This just in: Vulgaria Outlaws Bulgarity


Bulgaria introduces measures against hooliganism

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Bulgaria has adopted a tough new law against sports hooliganism aimed at curbing growing stadium violence.

The law introduces harsh penalties such as jail terms of up to 25 days and fines of up to 2,000 leva ($1,575 Cdn) in a country where the average monthly wage is about 290 leva ($222 Cdn).

In a controversial definition of sports hooliganism, legislators included not only violent brawls and attacks, but also "extremely vulgar gestures and swearing."

Wow, 25 days in jail for swearing at a soccer match. Maybe New York City will follow suit and implement some sort of anti-vulgarity reform at Yankee Stadium. Can you imagine? You thought the Seattle WTO riots of '99 were bad; imagine a bunch of pissed off New York Yankee fans storming the city with modified styrofoam "We're Number 1" hands.

Freedom of speech is a pretty cool thing and it is non-negotiable. You would think a former Soviet bloc country would have figured this out by now. Yeah, they need to figure out a way to stem soccer fan violence -- but history shows outlawing speech does nothing good.

Hear that, Ashcroft????

To all my friends who don't live in Washington State:

I'm OK. I'm NOT buried under a pile of ash and magma. Mt. St. Helens is not really doing much. Yeah, the crater floor is shifting and cracks are opening up and SOMEthing is pushing up towards the surface, but there's not a lot of mass there any more to produce the kind of monumental explosion we had back in 1980. The volcano is just letting off a little steam:



But thanks for caring. :-)

If you'd like to keep tabs on the volcano from the comfort of your internet browser, go here: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/


On the other hand, if you hear Mt. Rainier just blew its top then I might, in fact, be buried. But let's cross that bridge when we come to it.