Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Hawks' Alexander will sit out at least one more game

Monday Night Football is going to be a major bummer next week, unless the Seahawks pull out a miracle...

Shaun Alexander is not expected to play against Oakland next Monday, coach Mike Holmgren said today.

Holmgren said last week he hoped Alexander would be back for the Raiders, but the coach said that doctors have not cleared him to return.

Alexander has missed four games because of a cracked bone in his left foot, and Seattle has gone 2-2 in those games.

Source: The Seattle Times: Sports: Hawks' Alexander will sit out at least one more game

After yesterday's loss I was really hoping the Seahawks would catch a break and have a running game again. 47 rushing yards for an entire game isn't the way to win on Monday night though.

Departing Congress Approves 700-Mile 'Wall to Nowhere'

More "feel-good" legislation. Now our congress (both sides of the aisle) and president can say that they've gotten tough on illegal immigration when they appeal to voters to re-elect them... even though they haven't. 

At a White House ceremony on Thursday, President Bush put his signature to a bill authorizing 700 miles of additional fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border. The bill supposedly demonstrates the determination of Congress to stop illegal immigration, but like much of its other efforts, the fence legislation is more symbolism than substance.

Source: Departing Congress Approves 700-Mile 'Wall to Nowhere'

To my mind this legislation is utterly meaningless. I'm not so concerned about the length of the wall, although it still leaves 1,200 miles of our Southern border wide open with no impediments to illegal crossings. No, what concerns me is that this bill is unfunded.

Yes, I know the article I cite claims that now congress has funded a "Wall to Nowhere" just like the Alaskan "Bridge to Nowhere", but this legislation doesn't fund the construction of the wall. Anyone who voted for this bill can use their vote to say "I was tough on illegal immigration", even though the bill doesn't do a thing to actually get the wall built. Without the funding this wall will never be built, and this piece of legislation might as well have not been written and signed.

Peer-to-peer charges net prison term

I've never used one of these file-sharing systems (unless you count Usenet), or Napster. I've always considered it wrong to post materials that are under copyright to these kind of services, or to download it from them. I guess that makes me out of touch with today's kids, but that's the way it is. Anyway, now it looks like if you help run one of these you can go to jail. And, it might get you grounded too.

ABINGDON, Va. - A network administrator for a peer-to-peer Internet file-sharing system has been sentenced to five months in prison for copyright infringement.

Grant T. Stanley, 23, was also given five months of home detention, three years of supervised probation and a $3,000 fine for his role in the Elite Torrents service, which used a sharing technology known as BitTorrent. Stanley, who had pleaded guilty to copyright-related charges, was sentenced Oct. 17.

Source: AP Wire | 10/27/2006 | Peer-to-peer charges net prison term

"Weird Al" Yankovic wrote a song about all of this some time ago. It's called "Don't Download This Song". You can download it here. Honestly. He encourages you to do it!

"Once in a while maybe you will feel the urge
To break international copyright law
By downloading mp3s from file-sharing sites
Like Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA
But deep in your heart you know the guilt would drive you mad
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
'Cause you start out stealing songs, and then you're robbing liquor stores
And selling crack and running over school kids with your car"

We wouldn't want that now, would we.

St. Louis No. 1 On Dangerous City List

 This just days after they win the World Series.

The national FBI figures released in June showed the murder rate in St. Louis jumped 16 percent from 2004 to 2005, compared with 4.8 percent nationally. The overall violent crime rate increased nearly 20 percent, compared with 2.5 percent nationally.

Source: St. Louis No. 1 On Dangerous City List, Brick, N.J., Is Rated Safest In Rankings Based On Crime Statistics - CBS News

According to the article, the 12 Midwestern states' crime rate increased at a rate three times higher than in any other region. It's safer in Detroit and Oakland than in St. Louis... What's going on in "flyover country"?