Meet Constantine Xinos, a 69 year old criminal attorney and professional misanthrope, who lives in suburban Chicago.

He grew up poor, but says stuff like: "I don't want to live next to poor people. I don't want poor people in my town."

Even better? He makes 11 year old girls cry at meetings about saving the local public library. He considers Library Science an indulgence and a hobby rather than job that requires a master's degree.

Just read the article. It's a stunner.

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.

From Ars Technica:

EA puts sexual bounty on the heads of its own booth babes

EA is running a contest related to its upcoming Dante's Inferno, and it's encouraging Comic-Con attendees to "commit an act of lust" with booth babes and take a picture. (NB: According to the official rules, it's "any costumed spokesperson at or outside Comic-Con," and the picture is the "act of lust" in question. Not that this makes it any better.)

Contestants could win "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty."

The booth babes at Comic-Con--or any convention--are already being objectified...they really did not need this on top of it. I expect lawsuits. I hope for lawsuits. Big ones, that take EA to the cleaners.

Thankfully, the comments at Ars Technica are not generally full of fail. Oh, there are a few real princes--mostly, variations on "it just means taking pictures, it's not that bad" or "they knew the job was dangerous when they took it"; a few are worse--but many commenters are as disgusted with EA as I am.

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.

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.

Remember this awesome girl? Sad case, seriously impressive girl and judge. That was in Yemen; this one's in Saudi Arabia.

There are two major differences: first, that her mother actually sought the divorce for her (her father was the one who sold his daughter arranged the marriage); and second, that the marriage was completely legal, and still is. As the article states:

There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it.

Women's rights groups within the country and the US is pressuring Saudi Arabia to set a minimum marriage age of 18 for girls. Unfortunately, they're running into roadblocks among the Usual Suspects:

Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim clergy have opposed the drive to end child marriages. In January, the kingdom's most senior cleric said it was permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who believe they are too young are doing the girls an injustice.

I'd like to tell that guy to please never, ever use the word "injustice" in connection with the female gender again. EVER. I do not think it means what he thinks it means.

ETA: By popular demand, a link to the actual news story! You people are so picky, I swear.

I was torn between posting this in otf_wank and unfunnybusiness, but the unrepentant bigotry beat out the WTFLOL.

Anyway. Mulefucker runs for Georgia governor. When you're a reporter, you occasionally have to ask uncomfortable questions of someone. In this case, I landed an interview with the Georgia Creator's Rights Party candidate for governor, Neal Horsley, who is running on the secessionist platform. During the course of my research, I stumbled upon the fact that Horsley had screwed a mule.

Yes, his real name is Horsley, he is a secessionist, and he thinks that both abortion and gays are evil.

Shakespeare's Sister has more.

You read that right.

The crime drips with brutal irony: a woman decapitated, allegedly by her estranged husband, in the offices of the television network the couple founded with the hope of countering Muslim stereotypes.

Yeah, it appears that the wife had enough of her husband's abuse and filed for divorce. So he cut her head off.

Bonus: Contained in the article is the stupidest statement I've seen in weeks: "I just do not feel it was an honor killing," Sanders (former news director for the station) added. "I think it was domestic abuse that got out of control."

As opposed, of course, to the totally reasonable domestic abuse that goes on all the time. This would be one reason I hate the term "domestic violence/abuse." It sounds so civilized, like a domestic dog. Abuse is abuse; kindly do not slap qualifiers on it.

Author of Ender's Game decides to screw over his fanbase in anti-gay rant.

Straight outta Minnesota: Stripping for clothing donations enrages charities across country

"So, what's wrong with strip clubs doing a clothing drive?" you may be asking. "Oh, sure, it'll wad up conservatives' panties, but isn't that half the fun?"

No, no, no--you see, some marketing geniuses at Virgin Mobile and the National Network for Youth (NN4Y) thought it would be a good idea to encourage young people to post videos of themselves doing stripteases in exchange for clothing companies donating clothing to charities. Like, for instance, Catholic Charities of MN.

Uh-huh. That was my reaction, too, I assure you. Complete with the jaw-dropping and funny noises.

Oh, and apparently, they didn't even consult some of their own members and the charities they were supposed to be supporting:

"Strip2Clothe" has sparked outrage among NN4Y's own members. Some groups say they were never consulted about the concept and are appalled by the idea of young people stripping as a means to get clothes for other young people. The organizations' names have since been taken off the site.

"It was a shock to everybody," said Trudee Able-Peterson, coordinator of outreach services at StreetWorks, a Twin Cities collaborative of outreach programs. "This is the message we send kids? That my granddaughter, who's 17, should strip to provide clothes for other kids?"

Another quote from the article:

The concept is especially jarring, (Catholic Charities spokeswoman Rebecca) Lentz said, considering that many kids on the street find themselves sexually exploited within a day or two of becoming homeless.

According to a spokesperson for NN4Y, the promotion is now being "reconsidered." Ya think? Maybe it's just me, but when a promotion includes the words "young people," "striptease" and "videos," I get a little skeeved.

Shoot the Messenger is an NYC based live talk show, where guests are interviewed. One segment is "Thinking and Drinking," where guests have a cocktail and discuss current affairs. Editors of Jezebel, Moe and Tracie, were guests last week. The host, Lizz Winstead, is not pleased with their interview. She says they were sloshed the whole time and were poor role models for the many young women who idolize them. Selected video clips and quotes from Winstead at Huffington Post:

( Show me that smile, oh show me that smile )

The comments at the previously mentioned Huff Post blog are nasty, and the comments at Shoot the Messenger are nasty. Meanwhile Tracie posts at her personal blog chalking it up to too much booze interacting with drugs that aid cessation of smoking, and that the whole conversation got out of hand. It is mentioned in her comments that there was allegedly someone at the event who didn't want to sit on a toilet seat Slut Machine (aka Tracie) sat on beforehand because she had gonorrhea a few years back.

Meanwhile, there is no official response at Jezebel. ( Don't waste another minute on your crying ) Watch commenters get on the backs of the editors! Watch commenters gang up on each other! Will the editors talk about what happened? Only time will tell, but if they do there will be a shitstorm.

You may remember The last big shitstorm at Jezebel, when Moe Jessica and Tracie discussed the new Roman Polanski doc on HBO and said it was probably consensual because the 13-year old had quaaludes and a relationship with an older man before, which resulted in 600+ comments on both that post and a follow-up.

Are the commenters entitled? Are the editors inconsiderate to their community? You decide!

ETA: There is a post up from managing editor Anna. Five hours in there are already over 750 comments.

Via coffeeandink

Hey, rape is just the evolutionary equivilent of stealing food!

Riffing off this post, Scott rewords his question: Why do we, as a society, provide food stamps for the hungry but not sex stamps for the celibate?

Because maybe women aren't responsible for the trauma of your weaning?

*sigh*

Another example why the Open Source Boob Project was a fucking stupid idea from the start.

And given that liz_marcs got anonymous trolls accusing her of being a "killjoy" because she didn't drink the OMG THIS IS SOO EMPOWERING! kool-aid, anonymous commenting will *stay* off.

The Open Source Boobs Project: Dear sir: I believe your patriarchy is showing.

The second post linked there had comments disabled, with a pointer to comment at the first post. The first post now has two heidipologies appended to the top, and he somehow managed to delete all 1300+ comments accidentally in the process of locking them. (Despite having been on LJ since forever and hosting many popular discussions.) I have a few of the upper-level pages in cache; anybody have more? ETA:Comments appear to be back for now; you can now follow comment links in peoples' posts.

For those of you who have been lucky enough not to see this yet, basically, some SF fans were trying to start a utopian project where anybody wearing a green "Yes, you may" button may be punched in the face for being gratuitously stupid. (And a slightly more hard-core swift kick to the balls version.)

It spreads: (These links all have lots of good discussion in comments too.)
Coffeandink's response
Kate-nepveu's response
Springheel-jack's response
the-red-shoes's response
brown_betty's response, and a poll
nestra's response
cereta's response
Mystickeeper summarizes
Rachel Manija's response part 2
thebratqueen's response
elynross's response
seperis's response
ojouchan's response
movies-michelle brings out the big guns
go-go-gidget/rowleyorama's response
pixelfish's response
pleonoastic's response
blueraccoon's response
oulangi's response
RivkaT on Open Source and the Endowment Effect
plasticsturgeon's Open Source African Hair Project
sparkymonster, compiled.
giandujakiss part 1 and part 2
tablesaw's lj post
liz-marcs's post
( and this thing is now being cut, 'cause it's getting silly. Be smarter than me, and just stop reading. )
Rusty-halo's response
Feminist SF - The Blog speaks up
Feministing throws in
Scalzi's response part 2
Oh boy, metafilter is here!
Randy Milholland has T-shirts!
the abortive otf_wank post - DO NOT COMMENT THERE - this is *so* not funny (crotch-kicking aside) - but it's a pretty good write-up if you want more than bare links. ETA: Comment all you want, with mod approval. It now features a boobie train. Hooray?

Comment thread links, readable for now:
Loligo makes an excellent suggestion, followed by excellent discussion.
Tablesaw is win.
More face-punching. (I wonder why so many people were thinking along those lines?)
mswyrr is also win.
sparkymonster explains cloven oranges.
He has addedThe court of public opinion has added tags to the entry now. o boy.
A LOLFerrett from robin_ma

A list of penguicon con reports - there were also giant pirate ships and singing Tesla coils there!

ETA: Just added a bunch more response links (I find wank migration patterns fascinating, I can't stop looking) and there are twoa few I want to point out in particular:
vito-excalibur and the Women Back Each Other Up Project: "I would like to propose a little real world help for a real world problem."
Back-up follow-up: We Has T-shirts and buttons! (There will be fliers!); Men's Auxiliary; Why men are only auxiliary; It's About the Problem.
novapsyche, for a perspective from someone who actually wore a green button: "if I'd read theferrett's post about OSBP before someone offered me the pin, I would have turned it down."
nineveh-uk writes Harriet Vane & co. vs. OSBP: ‘And then someone started going on about post-lapsarian inhibition, and how the only free soul was in a free body -’
The Boobie Project entry on Feminist SF - The Wiki, which has a great link round-up with chronology and edit history and commentary and things!
the-red-shoes collects soundbites! "Should fit on a t-shirt."

LAST ETA: I have just disabled anon comments; porn spam has started arriving faster than legit discussion, sorry. If any anons want to keep talking, well, you can get a JF account!

Will be adding more links as I find them (feel free to drop them in comments); but as much of the great discussion was in the comments of the OP and is now gone, I wanted to get this up as soon as possible. ETA: Now adding more links. If you don't want your post linked, ask and it's gone.

Discuss!

I shouldn't be surprised by anything that comes out of Dr. Laura's mouth, but this still made me headdesk: Women Share Blame for Cheating Men

While looking up info on the UW student that was randomly attacked near campus Tuesday morning, I stumbled across this article on The Stranger's website: "UW Campus Stalked By El Creepo."

University of Washington police are looking for a man who solicited three students for sex on campus yesterday.

Apparently the guy hung around the parking lot for hours, following people, and was creepy enough that three separate women filed complaints with campus police. The comments are what got my blood boiling, though. There are some real gems, like this:

"Wow, after reading some of these comments I didn't realize how messed up and uptight things are around Seattle. I am sure a lot of us wish we had the courage to just go up and say our feelings to someone we are interested in. I am thinking the ugly description has a big influence on what this women think. It's really common courtesy to be up front about expectations and as long as he does not pursue them after they decline."

"#12 your on crack if you followed men around and asked them for sex you'd get more than 50 percent yes no matter what, and no one would call the cops on you ever. thats the gender gap in our society, if your a guy then your arrested for wanting sex or asking for it unless you do it THE RIGHT WAY and with THE RIGHT CLOTHES and THE RIGHT BODY AND FACE."

"We both know if it were Johnny Depp propositioning women on campus there'd be no complaints, and there would be women climbing over each other to be next."

"What's troubling is that a guy is finally just being honest and up front and they are treating him like a criminal."

Why do I ruin a good mood with posts I know are going to be filled with stupid wank? You've got a bunch of idiot guys yelling "Just because he's not allowing her to have any friends and keeps manipulating her into staying with him doesn't mean he's abusive or that he'll become physically abusive", and then janusdoa being a trans hating fucktard.

I'm really glad I didn't reply to s/h/it when s/h/it replied to me here or I think there would be bloodshed.