According to a Texas jury, it was OK for a man to say "shit" when referring to cat shit to a 13-year old neighbor child. More precisely, his use of the word "shit" didn't constitute "disorderly conduct."
The context for this post is provided by Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures, who recently stated:
I'm a guy who sees nothing good having come from the Internet. Period."
Now, in light of that bizarre, politically motivated statement, what's going on at the FCC? FreePress advises:At this very minute, the Federal Communications Commission is crafting America's first national broadband plan. Whether the plan will give more control over our Internet to the likes of Sony Pictures, Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon depends on what we do right now.
These companies' well-heeled lobbyists are flooding the FCC's public docket with comments in support of policies that let them:
What can you do to keep things on track at the FCC? Write a comment to the FCC. It will only take a minute. Let your voice counter-balance the monied corporate interests that are trying to grab hold of the Internet for the sole purpose of squeezing out profits, just as they grabbed hold of all other electronic media during prior decades. Note that we now have a president who is committed to keeping the Internet open and free:
- Tilt the Web’s level playing field to favor the Web sites of corporate partners;
- Deploy content-sniffing devices that would randomly open and sift through our private Web communications;
- Impose usage penalties on people who use the Web for more than simple e-mail and Web surfing;
- Block innovative Web services that compete against their phone, cable and entertainment products; and
- Disconnect users for any reason or without justification
Number Six to legalize gay marriage: New Hampshire. Legalize = Permission
I found this an interesting response to George Tiller's murder. Frank Schaeffer, a reformed evangelical, argues that the hate speech continually spewed by the religious right regarding abortion set the stage for George Tiller's murder, and other abortionists before him. He still expresses disgust at late-term abortion, and while I am more likely to agree with that, I do believe there are situations in which that choice is the only one that makes sense. Painful, horribly so, but sometimes the only choice is.
Bob Herbert, in the NY Times, wrote this week of a new report on the continuing human catastrophe in Darfur. In describing why he reported on what, to some, is old news, he reminded us "about the dangers inherent in indifference to the suffering of others. Stories of atrocities on the scale of those coming out of Darfur cannot be told too often."