San Francisco’s Proposed Blog Law

The Personal Democracy Forum is reporting that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will be voting on a local law that requires “local bloggers to register with the city Ethics Commission and report all blog-related costs that exceed $1,000 in the aggregate.”

The author of the piece claims that the city ordinance will require all online pages “that mention candidates for local office that receive more than 500 hits will be forced to pay a registration fee and will be subject to website traffic audits.”

However, not everyone agrees that this vote is as anti-blogger as it first sounds. Chris Nolan believes that while the law is poorly written, the core idea is sound that bloggers who receive money from a local candidate to write about them on their site should be compelled to openly disclose those payments to the local election board, and that they should be treated like any other commercial outlet receiving money to promote a candidate, rather than simply free press.

From reading these sites, it certainly appears to be a nasty little mess brought on by recent elections in which blogs and other online forums played a key role in the results. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially since national politics made good use of similar blogs in the last presidential election and how little regulation there is separating the honest protection of freedom of speech from paid-for online political mouthpieces.

On Eccleston Leaving Doctor Who

I have to admit, when I first heard about Eccleston leaving, I was rather angry with him. But after the showing of End of the World, I’m actually becoming excited about the prospect. No, not because I dislike Eccleston, in fact I was upset because I liked his performance.

Knowing that his Doctor is going to die is actually making the drama and tragedy of this Doctor all that more intense. Here’s a Time Lord, the last of his kind perhaps. When he first left Gallifrey, he was sad because of what he’d left behind, yet could take some small comfort that maybe one day he could go home. For the new Doctor, though, he’s lost it all. There’s no home to go to.

You can see that the time war has done so much to him. The fighting alone would leave scars, but the loss of Gallifrey even more so. He’s obviously used to traveling alone again, at least in the beginning of Rose, and almost seems to be doing so just to run away from the guilt and the pain. He seems to actively enjoy the idea of tossing himself into situations where there’s danger, with his “fantastic!” response to knowing there’s no one to help them in EotW. It’s like he’s actively hoping to end it all in one of these episodes, to go out with a bang.

And then Rose Tyler comes along, forcing herself into his life, and he starts to feel again. But the pain is still there. It’s enough to cause him to react rather badly toward Cassandra when her actions cause Jabe’s death. But he’s opening up again, with his admission to Rose, starting to feel again.

So I’m actually beginning to like the idea of this being a Doctor who’s been hurt bad and can only heal himself by making the ultimate sacrifice toward the end of the season. It makes the tragedy elements that much more intense, and will allow for a new Doctor to come along next season with a renewed sense of purpose.

Image of the Day: April Snow

April Snow
click image to enlarge

The photo above is a fine example of what Spring in Northeast Ohio can be like at times, as several inches of freezing rain turned into heavy, slushy snow and ice this weekend. The temperatures were getting into the high 60s and low 70s toward the end of the week, making this surprise snowstorm all the worse.

The annual Maple Festival held that’s held every year in the nearby town had to be canceled because of the damage the sudden snow had caused, with several large tents having collapsed under the weight of the ice that formed on top.

Yay for Spring!