Open Threads

Other than Vogon poetry, few things are as unpleasant as a quick swim in the fever swamps to assess the current state of Michael Schiavo. One would think, with the news yesterday (completely and understandably overshadowed by the events in London) that Governor Bush is dropping the investigation into the ‘timeline,’ that it would be time for all of this to be put to rest.

Not so fast- Mark Furhman has a book to sell:

Fuhrman continued, “There are so many things that Michael Schiavo can’t seem to answer. In a time when you would think that you would have a memory, a videotape that you could put on play and those memories and those images would be etched in your mind forever, he couldn’t figure them out, from the first morning to this very day.

“He couldn’t even remember if they had an argument. He couldn’t remember what time he left work, couldn’t remember what time he got home, couldn’t remember if she was awake or asleep. Couldn’t remember, when he found her, if she was face up or face down. It goes on and on.”

Fuhrman also says Michael took a long time to call 911, and that may have contributed to Terri’s injuries.

It gets worse:

“I was pretty shocked with what I read, not only from a humanitarian angle from Michael Schiavo — he was completely absent of any compassion or empathy for the direct family of Terri Schiavo — but there were many questions about how she collapsed

More on SchiavoPost + Comments (26)

Fabulous:

A new poll indicates that nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults believe in creationism – the belief that God created human beings.

Harris Interactive

Score One for Basic IgnorancePost + Comments (33)

Last night, I was listening to Tucker Carlson’s show as I drifted off to sleep, and before I actually fell asleep, I heard this exchage:

CARLSON: Luckily, you’ll be back tomorrow, Rachel Maddow. But e-mail it, if you know, because I don’t.

Next situation, the battle for Supreme Court. President Bush says there’s, quote,

Bush and Litmus TestsPost + Comments (15)

The LA Times has a follow up on this story about he California National Guard that states that the authorities are launching an investigation into allegations of tracking civilians:

U.S. military authorities Wednesday began investigating whether a California National Guard unit was established to spy on U.S. citizens, as about 30 demonstrators outside Guard headquarters confronted officials backed by armed soldiers.

The federal inquiry into the country’s largest National Guard force involves the Army’s inspector general, the federal National Guard Bureau’s inspector general and the National Guard Bureau’s legal division.

The unit has raised concern among peace activists that the Guard is resorting to the type of civilian monitoring that characterized Vietnam War-era protests, when the military collected information on more than 100,000 Americans during the 1960s and ’70s.

Under scrutiny is a California National Guard unit with a tongue-twisting name

California National GuardPost + Comments (10)

I don’t like this one bit:

A judge gave some of Rush Limbaugh’s medical records to prosecutors Wednesday, allowing their long-stalled investigation into whether the conservative commentator illegally purchased painkillers to move forward.

Circuit Court Judge Thomas Barkdull III returned other of Limbaugh’s records to his attorney, Roy Black, who had argued some of the records contained privileged, even embarrassing, details about medical procedures, symptoms and other issues unrelated to the criminal investigation.

None of the records’ contents were revealed.

After the hearing, Black said he believed the records given to the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office would not support a criminal charge.

Limbaugh has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, which became public in November 2003 after investigators used search warrants to seize his medical records.

“The records show that Mr. Limbaugh received legitimate medical treatment for legitimate medical reasons,” Black said in a statement.

Prosecutors seized the records after learning Limbaugh received painkillers from four doctors in six months at a Palm Beach pharmacy near his oceanfront mansion. They have said the records will prove Limbaugh engaged in “doctor shopping,” or illegally deceiving multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions.

I hope the privacy loving liberals who pushed this poilitically motivated prosecution are happy with themselves. Thanks a helluva lot, guys.

Jeralynn is 100% completely, totally, unequivocably right:

I am not comfortable with this at all. It’s far too slippery a slope. While many liberals would like to see Rush taken down, this is not the way to do it. The man was addicted to pain pills, he entered and completed treatment. Who is to say how many pills he needed to combat his pain? And why should the Government, rather than the patient, be the arbiter of that?

Instead of clamoring for the Government to fry Rush, liberals should be demanding that the Government keep its laws off our bodies.

But they hate Rush too much to think straight. And for those of you who want to argue this isn’t a politically motivated prosecution, we have been through this before and I am not wasting my time arguing that again. It is. Check the archives.

Limbaugh’s Medical RecordsPost + Comments (101)

The first case of this I have seen:

Police have arrested a man for using someone else’s wireless Internet network in one of the first criminal cases involving this fairly common practice.

Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following his April arrest on charges of unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony.

Police say Smith admitted using the Wi-Fi signal from the home of Richard Dinon, who had noticed Smith sitting in an SUV outside Dinon’s house using a laptop computer.

The practice is so new that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement doesn’t even keep statistics, according to the St. Petersburg Times, which reported Smith’s arrest this week.

Innocuous use of other people’s unsecured Wi-Fi networks is common. But experts say that illegal use often goes undetected, such as people sneaking on others’ networks to traffic in child pornography, steal credit card information, and send death threats. Security experts say people can prevent such access by turning on encryption or requiring passwords, but few bother or even know how to do so.

I am sure we can expect more of this in the future.

Wi-Fi TheftPost + Comments (1)

Unless someone can come up with a really good explanation, I am with Malkin and Sharkansky on this one:

The State Parks and Recreation Commission has assembled data showing that many blacks, for a variety of reasons, are not frequent users of the state’s 250,000 acres of parkland, particularly for activities like camping. This, in a state with an abundance of natural beauty

Good GriefPost + Comments (15)