CODEPINK: Condi has blood on her hands. (Look at the vid, Condi smiles through it all, “LOL PROTESTERS!”)

Take a look at this series of photos from Lawrah Boosh’s trip to Saudi Arabia:

Lawrah is happy and unaware. Yet she becomes a little timid and begins looking around for someone to help her.

Desperation shows in her eyes! Finally, she screams out in horror! Meesus Boosh has been caught by a niqabi!!!

Regardless of one’s feelings toward the niqabi/veil, the setup of these pictures is unfortunate. And hilarious. Thankfully, Laura avoided the Muslim compulsion to veil her and seems to be happily sporting red lipstick and sprayed-in-place hair everywhere she goes in the Middle East. Proper Amreekan. USA!

Philadelphia is fat AND ugly! (and depressed, apparently.)

BBC News’ Day in Pictures today features this lovely lady:

In case you can’t tell, she’s spitting on the floor behind her. Indoors. While wearing a floor-sweeping dress. Erm. *puke*

Apparently China is attempting to make its citizens clean up their bad habits before the Olympics next year. Spitting indoors is a good place to start!

I’ve never seen anyone spit on the floor inside of any place, but where I come from, spitting outside is commonplace. In the country, it’s alright to be in the yard and let one fly, but I have a problem with people who spit in public places. I’ve seen it hundreds or thousands of times in my life. Spitting on the sidewalk, spitting into landscaped bushes, spitting on walls… Both northern and southern people seem to have the same love of spitting every-frickin’-where.

Every big city I’ve been to has the same sidewalk design: dotted with blobs of gum stains. This is the same as spitting in my mind, but it’s so common and probably an unconscious habit of millions of people.

This is a good time to remember “Do unto others” — if you wouldn’t like to see, step on, smell (ugh), or be hit by someone else’s mouth snot, don’t let anyone see, step on, smell or be hit by yours. It’s simple consideration.

While you’re at it, stop throwing cigarettes out the window of your car, too. And maybe stop smoking so you won’t have as much stinky, bloody, chunky spit in the first place.

And baby’s spit still counts.

Thanks.

Attack on Bhutto convoy kills 100. Are you @#$*ing kidding me? ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE… for what?

I love Gmail. Here’s my favorite Gmail stuff:

Gmail Manager
Gmail Tweaks: Multiple Signatures
Better Gmail
Backup Gmail Using POP
Lifehacker’s Gmail Tips and News
Gmail: Advanced Search
Official Gmail Blog

Eid mubarak. Yay, food!

I believe that cutesy puppy and kitten (and other fuzzball) picture sites are contributing to animal cruelty. Sounds like an offensive and far-fetched claim, huh? I love to look at kitty, puppy, rabbit and hamster pictures just like everyone else, but I think that some viewers are not aware of the conditions which make and keep such sites so successful.

We can’t assume (and it simply isn’t true) that all the babies shown on these sites are the results of a do-gooder who adopted them from a shelter. I feel confident that, in fact, a large number of the babies we see on these sites are from breeders (”mills”), pet stores or other disreputable places. A smaller percentage comes from the irresponsible and/or ignorant who don’t spay and neuter their pets and allow them to continually breed, sometimes simply for the entertainment and “magazine/web popularity” of the owner.

Likely the smallest number of images seen on these sites (~2% or less?) are true rescues and shelter pets. There are several reasons a person might pass on adopting an older animal from a shelter and one of them is the “cute factor,” which is helpful on sites like these.

Unseen, behind the front pages of the sites, there are rude and infantile arguments about whether or not people should confront mill activity when they suspect it. Some say “we shouldn’t care where the pet came from, as long as the owner takes care of it” and “we shouldn’t ruin people’s day by talking about animal cruelty”. The site users have knowledge of pets with suspicious origins ending up shown on these sites, but many are unwilling to say anything.

People in the “cute animal business” know what pulls at our heartstrings and makes us desperately want to take home one of their products. They know that a child who sees bunnies all around Easter will beg his parents to get one, so rabbit breeders time their schedules to exploit this. Unlike a child with a short-lived and unconsidered desire for a bunny, adults should know better. But they don’t. The endless cute faces overwhelm their rational mind! People who are unfit to parent continue to have children and people unfit to care for pets continue to get pets!

The animal rights and cruelty debate (like most every other topic in the world) is vicious and heated. You have idiots on both sides: the “I want the pet of my choice no matter what horrors I am supporting!” and the “You should be killed for buying a pet from a breeder!” types. Good fun.

Unfortunately for humans, rational and considered thought is rare. As is obvious from the state of humans on Earth, the idiots get their way much too often.