Current mood:	aggravated
Current music:	Bachman Turner Overdrive - Taking Care Of Business

A few things via BoingBoing....

A manga collector in Iowa named Christopher Handley faces federal child-porn charges for importing lolicon from Japan. There is more information about the case at MTV's website. It's worth repeating that Handley is being prosecuted under federal law, which means loli cartoons are illegal everywhere in the United States and its territories. The law, S.151 of 2003, passed 84-0 in the Senate and 400-25 in the House. It's also worth repeating that he is being charged with possessing cartoons, not for doing anything harmful to anyone. Neil Gaiman has a good post on the situation with references to similar cases.

In a similar story, a sex-story textfile site owner named Karen Fletcher was convicted of obscenity. She pled guilty after a year and a half of legal bullshit for writing stories.

Completely changing the subject to something else I saw on BB: A thief was photographed stealing a billboard company's electrical equipment, so they put up billboards of his picture all over town. A discussion follows about how scrap metal thieves are among the worst scum of the earth. They destroy exponentially more wealth than they themselves gain from the practice, especially when they destroy the infrastructure that supports the economy. Some stories I've read about them include how Iraqi metal looters did more damage to their infrastructure than was done by the US bombing, the city of Baltimore lost several light poles a few years back, and school ballfields have had their bleachers and the wiring for their lights stolen. Several other stories are listed in the comments, including a particularly infuriating one of how a beautiful bronze sculpture was destroyed and sold for about $100. In case anything thinks this kind of thing is new, the reason we remember ancient Greek and Roman art for their marble statues is that their bronzes were melted down.