Spammen Verböten

[unixronin]

Germany is preparing to start making life hard for spammers ... and that's as in hard time.  A new draft law features heavy fines for both spammers and companies that use their services, with prison terms for the worst offenders.

Meanwhile in Iraq, thousands of Marines are being told it's their patriotic duty to pray for George Bush, complete with mail-in coupons to certify that they've been doing so.  (At least they're not being told to pray TO him yet.)

Ireland plans a referendum to change Irish citizenship law, which currently grants automatic citizenship to any baby born in the country regardless of the nationality of the parents -- the only EU nation to do so.  Hmmmm, as far as I know, the US does that too.....

Dateline Miami, Florida, where the Crown Prince of Spain and his fiancee passed through Thursday evening with their official bodyguards, to make a flight connection enroute from the Bahamas to Madrid ... and where the Transportation Safety Authority decided it was necessary to screen and search them both.  It has apparently not been decided yet whether Spain will file an official diplomatic complaint.  Gee, look, foreign relations at work!

And last but not least, speaking of your tax dollars at work, the Bush white house has released a memo showing that it was clearly known Osama bin Laden was planning and conducting terrorist actions in the US.  The BBC's Jon Leyne says it may be no coincidence that the White House has chosen to release this document at a time in the weekend when most Americans are not following the news very closely.  Meanwhile, the FBI has accused National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice of perjury regarding her testimony before the 9/11 commission.  The FBI assertion is that Rice is cooking the numbers to make it appear that far more resources were being devoted to al-Qaeda than there actually were; Among other disputed statements, Rice apparently bundled investigations of other organizations, and even simple criminal investigations, into her claimed "70 separate investigations of al-Qaeda cells" before 9/11.

Update:

Fixed a missing link in the last story.

Comments

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

...Meanwhile in Iraq, thousands of Marines are being told it's their patriotic duty to pray for George Bush...

Well, when I first read your blurb, I thought that was completely reprehensible. Upon reading the link, however, I find that they are not being told that by their officers, but rather by a church group distributing pamphlets. Somehow, it matters who is doing the telling, don't you think?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

While I'm not arguing that, I still find it uncomfortably theocratic. You can bet they wouldn't be doing this if Bush wasn't a card-carrying member of the religious right himself. They wouldn't be being told to pray for Clinton, for example. This isn't about "patriotic duty to your country", it's about "slavish worship of OUR man in the Oval Office".

These guys are in the line of fire, in harm's way; Bush is sitting safe and pretty in Washington DC; and they're being told to pray for HIM? Excuse me? Do we have a little problem with priorities and maybe reality here?

(Apart from anything else, sorry and all that, but anyone who's delusional enough to think that they can persuade their god to take a direct hand in influencing the next election on their behalf is not someone I want having any influence in the government that has the power to really fuck up my life even worse than it already is, thank you very much. The world already has a more than sufficient quota of nations ruled by religious zealots.)

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

While I'm not arguing that, I still find it uncomfortably theocratic.

Well... it's a known quality of human nature that if a religious group should find itself able to legislate its own beliefs, it will do so. The Framers knew this, and took steps to prevent it. We should expect this behavior from a church -- but find it unconscionable in a government. So far, I'm not squicked by this sequence of events.

In the heavy-on-the-irony department, this church will lose its 501(c) standing if the current Administration has its way with changing IRS regulations to gag religious groups.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

In the heavy-on-the-irony department, this church will lose its 501(c) standing if the current Administration has its way with changing IRS regulations to gag religious groups.

That would be humorous. However, I roll to disbelieve that this administration would not find -- or create -- a loophole to prevent any God-fearin' Christian Church And Moral Foundation Of Our Community, especially one that exhorts troops under fire in the field to pray for Bush, from losing its 501(c) status.