Current Affairs

For she will be able to run for President in 2040, and she will remember all those who dared to oppose her.

Meet Tess Avery Peyton, daughter of longtime Reader Harley (of both here and Tacitus.org). The tired extraordinarily well rested and alert (and happy) father has not yet declared a political affiliation for her, so start your indoctrination programs while you can. Or maybe update your minion resumes.

Congrats, Harley. Now get some more sleep Now keep on doing whatever it was that you were doing, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and supportive of your wonderful and lovely wife about whom you regale us with tales, tales that feature her many, nay, nigh-infinite, stellar qualities*. 🙂

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Why, they both call people race traitors!

Well, OK, in Robinson’s case he called Colin Powell ‘an immoral traitor to his race’, but we all know what that means*. I mention this because he’s involved in this Aristide conspiracy theory, and I just felt like reminding everyone of the essential moonbattiness of the fellow. Blessedly for him (and us, of course), he’s now permanently on the island of St. Kitts, where the sun is warm and the Caucasians rare, and it is my fond hope that we continue to have a society where he feels deeply unwelcome. You know, one where a Texas Republican President can make a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Secretary of State and casually note that he and his National Security Advisor were able to avoid detection on their way to Iraq because they looked like a normal couple.

Can I freshen that drink for ya, Randall? No, no need to chug it: you’ve got all the time in the world.

Moe

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How dare David Crosby do such a thing:

NEW YORK – Musician David Crosby was arrested on marijuana and gun possession charges early Saturday at a Times Square hotel, police said.

Crosby, 62, a two-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had checked out of the hotel but left a piece of luggage behind, police said.

A hotel worker found the bag and went through it looking for identification, and called police after finding marijuana, a .45-caliber handgun and two knives, authorities said.

Smoking. He dared to bring smoking materials into a New York City hotel. Oh, don’t try and pretend that he was just bringing it through; he was planning to take big heaping carcinogenic puffs of smoke and release them on an unsuspecting, pristine Manhattan. Yes, at least it was marijuana, not tobacco, but that’s no excuse. You can bet that he keeps some of those dirty cigarettes around him, too: no, he’s got the look of a pipe smoker. Or maybe – horrors! – he does snuff.

Thank God for Bloomberg, that’s all I have to say.

(Via a ‘shocked’, not ‘outraged’ OTB)

Moe

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… the Commissar linked to this narrative of a Ukranian* woman’s bike trip through the Chernobyl area. The translation is spotty, but easy to follow, and some of the pictures are subtly disturbing to even the most enthusiastic nuclear supporter (like myself, more or less). Well worth checking out, in other words.

And that, oh my droogies, is it for the night. From me, at least.

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…This* is apparently legal, and obviously Galen is for it: how do you legal types feel about it?

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I’m a few days late, but let me applaud the Bush administration’s handling of the ongoing crisis in Haiti. It was right not to chose sides in a war with no good guys, right not to save Aristide, right not to deploy troops until the outcome was clear, and right to limit the mission at this time to certain clearly-identified goals. And I’m perfectly sanguine about it all, even if we “kidnapped” Aristide: He was no believer in democracy, and his departure averted a bloodbath.

Now, a personal note: a good friend’s father — an obstetrician* — is currently in Haiti doing good works and visiting his family. A brief thought or prayer on his behalf would be appreciated.

von

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Andrew Sullivan points the way to an almost indescribably idiotic column by Dennis Prager in Town Hall Magazine.

America is engaged in two wars for the survival of its civilization. The war over same-sex marriage and the war against Islamic totalitarianism are actually two fronts in the same war — a war for the preservation of the unique American creation known as Judeo-Christian civilization.

So a radical faction of gay marriage activists have teamed up (perhaps in Vermont-style civil partnerships) to drive jet planes into skyscapers? Perhaps the right thing to do, then, is to declare gays “enemy combatants” and ship them off to Guantanamo.

Believe what you will about gay marriage: Although I generally favor allowing gay marriage, there are plenty of good folks on the other side. Even if there weren’t, though, I’d hardly think it apt to compare them to the 9-11 terrorists. Perhaps Prager has forgotten, but the 9-11 terrorists killed 3000 innocents in a day in pursuit of their cause. How many people have the proponents of gay marriage killed to block the FMA? How serious a threat is the Popular Front for the Red Brigades of al-HomoMarriagistas? Did I miss a memo?*

It is not often that idiocy is married to immorality with such aplomb. I suppose, Dennis Prager, that congratulations are in order.

von

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A note to Kalle Lasn, editor of Adbusters Magazine.

I noted with some interest your recent editorial discussing American / Israeli relations and the reasons for same. I was remarkably impressed by how easily you were able to shrug off both Bush’s call for a Palestinian state and recent criticisms of Israel in your drive to indicate that the neocon movement was both running the the WoT and dominated by Jews, especially your dedication in determining and indicating those Jewish members of the ’50 most influential neocons in the US” (whether they would identify themselves as neocons or not). How – lucky – for you that half of them turned out to be Jewish! Why, it couldn’t have come out better if you had assembled the list deliberately!

Now, I am not myself a neoconservative, although I agree with a fair number of their policy positions. As for Judiasm… well, to echo Professor Tolkien when he was faced with a not completely dissimilar situation, “…I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.” Nevertheless, please note this symbol (regrettably made nortorious by certain other individuals dedicated to searching out hidden Jewish influence and power) –

– anyway. I find the thought of confusing people like you about just who is and who isn’t Jewish around here to be a strangely compelling one. Not to mention probably a mitzvah.

Moe

PS: Shorter Moe Lane: Kalle Lasn, Geh kak afen yam.

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Here’s an interesting man-bites-dog story:

A New Jersey woman, one of the hundreds of people accused of copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America, has countersued the big record labels, charging them with extortion and violations of the federal antiracketeering act.

Via Glenn Reynolds, who thinks “she might just have a case.” (Slashdot has a similar take.)

I don’t. Or, I should say (having not seen the Complaint): “I think it highly unlikely.”

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO*) was originally passed to combat organized crime. Clever lawyers, however, have tried to apply its broad language to pretty much everything under the sun — from simple fraud cases to abortion protestors.

At the heart of every RICO claim are two elements: A “pattern” of “predicate offense” (fraud, extortion, bribery, etc.) and an “enterprise” through which those offenses are committed.** Both elements need to be met to state a claim. Moreover, under the law, both elements have to be alleged with specificity: a general or blanket allegation that X is an enterprise, for example, won’t do.***

Without going into it too far, I doubt that either element can be sufficiently alleged. The alleged “predicate offenses” by the RIAA appear to be alleged “extortions.” Apparently, the theory is that each copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the RIAA is an unlawful attempt to extort money from the target. But the filing of a copyright infringement lawsuit is generally a protected activity, and you have to show bad faith to overcome that presumption and even begin to make an extortion claim. Bad faith ain’t merely a “maliciousness” (though that’s probably needed); some knowledge by the RIAA that the lawsuit itself was frivolous at the time that it was filed is likely needed. I can’t see a plaintiff making that showing. The RIAA’s lawsuits may be heavy-handed, but they ain’t frivolous — there are real copyright violations going on.

The other problem is with the RICO enterprise. An enterprise can’t be a bunch of people who get together to commit a bunch of predicate acts; in some circumstances (a RICO claim under Section 1962(c), if you must know), it also can’t be one of the named defendants. Remember — the original purpose of RICO was to target the mafia. Think of the “enterprise” as, say, the 70s Teamsters: a legitimate organization that’s been infiltrated by ne’erdowells. With this in mind, I just don’t see an “enterprise” that survives Court scruntiny.

Of course, I could be wrong ‘bout all this — as I said, I haven’t seen the complaint. But the smart money’s on the RIAA.****

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Thanks to Amygdala and Kesher Talk I’ve been made aware of a blogger named Dr. Dot’s violent encounter with proxy anti-Semitism, not to mention the aftermath. Those two have already covered most of the details (and I just deleted about three paragraphs that can essentially be boiled down to Don’t Do This If You Don’t Enjoy Being Gleefully Stomped By Everybody Within Line of Sight), but what the heck: we note the story all the same.

Including the fact that political affiliation becomes irrelevant in this country in these sorts of situations. I am confident that no regular reader of this blog would have walked away from the incident described by Dr. Dot*, and given the range of political opinion that shows up around here, well…

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