The Onion: The U.S. Supreme Court is pissed
As always, The Onion is on top of important breaking stories. This one concerns the colorful language of a newly released opinion of the United States Supreme Court.
Where are the photos of good things supposedly happening in Iraq and Afghanistan?
I’ve totally run out of patience. I need to see photos of all the good things happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there aren’t any. Why aren’t we seeing lots and lots of photos documenting all the supposedly good things the United States is supposedly doing in these countries with its bloated military-industrial complex? We spend a billion dollars every three days on these two “wars.” We’ve already spent a trillion dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, much of this money unaccounted for. http://www.costofwar.com/ For Iraq alone, we will have spent at least $6,500 per U.S. citizen before we are done with it all (if that ever happens). Hey, somebody, please show us lots and lots of photos proving that a billion dollars of new things are happening every three days in Iraq and Afghanistan. Show us one trillion dollars of progress over the past 10 years. Certainly the public could be shown photos of stabilized neighborhoods, sprouting businesses, and kids learning in quality schools, if these things were happening. I challenge any of you to scour the current editions of your favorite news sites to find photographs or videos that would give you any optimism that the U.S. will ever leave either of these countries. Just find any photo of anything happening in either war zone over the past week. You won’t find it in American mainstream news sites. And no, this story that Afghanistan has a total of one rock band isn’t good news. You probably won’t even find any current news that any war is going on at all.
Proof that I’m working hard
I haven't had much time to share my thoughts at this website lately--too much legal work to do. I've never written so much as I have in the past few weeks, including co-authoring a long book chapter on the topic of "Arbitration," another article on products liability, two appellate briefs and probably a dozen legal memoranda. Yes, I'm looking for a bit of sympathy! Now, if you want proof that I've been working maniacally at the keyboard, take at look at my keyboard: the letters are wearing off.
What you're seeing is part of my actual computer keyboard at the law office. Ignore all the dust between the keys, please (it doesn't look quite this dusty in person). The "M" key is almost gone, as is part of "L." I completely lost my comma and period keys. Losing the label of one key is not too bad, but losing several in a row is annoying--I was finding myself often pausing to figure out which key is the period and which was the comma when I was in editing mode (when typing a rough draft, none of this much of a problem, because my fingers usually know where to go and I don't need to look down).
I like fixing things rather than throwing things away, so I "invented" the above-illustrated method of putting pieces of customized label on top of the distressed keys. I'm thinking that I ought to coat the labels with something clear to keep the image readable--maybe clear nail polish?? Perhaps someone out there has a ideas for coating the label or for otherwise repairing a keyboard that is losing its letters . . . here's your chance to be an environmental hero, because I would bet that there are many people out there with this same problem, and a good idea could save thousands of keyboards.
BTW, I think I lost the comma and period because I type so intensely fast that I need to pound those pause/stop keys repeatedly in order to slow myself down. That's my theory.
That other dirty fossil fuel
I spotted a big coal train moving through town a few nights ago. As that huge load slipped quietly by, I wondered what people would think if they knew the truth about coal. What if they really knew how good conservation is and how bad coal and oil are? What if they knew that in the United States, we burn a railroad car worth of coal every 3 seconds. This year, your family will burn 1,000 pounds of coal just to run your clothes dryer (yet many communities make it illegal to dry your clothes on a line outside). The Average American family burns 30 pounds of coal every day. That's an awful lot of damage to the environment. For all of this and more, see this recent post.
FCC caving on net neutrality
Josh Silver of Free Press is reporting terrible news on the issue of net neutrality:
On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the Federal Communications Commission is expected to abandon its pledges to protect Net Neutrality and to ensure universal, affordable broadband. The story cites anonymous insiders confirming that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is "leaning toward" siding with the most powerful phone and cable lobbyists on a crucial decision: whether the FCC will have any authority to protect an open Internet and make it available to all. It is a testament to the phone and cable industry's overwhelming influence that they seem to have convinced the nation's communications agency to swear off authority to protect Americans' right to open communications. But it is stunning that Genachowski would even contemplate allowing it to stand, given President Obama's repeated pledge to ensure fast, affordable, universal Internet broadband for every American.The FCC has the power to correct the damage done by a recent Court of Appeals decision that has heightened this crisis. Josh Silver explains:
In early April, a a federal appeals court ruled that, based on decisions by the Bush-era FCC, the agency lacks the authority to regulate broadband providers. In so doing, the court effectively handed control of the Internet to companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon -- allowing them to slow down or block any website, any blog post, any tweet, any outreach by a congressional campaign. The FCC no longer has the power to stop them. Fortunately, the FCC does have the power to easily fix the problem by "reclassifying" broadband under the law. All it would take is a vote by its five commissioners -- and Genachowski already has the votes.
This is your chance to take action--it will take you 3 minutes to write to Chairman Julius Genachowski--remind him that he represents the People of the United States, not the telecoms. Or as Art Brodsky of media public interest group Public Knowledge says,The telephone and cable companies will object to any path the chairman takes . . . He might as well take the one that best protects consumers and is most legally sound.