england's prince harry went as a nazi to a costume party and everybody's outraged. the simon wiesenthal center urged him to visit auschwitz, tony blair's office tried to stay out of it even as a spokesman said "clearly and error was made" and harry already apologized, saying it was a poor choice of costume

now, had he dressed up as the devil himself, would anyone have complained? or would all the little english girls already in love with him be clamoring for photos of the devilish bad boy?

dressing up in a costume does not mean one supports whatever that costume may be. you dress as spider-man, that doesn't mean you were bitten by a radioactive spider. you dress as a vampire, that doesn't mean you drink blood or support the drinking of blood. you dress as a witch, it doesn't mean you cast spells. you dress as a ballerina, that doesn't mean you even have any coordination, let alone great dancing skill. and, dressing as superman does not mean you can fly

and, dressing up as a nazi for a fucking costume party does not mean you support killing joys or invading poland or even enjoy german food. and, it is not in poor taste to wear a costume that offends someone

in personal news, i was a little proud of myself during lost last night. see, i've read books by the likes of daniel quinn (ishmael, my ishmael, the story of b, etc.) and i generally subscribe to the negative view as to what the agricultural revolution has done to humanity, the makeshift prison in which it has confined our culture. so, on lost last night, even after they've pointed out that there is fruit all over the place and their diets are lacking in, if anything, protein, they reveal that sun has started a garden, and yay for them, it's presented like a great idea, a wonderful solution, nevermind that there still would be a lack of protein if not for the few fish jin has been catching, as locke has not been getting any boar of late. thing is, in this very episode, it was pointed out how easily and readily available fruit was, that it was all over the damn place. 48 (less now) survivors on a tropical island, and they need a fucking garden? the plants are already growing. the fruit is already there. you don't need to line it all up and mass grow it. figure their mystery island to have a big population explosion once these folks get over the trauma of their crash and get horny

what made me proud there, you ask. well, i was proud that my dislike of their garden idea (a la the big failure of the main character in the mosquito coast), their insistence on forcing the island to fit their civilized ideals, came so naturally. i didn't have to think of it later. as soon as i saw their garden, i was annoyed, wishing that with all the veiled (and not so veiled) reference to philosophy and human nature (as animal or not) that the writers would be smart enough to have someone (even if it had to be creepy ol locke) suggest they didn't need a damn garden

maybe that invisible monster is mother culture's little sister, and the garden will be the last straw that gets her to start slaughtering these pesky little fleas that crashed onto her island

and, i'm tired of people pointing out the incomplete fossil record as the perfect refutation of the theory of evolution. so we haven't recovered the remains of every animal that ever lived. big fucking deal. have these theists never heard of decay or decomposition? what we have found, however much you might think it looks like it comes in bursts of change, is plenty enough to refute creation, certainly. even if you take the genesis account of creation as man's metaphor for what god did, doesn't taking millions of years to create all the various forms of life (not to mention, letting all the dinosaurs die, not a very good job on the part of an omnipotent creator) kinda make god look a little pathetic and powerless?

or are we to jump to the intelligent design theory: god created stuff then sat back. hell, let's go with the theory that there was a big bang but god started it and hasn't done a thing since. thing is, then, what point is there in worshipping said god? what point is there in even acknowledging him? if he is such a hands off god, then he has placed the universe in the hands of the scientists not the religious folks. or was he only hands off accept for when he talked to noah and moses and david and all those other bibilical folks? if we side with the religious people, we have to accept a hands on god, and that does not fit with dinosaurs or everyday evolution

and, that just won't do