John Kenneth Galbraith

“Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”

That reminds me, isn’t there some sort of big political meeting going on in Boston right now?

In a previous post I led you to a hilarous little animation of Bush and Kerry singing “This Land Is Your Land” with highly modified lyrics. The original song was written by, of course, Woody Guthrie.

The present holders of the copyright are pissed off at the two brothers who created the animation and have threatened a lawsuit.

Now lawsuits are never funny but what makes this interesting is that Woody himself used these words as his standard copyright notice:

“This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”

Get more information on this over at Electronic Frontier Foundation.

(Via Boing Boingand also at J-Walk’s Blog)

Sitting in a windowless meeting room going through budget discussions.

Kill me, kill me now!

The US Senate Judiciary Committee is currently studying a bill that would make manufacturers liable for damages if they make products that could be used to steal copyrighted material.

Critics say the bill would effectively outlaw peer-to-peer networks and prohibit the development of new technologies, including devices like the iPod. The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act (S. 2560) was introduced last month by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The legislation would hold a company liable that “intentionally induces” a person to infringe copyright.

The bill is to fight piracy but, as usual, the lawmakers are taking a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

Let’s see, I’ve got a VCR, a Nomad, 2 cd burners, 1 dvd burner and a PVR. Guess I’d better take care of them, they might be hard to replace in the future.

Steven Seagal, he of the fruity ponytail and monosyllabic over the top, b-list movie fame, is a singer. Who knew? Who Cared?

It seems he’s a big thing in France – you know that country that for some reason thinks that Jerry Lewis is a God.

Read the hype and even listen to some tracks here.

Link loads awfully slowly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you gave up. While you’re waiting, you can check out Steven’s impressive body of work at IMDB.com

Arthur Schopenhauer

“We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.”

Click to enlarge
I took this last winter in the conservatory near my home here in Brampton. Came across the calico cat who pretty well owns the place. On a quiet Sunday morning, it seemed appropriate.

Most of the major newspapers in the US now require that you register before reading their content. This is not only time consuming but incredibly stupid. Bug Me Not, an add on for Firefox gives you access to a pool of signons to defeat this insanity.

To prove their point, Bug Me Not has produced a tongue in cheek registration form directed at those who work for or support such sites.

A few sample questions:

* Would you be willing to have an RFID chip inserted under your skin in exchange for a free, 12 month newspaper subscription?
* Out of ten how would you rate your partner’s satisfaction with your sexual performance