Pope Compares Fighting Homosexuality to Saving Rainforests

Today, Pope Benedict XVI made a statement which once again showed that he is not the meek, old man that liberals were hoping for. According to Reuters, Pope Benedict stated that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

The Church "should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed," the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration.

"The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less."

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound."

The pope said humanity needed to "listen to the language of creation" to understand the intended roles of man and woman. He compared behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction of God's work."

He also defended the Church's right to "speak of human nature as man and woman, and ask that this order of creation be respected."

VLC Christmas Suprise

I recently downloaded the newest version of the open-source multi-media player VLC. I was watching the Great Raid last night and I noticed something interesting. VLC's icon, the yellow road work cone, has a Santa hat in it. I had not noticed before. I think that it must have been built into the code for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

NEW STOCK MARKET TERMS

CEO --Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO-- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER -- What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use.

The Saudi Ambassador and President Bush

The Saudi Ambassador to the UN has just finished giving a speech, and walks out into the lobby where he meets President Bush.

They shake hands and as they walk the Saudi says, "You know, I have just one question about what I have seen in America ."

President Bush says "Well your Excellency, anything I can do to help you, I will do. The Saudi whispers "My son watches this show 'Star Trek' and in it there are Russians, and Blacks, and Asians, but never any Arabs. He is very upset. He doesn't understand why there are never any Arabs in Star Trek."

President Bush laughs and leans toward the Saudi, and whispers back, "It's because it takes place in the future...."

Three Men Sitting

Three men are sittin' on a bench. One's a Texan wearing a Stetson, one's a
Muslim wearing a turban, and the last an Apache with an eagle feather woven
in his hair.

The Indian is rather glum and says, "Once my people were many, but now we are few."

The Muslim puffs up and says, "Once my people were few, but now we are many millions."

The Texan adjusts his hat, finishes rolling a smoke, leans back and drawls, "That's cause we ain't played cowboys and Muslims yet."

A Patriotic cartoon

Watch Make Mine Freedom (1948) in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

YouTube gives Hulu a runs for its money

Today, YouTube has done something that has previously been unthinkable.  They started offering full-length TV episodes.  (Don't worry.  This is official CBS content, not pirated.)

For a long time now, Google has been trying to make a profit off of YouTube.  They have been also facing legal problems from Viacom because of the pirated content that has become prevalent on YouTube.

And they have done it.  Today, Google started a test run by offering a limited number of full TV episodes from Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210, and MacGyver.  

Once you open the page, it looks like an ordinary YouTube video page, until you select the "Theater view" tab above the video.  Then the picture widens and looks strangely like Hulu with dark strips on either side to make the video easier to see.

As with Hulu, ads are dispersed throughout.  In many ways, it almost looks like a copy of Hulu taken one step better.

Overall, this is a big step for Google and TV on the web.  TV has been slowing coming to the web and now that Google giving a hand, things will start to move faster.  In the future, I expect to see GoogleTV.