This is certainly a waste of time and paper: US bans arms sales to Venezuela.

Chavez doesn’t buy arms from the US. His last big deal was with Spain, and I think he buys AK-47s for his army.

The claim about Venezuela supporting Colombian guerrillas is a bit of smoke of mirrors. The Colombian military chased a guerrilla band into Venezuela, and the Venezuelan government got bent out of shape over the presence of Colombian troops on Venezuelan soil.

It’s not like the US would deploy thousands of troops to the US-Mexican border to prevent incursions… Oh, never mind.

Update: Via Michael in comments, Chavez is talking about selling Venezuela’s 21 F-16s to Iran or Cuba, since they can’t buy parts from the US.

This was amusing: BBC Apologizes for Interview Gaffe.

The BBC wanted someone to comment on the verdict in the Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer court case in Britain so they contacted Guy Kewney, an expert on Internet music downloads for an interview with their consumer affairs correspondent, Karen Bowerman.

While Mr. Kewney was waiting in one reception area, Guy Goma, a Congolese man applying for a technology-related job at the BBC, was waiting in another area.

Whoever was sent to collect Mr. Kewney collected Mr. Goma instead, and Mr. Goma commented on the decision.

Goma told the BBC his interview was stressful, but added he was prepared to return to the airwaves. He said he was “happy to speak about any situation,” the BBC reported.

I’m not exactly sure how one qualifies as an expert on ‘Net music downloads – I would think that owning an iPod would probably suffice.

As both Billmon in Vox Pollsteri and Athenae in It Doesn’t Matter If You Like It point out, the law is not a popularity contest.

If you pull people over for speeding or running a stop sign, they don’t say: “Thank you for making me aware that I was putting others in danger.” People don’t like vehicle and traffic laws. The “55mph speed limit” saved lives and gas, but it certainly wasn’t a popular choice.

There are ways to change laws, and to amend the Constitution. If people don’t like the Fourth Amendment protections or the right to privacy, they can act to change them.

But, until the people act to make changes, violating the current rights and protections given to people is illegal. There is a “technical” term for people who do it: criminal.

We have had three people killed by alligators this week in Florida. They are coming out of their cold weather stupors and entering into their breeding season.

Normally ‘gators don’t approach people and get most of their meals by eating fish, but all it takes is one fool to feed an alligator and everyone around has a problem. Alligators are not the philosopher kings of the animal kingdom. They don’t think things through and don’t bother to go beyond eating, sleeping, and sex.

If they establish a link between eating and people, all you can do is kill the ‘gator. We used to move them, but they just seek people out in their new location because the link was established in their tiny little brain.

I don’t know what it takes to convince people that alligators are wild animals to be avoided.

If you check you will find that there are a number of pre-paid phones available for purchase, but don’t get one over the ‘Net, and don’t use anything but cash.

I have a TracFone simply because you can buy time for it almost everywhere – convenience stores, office supply, department stores, building supply stores – pretty much everywhere they take money.

You only pay for what you use and there are all kinds of different deals and discounts so read the agreement.

There exists no link between me and that telephone in anyone’s database. If I call you and you have caller ID, you will get number and nothing else. If you call directory assistance that number won’t appear.

I got the phone because of the loss of landlines during hurricanes and to make it easier for my Mother and clients to contact me. Its lack of existence in the data base is just a side benefit.