I joke around on this site a lot. I poke fun at celebrities when they're being stupid (which accounts for roughly 8 hours average of each day) and I ask you readers to join me as I point and laugh at our society's most ridiculous people. That doesn't mean I don't take certain topics seriously. There are a few things in the news today that deserve a little extra attention on the respectable side of the equation.

Ground Zero Mosque

Terrorists can't beat smart people. They can kill them, scare them and inconvenience them on a grand scale, but they can't actually get what they want out of people who have intelligence and common decency. That's why it's only complete idiots who are up in a tizzy about the Muslim community center currently in the works for a location two blocks north of where the World Trade Center used to be. Complete idiots like advertising asshole Scott Wheeler, the man behind a blatantly discriminatory ad that opposes the building of the community center, which will include a mosque. Wheeler and other right-wing extremists are textbook cases of people who are easily swayed by terrorist tactics. Just like American Muslims have a responsibility to educate others about what they actually believe (which is exactly what the new community center will do), American non-Muslims have a responsibility to reject the kind of poisonous ignorance promoted by Scott Wheeler and his ilk.

Constance McMillen Wins

Several months ago, a high school in Mississippi went to great, even absurd lengths to stop a lesbian student named Constance McMillen and her girlfriend from attending prom together. As of today, that school is now $35,000 poorer thanks to a successful case by McMillen and the ACLU. Considering how ridiculous the school was in its attempts to keep the prom straight, that price tag seems pretty lenient. Instead of just, say, barring McMillen from the prom with threats like suspension, the school created an elaborate hoax to fool her into not pursuing a lawsuit. The school actually created a fake prom, a freaking decoy designed specifically for Constance McMillen and her girlfriend while a real prom was in progress for all the straight kids at another location. If that isn't the perfect demonstration of the irrationality of homophobia, I don't know what is. Congratulations, Constance. Use that money to go to college in a state that doesn't suck.

Lindsay Lohan May Get Some Rest Now

The most surprising and, frankly, refreshing part of actress Lindsay Lohan's recent legal troubles is that her judge had the decency to limit the media exposure Lohan got during her transition from civilian life to her short prison sentence. Judge Marsha Revel ordered all cameras off while Lohan was handcuffed and taken into state custody. The judge also made sure that LiLo will actually be spending some time in jail rather than the work release and house arrest programs usually afforded to celebrities. I still have faith that Lindsay Lohan can be a worthwhile entertainer, which is why I hope this low point pushes her to get clean, start working on the issues that made her an addict in the first place and come out the other side a stronger person.