You have got to be kidding me.

Last month was one of the worst in U.S. history for tornados is the MidWest. Nearly 400 hit. While some of us see this as a sign of global warming trends and a consequence of better mapping and reporting, others see it differently.

America has led attempts to settle that dispute, each time encouraging Israel to bring its covenant lands to the bargaining table, this time with the "Road Map" peace plan. Bible scholars say that may be a costly decision for the U.S. as America again stands at odds with God's covenant promise.

Yes, ladies and gentlefen, Pat Robertson has come out to say that the reason there have been so many tornados is because God is angry with George W. Bush for attempting to broker peace in the middle east.

---

Hollywood's coalition for the licensing of intellectual property (i.e. movies) to DVD manufacturers has sued to prevent DVD player manfacturers from installing devices in DVD players that allow consumers to program content deployment at will.

The issue is a simple one: a group of manufacturers want to include software in DVD players that will allow users to mute precise sequences of a DVD and skip over others. The idea is that different "cuts" of the film can be downloaded off the internet. The consumer still buys the whole movie, but if he wants the profanity muted out, he can download a sequencing package that will tell the DVD player to drop the volume to zero when characters swear, or bypass particularly sexual or violent moments. Hollywood lawyers are arguing that such a sequencing package creates a "derivative work" that is not what the DVD seller intended.

If Hollywood wins, they will in effect have gotten control of the fast forward and mute buttons on your remote control. You will be forbidden from fast-forwarding past certain sequences, such as advertisements, or muting them. If you buy a piece of media, such as a movie, you will be paying for the "privilege" of owning it forever.

Traditionally, once you had purchased a video tape or record, you were free to do with it what you wanted so long as you did nothing to destroy the reputation of the original content or dilute the copyright holder's rights. You could skip the sections you didn't like. Hollywood is abusing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the whole Digital Rights Management scene to ensure that you never have a chance to exercise those rights again.

I do not need this.

Omaha had a seziure and has seriously f'ck'd up her back. She had it at home, with only Kouryou-chan present. Kouryou-chan was more than a little freaked out by it, and I'm not doing so well myself. I'm taking care of both of them. Kouryou-chan told me how she cried and cried, but when I asked her to describe the seziure itself she did a very good job of describing all of it, the clicking phase, the thrashing phase (she called it a "monster" phase), and the horse breathing phase at the end. She's a very brave little girl!

But it's a Friday and Omaha had so many plans for the weekend, including running a garage sale. I'm supposed to have Yamaarashi-chan over for the weekend (note to self: I'm also supposed to have her for two weeks this summer; arrange when), but I'm afraid that my coming home this afternoon to take care of Omaha means that I'm probably going to have to go into work tomorrow for four to six hours. I hope I'm up for it. I also hope Omaha's back just spasmed and she didn't tear a disk. She did that once before and it took months of physiotherapy to get her back to her normal, healthy self.

She's sleeping right now, Kouryou-chan is playing a video game, and I'm taking a moment to make this entry now that I've started the first load of laundry, checked to make sure Omaha took her medication, and cleaned up the kitchen. After I get the current load into the dryers I'll start a second batch in the washer then head out to get Yamaarashi-chan.