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Below are the 20 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 21st, 2008
11:33 am [Link]	Pepsi-Stuff I've been collecting Pepsi-Stuff points. I figure since I'm going to drink soda anyway, I might as well get something back for it. I've bene using them to buy a few new songs for my 'pod... But its really annoying that the songs I can get with points are restricted to a few thousand that Amazon has picked out, apparently mostly from new hits and acts with a large selection of old classics. Well, what if I want something else?? Something that apeals to my alternative tastes or weird sensibility??? I can't use the points for just any song on Amazon I want to get. For example, I recently stumbled across the Puppini Sisters. Amazon has a their albums and songs, but none of them are available thru the Pepsi-Points system. ~~Same problem with Screeching Weasels and Me First and the Gimme-Gimmes... :-/~~ figured out how to get those to use Points, but still cant get Puppini Current Location: wurk Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Barely Listening-Pilot Speed Tags: 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 28th, 2008
08:40 am [Link]	From the "Welcome to Last Century" files: SC May Recognize End of Slavery Seems like the SC House is finally getting around to voting on a bill that would officially recognize that slavery is over. What I really love about this is not that it took them 143 years, but that the article emphasizes that they may get around to passing the bill. Like there's any kind of debate here or a question of whether or not slavery is over... Now I do admit that there is no real practical reason for passing the bill. And its not like not passing the bill has any effect. But since the bill is there, who would fight against it?? I can just imagine the rednecks down there (the the-south-will-rise-again crowd) debating this bill and whether or not the Union really did free the slaves or won the war... Honestly, I'm not sure if I would have even brought up this bill in the first place... I don't know if I'd want the rest of the world knowing that the state didn't realize slaves were free... DISCLAIMER: I was raised in SC, but luckily, I escaped with my sanity and intelligence mostly intact. Current Location: wurk Current Mood: embarrassed Current Music: The Closest Thing-The Juliana Theory Tags: stoopidity (Leave a comment)
February 3rd, 2008
09:54 pm [Link]	Add another to my list of "Stoopidist Things Ever" For the record, I'm not watching the Stoopid Bowl... I really couldn't care less... but Wubwife flipped thru channels and decided to hang out on the game to watch the last few minutes (since nothing else was on anyway)... So I look up and the idiot refs are pulling the "1st and 10" chain out to the middle of the field to measure where the ball is... That has to be one of the Stoopidist Things Ever (tm)... Its not like they place the ball on the ground exactly where it landed... it can move from its grounding place by several feet one way of the other. And its not like the ref who chooses its final place doesn't just pick a spot fairly arbitrarily... And its not like when they put the chain down in the first place the guys on the sideline aren't just eyeballing the cross line in the first place. So add up all that inaccuracy and the idea that the chain measures anything more than "close enough" is just stoopid. Current Location: cumfy chair Current Mood: annoyed Tags: stoopidity (2 comments \| 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)
October 15th, 2007
10:26 am [Link]	Campaign against useless signs Finally a campaign to elminate stoopid signs. You know, ones like "Caution: Water on Road during Rain". The ones that make you go "Well, Duh!" I'm sure there are some people out there that do need these reminders. But honestly, aren't we better off if these people are just naturally weeded out by their own stoopidity?? Hopefully this movement will gain traction and we can finally get rid of "Warning: Contains Nuts" on a container of peanuts... Current Location: wurk Current Mood: hopeful Current Music: Regular John-Queens Of The Stone Age Tags: stoopidity (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
October 5th, 2007
02:42 pm [Link]	Some companies just don't want my money... Its not like I really want to spend money or have lots of money laying around, but you'd think these companies would want my money if I offered it, but it seems they don't. So here's a rant that's been a few weeks in the making... ( More below the fold ) Current Location: wurk Current Mood: grumpy Current Music: Just Another Star-Bullet for My Valentine Tags: stoopidity (4 comments \| 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 18th, 2007
09:02 pm [Link]	Wow... I mean, just wow... Here's a clip from the View... the new chick in the group actually is not sure when asked if the world is flat! How is it even remotely possible for someone to be that stupid? Does she even know how to read and write? Can she go to the bathroom on her own? I'd be terrified to be on the same street if she were driving. I know there are dumb people out there, but how could someone that stoopid make it through whatever audition process they had to have had? Current Location: Cumfy Chair Current Mood: depressed Tags: stoopidity (1 comment \| 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 9th, 2007
01:43 pm [Link]	Saudi Arabia: Aparthied for Women It is barbaric how they treat women as second class (or worse) citizens in Saudi Arabia - our glorious ally. Blacks had it bad in the rural south. But they at least could own some property and go out in public on their own. The women in Saudi and other fundamental islamic areas are hardly even people. I think the all enrobing robes are meant to hide their humanity from those who wish to keep them as nothing more than shadows. Current Location: cumfy chair Current Mood: disgusted Tags: stoopidity (Leave a comment)
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)
June 7th, 2007
09:36 am [Link]	Religious Hypocrites on the loose again: Teachers refuse to hand out fliers The Albemarle County School system had a system where fliers would be sent home via "backpack-mail". At first the fliers were school-related and open to some non-school groups but specifically excluding religious groups for fear of seeming to endorse them. Of course, this pissed off some christian groups who filed lawsuits to permit them to advertise their afterschool and summer school activities. Well, what was good for them doesn't seem to be good for others to use. When Camp Quest, a secular/humanistic summer camp tried to get their fliers sent home, some teachers refused to distribute them (there were no reports of teachers refusing to send home Christian fliers). An earlier flier advertising a pagan holiday ritual sparked objections and outrage, some from the same groups who fought to get christian fliers permitted. Current Location: wurk Current Mood: grumpy Current Music: Teachers-P.O.D.-Testify Tags: atheism, 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)
May 29th, 2007
02:33 pm [Link]	stupidity in action So a company needs a copy of my mortgage for their records. They call up the mortgage company and supply all the relevant information on me so the mortgage company can believe that they aren't just cold-calling. But the mortgage company wont fax them a copy unless I first fax them a letter asking the mortgage company to send the information. Because we all know that signed documents can not possibly be forged... (and its not like the mortgage company even has my signature on file for comparison anyway)... So its important enough that they wont send the information to just anyone... but its not important enough to actually find out if I really care about who they send it to... Got to love senseless rules that are followed to the letter... Current Location: wurk Current Mood: stoopified Current Music: Two Princes-Spin Doctors-Pocket Full of Kryptonite Tags: stoopidity (Leave a comment)

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