June 27, 2008

Dude Arrested For Bad YouTube Video

You have to hand it to police messageboard Domelights. They went and got a guy arrested for his YouTube video where he celebrated the deaths of cops.

One may wonder how Andre Moore could be charged with aggravated assault for a YouTube video, but no matter. Imagine a world where the police lock up people for making stupid YouTube videos. God, it would be a wonderful place.

As I've said before, we should look to look into all possible penalties -- arrest, civil forfeiture, waterboarding -- for making bad YouTube videos.

Update: The Inquirer has more.

Man arrested for anti-cop YouTube clip [Daily News]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:25 AM | Comments (6)

May 23, 2008

U.D. Police Now Taking Down Fliers

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood was bicycling around town the other day when he spotted the now-infamous (at least on KYW 1060) racist fliers that quote Family Guy.

And then, NBC 10 tells us, he decided the police should take down speech he didn't like. He had his officers remove 268 of these stupid fliers originally put up by the Keystone State Skinheads. There were even different posters this time that said "North Philly coming to your town" up along with the other ones that said "Guns don't kill people -- dangerous minorities do."

Uh, yes: The police took down speech the police chief didn't like. Even though it was put up by annoying racist fucks who apparently think parodies on Family Guy are meant to be taken literally... really? If I put up anti-war on drugs posters in Upper Darby, will Mike Chitwood send the cops out to take them all down?

But enough of that near-seriousness. The NBC 10 report also contains perhaps my favorite sentence in a news report, ever:

The NBC 10 Investigators have been trying to contact the Keystone State Skin Heads to find out why they are posting the flyers.

Gee! What could the skinheads be possibly putting up racist fliers for?

Police: Racist Flyers Blanket Suburban Neighborhood [NBC 10]

Posted by D-Mac at 09:57 AM | Comments (6)

May 22, 2008

KYW Apparently Pushing Jail For Fliers

KYW 1060 has yet another story on those race-baiting fliers and once again I am going to write about it. Apparently, the radio station is just extremely pissed off that we can't go out and arrest those stupid skinheads who put them up and defamed Family Guy. Aargh, why can't we just lock up people who say things with disagree with?

This latest story talks to Mayor Nutter and is headlined "Nutter Acknowledges Difficulty of Prosecuting Those Who Distributed Race-Baiting Fliers," making me wonder if Nutter just wishes he could actually prosecute those who put up the fliers.

Fortunately, Mix Master Mike says nothing of the sort! "Much as we don't like some things, we can't always chase after people legally for things we don't like," he says, which sounds fine to me, I guess. And it certainly sounds better than notifying the authorities when you've been offended.

Sigh. Isn't there somebody at KYW or the Human Rights Commission we can lock up for saying this stupid shit? Erhm.

Nutter Acknowledges Difficulty of Prosecuting Those Who Distributed Race-Baiting Fliers [KYW 1060]
Earlier today: It's Apparently Legal To Be Offensive

Posted by D-Mac at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)

It's Apparently Legal To Be Offensive

Hey, the city's Human Rights Commission had been investigating those stupid Family Guy-quoting white power posters, probably made by people who didn't realize the line from Family Guy was a parody.

Anyway, the HRC did some looking into it and found -- in a shocker -- speech is apparently legal in this country. Oh, and if you see somebody putting up stupid fliers, you're apparently not supposed to confront them.

Nick Taliaferro, the Commission's executive director, says if someone is posting or passing out offensive material, call police if need be, but usually don't start a confrontation yourself: "But if you just see them on the street, the best thing to do, most times, is to go to an agency that has an organized instruction manner of confronting them and dealing with them and addressing them and then to talk to people who share your concerns and to find ways to positively counter-act what you're seeing in their literature."

Yes, call police if need be if you see someone passing out offensive material. How dare someone do something offensive here in America. And after you call the cops, be sure to go to the appropriate agency to report your offense.

HR Commission Says Race-Baiting Flyers Were Legal
Tuesday: Speech Police Investigate Posters
May 12: Family Guy-Quoting Racists!

Posted by D-Mac at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Scientology's Lawyers Threaten Anonymous

Hey, so you all remember how Scientology scheduled a protest for last month so as to hold off a protest by Anonymous? And then they didn't protest at all? Well, for some reason the city has given the Church of Scientology yet another permit, for a June 14 protest against Xenu knows what, despite barely protesting at all during its last all-day protest.

The City of Philadelphia protesting code states that "[t]he term "Demonstration" shall not mean the casual use of City Property which does not have an intent or propensity to draw a crowd or onlookers." Scientology's last "protest" was just a few people handing out fliers for an hour or so despite the permit being requested for the entire day.

There's more: Anonymous is, well, anonymous, and is designed to stave off any legal threats from the Church of Scientology; apparently the Philadelphia group looked into the local college student who handed in the check for a previous anonymous protest (apparently) and had a lawyer hand-deliver a letter to her parents' house in Johnstown.

The greatness of Anonymous is the idea that no one can retaliate, physically or legally, against the group while it speaks out against whatever the cause is. But, of course, anyone can also claim to be Anonymous and send out anything in its name. And, as such, the letter from Scientology's lawyers recaps a bunch of bomb threats and other related hoaxes sent to Scientology from people it identifies as members of "Anonymous."

The letter then tells our fair college student that Scientology "has place[d] you on notice" -- ha! -- and tells her not to commit any illegal activities against the church. Yes, that's right, Scientology has placed a member of Philadelphia's Anonymous group who says she has done nothing wrong on notice.

Letter after the jump.

Continue reading "Scientology's Lawyers Threaten Anonymous"

Posted by D-Mac at 03:28 PM | Comments (49)

May 01, 2008

Scientology's Hilarious 'Protest'

Hey, remember how the Philly Church of Scientology -- let's call it the farm system for Clearwater -- scheduled a protest all day on the day of the latest Anonymous protest against Scientology so Anonymous couldn't protest with masks on?

Well, a dude from Anonymous (I guess) contacted me the other day and passed along some hilarious photos of the "protest" that wasn't really a protest at all.

Anyway, there's another protest on May 10, and it naturally involves Battletoads. (Seriously, I am super confused. Next time, can Anonymous reference River City Ransom? I loved that game!) Hopefully, Scientology won't be able to get a permit this time since they only protested (against drugs!) for about an hour and not for the whole day like they said they were going to. Keep on fighting the man, people.

Posted by D-Mac at 01:19 PM | Comments (32)

September 24, 2007

Ridiculous Web Comments Proven Awesome, Legal

From your friend and mine, Anthony DiMeo:

"Without a doubt, Tucker Max has exploited my good name and image, and he and his following have published scurrilous lies about me on his Web site . . . I did not file the DiMeo v. Max lawsuit out of vengeance but to stop further damage to my good name, character and solid reputation."

U.S. Court of Appeals Third Circuit dismissed DiMeo's appeal of his lawsuit against Tucker Max for a hillion jillion dollars or whatever. You hear that, Mark B. Cohen and your penis? Inane, angry ridiculous commenters always win! Now somebody get me Alycia Lane in a bikini.

A break for bloggers [Daily News]

Posted by D-Mac at 01:23 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0)

July 05, 2007

Fumo: Convict Me And Democracy Collapses

Vince Fumo's lawyers Tuesday filed motions asking the judge to drop all charges because, well, everything he did was just hunky-dory and the federal government doesn't know how the state legislature works.

The federal government is the world's second most inane bureaucracy behind the Pennsylvania legislature, so maybe Fumo is on to something here. Apparently, the state senate allows senators to set the hours of their employees, so anything they do can be off senate time, or whatever.

Prosecutors also charged Fumo bilked Citizens Alliance out of money, while his lawyers say he didn't do anything wrong; in fact, all his so-called "bilking" was done out in the open. "The indictment merely alleges Fumo exercised de facto control of Citizens," his lawyer, Mark B. Sheppard, wrote.

But the number one defense in the Fumo filing was the alleged email deletion, a crime if Fumo & Co. knew there was an investigation going on. Drumroll, please:

But Fumo's lawyers wrote that the deletion of e-mails was part of a longstanding office policy to preserve confidential communications that predated the probe.

Fumo was charged under a statute that makes it a crime to knowingly destroy records that would impede the investigation of any matter by any federal agency or actions taken "in contemplation" of an investigation. [Hmm.—dmac]

Sheppard said the statute "potentially criminalizes" the deletion of "any" e-mails because they could someday be sought for investigative purposes. This would have a "chilling" effect on free speech, he said.

I'm feeling kind of cold already. Good thing Gmail has two gigs of storage, or else I'd be in jail!

Fumo lawyers ask judge to toss most charges [Daily News]

Posted by D-Mac at 05:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 04, 2007

Tom Knox Hates Metaphors, Free Speech

If you watched the the anti-Tom Knox had he had his lawyers ban from television by threatening to sue, you might be wondering just what, exactly, was wrong with the ad. Nothing in there was a lie.

Well, The Next Mayor Blog got a copy of the letter Knox's attorneys sent. And this paragraph is pretty much the jist of a majority of the letter:

Therefore, you are herby respectfully on notice that any dissemination of these false, misleading and illegal advertisements, particularly those that state that Candidate Knox is a fraud, or state that Candidate Knox is associated with heroin, could unlawfully jeopardize Mr. Knox's right to a fair election, and subject your station to legal exposure.

Wait, the ad said Tom Knox does heroin?

Damn, no wonder... er, wait. It said "credit heroin." As in "[A] predatory loan scheme consumer groups called 'credit heroin.'" Yes, that really makes me think Knox is doing heroin! Almost as much as that awful Photoshop! And some homeless guy on the street telling me Knox is a heroin addict!

This kind of makes sense, though. Since he doesn't watch TV or read books, Knox is probably unaware there are ways to refer to things other than their actual names. For example, Tom Knox can be also be called Candidate Thinks He's Going To Lose The Election And Desperately Trying To Save Hide By Sending Lawyers After TV Stations.

God dammit. I can't believe Tom Knox made me defend this stupid ad.

Yee-ouch [The Next Mayor Blog]
Earlier today: Tom Knox Got This Ad Banned From TV
[Original image from Kenn Kweder's website. (Of course.) Do you know how hard it is to find an easy-to-crappily Photoshop image of a guy shooting heroin? Harder than you'd think.]

Posted by D-Mac at 03:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

November 08, 2006

Penn Kids Discover 'Freedom Of Speech,' Plan To Notify Us That We Don't Have To Quarter Troops In Our Houses Tomorrow

The lead to a Daily Pennsylvanian report today on the Amy Guttman Halloween costume snafu:

Engineering senior Saad Saadi may have offended a lot of people with his suicide-bomber costume last week- but that's his prerogative, free speech experts say.

I want to be a free speech expert so I can make such bold statements as that.

Experts say critics ignore the obvious: Free speech [DP]
Archives: Amy Guttman

Posted by D-Mac at 12:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 27, 2006

Morgan Spurlock Apologizes To Helmet-Wearing Kids The World Over

Earlier today, I posted about Morgan Spurlock's comments at Hatboro Horsham High School, and how they offended people. He used the word "retarded," made a reference to kids wearing helmets, bashed McDonald's and cursed. You guys know the drill.

Spurlock has posted on his blog and has apologized to the community, with some clarifications and etc. Whatever. If he gave that speech at my school, I probably would have loved it, although he probably should have used more tact.

Naturally, judging from the comments to his blog post, people are acting like he's the first person to ever use the word "retarded" in a self-depricating way before. No, they're acting like he gunned down a few mentally challenged kids. And then blew up the Liberty Bell. (My favorite is the comment that chastizes him for using pejorative language and then calls him "white trash.")

Anyway, something in his blog post made me realize why he cursed -- he said he dropped two f-bombs -- during his speech. Responding to his AP quote that said the "greatest lesson those kids learned today was the importance of free speech," Spurlock posted the following (emphasis mine):

Lastly, in the article it quoted me as saying that the greatest lesson those kids learned was the importance of freedom of speech. When saying that, I did not mean that you have the right to insult anyone at will (as many people have interpreted it.) I was referring to the fact that the group that hired me to speak asked that I not mention McDonald's in any of my talk because one of their board members owns a franchise. That would be like asking Neil Armstrong to speak but tell him he can't bring up walking on the moon, so needless to say, I didn't agree to their censorship.

Someone actually hired Morgan Spurlock -- who is famous for one thing, making a movie about eating McDonald's for a month -- to give a speech and asked him not to mention McDonald's. Simply fantastic.

A Letter of Explanation [Morgan Spurlock's Blog]
Earlier today: Hatboro Horsham Not Lovin' It

Posted by D-Mac at 02:18 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Hatboro Horsham Not Lovin' It

Remember Morgan Spurlock? He was the guy who made Super Size Me, the funny 2004 documentary that looked at America's obesity problem.

In the movie, he ate McDonald's at every meal for a month and encountered serious health problems due to it. (Remember those annoying people who then did it, but ate like, small McDonald's portions and were like "You stupid liberal!" or something. They were way more annoying than he could ever be.) Since then, he had a TV show, a book and has been going on speaking engagements.

Friday, he spoke at Hatboro Horsham High School and caused a bit of a stir. He got a standing ovation after his speech, but some school officials didn't like it because of his profanity and his line about teachers smoking marijuana in the balcony.

Oh, yeah, and he also joked about the low IQ of McDonald's employees and made a comment about "retarded kids in the back wearing helmets." There were several mentally challenged -- insert your own PC term if that one's not good enough for you -- kids in the back, and since they weren't really offended according to any news reports, school officials got upset for them and cancelled a later speech Spurlock was slated to give that night.

"If you put the whole package together, the use of the F-word and poking fun at teachers and the comments about special-needs students, it just wasn't appropriate," Superintendent William Lessa told the Associated Press, but Spurlock retorted with "The greatest lesson those kids learned today was the importance of free speech."

Indeed! I think that's actually in the first amendment: "You have the right to make fun of retarded kids at a high school."

Update: Morgan Spurlock responds to the event on -- where else -- his blog.

Spurlock Lecture Causes Stir at Pa. School [AP/ABCNews.com]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:10 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)