No Tights for this Robin Hood

"Soon every lupin in the land, Will be in his mighty hand. He steals them from the rich, And gives them to the poor."*

I don't pretend to understand everything about Megaupload. In fact. I don't pretend to understand a lot. I know that, the other day, the Internet equivalents of the corner mom and pop - Google and Wikipedia - threatened to hold their breath until they turned blue if Congress restricted their access to...access or something. Having grown up in the vinyl era of music distribution, I'm aware that awful, evil, ruthless tycoon types conspire to make me buy stupid songs on an album with one great tune. Those charlatans had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the era of single-track downloads. I get that.

So when a person comes along who wants to fight for us little guys (and gals) and hold the conglomorates' tootsies to the blowtorch there is a side of me that roots for our champion. Until I read the story.

Honest, Sarge, I was Typing a Police Report When Suddenly....

"The defendant shall enjoy the presumption of innocence."

I wrote an especially angry rant today, something that may or may not ever see publication. This recent cavalcade of sexual miscreants is getting on my nerves, and everyone knows what writers do when they acquire a case of the tight jaws. They...write!

Things are not always what they seemed, however. My research suggests that most allegations result in nothing at all. I reflected on the source of my anger as I ran pre-cruise errands. "Everyone knew" erupts from each day's fresh allegations, but when push comes to court - what everyone knew turns into "Well, I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who said he was there." Although huge sums are paid out in civil court settlements, criminal cases either vanish, or the trial turns into a circus.

So I set my tirade aside; the college coaches, the retired sheriff, the Hollywood predators - the whole rogues gallery. Nobody wants to read that shit. Then, I got home and booted up my computer.

A Boulder County Sheriff's deputy, a thirty year veteran, has been arrested for sending sexually explicit...allegedly sending sexually explicit computer messages to a juvenile female from his POLICE CAR COMPUTER. To steal a phrase from a very funny friend - you're shitting me, right?

We are reminded by our chains of command every year that our computers are audited, that we have no expectation of privacy, that the police department can set limits to how we can use police computers. Aside from the obvious question - who has the f*****g time for idle chat on the computer.... Really? Really?

Somebody should write a book.