I Got Your ID Right Here

How's this for a plan? Step 1: Make a shit-load of cash. Step 2: Spend the rest of my days standing up for What's Right. Step 1 is key. Principles make for an expensive hobby, which is why most people tend to focus on a narrow range of things they can conveniently resist.

The Men in Black Get It Right

... and 2 women.

Let's call this the anti-rant, just to show that I don't live my life sucking on lemons and gesturing wildly at the people around me. This time, they got it right. The Supreme Court has (finally) declared it unconstitutional to execute people who are minors (younger than 18) at the time of their crime.

Our Friends in High Places

I recently wrote a long rambling dissertation on how mutual respect is the glue that holds society together. So, like maybe a day later, I come across these 2 articles that underlie much of the problem I have with our current government. In "Putin Denies He's Backsliding on Democracy", we have President Bush trying to make nice with Vlad the Impaler by noting that, while a free press is the sign of a healthy society, "Obviously there has got to be constraints. There's got to be truth."

Reporter-Informer Privilege

Back in December, Apple Computers subpoenaed a couple "online journalists" (bloggers) over their sources (leaks) for the news they had posted about Apple's forthcoming product offerings. If this is news to you, EFF has a bit on the case on their site. Meanwhile, in a quasi-related issue, reporters involved in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame by reporter Robert Novak have been ordered by the court to reveal their sources.

Outsourcing Torture

About couple years back, I heard rumblings about the U.S. kidnapping people and flying them off to be tortured. I didn't hear a lot about it, and it seemed pretty ridiculous, so I lost track of the story. This weekend, a columnist in my local paper brought it back up and named some sources. Turns out that not only is the story corroborated, the facts of the matter aren't even seriously in dispute.

Norway Wants To Outlaw Ripping Your Own CDs

[Norway Proposes New Digital Copyright Law] The government on Friday proposed a new copyright law to make it illegal for Norwegians to copy songs from their own CDs onto MP3 players, but legal to do so for making a CD duplicate. The proposal, intended to bring Norway's law in line with European Union (news - web sites) rules, drew immediate praise from the music and film industry ...

Dude needs to shut up

I can get as knee jerk as any civil libertarian when it comes to the subject of 1st amendment rights. If there is anything I see as sacred, it is the right of each and every red blooded American to make as much of an ass of themselves as they see fit.

However, Ward Churchill needs to STFU.

If you're not familiar with the man, read this to catch up. To sum it up neatly, the man has suggested that many (not all) of the 9/11 victims had it coming to them because, like little Adolf Eichmann's, they were working dutifully for the corporate machine that spread so much pain across the world. He then went on to commend the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America.