Category: Here & There

Pedophilia: Sacred Ritual & Civil Right?

A man accused of sexually assaulting nine boys with physical or mental disabilities told a judge that having sex with children is a sacred ritual protected by civil rights laws.

Phillip Distasio, who said he is the leader of a church called Arcadian Fields Ministries, represented himself at his pretrial hearing. He is charged with 74 counts including rape, pandering obscenity to minors and corrupting another with drugs.

“I’m a pedophile. I’ve been a pedophile for 20 years,” he said in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. “The only reason I’m charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms.”

So he’s a pedophile and he’s proud of it!
He’s coming out of the closet and saying that he’s been a pedophile for 20 years and that it’s natural, even sacred and that it’s his right!
Now, I know all this reminds me of another “natural” thingie a lot of people have been going on about, but I just can’t put my finger on it 😛
This other thing was also considered, just like pedophilia, as some sort of mental disorder until quite recently, but now suddenly it’s quite normal, strange huh?, but well, I still can’t remember what it is.
Maybe you know what I’m talking about?

[Source: CNN]

Beaches For Muslim Women In Italy

Hotels at an Italian seaside resort are eager to act on the town’s decision to authorize the creation of all-female beach sections for Muslim women.

The city council of Riccione, a popular resort on Italy’s Adriatic coast about 90 miles east of Florence, has said it is prepared to authorize requests to set up partitions on parts of the shoreline to satisfy requests from the town’s growing numbers of Arab and Muslim tourists.

Supporters of the idea say that the separate beaches would allow observant Muslim women to shed their headscarves and long robes and enjoy the sun in privacy; religious restrictions otherwise oblige them to cover up if men are present.

In short, what they’re saying is: “Anything for your big money!”

[Source: Yahoo! News]

Lost – Season Two

So, today, I finally caught up with the rest of the world and finished watching the second season of the hit TV show “Lost“.

I can’t wait for Season Three to begin and for me to get to see it. The second season just got us deeper into it all, multiplied the questions and confusion and left us wanting more and more.

This series is one of the best I’ve watched, and I really like the whole idea of it and how it’s made. And after two seasons it remains as intriguing and interesting as it started out to be if not more.

I got my hands on Season Two just a couple of days ago, and I’ve been watching episode after episode since then, pretty much non-stop. It’s so damn addictive and the suspense just eats at you.

Again, to whoever out there hasn’t watched this series, you don’t know what you’re missing, get started watching now and enjoy the thrill of every episode.

Learn Chinese Online Free

China has launched a Web site offering free Chinese lessons and materials to promote the study and use of its language abroad.

The site, called Linese, includes audio-visual presentations, interactive exercises and advice for teachers of Mandarin Chinese, with photographs and descriptions of cultural icons such as the Great Wall, kung fu actor Jackie Chan and basketball star Yao Ming.

The launch of this site comes as a move from China to try and expand its cultural influence along with its growing economic power in the world. China is also setting up a network of “Confucius Institutes” around the world to promote its culture.

The Web site is only in Chinese and English for the time being, but versions in Japanese and Korean are being developed.

Interesting move by the Chinese government that claims that over 30 million people are now learning Chinese as a foreign language and that more than 2,500 universities in 100 countries offer Chinese courses.

I wonder when Arabs will even think about doing something similar. A simple website that teaches Arabic online and a number of cultural centers around the world would be great, but unfortunately, it seems the promotion of our Arabic language and Arab culture is not on any Arab countries priority list.

FIFA World Cup – Germany 2006: My Impressions

World Cup 2006 logoThe World Cup came to an end last night, crowning the Italian team as champions of the world for the next 4 years, after their penalty shootout victory over France.
This is the fourth time Italy wins the title, making them second only to Brazil that got it 5 times up to now.

I didn’t write much about the World Cup while it was going on, but I thought I’d give a little roundup of my impressions of this big event now that it’s over.

Starting from last night’s final match; personally I didn’t want either team to win, but as it’s impossible for both of them to lose, I was siding with the Italians, although I think the French played better.
It was a shame to see Zidane end his international career with such a stupid mistake that got him sent off with a red card. I don’t know what was said to him that got him so mad, but he should know better than that.

Anyway, if it were up to me, I would have liked to see Germany win this cup. It’s not that I’m a fan of Germany really, as I actually sort of root for a different team in every world cup. It’s just that I felt Germany deserved it this year. And if not them, then maybe England.

I’d also like to go back to my country Tunisia’s dissapointing performance at this World Cup. We had a good chance of going one step further this time and qualifying to the secound round, but we blew it.
The coach took some dumb decisions, the players made some stupid mistakes and we had to leave with only 1 point that we got from our draw with Saudi Arabia.

The teams who I thought gave great surprise performances at this world cup were: Australia, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago and Angola.

Brazil were a dissapointment for me and many people this time around, but hopefully they’ll get their act together again for the next World Cup.

That’s about all I have to say about this World Cup. Looking forward to the next one in South Africa in 2010, the first one to be held in our beloved continent.

Resident Evil 4 for PlayStation 2

I just finished playing Resident Evil 4 on PlayStation 2.
I played Resident Evil 2 on the pc some years ago, and I remember really liking it too, so when a friend from work recommended this sequel me, I got it right away, and it turned out as good as he said it was. I really enjoyed playing it.

Leon S. Kennedy, the character from Resident Evil 2, returns in this sequel, and he has become a Federal agent. When the President’s daughter is kidnapped, Leon tracks her to a remote, hidden fortress in Europe – where he’ll relive the horror he faced six years before in Raccoon city.

The graphics are great, some of the best I’ve seen on PS2 so far, the gameplay is very good and quite easy, the plot is interesting and enjoyable, the sound is pretty realistic, and has great replay value.
After finishing the game, more stuff is unlocked, letting you play with other characters as well as replay the game at a harder level with better weapons.

I had fun playing the game and it was a problem letting go each time, so I in turn recommend it to people who are into this type of video games.

Lost – First Season

Ok, so I’m probably the last person on Earth to watch the first season of hit TV show Lost, but well it’s not like anyone aired it and I chose not to watch, plus I’m not into watching crappy quality pirated french versions of it, so I had to wait for it to come out on DVD and for one of the stores I rent from to get it.

Anyway, I can see what the whole fuss is about. It’s very well done and I truly enjoyed watching every episode of it.
It sucks you in from the very beginning, and the mystery keeps you wanting more and more.

I can’t wait to watch Season 2 of the show to know what will happen to the characters and how the story will further develop.

I really like how the insight into each character’s life gives you a parallel series of it’s own, and how they get entangled through certain events.

I recommend watching this to whoever else is left in the world who has not seen this.

Eating Pizza Cuts Cancer Risk

Good news for pizza lovers like me…

Italian researchers say eating pizza could protect against cancer. They claim eating pizza regularly reduced the risk of developing oesophageal cancer by 59%.

The risk of developing colon cancer also fell by 26% and mouth cancer by 34%, they claimed.

The secret could be lycopene, an antioxidant chemical in tomatoes, which is thought to offer some protection against cancer, and which gives the fruit its traditional red colour.

[Source: BBC News]

On the other hand Pizza can be high in saturated fat, salt and calories which would most probably result in an “outstanding” physique and a sudden “surprise” heart attack.

So if the chemical exists in tomatoes, I guess we should just eat tomatoes, instead of making up extra excuses to have a hot, delicious, stuffed crust, melting cheese, yummy pizza.

I’ll be in the pizza place next door, follow me 😛

Al Zarqawi Character Killed Off

The news everywhere today is about the killing of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi through a joint US-Jordanian operation last night.

Good riddance, of course. This guy was responsible for many innocent deaths in Iraq and elsewhere, and it’s only fair and good to the world for him to go like this.

This doesn’t mean the terrorism and attacks will come to an end anytime soon, but well, it’s one mad leader less to worry about.

But still, I don’t know why all this sometimes feels like one big soap opera, I’m sure the conspiracy theorists will agree. It’s as if all these names are characters in a very long series.

Bin Laden was the lead character for a while, but then things didn’t go that well between him and the producers of the soap, they fired him but he kept coming to the studio, so the director gave him a secondary role with guest appearances.
Al Zawahiri tried to take the lead role, but was cursed with a sticky sidekick role, and remained a secondary character throughout it all.

Al Zarqawi came out as a favorite and won the lead role, but then he started experimenting with the character, and artistic differences occurred between him and the director, so they chose to kill off his character.
I wonder who’ll be the replacement in the next season of the soap.

I know this is not an issue to joke about, and I’m not really joking, it’s just a reflection of the conspiracy theory I’ve heard a lot of people think aloud about.

A lot of people think these characters are just actors in a big play. Sometimes I think they’re just overdoing it, and sometimes I start to think “what if…?”