On the "Religious Agenda"

Something that really, and I mean REALLY, craps me off is the vehemence of any strongly religious person when they are shown a gay person, or for that matter, anything that has changed in the last 2009 years.

It gets called "The Gay Agenda" and they will stop at nothing to convince people of their superiority, in some cases, bringing up things from over 30 years ago.
Yes, they use things gay people have said in the recent years, but one thing I saw on the american family association's website was from a pornographer, who yes made some insensitive comments, but they sounded like a joke - yet the website treats it as the latest HRC gospel.
Seriously, WTF?

Oh, and don't get me started on the pope.
Recently while reading an article about the pope's recent comments, I read that since he has come into "power" he has made more condemnations about us gay people than any other.
What I find most hypocritical about that is that I would imagine that there are quite a few gay clergymen and priests within the catholic church - a comment my mum makes quite often when the pope gets on the news for this kind of thing.
But the thing that I remember most about religious education when I was in primary school (I am now not a religious person) were the classic teachings of god "Do onto others as you would have done onto yourself" (well perhaps that's not a bible teaching, but it is a common way of interpreting "Love thy neighbour", but more importantly that "god loves everyone"

To me, "God loves everyone" should mean that people that are strongly religious should NOT discriminate in any way; yet what do they do? Compare the "problem" of homosexuality the the loss of rainforests.

Yes, perhaps I have a vendetta against the pope, but who wouldn't when that is what is reported in the media?
Is a devout catholic REALLY going to research to make sure that the news reports the pope's words correctly?
NO! they won't.


What they don't realise is:
1. The bible is MAN'S INTERPRETATION of "god's word" - god did not write it himself. People distort things. Proven Fact.
2. The pope is a more or less self appointed position. "What he says is right no mater what." BULLSHIT
3. CHANGE is not bad. Think of how the Negroes were treated, and the people who wanted interracial marriage. Try discriminating against a black man these days. You will be taken to court. Why is it so bad that us gay people want the same?

HTML & CSS Tute Part 1 Uploaded

I started writing a HTML & CSS tutorial for my friend, but I'm posting it here so that others can benefit as well.

It is not yet completed, however I'm uploading it in stages so that it can be started while I'm still working on it (as I can be very lazy sometimes).

It is located at http://demonioardente.us.to/htmltute/tute.pdf

Enjoy :)

SIAE shamelessly asks for a tax on ADSL

DISCLAIMER: This is a translation of http://www.sitissimo.com/siae-senza-vergogna-chiede-una-tassa-sulladsl/
I am not a native speaker of Italian, hence there may be errors in the translation; I take no legal responsibility for said errors.
Anything in italics is my own addition, usually re translation


SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Editors) has requested a law to obtain a tax as a percentage (similar to that already paid by users with the acquisition of a blank cd/dvd or an mp3 player) to be paid directly to the Siae on behalf of all providers that supply a subscription to a fast ADSL line.

In practice it's as if anyone who has an ADSL line, or is about to get one, becomes "accused" of damaging copyright. Siae also believes that using ADSL connections to download protected works is profoundly unjust and that from this commercial activity the providers gain enormous economic advantages; by not paying compensation, a part of their revenue to the authors for the evaded rights.

There has been a rise in shields (i.e. opponents, etc (I think)) of various arguments against this proposal. Altroconsumo, Adiconsum, Assoprovider, Aiip, Assodigitale, Iab, Confindustria servizi innovativi (employer's association), the institute for innovative politics and others have sent a letter to the government regarding the tax.

The providers defend the founding principles of the internet from various attacks these days. They have in fact just given a request to the re-examination court of Milan to annul a measure (by the judge for preliminary inquiries) that obliges them to obscure/block two overseas sites about the acquisition of cigarettes.

Personally while being obviously against piracy, I believe that this proposal is absolutely more absurd than the tax already present on CDs and mp3 players, and for exactly this reason, I fear that it could be approved. Well then lets do a beautiful thing; pay 5-10 euros more a month, and let the users download what they want, in this way SIAE & company recuperate truck-load of money from all ADSL users who can however at will download without fear of retaliation, what they want. So as presented, SIAE's move will know how to paraculata.
Anyone have any idea what paraculata means?

Etc has a T for a reason

Something that really annoys me these days is the way people pronounce etc. Some people pronounce it eK-setera.
This is absolutely incorrect, the second letter is a T for a reason, it's pronounced eT-setera.

I honestly don't know how people can pronounce it the incorrect way; I mean the sea comes after that T, is it that hard to pronounce the T???
A teacher I knew even emphasised the k sound when pronouncing the incorrect way.
It really gets on my nerves, as does all incorrect grammar - it's really not that hard to learn how to speak properly and to use words properly.

Come on people, learn to speak English properly.

Concerned Women for America claim gay greeting cards are detrimental to children

Senior members of Concerned Women for America (CWA) have condemned Hallmark's marketing of greeting cards aimed at gays and lesbians.

CWA is a women's Christian public policy group that opposes gay marriage, abortion, pornography and international organisations such as the UN.

I absolutely despise people like this. A group who is against international organisations is also really really stupid.

"Now parents will need to steer their kids from Hallmark's section of the greeting card aisle and away from its previously heart-warming movies for fear that they too will push homosexual messages."

Seriously? Grow up - and while you're at it, grow some brains and tolerance.
I really don't see this as a bad thing - in fact its a really good thing.
People who would steer their kids away from the hallmark section just because they have same sex greeting cards are simply afraid of having to explain why there are two men or two women holding hands on the front - they'd rather pretend we don't exist.

I believe that we need to educate the littlies of today that homosexuality is normal. The only problem with that is that people like the women in the CWA apply pressure to the government and the schools so that they bow to their will.
Children need to know that homosexuality is NOT wrong, that the word gay shouldn't be used as a bad word, and that they need to stand up for what they want to believe in, not just what their parents want them to.

I know that allowing equality for everyone can create paradoxes, such as that case where a woman convinced an employment tribunal to allow her to opt out of performing civil partnership ceremonies based on religious reasons.
People in that line of work should not discriminate against ANYONE. The woman involved should have to perform the ceremonies no matter what gender/race/sexuality/religion the people are. If she doesn't like it, she should not be in that line of work. Simple as that.

But, that's an unlikely solution, as the religious political parties and lobby groups (primarily the christian/catholic ones) are almost unstoppable. They lobby, they fight, scream, protest, harass, just to get their idea of what is "right" into law.
If all of their ideals were law, we would have no real freedom, no equality, more people would be homeless (most of them think women should be the stay at home mums from pre-feminist times, and since many families have both the parents working, well, you do the maths), and homosexuality would still be illegal.

Quite frankly, I think the world would be a whole lot better off WITHOUT religion. It would mean people develop their own opinions, not those of their pastor/priest/sheik.