A Question for Lawrence Lessig

A friend of mine just emailed me a snippet of Andrew Sullivan's Blog which contained a link to an article by Lawrence Lessig.

It's a great article, and I think anyone even marginally interested in copyright, piracy, or intellectual property in general should read, and take heed.


I have a question for Professor Lessig (who has been one of my copyright heros ever since I started caring about it):

Professor,

I sometimes catch myself in my automobile singing Metallica's "Master of Puppets" at the top of my lungs. Now, most of the time the windows are rolled up, but occasionally I realize I have left one of them down. Inevitably, when that happens, I notice that someone else (in a car, on the sidewalk, etc.) is staring at me, quite obviously in awe of the balding, thirty-something white guy with the ability to death-grunt just like Hetfield (and yes, I realize that Hetfield is a likely balding forty-something white guy, but I'm just not as cool as him).

Should I be worried? Oh, goodness, I just realized I admitted to entertaining various passers-by with songs I do not own...



I'm afraid I already know the answer to my question. The recording industry has become so rabid that I'll probably have their jack-booted thugs on my doorstep when I get home today.



Anyway, read the article. Lessig is a prophet.

Thanks Congress!

Thanks for saving the stock market with your brilliant "we-had-to-do-something" bailout plan.


Idiots.

You've Got to be Kidding Me?

So they passed the idiot bailout bill, right?

And then what happens to the stock market? Well, wonder of wonders, it starts to tank again.

Great.

Mike Conaway said in a press release that he voted for this bailout package mainly because the stock market would tank if he didn't. I'll go ahead and quote him, for posterity's sake:

"After the vote on Monday, the stock market reacted very negatively to the defeat. Confidence in the short term lending facilities, particularly commercial paper markets and overnight lending between banks, had to be addressed."

Well, welcome to the real world, Mr. Conaway. Everybody saw the market drop on Monday. We all figured the same thing you did, at the time, that the market was reacting to the defeat of the bill. Except that it wasn't. It was obviously reacting to the possibility that this thing might pass. In fact, it recovered slightly after the bill failed to pass.

Similarly, all the MSM outlets were saying on Tuesday (when the market, ahem, rebounded nicely) that the market was responding to renewed efforts to pass a new bailout bill. They were saying this even though the market had trended down while you Congressmorons were working on the first bill.

Do you pork-barrel elites in DC really have the MSM in your back pocket, or what?


Well, now you have your answer. Congress is responsible now. I'm not blaming banks anymore, or mortgage lenders, or even the Enronization of our nation's businesses.

I'm blaming Congress. They have chosen to accept responsibility, and I for one will give it to them.



I can't believe we send these complete and total idiots to Washington to lead. I wouldn't trust them to mow my lawn.

Our Economy is Soooo Bad...

How bad is it?


It's so bad that our poor manufacturers of wooden arrows for children simply must have a tax-break.

Really.

No, I'm serious. Click the link already.

They added everything including the kitchen sink to this bill, most of which had nothing whatsoever to do with any economic "bailout" or "rescue plan" or whatever the political morons are calling it right now. Read the bill, too. You'll see all the pork in there. They didn't even try to hide it.

When the economy's down, the best way to help is to start throwing money around, I guess.



You know, it was interesting to me a couple of years ago when they passed the new bankruptcy laws. You know which ones I'm talking about. The ones that told American consumers, citizens, voters, workers, etc. that if they got into financial trouble, it didn't matter. They couldn't expect any help whatsoever from Poppa Government. As a matter of fact, they made it incredibly hard for folks to even file to restructure their debt.


And now, because we've got banks involved (and because those banks are intimately tied together with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle) we simply had to do something to help. Gasp! The only idiotic comment I expected but didn't hear was that we had to do it "for the children!!"


I am incredibly disgusted with Congress' bi-partisan shellacking of the American taxpayer.

Well, I'm gonna let my vote speak. Congressman Conaway, you've just lost a vote the next time you're up. Senator Cornyn, Senator Hutchison, same goes for the two of you. As a matter of fact, you've lost not only my vote, but the votes of every Texan I can convince.

You three, along with all of your fellow Congresspeople and Senators, have turned your backs on the hardworking people of this country, and put them into hock to bail out the truly undeserving.

Shame on you.