Monthly Archives: September 2005

America’s Battered Wife Syndrome

Posted on September 10, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

From 12thharmonic Blog, America’s Battered Wife Syndrome. (thanks, SAC)

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on America’s Battered Wife Syndrome

Just in Case You Were Worried We’d Run Out of Hurricane Names

Posted on September 10, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Here we are up to “O” and the hurricane season still has a lot of punch left in it. Plus the official list only uses 21 letters in the alphabet: Q, U, X, Y and Z are left out — why no Zelda nor Zeke? So we only have six names left for this year (Philippe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince, Wilma — watch out for Tammy). But fear not!

In the event that more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on.

One of my colleagues suggested the other day that instead of boring Greek letters, they should go for double letters: Aaron, Bebe, Cece, Dede, Fifi and so on. I mean, who wants to be flattened by hurricane Beta?

Posted in Science/Medicine | 2 Comments

DeFede Won’t Be Prosecuted

Posted on September 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Via Southern District of Florida: No charges for DeFede, I learn that “it is now official — the State won’t charge Jim DeFede for taping Art Teele’s last phone conversation.” Assistant State Attorney Joseph Centorino, chief of the public corruption unit, went out of his way, however, to say this was an exercise of prosecutorial discretion on the grounds that no one had been hurt, and DeFede both had good intentions and was cooperative afterwards:

However, it would be incorrect for anyone to assume from this result that Mr. DeFede’s actions, in tape recording a conversation without consent, were appropriate or justified. They were not. . . . It is the uniqueness of the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of Arthur Teele, and his last conversation with a trusted friend, which has led to the conclusion not to prosecute, rather any special journalistic privilege or legal exception accorded to Mr. DeFede.

(Not mentioned is that prosecutors are sometimes a bit shy of tangling with popular sympathetic journalists.) Although this doesn’t prove that DeFede’s actions were illegal, I think it supports my position in my debate with David Oscar Markus.

But the Herald remains adamant that DeFede is not getting his job back, more fools they.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Miami | Comments Off on DeFede Won’t Be Prosecuted

The “CBL” Has Blacklisted U.Miami?

Posted on September 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Several students have told me that they’ve tried to email me at U.M. but the mail has bounced. At first I was skeptical, since I’m getting email, but one student was kind enough to send me headers, which led me to this CBL Lookup Utility. The CBL is a self-styled “composite blocking list”. They do provide a form for removal, but as I’m not the owner of the machine that has the blocked IP number — it’s upstream from me — I’m not about to try to fill it out.

I reported this to the help desk and they’re “working on it”.

Meanwhile, if mail to me bounces, there is a rarely-used backup: myforename.mysurname@gmail.com (be sure to replace myforename with michael and mysurname with froomkin). I’ll try to check there occasionally.

Posted in Discourse.net | Comments Off on The “CBL” Has Blacklisted U.Miami?

It’s an Unfair Rap

Posted on September 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Musically, George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People (mp3) is a real catchy bit of rappy pop. [Warning: lots and lots of ‘bad’ words.] And the feeling is raw and real, and I always appreciate that in my music.

But politically, the title, and a good part of the content, is an unfair rap. The Bush administration has an admirable record of appointing African-Americans to top posts. And despite the occasional strange incident, I don’t think it is a racist administration. Rather, it’s thoroughly classist. Kleptocratic even.

For as far as I can tell, what George Bush — and his team — don’t care about is poor people. All poor people. No sympathy (in the sense of a sympathetic or shared understanding) at all.

[Spotted via Boing Boing, which has full details on this remix (“by The Legendary K.O, Words by Big Mon and Damien a/k/a Dem Knock-Out Boyz”) of the Kanye West single “Gold Digger” — it’s a mash in of his unscripted comment on an NBC special, which NBC then censored when it provided a delayed broadcast to the west coast.]

Posted in Kultcha | 20 Comments

Nice Neighborhood

Posted on September 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

ophelia20L-sm.jpg

Ophelia is drifting very very slowly northeast for now, which is away from us but less away from the Carolinas. The latest forecast is that in 36 hours it will be a major hurricane. And then where it goes is anyone’s guess, although as of this writing the least unlikely landfall would be well north of here. But, as the National Hurricane Center puts it,

THE PROXIMITY OF THIS CYCLONE TO THE COAST AND THE WEAK STEERING CURRENTS DICTATES THAT INTERESTS FROM FLORIDA THROUGH THE CAROLINAS WILL NEED TO MONITOR OPHELIA FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS.

Posted in Miami | 2 Comments