Dhimmis and "moderate" Muslims*, that is. This is why I will continue seeding Fitna on Bittorrent -- just to stick it to these people.
I will also link the LiveLeak version of it. (Yes, it's back for now -- via.)
Fitna is hard to watch and I literally could not bear to watch parts of it because it shows footage from major jihadist attacks, like 9/11. Seeing this footage rips my heart out, so you can understand if I am disgusted by people who are outraged not by the footage, but by how "intolerant" Fitna is of poor Islam.
*I don't accept that these people are moderate Muslims. Truly moderate Muslims will worry more about attacking the jihadists than they do about attacking Geert Wilders and other critics of Islamic radicalism. Moderate Muslims may exist, but these people ain't them.
...for this honest and commonsensical post about weight, clothing sizes, body image and media manipulation. (Of course, in posts like hers, there always has to be at least one commenter who likes to be a jerk and calls people fat when they aren't. I'll tell you, the subject of weight really brings out the viciousness and self-righteousness in some people.)
Here is a great point that Rachel makes:
Girls see sites like this one, which claims that Paris is 5'8" and 105 pounds. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. I know what 105 pounds looks like, and it ain't Paris Hilton. [...]
Lying starlets are the root of many evils, and this is the worst of those evils. They've got perfectly healthy young women who might weigh about 125 pounds convinced that in order to look like Paris Hilton, they're gonna have to lose 20 or 30. No, you don't. They think that a woman who is 5'8" could wear a size 0 or 2 (averaging out the sizes of all her clothes which is the only honest way to do it) and look anything other than skeletal. No, she can't.
This is the absolute truth. I'm 5'8" myself. When I was at my thinnest many, many years ago, I got down to about 125 pounds and wore anywhere from size 6 to 10 (depending on the clothes). I was almost too skinny. If I were to get down to 105 pounds, I would look like a skeleton. I would literally have to starve myself to get that thin. Not diet -- starve.
I really don't know exactly what size I wear because, like Rachel points out, sizes vary depending on where and when you bought something. I've been losing a little weight lately without really trying because I'm watching my diet since I was recently diagnosed with diabetes. I'm thinking of joining Weight Watchers again. I just want to get to a weight that's healthy and that I'm happy with. I can't worry about some jerk thinking I'm still fat because I don't have enough bones poking out.
I would be happy as could be (and look really good) if I were a size 12 to 14 like I was just a few years ago after going to Weight Watchers for a year. But some people think that's fat, which is ridiculous. People have really screwed up ideas about weight these days, which probably explains why we have both rampant obesity and too many girls with eating disorders who think they're fat when they aren't.
I have completed the update to Movable Type 4.1, but I'm having some problems. Comment pop-up boxes no longer work. (The trackback pop-up is still working, though.) You can still comment by going to the individual entry and using the comment form there.
Also, I had to take down my blogroll because the MT-Blogroll plugin I was using is not compatible with MT 4.1. I will either have to go back to using Blogrolling.com or I will have to hard code the blogroll into the template.
I will work with the pop-up boxes and blogroll tomorrow...it's late and I'm too tired to figure it out tonight.
The new version of MT is really, really different. I'm still trying to learn my way around it. I can see that I'm going to need to update my templates and web design to use the features offered by MT. I will probably do this in the next couple of months. I may end up redesigning some of the skins and getting rid of others. A lot of that stuff is outdated now.
If you're inclined, please post a comment so that at least I know this thing is working somewhat.
Update (10:50pm): I had to get rid of the pop-up boxes altogether, so now the comment and trackback links will take you to those respective areas in the individual entry. I still need to work on the blogroll.
Over the next couple of days or so, I will be upgrading to Movable Type 4.1. The install guide recommends doing a fresh install rather than installing the upgrade over the previous version. So, I will be backing things up and making sure everything is in order before upgrading. Then I will have to make sure everything still works after the upgrade. Comments and trackbacks are closed and there will be no more posts until the upgrade is complete. Wish me luck!
Various quotes from Obama supporters (and from Obama himself) are scattered throughout. Could you imagine the pants fillings and rants about "theocracy" there would be if those things were said about a conservative?
Also don't miss the ending quote. It's a very prophetic one from G.K. Chesterton.
Did you know the Church of Scientology released an album of rockin' tunes -- with lyrics (and singing!) by L. Ron Hubbard himself -- back in 1986? Here's the evidence:
Oh, boy...there are no words. Laughter is the only response. BTW, I very reluctantly put this in the "Music" category, as I think this is an insult to music.
*Christian Contemporary Music...it doesn't seem so bad now, does it?
Seriously, I want to know. I thought it was over today, but then I read that Sundays don't count as part of the forty days. It seems that some do count the Sundays, whereas others don't. If I decide to count the Sundays, this means I can't discuss politics for another week. Actually, this is fine with me, although I have to admit that a couple of recent controversies made it hard for me to resist the temptation. But less politics means less stress in my life, which is always a good thing.
I realize Lush is one of those "socially conscious", green companies. Most of the stuff they support is inoffensive to me. I have no problem with cutting down on wasteful packaging. I don't believe that cosmetics should be tested on animals. (I have no problem with medical research, meat, leather or even fur, though.) I think it's great that they buy certain ingredients in such a way that it helps Africans be more self-sufficient.
But I am really offended by this. Even if I supported the cause, I would find it tasteless. And I can't help but wonder what these radical Muslim men would think of their pictures unfolding in the bathwater of naked infidel women.
I have bought stuff from the Lush UK site before...products discontinued or not available yet in the US. I guess I will have to not order from them anymore. (Especially since several items in my last order were all broken up -- I know these guys are trying to reduce packaging, but geez...)
As for Lush in general...well I have figured out how to duplicate several of their fragrances with my own fragrance oils. I can make my own soap. I can make pretty decent bath bombs. I still haven't got the bubble bars figured out, but I will eventually. So I can make many of these things myself. I've got a lot of Lush stuff, so I won't need to buy anything from them for a while. I'm pretty offended by this whole thing, so I don't know if I can buy from them again.
(Via Kathy Shaidle, who succinctly points out the utter silliness of this whole thing.)
Update (3/17/08): Yesterday, I got a referral from Lush Australia going straight to this entry. Interesting. Again, let me sum up -- I love Lush's products, but I don't like the politics. I think they should choose causes that don't offend a good portion of their American customer base. I'm not saying I will boycott them (I'm not really a "boycott" person). But I am saying that this puts a damper on my wanting to spend my money on their products. I need to get back into my soapmaking hobby anyway, and making my own stuff instead of buying from others is a good excuse to do so.
After my battalion spent a year at Gitmo, I'd ask Lush to send us some bathing gel to wash off the things that were routinely thrown on us by the detainees.
Not long ago, I decided to replace my hinky old iBook with a new MacBook. I just got it today and I'm getting the basic setup and software updates done. Then, tomorrow evening, I will move all my stuff from the Maxtor external firewire drive I've been running the iBook off of (since the hard drive doesn't work properly) to the new MacBook. It will be nice to have a truly portable laptop again -- the iBook has not been portable for quite some time because it had to run off an external drive. After the move is complete, I will see if I can sell the iBook for parts or to someone who would be interested in fixing it. I didn't think the iBook was worth the money it would take to fix it.
I love what I've seen of the MacBook so far...the Leopard operating system looks really nice. And it's so much faster than the iBook. I had no problems connecting to my wireless network. I've had some problems getting my PC and iBook to connect to each other consistently. Maybe the newer operating system and network card in the MacBook will have less problems with that.
So, while I'm busy, here's some music in honor of my new toy:
As some of you already know, I'm a huge fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I buy the DVD collections as soon as they are released, which is a good idea because in the past, Rhino has had to discontinue collections when a license holder changes their mind about one of the movies.
However, it will be a long time before all of the shows get released on DVD. (And according to this list, some will probably never be released.) So there are, um, other ways to attain these shows in the meantime. One favorite of mine that is "extremely unlikely" to ever get a DVD release is episode 508, which features Operation Double 007 (aka Operation Kid Brother). It is a James Bond knock-off starring Neil Connery, brother of Sean Connery. Here's a trailer for the movie:
You can watch the entire MST3K episode (divided up into ten parts) on YouTube right here:
And I have to say that this is my favorite sketch. In order to get the sketch you have to see the part of the movie, near the beginning, where the bad guy swaggers around in his bathrobe doing bad guy things. (It's in part two and starts about one minute in.)
One more thing. If the theme song to this movie were available on iTunes (yes, I actually checked), I would totally buy it. I know that's all kinds of wrong. (You can hear the entire theme song in part one starting at about the 6:30 mark.)
I'll just quote the dumbness, because I really can't add anything:
Actress Marion Cotillard sparked a political row yesterday after accusing America of fabricating the 9/11 attacks.[...]
Referring to the two passenger jets being flown into the Twin Towers, Cotillard said:
"We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes. Are they burned? They [sic] was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burnt for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [in New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed."
She added that the towers, planned in the early Sixties, were an outdated "money-sucker" that would have cost more to modernise than to rebuild altogether, which is why they were destroyed.
She said: "It was a money-sucker because they were finished, it seems to me, by 1973, and to re-cable all that, to bring up-to-date all the technology and everything, it was a lot more expensive, that work, than destroying them."
But after her outburst, in which she also queried the 1969 Moon landings, a successful future in Hollywood appears to be in jeopardy.
She said: "Did a man really walk on the Moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered. And in any case I don't believe all they tell me, that's for sure."
Somebody's been reading some conspiratard websites. Oh, and here's the cherry on top the pile o' crap:
Denying that she had any kind of "Anglo-Saxon ambition", she said she prefers to "choose roles which suit me".
Despite her low-key image, Cotillard is an environmental activist who once worked as a spokesman for Greenpeace.
Perhaps an Oscar doesn't suit her, then. Perhaps she should give it back and get the hell out of this country.
