Blog Jones

I once read a great quote, which I will paraphrase here, because I can’t find the original:

^~It is not the great tragedies of life that drive men insane. Hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes–these can be overcome. No, it’s the aggregate effect of a thousand minor irritations, the buzzing of a fly or the breaking of a pencil, that drive men over the brink into madness.^~

This has been one of those kinds of days.

I just found a great presentation from Lawrence Lessig that explains what’s wrong with perpetual copyright, software patents, and other injustices of our intellectual property law. Worth your while.

Donate to the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

This is from the dining common menu this week.

Sour Cream Crunch Cake? Can one of you dorm students tell me if that’s any good?

Forget that “due process of the law” junk: Tony Blair wants to institute summary justice:

From the UK Telegraph:

He claimed that the courts were failing to protect the law-abiding citizen. The criminal justice system was “too complicated and laborious” and the police were constrained by restrictions and difficulties.

He cited the example of a police constable who saw someone throw a brick through a window or abuse an old lady.

“If you have got to take that person all the way through a long court process, you are not going to do it,” he said.

Mr Blair said he had introduced fixed penalty notices to try to get round the problem. Offenders who disputed such a notice issued by the police could fight the case in court.

“Summary justice is tough, it is hard, but in my judgment it is the only way to do it,” he said.

From Samizdata:

So in other words, rather than just arresting the person and then determining the facts in a trial, we are just supposed to trust that the police will always act in good faith and impose summary justice only against the truly guilty and with only the best judgement.

Yes, of course. The British police are incorruptible. You don’t agree? That’ll be a two-week prison sentence.

The Gideons are no longer allowed to distribute free bibles in Anderson School District 2. The School Board says they’re not legally allowed to encourage or discourage religion (separation of church and state and all that).

Why are they making the change now? Some parent complained about it. If it weren’t for that one parent, they’d probably still be doing it.

Upstate Gideon member Morris Locke said he’s disappointed.

“For many years now, we’ve been able to go into District 2, give students in fifth grade a copy of God’s word.” he said. “We don’t have prayer, we don’t read any scriptures. We just make the Bible available to students who’d like to have them.”

…

OK, so you’ve been shut out of the schools. You’re going to stay shut out of the schools, too. That’s a dead end. Don’t pursue it.

Instead, you need to find some other place where kids congregate to give them free Bibles. Arcades, parks, etc.

Then, if you’re shooed away from there, why not go door-to-door offering free Bibles?

If you’re turned away from apartments with no solicitation signs, why not mail copies to each apartment?

If your goal is to get Bibles into the as many hands as possible, then you’ve still got options, if you’re willing to take them.

That said:

“I feel with all my heart that our religious freedom is being taken away little by little, step by step,” Rev. Arnold Hiette said.

…

I get so sick of this. We are not losing our religious liberties. I mean, look at your President!! Not only that, but look at the fact that he’s appointing two Supreme Court justices! (But you’ll still complain about the “liberal courts” until the day you die)

You can still go door-to-door and witness. You can speak freely about Christ, or whatever else you want to talk about. You can own and read Bibles, in dozens of translations. No one will draw a gun on you if you pray. What right, exactly, has been taken from you?!!

At the same meeting, the school board also banned open prayer at school, but said that moments of silence are allowed.

Note who made this decision: The school board. Not the courts. Not the legislature. Just some petty, low-level government officials over-reacting to one parent’s complaint.

These are people that the parents put into office. If they don’t like it, they can vote them out in the next election.

Note also that a government-run school is not the same as your house. Banning kids from praying out loud for their food at lunch is not the same as the Spanish Inquisition.

Don’t cry wolf here. The government has not infringed your right to religion; save the alarm for when the government really is trying to take away your rights.

This week has been crazy. I had two tests, 4 papers (5 if you count the project due tomorrow), and all my regular reading to do.

Hence, I had no time for the blog. Now I do. Yay!

The BBC reports today that George W. Bush allegedly claimed to have received orders from God to invade Afganistan and Iraq.

President George W. Bush told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - and create a Palestinian State, a new BBC series reveals.

In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (at 9.00pm on Monday 10, Monday 17 and Monday 24 October), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.” And I did, and then God would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq %u2026″ And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, “Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.” And by God I’m gonna do it.’”

Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: “I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state.”

And here I thought we went to Iraq to clean up some WMD’s.

If what Nabil Shaath says is true, if P. Bush said that, then we’ve got a lunatic in the White House. I wonder which country the voices in his head will tell him to invade next?

UPDATE: The BBC has backed off of the story, and the White House denies the allegations. Thank’s to commenter Jay C for the link.

Is that boring white toilet paper too passe for your tastes? Why not try black toilet paper?

Hey, it’s worked for other products…

but I think I like it.