Pelican Cautions

I'm a big fan of Pelican cases. We use them to ship stuff all over the country for work. I just ordered a new batch and they came with these warning tags.  It never occurred to me that I could use them to ship children. Thanks for the tip, Pelican!

Municipal Wi-Fi is a bad idea

Every now and then a city will announce plans to provide free Internet access points around the city, and there will often be praise from the hi-tech community.  Or a state will move to ban such initiatives and heaps of scorn will be heaved on top of them and the local cable and DSL provides.  That's a mistake.

While I realize folk love to hate their cable companies (often with good reason) and the woeful state of broadband in this country, having the cities provide the access is worse idea.

Once municipal broadband is wide spread and available at no additionl cost than the taxes people are already paying, then the rational, individual decision is to stop paying Comcast or someone else for Internet access.  With enough people doing that, residential broadband from private companies will eventually go away.

That may be fine, assuming the municipalities allow free and open Internet access, but I'm not convinced they will. There are many great things on the net, but there are many foul ones as well.  We already see debates in favor of blocking undesirable websites at libraries and schools.  Will a vocal minority really allow the city to make such content available in homes?

Obviously the first target will be block already illegal or obscene content. I can't imagine many city councils will oppose a determined group of citizens who want to prohibit the city from "supplying" child pornography.  You can already imagine the campaign ads.

So what's next? Should the city be in the business of sending regular pornography into homes? Can't children see it then? Is that how we want to use tax money?

Porn is an easy target for those who want to restrict access to content. And a city blocking such content from it's own service may not be in the business of censorship.  After all, it's not like their banning the content.  They're simply choosing not carry it on a municipal service.

So what's next?  In many places, it's probably hate speech.  Should the city be facilitating content that is racist or misogynistic?

There are extremes on both the right and left of our political landscape that would like to see certain content go away.

Many would argue that the city should block sites that enable violence -- perhaps content related to building explosives and fighting a government force.  But what about sites that promote non-violent political unrest?

At this point I think it's safe to say that no city would ban a legitimate new site's content from it's service.  But then who is determining  the legitimacy of a new site?  I think CNN and Fox would be safe from calls to ban it from the city's service, but what about Al Jazeera?

In the recent uprisings in the middle east, one of the first things dictators try to do it cut off 'net access for the people. Can we count on local governments there to not do that if pressed?

The Internet is a powerful tool because of both the good stuff and bad stuff that's on it.  And I trust the users of the Internet, and, yes, many of the private party ISPs out there, to deliver a free 'net experience much more than I trust a city council trying to stand up to a vocal group of citizens barking their vocal call to, "Think of the children!"

You can be arrested for bad thoughts

An Oak Creek High School teacher has been arrested after authorities said he posted comments online in a debate about teacher salaries, saying the Columbine High School shooters were heroes.

James Buss, 46, of Cudahy, was arrested Thursday by West Bend police and released after posting $300 bail. He has been suspended from his job. He could face criminal charges.

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Could face criminal charges for posting offensive comments? Do we arrest people now just because they might at some point have to face criminal charges?

And those criminal charges would be related to offensive comments?

Outrages like this are becoming more common. While Buss's comments may have been inappropriate, arresting someone for praising criminals is fundamentally wrong and is more offensive than his praise of the Columbine killers.

We have to protect offensive speech. That's why we have the first amendment. Those protections were added to our most important national document to protect the unpopular and offensive. Popular and politically correct speech doesn't need protection. The unpopular statements need to be protected.

Buss deserves a large settlement from the department that had him arrested. Elected officials who approve the arrest of people who simply post their thoughts on line need to be recalled or voted out of office.

I'm afraid it won't be long before something like this would be considered subversive and arrestable:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Lead: The Latest Threat to Homeland Security

Everyday brings news of another recall of a Chinese made product. The early recalls were for deadly tires and poisoned pet food. Now, though, the recalls are for the more subtle lead poisoning in toys.

It’s truly shocking that we can’t trust the cheapest possible products, made with slave labor to be quality learning and entertainment aids for our children. How can these accidents happen?

Obviously, they’re not accidents – they’re intentionals.

China has made tremendous strides over the past few decades. Market oriented reforms and a focus on growth have turned the country into an economic powerhouse, providing finished goods for much of the world. China is the reason steel and oil prices have skyrocketed in recent years; they are importing more of these raw materials than ever before and limiting supply to the rest of the world.

In fact, that was part one of the recently established plan. It’s a clever form of market oriented attack on the US. By buying all this stuff, and driving up commodities prices, they hope to crash the economy of the US.

But that might only be effective for the next few years. The US has a massive capacity for innovation. The inherent scrappiness in the national character that gave the world everything from the Internet to the Chicago Cubs gives us tremendous resilience. Even if we face an economic collapse, the children of today will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. They are smart enough and determined enough to pull the country out of any trench and create the next economic bubble.

To bring down the US, you have to collapse the economy of today, and destroy the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

And that’s what these lead contaminated toys are.

Excessive lead exposure in children learns to impaired intellectual development. It lowers IQs, causes stunted grown, limits hearing, and gives kids ADHD.

The increase in lead toys is all part of a long term world domination plan on the part of the Communist party in China. Before invading the US, they first have to make our kids dumb.

That must be we why they are letting Survivor be filmed there, too.

You’ve been warned.

Thank you,Chris Hansen

These days, if Rian Romoli accidentally bumps into a child, he quickly raises his hands above his shoulders. "I don't want to give even the slightest indication that any inadvertent touching occurred," says Mr. Romoli, an economist in La Cañada Flintridge, Calif.

Ted Wallis, a doctor in Austin, Texas, recently came upon a lost child in tears in a mall. His first instinct was to help, but he feared people might consider him a predator. He walked away. "Being male," he explains, "I am guilty until proven innocent."

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The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about the lengths men go to avoid false accusations of child abuse.

The media attention on child predators over the last few years has created the specter of a molester on every corner. The overwhelming "caution" that people adopt in response can be frightening.

Amero to get New Trial

Back in January, I posted the story about Julie Amero, a substitute teacher and novice computer user who was being railroaded into a potential 40 year prison sentence by the state of CT over some pornographic images that appeared on her classroom computer.

Her conviction and sentence appeared to have more to do with a school district trying to cover up its own technological incompetence and officials determined to appear tough on pedophiles, regardless of whether or not there are any actual pedophiles involved in the case.

It looks like cooler heads have prevailed in swell of fierce push back from the Internet community and the public at large.

From the Seattle PI:

Teacher gets new trial on classroom porn
By STEPHANIE REITZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- A judge granted a new trial Wednesday for a former substitute teacher convicted of allowing students to view pornography on a classroom computer.

Prosecutors did not oppose the defense motion for a new trial for Julie Amero, 40, who had faced up to 40 years in prison after her January conviction. Prosecutors had argued that Amero visited the sites, then failed to shield children from seeing the images.

The computer was sent to a state laboratory after the trial, and the judge said Wednesday that those findings may contradict evidence presented by the state computer expert.

"The jury may have relied, at least in part, on that faulty information," said Judge Hillary B. Strackbein, who granted the request for a new trial.

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Based on what I've read of this case, the prosecutor should just drop the ridiculous charges altogether. But for now, not opposing the new trial is at least a start.