Author: Glenn Hauman

This is purely anecdotal, I haven’t tested these numbers– but doesn’t
it seem that there are a lot more robberies this holiday season? More,
doesn’t it seem that the perpetrators are a lot more desperate this
year, injuring and killing
people in the rush to get away?
This isn’t anecdotal: NYC has a record number of homeless this year,
with a shortage of 16,000 beds. And I think that’s going to get worse,
too.

From a reference of TBogg’s, I see that he’s taking issue with Stephen den Beste’s take on both free speech issues and Star Trek in general.

The quote that seems to be the most inflammatory is: “It is fortunate that [the Rittenhouse Review]’s
gesture is empty and meaningless because if it were actually effective
it would be a serious threat to freedom of expression.”
I suppose this is the point where I whip out my credentials and point
out that I know what internet censorship really is, and I do something about it; and when I geek out about Star Trek, I get paid for it. Suffice it to say that he’s just plain wrong as to what censorship really entails. If I took his posts and deleted all the vowels, that would be censorship. LGF is just being ignored.

But heck, SdB has a problem with me already.

However, in the interest of being fair and balanced, I’ll take TBogg to task for not knowing that The Trouble with Tribbles was Episode 42, and Episode 49 was A Piece Of The Action. By pointing out this error, certain pundits can now invalidate everything he’s ever posted as a mendacious deception.

Eugene Volokh posts something so brilliant I’m probably going to grab more than fair use allows; you’ll visit, won’t you?

IDEOLOGICAL COCOONING: There’s been much speculation recently about
whether the Internet increase people’s predisposition to talk to and
listen to only those views that they generally agree with, and to
simply ignore other views. Some say yes. Some say no. Some say that at
least Weblogs diminish this tendency, because they often link to views
they disagree with, if only to rebut them.
Let me suggest a slightly different hypothesis: Most people have a particularly strong tendency to ignore views that they disagree with and are presented rudely.
I suspect that most people do prefer to read things that reinforce what
they already believe. But those people who are interested in ideas (who
are probably disproportionately represented among readers) realize that
they need to consider others’ viewpoints, and are often willing to do
so.
These readers, though, are extremely easy for a writer to lose. It’s
already a bit hard emotionally for people to consider other viewpoints
(sad, but that’s the reality of human psychology); invective and
insults make it still harder. What’s more, since rudeness is often a
proxy for substantive weaknesses in an argument, especially for the
failure to take opposing views seriously, readers think to themselves:
“This stuff is annoying to read, it’s probably not that good
substantively, why should I waste my time on it?”
This effect does indeed relate to ideology. Though quite a few people
have low tolerance for rudeness generally (for instance, because they
feel that rudeness by some of their allies reflects badly on the whole
movement), most people do have more tolerance for rudeness by their
ideological allies than by their ideological adversaries. Among other
reasons, hearing the other side insulted is less annoying than hearing
our side insulted. So as political invective increases, people’s
natural tendency to prefer listening to their friends is exacerbated.

One of the things not commented on in the ruling in this case
where the California Supreme Court ruled that Matt Pavlovich can’t be
sued in California state court for posting DVD decryption software
(though he can probably be sued elsewhere). Apparently, the key issue
was whether Pavlovich’s knowledge that his action would affect
California companies was by itself enough to give California courts
jurisdiction. The Court ruled that it was not.
My response when I first heard of this case was: California
companies? Who, the movie studios? Not the way I see it. They may have
major offices there, but the main offices of the companies like Viacom,
AOL Time Warner, and Sony are in New York City. And the companies
themselves are incorporated in Delaware, if not subsidiaries of
overseas corporations.
This struck me as jurisdictional shopping to take advantage of a law in
one place that gives you an advantage. Think (among other cases)
Hillary in New York and Liddy Dole in North Carolina, Mitt Romney in
Massachusetts, or Dick Cheney in Wyoming (he couldn’t come from Texas,
because then he couldn’t be Dubya’s veep.) I’m sure there’s a nuanced
argument to be made why this ain’t so– but I don’t think I buy it.

Dr. Earl Warrick, inventor of Silly Putty, passed away
last week.
I’m sure I would have posted this information sooner, but every other
copy I got of his obituary was backwards and stretched funny.

Thought for the day: “We expect others to judge US by our good intentions, yet we judge others by their words and deeds.”

Why does this spring to mind? Because of… oh, hell, the usual. Pick a story.

…I’m going to link to this:

Oh, come on. You know you want one.

This just in– one out of four men fake orgasms.

(Yes, this is what I choose to lead with after a few days absent. Deal with it.)

Just getting around to watching Journeys With George,
the HBO documentary that aired on Election Night. As I was busy
knocking on doors trying to get people to vote, I put it into the PVR
and was holding off on watching after seeing how badly trounced the
Democrats it.
It’s fascinating. It’s the most I’ve ever seen of George unfiltered
(well, unguarded) not to mention the only real look I’ve ever seen of
Karl Rove and Karen Hughes. In many ways it’s more damning of the media
than it is of Dubya, showing how easy it is for the press to be
manipulated. But it also showed that Bush is a better campaigner than I
gave him credit for– which does help explain the last minute
come-from-behind victory.
And I really wish HBO had aired this before the polls closed.

The three guys
who hacked the OTB systems have been arraigned. I thought these guys
were dumb when I heard how they were placing bets– if they’d wasted a
few thousand dollars on a few extra bets, they might never had been
caught– but geez. \\Mr. Harn, the Autotote employee who is charged
with changing the computerized bets, showed up at his office on Oct.
26, Breeders’ Cup day, even though he was not scheduled to work.
Telephone records show that Mr. Davis used his cellphone to call Mr.
Harn at Autotote while the six races that made up the Breeders’ Cup
pick six were being run.
And perhaps in a final insult to a scheme gone awry, two of the three
defendants tested positive for cocaine today before the hearing.\\
On the other hand, one of the lawyers for the defendants said, “The
only thing we know for sure is that Autotote has the world’s worst
computer security.” Can’t argue with that one. My stock sell
recommendation stands.