Did you know that deaf people can use the phone? It's called a relay service. They type into a special keyboard and the relay operator speaks for them. Well, apparently Capital One customer service didn't know either and thus violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by telling this girl that she is shit out of luck with her card.

Although this is probably to protect against fraud, by law, they need to have alternatives for the Deaf.

This is a very, very disturbing video. Unfortunately it is easy to jump to a judgement on this one. A student, who's name is ironically Mostafa Tabatabainejad, failed to show id at the campus library and was asked to leave. He refused. The id checker (who is probably another student or an old lady) called campus police and by the time they got there, he had his backpack on and was trying to leave the library. They officers tried to grab his arm (perhaps to escort him out?) at which he yelled, rather girlishly, "GET OFF OF ME!" (I say girlishly because they didn't really do anything to him so far). At that point they tasered him. Personally I think that taser was WAY out of line. But then they tried to get him to stand up and walk out and he refused. So they tasered him again and again until finally he walks out with them. All during this, students are yelling at the cops who were probably scared there would be some sort of riot (unfounded fear...college students of today are pussies compared to the college students of the 60s).

Well, UCLA students are going ape-shit about this. But lets balance the equation a bit.

Bad Student:
He didn't have ID.
He refused to leave at first.
He refused to stand up and walk out.

Bad Cops:
They stopped him from leaving.
They tasered him at the first sign of trouble.
They threatened people asking for their names with tasering.

Bad Crowd:
Asking the cops for their names while they are trying to deal with a situtation (asking a cop for his name while he is tasering someone? shut the fuck up and ask after the situation is dealt with)

That makes it even, right? Here is a link to the UCLA student paper. Here is a link to the local news station's coverage which, I think does a better job.

Reporters without Borders, a French journalism group, has released the top 13 countries that are on its shit list. Hopefully the "Bad Words" at the bottom of my pages have me banned from those countries.

Boingboing has been covering this story for quite a while. Here is a quick summary:

- Bank of America Customer receives a suspicious check and asks a teller to investigate it.
- Teller shows check to manager who calls the cops.
- Customer is arrested and spends $14,000 in his defense.
- BoA decides not to reimburse him
- Customer tells the world and lots of people pull their money out of BoA
- Estimated lost - $50,000,000 ($70,000 just from BoingBoing readers alone - as of this writing)

Paul assures me that Citizen's Bank would NEVER be so careless with its customer service.

The Canadian army using maple syrup and hockey sticks has broken the back of the Taliban insurgency near the town of Kandahar.

The Huffington Post has found more information on Rev Haggard's escort, including the ad that caught his attention.

Want go into the ladies room with a penis? Just SAY you are a woman and in New York, you can change your birth certificate!

This is an amatuer photographer that decided to stand in the middle of a marathon to get some good shots. The only problem was that she was in the runners path.