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This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Gilmore Girls consistently remains one of the few reasons to watch television.

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A new $22 million system to allow soldiers and other Americans overseas to vote via the Internet is inherently insecure and should be abandoned, according to members of a panel of computer security experts asked by the government to review the program.

-- the government, however, is planning to ignore the experts they hired and go ahead with the system; what's the point of the experts then?

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Tommorow is the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which upheld the right of a woman to choose an abortion, except in limited circumstances (somewhat expanded over the years). Here's an essay by someone who had an abortion and strongly feels her right to be able to do so is fundamentally important and threatened.

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A federal judge has struck down the obligation of the Justice Department to report to Congress individual judges felt to have abused their discretion in sentencing a defendant as a violation of the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

Also in federal court news, the President re-nominated someone from out of Maryland to fill a vacancy (previously held by a Marylander) to the Fourth Circuit, violating traditional practice. Not only that, and the fact a liberal is being replaced by a conservative in an already conservative heavy district, the irony is that the nominee worked on Sen. Helms' staff. This is the same senator that for extended times blocked various Clinton nominees to the circuit because they were deemed too liberal. Life tends to be ironical, doesn't it?