From the 'WTF?' files

The entirety of a comment left over at the GT:

bigmike45 wrote on Jun 24, 2008 8:18 AM:
" Jerry:

Since I am a law abiding citizen I do have little to NOTHING to fear from FISA. If they want to search my house hopefully they send in the insomniac squad because they will be cured when they are finished with the search.

I do not fear FISA or the Patriot act. What I fear is people like Al Gore telling me how I have to live my life. If you fear loss of freedom in America then look into what people of Gores ilk want to do to your life. "

Let me get this straight: Government agents searching your house and/or listening in to your phone calls without a warrant and without cause? OK.

Having to change some behaviors in response to the damage we're doing to the environment? A total loss of freedom!

The cognitive dissonance required to produce that statement - and no, that's not satire - is incredible.

If the GT wants a decent commenter base, they need to take steps to make that happen. No one is going to want to join the party if the other guests are mean.

Sometimes, one can only marvel at his awesomeness

Hering in an editorial ostensibly about the upcoming Presidential race:

The main question in America always has to be: What do we do to assure that individual citizens will continue to be free, both politically and economically?

Just now, freedom seems under considerable threat from a much more meddlesome government interfering more directly in personal lives.

That's fantastic, I thought - Hering is going to come out against all violations of privacy that have occurred in the last eight years. This is awesome.

Sadly, I was - am - wrong. The very next sentence of the editorial:

This is the main reason some of us are skeptical of the claims about global warming.

I am totally befuddled. Guantanamo Bay, floating prisons, renditions, torture, the shredding of several articles of the Constitution, domestic spying, etc. etc. etc., and Hering is referring to global warming as the only noteworthy threat to people's freedoms?

What the fuck? Seriously, what the fuck?

Maybe he should keep writing fiction, as this sort of thing shouldn't happen in, you know, real life.

It took me a long time to digest the fact that yes, Niven is serious:

Among the group's approximately 24 members is Larry Niven, the bestselling and award-winning author of such books as "Ringworld" and "Lucifer's Hammer," which he co-wrote with SIGMA member Jerry Pournelle.

Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.

"The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren't going to pay for anything anyway," Niven said.

"Do you know how politically incorrect you are?" Pournelle asked.

"I know it may not be possible to use this solution, but it does work," Niven replied.

The charitable response is, um, that he's factually incorrect (the best information I have seen suggests illegal immigrants both use emergency rooms at a much lower rate than is commonly believed and that illegal immigrants are a net gain on the economy) - and that he should probably be concerned with all those white citizens who are using emergency rooms because they can't get medical care any other way.

But I digress. The less than charitable response, or at least my less than charitable response is this:

Asshole.

On being called a coward by Hasso Hering

...well, not directly. He does pull the old "some" canard, which should be a journalism no-no. Moreso he is going after LT and the idea of anonymous blogging in the first place.

Anyway, this editorial is getting old, but I've not really had a chance to think about it or weigh in, and I wanted to.

Hering:

The Lebanon dispute about a web log or blog is essentially about cowardice.

[recites some context about LT and Kim Fandiño]

This is the universal problem with the online universe. On some sites it is easy to post commentaries anonymously. You can say anything, true or not, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. [Italics added.]

FULL STOP.

Did Hasso really just ignore libel and slander laws, not to mention laws governing harassment, to make his point?

Yes he did.

Lies by intentional omission (because even I believe Hering knows what libel is) are still lies, and have no place in a newspaper.

The Internet thus becomes a perfect tool for weasels who like to slam other people but are too shy to tell the world who they are. They may be the same kind of people who throw stuff at bicyclists from a moving car, knowing that their victim cannot catch them. Figuratively, they are pleased to wound people while remaining safely out of sight.

Hasso calls them weasels. I call them the Founding Fathers. See, for example, Publius and the history of the Federalist Papers, which provided some much-needed context for the Constitution and were printed anonymously.

Notice how he also implies that it's somehow a crime if anonymous words wound someone - never mind the truth or falsity of said words. If Hasso can't look you in the eye, you obviously have nothing worthwhile to say.

Moving on:

At Lebanon’s school board meeting this week, a lawyer said he represented the blogger or bloggers in this case and was ready to defend his, her or their rights of free speech, or words to that effect. Wonderful! Let’s drag the noble First Amendment down to the level of the anonymous blogger, why don’t we!

Nobody doubts that citizens have the right of free speech, no matter what their opinions. But the principle of free speech implies responsibility too. Bloggers who refuse to bear responsibility may make people wonder whether free speech is such a good thing. (hh)

Har. See my point about the Federalist Papers. Also, Hering should do some - any - research on this topic; anonymous speech, including blogging, has significant protections under the First Amendment. For Hering to so openly mock this idea implies that (a) he has no clue as to the history of protected, anonymous free speech in America and (b) he's a fucking fascist idiot.

Also (c) that people say stupid shit all the time using their real name. Responsibility, which is definitely not the same thing as people knowing one's identity, is no guarantor of quality. Hering should know better than anyone.

Worse, (d): That Hering, a newspaper editor, doesn't believe all that strongly in free speech. His claims regarding responsibility are a poor cover for his manly anger at someone's refusal to...what? Duel with pistols at dawn? It would be comical if he weren't so serious.

"Coward?" "Weasel?" Really? I know I frequently use, um, sophomoric terms, but I'm a crappy blogger; he is a newspaper editor, and should leave the ad hominem attacks where they belong - which is not on the editorial page.

This is by far the worst editorial I have ever read by Hering. He is either forced to lie to make his point or is completely ignorant about a fundamental aspect of public speech in this country. Either is completely unacceptable for a newspaper editor; can SOMEONE over at Lee - be it at the DH, GT, or corporate - sit up and take notice?

Please?

What would it take?

Question

What ever happened to the LCSD employee that boarded a bus and yelled at a child for making a face at her through the back window of the bus?

The only information I can find is this Lebanon Express story from April.

Anybody know what happened?

Oscar, the Grim Reaper Who Licks Himself

I don't really know what to say about this....it's really creepy, yet it makes a strange sort of sense:

"He's a cat with an uncanny instinct for death," said David Dosa, assistant professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and a geriatric specialist. "He attends deaths. He's pretty insistent on it."

In the two years since Oscar was adopted into the dementia unit of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence he has maintained close vigil over the deaths of more than 25 patients, nursing staff and doctors say.

Yeah.