Miami-Dade County has fired a woman for refusing to learn Spanish, reports a Florida TV station. Jim Boulet of English First is posting updates on the story here, and he's organizing a campaign on behalf of the employee, who had been working for the county for 16 years. [John J. Miller] of [National Review]
Miami-Dade County? That would be "the government," right?
10:15:31 PM
Law student's legal battle with LSU over website - the linking issue
This is the lawsuit where LSU says the student's site's name is too similar to LSU's site and is a trademark infringement (see prior post). I had not read the cease and desist letter that was sent to him by the local attorneys who represent the University's Board of Trustees. The student (Douglas Dorhauer) has posted all of the correspondence between he and the university lawyer on his site, and it's worth reading. Here's a gem from page 3 of the first cease and desist letter:
"If you wish to include hyperlinks to any official LSU website, you must enter into a mutually satisfactory Linking Agreement with LSU."
I'm sorry? You need permission even to link the site? What if he links to the home page, and thereby avoids the deep linking issue? Does he need a "Linking Agreement"? My God! I linked to their site, and I don't have a Linking Agreement. Should I expect a letter? Give me a break.
I thought the Dallas Morning News guys were morons. Apparently there's an epidemic. Calling Tim Berners-Lee, there's an academic institution down here that needs an explanation of why the World Wide Web was created....
9:36:45 PM
Racial Profiling in Medicine?
Sally Satel, a psychiatrist, writes: "In practicing medicine, I am not colorblind. I always take note of my patient's race. So do many of my colleagues. We do it because certain diseases and treatment responses cluster by ethnicity. Recognizing these patterns can help us diagnose disease more efficiently and prescribe medications more effectively. When it comes to practicing medicine, stereotyping often works.
But to a growing number of critics, this statement is viewed as a shocking admission of prejudice. After all, shouldn't all patients be treated equally, regardless of the color of their skin?" ....more [NY Times]
These days it takes courage to acknowledge that there are differences between races, even when the purpose is to provide better health care. Somehow we have lost our ability to talk about things without fear that we will offend someone. That's sad....
7:21:16 PM
Seattle Slew, the last living Triple Crown winner, is dead
I was at Belmont in 1977, the year that Seattle Slew won the triple crown. Boy, that was a great moment. The summer of my freshman year in college, and I got to go to New York with my friend Kemper. His brother Bill is the one that got me into horse racing. The owners had only paid $17,000 for the horse and I'm betting that they made almost 100 times that amount back in winnings and stud fees. [CNN]
Later @ 7:07 pm -
turns out I was low on my bet. The Turners, who bought Slew made about $200 million in stud fees. So that's 10,000 times their investment....
Professof Volokh will debate his former boss, Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Ninth Circuit, about the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which the Supreme Court will be considering in Eldred v. Ashcroft. Kozinski is arguing that the law, which extends the terms of copyrights, is constitutional. [Eugene Volokh's weblog] via [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]
God, I hope that Judge Kozinski doesn't really believe that. More importantly, I hope that the Justices on the Supreme Court don't believe that.
You're dead center of one of the largest crisises in modern Catholic Church history, you're a fugitive from justice and you're over-all hated by every Catholic in America. So what do you do? You go on vacation. And where do you go? Thailand... [Via Morons Dot Org]
Larry Lessig warns that the Dinosaurs are taking over
"Before, the network would serve whoever and whatever people wanted it to. Soon, you will need the permission of network owners.
Think about other platforms in our lives, like the highway system. Imagine if General Motors could build the highway system such that GM trucks ran better on it than Ford trucks. Or think about the electrical grid. Imagine if a Sony TV worked better on it than a Panasonic TV. The highway and electricity grids are all neutral platforms -- a common standard that everyone builds on top of. That's an extraordinarily important feature for networks to have." [BusinessWeek]
If you care about the Internet and about digital rights read this article. And then go get a copy of Lessig's book The Future of Ideas and read that too.
Morning news shows clips of foreign coverage. Most shocking was what I saw from the Bigs in the US. Without fail all three major networks (ABC,NBC,CBS) labeled Pim Fortuyn as ultra right and/or racist. Phrases such as "running on an anti muslim platform" or "the Dutch Le Pen" are incorrect.
It isn't hard to trace this back to quotes from prime minister Kok, who positioned Fortuyn nas 'hard right' at the beginning of the campaign.
Furthermore there was the Volkskrant article from several months ago. In that interview Pim was quoted saying that he feels islam is a "backward culture" for ridiculing homosexuality and proclaiming homosexuals as "lower than pigs". Pim was openly gay.
To reiterate: Pim Fortuyn never called for a "Ban on immigration" or "Removal of Muslims". Unfortunately the memes were set, and the largest news organizations in the world are copying incorrect information and propagating it shamelessly. These organizations used to employ fact checkers. If they still do, then they should all be fired immediately.
What Pim did do, was start the public debate about immigration and standard of living in the Netherlands, which is the second most densely populated country in the world. 17 million people in a country smaller than Rhode Island.
We still don't know much about the shooter, other than that he is Dutch, White, 33 years old and an extreme leftist.
March 13th I wrote a review of Pim's book, in which he outlined his plans for making Holland a better place to live. The review is in dutch. Summarizing, I liked his ideas and so did the majority of voters, as according to the polls Pim was slated to win the elections by a possible landslide. Unheard of for any new political party.
There is certainly alot happening on the right hand side of the political spectrum in Europe, but please do not be misled by poorly informed 'professional' journalists. I have met and spoken with Pim several times, as has my wife. We were both fond of him and have the utmost respect for his dedication to country and democracy. Reports of racist or nationalistic nature are poorly researched and untrue.
Big question now is what to do about the elections, slated to be held May 15th. Most seem to think they should be postponed. Probably a good idea. Everyone needs to let this soak in. I certainly still need to process this.
This is a prime example of where the traditional news media should be looking over their shoulders. It is so facile to label someone as "right wing" and I'm sure that the traditional media assume that we aren't all that interested and no one (with any authority) will challenge their hair trigger assessments. WRONG!!!
For this story, I trust Adam more than I trust any of the mainstream media. I've never met him (and I had no idea about the MTV thing, and couldn't care less about that) but I know that he is smart, well-informed, well-connected to news sources, and is a Dutch citizen living in the Netherlands. So why wouldn't I listen to him above all the hastily gathered news gatherers that the budget-conscious news organizations are relying on? Please. This is a no-brainer.
A federal judge in St. Louis says computer games don't deserve First Amendment protection. Via [Salon.com]
Almost anything can be considered speech. You'd think that computer games would meet the test. Well, don't worry about this decision. It's a trial court judge and it is not likely to be followed.
