SAN FRANCISCO – Girding for a potential threat from Apple Inc., online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. is lifting its limits on how long most subscribers can watch movies and television shows over high-speed Internet connections.

Up until the change, users were limited by the cost of their subscription. (The popular $17 per month subscription yielded 17 hours of online streaming.)

The current library of films available to stream isn’t that impressive yet (especially the horror genre), but I was just given the reason I was looking for to keep my subscription as I haven’t been renting as many films by mail as I did when I first joined. There’s a great selection of foreign films and it will only be a matter of time before the rest of the library is expanded.

NEW YORK – Geeta Citygirl just figured something was wrong with her phone when she realized the greetings she was sending as the ball dropped New Year’s Eve weren’t getting through. In Los Angeles, a half-dozen New Year’s text messages bounced back to Reggie Cameron on Wednesday, more than 24 hours after he thought he sent them out.

In fact, so many people tried to send text messages on New Year’s Eve that networks got jam-packed and many of the missives arrived hours later — or not at all.

Next-generation portable media players cum the various ways to digitally and electronically communicate are slowing killing genuine human contact. Why bother yourself with having to ask someone how they’re doing when you can just simply send them a quick message to prove they’ve been on your mind?

I certainly got my fair share of text messages on New Year’s Eve – perhaps more than I realized if any possible senders ran into the same problems mentioned above. But because I simply loathe the concept of “texting” I could care less if those impersonal missives ever reach me.

I’m told there’s no war on Christmas but the very word is being avoided like the plague.

Wednesday’s ruling by the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an appeal by Terence Lawrence, who said his right to due process was violated because he was prosecuted for two murders for killing a woman and her 4- to 6-week-old fetus.

The court ruled unanimously that state laws declaring a fetus an individual with protections do not conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling that protects a woman’s right to an abortion.

Lawrence was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life for the 2004 shooting death of his girlfriend, Antwonyia Smith, and the couple’s unborn child. Lawrence shot Smith after learning she was pregnant with his child, according to court documents.

Surely there is no one out there to sympathize with Terence Lawrence for slaying his girlfriend because she was pregnant with his child. But did he murder his unborn child?

Murder is defined as the premeditated, deliberate killing of another human being. By definition the Texas court applies the human being label to unborn fetuses if it can be considered murder to kill one.

Is abortion not the premeditated, deliberate killing of another human being (as unborn children are human beings according to Texas)? Abortion is premeditated, deliberate, and results in a death; therefore we must conclude for the first time that in some instances murder is permissible.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

After 68 years of silence, the United States Supreme Court finally agreed on Tuesday to rule on the meaning of the above text; the Second Amendment – after dancing around it way back in 1939.

What we will hopefully know by the end of this year’s term: does the Second Amendment guarantee an individual right to have (keep and bear) a gun for private use, or does it only protect the collective right of an organized military (National Guard)?

The city of Washington’s appeal (District of Columbia v. Heller) seeking to revive its flat ban on private possession of handguns that was ruled unconstitutional by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to be heard in March with a decision a few months later.

MADRID, Spain (AP) – Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were “not that terrible” when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain.

“September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn’t that terrible,” the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.

“Some Americans will think I’m crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They’re a very naive people, or they pretend to be,” she said in an interview published Sunday.

Not extraordinary? Muslim extremism that marked true evil and ignited a treacherous war isn’t extraordinary? They sure know how to pick Nobel Prize winners.

The rationale behind the Portland School Committee’s decision (by a vote of 7-2) to turn three middle school clinics into pharmacies for the promiscuous is because of the supposed “outbreak” of pregnancies among middle school girls.

While the figures are certainly troubling, I don’t think 17 pregnancies from three schools over a four-year period is that much of an epidemic. Certainly the thousands of other girls not getting knocked up are doing something right. And they didn’t need their school nurse to put them on birth control to do it either.

MEDFORD, Ore. – High school English teacher Shirley Katz insists she needs to take her pistol with her to work because she fears her ex-husband could show up and try to harm her. She’s also worried about a Columbine-style attack.

But Katz’s district has barred teachers from bringing guns to school, so she is challenging the ban as unlawful, since Oregon is among states that allow people with a permit to carry concealed weapons into public buildings.

“This is primarily about my Second Amendment right and Oregon law and the simple fact that I know it is my right to carry that gun,” said Katz, 44, sitting at the kitchen table of her home outside this city of 74,000.

“I have that (concealed weapons) permit. I refuse to let my ex-husband bully me. And I am not going to let the school board bully me, either.”

In an eerily similar fashion to what Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said about students being able to feel safe on their “gun-free campus” a year before it became the theater for the worst school-shooting massacre in U.S. history, Superintendent Phil Long insisted employees and students are safer without guns on campus at South Medford High School, where Katz teaches. The district plans to make that argument when the case comes before a judge on Thursday.

Katz won’t say whether she has ever taken her 9 mm Glock pistol to school, but she practices with it regularly and has thought about what she would do if she had to confront a gunman. She would be sure students were locked in nearby offices out of the line of fire, and she would be ready with her pistol.

“Our safety plan at our school now is that if somebody threatening comes in, you try to avoid eye contact, and do whatever they say, and that is not acceptable anymore,” she said. Shootings at Virginia Tech University and the one-room Amish school in Pennsylvania, “reinforced my belief we have to take action, we can’t just acquiesce as we have been taught to do.”

But the school board and superintendents are unlikely to respond to such rationalism and will instead allow everyone at the high school to remain lambs waiting for the slaughter.

UPDATE: Hopefully this story will get a lot of attention. Michelle Malkin just posed her comments on the case.

The difference between a cop and a citizen is that one has a badge and the other doesn’t. Why does a small metallic emblem give gun-control advocates a sense of security that cops can be trusted while the thought of the average law-abiding joe packing heat in a supermarket (or say, a college campus) invoke fear and paranoia?

Griffin made the provocative comment on Saturday night as she took the stage of the Shrine Auditorium to collect her Emmy for best reality program for her Bravo channel show “My Life on the D-List.”

“A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus,” an exultant Griffin said, holding up her statuette. “Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now.”

Asked about her speech backstage a short time later, an unrepentant Griffin added, “I hope I offended some people. I didn’t want to win the Emmy for nothing.”

Comedians by nature are supposed to say something funny upon receiving the meaningless statue at whatever awards show they’re being honored at on that particular evening. Sometimes it can be construed as offensive, but for me that’s a lot better than some routine boring oration about how “hard” they worked to achieve this moment.

And yes, even the props-to-Jesus gets old. This time Griffin does something a little different and all of sudden the Academy pretends to be sensitive about a religion routinely defiled by the industry it celebrates.

But as ridiculous as it was to censor Griffin for saying something negative about Jesus, it doesn’t come close to the audacity of the schools that do the same to valedictorians who praise the lord during their graduation speeches.

“Rendition” — Stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon. Focuses on U.S. customs agents detaining and torturing suspected terrorists in foreign prisons.

“In the Valley of Elah” — Directed by Paul Haggis (“Crash”) and starring Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon, this story is based in part on a magazine story about an Iraq war veteran who returns home and is murdered by a fellow veteran.

“Redacted” — Brian de Palma’s brutal, gut-churning interpretation of a real-life incident in which four American soldiers raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. (Three are serving 90-years-plus sentences; a fourth faces a criminal trial.)

“The Battle for Haditha” — Nick Broomfield’s docudrama about the killing of two dozen Iraqis, including children, by U.S. Marines, allegedly as revenge for the killing of an American soldier.

I admire the skills of filmmakers such as Haggis and Gavin Hood, the director of “Rendition.” The themes and issues they’re exploring are of vital importance.

But nearly every film we’ve seen so far about the Iraq war reinforces the conservatives’ prevailing view of “liberal Hollywood.” (Note: Many of these movies are foreign-financed, but the mostly American stars and directors are the authors and faces of the films.)

Of course we shouldn’t shirk from the atrocities, alleged and confirmed, committed by our side. But would it be so horrible to make a film showing American soldiers performing genuine heroics? Or how about a film that shines the harsh spotlight on the administration that so badly botched the war and especially the “post-war” efforts?

Maybe we’ll eventually see such movies. In the meantime, even though some of this is Oscar-quality work, in terms of subject matter, Hollywood is giving the Fox News crowd some fastballs right down the middle.

The answer to Roeper’s question as to why more films aren’t being made focusing on the Bush administration’s policies is clear: it’s more fun to depict an American soldier raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl.

The last time a movie was made about President Bush, it featured his fictional assassination. Anything less would just be boring.

And no, we won’t see a movie showing “American soldiers performing genuine heroics” because in Hollywood’s eyes our soldiers are incapable of doing good, and the movies will continually reflect that. But don’t worry, they really do love our troops. They love our troops.

A disputed portrait of Jesus Christ will remain at the Slidell city courthouse in Louisiana after a federal judge refused to grant a demand by the American Civil Liberties Union to have the painting removed.

The Jesus portrait, which had been on display in the courthouse for more than a decade, had spurred the ACLU to file a lawsuit claiming that the display violated the separation of church and state.

An interesting fact you won’t hear from others covering this story, especially those who sided with the ACLU, is that the judge who dismissed the case, Ivan Lemelle, is a President Clinton appointee.

Yet expect many to blame the ruling on President Bush’s efforts to Christianize the nation and drive the courts in a fundamentally conservative direction.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (September 9, 2007) Kanye West has lashed out at Britney Spears’ upcoming performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards.

“I can’t believe she would perform,” he told the Associated Press. “She hasn’t had a hit record in years.”

According to MTV.com, West is scheduled to perform his track, “I Wonder,” on the broadcast. The Associated Press reported that West was apparently upset that he was not invited to open the event.

“Maybe my money’s not right. Maybe my skin’s not right,” he said.

According to viewers and critics alike who watched the MTV Video Music Awards, Spears bombed miserably. The consensus appears to be that she’s still out of shape and even has trouble lip-synching.

Enter Kanye West who believes he should have been the opening act but was passed over because of his skin color. It’s a shame too, because I find his new single, “Stronger” rather enjoyable.

But is he a hypocrite, as many have suggested, for being a conservative Republican while living a liberal social life? Hardly. Gays don’t have to support the legislation pushed by the homosexual lobby. You can be gay and oppose same-sex marriage at the same time. Blacks don’t have to support affirmative action. Women don’t have to support abortion. Christians don’t have to support prayer in schools.

Let’s not be so quick to accuse everyone of being a self-hater because they live a life that supposedly doesn’t fit their voting record. Let’s especially not use this incident to encourage Senator Craig to shed his conservative ideology and come out as the next gay-rights crusader.

If any part of our criminal justice system needs an immediate overhaul it’s not the death penalty, it’s the lax treatment we afford to repeat offenders.