Tag Archives: law

Some History, Some Politics, Some Fun, and a Few Other Things

Posted on by
Reply
This entry is part 16 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I (semi-unexpectedly) spent a lot of time over the weekend catching up on TV shows and playing video games. There was also some reading involved. Yeah, I’d had other plans, but was far too wiped out from the week to actually follow through on any of them. So, a couch weekend it was.

During that time, I was happy to notice a distinct lack of consistent formula in a lot of shows I’m currently watching. Sure, they draw on all the typical tropes of their respective genres, but they also play with them a bit at times. Every episode, though, is different enough that I don’t get bored watching more than two or three episodes in a row (which is something I can’t say about shows like House or, sometimes, NCIS… both shows I love, but can’t do marathons of). It was also a pleasant surprise to see some mediocre shows take a step up in quality (The 100 and Star Crossed are notable here)… and some really good shows (like Arrow and Hannibal) just take things to entirely new levels of awesome.

In a not unrelated vein, I also finished re-reading Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show. It’s the first time I’ve read the whole thing since I first tore through it around 1990. I’d forgotten how truly poetic Barker’s work can be and that, even among the horror, violence, and gore of a world in upheaval, there’s still a solid note of hope and clear examples of love and faith throughout. I was also reminded just how influential his work is to my worldview.

Political Drift, Questionable Communications Decisions, A Classic Clip, History Online, Seal Snuggles, and Some SciFi Short Goodness

Posted on by
Reply
This entry is part 14 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The situation with Cliven Bundy (the man who’s been grazing his cattle illegally for years on federal land) continues to get more surreal. Now that he’s got a speaking stump, all sorts of things are coming out of his mouth that are being made a big deal of. In some cases, like his recent musings on whether blacks were better off as actual slaves than as a bunch of people on public assistance now, possibly more of a big deal than they should be.

The problematic thing is, there seem to be some questions at the root of this story that are very worthy of discussion. Like bringing into question how much “public” land the federal government owns and what can (or should) be allowed to go on with it. Or how we should all feel about federal officials, working well within existing law, can be dissuaded from carrying out their duties by a group of ornery and armed citizens. Or how the media is actually covering this story–what gets hyped where, what details get lost, what words quoted out of context.

All fascinating and important things that will likely be swept away under the torrent of “Crazy Racist Guy Pulls a Gun on the Government” spin. (Well… it’s not completely spin, which is part of the problem with Bundy being at the center of this.)

The other big news is the FCC’s decision to more or less throw the concept of Net Neutrality under the bus. With the potential merger of Comcast and Time-Warner cable providers on the horizon, there’s no more important time to ensure that the Internet stay as low a barrier to entry as possible. With what the FCC just did, though, carriers like Comcast can (and will–it’s already started with Netflix) give preferential treatment to some businesses, putting them in a beneficial spot for getting their content to customers. The new ruling does include provisions that theoretically prevent an actual “fast lane” where data transfer rates could be modified based on business agreements… but those safeguards only work if the FCC enforces them in a meaningful way… and I haven’t seen a lot to indicate the FCC will do anything in a meaningful way when it comes to this issue. This is the second time they’ve dropped the ball–the first being when the poorly worded, but generally accepted, net neutrality ruling failed to be defensible in court because of that poor wording.