Seems the ipodsdirtysecret.com (not giving them the satisfaction of a link hit) jerks are just in it for themselves and don't really give a shit about the issue. They pretty much admit it here. I'd have no problem with this (and would probably be linking it) if they didn't seem to be going out of their way to avoid any credibility and going even further out of their way not to mention Apple's rectifying the situation or any other solutions. Obviously 'informing' only extends as far as not hurting their hype momentum for these 'aspiring filmmakers'.

[Canadian] Music group aims to charge Internet users
"...SOCAN is asking ISPs to pay a blanket annual royalty regardless of whether the ISP is transmitting legal or illegally downloaded music... Consumers could very well see an increase in their Internet costs and they could see a slowdown in the transmission speed of their Internet communications."

But remember, as one Slashdot reader noted, with more than a hint of sarcasm, "the law would be for your protection and to serve the interestes of the people, as all laws must do."

Regardless of how hard you get screwed in the serving. Canadians already pay a blanket tax on tapes, CD-R and any other recordable media, so this precedence could help SOCAN's case. And there's a good chance this ruling could be used as ammo for cases in the US, especially now that the RIAA is practically on par with the FBI in its ability to prosecute and operate outside normal bounds. And the sad part is that I'm hardly exaggerating.

Since I never *cough* talk about our elected (or appointed, or 'purchased') leaders *cough*, I'd like to take a moment to jot down some of the wonderful things they're involved in. (sources are varied. exact quotes used where possible. just random stuff I've found.)

Let's start with a quote from US Republican Senator Gonzalo Barrientos where he discusses his colleagues.

"They don't want to govern. They want to rule."

For those who think the Brits aren't in it for the same reasons, consider this: National Grid Transo, a UK utilities corporation, owns the New York power grid (Yes, the one that recently collapsed). This US interest is governed by US laws on emissions, regulation, etc. Earning nearly a a billion pounds sterling in revenues this year and having 46% of its operations in the US, this conglomerate is very important to the British economy.

Some 'classified' portions of a report created following sept. 11 contain, according to the LA Times quoting a US official, informtation that "... describes 'very direct, very specific links' between Saudi officials, two of the San Diego-based hijackers and other potential co-conspirators 'that cannot be passed off as rogue, isolated or coincidental'...". Of course, with Neil, Jonathan and Marvin Bush, through Kuwait-American Corp., Stratesec as well as most of the US oil industry having direct financial ties with the Saudis, this will pass quietly into the dust of historical records. Had Iraq created the same sort of ties that Kuwait has, they'd no doubt have avoided the current invasion.

But while the President was telling the US people that he had not decided yet whether we'd go to war, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton told senior Russian officials, "we're going ahead... You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not. That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not." (and make no mistake, this is not someone who would not be informed about things, especially not while addressing the Russian government)

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on corporate responsiblity : "When I was at Alcoa I never sold a single share of Alcoa stock... I wanted my financial success and the company's success inextricably linked. Other executives should do the same."
The SEC records: O'Neill sold 662,547 shares (about $30,000,000) in April 1999 while Chairman and CEO of Alcoa.

While Secretary of Defense under Bush the senior, Cheney and the Pentagon touted 'spy photos' purported to show 250,000 Iraqi troops and 1,500 tanks on the border to Suadi Arabia as justification for their desire to go into Iraq. The St. Petersburg Times got their hands on two images from the same time, same place from a commercial satellite. The border was full alright. Full of sand. There were no troops or tanks. The Pentagon's photos are still 'classified'...

President Bush was very proud to say that leading blue chip economists' reports concluded that his tax cuts for 2003 would grow the economny 3.3 percent. It would have been nice if such reports had actually existed before he quoted them.

Ahhhh. Ari Fleischer. There's a special little cubby in Hell waiting for this habitual liar. But, damn, doesn't he do it well?
Fleischer when asked why the President had an about-face on nation building: "During the campaign, the president did not express, as you put it, disdain for nation-building."
"I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean, we're going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not." Gov. Bush on the campaign trail, Oct. 11th, 2000
The press corps had to pull their jaws off the floor as they stared incredulously at this spin master. Sadly no one thought they'd need to actually bring the quotes with them. Fleischer just said they didn't happen and that was that.

John Howard? You only have to turn on the TV and watch to witness his prevarication. See, he turns bright red and gets flustered when he lies. Poor thing. He just can't hang. He'll always be the 'Martin' to Bush and Blair's 'Bart and Milhouse'. The 'Mr. Magoo' to their 'Yogi and Boo Boo'.

* Speaking of The Simpsons, the subject is a line from Homer, "Oh, Lisa, the important thing is I didn't get my comeuppance, and I never will."

President Bush smiles as a fresh load of Democracy is dropped on Iraq.




I just couldn't resist...

"The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that same- and opposite-sex couples must be given equal civil marriage rights under the state constitution. The ruling in Goodridge et al. v. Department of Public Health makes the state the first in the nation to grant same-sex couples the right to a civil marriage license."*

In the interest of fairness, I present you with the other side's arguments.

Click Me

More Ward Sutton at the Village Voice

* HRC newsletter.
** OK, maybe it's not so fair, but after all the name calling and bashing, I figure we owe 'em a couple of smacks back. I'd say this was 'sticking our tongues out at them', but this might frighten them too much (you know, gay germs and all), so we'll refrain from that.

Don't read this if you haven't seen the movie! Trust me!

We saw Revolutions tonight and were, well... underwhelmed. I don't want my money back and I will end up getting them all on DVD, but... I was ultimately disappointed. I was promised answers, dammit. Not more riddles. I was told that this story arc had a beginning and end and basically 'all would be revealed'.

The Wachowskis, in the end, couldn't decide if this was a deeply philosophical movie or a kung fu movie. In the end they really only delivered the latter. While pundits on the Net are crying out for all to hear how the philosophy was this and the philosophy was that, from down here these vpoices sound just the same as when any teenager discovers some new school of thought; they're taken with it in breathless abandon and they think surely they're the first to grasp it. There is no new deep and thought-provoking philosophy here, kids. There's Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, some more -isms and a little Descartes and Kafka thrown in (yes, Smith's comment that the purpose of life is that it ends -- that's pure Kafka).

So while people are decrying our lack of vision and imagination for accepting the plot holes left, large and crater-like much like the aftermath of a Neo/Smith fight, and not using our imaginations to fill them in, I say, "hogwash". For some, probably most, of us there was nothing new and revelatory here. There were no new ideas that we couldn't have gained from a day at the library. We didn't need to go away and ponder any deep new ideas. We were given a story, a sci-fi kung fu movie, nothing more and we expected the story-tellers to finish that story. They said they would. But ultimately they did not. Those holes were not left there in some grand master plan. Don't give me that. They were left there because of, if you'll indulge me, 'human error'. I know it will be tempting for those true believers, who insisted after Reloaded that everything would be explained in Revolutions, to take up the 'open ended' mantle and run with it but in time they'll loosen their grip on this tenuous explanation. In the end the brothers did a good job overall but failed to deliver on some promises. But, wow weren't those some amazing fight scenes? ;) The did do one thing; they raised the bar on action (and CGI) movies to dizzying heights.

After the dust settles, the Wachowski brothers will have given us some grand film-making and social events and will go on to new and interesting works in the future. And we'll love them for it no matter what our gripes. In the interim there will be many fan fictions, probably comic books and maybe even a novel or two to fill the gaps in the Matrix story. This will benefit both the brothers and the audience because they will make money from them and, maybe eventually, one of these ancillary outlets will answer the questions the movies never got around to. We can hope. Meanwhile the new 'super chop socky'* genre has been firmly established.

And, before someone jumps on me and says I merely lack imagination, let me assure you that if I wanted to have to fill in a bunch of blanks in someone else's story, I would just sit and daydream my own. No one twenty years from now is going to be talking about the religious/philosophical gumbo that came from the Matrix movies, they'll be talking about 'the super chop socky movies from the 2000s'. Kill Bill, The Matrix Trilogy, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, these will all be corralled together for, in the final analysis, they're all kung fu movies of one sort or another.

The only real and lingering confusion, apart from "what was the brothers' explanation, not what can I imagine to fill in the holes" is this: How in the hell did they manage to make such a dull and lifeless couple out of Neo and Trinity? Every time they started kissing or screwing around I just wanted to look away until it was over. Maybe that's just me...

One last observation (strictly my opinion):
We do not see one real human in any of the movies. People asking why Neo can do all this whack shit in 'the real world' might want to consider that "that ain't the real world, baby". I don't think we ever see the real world. The whole 'struggle' is the people in the real world,plugged in to the real Matrix, dreaming about the Matrix. Their dreaming of it isn't supposed happen. It's just like the first movie, except a couple of layers deeper. Zion is populated with people dream about the Matrix instead of what they're supposed to be dreaming of. Neo can 'do whack shit' in both the dream Matrix we see and Zion because neither is truly real.

* Super Chop Socky: I just coined that. I hope it gets around. I like the sound of it.

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