WTF? twitter

“Huh?” you may be thinking to yourself. Well for those of you who live in the great State of Texas, you may have thought it amusing that when one purchased a sex toy that kind of looked phallic, that your receipt may have said “cake topper.” It’s been a joke for the longest time, but it appears this is quite true.

Anyway, it is being reported that the “5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Texas law making it illegal to sell or promote obscene devices, punishable by up to two years in jail, violated the Constitution’s 14th Amendment on the right to privacy.” Let’s shout out a big hurrah!

So the question to ask now is what do I put on the top of my cakes from now on?

WTF?

I just don’t understand who in the Bush Administration thinks this was a good idea, given the happenings today in Congress.

WASHINGTON – President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans’ mail without a judge’s warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open people’s mail under emergency conditions.

Source: W pushes envelope on U.S. spying (NY Daily News)

I’m still amazed that someone hasn’t challenged the legality of these presidential signing statements. What is ironic (to me) is that the president attached his signing statement to the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act which “explicitly reinforced protections of first-class mail from searches without a court’s approval.”

It just makes you wonder.

WTF?

Thanks to danah over at apophenia, I discovered that the Deleting Online Predators Act, or DOPA pass the US House today by a vote of 410-15.

According to a ZDNet article, the bill was

apparently meant to restrict access to MySpace, the definition of off-limits Web sites is so broad the bill would probably sweep in thousands of commercial Web sites that allow people to post profiles, include personal information and allow “communication among users.”

The details will be left up to the Federal Communications Commission, and authority was provided that “gives more leeway to the FCC in devising a category of verboten Web sites.”

I find it interesting that this is “one” of those pieces of legislation that aims to help legislators with their election efforts in November.

Politics, WTF?

I was listening to NPR the other day, and they were discussing the insanity defense being used by Andrea Yates attornies (a defense that appears to have worked). After listening to this, I was left wondering – what is the apparent connection of “doing God’s work” and insanity. Yates, by her own admission, said that she needed to protect her children “from damnation” as she apparently had a vision that indicated that at least two of her children were on a pathway towards sin. In November 2004, a mother who cut off her baby’s arms in God’s name, as she wanted to give her children to God (she was later found not guilty by reason of insanity), and earlier that year, another woman from East Texas was found not guilty (by insanity) by bashing in the heads of two of her children with rocks (again, by carrying out God’s will). The women’s attempted to murder her third child, but according to the mother, he just “wouldn’t die.”

NPR, WTF?

Is this what Christian Family Values is all about?

Pastor’s son may face jail for attack

WTF?

It appears that the US Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is skirting the boundaries of the Constitution by not providing a religious marker on a fallen soldier’s grave marker. The soldier, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, is believed to be the first Wiccan to have died in the line of duty, and his widow asked for his memorial plaque to have the Wiccan symbol inscribed, like many other markers around that are inscribed with other religious symbols.

According to the Washington Post,

The department has approved the symbols of 38 other faiths; about half of are versions of the Christian cross. It also allows the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, the nine-pointed star of Bahai and something that looks like an atomic symbol for atheists.

The article goes on to say that an initial request was made to include the Wiccan Pentagram in the Department’s listing of approved symbols nine years ago. Since that time, eleven other symbols have been approved, but the Wiccan symbol is still pending.

Source: “Fallen Soldier Gets a Bronze Star but No Pagan Star”
(Washington Post, July 4, 2006: Page A02)

Philosophy, WTF?

It seems that someone out there is trying to address the ongoing health of our younger generation … finally! The people over at Life for Kids have developed a system that measures the level of physical activity that kids undertake each day, and then transfers that “activity time” to television time. It’s called the “Physical Activity Rewards System” and it doesn’t appear to be available yet. One wonders how successful it could be. (Thanks to Paul for posting this.)

Health, WTF?