Perhaps the defendant has courtroom skills I’m unaware of, but I’m guessing this is a bad idea:

Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad won a surprise request Monday to represent himself at trial and he delivered a rambling opening statement in which he spoke about the meaning of truth.

Elsewhere, we have yet another ten commandments case underway (via How Appealing). This part amuses me:

Jon Graham, worship pastor of Barrow’s Bethlehem First Baptist Church, said there are no plans for organized support today. But he said his church is encouraging aid for the Barrow legal defense.
“We are trying to raise $250,000,” he said. “We’re not there, but we have got a lot of folks saying they’re thinking about it, praying and deciding how to give.”

Think about this solely from an economics standpoint. Let’s assume you’re someone who has a burden that people read or learn about the ten commandments. Let’s say further than you had a $250,000 budget to advance your cause. How would you do it?
I could be wrong, but I’d say you won’t get the most bang for your buck using all that money to see that a plaque gets hung in a courthouse somewhere. Imagine, instead, that you use it instead to mail a nice brochure out to people in the county. If you did a mailing at $1 per address, you could reach 250,000 households. Which I suspect is a lot more people than would see any display in the courthouse for a long, long time.
But then this really isn’t about teaching people about the ten commandments, is it? It’s about a religious political agenda. And therein is the problem.

Got $29.99 to invest? How about purchasing real estate . . . on the moon?
Yes, it’s hard to believe, but thanks to the fine folks at the Lunar Embassy, your dream of owning a lunar acre can come true.
For this low price, will you receive: (1) a deed for your tract; (2) a moon map to locate it; (3) a registration card (registration is key step which will enable you to participate in up-coming Moon elections); and (4) mineral rights to your land (in case oil or some mineral is discovered there).
Not pursuaded yet?

The Moon is a symbol of hope, romance, achievement, wonder, and mysticism. There is nothing more symbolic and romantic on Earth one can give to a loved one. When you buy property on the Moon, please enjoy it, because that is what this really is all about. You can look into the night sky and say, “I own a piece of that”!

Don’t wait. Join the “over 2,000.000+ people” (sales figure precisely measured to 1/1,000th of a person) who could be your neighbors on the moon–if only there was a way to get there. Satisfaction with your moon acre is guaranteed or your money back.
Via spam.

So says U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow, following up on his July comment that the U.S. economy was “coiled like a spring.” That’s a nice line for the economic cheerleaders, though I suspect most job seekers have yet to feel a bounce from the alleged uncoiling.
But the comments Snow made which will draw the greatest attention are those regarding U.S. interest rates:

AMERICAN interest rates are set to rise over the next few months, one of President Bush�s most senior officials told The Times this weekend.
However, far from being a dampener on the economy, John Snow, the US Treasury Secretary, said that Washington would welcome such a move because it would underline the strength of the country�s growth prospects.
. . .
Asked about the impact of such rapid growth on interest rates, Mr Snow said: �Interest rates are the price of capital. As profits increase, there is going to be a need for a capital-rationing process.
�I�d be frustrated and concerned if there were not some upward movement (in rates).� He rejected the widely held view on Wall Street, that the Fed never raises interest rates before a presidential election. �It is amazing how you get this sort of mythology without any factual backing,� he said.

The article states that Snow “refrained from discussing monetary decisions, which are left to the Federal Reserve Board.” But the article is somewhat ambiguous on whether Snow was speaking merely about the direction of interest rates, or also about monetary policy. If the outlook was on the latter, says Brad DeLong, it’s misguided for three reasons:

(1) The Federal Reserve might not follow the prediction, leaving the forecaster out on a limb;
(2) If the forecast turns out to be true, it appears as if the Fed isn’t truly independent and may be succuming to political pressure; and
(3) The comments might undermine current Fed policy.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the bond market, which has already experienced tremendously volatility over the past several months.

“Woman Sentenced for Intercepting E-Mail“:

A judge sentenced an Arizona woman to 60 days home detention for intercepting her husband’s ex-wife’s e-mail, saying the penalty is a warning to others who might be tempted to do the same.
. . .
Lee pleaded guilty in March and admitted accessing at least 215 e-mails sent last year to her husband’s ex-wife, Duongladde Ramsay. Officials said she fraudulently obtained the user name and password information for Ramsay’s e-mail account.

The judge considered, but ultimately opted to not sentence Lee to jail time because she has young children to care for at home.

How far back does one have to go to reach what is considered ancient history? One hundred years? Five hundred? One thousand?
If you’re talking about the World-Wide Web, it’s more like five years. And because it’s made of computer files, rather than bricks or parchment, much of it simply vanishes over time as it is replaced by newer files.
Or does it?
If you do a little digging through the Internet Archive, you can find archived versions of stored websites going back to 1996.
So take a nastalgic trip “wayback” to the 90’s. And remember cyberspace as it was back in the good old days.
UPDATE: This site really does store interesting stuff. I’ve uncovered a real blast from the past: my old website from the UT era. Let’s hope that that gem is being saved for perpetuity.