Cell Phone Driving Dangerous: We Know, Don’t Care
The release for a new Harris Poll is titled "Large Majority of Drivers Who Own Cell Phones Use Them While Driving Even Though They Know This Is Dangerous." The key findings: 72% of those who drive and own cell phones say they use them to talk while they are driving; A quarter of drivers with cell phones report using them ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 9, 2009 09:33
U.S. Constitution: 4th Amendment
A while back, I asked for reader suggestions on posts but, alas, have published no posts in response to said suggestions. Most of the suggestions were for posts and post series requiring research. Three of my colleagues have volunteered to write something in response to suggested topics and I have underway a post on General and Flag Officers, which was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 3, 2008 14:35
Landline Phones Going Extinct
The landline telephone is going the way of the dinosaur, with many households doing away with them entirely and others using them only as FAX lines. For nearly three in 10 households, don't even bother trying to call them on a landline phone. They either only have a cell phone or seldom if ever take calls on their traditional phone. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 14, 2008 12:21
Citizen Journalism and the Future of News
Media Bloggers Association president Robert Cox argues in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed that the line between "citizen" and "journalist" has become so blurred as to have all but disappeared. This issue has reared its head again because of the so-called "Bittergate" episode. Mayhill Fowler, a maxed-out Obama contributor, was invited to attend a fundraiser in San Francisco that was off-limits to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 24, 2008 08:39
Ninth Circuit OKs Laptop Searches at the Border
The Ninth Circuit has ruled that the Federal Government can search through the contents of laptops and other personal data devices, without cause, of people who are coming through the border.Federal agents at the border do not need any reason to search through travelers' laptops, cell phones or digital cameras for evidence of crimes, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 23, 2008 10:35
Parenting Through Reason
When I first heard the story about Lenore Skenazy, the New York woman who made headlines for allowing her nine-year-old to ride on the subway alone, the first thing I thought to myself is: Why is this news? New York City is one of the safest cities in America now. Why shouldn't a kid ride the subway alone? ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 14, 2008 09:28
Cell Phone College Classes
For students who found taking college classes over their computers too constraining, a Japanese university now offers one of their courses via cell phone. Japanese already use cell phones to shop, read novels, exchange e-mail, search for restaurants and take video clips. Now, they can take a university course. Cyber University, the nation's only university to offer all classes only on ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 28, 2007 09:37
The More Things Change…
America's greatest journalist, Radley Balko, has an excellent piece on why a Clinton II Presidency would differ very little from the Bush II Presidency.For seven years, the left has been up in arms about President Bush's aggressive foreign policy, his secrecy, his partisanship, and his expansive claims on executive power. It's odd, then, that they're prepared to nominate Hillary Clinton ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 23, 2007 00:52
Why Do Conservatives (and Liberals) Hate America?
Kathleen Parker begins her latest column, "The Pornification of Politics," thusly: If our enemies don't hate us, it's an oversight. The confluence of the worst of modern American trends -- national narcissism, the sexualization of all things animate and otherwise, and the devaluing of currencies from literature to public discourse -- has reached a perfect storm of idiocy in the form of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 19, 2007 14:19
Stop iPhone Tyranny Now!
Salon's Farhad Manjoo notes the fight of one brave lawmaker to end the impossible tyranny of Apple and AT&T over the Must Have Gadget of the Century, the indispensable iPhone. Edward Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the committee, began the affair by holding up the phone and hailing its "sheer brilliance and wizardry," noting that "undoubtedly consumers will cherish this ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 18, 2007 16:13
DWE – Driving While ‘Embracing’
Bringing you my local news, I have problems categorizing this as embracing. I also wonder about a specific state law against embracing, when a simple driving while distracted would suffice, same as with cell phones. A state trooper was patrolling Interstate 90 near Bellevue Way last week when he noticed a sport utility vehicle drifting between lanes, sometimes speeding up ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 15, 2007 01:11
Alleged Terrorist Recruiters Arrested in Spain
Cross-posted from PoliBlog: Via the AP: Spain Arrests 15 on Terror ChargesFifteen North Africans were arrested in Spain on Monday on suspicion of recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq and other countries. Spain's Interior Ministry said computer material, jihad propaganda and several cell phones were seized during at least five pre-dawn raids throughout Spain. No arms or explosives were discovered. Thirteen of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 28, 2007 10:52
Case for Online Polls
Humphrey Taylor, the chairman of the Harris Poll, offers a plausible defense of online polling. Mark Blumenthal has a superb critique. Ultimately, they're saying the same thing: online polls have not yet proven that they are as reliable as telephone surveys but there is evidence that, properly conducted, they can be useful. Both agree that telephone surveys, because of declining ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 6, 2007 16:08
FCC Keeps Plane Cell Phone Ban for No Apparent Reason
The FCC has decided to continue the ban on use of cellular phones while in flight. They still have no plausible reason for doing so. Federal Communications Commission has officially grounded the idea of allowing airline passengers to use cellular telephones while in flight. Existing rules require cellular phones to be turned off once an aircraft leaves the ground in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 3, 2007 17:29
Technology Saves World, Poor Suffer Most
When I saw the NYT headline "Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms," I was naturally reminded of the classic spoof headline, "World to End Tomorrow: Women and Minorities Affected the Most.” Andrew Revkin's story does not make me feel guilty for having that reaction. The world’s richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 1, 2007 09:12
