Humanity is just too damned stupid to survive, I swear.

Indiana prosecutor says she's duty bound to prosecute grandma who bought cold medicine - Boing Boing:

"Vermillion County Prosecutor Nina Alexander is proud to be "enforcing the law as it was written" by prosecuting Sally Harpold, a grandmother who bought two boxes of cold medication in less than a week. Alexander admits she knows Harpold had no intention of making meth with the medicine. That's beside the point. "The public has the responsibility to know what is legal and what is not, and ignorance of the law is no excuse," she Alexander.

Vigo County Sheriff Jon Marvel got his chance to show off a rock-solid understanding of cause-and-effect, too:

“I feel for her, but if she could go to one of the area hospitals and see a baby born to a meth-addicted mother …”

Because the best way to prevent meth-addicted babies is to arrest women who buy cold medication for their grandchildren."

The Agitator » Blog Archive » This Week’s Crime Column…:

"...Pottawattamie v. McGhee, which the Supreme Court will hear next month.

The question at issue is whether prosecutors who manufacture evidence that they then use at trial to falsely convict someone should be susceptible to lawsuits.

Yes, there’s actually a chance the answer to that question could end up being no"

Applying 21st century bureaucratic logic...

Here come the airport rectal exams! - Boing Boing:

"Uh-oh. Now that a terrorist has tried unsuccessfully to blow up a Saudi prince with a bomb shoved up his ass, the TSA is obliged to perform rectal exams on every flier for the rest of time. After all, once a jihadi failed to blow up a plane with his shoe, we all needed to start taking our shoes off. Then some knuckleheads believed they could blow up a plane with energy beverages and hair gel, so now we have to limit ourselves to 100ml of all liquids and gels, unless they're for babies or are prescription (because no mass-murderer would be so evil as to forge a doctor's note, which, as every junkie knows, cannot possibly be forged).

Now we found someone who was made to believe he could kill people with an asshole bomb, and so it follows that the TSA will have to ban -- or at least inspect -- our assholes. They're like opinions, you know, everybody's got one. Except, of course, most of us got to keep our assholes to ourselves. Not anymore.

Let's just be thankful that no one has yet convinced a suicidal murderer that he could blow up a plane with his mind, because once that happens, we're all in for mandatory airport trepannations. Because, you know, you can't be too safe. Every little bit helps. If an unhinged suicide bomber believes it's possible, we must take it seriously. To do less would be irresponsible."

Definitions matter.

texts from last night:

"(317): You're the only chick there. That's not an orgy, that's called a gang bang..."

Political geography.

This was fascinating.

Many people think the lines on the map no longer matter, but Parag Khanna says they do. Using maps of the past and present, he explains the root causes of border conflicts worldwide and proposes simple yet cunning solutions for each.

About Parag Khanna

Geopolitical expert Parag Khanna foresees a future where American influence is waning, and the new powerhouses (and threats) may not be the players you'd expect.

The local grocery store is undergoing renovations till Wednesday...

...which means I am forced to eat the 7-11's tasty, yet evil and so bad for you, fried chicken and karaage.

From 2009-09-25

The sacrifices I make, living in Japan.

Bulgarian Folk Dancing in Japan.

As is tradition, in the lead up to next month's Jr High School Bunkasai/Culture Festival, the kids get to watch real life grown up professionals who do the artistic cultural thing. This year we had Bulgarian Folk Dancers, who are in Fukuoka for some kind of cultural shindig. Very cool. Reminded me of both Greek and Russian dancing and music that I've seen. Obviously, given the geographies, but still.

From

In the interest of cultural exchange, the kids responded with some choral orchestrations.

From 2009-09-25

What happens when you give a Jr High School teenager, filled with hormones, your camera for a little bit. He was inordinately satisfied at having snapped this pic.

From 2009-09-25

Not sure who she was exactly, lest she was queen of the Bulgarians or somesuch. She didn't take part in the singing or dancing... we'll chalk that up to cultural misunderstanding then.

More/bigger pics here, and the vid of the kids singing -

2009-09-25

Why Japan Will Win.

Sadly, no BK in my neck of the woods in Japan.

Via Heineken Burger Meal Please | Paul Hartrick:

"If you look at the poster you will see the you can get a Whopper, Fries or Onion Rings and a can of Heineken all bundled up into a set meal… you can even see the catch phrase ” Perfect Match”. Damn straight it’s a perfect match and I hope it becomes a permanent fixture on the Burger King menu."

Texting would have made high school vastly simpler, apparently.

texts from last night:

"(508): seriously i just wanna be friends
(1-508): pass"

74 year old Japanese bodybuilder.

Kind of awesome.

Via RossTraining.com Blog : 70+ Isn’t So Bad…

Payday means indulging in one of Japan's ridiculously overpriced, yet tasty, steaks.

If I thought about what this was in US$, I'd have never had it. But it's in yen. That's my rationalization and I'm sticking to it.

From 2009-09-22

I like Sen. Al Franken?

Yes, apparently, because this is kind of cool.

The Washington Independent » Al Franken Reads the 4th Amendment to Justice Department Official:

"Noting that he received a copy of the Constitution when he was sworn in as a senator, he proceeded to read it to Kris, emphasizing this part: “no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

“That’s pretty explicit language,” noted Franken, asking Kris how the “roving wiretap” provision of the Patriot Act can meet that requirement if it doesn’t require the government to name its target.

Kris looked flustered and mumbled that “this is surreal,” apparently referring to having to respond to Franken’s question."

I did not, but the answer is "yes."

texts from last night:

"(781): did you seriously just ask me if there is such thing as a sophisticated batman shirt?"

Marriage is tricksy.

texts from last night:

"(931): so today I found out that she used to be a he....
(1-931): are you gonna get a divorce?"

Points for cleverness, resourcefulness...

texts from last night:

"(702): what made you think it was a good idea to trust the girl that hides tequila in her backpack?"

Kinda true.

texts from last night:

"(802): My social work teacher just told our class about her bicurios adventures in college
(516): is she hot?
(802): She is now"

Clever.

Drugs, the foundations of Western Civilization.

Dissident Voice : Drugs and Social Progress Since the Greeks:

"...a brief overview of the evidence that the ancient Greeks and Romans were both aware and tolerant of the use of psychoactive substances: opiates, cannabis and other plant-based drugs, while they simultaneously warned of the dangers of “poisoning” (what we would refer to as overdose) and prescribed precautionary remedies for it. In fact, according to Hillman, the only aspect of drug use that was criminal in these societies was the intentional poisoning of another person with a drug.

Hillman is mostly interested in presenting his case from a civil libertarian standpoint; since our own imperfect understanding of civil liberties is largely derived from Classical society via the Enlightenment, he wonders how we can have descended to a position so much less enlightened in this regard than our primitive forebears in the ancient world.

But in his defense of Greek and Roman recreational drug use, Hillman barely touches on what is to me, the heart of the matter: drugs may have stimulated the very visions and insights that gave early poets and philosophers levels of understanding that Western civilization has built on ever since, while systematically purging the parts of those understandings that didn’t gibe with any practice not useful to refining social control and/or increasing the production of profit. Hillman does make note of the pre-Socratics, chief among them Pythagoras and Empedocles, for whom mysticism and rigorous investigation of the natural world were no contradiction. He says: “the roots of Western philosophy reach deep into the fertile soil of the human imagination, where shamanism, divination, and narcotic experiences have held sway for thousands of years.” While this idea alone could easily be the subject of a book, Hillman is more interested in documenting classical references to drug use than to linking it to the production of important concepts and archetypes, from mathematics to theology..."

"...the hottest thing in real estate in the United States is gated communities for the wealthy and prisons for the poor."

YouTube - Travel as a Political Act #14: Mind the Gap

"Even if you're motivated only by greed, you don't want to be filthy rich in a desperately poor world... you don't want to live behind designer fortifications... it's coming our way... the hottest thing in real estate in the United States is gated communities for the wealthy and prisons for the poor. That's the symptom of a society that has to take a hard look at things..."

Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion are just about perfect together.

YouTube - Dr Horrible on the Emmys

Well played.

texts from last night:

"(386): after he passed out we removed everything electronic from his room, stuck in some old books and an ancient typewriter from goodwill. for 20 min. we had him convinced he'd drunk himself backward in time."