28 Jul 2004
Some Things Never Change

Chadd Wheat has a new column posted over at The Sitcom. Funny, subtle and slightly strange: all the things he evokes best.

He was helping clean out a grandparents house, and ran across some old family treasures. But he also encountered The Lebanon Reporter, circa 1970. Here's a teaser quote:

The Opinions page featured various editorials complaining about the President, the school board, and religion in Russia. Obviously some things never change.

Another refreshing thing about yesteryear: the television listings. No reality shows, except for sports. “I Love Lucy,” “Gilligan's Island,” “Wagon Train,” and “Andy Griffith”. There was no mention about “Who Wants to Marry My Midget Father's Chihuahua” on Fox. (In fact, there was no Fox network. Talk about refreshing.)

Funny stuff: give it a read!

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Patriot Act Used to Enforce Copyright Law?

I put this under my 'Copywrongs' category, but it could've just as easily gone under general political comment. If I had a category for 'police state' or 'Stalinist repression' I could've put it there, too.

This is part of a disturbing trend of using overly broad laws to prosecute people under completely inappropiate statutes. The Village Voice reported earlier on using the Patriot Act to go after druggies:

As part of North Carolina's own little war on terror, Watauga County DA Jerry Wilson focused on the state's antiterrorism laws to hammer people accused of producing methamphetamines. Ordinarily a meth producer might get six months, but under the new code, Wilson can send a convicted producer to jail for anywhere from 12 years to life. In the first case of this sort, Wilson is charging Martin Dwayne Miller, 24, on two counts of making a nuclear or chemical weapon in connection with the manufacture of methamphetamines. To get a connection between a nuke and meth, Wilson refers to the toxic nature of the chemicals involved in making the drug, noting that firemen and police officers responding to cases involving meth risk lung damage and other serious injury.

When the Patriot Act was passed, we were assured that it was only for combatting terrorism: this was obviously a lie. The camels nose is in the tent - how much further he goes is up to us.

The Stargate SG-1 Information Archive is reporting that the Feds filed charges against Adam McGaughey, creator of SG1Archive.com. The website is a fan site for the television show Stargate SG-1. The charges allege that Adam used the website to engage in Criminal Copyright Infringement and Trafficking in Counterfeit Services. Two interesting things about the charges are that they were apparently set in motion by a complaint by our friends at the MPAA and the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. Is copyright infringment now a terrorist act?"

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 2 comments | permanent link

On the Home Front

Man, the whole week is turning out to be as busy as last weekend! I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning out the meat chicken coop, in final preparation for taking them over to Central Illinois for processing tomorrow. Our chickens will be done this time in a USDA facility (or 'establishment', as they prefer to call them) and hence we can ship them interstate. That should help business considerably: I'll be sure to post sales details (or a pointer to them) here when we're ready to rock.

I also mucked out the machine shed, and took Blitzen (one of our Boer goats) to the vet. Skin problems seem to be endemic with him: Donnor (his twin brother) has had nary an infection, but this little guy seemingly gets them all the time.

The beef we had done over in Terre Haute is ready as well, and I'll be picking that up on my way back from the chickens. It's USDA inspected this time, too.

Tomorrow night, we take the grandkids to the country fair. That oughta be fun! But don't expect much profundity posted here tomorrow, I'll be on the road or on the Tilt-a-Whirl.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link