Iran Bans The Internet!

Well........sort of. Iran has just (quietly) announced that they are banning "high speed" internet in order to protect the countries "youth and Islamic values". They define high speed as anything above128 kilobytes per second, which is roughly the speed of dial up. This move is yet another attempt to stifle political dissent and to combat influence from Western cultures. Children and students will be hurt the most by this move, as they will no longer be able to access many websites on the internet. The police have also aggressively begun to crack down on satellite dishes, because watching (public) TV is now illegal in the country. The only forms of media that are allowed are state run propaganda, be it print or government produced television "programming". This is truly a sad day for the Iranian people.

Pack Your Bags!

Sometimes justice comes in small packages. Radical lawyer Lynne "Traitor" Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison yesterday. While the prosecutors had asked for 30 YEARS, 28 months is still better than nothing and at least sends a message to people like "Ms." Stewart. She was convicted of providing help to a terrorist organization while she was representing her client, Sheik Omar-Abdel Rahman in 1995. The charges are based on her own testimony that she smuggled messages from the Sheik to his militant followers in Egypt with the help of an Arabic translator. For those who dont recall, Rahman is the blind Egyptian terrorist and one of the people who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center attacks. With his trademark Santa Claus hat and sunglasses, he is now spending the rest of his life in federal prison. Unfortunately Lynne Stewart will not share this same fate. As long as we have soft judges and people in the judiciary system who are sympathetic to terrorists, we will always have cases like this to deal with. 28 months is better than nothing though!

The Summer Wind.....

What the hell happened to summer?? I feel like just last week we were in the middle of a record breaking heat wave (check my archives for pictures), and now it is FREEZING. Buffalo, NY got over 2 feet of snow yesterday, however here in NYC it was a "balmy" 49 degrees. Dont get me wrong, I like the winter and I love when Manhattan gets hit with a huge snowstorm. I personally just find it hard to adjust to the temperature change when it first happens. Well, I guess the moral of the story is that winter is here to stay and y'all better get used to it!