Hotel owner tells Hispanic workers to change names.

TAOS, N.M. – Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel.

The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names.

No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark.

Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country.

The 63-year-old Texan, however, wasn't prepared for what followed.

Sit on your hands while reading the article, least you bruise yourself facepalming: believe it or not, it gets even worse.

Bonus: The article is also badly written. It's just the cherry on the fail pile.

Apparently unsatisfied with everything ELSE the Catholic Church has to deal with, Pope Benedict XVI decides to stick his crucifix where it doesn't belong and meddle in the affairs of Anglicans -- by inviting those displeased with Episcopalian acceptance of homosexuals to COME OVER TO THE DARK SIDE join with Rome.

( Text for the link-phobic )

A rather good article, I feel, though its appeal may be to a relatively fairly narrow audience (consisting entirely of people who A. know jack about either CoE or Catholicism, and B. actually care) followed by surprisingly insightful comments:

Is it just me, or does the picture suggest a vampire rising from its coffin? asks riggbeck.

speaking as an excatholic he is welcome to them! although they'll probably find that there are more gay priests in the catholic church rather than in the one they are leaving! observes jamijery.

This is all very interesting and informative, but I'm sorry to say that for 90% of the population, this will have no bearing on their lives. So sayeth NapoleonKaramazov in what I think is a fairly accurate estimation, begging the question "Why, then, is Duende bothering to post this?" Because I am extremely bad at math.

...Snarking aside, some of the comments actually ARE good ones:

This is very similar to Stephen Bates' article yesterday. Again, I fail to see the problem with the Vatican's proposal. A way has been found to allow a number of people who are currently Anglicans - call them Anglo-Catholics, High Church, or whatever - to move to the Catholic Church in a fashion which will make them happier than they currently are. In their absence, people in the Church of England who wish to make more changes in terms of women bishops, gay cleargy, etc, will find it easier to make those changes. Where is the problem in this? Only if you see RC / Anglican relations as some sort of zero-sum game, where the Anglo-Catholics have to be kept locked into the Anglican communion in order to keep the numbers up. --Suleyman

The Catholic Church is seen to be modern. In one breath the Pope has spoken superstision about homosexuality, and in the next, condemned Israel for bulldozing Palistenian homes. Tell them that no-one MAKES homosexuals do what they do. Do you? The idea of fearing anything let alone God seems dubious to most of the previous commenters. Fear isn't the issue regarding the accused. The only criticism about this compromise has come from rash hackers like Lucy Mangan who have distracted from whose own questionable practices, based on personal nuerosis and egocentricities, which bare no relavance to the INCREASINGLY neccessary role of a high profile, NON VIOLENT body in today's society. --GraemeFord

The usual parade of rage-inducing ignorance and thought-inducing conspiracy theories follow. ("There is no such thing as an Anglican church there are only a bunch of jumped up hypocrites who cow-towed to the divorce demands of a fat king. If you are a Christian you either follow true Protestantism or you admit you are a catholic and follow the pope, there can be no half-way house." ...What?)

As for myself, a former member of both churches, I think that is Rome wishes to corral all the bigoted homophobes into the same pen regardless of (basically irrelevant, in this case) differences in doctrine, they have my blessing -- it only makes them that much easier to avoid.

So much RAGE. This creature can't even be considered a human being for what he did.

( LJ Cut for potential triggers )

12-Year-Old 'Bride' Dies Giving Birth.

( Snippet under cut. )

_{On a side note, it makes me quite angry that such children are referred to as 'brides' instead of, oh, I don't know, 'victims', maybe?}

Operation Rescue's newest form of protest raises eyebrows.

( Article in case of link problems. )

ETA: Courtesy of somnambulicious, have more of Terry's Traveling Show of WTF, at their town hall gig.

( ...Wow. Seriously? )

So I got this off the Malaysian news service:

Avoiding masturbation and homosexual activities are among preventive measures one could take against Influenza A (H1N1), according to an eminent practitioner of complimentary therapy.

…

I honestly don’t know what to say. I honestly do not know what to say.

…

He has a blog post explaining it all. Hell, his entire blog looks like that.

…

I bow to stronger minds to parse this further, because I think my mind just broke.

I read about this when it went to court a few days ago, and I was wondering what the result was going to be.

Anyway, basically it's about a female stripper, who is accused of raping the best man at a buck's night party.  It's not something you see everyday, and I was a bit undecided on how to think about this.   Certainly made me think about my assumptions. 

Woah, y'all, someone bombed the OutGames.

more here, and here, here, and here.

I'm shocked, simply shocked, to find that the bombing of a major sporting event that had several Canadian athletes, including some from my home city, has not been mentioned in either my local paper or the Globe & Mail.

ETA: BBC ran it.

Evony: How Not to Advertise on the Internet

For those who haven't seen them, the article contains several ads for Evony, a web game. They go from advertising generic medieval world-building to . . . boobs. It would almost be funny if it weren't for the fact that it's sexist as hell. Seriously, I've seen those stupid ads every time I go to my favorite Mac Games site, and the message I've gotten is that the game Isn't For Girlies. Surprise! Girls don't play medieval world-building web games! Betcha didn't know that.

Brb, off to slap a few ad execs.

Link below contains graphically described disturbing subject matter.

A new 'feature' from PETA: Ingrid Newkirk's 'unique will'.

I'm hoping assuming it's all a publicity act, as per usual, considering the blatant illegality of large portions of it, but the tastelessness of the whole thing is still quite appalling, even for PETA.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090619/ap_on_hi_te/us_internet_background_checks

People applying for jobs with the City of Bozeman, MT are being asked for user names and passwords for the social-networking sites they frequent. As the application states: "Please list any and all current personal or business Web sites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc." The application also asks for your login information for the aforementioned sites.

The Internets go crazy. The ACLU does not approve. Bozeman city officials say, "No, really, it's not as bad as it sounds!" I call bullshit.

Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/16/tennessee.email/index.html

Sherri Goforth, admin to Sen. Diane Black, R-Tennessee, sent out, on office time and from her office computer, a "joke" email containing an image called "Historic Keepsake Photo." It has portraits of all the American Presidents up to Bush II--and culminates in two cartoonish white eyes on a black background for Obama.

You'll be glad to know, I'm sure, that one of those on her email list, a GOP aide, was outraged and contacted the office about it, and probably the press. Black distanced herself, but didn't fire the aide, saying she had a stellar record and that a strongly-worded note of reprimand was placed in her file.

But, of course, the really fun part is this, which Nashville Is Talking webmaster Christian Grantham revealed:

(When I asked her if she understood the controversial nature of the photo, Goforth would only say she felt very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list. When I gave her a second chance to address the controversial nature of the email, she again repeated that she only felt bad about sending it to the wrong list of people.

“I went on the wrong email and I inadvertently hit the wrong button,” Goforth told NIT. “I’m very sick about it, and it’s one of those things I can’t change or take back.”

http://www.nashvilleistalking.com/2009/06/sen-diane-blacks-r-gallatin-legislative-aid-circulates-racist-email/

Yes, because obviously, the mistake was in sending the image to the "wrong list." She meant to send it to her "racist rednecks" list. I'm sure she's very sorry she got caught.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but G. Gordon Liddy is, in fact, an asshat. Today's asshaberdashery: declaring that Obama's pick for the new Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, is unfit for the court because she might be menstruating during judicial conferences, which would make her decisions suspect.

I only wish I were kidding.

Well, golly gee whillakers, Mr. Liddy! I never thought about it like that before, but now that you mention it, I guess we womenfolk ought to just let you menfolk make all the decisions for us, since you're obviously all so sane and reasonable.

Unsurprisingly, Jezebel is not impressed. I, personally, would like to hear what Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg have to say.

Damn.

( Cut for triggering content )

Cancer Patient Held at Airport For Missing Fingerprint

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Singapore cancer patient was held for four hours by immigration officials in the United States when they could not detect his fingerprints -- which had apparently disappeared because of a drug he was taking.

The incident, highlighted in the Annals of Oncology, was reported by the patient's doctor, Tan Eng Huat, who advised cancer patients taking this drug to carry a doctor's letter when traveling to the United States.

( The rest of the text for the link phobic: )

Exactly what did they think he was coming to do? Rob banks? Also, consider me out of the loop, but I didn't realize they fingerprint people from other countries when they come to visit here. :C

Just so you know, as a Malaysian, I’m used to seeing stupid shit in my media.

A friend of mine once characterized my country as a an episode of Monty Python that never stopped, and she’s far from wrong.

This one takes the cake, though:

University to offer Islamic Medical Course

The [Malaysian] Ministry of Health will soon introduce a two-and-a-half year diploma course in Islamic Medical Practice at a local university here.

So, what exactly is “Islamic Medical Practice”?

Dr Ramli said the graduates, who would be certified registered practitioners, would be self-employed to treat “santau” (a kind of deadly poison coupled with magical incantations) and other spiritual problems.

…

I’m a bit lost for words here.

So... the Sh!trly's up to his shenanigans again, possibly.

I've found it difficult to not automatically skim his comment responses, or look at his post.

ETA: Wait, hang on, that last paragraph did not make sense. Now it does.

Someone posts this secret at fandomsecrets:

 

Most commenters call out the stupid...

Then one Anon starts to rant:

( Cut for length )

Its not long before someone brings up.... REVERSE RACISM *facepalm*

wank_reportbrings all the boys to the yard.