What were the flying imams up to? I gave you my opinion the other day:

[T]he imams were trying to increase Americans’ reluctance to report or challenge suspicious behavior on an airplane.

Now Katherine Kersten corroborates my speculation with specifics. (Via Power Line.)

Today is iowahawk’s third blogiversary. (Post is not safe for work.)

Maj. McClung’s father has left a comment that you should all read:

I would like to extend my wife’s and my gratitude to every one of the many, many people who have extended their thoughts and prayers. We know that Megan died doing just what she wanted to do and we supported her all the way. It is a shame that I cannot share all of the tributes with each of you, but if I could, you would realize very quickly what a wonderful person Megan was. Her credo as a PAO was: “Be Bold, Be Brief, Be Gone!” She lived her credo to the end.

Life will proceed and this will soon be behind us, but please, do not forget that there were two soldiers killed with her that day. Let us thank them as well. God bless us all.

I agree that we should remember them as well, and I thank Maj. McClung’s father for the comment.

[posted by Justin Levine – not Patterico]

A posting from your humble blogger in April 2006 revealed a news item that is now the lead headline news story on Drudge today.

Always cool to be roughly 8 months ahead of the news cycle! (Though I suspect that Jimmy Carter will make the argument that the Jewish lobby is somehow preventing a “real debate” on this issue in America.)

[posted by Justin Levine]

Glen Phillips is cutting his European tour short due to a family emergency. Here’s hoping all is well with his family.

Via Penraker (via an e-mail from See Dubya) comes a link to an Insight Magazine article on Guantanamo:

Al Qaeda might be on the run in Afghanistan, but Osama bin Laden’s agents are in the driver’s seat at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Officers tell of daily attacks by al Qaeda inmates against U.S. military personnel, who are ordered not to respond. The officers have also been ordered to fulfill the religious, cultural and even entertainment needs of the inmates, including providing Arabic translations of Harry Potter.

. . . .

Guards have been routinely pelted with feces by inmates and face physical attacks from al Qaeda detainees. In May, al Qaeda detainees organized an ambush to stop a search of cells for contraband medication following two suicide attempts. Prison authorities have responded by providing inmates with a huge Arabic library, a modern hospital, sporting facilities and satellite television. Officials said Harry Potter in Arabic was one of the most popular books in Camp Delta.

Well, sure. I imagine they’re quite fond of the character called Nearly Headless Nick.

Read it all, and marvel at how similar it is to the account provided by Stashiu on this blog.

Via commenter steve comes a link to a good article in USA Today about Maj. McClung.

UPDATE: And another one is here, in the L.A. Times, by Patterico favorite Roy Rivenburg. A quote:

“Please don’t portray this as a tragedy,” her mother said. “It is for us, but Megan died doing what she believed in, and that’s a great gift…. She believed in the mission there — that the Iraqi people should have freedom.”

Read it all.

I’d like to tell you more about that Gin Blossoms concert I went to over the weekend, in part because it relates to Justin’s copyright/Pauly Shore post from yesterday.

Early in the concert, the Gin Blossoms’ lead singer, Robin Wilson, saw someone with a cell phone, and took it from the person. While Scott Johnson was doing a guitar solo, Wilson was scrutinizing the cell phone closely. We guessed that he was scrolling through the recently dialed numbers. By the time it was time for him to start singing again, he had the phone to his ear, and was holding the microphone in the other hand. He was singing to someone at the other end of the phone.

It was around 11 p.m. (2 a.m. on the East Coast), so the people on the other end of the line may not have been pleased. Then again, it may have been a great experience for them, if they were 1) awake, 2) Gin Blossoms fans, and 3) aware of what was happening.

Pretty soon, several other people were handing him their cell phones so that he’d sing to their friends. Most of them did the dialing themselves and then gave him the phone, so that there were willing participants on the other end.

I was close enough to do this myself, but didn’t. My daughter loves the band, and if it had been early enough, it would have been fun to do. But she was asleep, and I couldn’t think of anyone I wanted to call.

Copyright questions:

1) Let’s say, hypothetically, that in that first phone call, Robin Wilson didn’t reach a live person, but rather an answering machine. Would it violate copyright to retain the song on the answering machine? Would it violate copyright to post the song on the Internet? What about sharing it with others? What about selling it — assuming someone would want to buy such a low-quality version? Remember: Robin Wilson dialed the number himself, and left the message himself.

2) Does the answer change if someone else dialed the number and gave him the phone? What if they deliberately dialed a number that went to voice mail, for the purpose of recording the song — but he voluntarily sang into the phone?

3) What if someone simply dialed a number with voice mail from in front of the stage, and recorded the song that way? In other words, does it make a difference if Wilson didn’t sing directly into the phone? What if he wasn’t doing this schtick at all, with anyone’s phone — but an audience member still dialed voice mail to record the song?

4) If someone had cameraphone pictures of Robin Wilson doing this, would they violate some law by posting them on the Internet? Would such a person have violated some law by taking the pictures to begin with? If the venue had a rule against cameras, would that change the answer as to the legality of posting the pictures on the Internet? What about video from the phone? After all, the venue presumably doesn’t even arguably own any copyright.

Comments are open.

P.S. I didn’t get a chance to go on about this at the concert, but the first opening band was excellent. They are called “Let Go” and their web site is here. I bought their CD and I love it. It’s what Green Day might sound like if they wrote better and more interesting songs. If you do the iTunes thing, their download page is here. I recommend track #10, titled “Somewhere.”

I love having TiVo, even though I watch very little television. But between the things we record for the kids; the season passes to the Simpsons, South Park, and numerous other shows; and the automatic recording of every movie ever made by Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick . . . the thing is starting to fill up. I’m looking for a cheap and simple way to get those programs onto DVD to clean up the DVR and make room.

Ideally I’d like to burn the DVDs using my laptop. A guy at Costco told me there is something called a “video capture card” that I can use to accomplish this, but I can’t find one at the usual suspects like CompUSA or Fry’s.

Any ideas?