Hippies, Dolphins, and Twins.

Ok first of all, I just want to say that I am not necessarily anti-hippie. It is just that they do so many stupid things in the world and justify it with their beliefs. Its like being a hippie activist is like being part of a religion, and based on the fact that your beliefs are correct, you can act however you want to. In reality that is how it plays out, therefore from now on hippies will be considered as part of a religious group, perhaps a fanatical group (I'm not sure yet) known as "the followers of Hippyism" or someithng like that.

Now for the news.

Let's start off with the Mecca of Hippyism: Berkeley California.
The city council of Berkeley has sided with political protesters demanding that the United States Marine Corps. stop recruiting in the city. The politicians have gone as far as saying that the Marines are to be considered "uninvited and unwelcome intruders."
They also are supporting anti-war groups such as "Code Pink" to whom the city has bequeathed a free parking permit so they can harass the recruitment center and chain themselves to the entrance of the office. (You may remember members of Code Pink as the crazy bitches who covered themselves in red paint and attacked Condy Rice when she was appearing before congrees. The paint was supposed to symbolize blood.)

Republican Lawmakers are threatening to retaliate by stripping thecity of about $5.3 million in federal and state dollars.
"If the U.S. Marines are not good enough for Berkeley, neither are taxpayer dollars," Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said in a statement. Amen brother.

I don't think that a city's government should be taking sides with extremist groups. It is their responsibility to represent the city, not their individual preferences.
Also it's not hard to notice that the majority of members of groups such as Code Pink and other politically extreme groups are elderly women. Perhaps if they had something better to do with their time, they would not be so heavily involved in crazy activities.


Building on Friday's "Leave the Dominican Republic and their cock-fighting traditions alone" post, I found this article today about rural Japanese fisherman who hunt and eat dolphin.
What's wrong with eating dolphins they ask? they have been doing so for hundreds of year. Apparently it is very popular fried or in a stew.

So what is the big hullabaloo (is that spelled right?) all about? Western culture frowns on that. One man, Ric O'Barry a 68-year-old retired dolphin trainer from Miami, Florida, has taken it upon himself to tell the world about this "heinous crime. What crime?
O'Barry trained multiple dolphins for the popular "Flipper" TV series. He has a home in Taiji, the main city for dolphin hunting and has taken to disguising himself in costumes and video-taping the fisherman catching and killing the dolphins with hopes of raising awareness in Western cultures. "This here is ground zero for the largest slaughter of dolphins on planet Earth,"he says "It's absolutely barbaric and it needs to stop."

Why is it wrong? Why is it barbaric? Where does this guy get off saying it's wrong? I can't explain why I am getting so upset over these things, but who do these people think they are, trying to regulate the world? This is a smally fishing village that eats dolphins. Naturally there will be dolphin killing in order to eat them. I bet you $5 this guy eats hamburgers. It is so hypocritical and so so wrong to try and police other peoples and cultures into your way of thinking. If these people eat dolphin, then they eat dolphin. If it is a rich part of these people's culture to fight roosters, so be it. That is their call, not yours.
Yes a line can and should be drawn while respecting other cultures. Genocide for example is not exusable even if your ancestor's did it. But that is a far cry from killing and eating dolphins. And yes I will back that up with anyone who wishes to argue the contrary.


On to the twins.
A man named Edwar Harris has been hounded for over 15 years by the Pennsylvania traffic courts for $1,800 in unpaid parking tickets. The tickets actually belong to his twin Edwin Harris, who moved south and lost touch with his family. Every year the problem occurs and every year it is remedied for Edward until last year when a judge didn't even look at the forms, but ordered Edward to pay the fines or go to jail. Another judge saw the case in the news and refunded Edward his money apologizing.
The lesson of this story is for parents. If you are going to have identical twins, don't be assholes and make their names virtually identical as well. Edward and Edwin? seriously? It's not cute, have a heart.

Finally a space ship manufacturing company in California is appealing a fine from the courts regarding worker training that resulted from a recent explosion during a rocket test that killed one worker. The fine is for $28,870.00. Why are they appealing? I cannot imagine that a company who gets multi-million dollar contracts to build space vessels cannot come up with te 30 grand. That is just silly.

That's all for today, leave a post if you dare.

Keepin in real from the loop.