March 30, 2007

There were 3 posts published on March 30, 2007 (this is page 1 of 1).

Mooresville Students Charged With Cyberstalking

This is ridiculous. Two Mooresville teens have been charged with cyberstalking by the Mooresville Police Department for creating fake MySpace pages for their assistant principals. Tyler Yannone and Lauren Strazzabosco, both 16, were arrested for “portraying one of the administrators as a pedophile” and for “using racist words,” in the words of the Mooresville police.

Can you believe this? Everyone should’ve recognize this as a harmless prank and let it go. Two charge the two for an obvious parody is a violation of the First Amendment.

I understand the intention of the cyberstalking law but it is written so vaguely that it can’t help but trample free speech. Read the law (with emphasis by me):

§ 14?196.3. Cyberstalking.

(a) The following definitions apply in this section:

(1) Electronic communication. – Any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature, transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, computer, electromagnetic, photoelectric, or photo?optical system.

(2) Electronic mail. – The transmission of information or communication by the use of the Internet, a computer, a facsimile machine, a pager, a cellular telephone, a video recorder, or other electronic means sent to a person identified by a unique address or address number and received by that person.

(b) It is unlawful for a person to:

(1) Use in electronic mail or electronic communication any words or language threatening to inflict bodily harm to any person or to that person’s child, sibling, spouse, or dependent, or physical injury to the property of any person, or for the purpose of extorting money or other things of value from any person.

(2) Electronically mail or electronically communicate to another repeatedly, whether or not conversation ensues, for the purpose of abusing, annoying, threatening, terrifying, harassing, or embarrassing any person.

(3) Electronically mail or electronically communicate to another and to knowingly make any false statement concerning death, injury, illness, disfigurement, indecent conduct, or criminal conduct of the person electronically mailed or of any member of the person’s family or household with the intent to abuse, annoy, threaten, terrify, harass, or embarrass.

(4) Knowingly permit an electronic communication device under the person’s control to be used for any purpose prohibited by this section.

(c) Any offense under this section committed by the use of electronic mail or electronic communication may be deemed to have been committed where the electronic mail or electronic communication was originally sent, originally received in this State, or first viewed by any person in this State.

(d) Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

(e) This section does not apply to any peaceable, nonviolent, or nonthreatening activity intended to express political views or to provide lawful information to others. This section shall not be construed to impair any constitutionally protected activity, including speech, protest, or assembly. (2000?125, s. 1; 2000?140, s. 91.)

Section 3 above makes it a crime to make a “statement concerning” death, injury, etc. It doesn’t say that the statement must imply death, injury, etc. I haven’t read the arrest warrant nor the fake pages, but I have yet to hear anyone claim these kids threatened these administrators in any way. From what I can tell, all they did was the Internet equivalent of putting “kick me” signs on these principals’ backs.

Fortunately for the kids, the last paragraph of the law – the part about “peacable, nonviolent, nonthreatening” activity – explicitly keeps this speech safe. Thus, either there is more to this case than the news story coveys, or the cops chose to overlook this part of the law.

The spokeswoman for the Mooresville Graded School District, Boen Nutting, said “its so important that we teach our children to respect adults and respect authority.”

I think its more important to teach our children the rights guaranteed them by our country’s Constitution.

AirTran

This last business trip was the first I’ve taken on AirTran in a long while.

AirTran got me where I wanted to go on time (or close to it) and its people were friendly, too. The impression I got from the company, though, is its populated by a bunch of slackers.

First off, when I wanted to fly out early they bungled my ticket. I was offered a first-place position in the 5-standby line at Atlanta, but I turned it down in preference to taking my original flight. I changed my mind an hour later and returned to find I was somehow already booked on the earlier flight, though for some reason I could no longer be the first-place standby. I got to Atlanta and handed my standby ticket to the mystified gate agent, who told me I wasn’t even on the standby list anymore!

Nevertheless, she easily found me a seat. “Maybe that’s why this flight is oversold, ” she said, shaking her head. “People keep putting passengers on my plane.”

The flight attendent working the Raleigh-Atlanta flight mumbled quite a few words in the safety announcement, leading me to believe she was in a hurry. Later in the flight I watched her spill a drink right down her uniform. At this point I wondered if she hadn’t mumbled the words so much as slurred them.

I asked the customer service agent for the gate for my connecting flight. She sent me to the wrong terminal, though fortunately I had some time to spare.

Getting on the Pensacola flight, I stepped back to the lavatory as the flight loaded. No water was available. They could’ve been servicing the lavatories at the moment. I don’t know.

Flying back from Pensacola to Atlanta, the pilot taxied right up to the gate, killed the engines, and plunged the plane into darkness. The ramp workers forgot to plug the power cord into the plane!

Once we got to Raleigh it took a long, long time to get our baggage. In spite of our arriving before a Continental flight (and their longer walk through the terminal), the Continental flight got its baggage before we did. That seems to be pretty typical of AirTran.

Its the little things like this – the slacker-ish thinngs – that make me wonder where else these guys might be cutting corners. On the bright side, their people are friendly, unlike US Airways (and some other airlines). I also appreciated the XM satellite radio at every seat. Nothing makes it easier being 13th in line for takeoff than rocking out to “Tainted Love.”

Would I fly them again? Yeah, I might, depending on the schedule. AirTran offers the promise of surprise, at least.

More Visiting Old Homes: 14 Cannonade Boulevard

I had some time to myself yesterday morning before the training started, so I drove over to my old neighborhood to look around. Pulling up in front of 14 Cannonnade Boulevard, a house we rented for about a year, I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. What the heck, I thought. The owners either show me around or they don’t. Nothing to lose, right?

A woman appeared around the edge of the house, holding a shotgun! Ha ha! Not really. She was an older woman but seemed friendly enough. I walked over and introduced myself.

“You don’t know me, ” I said, “but I used to live in this house about thirty years ago.”

She immediately brightened up and introduced herself as Vincentine Williams. She and her husband John moved into the house about two years after we left and have lived there ever since. They bought the house for “a song” because apparently there was a lien on it and they happened to know who held the lien. They were the first owners after a long string of renters, which included us.

Vincentine is a piano teacher and was used to having people in her house. She happily showed me around the jungle of a backyard, pointing out the places where massive oak trees were felled by hurricanes past. I gleefully snapped pictures as she narrated all the troubles she’s had keeping the yard in shape.

The house itself always held magic in my mind. The back yard truly is a jungle! Banana trees sprout everywhere. Bamboo bushes now tower over everything. Massive oak trees dot the yard (though not as many as before). It was the first house we lived in with a basement, which provided a wet bar, a sump pump, an outdoor staircase and other basement-y attractions. Standing in the yard brought me back to the age of eight again, racing around the patio on bikes and Big Wheels with my brothers on many sweaty Alabama nights.

Vincentine’s husband was just waking, which made me feel bad about showing up, but Vincintine was still happy to show me the basement of the house (where the wet bar used to be). It was now festively decorated with black and white tiles, on which two beautiful grand pianos were displayed.

Vincentine also showed me the kitchen area, which had changed very little outside of a nice reflected-light ceiling that had recently been added. I wondered if the old ceiling bore any evidence of the grease fire we had one morning when we lived there.

The house was built in 1958 and was so novel at the time that Vincentine claims it once graced the cover of Better Homes And Gardens magazine. It had an in-house vacuum cleaner and an intercom system, nice touches even today but nothing less than groundbreaking back then. By the time we lived there the intercom was a squealy mess, though the vacuum system was still good for childish entertainment.

When we lived there the house had a flat roof which led to some funny incidents. One night my parents heard footsteps on their roof above their heads and called the sheriff. My dad had to lead the way for the deputy who responded, who was scared to death in spite of being fully armed. Eventually they got to the roof and surprised the suspect, a critter. Maybe a raccoon. Everyone had a good laugh and went to bed.

I thought Vincentine might want to hear stories of when we lived there but all she seemed to do was tell me the great things about the house. She was almost trying to sell me the house, in a way! I do believe she would have invited me in for the whole day had I not had to go to work. She kept telling me how much it meant to her husband when they went back a few years to see his old Midwestern childhood home, which she called the place “Gruesome Grove,” though I can’t find it anywhere.

I was fortunate to meet Vincentine and to get such a wonderful tour of my old home. We didn’t live there long but it sure was fun to be there as a kid. It makes me happy to know its been in good hands ever since.