Voting at the polling station in my precinct was done via touch screens. For governor, I touched my finger to Republican, but it highlighted the Democrat below. Whew, that was close! The computer saved me from voting for a greedy, racist, bigoted, homophobic Neanderthal.

For v2.0, they should have a full-blown Clippy Voting Assistant.

Warning! It looks like you are casting a ballot for a Republican. Would you like help to:
* Vote Democrat
* Write in Hillary Clinton
* Write in Muqtada al-Sadr, a "legitimate voice" for the people
* Contribute to the Democratic National Committee
* Get directions to the DNC's nearest Democratic People's Re-education Kamp (DPRK)

Seriously, the machine really did not select what my finger selected, but I was able to correct it easily. I played around selecting and de-selecting for a while. When I touched Republican, sometimes it selected Republican and sometimes it selected Democrat. But touching Democrat always selected Democrat. I observed this behavior only on the governor part of the ballot. I actually do not suspect foul play. However, let this be a warning if you're voting in a rush: Slow down and make sure that the machine's UI feedback matches with what you intended to select.

One of the country's leading hospitals is throwing aborted babies into the same incinerator used for rubbish to save only £18.50 each time, it has emerged.

Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, said it was no longer able to afford the dignified disposal at a local crematorium of foetuses from unwanted pregnancies.

An alternative solution is to just get a bulldozer and dig a big hole to dump the human debris in. Europe has many such examples of this method used in the past.

Dr Anthony Russell, Bishop of Ely, said: "I [...] believe the disposal of foetuses should be undertaken reverently and with dignity."

Yes, after we've mercilessly murdered the souls of the innocent, robbing them of all their human rights and posterity, let's be sure to be kind to their rotting flesh and bone!

The justification for abortion rests on the idea that the substance that is removed from the pregnant woman's body is not a human. And if it's not a human, why does it need to be treated "reverently and with dignity"? You can't have it both ways. Is it human or not? If it's not, it's just waste. Dispose of it any way. If it is human, then this is the killing of a person.

The Bishop of Ely (edit: assuming he is not against abortion itself; the article doesn't say, but my research indicates that he is probably liberal) and other like-minded clergy should abandon this ridiculous, compromised position. I plead for logical consistency. If you accept that it is undignified to put a fetus in a waste incinerator, how much immeasurably more undignified it is to have killed it in the first place!

One local woman, who asked not to be named, said after the heartache of deciding to have an abortion she was mortified [*cough*] to find the hospital had used the same furnace they burn rubbish in to incinerate her terminated baby.

She said: "I am furious and very hurt. Imagine my horror when I discovered that my baby was incinerated in the same furnace as the hospital rubbish."

What an inconsequential detail.

The furnace called an incinerator: Bad!
The furnace called a crematorium: Good!

Excuse me, ma'am, imagine my horror when I learned that there were lots of women out there, such as yourself, who disown their children and have them put to death; who approve of shoving their babies into ovens. By having aborted your fetus, you have treated that substance inside you as waste. You shouldn't be surprised that it has been destroyed in the manner of waste. If it had been important to you, you should have kept it.

Now, I can think of examples of non-human things that are intentionally destroyed, but should be destroyed reverently: flags, Bibles, religious items, etc. But these things are decommissioned only after they have served a long, useful life; e.g., a flag that has become faded and tattered after years of flying proudly, or a Bible whose spine has come apart and whose pages have become wrinkled, stained, and frayed after decades of being studied and schlepped everywhere from the office to the kitchen table to the campsite.

In contrast, an unborn baby is in pristine, brand new condition. More importantly, it is a human being. Show her dignity by letting her live.

The Jew-hating fakestream media strikes again.

Remember back in July when the media reported that Israeli aircraft fired missiles at and struck two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances that were performing rescue operations, causing huge explosions that injured everyone inside the vehicles? It never happened. It was a 100%-staged hoax, not even a grain of truth.

Thanks to non-journalist bloggers in their pajamas, the lid has been blown off this Media-Hezbollah conspiracy. (The link concludes that the Western media were merely "fooled," but there's no question that they wanted to believe it. They have a long track record of lapping up the terrorists' anti-Israel lies.)

On the above linked page, there is a YouTube video of British media reporting the aftermath of the presumed attacks. It's shocking to me. The hatred of Israel in the European media is well-known, but I hadn't actually seen many news segments. This here is the most naked incitement I've seen in a Western media broadcast (as far as I can recall). They might as well have put flashing "LIAR! LIAR!" text over the Israeli spokesman. Here in America, the media usually attempts to express its bias subtly. But man, over there, the gloves are off, as are the masks, and they are openly campaigning for Hezballah. They have a history of broadcasting the fascists' propaganda and drama shows without question, but disbelieving everything Israel says (unless Israel is pacifistly apologizing for an incident, whether anybody yet knows if it committed it or not).

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

In a second news item, we have a "mentally unstable" man who intentionally hit several "random pedestrians" with his SUV.

First off, "a source close to the investigation in San Francisco, however, said Popal showed no signs of mental illness or remorse in his initial interviews with authorities. Popal reportedly told police that he had run down pedestrians 'because he just wanted to.'"

Secondly, we know that he ended his rampage hitting two people in front of the Jewish Community Center. Hmmm. Jewish Community Center. "Random" pedestrians???

Thirdly, we know that the perpetrator, Ameed Aziz Popal, is a Muslim. The plot thickens!

Fourthly, we learn that this Muslim murderer said "I'm a terrorist, I don't care."

So... Ameed Aziz Popal is a confessed Islamic terrorist who apparently tried to murder as many Americans, especially Jews, as he could, but "police say this case may have been many things, but it was not an act of terrorism," according to KTVU-TV San Francisco reporter Rob Roth.

No, I think that is exactly the kind of act to which the evidence points. It's not the first time. Is this another incident of Sudden Jihad Syndrome? Why don't the police pursue this facet of investigation? The police are not supposed to "serve and protect" the terrorists! How are we going to connect the dots if we keep whitewashing and ignoring them?

Or should I say "fake-scream media"?

These videos have been making the rounds, no doubt clogging the tubes of the Internets. If yours is too slow, I can email my Internet to you. :)

• Aish provides an excellent video that explains very clearly the
  Photo Frauds in Lebanon
• The Jawa Report follows up with the entertainment:
  All Your Fakes Are Belong to US (Bloggers)

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of the imagination. Next stop: france.

...

At the news conference held in Beirut, French Foreign Minister Phillippe Douste-Blazy praised Iran as a "stabilizing force in the Middle East."

Global Warming or Just Hot Air? A Dozen Different Views

In related news, Scientists Clueless over Sun's Effect on Earth

The bottom line (from the second article): Scientists don't know much about how sunlight interacts with our planet, and until they understand it, they can't accurately predict any possible effects of human activity on climate change. In my own words: If you can't establish nature's baseline (which is obviously not constant, and maybe not even consistent, cyclically, and whose factors are literally countless, many almost certainly remaining unknown), you don't know how to account for the human factor. As far as scientists actually know, it may well be negligible to non-existent. Computer models are worthless if they're based on ignorance. Garbage in, garbage out. True, data is data, but reliable worldwide data doesn't go back very far, and it shows a number of ups and downs.

And a concluding caution: correlation != causation. You'd think practitioners of science would know better. Ah, right. Science?

So, what has set me off this time?

Rating restricted for good (Christian) content ... while ratings increasingly relaxed for evil content

Is this the beginning of a pole reversal?

WARNING: CHRISTIAN CONTENT. Parental Guidance suggested. Viewer discretion advised. Moral innuendos; Gospel; graphic church scene; full prudity; Bible language; strong worship; use of hymnal; homophobic man-woman family scene; God suggestions; brief proselytism; repentance reference.

New MPAA Movie Ratings

G - Great & glorious general corruption
PG - Pornography, Graphic violence only
R - Reckless goodness
X - Xianity

I'm sick of the glorification of pornography and violence right here on Slashdot. The slightest hint of even self-moderated exposure to these destructive elements is blasted as censorship, intolerance, bigotry, and just plain wrong.

I'm still not able to get over the fact that there is a video game called Grand Theft Auto (with corresponding content)
... and that it is legal
... and that it is popular
... and that parents buy it for their children
... and that suggestions that there is something wrong with any of this are condemned as unconstitutional, unenlightened, and prudish.

So long, Civilization.

Home schooling may violate international law.

You may have to get government approval for the material that you want to teach your children, in accordance with international guidelines.

One of the most fundamental, timeless elements of civilization is that parents pass on their family's values and traditions to their children. Now, in the name of "children's rights"(???), this is under fire.

And strange as it is, the thing that just popped into my head is the recent laws concerning smoking. In some places in the US, it's now illegal to smoke IN YOUR OWN HOME if you have children. Yes, it's FOR THE CHILDREN. These liberal do-gooders have opened the door for the government to regulate anything that goes on in private citizens' homes. If you want to teach your child something that goes against the international consensus of Truth, do they plan to drag you away by blue-helmeted UN Domestic Education Police?

We know why the Left hates home schooling. Home schooling is an increasingly popular trend in America, and it is an insult to their authoritarian mentality. Communists hate it when people provide for their own needs instead of relying on the government. But even more, they know that home schoolers are mostly Christian. Christian parents are circumventing government indoctrination. How dare they! Big Brother knows best what children need to learn!

"We evolved from monkeys, and America is evil. Also, the sky is falling, and it's Bush's fault. Mmmkay? Class dismissed. Oppressed Muslims, Native Americans, and undocumented immigrants will be allowed to exit first. Be sure to pick up your free condoms and special sex toys for you gays and transgender-eds. And don't forget about our Bible-burning Earth Unity party on Friday if weather permits, Allah and Mother Earth willing."

That's the kind of degenerate classroom the Left wants, and they don't want you to have the freedom to escape it. What do you think the motivation is behind these Head Start programs? The liberal elites want to get to the "young skulls full of mush" (as Rush Limbaugh puts it) as soon as possible in order to subvert parents' values. Children already spend more waking hours in the presence of government employees (i.e., teachers) than with their own parents, thereby, absorbing more of the former's teaching. The Department of Indoc^WEducation, which is a left-wing bastion, wants to control as much daily mindshare of children as possible in order to mold them into perfect Democrat-voting Marxist humanists.

If the U.N. gets its way, even your home will not provide you and your family refuge from its grubby tentacles. Will there be UN Truth Squads (UNTruths) that go around rounding up suspected creationists and pro-lifers to be sent for long stays at The People's Education Centre for Peace and Equality? A place where Bob Jones alumni come out as Ward Churchill clones.

The UN may be the most evil institution in the world today. (It faces stiff competition from ANSWER, Peace Now, ACLU, Al-Qaida, Hamas, George Soros' organization, and numerous others.) I can only thank God that its own corruption and bureaucracy prevent it from being very effective at accomplishing anything.

However, in this case, that doesn't console me. Tyrannical leftist judges will not let the fact that the US hasn't ratified this UN Convention get in their way. They look for any law in any country to justify a ruling. These America-hating, humanist, judicial despots do whatever they want. The UN itself doesn't have the gumption to do anything bad to us, but some Democrat-controlled jackbooted Feds would be all too happy to carry out the Commie court ruling across the Bible Belt and middle America.

Olmert's Preemptive Surrender vs. Bush's Terrorist-Assisted Suicide

Media:

• Video: U.S. TV Ad Bashes Unilateral Withdrawal Plan
• Summary response to Olmert's Convergence Plan (DOC)
• Full 20-page analysis (PDF)
• A-7 news article

Issue: Israeli PM Ehud Olmert wants to surrender most of Judea and Samaria to the terrorists. He is meeting with the Bush administration today and tomorrow in D.C. to discuss this and other issues.

Dispute: Olmert wants to surrender the land unilaterally. This goes against Bush's bilateral "Road Map" plan, which, in effect, calls for the Palestinian/Hamas Authority to assist in the dismantling of Israel. Olmert insists that since there is no effective partner for peace in the PA (which is true), Israel must be bold and decisive about its borders, take its fate into its own hands, and plunge the dagger into itself by its own strength.* The U.S. State Department doesn't like this because Olmert is not planning to plunge the dagger far enough. The Quartet (US, UN, EU, Russia) dislikes it because it goes against diplomatic protocol; there would be no all-important dialogue, no signed pieces of paper, no bally-hooed photo-op handshakes; thus, the UN and diplomatic community would receive no credit for effecting this "peace." (They may have other objections, such as the State Dept's, but I don't know.) Comically, the PA Arabs usually blast proposals such as Olmert's as "Zionist" "tricks" and "stunts" designed to oppress Arabs somehow. I can't fault them, however, for not believing that Israel, with its overwhelming military and technological superiority, would be so utterly stupid and weak-spirited as to wave the white flag without a fight.

Lament: Why isn't there a sensible proposal?

Latest historical example of major** withdrawal: Last summer, Ariel Sharon, who is now disengaged from consciousness (he is still in a coma), surrendered Gaza to the terrorists in the course of his "Disengagement" Plan. His reason was supposedly to improve Israel's security situation, although he refused to explain how that would be brought about. Now, Gaza is essentially the world capital of terror. Al-Qaida has set up shop there. It is no-man's land, under no state's laws. It is a perfect haven for terrorists. Weapons and terrorists, drugs and criminals, flow freely into the land through the Egyptian border. The jihadists have been emboldened, longer-range missiles are becoming common, and major Israeli cities are being attacked with impunity. Appetites having been whetted, the PA Arabs are confident that all of Israel will soon be theirs and the Jews driven into the sea.

Present decision: Yeah, let's do it again!??? Even bigger! FOR GREAT JUSTICE! And peace!

Welcome to the Post-War-on-Terror Era.

9/11 has been played out. The evidence?

Bush and Rice:

1. recognize Yassir Arafat's bogus claim to an Arab state west of the Jordan River (admittedly, he is not the first U.S. president to do so, but this is post-9/11, and Bush is supposed to be a hawkish, gun-slinging, neocon Crusader cowboy who "smokes out the terrorists" wherever they are)
2. oblige terrorists' demands by supporting and cheering the carving up one of our closest allies in the War on Terror.

* "plunge the dagger" -- i.e., reward terror with land; support Israel's enemies; diminish national defense; uproot thriving Jewish communities, violating human and civil rights of hundreds of thousands of citizens, forcing them into homelessness, unemployment, and dire poverty; disgrace Israel's veterans who fought and died to liberate the land, and nullify their blood sacrifice with a cowardly, preemptive surrender; spit on Israel's heritage; aggravate Israel's allies and friends (grrr); rebel against God.

** A minor withdrawal has been executed more recently. It didn't help the terrorists much, but it did plenty of bloody damage to Israel on its own. See the pictures.

If you read some of the comments posted to "Science [sic]: Missing Link Fossil Discovered," it may have seemed to be an awfully one-sided discussion. Here's a hint: read it at -1. I was astonished to see that most of the posts that challenged evolution were relegated to the bottom of the barrel. There is little vigorous debate (on the fundamental issue) until the seventh page of comments. It seems as though the moderators prefer monologue to dialogue.

The Left usually clamors for "dialogue." The lesson that I'm learning today is that they call for dialog only when they hold the unpopular side of a debate. But when they feel they possess the upper hand, they have the authorities cordon off dissidents to the "-1 Free Speech Zone." *cough*

Disclaimer: Yes, I know I have no rights on Slashdot (re: subj; meant to be satire on YRO), only certain ethical expectations. Nor does this constitute censorship (re: topic icon), for a number of reasons. However, it is disappointing and demonstrates, yet again, the double standards emanating from Slashdot's biases. It reveals the hollowness of its championship of enlightened ethics and scientific objectivity.