OVO

Rita Swan heads Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty. A former Christian Scientist, she left the church when her toddler, Matthew, died of untreated meningitis. Her article Letting Children Die for the Faith had some pretty amazing claims about religious exemption from criminal prosecution. A bit of research on my part revealed that at one time Oregon law stated that parents could refused hearing tests for newborns, refuse to compel their children to wear bicycle helmets, refuse to give vitamin K to children with internal bleeding, and most remarakably of all, parents in Oregon were exempt from prosecution of homicide by abuse child abuse, neglect, manslaughter, criminal mistreatment, and criminal nonsupport – if they could demonstrate they abused or killed or neglected their child ‘religiously.’ After these laws were exposed, those laws excusing religious child abuse, neglect, manslaughter, criminal mistreatment, and criminal nonsupport were repealed. I don’t know about the hearing tests, bike helmets or vitamin K yet.

Avast! It’s Anne Bonny, pyrate!

Carvaka was a 100% atheist school of thought in ancient India. It suggested that religion was a racket to make priests rich and all the heaven and hell a person will ever know are found in a person’s single physical life. Few original Carvaka texts exist, and most of what we know about it is from the works of detractors. But here and there you can find out a little bit about Carvaka.

What’s so special about Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right BA Start?

It’s a Black Thing that I think we can all understand.

SimNASA is a group of aircraft and spacecraft hobbyist interested in simulating aeronautics and space operations over the Internet using Microsoft’s Flight Simulator and Orbiter.

Not too long ago I asked for letters of interest from those who would like to write for pleasant. This occured, by remarkable coincidence, at a time when my e-mail was down for a week or so. I am therefore compelled to ask again – would you like to write for pleasant? Write me and let’s talk!

Feed the Nine-Mouthed Baby.

This really happened and I read it so it must be true.

Dear Maid, Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way. Thank you, S. Berman

————————————————————————

Dear Room 238, I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily. I hope this is satisfactory. Kathy Relief Maid

————————————————————————

Dear Maid — I hope you are my regular maid. Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won’t need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc. Please remove them. S. Berman

————————————————————————

Dear Mr. Berman, My day off was last Wed. so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed by the management. I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn’t remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday. Please let me know if I can of further assistance. Your regular maid, Dotty

————————————————————————

Dear Mr. Berman, The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this A.M. that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM. Thank you. Elaine Carmen Housekeeper

————————————————————————

Dear Miss Carmen, It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 745 AM and don’t get back before 530 or 6PM. That’s the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bath-room shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap. Why are you doing this to me? S. Berman

————————————————————————

Dear Mr. Berman, Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM. Thank you, Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper

————————————————————————

Dear Mr. Kensedder, My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets. S. Berman

————————————————————————

Dear Mr. Berman, I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience. Martin L. Kensedder Assistant Manager

————————————————————————

Dear Mrs. Carmen, Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don’t want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial. Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here. All I want is my bath size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial. S. Berman

————————————————————————

Dear Mr. Berman, You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily (sic). I don’t know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don’t know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room. Elaine Carmen Housekeeper

————————————————————————

Dear Mrs. Carmen, Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess: On shelf under medicine cabinet – 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2. On Kleenex dispenser – 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3. On bedroom dresser – 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4. Inside medicine cabinet – 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2. In shower soap dish – 6 Camay, very moist. On northeast corner of tub – 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used. On northwest corner of tub – 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3. Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings. S. Berman

Forrest J Ackerman. Editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Owner of the collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror memorabilia (“In one corner there’s Bella Lugosi’s dracula cape, right next to a real coffin. There’s a “manta ray” spaceship model from WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953), and a shattered capitol dome from the Ray Harryhausen film EARTH VS FLYING SCAUCERS. There’s a top hat from one of Lon Chaney Sr.’s movie’s… One of my favorites, was on a top shelf — the ORIGINAL BRONTOSAURUS from KING KONG (1933) — the one who ate all the sailors… a little ragged, but still awesome after 70 years…” [source]). Now selling stuff on ebay from the Ackermansion Garage-Mahal.

An unauthorized copy of Nullsoft’s copyrighted software and source code was briefly posted on or about Wednesday May 28, 2003. The description included the following: “WASTE is a software product and protocol that enables secure distributed communication for small (on the order of 10-50 nodes) trusted groups of users. WASTE is designed to enable small companies and small teams within larger companies to easily communicate and collaborate in a secure and efficient fashion, independent of physical network topology. WASTE currently provides the following services: Instant Messaging (with presence), Group Chat, File browsing / searching, File transfer (upload and download).” If you downloaded or otherwise obtained a copy of the Software, you acquired no lawful rights to the Software and must destroy any and all copies of the Software, including by deleting it from your computer. Any license that you may believe you acquired with the Software is void, revoked and terminated. Any reproduction, distribution, display or other use of the Software by you is unauthorized and an infringement of Nullsoft’s copyright in the Software as well as a potential violation of other laws.

So don’t go here or here and get a copy, because that would be illegal.