Reason Morning Links: Deadly Month in Afghanistan, Swine Flu vs. Internet, Lieberman To Block Health Care Bill

• October now deadliest month in history of the war in Afghanistan.
• Latest swine flu fear: It will crash the Internet.
• Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) vows to block Reid health care bill.
• Crowdsourcing your trick-or-treating bounty.
• Study finds states do poor job of protecting data collected on students.

Comments

[Kyle Jordan]

Damn. You got this up even before the 7:00 first story. Wonder if they'll swap the places?

[Britneycougar]

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It's where cou gars and younger men can meet(Cou gar is the slang for woman who is mature, experienced and want to date a younger man).

[CoyoteBlue]

I could see, sick and stuck at home for a week or two, I'd put a few hundred hours on Eve, mining and pew-pewing. But will it really spike traffic that much. Half the workforce is trolling the web half the time anyway.

[Ted Stevens]

Idiot! The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material!

[Mike M.]

Olympia Snowe, bless her little Maine heart, has joined Lieberman and said she will oppose the bill. It's toast.

[Xeones]

I have never wanted to punch Lieberman in the face less.

[Ska]

Don't cave to those feelings X - it's all part of his plan.

[Episiarch]

Don't worry. It'll pass.

[Joe M]

On the clogged Internet due to swine flue:

"And if that were to happen, it is not clear whether the federal government is prepared to deal with the problem, the GAO said. "

I didn't know the federal government ran the entire Internet. When did that happen?

[Sister Mary Catherine]

"October now deadliest month in history of the war in Afghanistan."

Lying chickenhawk presidential bastard!

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Governator uses clever formatting to tell legislature to fuck themselves.

[Pro Libertate]

"What an asshole?" Au contraire. What a genius!

I know Schwarzenegger has been a disappointment for a variety of reasons, but saying "Fuck you" to the legislature and wielding a barbarian sword at staff meetings. . .well, the guy can't be all bad.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, sorry, meant to link to the barbarian sword remark.

[Brandybuck]

To crush legislature, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!

[Pro Libertate]

I love it. I can't believe people are offended. The offense is the legislature, which is doing its damnedest to destroy California.

[Pro Libertate]

Okay, I had to make this into an Urkobold post, given our close ties with all things Austrian.

[Sister Mary Catherine]

firgive me, Father, for I have sinned.

Suit claims East St. Louis passed up white police chief over race

EAST ST. LOUIS ? City officials seeking a new police chief passed up the former director of the Florida Highway Patrol, who formerly was a top commander of the Illinois State Police, because he is white, two former members of a city board claim.

Wyatt Frazer and Della Murphy allege in a federal lawsuit that they were forced off the Police, Fire and Civil Service Board for their advocacy of a white candidate when the chief's job was open in 2007.

Their lawyer said Tuesday the spurned candidate was Ronald Grimming, a Metro East resident who rose to be deputy superintendent of the State Police before taking the top spot in Florida in 1993. Grimming could not be reached for comment.

The suit against Mayor Alvin Parks, City Manager Robert Betts and the city itself does not identify Grimming by name or qualifications.

But the plaintiffs' lawyer, Thomas E. Kennedy III, said it was Grimming, and that Parks told his clients "the city wasn't ready to hire a white police chief."

East St. Louis has a 97.7 percent black population, according to U.S. census records.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltod.....enDocument

[Tulpa]

OK, this might be enough to make me look the other way on the whole Polanski ordeal:

Church of Scientology convicted of organized fraud in France

They apparently barely escaped being totally disbanded in France, due to fears that such an action would drive them underground, making them even more dangerous. That's kind of a strange argument, considering the CoS's complete dependence on celebrity mouthpieces and lawsuits against its detractors to keep afloat.

[Tulpa]

Of course, my personal method for dealing with CoS would be to pass a law forbidding religious organizations from filing copyright lawsuits or suing for slander. That would have basically no effect on any other religious organization, but it would completely undercut the CoS's modus operandi for dealing with critics. Good luck to them defending LRH's sacred writings about Xenu and such in the free market of ideas.

[Colin]

The moveoners must hate Lieberman more than Bush.

The funny thing is, I think he's always been in favor of universal health care. And just imagine if now he's the one guy who stops it.

Thank God for all those lefties who threw him under the bus.

[robc]

Reid's check to Lieberman must have bounced.

[robc]

Tulpa,

Why should the CoS (or other religious organizations) have any less copyright protection (not that I support it as currently structured) than anyone else?

[Tulpa]

From a pragmatic standpoint, it's quite clear why CoS having copyrights is a bad thing. If anyone tries to comment on their ridiculous beliefs using the actual church texts, they harass them with copyright lawsuits.

From an idealistic standpoint, they're getting the benefit of non-profit organization status (which is obviously a fucking joke) due to their supposedly religious nature, and they get to claim First Amendment protection for their many instances of lawbreaking. If they want to take advantage of those special legal privileges, I have no problem removing a few other ones. If they want to hold onto their copyrights and frivolous slander lawsuit behavior, they can pay taxes like every other business does and be held liable for breaking the law just like every other business is.

[BakedPenguin]

I have never wanted to punch Lieberman in the face less.

Weird, isn't it? I saw the headline last night, and thought that there must be another Congresscritter with the same last name. Still, I think Epi is right.

[R C Dean]

Why should the CoS (or other religious organizations) have any less copyright protection (not that I support it as currently structured) than anyone else?

What do churches have that is copyrightable?

If its all divinely inspired, then the deity Himself needs to file the papers, or the church needs to show a written delegation of authority, signed by Himself, of course, appointing the church as His agent.

[Tulpa]

Er, inspiration can't be copyrighted, only the writing done in response to the inspiration. So even a divinely inspired author would own the copyright to the work in question.

Of course, most religions' sacred writings were put to paper long before Mickey Mouse, so they're not covered by copyright anyway. Unfortunately, LRH's nonsense was written after Mickey Mouse, so it will be copyrighted forever.

[Mike M.]

I love the picture on the front of Drudge showing St. Harry the Penitent fervently praying to the Almighty to deliver him his sixty votes.

[Death Panelist]

I am afraid that Bird Flu Swine Flu will further aggravate Global Warming Climate Change.

[jonnny]

Bird Flu, climate change, slander?! What else is next?!