Douglas L. Ross - My Personal Reflections

In September, I'm going to a conference which I hope will give me some deeper insight into what kind of experimentation is going on with online access to television and other types of video content. The organizers bill the conference as: "...one-day conference, created by Archival.tv and Intelligent Television , brings together archivists, educators, technologists, entrepreneurs, producers, legal experts, and investors to explore the enormous promise offered by the availability of online video and television content. Demonstrations and interactive panel discussions will highlight new video technologies, services, legal issues, and economic models. Participants from diverse -- and until now, largely disconnected -- specialties will be especially encouraged to interact."

Alas, yet another controversy at my alma mater. I didn't realize the extent of the Baylor connection to Intelligent Design until President Bush ignited the debate and I began to look into what all the fuss was about. Dembski, who was at the center of the Baylor mess, chronicles it here . In the June issue of The American Spectator , columnist Dan Petterson wrote an article entitled "The Little Engine That Could...Undo Darwinism." It was a needlessly controversial title for a reasonably good summary of the debate from the conservative point of view. [Which is not the same as the "creationist" religious right point of view despite what the left would have you believe.] In July [or thereabouts] The New Republic , among others. Fired back with " The Case Against Intelligent Design. The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name. " The article by Professor Jerry Coyne from the University of Chicago, which is poorly written and drones on for thirty pages making it h

Is there a "First Amendment right to speak anonymously on the Internet" or anywhere else for that matter? I tend to agree with Public Citizen and EFF that there is and should be a right to anonymity, but that's not the right question. The question is how to identify and stop terrorists who are abusing not only that right but more fundamentally, my right to my life. It's really a question of what causes the most damage by potentially somewhat limiting our rights, the FBI or terrorists. My right to move freely and feel safe has been severely damaged by terrorists. I see the benefit in giving law enforcement the latitude to seek terrorists that might hide behind the mask of anonymity. It's a tradeoff and a solution, albiet not a perfect one. What I don't see from EFF and Public Citizen is an alternative solution.

NYT's columnist Paul Krugman can interpret just about anything as proving conservative beliefs to be wrong. But his July 29th NYT's article "French Family Values" was a little over the top even by his standards. Becker and Posner did a thoughtful rebuttal.