Judge questions media intent on Web commentary
Lawyers in fatal carjacking want tougher regulation
By Jamie Satterfield (Contact)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
A Knox County judge on Friday questioned whether news organizations opposing proposed limits on anonymous commentary on their Web sites were more worried about cold hard cash than chilled free speech.
"It's a commercial site," Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner said during a round of legal sparring with News Sentinel attorney Richard Hollow. "It's a site run for commercial purposes. … This is not the Internet. This is a site created by you in which you invite comments. This is something you control."
Defense attorneys representing four suspects in the January 2007 fatal carjacking of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, asked the judge to either bar media Web sites from allowing online readers to post comments on stories about the case or require news organizations to police the commentary by requiring posters to provide verifiable identifying information.
A Knox County judge on Friday questioned whether news organizations opposing proposed limits on anonymous commentary on their Web sites were more worried about cold hard cash than chilled free speech.
"It's a commercial site," Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner said during a round of legal sparring with News Sentinel attorney Richard Hollow. "It's a site run for commercial purposes. … This is not the Internet. This is a site created by you in which you invite comments. This is something you control."
Defense attorneys representing four suspects in the January 2007 fatal carjacking of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, asked the judge to either bar media Web sites from allowing online readers to post comments on stories about the case or require news organizations to police the commentary by requiring posters to provide verifiable identifying information.
(snip-article at link)
Death: What awaits us?
February 28, 2009
February 27, 2009
James Dobson resigns as Focus on the Family chair
Feb 27 12:35 PM US/Eastern
By ERIC GORSKI
AP Religion Writer
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96K28PG2&show_article=1
DENVER (AP) - The Associated Press has learned that James Dobson has resigned as chairman of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family.
Jim Daly, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based ministry, said Friday that Dobson will continue to host the organization's flagship radio program and speak out on moral issues.
The departure of the 72-year-old Dobson as board chairman is part of a succession plan. He founded the group in 1977.
Dobson began relinquishing control of the group six years ago by stepping down as president and CEO.
By ERIC GORSKI
AP Religion Writer
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96K28PG2&show_article=1
DENVER (AP) - The Associated Press has learned that James Dobson has resigned as chairman of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family.
Jim Daly, president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based ministry, said Friday that Dobson will continue to host the organization's flagship radio program and speak out on moral issues.
The departure of the 72-year-old Dobson as board chairman is part of a succession plan. He founded the group in 1977.
Dobson began relinquishing control of the group six years ago by stepping down as president and CEO.
February 10, 2009
Writer Says "Feminism turned me into a failure"
As a successful playwright this woman should have the world at her feet. So why, at 36, does she feel bitterly unfulfilled?
By ZOE LEWIS
Last updated at 2:07 AM on 10th February 2009
Though I never thought I would be saying this, being a free woman isn't all it's cracked up to be. Is that the rustle of taffeta I hear as the suffragettes turn in their grave? Very possibly.
My mother - a film-maker - was a hippy who kept a pile of dusty books by Germaine Greer and Erica Jong by her bedside. (Like every good feminist, she didn't see why she should do all the cleaning.) She imbued me with the great values of choice, equality and sexual liberation.
As a result, I fought with my older brother and won, and at university I beat the rugby lads at drinking games. I was not to be messed with.
But, at nearly 37, those same values leave me feeling cold. Now, I want love and children, but they are nowhere to be seen.
When I was growing up, I was led to believe by my mother and other women of her generation that women could 'have it all', and, more to the point, that we wanted it all. To that end, I have spent 20 years ruthlessly pursuing my dream of being a successful playwright. I have sacrificed all my womanly duties and laid it all at the altar of a career. And was it worth it? The answer has to be a resounding no.
(Snip-article here)
February 4, 2009
Call for pope to step down over Holocaust denier
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jgFF3BlptqEHC3CmOBvNZ86jLpkw
ROME (AFP) — Attacks on Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier escalated Monday, with one theologian calling on him to step down as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Criticism following the pope's January 24 announcement has been particularly cutting in Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable with a jail sentence.
"If the pope wants to do some good for the Church, he should leave his job," eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering told the German daily Tageszeitung.
"That would not be a scandal, a bishop has to relinquish his position at 75 years, a cardinal loses his rights at 80 years," he said. Pope Benedict is 81. (Snip-see above link for article)
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