Now, as to *what* she’s writing about… I would have bet you money we wrote about the myspace mom back when the story broke, but apparently not. I know we had some choice things to say about her amongst ourselves. Mention of honey and fire ants was prominent, as was auto da fé. At the very least, she should have been thoroughly shunned by polite society.

Instead some enterprising prosecutor has decided to “adapt” anti-hacking laws to pursue a case against this evil cow, to, as Michele points out, the potential detriment of all web users. Establishing precedent for a conspiracy charge against someone using a pseudonym (*coff*), or even indulging in an otherwise innocent fantasy identity, is Not a Good Thing. As you can see from this very case, if you give your government powers, they will flat use them, regardless of whether the law in question was intended for that purpose or not.

There are a great many failures in this incident…the failure of Lori Drew to be a rational human being, the failure of Megan’s parents to monitor her health, attitude and freaking internet usage, and the now the failure of the Justice Department to act responsibly and declare there to be, however unfortunately, no criminal wrongdoing in the case.

If you want people who do idiotic things like this in the future to be prosecuted under some law, then petition your senator/representative appropriately. But we should not allow them to twist laws intended for a completely different purpose just to salve a public outcry.

Canon Michael Ainsworth, 57, was set upon by three Asian youths shouting anti-Christian abuse when he confronted them for rowdy behaviour outside St George-in-the-East church in Shadwell, leaving him with two black eyes and cuts and bruises.

On the one hand, those “Asians” need to be acknowledged for what they really are, and deported back to “Asia,” posthaste.

On the other hand, it pleases a dark part of me that the Church is getting a taste of its own medicine.

However.

A leading bishop today condemned the furore caused by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments on the formalisation of sharia law in Britain as a “shame on our nation”, after the former home secretary David Blunkett warned of catastrophic consequences.

The Bishop of Hulme, the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, robustly defended Rowan Williams and said he was appalled at the “kneejerk” reaction to a serious piece of academic work.

“We have probably one of the greatest and the brightest Archbishops of Canterbury we have had for many a long day,” he told BBC Radio 4′s World at One.

Well, Rt Rev Lowe, I’d say you have earned a place of honor on the Idiot List right there with your Archbishop of Stupid.

Excepting the Jesuits, I’m going to have to call foul on any member of the cloth who holds forth regarding secular issues, particularly regarding the rule of law.  Regardless of how conveniently you interpret it, Rev Lowe, what Mister Williams was speaking about was appeasement, pure and simple, of a faith that has no particular interest in harmonizing with your church or any other.

Your immigrants, be they Muslim, Buddhist or Zoroastrian, should be subject to BRITISH LAW.  And only British Law.  If they do not appreciate that then what business do they have being immigrants?

Online auction site eBay has said it plans to overhaul its feedback system and will ban sellers from leaving negative comments about buyers.

EBay said problems were occurring, and slowing down trade, when buyers left negative comments about sellers who then retaliated with their own views.

We’ve sold a few things here and there in the 7 or so years we’ve been eBay members, and as those of you who also use the service know, feedback is indispensable. It allows you to prevent shifty buyers from leaving bids they have no intention of honoring, and warn others when someone attempts to burn you, as in the case of the guy who claimed the gold coin we sold him was a fake. A perusal of his feedback showed he had tried this on a number of other buyers in the past year, all who left negative feedback to that effect (yah, we didn’t dig deep enough before accepting his bid).

But now, due to some measure of whinging, eBay is going to do away with this valuable seller’s tool completely, in the name of speeding things up? I’ve noticed no particular lag in completing transactions due to feedback. In fact, there is no lag whatsoever, as feedback is only given/received after the transaction is complete.

So, it really sounds like what eBay is actually trying to avoid are all the sales they are losing through sellers’ unreasonable desire to avoid getting screwed by unscrupulous buyers. Selfish bastard sellers.

*

(Via Dropsafe)

Okay, this may not strictly count as a domestic nanny-state item, but since UN supporters generally come prepacked mailed-fist-in-velvet-glove with homegrown statists, I figure it merits a quick mockin’ here:

It didn’t attract much notice, but the General Assembly of the United Nations ended the year by passing a disgusting resolution protecting Islam from criticism of its human rights violations.

Lots of non-Muslims voted for it – a sign that more and more corrupt Third World governments are identifying with the ideology of Islam, even if they don’t accept its doctrines.

The resolution goes under the innocuous title “Combating defamation of religions” – but the text singles out “Islam and Muslims in particular”. It expresses “deep concern that Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism”.

Wrongly associated? As of today, terrorists have carried out 10,277 separate attacks since September 11, 2001. They all belong to the same religion, and it ain’t Methodism.

It sure ain’t. Although, as we know from the incessant chirping and twittering of our own Tranzi/PC handwringers here, the Methodists are just as bad.

It’s just that it’s in, y’know, poor taste to notice the sins of the Islamic fundies. After all, if you make them mad, they might KILL somebody.