Every door that closes opens up a window. Perhaps not the window that is expected, but good ones nonetheless.

From the folks over at Lockergnome from this dude’s blog

I believe that any industry that is seeing a move of their intellectual assets to a digital medium will go through four basic stages: ignorance, panic, protection and litigation, quiet acceptance. This was the case with software in the 80s and 90s, is currently the case with music, and will soon be the case with movies. I suspect that other industries like the professional photography market are facing similar issues currently or have in the past.

I’m not sure who I should be mad at, but I stole today and I have to <semi-sarcasm>blame someone else</semi-sarcasm>.

NPR had an article some time in the last few days touting the iTunes revolution. It covered the ground that singles are outselling albums — the extreme opposite of what happens in record stores. I know the drive behind this situation personally. I’ve been “out” searching for the Chingy single Holidae In, hitting iTunes, eMusic and every half-assed service around with no luck. So, I stole it. I used my favorite p2p program to find a copy and I downloaded it. Chingy, his record label and iTunes are out money because somewhere in the chain some idiot thought he’d be better off not putting this song up for sale electronically. (There’s no listing for Chingy on any of the sites.)

Oh, well. Their loss.

In my heart-or-hearts I believe that there should be NO political parties and each candidate should stand/fall on his/her own convictions and ability to communicate them. The realist in me knows how out of reach this dream is, so I’ve “thrown away” several presidential votes trying to support candidates not in “the big two” parties. (Not really thrown away, since all the votes for Ross Perot and Ralph Nader wouldn’t have changed the electoral votes for Texas no matter how they were distributed — damned electoral system.) Now, the Bushies want to take things a step further and squelch the Democratic lawmakers.

The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers.
The decision was announced in an e-mail sent Wednesday to the staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. House committee Democrats had just asked for information about how much the White House spent making and installing the “Mission Accomplished” banner for President Bush’s May 1 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an e-mail titled “congressional questions” to majority and minority staff on the House and Senate Appropriations panels. Expressing “the need to add a bit of structure to the Q&A process,” he wrote: “Given the increase in the number and types of requests we are beginning to receive from the House and Senate, and in deference to the various committee chairmen and our desire to better coordinate these requests, I am asking that all requests for information and materials be coordinated through the committee chairmen [ who just happens to be in the GOP ] and be put in writing from the committee.”

Bush supports would declare the Dems had worn out their right to ask questions because they were abusing it. The truth is that without the special prosecutor around anymore, this is the only way to (try to) get straight answers from the White House. Of course, since this avenue isn’t under the court’s jurisdiction, the White House can permanently stall (or even lie in response to) any questions they receive. After starting a fight like this, they better pray they can hold their control on the current two GOP branches of government in the next election.

I just got through reading Scott Kurtz’s (of PVPOnline fame) review of Revolutions. It got me thinking about a personal struggle I had recently about fans and artists.

Rural Kentucky schools are giving sutdents Mondays off for all but the last four weeks of each semester. The article doesn’t mention reduced federal support as being one of the primary reasons that schools are having to search for extreme measures to save money. They even try to leave the door open that this could be a good thing.

The verdict is still out on whether students perform as well, and whether schools save enough money to justify the switch. But Webster County Assistant Superintendent Rachel Yarbrough said it appears to be a success here so far in its first year.

I hate to be a negative Nelly, but when Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana all decide to try the same thing with their education system…well, it’s foreboding. No child left behind! Except maybe for their education.

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