Pinochet registers his disapproval of strippers from beyond the grave
-Protest or public service?-
Monserrat Morilles, AKA La Diosa del Metro or "Subway Goddess," was arrested in Santiago, Chile for poledancing and stripping -- on the subway.
According to the report, The Goddess "danced on the poles of Santiago subway trains to challenge the prudishness of Chilean society..." That protest got her arrested Thursday. She'd been doing it for a week before police realized she had a schedule -- I guess Santiago police aren't real quick on the uptake.
Chile is probably the most conservative South American nation, a holdover from late dictator Augusto Pinochet's fascist regime. Morilles, on the other hand, represents "the first generation since the Pinochet dictatorship... reaching adulthood." To give us an idea of what the old guard is up against, Reuters helpfully provides video.
Here's hoping this new generation of Goddesses of Chile win this one. They're a lot more fun than fascist sourpusses.
I think the fact that Reuters has the video makes them the most awesome wire service ever. (Reuters)
-Headline of the day-
"Church lures teenagers with assault rifle giveaway."
Or "Who would Jesus perforate with hot lead?"
According to the report, "An Oklahoma church canceled plans for a gun giveaway Friday at its annual youth conference, a local news station reported." You'd have to imagine that the disappointment wasn't widespread.
This isn't a .22 varmint rifle we're talking about here, it was a "AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle." The gun was to be awarded as a prize in a shooting competition.
"I don’t want people thinking 'My goodness, we’re putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn’t respect it who are then going to go out and kill,'" said youth pastor Bob Ross. "That’s not at all what we’re trying to do." What they're trying to do is, of course, irrelevant. What they're doing is handing out a high-powered rifle to someone whose demographic isn't known for having the best judgment.
After this embarrassment, Windsor Hills Baptist Church doesn't plan to give away a gun to a kid next year -- they'll award a new Hummer to the winner of a beer drinking contest. (Raw Story)
-Bonus HotD-
"Opponents say San Francisco sewer plant too ‘useful’ to be named after Bush."
The renaming of the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to "the George W. Bush Sewage Plant" hits another snag. As I've reported in the past, the sewage plant was offended by the comparison.
Now, Oceanside has allies in defending its honor. Says the head of the renaming effort, Brian McConnell, "What we didn’t expect was that most of the opposition was coming from people who didn’t want to name anything. They just wanted to forget about the past eight years and move on or they felt that this is a facility that does something really quite useful and it would be inappropriate to put his name on it. […] If you get to the point where people are defending the sewage plant, that’s a sign that things have not gone so well."
I was for the renaming, now I'm torn. The sewage plant actually serves some useful purpose to society, Dubya does not. Maybe they should go with the "We Were Gonna Name this After Bush, But it Turned Out to be Useful" sewage plant.
Call it a compromise. (Think Progress)
