No Retaining Wall For You

It looks like I was too early in claiming the Leus are home free. I sometimes forget how much room for reversal there is in the law...

But it appears that the deal, approved by the U.S. Department of Justice in the waning days of the Bush administration, may not be the final chapter in the three-way legal dispute.

Besides the Leus on one side and the boundary commission on the other, the litigation also involves Schornack, the Michigan man who contends that Bush had no legal right to fire him from his post as U.S. boundary commissioner. Schornack also contends that the Justice Department has no right to approve a legal settlement that, in his view, violates the boundary treaty.

Schornack and his attorney, Elliott Feldman, are still hoping that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will reinstate him as commissioner.

Even if that doesn't happen, Feldman promised that he or another attorney will file documents in U.S. District Court on Friday, Jan. 16, hoping to block the settlement.

Feldman noted that U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman had earlier imposed a stay on the Leus' case, pending the Ninth Circuit ruling on Schornack's claims. Feldman said he will challenge any lifting of that stay.

A New IBC Precedent

Looks like the Leus will be keeping their retaining wall after all.

No money changes hands as part of the settlement, but the couple can keep its retaining wall - and add a little lattice-work fence on top of it.

This will make it hard for any further enforcement along the US side of the border. The Canadian side will be unaffected however, as Canada has a law that very explicitly states the rules regarding the "vista".

I presume that if Dennis Schornack wins his case against the Executive Branch he would be financially compensated but not reinstated, so he wouldn't get a chance to fight this battle again.

Obama Stacking the Justice Department with Big Media Flunkies

One can only assume that these appointments reflect a belief that the Justice Department has better things to do than chasing real criminals... like say, corrupt Congresscritters?

Via Slashdot, which contains this gem of a comment:

Obama wants to change the system. But in order to do that, he needs insiders, clinton retreads, lobbyists, and big corporate stooges that know how to get shit done. Once he's surrounded by them, he'll be able to change the system.

Thomas the Twisted Tank Engine

Having a two year old boy around has resulted in the most Thomas the Tank Engine viewing for me since my little brother was that age. And I've got to say, it's a lot worse than I remembered.

Ignore the crummy story formula - let's talk consistency.

The train engines are anthropomorphized - talking, having emotions, capable of making decisions etc. - but they also have human operators. And who is responsible for what shifts all the time. Sometimes they need dudes shoveling coal, and sometimes they don't. In the most confusing episodes the engines can start on their own, but only the drivers can apply brakes.

Worst of all, the engines always take the fall, even if it was clearly stated in the episode that the driver was responsible for the function that was performed incorrectly! Sometimes the drivers (slimy bastards!) even have the gall to try to make excuses for the poor engine after their own incompetence causes an accident. "Oh, it's not Thomas' fault he's hooked on meth and was high and took the wrong line, killing dozens..."

It should come as no surprise at this point that the engines are treated as child slaves. They have the intellectual and emotional capacity of children, yet are forced to work in coal mines by the humans. When they are bad they get locked up for days, sometimes even with brick walls put up to keep them from seeing the outside world.

And the human masters are playing out a disturbing class warfare scenario - the top bosses are Lord this and that, having fancy parties all the time that the engineers clearly aren't welcome at, and violating local safety laws to cut costs.

I swear that the only part I made up was the meth quote.

Since When is Israel the Good Guy?

In the dozens(?) of Israeli/Palestinian mini-wars that have occurred in my lifetime, I have never seen such pro-Israel sentiment.

All major parties in the USA and Canada (via Ezra Levant) are unequivocally supporting Israel.

A number of Palestinians are half-heartedly supporting Israel (via David Frum).

The current President of the EU supports Israel.

Yes, Jimmy Carter still has an axe to grind, but hell hasn't frozen over yet either.

This is in spite of the fact that Israel has not changed tactics or policies in any meaningful way that I can detect. And the provocation from the Palestinians was not extraordinarily bad compared to past events.

Sure, this time Israel is fighting Iranian funded Hamas alone rather than Hamas and Saudi/old-Iraq funded Fatah. But Hamas' tactics are no different from Fatah's.

Wacky.

When Torture is Fine, Just Fine

A fascinating story from the EU, in which police torturing and/or threatening to torture suspects (under unusual circumstances) is given the OK by the court system(s).

In the frankfurt police headquarters, the atmosphere is tense. Deputy Police Chief Wolfgang Daschner is losing patience. On the previous day, his officers arrested one Magnus Gäfgen, a 27-year-old law student. Gäfgen is suspected of having kidnapped 11-year-old Jakob von Metzler, son of the banker Friedrich von Metzler. Two days earlier, Gäfgen had personally collected a 1-million-euro ransom payment. But there is no sign of the boy and Gäfgen has refused to give police interrogators accurate information about his whereabouts. A police psychologist, observing the questioning, describes Gäfgen’s responses as a “pack of lies” [Lügengebäude]. Deputy Police Chief Daschner fears that Jakob’s life may be in danger. In a memorandum, he writes: “We need to ascertain without delay where the boy is being held. While respecting the principle of proportionality, the police have an obligation to take all measures in their power to save the child’s life.”

Daschner decides to act. He dispatches police inspector Ortwin Ennigkeit to the office in which Gäfgen is being held for interrogation. Ennigkeit’s assignment: to make Gäfgen talk — if necessary by threat of torture. Indeed, Daschner has resolved not only to threaten Gäfgen with pain, but to carry out the threat if his prisoner is not otherwise forthcoming. A doctor has been found to supervise the proceedings.

The event is discussed in the context of Guantanamo interrogations, but it is plenty interesting on its own.

The Next Sexual Revolution

Anyone home-sick for the free love 60s?

The pill was a pretty big deal, right? It allowed ladies to get busy without worries about getting stuck with some deadbeat's kid.

I imagine that there is another large group of people out there today who are not having as much sex as they would prefer because of fears of disease.

Enter the insta-disease checker!

The imaging platform, known as LUCAS (Lensless Ultra-wide-field Cell monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging), has now been successfully installed in both a cell phone and a webcam. Both devices acquire an image in the same way, using a short wavelength blue light to illuminate a blood, saliva or other fluid sample. LUCAS captures an image of the microparticles in the solution using a sensor array.

Because red blood cells and other microparticles have a distinct diffraction pattern, or shadow image, they can be identified and counted virtually instantaneously by LUCAS using a custom-developed "decision algorithm" that compares the captured shadow images to a library of training images.

It's pretty basic right now, but imagine an instant nearly-free test that can clear a potential partner for all known STDs, and perhaps even whether they are really taking a hormone based birth control.

I'm thinking this would be pretty popular.

What is the Point of the CRTC?

After complaining to the CRTC that my VOIP telephone provider does not have 911 service, I got back a response that can be summarized roughly as "As long as they say somewhere on the Internet that they don't provide that service, even if they say they do in other places, we don't care."

Thank you for taking the time to contact the CRTC.

The Commission recognizes that the degree to which a local VoIP service provider can support traditional 9-1-1/E9-1-1 services depends on how the local VoIP service is provided. As such, the CRTC has ordered VoIP providers to to provide specific notification to current and prospective customers regarding the availability, characteristics and limitations of their 9-1-1 and Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) service.

Here's a News Release to this effect: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2005/r051020.htm

I note from the link you provided that joip does have information on its website noting the limitations of its 9-1-1 service.

The CRTC "Consumer Guide to Competition in the Residential Telephone Service Market" provides information about competitive and deregulated services, and some questions to consider when deciding which service provider is best for you: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/t1023.htm

I'm not arguing for giving the CRTC more power, but if they're not regulating 911 access, what are my tax dollars being spent on?

Christian Missionaries in Africa

It isn't often that someone writes an article that almost perfectly captures your own views on a topic.

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

If I lived in a destitute nation like Malawi I would certainly prefer missionaries over anti-AIDS drugs. It is ultimately going to be cultural change that lifts Africa out of abject poverty, and missionaries seem much more effective at that than more secular equivalents, no doubt because they are willing to say one culture is better than another.

Safety Features that Reduce Utility

Volvo is working on a car that detects obstacles and automatically slams on the brakes if the driver doesn't do something about it.

Um, what if I want to ram something/one? And this will kill chase scenes in the movies!

More seriously: this feature would remove a significant amount of power from a half-decent driver. While the need to ram something is not particularly likely to occur in real life, it's easy to imagine a situation that you would prefer to take a front impact over the alternative. I suppose that side and rear radar could identify most of those situations?

OK, what about the fact it will make it possible for "opponents" to effectively trap your car by doing nothing more than putting their squishy bodies in the way? A car is normally quite the equalizer - you can use it to escape most violent situations. Not anymore.

Definitely borderline.

Seatbelts I'm all for (not necessarily legally mandated). They are pure win. And you can take them off if you have a compelling reason to.

Airbags are quite a bit more questionable. They reduce your ability to carry a full carload of children by making the front passenger seat unsafe. Similarly, they make it unsafe to "teach" a small child to drive while sitting on the driver's lap. (Not on normal roads! Sheesh.)

Via Slashdot.