Wub's Ramblings

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Below are the 15 most recent journal entries recorded in the "wubwub" journal:

May 13th, 2008
01:54 pm [Link]	Parenting while Male: Father Holds His Daughter's Hand on Bus, Transit Police Investigate In the modern hysteria over child predators, one of the most depressing victims has been the father. Luckily for me, wublette is now sufficiently big that she no longer lets me hold her hand when I want to. (tho I bet that if I did, some loonie would look askance at it). In this case from the modern witch hunt, a dad is caught holding his daughter's hand and telling her to "be quiet" when she complained she was hungry. To rational people, such a display would be absolutely meaningless and unremarkable. I don't know how many times I've told my kids to quiet down and not complain. To the insane, however, he was clearly a Dangerous Predator(tm) who was coercing the child and he needed to be stopped! So the transit police had to get involved and the man had to be investigated. Of course, the man was found to be innocent and the incident was found to be without merit. No charges were filed (unlike this unlucky guy). Hours of police time wasted. Hours of this family's life wasted. And the very real threat that the investigation alone could have ruined the man's life. This fear of predators is just a witch hunt. Perhaps the hyper-vigalance may stop one predator, but the cost of making all men presumptive perpetrators is too high. It leaves men in fear of even saying "hi" to a neighborhood child and potentially damages the relationships between a dad and his kids if he is afraid anything he says might be misconstrued by some paranoid idiot. And what happens when a man, afraid of being labeled a predator, hesitates to help a hurt or lost child? Current Location: wurk Current Mood: depressed Current Music: Trance Tuesday #048 - track 3-Tranceportal.org Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
April 30th, 2008
03:27 pm [Link]	Stoopid user alerts... We just got a request from our Pointy Haired Boss to create a new user account... This is annoying since it seems a real dumb use of resources to create accounts for users when they can just click the same buttons and do it themselves (not to mention the security implications of our entering their passwords)... But in this case, the user to be created is the new guy who is supposed to be overseeing our contract and work... If our own supervisor can't handle creating his own account into the system, I'm more than just a little reticent about the future direction of the project... Current Location: wurk Current Mood: depressed Current Music: Filthy , Gorgeous-Scissor Sisters Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (Leave a comment)
April 16th, 2008
11:03 am [Link]	Very telling quote from a lobbyist I'm a big supporter of sunlight laws that would open up the process of legislation and make it more transparent so citizens can know just what our politicians are up to. In this article about a sunshine law being proposed in Texas, a lobbyist makes a very telling statement "Are we going to let the American people decide our defense policy, our trade policy, our immigration policy?" Well, since these are all laws that affect Americans, and since those politicians lobbyists are lobbying are supposedly working for those Americans, why can't Americans know more about these laws or be given the opportunity to voice an opinion? I've long equated lobbying with bribery and government corruption. By expressing concern for public input, he only confirms my sentiment. Lobbyists that they aren't there for our interests, but for their own and they certainly don't want us to know more about what they are doing or how badly it impacts us. Current Location: wurk Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Eureka Pile-Ministry Tags: corruption, idiots on the loose, stoopidity (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
March 15th, 2008
09:05 am [Link]	A Brilliant Reply to Sally Kern If you haven't heard of it yet, you really should read the insane rantings of Oklahoma State Rep Sally Kern (also here). The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation, okay. It’s just a fact.... I honestly think it's the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam. (I love how she says "I'm not anti, I'm not gay-bashing..."... oh yea like calling gays worse than terrorists is not gay bashing??? And I'm sure she has "lots of black friends" too). Well, our friends over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars printed a brilliant response from a high school senior who knows first hand that homosexuality is not worse than terrorism since his mother was killed by the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City that was not pulled off by a gay... (he found the response at Pam's House Blend which has a whole bunch of good articles about the incident) Current Location: cumfy chair Current Mood: annoyed Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (Leave a comment)
February 19th, 2008
03:44 pm [Link]	people getting to blows over flipping seats... What a bizarre world where not only would someone not flip a seat and face forward, but they are even willing to argue it. Maybe he likes to ride backwards, but there are lots of seats that don't flip and don't cause two people to have to bump knees due to seats being out-of-sync (not all facing the same way). I was afraid Id get dragged into this silliness... just let me get my nap. Current Location: on the train Current Mood: annoyed Tags: idiots on the loose (Leave a comment)
February 1st, 2008
10:17 am [Link]	Followup: 1/31/07 Rememberance As a follow-up to my minor 1/31/07 rant yesterday, here's some news about other protests and rants about 1/31/07. First up: Some artists posted lots of LED signs all over Boston yesterday to spoof the over-reaction from a year ago. Signs were put high up on the sides of buildings and signposts. No word if Boston and most of Massachusetts were evacuated yesterday as precaution. BoingBoing also has a cute little video of the fateful event. And also courtesy of BoingBoing we get a quick flashback to a paper posted last February deconstructing the reaction and the underlying psychology of overreaction. Its not too long and a good read to understand what's wrong with these people... Current Location: cumfy chair Current Mood: amused Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (Leave a comment)
January 31st, 2008
01:21 pm [Link]	1/31/06 - Never Forget It was one year ago today that idiots in Botson lost their minds and overreacted over stoopid LED signs for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Apologists still call it a "hoax". But for it to be a hoax, the devices needed to pretend to be dangerous or the perpetrators needed to pretend to be out to cause trouble, neither of which was the case. What we had was a silly marketing toy and a set of rules that encouraged overreaction and escalation rather than common sense and someone stopping to actually look at the devices in question. A year later and Boston officials' reactions still make the keystone cops look dignified and the fact that they still don't realize they overreacted only shows that they are painfully unprepared for the real world where sometimes things do look scary if you don't actually stop and think first. Current Location: wurk Current Mood: sad Current Music: Ghosts-Tenth Planet Tags: idiots on the loose (Leave a comment)
September 21st, 2007
11:11 am [Link]	Today's "No Duh!" Report: Sex Disease 3x Higher in Mobile, Al than NYC This just in: Sex Diseases Flourish in Mobile County. Not exactly why this is really news... I mean, if you teach kids that abstinence is the only option and don't teach them about any form real safe sex, you are going to get lots and lots of unsafe sex... Like I said, No Duh! Current Location: wurk Current Mood: disgusted Current Music: Golden Dawn-Ministry Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (Leave a comment)
September 9th, 2007
09:18 am [Link]	Threat of 4 year-old terrorist/gang-member reduced Thanks to the quick thinking (or lack there-of) of a security goon, a 4 year-old potential gang-member/terrorist was forced to remove her hoodie. Yes, can't go letting those 4 year-olds continue their reign of terror... or whatever it is that anti-hoodie rules are supposed to restrict... Current Mood: depressed Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
September 7th, 2007
10:45 am [Link]	Well, I sure feel safer now... HSA has this wonderful out-of-control terror list that has been supreemely good at annoying and delying 70-year olds, infants, world leaders, senators and basically everyone. Seems the list left off the important people tho, like the terrorists it was supposed to be looking for. So while our rediculous country is busy wasting time on meaningless threats like carding 65 year-olds and filing felony charges against kids who put swiss army knives in their cars, some of the more dangerous roving terrorists can wander past border guards without even bothering to get fake IDs... And now that I think about it, I remember an article on the AP that said many of the suspected terrorists aren't even on the list! They didn't want to let the suspects know they were suspects!! So if we take out suspects we don't want to tip off and terrorists who we really don't need to worry about moving around a bunch (really, do they think Osama is going to just fly into Laguardia??), all you have left are the non-terrorist 7 year-old visitors... Current Location: uncumfy chair Current Mood: ugh Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
September 1st, 2007
11:09 pm [Link]	Pointless Family Photo... I mean really, what is the point??? "Oh, look, here we were on that trip... That's my wife... or maybe the one on the left is... or maybe that one..." words escape me... Current Mood: sad Tags: freelink, idiots on the loose, stoopidity (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
June 21st, 2007
08:52 pm [Link]	Bad Drunk Driving I've long been against MADD's campaign to not just eliminate drunk driving but to eliminate any remote traces of the distant possibility of being intoxicated behind the wheel. There are good, sound measures you can go to to protect yourself and society from drunk driving, and then there is MADD's way. The linked article lists all the rights you no longer have because of political pressure applied by those MADD Mothers to the point that some states don't even allow you to challenge your presumption of guilt in a jury trial!!! A very eye opening article. Current Mood: sad Tags: idiots on the loose (Leave a comment)
June 19th, 2007
12:27 pm [Link]	More photographic evidence of why Americans are idiots Here's a world map showing which countries have yet to adopt the metric system of measurements. Current Location: wurk Current Mood: depressed Current Music: Love is The Subject-The Odds-Neopolitan Tags: idiots on the loose (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
June 9th, 2007
10:39 am [Link]	Just wacky: Conservative group opposes sex for pl In response to a "contreversial" measure that would increase access to contraceptives comes this quote: "There's a utopian view that women ought to be able to have sex any time they want to without consequences _ that's the bottom line of all these bills" said Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group which opposes the measures. I'm speechless... UPDATE: Some info from wikipedia on some of the positions they advocate: The elimination of homosexuality from society The belief that homosexuals are sick and need to be cured The assertion that most forms of birth control - and all forms of hormonal birth control - are actually abortifacients, triggering chemical abortions Official prayer in public schools The teaching of intelligent design as a science in public schools Abstinence-only sex education in public and private schools "A la carte" cable and satellite television purchasing plans, allowing individuals to purchase access to individual channels, rather than in programming packages Nice to know they aren't just run-of-the-mill wingnuts... Current Location: cumfy chair Current Mood: dumbfounded Tags: idiots on the loose, stoopidity (Leave a comment)
May 30th, 2007
09:55 pm [Link]	What the Fuck: US Agriculture Department Fighting Against Mad-Cow Testing What the fuck is this??? Gov't fights to keep meatpackers from testing all slaughtered cattle for mad cow (also here). Seems that Creekstone Farms, a little meatpacker in Kansas, want to make their product more distinct by testing 100% of their cows for a disease that is fatal to humans (the USDA goes out of its way to test a whole 1% of our meat). Well, some of the bigger meatpackers are upset because they might look bad, and testing all their meat might cost lots of money (oh no, we wont make record proffits anymore!). Unbelievably, the government is fighting the testing! I can't even comprehend why other than it might point out just how horribly they are doing their job watching our meat supply. And even after a Federal judge said that the government had no business telling them _not_ to test, the government filed an appeal just to keep the clock ticking and to put off the testing further. Current Location: cumfy chair Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Hold Me Now-Thompson Twins-The Wedding Singer Tags: corruption, idiots on the loose, stoopidity (Leave a comment)