One of Iceland’s largest and most active volcanos, dubbed the “Gateway to Hell” in the Middle Ages, is ready to erupt again. Significance: Europe, in the spasms of late-stage collapse and debt crisis, will be adversely affected by any travel disruptions caused by a violent eruption. With many countries on the brink, and Germany bailing out virtually all of them, any disruption of tourism and commerce is a disruption too much.
To help with the visual, here’s a recent dust storm in Phoenix, in which the city is engulfed by a 5,000 foot tall wall of sand.
Every girl should be required to go to a “what photoshop does” class by the time they are 10 years old. Either that, or news publications should be required to either use non-shopped images, or they should at least have to label the things.
I’ve actually done this job… a hell of a long time ago. I must admit that even then it made me sorta sick — and this is coming from a guy who isn’t exactly getting invited to parties by Jessica Valenti or Ann Bartow.
Since my firm handled this case, I am not going to comment on it at this time. Nevertheless, the Order says it all. Righthaven has been ordered to pay a defendant’s attorneys fees and costs. Order here.
Judge Belvin Perry sent Matthew Bartlett, 28, to jail for six days for flipping off Jeff Ashton during the trial. (source) The court did previously issue an order that there were no gestures to be made, in approval or disapproval, during the trial. This order was posted on the doors to the courtroom. That said, it seems a bit disproportionate to put the guy in jail for six days for it.
Since my firm is engaged in quite a few cases against Righthaven, I want to limit my comments. But, fortunately, this blog post from Righthaven Victims seems to say it all.
Essentially, the Court thought that Righthaven deserved to be sanctioned for its disingenuous copyright “assignments” and failing to disclose the fact that Stephens Media was a 50% stakeholder in any judgments that Righthaven might collect. The Court asked Righthaven to tell the Court why it should not be sanctioned. Righthaven’s excuse was pretty much “the dog ate my homework.” They threw former Righthaven lawyers Charles Coons and Joseph Chu under the bus — blaming them for the “omission.” (Resp. at 3).
However, as Steve Green points out at Vegas Inc., Steve Gibson, the CEO of Righthaven might have some responsibility that he’s not exactly rushing to accept:
Ninety-eight. That’s the number of Righthaven LLC copyright infringement lawsuits in which Righthaven CEO Steven Gibson was one of the attorneys of record for his own company.
That information wasn’t reflected in Wednesday’s Righthaven court filing in which Las Vegas-based Righthaven said it and its attorneys – current and former – shouldn’t be sanctioned for failing to disclose Las Vegas Review-Journal owner Stephens Media LLC is an interested party in its suits over R-J material. (source)
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) takes the position that if a website is located at a .com or a .net domain, then they have sufficient ties to the USA to make them fair game for U.S. prosecutors. (source)
To understand this position, you need to understand that every domain name has a registrant, a registrar, and a registry. The registrant is the easy part — whoever registered the domain name is the registrant. Registrar is one that most people are familiar with too — this is the company you use to register your domain name. The Registry is the one that sort of flies under the radar. Every top level domain (TLD) is sponsored by a particular registry, and the .com and .net domain name registries are run by Verisign — a U.S. based company.
However, if that logic pans out — anyone who uses a .tv domain name might be well advised to hire a lawyer in Tuvalu.
The international association of crybabies has had quite a lot of success getting “cyber bullying” into the national lexicon, and following that, getting new laws passed in order to make sure that nobody’s feewings get hurt on the Internets.
Tennessee’s new crybaby law makes it illegal to post any images that cause “emotional distress” to any individual.
Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, said he believed it was too broadly drafted. “I think about some of the e-mail I’ve gotten from constituents that were quite emotionally distressing and I wonder where we’re going with this,” he said. (Source)
It is pretty obvious where “we” are going with this. The do-nothing crybaby academics whined about people’s feewings being hurt, and politicians love to pass laws to limit free expression. You can bet your ass that if this law stands, one day there will be an indictment over someone making “hurtful” statements about a politician or a police officer. Thank goodness for the ACLU, which is challenging the constitutionality of the law. (source)
Feminist Naomi Wolf asked a serious question in a recent CNN article: “Is pornography driving men crazy?” I had to read it twice just to make sure I was understanding her claim.
In a nutshell, Wolf suggests that porn rewires the brain and hence creates impulses that are uncontrollable while “desensitizing healthy young men to the erotic appeal of their own partners”. She brings up neuroscience, sex addictions, dopamine and a slew of other interesting ideas best left for a good laugh.
Between the Republican dingbats Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin claiming capability of leadership and sex scared feminists still finding new ways to bash pornography I’m thankful I left the American South. I had a wonderful 4th celebration with my American friend here in Germany today and thought about my American roots but it’s just very nice to eat at the local currywurst stand and see this while I laugh with my daughter about the rough and horny part:
That's right, 'rough and horny' BBQ sauce. I won't say. You have to try it yourself.
Or walk with my kids for dinner and pass this on the pedestrian zone:
But hey, at least we’re thrown a little measure for safety further down the street unlike in hypocrite states:
I can’t get this freely in the states. Why? Why must sex be so difficult in the U.S?
I worry for American women. Feminists lead a fear campaign with respect to pornography and conservatives lead a quiet, grassroots fight to abolish abortion. It’s a battle every day. Neither truly focus on the positives of condom use or pornography as a tool for better sex lives because they’re so uncomfortable with sex, nudity and tits. Apparently women have come a long way but I feel like in some ways we’re going backwards. A woman’s view may be valid for “feminist” judgment but my concern as a woman isn’t whether pornography comes across my man’s hands. It’s whether he treats me and his family right. His porn is a separate world that doesn’t include me and I wonder if this is part of the mainstream feminist problem. Pornography means men fantasize about another woman. There’s a slew of insecurities in that and most women don’t accept themselves enough to deal with that added anxiety.
I’m amazed at all the men I know who bathe in porn but still manage to be sane – not necessarily always in the right with their views towards women but they’re definitely not crazy, uncontrollable or violent as a result of too much porn, nor are they ‘desensitized’… besides, I only translate that to mean asshole and women should know better than to hang out with those. I don’t believe in sex addiction either. It’s a cop out. In fact, “dysfunction”, “addiction” and “disorder” seem to be hot words for the fad of labeling what’s wrong with us as a society when what’s really wrong is that many just don’t want to take the time to see inside themselves or their partners. Sex with a woman is complicated. Men don’t always want that complication and porn fills that void well. Why is this so difficult for women to get?
Here’s my big question of the day: “If a husband is a “sex addict” with his wife, is he really a sex addict or a fucking hero?”
I just celebrated 8 years of marriage a few days ago and I married a hero. Not only do we let off fireworks regularly (conservative translation: we have great sex often), he’s a U.S. Army vet who almost died while serving our country. May freedom bless Americans. Fantasy is all we have that’s truly free and don’t ever let some feminist bitch try to claim that precious gift away by trying to convince you of stupidity. Porn is good. Only bad character can make pornography bad.
Now, I suggest you read the scientific reasons as to why Wolf is wrong, an excellent post by Mind Hack blog.
Imagine if there was an online database of killers, child abusers, bigots, rapists and liars – and they were all women. Now there is! Register-Her.com, a project started by Paul Elam, a men’s rights activist and contributor to The Spearhead, uses a wiki-style webpage to consolidate locally and nationally reported facts about women whose documented wrongs range from murder to false rape accusations. [Disclaimer: Like Elam, I also contribute to The Spearhead.] This is SRS BUSINESS.
One of the first additions to the site as a “bigot” is feministing’s own Jessica Valenti. Merriam-Webster defines a bigot as “a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.” Without dignifying Valenti’s oeuvre with my attention, this sounds accurate.
If a tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it? If Jessica Valenti didn’t shriek like a harpy about “misogyny,” would so many others know about Register-Her.com? Rather than letting this roll off her back with the cool disposition of an empowered, independent blah blah blah… woman, she posted this YouTube (which, admittedly, I have not watched to completion).
Result: More people know about the site. Also, male advocates are increasingly stepping out of anonymity, contrary to Valenti’s assertions. Paul Elam’s real name is… Paul Elam! My name and identity are well known, and I’m on the record opposing anonymity in advocating men’s issues and any other controversial position – though I understand and respect why others employ it. Crime & Federalism offers a counterpoint on the issue here. I rather enjoy this and, as far as I know, the “basement-dwelling virgin” meme has never been attached to me. In fact, the biggest critics of women I’ve met are people among the best looking and most successful with women that I know. In contrast, the basement-confined and virginal types tend to supplicate women and resent men who are successful with women, turning on them for the smallest of reasons (like in the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn — come on, “forced” oral sex wasn’t a red flag of falsity?).
Just like when Barbara Steisand’s shrill howls – and not even her singing – drew attention to photos of her Pacific mansion online, Jessica Valenti’s plaintive whines drive more eyes to the site. If she had just shut up, the damage would have been limited mostly to the men who would have found the site anyway – preaching to the choir. Realizing that the damage was done, Valenti is now trying to scrub the internet of any trace of her existence, seeking the anonymity she criticizes men for using to voice their opinions. I hope Reputation Defender is still in business!
But enough about a bitter, angry shrew who has to live not only with herself, but also a younger, neckbeard beta husband. The new site itself, Register-Her.com, is a more worthy topic of discussion.
Is it fair for Register-Her.com to exist? The Atlantic tells us that it’s the “End of Men.” Women already kvetch and attack men’s reputations on Don’t Date Him Girl. There’s no need for free speech to be “fair,” since its mere availability levels the playing field. This new website fills a void in beating back the myth of intrinsic female virtue, though. I clicked around to see what the site was about and found that each article is a recitation of sourced, cited and publicly available information. In some cases, the women profiled in the articles are described in their very own words. While the site was designed to be provocative, it was not created with the intent to hurt those named within it for the sheer purpose of inflicting pain. Plus, there are limitations of liability inherent in the site’s design and operation. Section 230 protects the site’s owner from liability for content posted by others. To the extent others’ content may wind up on the site, such as a mugshot or screen capture, they tend to be government works – which are not subject to copyright – or tiny snippets of news articles that are almost certain to constitute fair use — assuming the articles’ factual elements can even be copyrighted.
As for litigation that can be pursued against the site… what, exactly? Where is the disclosure of public facts when all of the site’s information is available from other online sources? What unreasonable attention has been brought to someone’s private life? How is aggregation of the news shocking or extreme conduct — especially when Register-Her.com is a republication of what others have written? I’m confident Elam has the compassion to remove an entry if there’s a good reason to do so, but it is unlikely that reason would be expressed via litigation with even a remote chance of success, even as a SLAPP suit.
I’ve no doubt that this is far from the end of whining and gnashing of teeth over Register-Her.com. More will come as the site’s contents work their way up Google’s search algorithm. All they will do, however, is make the site more well-read and well-known. (See also Juicycampus.com (RIP).)
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