BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Banning true love

Before I start, today is the tenth anniversary of the suspension of shock website Goatse.cx ("goat sex" as the domain intends). Its front page featured a picture, entitled hello.jpg, showing a naked man stretching his anus with both hands, to approximately the width of his fist. The inside of his rectum is also clearly visible. Below his gaping anus, his dangling penis and scrotum are visible, as well as a golden ring on the ring finger of his left hand. This site became a notorious surprise image and Internet meme, and was — and, through external hosting, still is — used regularly for bait-and-switch pranks, preventing hot-linking in a hostile manner, and defacing websites, in order to provoke extreme reactions. On January 14, 2004, the domain name goatse.cx was suspended by Christmas Island Internet Administration for Acceptable Use Policy violations in response to a complaint, but many mirrors of the site are still available, remaining on display on many other websites. Christmas Island (an Australian dependency in the Indian Ocean) resident Rhonda Clarke was the one who filed the complaint that resulted in the suspension of Goatse.cx's domain name. For obvious reasons, I will not be posting the not-safe-for-work image here, but if you want to see what all the fuss is about, click here. Now that that ugly business is out of the way, I have something way uglier to complain about: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has signed into law a ban on same-sex marriage in Africa's most populous nation, a terrible decision which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry slammed yesterday. "Beyond even prohibiting same-sex marriage, this law dangerously restricts freedom of assembly, association, and expression for all Nigerians," he said in a statement. "People everywhere deserve to live in freedom and equality. No one should face violence or discrimination for who they are or who they love." Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, characterized the law as a "big setback for human rights for all Nigerians." Homosexuality is illegal in most African nations based on remnants of sodomy laws introduced during the British colonial era and perpetuated by cultural beliefs. Punishments across the continent range from fines to years in prison, just for something a person can't choose. That does not seem right. Speaking of not right, two people were shot at a movie theater in Wesley Chapel near Tampa, Florida, in an incident that occurred almost 18 months after James Holmes shot at dozens of moviegoers in Colorado during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. The shooter was identified as 71-year-old Curtis Reeves, a retired Tampa police officer. He has been arrested on a charge of second-degree homicide. According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Chad and Nicole Oulson got into an argument with Reeves and his wife, who were sitting behind them during previews for the 1:20 p.m. showing of the war movie Lone Survivor. The argument began when Reeves became upset about noise the couple was making while texting on a cell phone. Reeves asked Oulson to stop several times, and that at one point he got up and left the theater, then returned to his seat. Oulson then asked if Reeves had reported him to theater management for using his phone, and the two men began to argue. At some point, Reeves shot Oulson in the chest. His wife Nichole put her hand up to her husband's chest as Reeves shot him, trying to stop the bullet.