Comments?

Fist, this fantastically silly story from the Telegraph:

Satanist father and Christian mother fight for Sunday morning custody rights

Kristie Meyer has cited the religious beliefs of her former husband, Jamie, as the main reason why an Indiana judge should restrict his visitation rights. … However, legal experts have warned that the American Constitution prevents judges from showing a religious preference. …Mr Meyer may now be asked to prove that Satanism, which he says is about celebrating man’s desires rather than worshipping the devil, is a real faith.

Sounds to me like an eminently sensible faith, compared at least to Christianity.

Meanwhile, legal observers say his former wife may have to show that Satanism - which is recognised as a religion by the US Internal Revenue Service - is harmful to their daughters’ upbringing. Mrs Meyer has argued that her ex-husband’s public expression of satanic beliefs has embarrassed their children.

Can you really legislate on the basis that parents mustn’t embarrass their children?

Pat Roberts, her lawyer, has asked the judge to order Mr Meyer to drop off the children at his ex-wife’s church so they can attend with her during his visitation time. “Frankly, (it) can be emotionally damaging or confusing to children when they’re faced with these two different forms of worship,” Mr Roberts told the Chicago Tribune.

Yes, if you go around exposing children to alternative viewpoints, the indoctrination might not work. Honestly, I can’t see any other way of reading this.

… “Allowing them to go to church for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning is… not unreasonable.”

I think it is, but probably for a different reason. I hope that reason prevails in this case, and honestly I think it will.

Also, in case you missed it, here’s a comic I drew at Ghost Hamster.

Now, below the fold, some replies I sent to 419-scammers which the scammers did not respond to.

From: joanna_benz44@yahoo.com.hk
To: joanna_benz@yahoo.com

Greetings!

I have been waiting for you since to contact me for your Confirm able Bank Draft of $800.000.00 United States Dollars, but I did not hear from you since that time. Then I went and deposited the Draft with TNT COURIER SERVICE, West Africa, I travelled out of the country for some Months Course and I will not come back till the end of September.

What you have to do now is to contact the TNT COURIER SERVICE as soon as possible to know when they will deliver your package to you because of the expiring date. For your information,I have paid for the delivering Charge, Insurance premium and Clearance Certificate Fee of the Cheque showing that it is not a Drug Money or meant to sponsor Terrorist attack in your Country. You are advice to contact the courier services immediatey

Again, I would have paid for the Security Keeping fee but they refused because they said they don’t know when you will contact them and in case of demur rage. You have to contact the TNT COURIER SERVICE now for the delivery of your Draft with this information, All you have to do is contact or furnish TNT COURIER SERVICE with your identification for verification of the details there in their office: send them the following details

Names in full, ………….
Residential Address ……………
Telephone number, ……….

Contact Person: Mr. James Collins
Email Address: tnt_courierservices1@hotmail.com
Telephone:+234-803-296-6083

Contact them there and know when the Draft will get to your address, Let me repeat again, try to contact them as soon as you receive this mail to avoid any further delay and remember to pay them their Security Keeping fee of $285.00 US Dollars for their immediate action.

You should also let me know through email as soon as you receive your Draft.

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Joanna Benz

I replied

Mrs Benz

Are you sure it’s safe to contact a TNT courier? That sounds dangerous to me. What if it goes off?

Andrew

She ignored me.

From: donotreply@worldheinekenlottry.com
To: donotreply@worldheinekenlottry.com

HEINEKEN PROMOTIONAL GAMES
#54 SCHOOL GATE PLACE,STAMFORD BRIDGE,
LONDON,SW1V 3DW.
UNITED KINGDOM.

“Heineken Light Champions” Promotion Notification.

Dear Winner,

This is to inform you of the Award of Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds Sterling (£500,000 GBP) from Heineken Beer Company Promotions.

This promotional award is to raise the profile of Heineken beer males and females consumers aged 18 to 85 in rural and urban areas to support their spirit of Sportsmanship.

This promotion programme was successful through the help of our online built email lists which were generated through the World Wide Web (www) and Microsoft Network.

This promotion takes place annually to challenge and to take market shares from the popular Dutch import beer Heineken.

In this programme, the tactics includes live events, local campaigns and general buzz to establish the brand one neighborhood relationship at a time in major urban / rural areas to support the spirit of Sportsmanship.
Your Email falls within our United Kingdom booklet representative’s office.

In view of this, your award of Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds Sterling (£500,000 GBP) will be released to you by our offshore payment office in United Kingdom.

You are to contact your claim agent immediately upon the receipt of this email notification.

Dr. Maxwell Duke
London, United Kingdom
drmaxwellduke@worldheinekenlottery.com
Tel: + 44 704 578 4961

Your award verification number is: heineken/014/4474/08, Verification Pin Code: 001144UK.

You are to contact your claim agent with your above verification number and pin code for the release of your award.

Your claim agent will commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact him.

Congratulations

Yours in service,

Mrs. Mary White
Promotional Secretary

Note: Do not reply directly to this email, contact your claim agent for release process.

I replied:

Dear Dr Duke,

This promotion is a good idea. Heineken currently has a poor profile here. Just a thought, though: have you tried making the beer taste better? It’s not cheap or widespread enough to compete with Fosters or Carling, but it’s not really nice enough to compete with Stella or Staropramen.

Also the branding and advertising doesn’t have a consistent message or feel to it. I’m surprised you even have £500,000 to give away.

Andrew

I got no answer.

I can’t help shake the feeling this would make a great T-shirt. (Or at least my hi-res version would.)

As before, the source code is available, so you can see just how little has changed and just how easily you could have done this yourselves, you lazy bottoms.

Jump Leads is Ben Paddon’s new project. Well, I say “new”. Actually it’s about a year old now, but it’s just starting to really Go Places. He’s had the concept for a year or so, and he’s been writing it for about as long, but only recently has he found an artist to draw the actual comic. So the website will launch on the 6th. There are a few ‘episodes’ written, each of which will update one page at a time like a comic syndicated in a newspaper. These have been written variously by Ben, Euan and myself. I hear Friz is also officially on the list but hasn’t actually finished anything yet.

The second website is Channel Flip, which is Friz’ new project. (I have refrained from linking to Friz’ website since it appears to have turned into pornography, presumably after he let the domain lapse.) It describes itself as a satirical TV blog. It has updates from Friz, Paul, someone called Joey and myself. It updates rather more, and officially launches on last Friday.

As well as these, you can (hopefully) still cee me here and on RealVG. I just can’t stop blogging.

Earlier today I went to the pub to meet a friend. I was a few minutes late, but he’d said he’d perhaps be “a bit late”. He turned up fully one hour late, to the wrong pub, and then texted my housemate, whom he hadn’t invited, to explain this. After I’d left. Having assumed I wasn’t going to have finished having dinner yet.

I looked up the lyrics on a website just to be sure. And it had Google ads, which offered to sell me almost all the items I’d lost. How lovely, in a misguided kind of a way.