tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36944082011-04-21T19:06:51.390-07:00Robbed by a Fountain Pen<b>This blog is on hiatus - please check back.</b><br>
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Yes, as through this world I've wandered / I've seen lots of funny men / Some will rob you with a six-gun / And some with a fountain pen.
- Pretty Boy FloydBJnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2551100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-960055302003-06-24T22:10:00.000-07:002003-06-24T22:10:44.090-07:00Tom Waits Interview on Blogcritics.
I didn't do it, the Onion AV Club did.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-958967672003-06-21T10:47:00.000-07:002003-06-21T10:47:26.836-07:00The Spaghetti Western Roadtrip.
New music review over at Blogcritics.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-941844482003-05-11T21:35:00.000-07:002003-05-11T21:36:37.000-07:00Still on Hiatus - but with the Occasional Blogcritics Post.
I'm still taking a break with this site, but now and then I post to Blogcritics - here's one on Tom Jones and punk rock karaoke.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-895332702003-02-21T19:35:00.000-08:002003-02-21T20:02:55.000-08:00The Critiquees Are In.
The results of the First Annual Blogcritics.org Music Awards, or Critiquees ("Cri-tee-kees") are up.
Album of the Year:
1) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco
2) Come Away With Me by Norah Jones
3) Sea Change by Beck
4) Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol
5) The Rising by Bruce Springsteen
6) A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay
7) When I Was Cruel by Elvis Costello
8) () BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-892893622003-02-17T22:12:00.000-08:002003-02-17T22:12:24.883-08:00Victory of the Loud Little Handful.
by Mark Twain
The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. The pulpit will - warily and cautiously - object... at first. The great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it."
BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-890770272003-02-13T22:12:00.000-08:002003-02-13T22:13:23.000-08:00Critiquees (cont.) Best Jazz.
And the final category for the Blogcritics Critiquees Awards:
Best Jazz Album.
1. Brad Mehldau - Largo
2. David S. Ware - Freedom Suite
3. Jason Moran - Modernistic.
I couldn't decide which order to list these three, so it's basically a tie. Ask me tomorrow and get a different answer.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-888977962003-02-10T22:20:00.000-08:002003-02-10T22:30:01.000-08:00A Couple Trillion Dollars Here, A Couple There ...
... and pretty soon you're talking about real money. I've been too busy to post much the past week or two, but that doesn't mean I've gotten over "President" Bush's astonishingly irresponsible budget plans. You can count on the media to move on to other things, so I thought I'd start a series of budget posts just so we don't forget what's at BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-888353762003-02-09T21:44:00.000-08:002003-02-09T21:58:09.000-08:00Presenting ... the Critiquees.
The first annual Blogcritics Awards - also known as the Critiquees ("Cri-tee-kees") - are coming up! Blogcritics is the "sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, and technology." On February 16, Blogcritics will announce the Critiquees, which will consist of both a poll of the Blogcritics ourselves and also a Readers' Poll. To BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-888338802003-02-09T21:05:00.000-08:002003-02-09T21:06:56.000-08:00Get a Job.
Data point of the week:
In the 22 months since the recession began in March 2001, the economy has lost almost two million jobs, or 1.5 percent of total employment.
On Bill Clinton's watch, the economy added an average of 2.86 million jobs per year.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-882550102003-01-29T22:58:00.000-08:002003-01-30T13:14:24.000-08:00The State of the Union ... Not So Good.
Still think Junior is a lock for reelection? Consider this from Slate's William Saletan:
If you went to the refrigerator during the first three minutes of President Bush's State of the Union address, you missed the part where he discussed the state of the union. ...
Why didn't Bush talk about the state of the union? Because the state of the union is BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-881419132003-01-27T21:52:00.000-08:002003-01-27T22:03:50.000-08:00State of the Union.
In honor of George W.'s midterm SOTU address, I bring you a flashback from the Onion. The week before Bush took office, America's Finest News Source published an article that is both extremely funny and painfully prescient.
Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over'
WASHINGTON, DC—Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door onBJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-880853942003-01-26T23:26:00.000-08:002003-01-26T23:45:09.000-08:00A Modest Proposal.
Ted Barlow had a very interesting post about race, income, wealth and achievement this week, which prompted me to make a quickie write-up (in his comments) of a proposal I've been wondering about for some time. Barlow's entry describes work by Dalton Conley, a Yale sociologist whose work includes Being Black, Living in the Red, and quotes this summary from an SF Chronicle BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-880852382003-01-26T23:21:00.000-08:002003-01-26T23:22:13.000-08:00Four Wings!
I'm still digging the four-winged dinosaur-slash-bird creature they discovered in China. Click here for a cool graphic, here for the NYT article and here for the Nature article.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-880846772003-01-26T23:02:00.000-08:002003-01-26T23:18:42.000-08:00Featured.
Click here for today's featured graphic (scroll down for the budget deficit and surplus chart), here for today's featured comic, and here for today's featured news quiz. The news quiz was posted a few days ago at Wampum Blog, which asks what these and other headlines have in common:
WHEREFORE ART THOU, RECOVERY?
Published on December 5: Charlie Stein, Boston Globe Staff
INDEX SHOWS BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-879461122003-01-23T23:43:00.000-08:002003-01-23T23:55:20.000-08:00In Their Own Words.
Well, Jerry Thacker withdrew from the Presidential AIDS advisory board today. Not to fear, though, there are plenty of other jerks lined up for the panel. For instance, former Representative Tom Coburn (R-OK), a doctor(!) who is famously insightful about immune systems:
And I want to touch on cryptosporidium for a minute...this disease can sometimes can be very helpful [as a BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-878870172003-01-22T23:01:00.000-08:002003-01-22T23:06:03.000-08:00The Competence Myth.
Is it just me, or does President Bush's foreign policy not -- how should I put this -- work?
Even critics of the Bush Team tend to give them high marks for their handling of foreign policy and the war on terror. To a certain extent, this is human nature. In matters of international affairs, people tend to rally around the President. Especially in wartime, if the President BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-877715182003-01-20T22:55:00.001-08:002003-01-26T12:41:58.000-08:00More Stupid Predictions Unburdened By Analysis.
The day after Al Gore decided not to run for President, I had a conference call with a couple of former colleagues from the Clinton/Gore Administration. During the call, I predicted that George W. Bush would be a one-term President.
Actually, it was a lukewarm prediction. I started by saying that the media CW that said Bush was unbeatable was BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-877715102003-01-20T22:55:00.000-08:002003-01-21T22:33:31.000-08:00New Blogcritics Post: a Second Look at Human Nature.
I've got a new movie review that will appearing shortly on Blogcritics - check it out. This is the link and this is the blurb:
To the extent critics noticed Charlie Kaufman's Human Nature when it was released last spring, it was mostly to pan it. For their part, movie-goers stayed away in droves. We put it on our Netflix list anyway ... and BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-877427562003-01-20T12:11:00.000-08:002003-01-20T12:13:02.000-08:00Blind Quote of the Day.
I've got DSL again, and just in time to notice this gem planted in the middle of today's Nagourney dispatch about the growing confidence expressed by Democrats in Iowa:
White House aides sought to counter even those measured expressions of optimism. They noted Mr. Bush's high approval rating, close to 60 percent in some polls, and the likelihood that he might be leading BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-872034422003-01-09T21:07:00.000-08:002003-01-23T23:49:35.000-08:00Prediction - Dividend Tax Repeal is DOA.
Bush's dividend tax repeal will not become law, because not enough people want it. (And there are a lot of people who don't want it. It screws states and local governments; it puts young companies in general, and tech companies in particular, at a competitive disadvantage; it's extremely complicated; it makes moderate members of both parties, who were BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-871010582003-01-07T22:51:00.000-08:002003-01-07T23:02:56.000-08:00Brought to You by the Number Seventy-Eight.
Still no DSL connection here in RobbedbyaFountainPen Land, so I'll stick to short and infrequent posts. Here's one on the subject du jour, the dueling Bush & Democratic economic proposals.
The important point, for both policy and politics, is not that Bush is proposing another tax cut for the rich. The point is that he is not proposing a tax cut - or BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-870398752003-01-06T19:22:00.000-08:002003-01-06T22:28:13.000-08:00Star Wars and Caviar.
Today's Quote:
"We can't make the mistakes of trying to have guns and butter." Amy Call, a spokeswoman for the White House budget office explaining sharp cuts proposed for non-defense discretionary spending in the Washington Post.
For the record, there's plenty of budget for both guns and butter. The question is one of priorities. On the "butter" side, for instance, the BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-869930152003-01-05T21:28:00.000-08:002003-01-05T21:38:27.000-08:00Weekend Wrapup.
Don't miss these recent environmental stories:
Paul Rogers of the San Jose Mercury News reports: "The dramatic die-off of 33,000 salmon last fall along the Klamath River in Northern California was directly caused by the Bush administration's decision to pump extra water from the river to farmers, biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game have concluded." The BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-869130262003-01-03T23:17:00.000-08:002003-01-03T23:17:43.000-08:00Notice: Slow Blogging to Come.
My home DSL line is on the skids (the provider got out of the business) so my posting will continue to be infrequent until it's replaced.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-869127532003-01-03T23:07:00.000-08:002003-01-03T23:16:09.000-08:00For The Record: The Top 1 Percent.
Numbers of the day: In my last post, I said the Statistic of the Decade (so far) is the poll showing that 19% of voters thought they were in the top 1% of income earners, and another 20% said they expected to be there one day.
So I looked up how much the top 1% actually make. The answer: more than $373,000 and an average of $1,117,000. The fourth quintile of BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-868184982003-01-01T23:03:00.000-08:002003-01-01T23:16:14.000-08:00For The Record: Statistic of the Decade (so far):
Happy New Year. I'll be back to active blogging soon. For now, I'll ring in the new year with the first of what I hope will be a regular feature of Robbed By A Fountain Pen - noteworthy facts, statistics, or quotes - just For The Record. I want this to be the first:
During the most recent presidential election a Time magazine-CNN poll asked BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-866872532002-12-29T22:27:00.000-08:002002-12-29T22:42:10.000-08:00War in the West.
Blaine Harden and Douglas Jehl have great color in their long feature today about the growing conflict between ranchers and the energy industry in the mountain west. Here's a sample:
Ranchers like Tweeti Blancett, a sixth-generation New Mexican, warn that a fragile balance between production and conservation is falling badly out of whack.
"We are a multiple-use land, and we BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-866868682002-12-29T22:15:00.000-08:002002-12-29T22:19:48.000-08:00Urban Cowboy.
This year, President Bush's Christmas card is postmarked "Crawford, TX," because Bush wanted to demonstrate that "he's not a captive of Washington," writes Eleanor Clift. (See also this earlier NYT piece.) But as Clift writes, there's more to the story:
But the record 1.7 million cards the Bushes sent were too much to handle for the Crawford post office, which is a two-person BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-866845762002-12-29T21:04:00.000-08:002002-12-29T21:04:35.000-08:00Santa Clause.
Who says environmentalists are unreasonable? Last week, New Jersey Environmental Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell issued a directive welcoming Santa's reindeer into the state. First grade children had written Campbell out of concern that the state's ban on importating deer and elk would be applied to reindeer.
The students feared that the ban, which was designed to guard against BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-864636772002-12-23T19:58:00.000-08:002002-12-23T20:04:01.000-08:00Irony of the Day.
Check out the table Federal Tax Burdens and Expenditures by State (via Atrios). What it shows is that the most populous states tend to pay more in taxes to the federal government than they get back in spending, while the least populous states tend to pay less in taxes than they get back in spending. Ironically, people in the least populous states tend to be more conservative andBJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-864635592002-12-23T19:55:00.000-08:002002-12-23T19:56:03.000-08:00Respect for the Troops?
I'm speechless. With our men and women in uniform preparing for war in Iraq, the White House wants to cut military pay raises. (As Kos points out, this comes on the heels of Bush Administration moves to cut funding for veterans and reinstate bonuses for political appointees.) I guess they need the money for Star Wars.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-864631652002-12-23T19:43:00.000-08:002002-12-23T19:43:51.343-08:00Top Ten Things About Bill Frist You Didn't Hear on the Weekend Talk Shows.
Liberal Oasis has the goods.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-863718562002-12-21T13:13:00.000-08:002002-12-21T13:15:50.000-08:00The Party of ...
If you missed Michael Kinsley's recent Slate piece "How Reaganomics Became Rubinomics: The bizarre Republican swoon for deficit spending," go read it now. Perhaps I'm naive, but I'm wondering how these people even call themselves Republicans.
In recent weeks we've seen how the GOP has left to the dustbins of history its claim to being the Party of Lincoln (Trent Lott) and the BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-863462882002-12-20T19:25:00.000-08:002002-12-20T19:31:16.000-08:00Blurting Out What We Really Think.
Sometimes, a quote jumps right out at you. Ron Harris (AP) reports that Hollywood has gone to court to block a company from selling its DVD backup copy software.
Seven major motion picture studios filed a counterclaim Thursday in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California against 321 Studios, makers of DVD Copy Plus and DVD X Copy.
The software soldBJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-863461662002-12-20T19:21:00.000-08:002002-12-20T19:24:17.000-08:00Area Man Joins the ACLU and the EFF.
John Markoff and John Schwartz (NYT) report that the Administration will support comprehensive internet monitoring by the government:
The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users.
(I'm not kidding - IBJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-863461212002-12-20T19:20:00.000-08:002002-12-20T19:20:35.163-08:00Yep, You've Got That Right.
A reader email to Altercation points out Bush Inc.'s contrasting approaches to science in response to two global issues - climate change and "Star Wars." On global warming, "one must have rock-solid scientific evidence before undertaking any action." But on missile defense, "it’s prudent to spend $1.5 billion on unproven technology (figuring you can fix as you go alongBJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-863006782002-12-19T19:19:00.000-08:002002-12-19T19:28:59.000-08:00Poindexter Awareness.
Paul Boutin (Wired) reports:
The head of the government's Total Information Awareness project, which aims to root out potential terrorists by aggregating credit-card, travel, medical, school and other records of everyone in the United States, has himself become a target of personal data profiling.
Online pranksters, taking their lead from a San Francisco journalist, are BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-863005362002-12-19T19:16:00.000-08:002002-12-19T19:18:31.000-08:00Update: The Digital Millenium Copyright Act in the Wake of ElcomSoft.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., says ElcomSoft's acquittal doesn't sway him away from wanting to change the DMCA. (Click here or here for articles about the ElcomSoft acquittal.) Meanwhile, Blogcritics is involved with requests for exemptions from the DMCA with both Lawmeme and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Click this BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-862999452002-12-19T19:01:00.000-08:002002-12-19T19:01:34.746-08:00Pro-Environment Republicans Wanted - Again.
During the mid-1990s, when the Clinton/Gore Administration and (most) Democrats in Congress fought against, and eventually prevailed against, the Gingrich/DeLay effort to roll back 25 years of environmental standards, a couple of dozen Republicans provided critical support. Led by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), these pro-environment Republicans providedBJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-862856592002-12-19T12:49:00.000-08:002002-12-19T12:51:15.000-08:00New Blogcritics Entry Up - "New Ground Zero Designs Are Inspiring."
I just posted a new Blogcritics entry. I am neither an expert in architecture nor a New Yorker, so I wouldn't normally tackle this subject, but I just visited the slide shows for the new ground zero designs and several of them took my breath away - figuratively and literally. Since that's exactly what this location needs - BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-862601552002-12-18T23:25:00.000-08:002002-12-18T23:25:53.470-08:00Bush Administration Isolated at Population Talks.
A couple of days ago, I noted that the U.S. had threatened to pull the rug out from under the historic 1994 international population agreement because certain pieces of the program might be interpreted as condoning abortion. Vijay Joshi (AP) reports that everyone else disagreed:
The United States lost a vote at an international conference BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-862599882002-12-18T23:20:00.000-08:002002-12-18T23:20:40.000-08:00Former Child Star Adam Rich Busted.
"Eight Is Enough" star Adam Rich, 34, was arrested today "after he drove onto a closed highway lane and nearly struck a California Highway Patrol car." I know what you're thinking. Adam Rich is 34!?!?BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-862599422002-12-18T23:18:00.000-08:002002-12-18T23:18:53.010-08:00Boss Hog.
For more on the factory farms & clean water story check out John Nielsen's NPR story. To get a feel for how this new rule will play out on the ground, see this Des Moines Register article. For background, see the Pulitzer Prize-winning series "Boss Hog" by Pat Stith, Joby Warrick and Melanie Sill, which first appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer February 19,21,22,24 and 26, 1995. (BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-862070012002-12-17T22:29:00.000-08:002002-12-17T22:31:23.000-08:00Hometown Duo.
Cool: My hometown school board in Iowa Falls, Iowa (pop. 6000?) votes for a feasibility study to evalauate the potential for wind power on school grounds.
Not so cool: The Administration releases its new clean water rules for factory farms (confined animal feeding operations, of CAFOs), but initial reports indicate they are watered down (bad pun not intended). My home state SenatorBJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-862067382002-12-17T22:21:00.000-08:002002-12-17T22:21:21.806-08:00Wetlands Dodge a Bullet.
By a 4-4 vote, the Supreme Court votes to "preserve the Clean Water Act as a tool against an increasingly common method of filling wetlands."BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-861392762002-12-16T16:58:00.000-08:002002-12-19T18:42:17.000-08:00The Dixiecrat Double Entendre Blues.
Joe Conason argues it is “time to revisit John Aschroft's connections with the neo-Confederates.” He writes:
Ashcroft has never convincingly explained why he told the editors of Southern Partisan -- a periodical known for repeatedly praising the assassination of Abraham Lincoln -- that he admires their "traditionalist" defense of "Southern patriots" like BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860983402002-12-15T23:36:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:39:35.000-08:00Most Significant Story of the Week?
Yesterday, I linked the Reuters story on Toyota’s and Honda’s introduction of fuel cell vehicles. Tom Redburn, writing in the NYT, thinks it might have been the most important story in recent days: "Which events of recent days are likely to have the most significant long-term impact on American business and the economy? To my mind, it was not the Bush BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860982922002-12-15T23:34:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:34:51.073-08:00Catching up on Technology, Media and Civil Liberties Stories.
Yesterday, in my return to blogging after a minor hiatus, I listed a string of environmental news stories I found interesting while I was gone. Today I’m taking note of good recent pieces on music, technology, copyright, privacy and civil liberties. Again, I’ll enter them separately for future linking:BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860982332002-12-15T23:33:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:33:51.000-08:00Tim O'Reilly, one of the best (and most successful) publishers of tech books offers seven lessons from his experience that contradict most of what mainstream copyright holders (or at least their trade associations) seem to believe about electronic file sharing:
Lesson 1: Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.
Lesson 2: Piracy is progressive taxation.
BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860981892002-12-15T23:31:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:32:10.000-08:00The Bush Administration has “opened a sharp debate over a landmark family-planning agreement during a United Nations conference this week, angering several of its allies, European and Asian diplomats said today. The skirmish has been taking place at a United Nations regional family-planning conference in Bangkok, where the United States has threatened to withdraw its support for a 1994 BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860981052002-12-15T23:29:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:29:25.116-08:00The Free Expression Policy Project has published a comprehensive report on copyright in the electronic age called “The Progress of Science And Useful Arts: Why Copyright Today Threatens Intellectual Freedom.” The report, which I’m still digesting, seeks to answer questions such as “What is ‘fair use’?” and “What does it mean for a creative work to enter the ‘public domain’?” and explain “why BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860980802002-12-15T23:28:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:28:42.286-08:00USA Today ran an editorial on how the music industry fight to block internet file sharing is counterproductive without a corresponding strategy to offer consumers a good product at a fair price: “A better alternative for recording companies is to enlist music fans, not fight them, by offering ‘better than free’ services. ... The music industry can better lure consumers by treating them as ardent BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860980492002-12-15T23:27:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:27:41.723-08:00Click here for a good critique of Hollywood's "Broadcast Flag" proposal, prepared by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The FCC is taking comments othe Broadcast Flag at the behest of Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, author of the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA). EFF describes the CBDTPA as "a sweeping proposal that would require technologists to seek BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860979952002-12-15T23:26:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:26:07.910-08:00For a funny (but scary) article on the consequences of the CBDTPA, check out this piece from the NYT about how Barbie is a copyright pirate. “In the name of safeguarding intellectual property, recording, movie and television interests went after Napster and its ilk. Then they took aim at consumer electronics makers. Their Public Enemy No. 3 may be Mia Singletary. To them, she is a diabolical BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860979652002-12-15T23:25:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:25:23.050-08:00Michelle Goldberg (Salon) has a good piece on how the Bush-Ashcroft police state agenda is bringing together traditional conservatives (the kind that still opposes big government) and ACLU liberals in opposition to programs like TIA. I’ve been wondering for a while what happened to the Republican party that supported personal liberties and distrusted government. Perhaps that party has some life BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860979272002-12-15T23:24:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:24:38.000-08:00Charles Lane had an interesting article in the Washington Post way back at the beginning of the month. Something Ted Olsen said keeps gnawing at me, so I'm going to blog it even though I'm late to the party. (Plus, I want to refer to the quote in the post just below this one.) In the article, Lane reports how the Bush administration is determined to have terrorism suspects punished via an BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860977612002-12-15T23:18:00.000-08:002002-12-16T19:34:36.000-08:00Think there’s no more discrimination in the world? Two academics (at the University of Chicago and M.I.T.) ran an experiment to test employment discrimination based on race. As reported by the NYT:
They selected 1,300 help-wanted ads from newspapers in Boston and Chicago and submitted multiple resumes from phantom job seekers. The researchers randomly assigned the first names on the resumes, BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860977072002-12-15T23:16:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:16:04.590-08:00Julie Hilden has an essay on FindLaw.com arguing that “linking” should be immune from lawsuits.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860976752002-12-15T23:14:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:15:23.000-08:00Farhad Manjoo (Salon) has a feature on Craig Newmark, operator of the indispensable Craigslist website (link at left) and plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to establish that “copying” music or film for his own enjoyment is “fair use.” (See here and here for some of my other entries on this subject. My permalinks are messed up for some old entries, so you’ll have to scroll down - look for the word "BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860976442002-12-15T23:13:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:13:38.103-08:00Tom Tomorrow shows how nefarious ideas enter the political mainstream.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860976182002-12-15T23:12:00.001-08:002002-12-15T23:12:57.620-08:00Krugman has an interesting piece on an overlooked trend: the growing lack of competition among internet service providers, particularly for high-speed connections. Because local phone service (and cable) is a natural monopoly, there will only be effective competition where government regulation ensures it. For dial-up service, local phone companies are required to allow competing service BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860975902002-12-15T23:12:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:12:20.806-08:00Farhad Manjoo (Salon Premium - subscription required) reports the “technology optimist” view of TIA, headlined “Is Big Brother our only hope against bin Laden?”BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860975302002-12-15T23:10:00.000-08:002002-12-15T23:11:40.000-08:00Hendrik Hertzberg (Talk of the Town, New Yorker) ran a great piece on the new Total Information Awareness office. It’s great not only because he does a great job shining a spotlight on the creepy nature of the program and its chosen symbols, but also because he manages to use the phrase “Unfortunately, Bush doesn't know Dick” in a news article. That’s Philip K. Dick, the author, a man whose BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860107282002-12-14T17:27:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:27:16.000-08:00Catching up with Environmental News.
Yes, I’ve been on hiatus for a while, but I’ve been saving a bunch of environmental stories that shouldn’t fall completely through the cracks. Following are some of my favorites from the past couple of weeks:BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860106812002-12-14T17:25:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:26:20.000-08:00Canada enacts “Species at Risk Act” law that will “protect the more than 400 species at risk in Canada and their critical habitat. The new legislation will come into force in 2003.”BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860106552002-12-14T17:24:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:24:49.000-08:00For national forests, the only good news we’ve had for a while: a federal court reinstated the Clinton/Gore Roadless Policy for National Forests, even though the Bush Administration refused to defend it in court. The decision reverses a lower court order barring the rule’s implementation. As the court said, “Roadless areas in our national forests also help conserve some of the last unspoiled BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860105992002-12-14T17:22:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:22:39.000-08:00Mike Allen and Eric Pianin (Washington Post) do a good job with Bush plan to accelerate the “cutting of trees and brush in national forests by curtailing environmental reviews and judicial oversight, with the aim of reducing wildfires fueled by overgrowth,” except that there’s not really any evidence that the plan is the best way to protect against harmful wildfires ... and quite a bit of BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860105482002-12-14T17:20:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:20:23.216-08:002002 will go down in the books as the second warmest year to date. Since record keeping of global temperatures began in 1867, only 1998 was hotter.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860103942002-12-14T17:14:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:19:29.000-08:00A new University of Colorado study suggests that "salvage" logging of downed trees from storm-damaged areas may do more damage to the forest than it does good. The study comes just as the Bush Administration rolled out regulatory changes designed to promote salvage logging in “fire-damaged public forests.”
(Links: Associated Press and ENS.)BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860102522002-12-14T17:09:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:31:49.000-08:00The Prius has become a status symbol. (Click here for my posts on Tom Friedman buying a Prius after 9-11 and Brad DeLong running the numbers on Prius economics.)
Update: My permalinks are temporarily (I hope) messed up - try this one for the Friedman piece (scroll down) and this one for DeLong.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860102172002-12-14T17:08:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:08:31.566-08:00Canada votes to ratify the Kyoto Treaty.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860102062002-12-14T17:07:00.001-08:002002-12-14T17:07:53.393-08:00The Christian Science Monitor shines the spotlight on a topic that is bound to get a lot of attention in coming years as small towns and farmers confront large suburban-style subdivisions: rural sprawl. (Via Grist Magazine.)BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860101742002-12-14T17:07:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:07:03.880-08:00A Bush-appointed federal judge ruled that the GAO does not have the right to sue the Administration to obtain information about the secret meetings held by the Cheney-led energy task force. This is the second setback in two weeks for those hoping to find out who the Administration met with while formulating its plan, after an appeals court stayed a lower court’s decision that the government had BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860101552002-12-14T17:06:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:06:14.973-08:00The International Center for Technology Assessment, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace sued the U.S. EPA for failing to tackle global warming. Under the Clean Air Act, “EPA is required to limit all air pollution from automobiles that ‘may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.’" (Links: press release, complaint.)BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860101312002-12-14T17:05:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:34:05.000-08:00Douglas Gantenbein has a good piece in Slate on “the lousy economics of Bush's new forest policy.” (Some of his arguments are similar to points I made about the NFMA reg revisions here. I also commented on an earlier Slate piece of his on forest fire policy here.)
Update: Again, my permalink seems to be messed up. The earlier Gantenbein link is on this page (most of the way down).BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860100932002-12-14T17:04:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:04:23.690-08:00The Billings Gazette reports that a number of environmental groups filed suit “challenging the National Park Service's continuing delays in implementing a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.”BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860100612002-12-14T17:03:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:03:31.940-08:00The Bush Administration convenes a policy conference to talk about global warming and makes the case for a decade of research before doing anything. Isn’t that what his dad said back in 1990?BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860100372002-12-14T17:02:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:02:28.250-08:00Toyota and Honda launch fuel cell cars - and get an order from the University of California.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860100292002-12-14T17:01:00.001-08:002002-12-14T17:01:59.953-08:00Two more climate change studies from ENS: “Arctic Sea Ice May Vanish this Century” and “Ice Core Analysis Shows Western Canada Warming.” BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860100122002-12-14T17:01:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:01:17.250-08:00“Extractive” industry lobbyists just can’t wait for the next Congress to convene.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860099962002-12-14T17:00:00.000-08:002002-12-14T17:00:25.453-08:00HP announces support for a new e-waste bill in the California legislature that would “require PC manufacturers to bear the cost of disposing of discarded computers.” This is big news because resistance from HP and other Silicon Valley companies helped kill a similar measure during the last session, but insiders now think it will become law. Because California is both very large and home to much BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860099742002-12-14T16:59:00.000-08:002002-12-14T16:59:44.170-08:00The only pro-environment legislation to make it through Congress this year? According to President Bush's signing statement, the “North American Wetlands Conservation Act will be reauthorized for five years. The law authorizes federal money to match donations from sportsmen, state wildlife agencies, conservationists and landowners. Since 1991, more than $462 million in federal grants have helped BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860099352002-12-14T16:58:00.000-08:002002-12-14T16:58:20.513-08:00Roger Ballentine and Jan Mazurek of the Progressive Policy Institute have a smart piece in the DLC magazine. The two describe one of the key flaws in the Bush Administration’s “Clear Skies” initiative - its failure to address carbon dioxide pollution - and make the case for a better solution: bipartisan legislation that has been introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sen. Lincoln Chafee (BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860099022002-12-14T16:57:00.001-08:002002-12-14T16:57:37.793-08:00Yet another report on shrinking glaciers triggers a NYT editorial on how even slight changes in global temperature can have dramatic consequences - in this case, for people in the Andes whose fresh water supply depends on glaciers.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860098812002-12-14T16:57:00.000-08:002002-12-14T16:57:02.090-08:00Matthew Wald (NYT) explains why Clean Air Act debates often break along geographical (as opposed to partisan) lines - it’s the wind.BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860098682002-12-14T16:56:00.000-08:002002-12-14T16:56:21.276-08:00The U.S. pulled out of a U.N. conference to finalize an international agreement to provide the public with greater access to information about sources of pollution. This is unfortunate for enviros who think people have a right to know about pollution that affects their lives, but it’s also unfortunate for conservatives who advocate free market solutions to environmental problems - because a BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-860043472002-12-14T13:49:00.000-08:002002-12-14T13:50:55.000-08:00Now Playing: Ron Carter and Richard Galliano: Panamanhattan.
I halfway forgot I owned this CD until I noticed it today, but I really like it. Ron Carter, of course, is one of the most prolific and talented bassists of the past 40 years. Richard Galliano is a French accordianist. I'm sure this is the only accordian jazz CD I own. I like it because it has sort of a gypsy carnival vibe, but it BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-853661002002-12-01T23:04:00.000-08:002002-12-01T23:28:09.000-08:00Flying Too Close to the Sun.
We fried four turkeys Thursday. I think they're digested by now. There were about 12 of us eating off and on from 2 PM to midnight, with about as many people coming and going along the way. We ate 48 pounds of turkey, we did. That seems like a lot, but then this turkey was really, really good.
We also fried twinkies. (Here's the recipe, which was originally BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-853659742002-12-01T22:59:00.000-08:002002-12-01T23:03:33.000-08:00Bush Revisions to National Forest Planning Rules - Unclear on the Concept of National Forests?
Maybe it was just a coincidence that the Bush Administration released its long-awaited proposed rewrite to the National Forest Management Act planning regulations on the eve of Thanksgiving, when people tend to pay little attention to the news. But I doubt it.
I was meaning to spend some quality time BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-853246952002-12-01T00:28:00.000-08:002002-12-01T00:39:57.000-08:00Now Playing - Johnny Cash's Louisiana Hayride Archives.
The Louisiana Hayride label releases songs recorded live on the radio program of the same name that ran weekly from 1948 to 1957 and monthly into the 1980s on station KWKH in Shreveport Louisiana. The terrific Johnny Cash album (available on emusic.com) captures 15 songs recorded in the 50s and 60s including great versions of I Walk the BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-853238722002-11-30T23:51:00.000-08:002002-12-01T00:00:18.000-08:00More Timber, Less Fish.
The Bush Administration proposed new changes to the Northwest Forest Plan adopted by President Clinton so that timber sales in National Forests and in BLM land would no longer have to consider the harm that logging would cause to salmon populations. The Administration is claiming, apparently with a straight face, that its changes are designed merely to restore the BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-853104892002-11-30T16:31:00.000-08:002002-11-30T16:38:52.000-08:00Priorities, Priorities.
So let me get this straight. Before leaving town, Congress managed to enact special help for needy insurance companies and drug manufacturers, but couldn't manage to extend unemployment benefits to the 800,000 Americans that will lose their benefits just three days after Christmas? And the Administration is preparing for war with Iraq while simultaneously arguing in BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-853089502002-11-30T15:37:00.000-08:002002-11-30T15:43:53.000-08:00Letting It Rip.
Al Gore’s interview with Josh Bensen of the New York Observer was the talk of the town this week. Most people immediately focused on Gore’s description of how certain elements of the so-called “liberal media” are in fact little more than right-wing partisan front groups:
"The media is kind of weird these days on politics, and there are some major institutional voices that are, BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-852245932002-11-28T13:06:00.000-08:002002-11-28T13:06:44.530-08:00Environmental News Under the Radar.
Three dispatches from the Environmental News Network:
Senators Question Yucca Mountain Science
Citing evidence of fraud and abuse, Nevada's U.S. senators have asked for a federal investigation into defects in the scientific process within the Yucca Mountain project.
Senators Harry Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, referred to a recent story in BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-852243012002-11-28T12:57:00.000-08:002002-11-28T12:57:25.616-08:00The Big Shakedown.
It used to be that lobbyists courted legislators. These days in Washington, it’s the other way around. The Post’s Thomas Edsall reports:
Major industries such as accounting, aerospace, commercial banking, defense, HMOs and pharmaceuticals have abandoned their tradition of bipartisan campaign contributions in favor of a commitment to the GOP, a trend that could deepen the BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-851944822002-11-27T20:16:00.000-08:002002-11-27T20:20:48.000-08:00Making Criminals Out of Fans.
This doesn't strike me as a particularly good way for the music and movie business to cultivate a new generation of fans:
In the most severe crackdown yet on online piracy at a college campus, the United States Naval Academy has seized 100 computers from students who are suspected of having downloaded unauthorized copies of music files over the Internet. ...
The BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-850944132002-11-25T21:38:00.000-08:002002-11-25T21:39:45.000-08:00Now Playing - Country Blues Bottleneck Guitar Classics: 1926-1937 (Yazoo Records 1972).
Pretty cool indeed. (I downloaded the album - legally - from emusic.com. Here's the All Music Guide Review.)BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-850936272002-11-25T21:17:00.000-08:002002-11-25T21:17:32.760-08:00Offshore Tax Havens Protected by Homeland Security Bill.
The New Republic traces the debate over closing the "corporate inversion" tax loophole through which companies reincorporate in the Cayman Islands and similar locations to avoid paying taxes. One might think that, following 9-11, such tax evasion might be considered unpatriotic, and indeed, the Senate voted this fall (during the campaign) BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-850440832002-11-24T23:38:00.000-08:002002-11-25T00:02:36.000-08:00In Case You Missed 'Em.
I’ve been out of town for a couple of days - here are a few links from the past week that I found worthwhile:
Nicholas Confessore reports on how Paul Krugman became “the most important political columnist in America.” As Confessore says, Krugman is great at “writing things before it is okay to write them.”
Krugman's primacy is based largely on his dominance of a BJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3694408.post-848521942002-11-20T20:21:00.000-08:002002-11-20T20:21:18.856-08:00And Now for Some Important News.
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Two of the nation's top high school basketball players have signed national letters of intent to play for Duke.
Luol Deng and Kris Humphries committed to play for the sixth-ranked Blue Devils during the early signing period that ended Wednesday, coach Mike Krzyzewski said.BJnoreply@blogger.com