… do you get a minimum wage boost through an emergency war spending bill.

I’ve always found it strange the way that they tack unrelated things to must-pass legislation just to force them through the legislature… it seems so underhanded and strange. If you can’t get a bill through the legislature on its own merit, then it probably shouldn’t pass! This whole “hiding things in other things” seems designed to bypass normal legislative procedures and stop discussion.

Well, the UN is now suggesting that heterosexual men be circumcised to lower their risk of HIV infection. I’m not sure if it’s a great idea or not (somehow, it strikes me as overly optimistic that slicing off a tiny flap of skin will make much of a difference in the infection rate of a disease that hasn’t been significantly slowed by education programs, condom usage, and pharmaceutical companies).

But, the last paragraph in the story is pretty scary sounding:

The agencies said the risks involved in circumcision are generally low, but can be serious if the operation is performed in unhygienic settings by poorly trained, ill-equipped health workers.

Can you think of anything scarier than being in a dirty room with an untrained man wielding an unsterilized scalpel around your penis?

So, there’s a referendum coming up on the 28th here at Waterloo for a universal bus pass.

Two sides were formed; the “YES we want one” and the “NO we don’t”.

The “No“‘s just got fined $150 for lying in their posters. W00tsauce.

For those UW students; you can vote here on the 28th.

A woman from China is a wee bit angry - her husband got a 10 year prison sentence thanks in part to evidence that he is a “political dissident” from Yahoo Inc.

I understand that Yahoo operates in China. I understand that China has laws, and that when operating in a country you should work according to those laws.

What people need to understand, though, is that “just following orders” didn’t work at Nuremberg, and it shouldn’t work today. An individual (and a company) are ultimately responsible for every action that they take. Following local laws is wonderful; but at the end of the day you have to say, “Yes, we gave evidence that helped put that man in prison for 10 years”, and you have to take responsibility for it.

The decision as to whether the company did wrong (by ratting this guy out) or did right (by honoring local laws) is up to each individual person.

Which is more important to you? Following the law, or doing what most everyone would say is right?

Lawyers do it every day; and they live with it. If you defend someone; there’s a good chance that, in actual fact, he’s guilty. However, within our political system everyone has a RIGHT to the best defense available. The lawyer is protecting all citizen’s freedoms and rights by doing what he or she does. Feelling bad about what you do is optional; but taking responsibility is not.

Huh, guess it died… Damn…

The Coin Op was supposed to be a comic of sorts; as I understood it it was to be a collaboration between Jordan and his sister. She provided the art, he provided the scripts.

There was a post about it on Jordan’s blog; I tried to comment on it a few times. The comments got caught in the mod queue then disappeared. Then, just today, the whole post was removed.

That sucks; I was quite looking forward to it. I’ve been wanting a comic from our group since those first few “Loony Bin” comics Jordan did up way back in highschool. I was quite surprised at the quality of artwork that Jordan’s sister had produced for this; I couldn’t wait to start seeing a regular stream of well scripted and excellently drawn comics.

I’m sure Jordan would think it “creepy” if I called his sister to complement her on the work that she’d put into it (personally, I’d be happy to know that someone liked something I had created - heck, I get a nice, warm feeling when someone lets me know that they like my note-taking ability…). I tried commenting on his blog, to say that the artwork was impressive, but that comment never got through.

So, I post it here, in the hopes that she’ll stumble across it at some point.

It was quite good, well drawn. At some point I still hope to get ahold of a high-res version of the first test image so I can put on my computer’s desktop.

(I’m not putting up the one image I do have from what I assume would have become a series; intellectual property and all that…)

If it didn’t die, that’d be really cool…

Short (very short) interview with Matt Groening.

At least half of it is actually on The Simpsons…

Futurama’s mentioned though!