Month: January 2006

Is Google spineless to do this?

Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country’s free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet’s fastest growing market.

Yes, they’re showing a lot of spine. But it’s not a sound moral spine. This is just another modern day example of cultural decay.

Is Google free to do what they wish to pursue market share? Of course! So was CNN back when they wanted a share of the Iraqi market.

Am I free to boycott Google over this? Of course! So I won’t use their .cn site. 🙂

By the way, how do your personal ethics shine in the marketplace? Are you so different from the folks at Google or CNN?

Today some people will celebrate the five-year anniversary of the end of his eight-year “reign of terror.” 🙂

Others will celebrate the beginning of his ability to practice law:

Today, I signed a consent order in the lawsuit brought by the Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct which brings to an end that proceeding.

I have accepted a five-year suspension of my law license….

It’s funny how many people practice law because of and for the sake of those many other people who practice lawlessness.

Do you practice law by obeying it?

Here’s an interesting scan:

The failure of the 9-11 commission to investigate the findings of the “Able Danger” team…tops the list of the 10 most “spiked” or underreported stories of the last year

I didn’t read the story; I don’t have the time.

But I did scan over it just to see what the ten stories are.

Like I say, interesting.

They decided:

The Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law Tuesday, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.

Justices, on a 6-3 vote, said that federal authority to regulate doctors does not override the 1997 Oregon law used to end the lives of more than 200 seriously ill people.

Bummer.

So Agca is free from jail:

Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from a Turkish jail on Thursday after serving more than a quarter of a century behind bars.

“Agca is now a free man. After 26 years Agca is now getting wet in the rain,” his lawyer Mustafa Demirbag told Reuters.

I wonder if Hinckley is next.

But never mind that.

Here are John Paul II and Agca:

I wonder what each man was thinking at the time the photo was taken.

So he’s out and about, eh? And furtively, huh?

OK. So everybody is entitled to his privacy. But when the news proclaims “Where is N.Korea’s Kim? Officials hunt for clues,” well…

North Korea’s Kim Jong-il entered China for a rare overseas trip, but a day after the media reports first emerged mystery remained over the secretive communist leader’s agenda and even his mode of transport.

Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment on his whereabouts, and South Korean officials said they were struggling to confirm various reports.

It was not clear what had prompted Kim to travel now.

Maybe Kim is planning to unleash a nuke or two and would rather not be home to experience the counter-strike.

Or maybe he is headed for Iran to coordinate the matter with what’s left of the Axis of Evil threesome.

Whatever.

But if you hear that Iran’s top guy is away from home at this time as well . . . .

“Wait!” he exclaims. “Wrong blog!”