The BBC reports that Cyprus MPs reject EU-IMF bailout tax on bank depositors. The problem is two banks in Cyprus who got caught up in the disaster in Greece, but depositors in all of the banks on Cyprus were targeted. Apparently the EU [European Union] is trying to grab money from Russians that is deposited in Cypriot banks. The Russians will react by moving their money elsewhere, which will weaken the entire financial system in Cyprus.

They have extended the ‘bank holiday’ until Thursday, but the ATMs in Cyprus are empty, and the British government is flying in cash for British personnel stationed on the island. In addition to everything else there is now a liquidity crisis there.

I’m beginning to wonder if the EU isn’t trying to eliminate the Euro.

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In a win for reality, the EFF reports You Bought It, You Own It: Supreme Court Victory for Common Sense and Owners’ Rights. The case was Kirtsaeng v. Wiley, in which Wiley, a publisher was attempting to claim that Kirtsaeng couldn’t resell textbooks that he bought in Thailand in the US. The Court said that if you bought a legal copy, it is yours and you can lend or sell it without regard to geography.

Big media keeps pushing the idea that you are only ‘renting’ the copyrighted books, and media that you purchase, and you have no right to transfer them to others. Hopefully the pendulum is about to swing away from that insanity back into reality.

The floating banner at the top of the page is from the Internet Defense League, and it deals with the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. This sucker was shot down in the last Congress, but it has returned.

This bill turns your ISP into an agent for NSA by ‘allowing’ them to ‘share’ everything about you with the government with no pesky letters or warrants. They don’t tell you they are doing it, and it is exempt from Freedom of Information requests. It is a clear violation of your Fourth Amendment rights, but Congress doesn’t care, and you can’t challenge it in court unless you can prove the unprovable – that your data has been shared.

They are really trying to force everyone to encrypt everything they do on the ‘Net, which really is a waste of resources.

Once again – we had all of the necessary data to discover the 9/11 plot before it happened, but we lacked the people to analyze what we had. The solution to the problem was to hire more people, but they keep gathering more data. It is becoming so absurd that you have to wonder whose side Congress is on.

Robert Peston, the BBC business editor, explains that the Cyprus rescue breaks all the rules. There were rules established about structuring the bail-outs, and taking money from depositors is exactly the reverse of what the ‘rules’ mandate.

As things stand now, the banks in Cyprus may never reopen. The Euro-Techs may have forced the Cypriots into default with their ‘bailout’, which will flush markets and the Euro into the septic tank. Stand back and watch the dominoes fall.

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The Alaska Dispatch gives the real story behind what happened to Cindy Abbott. The best I can say about the ‘official’ announcement from the Iditarod Trail Committee is that they might have been concerned about privacy issues regarding Cindy’s medical condition.

Cindy did not injure her leg on the Burn, and she did not pull a muscle on the Yukon – she broke her pelvis about 20 miles out of Willow after losing control on glare overflow ice. Because of her underlying medical condition, she lives in fairly constant pain, so she has a high tolerance and didn’t realize how serious her injury was. She traveled about 600 miles on a dog sled with the broken ends of the bone grinding on each other.

She was caring for her dogs, lifting hay bales and dog food, and mushing, while occasionally taking a couple of ibuprofen, until just short of Kaltag when the team refused to race into the wind on the Yukon.

Back in my Day 11 post, I expressed my concern and frustration about the fate of Cindy, because she was way overdue in Kaltag. I watch the leaders, but the stories in back of the pack, especially the stories about the rookies, are of real interest to me. I do some number-crunching to figure out how they are doing and whether they are waxing or waning at various stages of the race. Cindy was doing fine [which is fairly amazing given her injury], with good consistent times, and then this anomaly.

The woman has real intestinal fortitude, true grit. I’m sorry that she didn’t realize her goal of finishing, but she is a great example for people who think things are just too hard to do.