As if my Monday wasn’t already sucking hard enough on its own, I received this letter today: Dear Resident: About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly. Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facil­ities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share. Thank you in advance for your help. [ . . . ]

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According to Reuters, FCC commis­sioners voted 5–0 today to proceed with crafting a “net neutrality” rule, sending the current language (which would strip telecom companies of the right to control how they use their own property) to the printing office for public comment. Comments will be accepted until January 14th. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is available online here [PDF]. You can upload your comments using ECFS here, using proceeding number 09–191. You can read others’ comments on ECFS here. I’m writing comments to submit right now. I’ll post my comments here when I finish. I encourage everyone who loves the Internet [ . . . ]

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Just remem­bered I forgot to comment on the recent capture in Switzerland of notorious inter­na­tional fugitive and child rapist Roman Polanski, who appar­ently also has directed a number of quite good movie-​​​​films. Lessons Polanski should learn from this affair: Don’t rape children. Don’t skip bail. Don’t plead guilty if you aren’t willing to do the max. DON’T RAPE CHILDREN!

The ongoing contro­versy over a Latin cross erected in 1934 on Federal land in Mojave National Preserve to honor WWI dead reached the Supreme Court today on the question of whether Congress’ sale of the land where the cross sits to a private entity in an effort to remove the consti­tu­tional violation itself violated the injunction ordering the government to remove the consti­tu­tional violation. Photo by Eric Nystrom, courtesy National Park Service The case is Salazar v. Buono, and oral arguments were held this morning. Transcript is here. The consti­tu­tion­ality of the cross was not before the Court today. The question was [ . . . ]

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