Quick Thought

  
 This is the home of Mukesh Ambani, one of the wealthiest self-made men in the world.

  As you can see, it towers in the Mumbai skyline. It spans 27 stories, is complete with several helipads, a six-story parking garage, and a 50-seat cinema. Mr. Mukesh's new home is a grandiose display of opulence in a developing nation, a massive 173 metres of overcompensation. It's easily the largest residence in the world with square footage that makes the Palace of Versailles look like a mere mortal.

 And it's absolutely hideous.

 

The Song In My Head

  The current politicking has injected this 1991 techno track by La Tour in my head on several occasions.
 
Written as a response to abstinence-only education during the AIDS crisis, its message could be considered quite useful today. I've quoted it in articles on this website and others because I think it deserves airplay today.

  There's also an egg in this song where a word has been changed from the original. Listen and see if you can discover what it is.

  So take off those dancing pants for People Are Still Having Sex.

Liar, Liar

I'm just going to say it-  Barack Obama is lying to you when he says that he will work to have the ridiculous Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy repealed. While the discriminatory policy may indeed be overturned during Mr. Obama's presidency, it will not be because of his administration. He's stringing all of us along. Yes, the President is a great guy and a groundbreaker, but he's also lying to his voting base.

  Earlier this week, the Log Cabin Republicans scored a major victory when a justice determined DADAT unconstitutional. Fans of liberty all over the western world rejoiced at this amazing victory. But the Justice Department is preparing to appeal DADT because the President claims he "cannot ignore the laws that are out there". That's an out-and-out lie.

  The past 4 presidents have enforced the rule of the court when laws they felt were unconstitutional were tossed out. Even the current president has refused to acknowledge policies that conflict with his agenda. For example, the administration suspended enforcement of the Widow's Penalty to give Congress time to fix a broken law. In fact, part of the Obama Administration's official policy is to oppose laws they do not agree with.  So why do they insist on continuing to fight the repeal of DADT?

  There is an undeniably terrifying shift in the Republican Party- one that involves theocracy, one hell-bent on destroying personal freedom in the name of an omnipotent being. This philosophical shift has claimed victory over the moral policies of decent men like John McCain, making them completely alter their positions. Mr. McCain has gone from a staunch opponent of DADT to one of its most vocal defenders because he is afraid of being left in the dust by the Tea Party. Wingnuts like Sharron Angle, Meg Whitman, and Christine O'Donnell have risen to the upper echelons in the era that can only be called the Second Coming of Gary Bauer. The monumental amounts of influence that resulted from removing restrictions on campaign donations have enabled so-called special interests to dictate morality.

  This 'new' moral code states that women are inferior and the Gay is some evil force trying to corrupt your children. And like any good bandwagon, everyone wants a high-priced seat on the We Hate Everyone party bus. Front-row seats are available for you and me, so long as we believe everything contained in that mystery beverage they're passing out to paying customers. And a lot of people are drinking up.

  It is this group that Mr. Obama is afraid of. He's so petrified of losing his presidency come 2012 that he'll continue to awkwardly sneak around the issues that the GOP is basing their agenda on. He's hoping that because the majority of people are heterosexual that nobody will notice. He's hoping that issuing talking points like he did today on Twitter will make those sissy homos shut up. But we're going nowhere.

  It absolutely stinks that the president has decided to permit his spine to disintegrate. The man who ran on the idea of sticking up for the little guy has continually proven that he is too afraid of losing his seat to enforce decisions that affect minorities. It's truly sad that the only group truly winning the war on DADT is a Republican one. Don't Ask, Don't Tell is an invasive, discriminatory attack on liberty and enforcing it is financially disastrous. It removes quality members of the military from their jobs during a time of war and peacekeeping. It is absolutely unconstitutional to remove someone from their home or workplace because of something as innate as sexual orientation and the one man who can do something about it is too scared to.

  Barack Obama is quietly proving that if you keep changing your mind, people will stop believing in you.

The Heels Of Justice

A Florida man is $650 000 richer after settling a lawsuit for $650 000 because of injuries sustained when he got to close to a stripper.

Michael Ireland sued after an exotic entertainer named Suki (yeah, sure) accidentally stuck one of her heels into his eye. The suit alleged that the heel punctured his socket and broke his orbital bone and nose. That must have been one serious boot, man.

The Cheetah Club of West Palm Beach decided it would be easier to settle than to go to court where judges have a reputation of handing out ludicrous awards. I call this bringing a new meaning to 'taking it in the eye'.

Authentic?

  I have been a vocal critic of Perez Hilton for the past few years for his merciless shaming of celebrities and their children. In 2007, I coined the name The Queen of Homophobic Mania to parody the meglo Queen of All Media moniker. He has made his fame and millions by being cruel to others and staging horrendous publicity stunts. Between the name-calling and hijacking of Toronto's 911 system among other things, Perez Hilton has become a man that is very easy to hate.

  This week, Mr. Queen popped on the Ellen Show to discuss his shameful ways. In the interview, he stated that he will be making a concentrated effort to stop humiliating others. He says he understands the skepticism but wants to change because his image in the gay community is that of a pariah. Watch and listen:



  I really want to believe that Perez is going to try to stop being outwardly idiotic, but I'm thinking it may not be for selfless reasons. I think that he has realized that his image is so awful that he no longer fits in. The world has decided to step up against a big, insecure bully and Perez has realized that the menace they're all talking about is him. Perez Hilton has come to the realization that his star is fading and the only way to hold on is fame is to stop his menacing, particularly of children.

  While I do not believe Perez has had an authentic, feeling epiphany; it is good to see that he is acknowledging his character flaws in public. If he witnesses enough positive reinforcement, maybe he'll actually work to change what is so horribly hurting in his soul. Even if it's just that he's been called out by the celebrities he admires that inspire him to look inside, it is a good thing. All the little things do matter and even if all he does is chill out on the public hatred, it's worth it.

  It's not up to me to decide for you whether or not Perez Hilton is a changed man but I will say that sometimes a bully just needs to see the ramifications in order to cease. Even after the heinous actions stop, there is much work to be made to change the internal insecurities that make the bully behave in such awful ways. The process of becoming a decent human being is slow and methodical and sometimes very painful, and I sincerely wish for him to persevere. The world will be watching because the child that grew up to become Perez Hilton is an example of our generation's extreme internet villain.
   I hope for Perez' sake that at some point the introspection has a positive effect on the scared little boy that became the Queen of Homophobic Mania.

  Be well.

  A personal post with links to a bounty of helpful websites and phonelines can be found here.

The Song In My Head

  This big plate of awesome takes you back to 1991. Anthrax and Public Enemy had been fans of each other's music for a number of years and decided to collab on a cover of PE's '87 hit.
  What resulted was so beyond awesome that they wound up touring together, spawning the new age of rap metal.

  It never sucks to be an original. Never be afraid to Bring Tha Noise.

Get Your Geek On : URL Shorteners

   We are in an instant age for sure and can share all kinds of information on the fly. The need to convey information via a link makes for lightning-fast sharing. We've seen them on all social networks and in Blackberry messages. The micro-URL is the focus of questions from many tweeps, and here are a few.


 "What are those short-form links? Are they generated randomly? Where do they come from?"

  The shortened URL has been around for at least a decade. They were designed to fit links into tiny places, such as e-mails and webpages where 150-character links couldn't previously go. Tinyurl.com was one of the first large-scale services and has been around for a very long time, helping people make enormous links easy.

  Secondly, most are not generated randomly. Startup shorteners almost always use a predictable sequence : joe.yo/1t ; joe.yo/1u , etc. They cycle through letters and numbers with only rare exceptions to the rule.

  You may notice that many of the URL shorteners have unfamiliar domains. For those not in the know, the domain consists of the letters after the dot, an example would be .ca for Canada. Each nation has its own top-level domain and it is a good idea to know this in case you take particular objection to a country's practices.

  My most obvious personal objection is to the bit.ly ad.ly, ht.ly  or any other .ly service. Why? Because it is the top-level domain for Libya. Libya is a country known for promoting terrorism and enforces Sharia law, including in internet practice. Any .ly website that offends orthodox Muslim sensibilities, including any discussion of sex, can and will be shut down. Every time you purchase or use .ly domains, you are supporting a terrorist regime. Sorry, the truth sometimes sucks.

  Well that blows, so how about the other ones? I'll make you a quick list of the most popular for you to scroll and decide for yourself who you dig.

.gl (ie : goo.gl) - Greenland (democracy, commonwealth of Denmark)
.me (ie : fb.me) - Montenegro (democracy)
.co (ie: kvs.co) - Colombia (democracy)
.gd (ie: is.gd) - Grenada (democracy, commonwealth of UK)
.it (ie: j3w.it) - Italy
.ms (ie: nyti.ms) - Montserrat (British overseas territory)
.lt (ie:ix.lt) - Lithuania (democracy)
.vc (ie:dn.vc) - St. Vincent and the Grenadines (democracy, commonwealth of UK)
.us (ie:kurl.us) - USA
.in (ie:xil.in) - India
.eu (ie:smarturl.eu) - European Union
.be (ie:kissa.be) - Belgium
.md (ie:ix.md) - Moldova
.ma (ie:gu.ma) - Morocco (constitutional monarchy)
.ca (ie: urlshort.ca) - Canada
.im (ie:tr.im) - Isle of Man
.nu (ie: u.nu) - Niue (constitutional monarchy under UK)
.tl (ie: twi.tl) - East Timor (democracy after fighting for independence from ...)
.id (various) - Indonesia

Hope you found this somewhat interesting. Surf wisely :)