Net Neutrality

Well, the FCC has taken the steps necessary to try and maintain Net Neutrality of the Internet.

Of course the Republicans and a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are saying their going to fight it tooth and nail. Of course the under 80 IQ trailer park Republican base is cheering them on.

Wait until the yokels can't get to their porn any more.

This one strikes me as a no brainer. The very idea of allowing an ISP to regulate who gets to use the bandwidth THAT I'M PAYING FOR to provide content is insane.

That's basically the ability to determine what people can access.

Consider two shopping sites one of which pays to extra bandwidth and one which can't afford to. The site with the extra bandwidth is going to be faster and easier to use.

Which one would you use assuming the prices were comparable?

How long do you think it will be before they drive the slow internet competition out of business and get to raise their prices?

Verizon says they will sue the FCC. I think we should tell Verizon that no Net Neutrality, no Verizon customers.

Chaos in Alabama

You can't make this stuff up. If anyone had written a book with what's been going on in Alabama this week as a plot no one would have published it because it's too far fetched.

- Gay Marriage supposed to start Monday by federal court order.

- Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court orders probate judges to ignore federal court order. Says it only applies to executive branch.

- Most probate judges ignore Chief Justice instead.

- Some probate judges stop performing ALL marriages.

- Minister arrested in Autauga County Alabama because she offered to perform a same sex wedding at courthouse.

- Ku Klux Klan issues "Call to Arms!"

What's next? Is the ghost of George Wallace going to show up and stand in the courthouse door? What is wrong with these people?

Judge Roy Moore of Alabama

You all remember Judge Roy Moore. He's the Chief Justice of the  Alabama Supreme Court who defied a federal court order to remove a monument of the 10 Commandments from the courthouse. As a result he was subsequently remove from his position as Chief Justice.

He then spent a few years trying to become governor but even the people in Alabama aren't that stupid and he usually lost big in the Republican primary.

Then the Republican Party nominated him again for Chief Justice and of course he won.

Now Roy Moore has the pleasure of residing over the establishment of gay marriage in Alabama. To say that he is kicking and screaming in an attempt to stop it from happening would be a serious understatement.

On Sunday night Moore sent a memo to all county probate judges in Alabama, the folks responsible for issuing marriage licenses and performing civil ceremonies, that they were not required to obey the directive handed down by a federal court stating that the laws banning same sex marriage in Alabama were not to be enforced.

Moore's rationale was that the court order was directed to the attorney general "...and all his officers, agents, servants and employees, and others in active concert or participation with any of them..." The attorney general is part of the executive branch while the probate judges are part of the judicial branch therefore they aren't bound by the court order.

And they wonder why people hate lawyers?

About 60% of the counties in Alabama appear to be ignoring Moore and issuing licenses and performing same sex weddings. The remaining counties appear to not be doing so. Whether that is in obedience to Moore or for some other reason is unknown.

So now we have the situation of a Chief Justice of a state supreme court claiming that a federal court order, the intention of which is perfectly clear even if one can nit pick the language, need not be obeyed by county probate judges and most of the county probate judges ignoring that directive from the Chief Justice of the state.

All I have to say to Judge Moore is Orval Faubus. He was the governor of Arkansas that made the mistake of trying to block a federal court order to integrate the schools using the Alabama National Guard. Faubus got to make the acquaintance of the 101st Airborne Division which President Eisenhower sent in to enforce the order after he nationalized the Alabama National Guard and ordered them to return to their armories.

I doubt that sort of action will be necessary here. Hopefully Governor Bentley of Alabama will figure out a way to shut Moore up and return some sanity to the situation.

Super Bowl XLIX

Malcolm Butler picks it off and the Pats win 28-24.

Why would anyone throw the ball into the middle of the field from the 3 yard line when you have Marshawn Lynch in the backfield? Wait a minute, this sounds familiar.

Let's go back to the championship game in 2013 and what I said then.

"Dear Pete Carrol, ...[you] didn't give it to Marshawn Lynch on 3rd and 1 AND didn't give it to Marshawn Lynch on 4th and 1. Pete, when you have a Marshawn Lynch you give him the freaking ball when you desperately need a yard."

Pete, when you're on the 3 yard line with under 30 seconds to play, the Super Bowl is on the line and you have a Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, YOU GIVE HIM THE FREAKING BALL!

Anyway, that makes me 10-1 for the NFL Playoffs this year. The only game I got wrong was the Colts and Broncos.

You'd almost think I know what I'm talking about. But not to worry, I'm not quitting my day job.

Deflategate?

Deflategate? The footballs were under inflated in the Patriots win over the Colts? I have no idea what to make of this one.

I mean, if the balls were purposely deflated, shouldn't this have benefited Andrew Luck as well as Tom Brady? The whole thing strikes me as silly unless there is some benefit in KNOWING that the balls are under inflated.

The latest is that the NFL is talking to a locker room attendant about having moved the footballs from the officials' locker room to a different area on the way to the field.

Was it his job to move the footballs from the locker room to the field? I mean, how long could them have been in a "different area" before someone noticed that the footballs hadn't arrived yet? Why isn't it the responsibility of an official to move the footballs from the locker room to the field?

Sounds like they're going to through some poor shnook under the bus so the team and the league can live happily ever after.

The NFL Playoffs V

With the Pack ahead 16-0 I was feeling pretty good. Even though I had picked the Seahawks to win my heart wasn't in it. Even at 19-7 with less than four minutes to go it looked good,

Then bad things started to happen. The Seahawks made it 19-14 and an onside kick went right through Brandon Bostick's hands, hit him in the face and bounced into the arms of the Seahawks.

The Seahawks scored to make it 22-19 on a two point conversion that shouldn't have had a chance in hell. The Packers tied it 22-22 to send it into overtime but you just knew what was going to happen and it did. Seahawks win it 28-22.

At New England the Colts never really got into the game and got spanked by Brady and the Patriots 45-7.

Well, that makes me 9-1 with only one game left; the BIG one.

I'm going with the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX. Tom Brady finally gets his 4th ring.

Supreme Court will Act on Gay Marriage

The Supreme Court today announced that it will take up the issue of Gay Marriage.

Well it's about time Ollie.

I.m not going to guess what the court will do as that's something of an effort in futility. One can hope that they will side with the light and declare Gay Marriage legal across all 50 states.

At the other extreme would be to allow state bans of Gay Marriage. Why they would do that given the landslide of recent court decisions in favor of Gay Marriage and the delay in taking up the case until at least one circuit court ruled that state bans were OK would be beyond my understanding.

Are there other options somewhere between the two extremes? Perhaps, but I can't think of any off hand.

The decision is expected by June.