The Mercy of the DMV

Remember back about 5-6 months ago when my personalized license plates were stolen?

As I wrote in the followup:

Q: What do you think your odds are of ever having your plates again?

A: Right now, I'm guessing that it's about 1 in 3 of someone feeling the urge to send it back to me, about 1 in 3 of finding the front plate (wherever it might be), and about 1 in 3 of being completely SOL. Depending on how much more publicity this gets, of course.

Turns out there was one option I didn't include in that list: successfully throwing myself on the mercy of the California DMV. It wasn't that I didn't think of it; actually, it was that I figured the chances were so small of it working as to be not worth mentioning. After all, their rules (PDF) are straightforward: you have to have one plate in order to get replacements. If both are gone, they won't reissue them.

As of yesterday, I now have my license plates again. This time, they ain't going on the car until I get the fancy bolts that can't be removed. And as Tom picked those up today (thanks, sweetie!), the next time you see me driving around, I should be properly labeled once again.

I don't know if it's art...

...but it still looks yummy. Requirements: a plate, a bottle of ketchup, and inspiration. KetchupArt.com

(Via Paul Music.)

Welcome to payback, GOP scumbag

I'm sure that John Kerry is smiling today. A few weeks ago, I pointed to the nomination of Sam Fox as Ambassador to Belgium. Fox was a major donor to the Swift Boat Liars, which helped sink Kerry's Presidential bid. In his nomination hearing, the guy refused to back down and play the game, so this happened: Democrats oppose ambassadorial nominee over Swift Boat contribution. And today, Fox withdrew his name from consideration. Glad to see a little payback for these Republican slime merchants.

Enraged. And not confused.

Our friend and colleague, Kathy Sierra, pulled out of her talk at the Etech conference, because she has received death threats, and threats of sexual violence. She talks about it in this post on her blog. It's an ugly story:

Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech" (why I cancelled my ETech presentations)

In the past, Kathy has told us about jerks who have said nasty things about her and her work. And some of them sounded pretty over the top. But I could never have imagined the kind of sick shit these assholes have spewed. They've crossed the line into criminal behavior, and we hope that law enforcement (Kathy has properly brought them in) finds these people and takes them down hard, and soon. This isn't about free speech. It's hate speech. Hell, it's not speech at all; it's threats of bodily harm. That's a crime.

Kathy mentions several other bloggers (well-known, apparently) who participated in some fashion (perhaps innocently, perhaps not; things are unclear) on the sites where these threats were posted. At the very least, all of these people must cooperate fully with law enforcement to catch the criminal(s). If they do not, and if they don't make it clear that they are helping out, they are part of the problem, and should be ostracized by the tech community. In any event, they should be investigated by law enforcement to discover if they were part of a criminal conspiracy to make these threats.

People who cross the line from rational behavior to criminal behavior should not get a pass because they've done it on a blog, or on a forum. Take 'em down.

The flames are starting to appear

For some time now, we've seen an increasing amount of smoke with the scandal over the improper, possibly criminal, firings of eight US Attorneys by Bush's corrupt Justice Department. Now a close aide to the Attorney General has decided to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights: Justice Official Won't Testify on Prosecutor Firings. When Federal Government employees lawyer up and start pleading the Fifth, that's a sure sign that there's real wrongdoing to be found, and that investigators should keep digging.