Pics, Clips, & Epiphany

Sunday, Aug. 13, 2006 - 12:07 p.m.

I was noodling around in Wikipedia, and found a link to Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii.

He was alive from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century, and he documented the Russian Empire from 1909 - 1915...with color photography.

The pictures he took of the monasteries are absolutely beautiful, but truly sumptuous images are those of the gold inlayed relics and icons that were present within those monasteries.

There's a link in the Wikipedia article to his color photography collection which is located at the Library of Congress, and you can browse it online.

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I was just listening to Newstalk ZB, which is a talk show out of New Zealand, and here's the hot topic:

A Wellington barber shop is being taken to the Human Rights Commission for sexual discrimination because it refused to cut a woman's hair.

Swan Barbers says it has a policy of not cutting women's hair. This infuriated student Maddy Drew who had been a loyal customer of Swan Barbers for five years. In May, everything changed when the barber, a woman, refused to cut Drew's hair. "She said to me she couldn't serve me because I was a woman. She said it was company policy."

Drew, 24, said she left feeling "really upset". With a ball to go to the next night she needed a haircut quickly. In the past, the staff at Swan Barbers told her that while it was against company policy to cut women's hair, they'd cut hers if no one in management was looking. They told her they liked the fact she always knew exactly what she wanted: a number three, short back and sides with scissors on the top for texture.And Drew had been happy at Swans. She liked the cuts, the sport on TV and the hot towels. "I left feeling refreshed and tidier than just having a brush-down." She said when she was told she couldn't have her hair cut, she felt shamed in front of the other customers. She complained to the Human Rights Commission who told her they had several complaints about barbers.

It is an offence under the Human Rights Act to deny services to someone because of their race, colour, ethnic or national origin.

Drew's case will test the principle in terms of gender. Her sexual discrimination claim against Swan Barbers goes to mediation on August 24.

The problem is widespread in Wellington. Massey University student Anne Marie Emerson cannot believe the attitude of barbers in Wellington after she was refused service at three stores. "All I wanted as a number five all over, the easiest cut in the whole world. No different from anything a man would ask for." Emerson goes to a barber because hairdressers refuse to shave her hair. She likes the fact she does not need an appointment at a barbers and she likes their price. She could not believe three did not want her money. "I find it so bizarre. In Palmerston North, Auckland, Napier and Tasmania, I can get a shave with no trouble. Here in Wellington - a supposedly liberal, happening kind of place - I'm rejected because I'm a woman."

What a strange policy. Who the hell CARES which gender asks for a haircut in a barbershop?

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Friends, I have had an epiphany.

As you know, one of the stated goals of the fundamentalist cowards -- oops, I mean terrorists -- is to make sure we infidels alter the way we dress, and give up alcohol, and makeup, and most creature comforts.

Well.

I want you all to think about what's happening with people who have to travel by air now.

In a twisted sort of way... our government is giving them their wish.

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Anyway. That's it. Have a good Sunday.

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