Archive for May, 2004

Pakistan has tested a nuclear-capable missile with a 1500 mile range. I wonder where it will “accidentally” export the technology next – Libya, Iran, North Korea, or all of the above? Hint: “Some experts say the Ghauri missile was developed with North Korean help in return for nuclear know-how.”

California’s Senate voted 24-8 today to pass a bill restricting how Google’s ad-based Gmail service can serve up ads. The commie bastards responsible for this atrocity have a taxpayer-funded staff to take care of their taxpayer-funded email accounts, while Google works hard to allow millions of people to get access to a free and technologically innovative email account. Well, I am going to make Senator Figueroa’s attack on America a bit harder by emailing the CA senators from my Gmail account. (Assembly emails are here.) Feel free to send the letter below…or anything else that will help them appreciate the value of email.
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Nicholas Thompson of the New York Sun describes the powers granted the New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer by the 1921-era Martin Act:

The purpose of the 1921 Martin Act is to arm the New York attorney general to combat financial fraud. It empowers him to subpoena any document he wants from anyone doing business in the state; to keep an investigation totally secret or to make it totally public; and to choose between filing civil or criminal charges whenever he wants.
People called in for questioning during Martin Act investigations do not have a right to counsel or a right against self-incrimination. Combined, the act’s powers exceed those given any regulator in any other state.
Now for the scary part: To win a case, the AG doesn’t have to prove that the defendant intended to defraud anyone, that a transaction took place, or that anyone actually was defrauded. Plus, when the prosecution is over, trial lawyers can gain access to the hordes of documents that the act has churned up and use them as the basis for civil suits.
“It’s the legal equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction,” said a lawyer at a major New York firm who represents defendants in Martin Act cases (and who didn’t want his name used because he feared retribution from Mr. Spitzer). “The damage that can be done under the statute is unlimited.”
Mr. Spitzer and his allies, of course, see the law the opposite way, lauding its unlimited capacity for good.

The purpose of government is not to “do good” of course, but to prevent (and punish) evil. The problem with unlimited power to “do good” is that it always leads to tyranny, no matter how noble the motives.
More commentary at the Agitator. Hat tip: CapMag.

When I logged on to my Gmail account today, I saw this: “You are currently using 0 MB (0%) of your 1000000 MB.” That’s ONE TERABYTE of space! Apparently, I’m not the only one in for a shocker.

After Mrs. Gandhi told senior party leaders Tuesday that she would not accept the top slot, party activists publicly pleaded in front of her home for a change of heart. One distraught Congress worker put a pistol to his head and threatened to commit suicide unless Gandhi reconsidered…One BJP minister resigned at the prospect of a Gandhi-led government; another threatened to cut off her own hair.

Gee, I’d be nice if we could get that kind of excitement for election in America..

A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless – they weren’t having sex
…”We are not talking retarded people here, but a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate.”

Just what did they do for eight years?