Mer-MAN, pa. Mer-MAN.

Well, it's technically a mermaid that some Israelis believe they have seen doing a few tricks and then vanishing into the horizon. Get some footage of it and you could be a million bucks richer, according to Israeli officials.

An alleged mermaid, said to resemble a cross between a fish and a young girl, only appears at sunset. It performs a few tricks for onlookers before disappearing for the night.

One of the first people to see the mermaid, Shlomo Cohen, said, "I was with friends when suddenly we saw a woman laying on the sand in a weird way. At first I thought she was just another sunbather, but when we approached she jumped into the water and disappeared. We were all in shock because we saw she had a tail."

Pretty sure Israel is just going for the Nessie strategy and using the reward to bolster tourism, but either way Sam Brownback is legitimately pissed.

Sam Brownback says fuck you Pan!

You little human-goat-thing. Nobody likes you!

This is what happens when you have a group of crazies who are no longer in the majority that are so far to the right that they don't even want to tell people they are in the Senate anymore, and they're getting bored. They start writing legislation, and the legislation starts getting pretty friggin' weird.

Take Sammy's last little gem he authored on Friday: the Human-Animal Prohibition Act of 2009. This legal masterpiece prevents science from creating some kind of human-animal hybrid; so if you're a mermaid and you're reading this right now, you are illegal. Piss off.

Okay, now that we are merpeople-free, let's continue. From Sam's blog comes some sort of explanation:

This legislation works to ensure that our society recognizes the dignity and sacredness of human life. Creating human-animal hybrids, which permanently alter the genetic makeup of an organism, will challenge the very definition of what it means to be human and is a violation of human dignity and a grave injustice.

My background is in agriculture, and for a number of years we have been working with crops and animals to produce a superior soy bean, a superior cow, and so-on. We can genetically engineer safe products and herds that are disease resistant or that possess more desirable attributes. But doing this in plants and livestock is very different than doing this in humans.

Damn. Well, looks like creating Ender-like beings are off the table. Son of a bitch!