Point to ponder: Easter is a far more importent holiday to Christianity then Christmas, yet a far bigger deal is made about Christmas. Why?

I hope you had a good Easter, if you care about Easter. (Note: If it's illegal to participate in Easter in your country, please ignore that sentance.)

To paraphrase that last sentance, "Realizing she could never win in the US, she decided to sue in a country where she would have an easier time." Yeah, it's great strategy, that's for sure, but scary. You're always breaking a law somewhere! I'm about to break the law in some of the countries in the East:

His father's second wife, who lives in London, was threatening Mirza and University Press, a client of my law firm, with libel litigation. She was unhappy with the book's depiction of her influence on his father's political fortunes. And she was considering filing suit not in the United States, where Mirza and his publisher would be protected by the First Amendment, but in England, where the book had recently been distributed--and where libel laws are notoriously friendly to plaintiffs.

But early this month, Mirza received a startling letter from a British law firm.

Until recently, Bethesda author Humayun Mirza never had to think about international libel law. A financier by trade, Mirza spent three decades working at the World Bank in Washington. He only turned to writing in retirement, devoting years to a biography of his father, the first president of Pakistan. Last November, his first book, "From Plassey to Pakistan: The Family History of Iskander Mirza," was published by the University Press of America.

In reality, there is a middle ground between the mindless hucksterism of the New Economy and the mindless Luddism of the old. However, occupying this middle ground requires becoming informed and staying up-to-date not only with technology but with the people who are pushing it. It also requires constant mental exertion. This kind of effort is never easy. Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." When it comes to watching for technological tyrants instead of merely ideological ones, these words still maintain their value.

My tagline for the site (which used to be displayed, and now is again) is "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Freedom", a famous quote from Thomas Jefferson. I took it out because I couldn't quite articulate what I meant by that on this site, but Tom Nadeau took care of that for me in The Trouble With Technology....