Octopodial Chrome

How are the most popular sites of 2001 doing now? Surprisingly, the vast majority have lost market share. So much for the theory that they could manage to lock users in…

A man in Maryland guided firemen to his burning townhouse; in return the police beat him. To serve and protect, indeed.

The US Congress is considering using toxic fungi to kill off drugs. This idea is so bad that even the Drug Czar disagrees with it. Among the problems is the fact that fungi are non-discriminate: they will kill marijuana, poppies, wheat, corn, cows and people alike. Another is that mycotoxins are considered biological warfare agents: applying them to crops in other countries would be quite literally an act of war.

Oh, but who cares? It’s better than thousands of people die than that a single person achieve an altered mental state. Unless that mental state is altered with alcohol, caffeine or nicotine: those are cool.

Sheriff’s deputy and part-time police officer Tyler Peterson killed six people with a police-style AR-15 (probably a Bushmaster Patrolman’s Carbine). Why? Because someone called him a worthless pig. So how did someone with such obvious lack of self-control manage to become a member of law enforcement? I wonder how he treated his fellow citizens on a day-to-day basis.

Apparently, physicians are now using children to spy on their parents. Among the questions: they ask if either parent owns a gun. Never mind that guns are legal. Never mind that it’s not a physician’s place to care.

I wonder if some form of legal action could be taken. If not, a burlap bag full of apples would do wonders on a nosey physician…

Like many of us, Christopher Hitchens supported the Iraq War from the start; like many of us, he has his doubts about its current progress. Unlike many of us, his words inspired Mark Daily to seek a commission in the Army. Lieutenant Daily was killed, and Hitchens has to come to grips with that. It’s a deeply moving article, well worth the read.