And we're back!

Lots happened while I was away, apparently. The links will follow. First, some statistics:

Police Vehicles seen: 34
Giant Crucifixes seen: 2
Grills left by the side of the road: 1
People Met: 8
Fun had: Non-quantifiable.

Apples to Apples is still a fantastic party game.

I also got to meet a fantastic half-dozen-plus or so of the Pocket Otaku crowd. Sooooo much fun, especially when you're playing Apples and you have the sounds of war in Imperial Japan going on behind you (one of the PO was playing Samurai Legends 2). Got to see a little of Okami being played, too. I think that game's going to be great fun.

Now, onward with the parade.

First, something they're drilling to my head at school - Librarians are the best search engines available. Failing that, if you wanted to take a virtual tour of earth, NASA World Wind might be able to help you.

At the top point of Politics, twistedchick provides a rundown of the current state of the Bill of Rights.

Beyond that, Even Clinton knew there weren't WMDs. Of course, it's taken a rather large while for it to be said, but apparently, it's true. There weren't any WMD in Iraq while Clinton was president. (Well, okay, honestly, it's just Clinton saying that he didn't get anything definitive on Iraq nuclear programs.) Still, it's been the justification for a lot of things so far. Including potentially new FBI powers under the Patriot Act. Among other things. At least it's harder to claim "But he was gay!" as a legal defense for your hate crime, at least in California. On the other hand, it may soon be that attorneys challenging the Establishment clause won't be able to collect their fees in damages if they win. Which basically would screw over the people who need lawyers to help them the most. Got to love it - although we'll see if SCOTUS tells it to take a hike, or we have to wait for someone to bring a case on it. (And, of course, whether it'll stand or get knocked over on such a case.) Hopping from there, along a potentially similar line, depending on your views - The NH professor with Scholars for 9/11 Truth now has a student group calling for his head.

Going crafty for a bit, iShuffle case made out of Altoids tin and some padding. Not too shabby. The bag made of 3.5" diskettes is... not too great. I mean, nice idea, very crafty, but... no. Ninja necklace, however, is cool. As are crocheted headphone covers.

Perhaps the best thing for tonight, though, is Freeafterrebate.info, where you might pick up more than a few free deals... assuming you can wait for the rebate check. The most amusing, however, falls to the military finding the IKEA model of build-it-yourself appealing and cost-saving. You can put together modern military hardware - all you need are some screws, bolts, and an Allen wrench. Neat. Running a close second, though, is an e-mail account of Genesis.

And the week begins again.

AAAAAARGH. Stupid, stupid Congressrats! Bill proposed in government that would require the ESRB to play through all games before assigning them ratings. Right - so they have to play through every 80-hour RPG, every possible MMO outcome, every secret ending and user-developed content unit before they can give a rating? Penny Arcade sniffs out the real reason behind this legislation. If they do this, then we're going to insist that movies also have an independent rating organizations, as well as politicians.

This is sickening and frustrating: Gunman binds, shoots young schoolgirls, then kills himself. Okay, people, here's the new rule - if you think about inflicting violence on a schoolmate or on the school, seek professional help. Don't wait, don't plan, just go talk to a mental health professional. You need it. (Although, in Russia, apparently, the health professionals find you, especially if you have unpopular views. We're hoping this isn't a slide of some sort back into previous days.)

Democrats for Torture. Attempting to shame those members of the not-so-right-leaning right-wing party on their choice to assist with the destruction of the Bill of Rights. This cartoon may very well explain the consequences the best.

A college professor talks about the necessity of maths programs. He also notes that if they really wanted to, Intelligent Design advocates could wreak fantastic havoc with scientific ideas just by making grade and high school kids mathematically incompetent. So much so that they may believe the patent medicine cards when they come in the hands of the faith healers.

Speaking of science stuff, it turns out that Neil Armostrong's did say, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." There was just a very fast "a" involved there.

For Banned Books Week (go read a banned/challenged book!), there's a story about a parent who wants Farenheit 451 removed from a curriculum. That's right, a parent wants a book burnt from the curriculum that's about burning books - with the celebration of reading books that were banned or burnt happening (or having happened recently). It is a coincidence, but I'm going to go roll around on the ground laughing my ass off, if you don't mind.

Cover-ups abounding! The Speaker of the House knew about the page-hunting Republican. Apparently, though, they went to protect the Representative, rather than the page. Now that the Rep had his dirty laundry aired out, he wants to bring down all the other people who knew, too.

From the Darwin Award potentials, we have this gem: There's a reason that gas stations say "No smoking" .

A cake that is Discworld. Turtle, elephants, and the Disc itself. Wow.

The last thing on this list is that a meme-y thingy's going about requesting that people affirm their support for the principle that all men and women should be free to practice whatever sexuality they feel is appropriate (within the bounds of law that is considered acceptable and moral) - this principle is extended to the idea of human rights in general, that of "an it harm none, do what ye will". This also draws out the absurdists, too, who praise our ability to live in the first place, and the cynics and sarcasm that says to repost if one hates repost memes. I note that it takes all types of views to keep a country on a semi-even keel. I also note that it is rather interesting - most people admit that there are these shortcomings, and that they wish these inadequacies were resolved. They differ on the methods that should be used to correct them. Others suggest that the problem is already resolved, and that what groups are pushing for now is a special status, to reduce others to second-class status. There's going to be a ballot issue on this sort of question regarding race relations in our state in November. Considering the manner in which the state voted on the issue of homosexuals two years ago, I do not have high hopes that this initiative will be defeated.

So, I want to pose a question, instead. It's biased, subjective, and has most likely zero value in starting a logical discussion. Here it is: If it were you whom "they" were discriminating against, would you be fighting for your rights?

Seriously. Because "they" probably are discriminating against some aspect of you, even if you're a WASP. - after all, you might have sex outside of missionary position with your wife.

(Text of original object: We would like to know who really believes in gay rights on Livejournal. There is no bribe of a miracle or anything like that. If you truly believe in gay rights, then repost this and title the post as "Gay Rights". If you don't believe in gay rights, then just ignore this. Thanks. There's probably several points of unclearness and vague language in this, enough to get people who want definitions before they argue to have a laundry list of required definitions.)