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14. april 2005
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Over the last years, Britain has gone from being quite permissive about gun ownership to totally banning it and beyond. Now even carrying a knife is a crime, which Charlie Brooker found out, being convicted under the Criminal Justice Act of carrying a bladed instrument.
Charlie Brooker was convicted for carrying a butter knife.
Considering that it is hardly useful as a weapon, having no sharp edges or points, he appealed. Futilly, as it happens, because the High Court has now ruled that a butter knife is an offensive weapon. Lord Justice Laws, sitting with Mr Justice David Steel, upheld the conviction.
He said: "I would accept that a sharp or pointed blade was the paradigm case - however the words of the statute are unqualified and refer to any article that has a blade."
As Charles Dickens once wrote, if the law says that, the law is an idiot.
4:17:15 PM 
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Bryan Curtis' Slate article about Trivial Pursuit is funny and informative, as you'd expect (did you know the game was created by Canadian hockey fans? The horror!), but one sentence had me laughing out loud for the wrong reasons:
Purists, though, ignored the new games and gravitated back to the blue box; twenty-three years after its American debut, the original edition still accounts for nearly huge percentage of Trivial Pursuit's 80 million units sold. [bold added]
Was this article rushed to print before a crucial piece of information was obtained?
Not that I, a blogger, would ever do that.
3:31:10 PM
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The term "troll" refers to someone who posts provocative posts on message boards and newsgroups with the sole intention of riling up other participants and start a flame war. As websites go, SaveToby.com must be the ultimate flamebait, targeting one of the most humourless (and thus vulnerable) groups in existence: animal rights activists.
Toby is "the cutest little bunny" and his owner will kill and eat him on June 30th unless people donate or buy goods worth at least $50,000 before then.
As evil business plans go, this appears to work well. The site owner claims to have a balance of more than $24,000 now, so we're halfway to save poor Toby.
Of course he has received loads of hate mail already. Silly rabbits.
1:07:03 PM
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Roger L. Simon is not satisfied with Volcker's UNSCAM interim report mostly passing over Pierre Mouselli's revelations about Kojo Annan. Roger has more facts, and even some incriminating photos. He adds:
The folks on the Volcker Committee seem to be working overtime to do that most difficult of all things - go far enough not to be accused of a coverup while not going too far to do any real damage. This was the kind of tap dance done by the Thornburgh Committee over at CBS and it is being done all over again by the committee at the UN -- a far more important venue than a mere television network (big as that may be). Of course, their "lawyerliness" is misguided. The horse of UN corruption is miles out of the barn by now. Continuing to obfuscate it at this point may have some short term benefits for a few, but over the long term will only contribute heavily to the institution's destruction.
Friends of the UN are doing it no favours these days. I suspect a lot of powerful people fear what may happen if even more old skeletons are falling out of UN closets.
3:54:14 AM
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I earlier reported that Norway's center-right government threatens to dissolve corporations that fail to appoint at least 40 percent women to their boards. The government, however, has been less consistent in their own appointments. Only 26 percent of top government bureaucrats appointed between July 2003 and June 2004 were women. This fell short of the preceding government's appointments in 1999-2000 by six percentage points.
The red-green opposition, led by Labour, is naturally using this for what it's worth, leading up to the parliamentary election in September. But opponents of radical quotas in private companies will be met with little relief, as the red parties are traditionally even more radical.
(From a Norwegian article in VG)
3:27:45 AM
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German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been one of Europe's politicians most strongly advocating lifting the ban on arms sales to China. But now he is facing increasing political and public opposition.
In Germany, 70 percent of the population is opposed to removing the ban. Chinese dissidents persecuted by Beijing after Tiananmen have also placed Schroeder under pressure for his stance, which they say is weakening their position in China. Many politicians from all parties in Germany, including Schroeder's Social Democratic Party, also oppose removing the trade barrier.
But it looks like Schroeder could be in for a bit of relief. Sensing the shifting sentiment in London, Stockholm and Copenhagen, the EU may later this week stipulate that China must make a "significant gesture" on human rights before the ban is lifted, the International Herald Tribune reports.
There should be more than a gesture, especially considering the big question mark concerning China's future regional ambitions. There are quite a few of us fearing China will not be satisfied with becoming an economic superpower. The current rows between Japan and China are certainly not reassuring.
1:23:21 AM
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Social conservatives are fuming at US judges. Orin Kerr argues that Justice Scalia, that liberal activist, should be the first to be impeached!
I am predicting that just like the Michael Moore crowd alienated the moderate vote to cost the Democratic party in elections, the social conservatives will be doing the same thing for the GOP if they persist in warfare against the judicial branch.
12:51:10 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.05.2005; 01:55:27.
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