Working In Mysterious Ways

A zoo in Manchester England is celebrating the hatching of some new Komodo Dragons. But not just ANY baby Komodo Dragons! These are special, because the mother lizard has never had any male contact. Yes, it is a lizard virgin birth. A miracle.

My spy sources snapped this photo. According to the article (click the link) other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora's virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon in April at the London Zoo, are the first documented in a Komodo dragon. DNA test prove that Flora The Dragon is the mother and father. But the babies are not exact clones. Strange huh?

The male dragons at the zoo are reported to be relieved that they are not the baby daddy. A zoo lizard does make a lot of money, so having half their paycheck garnished is not something they want. But at the same time, they are understandably upset. A pregnant virgin dragon is every male dragon's worst nightmare.

Now onto the next strange item of the day! Authorities investigating a 29-year-old sex offender suspected of repeatedly enrolling in schools as a 12-year-old boy said Thursday they seized a video showing him engaging in sex acts with a child. It seems the man was able to pass himself off as a 12 year old boy to two other adult sex offenders (who thought he was really a 12 year old boy) AND to staff members at a school. He attended school, enrolled as a 12 year old boy, for 50 days before being dropped for lack of attendance. During that time he raised no concerns.

WHAT THE CRAP!?!? Nobody caught on to this ruse? You would think that a "12 year old" who can do the Safety Dance would raise just a few concerns. I would be all like "Hey - how the hell do you know about Men Without Hats and Devo?". But whatever. This guy will have a good old time in jail! He will get passed around like the cold.

Finally, it seems that cab drivers at the Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport are refusing to accept passengers who are carrying alcohol. It seems that about 3/4 of the 900 cabs licensed to service the airport are Muslim, and according to their faith they are forbidden from drinking, transporting, or buying and selling alcohol. They believe that if they accept a fare who is packing booze, they are sinning. As a result, some passengers have had to wait up to 20 minutes as cab driver after cab driver passed them by.

Airport officials are not sure what to do. At this moment, the CNN internet poll of 20,971 people (you CAN vote more than once - so how many of these are duplicate results is unknown) resulted in 14% (2872) saying "yes" and 86% (18099) saying "no" to the question "Should cab drivers be able to refuse passengers on religious grounds".

I can see both sides here. One one hand, we have freedom of religion in this nation. People are free to worship however they see fit - and (in theory) nobody can harass them for their beliefs. So if transporting alcohol is a violation of your religion - then that is the way it is! You have a right to ban alcohol from your car. And what if I own a store? In Florida, if I place a sign in the window that says "no concealed weapons" then guess what? Even if you have a permit to carry - you can not do so in my store. I suppose I could also refuse to allow booze in my store. What I CAN NOT do is ban people based on race, color, national origin, religion, height, weight, hair color, age, or whatever. But I CAN ban objects - so long it applies to everyone without regard to race, religion, national origin, etc and so on.

So can a Muslim cab driver ban alcohol from his "place of business"? Well, it is his cab.

But then again, I would be pissed if I was at the airport and the cab driver said I could get in, but not the duty free alcohol I had bought.

So I do not know what I would do either. What a mess for the Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport people. Glad it is them and not me! There is no easy way for them to get out of this one. Religious freedom VS customer service. Forcing cab drivers to allow passengers with alcohol could result in a law suit. Banning Muslim cab drivers would be illegal. But pissed off passengers is also not good.