Tomorrow morning the first hearing begins in the Austrian state’s “hate speech” case against housewife and mother Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff. The daughter of a diplomat, Sabaditsch-Wollf lived in various Islamic countries as a child, and later worked in the Austrian Embassy in Kuwait; last year when she was teaching a seminar in Austria on Islamic doctrine and sharia law, an attendee who seemed “overly enthusiastic about the topic” showed up:

“A young Austrian journalist from a very liberal left wing weekly glossy magazine was apparently asked to infiltrate and attend the seminars, record them without my knowledge and my consent. The magazine had the lectures transcribed and then had their lawyer go to the public prosecutors office and hand over the transcripts. Then the public prosecutor decided to follow up and bring the case.”

She’s not backing down:

I will continue to defend my right to freedom of speech. I will not be gagged.

Liveblogging of the trial starts here at 3 a.m. EDT.

Pain:

A spokesperson for Harper Collins told me that “Substantial Damages will be sought”. “We intend to put them out of the business of printing protected material ever again.”

Charles:

The more you read about Elaine Campione, the Barrie, Ont. baby killer, the more you want to scream bloody murder.
You want to scream at the judge. You want to scream at the Children’s Aid Society.
You want to scream at feminist fossils who seem to have the legal system in a headlock.

Will that be wheat, corn, or sugarcane?

The ETC Group, an international organization supporting sustainability and conservation, has just published its newest report, an 84-page document that presents a lengthy criticism of “the new bioeconomy.” In it, principal author Jim Thomas argues that using biofuels for energy and resources isn’t green — in fact, he says, it’s even more harmful to the environment than coal.

Update: And now for the rest of the story …

For non-elites:

The 48: “pretty damn awesome”
…

…

What does it take to get both left and right to rise up together in protest of government over-reach or incompetence? … being groped at airports in order to satisfy politically correct dogma doesn’t seem to be it:

I recall the almost unbearable hair-pulling and moaning that issued from the left when the Bush administration decided to listen in on suspicious international communications, or when a streamlined process for eavesdropping was initiated … oh the horror!

More @ Cjunk.

With a 10% Sleight of Hand:

Of course, under the Ontario scheme, all consumers become losers. Rates, by the government’s own accounting, will be climbing another 46% over the next five years, and then rates will jolt up another 10% as the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit expires. By then, the new power system may also have expired. It took Ontario Hydro, running as a government-owned non-profit, 90 years to go bankrupt. Hydro’s government-owned for-profit successors will be far quicker at reaching bankruptcy.