How bad is the CBDTPA? Check out this bit of reductio ad absurdum from Declan McCullagh.

The Supreme Court ruled that it’s OK to kick entire families out of public housing if a single member uses drugs. I can understand the need to clean up drug crime in public housing, but this seems rather harsh to me.

New York Times: Anger and Isolation Roil Israeli Arabs

I watched the whole 16 hour Oscar spectacle last night, despite the fact that I had to get up early this morning to come to work because people in marketing decided that we needed to launch the web site first thing in the morning and I wasn’t quite done with the work necessary for the launch. For whatever reason, I enjoyed the Oscars more than I can remember having enjoyed them before.

Random Oscars observations: I wanted Lord of the Rings to win more awards. I wanted Moulin Rouge to win more awards as well. I wanted Memento to win the award for best original screenplay. I thought that Denzel Washington really, really deserved his best actor for Training Day. Sidney Poitier is the most dignified human being ever, probably. Gwyneth Paltrow, what were you thinking? Tom Cruise and John Travolta didn’t do Scientologists any favors with their bizarre and disturbing bits. Nathan Lane, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, and Cameron Diaz got the best lines of the night. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, very funny. All of the montages were great, especially the documentary montage and Nora Ephron’s tribute to New York in the movies. Woody Allen was great. Randy Newman made the best acceptance speech of the night, but you have to expect that given that he’s probably prepared at least 14 other speeches that he never got to use. I don’t care what people say, I thought the Cirque du Soleil act was awesome.

Tom Ridge gets points from me for having a sense of humor. I don’t necessarily agree with his agenda for homeland defense, but at least he can take a joke.

Dan Gillmor: Bleak future looms if you don’t take a stand (it’s about the CBDTPA, of course).

A reader sent along a link to an interview with Marwan Zaloum, a Palestinian who trains suicide bombers. What can I say, it’s depressing.

It’s time to start girding for battle against the SSSCA, which has been percolating since last fall. Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) has finally introduced the bill. It’s now called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA for short). Here are some resources:

• EFF “Intellectual Property – Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA)” Archive
• text of the bill (at Cryptome)
• stoppoliceware.org
• when elephants dance, an analysis of the issue

The New York Times has the scoop on Iran’s recent friendship with the Palestinian leadership. They’re happily militarily supporting not only the Palestinian Authority, but also both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The bottom line here is that Islamic states throughout the Middle East delight themselves in fighting proxy wars with Israel using any group dumb enough to go along with them.

None of the Islamic countries have the will to actually invade Israel (thank goodness), but they’re more than happy to prolong the fight between Israel and the Palestinians as long as it isn’t really costing them anything. The bottom line is that the people actually interested in some sort of rapproachment between the Palestinians and Israelis are overwhelmed by people who want to see the fighting continue.

Between Palestinians committed to the destruction of Israel, right wingers in Israel who want to force Palestinians out of the West Bank, and spectators like Iran, Iraq, and Syria who want the fighting to continue, achieving any sort of realistic peace is nigh impossible. The people on both sides who would actually like to just get on with their lives with some sort of security and stability get screwed.

Google has removed a bunch of anti-Scientology links from their index in response to a DMCA request from the clams. Don’t blame Google, blame our rotten government. The 2600 case has already demonstrated that you can get the legal smackdown simply for linking to infringing content (which is so stupid it hurts). And of course the fact that the DMCA gives a faux religion the legal right to sue its detractors for copyright violations is sickening. When Congress rolls over and plays dead for el raton Mickey and his friends in Hollywood, the side effects are just as revolting as the capitulation itself.

The clams are torturing this easily abused law in two ways: first, they’re treating Google as a ‘service provider’, which most people would take to mean ISP, not search engine. The second is that Google is compelled to remove the links in order to avoid legal liability, and the burden is on the sites accused of violating to petition to have them reinstated. However, for the site to do so, they must accept the jurisdiction of US courts, which means that these overseas hosted sites would become fair game for the famous Scientology legal full frontal assault. What does it say about America, the home of freedom of speech, that people who wish to criticize the Church of Scientology have to do so from overseas in order to avoid being the targets for severe harrassment via the courts?

You can follow events as they develop at operatingthetan.com, or at xenu.net.