09 Aug 2006
Blogging All the Way to Jail

Shaky logic indeed: Mr. Wolf had video footage of a protest in San Francisco, including the torching of a police car, that prosecutors wanted to see in toto. He refused, citing California's shield law for journalists. The government responded by moving the action to Federal court, on the grounds that since the San Francisco Police Department received Federal funds to purchase some patrol cars, setting on ablaze was indeed a Federal crime!

Given the massive passing out of Federal government monies these days, by this logic, all crime is Federal. If a Social Security recipient is robbed or murdered, it's a Federal case. If a factory is robbed, it's a Federal case because the factory was located in an industrial park, whose development was partially funded by Federal grants.

We are no longer a Federal republic of fifty sovereign states, we're a single national government with fifty dependent provinces.

Time magazine is reporting on Josh Wolf the 'first blogger to be targeted by federal authorities for not cooperating with a grand jury.' Josh would have normally been protected from government coercion by California state shield laws but the prosecutors have argued its a federal matter, using quite shaky logic. Josh's blog is being updated by his mother, providing updates on what is happening. From the article: "Not only does this logic seem silly," Wolf told TIME in June after receiving his final subpoena, "but if unchallenged it will have a deleterious effect on the state protections afforded to many journalists, both independent and those that are part of the established media." Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court rejected Wolf's arguments, and declared him in contempt of court. So he is now being held in a detention center in Dublin, Calif, where he could remain until next July.

(link) [Slashdot]

09:34 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link

Some question move to protect children from exclusion, failure

Not only are we creating a nation of wimps, they'll be whining wimps when they don't win all the time:

Kids grow up and have this inflated sense of self-worth. Whether they earn anything, it's always a trophy. They have no sense that you have to work hard for some things.

Which is true, but what's also true, as the article points out:

For one thing, kids' lives are so tightly scheduled today that we're enrolling smaller and smaller children in organized activities. It may be true that 6-year-olds aren't ready to handle losing a T-Ball championship; a generation ago, 6-year-olds wouldn't have even been playing team sports.

We've got to stop this. This is a surer way to destroy Western civilization than all the terrorist bombs and crackpot dictators with nukes put together. These kids are our future: they'll be running the show when we're scooting around in walkers and wheelchairs. And unless they're competent and confident, we're screwed.

People who expect to win all the time are the biggest losers of all.

Penny Grossman cringes each time a student mentions a birthday party during class at her Boston, Massachusetts-area preschool. The rule there, and at a growing number of America's schools, is that parties and play-dates shouldn't be discussed unless every child in the room is invited.

(link) [CNN]

08:18 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link