This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. more ›

We have our own little bit of PurgeGate on our end of the country. Maybe not the most exciting part of the story, as it doesn't involve voter fraud or missing e-mails, but still a piece of the puzzle. more ›

t's looking like Spocko the Blogger's little stunt he pulled on KSFO is working. Both Bank of America and MasterCard pulled either all of their advertising or some of their advertising from KSFO. Others are expected to follow suit. more ›

From NWZCHIK, we get today's batty neighbor story concerning someone in San Mateo who is drawing ire from her neighbors for scribbling messages supposedly from God all over her house. And by house, we mean like the roof and the walls. And her car. Which also has signs on top of it. Not all of the postings are about religion too, some are about politics and the deeds of the government. The house, actually, looks like this shed we had by our High School in which everyone from the Senior Class wrote graffiti on it to celebrate their graduation. more ›

Oh, where would we be without those local news I-Team reports? Probably stuck in a world full of scamming businesses, not enough labels on things, and bad tanning salons. Now we owe another round of thanks to an I-Team, the KGO one. Because thanks to their hard-hitting report, San Jose is going to undertake the task of cleaning up their libraries. more ›

SFist has a late breaking story today about a secret cabal of people who just might be trying to ruin our city. Who are these people? We don't know. We do know that they walk amongst us and hide their true identities. Some of these people you might see at Safeway. Some of these people you might see walking down the street. Some of these people might EVEN BE WORKING WITH YOU! Be afraid, be very afraid. Who are these people? Posters on SFWall.net more ›

YouTube is in a little hot water with conservatives these days for not being adequately down with freedom. Or so it's being claimed by Michele Malkin. Malkin is saying this because YouTube banned an anti-terrorism video that she did but has done nothing about videos that are deemed "pro-terrorism" and by "pro-terrorism" she means actual footage of Iraqi insurgents shooting at American troops and not very nice anti-Israel stuff. more ›

We read Steven Jones' article in this week's Bay Guardian over the handbill debate in the Mission with interest and not just because it brings up a great debate or because of the usual Bay Guardian hilarity, but because as we were walking around Valencia Street, we noticed that there was nary a flier to be found. Not a call for ending U.S. Imperialism, not a bill for some DJ we've never heard of, nor an announcement for a Trotsky Teach-In. What we saw as we were walking around were completely bare streetlights and unpostered walls. more ›

Recently, the Senate voted on the Republicans biennial attempt at saving America from the horrible threat of flag burning. Goodness gracious, imagine the hullabaloo if a bunch of gay Mexicans ever decided to burn a flag. Anyways, we hoped that the bill would fail miserably and the Democratic Party would have nothing to do with it but it didn't happen. Instead it came a vote short of passing. We did happen to notice, however, that the bill was labeled as "bipartisan" as it was co-sponsored by a Democrat. And the particular Democrat who cosponsored it? Our very own Diane Feinstein. Which we knew about but totally forgot because what with the war still raging, government eavesdropping programs going unfettered, and our complete and total obsession with "Battlestar Galactica," had moved onto bigger and more important things to concern ourselves with. more ›

A judge just denied the lawsuit filed against the authors and publishers of the Barry Bonds' bombshell book, "Game of Shadows," citing freedom of speech issues. Bonds' lawyers had sued the publishers because it was "unfair" that the authors were able to use secret transcripts from the Grand Jury. In other words, the lawsuit wasn't to help Barry's reputation, but to help all the other muckrakers out there trying to bust Barry who didn't have the luxury of leaked testimony. He was, then, doing it for the little people. Or something like that. more ›

Gothamist posts on the capture of a NYC perv thanks to Little Brother and a camera phone. They also scour the city for vodka martinis and Shamrock shakes and spot the friend from the Wonder Years at a city law firm. New York police think that Littlejohn is their man. more ›

On Friday, the conservative’s favorite court, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, issued what could be a landmark ruling for freedom of speech. The ruling basically states that a school cannot punish a student from exercising their freedom of speech by holding up signs that go against school policy. The sign that sparked this very important ruling: Bong Hits 4 Jesus. Thus the reason you now get to see such wonderful headlines such as "Court Rules "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" Is Protected Speech. As Yakov Smirnov would say, "what a country." more ›

For those people feeling down that it's been weeks since the last good rally, cheer up, cause there's going to be a rally tomorrow in front of the Danish embassy. The Free Republic will sponsor tomorrow’s rally. The Free Republic? Yep, the Free Republic. As in one of the largest and most notorious conservative organizations in the land. As in an organization that has on its Web site a whole section titled "Pray for President Bush" and mean it in a completely sincere, non-snarky way. Do conservatives rally? Do they even know how to? Do they do drum circles? Will people hold up signs calling for the execution of Mumia? We thought they were too busy running everything to protest. more ›

Thomas Hawk, local San Francisco photo/blogger, posted an interesting essay on his experiences taking pictures at different private cultural venues around town. EssEffist found the link on Boing Boing, which often covers issues related to freedom of speech, expression, media and fair use. more ›