by Maitri
on December 11, 2004
Sometimes I wonder why I bother getting out of bed in the morning:
From Norm W, “The people who brought you Sonny Bono now are giving you the Induce Law. Prohibiting the manufacture or sale of any device which might be ‘reasonably’ assumed to ‘induce’ anyone into violating any law or regulation.” Added Norm cheekily, “A VCR is a good example.”
Also the British government put out a report that recommends tough action to tackle [copyright] pirates. When MSH suggested on [UPD-discuss] that this, along with Australia’s decision, is only the beginning of the war on the public domain, JD suggested that the report doesn’t suggest enacting any new legislation, but “concentrates on extending powers to enforce existing copyright laws.”
To which I replied, “By eliminating, for instance, photocopiers and scanners. Just as a start.”
Fighting this bullshit is why I get out of bed everyday.
by Maitri
on December 9, 2004
Is Liberalism Dead?: Lakshmi Chaudhry of Alternet interviews Adam Werbach of the Sierra Club and the Apollo Alliance on the relevance of liberalism today.
“When I talk about fulfillment, I’m really talking about something I want to believe in and fight for. It should be a powerful antidote to fundamentalism, be as powerful as fundamentalism is to people. It should be unchallengeable in the way liberalism was in the post-Depression era.
“I’m trying very hard not to go all the way into this. I see this as the winter of liberalism. We need to first accept that the liberal project is dead. We need to achieve that so we leave space for something else to grow. Progressivism is almost just a placeholder for what hasn“t been created yet. “
by Maitri
on December 9, 2004
Maaaaking fiends … maaaking fiends … this is great!
Making Fiends
Take note: My middle name is now Vendetta.
by Maitri
on December 7, 2004
With the US military death toll in Iraq reaching the 1000 mark (as if a nice, round 4 digit number makes a goddamned bit of difference) and a phony Iraqi election around the corner, it is just befitting to hear that even the CIA doesn’t think this war is going anywhere.
In the day and age when Nixon and Reagan are venerated as visionaries, those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it.
From the NYTimes:
“… over all, the officials described the station chief’s cable in particular as an unvarnished assessment of the difficulties ahead in Iraq. They said it warned that the security situation was likely to get worse, including more violence and sectarian clashes, unless there were marked improvements soon on the part of the Iraqi government, in terms of its ability to assert authority and to build the economy.”
Also enlightening is CIA head Goss’s comment that his agency’s position is to “provide the intelligence as we see it.”
