how to be a civil libertarian

This comes from About.com (which has some excellent material on the topic of Civil Liberty). Here's how to be a civil libertarian:

1. Recognize that the highest political value is personal freedom.
   
   
2. Keep in mind that freedom is of utmost importance especially when it's inconvenient.
   
   
3. Remember that the right to criticize the government doesn't end when a war begins; that's when it's especially needed.
   
   
4. Be consistent. There are freedoms that you favor and freedoms you don't. The right to be left alone applies to them all, equally.
   
   

(Via Political Disgruntlement and Technology from Utah )

A revolution in sound

This site chooses the top 100 albums of the 1980s. Broken down is sets of 10, brief reviews are included with each, makes for an interesting read if you were influenced by the music of that era. You're guaranteed to find a few of your favorites on the list.

It's said that the 1980s are responsible for the worst fashion, fads, and music of any decade of the 20th century. But as we see the decade recycled and updated with post-millennial minimalism, it's becoming clear that the 1980s had more to offer than we've given them credit for. As the calendar left the classless earthtones and polyester of the 1970s behind, musicians looked to the future for inspiration in new genres.

Crassmas Shopping

Luke Sullivan chimes in with his perspective on the Christmas-has-just-become-so-commercialized" chorus

Shopping is suddenly "bad." And why? We've been coming out of stores all year long, teetering under piles of merchandise that would drop a Sherpa. Eleven straight months of spend, spend, spend, but have a turkey drumstick, watch a football game and boom -- the nation's stores form their own axis of evil.

I've been doing my shopping online, but I haven't decided which is worst, the onslaught of human spending machines at the mall or those pesky pop-up adds that will not let me shop in peace.

Knicks Take Sting Out of Hornets

Kurt Thomas hit two free throws with 26.1 seconds left to force overtime and Latrell Sprewell scored six of his 19 points in the extra session as the Knicks took a 92-86 win over New Orleans on Saturday. Allan Houston led New York with 20 points and Othella Harrington scored 10 of his 17 in the fourth.

Let's build on that fellows!

Oliver and guests opine on the issue of why black students are lagging.

Perspective

I stopped a man walking down the street once to ask for directions, he proceeded to give me accurate and precise directions and then ended with a poem.

Being a New Yorker, I've come to expect anything. I wasn't phased by the encounter but I have to admit that there are some very complicated, interesting and spacey folks out there. Sometimes It's hard to determine whether I'm dealing with intelligent men who are bluffing or imbeciles who are being sincere.

Perhaps I'm being too analytical, but many people cover up who they really are and try to be too complicated or too open minded.

I try to keep an open mind. But I'm reminded often of what Samuel Butler once said:

"An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not be so open that there is no keeping anything in or out of it. We should be able of shutting its doors sometimes, or it may be found a little too drafty"

That is one reason why I strive to be practical and basic by looking at simple truths intelligently.

George Bernard Shaw said:
"Common sense is instinct - enough of it is genius"

Out of the red and in the black

Omar Wasow, 31, executive director of BlackPlanet.com explains how the site is, by far, the most heavily trafficked African-American Web destination, with 1.5 million different visitors in any given month, according to the Nielsen /NetRatings service.

"People didn't believe there was a business to be had serving African-Americans online," he says. "And to the extent that business was there, they were convinced `Why would a start-up succeed when you've got all these big media companies doing the same thing?' "

BlackPlanet, which is privately held and began in September 1999, just recorded its first quarterly profit, Mr. Wasow says, though he won't reveal how much. " ... It's not a major milestone, but for an Internet company, it's a big deal."

So what accounts for BlackPlanet's success and popularity? Omar explains

Your Online Rights

Do you know your online rights? It's always been important to me to stay informed regarding this issue. That is one reason why I have a legalities page in place which touches on the issue of fair use.

If you're online rights are a concern to you, Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities.

We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate their favorite movie stars, or criticize businesses. But we've noticed that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to "chill" legitimate activity.

The website offers background material and explanations of the law for people whose websites deal with topics such as Fan Fiction, Copyright, Domain Names and Trademarks, Anonymous Speech, and Defamation and more.

Here's an excerpt from the site on the practice of "Deep Linking" for example (which refers to the creation of hyperlinks to a page other than a website's homepage).

Some website owners complain that deep links "steal" traffic to their homepages or disrupt the intended flow of their websites. In particular, Ticketmaster has argued that other sites should not be permitted to send browsers directly to Ticketmaster event listings.

Here is what the court decided:

From Ticketmaster v. Tickets.com opinion:

"...Further, hyperlinking does not itself involve a violation of the Copyright Act (whatever it may do for other claims) since no copying is involved. The customer is automatically transferred to the particular genuine web page of the original author. There is no deception in what is happening. This is analogous to using a library's card index to get reference to particular items, albeit faster and more efficiently".

So far, courts have found that deep links to web pages were neither a copyright infringement nor a trespass.

It's interesting to note however that as the internet grows, we can expect to see more questions raised concerning the legality of certain practices. Stay tuned and be sure to bookmark ChillingEffects.org.

Doing the right thing vs Doing things right

An NYPD officer was suspended from the force after refusing to arrest two homeless men who were sleeping in a Union Square parking garage. Eduardo Delacruz, an eight-year veteran of the NYPD, was suspended without pay for refusing an order to arrest the men for trespassing.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit this week to stop the NYPD for allegedly singling out the homeless for arrest.

"It's cruel and heartless to pick on those who are most in need of society's help," Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday. "But it's also no substitute for a humane policy to address the growing problem of homelessness."

Cheney Denied

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, scored another legal victory today in its quest to release the documents from the super-secretive Cheney Energy Task Force.

The Honorable Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled early Wednesday morning that the Bush/Cheney Administration’s request for appeal of the court’s repeated orders to produce documents was denied. The Judge stated that the“Defendants have fallen far short of demonstrating that the questions of law presented by the challenged orders arise under such exceptional circumstances as to warrant disruption of the favored process of appellate’s review following final judgment.”

To view the order click here.

Cheney also faces a lawsuit from the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative agency. Arguments in that case were heard in September, but U.S. District Judge John Bates has not ruled.

Of course the media seems to be looking the other way on these matters. Forget about hearing this on your evening news.