September 20, 2003
Legal music downloads.
Via
Kuro5hin.org is
this page with links to tens of thousands of legal music downloads. Along with links to the music itself are discussions of the various issues involved.
And yes, despite all of the corporate propaganda, it is perfectly legal to put music on the web and let people download it. Same as listening to the radio or watching broadcast television.
Where was George on 9/11?
There's an interesting article by Eric Alterman in the
Nation, reviewing where
George Bush was on 9/11 and what he did. There are numerous conflicting and inconsistent reports. It's a nice overview.
Historical female pirates.
Via the excellent
Kalilily Time is this fascinating page of
Historical female pirates. Some fascinating true stories as well as reviews of some notable fictional ones. Some ladies you really, really don't want to mess with. Elaine of Kalily explains.
In general, it seems, gutsy women don't choose pirateering unless (1) it becomes their absoslutely only escape from lives of enforced quiet desperation or (2) they seek revenge for the some ill-fate that overcame their mates.
Anger turned inward becomes depression. Anger turned outward makes for some feisty formidable ferocious willful wenchy women.
Further browsing finds a
Pirate Web Ring. I guess all of these pirate links stem from the utterly absurd
Talk Like A Pirate Day, which I hope is followed by a Get A Life day. Or at least a Get A Boat day. I remember I really wanted to be a pirate when I was a little kid. I think it was my favorite Halloween costume. I've mostly outgrown it, I would hope, although I have to admit that there are quite a few people in this world that I would just love to see walk the plank.
September 19, 2003
PeaceBlogs.org.
Via the just-referenced
weblog wannabe, is this site devoted to
Peace Blogs from all over the world. You may not agree with most of what they say, I certainly don't, but it's nice to know some people aren't afraid to speak out against the madness.
I put this under the "wars" category. :) I guess I should have a "peace" category, but would there be enough entries to make it worthwhile?
2003 Bloggie awards.
If you want to check out some interesting blogs try the
2003 Bloggies, the 3rd annual awards given in 30 categories. All selected by public nomination and voting. Also check out the awards from previous years; most of those blogs are still around. Courtesy of
Fairvue Central. These came out a while ago, but the links are still interesting.
Weblog of the year is
little. yellow. different. I'm not sure I see why, but there you are. A personal favorite is
weblog wannabe, winner of the Best Asian Weblog all three years. I don't agree with most of these choices, but I do with that one. Here's a great quote I just found on her site.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." --Mark Twain
He's quite right of course. People are always talking about the trials and tribulations of choosing a career as an artist, actor or anything else creative. But I don't think I've ever heard anyone express regret about that choice. Regrets about not being able to "make it" (whatever that is), or such. But not about trying. Not even once. Sure have heard lots and lots of people express regrets about choosing business careers, or about spending their whole lives working the same job. Beginning with my grandfather.
IMF says dollar could collapse at any moment.
Guardian article. The IMF's chief economist says that the "colossal" American trade deficit could cause the dollar to collapse at any moment.
The International Monetary Fund yesterday warned that the colossal United States trade deficit was a noose around the neck of the economy, emphasising that the once mighty dollar could collapse at any moment.
Arguing that the world's big economies were already too dependent on the willingness of American consumers to live beyond their means, the IMF said the US could not continue to run a current account deficit of 5% of GDP.
The IMF's chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said that it was just a matter of time before the gap closed, tipping the dollar into a potentially steep fall.
"If we were looking at a poor developing country, the world gives them just enough rope to hang themselves. A country like the United States, they give them enough rope to tie the noose around their neck several times. But it does happen in the end," he said.
In its twice yearly report on the world economy, the Fund warns that even a controlled slide in the dollar's value is likely to slow US growth and unless other countries picked up the slack, the global economy would suffer.
Mr Rogoff said the collapse of world trade talks last weekend in Cancun could spell disaster for a global economy already too dependent on unbalanced growth in the US. Describing the breakdown as a "tragedy", he said global poverty would rise if protectionism took root in the world's biggest economies.
They also report that old-fashioned attitudes within the Eurozone would continue to stifle growth there.
The report was highly critical of Europe's stagnating economies, blaming governments for failing to embrace deep structural reforms of their labour markets and welfare states.
"Reforms to improve the competitiveness of European labour and product markets could yield significant dividends in terms of regional output," the report said.
It also warned that an overrigid application of Europe's fiscal rulebook could push the eurozone deeper into trouble.
Chancellor Gordon Brown echoed the IMF's criticisms of the eurozone in an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, arguing that the credibility of Europe was at stake.
Demanding wide-ranging change to policies "that have held back our continent for too long", Mr Brown added: "Reform is not just desirable, it is an urgent necessity."
The chancellor said: "Having created a single market in theory, we should make it work in reality - and help it spread competition, cut prices, increase consumer choice and deliver higher productivity."
I find the phrase "once-mighty dollar" rather succinct.
September 18, 2003
Friedman now trying to blame France.
In his latest effort to find someone other than the US to blame for the problems in the world, imperial apologist Thomas Friedman has decided that we are now at
War with France, if you can believe that.
It's a bizarre article, even for Friedman. Apparently the propaganda line is that anyone who disagrees with the US is an "enemy".
It's time we Americans came to terms with something: France is not just our annoying ally. It is not just our jealous rival. France is becoming our enemy.
I guess in a sense he's right. The hostility of the Americans to the rest of the world IS slowly and surely making the rest of the world into an enemy. But his basic argument remains that Islamic radicals somehow represent a threat to the rest of the world, and that therefore anyone who doesn't agree with this has something wrong with them.
What is so amazing to me about the French campaign — "Operation America Must Fail" — is that France seems to have given no thought as to how this would affect France. Let me spell it out in simple English: if America is defeated in Iraq by a coalition of Saddamists and Islamists, radical Muslim groups — from Baghdad to the Muslim slums of Paris — will all be energized, and the forces of modernism and tolerance within these Muslim communities will be on the run. To think that France, with its large Muslim minority, where radicals are already gaining strength, would not see its own social fabric affected by this is fanciful.
"No thought." Curious choice of phrase. Actually, it's the opposite. It's American aggression and belligerence that's fueling Islamic anger, and that is the problem. It's the US that is the threat to world peace as well as to world democracy, not anybody else.
Curiously though he doesn't even mention the real argument against France, which is their continued support for Palestinian terrorism. France is not America's enemy, but they do have to be considered one of Israel. They are financing the Palestinians, protecting them, and blocking efforts to cut off their funding and to hold them to account. But that's not directed at America, just at the Jews.
Columbia exempts US from war crimes.
Another
article from the Post-Intelligencer, curiously also dealing with legal liability, reports that the government of Columbia has agreed to exempt the US from possible prosecution for war crimes so that it can continue to receive aid and military assistance.
Colombia and the United States signed an accord that exempts Americans in the South American nation from prosecution before the new U.N. international war crimes court, the president's office here said.
Wednesday's agreement frees up military aid suspended in early July after Colombia failed to provide adequate guarantees that U.S. officials would not be handed over to the Brussels-based court.
The United States has given Colombia nearly $2.5 billion in the last three years to battle drug trafficking and a leftist rebel insurgency. About $5 million of the $600 million promised to Colombia this year was suspended.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's office said the accord was made possible because of provisions in an old bilateral deal that was used as a shield to safeguard U.S. officials in Colombia.
The Colombian government had expressed concern that failure to reach such an accord with Washington could put aid slated for 2004 at stake. Of the $575 million requested for Colombia, about $112 million could have been jeopardized.
The State Department stopped $48 million in aid to 35 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Central and South America after they failed to meet a July 1 deadline to exempt American troops and other personnel from prosecution before the new court.
This move is essential to continued American involvement in Columbia, where, in point of fact, the US is heavily engaged in military operations, including many that most observers would consider illegal under both American and international law.
Should Microsoft be held liable for security breaches?
The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer wonders whether Microsoft can be held legally liable for the problems caused by the numerous flaws in its software. It's an interesting question. There's no denying that they know about the problems, and have known for some time, and that they have repeatedly claimed that these problems are not that serious.
A defect is found in one of the world's most popular products. Less than a month later, its consequences emerge -- idling workers around the globe, causing huge losses for businesses and generally inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of people.
Under different circumstances, this scenario might be a class-action lawyer's dream. But the product in question is software, and the companies that make it claim special protections from liability through the licensing deals that come as a condition of using their programs.
Those protections help shield Microsoft Corp. and other software companies from paying what could conceivably amount to billions of dollars in damages. But they're coming under increased scrutiny amid a rising tide of computer viruses, many of which exploit known flaws in popular Microsoft programs.
Consumer advocates and some computer users argue that the protections should be ended or diminished to let businesses and people try to hold software makers at least partially liable for the effects of product flaws. Doing so, they say, would make companies such as Microsoft more accountable, resulting in programs with fewer defects.
It's also well known that technologically at least there is no reason for modern software to be susceptible to viruses or to have anywhere near this degree of insecurity. (I've been using a Mac for 19 years now and have never even seen a virus, much less been infected by one.)
The problem is, as the article discusses, is that software makers have bribed the powers that be to give them an exemption from consumer liability laws. That is, no matter how defective their products, they cannot be held responsible, not under any circumstances. I've developed software myself, and certainly don't see how it differs in any way from other types of products. Manufacturers should be held liable for producing defective products, software the same as any other type.
Anyway, it's a nice lengthy article, which goes into the problem in some detail.
Pathoheterodoxy.
"Criminals suffer from a psychological disturance we term 'pathoheterodoxy.' In an unjust society a man may violate laws for valid social or economic reasons. In a just society there are no valid reasons except mental illness. Recognizing this fact protects the violator as well as the society whose law he attacks. It affords the violator an opportunity to be quarantined until his illness can be expertly treated. Therefore you see how vital it is that investigators have their own psychological consciousness raised so that they may detect those subtle signs of the pathoheterodox before he, the deviant, has a chance to violate the law. It is our duty to spare society from injury and to save a sick man from the consequences of his acts."
The Guardian's experiment in combining news and blogging.
The
Guardian reports on its experimental use of blogs in covering the recent WTO fiasco. They have been using blogs to supplement their coverage, and to see if using blogs to focus on a particular issue could have any difference.
On a more trivial level, the end of the talks also marked the end - or at least the end of the first stage - of a Guardian experiment to link editorial comment with the emerging world of "blogging", or online journals on the internet.
It began on July 10 with a casual remark at the end of an economic dispatch suggesting that that there should be a web campaign to abolish all agricultural subsidies, possibly called something like kickAAS (kick all agricultural subsidies).
Following a large number of supportive emails (as well as a few abusive ones), we set up a blog, launching it on the same day as a Guardian editorial on the same subject. The editorial contained a link to the website.
Thanks to the leverage now commanded Guardian Unlimited's impressive global reach, this was read by a lot of concerned people around the world.
One of the reasons for the attention that it got could have been the novelty of a "serious" blog with a dedicated political purpose. This was at a time when Blogdom was wondering whether blogs could be use for serious, non navel-gazing purposes.
KickAAS was, of course, a predictable failure, and it had no effect at all on the Cancun talks. However, it brought people of all political persuasions from around the world together to discuss policy and tactics.
In this way, it may have raised awareness about the potential of blogs to further a cause, but there clearly needs to be a long term-strategy, as well as a tactical website, in place.
I don't feel it was a "failure" at all. On the contrary, it was a useful first step towards a new and better form of reporting, and a new and better form of social activism. If it was a "failure" it was only because they set up unrealistic expectations. Did they really expect that a few weeks of blogging would have that much effect, and that things would change overnight?
I like the way the Guardian is both reporting on blogs and using them themselves, but they still seem to have this elitist bias towards them. The term "navel-watching" says it all.
September 17, 2003
Scotland's top earners.
The
Scotsman is running a
series on the top 100 earners in Scotland. It illuminates several important economic trends. Artists and athletes are doing very well, but those doing best are those who provide basic everyday needs. And those doing the worst are the techies and computer types. Yes, the very worst.
There are no survivors of the “new economy” in the list. The plethora of paper millionaires who came to prominence on the back of the dotcom and telecoms bubbles in the mid Nineties have crumbled into the ether or, in the case of Chris Gorman, sold up and moved on to pastures new. Our study shows that Scotland’s wealthy earn their money from the life’s basics: food, textiles, oil and property.
The list is being released in parts, and the top earners are not yet identified. But I'll bet the number one is J.K. Rowling. Certainly writers and musicians are doing very well. Especially considering their industries are not considered "real" businesses and receive virtually no serious investment, or any of the long-term financial management and planning that other industries receive.
The list also points to a relative failure in Scotland to manage the arts. Despite it being peppered with artists, authors and actors there are no film directors or producers.
And while sports are doing well, they foresee some problems in this area.
A fifth of the list is occupied by men who earn their living with their feet, collectively taking home a whopping £28 million last year compared with a paltry £2 million earned by professional golfers, the only other sports people to make it on to the list.
But while today’s top football players dwarf boardroom pay, it remains to be seen whether their high earnings can be sustained. Golf’s economy is in good order, football’s is teetering precariously close to the edge.
Scotland’s two biggest clubs, Rangers and Celtic, have debts totalling £85 million. With television and transfer income drying up, reduced income from television and a stagnant transfer market, we could be witnessing the passing of a golden age for football salaries: it is highly unlikely there are enough Roman Abramoviches to save all of Scotland’s indebted clubs.
Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan tracks.
Via
Ethel the Blog, are 19 MP3's of Cash and Dylan singing a variety of tunes together. Some of Johnny's, some of Bob's, and a few traditionals, such as You Are My Sunshine. A bit sloppy in places, but indisputably live and worth a listen.
A soldier's doubt.
The
LA Times publishes a fascinating editorial from Tim Predmore, a soldier in Iraq,
Paths of Glory Lead to a Soldier's Doubt. In which he states rather uneqivocally how opposed he is to what's going on there, and what a waste it is. Amazing language from a soldier actually on duty. He calls this war "the ultimate atrocity."
For the last six months I have participated in what I believe to be the great modern lie: Operation Iraqi Freedom.
... From the moment the first shot was fired in this so-called war of liberation and freedom, hypocrisy reigned. After the broadcasting of recorded images of captured and dead U.S. soldiers over Arab television, American and British leaders vowed revenge while verbally assaulting the networks for displaying such vivid images. Yet within hours of the deaths of Saddam Hussein's two sons, the U.S. released horrific photographs of the two dead brothers for the world to view. Again, a "do as we say and not as we do" scenario.
As soldiers serving in Iraq, we have been told that our purpose here is to help the people of Iraq by providing them the necessary assistance militarily as well as in humanitarian efforts. Then tell me where the humanity was in the recent Stars and Stripes account of two children taken to a U.S. military camp by their mother, in search of medical care. The children had been unknowingly playing with explosive ordnance they had found and as a result were severely burned. The account tells how they, after an hourlong wait, were denied care by two U.S. military doctors. A soldier described the incident as one of many "atrocities" he had witnessed on the part of the U.S. military.
Thankfully I have not been a personal witness to any atrocities, unless of course you consider, as I do, this war to be the ultimate atrocity.
... This looks like a modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to rid the world of a demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and domination but a crusade to control another nation's natural resource. At least to me, oil seems to be the reason for our presence.
... There is only one truth, and it is that Americans are dying. There are 10 to 14 attacks on our servicemen and -women daily in Iraq, and it would appear that there is no end in sight.
I once believed that I served for a cause: "to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States." Now I no longer believe that; I have lost my conviction, as well as my determination. I can no longer justify my service for what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies.
Really not much I can add to this. If people don't believe the men and women actually serving there then who are they to believe?
September 15, 2003
A conservative grows up.
Joining the growing numbers of people who are starting to see the right-wing as the malevolent force that it is, longtime conservative Philip Gold
writes in Minnesota Law and Politics on his recent change of view.
Leaving an organization can be hard. Leaving a movement, harder. And leaving an idea — unless you realize that the movement has deserted the idea, and that it’s time to say so — traumatic.
The proximate cause of my recent departure from Discovery Institute, Seattle’s main conservative think tank, was my opposition to President Bush’s Iraq war. But I also left because I could no longer abide the purposes of the movement. Over the last several years, I’ve become sadly convinced that American conservatism has grown, for lack of a better word, malign. Not exactly a congenial conclusion for someone who started out with Goldwater in ’64 and ended up writing defense memos for Steve Forbes in 2000.
But this farewell is not about the Republican Party, which forms merely one symbiotic half of a larger entity, the Republocrats, dedicated über alles to the perpetuation of their power, their perks, their own prosperity and to treating the American people as passive, malleable consumers and servants of government. It’s about American conservatism in general — a 50-year movement that did some good, especially in taking down the Soviet Union, but ultimately splintered into several factions, each in its own way pernicious.
He goes on with some good specifics. An interesting read.
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