RDT Right Now #1914

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Really Deep Thoughts Right Now			Volume 04 : Issue #1914

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              O         "Thoughts right now...            O
              o        What will become of me,            o
              o       Become of her, become of we?"       o
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                                         Tori Amos, "Thoughts"
In this issue:
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  vote early, vote often                [ Brian Cooper <byteme@smartchat.net. ]



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[top]

Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 21:50:48 +1000
From: Brian Cooper <byteme@smartchat.net.au>
To: Really Deep Thrusts Right Now <rdtrn@torithoughts.org>
Subject: vote early, vote often

Well it's finally on. Australia goes to the polls on October 9, which also
happens to be the date of my high school reunion. There are a lot of things
I don't like about the U.S. political system, but one thing I'd wish we'd
adopt is a fixed term. Federal parliamentary terms are supposed to be 3
years, but they rarely go the distance. There's about a 9 month window from
the 2.5 year mark that an election can be called. What makes it different
this time around is that with a new opposition leader at the beginning of
the year, we've been having a false election campaign ever since and it's
driving everyone insane. While it could have been dragged out to next
March, there's no way little Johnny would have called an election for after
the U.S. presidential election with his good mate Bush looking shaky in the
polls. A Bush loss would have been certain to cripple Howard's chances.

Simon pondered in digest 1913:
>And for all the stink about Iraqi WMDs, I'm truly amazed that there's
>no uproar about the very blatant WMD projects being worked on openly by
>the Iranians and the North Koreans.

It's not a case of "no uproar", as it creates enough disturbance in the
region on its own. I know I said this a long time ago, probably even before
the war on Iraq. The reason the U.S. doesn't go after these countries is
they can hurt back bad. They haven't been pounded into the stone age by a
previous war and 10 years of sanctions. Of the two, North Korea is the
biggest risk to world peace as their leadership is insane.

>like the press in a perverse way is having way
>too much fun covering war and destruction- what happens when something
>big happens that shows humanity at its best takes place?

If you're lucky, it gets a 30 second grab at the end of the news. You can't
sell copy on good news.

>I'd be very reluctant to attempt anything involving
>plumbing or electrical work, no matter how many how-to shows I've seen.

I choose to employ people in these fields as well. It's a case of I don't
have all the tools needed to do the job properly, they can do it in far
less time than I can and above all is the safety issue.

>RIAA going after the government?  IMHO they're ruined their credibility
>already by going after the easy targets rather than actually going
>after the large-scale pirates.

But what exactly constitutes large-scale piracy? Sure, there are
professional operations that make copies that look exactly like the real
product and they will always be a target. Problem is most of these
operations work from other countries, making them hard to prosecute. But
when does amateur piracy in the form of file sharing become worth
prosecuting? I'm sure the record companies have worked it out. But it
shouldn't matter if it's one track, 100 albums or 1000 albums, the law is
the same. Of all the file sharing pirates I've read about that have been
prosecuted, they've all had extraordinary amounts of material.

One point I'd like to make is that the Apple I-pod fundamentally promotes
piracy in the Australian market as they don't have an on-line store for
downloads and according to local law, you cannot create a copy of music you
own. The only music you can legally have is that you create and record
yourself or from friends with no recording contract.

Michaela auto-responded with:
>I am on my honeymoon until Saturday 28 August 2004.  I will respond when I
>return.  Thanks!  ~michaela~

Wheee! Congratulations. Now you're back, do tell us all about it.

Linda wrote:
>Okay, my coffee is ready.  It's getting to be that
>time of the month, so the migraines are setting in.

I know a cure for that, but it needs me to be on the other side of the
world. White and two, thanks.

Violet mentioned something I plumb forgot about last time...
>Since we are talking about it [again], the thing that bothers me most about
>the censorship on WTSF is that they cut the words out of the songs, but
>Tori says "fuck" at *least* once that I can recall on the interview portion
>of the disc and they didn't bleep that out.

Fuck, yeah. It makes it all the more ridiculous. You're less likely to
notice the odd "starfucker" being sung amongst all the music and the way
Tori sings it than you will when it's said close-up and personal. I can
accept different production teams not knowing what the other is intending,
but someone had to have the overall responsibility for it.

Brian




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