Category Archives: Culture

post o’ the day: Samaha on Muslim veils

Posted on by

You find the most interesting things when you check out people who comment on your blog. Things like this:

I could choose to let this veil be my identity.  However, our Muslim brothers and sisters have turned our Islam into a religion of inequality, suppression and injustice, so I can not for any other reason than to please you Allah wear this veil.  They have taken the rights you have given me and told me that this is not what you meant.  They taken from me basic human needs and told me that this is not what Allah has intended for me.

Oh, Allah, if they could they would steal the heaven that you have layed beneath my feet…

Read the rest here.

celebrating Black Friday the 13th: festive foods

Posted on by

seriously. 

crying kittyI remember when Kurt left.

I remember when Graydon left.

I remember when Tina left.

The Tatler, that is. After that I didn’t pay too much attention.

I will always remember Black Friday the 13th, the day Jessica left.

so it's not a keyboard. It's as close as I could get, okay? Lay the fuck off!

But for those of you who don’t want to remember, there are these.

seriously, that is one sad pussy, dude

Came across a link to this yesterday on BoingBoing (or, god, was it Gawker? Can’t remember. How mortifying; oh well, they’re both right handy in the blogroll over there, help yourself) and didn’t have a use for it then, but now it seems only too perfect. Print these out and take them grocery shopping this weekend, because you’re going to need them come Monday and your first Jessica-free edition of Gawker.

WTF? Seriously dude, WTF?

The Ambien Cookbook, from the New Yorker.

The sleeping pill Ambien seems to unlock a primitive desire to eat in some patients, according to emerging medical case studies that describe how the drug’s users sometimes sleepwalk into their kitchens, claw through their refrigerators like animals and consume calories ranging into the thousands.
—The Times.

kitten overdose. Obviously another fan

Sorpresa con Queso
Ingredients:
7 bags Cheetos-brand cheese snacks
17 to 19 glasses tap water
5 mg. Ambien
Place Cheetos bags in cupboard.

Take Ambien, fall asleep.

Wait 2-3 hours, then sleepwalk to kitchen, tear cupboard doors off hinges in search of Cheetos.

Find Cheetos, eat contents of all 7 bags.

Fall back asleep on kitchen floor.

When awakened by early-morning sunlight, get up and say, “What the—?”

Wipe orange Cheetos dust from fingers, face, and hair.

Drink 17 to 19 glasses of water from kitchen tap.

Return to bed

a very sad kitty

Icebox Mélange
Ingredients:
Entire contents of refrigerator
1 Diet Snapple
5 mg. Ambien
Take Ambien, fall asleep.

Wait 2-3 hours, then sleepwalk to kitchen.

Devour everything in refrigerator (including all fancy mustards and jellies, iffy takeout leftovers, and plastic dial from thermostat).

Belch loud enough to wake wife or girlfriend. When she enters kitchen, bellow, “Can’t you see I’m working here?”

Fall asleep on kitchen floor.

After 4-5 more hours, wake up on subway, fully dressed from the waist up, drinking a Diet Snapple.

beerkittyand so on…

That should adequately prevent your dying of malnutrition while in a pharmaceutical-induced blackout.

And always remember, beer has simply tons of calories!

Ladies and gentlemen, a moment of silence, please, while we stand and give Jessica Coen our traditional Canuckistan departure salute, with appropriate ruffles and flourishes:

Canuckistan seal pup salute

PSA: privacy concerns @ Vancouver Police Department

Posted on by

Privacy Watchdog to investigate Vancouver Police

David Loukidelis, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, will be investigating the Vancouver Police Department’s use of the PRIME database system for potential violations of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The investigation results from an appeal by David Eby, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, of the VPD’s refusal to provide information on PRIME.

In a letter to the Vancouver Police Department explaining the reasons for the investigation, Commissioner Loukidelis stated:

“The VPD has by this point given this Office a number of varying explanations as to why the audit report [requested by Eby] was or could not be produced. The VPD just yesterday advised, after recently offering the latest of several varying explanations as to why it could not be done, that the report can be produced after all. In light of the number, variety and nature of the VPD’s explanations, and the time it has taken to respond to the applicant’s request of July 2005, issues are raised as to whether PRIME is designed and operated in a manner that complies with ss. 6(1) and (2) of FIPPA.”

The investigation will look at six discrete issues involving the VPD’s administration of the PRIME system, including whether the force has the authority to operate the comprehensive information collection system in the manner that it does, whether security protections are in place to prevent unauthorized access to information, and whether procedures exist to allow individuals to correct faulty information entered into the database about them by VPD officers.

“The PRIME database system is an important crime investigation tool,” notes Eby, “However, that does not mean that VPD officers can put whatever information about whomever they wish into this database, nor does it mean that any VPD officer or staff member can access anyone’s information at any time. Privacy protections are required, and we’re glad this investigation will look into these important issues.”

According to the VPD Website, PRIME-BC is a database system that includes data from 9-1-1 call-takers, police dispatchers, officers attending an incident and follow-up investigators. Data is transmitted wirelessly to laptop computers used by investigating police officers. Once the information is entered it then becomes part of the police Records Management System (RMS).

To read the Commissioner’s decision to investigate, click here.

-30-

For more information contact:
David Eby – (778) 865-7997

——————————————————-

About Pivot Legal Society

Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.   We believe that everyone, regardless of income, benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Pivot Newswire, just send a note with that subject line to newswireatpivotlegaldotorg.

Big Bird molested by tiny tv star

Posted on by

Big Bird molested by Maria Menounos

Well, what can I add to this? It’s shameful the way these Sesame Street stars no longer even bother to hide it.

Not everyone knows that Entourage was originally based on Sesame Street, but the Children’s Television Workshop put the kibosh on that plot point and made them change it, on pain of having to go without kneecaps or the letter R for the rest of their lives.

Defamer has the sordid backstage tale.

A tense moment passed between Access Hollywood‘s Maria Menounos and Big Bird, when the Sesame Street star began to suspect that the reporter’s wandering hand was engaged less in the sensual caress that he demanded than in a fumbling search for his rapidly engorging avian member.

Truth be told: I have no idea who that chick is, but I’m smart enough to know that hawt brunette-on-bird action is gonna be massive for hits.

Now if only I could find that pic of Lauren Hutton and Rolf Harris’ emu…

vid: aurora borealis over BC

Posted on by

Welcome to my world. Well, actually the mountains get in the way most of the time, but I’ve seen the Northern Lights two or three times here in Vancouver, and they can be seen throughout most of BC when the sunspots align just right and all the polar bears are facing north north-west, so the light reflects off their silvery backs.

This video is timelapse photography from Fugly.com, and it’s kind of a shame, as one of the things I adore about the Aurora Borealis is the magnificently unhurried way the curtains of light wave in the sky. Also, this is all-green, and the purples and reds and indigos I know and love are sadly missed. My parents used to wake me up when I was little (and lived in Winnipeg) to watch the Northern Lights, and the self-evident magic of it, the middle of the nightishness of it, and the fact that it was considered important enough to wake us up for always associated it in my mind with Christmas. I didn’t even read The Father Christmas Letters till much later, but they explain plenty.