random($foo) is the occassionally still updated blog of Leonard Lin. My pics are on Flickr, code is on Github. @lhl on Twitter. More »
Redacted by the Justice Department:
The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect ‘domestic security.’ Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent.
Instiki – wiki w/ Desktop (OS X menubar) integration. One less thing on the todo list. [via mathowie]
Jason has been following up on Josh’s Bikes Against Bush arrest.
Some interesting posts on /.:
Kinberg cooperated fully with the officers as he was being handcuffed, only asking, “can I ask what I’m being arrested for?” to which no one provided an answer. As of 11:00 PM Saturday evening, he was still in custody without being charged with anything.
Have you read Houston v. Hill [findlaw.com] Recently. You’re a texas guy.
And GULLIFORD v PIERCE COUNTY [findlaw.com]…Relying, inter alia, on the Supreme Court’s decision in Hill, we ruled in Mackinney v. Nielsen that expressive conduct such as writing with chalk on the sidewalk does not itself create probable cause for arrest …
He should be released ASAP, and the state should pay for his pains, plus reimburse the lost opportunity costs.
(All this said – i believe the first amendment protectes those who disagree with protected speech and their right to “clean up the mess” personally i prefer to collect litter on a stick – and have been arrested for that so – it cuts both ways.
AIK
I do so all the time, both on my home sidewalk and formerly on my business sidewalk.
That’s
really my only option (that, and I’m not an asshole), because drawing
on a sidewalk with chalk was declared not to be vandalism 100 years ago.That’s why the sidewalk artists work in the medium and chalk explicitly for the purpose is sold throughout NYC.
It’s perfectly legal to track dirt onto my sidewalk too, because I can just wash it off.
KFG
IANAL, but writing stuff all over the sidewalk (over an extended area) – even in chalk – has to be against some local laws.
Yes, this may be in violation of some local ordinance. What
concerns me is that the arresting officers and their superiors are not
sure what ordinance it violates, so they confiscate his property and
arrest him anyway.A free society dies when law enforcement can begin arresting
people and look for an illegal act later. If proffesionals are no
longer sure of what is legal, how is an ordinary citizen able to stay
within the law?
At protests around the U.S. in the last six years, the police
have been actively employing preemptive arrest tactics, which have
almost always have resulted in dismissals or “not guilty” decisions.Not always of course, but much of the time (comparing numbers arrested against numbers inidicted and then convicted.)
Americans
say they’re for freedom of speech, but anytime a large, public act of
communication takes place (mainly demonstrations for this point, but
the implications are similar for pirate radio imo), there’s always a
government entity duly empowered to curb that expression, so that it
doesn’t have quite so strong the impact its creators put into it. For
example, the FCC, appointed by the Executive, and the police and FBI,
appointed by that jurisdiction’s executive, or, in some cases, elected
by the public (yet still a single human with much power over many.)It’s
the imperfect, political humans controlling those speech-altering
government entities who have the power, here, not the citizens. Too
much power in the hands of too few. The U.S. is no longer a good model
of a participative democracy. Look toward northern Europe for better
examples of directly-involved citizens.
How Long Can the Country Stay Scared? , Bruce Schneier
A terrorist alert that instills a vague feeling of dread or panic, without giving people anything to do in response, is ineffective. Even worse, it echoes the very tactics of the terrorists. There are two basic ways to terrorize people. The first is to do something spectacularly horrible, like flying airplanes into skyscrapers and killing thousands of people. The second is to keep people living in fear. Decades ago, that was one of the IRA’s major aims. Inadvertently, the DHS is achieving the same thing.
I think you can safely cross out the ‘inadvertently’ part.
I’ve been really digging on the new Good Life album:
Holy Crap, this 18″ Spider-Man figure has 67 points of articulation, which includes 14 in each hand (fully articulated fingers!). Time to trade-in those ol’ hardwood manikins for something way better (and with free webshooters!). Wal-Mart sells this bad boy for $21.68.
What I need to do is sit down for a week or two and make a big chart comparing these things. Luckily I’m getting paid to do that. The next thing I need to do is to take the best of these, mix in with my improvements, and build something better. Maybe I can get paid to do that too…
The Face of Tomorrow attempts to find out what the future face of each city will look like by taking photographs of the current inhabitants and compositing their faces to create a typical face.(see: process)
Probably mentioned before: