Just another nerd.
Slashdot has a thread about this proposed Microsoft initiative that would essentially create a Google for your entire life — dump all of your home videos, pictures, correspondence, e-mail, etc. into one unstructure database. So just put your entire life into one big database.
To which an astute Slashdot poster observes,
Sounds kinda redudant to me … isn’t this what the new dept. of homeland security is going to do?
The South African Press Association reports that Zimbabwe’s government has enacted a new law making it a crime to,
. . .make any gesture or statement within the view or hearing of the state motorcade with the intention of insulting any person travelling with an escort or any member of the escort.
The press association notes that Robert Mugabe’s motorcade is colloquially known as “Bob and the Wailers” because of the blaring sirens from motorcycle escorts.
Apparently Mugabe’s opponents have been shouting opposition political slogans and salutes at Mugabe’s motorcade.
This follows passage of a law earlier this year making it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail for anyone who “makes an abusive or indecent or obscene or false statement” about Mugabe. Earlier this month a man was arrested in Harare for carrying a sign that read,
God shall confront Mugabe over evils done to people. Then would the police and the Central Intelligence Organization arrest god on that day?
They’d probably try.
Source:
New laws bans rude gestures, swearing at Mugabe motorcade. South African Press Association (Johannesburg), November 18, 2002.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals garnered some media attention for itself by sending four people to jump on stage and harass model Gisèle during a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
None of the outfits on display at the show used fur, but PETA’s Dan Mathews had been threatening for weeks to make Gisèle pay for modeling furs for a mink cooperative.
Fur Commission USA had the best description and commentary on the disruption.
Of course the obvious question raised by FCUSA is why on Earth does a group like this still have a nonprofit status? Why should taxpayers still be helping to subsidize this sort of activity? And more importantly, why doesn’t the media ever focus on that angle? You can bet that if this were an anti-abortion nonprofit endorsing these kinds of actions, for example, that they would not have that status for long.
FCUSA also has a rundown on each of the PETA activists involved in this protest, with their profile of Kayla Rae Worden raising an eyebrow,
Kayla Rae Worden (who calls herself “Stripper for a Cause”) followed Gisèle all the way down the runway holding a sign, appropriately made of vinyl (plastic), which personally attacked the model. The vinyl sign was emblazoned with the PeTA corporate logo, leaving no doubt what company sponsored the attack.
PeTA employee Kayla Rae Worden started life as Kevin Worden. During a 2002 appearance on the Howard Stern Show, Kayla/Kevin stripped when he threatened to kill insects and fish if the three PeTA-phile guests didn’t show him some boob. Kayla/Kevin was quick to reveal her set and Howard complimented Kayla/Kevin on her commitment to the cause and her “nice, natural breasts”. That’s right – without surgery perfected on animals and daily hormone therapy developed on animals, Kayla/Kevin would be sporting full body fur and a moustache. Isn’t it amazing what a little animal-tested hormone therapy can do?
And working for a group that opposes AIDS research in animals.
Source:
Plastic People Fail to Fluster Super-composed Supermodel. Fur Commission USA, November 20, 2002.
As I mentioned earlier this week, pro-fox hunting activists in Scotland and Great Britain are adopting a novel tactic in their fight to keep fox hunting legal. They are arguing that since Jews and Muslims are both allowed to kill animals without stunning them first in order to satisfy religious requirements for food preparation, that to ban fox hunting amounts to cultural persecution under European human rights conventions.
Whether or not that is a valid argument that will succeed in court is one thing, but certainly simply making that argument, as I have done above, should not be a crime. But, in fact, this week the British government arrested Daily Telegraph columnist Robin Page for making just this argument at a pro-hunting rally.
According to the Daily Telegraph,
Mr Page also told his audience that Londoners had the right to run their own events, such as the Brixton carnival and gay pride marches, which celebrated black and gay culture. Why therefore, he asked, should country people not have the right to do what they liked in the countryside.
Mr Page said yesterday: “I urged people to go on the march and I urged that the rural minority be given the same legal protection as other minorities. All I said was that the rural minority should have the same rights as blacks, Muslims and gays.
“What is wrong with that in a multicultural society? I said nothing that could possibly be interpreted as racist.”
The Telegraph goes on to point out that back in September a letter from the Prince of Wales was leaked to the media that made essentially the same argument.
Yet Page was arrested and charged with stirring up racial hatred.
Source:
Pro-hunting writer held in cell after race claims. Neil Tweedie, The Daily Telegraph (London), November 20, 2002.
Police in Richmond, Virginia are investigating whether or not numerous acts of vandalism in the area over the past few months are the work of the Earth Liberation Front.
On Sept. 27/28, activists used a glass-etching cream to damage a total of 38 windows at two McDonald’s and a Burger King fast food restaurant. Also in september, a glass-etching cream was used to damage 25 SUV’s at a Richmond dealership.
On Oct. 5/6 two SUVs were hacked with hatchets and a note was left behind that the work was of the Earth Liberation Front.
For the moment, The Earth Liberation Front Press Office says it hasn’t received any information taking credit for the attacks,
We have received no statement of claim for those actions at this press office so we are not able to pass along the motivations of these acts, other than to say that they are in keeping with other E.L.F. actions that have targeted pollution, roads and vehicle culture through attacks on vehciles such as S.U.V.s.
Unfortunately, it is also apparent that the local officials likely don’t have a firm grasp on the ELF. Wade Kizer, Virginia’s Attorney for the county that includes Richmond, told The New York Times,
Police are tryi got dtermine if there are any links to other incidents around the country. [It might be the ELF] but it might be some local people who have just heard of the organization.
But that’s all the ELF and ALF have ever been — a group of people with no ties to any larger organization who commit acts of vandalism and violence and take credit on behalf of ELF. In a very real sense, there is no ELF, but rather just isolated opportunistic acts of vandalism and violence carried out by individuals who have little or no connection with each other (which is what makes it so difficult to prevent ELF and ALF-style actions).
Source:
Rash of vandalism in Richmond may be tied to environment group. Lisa Bacon, The New York Times, November 18, 2002.
One of the silliest animal rights controversies in recent months has to be the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisectoin’s outrage over a planned new television show by comedian Steve Coogan.
Coogan’s new animated for the BBC series is “I Am Not an Animal.” As UK Newsquest Regional Press describes it,
The adult cartoon . . . will portray animals living a pampered life in a luxurious club class wing of a secret lab. The characters — a horse, cat, sparrow, monkey, cat and dog — are fed vintage wine and exquisite food and are blissfully unaware of the outside world. They are appalled when they are liberated by animal rights activists and forced to rough it in their natural surroundings.
The BBC is marketing “I Am Not an Animal” as a UK answer to “The Simpsons,” but BUAV says the concept isn’t funny.
BUAV claims the cartoon needs to remember that animals in laboratories endure “horrendous cruelty.” BUAV’s Wendy Higgins said,
We really hope these rumors are false because to portray the lives of lab animals as antyhing other than a living torture would not only be deeply crass but also irresponsible.
A spokesman for the show responded that the series, “. . . looks at anti-vivisection in a satirical way.” Of course there’s no other option, since most activists don’t even to take their own movement seriously (if they did, they wouldn’t keep spouting the same old distortions and lies).
Source:
Coogan in animal rights row. Barbara Davidson, UK Newsquest Regional Press, November 16, 2002.