links for 2009-12-10

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

5 replies on “links for 2009-12-10”

  1. Thanks for posting such a quick follow-up on the Warren story.

    In other news, this place has been happenin’ lately.

  2. Thanks for the vaccine link! That’s one of my pet peeves.

    (By the way, your little anti-spam thingy is broken. Every time I enter “Tea” or “Democrat” it rejects my comment. :-P)

  3. Hope ya’ll mean props to Warren the dairy guy, not to Rick Warren…it’s hard for me to give sincere props to Rick Warren when it took him FOREVER to speak publicly against Uganda’s kill-the-gays bill, and he only did it after first saying it was none of his business and then enduring a hailstorm of criticism from within the pastoral community itself.

    yay, Rick, thanks for speaking up to clarify that God doesn’t want nations to execute people for homosexual behavior.

  4. The use of “twitter” and other electronic messages by members of the HOuse of Delegates and Senate during floor sessions of those bodies is ill advised, in my opinion.

    While ocmputers can be very useful to visualize the wording and structure of proposed legislation during debate, e-mail and surfing can be a serious distraction. There is always the specter of other members or lobbyists blast e-mailing arguments or supposed facts to groups of members. To consider such arguments during a floor session that are not made in public is a danger to the concept of public debate and runs counter to the spirit if not the letter of the Freedom of Information Act. The exchange of information off the floor is proper but the proceediings on the floor are and should be on the record.

    Some aspects of the legislative process can be tedious but the members were elected to endure periods of the tedium in the interest of their fellow citizens. I believe that the use of computers or other devices to send and receive messages on the floor of the House or Senate that are extraneous to the floor proceedings should be restricted.

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