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The Right To Die, ABORTION!!!, Campaign Reform. What? No severing of limbs?!
posted by poopy at 10:38 PM PST - 7 comments

The War on Drugs hasn't been working at all well. So let's make it even less sensible: harsher penalties, invasion of privacy, all that jazz. The proposal is surreal, but fits in with the rest of US Drug Policy: rapists aren't denied federal funds for post-secondary schooling, but pot-heads are; you can spend more time in jail for dealing weed than for murder; gonna deal pot, ya might as well deal speed, it's the same jailtime. And now... let's encourage dealers to sell pot with more carcinogenic tars! [link goes to NORML, possibly NSFW, danger: encourages political activism]
posted by five fresh fish at 10:34 PM PST - 16 comments

Maintaining contact info. I suck at it, but this new automation service may be the best I've ever come across, of any kind, on the net. No, seriously. Some have justifiably expressed concerns about what could possibly be the email-harvester to end all email-harvesters, but their privacy policy looks sound, and so far, after a week, I am astounded at how well it works. [Outlook/OE on Windows only, and this post smacks of bit of refreshing Pepsi Blue, I know, but I reckon it's the best of a very small breed, and free, so worth the link. Plaxo rocks.]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:56 PM PST - 19 comments

The Book of the Courtier - Baldessar Castiglione (Sir Thomas Hoby tr.), An Essay on the Regulation of the Press - Daniel Defoe, The Schoole of Abuse - Stephen Gosson, Merrie Conceited Jests - George Peel and The Praise of Hemp-Seed - John Taylor, a sample selection submitted for your approval from Renasence Editions, An Online Repository of Works Printed in English Between the Years 1477 and 1799.
posted by y2karl at 6:24 PM PST - 7 comments

The value of disobedience. [note: nytimes] "Ignoring the reactionary policies of the Vatican, some local priests and nuns quietly do what they can to save parishioners from AIDS." So: when and why do people choose to quietly disobey, rather than leave and promote change from outside their social institutions...or vice versa? Should dissenters just leave, or stay and fight? Anecdotes from Republicans and NRA members are especially welcome ;-)
posted by stonerose at 5:52 PM PST - 15 comments

What's really undermining the sanctity of marriage? Dahlia Lithwick has an interesting piece in Slate commenting on the real threats to marriage in light of Massachusetts Supreme Court's declaration that gay marriage is protected by the Constitution. Lithwick lists:
1. Divorce (~43-50% of all US marriages end in divorce)
2. Frivolous marriages (i.e. it is easier to get married than it is to drive a car, buy a gun, buy alcohol, etc.)
3. Birth control (is marriage "only for procreation"?)
4. The various challenges to our time and attention that take away from quality time with our spouses

Can MeFiers please share with those of us yet to be betrothed your secrets in keeping a marriage successful?
posted by gen at 5:41 PM PST - 55 comments

Mr. and Mr. Claus -- Harvey Fierstein, fabulous star of Hairspray and three-time Tony winner, is planning an homage to that happy couple--the Clauses--in tomorrow's Thanksgiving Parade. His NYT op-ed (reg.reqd) today says it all: In the end all I can say is this: If I really was Santa's life partner, you can believe that he would ask and I would tell about who has been naughty or nice on this issue. Still, as we approach the holiday season I'd like to imagine that fear and bigotry will not prevail in this land. Maybe this holiday season we can toss out some of the intolerance that nests in our hearts and make room for more love and acceptance.
posted by amberglow at 3:22 PM PST - 34 comments

"Our enemies seek to inflict mass casualties, without fielding mass armies. They hide in the shadows, and they're often hard to strike," says Bush while signing a new defense bill that includes millions of dollars for a small nuclear bomb designed to destroy deep, hardened underground bunkers. The legislation repeals a decade-old ban on research into low-yield nuclear weapons.
posted by Espoo2 at 3:17 PM PST - 35 comments

A fun way to browse the planet. PBase is a popular online photo gallery service with several trick features. Using data from the image file headers and user profiles, PBase makes its large photo database browseable by camera used to make the shot (of interest if you're in the market for a digicam), and by country where the photo was taken. The latter provides some real armchair travel gems, including architectural hotspots in Qatar, an elephant orgy in Botswana, some regular guy's hiking tour of LOTR locations in NZ, the Tel Aviv Love Parade (NSFW), a Polish air-show, and a Namibian Wedding. I'll see you all at cocktail hour in New Caledonia!
posted by scarabic at 3:00 PM PST - 6 comments

“We fear the government using the current climate of fear and uncertainty about the future as a means to allow itself sweeping powers without an appropriate consideration of proportionality" ......no-go zones ........ power to ban peaceful protest ...... destroy private property without compensation ........prepare for the introduction of compulsory identity cards .... The climate seems to be changing.
posted by JohnR at 2:38 PM PST - 3 comments

Jon Johansen of DeCSS fame has made a program that strips iTunes ACC files of DRM. Here is what he has to say about it. Maybe I will give iTunes a try after all.
posted by epimorph at 2:38 PM PST - 16 comments

Putzmeister!
Saw it on a truck on the street; thought I was hallucinating; Googled it, and yes, they're into concrete pumping, and it's a German company, too. One for the "Bad Business Name Hall of Shame" that I started with my Blonder Tongue thread a year-and-a-half ago. Got any more? Think of it as a MetaTurkeyShoot for the day before Thanksgiving...
posted by wendell at 2:31 PM PST - 27 comments

Another Letter I Should Have Written
posted by H. Roark at 1:10 PM PST - 20 comments

Kill All Artists! - The art of Tom Sachs.
posted by hama7 at 11:10 AM PST - 9 comments

Make this year's xmas a special one by buying the Flavor Flav Talking Alarm Clock with five alarm phrases "Bass In Your Face, Get Up Get Down, Yo G Yo, Yeaa Boy." Have you seen any other similarly bizarre gifts on sale this holiday season?
posted by mathowie at 10:37 AM PST - 27 comments

Framed for defending herself. On August 28th, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada a woman named Kirstin Lobato was sentenced to life in prison. She was the victim of an attempted rape in May 2001, and had defended herself against her rapist. prosecutors used this "confession" of self defense to convict her of a murder that happened months later and in a town where she didn't even live. How "innocent until proven guilty" can you be if prosecutors are willing to use known perjurers and refuse to allow expert testimony?
posted by dejah420 at 10:35 AM PST - 17 comments

Child's Play - Penny Arcade, the popular gaming web comic, is looking to reverse some of the stigma that comes with playing games, by asking the community to send games to children at the Seattle Children’s Hospital.
posted by Orange Goblin at 9:55 AM PST - 10 comments

We had a crack at the Historic Tale Construction Kit a couple months ago in this thread, but Something Awful has done us one better and collected nine pages of raw humor created with the toy. Click! Read! Laugh!
posted by UKnowForKids at 7:22 AM PST - 16 comments

Rude Food - from that old English classic spotted dick to more unusual offerings like bum bum bananas, Erektus energy drink, and Prick potato crisps, here's a wonderful collection of worldwide food items that bring out the giggling 12-year-old boy in all of us.
posted by anastasiav at 7:19 AM PST - 9 comments

Why Books Will Always Be With Us... along with almost everything else. Umberto Eco goes all encyclopedic on us (but in a nice way!) summing up (and reopening) the themes of a lifetime of reading, writing and watching. Though I'm sure what he says about the Web and electronic media will be picked to bits here, I'd say that would be a perfect vindication of this extraordinary exercise in common sense. [Via Arts & Letters Daily.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:39 AM PST - 14 comments

Thrift store record collectors' treasure trove. I know that we talked about the supposed worst record album covers of all time here, but some of these were too priceless not to share, and some have MP3s of the actual recordings to boot!!!

Here's just a small taste of what to expect:

"...There's no photos or credits anywhere on this album. Just the sickly drawing on the cover and a list of song titles. I bought it for 50 cents on a hunch after noticing the title: "Diary of an Unborn Child". As far as bizarre Christian LPs, I gotta say, this is this most extreme thing I've ever heard. It's some full grown man with a munchkin voice, singing terrifying songs about drug use, abortion and being a fat kid and each fill me with a profound sense of dread, horror, and disgust."
posted by psmealey at 5:55 AM PST - 20 comments

Looking for a new use for that webcam? Go fly a kite! Kite Aerial Photography has caught the imagination of photographers and hobbyists around the world, and some of the results are spectacular.
posted by rory at 5:31 AM PST - 16 comments

Feeling Guilty? A proposition has been announced recently to help reduce the deficit and to "Take A Bite Out Of Crime."
posted by konolia at 4:34 AM PST - 8 comments

Lala Deen Dayal: Photo Glimpses of 19th Century India. Lala Raja Deen Dayal, pioneer Indian 19th century photographer(1844-1905). has left for us an exquisite photographic record of British India, of a bygone Colonial era influenced by Native Princely India- its picturesque opulence, rich costumes, whiskered nobility, hookah bearers, royal palaces, hunts, and parades, elephant carriages, historic events - golden moments captured on "silver" plates for posterity.' Gallery here.
posted by plep at 4:02 AM PST - 5 comments

Star presenter wears hijab and apparently gets "a flood of calls". But, in an odd turn for the BBC, the piece doesn't say what those calls think. Are they all praising the traditional - and controversial - head-dress, or are they up in arms. The story skirts the issue. Islam 101 explains a bit about it.
posted by bonaldi at 2:37 AM PST - 13 comments