…worth two in the bush

In the good old days, if a city council wanted to trim back some overgrown landscaping in a public area, all they had to do was conduct an environmental impact study done, hire a proportionate number of women and minority landscapers to handle the job, and face toward Mecca while filling the Weed Whacker with E85 fuel. Oh, that it were still so simple.

According to the Telegraph, the City Council of Bristol (U.K.) set out to "prune bushes and remove cover from an area known as the Downs to improve the landscape and encourage rare wildlife." Huzzah for green spaces and rare wildlife, right? To quote the legendary Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend!" Apparently the word "wildlife" can have multiple meanings, because gay rights activists are claiming that the city council's plans are "discriminatory" because the spot is, um, well, a popular spot for homosexual "outdoor recreation", so to speak. Although these outdoor escapades are illegal, these activists believe they have a right to a government-provided space to engage in them. Cutting down some bushes would violate this right, see?

So, work on the area has been stopped while the council seeks "to make sure any work we will do is sensitive."

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In other news, the Association of Unauthorized Bank Asset Procurement Specialists (AUBAPS) is claiming that their members' rights are being violated because banks in all of England are equipped with security cameras. This is, of course, a violation of their right to privacy while engaging in their behavior of choice. The Central Bank of England is considering how they might be more sensitive to the concerns of bank robbers who might be offended by the current videographic arrangements most banks have in place.