To Mr. Anonymous

Well, this did not take long in coming. And maybe not soon enough for some. The intent obviously is laudable. If people continue to straddle between criminality and what is deemed acceptable behavior, why not a law to make sure? If people cannot exercise restraint and civility on the Net, why not a law to identify when necessary who these people are?

So even if it is not a crime, at least let the people initiating them be properly identified and let them weigh the risks of being known if what they have initiated may indeed be embarrassing, foolhardy, or even stupid and mean like maybe using bad language in the many ways that we now find them in the Net – whether in grammar, syntax, or plainly inappropriate terms or false charges.

Of course, there is the First Amendment factor involved in this, too. And many would argue that this is headed toward a slippery slope. Thus to curtail on-line bullying and harassment this time, but who knows what would be next?

Is the effort good enough for the purposes intended?

Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal
By Kellie Wilson

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.

The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site.

Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted.

Representative Couch says he filed the bill in hopes of cutting down on online bullying. He says that has especially been a problem in his Eastern Kentucky district.

(Disclaimer: Elvis absolutely had nothing to do with this. But I have to admit he makes for a very attractive intro to this entry. HeHeHe. Sorry, but since I cannot remember how and where I got this pic I cannot make the proper attribution. But am very willing to make some if and when notified.)

Michelle Malkin Profile

Michelle gets another good profile from the Baltimore Sun.


Michelle Malkin has worked for Fox News for eight years and has two popular blogs that get 15.1 million page views per month. (Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / March 3, 2008)

Michelle Malkin may seem like any mild-mannered blogger in her Baltimore-area home, but she's reviled by liberals like almost no one else online

By Jonathan Pitts | Sun reporter March 9, 2008

The shingle-style house straddles a hillside, its windows offering sunny views in three directions. Games, books and DVDs topple from living-room shelves. In the kitchen, a young mom helps her 7-year-old daughter feed fabric through a sewing machine.

The place seems more all-American home than hideout, but fewer than 20 people know that Michelle Malkin, mother of two young children, loyal wife of 15 years -- oh, and scourge and sometime nightmare of liberals in her newspaper columns, TV spots, books and writings on the Web -- moved to this place in the Baltimore area a year and a half ago.

If you're seeking a living symbol of America's rancorous political divide, look no further than Malkin, one of the most popular and provocative voices on the modern right. The only daughter of first-generation immigrants from the Philippines, Malkin, 37, began blogging on politics nine years ago after a successful run as a newspaper columnist and has become a menace out of proportion to her Size 0 frame.

Two years ago, in the midst of an Internet contretemps over military recruiting on college campuses, left-leaning activists posted her home address and phone number -- and photos of her house and neighborhood -- online. They apparently were trying to exact revenge because she had published information they felt she shouldn't have.

The Malkins found a new home. For now, only a few friends know exactly where to find them.

"Sadly enough, it comes with the territory," says Malkin, whose most recent book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, argues that the political left, far more than the right, suffers the presence of "moonbats" -- Malkin-speak for those fated to play out life's hand with a less-than-full deck. "I'm used to it. But when you have kids, you have to be cautious."

As she makes snacks for her daughter and 4-year-old son, helps her husband, Jesse, get ready for a run and steals glances at an open laptop on the dining-room table, it's hard to conjure the right-wing menace who inspires hundreds of venomous e-mails a week. "[You] ought to be shot between those Viet Cong eyes," reads one. "How does it feel to be a paid prostitute for the Republicans?" says another. "Go get some collagen injected in your lips, it makes you look more the part."

"Stirring arguments, aren't they?" says Malkin with a roll of her eyes. "That's what you resort to when you're losing the debate -- name-calling and ad hominem attacks."

A snippet of news flashes across her Mac. "Excuse me a minute, I need to check this," she says, her brow furrowing. She sits down for a few minutes' work.

Read the entire write-up.

Of Pens, Pencils, and Markers

Writing has been with man most probably as early as when he learned to walk on two feet. It may have simply started as clumsy etchings on the sand or any soft surface using sticks or fingers, but we know how thoroughly inclined man is now with regard to scribbling. So engrossed or dedicated as to find time and resource for it even when doing something very personal. Maybe like relieving oneself? Many cannot help playing with their hands clasping whatever is available writing on walls and wherever pen, pencil, paint, or marker can reach and take hold. The many public bathrooms are wordy and graphic testimonies to this proclivity.

And writing implements have gone through a lot of evolution even with just our modern times, from the ink-dipped quills, to the more lasting and convenient fountain pens, to cheaper graphite pencils, and now, the explosion of the utilitarian ballpoint pens made famous and popular initially by the popular French brand BIC. Ball pens are now so cheap and common, they can be found literally everywhere. On the moon, too? Oh, Yeah! “Neil Armstrong and crew would have been trapped there had Buzz not improvised by jamming a ball point pen into the switch's hole to activate liftoff.”

Click to read more.

Who's Your Choice For VP?

Let' start with this one: the current Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who is Republican.

There are now voices coming out from the blogosphere for drafting her as VP to Sen. McCain.

Is she any good, aside from the very pretty face?

Listen to an interview with the Washington Post:


Very refreshing views on public service, coming from a former beauty queen. She was Miss Wasilla in 1984.

And was a hoopster, too, according to this news item:

And she was a local girl: daughter of a popular local teacher and coach, she was a one-time Miss Wasilla and, in a basketball-mad town, was practically canonized as the point guard for Wasilla's 1982 girls' state championship team.

Mirror, Mirror on The Wall..

Who is the most beautiful of them all?