Huh. Guess it was me after all.

[silveradept]

I thought my connection had gone berserk. Instead, it was my firewall going paranoid. My bad. But that means I need to know how to set an iptables based firewall correctly, or perhaps more importantly, disable it entirely and find some other means of firewalling for Ubuntu that actually does what I tell it to, rather than going super-paranoid and locking everything down. What this did do for me, though, was fulfill my promise that I would finish Okami before the new year, as I did that today. Yay, game defeated. Need another one.

Beyond that, allow me to crow, or at least snicker, at this fine example of the law of unintended consequences. Jerry Falwell opens the door to pagan promotion in public school. Because Falwell wanted his religion to be able to try and convert schoolchildren, he opened the door for other parents to provide informative literature about their religions, too. Of course, when that happened, suddenly people weren’t so fond of it, some going so far as to say that the fact that pagans have equal access means that all Christian parents should go and homeschool or enroll in private Christian schools. Another one says that “pagan ritual” is “an educational experience my children don’t need.” My grammar sense tells me that this sentence is wrong. If it were truly thought to be an education experience, wouldn’t that mean it would be a necessary thing? Yes, shelter your children even more than you plan on doing already. Maybe, instead of dealing with commandments, they should take a spin of the Eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts" and see if it improves their lives.

In the spirit of the holidays, we find a mother who has her child arrested for playing with his gift early. Perhaps as a way of instilling discipline, or as a way of trying to discourage him, or trying to get him to understand how things work. I’m not sure this isn’t going a bit too far with it, but I hope for all the trouble, the point sinks in. Balancing across from that, we have a heartwarming tale of a Warner CEO's child who admits to stealing music, but doesn't have their parents sued by the RIAA. Double standards, in America? Never.

Furthering the holiday cheer (or jeers), we present The Christmas Conspiracy. Not the War on Christmas - that’s different. This campaign exhorts Christians to stop paying their taxes and to establish a new government that is, in their own words, a “patriarchal theocracy” - although they do say that their “patriarchy” menas a focus on “family” rather than “father”. Still, it’s good fodder for exorcising your desire to read what the excesses of any philosophy are capable of. If that’s not enough for your insane filter, try this on for size - a parent has sued a school because they believe their kindergarten girls were sexually assaulted by another kindergarten girl. Think about this for a moment. You’re telling me that a five/six year old girl has the mental capacity and anatomical knowledge to sexually assault another girl, and has the disposition to do so to not one, but two girls? I’d need a lot of convincing to not dismiss with prejudice on this one.

There is something good that comes out of this, though - we return to an earlier piece. It’s definitely NSFW, according to the rules regarding imagery and adult situations, NC-17. That said, it’s still a great comic, and that if you are of age, go read Saturnalia. It’s a different take on the holidays.

Be warned - there's a Mosh Mosh Revolution machine at this locale, reports LVX23.

I think I agree with the Kung Fu Monkey here. I miss Republicans. You know, the people who would look at liberal programs, and start doing calculations of cost and benefits. The small-government conservatives who would help people think about the potential side effects of programs. Republicans, not theocrats or Dominionists. Bring back the sane conservatives, please. That way, we might be able to get something done toward making human life better, regardless of who’s in power. Things are certainly not doing anything now, when it turns out the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which was formed in 2004, just had their first meeting today . And it appears, much like the punditry thought, they’re really more about explaining to the people why they should love warrantless wiretaps, rather than fighting them.

Perhaps a reason to be wary of getting involved in flings while on overseas visa trips - dumping someone may have them try to get you deported. Most likely, though, only if they have certain traits that would make them most likely undesirable to anyone who was around them long enough.

Disabling garment ink tags with a dremel tool and some exploration. What you’ll find out about those mechanisms is pretty interesting. For once, it appears to be a type of security device that might actually work the way it’s supposed to and is tough to defeat without specific tools and know-how.

Afghan gold on display - gold that Afghans may never see. A little bit of the money collected is helping them out, but really, if they had, say, a stable state and the means to improve themselves, maybe they could be entrusted to display the gold, rather than sell it or something like that. In a similar sort of vein, where assistance is not being rendered, the U.S. is opposing Qatar's plans to provide Palenstinian teachers with their salaries. All because the U.S. doesn’t like Hamas being in charge. And because Israel refuses to turn over the taxes to them. Among other things. These sort of things could get a lot thornier faster, if science manages to isolate fear and guilt pathways and turn them off, as this Village Voice article says they might be able to do soon.

Mars may have liquid, flowing water on it. This only improves its candidacy for a testbed for colonizing. The water itself may not be human-consumable, but that it’s there suggests that there may not have to be quite so much work involved in a terraform.

Recycle your electronics - there's valuable material in them. Gold, silver, other metals. All in small amounts, sure, but if you multiply small amounts by millions of cell phones, then you’ve got significant amounts of money here.

Passenger who lights matches to hide her flatulence causes an emergency landing. No sucking up the oxygen with your matches, madam. In this case, I’m afraid everyone else will have to suffer. Too bad there wasn’t some way that the flatulent behavior could be reduced.

To complement your paper version, here’s a web version of the ACME catalogue.

Something that will probably be going on my blog roll - Indexed. Great observations about the world that fit onto a 3 x 5 Index card. Worth the time to check out.

Last marks for tonight - a poem that is worth reading. Please Hear What I'm Not Saying. It describes a lot of what I and other people feel. So, please, hear what we aren’t saying.

Comments

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Grammatically, the sentence is perfect. She's just saying that her children don't need education.

(Obviously, very much akin to the article on parents deliberately passing along their own genetic defects I linked to you a while ago.)

[silveradept]

Ah, okay. Which sense did it actually trigger, then, to produce this "wait, what?" feeling?

Very much similar to that article about choosing genetic defects. I suppose the drive by parents to mold children into miniature versions of themselves is stronger than I had initially thought. I don't like that trend when it's directly and deliberately interfering with the public education system, though. Then again, I want the public school system to teach critical thinking skills, the ability to learn things, and to cover diversity in topics, because there will be diversity in people in the outside world. So I'm just another silly idealist.

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

The electronic recycling is not new - they used to do it with CRT monitors.

...Unfortunately, it turned out to be uneconomic. Thus, the bloody things just get dumped instead.

[silveradept]

I can see that with CRTs, being significantly more dangerous when taken apart than cell phones, or so I would guess. But the phones are small and could conceivably have their elements extracted and recycled in an economical manner, right?

Failing that, maybe they can all be converted to mobile 911 help signal buttons?

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I thought that was what was supposed to be done to the phones you turn in for recycling. The old phones are supposed to be re-programmed to be 911 phones to be given to people like battered women who can't afford their own cell phone so they can call for help. I'm sort of wondering now about all the "recycle your cell phone here" signs now.

[silveradept]

Well, even if it is an operation to strip out the elements and recycle them, it's still a good thing for us that our materials are being recycled into something else.

I know of at least one operation that does the refitting for 911, though, so I used them as an example.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

supposedly if you turn in your old phone to Verizon, they are supposed to do the 911 thing. Also, several charitable organizations do it to. I know the Kiwanis clubs in the area were collecting phones last year for this purpose, but I'd rather see the phones be turned into emergency phones than ripped apart for a tiny bit of gold.

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

This depends, of course, on said phone still being functional...

...What about those that really are broken?

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I'd immagine they'll fix them up if you donate them.

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

Given how fiddly a lot of those things are, one would imagine that many of them are easier replaced wholly than attempted to be repaired.

Not to sound picky or anything; but surely the best solution would be to have the workable ones reused, and the truly broken recycled, nein?

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

Ah, the optimism of youth, and the idealism of the hopeful. *patpat*

[silveradept]

*bites the hand that patpats me* I have to be optimistic about youth, or my job's going to suck royally really quickly.

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

Hey now. Better to be sucking royalty than street scum, because at least the royalty wash!

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Great. now i have the mental image of you biting reaver.

oi.

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

Too hot to handle, huh?

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Three cheers for the pagan group getting to advertise their program in the kid's backpacks! Perhaps there will be one or two open minded parents out there who will take their kids to learn a bit about Yule. And hey, Things like the Christmas Tree and the *gasp* Yule Log have been rumored to have started in paganism. I agree that saying it's an educational experience your child doesn't need is just like saying you don't want your child educated. Why not let your child go? What harm really will it do? You can still brainwash your child that Paganism is bad and wrong when they get home.

My mom and I removed an ink tag from my Eighth Grade promotion dress "back in the day" - we had purchased it on a trip to York to visit my aunt, and so when we got back to NJ and still had the tag on it...what choice did we have? It was fairly easy to get in through the back and not get the ink on you - the ink "bottle" is triggered to break from the frequency of the wire when it gets tripped by the security system, not from "tampering".

...what's the point in having your own child arrested and wasting the time of the police over something that sounds more like a family dispute? Although, the kid apparently did punch a police officer before this incident, so it sort of sounds like he was going to get in trouble anyway, but still...seems assinine to have your child arrested for sneaking a peek at his Christmas gifts. What kid doesn't go snooping around their parents or grandparents house to try to get a glimpse of what they are getting?

The christmas conspiracy just makes me laugh.

I thought the whole idea behind "recycle your cell phone" was that the phones were gettin re-used by people who couldn't afford a new phone...not torn apart for a whopping 40 cents worth of gold.

I thought you couldn't take matches on a flight anymore, anyway? how did she get them on?

I like indexed. it's cute.

[silveradept]

Some parents are paranoid that even seeing a Pagan experience means their children's soul will be consumed by Satan and either be lost forever or require significant amounts of "salvation" to clean the soul from the taint of those dirty, dirty pagans. Plus, the kid might see the Pagan ritual and decide that's what religion they might want to follow, and we all know that good "Christian" families can't permit their children to wander away from the fold.

Peeking at the presents is a time-honored tradition. Playing with them beforehand, however, is generally a no-no. It also seemed to me like this was another incident in a list of things, and that the parent was trying to get a point to sink in. I have no idea whether it'll work or not.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

(lj comments are apparently not showing up for me in email, weird.)

The thing is, if it was something for another sect of Christianity, would they be so offended? Or if it didn't include the pagan ritual and was just an informative session about what Yule is? I mean, when i was younger, I just thought "yule" was another word for "holiday". You know, like the Christmas card with the cartoon reindeer and the phrase "have a cool yule" written above it. I never knew Yule was associated with the solstice, or heck, even what the solstice (as in, the rituals) was until I started attending a Druid grove.

I still somewhat think calling the police over it was a bit of a waste. I mean, he still wasn't causing physical harm to his grandmother by doing it...it would perhaps be different if he had removed the item from his grandmothers house, because then that would be stealing, but if he looked at it in her house...why get the police involved?

[silveradept]

Some denominations (have to be careful, almost wrote demoninations) would be just that offended, mostly because they consider other sects to be as Satanistic as pagans. Even without the pagan ritual, I suspect those people would be offended, because they're teaching that there's an alternative to Christmas, which "everyone" knows is a tool of Satan.

I still say the police got involved because it was to try and make a point that wasn't otherwise sinking in. The parent may have tried other things.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

demoninations may be closer to the fact. also, shows how long i've worked in a bank - I saw denomination and the first thing I thought of was money!

Anyway. I suppose you're right, but they allow Channukah to be celebrated around this time of year, and that's not a Christian holiday, so why does it matter? and what about Kwanzaa?

Perhaps. I don't know. I just don't like the police having been involved over something that occurred at home and seemed to not hurt anyone. But if the kid is/was a delinquent, I suppose calling the authorities was best.

[silveradept]

Are you sure those same denominations are okay with Channukah and Kwanzaa? If you ask carefully, you might find out they're not too fond of those, either.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

How can they not be Ok with Channukah? They do read the old testament, right?

[silveradept]

They do, but they can be the same people who say "Jews = responsible for Jesus' death, blood guilt, blood guilt, Jews must repent!" and believe all Jews go to hell, because they refuse to believe in Jesus as Messiah, and such. (Because if you believe in Yeshua as Messiah, then you're a Christian, natch.)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

The Jews are responsible for Jesus dying?

Well, i suppose indirectly....maybe? I don't remember the Easter story very well.

[silveradept]

I believe I have the right term when I talk about "blood guilt". This might have (finally) been eradicated by most sects of Christianity, but the basic premise is that since the Sanhedrin passed Jesus to Pilate, and then when Pilate asked who was supposed to be freed, the Jewish people chose Barabbas, rather than Jesus, they basically are responsible for Jesus's death and have the sin of his murder on their hands. This was a bit more popular idea in earlier times, from what I gather, and often led to the condemnation of Jews, violence against them, laws created against them, and the like. It's a pretty archaic mode of thought, but every now and then, I see it flare up here and there, with one webpage or hate crime incident.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Wow, see the stuff i miss when I don't take a religion class?

I really never knew that, but I suppose if you look at it, I can see how it might get interpreted as "their fault", but even so - The story of Channukah is in the Old Testament, which the Christians believe in, and if it wasn't for Macabee (right?) the Christians wouldn't have even survived to see Jesus' (Jesus's? I always get confused when adding possessiveness to names ending in S) birth.

[silveradept]

You're talking to a religion that firmly believes that it was destined to occur and be the one true religion. So while Maccabee gets a mention, it's really all about Jesus being the dude he was foreordained to be.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I suppose Moses and Noah don't matter, either?

[silveradept]

Only as the people who pave the way for Jeebus.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

*shakes head*

It's sad, really.

[uncle-pervy.livejournal.com]

I could honestly care less about the problem with exposing kids to different religions. I did it on my own time, as Silver can attest to with him getting me sort of started. Just let things go as they are...besides I want to make sure there are enough targets for me to take down with my souped-up Assault Rifle when I join the fight to destroy Christianity.

As for the kid being thrown in jail - That was just bullshit. Waste of Taxpayer's money to have the cops pick his ass up and throw him in jail. Kid should be having the Fear of Mom. If I was his father, I would've blistered his ass so he couldn't sit down for three days without wincing in pain. Of course I would've done that the FIRST time he tried it. Then he would know not to do it again or I'd bring out the ol' switch.

However, I seem to be getting the idea that some bleeding hearts may not like the idea of a child being punished by their parent in a way that kids can understand so I'll make a concilliation. I'd tell him to leave the toys alone. If he didn't I'd take the toys, still wrapped up, and have him watch me put them in the bin that's got "Toys for Tots" written on it. Then when he starts his temper tantrum (as I'm sure he would) I'd ask the two Marines that are usually guarding the box to give the kid some "Parris Island" Discipline.

Semper Fi, Motherfuckin' brat.

[ozmavul.livejournal.com]

lawlz, that lady didn't want anyone to smell her Pooting. XD

[silveradept]

It was going to be an uncomfortable ride regardless of what went on, it sounds like. I suspect most of the passengers would have put up with the gas rather than the delay.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

People passing gas on planes isn't THAT bad. I mean, the plane does have that whole air filtration system.