More pagans offended:

The Sussex Archaeological Society has apologised to protesters after they allowed a controversial stunt by ITV to give the Long Man of Wilmington a sex change.

ITV and the archaeological society caused fury among Pagans and other protesters when they allowed fashion gurus Trinny and Susannah to add breasts and pigtails to the figure many believe is sacred.

As part of the programme, Trinny and Susannah Undress, ITV asked woman dressed in white to lie on the figure to create the transformation.

Chief Executive Office of the organisation, John Manley, said: 'The Sussex Archaeological Society would like to apologise to representatives of the Pagan community, or any other individual or groups, who might have been offended by recent television filming on the Long Man of Wilmington.

'It was not the society's intention to cause offence.

'The society is proud of its curation of the Long Man.

'In future the society will consult representatives of the Pagan community and other interested parties before sanctioning any significant activities.'

Newell Fisher was one of the protesters against the stunt and has now helped form a campaign group, Guardians of the Long Man.

As archaeological liaison officer of that group Mr Fisher said: 'We look forward to working with the Sussex Archaeological Society to help ensure the future welfare of the site.

'Our confidence in their custodianship has been restored.'

He said the protesters would continue their fight to stop the footage of the stunt being aired.

He said: 'We are absolutely determined this footage should not be shown as we feel it will encourage anti-social behaviour on the site.

'We heard people say they were going up there directly after the filming as the activities seem to make people think it is ok an we are extremely concerned about this.'

"Druids" (cough) gathered at Wilmington in an unrelated photo.  Note the close attention to authentic dress, especially the guy third from the left.  No doubt these "pagans" would be naught but tree food, were they to encounter any real druids.  The one on the far left must be one of those half-elven druids we keep hearing about.

Today we have no real knowledge of the druids, except that they existed and held various aspects of nature as sacred.  Their knowledge was apparently entirely oral in tradition, and not a prayer, song, verse, or folk legend has survived.  Anyone today who tries calling him/herself a druid is just being silly.

And this apparent flare-up of misogyny among the neo-pagans of Britain is kind of surprising, really.  I suppose as long as artists keep producing wonders like "P*ss Christ" everything is cool.  As long as they don't commit a temporary sex change on the long man.

From FOXNews.com:

When Guy and Genevieve Vang came to the United States 18 years ago, they thought they did everything they needed to do to raise their family and work legally in the United States.

They and their two children came to the United States from France, the country they fled to after they escaped war in Laos and Vietnam. They got working papers, filed for political asylum and waited.

They eventually opened up a restaurant, Bangkok 96, in Dearborn, Mich., and had two more children. But they continued to wait on word from the government about their asylum application.

The wait lasted more than 10 years.

And now, in fewer than 60 days unless Congress intervenes, they likely will be deported.

Things they did/are doing wrong:

1.  They didn't sneak in illegally.
2.  They became entrepeneurs and went into business for themselves, instead of working long hours at menial jobs for obscenely low wages.
3.  They speak English.

Via Fort Liberty.

Unalienable Rights reports on H.R. 1999, which will provide funds for the racist National Council of La Raza.

Take your blood pressure medicine, then go read all the links.

At WorldNetDaily:

Pastor Billy Ball, Assistant Pastor Doug Pitts, Frankie Primavera and Josh Pettigrew, all of Faith Baptist Church in Primrose, Ga., were arrested today after leaving the area set aside by city officials for protest activities. Bill Holt, of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Jefferson, Ga., was also taken into custody.

According to Lighthouse Pastor Kevin Whitman, the five men were told by police their signs were not allowed outside the protest area because they were wider than their torsos. When the men refused to put them away, they were arrested for violating a controversial city ordinance that governs permitted events.

"We had police officers tell us bigger people could carry bigger signs than smaller people – it all depended on how big your torso was," said Whitman, who, with several others, returned to the officially designated protest area rather than face arrest.

That's odd. I've never seen this "torso clause" in any copy of the First Amendment.

Of course, the "gay community" automatically gets an advantage when it comes to torso-width signs.

Via Conservative Scalawag.

New York:

A man celebrating his birthday with a bow and arrow in his apartment was charged with reckless endangerment after an errant shot shattered a window across the street, the district attorney's office said.

Two other arrows hit scaffolding on another building in the affluent East Side neighborhood when Noel Luria, 39, was shooting from his apartment into a target block mounted on his windowsill, police said. No one was injured.

What an idiot.

My advice:  if you can't hit a target from within your own apartment, give it up.

At WFTV.com:

An 11-year-old Ocoee boy was arrested for playing with a toy gun. Police said the arrest was necessary, because it was a safety issue.

The boy was using a rubber band gun and his father said the kid did nothing wrong, but police said they take it as a serious threat and the 11-year-old is facing felony charges.

The crime isn't very common, but Ocoee police said it is serious. It centers on an 11-year-old boy and his toy short-barreled shotgun.

[...]

Eyewitness News spoke to the father of the suspect on the phone. He said his son is out of juvenile detention and that a judge told him the case would be dropped. He also confirmed that the gun was black, but that it looked more like a stick than a gun.

So.  Not even Florida is free from hysterical knickers-knotting stick-ophobia.  Can't call it hoplophobia, because no weapons were involved.  Just a stick.  They have refrained from publishing a photo of said stick.  Too bad, because I have a feeling it would only serve to reinforce my contempt for this woman who soiled her silkies because of a rubber-band shooter.

However, I did Google one up.  No telling if this is the model in question or not, but you can see it at Think Geek.  Maybe she thought it was a Kill-O-Zap.

I must say, a rubber band shooter that releases 10 at once is extremely cool.  Man, I would never get to play with something like that if I bought one.  My son would never let me get my hands on it.  Although I could probably whack him several times with my single-shot rubber band shooter while he was reloading.

And that's not all.  I took a screen shot of the article this morning just in case it changed (so far, it hasn't).  Check it out (click to enlarge):


Yeah, you might need a soft cloth to wipe the irony off your screen right about now.

It's a good thing it wasn't a pineapple.

Via The Liberty Zone.

Bill lets you vote if you bring your what to the polls?

And how come some of these ID cards are judged to be twice as valuable as others? You can vote by showing your handgun permit. But if you show your fishing license, you have to show additional proof, like your sex change dossier.

Answer:  Let me know how many backgrounds checks were performed on you and how many sets of fingerprints you had to turn in to get a license to do something that isn't a constitutionally protected right in the first place.

What I don't get is how a photo ID badge from an employer is considered a valid ID.  If the employer is hiring illegal aliens and issuing them with photo badges, then suddenly they can vote.  That's beyond stupid.

Strange in San Antonio has been keeping up with the burning pile of mulch in Helotes, which is northwest of San Antonio.  Just go read that linked article to get a good update on all the head-butting and utter confusion among the various agencies involved in this.

On Christmas Day, a huge mulch pile starting burning.  No one yet has figured out why, but "authorities" immediately claimed arson since they couldn't think of anything better.The Texas state agency that inspects and okays big piles of mulch had been inspecting it and okaying it for years, so the owner wasn't culpable.  Then suddenly that agency said they had not been okaying it all those years (I suspect this was basically a lie, since they still haven't taken action against the owner and it's not like he could just hide this thing behind his garage all that time).

SAWS, one of the S.A.-area water companies who covers the Helotes area, said they'd supply the water to put it out.  Then they said they wouldn't.  So now BexarMet, a different water company that does not cover the Helotes area, said they would supply the water.  After all, the smoke from this thing has been choking the Helotians for several weeks now.

But there are other governmental agencies who say they can't, because run-off would contaminate the Edwards Aquifer, which provides water for most of Bexar County.

Meanwhile, the smoke continues to pollute the air in Helotes while all these agencies run around like a bunch of battling tops.

Typical.

This time it's a dolphin's toy.  At an ocean-theme park. 

The toy in question was a softball-sized glass jar containing a black substance and covered by a white substance, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said.

Who'd'a thunk a giant fake Oreo cookie could be mistaken for a bomb?

And sometimes just flat-out stupid, too.

Anchorage, Alaska:

The pastor at Anchorage First Free Methodist Church was mystified. Why was the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals chastising him? No animals are harmed in the church's holiday nativity display. In fact, animals aren't used at all.

People, however, do dress the parts - Mary, Joseph, the wise men, etc. The volunteers stand shivering at a manger on the church lawn in a silent tribute to Christmas.

The Rev. Jason Armstrong was confused by an e-mail this week from PETA, which admonished him for subjecting animals "to cruel treatment and danger," by forcing them into roles in the church's annual manger scene.

"We've never had live animals, so I just figured this was some spam thing," Armstrong said. "It's rough enough on us people standing out there in the cold. So we're definitely not using animals."

Jackie Vergerio, PETA's captive animals in entertainment specialist, said her organization tracks churches nationwide that use real animals in "living nativity scenes."

Seems the confusion started with the church's choice of phrase. PETA flagged Free Methodist's display as a "living nativity," and indeed, that's how the church describes it on its Web site.

To PETA, that means animals.

"Those animals are subject to all sorts of terrible fates in some cases," Vergerio said. "Animals have been stolen and slaughtered, they've been raped, they've escaped from the nativity scenes and have been struck by cars and killed. Just really unfathomable things have happened to them."

Yeah, like being killed and thrown in dumpsters by PETA.