Another Icelandic Volcano

President Obama cut his visit to Ireland short to avoid the ash cloud from yet another Icelandic volcano.

Iceland's airports were closed Sunday and trans-Atlantic flights were being diverted around that country's airspace. Last year it was the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and now it is a volcano with another unpronounceable name, the Grimsvotn volcano, which is spewing ashes into the atmosphere. At this time the air travel disruption is only impacting flights over Iceland, but the disruption could expand at any time.

Eurovision: Iceland's Sigurjón's Friends

This sounds like the theme song to a 70s sitcom, yet it has enough of that Eurovision earnestness to make it tolerable. I do like the horns a lot. Here it is in Icelandic. So few acts seem to be competing in their native languages this year, which sucks.

Bjork - The Comet Chase Song

Released today on iTunes, all proceeds to Pakistan.

Jonsi - Animal Arithmetic

This screams for a Morel remix.

HomoQuotable - James Hartline

"Iceland didn't get the memo from God: After recently being struck with a catastrophic volcano that threatens to destroy their nation, Iceland has pressed forward with their governmental rebellion against God's commandments. Voting 49-0, Iceland has voted to legalize same-sex marriages under the reign of their satanic prime minister, open lesbian Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir.

"In recent months the entire continent of Europe was traumatized and shut down by the massive volcanic eruption in Iceland. Three weeks ago, scientist began warning of an impending 2nd eruption from another volcano on the island nation. Yet, the government bureaucrats in Iceland press on in their rebellion against God. 'We don't care if we destroy ourselves! We will have our sins and we will have our destruction! Who cares if we have tomorrow!'" - "Ex-gay" activist James Hartline, writing his on inadvertently hilarious blog.

Hartline, who says he is a prophet to whom God regularly reveals upcoming events, plans to turn his play The Chronicles Of Sodom into a "big stage production."

Iceland Approves Gay Marriage

Today Iceland's parliament voted unanimously to legalize gay marriage!

Iceland, the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of state, passed a law on Friday allowing same-sex partners to get married in a vote which met with no political resistance. The Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between "man and man, woman and woman," in addition to unions between men and women. Iceland, a socially tolerant island nation of about 320,000 people, became the first country to elect an openly gay head of state in 2009 when Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir became prime minister after being nominated by her party. "The attitude in Iceland is fairly pragmatic," said Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, a political scientist at the University of Iceland. "It (gay marriage) has not been a big issue in national politics -- it's not been controversial."

Til hamingju, Iceland!

Volcano Pronunciation Guide

Icelanders are apparently in stitches over the newscasters' attempts to pronounce the name of their global-economy destroying volcano.