A woman who admitted smoking marijuana daily with her 13-year-old son to reward him for completing his homework was sentenced to three months in prison.

The article fails to mention how well he was doing in school.

Will You Be My Mommy?

A Spanish charity group has raised enough money through its Second Life awareness campaign, which featured a homeless avatar, to provide a month of healthcare and education for a real-life child.
Asociacion Mensajeros de la Paz (Messengers of Peace), which runs some 300 foster homes, created the avatar MensajerosDeLaPaz Jubilee.

I've seen a number of similar charities in SL, and was always rather suspicious of them. I guess the real question is, can I deduct the purchase of lindens needed for such a charity on my taxes?

Charity Raises Funds With Homeless Avatar

One said: "It's rather rude. There are children and teenagers about and I don't think it's good for them to see." Another fumed: "It's just obscene. We shouldn't have to put up with it."

This is what feminist conditioning has done - got society to think of the penis as a sign of evil and oppression.

I know for a fact that if this tree were in the shape of a vagina, it would be welcomed and celebrated. Goddamn feminists and their mangina lapdogs make me fucking sick to my stomach.

The X-Rated Christmas Tree

Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law. The legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain and obtained by CNET News.com, would also require Web sites that offer user profiles to delete pages posted by sex offenders.

This is your Constitution on drugs... Any questions?

Illegal Images Must Be Reported!

Utah Supreme Court justices acknowledged Tuesday that they were struggling to wrap their minds around the concept that a 13-year-old Ogden girl could be both an offender and a victim for the same act - in this case, having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. The girl was put in this odd position because she was found guilty of violating a state law that prohibits sex with someone under age 14. She also was the victim in the case against her boyfriend, who was found guilty of the same violation by engaging in sexual activity with her.

This is the inevitable result of a political climate which makes it impossible for lawmakers to oppose any legislation designed to punish "sex offenders," and where prosecutors are allowed to charge minors as adults.

Teen Both Perpetrator and Victim of Sex Offense

Based on Left Behind, the bestselling Christian fantasy book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, it puts players in command of brainwashed legions fighting for Christianity. Players are ordered to convert or kill to advance to the next level and remodel America as a Christian-controlled state, and establish its world vision of Christ’s dominion.

Oh boy! I killed an Atheist. That's 2 points!

Christian Video Game is a Force for Evil

Inspired by an article in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author. Read more at nature.com.

Simply type or paste your text in the box below. Click submit for the results.

See if you write like a bitch or a dick.

Wow, I love it! After several tests with e-mails from both males and females, this algorithm is amazingly accurate! This is definitely the best web tool I've seen all week.

The Gender Genie

The number of Second Life residents making profits over US$5,000 a month surged more than 40 percent in November, according to data released on Tuesday by Linden Lab, while the total number of profitable residents rose 11.5 percent from the prior month.

Month by month, Second Life proves itself more and more to be a viable business platform. After interviewing a number of highly successful SL entrepreneurs, these rewards do not come easy. Those that are clearing US$5,000 a month are doing such on a full time basis. Second Life is their primary source of income, and the skills required to pull it off often match the RL equivalent of a similar position. If Second Life is a game, for these people, the Linden Dollar is the high score.

Surge in High-end Second Life Business Profits

Kudos to the D.C. Council, which recently voted in favor of a resolution by Carol Schwartz, at-large Republican, to nix the District's unjust "zero tolerance" policy of allowing police to arrest motorists who register any alcohol at all after stopping them for other offenses.

The Schwartz resolution was inspired by an article in The Washington Post, which found that hundreds of D.C. residents had been arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) with blood alcohol levels below .05, including some at as low as .01.

The larger problem, however, is the fact that since 2000, the federal government has mandated a blanket .08 legal threshold for the entire country. We've now had five years of data to measure the effectiveness of the .08 standard, and the data strongly suggest that not only is the standard too low, but the resources we're expending to enforce it may actually be making our roadways more dangerous.

So I stumbled upon the WaPo article linked above with this totally insane story about this woman who was arrested and had to spend thousands of dollars to keep herself out of going to a 12 week "counseling program" because she had a single glass of wine at dinner. I was heartened to find that DC repealed that law. This commentary provides some interesting information about the national .08 standard and whether or not it actually makes roads safer. Sometimes, authoritarian policies kill. Particularly when you have the police in one of the most dangerous cities in the country focused on hassling people who drank a single glass.

Unnecessary laws of this nature are quite popular with many smaller communities. There's usually enough going in large "dangerous cities" where this is a valid waste of resource that's needed elsewhere. Many of the places that I've lived, which are for the most part, very low crime, exhibit the behavior of a somewhat corrupt police force. The police are constantly creating work for themselves in order to justify their numbers and funding in such communities. It's not uncommon to be pulled over for a malfunctioning license place light (normal) and see 5 additional patrol cars rush to the scene (unnecessary.) Monthly quotas for the amount of tickets written in order for an officer to keep his/her job are common, as are an excessive amount of speed traps. It's up to the federal government to keep this stuff in check.

Forum: Lower DUI Threshold More Dangerous?

A rare 1939 German sports car commissioned by Adolf Hitler is expected to command the highest price ever paid for any automobile at auction, according to Christie's, which will conduct the auction in Paris in February 2007.

Hitler's Hot Rod! Now if that's not a chick magnet, I don't know what is. Now that Hitler has a really cool custom car to go with his secret underground lair I guess he qualifies for full super-villain status.

Hitler's Race Car