Annoying Legislation

8 Replies

The United States Congress (Senator Arlen Spector in particular) can kiss my….Oh, wait. I musn't be annoying. I might be breaking the law.

" Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. "

"In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess."

"This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison."

….

"Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called 'Preventing Cyberstalking.' It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet 'without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

"To grease the rails for this idea, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and the section's other sponsors slipped it into an unrelated, must-pass bill to fund the Department of Justice. The plan: to make it politically infeasible for politicians to oppose the measure."

"The tactic worked. The bill cleared the House of Representatives by voice vote, and the Senate unanimously approved it Dec. 16. "

I guess I'm safe because my true identity is disclosed on this site.

What a bunch of asshats. Readers are encouraged to leave anonymous and/or pseudonymous annoyances aimed at our brilliant leaders (Please keep them PG, though).

Biography Game

Leave a reply

We all want the people we read about to be somebody else.

Suppose you could choose somebody to write your biography. It can be any person currently alive, except for people who have met you. These days it’s hard to define "met you," so I’ll define it as making eye contact. For extra fun, neither you or anybody else can directly tell that person anything about you. All they get to go off of is records you’ve left behind. Photos, papers, records, diaries, report cards, etc. Any kinds of documents, but no first-hand accounts. Depending on who you pick, they may twist things or interpret events one way or the other.

So who would you pick, and why?

[Bitterman’s regular blog can be found here. He’s an interesting guy and I’m trying to pursuade him to join me as a co-blogger. – Funky]

Scripture in Mass

2 Replies

I’ll soon be leading a bible study that focuses on Scripture and the Mass (we’re
tentatively scheduled for Tuesdays at 6PM at the Oratory, in case you might want
to attend.). I’m wondering if anyone could provide or point me to text of the Mass
annotated with references to Scripture. For instance, the greeting, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”, is from 2 Corinthians 13:14. I’m looking for a version of the order of mass that has something like that footnoted. Does anyone know of such an annotated text?