Political blog day

  I'd like to make the claim that I'm not posting today to show solidarity with internet giants like Wikipedia, Reddit and XKCD, but there's a good chance I wouldn't have gotten a segment done today anyway.  I will point out however that in a world with SOPA and PIPA as they are currently written, free casual blogging sites would not be possible because domain holders would be held legally and financially responsible for the content posted anywhere on their networks.  That means any user-generated content has to make it through the legal department before it can be put online.  So no more comments sections, no more online fora and no more blogs from U.S.-based websites.

  All of the copyright infringement will still happen because there's obviously nothing our government can do about foreign web servers, but the hope is that by enacting tough legislation that gives devastating powers to the Justice Department and several large corporate copyright holders to shut down American websites, they can cut off some traffic and intimidate most of the rest.  Support from Congress generally seem to split between those who are willing to cripple American online industry in favor of taking mediocre action to protect the intellectual property of a handful of major companies, and some old guys who just don't know how the internet works.

  At the end of the day I don't have a lot of personal stake in this.  I'll be fine either way, but it kind of seems like as a nation, online industries are about the only ones we're making money with right now so I would be hesitant to monkey with the way they work.

http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html

131 2 Chronicles 21-24

  Jehosephat died and gave his sons all kinds of land and riches, but he made Jehoram king or Judah because Jehoram was the oldest.  Jehoram then turned around and killed all his other brothers as well as anyone else who may have gotten the idea into their heads to challenge the throne and began living like Ahab.  He married a descendant of Ahab and started building high places and did all the things that we're coming to find as stereotypical bad king behaviors.  This included ignoring the warnings and rebukes of the prophet Elijah, which finally landed him in hot water with God, who set some foreign armies on Judah.  The Arabs and the Cushites both decided to invade.  They didn't take over, but just looted the palace and the countryside.  After that Jehoram got sick for a long time and died, largely unmourned by his people.

  Jehoram was succeeded by his youngest son Ahaziah because all the older sons were killed by the Arabs.  Ahaziah wasn't a bad guy, but his mother was from Ahab's family and she gave him bad advice all the time.  He only ruled for a year because he got mixed up with the family of Ahab and sort of got caught in the cross-fire as God was wiping them all out.  Bad luck man.

  After Ahaziah was dead, his mother set to work wiping out his whole line.  I guess this was because of something to do with the family of Ahab again.  Ahaziah had still been carrying the torch for the line of David though so it's no surprise that events conspired to preserve exactly one son of Ahaziah and his nurse.  The boy was hidden away in the temple while the wicked grandmother ruled Judah.  His name was Joash, and when he got a little older, all the priests and Levites and God-fearing men of Judah got together and made him king.  There was no subterfuge this time, no raising an army up in the desert and launching a surprise attack.  They just got together and held a coronation ceremony in the temple.  When the queen heard the commotion and wandered down to see what was happening she shouted and made a big stink about treason, but I guess all her guards must have supported Joash too because she didn't really do anything about it.  Except get killed with a sword.

  Joash worked with the chief priest to rebuild and repair the temple which they funded by building a big wooden chest and setting it outside the front gate.  All the officials in Judah came and put money in the chest as Moses had decreed they should do back when they were still setting up the tabernacle.  The temple repairs went well and all the shrines to foreign gods were removed, but after the priest died, his son, Zachariah, spoke out against the idol worship that was starting to pick back up again and Joash had the people stone him to death.  For killing that good priest, God allowed Aram to invade and wound Joash.  Later the temple officials, still angry about the death of Zachariah, killed him in his bed.