There's a Word for That

In yet another case of Republicans outdoing themselves again, I read this morning about Michelle Bachmann refusing to pay some of her staff from her Primary campaign until the sign a non-disclosure agreement that would stop them from discussing “unethical, immoral, or criminal activity” they witnessed on the campaign with police or reporters.

We have a word for stopping people talking to the police about a crime. Actually, it's a few words. It's "Obstruction of Justice" and it's a pretty serious thing. 

Now of course, one might wander why Mrs Bachmann feels the need to have such a non-disclosure agreement in place, and why she thinks it might stand up in court (people generally can't be contractually obliged to carry out illegal acts, and disputes over such contracts that actually come to court tend to get a poor reception).

Justice, Bangladeshi Style

So here's the situation: A 16 year old girl gets raped, to cover it up gets quickly married off by her parents, and it turns out she got pregnant from the rape. How do you think things go from here?

If you said the bastard who raped the poor girl gets dealt with harshly, guess again. He got pardoned by the village elders.

How did the husband react to finding out about his wife was pregnant with another man's unwanted child? He divorced her.

And the parents, how are they faring? Not so great. The fathers been fined with the threat of being outcast if he refuses to pay up.

And what do the village elders propose to do with the girl, who surely has already suffered more than enough? After letting off the man who raped her, threatening her family with ostracism, this poor girl was forced into isolation until her family accepted her punishment of 101 lashes.

101 lashes. With a whip. For getting raped.

That's one hell of an incentive to not get raped. Although I'm sure you have to weigh it up against the hell she'd have had to pay if shed kneed the guy in the balls or sprayed mace in his face. It's a bad choice either way.

Just what the hell were these village elders thinking? How is this in any way just? By what sort of messed up view of the world does this girl deserve punishment? And how is it that the rapist gets off free?

We like to think that just because our little corner of the world is pretty decent, things must be OK, but the sad truth is that for too many people, the world is not a very nice place at all. This is just one more reminder of this sad truth.

What's so great about this picture

As part of my end of month internet splurge (I try and somewhat moderate my internet usage during the month, so at the end of the month whatever's left gets blown in an outrageous fashion) I've been uploading a bunch of photos up to my flickr account. This has led to a surge in people looking at my photos, which is kind of to be expected since flickr shows people random recently uploaded photos, and I have it set up so that a message goes up on facebook when I upload photos.

Looking at the stats flickr provides though shows one anomaly, this picture:
Yesterday it got 237 views. This blows away the next best photo which currently sits at around 85 views and is of what I would consider to be a much more popular subject. In fact this photo beats the next 4 photos combined when it comes to views.

So I have to wonder, what's so great about this picture? It's a fire place with a statue above it in Cardiff Castle. It's not significantly better than any of my other pictures, nor is it significantly noteworthy in terms of content or style.

Any ideas readers?

Creepy

A rather unusual case has turned up in Britain. A baby was born with a foot inside his brain. Apparently it was kind of a twin, which started growing inside of him, but all that managed to grow was a foot. Fortunately it has been removed and the kid is doing well.

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A + B = Why?

Here's another product I'm not sure how someone came up with the idea of. Lingerie with a built in GPS tracking system.

I'm not sure exactly what the application of such a combination is. Some women are calling it a modern chastity belt, but that seems a bit ridiculous given that the GPS device has a power switch, so it would only transmit when the lady wearing it chose to.

The design itself looks pretty good, but I'm reasonably sure having a chunk of plastic hanging off of one side would be slightly uncomfortable (I can't be completely sure, but I do know if my coat pockets are unevenly loaded it sits less well on my shoulders and the general principle should be the same).

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Don't be this Lady

Just don't, OK.

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Cracking Up

Will someone please think of the crackers.

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I mean, really?

A rather depressing case from England. Some guy called up the emergency number to report a strange bright object in the sky slowly rising. Someone was sent out to investigate what it was this gentleman had seen.

What was this mysterious object in the sky.

The Moon.

I have no further comment.

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I'm confused

Could somebody please explain to me why this product exists? I really don't get it.

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