The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants: The proposed new  Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers’ and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother’s address one year prior to your birth; any “religious ceremony” around the time of birth; and a variety of other information.  According to the proposed form, “failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application.”

The State Department estimated that the average respondent would be able to compile all this information in just 45 minutes, which is obviously absurd given the amount of research that is likely to be required to even attempt to complete the form.

What. The. Fuck.

And don’t bother looking to Europe for roughneck role models. Soccer teammates over there are known to occasionally kiss one another smack on the mouth after goals. (There’s even been evidence of post-goal cuddling.)

And according to a study released last fall by Bath University in England, “same-sex lip-locks among straight men are the norm in British universities and high schools.”

In the States, however, any physical gesture beyond the bro hug — well, it’s enough to shut down YouTube comments, apparently. Here, “homophobia is still alive and well,” said Dr. Dale Archer, a psychiatrist who practices in Lake Charles, La. “This is partly due to a variety of religious and cultural attitudes, but it’s mainly based on fear. Fear that somewhere deep inside us lurks a homosexual side and if we’re not very careful this will break free and take control of our world, and of us.”

Unlike those in Europe, many in the U.S. can’t seem to imagine that sometimes a hug is just a hug.

“Athletes go to war all season long — but under the microsope of the American eye, [if they show] anything more than the man hug or bro hug, America spends its time judging or questioning,” said Phil Dembo, a St. Louis relationship coach. (It's worth noting here that Barbosa -- he of the hand-holding -- isn't American; he's Brazilian.)

In fact, for some American guys, even the man hug is crossing a line. 

Unbelievable.

 
This is perplexing. And annoying. And infuriating.

I woke up this morning to an email from Facebook with the subject “Facebook Warning”:

“Hello,

Content that you shared on Facebook has been removed because it violated Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Shares that contain nudity, or any kind of graphic or sexually suggestive content, are not permitted on Facebook.

This message serves as a warning. Additional violations may result in the termination of your account. Please read the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities carefully and refrain from posting abusive material in the future. Thanks in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

The Facebook Team”

Ah…yeah… it seems that the sight of two fully-clothed men kissing was too much for Facebook, or too much for some closet-case asshole (Hi Jerry! Remind me why you and I are “friends” again? I sure didn’t ask to be yours, pal…) who complained about it. The photo appeared here on Dangerous Minds in the context of Niall’s post about the “kiss in” demonstration that was cooked up, ironically ON FACEBOOK ITSELF, in London to protest against the rude treatment two gay patrons experienced at a pub called The John Snow. The two men, Jonathan Williams, 26, and Jamie Bull, 23 were sitting in a corner kissing when the owner asked them to leave. Over 750 people signed up for the protest.

Oh, WAIT A MINUTE, I went to check on the Facebook page that organized The John Snow pub protest... and it’s gone, too.

WTF, FB?

I’ve written to Facebook asking them why this content was removed, but have at this point received no reply. I’ll update this post when I do. In the meantime, why not share this photo on FB as much as you can? I’m hoping they’ll restore the post as it was so everyone can pile on the jerk who wrote all the homophobic stuff on my FB wall. I think that’s the best outcome here, Jerry getting a taste of his own medicine…

In any case, the protest went off last night against The John Snow pub, with protesters chanting “We’re here, we’re queer and we won’t buy your beer.” You can see the BBC News report here.

Thank you and have a great weekend. Join Dangerous Minds on Facebook.

UPDATE:

(Thanks for this, Robyn Webb!)
 

Just one more reason for me to hate fucking facebook. *sigh*

Voilà. Ben moi y'a beaucoup de ça. Mais je ne suis pas certaine que si j'envoie le lien vers la vidéo à mes collègues ça va les faire rire...

Currently still stuck on Phase 1... Clearly need to go make MOAR COFFEE.

I need to translate this and send it to my work colleagues. Seriously. only one of them uses gmail and she's the only one who sort of knows her way around a computer. >_

Really love this, wow.

Brilliant video, love it.

Rock-Paper-Scissors: You vs. the Computer

Computers mimic human reasoning by building on simple rules and statistical averages. Test your strategy against the computer in this rock-paper-scissors game illustrating basic artificial intelligence. Choose from two different modes: novice, where the computer learns to play from scratch, and veteran, where the computer pits over 200,000 rounds of previous experience against you.

This is kind of scary awesome...

WATCH.

Instead of getting into all that, however, let's consider the original source of Docx's concern: the enormous popularity of Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and the novels of Dan Brown. Certainly, these writers are far from the best their genres have to offer. Even the most vehement of genre champions will not argue that either man is a good, or even adequate, stylist. (Larsson himself seems to have been well aware that he was no Hemingway.) Rather, they are both, in many respects and apart from the whole genre question, fairly bad writers. So why do so many people devour their books?

A very interesting article. I personally could not get through Larsson's and Brown's books (dreadful style and grammar that were hitting to many of my pet peeves for me to get over them) but I did have great fun reading "Twilight" and other clichés riddled books.

Bweeeee!

My heart, you guys, it melted. And Goodness knows I have NEVER found ANYTHING having to do with Justin Bieber cute in any kind of way. I'm more a "Ewwwwwww! Bieber, ewwwwwwwwwww!" kinda girl but seriously, this is beyond adorable.

Well, and beyond worrying, too. Because dear Lawd. That poor girl. Bieber fever at 3? I don't want to imagine her life as a teen, yo.

NEW YORK, NY – According to Publishers Weekly, a new edition of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn will omit all uses of the ‘n’ word!

Readers have long complained about the use of racial slurs in Mark Twain’s novels. His book Huckleberry Finn had been banned in over 700 public schools across the country for its use of the ‘n’ word and phrases like “Injun.”

But after receiving too many complaints from infuriated readers, NewSouth Books, the publishers of Huckleberry Finn, have finally decided to remove the ‘n’ word from the book.

“We’re just giving the people what they wanted,” said Mark Firestein, CEO of NewSouth Books. “Readers wanted the ‘n’ word out, so we took it out. We also took out the words nevertheless, nitpicket, and nuts – just to be safe.”

What. The. Fuck.

I saw this video a few days ago but it's still the best thing ever, even days later! It makes me want to see if my own kitties would enjoy a bath as much as this one clearly does... I suspect not.

Won't make much sense to the English speaking people on the flist/tlist, but for those who speak French and like me, grew up reading her exploits, this might be interesting. It certainly made me laugh!

That's... surprisingly spot on, lol.

Polls show more than 70% support for France's strikers, despite the inconvenience of fuel shortages and other disruptions. The French are already sick of their rightist government, and that is also part of what is generating the protests. Despite the recent electoral weakness of the Socialist party, France has a stronger left than many other countries do, and one that has the ability and willingness to organise mass protest, work stoppages and educational campaigns.

The French are, in effect, fighting for the future of Europe – and it is a good example for others. We can only hope that, here in the United States, we will be able to beat back any proposed cuts to our much less generous social security system, with attacks on benefits looming on the horizon.

Sarkozy should indeed retire. But then again, we elected him (I didn't, but we as a country sure did). People need to think ahead more before giving their votes to a dangerous asshole.