Joseph Lehman Jr., whose father heads the state Corrections Department, faces two counts of first-degree child rape. If convicted, he would face more than 11 years in prison and identification as a Level II sex offender. This brings up two things that I was shocked to realize that I didn’t know. First of all, I was not aware that we RANKED our child rapists. We have degrees of child rape now. Well thank God. I don’t know what I’d do if I found out that we were classifying all of our child rapists together. I mean, you don’t want the BABY rapists and the TODDLER rapists mingling with each other in the prison yard. If you do that you’re just asking for trouble. via [Captain Obvious]

5:56:00 PM  #  

Is it lucky or unlucky to find a 4 leaf clover growing out of a steaming hot pile of dog crap?
5:53:13 PM  #  

History Lesson: The Statue of Liberty.

In case your history is bad (which if you're an American, it probably is), The Statute of Liberty was given to the United States by France in 1886 to honor the friendship between the two countries and more specifically it was a reminder of France's role in the revolutionary war a little over 100 years earlier.

I'm not one to normally defend the French or France, but I'm so embarrassed by what I've seen lately in the news and on blogs that I just wanted to give my American compatriots a history lesson which they so desperately need. When you see the Statue of Liberty in the harbor, or on TV and think of the liberties and freedoms she represents, remember that it is France that gave you those liberties, for without their help we would never have been able to win against the British.

Russ weighs in with some extremely poignant points about France that many of us may have forgotten. It's actually pretty good timing as Audrey and I went out with a group of friends last night, and one of them, who was from France, seemed very distraught over a lot of the anti-France sentiment growing here.  She couldn't understand the "Iraq first, France next" bumper stickers or the continuous harassment she was getting from her coworkers.

via [Russell Beattie Notebook]

11:39:39 AM  #  

Daredevil micro-review.  Okay, I have to admit that I am going to see this movie.  "Daredevil" was my favorite comic book (once I grew up past the "X-Men" [coming soon to a theater near you])  back in high school and apparently Ben Affleck was a huge "Daredevil" fan too, and even penned the foreword for Kevin Smith's run on the comic book.  Add to that the fact that Jamie thought it was okay (and he hates everything) and you have yourself a movie that probably won't leave you feeling ripped off when you get out of the theater. Besides if I can sit through the original Captain America movie, I can sit through anything.  via [jwz]
11:30:26 AM  #  

Google buys Blogger!. HOLY CRAP! Google has bought Blogger! Congrats, Ev, Steve, Rudy and the gang!

Google, which runs the Web's premier search site, has purchased Pyra Labs, a San Francisco company that created some of the earliest technology for writing weblogs, the increasingly popular personal and opinion journals.

The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of online news and information. Weblogs are frequently updated, with items appearing in reverse chronological order (the most recent postings appear first). Typically they include links to other pages on the Internet, and the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Many weblogs invite feedback through discussion postings, and weblogs often point to other weblogs in an ecosystem of news, opinions and ideas.

"I couldn't be more excited about this," said Evan Williams, founder of Pyra, a company that has had its share of struggles. He wouldn't discuss terms of the deal, which he said was signed on Thursday, when we spoke Saturday. But he did say it gives Pyra the "resources to build on the vision I've been working on for years."

Maybe my good buddy over at Google will start a weblog now, and then he can update me on the goings on over in San Francisco.  With such amazing posts as "Tuesday 2am:  Called into work cuz server crashed." and "Tuesday 7am:  fixed server crash problem...it's late enough in the night that I might as well stay here for work today, my brain is mush...must code."

via [Boing Boing Blog]

11:21:00 AM  #