The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'DNA Database Blues' Edition
"President Barack Obama is not the civil-liberties knight in shining armor many were expecting... The nation's chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, "It's the right thing to do" to "tighten the grip around folks" who commit crime..."
Wired.com
Do you support mandatory DNA collection upon arrest?
A.) Yes
B.) No
C.) Depends on the crime
A superb turnout, if'n ya don't mind me sayin' so!... So, let's get to it... Read on, McDuff !
A.) Yes
Richard McD concisely retorted ...
I think yes.
SallyP said, "My God, am I ready to join the Tea Party here? I hope not..." and then said...
My reply would be, "A" or "Yes."... Since DNA is absolute (unless the collection is corrupted) I can't see what harm it can do. I also like the idea that convicted people can conceivably be proved innocent, and/or, for instance, some scummy rapist can be caught this way. Furthermore, I can't see the downside of this, since they are being arrested - dah!! The police will have their name, and photo already, so what's the big deal here - unless they have something to hide...
(note to Poll-fans... "dah" is Big Apple 'speak', I've learned... It's "duh" to the rest of us outlanders, haha...)
B.) No
Adam in NoHo firmly stated...
Ah, No. I think it's called the 4th Amendment. If there are no charges or conviction, I have not committed a crime. What are we, England? A camera on every corner and a hackable DNA database on every govt desktop? I wonder if Obama has ever read the Constitution, never mind taught it to other people.
Charles G. simply voted...
B
Chipshot "A Liberal, Progressive Democrat in GlenBeckistan, Texas" adamantly wrote...
I vote B.) No.
Innocent people are arrested every single fucking day in this country. If the purpose is to enter their DNA information into the criminal data base, then it should only be done upon conviction of a major crime, such as murder, rape, grand larceny, or being a Wall Street executive or banker. (But then added an interesting idea)
On the other hand, when you consider the large number of innocent people who were executed in Texas, but cleared of their crimes posthumously based on DNA testing, it might be a better idea to enter everyone's DNA into a world-wide database upon birth. Just take a small hunk of the umbilical cord as soon as the infant exits the vagina (or belly in the case of C-sections) and get that info into the computer.
Beantown Jane (not quite Down East, but almost) also makes a 4th amendment point with...
My answer is (B), no. It's unwarranted, and an extreme invasion with no guarantees as to what would happen to the sample afterward. It would also generate tons of samples to process, and labs that rush the tests can make mistakes.
Charlie voted and included a reference...
No. I read a lot about DNA and genetics back in the 80s when I used to get in crazy barroom arguments with Reaganite social Darwinists. As an aside, I note that many of these idiots hold these views at the same time as they espouse creationism. But as for the question,1984 was a long time ago, but we seem to be falling deeper into the Orwellian nightmare by the day. DNA testing can help establish guilt or innocence, but it can also be used to railroad innocent people, among other problems. Check out: RW ONLINE:The FBI Wants Your DNA
Philip Bereano, a technology and public policy professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, told the New York Times, "The DNA database started out with pariahs: the sex offenders. It has already been enlarged to include other felons and will probably be extended to include everyone, giving elites the power to control `unruly' citizens."
I suggest reading anything by Richard Lewontin on this topic, especially noting that the technology of DNA testing, while it has improved over the years, is hardly foolproof.
Joe S. voted and asked...
B.) No. Why not collect everyone's DNA at birth? What's the difference? Some newborn may commit a crime sometime in the future, why not be ready for it. As for those of already born start collecting when driver's license are renewed or when registering to vote or whenever visiting a medical doctor?
(and then opined...)
President Obama is better than, far better than, McCain but I still feel he isn't ready to be president. He simply does not have enough experience. If the election were to be held over again I would vote the same way and cheer and cry with joy at Obama's victory, as I did when Obama won the first time.
Peace... (Back at ya, Joe)
C.) Depends on the crime
Sandra (who IS Down East) warns...
If you think planting evidence is something we have to guard against, you haven't seen anything until you realize how easy it is to plant DNA. It is not a cure-all for crime solving! An important tool, yes, but not worth giving up some rights.
litebug succinctly replied...
C. Depends on the crime
DanD in his usual unique form wrote...
C.) Depends on the crime... Barry Obama has been the best thing to happen to neo-conservatism since Dick Cheney! Really, especially with his new health reform bill THAT REQUIRES all hoi-polloi Americans (if you're not a DC insider, well guess what ... you're hoi polloi) to buy into a system they still probably cannot afford, or else have that wage-slave obligation become an interest-expanding IRS debt!
I mean, even that great, emotionally retarded Bush-messiah could have never pulled this off, even with a full-pan, brain transplant from his father!
So now? Barry the Magic Negro wants (and even believes he has the obligation to) treat all us other niggers and white trash like we're guilty of some crime, regardless of whether or not he even has a reason to suspect. To his point of view? It's just good government business.
Jebus, I'm forever expecting for BO to finally stand before us at some presser podium, reach behind his head and grab a zipper-grip, and like some WB cartoon character, pull it over and around his head and down around his navel, only to have Jeb Bush come popping out of the mulatto costume while gleefully proclaiming, "Gotcha!"
Welcome to New America, where we're all guilty of something, and that's because we're all just too stupid to stop it from happening.
(Once again, Dan, you have truly boggled my BadtotheboneBrain... Good show! (I think)...
bebo, once again, adds a 'new' category... (and that's OK...)
After much thought on a very complicated question, I'm going to go with D.
D. depends on how the policewoman collects the DNA.
(...Well, as Bart would say, "I'm glad you said that, not me" or some such thing!)
joe b didn't vote being fatalistic over the issue...
They would do it one way or another with or without Barack's approval, so I don't like them being able to
do that but you can't stop them.
(and whom might "they' and 'them' be, Joe? The Trilateral Commission, haha? Novus Ordo Seclorum! ...)
~~~~~~~~~~~
All righty then, Poll-fans, it's my go... and I say a qualified C: Depends etc... The circumstances would have to 'justify' it. i.e. a violent crime where a certain positive match would determine culpability or not and the police would have to have other solid evidence to support the taking of a sample. A warrant should be required. The issue of the test being reliable is moot at this point, I believe, as testing has convicted the guilty and exonerated the innocent and the test results have been accepted as valid in all courts for quite some time. The police already have the right with a warrant to take the blood of suspected drunk drivers who refuse breath tests to determine Blood Alcohol Levels. What's the difference? All that said, I'm uneasy with keeping a data base of DNA except for convicted sex offenders and murderers...
So, there it is... Mah-velous, simply mah-velous, I'm sayin'... and Thankyewverymuch, besides...
Oh, yeah, I almost fergot... Yer The Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
~~~~~~~~~~~
New Question
The 'Health Care Deformed: Winners and Losers...' Edition
The House of Representatives has passed a Health Care 'Reform' Bill... 'The Man' will sign it and it'll be a done deal... So be it... Now then, Poll-fans, I ask...
Who do you see as the long term Winners and Losers in this imbroglio?
A.) The People
B.) The Democrats
C.) The Republicans
D.) The Insurance companies | Big Pharma | Wall Street vultures
E.) Everybody wins
F.) Everybody loses
G.) How in the hell should I know?
Pick and Choose! Mix and Match! Name names! Point fingers! Rant and Rave!
Praise or excoriate! Let it all out! Have some fun, it'll be therapeutic!
(We're all about fun and wellness here, dontcha know!)
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
roger ebert's journal: My old man
Until the day he died, I always called him "Daddy."
The Great Thing About the Health Care Law That Has Passed? It Will Save Republican Lives, Too (An Open Letter to Republicans from Michael Moore)
... that child of yours who has had asthma since birth will now be covered after suffering for her first nine years as an American child with a pre-existing condition.
Paul Krugman: Fear Strikes Out (nytimes.com)
"Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine." - President Obama
Poor Elijah (Peter Berger): Reinventing the Lead Balloon - Team-Based Learning (irascibleprofessor.com)
In the world of education ... we're far too twenty-first century to concern ourselves with the wisdom of ancient Greeks, especially anybody who hung around with Socrates. We're more preoccupied with reinvention, assuming you're willing to define reinvention as the act of giving a new name to something that hasn't worked at least once before.
Andrea Chang: Activist investor, new technology challenges Barnes & Noble's dominance (Los Angeles Times)
The story line for bookstore giant Barnes & Noble Inc. is growing ever more dramatic, with falling store sales, increasingly stiff competition and a fierce battle over the company's shares led by a billionaire Los Angeles investor.
"Albert Camus: Elements of a Life" by Robert Zaretsky: A Review by Jamie Bollenbacher (popmatters.com)
"This book is neither a full biography nor a scholarly commentary," Robert Zaretsky confirms early on. "It is an essay in which I trace the way these 'familiar ideas' weave through Camus' life." A brief statement, but one of importance.
Jack Shafer: What's Wrong With the Post Op-Ed Page? (slate.com)
No, it's not the number of conservative columnists.
Peter Robinson: Jedward dropped after a hit single? Record companies should try it more often (guardian.co.uk)
It might sound harsh to dump John and Edward after a hit record. But why struggle on with acts when you know their future output will be decidedly rubbish?
Troy Patterson: Pavement's Greatest Hits (slate.com)
The unthinkable has happened.
Zach Baron: Flux=Rad (slate.com)
The Pavement reunion and the end of baby boomer cultural hegemony.
Roger Ebert: Review of 'GREEN ZONE' (R; 4 stars)
"Green Zone" looks at an American war in a way almost no Hollywood movie ever has: We're not the heroes, but the dupes. Its message is that Iraq's fabled "weapons of mass destruction" did not exist, and that neocons within the administration fabricated them, lied about them and were ready to kill to cover up their deception.
Roger Ebert: Review of ' A PROPHET' (R; 4 stars)
There is a murder at the center of Jacques Audiard's "A Prophet" that is unlike most murders I've seen in films. It's clumsy, messy and brutal, and leaves the killer shaking. Whether he shakes with grief, relief or anger we cannot say. That's the key to this film. We look, we see, but we cannot say. It often must be that way when we witness violence. Those capable of murdering live in another country.
David Bruce: Virgil's "Aeneid": A Discussion Guide (lulu.com)
Free Download.
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Sally in NJ
An Open Letter to Republicans
Thanks, Sally!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and on the cool-side.
Launches Aid Group
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck launched a new initiative Monday to raise money and awareness over atrocities committed against women and children during years of conflict in eastern Congo.
The American actor and director spent five days in the country last week, where he met with former child sex slaves and prisoners convicted of rape in the hope of gaining a better understanding of Congo's troubles.
The new foundation - the Eastern Congo Initiative - will support community-based, Congolese groups, said Affleck on the heels of his fifth trip to the country.
The new initiative is funded in part by founding member Howard G. Buffett, son of investor Warren Buffet, to whom Affleck pitched his vision of a new aid group by describing eastern Congo's dire situation.
Ben Affleck
Saudi Poet
Hissa Hilal
It was a startling voice of protest at a startling venue. Covered head-to-toe in black, a Saudi woman lashed out at hard-line Muslim clerics' harsh religious edicts in verse on live TV at a popular Arabic version of "American Idol."
Well, not quite "American Idol": Contestants compete not in singing but in traditional Arabic poetry. Over the past episodes, poets sitting on an elaborate stage before a live audience have recited odes to the beauty of Bedouin life and the glories of their rulers or mourning the gap between rich and poor.
Then last week, Hissa Hilal, only her eyes visible through her black veil, delivered a blistering poem against Muslim preachers "who sit in the position of power" but are "frightening" people with their fatwas, or religious edicts, and "preying like a wolf" on those seeking peace.
Her poem got loud cheers from the audience and won her a place in the competition's finals, to be aired on Wednesday.
It also brought her death threats, posted on several Islamic militant Web sites.
Hissa Hilal
Stops Censoring For China
Google
Google Inc. stopped censoring the Internet for China by shifting its search engine off the mainland Monday but said it will maintain other operations in the country. The maneuver attempts to balance Google's disdain for China's Internet rules with the company's desire to profit from an explosively growing market.
Google's decision comes after an impasse pitting the world's most powerful Internet company against the government of the world's most populous country. But it's not clear Google has resolved the standoff that began Jan. 12. That's when Google said it would no longer adhere to China's requirement that it keep some Internet results out of its citizens' view.
Visitors to Google's old service for China, Google.cn, are now being redirected to the Chinese-language service based in Hong Kong, where Google does not censor the search results. The Hong Kong page heralded the shift Monday with this announcement: "Welcome to Google Search in China's new home." The site also began displaying search results in the simplified Chinese characters that are used in mainland China.
However, the results can't all be accessed inside China, because government filters restrict the links that can be clicked by mainland audiences.
Google
Conan As "Wake-Up Call"
Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson, host of "The Late Late Show," sees Conan O'Brien's ill-fated stint on "The Tonight Show" as a "wake up call" for himself -- as in, wake up and get away from being labeled "late-night talk show host."
"As I watched that, whatever that was, unfold, I realized that I am not part of this -- I am not part of the late-night clubhouse," Ferguson told Reuters. "Don't ever rope me in as a late-night talk show host. I don't want to be one."
On his CBS show, Ferguson opens with jokes and moves on to interviewing celebrity guests, but where his peers are masters of one line jokes, Ferguson is more of a storyteller.
"Look at the terrible thing that happened to Conan when Conan tried to do what Jay Leno does," Ferguson said. "Conan shouldn't do that. He doesn't do what Jay Leno does. Jay Leno does what Jay Leno does. And then when (Conan) started doing what Conan does, it was too late."
Craig Ferguson
Most-Watched Epidode Ever
"Breaking Bad"
The return of AMC's "Breaking Bad" was the show's most-watched episode ever.
Sunday night's Season 3 opener drew 2 million viewers, a number that rose to 3.3 million when the episode's dual repeat airings are included.
Overall, that's up 17 percent from the "Breaking" Season 2 premiere. Among adults 18-49, "Breaking" pulled in 663,000 viewers.
By comparison, the debut of AMC's other critical darling, "Mad Men," last season drew 2.9 million viewers.
"Breaking Bad"
50 Years After 'Suzie Wong'
Nancy Kwan
Actress Nancy Kwan walks into Hong Kong's Luk Kwok Hotel, the first time she has ever visited the backdrop to her classic 1960 film "The World of Suzie Wong".
Few people take notice as Kwan, now 70, admires the hotel's movie memorabilia in a since-rebuilt lobby, its colonial charm replaced by a modern skyscraper like so many that dot Hong Kong's skyline.
Her anonymity disappears however when staff learn she is the actress who played the charming prostitute Suzie Wong, a role that catapulted Kwan into film history as the first Asian woman to star in a Hollywood movie.
Hotel employees appear incredulous at Kwan's unexpected appearance as an AFP photographer snaps pictures of the former screen siren, born to a Chinese father and Scottish mother.
Nancy Kwan
Announces Radio Show
Perez Hilton
Perez Hilton aims to hit Ryan Seacrest where it hurts.
The celebrity blogger will be launching a weekly music countdown show in the coming months, he told Billboard in an interview at the South By Southwest music festival.
Hilton envisions the radio show as a platform for interviews as well as a mix of music. "I want the best songs in the country, plus, sprinkle that with my own picks: songs that I would love to expose the masses to."
The Perezhilton.com mogul will also be launching a new website, but he was mum on details about that venture.
Perez Hilton
Proposition H8
Gay Marriage
Civil rights groups that campaigned against California's same-sex marriage ban must surrender some of their internal campaign memos and e-mails to lawyers for the other side, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said sponsors of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative targeting gay marriage, were entitled to the information as evidence in their defense against a lawsuit challenging the ban.
The ruling could delay a verdict in the trial, the first in federal court to examine if the U.S. Constitution prevents states from outlawing gay marriages.
The ACLU and Equality California, the state's largest gay rights group, had argued that the campaign documents being sought were irrelevant to the Proposition 8 lawsuit. They also claimed it was unfair to make them bear the expense of sifting through tens of thousands of old e-mails.
Gay Marriage
Disbanding
ACORN
The once mighty community activist group ACORN announced Monday it is folding amid falling revenues - six months after video footage emerged showing some of its workers giving tax tips to conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute.
Several of its largest affiliates, including ACORN New York and ACORN California, broke away this year and changed their names in a bid to ditch the tarnished image of their parent organization and restore revenue that ran dry in the wake of the video scandal.
ACORN's financial situation and reputation went into free fall within days of the videos' release in September. Congress reacted by yanking ACORN's federal funding, private donors held back cash and scores of ACORN offices closed.
Earlier this month, a U.S. judge reiterated an earlier ruling that the federal law blacklisting ACORN and groups allied with it was unconstitutional because it singled them out. But that didn't mean any money would be automatically be restored.
ACORN
Widow Wins Copyright Case
Roger Miller
The widow of country music singer Roger Miller has won a protracted legal battle over the copyrights to "King of the Road," and some of the late artist's best known songs.
U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes ruled last week that copyright ownership for many of his songs from 1964 onward rests with Marry Miller and Roger Miller Music, Inc.
The songs include "Dang Me," "Chug-A-Lug," and "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd." Miller, who also acted in and wrote the lyrics and music to the Tony-award winning Broadway musical "Big River," died from cancer in 1992 at the age of 56.
The judge also awarded her and the company a little more than $900,000.
Roger Miller
Dr. Phil's Guests Get Prison
Shoplifters
A Southern California couple who bragged on the "Dr. Phil" show about making $100,000 by selling shoplifted toys on eBay was sentenced Monday to federal prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Irma Gonzalez sentenced Matthew Eaton, 34, of San Marcos to 27 months in prison, while his wife, Laura Eaton, 27, was sentenced to a year.
The couple was under investigation for shoplifting before the "Dr. Phil" appearance, but detectives did not suspect them of being large-scale thieves until they appeared on the show.
The Eatons were arrested last September, nearly a year after they appeared on the show and claimed they made as much as $3,500 a week by selling stolen goods.
Shoplifters
New Censorship 'Guidelines'
Malaysia
Film-makers can depict homosexuals for the first time in strictly censored Malaysia -- so long as they repent or even go straight in the end, an industry group said Monday.
Strict censorship rules in the mostly Muslim country mean books and films are routinely banned or scenes deleted that are deemed detrimental to moral values or religious sensitivities.
The new censorship guidelines reverse a ban on scenes featuring homosexuality, Malaysian Film Producers' Association president Ahmad Puad Onah said. But there's a catch.
"We are now allowed to show these scenes," he told AFP. "As long as we portray good triumphing over evil and there is a lesson learnt in the film, such as from a gay (character) who turns into a (straight) man.
Malaysia
Documents Found
Auschwitz
Food coupons for some of the notorious Nazi doctors at the Auschwitz death camp - including perhaps the sadistic Dr. Joseph Mengele - have been found in the attic of a nearby house, where they had lain unseen for decades.
Also found in the attic were other documents relating to the lives of Nazi officials, including death certificates and a map.
The homeowner, who has requested anonymity, made them available to historians at the Auschwitz museum on Friday, museum officials said. They believe the house was used by an SS officer during the war, but it is not clear which one.
Historians have checked through some of the documents but have more to pore over, museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki said.
Auschwitz
TVs & Computers
Multitasking
The amount of time people spend on the computer while watching TV is going up sharply.
The Nielsen Co. said Monday that people who multitask this way spent an average of three and a half hours doing so in December. That's up sharply from the two hours, 29 minutes that Nielsen reported only six months earlier.
The percentage of TV viewers who do this isn't going up that fast. That increased by 57 percent to 59 percent during the same period. But those who are doing it spend much more time at it.
Television executives have pointed to this trend to help explain why big events like the Oscars, Grammys and pro football playoffs have been doing so well in the ratings - people watching and making comments to their friends through social Web sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Multitasking
In Memory
Cherie DeCastro
Cherie DeCastro, the last surviving member of the DeCastro Sisters singing trio, has died in Las Vegas. She was 87.
Publicist and former manager Alan Eichler said Monday that DeCastro died March 14 of pneumonia at Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas.
Peggy, Cherie and Babette DeCastro were patterned as a Cuban version of the Andrews Sisters. In 1947, they sang "Babalu" during the first telecast of KTLA in Los Angeles, and had their biggest hit, "Teach Me Tonight" in 1954.
Babette died in 1992. Peggy died in 2004. Olgita Marino, a cousin who sometimes performed when a sister was absent, died in 2000.
Cherie DeCastro lived in Las Vegas for 55 years.
Cherie DeCastro
In Memory
Margaret Gipsy Moth
CNN photojournalist Margaret Moth, who survived a near-fatal gunshot wound to the face while filming in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the wars there in the early 1990s, died Sunday. She was 59.
CNN spokesman Nigel Pritchard confirmed that Moth died in Rochester, Minn., where she was in hospice care. A CNN obituary says she had suffered from colon cancer for three years.
Moth, a camerawoman, was seriously wounded by sniper fire that hit a CNN van in July 1992 in Sarajevo. After several reconstructive surgeries, she returned to the war-torn country two years later, according to a documentary on her life. She was among scores of journalists hurt or killed covering the conflict in Bosnia and Croatia during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.
Born Margaret Wilson in Gisborne, New Zealand, she later changed her name to Margaret Gipsy Moth. She said in the September 2009 CNN documentary, "Fearless: the Margaret Moth Story," that she wanted to have her own name, not the one people are given because of their fathers. Moth also was a skydiver and would jump from a Tiger Moth airplane, she said.
She said she got her first camera when she was 8. She came to the U.S. and worked for KHOU in Houston, Texas, for about seven years before starting with CNN in 1990.
Her colleagues said she inspired them with her toughness, humor and quirky style that included always wearing black clothes that went with her jet-black hair, thick black eyeliner and combat boots that she often wore while she slept in war zones.
Moth also covered the Israeli invasion of the West Bank in 2002, the rioting that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 and other conflicts around the world, including several in the Middle East, according to CNN. When militiamen opened fire on protesters in Tbilisi, Georgia, CNN said she stood her ground and kept her camera running.
Moth, who knew her cancer was terminal, said in the documentary that she felt she could die with dignity.
"The important thing is to know that you've lived your life to the fullest ... You could be a billionaire, and you couldn't pay to do the things we've done."
Margaret Gipsy Moth
In Memory
Wolfgang Wagner
Wolfgang Wagner, a grandson of German composer Richard Wagner, who carried the torch of the family's musical legacy, has died at age 90.
For 57 years since 1951, Wagner directed the annual Bayreuth Festival in the southern state of Bavaria. He worked initially alongside his brother, Wieland Wagner, until his death in 1966.
The festival, also known as the Richard Wagner Festival, dates back to 1876 and consists of opera performances such as "Tristan und Isolde" composed in the 19th century.
Held in July and August, it has played to sold out crowds since the mid-1950s. Eager opera enthusiasts can wait as long as 10 years for tickets to the Bayreuth Festspielhaus theater.
Wolfgang Wagner was born in 1919 in Bayreuth, Germany, the third child of Siegfried and Winifred Wagner. He and his brother resurrected the Bayreuth Festival in 1951, after a war court removed Winifred, a Nazi supporter, from her position as head.
Following his brother's death, Wagner continued to administer the festival, but handed over production of the operas to a number of well-known, experimental directors, which has helped keep the festival fresh over the years.
Wolfgang Wagner
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