Japan is Seriously Fucked Up [chat]

Belgium Burqa / Niqab Ban: An issue of holes.

So, Belgium's parliment has voted to ban the wearing of burkas and niqabs. This has resulted in some claiming that the law is anti-muslim, that the point of the law is to discriminate against Muslims, given that the law only outlaws the burka and the niqab and no other facial-covering garment.

The justification for this law, according to Daniel Bacquelaine, is:
Source

"We cannot allow someone to claim the right to look at others without being seen," MP Daniel Bacquelaine of the French-speaking MR liberal-values party told the Associated Press. "It is necessary that the law forbids the wearing of clothes that totally mask and encloses an individual.”

Given that, according to Bacquelaine, the justification is that "we cannot allow someone to claim the right to look at others without being seen", it could be argued that this mentality makes necessary the banning of other sorts of facial coverings. Would not this mentality necessitate the banning of pikachu masks, ski masks, and balaclavas if the point is to ban clothing which covers the face? A universal ban of all facial-covering garments would be necessary were all facial-covering garments the same. But, obviously, this is not the case given that Belgium only banned the Burqa and the Niqab.

So, we now have the following task: Articulate the uniqueness of Burqas and Niqabs as facial-covering garments.

Premises:
Premise 1: Belgium is not full of racist / anti-muslim assholes.
Premise 2: The burqa and niquab are problematic in a unique manner which is not shared by any other manner of facial covering.

To assess what is unique to the burqa and niquab, not shared by other facial coverings, we need a sampling of facial coverings.

Burqa:


Niqab:


Balaclava:


Pikachu Mask:


Ski Mask:


The difference is, I think, obvious:

The burqa and niquab have elongated slits for the eyes.
The Balaclava, Pikachu Mask, and Ski mask have circular holes for the eyes.

Obviously, the problem with which Belgium has an issue is not with Muslims. But rather, the issue is the manner in which elongated slits cover the face as opposed to how circular holes cover the face.

Had Belgium made being Muslim illegal Belgium could have been considered anti-muslim. However, since Belgium made only Burqas and Niqabs illegal, and no other form of facial covering, the issue must be with the unique features of the buraq and niquab: Elongated Slits as opposed to circular holes.

So, the next time someone tries to trot out a "Belgium is anti-Muslim" rant on you as a result of their banning Burqas and Niquabs just remember these two simple words: Elongated Slits


Addendum: The reason for which the law makes Burqas and Niqab illegal rather than just "facial coverings with elogated slits for the eyes" is that only Burqas and Niqabs have elongated slits for the eyes.

Tracking the Internets Greatest Day

Blizzard Enters Mobile Gaming

Sweeping saxophone soundtrack

Blizzard Introduces Neural Interface

WoW unveils EPEEN system

New Battle.net matchmaking system

Find someone to pwn noobs with today

New Diablo III Snuggie

Deckard Cain GPS

Fasten your seatbelt and listen

Something Something Magic the Gathering

To answer j's question from [chat]: yes.

Think Geek, no shit,

I would totally buy a Monolith action figure.

Holy Crap xkcd!

superholycrap!

Scott Pilgrim: Video Game Screenshot Gallery

Attractmo.edu has some screenshots of the upcomming Scott Pilgrim game available.

It appears to be epic.

Diablo 2: 1.13 Patch Released!

Remember how Diablo II is the best game, ever? Well, it just got bester! The Diablo 1.13 Patch was released on March 23, 2010 and, man, it totally adds some minor and insignificant changes to the game! So those of you who, like me, have been keeping your Realm characters from expiring by logging in every 3 months totally need to go download this patch in order to do the super-awesome things the patch allows!

Patch Notes!!!

Here are the aspects of 1.13 which, to me, seem important:

- Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.

- Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).

- Added new command line parameter '-nofixaspect' which allows users to not fix the aspect ratio to 4:3 when maximizing in windowed mode. This lets the game 'stretch' to fill your monitor.

So, yeah. You may now respec a character and the game looks slightly less shitty when played on a widescreen monitor resolution.

...

Totally worth the wait!

Update after having used the new -nofixaspect parameter:
Oh fuck this noise. It just stretches the regular windowed mode out to fit the widescreen monitor resolution...except it fucks up the mouse accuracy because where the mouse is gets stretched as well.

So this is a fucking retarded thing to utilize.

Maddow and the Hutaree Militia

Last night Maddow profiled the Hutaree Militia who were arrested by the FBI over the weekend.

Part 1

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Part 2

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Children's Choir: Still Alive

Ege02: Rape is not Physically Painful

This probably will not make sense to most of you, but every now and then I get nostalgic for PA threads of yesteryear. So I am making this post in order to simplify that search process when next I feel compelled to find the remnants of this particular thread.

You see, back around 2006 or 2007 the PA forums switched to vBulletin, and so all of the threads / posts made before then were lost. And one of the most treasured and magnificent threads was on the topic of rape, wherein Ege02 posted perhaps the most idiotic argument ever posted on the PA forums. You see, Ege02 was arguing that "rape is not physically painful" and, well, I'll just let you read it for yourself as it exists forever encapsulated in this animated .gif:

The conversation has since been turned into a short film, of sorts:



If I ever find that thread on some obscure website I will post it here. But for now this post shall simply serve as a storage location for the .gif and the link to the movie.

God damned Ege02 was a fucking tard.

I am not endorsing his argument, as that would be moronic, and I do not think this necessarily funny. It mostly serves as a reminder of how stupid forum conversations can get and how idiotic Ege was.

PAX East: Action Castle