Oh yeah. Home sick. Go me. (*sniff*)

Just when I think things are finally starting to resemble normalcy again, something happens to make my blood boil and my heart race. Jerry Falwell went on television Thursday and blamed me for Tuesday’s terrorist attacks. Yes, he did. Here’s what he said:

“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way – all of them who have tried to secularize America – I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.'”

Here I thought being a feminist was about earning equal pay for equal work and fighting for women’s rights. Unbeknownst to me, it also apparently involves pissing God off so that He rains down fire, brimstone, and passenger planes on normal, God-fearing, Republican, heterosexual, non-feminist white folk. Good to know. And to all my pagan and gay friends that simply want to be left alone to worship and love however they see fit, that goes for you too. We’re all to blame, apparently.

The bastard did apologize, but only after everybody from President Bush on down condemned his remarks. I believe in free speech, but I really have a problem with racist, sexist, reactionary idiots giving it such a bad name.

Wow. I was poking around at The Leaky Cauldron trying to lift my spirits with some Harry Potter-related goodness, when I came across this quote:

“I say to you all, once again – in the light of Lord Voldemort’s return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” – Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

That’s a wonderful quote, and I applaud whoever thought to apply it. And, of course, many thanks to J.K. Rowling for penning it in the first place.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned a breakthrough in “parasitic computing” at my alma mater. I predicted that a lot of people at the university would have moral qualms about using such technology. I was right.

Not feeling very bloggy today.

I did fix a few things on the Perverts page though. I’ve modified my robots.txt file to keep Google from indexing that page and continuing the positive-porn-feedback loop. I also deleted a few of the fake entries that various people had put in (not that they weren’t funny, but it looks better when they’re all real). And check out the one where the guy starts defending his sexuality! Weird, man.

From Salon:

“I’m proud to be American and I hate Arabs and I always have,” said 19-year-old Colin Zaremba who marched with the group from Oak Lawn.

Fuck you, Colin. This sort of thing makes me so, so ashamed. I think it’s time to sew a maple leaf on my backpack and start saying “aboot”. I don’t want anyone to lump me in with people like this.

Hey, Brigita. Notre Dame’s got pictures from the prayer vigil they held on South Quad Tuesday. Over 6,000 people were there. Looking at them really made me choke up.

It’s Roald Dahl‘s birthday. I’m running a contest over at my site. Unfortunately the timing turned out to be pretty bad. Nobody seems to be in a celebratory-poem-writing mood right now. As it is, the two entries that have been submitted stand a pretty good chance of winning.

My sister, who is home sick today, called me to say she just watched a special Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace on television. Apparently for the first time ever they altered the ceremony and played the U.S. national anthem. A lot of people have been gathered there and at the U.S. embassy to mourn. Books of condolence have been set up. I wish I were out there instead of in here.

(On a more light-hearted note, that picture of Brendan Fraser is pretty funny. I mean, he’s looking right at the photographer like, “Don’t take a picture of me. I look like hell. Don’t take a picture of me.” I mean, I’m not laughing at him, but rather at the fact that the BBC used it anyway.)

I just got the Nostradamas e-mail forward again. Thank God for Snopes.