Mitch's Blog

A new bill would grant Marco Rubio the right to declare any U.S. citizen a terrorist supporter based solely on their speech, and revoke their passport. “In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stripped Turkish doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk’s of her visa based on what a court later found was nothing more than her opinion piece critical of Israel.” The proposed law would give Rubio similar power over U.S. citizens. theintercept.com/2025/09/1…

Nicholas Kulish at The New York Times:

In February 2020, the actor Noah Wyle decided the moment was ripe to bring back his most successful television character, Dr. John Carter from the hospital drama “ER.”

Mr. Wyle wrote an email to John Wells, who had served as the showrunner on “ER,” to propose a “character study in the vein of LOGAN, PICARD and JOKER.” He described his idea for the show as “a 12-episode Hulu limited series, where we take another look at the guy who showed us the world the first time,” adding: “Darker and grittier. Aged. But still him.”

“Get a few band members together,” he suggested to Mr. Wells, “and write a beautiful new song in an old and familiar key.”

From the kernel of that idea emerged the hit HBO Max hospital drama “The Pitt"….

I find this question of copyright law fascinating. When does using genre tropes trend over into copyright infringement? A serialized TV show set in an emergency room is going to have to follow certain story formulas. It’s going to be fast-paced, will use a lot of medical jargon, etc.

My gut feeling as an Internet lawyer is that “The Pitt” is going to lose this one if it goes to court. No one is disputing that “The Pitt”’s creators and the Crichton estate were in talks to make an ER sequel. And Noah Wylie plays the main character, an ER attending physician.

As the article points out, it ended up being a better creative choice to not have the show be an ER sequel. When you create a sequel, it’s creatively limiting — cameos and guest spots by former stars, and so forth. Hard to maintain the fourth wall of viewer disbelief.

Also: copyright should not extend 17 years past the death of the author. “ER” should be in the public domain. I am firmly a Doctorovian on this matter; copyright is a brilliant invention and should be limited, as America’s Founders intended.

Also: We love “The Pitt.”

Also: Noah Wylie’s character on “ER” vs. “The Pitt” are internally inconsistent in a fundamental way: John Carter on ER was heir to a fortune who, by the end of the series, was running his own clinic with the support of that fortune. His character on “The Pitt” is head of the ER, but he answers to the hospital bureaucracy and is apparently living on his doctor’s salary. Different people.

Charlie Kirk’s allies warn Americans: Mourn him properly or else. Republicans love cancel cuture when they’re the ones doing it. www.reuters.com/world/us/…

San Diego Navy doctor fired after right-wing activists find pronouns on social media. Hate, ignorance and bigotry score another win. www.kpbs.org/news/loca…

Shocked by Epstein’s birthday book? That culture was everywhere before feminism [Rebecca Solnit]. Child sexual abuse was everywhere in the U.S. in the 1970s and was celebrated in pop culture in movies like “Pretty Baby,” and stories abut rock stars and teen groupies. www.theguardian.com/commentis…

It’s Time for Americans to Start Talking About “Soft Secession.” “States don’t have to actively resist. They can simply refuse to help. And without state cooperation, much of the federal government’s agenda becomes unenforceable.” cmarmitage.substack.com/p/its-tim…

Charlie Kirk’s assassination is influencers all the way down. “In the immediate aftermath of the murder, everyone had something stupid to say.” todayintabs.com

Blogging for me is an attempt to balance how posts will look on the blog in desktop vs. mobile, in the newsletter on desktop and mobile, in Mastodon and on Bluesky. It’s always a compromise, and I change my habits every few weeks depending on which platform seems most important.

Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer scratched bullets with gaming catchphrases and symbols and a furry sex meme theverge.com

Ted Cruz AI bill could let firms bribe Trump to avoid safety laws, critics warn. arstechnica.com

Under Pressure, Rady Children’s Hospital Strikes Shaky Middle Ground on Trans Care. The San Diego hospital is reportedly still offering gender-transition care for children but has taken down its web page promoting the services and refused to answer questions from a journalist. voiceofsandiego.org

Comcast executives sent an email to employees endorsing free speech and warning that if you use that speech to criticize Charlie Kirk, you’ll be fired. The word “Orwellian” is overused but I can’t think of a better description. 404media.co

Redistricting could put Darrell Issa’s seat in Congress in play. A primary fight among Democrats is already brewing. sandiegouniontribune.com

Headline of the week: 1,200 undergrads hung out to dry after jailbreak attack on laundry machines theregister.com.

My hot take: A clothes washer should not have an internet connection.

I briefly wondered why I put on a shirt when working from a home office, and then I realized I am absolutely someone who would forget to put on a shirt for an important work video call and then my next call after that would be with HR.

Rebooting The Blogosphere (Part 1: Activities) climbtothestars.org. Lately I like blogging more and more as an alternative to the twitter-alikes.

Five technological achievements! (That we won’t see any time soon.) crookedtimber.org/2025/09/0…

“Anytime soon” = 25 years. By 2050.

The first is sending humans to Mars and bringing them home alive.

The final two predictions are particularly painful.

Google: The worst possible antitrust outcome. pluralistic.net

“Blogging lost to Twitter because Twitter had one-click subscribe.” scripting.com/2025/09/0…

“The Dems are terrible at politics. They should be running ads on TV saying that no workers in the fields means food prices soaring as we’ll have to import food because all the American crops are dead because there was no one to harvest them.” scripting.com/2025/09/0…