Link Sausages Found Lying on a Memphis Hotel Balcony

...in stark contrast to the "Reverend" Terry Jones and the predictable results of his bigotry.

• English philosopher A.C. Grayling discusses his book promoting atheism. The money quotes:

  "The truth is that the book is very modestly done. My wife did give me a card," he giggles, "that said, 'I used to be an atheist until I realised I am God'. And I know that on Monty Pythonesque grounds there's a good likelihood that in five centuries time I will be one, as a result of this."

  * * *

  "Well, firstly, I think the charges of militancy and fundamentalism of course come from our opponents, the theists. My rejoinder is to say when the boot was on their foot they burned us at the stake. All we're doing is speaking very frankly and bluntly and they don't like it. So we speak frankly and bluntly, and the respect agenda is now gone, they can no longer float behind the diaphanous veil &#mdash; 'Ooh, I have faith so you mustn't offend me'. So they don't like the blunt talking. But we're not burning them at the stake. They've got to remember that when it was the other way around it was a much more serious matter.["]

• This is not an April Fool's joke: The Governator will be available shortly.
• If you think that moral rights is a nightmare for fan fic, consider it for tatoos... which also leads to the question of how long intellectual property protection for magical spells lasts, and what kind Gandalf might rely upon... I can just imagine Gandalf v. Saruman, 477 Stew.Ct. 219 (3022) (Faramir, J.) (assessing punitive damages for misappropriation of copyright in Palantir activation spell for non-wizards).
• Just a quick Borders bankruptcy update, and then I'm off to medical stuff. Last week, the various Borders entities finally filed their schedules of assets and liabilities. They make fascinating reading. This delay from filing is a tolerated norm in large Chapter 11 proceedings... but it shouldn't be. The schedules are due on the date of filing, and only when the bankruptcy filing is either involuntary or unforseeable should a delay of more than ten days or so be tolerated. Frankly, I don't give a rat's hindquarters "how much work" it was to create these schedules; one simply cannot properly advise one's bankruptcy client — in this instance, the debtor — without having done at least 80% of the work necessary to preparing them before filing.

  I'm not a forensic accountant, but there are some disturbing discrepancies between various of the schedules among the entities. I may be an IP nerd and civil procedure geek, but I draw the line at chartered accountancy. Of course, it is related to the entertainment industry, so I suppose we must expect some dodgy accounting! The key point, though, is this: The dodgy entries I found are almost uniformly to the disadvantage of suppliers of material for sale at Borders stores and in favor of landlords and utility companies. Considering that this is the same problem that led to refiling of Kmart's schedules when that former parent of Borders went through Chapter 11 a few years back, I shouldn't be all that surprised... because if there's one thing that the American retail sector has proven over the past quarter of a century, it is that nobody with the ability to change anything is capable of learning from mistakes.