01 Jun 2003
Trying to lock down music

Here's a pointer from Slashdot to a couple of really good articles on the history of recorded music, and the attempts to monopolize it...

Media Monopoly: Thomas Edison to Hillary Rosen [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Chicken Livers

Well, with Kris off to NC for Evan's graduation, Willie and I are "batching" it ....is that a word? Got to munch chicken livers in gravy last night - one of my favorites (which Kris despises....). But also got some work done - got the new hooded light up on the east side of the barn. I ended up rewiring the whole thing rather than just replacing the fixture as originally intended.

Also made an rather interesting discovery: two kittens, still alive and out in the corn crib! Apparently Baby moved them, and neglected to tell us! Imagine that! I wonder how many more survived - only found two dead ones so far, so potentially there's at least four.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Wrong-Thinking

Well, I'm getting ready to bop over to blogRolling and remove the first blog I ever checked out: Right-Thinking from the Left Coast.

Politically, I find myself, as a libertarian, identifying much more with the so-called "right" than with their opposite numbers (the "left"). Lee (the guy who runs Right-Thinking) is a conservative in San Francisco, which has gotta be lonely! But he's drifting away from purely political commentary, and into more personal areas.

That's fine: hel, that's what a blog is supposed to be! But while I still agree with him on a lot of political issues, I find his personal take on a lot of things to be small-minded and mean-spirited. I don't know how else to say it: you don't have to be crude to be a conservative, you don't have to view women like meat to be a conservative and you don't have to obsessively hate Michael Moore to be a conservative.

Take the last case mentioned above: I dislike Mr. Moore, I think he's pretty much a "Stupid White Man" all by himself: I'm convinced he's nothing but a publicity hungry hypocrite. Nonetheless, I would never have posted a piece about him like this. Even Lee admits it's "tasteless" - I'd go further and simply call it disgusting. And I would not pass it on ...

When the level of political (or any other debate, for that matter) sinks this low, you lose any possibility of convincing anyone of anything.

So bye-bye, Right-Thinking - I wish you well, and I wish you'd grow up.

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link