CBS is fighting back against the idiots at the Parents Television Council, a right-wing lobbying group that makes it easy for people who have not watched and know nothing about TV shows to submit indecency complaints to the FCC. A repeat of an episode of _Without A Trace_ that contained a flashback to a teen orgy scene was the subject of over 4000 complaints. After reviewing all of them using an FOIA request, CBS believes that not a single one came from someone who watched the show. Their evidence is compelling. The $3.3 million fine is outrageous and idiotic to begin with, but with additional evidence that no one who saw the show actually complained, the FCC doesn’t really have a leg to stand on in this instance.

_Slate_ disagrees, saying _Cars_ will make a zillion dollars. I’m with _Slate_ — I loved it.

The _NYTimes_ is not thrilled by _Cars_.

Watch the music video for the MC Lars diatribe against the recording industry, “Download This Song” — on YouTube, of course.

Erm…scratches head…would it be creepy if I read the entire 636 strip archive of the comic Questionable Content all in the last three days? It would? Oh, okay, well…uh…good thing I didn’t do that then. Err.

The new blog Hating On TextDrive makes me happy, because its about time *someone* talk about the TextDrive web hosting company who has not been drinking the disgusting Kool-Aid. The anonymous author is right on — in theory TextDrive is awesome, in reality everything they promise to deliver Real Soon Now never seems to come to pass, and while their support is pretty good (the opposite of the brats over at 37signals) their product is just constantly disappointing.

Stephen Colbert, speaking at the commencement ceremony for Knox College: “God wrote [the Bible] in English for a reason: So it could be taught in our public schools.“

BBC World is coming to the US. Which is great. But guys, I don’t want to have to buy an expensive digital cable package just to get my BBC, let’s get some web streaming going.

Ryan Carson challenges us to work a four-day week. I’m taking up the challenge, but slightly differently. Since I’ve come back from vacation I’ve been trying very hard to work only 40 hours in a week. I’m coming in early when the office is empty and quiet, staying until mid-afternoon to interface with coworkers and deal with the daily tasks and challenges, and then leaving promptly when I hit the 8 hour mark. Yesterday I stayed late accidentally, so today I came in late. Unfortunately I may find that I have to come in tomorrow for much of the day, in which case I’m going to try taking off the same amount of time on Monday. Well, if possible. Unfortunately Monday the new firewall rules are getting switched on… Ah well, it is a nice theory, anyway.

Jason Sheehan: I believe that like sunshine and great sex, no day is bad that has barbecue in it.

Having just seen this unaired 2000 Al Gore campaign video filmed by Spike Jonze, is it weird if I say that I would like to grow up to be like him? (Gore, not Jonze.)

Remember my two entries, “Meg, meet Jason” and “You’ve got blog follow through?” They discussed the online meeting and courting of two bloggers (Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan) starting about six years ago, as first chronicled in the print world in a _New Yorker_ article titled “You’ve got blog.” I was very pleased this evening to open the latest edition of the very same magazine and discover a charming coda that gave a recap of the last six years under the heading, “Meg and Jason.”

RFID is here already, and its not going anywhere except more ubiquitous. Pogue and his kids were issued plastic bracelets with an embedded RFID tag at a waterpark. Very cool, very convenient, and very scary without privacy legislation protecting our personal data. (And even with: see my previous entry).

New CIA director Hayden plans massive expansion of spying on Americans. Of course there is little or no evidence. Of course it is true. Fool me twice…

Average number of vacation days around the world per year. They say that Americans are among the least productive workers in the world, which doesn’t really surprise me. Near the end of my vacation I was revitalized and ready to get back into work with a bunch of new ideas and plans, but now two days back (and a few setbacks later) I’m already feeling burned out and unproductive again.

An unsolicited commercial love story that just gets better and better. You’ve gotta wonder what twist Alicia’s life will take next!

_Slate_ offers a good layman’s rundown of problems facing colleges dealing with mentally ill students who may be at risk of committing suicide. There is a lot of complicated political and legal precedent for why things are as they are and how they are changing, and this article offers a very quick, readable overview of what’s what, using the recent controvery at GWU as a jumping-off point. The article especially warms my heart by actually explaining how FERPA(Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) limits the debate, something that most news accounts ignore completely in favor of a blanket “no comment” from the schools.

Meg Hourihan’s all-purpose blog Megnut has now been transformed to reflect her current life passion: food. The new Megnut (LLC) looks like quite a treasure trove of food-related goodness, and I’m actually not entirely surprised by this change.

Malcolm Gladwell follows up on his blog with some feedback about his awesome recent _New Yorker_ profile on dog trainer Cesar Millan, who in addition to having a show on the National Geographic channel and a popular book was also recently featured on the TV show _South Park_.

Dahlia Lithwick, writing this time in the _Washington Post_, says that both death penalty supporters and opponents have it wrong on the debate over the cruelty of lethal injections. I think she’s probably onto something here.