Wizbang unleashes the power of the blogosphere in defense of the attempted silencing of batesline by tulsaworld.com.

Even though you are only targeting a couple small weblogs, when you attempt to silence them you attempt to silence us all.

I assure you we will not let that happen.

Michelle Malkin has also jumped into the fray.

For some interesting thoughts on the blogosphere v. the MSM, check out the guest post below.

And some good reading on Fair Use by Nerf Coated World.

Evangelical Outpost weighs in:

Did someone at the WPC lose their mind? Shouldn’t they have talked to their staff lawyer about the fair use exemption before they sent the letter? And when did linking to an article become a copyright infringement?

It takes a special brand of idiot to bully a guy with a megaphone. But you have to be a world class moron to push someone around who has thousands of compatriots with megaphones. Surely someone at the WPC will come to their senses before the company is embarrassed even further.

As Taste of Liberty says:

Blogtown is the next phase of this journey. Blogtown is the collective wisdom shouting “enough is enough”.

UPDATE: Dean Esmay offers his analysis. And I’ve changed the title of this post from “Kevin Alyward v. John D. Bair” to “Batesline v. John D. Bair” to be a bit more accurate, though maybe “thousands of people with megaphones v. John D. Bair” would be more accurate.

Below is a guest editorial by Taste of Liberty.

It seems the visible media and press are perplexed at the phenomena of what has become known as the blogosphere.

Perhaps some observations might help to shed some light.

It can be observed that the blogging phenomenon lies at its root on Main Street. This is where the collective wisdom and intelligence resides in most countries of the world. Oddly enough, the brilliance of America does not reside in the halls of journalism schools or academia, nor in Hollywood nor in those plastered on the television set, but in the day to day lives of those who occupy the highways and byways of Yourtown, America. This is Blogtown. It is the collective genius of those who make America, and many other countries, work.

These are the folks with “down home” values. These are the folks who risk savings and lives to keep their community and businesses chugging along. These are the folks who depend on honesty to be the glue that keeps their communities and organizations strong.
These are the folks who know and see the synthetic, the artificial, and the sham. These are the folks who care about freedom and love and honest compassion. These are the folks who are getting sick and tired of being shut out and ridiculed and conned. These are the folks who are smarter, more creative and have greater ambition than their detractors in the artificial world of the elitists. In short, these are the folks who make this world tick.

The conservative success Rush Limbaugh, along with others, has tapped this phenomenon. By his own admission Rush wasn’t offering anything new and brilliant. He was just tapping into what was already there but it had no voice. Blogtown is the next phase of this journey. Blogtown is the collective wisdom shouting “enough is enough”. The folks who make this world tick are getting sick and tired of left wing puppet elitists lying to us, deceiving us, trying to intimidate us, constantly ridiculing everything we on Main Street value, and pretending like they are the Supreme rulers of all that is. We are tired of their corruption, their treason, their hate, their fabrications, their calculated distortions, their constant unjustifiable negativity. Blogtown knows these folks are untrustworthy. And Blogtown knows that the world is much different from that which the elitists try to paint.

Blogtown is awakening. It is the non-violent revolution of Main Street. And, like the freedom that it represents, it will knock down the walls of the elitists wallowing in their ivory towers and perching smugly on their pontification platforms.

After all, I’d much rather hear what my neighbor has to say than some marginally intelligent smugface on some hyperventilating t.v. set acting like he/she/it is the ultimate know-it-all. We in Blogtown know otherwise.

UPDATE: Adding this to OTB’s Linkfest, also, there’s quite an interesting post over at JustOneMinute titled “The Battle for the Blogosphere.”

If anyone can help the New York Times with this formula, please feel free to email them. :-)

This hilarious story from Powerline:

We’ve had a lot of fun at the expense of the New York Times’ Corrections section, pointing out how it exposes the lack of basic, high school-level knowledge of history, literature, arithmetic and science on the part of the paper’s reporters and editors. Today’s Corrections section takes on the mysteries of geometry:

The Keeping Score column in SportsSunday on Jan. 23, about a mathematical formula for projecting the winner of the Super Bowl, misstated the application of the Pythagorean theorem, which the formula resembles. The theorem determines the length of the third side of a right triangle when the length of the two other sides is known; it is not used to determine the sum of the angles in a right triangle.

The Times is still searching for the elusive “formula” that governs the sum of the angles of a triangle.

Wow.

Hint for NYT editors: It’s a form Kerry said he would sign.

This is pretty cool: Blind student ‘hears in colour’

A blind student has developed software that turns colours into musical notes

This is way old (like three years), but I had to post this story from May of 2002, since I was on the identity theft kick this morning.

Tsutomu Matsumoto, who teaches mathematics and cryptography at Japan’s Yokohama National University, has demonstrated that if one makes a mold from a human finger (which can be done easily with dime store modeling compounds or with molding materials used by dentists to make impressions for dentures) and fills it with the same material used to make “Gummi Bears” and “Gummi Worms,” he can cast a phony fingertip that’s good enough to trigger virtually all of the most sophisticated biometric devices. (”Gummies” are elastic confections that usually take the form of bears and worms in the US, and of lozenge-shaped candies — often with uncannily accurate fruit flavors — in Japan. They’re commonly made either from gelatin or from carageenan, a soluble fiber derived from kelp.)

Matsumoto has also demonstrated that one can capture a third party’s fingerprint (perhaps from a drinking glass or other hard surface), make a series of molds by etching a standard epoxy-glass printed circuit board (the thickness of the copper is a good match for the depth of a typical fingerprint), and stamp out dozens of replicas of the victim’s finger.

CBS News reports that California is considering effectively penalizing people for driving fuel efficient cars.

College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.

“I was paying about $500 a month,” says Just.

So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.

And what kind of mileage does he get?

“The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway,” says Just.

And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It’s great for Just but bad for the roads he’s driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead.

And from this story:

About 25 per cent of price paid by consumers for gas goes to the government which uses it for development and maintenance of highways. And fuel efficient cars would reduce the revenue which would make them good for drivers but bad for the roads, CBS television network reported.

Experts estimated that such cars could give up to 96 km in the city and about 80 km on highways. The rising price of gas could lead to more consumers selecting fuel efficient vehicles which would cut down the revenue, it said.

The method being considered is every time a car is filled up, the tax would be charged. CBS said a computer in the gas station would communicate with the odometer of the car to determine how much the person filling the gas owes as tax on the basis of miles he had driven since the last filling.

I was going to make some sarcastic comment about waiting for the regulation on cow emissions, but then I noticed this:

Researchers sleuthing for the source of smog-forming emissions from dairy cows may have been looking at the wrong end of the animal.

Moreover, California’s 1.5 million cows may have been taking too much of the blame for the state’s air pollution.

These are the preliminary findings presented by a UC Davis scientist recently at a symposium in Fresno hosted by the California Air Resources Board.

If the new study is adopted by the air quality regulators, it could give a break to the state’s $4.6 billion dairy industry.

By incorporating the new study, fewer dairy farms would likely fall under new state and regional guidelines that are being drafted to bring the state’s agriculture into compliance with the Federal Clean Air Act.

It may also lead to dairy producers changing what they feed their cows to reduce the amount of smog-causing volatile organic compounds that the animals emit from belching.

He’s going to keep going:

People have told me I should just go on with the blog and pretend that nothing happened.

That seems like pretty good advice. There will be pleny of new gullible people to replace the old gullible people. And no one will have any new incentive to “out” me because I’ve already been outed.

So this is what will happen. In twenty-four hours, I will post a new girl picture and delete all posts, comments, and trackbacks relating to Libertarian Girl not being a girl.

And because someone has to do it:

Looks to be a “near” miss…

A giant asteroid the size of three football pitches will make the closest flyby of Earth in recorded history for an object of its size, scientists said yesterday.

Great op/ed in the New York Post entitled Masterpiece today.

February 15, 2005 — TELL a New Yorker that what he’s seeing is a work of art, and you can shut him up instantly. Most Manhattanites hate George W. Bush, but if you told them he was an art installation, they wouldn’t be able to criticize him because, hey, it’s art.

“The Gates” — the $20 million what-the-hell-is-this-thingamabob that’s spread out across Central Park like an endless row of construction cones shutting down two lanes on Interstate 95 — is a perfect example of how you can get the famously argumentative and opinionated leadership class in New York City to march in cultural lockstep.

Anxiety about not being with-it enough continues to be the dominant aspect of the cultural life of New York. Nobody knows that better than Christo and Jeanne-Claude — the brilliantly entrepreneurial snake-oil salesmen who designed “The Gates” and managed after 25 years to foist it (or them) on Central Park for a couple of weeks.

You weren’t going to catch anybody in Central Park making a negative peep about the whole project, lest he or she be considered uncool, uncouth, narrow-minded, philistine, incapable of recognizing innovative art when he saw it.

So what if walking through the park simulated nothing so much as traveling through a car wash without the car?

Keep reading…

Hat tip: Powerline.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here are some pictures.

UPDATE: There’s more on The Gates. Check out this satellite image, via Pundit Guy. And Fark had a Photoshop contest.

I don’t have time to dig into this this morning, but Ed Morissey has an update on the UNSCAM investigation. Check it out.

UPDATE: Ok, I couldn’t resist looking for a just a couple of minutes. Remember the $160,000 from his aunt who mysteriously fell down an elevator shaft and never came out of the coma? The Senate investigation seems to have turned up a bit more.

But Senate investigators yesterday displayed letters written by Iraqi oil officials both under Saddam and after his regime fell in 2003 that listed Mr. Sevan himself as the recipient of the oil allocations, which were then passed along to the Panamanian company. One Iraqi document put Mr. Sevan’s proceeds from an allocation of 9.3 million barrels of crude oil at $1.2 million.

“What we have uncovered suggests that Benon Sevan himself got the commissions that came from passing along the oil allocations,” said a Senate staffer.

Captain Ed wonders:

Wow — I wonder how Volcker managed to miss those? Could it be that the UN’s internal investigation, which reports directly to Kofi Annan himself, might have some strings attached? Sevan, one of Kofi’s closest associates, and Kojo appear to have skated past Paul Volcker in his work. Since Sevan ran the Oil-For-Food program directly under Kofi and Kojo obviously has an even stronger connection, it appears that Paul Volcker’s work has a lot less independence — or a much lower ability, at any rate — to find the truth about the largest corruption case in history.

I’m a few days late to this story, but it has to be posted.

A Delaware County man who prosecutors say was killed by his father-in-law was called for jury duty in his alleged killer’s murder trial.

From Bob Sullivan, the author of “Your Evil Twin, Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic,” we learn today that it seems that all you’ve got to do to learn tons of information about someone is convince ChoicePoint that you’re a legitimate business with a need for this information.

Oh, and if you’re one of the consumers who have had their information accessed, and potentially their identity stolen:

“ChoicePoint has apologized for any inconvenience this incident may cause,”

Hope you feel better now.

Oh, and you could prevent this type of thing by simply getting an RFID chip implanted so no one can steal your identity without surgically removing it. Of course… you would also need a tin foil hat so that the government could not track you everywhere you went. The dilemmas of the information age.

Or maybe RFID is not so secure. Back to the drawing board.

From the Associated Press:

In an effort to save $250,000 this year, inmates in state prisons and people in boot camps and correctional centers won’t be able to get free coffee after March 1.
…
“We’re looking at everything that can reduce costs without jeopardizing public safety,” Marlan said. “There is no nutritional value to coffee.”

And while if you’re a coffee drinker this may seem like cruel and unusual punishment, it’s not as bad as what these inmates were experiencing in Mexico.

The press and the lefty bloggers are all over this Maya Keyes thing. If you haven’t seen it, Alan Keyes’ daughter has announced (though it’s not really new news) that she is involved in the lesbian lifestyle:

“Things just came to a head. Liberal queer plus conservative Republican just doesn’t mesh well,” Marcel-Keyes said. “That was making my life a little bit turbulent.”

Keyes’ “selfish hedonist” comments from the Barak Obama campaign are being repeated ad nauseum.

Also, along with that is the mantra “Keyes doesn’t love her any more, he has kicked her out of his house.”

I don’t know Mr. Keyes personally, and he’s definitely an opinionated guy, I’ve only watched him speak so eloquently and passionately several times, but I figured I would do a brief bit of digging to see if there was another side to this story.

His only public response is:

“My daughter is an adult, and she is responsible for her own actions. What she chooses to do has nothing to do with my work or political activities.”

Another perspective is briefly mentioned in this Post story:

Maya told the Washington Post Monday her parents kicked her out of the house and will not pay her college tuition. But a family friend has a very different take, saying Maya has been self-destructive and needs psychiatric help, not college. The friend says Maya has not been kicked out of the family home, but she is no longer welcomed to stay at the downtown Chicago apartment that Keyes and members of his new political organization use.

The Point Foundation has offered her a scholarship, which they apparently have set up for the kids involved in the gay lifestyle who have famous conservative parents.

On Thursday, the Point Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity that provides scholarships to students “who have been marginalized because of their sexual orientation,” decided to pay Maya’s expenses so she can begin her studies at Brown. “Many of the students we support have been disowned by their families because they’ve been honest about who they are,” said the foundation’s executive director, Vance Lancaster. “Maya’s situation is especially poignant because of her father’s position, but it’s a situation that happens every day to hundreds of kids across the country.”

If you would like to send a personal note of encouragement to Maya Marcel-Keyes, you can do so on her blog. Whether or not you agree with her lifestyle choices, she is a young (19-year-old) human being who needs to be loved.

Outside The Beltway is trying to start a movement to do away with the word “blogosphere” and replace it with something else.

If you’ve got an idea, throw your hat in the ring.

Others linking:

Basil’s Blog.
PrestoPundit.
Riehl World View.

There will be a press conference for Terri Schiavo on Wednesday, 2/16/2005 at 1:00 pm in front of the Woodside Hospice where she is a patient.

More information:

ProLife Blogs.
Christian Wire Service.
The Empire Journal.
Common Sense Runs Wild.

Write Wing Blog provides contact information that may be of interest.

Governor Jeb Bush (R) Office of The Governor Florida Capitol Building, PL-05 Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001 (850) 488-7146 (850) 488-4441 jeb@jeb.org

Attorney General Charlie Crist Office of Attorney General State of Florida The Capitol Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050 (850) 414-3990 Fax: (850) 487-2564 ag@oag.state.fl.us

Common Sense Runs Wild also provides these:

Bernie McCabe,
State Attorney Pinellas and Pasco Counties
727-464-6221
bmccabe@co.pinellas.fl.us

St. Pete Times
Letters to the Editor
P.O. Box 1121
St. Pete, FL 33731

Tammy Swofford has a post worth reading,

I believe that our society can only be as strong as the support given to its weakest member. I believe the weak and vulnerable are worthy of a level of care that would speak to the dignity of the human experience. I believe that the care we extend to others would be the care we would hope for ourselves. The weak, are best accompanied by the strong. It is time for the strong to support the family of Terri Schiavo in the quest to keep her from a court-mandated death. It is time for the strong to provide a vocal and public bulwark of defense against the death culture that undergirds and finances Mr. Schiavo in his quest to kill his wife.

We would do well to remember the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Kings have long arms, but misfortune longer; Let none think of themselves out of her reach”. Misfortune may come looking for you some day. Who will be your voice?

UPDATE: LaShawn Barber has added her noteriety to this blogswarm.

UPDATE (3/28/2005): Taste of Liberty wonders about the motive of Judge Greer. Join the discussion here.

There is an online petition here.

Whereas the Florida Constitution Article III Section 17 provides for the impeachment of judges for misdemeanor in office, misdemeanor being defined as a misdeed or offense less than a felony.

Whereas Judge George W. Greer is a judge in the 6th circuit court of Florida and bound to rule in agreement with Florida Statutes and the Judicial Code of Ethics,

The undersigned are petitioning Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and the Florida House of Representatives to impeach Judge George W. Greer pursuant to the provisions in the Florida Constitution for the following violations of Statutes and Judicial Canons, which prove justification for impeachment.

Judge George W. Greer has caused public confidence in the judiciary to deteriorate due to his rulings regarding Terri Schiavo and thus violated Judicial Canon 1.

Judge George W. Greer has made rulings, which advance the private interests of Michael Schiavo, George Felos, and Senate President Jim King by allowing the statutes, which apply, to persons with terminal illness to order the death of Terri Schiavo by dehydration and starvation at the request of Michael Schiavo and thus is in violation of Judicial Canon 2B.

Judge George W. Greer has not ruled according to law in the case of whether to remove Terri Schiavo’s tube by which she receives nutrition and hydration. The rulings, which are inconsistent with Florida Statutes and Constitution, are:

[… List of 38 rulings… go check ‘em out.]

Participate if you wish. (Hat tip: Life Steward)

Other sites linking to the petition:

ProLife Blogs.
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

UPDATE: LaShawn Barber has joined the fray, and ProLife Blogs has more this morning.