Today’s reason: The “Patriot” Act
Sure, The Patriot Act is a fairly broad range of laws and regulations that are helping to secure the country, but it contains several pieces that are an infringement on our freedoms — even to the point of destroying the things we hold dear as Americans. The Patriot Act even prevents the ACLU from discussing challenges to The Patriot Act.
The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit three weeks ago challenging the FBI’s methods of obtaining many business records, but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until now.
…
“It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed in court,” Ann Beeson, the ACLU’s associate legal director, said in a statement. “President Bush can talk about extending the life of the Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our challenge to it.”
Many of you probably already know about this (especially since some of you — this means YOU, Etrigan — watch way more TV than I do), but I just found out today that ABC is airing a movie version of A Wrinkle in Time tonight.
I fully realize that the possibility of suckage is very high, but this was such a cool children’s book that I am willing to give the movie at least 30 minutes of viewing time before giving up on it.
It’s not substantiated enough to make the ABB NOTD, but I’ll add this when Reuters or AP pick it up.
A week after a scandal broke involving photos of American troops torturing Iraqi prisoners, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, & Root is pulling the plug on private electronic communications with the folks back home, apparently at the request of the Department of Defence.
That I think many of us suffer from:
It’s a fine line between being a well-lived raconteur, and being full of crap.
Not really, but I’ll be gone most of the rest of the week. Life and spring are intruding, and I need to focus on a couple of projects here at work. Plus, the weather has turned to the absolute epitome of beautiful, so I’m all about cranking through the projects at the office, then getting home to go wander with the boys.
Last life/porch interference is inspired by Becky’s Book Club: Some of the actives and Alumni from my fraternity decided we’d form a book club (tentatitively titled the “Frat Boy Book Club”), so we’re kicking that off. First book is going to be Free Culture by Larry Lessig (You may remember Larry from his pithy and reasoned commentary as a regular in Wired Magazine.)
And I need to see about getting a bike with which to pull around the boys. I’m thinking of either a Surly Cross-Check since they keep a bike building blog, or a Kona Jake (as opposed to the “Jake the Snake”). Surly may be the way to go, as Nate may have issues if I get a bike named after his big brother. Though I suppose we could ride it to get hot dogs
Drop me an e-mail if anything happens. Peace, out.