- Those who had even the slightest doubt that campaign finance "reform" is mainly about getting politically troublesome people to shut up should take a look at Ryan Sager's article at Tech Central Station, wherein he describes efforts by the political establishment in Washington State to muzzle a couple of radio talk-show hosts that are speaking out a bit too effectively in support of efforts to repeal a gas tax increase. It's more than slightly depressing that Ryan also reports that the local Seattle Post-Intelligencer is "actively cheering on the enemies of the First Amendment."
- But what is it with Washington, anyway? Via Joanne Jacobs,
we learn that Washington State University officially got into the
business of attempting to disrupt a performance of a
non-PC student play; a University office purchased tickets for
hecklers to attend, and the University's president defended
the hecklers as "a 'responsible' exercise of free speech."
When the playwright appealed to Campus Security for help,
they asked him to change the lyrics of one of the satirical songs
he'd written. To avoid trouble, you know.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has a detailed report here.
- Tear yourself away from your web browser, and see if you can
still remember how to work that newfangled TV, because
PBS is doing a show
on Bob Newhart. Cathy Siepp has a good appreciation here at NRO.
True fact: Mrs. Salad and I still quote lines from The Bob Newhart Show at appropriate times. (Favorites: "Not a pretty picture, Emily." "More Goo to go!" "It's blue, Bob!") Of course, in a few years, we'll start doing that at inappropriate times, and then we'll have to worry.
- For a good time, do a Google search on "Non-Terrestial Officers". A cautionary tale of hacking while high. (Via Hit&Run.)
- You could do worse than to visit Achenblog
at the Washington Post, written by the great Joel Achenbach.
Fortunately, nobody's threatened his First Amendment rights recently.
Musing over his mail pile today, he:
… encountered a new book from Ray Kurzweil, "The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology." It looks provocative, and I'm sure Ray is right, but I have a feeling that there is nothing in the book that is going to help me solve my problems RIGHT NOW. The Singularity isn't near enough. I haven't transcended biology. For me, the South Beach Diet may be near.
I emphatically empathize.
![[The Blogger and His Dog]](/ps/images/me_with_barney.jpg)
