h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I simply find such institutionalized bigotry incomprehensible.

I'm very glad of the following clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in my country's Constitution:

'This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians. '

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6936267.ece

"A right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques in a referendum being held in Switzerland today has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women.

A “stop the minarets” campaign has provoked ferment in the land of Heidi, where women are more likely than men to vote for the ban after warnings from prominent feminists that Islam threatens their rights.

Tatiana, a teacher who had previously voted for the left, was quoted in a newspaper as saying she would vote for the minaret ban as she could “no longer bear being mistreated and terrorised by boys who believe women are worthless”.

Ooh, ooh, ooh - just in time for Christmas -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8385117.stm

The Borders bookshop chain in the UK has started a closing down sale in all of its 45 stores

Well, if it's minarets, then it's architecture, innit? Nothing racist or islamophobic about it.

I wonder what would happent to the Swiss economy if all Islamic money were to be withdrawn from Swiss bank accounts at one time?

Johnston Press websites start charging for news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8385342.stm

One of the UK's biggest newspaper firms is to charge for access to online content from six of its titles. The Johnston Press websites will either ask users to pay £5 for a three-month subscription to read the full articles, or direct them to buy the newspapers. Johnston is the first regional publisher in the UK to trial asking readers to pay for its online news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8376425.stm




couldn't be prouder

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/8386120.stm

Decency 1 Religious bigots 0

A Chrisitan marriage counsellor who was sacked for discriminating against gay couples has lost his appeal to be reinstated.

Excellent.

(Still pretty worried about that Swiss vote though )

The Swiss vote - so minarets are forbidden, but any other tall towerlike construction is still allowed? Sneer.

There are three relatively new buildings on three sides of a car park in Keighley.

One is a big grean and white box, it's a new Asda. Nuff said.

One is next to the Railway Station and is a huge buff and brown thing, all diagonal planes, which is fine in its own way but it completely overwhelms a delightful victorian Railway station complete with glass canopy and hanging baskets.

And one is set in a residential street, it is built out of local stone very much the same colour and texture of the neigbouring houses, and though it is very slightly out of scale with them it is otherwise very much in keeping with the Victorian buildings around it.

Guess what? It's a mosque.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6935558.ece

"Britain and Canada protested yesterday over a proposed law that would result in gays in Uganda being imprisoned for life or even executed."

and where that proposed law comes from
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/11/25/132255/09

"Sharlet also revealed that the sponsor of the notorious proposed, Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act, David Bahati's is a member of The Family, as are other leading advocates, as well as President Museveni."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8385919.stm

sounds like shoot now ask questions later

Indonesia minister says immorality causes disasters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8384827.stm

A government minister has blamed Indonesia's recent string of natural disasters on people's immorality.

This post has been removed.

sounds like warners line of thinking????

Boogers! I've been yikesed!

I'll try to redo it:

'The runaway teen Muslim convert to Christianity who made national headlines when she ran away should talk to her parents about religion when they are reunited, according to a proposal filed in Ohio. . .

Bary, of suburban New Albany, disappeared July 19. Police used phone and computer records to track her to the Rev. Blake Lorenz, pastor of Orlando, Fla.-based Global Revolution Church.

Authorities said the teen had met him through a prayer group on Facebook.'

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,578386,00.html?test=latestnews


Why hasn't 'Reverend' Blake Lorenz been charged with a crime? This middle-aged person used facebook to encourage an underage girl across state lines and secreted away in his house, hidden from her parents, for weeks!

What does he look like in this picture, hugging a 17 year-old girl he met on facebook? http://blog.reidreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/rifqa-court.jpg


(perhaps I can find a pdf file on this subject)

(I must remember to take a photo of the garish mosque which appeared recently in Grimsby)

Here's my thought for the day: plastic surgery (cosmic enhancement-type, not facial reconstruction, which would be worth the risk) has a dangerous side: http://news.uk.msn.com/world/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151146905&ocid=today

Me "Call the fire brigade, I smell a gas leak"

She "But we have electric heat"

http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/features/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151101210

All men watch porn, scientists find

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/6709646/All-men-watch-porn-scientists-find.html

Researchers were conducting a study comparing the views of men in their 20s who had never been exposed to pornography with regular users. But their project stumbled at the first hurdle when they failed to find a single man who had not been seen it. “We started our research seeking men in their 20s who had never consumed pornography,” said Professor Simon Louis Lajeunesse. “We couldn't find any.”

They should have tried the local evangelical church. They won't admit to it there.

The Jews don't recognize Christ as the Messiah, the Protestants don't recognize the Pope as the head of the Christian church and Baptists don't recognize each other in the adult video store.

awesome and other superlatives;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/video_and_audio/8392111.stm
(yeah it is a video clip but there is some text too)

"A group of European scientists have successfully connected a robotic hand to an amputee, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial limb, and control it by thought."

10yrs in and the 21st Century is progressing, albeit slowly.