeed.

Up with the low-cut pants!

Virginia Senate killed the bill that would have banned citizens from wearing pants that show underwear. It's good to see that sometimes there is common sense even in Virginia.

The washing machine's new name

Anu decided to give a name to my washing machine, and it is Vinski. And now I have a lot of clean underwear, and even socks.

Hurraa!

Anu + minä + saha + puukko + paljon alkoholia = toimiva pesukone!

In the news

Kim Jong Il has declared that he has nuclear weapons. Doesn't he remember what happened to the last guy who was only suspected of having weapons of mass destruction? Granted, he does not have oil or anything else useful so he is a lot less likely to get attacked.

Iraqi islamic terrorists have decided to fight Western haircuts and beardcuts too. Unlike the great North Korean leadership, who took the systematic approach of declaring a few haircuts acceptable for men, and then chasing the unarmed owners of the wrong haircuts with TV cameras, the islamic terrorists took the approach of cutting the problem, so to say, at the root by killing the barbers who provide such unislamic haircuts or shave beards. This approach undoubtedly has the advantage in that a barber is just a barber whereas a random owner of a wrongful haircut might just turn out to be another terrorist, and an armed one at that.

Islamic terrorists, meet Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Il, meet islamic terrorists. Iraqi men, please learn to shave your beards yourselves before the terrorists kill every single barber in the country, whereupon you will turn into a nation of Chewbaccas and all that hair will suck all the nutrients out of your brains according to the Professor Kim Jong Il.

(Hmm, if that barber killing continues, could one make a fortune by selling truckloads of ponytail scrunchies to Iraqi men?)

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has said that any invaders will face a burning hell. Big fucking news. We all know that the place has been a burning hell since 1979.

My dream come true

The Finnish lawmakers are finally starting to prepare a law that would ban smoking in restaurants.

Still sick

Still sick, and now I have a flu, which makes me wonder whether the low blood pressure thing was just the first symptom of some weird flu. Called a doctor, got an appointment a month from now. Bugger them.

I am getting so desperate that I am actually taking vitamins instead of the traditional medicine you get from Alko. Probably should take that, too, just in case. Bought a truckload of iron pills, which my doctors told me to eat and which I haven't been eating. Maybe more red blood cells will help, or whatever.

Down with the low-cut pants!

Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill authorizing a $50 fine for people who wear low-cut pants that show their underwear. The bill now goes to Senate. The bill's sponsor said the voters were offended by the exposed underwear.

A marvellous idea, and it will surely teach those indecent low-pant-wearing Virginians not to wear any underwear anymore.

No end of trouble

Decided to stay home today on account of the low blood pressure and the sorest throat I ever had (well, was gonna stay home and work anyway because was getting a new washing machine today, but because of feeling sick I figured I am not quite capable of working, so called in sick). If I don't get better by tomorrow gonna go to a real doctor.

91/65 was the lowest measurement so far. Probably should eat more salt.

Half an hour before the washing machine delivery I tried to disconnect the old one from the wall. For that purpose I bought the biggest wrench in the world, but it didn't quite work - I only managed to pull the washing machine connector out of the wall, and still haven't figured out how to disconnect it from the washing machine. Now I have two washing machines, neither of them works and I am running out of good ideas and clean underwear.

I also hoped that carrying the thing upstairs and trying to disconnect the old one from the wall would help to raise my blood pressure a little bit, but it wasn't enough.

Bloody blood pressure

Have been dizzy for a few days now. Tonight got a bright idea to measure my blood pressure and got a record low of 110/61 (my normal bp is around 120/77). Figuring that such a low measurement is enough to give me high blood pressure all by itself, measured it again and got an even more amazing result of 98/77. Further measurements are showing that 110/61 is closer to the truth.

What the fuck do I do now? Feels kind of silly to go to a doctor for that since nothing else is wrong, and yet being dizzy all the time is annoying, and bad for work productivity. Also I think they are not gonna tell me anything useful. Looked it up on google, they mostly blame low blood pressure on a variety of drugs none of which I am taking.

Bugger all. Gonna eat some salt, everyone is warning that it causes high blood pressure. Maybe it will rise by tomorrow.

Business trip

Was away for all day yesterday visiting a customer's factory in the Wild North. This North was so wild that the local trains don't even go there.

Kaius told us to look sharp (not in the sense of being dressed up, but in the sense of being alert) and as soon as I got into the train I sharply fell asleep.

The factory looked like a nice place for a post-holocaust LARP. No offense. But they had pretty good food.

I had to be home by six, and preferably by five, because the guy who is bringing the washing machine was gonna come. I stressed about it all the fucking day, and at the last moment he called and said he had to reschedule for Wednesday. Grr.

The customer employs some people with interesting-colored eyes. No offense here either, just noticed.

Learned a new Finnish word there, kiila.

My relationship...

...is not going well.

I don't think I really should go into the details here, especially since the details are not in any way gory, and especially since I am probably feeing unduly pessimistic and cynical about it right now.

Right now it feels like this relationship is not going well, none of the future ones will go well, I am rapidly approaching the point where the only thing I will be wanting from a relationship will be regular sex of a reasonably good quality with the minimum of complaints from the other party, and I am not even sure anymore that I have ever gotten anything else out of any romantic relationship anyway. Is there anything more to it? Other people seem to have feelings or something...

The weekend

On Friday a number of people came to my place to package the gift for the Saturday's party. Now I have a dipper full of seal wax, and don't know how to get it off. OTOH I've never used a dipper for anything anyway.

Saturday was a really nice party. Too bad I was so tired I had to go home by three. A funny thing was that people started telling me I look tired way before I started feeling tired. Rhia made me a French braid, which was kind of surprising - I don't think I've ever had a French braid before. It looked very nice, too. The party had a lot of interesting new people and interesting new whiskeys, and it looks like the sealed gift was a good idea.

On Sunday Heli came over and we went to see Into the Wall. It was a good movie although IMO all the characters were severely in need of psychiatric help. Usually I don't like movies about crazy people, at least not that crazy, but this movie was good anyway.

It's fun to shoot some people

From CNN:

Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who commanded Marine expeditions in Afghanistan and Iraq, has said that it is actually fun to shoot some people during a panel discussion in San Diego, California. (That is, he said it during the panel discussion; whether he finds it fun to shoot some people during the panel discussion is not sure.)

Now the press and the guy's bosses have their panties in a bunch, although the bosses are probably just putting the show in for the press. Hello? What did they expect? Why would somebody who doesn't find it fun to shoot people become a Marine Lt. Gen.?

Maybe they should have some kind of a questionnaire for the people who decide to become career officers in the Marines:

"You have chosen to be a Marine because:

• you enjoy making the world safe for democracy
  
• you enjoy shooting people
  
• you like participating in panel discussions in San Diego, California"
  

Britain's new sex laws

They are in fact many months old, I just ran into the article now. For all it's worth I hope the law is written better than the article.

"Juries will be able to assume there was no consent if a rape victim was asleep, unconscious or disabled, or if there was violence or threats involved."

Disabled? You can't have sex with that one-legged man! He needs his penis to stand on!

"A range of new offences designed to tackle inappropriate sexual activity with children, including a new offence of causing a child to engage in sexual activity which will capture behaviour such as persuading children to undress."

Ugh, better watch those saunas!

"Updating incest offences to cover not just blood relatives but also foster and adoptive parents and live-in partners. "

Having sex with your live-in partner is incest now?

"A new offence to protect the public from unacceptable sexual acts in public toilets."

Inquiring minds want to know what are the acceptable sexual acts in public toilets.

"Bestiality and necrophilia become specific offences for the first time."

Do we really wanna know what they were before that?

Crazy fuckers in Wales

A BBC article. Two fifteen-year-olds have consensual sex in Wales, the boy gets convicted for unlawful sexual intercourse, the girl doesn't. "But two High Court judges said it was right that girls should not face prosecution "even if the girls are willing - because they may become pregnant, the boys will not". "

Hold on, considering that girls have every birth control method from pills to abortion at their disposal, and boys in the best case just have condoms, aren't the boys the ones who should be protected from an unintended pregnancy?

It's bad enough that sex between two teenagers is illegal, but punishing only one of them for it? There are some really crazy fuckers in Wales, and I don't mean those two teenage fornicators.

Basayev

Are we having some kind of terrorist interview week right now? Times Online has an article on a new interview with Shamil Basayev of the Budennovsk hospital/Moscow theater/Beslan school fame.

"He says his intention was to offer the Russian leadership no chance of achieving a "bloodless resolution" to the siege..." Hmm, I think we have all noticed that already.

"Mr Basayev states: "We are planning more Beslan-type operations in the future because we are forced to do so.""

Well, the guy has stepped on one mine already... We can only hope that the next time he steps on a bigger one.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, again

Our old friend has given an interview to Christianity Today. Mind you, people, he is trying to be nice here. Some choice bits:

"Americans should listen to Muslims who believe in 9/11 and not to those Muslims who do not! "Terrorism" can be either positive or negative-i.e., for or against God."

"Any weapons are legitimate in jihad. Even animals may be used as "suicide bombers"! It is not restricted by target-even Muslims or children, if used by the enemy as human shields, can be killed. Only one thing can restrict jihad-a Covenant of Security [Treaty]. Non-combatant women, children, elders, clergy, insane, disabled are restricted, and non-Muslim children go to Paradise. However, if such are killed in crossfire or if used as human shields, they become collateral damage."

"As stated, there is no restriction on place (it could even occur in Mecca)-so schools are legitimate targets of jihad, but it is up to local mujahedeen [those who engage in jihad] to decide the best strategy."

"In terms of Islamic jurisprudence, only Muslims are innocent-non-Muslims are not. By default, all non-Muslims are rebel criminals against God. Muslims who engage in interfaith [gatherings] are apostate. God discriminates among man on basis of faith. The jihad is not specifically anti-Christian-it is anti-kaffir."

"Regarding beheading, it is halal to behead Muslim criminals! It is halal to kill hostages in a war zone. "

"Today there is no Dar al-Islam-the whole world is Dar al-Harb because it is the sphere of non-shari'ah. "

"The aim of the Khilafah [Caliphate]-the ideal Islamic State, which does not presently exist-is to conquer the world, either militarily or intellectually through people converting to Islam. "


Naughty, naughty man. Just look at what he says about the religion of peace. If Theo Van Gogh could be killed just for making a movie that depicted abused Moslem women, how come nobody has yet nailed Bakri for saying such horrible, and, as we all surely know, totally untrue things about Islam? Not that I would encourage anyone to kill the fucker, he is way too entertaining for that, but where are the Islamic organizations condemning him for unfairly stereotyping Moslems? These same organizations that are always complaning when somebody makes a movie about Islamic terrorists, for example?

Life sucks, and then your washing machine falls apart

My washing machine died. It said "prööt" and "gr-gr-gr-gr-gr" and "psshht", and stopped working. It's my understanding that it fills itself with water and then pour the water out, but does not do anything it was supposed to do in the meanwhile.

Shit, that makes me sad. I couldn't imagine a broken washing machine could bring me down that much. But now I have to find a new used one somewhere, arrange for the delivery, drag the old one to the garbage, and do all of the above before I run out of clean clothes. Graah.

The only alternative is to try to fix it myself, but that sounds downright scary. How do you even open the damn thing?

Picking-up course for Moroccan youth

Through Dhimmi Watch.

Rotterdam is offering a course where they want to teach Moroccan youth how to pick up women. Dhimmi watch laughs at that, and I can understand them, but what the officials say is in fact true, at least from what I've seen:

"Many youth from the African side of the Mediterranean Sea are very awkward when it comes to picking up girls. It is more harassment and molesting then trying to pick them up. That can lead to a very nasty atmosphere."

Can't say for all the Moroccans, but every single one of them who has ever tried to pick me up would have benefitted from the following lesson: "After you have asked a total stranger on the street two or three times and she has told you to bugger off, this probably means that you are not gonna get lucky, so asking her forty-five times more is really not necessary".

I don't know whether or not that's what they are gonna teach, whether the Moroccans will learn it and whether it will improve the atmosphere and/or help the Moroccans get laid.

And yes, I know there is at least one man who is possibly reading this, laughing his head off and saying "look who is talking". Hello to you too.

I ain't dead

Just was either tired, or working or being sociable all the time for the last few days.

Friday was the coldest day of this winter so far. Wanted to go to two parties but stuck my nose out, said "brr" and decided to stay inside. Worked at home, too.

On Saturday Anu came over and we spent a nice evening drinking. Did I mention I am not drinking sparkling wine ever again? Probably mentioned it many times already.

On Sunday went bowling, was hung over, did not throw very well but it was fun anyway.

Yesterday Anu came over again, and I really didn't drink any sparkling wine, so am feeling perfectly fine today. Beer rules!