The Continuing Decline Of Western Civilization

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Is lethargy an appropriate response to atrocity?

I refer of course to myself, and my inability to put together an appropriate response to just about anything. Though I will say that the sexual violence in Girly coupled with the early ambiguity with regards to El Chupacabre's sexual encounters is disturbing, and only by ignoring those events and focusing on Marshmellow Kitty (and the dark kitten) can I continue to read it. Josh Lesnick's insistence that his other work has no bearing on this is foolish.

Nevertheless I am a stauch opponent of hyphenating. I pass on to you the wisdom (or perhaps uncommon awareness) of hilzoy, and two of her recent posts on the subject of the occupation of Iraq and the over-arching War On Terrar.

However, if you desire inappropriateness instead, I will again be lethargic and serve up this lovely tidbit from Mr. Jon Rosenberg. I try to work the last line from the fifth panel into as many conversations as I can. Everyone is getting very bored.

posted by tcdowc - 11:43 pm - 07.10.06

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We heart money

Brad Plummer is reminding us of one of the well-known, obvious results of the last copyright extension (which extended copyright automatically, as opposed to if the copyright holders had to apply for it).

[T]hese days, it's cheap and easy to restore old films with digital technology�it can cost as little as $100 to digitize an hour of 8 mm film. Many of these films could, in theory, be easily restored, and released, or put in an archive, for people to watch. But thanks to the CTEA, it's not cheap and easy. Anyone who wanted to restore one of these films would have to track down the owners of the copyright�no small task�and then hire a lawyer, lest they commit a felony. That's way too much effort and expense just to restore some arcane old movie that only a few people might enjoy. So no one does it.

And the worst part is that by the time the copyright for a lot of these obscure films expires, in 2019 and beyond, the film for these movies�which were produced on nitrate-based stock�will have completely dissolved. They'll just be canisters filled with dust. An entire generation of movies really will have vanished, never to be watched again. I guess it's hardly the most important problem on the face of the earth, but culturally, it's a tragedy, and a rather striking example of the insanity of copyright law.

posted by tcdowc - 6:02 pm - 07.03.06

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Quick summaries often leave out important details

Well, with all this news about the North Korean missile launch, I thought I'd chime in. By linking to someone else! Kingdaddy at Arms and Influence has a short list of what our options are and are not with regards to the N. Koreans that pretty well sums up rational thought on the matter.

The North Korean government certainly knew the likely American response�which says a lot about the predicament in which the United States finds itself. Russia and China are likely to have more effect on Kim Jong Il's plans than the United States.

That's obviously not his list, only his conclusion. I'd add that we have no guarantees about how N. Korea would respond to an air strike, and that the possibilities include the decimation of Seoul. Also, I believe it was Arms Control Wonk that wondered how silly we would feel if the N. Koreans were launching a weather satellite (which ought to demonstrate to you how little we know about what's going on). Jeffrey also mentions that we ought not to necessarily trust the Japanese newspapers on this as they have their own agenda, and I'll add that it has been overshadowing a very significant threat to the NPT that he has been outlining: Bush's proposed deal with India.

posted by tcdowc - 5:41 pm - 07.03.06

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Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, or incompetence is catching up with the Bushies.

The Supremes handed down their decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld today, 5-3 for Hamdan with Roberts recuseing himself, as he had sat on the appeals court decision. Not that it would have mattered. So the military commissions are officially illegal, which leaves much more that the Bushies have done only 'technically' illegal. Via LGM, a quote from Stevens' majority opinion:

The charge�s shortcomings are not merely formal, but are indicative of a broader inability on the Executive�s part here to satisfy the most basic precondition-at least in the absence of specific congressional authorization-for establishment of military commissions: military necessity. Hamdan�s tribunal was appointed not by a military commander in the field of battle, but by a retired major general stationed away from any active hostilities. Hamdan is charged not with an overt act for which he was caught redhanded in a theater of war and which military efficiency demands be tried expeditiously, but with an agreement the inception of which long predated the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the AUMF. That may well be a crime,but it is not an offense that �by the law of war may be tried by military commissio[n].� None of the overt acts alleged to have been committed in furtherance of the agreement is itself a war crime, or even necessarily occurred during time of, or in a theater of, war. Any urgent need for imposition or execution of judgment is utterly belied by the record; Hamdan was arrested in November 2001 and he was not charged until mid-2004. These simply are not the circumstances in which, by any stretch of the historical evidence or this Court�s precedents, a military commission established by Executive Order under the authority of Article 21 of the UCMJ may lawfully try a person and subject him to punishment.

As Scott Lemieux adds, this logic also makes clear that the wiretapping program is illegal.

The Washington Post has more indepth info if you've no background on the case.

posted by tcdowc - 3:13 pm - 06.29.06

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You damn kids! Get off my lawn!

Was over at amygdala reading some thing on Heinlein's rediscovered first novel (don't bother reading it) and I read this lovely little quote he had in the side bar:

"Our youth now loves luxuries. They have bad manners, contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders and they love to chatter instead of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants, of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food, and tyrannize their teachers."

-- Socrates

posted by tcdowc - 3:01 am - 06.29.06

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We need more eunuchs in Congress

We're going to have to vote more eunuchs into Congress. Preferablely ones born in a test tube. I think this is the only way to stop the cock-sucking mother-fuckers in Detriot who are bound and determined to make piles of cash by doing jack-shit and reaming us all in the process. Consider the following, via ObWi:

The first thing to understand about the hybrid tax credit is that it was never really intended to reduce oil imports from the Middle East or slow the effects of global warming. The credit was created to prop up Detroit while giving conservation a nod.

Last summer, when Congress was completing an energy bill, Toyota's and Honda's hybrids were already winning people over in the marketplace, and it was clear that any tax credit would go overwhelmingly to buyers of Japanese cars. So members of Congress, with help from Detroit's lobbyists, came up with an ingenious solution. They created a cap, a maximum number of hybrids that any single manufacturer could sell � 60,000 � before a clock started ticking, causing the credits for that carmaker to begin disappearing two quarters later.

The idea, Mark Kemmer, a G.M. lobbyist, told Automotive News, was to keep any one company from getting "a runaway benefit."

Toyota hit the 60,000 mark last month, less than five months after the Jan. 1 start of the program, and the credits for its hybrid buyers will be cut in half on Oct. 1. (Because there are waiting lists for the Prius and Camry Hybrid, people who buy one in August or September may get their car after Oct. 1.) On April 1, 2007, the credits will be cut in half again. On Oct. 1, 2007, they will vanish. Honda, for its part, will probably hit the cap next year.

And the Big Three? Combined, they have sold fewer than 15,000 eligible vehicles so far, all by Ford, largely because their hybrids have not impressed buyers. Rather than building highly efficient hybrids like the Prius, Detroit has tinkered with gas guzzlers like the Chevrolet Silverado, adding hybrid technology to them so that they get slightly better mileage.

Come next year, then, the government will pay you to buy a Silverado hybrid (which gets about 16 miles per gallon) or a Ford Escape Hybrid (which gets about 26, according to Consumer Reports), but not a Prius (44) or a nonhybrid Corolla (29).

What a bunch of useless lazy fucks. Toyota can't make the damn things fast enough to keep up with demand, Honda is chugging along well, and Detroit is busy trying to pick out a new strap-on. Honestly, if they can't manage to keep up with the competition, fuck them they can rot. Detriot is already mostly populated by nomadic gangs of feral hunter-gatherers raiding convience stores for 5 year-old twinkies and sleeping in rusted-out Dodge Darts. Clearly the guys in the silver towers want to keep it that way. If you want to help stop the unwanted colon visitors, go to the ObWi page and scroll down, where you will find information on a bill that will remove the caps and a method for contacting your congress people on the subject, helpfully supplied by hilzoy.

posted by tcdowc - 11:00 pm - 06.28.06

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Save The Intarwubs!

I think I've mentioned this before, but I figure I oughta do it again, cause people don't seem to care. I've never understood that. People just assume that politicians aren't going to do things that are harmful to them, and that if that harm does surface, then it came from the other politicians, the ones they don't like. The truth of course, is that most of these sorts of actual life-affecting legislation cross party lines.

One of the recent cross party lines subjects is internet regulation, net neutrality. Tim Berners-Lee, inventer of the intrawubs, has chimed in with a to-the-point post:

Yes, regulation to keep the Internet open is regulation. And mostly, the Internet thrives on lack of regulation. But some basic values have to be preserved. For example, the market system depends on the rule that you can't photocopy money. Democracy depends on freedom of speech. Freedom of connection, with any application, to any party, is the fundamental social basis of the Internet, and, now, the society based on it.

Let's see whether the United States is capable as acting according to its important values, or whether it is, as so many people are saying, run by the misguided short-term interested of large corporations.

I hope that Congress can protect net neutrality, so I can continue to innovate in the internet space. I want to see the explosion of innovations happening out there on the Web, so diverse and so exciting, continue unabated.

Telcos are trying to convince congress that internet players should pay more for more use of their pipes. Not, you understand, their connections, they are already paying for that, just like you and me. Which means that anybody who can't pay up will get throttled back to a crawl. More information can be found here, including links to contact your congress people.

posted by tcdowc - 9:54 pm - 06.28.06

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