Viet-Justice

An Egyptian cleric’s controversial fatwa claiming that nudity during sexual intercourse invalidates a marriage has uncovered a rift among Islamic scholars.According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al-Azhar University’s faculty of Sharia (or Islamic law), “being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage”.

Khalil is another one of the nutty religious zealots that is running the religion of peace.  I don’t understand the point of this other than to label women as evil things that should not be seen.  The only thing I can guess is that it is an excuse to make women wear a burka all the time.  Why wear a bag 24/7?  We must first assume that truly Islamic men do not want to see who they are having sex with.  Perhaps this is because all truly Islamic men are actually gay.  Under Sharia homosexual relations can be punished by the death penalty.  But if your partner is wearing a bag you have plausible deniability.  Didn’t Michael Jackson move to the UAE recently?

Here’s something interesting.

Porn is big business. Adult entertainment, including porn videos and films shot mainly in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley, racked up estimated sales of $12.6 billion in 2005, according to statistics compiled by AVN.

That compared with U.S. theatrical revenue of $8.9 billion for mainstream Hollywood films, according to figures from box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

I didn’t realize that porn was such a big business making almost $4 billion more than Hollywood in 2005. Now this should, though it won’t, send a message to the holy rollers in Washington that AG Alberto Gonzalez is way off his rocker in the fight against obscenity. I don’t care what anyone says, Larry Flint is no where near the threat to American life as Al Qaeda. If we truly are a capitalist nation then we need to realize that $13 billion in the economy is $13 billion and we shouldn’t care what the product is.

This is a truly sad story. For years ago Paulette Anglin married Denver Stepp. They had known each other since middle school, but were hooked up by a mutual friend after a failed marriages. It sounds almost like a fairy tale at first, but then the truth comes out. Stepp’s first wife died of AIDS and he neglected to tell Anglin that he is HIV+. Fortunately the bastard is in prison now.

Looking back, Anglin sees her “I do” as a death sentence. She despises Stepp, who has been sent to prison for giving her the virus that causes AIDS. She’s also angry because she thinks the government hasn’t done enough to punish those who knowingly spread HIV — or to protect citizens from the epidemic.

Anglin hopes her story might influence the Georgia Legislature to reconsider mandatory premarital blood tests — the state never mandated premarital blood tests for HIV — and to stiffen the penalty for spreading the AIDS virus.

While I do feel empathy for Anglin, why is it the government’s place to get involved with premarital blood tests? Had Anglin been more cautious she would not be in this situation today. Just because the government doesn’t require something does not mean you should avoid a good idea. According to the article they wanted to have more children. A good idea would be to have the usual blood screenings for STDs but also for any history of hereditary disorders. The government doesn’t require testing for them, but if you are getting into a relationship to have children it is irresponsible to take that step without determining if you will be bringing a child into the world who may have a difficult time surviving. Anglin made the choice to have unprotected sex and attempt to conceive children because she was in love. Love is a wonderful thing, but it can cause us to lose judgement as well. I hope her case will open the eyes of people across the world and guide them to do the right thing regardless of whether or not the government actually requires you to do it.

I am also against toughening the law on people who deliberately spread HIV. 10 years in prison is a reasonable sentence for a person who knowingly infects others. Some may say that they should get life in prison, but in reality changing the law would allow politicians to posture and claim they’ve done something good for society without creating any good for the people. In fact most people wouldn’t make it past 10 years with HIV. I do support some minor changes to the law which would increase its effectiveness. The first thing that should be done is that prisoners who knowingly spread HIV shall not receive any medication to treat HIV while they are incarcerated. This will have the advantage of making the 10 year prison sentence an effective duration. I would guess that without treatment one’s lifespan would only be 2-3 years which would have numerous advantages. By not paying for HIV treatment the state would save thousands of dollars. Saving money is good. The convicted would die a slow painful death. People who knowingly spread HIV dieing in an unpleasant manner is good. Finally the victims and their families would get closure by watching the convicted die painfully and hopefully before the victims succumb to the disease as well. Closure is good.

A student’s prank goes awry according to this article

Michael Stone was charged with a felony after making a blog post asking people to click on a link to the school’s website and then press F5 repeatedly to crash the school’s server.

“Michael said it was a joke,” City Prosecutor Frank Forchione said. “We showed him how we deal with this kind of joke.”

“It’s a crime and it is important we take this seriously … especially for school officials … it could have done a tremendous amount of damage,” said Canton City Prosecutor Frank Fronchione.

While not the brightest thing in the world, the punishment of a felony seems a bit overboard. A tremendous amount of damage would lead one to believe that the web server was permanently damaged, but according to the article it was behaving slow and not completely down. In essence Michael Stone engaged in something similar to a letter writing or call in campaign and did the internet equivalent of jamming up the school’s phone lines or burying them in paper hate mail. It’s not a polite thing to do the act of organizing a campaign is considered free speech. Since the story has made it to news blogs such as Slashdot where a link to the school website was posted, one has to wonder if Prosecuter Fronchione is planning on wasting more of the tax payer’s money by going after anyone who clicked links to the school’s website.

This is also the same school district where officials aren’t sure what caused so many girls to get pregnant. Must be that abstinence education they’re teaching.

Useful Contact Information:
Lake High School

With all the talk of NSA snooping going on, it was only a matter of time before old tech snooping came into fashion. Professor Goodman is a little angry that his correspondance with a friend in the Phillipines is being spied upon.

“All mail originating outside the United States Customs territory that is to be delivered inside the U.S. Customs territory is subject to Customs examination,” says the CBP Web site. That includes personal correspondence. “All mail means ‘all mail,’” said John Mohan, a CBP spokesman, emphasizing the point.

This should be a lesson to anyone who has friends, family, or pen-pals outside the US should now understand that your letters and packages may be cavity searched by US Customs. Some people may not have access to email where they live of course but I think nothing really beats using PGP or S/MIME to encrypt your email. I wonder how Customs would react to opening a letter and finding PGP encrypted text on paper.

76 now confirmed dead in Mecca hotel collapse.  Could it be that they have been smited for the comments of Iran’s president?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says  I Hope Sharon Dies.  Every time this guy opens his mouth he sounds more crazy than the last time.  Well Mahmoud, the rest of the world hopes you are stuffed into a burka, gored to death by wild boar, are eaten, and converted to pig shit.  There’s not too much more to say on that topic.

In a surprise move Boston Logan Airport has ordered airlines to pull the plug on WiFi services offered in the airport. Now if you want WiFi you will have to purchase an $8/day plan from the airport. Massport is afraid of congestion interfering with TSA, State Police, and other WiFi networks. The cheapest solution would be to move all official government functions off to 802.11a since very few people and businesses run 802.11a in the US. The other solution would be to move essential functions over to a frequency band that is regulated. Just another revenue raising tactic in Tax-a-chusits. So much for that New England kindness, but I guess if you’re in an airport you’re filthy rich so you should have to pay to get WiFi.