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You did know that when serving on a jury you can find someone not guilty if you conscientiously object with the law that they are charged with breaking right?

Yes you can. It's called jury nullification, and it's roots go all the way back to the Magna Carta.

Nick Denton buys fark.com

/that is all

That's human

LUCYlibrary: J. Edgar Hoover's Fan Letter to Lucille Ball

J. Edgar Hoover writing a fanboy letter to Lucille Ball about "last Mondays" I Love Lucy. (I do love Lucy BTW. I think she's the most beautiful woman "Hollywood" has ever produced.)

Link via Boing Boing

Pauly is live blogging the LA Poker Classic

Tao of Poker: Pauly's Poker Blog

Everyone else in poker blogdom is mentioning it. So have a redundant link.

Funk for the funkless

Stanford tree mascot fired for alleged basketball game drunkenness:

"A rowdy Stanford University mascot was fired after being discovered drunk during a basketball game, university officials said.
Fifth-year senior Erin Lashnits, who dresses as a tree for the university's irreverent band, was stripped of her duties last week after her blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.157 during a men's basketball game at the University of California, Berkeley. For the purposes of driving a vehicle in California, legally drunk is .08.
Stanford went on to lose the Feb. 9 game 65-62.
The university had previously placed the band on 'alcohol suspension,' which requires a zero-tolerance policy toward drunkenness, said band spokesman Sam Urmy. Lashnits was fired to avoid disciplinary penalties from the athletic department, Urmy said.
'We don't want to risk our core mission of rocking out and bringing funk to the funkless,' Urmy said."

And later Disco Stu was seeing seen attempting to hang himself.

The Volokh Conspiracy

Illinois Student Newspaper Editors Suspended for Running the Danish Cartoons

That's not cool.

Good idea

The Paparazzi Have Taught Us So Much | A Socialite's Life:

"Madonna takes the cake for most clever. She often rides her bike in the exact same clothing, minimizing the number of photos the paparazzi can sell."

CIA officer looks at the USA vs. USSR

NO QUARTER: National Security: The Attack on the Constitution

Which country is he describing?

"The government was always right and never apologized;

Any dissent was suppressed, ridiculed, banned or worse;

Secret prisons were denied and never acknowledged or spoken about;

The torture of captives (in Lubyanka) was condoned;

State incarceration was not subject to the checks and balances of a legal system;

Economic plans, like for oil, were established/determined in closed sessions between politicos, commissars and production managers, far outside public view, and where government claimed privilege in so doing;

Wages were set at the lowest common denominator, no matter what Bloc country you were in;

Government agents had access to your medical records, your library records, your telephone, and your e-mail.

A place where judicial power and judicial review were proclaimed concepts, but simply ignored in application;

Where criminal records of young adults were closed to all but the military;

Where a Constitution was a mere facade and ignored by state actors.

Any dissent, debate and protest were deemed unpatriotic;

The public media was bought, paid for, and provided by the state;

The military clandestinely and shamelessly influenced the national media and public opinion;

A place where wrong was declared right;

Where tapping a phone was like tapping a pencil;

Where lying was considered a patriotic skill;

The extraction of natural resources was paramount to any concern for the environment and the impact on the health of its people;

Where the use of “state secrets,” (those things embarrassing to the government) were confused with legitimate issues of “national security”;

A place where 'secrecy' and 'national security' were used to control debate;

Where legitimate secrecy, was subject to political use and abuse;

Where 'legislators' were mere mouthpieces for and rubberstamps of whoever was in power;

Where you lived and died with the permission of the government;

A place where foreign policy was more important than domestic concerns;

Where fear was used as a political weapon and an acceptable means of control;

Where the best medical care was reserved for the influential;

Where wealth was concentrated in the top 5%;

A place where there was no middle class - just a small economic and political elite, and the working poor."

You scored as Moya (Farscape). You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes.Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Hunting illegally and badly

KRT Wire | 02/13/2006 | Cheney and shooting victim were hunting illegally, officials say:

"DALLAS - Vice President Dick Cheney was hunting illegally - without the required $7 stamp on his license for quail - when he accidentally shot one of his hunting partners, Texas Parks and Wildlife officials said Monday.

And so was Harry Whittington, 78, who was recovering Monday from a shotgun blast to the face, neck and chest."

Prince shredding your face off

Never been much of Prince fan, but props is due.

Breathtakingly Stupid

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Digital film: Industry answers:

"No, it is not correct to assume that one clever hack dooms all use of DRM. Content owners use DRMs because it provides casual, honest users with guidelines for using and consuming content based on the usage rights that were acquired. Without the use of DRMs, honest consumers would have no guidelines and might eventually come to totally disregard copyright and therefore become a pirate, resulting in great harm to content creators."
--Dan Glickman MPAA president

In one fell swoop Dan Glickman shows that all DRM is simply meant to annoy honest customers.

Informed Comment

Cheney Authorized Libby to Disclose Classified Documents

Ya the header is old (obvious) news now, but check out the way Juan Cole lays out the story visually. He connects the dots in a way that even a reporter (for example) could understand.

Sort of a Boing Boing for the ages

Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society

Looks at "Wonderful Things" from the past.

esr on telco deregulation

Armed and Dangerous -- Blog Archive -- Un-ending the Internet

Deregulate and let the telcos have their tiered pricing — as long as we also deregulate enough radio spectrum that the telcos (evil monopolist scum that they are) will promptly be hammered flat by wireless mesh networks.

Right

Chatology: Digesting the Sunday Spew - Wonkette:

"The “cartoon controversy,” which always sounds like it should be about Bill O’Reilly but it’s not. --Ana Marie Cox"

He could be President

Pellicano Wiretap Indictment - February 6, 2006

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: "

Of course Gonzales begins his Opening Statement by quoting Osama bin Laden and Zawahri. We used to quote Madison, Jefferson and Lincoln to decide what the principles of our Government are going to be. Now we quote Al Qaeda. The Administration wants Al Qaeda and its speeches to dictate the type of Government we have. It is the centerpiece of everything they do and say."

Yep

Eschaton:

Iranistan
The other night during the SOTU when I was at CAP Action Fund with Sam Seder I was on for a bit with Amy Sullivan from the Washington Monthly. Seder asked us both to name the biggest threat to the Republic, aside from George Bush and Dickey Cheney. Sullivan responded, with all seriousness, Iran.

Look, I just don't get this stuff. I don't want Iran to have nukes. I don't think that's a good thing for the world. I certainly didn't want Pakistan or India to have nukes. But is a nuclear Iran really a threat to us? Certainly an Iran-with-nukes could blow the hell out of a city or two, but an Iran that did such a thing would pretty much cease to exist. It isn't mutually assured destruction, it's you fuck with us a little bit and YOU NO LONGER LIVE BITCHES!"

Hmm... funny

tekjansen.com - Chapter 1 - Once Again, Brave Warrior, Forth Into the Breach

President Creates Cabinet-Level Position To Coordinate Scandals | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

President Creates Cabinet-Level Position To Coordinate Scandals | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Bribe Your Senator With An iPod! - Consumerist

Bribe Your Senator With An iPod! - Consumerist

How "Christ, What an Asshole!" is the Answer to the New Yorker Magazine Caption Contest

How "Christ, What an Asshole!" is the Answer to the New Yorker Magazine Caption Contest

Alito Breaks w/ Conservative Block... not really.

Alito parts with conservatives on execution

False alarm. Here's why:

Last month, the court said it would use the case of a Florida death-row inmate to decide whether last-minute challenges can be brought under the federal civil rights law to the drugs used in lethal injection.

The court appears to be holding cases that raise the same issue until it hears arguments and rules on the issue, which is expected by the end of June.

The three justices that voted to allow the execution need to get their heads out of there asses.