Have you heard of the Jena 6?

If you’re watching national TV news, chances are good that you haven’t. If you read national newspapers, you may have missed the one or two brief stories they’ve published on the case. Let’s face it: the length of Britney Spears’s skirt and what clubs she is visiting is simply more important than an ongoing case of racial tension in modern day Louisiana.

Now MSNBC is giving a chance for us to hear more about the current difficulties facing race relations in this country, but there’s a catch: you have to vote for the story in order for it to be told. It’s the current Gut Check America vote, and the results of the vote lead to MSNBC’s report.

You can vote here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19876326/

“Can’t be any more complicated than my phone bill”

We were forced to watch seemingly endless hours of Judge Larry Seidlin presiding over the Anna Nicole Smith That’s-My-Baby-Oh-No-It’s-Not-It’s-MY-Baby case by MSNBC, CNN, Fox Noise Carnal, and even the crown jewel evening newscasts on NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Now, however, there’s a case that actually matters to somebody other than just the baby and the baby daddy, and we hear… nothing.  We’re too busy hearing about the fact that there are six miners still trapped down a mine, and that there’s no further information on whether they’re alive or dead or will ever get out.  Fine, I’m interested in the outcome, but could you drop the story until there’s some more story?  In the meantime, hundreds of people have died in Iraq every day, and they have warranted only a minor mention.  “We support the troops,” but we only support hearing about the ones who died doing their jobs if it can be told in under 15 seconds.  But I digress.

It appears, in the whole warrantless wiretapping mess, that we have some presiding judges who not only get it, but might even be sort of entertaining.  Unfortunately, I’m sure no cameras can be allowed in the courtroom, but why, oh why, do we not even see some poor windblown reporter standing on the courthouse steps every 30 minutes to update us on exactly how suspicious our government is of us?

Maybe the news networks think we Americans won’t be able to understand the subtleties of the complex issues involved.  I think we can.  After all, as Judge Harry Pregerson quipped, it “can’t be any more complicated than my phone bill.”

OK, I’m back and there’s good news

I have a dear, dear friend who I wasn’t able to visit recently because she was traveling to visit friends.  And when she travels, she really travels!  During the weeks of our separation, I apparently didn’t find anything worth blogging about (co-dependent, anyone?), and I even got a call from Friend to ask if I was OK since I hadn’t blogged.

Today I read this article in the Charlotte Observer.  In case the article has expired, I’ll break it down for you:  two-thirds of North Carolina adults favor a smoking ban in enclosed public areas (restaurants, shopping centers, stadiums).  That’s huge.  The number who favor a smoking ban in all North Carolina schools is even bigger:  a whopping 90%!  Of course, the latter figure is quite a bit less important since many N.C. counties have already gone tobacco-free in their schools.  Even so, it’s nice to know there’s support for it.

Among non-smokers, a whopping 81.5% support banning smoking in public enclosed spaces.  I would have thought that figure would be higher, but I suppose that’s the reason for polls in the first place.

It’s important to note that the poll is from the Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program at UNC Chapel Hill.  Even the name is obviously biased (their mission:  “to prevent tobacco use, tobacco-related addiction, and exposure to secondhand smoke”), but it happens to be a bias I can support so I’ll accept their figures.  You can read the full report at their website.

Ignore the rumors; Dell is offering Ubuntu

The rumors have been circulating for some time about Dell offering Ubuntu Linux preloaded on some of its systems. Today Dell is making it official.  Oh, and Canonical is also making it official.

Not only will you be able to buy a Dell desktop or notebook computer preloaded with the best darn Linux distribution around, but you’ll also be able to purchase support from Canonical as part of the purchase process. This move to sell support will put Ubuntu on an even keel with Windows, where for years customers have been able to purchase support as part of the initial computer purchase.

Customers who don’t want to pay extra support fees can still get all the support they want (or likely need) by using the ever-expanding online Ubuntu documentation and the Ubuntu forums.

Has the world gone mad?

OK, I wasn’t going to post anything at all about the Virginia Tech shooting mess, since the people involved in that have enough to worry about already, thank you very much.

Then I saw on today’s news that there was a school lockdown in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, while police searched for a homicide suspect. Then in a completely unrelated story, some schools in Mecklenburg County were locked down until the gunman shot himself. And in yet another story, some Cabarrus County schools were locked down while police searched for a man who was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

I’m suspecting that the two North Carolina stories are possibly related, since the affected areas are so near each other. Still, could somebody tell me what, exactly, makes people with guns head in the direction of the nearest school? Even if they don’t enter, they still seem to be drawn to schools of all descriptions much as a moth is drawn to a bug zapper. Maybe there’s something of the Virginia Tech incident that’s stuck in the crazed gunmen’s brains?

UPDATE:  WCNC has an update on the Mecklenburg County story.