Saturday, May 25, 2002

The San Jose Mercury News printed my letter to the editor today:

ROBERT Holleyman warns that new copyrighted content might disappear without protection from the DMCA law.

The pro-copyright lobby has been telling us for years about how copying technology such as Xerox, VCRS and computers are going to ruin book publishers, movie makers and software companies. And yet every new technology has increased the amount of content available to the consumer.

The DMCA is based on a concept that copyright owners should have absolute control over what the consumer can do with the product. Copyright holders have never had such control in the past, and there is no reason to think that such control is desirable in the future.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/3336052.htm

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Meanwhile, the cockpit gun decision is amazingly stupid. Even if
Mineta/Ridge really think that pilots with guns are dangerous, it
would have made more sense to announce that a limited set of
pilots would be allowed to carry guns. Then a hijacker would at
least have some uncertainty about whether the pilot is armed.
Just like they don't say which flight have air marshals.

I'd rather trust the pilots with guns than the air marshals. Most
of the air marshals are new hires with little training and experience.
The pilots are well-trained to act calmly, rationally, and decisively
in case of emergency. That is far more important than the marksmanship
or whatever other training the air marshals receive.

Many stewardesses are opposed to pilots with guns, but that is because
they are interested in their own self-defense. They figure that they
would never be allowed access to guns, but they might be allowed
to use stun guns or other self-defense weapons. If the pilots have
real guns, then the stewardesses are not likely to get any weapons.
May 22 SJ Mercury News:


Oracle sent a testy letter to Florez on Monday complaining that forcing its sales representatives to testify would not allow the firm to make the point that the contract will still save taxpayers more than $100 million over the next decade.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/3312717.htm


IOW, Oracle will not make the same claim under oath.

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

The NY Times published 5 letters on the 2nd Amendment, in response to an anti-gun op-ed. 2 for and 2 against.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/16/opinion/L16GUNS.html

One anti-gun letter takes a position contradicting the op-ed. The op-ed argued that the militia is not the body of the people, because an earlier draft of the 2nd Amendment had that definition and dropped it. I don't know what he thinks the militia is, because all the laws and dictionaries define it that way.

The letter argues that the gun rights belong to the militia because The Virginia Declaration of Rights says so. But that document defines the militia as the body of the people. So again, it's the people who have the gun rights.

These anti-gun folks cannot seem to tell us what right the 2nd Amendment does guarantee, if not the individual right to keep and bear arms.

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

I've always suspected the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is just another bunch of hate mongers. This report seems to confirm it.


Even US Senator Chuck Schumer now agrees that the Second Amendment protects "an individual right to bear arms", although he isn't happy about the DoJ defending it.

Sunday, May 12, 2002

The latest SC controversy is that the UCSC chief rape counselor
has trimmed all her trees to look like penises.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/3243827.htm

Dumb quote of the day:
This, a lawyer representing the antigun Violence Policy Center opined, is a departure from what was "the government's position for more than 60 years"--and an illegitimate one, because "people who happen to be in office temporarily shouldn't use the office to promote their personal views."
http://instapundit.blogspot.com/?/2002_05_05_instapundit_archive.html

Sunday, May 05, 2002

Here is the phony email about car company 9/11 donations.
http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/cars.htm
Here is someone who is actually looking at a long-term effect of
a vaccine. The CDC doesn't do that when it recommends a vaccine.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020502/80/cy5c0.html
From an interview of JK, the CEO of Turner Broadcasting.

JK: I'm a big believer we have to make television more convenient or we will drive the penetration of PVRs and things like that, which I'm not sure is good for the cable industry or the broadcast industry or the networks.
CW: Why not?
JK: Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming.
CW: What if you have to go to the bathroom or get up to get a Coke?
JK: I guess there's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom.
http://www.inside.com/product/product.asp?entity=CableWorld&pf_ID=7A2ACA71-FAAD-41FC-A100-0B8A11C30373