JWL.Freakwitch.net

January 26, 2007

yet another reason...

...that I love living in Maine. The Maine State Legislature passed a resolution refusing to participate in the Real ID Act.

It's worth reading both of those pages, especially the first as it is far more succinct.

January 11, 2007

Farewell, Bob

One of my favorite writers of all time, Robert Anton Wilson, apparently died early this morning.

As long time fans of RAW will know, this is not the first time RAW has died, and he is no doubt highly amused by the whole thing....

January 10, 2007

see, the world IS safer with Dems in Congress....

In the first few hours of their control of Congress, The House today passed a "9/11 security bill", which "implements some of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission."

Whew. I feel safer.

I've thought for a long time that one should not base governmental policy on fiction, much to the dismay of Christian neocon nutjobs who think the Bible should tell us how to run society. So the Dems are really making a difference. Have they revoked the Patriot Act? Have they sought a true investigation into the events of 9/11 (not that it matters, but it would be nice for SOMEONE in the government to say that the 9/11 Commission report is fiction)?

No.

Instead, they will intrude upon privacy even more, as now every shipping container that enters the US is eligible to be searched without warrant.

On another note, I ran into a christian Bu$hite supporter the other day. This doesn't often happen to me in Maine, in the circles I travel in. Whenever I encounter someone claiming to be both a Christian and a Bush supporter, I ask them this question: Can you name me one single, tangible thing that George W Bush has done in office that is in line with Christ's teachings in the Bible?

Not one of these people has ever come up with one single answer. They always evade my question.

I can't imagine why....

January 05, 2007

60 degrees in Maine, in January?

It's true. I'm sitting here in Portland Maine today, and at 2:15pm it is nearly 60 degrees.

Context is everything.

As I'm sitting here next to my wide-open window enjoying this bizarre weather, I read about how ExxonMobil was waging a tobacco-like disinformation campaign on global warming science:

"ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," said Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Director of Strategy & Policy. "A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco did for over 40 years."
Very much worth reading. At least today "everyone" recognizes that smoking tobacco is harmful to one's health. When will we realize that burning too much oil is harmful to the planet's health?

January 01, 2007

2 facts about intellectual property

So I saw 2 interesting things about intellectual property in my news readings today.

First, a blatant example of what happens when you blend draconian Information/IP policies with a neoliberal, globalized economy. From Britain:

Britons flying to America could have their credit card and email accounts inspected by the United States authorities following a deal struck by Brussels and Washington. By using a credit card to book a flight, passengers face having other transactions on the card inspected by the American authorities. Providing an email address to an airline could also lead to scrutiny of other messages sent or received on that account.
Hardly surprising, though. Gee. America wants to snoop on you. Go figure.

Second, and this is the fun one, the RIAA is suing a website called AllofMP3 for 1.65 trillion dollars. That's not a misprint:

As part of their claim, the labels are seeking $150,000 USD for each of the 11 million songs that were downloaded from June to October 2006 from the AllofMP3.com website.

"AllofMP3 understands that several U.S. record label companies filed a lawsuit against Media Services in New York," an unnamed "senior company official" stated. "This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3 does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3 operates legally in Russia. In the mean time, AllofMP3 plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws."

Interesting question of jurisdiction, no? If Russian companies are subject to American laws, then truly we do live in an age of Empire.