Combs Spouts Off

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: al qaeda, freedom, iraq, liberty, middle east, victory, war | Leave a Comment »

A nanny is someone who watches after your children on your behalf, right? Well, according to the Christian Science Monitor, there's a growing movement to make many states more literally into nanny states. Connecticut is leading the way:

…Connecticut has become the first state in the nation to introduce legislation that would require MySpace, other social networking sites, and chat rooms to verify the ages of their users. Any postings by those under 18 would require parental permission. Failure to comply would result in a fine to the Internet company of $5,000 per incident.

The goal is for the law to become a model for national legislation. As many as 20 state attorneys general are now considering similar bills.

"The basic idea here is that the parents should be empowered, and they should be put back in control if their children are below a certain age," says Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who's leading the fight for this type of legislation in Connecticut and around the country. "That's why age verification along with parental permission is key."

How, exactly, does taking responsibility for kids' online behavior away from the parents and giving it to the state government "empower" those parents?

And how, exactly, are MySpace and the like supposed to verify ages and permissions? Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal seems to think it's a piece of cake:

The Connecticut bill would require networking sites to verify that a user either is 18 or older or has parental permission to have a profile. Dozens of Internet companies already provide age-verification tools. So this is how it would work: When a person provides information to a networking site, such as name, date of birth, or address, the site would put that information through verification sites, which would cross-check it against public records like driver's licenses, voter-registration information, land records, and local tax records. This process is already used for such things as online sales of alcohol and cigarettes.

Umm, OK — but it works for sales of alcohol and cigarettes because those have to be paid for with a credit card and delivered to you. You can't just give the website any old name and address.

MySpace and the like face a completely different situation. Let's say Paul Pervert, 43, wants to impersonate a 14-year-old boy on MySpace in order to befriend young girls. Looking at whatever registration process they use, he sees that he needs the permission of a parent/guardian. "OK," he says, picking up a phone book, "I'm … [flip, flip, flip] … John Smith at 123 Elm Street, and my son Sammy has my permission to join MySpace."

Odds are John Smith has a driver's license, pays taxes, etc., so Paul passes the verification process. If not, Paul can try again. If they make it really tough, maybe Paul has to do some research of the most basic identity-theft variety (how hard is it to find someone's birthdate or driver's license number?).

No, this kind of legislation won't make kids safer. But it'll make a lot of gullible parents feel better, help the sponsoring AGs and legislators flaunt their good intentions and troll for votes, and add to the revenue of the verification service providers. Someone should check into whether AG Richard Blumenthal owns stock in any of the latter.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: common sense, internet, nanny state, paternalism | 2 Comments »

Clinton chutzpah

Posted by Richard on March 14, 2007

Shortly after Bill Clinton took office, every single U.S. Attorney was forced to resign. It's not unusual for most of them to be replaced gradually by a new administration (George H.W. Bush replaced most of Reagan's U.S. Attorneys). But the Clinton administration's sudden clean sweep was, I believe, unprecedented (but replicated by Clinton elsewhere; remember the White House Travel Office?).

There was at least some speculation at the time about the reason (from the March 24, 1993 New York Times, emphasis added):

Attorney General Janet Reno today demanded the prompt resignation of all United States Attorneys, leading the Federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia to suggest that the order could be tied to his long-running investigation of Representative Dan Rostenkowski, a crucial ally of President Clinton.

Jay B. Stephens, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is a Bush Administration holdover, said he had advised the Justice Department that he was within 30 days of making a "critical decision" in the Rostenkowski case when Ms. Reno directed him and other United States Attorneys to submit their resignations, effective in a matter of days.

While prosecutors are routinely replaced after a change in Administration, Ms. Reno's order accelerated what had been expected to be a leisurely changeover.

Says He Won't Resist

At a news conference today only hours after one by Ms. Reno, Mr. Stephens said he would not resist the Attorney General's move to force him from office, and he held back from directly accusing her of interfering with the Rostenkowski inquiry.

But Mr. Stephens left the strong impression that Ms. Reno's actions might disrupt the investigation as he moved toward a decision on whether to seek charges against the Illinois Democrat, who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Stephens didn't resist because he no doubt knew that U.S. Attorneys, like all political appointees, serve "at the pleasure of the President." Today, many people in the Democratic Party and its public relations arm, the mainstream media, are either unfamiliar with that phrase or believe it has a different definition when a Republican is President.

Given that bit of history from 1993, it takes some nerve for Sen. Hillary Clinton to posture like this:

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is calling on President Bush to explain the firings of US attorneys, days after the White House admitted that White House adviser Karl Rove acted as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors.

"With the White House now acknowledging a direct role in the Justice Department's U.S. Attorney firings, the president must affirmatively step forward to explain what he is doing to address the politicization of our prosecutorial system and what role he and his aides played in this controversy," Clinton said in a statement sent to RAW STORY.
…

"It is imperative that the president act swiftly to explain what role the White House played in this situation, hold those who acted inappropriately accountable, and take responsibility," Clinton said.

Since she objects to the White House and Attorney General firing U.S. Attorneys, and she decries "the politicization of our prosecutorial system," I expect Sen. Clinton will pledge not to remove any U.S. Attorneys other than for cause (independently verified) if she's elected President.

Ha! Right after the airborne ham steaks pass overhead.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: clinton, democrats, justice, politics | Leave a Comment »

Paul takes plunge, Thompson touted

Posted by Richard on March 13, 2007

A couple of months ago, Representative Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican from Texas, set up an exploratory committee for a Presidential run. Apparently, the explorations unearthed quite a bit of money and support — enough to persuade him to go ahead:

HOUSTON – Ron Paul, a nine-term Texas congressman who describes himself as a lifelong libertarian, announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination Monday.

Appearing on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," Paul said he was at first reluctant to run, but that "a lot of people want to hear my message and I'm willing to deliver it."

Paul, who formed an exploratory committee in January, said he has raised more than $500,000 in the past month "with very little effort."

If Paul's campaign message is "Let's return the GOP to its limited-government roots," I'm on board. If I hear a lot of emphasis on "ending Yankee imperialism" and "opposing the BushHitler police state," so that he's virtually indistinguishable from the MoveOn nutroots crowd — then count me out.

Meanwhile, former Senator Fred Thompson is merely thinking about exploring, but that's got a lot of conservative Republicans excited. Check out the enthusiastic comments on Doug Mataconis' post about a Thompson candidacy.

If talk of Thompson entering the race suggests that McCain is fading, I think it's good news. The fact that Howard Baker and Bill Frist are promoting Thompson isn't exactly a plus in my book, but they're fellow Tennesseans with long-standing personal and professional relationships. It doesn't necessarily mean much policy-wise. My recollection of Thompson as a Senator is pretty vague, but fairly positive — likewise, his work as a prosecutor and role in Watergate.

I suspect that a lot of the grass-roots enthusiasm for a Thompson candidacy stems from one simple fact: Republicans remember how well they did the last time they nominated an actor.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: fred thompson, gop, libertarian, politics, presidential candidates, republicans, ron paul | 1 Comment »

Clearing things up

Posted by Richard on March 13, 2007

The Democrats are tired of the Bush Administration's mumbling, bumbling, fumbling Iraq policy, so they're going to put a stop to it. They have a clear, direct, forthright plan for ending the Iraq conflict. Here, I'll let them explain it to you:

Any questions?

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: congress, democrats, iraq, politics, war | Leave a Comment »

I’ve failed

Posted by Richard on March 13, 2007

I'm so disappointed. I feel completely inadequate as a pro-freedom blogger. Granted, it's been a while since I made even a passing reference to China's organ harvesting, or mentioned its censorship and repression, or linked to a story about the brutal torture of a Tibetan nun. But I thought these Chicoms were thorough and had long memories! How can they do this to me??

It appears that Combs Spouts Off is not banned in China.

Oh, the shame!

(HT: Kentucky Dan, who is banned in China and gloated about it)

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: blogging, censorship, china | 3 Comments »

The indomitable human spirit, part 3

Posted by Richard on March 11, 2007

There are people in this world whose courage and character and strength are so remarkable and profound that it moves me to tears. Some of them are young Afghan girls who are glad to be free of the Taliban and just want to make music:

Nargiz started the Burka Band when she met a German music producer in Kabul in late 2002. The producer was teaching Afghans to play modern music, and Nargiz learned to play the drums. One day she wondered why all the burkas in Kabul were blue, and together with two friends she wrote the song "Burka Blue" which is about burkas and the way you feel when you wear them. The song was recorded in Kabul with help from the German producers. The band would rehearse behind locked doors, so nobody would find out that the women were playing music. The burka also helped hide who the band members really were.

…

The Burka Band has never performed in Afghanistan and at the moment the band is not active. During the Taliban regime music was totally forbidden, and women were not allowed to work. To sing in public could carry a death sentence. Today the country is still very conservative, and there is no market in Afghanistan for the Burka Band's music. The band members have to wait for a European or American record label to help them if they are to make a whole album one day.

These young girls epitomize the indomitable human spirit and its unquenchable thirst for freedom and self-expression. Here's their video:

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: afghanistan, courage, music | Leave a Comment »

The indomitable human spirit, part 2

Posted by Richard on March 11, 2007

There are people in this world whose courage and character and strength are so remarkable and profound that it moves me to tears. Several of them are named Killion (HT: Michelle Malkin), and Michael Fumento told their story:

After Sept. 11, when most of us were utterly horrified and then went back to business as usual, the Killions felt the pull of history. Rob enlisted in the active Army in July 2003 at age 18. "I joined the infantry," he says, "because they're the best." Douglas enlisted in the Indiana National Guard in 2003 at age 24 as a communications specialist. Even Rob's wife, Anya Kormanos Killion, is an Iraq vet. She served there before Rob enlisted. They met at the 101st's home in Fort Campbell, Kentucky and she is now a civilian.

Now it was Rick's turn. At 46, he was well past prime fighting age and was comfortable in his job. But he knew where his boys were headed and he wanted to be there with them. So "OMK" as they call him, short for "Old Man Killion," once again raised his right hand and rejoined the National Guard. Because of the length of his absence, he had to give up a stripe and enter as a sergeant E-5. But he made sure that if Doug deployed, so would he.

Read. The. Whole. Thing. And take a moment to salute the Fighting Killions of Indiana.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: courage, iraq, military, war | Leave a Comment »

The indomitable human spirit, part 1

Posted by Richard on March 11, 2007

There are people in this world whose courage and character and strength are so remarkable and profound that it moves me to tears. One of them is an Afghan nicknamed Rambo (HT: Michelle Malkin) who guards Camp Phoenix near Kabul:

In fairness, his story is not just about the day he stopped a suicide bomber, when the steel of his resolve to protect American troops became so apparent to all who did not know him. To those who do, who gave him the "Rambo" nickname, the name tag, and the stick, his devotion was already evident.

At every corner of Camp Phoenix, Rambo stops to salute American officers. Soldiers heading out on patrol call out his name as if he were a fraternity brother. He is unquestionably one of them, because he is so willing to make the same sacrifice that they, too, have been called upon to make.

Yet he is also unquestionably Afghan, and never more so than when he smothered his countryman and would-be martyr at the front gate. To Rambo, whose name has been withheld for his protection, what happened that day was a matter of pride – a personal pride that burns deeper than love of country, or family, or faith.

"I made a promise to every American soldier," he says in grave tones. "Even if there is only one American soldier, I will be here to protect him."

Amid Camp Phoenix's soil-filled blast walls and bristling guard towers, designed to keep soldiers separate from the unsettled Afghanistan beyond, Rambo is a living lesson in the character of his country, where friends pledge their lives to defend you and enemies never rest until you have been destroyed.

Read. The. Whole. Thing. And join me in celebrating that such men exist.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: afghanistan, courage, war | Leave a Comment »

Gun ban shot down

Posted by Richard on March 10, 2007

fireworks animation The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled 2-1 in favor of the plaintiffs in Parker v. D.C. The ruling overturns the District's ban on handgun ownership, as well as its requirement that rifles and shotguns be disassembled and locked up. This is a terrific win for the self-defense rights of D.C. residents and a stupendous Second Amendment victory that will have nationwide impact.

The District will ask for an en banc review by the entire court. If the court upholds the ruling (which is probable, IMO), expect the Supreme Court to take the appeal:

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty told reporters Friday afternoon that the District will appeal the ruling.

In a 2-1 decision, the judges held that the activities protected by the Second Amendment "are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued intermittent enrollment in the militia."

"This is a huge case," Alan Gura, the plaintiffs' lead lawyer, told FOXNews.com Friday afternoon. "It's simply about whether law-abiding citizens can maintain a functioning firearm, including a handgun, inside their house."

Gura said his six clients, all Washington residents, challenged three separate District of Columbia laws: A 31-year-old law that prevents handgun registration; a law that requires rifles and shotguns to be either disassembled or disabled when being stored; and a law that requires a permit to carry a gun in your own home.

Senior Judge Laurence Silberman (a Reagan appointee) wrote the opinion, and Thomas Griffith (a Bush 43 appointee) concurred. As for the Bush 41 appointee on the panel (emphasis added):

Judge Karen Henderson dissented, writing that the Second Amendment does not apply to the district because it is not a state.

WTF??? I hereby nominate that as the Single Stupidest Argument Against the Second Amendment Ever. And there's no shortage of worthy competitors for that title.

I wonder if Judge Henderson is prepared to apply that argument to other rights of the people in the District. What a crummy President George Herbert Walker Bush was, and what awful judicial appointments he made!

I haven't read the opinion (it's 75 pages; here's a link to the PDF), but Jed Baer has, and he's impressed. That's saying something — Jed's a pretty tough critic of such things, and he's practically giddy:

I encourage you to download and read this decision, as it contains one of the best arguments and explanations of how the 2nd Amendment protects an individual right that I've read in a while. In a significant rebuke of the District of Columbia, the opinions uses words such as "risible" in dismissing the District's legal arguments. It also does a good job of explaining the issues in the oft misinterpreted Miller decision, and in explaining the composition of the militia, and how that relates to the 2nd Amendment.

The opinion starts off with a discussion of the issue of standing, which is interesting by itself. If you want to dive right into the meat of the 2A opinion, jump to the bottom of page 12. I'm not going to quote any of the opinion, because I think the entire thing, from p.12 onward, is worth reading in its entirety.

Jed also has more links to other commentary from the RKBA community than you can shake a cordless mouse at — it's your one-stop-shopping place for Parker v. D.C.

It's a great victory for self-defense-rights advocates, and it deserves to be celebrated. There's a gun show in Denver tomorrow — I may just have to purchase a handgun or two in honor of Judge Silberman.

Subscribe To Site:

Robotic Beer Launching Refrigerator – Click here for more home videos

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Liquid launch

Posted by Richard on March 8, 2007

I knew my home entertainment system was missing a few components: HD DVD and Blu-Ray players, game consoles, HD radio tuner, another speaker to make it 7.1, …

Here's a component I didn't realize I needed — a beer-launching refrigerator!

Have you ever gotten up off the couch to get a beer for the umpteenth time and thought, "What if instead of ME going to get the BEER, the BEER came to ME???" Well, that was how I first conceived of the beer launching fridge. About 3 months and several hundred dollars later I have a fully automated, remote controlled, catapulting, man-pit approved, beer launching mini-fridge. …

Watch the video — this gadget is pretty amazing:

Inventor John W. Cornwell has come up with a number of other interesting devices, including the pneumatic tennis ball cannon (AKA potato launcher).

Cornwell is considering a limited manufacturing run of the beer-launching fridge. He anticipates a price around $1500. Hmmm. My birthday is in August. If my legions of loyal readers got together and each kicked in a few bucks a month …

'Cause, you know, I've just got to quit being so physically active, or I might get all lean and muscular.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Watcher’s Council vacancy

Posted by Richard on March 8, 2007

Marc Schulman of American Future has stepped down from the Watcher's Council, so the Watcher of Weasels is looking for a worthy blogger to fill the vacancy. He'll be choosing someone in the next three or four days. If you'd like to nominate someone (maybe yourself), head on over there, check out the rules, and get your nomination in. I'd especially encourage LLP members and Fighting Keyboardists to apply.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: blogging, watchers council | Leave a Comment »

Visual search plus humor

Posted by Richard on March 8, 2007

If, like me, you think Google Image Search, Flickr, and Photobucket are pretty useful, but not as useful as they could be — well, you might want to keep an eye on Riya. It's still a pretty young outfit (company, service, technology, …), but there's a lot of potential there, and no shortage of ambitious goals:

Riya is a new kind of visual search engine. We look inside the image, not only at the text around it.

Use Riya to:

Find similar faces and objects on many images across the web.

Refine the results, using color, shape and texture.

…

We believe the time has come to truly make photos searchable, to let people say I want "more like this" and get what they want, and to eventually allow every public photo in the world to be found. We are only starting on this journey. Image search on the web hasn't changed significantly in many years. We are a geeky (and proud of it) group of engineers and researchers who are slowly innovating in this area. We look forward to your feedback via email or via our blog.

Like Flickr, Photobucket, et al, Riya lets you upload and store photos online (free, and with no number or bandwidth limit, but they're all resized to 800×600). You can keep pictures private, share them with friends, or make them public. But Riya can do some stuff the competition can't. Like recognize new pictures of Uncle Ernie (once you've identified him, of course) and tag them appropriately. And recognize text in pictures and generate tags from that.

The image database doesn't rival Google's, but Riya has some nice features, like the clickable tag cloud showing the most popular image tags. The size of the words indicates their relative popularity.

One thing that really struck me about their site — I believe it's the first time I've ever seen someone kidding around in the legally binding Terms of Use:

3. Grant of License.

The Company claims all rights to every photograph you have ever taken, even if you have not yet uploaded it to the Web Site. We even claim rights to future photographs you may take or even think about taking. Mwaaaaahahahahahaha…

Just kidding – this is not the evil empire. We don’t approve of the large scale theft of intellectual property by corporations on the web today who claim ownership to everything you do on their site. Our ACTUAL policy is that you keep all copyright rights you have to all of your photographs that you, through use of the Web Site, upload to the Web Site.

Check these guys out. An attitude like that deserves your support.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: free stuff, image search, internet, photos, pictures | Leave a Comment »

China: threat or menace?

Posted by Richard on March 7, 2007

OK, if you're a Pat Buchanan or Lou Dobbs fan, you'd best just move along — this will only make you (even more) angry. As for everyone else, I bet you get a kick out of Scott Blaszak's little three-minute video about how dangerous all those Chinese people are: "Do You Realize?"

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: china, demographics, humor | 1 Comment »

Site alert: weirdness imminent

Posted by Richard on March 7, 2007

Here’s a heads-up for regular readers: On Wednesday, from 9:00-11:00 AM GMT (2-4 AM MST), Blog-City will be shut down for the upgrade to version 6.0. They’re describing this as "a MAJOR upgrade," so don’t be surprised if the outage lasts longer or if there is residual weirdness afterward.

Combs Spouts Off faces an additional potential problem: Blog-City version 5 introduced new ways of laying out pages, adding bits and pieces, etc., based on what they call "widgets." But they let existing users stick with their existing setups (based on similar but different tools called "portlets"). I’m of the "it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" persuasion, and I found the instructions for converting to the new system a bit less than intuitive. Plus, I was put off by the apparent need to "take the plunge" and convert the actual live site without being able to preview the consequences first. So I did nothing.

Well, now push has come to shove. My old blog layout is no longer supported in v.6. In the next few hours, I’ll either have to undertake the conversion I’ve so far avoided, or let them convert me automatically when they upgrade. They’ve warned us that the automatic conversion will result in "a basic predefined layout" — which I interpret as meaning "it won’t be pretty."

I’m still thinking about it. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: OK, I bit the bullet. And I’ve been futzing with it for what seems forever. I don’t like it. Expect more changes. Later.

Subscribe To Site: