From the WP: In China, Would-Be Protesters Pay a Price.

Summary of the article: China made a lot of noise during the Olympics about how it would allow peaceful protests in three special zones. A total of 77 applications were made to protest; none were actually approved. Those who didn't withdraw their petitions quickly enough are now in jails, mental hospitals, and so on.

An interesting, if little-known, fact is that China's laws guarantee absolute freedom of speech. However, they don't guarantee freedom after speech.

If you have some free time, you need to read this. It's an article from the Angelus, journal of the Society of St. Pius X, titled Defense of the Inquisition.

What's fascinating about this article is that it isn't what you think it is -- if you're expecting a modern historical reexamination, showing that the Inquisition wasn't what we thought it was, you're going to be mistaken. This is a modern historical reexamination showing that the Inquisition was exactly what you thought it was, and a detailed argument that this is a good thing, and ought to be reinstituted.

I wasn't expecting that.

(From a WP article about rioting in China)

"he was also director general of the Dongzhou Buddha Council, which the statement described as 'a superstitious organization in charge of divine activities in Dongzhou.'"

I believe that some game that I run in the future will have to contain a Dongzhou Buddha Council, which will be in charge of divine activities in the area. Although I can't imagine who would sit on it.

Well, at least something in the news feels familiar... twenty or thirty years out of date, but familiar. Plus ça change, plus la même chose...

Armed, military-trained dolphins are loose in the Gulf of Mexico following Katrina.

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'

Apparently, the warnings from the Onion weren't adequately heeded.

Now the question is, what will they do? Will these dolphins stay together or disperse? Will they try to assimilate into the broader Gulf cetacean society, and if they do, will they communicate their newfound knowledge to others? Will US military training help these dolphins build a future for themselves and their people, and give them the organizational skills - and force multiplication ability - to effectively counter expanded fishing and pollution threats? Or will they remain perpetual outsiders, even becoming delphinic bandits or warlords, in the manner of unexpectedly disbanded soldiers in civil wars?

(I'm hypothesizing that the latter won't happen - that's normally a symptom of people who have lived with the pervasive anomie of a civil war, rather than of professional soldiers suddenly on leave.)

But honestly, after thinking about this a bit - it could be worse. I would certainly trust dolphins with guns more than, say, chimpanzees; they seem less likely to engage in completely gratuitous warfare, or hurl feces. But IANAMB (I am not a marine biologist) so I may be wrong on this. For now, I'll just say that I, for one, welcome our new cetacean overlords.

Someone has been charged with hiding $450M in income from the IRS. OK, big financial dealings, largest such case in history, yadda yadda...

The man's main offshore corporation was called "Gold and Appeal Transfer?"

I always knew the IRS were run by the Illuminati, but this is a bit extreme...