By God, this is frightening (and is perhaps an opinion in inverse proportion to the time spent teaching students what these Constitutional amendments, which have survived robust legal challenge for over 200 years, really mean and bestow): Support For 1st Amendment Slipping (CBS News): <<Support for the First Amendment has eroded significantly since Sept. 11 and nearly half of Americans now think the constitutional amendment on free speech goes too far in the rights it guarantees, according to a new poll. >>

That's why we need to carefully read and understand something like this, in Secrecy is Our Enemy: (NYTimes) <<Judge Keith wrote an opinion, handed down last Monday by a three-judge panel in Cincinnati, that clarified and reaffirmed some crucially important democratic principles that have been in danger of being discarded since the terrorist attacks last Sept. 11.

The opinion was a reflection of true patriotism, a 21st-century echo of a pair of comments made by John Adams nearly two centuries ago. "Liberty," said Adams, "cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people."

And in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1816, Adams said, "Power must never be trusted without a check.">>

8:57:21 PM  #   your two cents []

Oh dear! http://www.eircomtribunal.com/
5:01:14 PM  #   your two cents []

Is this cool or what...?
12:29:28 PM  #   your two cents []

Advice for bloggers? [grin]: "Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try." Fran Lebowitz [Quotes of the Day]
10:33:04 AM  #   your two cents []

Calif privacy bill fails: The failure of this bill is ugly proof of many politicians being more beholden to their corporate campaign donors than the people who elected them. Most Californians supported stricter controls on their personal financial information yet the gutless politicians tried to neuter this bill and now, have killed it. First up against the wall should be the spineless Democrats who proved themselves the yapping lapdogs of the financial institutions. And this is why there may NEVER be a law against spam... : <<Consumer privacy bill dies Moderate Democrats unite with state GOP . Sacramento -- For the second year in a row, the state Assembly, led by pro-business Democrats, killed a far-reaching financial privacy measure. Moderate Democrats joined Republicans to defeat the bill on a 34-36 vote, ending what was possibly the most contentiously debated piece of legislation this year. The closely watched political drama pitted consumer advocates against banks and insurers, which spent more than $10 million on lobbying and campaign donations. >>
10:26:29 AM  #   your two cents []

Four MILLION people?! How do they compile these statistics... A census question? <<The Psychology and Neuroscience of Alien Abduction. If the figures are to be believed, up to 4 million people have been abducted by aliens in the US... Although the existence of human hungry aliens might be impossible to disprove per se, it is unlikely that extra-terrestrials could manage such mass kidnappings without being commonly noticed. This suggests that there are many people who falsely believe they have been seized by creatures from outer-space, perhaps after experiencing unusual and bizarre phenomena.  [kuro5hin.org]>>

10:17:54 AM  #   your two cents []

Mobiles and price caps hit revenues: <<Eircom's poor financial performance in the year to the end of March 2002 shows it is being hurt by the success of the Republic's mobile firms and a strict price cap on its services which has been imposed by the regulator.>> (Irish Times, sub required)
10:13:37 AM  #   your two cents []

<<Publicans who try to attract tourists with a lively blast of traditional music may have to rethink their strategy, following complaints about the noise coming from some Killarney pubs.>> (Irish Times, subscription required)

10:09:57 AM  #   your two cents []

The FT says Bertelsmann, the privately owned German media group, is considering the outright sale or closure of its online books and music operations.
10:05:12 AM  #   your two cents []

Thinking out of the in-box: <<Your e-mail in-box - if you are a user of Microsoft Outlook - can hold no more than 16,383 e-mails. As an unashamed hoarder of e-mails, I can relay this little-known fact with a high degree of certainty>>, says Louise Kehoe.
10:02:25 AM  #   your two cents []