All the news that fits...

So Condit retracted his demands that an artwork linking him with Levy be removed from eBay, originally citing some vague law about "right to publicity" and not slander or defamation of character. Hmmm... Should probably also mention that as a public servant, we've a right to know everything about him - including the precise dimensions of his anus if it's deemed newsworthy. Right to publicity indeed... But for all the legal wrangling, the art piece has a minimum bid of a hundred bucks and no bidders. Seems to me there was an easier way to deal with this.

Christian missionaries in Afghanistan may be given a reprieve and expelled for teaching Christianity in a nation where this is a death penalty offense. What were they thinking? God will protect them in a land where most everybody is a fundamentalist muslim with automatic weapons? That would be akin to selling heroin in front of police headquarters in Istanbul. Luckily they were detained. Usually they just tear your shirt off in order to use if you request a blindfold.

And the coverup is complete... The lone witness against a Kennedy relative for witnessing a confession to a murder back in the 70's just died of "bad drugs". How convenient... Seem to recall that he had already confessed at some point to whacking off while sitting perched in a tree outside her home that night. I guess that's as much sordid detail as we're ever going to hear. Now I'm not involved in the case and luckily I'm not a juror - but let's just say that one of the major tenants of modern law enforcement is that if there's a simple explanation, it's usually the right one. Crimes are generally not complex things involving huge leaps of faith; but almost always simple acts of desperation combined with opportunity. Obsessed man (boy at the time) having sexual fantasies about girl to the point of stalking her and masturbating outside her house; and then girl turns up dead the next day. You don't have to be Columbo to put this together.

Put back the old main page picture due to popular demand. Seems like nobody cared that it's 13 years old and I look a bit older now. Fine with me. I was young and in love and the picture captures the essence of that place in time.

This virus (I'm talking son of code red and not the flu) is getting a bit annoying. Several providors are taking steps to block it. For instance if you're an AT&T Excite/@home customer and violated your end-user agreement by running a web server, they've now blocked you. McSoft admitted what I mentioned a few days ago - that they also are spreading this disease. Several companies are looking at what they can do to slow this thing down - and it generally means that they'll block things until you fix your damn computers. Even though I'm immune and have permission to run a web server, if SBC/PacBell decides to reign in this worm they'll block me as well. If you are reading this and have NT or win2k or know somebody who does, please patch your computer now (!). It's likely that everybody who can be infected has been at this point, but the internet traffic dedicated to spreading the worm is becoming a major pain in the butt and is beginning to affect your access to your everyday websites (like mine). I've had a thousand hits for default.ida today. Tomorrow will be worse.