Readers who tried to log on here at various times in the last 12 hours or so found the blog "down", due to an attack on the hosting service by Saudi cyberjihadis. Hosting Matters blocked the attack after a while and restored service, but the attack was apparently renewed and took this blog down again. Readers who had bookmarked this site were able to continue reading, however.
In the four years I have had my other blogs up on blogspot, I cannot recall a successful DOS attack on them. Maybe they are too big for it, or something. They do have plenty of service outages, of course, but that always seems to be the result of their own bungling.
Graffiti = Free Speech?
Only in New York:
"Seven young artists sued New York City today over its strict anti-graffiti law, saying it violated their constitutional right to free speech. The group, backed by fashion designer Mark Ecko, argued in federal court that the city went too far by banning people under 21 from possessing spray paint or broad-tipped markers. Gabriel Taussig, a lawyer for New York City, said the law "strikes a proper constitutional balance between the First Amendment rights (to free speech) and the need to control the long-standing plague of graffiti".
Source
I cannot see where it says in the U.S. constitution that free speech must be provided on somebody else's dime.
Southern History Unmentionable Again
From Alabama:
"Officials at The Highlands School apologized Wednesday to parents who were upset when their children sang a Confederate marching song during a fifth-grade history presentation, but at least one said she's still not happy. At least five black students sang, along with their classmates, the lyrics of "The Bonnie Blue Flag" at the conclusion of last Friday's program"
Source
The history teacher who organized the program thought that balance required him to cover both perspectives on the North/South war.
Grade 4 Kids must Sing Violent Song
From Canada, where a school has arranged for a song to be sung by a Grade 4 class at a school assembly:
"A family has pulled its two youngest children from an elementary school over objections to the lyrics of the Vietnam War-era song One Tin Soldier.... They want the song dropped. The school principal is adamant that it will go ahead".
Source
Some of the words of the song: "Go ahead and hate your neighbour/ Go ahead and cheat a friend/ Do it in the name of heaven/ You can justify it in the end/ There won't be any trumpets blowing/ Come the judgment day/ On the bloody morning after/ One tin soldier rides away".
I gather that the school authorities see the song as "antiwar".
