dEFROG ON 45 #11: WONDROUS IS THAT GREAT BLUE SHIP THAT SAILS AROUND THE MIGHTY SUN

Like most uncool teenagers in the 1970s, I was a big fan of Electric Light Orchestra.

Which means you might be seeing a couple more entries by them in this series. Sorry.

Anyway, I have a copy of “Shine A Little Love” (from the Discovery album) on 45, but truth be told, I've always loved the B-side even more – “Jungle”, which was actually from their previous album Out Of The Blue (which I had on 8-track tape, by the way – if yr going to be a music nerd, go for broke, I always say).

It’s a silly song, of course – Jeff Lynne goes for a night walk in the jungle and finds a group of articulate jungle animals singing around a campfire. But it’s a great tune, with a gratuitous tap dancing solo.

Suitable for making a fan video with puppets.

Joy to everyone who rides along,

This is dF

WIKILEAKS: THERE I FIXED IT

ITEM: The Obama admin is taking steps to tighten security on classified documents in the aftermath of the WikiLeaks saga.

Which is worth relaying for a few reasons:

1. This is a good idea. The WikiLeaks thing has been silly and overblown in that the “secret” cables were authorized to be seen by so many people that the risk of a leak was always high. If you don’t want documents being made public, you need better security.

2. WikiLeaks is actually doing govts a favor by pointing this out to them, according to Steven Aftergood of FAS: 

Within the U.S., the Wikileaks approach yields greater disclosure from those agencies where security is comparatively poor, such as the Army, than from agencies with more rigorous security practices, such as the CIA.

What this means is that Wikileaks is exercising a kind of evolutionary pressure on government agencies, and on the government as a whole, to ratchet up security in order to prevent wholesale compromises of classified information.

3. I just wanted to contrast this to House Rep (and new Homeland Security Commission chairman) Peter King (R-NY)’s solution to the WikiLeaks problem: have it declared a terrorist organization, and then indict the New York Times for espionage.

To be fair, he wasn’t specifically talking about Wikileaks – he’s just mad that the NYT made fun of his plan to investigate Muslims for not doing enough to help defeat Muslims and making it sound like some McCarthy thing, so I guess he would want to have the NYT arrested for treason, wouldn’t he?

Nobody’s safe,

This is dF

GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

ITEM: Thanks to science, prosecutors in Texas declared Cornelius Dupree Jr innocent of a rape and robbery a mere 30 years after his wrongful conviction.

I would normally use this as the latest example of why I’m against the death penalty as a concept (the fact that Dupree Jr wasn’t on Death Row notwithstanding). But there’s another angle to the story worth pointing out:

According to the full version of the AP story, Dupree Jr had two chances for parole during his hitch – provided he admitted to being a sex offender as part of a four-step rehab program for sex offenders. Which of course would be an admission of guilt. Dupree Jr refused, sticking to his story that he was innocent.

Which interests me because, according to the AP, Dupree Jr was actually convicted of aggravated robbery, not rape (though the victim was in fact raped). So they were asking him to basically admit to something he hadn’t even been found guilty of doing.

Moreover, if he had enrolled in rehab program, he would also have likely been put on a sex offenders registry – which is a list you do not want yr name on, especially if yr innocent (or even if you aren’t, given the really lax criteria many states have for putting you on it).

I can’t say Dupree Jr knew this when he said no to the sex-offender program. But it’s certainly a case where it pays to stick to yr story and stay in jail than cop a plea and find yrself persona non grata for the rest of yr life.

Free to go,

This is dF

WHERE EAGLES DARE

Yr Mondo Paranoia lede for today:



Here’s my favorite sentence in the story:

Last month, Egyptian officials implied the Israeli spy agency Mossad was to blame for shark attacks off its coast.

Not that spy sharks are implausible, mind.

 

You never know,

This is