"By morning, the mass of mewling fluff had become quite suffocating."

Shaenon Garrity envisions The Trouble With Tribbles, as it might have been done by Edward Gorey.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 23:11:18 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Stupid Stupid Stupid - #3 of a series

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America gets caught issuing fraudulent DMCA takedown notices (including one for a work issued under a Creative Commons license).

Oh, now they're saying they weren't real notices.

Let's see if we can get one for "our very own"!
Asimov Asimov Asimov Asimov Asimov

I'm not one of those "information wants to be free" absolutists. Creators have the right to make money from their works. But the present "intellectual property" regime is far too loaded in favor of the corporations that make up the Content Cartel.

Too bad Bill Quick is on vacation. I'd bet he'd have some interesting thoughts.

Oh, and by the way guys, this post is Copyright © 2007, Old Grouch.
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More:

• Post and discussion at Making Light.
  
• The Stupidity of Worrying About Piracy, an article by John Scalzi, who notes

  ...today is the last day to get SFWA dues in, and I have to decide whether I want to bother. This isn't helping any.

• Nicely ironic comment at Slashdot by "Wordsmith"
  

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 21:38:00 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hold on to your hats, folks- here we go again!

On August 28, the Wall Street Journal published a story that described facts about certain contributions to a certain presidential campaign, facts which are unusual enough that a mildly curious person might reasonably wonder whether the contributors and the recipient campaign were in perfect compliance with law. That the contributing family has a Chinese surname and the donee is Hillary Clinton’s campaign guaranteed that the story would get a lot of attention, because it reminded, well, everybody of the last big campaign finance scandal involving Chinese people and the Clintons...
- “TigerHawk” at PJM

(Go read, there's more...)
And she hasn't even been nominated yet.

UPDATE 070831 1550: From the New York Times:

From $62,000 for Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York, to $10,000 for the Tennessee Democratic Party, the full extent of fund-raising by Norman Hsu came into focus yesterday, as campaigns across the country began returning his money in light of revelations that he is a fugitive in a fraud case.

Beyond the hundreds of thousands of dollars he raised from others for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Mr. Hsu personally contributed more than $600,000 to federal, state and municipal candidates in the last three years, a review of campaign finance records shows. It was a startling amount of money for someone whose sources of income remained far from obvious yesterday, as visits to addresses he has provided for his businesses found no trace of Mr. Hsu.

I'd sure like to know more about those "others" from whom Hsu raised those "hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:28:18 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Okay, now click here and say "a-w-w-w-w!"

Orphaned hedgehogs adopt cleaning brush as their mother.

(Pictures, too!)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 01:05:29 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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I believe it's called "put up, or shut up"

Beldar makes John Kerry an offer:

You have a standing offer from me: Just sue me here in Houston for defamation. After all, I've republished most of the SwiftVets' claims here on my blog, and I've made many of them again in my own voice. I use a pseudonym for my blog name, but it's not anonymous — my name and address are linked on every page of this blog, and have been since the day it started. I'll waive any statute of limitations defense. I'll waive service of process. Hell, I'll meet you at the federal courthouse doors for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division (you have diversity jurisdiction), and I'll even pay your filing fee!

You think it will be too expensive to have big teams of lawyers? Fine — since you were once a big-time courtroom lawyer, let's just you and me tangle one-on-one, both of us pro se. (I'll agree not to oppose your application for admission pro hac vice to the federal court here in Texas, and I'll even pay the fees to get your law license reinstated in Massachusetts.) Just me at my table, you at yours, and then a set of jurors good and true in the jury box...

...and I'll bring the popcorn.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:56:55 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Half empty, half full

Don Surber:

AP: “Drunken driving deaths dropped in 28 states and D.C.” USA Today: “Drunken driving deaths up in 22 states.” Who is right?

Well, 28+22=50, so the answer is probably "both."

But given Gannett's penchant for nannyism, it doesn't surprise me that their version led with the "bad" news. 

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 21:52:15 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know, it's really embarrassing...

...when a post sits for almost a month with this link where this one should have been, and NOBODY brings it to your attention.

Oh well, cheeseburgers are more fun than hatred, any day.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Meta at 19:27:13 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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There's (really) no way you can read ALL the blogs

Ed Driscoll marks a milestone.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 00:53:35 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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"sherlock" e-mails the Washington Post

To: comics@washpost.com
Subject: Hypocrites 'R You

I guess we see what works with you folks in the media to get you to lay off. Appeals to fairness? Nope. Reasonable arguments? Nope. Threats of extreme violence? Bingo!

If there was any justice, Jerry Falwell would come back from the dead and hunt you little censors down with a nice sharp sword! That would get your sense of fairness going wouldn't it!

Let's have some more features about the dangers of Christian fundamentalism, WAPO! OOOhh, such big, brave defenders of our freedoms^[1] you journalists are! When you go after 80-year old dead preachers it just lights my fire!

sherlock

The next time anyone says anything about our "fearless, courageous press, speaking truth to power" in my presence, I plan to break into loud, obnoxious, ironic laughter.

UPDATE 070825 17:01: Over at LGF, "Areopagitica" scripts a strip featuring Opus, Bill the Cat, Milo, and Ibrahim Hooper.

UPDATE 070903 19:01: below the break...
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^[1] Context below the break...
Via: Lots of folks
more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 00:46:40 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Failure of nerve

I've been threatening to write a screed about the general failure of institutions (largely attributable to the boomers), and how that failure threatens western society. Pending its completion, this post by Natalie Solent is a good place to start. Pour yourself a drink first– you'll need it.

Highlight from the comments:

"In a country where "institutional racism" is the most pressing problem the police have to face, "institutional gutlessness" was the only possible result." - Frederick Davies

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HT: Andrea

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:34:59 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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