Bits and Pieces

That's an intriguing story out of Fayetteville about the man who was convicted of contempt of court because he took a video with his cell phone. Jaime Cornelius Brown's defense, in part, was that he didn't know that he wasn't supposed to record what was going on in court. It seems the judge had said that cell phones could remain on as long as the ringers were off. Brown said that he was in court to support a friend charged with assault and started recording in case a witness said something entertaining -- in which case, no doubt, thousands of people would have seen and heard it by day's end on YouTube.

We applaud District Court Judge Robert Stiehl for standing up not only for the sanctity of the courtroom but also for the dignity of people trying to live in these gotcha days when anything you say or do may soon be amusing the whole world. In fact, we wouldn't mind seeing some cell-phone-related charges for contempt of restaurant, contempt of classroom and contempt of tripping on the sidewalk, just to name a few. You get the picture.

On the Other Hand

Then again, most technology is neutral; it's how it's used that makes it good or bad. The New York Times reported this week that that city's police department is asking citizens to use their cell phones to take videos of crimes in progress and send them in as part of 911 calls.

New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in on the announcement of the new program, saying that "getting caught in the act is now better than ever." Or worse, depending on one's perspective. Bloomberg also added a caution: "If some big hulking guy is coming at you with a hatchet, I suggest you don't take out your camera and try to take a picture."

What's next, we wonder? Lawyers trying to get a client off because videos on YouTube prejudiced the jury?

That George

People hearing about the actor George Hamilton coming to the Forsyth Humane Society's "Furr Ball" fundraiser Oct. 18 might get him confused with George Hamilton IV, the country-music star from Winston-Salem.

It's an easy mistake to make. The Georges are about the same age. The actor George Hamilton played Hank Williams Sr. in the 1964 movie about him, Your Cheatin' Heart. George Hamilton IV has been known to pick a Hank tune or two, especially when he returns to our area to play at Moravian churches.

But the man at the Furr Ball will definitely be the actor George Hamilton, the smooth guy with the big smile and the tan. He'll be there along with Ali MacGraw, the actress best known for Love Story. And if any of Hamilton's adoring fans confuse him with the singing George and try to apologize, he'll have to borrow MacGraw's immortal line from Love Story: "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

Better yet, maybe MacGraw will say it. That possibility should make this ball for a worthy cause a must-attend event.

Free Ride

Did you read about the ball python who hitched a ride on the outside of a woman's minivan in Raleigh last week? Sounds like the snake isn't that different from some of the legislators in the capital: Anything for a free ride.

Lowering the Reputation

A dentist has been charged with the Jersey Shore's most serious beach-dumping case in 20 years, causing officials to close beaches throughout the week leading up to Labor Day weekend.

A lot of merchants and would-be beachgoers are no doubt furious with the dentist, who police say confessed to dumping medical waste from his motorboat. But dentists are probably even angrier. This guy has done for their reputations what John Edwards did for those of lawyers.

Un-bear-able

Lawmen in Utah are praising a black bear that raided a pot farm so often that it chased the grower away. The lawmen should remember that these are corrupt times. This "Smokey wannabe" probably took some of the pot for himself.

Withholding Judgment

Instead of saying the last Confederate widow died recently, The Associated Press was careful to say that 93-year-old Maudie Hopkins of Arkansas was "the last publicly documented widow of a Confederate soldier." That's probably because Hopkins, who married her vet when she was 19 and he was 86, had come forward four years ago after the press said that an Alabama woman who'd just died was the last surviving Confederate widow. And somewhere in Dixie, a widow is probably calling AP right now to refute Hopkins' claim.

And they say the South can't get over the Civil War.

Lipstick Wars

The controversy this week over lipstick takes presidential politics to a new absurdity. Barack Obama was clearly talking about John McCain's policies being nothing new when he said that "You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig." But the McCain camp flew into high dudgeon, charging that Obama was making a sexist remark about Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee. And the controversy swelled like a tick on a birddog. (Does that simile offend anyone?)

Obama wasn't talking about Palin -- not even her harshest critics would call her a pig -- but he may have been referencing her oft-quoted remark at the GOP convention about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull being "lipstick."

Has lipstick become so politicized that only women can mention it? Is this some weird new political correctness?