Links - 14th October 2013

"The United States Congress, like a lot of rich people, lives in two houses." - John Green

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Girl, 13, and her boyfriend, 12, are both labelled sex offenders after having consensual sex with each other - "'The only thing that comes close to this is dueling,' said Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins, referring to two people who take 20 paces and then shoot each other."

Are Young Women Really Racing to Syria's Front Lines to Wage Sex Jihad? - "the political context of the statement could shed light on why the interior minister chose to make this accusation now. The Tunisian government has been under fire for allegedly asking adult women for authorization from their husbands or fathers before they travel to certain countries in the Middle East -- Ben Jeddou was justifying any restrictions by saying that the government was attempting to prevent women from embarking on "sex jihad" in Syria. The interior minister has also made the fight against extremist Salafi groups a centerpiece of his term in office. Suggesting that Tunisian Salafi women are sleeping with dozens of Syrian rebels could be another way to discredit them... The only real evidence of women embarking on "sex jihad," comes not from Syria but from Tunisia's Chaambi Mountains, an area in the west of the country"

Des Hommes et des Chatons - "Le tumblr aussi sexy que mignon qui réunit nos deux centres d intérêts préférés ! // The tumblr as cute as sexy that brings our two favourite things together : kittens and men !"

Who, what, why: How does a skyscraper melt a car? - "It's like starting a fire with a parabolic mirror."

The Art Of Oral Sex: New Class In Russia Teaches Women How To Give A Proper Blowjob

Hamas Charter: Vision, Fact and Fiction - "The Israeli occupation has never missed an opportunity to brand Hamas a fundamentalist, terrorist, racist, anti-Semitic organization. True to the Mossad motto which states 'By way of deception, though shall do war,' it has excelled at taking select articles from the Islamic party’s charter and using them, out of context, to justify its claims.... An internal committee reviewed the possibility of amending the charter during the nineties and ratifying it as a binding manifesto; yet the primary concern, that of being seen as following the Fatah route of offering up concessions on a silver platter, led the group’s leadership to shelve such measures... virtually all liberation movements rely on the language of religion to inspire their peoples, given that such discourse offers the greatest clarity and motive to make sacrifices for liberty. For our part, we do not shy away from shedding light on the historical milestones that underscore our struggle against the fundamentalism inherent in Zionism"
Translation: "it's okay to call for your enemies' deaths, if you tell people you don't really mean it"

Ryan Allen's answer to Borat (character): Is Borat racist? Is liking/laughing at Borat a racist act? - Quora - "There is a concept in satire that I like to call "it's funny, because it's not." South Park, Borat, Bruno, and many other comedies rely on that concept. Racists aren't the ones telling racist jokes, or laughing at them. Racists are generally the ones who think it's not funny, because the joke is a truth in their distorted view. Some people don't care for satire, because it exposes truths that make them uncomfortable. And some people just lack a sense of humor. So, yes, it is racist. It's a satire. That's why it's funny, like punting a small dog off a cliff. It's funny, because it's not."

Goats sacrificed to fix Nepal jet - "Nepal's state-run airline has confirmed that it sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god, following technical problems with one of its aircraft... The airline said that after Sunday's ceremony the plane successfully completed a flight to Hong Kong. "The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," senior airline official Raju KC was quoted as saying by Reuters."

Flu vaccine scheme halted over fears of Muslim parents - "in 2001, 100 Islamic scholars had agreed pork gelatine was permissible within a vaccine"

Strengthen NS by Respecting It – Signs of Struggle - "I would love for it to be illegal to denigrate a man’s service to his nation. I want people to know that there are lines they should not cross when talking about the national service that they didn’t do. If my brothers-in-arms would like to whine about how much they hate NS, I will hear them out (and perhaps rebut them), but criticism from the outside must be respectful and discreet. There is a portion of military law that makes it an offence to speak or behave in a way that brings disrepute to the Armed Forces (SAF Act Cap.295, I think). How about we have this in force in civil law as well? Any action that disrespects our servicemen courts the wrath of the law. Any NS-belittling douchebaggery will be met with swift recriminations (or at least strongly worded government statements) for the offending individual. We will find you. We will scold you. In public. Our NS needs to be strong, and that strength will not come primarily from handouts or perks or social benefits. It will come from a high view of the price we have had to pay to keep this nation safe. NS will be strong when NSmen are respected."
What the myth of National Slavery leads to: criminalising disagreement with it

Gender bending in Japan - "‘Have you ever wondered how you look as a female?” A man not predisposed to answer “yes” probably wouldn’t be visiting a website that presumes to inquire. “Cross-dresser’s paradise” — that’s how the Elizabeth Club bills itself. Located in Tokyo’s Asakusabashi district, it is one of hundreds of similar establishments whose existence on the fringes of conventional society suggests conventional society’s failure to accommodate certain aspects — call them deviant if you like, but fewer and fewer people do — of human nature. “Don’t you want to become a lady of your dream?,” the website’s enticement continues... Manga and anime fans will be familiar with the term futanari, or “new half” — hermaphrodite characters endowed with feminine curves, voluptuous breasts and a virile penis... Buddhist monks had other reasons for avoiding women. Religious celibacy vows do not seem to have precluded boys, however. “Boys appear often to have served as surrogates for the females absent from the lives of the monks,” writes historian Gary Leupp in his 1997 book, “Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan.”"

The Way of the Tiger Kickstarter (Guest post by David Walters) - Blog of the Brewin' - "When writing a prequel I had to take care to avoid ‘stealing the thunder’ of significant scenes coming up in later books. For example as book 2 Assassin! ends with a dramatic one-on-one fight with a ninja, the prequel had to avoid single combat against such a foe otherwise it would devalue the later fight. This rule applied whether the reader has read the original series already or not – the series should work as a continuous whole and thus unnecessary repetition and similarity should be avoided."

50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice - "The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students' grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it... The book's toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar. It is often so misguided that the authors appear not to notice their own egregious flouting of its own rules. They can't help it, because they don't know how to identify what they condemn... The book's contempt for its own grammatical dictates seems almost willful, as if the authors were flaunting the fact that the rules don't apply to them. But I don't think they are. Given the evidence that they can't even tell actives from passives, my guess would be that it is sheer ignorance... Strunk and White preferred to base their grammar claims on intuition and prejudice rather than established literary usage... the stipulation in Elements is totally at variance not just with modern conversational English but also with literary usage back when Strunk was teaching and White was a boy... Several generations of college students learned their grammar from the uninformed bossiness of Strunk and White, and the result is a nation of educated people who know they feel vaguely anxious and insecure whenever they write "however" or "than me" or "was" or "which," but can't tell you why. The land of the free in the grip of The Elements of Style."

Rules That Eat Your Brain - Lingua Franca - "The worst thing about zombie rules, I believe, is not the pomposity of those advocating them, or the time-wasting character of the associated gotcha games, but the way they actually make people’s writing worse. They promote insecurity, and nervous people worrying about their language write worse than relaxed people enjoying their language."

Four more jailed for paid sex with underage girl - "The court heard that the girl, a Chinese national who was 17 at the time of the offences in May this year, had approached the men in Geylang. They paid her between S$60 and S$70 for her sexual services, which took place at hotels in Geylang. Of the five, four had asked for her age - which she gave as above 18 - though they did not take steps to verify this. Earlier, the court heard that the girl had been forced to work as a prostitute... In meting out the sentence, District Judge Low Wee Ping reinforced the point that this was a case of "forced prostitution - plain and simple". "The sexual services you had with the minor was not consensual. You were a willing buyer, but she was not a willing seller," he noted. The judge also emphasised that the men had participated in the "horrendous" trade of international trafficking of a minor for forced prostitution, and said that unless demand for such trade is eradicated or suppressed, the criminals behind such trade would find it lucrative to continue to take part."
Disturbed by the reckless conflation of underaged sex, prostitution, sex trafficking and forced sex. This is just protectionism to boost the profits of the legal brothels

What Vladimir Putin's address to Americans on Syria really means - "Vladimir Putin's highly unusual and razor-edged comment piece setting out his views on the Syria crisis, addressed directly to the American people and published by the New York Times, is a mixture of closely argued policy points and breathtaking political effrontery... this passage takes the biscuit for sheer chutzpah. Referring directly to Obama's depiction this week of America as an exceptional nation called to do great things in the world, Putin invokes God Almighty, democracy, and the American constitution in one breath to suggest Obama is a menace to global society. You can almost hear the cynical laughter in the Kremlin. It is hard to remember that Putin is the man, more than any other, who has made a mockery of democracy in Russia."
The comments from people hating on the US are amusing: maybe they should all move to Russia