Politics

Jorge says, it makes no sense.

Yet Jorge has a fine history of it.  Ain’t this one a beauty?  Comes off as a real even-headed individual who can keep his feelings separated from the issues, not to mention leading by example in keeping politics off his open-source-centric blog.

Way to go!

Ars Technica has a great article from a Finnish newspaper today, where a representative from a Finnish recording group (think RIAA, but proto-Uralic) said that playing back a CD on a computer was a priviledge, not a right. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about this since Ars does a great job of it, but here’s one quote that stuck out to me:

“If you are a Linux or Mac user, you should consider purchasing a regular CD player.”

Holy crap.

I hope this guy is mauled in the street by a group of rabid Lapplanders, at least one of whom is a were-reindeer or something. Seriously, these big media conglomerates need to realize that they’re going to hamstring themselves, particularly by targeting subgroups of users who have a historical tendency to be both rabidly committed and savvy.

A day rife with things to look at and mull over in your head.

This picture, for example, merits some chin holding and a bit of the ol’ hmm hmm hmm.

Also worth a quick read and perhaps some mirth is this article from Mediamatters.org where late-night Apocalyptarian Jack van Impe takes Pat Robertson to task. This is awesome, and we need more of this. If this continues, we may end up with Friday Night Televangelist Wrestling, and the world can only be bettered for the thought.

both items credit to Mr. Chris

Now this doesn’t make sense to me. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) has a bill on the floor that would prevent the National Weather Service from providing any service which is comparable to a service provided by a private sector company. They’d basically be limited to severe weather warnings and the like:

We have every right to expect these agencies to minimize unnecessary, competitive, and commercial-type activities, and to do the best possible job of warning the public about impending flash floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and other potentially catastrophic events.

What. The. Hell?

Where is the problem with this? The NWS provides what I’d call a very reasonable service at very little taxpayer cost. It’s one of those agencies that does good work with little overhead.

Why not let them keep doing what they’re doing, and if a private-sector company can provide a better service for a price, let them! Competition and innovation should drive the market, not artificial restrictions on capable agencies!

What’s next? Cutting NASA’s budget even further because Sir Richard Fucking Branson is real close to being able to get people up to that there space station what we got* up in space?

* Santorumized for your protetction

An article published on CNN today from the AP indicates that many students in high school today feel that the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees to those expressing their right to free speech. One quote that I find particularly disturbing says,

“…more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.”

Most people know my views on the current situation in the world, but this one really stunned me. For over two centuries, people have fought and died for this, and now it’s not a big deal, and half of a sample group thinks it’s a fine and valid thing for government to be able to censor the press?

Forget spreading democracy to the world, we really need to get back to basics here. This is SICK.

Couldn’t help but laugh at this one. Follow the links and have fun!

Pastor fired for sexual exploitation supports Bush’s values!

See, kids? This is what happens when you mess with a well-established balance of power.

Russia Developing New, More Dangerous Nuclear Weapons

• New York Times (registration required)
• CNN
• CBC

Well, the morning after the morning after the… you get the idea.

I can’t hide the fact that I’m disappointed. I don’t think I should hide that fact. I truly am disappointed by the outcome of the election. Anyone who believes in karmic balance is gonna figure I’m due for something, given that my beloved Yankees were massacred at the end of the year, and then my chosen candidate for President (well, after Dean anyhow) is beaten. Let’s hope something good is coming my way.

But looking back, we have to ask - why are we so afraid of enthusiasm in politics in this country? Howard Dean had what I felt was a pretty good plan for the country, he was a reasonable moderate Democrat, and damnit, I liked the Primal Scream. That kind of enthusiasm is necessary in politics I feel. You’re not just up there saying “Vote for me because I am the logical choice,” you’re up there and should be screaming about what you feel is right and good about your cause.

Let’s look at this. Kerry, while a bright man and someone who I felt was experienced enough to address my primary concerns (civil rights, deficit spending and foreign relations), came off as passionless and non-animated. A bit of a turn-off to the enthusiastic campaigner, I’d say, but he was what he had and what we had to back once the media tore into Dean.

Going back into 2000, we saw that Gore had absolutely no passion outside of that frightening kiss with Tipper. And that even looked really forced, like he wasn’t into public displays of affection like that. You could tell someone like McAuliffe was all “Dude, kiss her, kiss her GOOD, and they’ll love you,” and it was an idea that sucked. It was awkward, it wasn’t well-received, and it did us some serious damage.

Now look at what Al Gore was at the DNC this year: passionate, fiery, and full of vitriol and brimstone. Why were we getting this version of Gore now and not in 2000? What is it about the Democratic leadership that thinks we want these bland, middle-of-the-road automatons with no fire in their bellies? I’ve heard rumours to the effect that the leading candidate for 2008 (despite what people think, I don’t believe Hillary has any shot in hell) is Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico. He’s a good, moderate Democrat with some progressive views who’s intelligent and extremely likable.

Now, are they going to let him show some passion for his cause, or are we going to be stuck with the Amazing Cardboard Candidate yet again? Let’s hope for more fire and less feh.

I drove my father-in-law to the airport this morning, and he usually has a very conservative talk radio station playing. His politics are about polar opposite of mine, but I realized something while listening to a replay of Hannitty & Colmes.

Modern conservative talk radio is a lot like a Gallagher show: I’m sure it made plenty of sense in the 80’s, but now I can’t figure out why the fuck anyone ever found this stuff appealing.