Is this *really* in aid of legislation?

The problem with Philippine senate inquiries is that they're used mainly as opportunities for grandstanding by senators who have nothing better to do than hog the limelight. Instead of asking intelligent questions that can aid in crafting legislation, they opt for the ones that the cameras will carry. 

In the Kho affair, the senators failed to do basic research (please correct me if I'm wrong). Instead of asking about drugs (against which Philippine laws are adequate) they should've been more concerned about the mechanics and motivations of videotaping sexual encounters. 

A psychologist and an anthropologist should be there to give testimony as to the whether this behavior is normal. Given the number of cellphone cam pics circulating online and in social networking sites, one would think that, in urban areas at least and among the younger set, this isn't as weird as some lawmakers think it is. 

Then they should invite internet security consultants to give everyone an idea how digital videos are taken and how laptop security can be compromised. This is to establish the line where culpability should be drawn in the proposed law. (i.e. when can someone claim that his computer was "hacked?")

A good senator interested in this case would've read up on the interesting civil rights issues regarding cyberporn in the US. Like the grandma who was charged with child porn for taking pics of her grandkid in the bathtub. Or the 14 year old girl charged with distributing underage porn when she posted a topless pic on her MySpace. The arguments and opinions from constitutionalists would help craft a better cyberporn law. 

But no, they wanted Hayden and Katrina and Vicki Belo there, interrogated in front of TV cameras.  

Who's the voyeur now?

Do not delay

I saw a sedan last night at Glorietta with a sign inside the windshield saying "NHA Project, Do Not Delay."

Which got me thinking, Is there a housing crisis somewhere that, at 9:00 pm on a Wednesday, needs the National Housing Authority's presence? And how terrible is this crisis that the guy in the sedan needs to pick someone up from the mall (who cannot be delayed) to face it? It seems that there is more to housing than meets the eye.  

I used to assume that anyone who can't be delayed can request a police escort. Heck, even the lowliest konsehal can have one. It seems that it isn't the case. Underfunded agencies like the National Housing Authority, can only afford a laminated sign that says "NHA Project, Do Not Delay."

In fact, the NHA is so poor that they can't even afford to write a separate vision statement. Imagine that, their mission is the same as their vision. Which is understandable. After all, you need an entire weekend (at least) out of town on a corporate retreat/planning seminar in order to write a sentence saying what your agency does. Maybe that's what's so urgent that can't be delayed.

I hope they solve that crisis soon. I have high hopes though: the "Do Not Delay" sign is a step in the right direction. 

You were told it was recorded

What part of "this interview is being recorded" is so difficult to understand that GSIS has to throw the anti-wiretapping law against Cheche Lazaro to save face? Holy crap, she called the director and told her she was recording the conversation. If the director didn't want to be taped then she should've PUT THE FUCKING PHONE DOWN. 

But what's sadder is the presence of idiots defending the GSIS via letters to the editor.  

Yes, even that one

Years ago, probably during the Erap administration, Richard Gomez was supposed to be appointed to a presidential adviser position. His credentials were, of course, questioned and one of the issues brought up was that he didn't read books. Gomez countered by saying that he reads magazines naman. 

Naman, indeed. 

Thank goodness he didn't mention which magazines because if Reader's Digest* was among those I'd have been a few thousand pesos short thanks to a new TV screen. 

You can get current information from a magazine, along with digested facts and opinions. Some, like New Republic and McSweeney's and Wired, even border on brilliant. But you need to read books in order to consider yourself learned. 

And it's not just the content. The act of reading itself is a sign of intellectual maturity. The ability to spend over an hour of focused concentration on a single matter is a prerequisite for higher education.** An ability that isn't developed while poring over "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" or Richard Feynman's lectures. 

You practice while reading novels and stories and popular accounts of historical events. You read pop philosophy and pop science while preparing yourself for higher-level stuff. Heck, it isn't even preparation at all. The practice itself is fun. 

Books, even insipid pulp fiction, help develop a habit that leads to better learners and thinkers. In that sense all books are educational. 

Yes, even" Twilight."

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*I loved Reader's Digest when I was eight; back when I was stretching my reading muscles, the year before that summer when I read the entire Collier's encyclopedia. 

** Of course, spending over an hour on a magazine article doesn't count. Unless it's Playboy, and it's not actually an article. In which case, congratulations, sir, your wife must be a very happy woman. ;)

Get over it

So even Malacanang weighs in. 

Since when is having sex part of a doctor's profession? Or a "grave abuse of human rights?"

Hayden Kho -- doctor, model, and Vicki Belo's erstwhile boytoy -- may be a douchebag. He may engage in behavior that some people might call immoral or perverted. But did he do anything to cast aspersions on the medical profession? Enough to warrant calling for his license? 

If he secretly videotaped, say, a breast exam in his clinic and distributed it online, then he's doing something that betrays doctor-patient confidentiality. If he anaesthesized patients and had sex with them (videotaped or not), then that's rape. 

But making a sex tape isn't illegal. Distributing it, perhaps, but then again someone has to prove that it wasn't stolen from the guy's computer. So why all the fuss?

The video was done with both parties consenting. It wasn't a hidden camera thing. The couple did it for kicks. It's unfortunate that it got distributed publicly, but hey, that's a danger inherent in a digital, connected world. 

Oh, and Bong Revilla, before you start calling Kho a pervert and threaten to bring down your brand of moral justice on the guy, can you again give us a head count how many half-brothers and sisters you have? Ang lagay eh, masama lang ba yun pag kinunan na ng camera?

Get over it. 

  

Science Centrum blogger tour this Saturday

There are still slots for the Bloggers @ PSC event this Saturday, May 16th at the Science Centrum in Riverbanks, Marikina. Email bloggers@pfst.org if you want to register. Here are some reminders:

1. Registration is from 2pm-3pm.

2. The guided tour will start by 3pm. It will run for about an hour.
3. There will be a Q&A after the guided tour.
4. If you are going directly to PSC, here are your options:

Public Transport
Go to Gateway Mall Cubao. At the Aurora Blvd exit you will see FX shuttles. Take the one going to "SSS" and ask to be dropped off at Riverbanks. There are jeepneys plying the same route. (The PSC can provide transportation from Cubao, please email us to coordinate)

Private Vehicle
From Cubao take Aurora boulevard. After crossing Katipunan, take the flyover and follow the road until you see Riverbanks Center to your right. Park somewhere near the back.

From C5 take the Marikina shortcut after Libis area. You'll exit somewhere near Riverbanks

When you get to Riverbanks, Walk through two buildings until you see a Mang Inasal and a Figaro. Turn right. After ICT you'll see the PSC entrance to your right.

5. If you'd like to ride with us (pick-up point is Gateway Cubao), please email us on or before 4pm of Thursday (May 14). Kindly indicate your mobile number. The PSC is providing transportation.
6. You are free to take pictures or cam-cord the tour.
7. Free Wi-Fi access shall be provided if you wish to live-blog the event or post immediately afterwards
8. Bringing your kid/s to the event is allowed provided that you let us know by Thursday.

Stupid is as stupid does

LBC has a commercial featuring Edu Manzano as a spelling bee master. 

The idea is cute. Not exactly original*, but cute. 

Now some idiots want the ad pulled out because it "corrupts minors."

Board Member Shirley Araojo-Abundo also supported the move, saying the alarming LBC spot was similar to a powdered laundry soap ad in which a mother said that one was greater than two.

“Hindi po ito maiintindihan ng mga bata [Children will not understand this],” she said.

I'm sorry but if your kids are too stupid to understand that "remittance" isn't actually spelled L-B-C, then a commercial is the least of your problems.  

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*Everybody now: B-E-A-M means smile, smile kami pag Beam. 

Star Trek is dead. Long live Star Trek

The Good:

-- Karl Urban. Eomer gets his turn as Bones and is as crotchetty as DeForest Kelley. 

-- The redshirt dies

-- "I'm giving it all she's got."

-- Tribbles

-- Lens flares. The future's so bright. 

-- 300 years from now, the Beastie Boys are still cool. (But then again we already knew that from Futurama.)

The Bad:

-- Miniskirts. I love how they justified it (school uniforms), but still, they need to crawl up Jeffries tubes sometimes.  

-- Kobayashi Maru. I love how Kirk reprogrammed the computer in the (edit) Julia Ecklar novel (my first Star Trek book). More creative and more in character.

-- "Live long and prosper." Pilit.

-- Supernovas don't work that way. 

-- EDIT TO ADD: The big ball of red matter is a frakking Rambaldi device! I thought it was a shout out to Arthur Clarke's Asymptotic Drive. Heck, man, Slusho and Grunberg I can take... but this?

The Ugly:

-- So a foreman of a Romulan space mining operation gets pissed off that Spock failed to save his planet so he follows Spock's ship to the past and then, instead of warning his people that their sun will go nova, decides to destroy Federation planets. 

-- Meanwhile, Kirk, on academic suspension, gets smuggled by Bones onto the Enterprise, commits insubordination, then gets promoted to full Captain (of the flagship!) even before graduation. 

Ako Mismo?

Marcos: Ano ba'ng pinakamalaking problema ng Pilipinas? Komunismo? Pasismo?

Common Tao: Hinde. Ikaw mismo. Pati misis mo. 

* * * * *

The about us page of the "Ako Mismo" campaign contains some of the most idiotic drivel I've read online. Everything that is wrong with "advocacy campaigns" is present there. 

DDB's newest advocacy campaign has been getting a lot of attention to the agency's amazement. This has in fact given them more conviction to stand behind their cause and continue their crusade for positive change.

Then the folks at DDB are easily amazed. Only an idiot would take out ads on primetime, people it with big stars, pimp a web address, and then be surprised that people turn up. "Feeling grassroots" is what they are, expressing amazement that a campaign executed by a top ad agency gets attention. Spare me. 

But what really gets my goat* is that the campaign is basically NOTHING. Nothing in that site tells me what I am supposed to do or how that will help make my country better. Is typing in a "committment" supposed to change the world? Is signing up for a fucking dog tag supposed to change my country?

This "advocacy" is an insult to real people out there lobbying for laws, reporting on atrocities, organizing communities. To somehow think that a bunch of ad men with a faux viral campaign will change the world simultaneously scales the heights of naivete and plumbs the depths of cynicism. 

Now here's a better organization. And while they may not have the reach of Ako Mismo, I can personally vouch for (most of) the people who comprise the MGG. Heck, I love Ely and Arnel and Angel as much as the next guy, but give me Juana Change anytime.  

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*Please, I have so few goats left.