] Queen Elizabeth II was said by British media reports to
] be "absolutely devastated" over the death of one of her
] beloved corgi dogs, killed by an English bull terrier
] owned by her daughter Princess Anne.

Someone is not getting a christmas present.

CNN.com - Queen 'devastated' by corgi death - Dec. 24, 2003

] Democrats who live in the nation's capital - and want to
] vote for Joe Lieberman, John Edwards, John Kerry, Richard
] Gephardt, or Wesley Clark - are out of luck.
]
]
] All five asked to be removed from the ballot for the
] January 13th non-binding D.C. primary, citing concern
] about whether the District should vote before New
] Hampshire and Iowa.

hah! i wonder how many will vote for "Vermin Supreme"?

DC primary ballot lacking candidates

Decius wrote:
] ] If King remains a one-dimensional grainy black-and-white
] ] figure who utters the same sunny sound bite year after
] ] year until it's a cliche, it's because news networks
] ] won't pay for more, and researchers have been kept from
] ] delving deep into his papers to tell us something new
] ] about the Martin Luther King the man, not the statuette.
] ]
] ] And his family wants it that way.
]
] And once again we are promoting science and the useful arts by
] creating economic incentives for people to engage in
] historical events by preventing people from talking about
] them.

Ryan: This timeI am going to have to drop some science on you. Once again, my Copyright prof represented the Estate of Doctor Martin Luther King Junior versus CBS, a landmark copyright case. There are two quick points to remember on this:

1) The estate only charges *normal* royalty rates to commercial entities who, after the MLK v. CBS, have a vendetta against paying for Dr. King's speechs. For any educational purpose, the King estate has *drastically* reduced rates for licensing the speeches, I believe down to $0. That's versus the hundreds of dollars CBS was charging educational institutions for the use of its video clips of the same speeches.

2) Dr. King copyrighted every one of his speeches. He was very much a supporter of copyright because he wanted to be able to control how his words would be used in the future. They could be reported on then, due to fair use (newsworthiness), but he knew there would come a time in the future where people would try to use it in a commercial manner for their own gain.

Now, as much as I have problems with the current IP restraints, this is a circumstance where someone acted to protect their rights for good reasons, and that should be enforced.

RE: You need a license to quote Martin Luther King Jr. (phillyBurbs.com)

] Atlanta Traffic Court Judge Gary Jackson says he often
] tacks on banishment as a condition of probation instead
] of a fine or jail time. Sometimes he adds banishment in
] addition to the other forms of punishment.
]
] He says for someone living in Buckhead, banishment is
] like being grounded as a child. He says the offenders are
] not allowed on the streets between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m.
] Violators risk serving out the remainder of their time in
] jail.

Ha!

Atlanta,Georgia,11Alive,ATLANTA,News,Weather,Doppler,sports,events

] Kerry is at the Sharpton line. Edwards is below it.

HA! Sharpton is used as a metric!

Daily Kos || New national Q-poll

] The cover story in this week's New York Times magazine
] described Howard Dean (news - web sites)'s hardcore
] support as consisting primarily of impotent nosepickers
] hoping to make some friends and unsuccessful auditioners
] for Gap commercials. That is to say, the followers (as
] opposed to leaders) of tomorrow.

by ann coulter. could we please do something to silence this lying bitch? please? could she be any more incorrect in her article? i think everyone should read al franken's most recent book. the entire thing is a list of lies these conservative commentators have stated in their own books, as fact-checked by students of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. good lord i *loathe* her.

Yahoo! News - VEGAN COMPUTER GEEKS FOR DEAN

] "Judge granted both IBM motions to compel, gave SCO
] thirty days to comply 'with specificity' and suspended
] further discovery. Did not rule on the SCO motion until
] next hearing scheduled for Friday, Jan 23 and 10:00 am.

] So it looks like they have 30 days to finally tell us
] what code they are talking about "with specificity".
] Finally.

GROKLAW: First Report from Grokker Inside Hearing: IBM Wins Both Motions to Compel

] There are several reasons that more money goes to
] Republican than to Democratic states and districts, such
] as where we base our military units. But a simple fact
] is that Gore states receive an average of $0.87 in
] federal spending for every dollar of federal taxes they
] contributed to the treasury, while Bush states receive
] $1.12 for every federal tax dollar they contribute--and
] it's getting worse.

shenanigans people. total shenanigans.

Daily Kos || Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.

] LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) -- A second-grader was scolded and
] forced to write "I will never use the word `gay' in
] school again" after he told a classmate his mother is a
] lesbian, the American Civil Liberties Union alleges.

good job, teach... we want to teach children of gay parents to be ashamed of who they and their parents are. good call.

maybe you should spend some more time on teaching fundamentals of English, rather than fundamentalism

] The child was also made to sign a "Student Behavior Contract,"
] where he wrote, "I sed bad wurds."

anyone want to tell me the point of making a child this age SIGN ANYTHING EVER.

The Associated Press

] In a sign of the growing importance of DVD sales to
] Hollywood, 20th Century Fox is considering a plan to
] resume production of Family Guy, a sometimes crude
] animated comedy that the Fox network took off the air
] more than 18 months ago.

Most fantastic news I have read all day. In addition, the article points out that the DVD sets were the years highest-selling tv show and 4th highest television title ever.

oh, and btw: I don't actually read USATODAY, I just copped the link off of /. (almost as bad, I know).

USATODAY.com - 'Family Guy' may return