Monthly Archives: July 2008

Heh

Steven den Beste notes:

I started thinking about that when I saw this question someone posted today at ask.metafilter.com:

“As an American, can I hand out flyers detailing the Tiananmen Square Massacre during the Beijing Olympics?”

I’m really glad to see that the many answers were virtually unanimous that this would be an utterly boneheaded thing to attempt.

I was going, “huh?” until I realized the idealistic (and idiotic) questioner didn’t mean during the Beijing Olympics, he meant at the Beijing Olympics. At which point, I became highly amused.

I wondered if someone asked him if he planned to participate in the Tank-Stopping event, and I thought it would make a great snarky comment for this post. So I went to Metafilter for the link, even though I didn’ t have to Lo and behold, the title of his post? “Tank man is Everyman.

Suddenly, it wasn’t funny any more. I can only believe the guy was trolling.

Nunya Bizniz

The Chron was nice enough to print my name and 2007 earnings on their website. Sorry, I am not a public official, and I don’t think my info should be up there. How would you like it if the IRS posted that information about you? Hey, you pay taxes, right? I’ve got a right to know if you’re paying your fair share, right?

A fireman said it best:

As for the idea we somehow have less of a right to privacy simply because we earn our living working for the citizens of Houston, the I vote that any entity, person, company, or vendor, that sells, contracts, or does business with the city post all of thier employees, contracts, and amount of money earned from business with the city each year. It will certainly dwarf the little bit I EARNED.JMHO

I’d cancel my subscription, but I did that long ago.

Congress Shall Pass No Law…

But they might pass an administrative rule. As usual, the Demorats are up to no good. blogHOUSTON gives us a heads up from Rep. Culberson’s website:

Basically, the Democratic-controlled Committee on House Administration is drafting rules that would prohibit House members from posting content on any but “approved” websites. One can only imagine what kind of list the Dems would draw up.

According to the statement, the Democrats are looking at restricting Member content on websites outside the house.gov domain. Congressman Culberson is quickly becoming a “real time representative” by posting on Twitter.com, where he sends regular updates from the House floor and the halls of Congress, and on Qik.com, where he films and posts video updates on the Internet. This new technology allows him to bypass the mainstream media and shine sunlight into the darkest corners of Congress. If the Democrats strong-arm this rule, he would no longer be able to use these websites and our fundamental right to free speech will be taken away.”

Now bear in mind that this is the same Congress that gets to send mail for free (the “franking” privilege); meant for business but often abused during campaign season to send “informative updates” that are not “campaign materials” to everyone in the congressman’s district. Yet the Dems are trying to stifle taxpayer-free or low-cost alternatives used by its own members.

Why am I not surprised? It’s become clear since the 2004 campaign that the real name of the Democratic party is the “Socialist Worker’s Party.” Hail democracy, comrade!