Mount Etna Explodes In Sicily. : Am I the only person who thinks of a really mad old woman throwing a tantrum here? Anyway, Etna is pissed, she exploded into awesome badassery and caused an epic dust-thunder storm. Etna is the most active volcano in Europe and she is terrifying and totally beautiful. The pics are incredible.
7 Things American Can Learn From Italians via Huffington Post: I’m on board with all of them except number seven because who has time to live your life based on what your village thinks of you? How boring.
The Vatican Like You’ve Never Seen It Before: An impressive light show recently transformed the Vatican into a breathtaking light show and you have to see it. It’s truly amazing. “The light show has the blessing of Pope Francis, who released an encyclical on climate change earlier this year, said Louie Psihoyos, another curator and director of the film “Racing Extinction.”‘
Lombardy Bans Burkas: Lombardy, the Nazi right-wing region of Italy makes the decision to ban burkas in public, because religious freedom can suck a di%k.
I’ll be the first (as the daughter of a middle eastern man) to say that I’ve never understood the concept of women covering their head or face. It’s a bit weird in my opinion. I have relatives that do it. My aunt is currently sitting on my dad’s couch with her hair covered. It’s adorable and I love her, I respect her religion and her choices. BUT the whole idea of modesty, blah, blah, blah, is just kind of stupid to me. Vaginas OUT everyone. But really, hiding yourself from everyone but your husband is a little bit like Oliver peeing on stuff he likes, it’s a little bit “MINE, DON’T LOOK AT IT.” I know that a lot of women choose to do it for their faith, to follow their religion, a lot of women love the whole modesty thing, and in some countries women do it to protect themselves from a man’s creepy gaze (and also a scarf looks badass with a giant ponytail and eyeliner if you’re Persian). But maybe we could just raise our men to have self control, take their entitlement away, and tell them that being rapey is bad. I want to punch people in the face all the time, but I don’t because that would be frowned upon by some people. So dudes, don’t be shitty, and then some women won’t feel like they should wear tents in public.
Also, I get that old books from a long time ago had a big thing with women covering their heads, all those dudes that wrote those holy books had some weird “veil fetish,” I get it. It’s hot. Super religious Jewish women are supposed to cover their heads, Muslims, even christian women covered their hair for a long time. In my opinion it’s a little sexist because men don’t have to cover their faces or heads (except Jewish men a little but I don’t think it’s for the same reason) and I suspect that it might have something to do with mens bias since they wrote the books. HOWEVER, HOWEVER, I’m a firm believer in religious freedom. I believe that everyone should be able to live their lives according to whatever archaic book they believe in (or a new one if you’re Mormon). Personally, I think that “going fourth and populating” (ahem) is a little more dangerous than walking around the street dressed like a ninja everyday (because we have limited planet resources so fucking stop with the ten kids because my kids will want air and water too, damnit). I can’t imagine believing that God told me I have to do something, like wear a burka, then Lombardy telling me I can’t. That would be rough and stressful and alienating. Basically, just let people practice their shit even if you think it’s weird. Unless it’s like the crusades, or an eye for an eye, or throwing babies on rocks, or any of the other sort of murdery weird shit in ALL of those old books. Just be nice. Everyone be nice. Live and let live, ya’ll. And let people wear whatever they want if it’s important to them and their faith.
