Fascinating:

Rep. Brian Duprey (R-Hampden) has submitted a bill to the State Legislature to shield potentially homosexual fetuses from discrimination. LD 908, “An Act to Protect Homosexuals from Discrimination,” attempts to protect homosexuals from death because they might carry the gene that could lead to homosexuality.

This bill as drafted would make it a crime to abort an unborn child if that child is determined to be carrying the “homosexual gene.” Duprey said that no such genetic marker has yet been discovered. But considering rapid advancements in genetic mapping research, he wants legislation in place should such a breakthrough occur. “If the homosexual gene is ever determined to exist,” he said, “I want to ensure that a woman could not abort an unborn child simply because that child is determined to be carrying this gene.”

Via Dawn Patrol. (Dawn has blogged about this previously).

This project just keeps on going. I probably won’t post much until Monday again…

For those geeks in the audience, this is fascinating stuff from Adaptive Path:

The biggest challenges in creating Ajax applications are not technical. The core Ajax technologies are mature, stable, and well understood. Instead, the challenges are for the designers of these applications: to forget what we think we know about the limitations of the Web, and begin to imagine a wider, richer range of possibilities.

It’s going to be fun.

“Breaking News” from the AP:

A 13-year-old student in Orange County, Fla., was suspended for 10 days and could be banned from school over an alleged assault with a rubber band, according to a WKMG Local 6 News report.

Robert Gomez, a seventh-grader at Liberty Middle School, said he picked up a rubber band at school and slipped it on his wrist.

Gomez said when his science teacher demanded the rubber band, the student said he tossed it on her desk.

After the incident, Gomez received a 10-day suspension for threatening his teacher with what administrators say was a weapon, Local 6 News reported.

“They said if he would have aimed it a little more and he would have gotten it closer to her face he would have hit her in the eye,” mother Jenette Rojas said.

At least it wasn’t one of those braces rubber bands, because those are truly scary (I had ‘em!).

Creative post-mortem wish from Hunter Thompson.

Hunter S. Thompson, the “gonzo journalist” with a penchant for drugs, guns and flame-thrower prose, might have one more salvo in store for everyone: Friends and relatives want to blast his ashes out of a cannon, just as he wished.

Interestingly, after his death, sales of his 6 year old book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, skyrocketed to #15 on Amazon’s chart.

From the Daily Progress:

A Charlottesville man was charged with stealing wedding rings from Glassner Jewelers after his girlfriend accepted his proposal and returned to the store on Valentine’s Day to have the rings resized, authorities said.

…

Mooney said the woman was reduced to tears after learning the rings were stolen.

No word on whether the engagement has been called off.

Before everyone jumps on the Condi ‘08 bandwagon, don’t forget that we really have no idea about her domestic policy positions.

The American Spectator has a couple of quotes from her on abortion that are worth noting (assuming they’re accurate).

On abortion, she’s reportedly described herself as “mildly pro-choice” or “reluctantly pro-choice”; no word on what, specifically, she means by that.

HT: Blogs for Condi.

The Therapist reports:

Standing yet again before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, atheist Michael Newdow is suing to maintain the presence of God in by-words, flagrant obscenities, and the time-honored vulgar expectoration associated with times when a thumb is smitten amiss with a mallet.

If you haven’t checked out The Therapist, do so. He’s a riot.

According to Wired, It’s No Birdbrain Idea.

Researchers are turning to an unlikely source to develop environmentally friendly computer components: the barnyard.

Richard Wool, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, wants to recycle discarded chicken feathers and use them to manufacture circuit boards, replacing petroleum-based components with keratin-based composites. Computer circuit boards are only one of the many applications researchers envision for this material.

According to the AP, Doug Wead had this to say about his regrets on taping Bush:

“Contrary to a statement that I made to the New York Times, I have come to realize that personal relationships are more important than history,”

He now says he intends to donate all proceeds from the sales of his book, The Raising of a President, to charity.

Funny stuff from Iowa Hawk. Check it out.

Nicholas Kristof, in the NYT Op-Ed piece from yesterday, discusses the genocide in Darfur. Check out his comments. I found this particularly worth noting:

So what can stop this genocide? At one level the answer is technical: sanctions against Sudan, a no-fly zone, a freeze of Sudanese officials’ assets, prosecution of the killers by the International Criminal Court, a team effort by African and Arab countries to pressure Sudan, and an international force of African troops with financing and logistical support from the West.

But that’s the narrow answer. What will really stop this genocide is indignation. Senator Paul Simon, who died in 2003, said after the Rwandan genocide, “If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different.”

The same is true this time. Web sites like www.darfurgenocide.org and www.savedarfur.org are trying to galvanize Americans, but the response has been pathetic.

Prometheus comments on our collective short attention span:

I understand what Kristoff is trying to do… But I’m afraid the Abu Ghraib torture “scandal” proves there is little that can move Americans from their complacency and indifference for more than a week or so.

Obsidian Wings has quite an overview of the issue, including this observation:

If we’re serious about stopping genocide, we should bypass the process we’re undertaking in the UN and start taking real action. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. The UN is part of the problem, and the problem with the UN is incompetent leadership in the form of Kofi Annan, who has no clue and no vision as to what the UN should be, and a suffocating bureaucracy that breeds an atmosphere of corruption and unaccountability.

California Mafia takes on Kofi Anan’s Op-Ed in the WSJ from a couple of days ago, concluding with this:

Look Kofi, Americans know how to lead, we’ve been doing it since about Dec 7, 1941. Leadership is about more than just listening to others, it’s about doing what’s right - something that I’m not entirely sure you are familiar with.

Dr. Sanity highlights Kristof’s closing sentence:

This time, we have no excuse.

Deep Green Crystals posts a “Stop the Genocide in Darfur starter kit” which he received as one of those forwards via email. He and many others (including Kristof) are encouraging you to contact your representatives.

The blog titled Sudan: The Passion of the Present, links to this article in the Sudan Tribune (originally from the Carolinian).

House of the Dog wonders why we care so much about tsunami victims, but not those being slaughtered in Darfur:

Too many people shed crocodile tears over the devastation from the tsunami. At workplaces around the United States, “concerned” employees join together to donate money to its victims. But, modern genocide falls on deaf ears. Perhaps it is too difficult a topic. People need something simple, without overt political overtones. They understand natural disaster, and it is easy to band together and feel good by donating a few bucks and talking about how horrible it is. Caring about genocide requires actually facing the brutal reality, and coming to grips with whether the world community is to blame for continuing to let it happen. Most people don’t want such difficult thought to intrude upon their sheltered worlds.

So, we continue to donate record amounts of money to the tsunami victoms. And, the victims of tyrants and genocide around the world continue in their misery alone.

Roger L. Simon

Yes, of course. We should all do what we can. But this shouldn’t be an exclusively American problem. It is a world problem. The United Nations, which was formed in the wake of genocide and was supposed to make the repetition of such horrors its number one priority, has not nearly done its job here, just as it did not in Rwanda. Why? Maybe there just isn’t any money it.