tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33482122011-08-11T13:43:42.484-07:00An Assembly of Pieces<a href="http://home.pacbell.net/sinda1/ursid/home/">James Anderson Merritt's</a> piecemeal thoughts and observations, and the occasional attempt to put some of the pieces together.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comBlogger521100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1763612906278069752009-02-11T03:31:00.000-08:002009-02-11T03:38:09.576-08:00I'd just like to invite all of my friends to check out the website of another friend, Gunter Vorlop, who writes about high tech stock investing. It's open to the public and contains a lot of interesting and useful information for those who want to manage their own portfolios: The RF To Light 100. In addition to a column that surveys the state of the market-segment, Gunter provides facts about 100Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-4711815429921543562008-10-10T11:27:00.000-07:002008-10-10T12:07:17.382-07:00WHAT A DI-LEMMA!A couple of weeks ago, I sent letters to my representative and Senators in Washington, urging them to vote against the proposed bailout of the financial sector, but of course they all voted in favor. Congressman Sam Farr voted "yes" twice! Today, I received an email response from one of the others, Senator Dianne Feinstein. Amusingly enough, my copy of Microsoft Outlook initially Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-52642976905217736602008-07-18T08:40:00.000-07:002008-07-18T08:46:45.111-07:00THE PRICE WE PAYIn today's Santa Cruz Sentinel, I read a Letter to the Editor that trotted out the old Progressive mantra, "Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society." The problem is that the level of taxes, and the nature of the civilized society to be purchased by those taxes are not decisions left up to the poor citizens who must pay the bill, but rather to the elected (and Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-36950672410002629812008-05-01T11:02:00.000-07:002008-05-01T11:36:47.323-07:00IMMIGRATION AUTHORITY: WHERE IS IT? WHO HAS IT?I read an article in the online Daily Californian recently, entitled "Why Illegal Aliens Are Neither," which inspired me to write and send the following essay to the Daily Cal editors. Maybe they'll publish it and maybe they won't. In response to “Why Illegal Aliens Are Neither” by Jessica Cerittos and Elena Vilchis, I would like to challenge DailyJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-48527864583526319752008-04-15T17:42:00.000-07:002008-04-15T18:01:21.469-07:00"FUSION" POCKETBOOK POLITICS ON TAX DAYI recently found a Google video of a talk that the late Robert Bussard, physicist and proponent of "fusor-approach" nuclear fusion (as opposed to "tokamak-approach") gave at the Google campus in 2006, a little more than a year before his death. (It's a little more than 90 minutes. You can see it by clicking the highlighted link.)Bussard, inventor of the Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-15486520946285344782008-02-07T12:49:00.000-08:002008-02-07T13:14:20.174-08:00Homeland Security Violated My PrivacyLots of things have happened in my life, keeping me too busy to attend to this blog. Since I am probably just talking to myself here, I guess I will apologize only to myself for that.I just wanted to note for the record that I received evidence today that my privacy had recently been violated by Homeland Security. I love the taste of rum cream, and I can only Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-83589929728447771462007-05-28T15:08:00.000-07:002007-05-28T15:44:01.739-07:00"JACK BAUER: FEDERAL ZOMBIE" HAS LEGS...???Since about the third season or so -- whenever it was that Jack Bauer was killed during torturous interrogation and brought back to life for more of the same -- the TV series 24 has been known around my house as Jack Bauer: Federal Zombie. Awhile back, I mentioned this in some fan mail to classical liberal blogger Ilana Mercer; she seemed to like the Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1143309935656792712006-03-25T09:31:00.000-08:002006-04-25T07:52:46.363-07:00GARY SEVEN SAYS FAREWELL TO THE BOSS HE NEVER MET: BUCK OWENS, RIPBack in the early 1980s, I was a part-time disc jockey for FM rock radio station KZOZ, San Luis Obispo CA. At the time, it was known as "Z93, " and on its air, I was known as "Gary Seven." This was a minimum-wage job, as most part-time radio gigs in small and medium markets were in those days, but it was regular work, and I Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1142709778136469592006-03-18T11:08:00.000-08:002006-03-18T11:28:30.833-08:00THE USEFULNESS OF DEMOCRACY IN OUR SOCIETYThere has been a lot of talk about the importance of "democracy" lately -- especially in the sense that our current US government has endorsed the idea of exporting "democracy" to other countries by means of military force. I think it is worth remembering that democracy is not the end of our form of government. It is only a tool -- a means to the end of Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1139216440448152122006-02-05T23:39:00.000-08:002006-02-06T01:00:41.780-08:00A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO THE WAR POWERS ISSUEPresident Bush has incited controversy, by repeatedly authorizing warrantless government eavesdropping on international telephone calls made by or to people in the United States. An unapologetic -- indeed, a defiant -- Mr. Bush says that this is necessary to prosecute his "War on Terror," and that his War Powers, invoked by the Congressional Resolution Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1139211424423993242006-02-05T22:54:00.000-08:002006-02-05T23:37:04.460-08:00ONE IN 1.12 MILLIONThanks to Jason Benson, who let me know that there were indeed real people out there -- at least one -- reading my blog and homepage. Jason sent me a dollar through the PayPal link at my personal homepage, and also a friendly note to tell me why. This made my day, and gave my wife a laugh, too, when I told her that someone had finally put something in the "tip jar," after only Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1133214641181276812005-11-28T13:24:00.000-08:002005-11-28T13:50:41.236-08:00A MILLION HITS AND A DOLLAR MAY NOT EVEN BUY A CUP OF COFFEESometime early this morning, when everyone was fast asleep, my personal web page attracted its one-millionth hit. I have to wonder who is accessing the page. I have had a "tip jar" button on the page since around hit 30,000. Since this blog has a permanent link to the web page, I expected some of the blog readers to go there, and hoped Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1133078871516370532005-11-26T22:51:00.000-08:002005-11-27T00:07:51.560-08:00WHAT DOESN'T THE POLITE PERSON SAY?I was in downtown Santa Cruz this afternoon, doing some shopping along Pacific Avenue. I was enjoing the sights and lights of the Christmas shopping season, as well as the sounds of holiday bell-ringers and street musicians playing seasonal music. Then, another sound:"Excuse me sir. Are you a registered voter?""Yes I am," I said."Well, we're trying to put a Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1130954786176536232005-11-02T09:00:00.000-08:002005-11-02T10:06:26.216-08:00DAMNING WITH FAINT "PROPS"Checking in with Cannabis Culture, to get their take on how the War on Drugs was going, I saw the huge headline, "Denver Legalizes Marijuana 53% - 46%!" This was astounding news. In the name of "balance," I went to the website of the Denver Post, to see their account. The headline? "Denver pot issue passes by thin margin." Although the Post reported even slightly better Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1118540678765858392005-06-11T18:26:00.000-07:002005-06-11T18:44:38.773-07:00Commerce Clause Delenda EstI recently published versions of the following on the blogs of Reason magazine, and the US Libertarian Party. I'm serious about this. Does anyone want to help? Write your Senators and members of Congress!I guess what the Justices are telling us, in Raich v. Gonzales, is that the plain language of the Constitution isn't specific enough to prevent clever legislators and Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1116723285387243912005-05-21T17:07:00.000-07:002005-05-21T17:54:45.393-07:00I haven't posted in some time because of technical difficulties. Basically, Blogger has for some time told me that there was an error on any attempt to publish; subsequent attempts to troubleshoot have been fruitless. In hopes that the problems were internal to Blogger and would sort themselves out in time, I have busied myself with other things. But I had a thought that I especially wanted to Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1109530581798774242005-02-27T10:14:00.000-08:002005-02-27T10:56:21.803-08:00LETTERS, WE WRITE LETTERS: UNCLE SAM TOP CALIFORNIA LANDLORDAnother of my letters saw print in the Santa Cruz Sentinel today. I was moved to write because of all the sturm und drang over the lack of affordable housing and the high cost of land in the Golden State. Here in Santa Cruz county, for instance, the median home price recently topped $700,000. That's because there are many potential Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1108575446362668692005-02-16T09:29:00.000-08:002005-02-16T09:38:47.636-08:00THE PURPOSE OF LIFEI haven't posted in a while, despite racking up a lot of material; there's been too much to do and not enough time to sleep or hang out with the family. Today, on the Santa Cruz Sentinel message board, a new thread appeared. It was entitled, "What is the Purpose of Life (Or Is There One)?" I have adapted the following from my posting in that thread:Purpose comes from intention.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1096957560659476162004-10-04T23:16:00.000-07:002004-10-04T23:29:23.786-07:00THEY DID IT!
Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne went up this morning, reached an altitude that news sources reported as 368,000 feet (69.7 miles), and returned to earth for a smooth landing at the Mojave Spaceport. It was their second such flight in five days.
Rutan and his ScaledComposites team thus qualified for the $10,000,000 Ansari X Prize, recouping about half of the development costs, the other Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1091378848208024972004-08-01T09:35:00.000-07:002004-08-01T10:39:26.706-07:00LETTERS, WE WRITE LETTERS: THE RIGHT POLICY TO HANDLE TERRORISM
Another of my letters was published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel today. This one responded to the Sentinel's editorial on the findings of the 9-11 Commission. Here's the text, as published:
Focus on foreign policy
Both the 9/11 commission report and a recent Sentinel editorial seem focused on restructuring government to combat Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1090299625624707362004-07-19T21:34:00.000-07:002004-07-19T22:00:25.623-07:00THE JOKE I RECEIVED BY MAIL FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Today, I received my official Social Security Statement, in an envelope marked TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY, UNDER PENALTY OF LAW.
The report -- Prepared especially for James A. Merritt, as the Social Security Administration reminds me in large, bold type -- tells me the level of benefits that I and my family can expect to receive, Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1090134343638052742004-07-17T22:56:00.000-07:002004-07-18T00:05:43.636-07:00VOTE AT MY ELECTION SITE
I've never been a fan of US-style plurality voting: the one-vote-per-person, winner take all system that we tend to use in electing candidates to government office here. Over the years, I have taken a look at various alternative methodologies. The ones I like best, Condorcet method and Approval Voting, have been impractical until fairly recently, because they require Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1089407812102419042004-07-09T13:28:00.000-07:002004-07-09T14:16:52.103-07:00THE SIX DEGREES OF OSAMA BIN LADEN?
Will Guilt By Association Cook Our Bacon?
Our government is tossing people in jail and holding them, more or less incommunicado, for indefinite periods of time, often without any formal charges against the detainees. News reports have told us that the grounds for detention are often no more substantial than that the suspect (or worse, the uncharged "material Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1087670258423505992004-06-19T10:14:00.000-07:002004-06-20T10:51:54.390-07:00THE UNSEEMLY RONALD REAGAN GRIEF-FEST
I must confess: I wasn't much interested in the week of mourning for Ronald Reagan. I paused a couple of times, to check out some of the interminable live television coverage of seemingly every little stop and detail of the body's round trip beetween California and Washington DC, but that was it. Although I think that Reagan was a remarkable individual in Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1084735133275133862004-05-16T11:33:00.000-07:002004-05-16T12:18:53.276-07:00LETTERS, WE WRITE LETTERS: "FREEDOM OF PRESS" FOR ELECTRONIC PRESS, TOO
The Santa Cruz Sentinel, my hometown newspaper, printed yet another of my letters to the editor. This one was in response to their recent editorial, in celebration of World Press Freedom Day.
Here is the text of the letter that I submitted:
It is said that "freedom of the press belongs to him who owns one." Suppose there Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1080510360530118212004-03-28T13:46:00.000-08:002004-04-12T22:13:50.890-07:00IF YOU REALLY WANT TO INCREASE HIGHWAY SAFETY...
I travel Silicon Valley's notorious Highway 17 between Santa Cruz and San Jose most weekdays and often on weekends. As the cost of living in Santa Cruz is high, and local jobs don't generally pay enough to support living where you work, thousands of Santa Cruzans join me on the daily commute, "over the hill," to the land of relatively more jobs Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1079547341477072352004-03-17T10:15:00.000-08:002004-03-21T10:25:35.936-08:00ROBOTS ARE CHEAPSKATES
There in the left-hand bar, you'll notice that my name is an active link, which takes you to my very modest personal home-page. At the bottom of said home page is a hit-counter, which never exceeded the low 100s over the course of the two or three years it has been on the home page ... until recently.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that my home page "hits" were suddenly Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1079290724284958552004-03-14T10:58:00.000-08:002004-03-14T11:17:21.030-08:00SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: A CONTINUOUS UNFOLDING
I want to talk now about something a little less earth-shaking: the nature of software development and the development process. (Those with no interest in geeky things can skip this entry, but there's nothing here that is all that technical; you might even find it interesting!) Let me start my telling you a little story:
The Experience of Past Lives
Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1074503727059889552004-01-19T01:15:00.000-08:002004-01-28T23:35:20.513-08:00LIBERTARIANISM AND AGGRESSIVE WAR?
NOTE: I recently posted a version of this essay as a "comment" entry in response to the Reason Online's Hit and Run blog item entitled "Kerry: The Only Libertarian Choice!" (January 16, 2004).
I am rather astounded at some of the comments offered to me to reconcile libertarianism with the Iraq War, not to mention other aggressive wars or even wars of conquest.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1074378445702243752004-01-17T14:27:00.000-08:002004-01-17T14:28:48.860-08:00HUBBLE TROUBLE
I couldn't believe my eyes when I read in this story that NASA will abandon the Hubble Space Telescope, ostensibly because our precious resources are needed more to satisfy obligations toward the International Space Station and to fulfill President Bush's grand space vision (see below).
How many people's working lives and millions of dollars went into putting Hubble in space andJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1073638187576010952004-01-09T00:49:00.000-08:002004-01-09T00:56:37.576-08:00FOR SPACE FANS, GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS
The rumors that George W. Bush plans to send US astronauts back into space have gathered enough strength to appear in a Washington Post article that cites administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
I'll put my cards on the table: I want to see human beings travel space, as far from the Earth as our technology, courage, curiosity, and Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1065674233152853292003-10-08T21:37:00.000-07:002003-10-08T21:42:13.020-07:00TV HYPE DISAGREES WITH RECALL NUMBERS
Third-parties "spanked"
Television talking heads were yapping about the "exceptional turnout" for last night's recall election. I went to the California secretary of state's recall election website, and found some interesting things:
Last night (with 100% of precincts reporting), a total of 7,978,767 people voted either "Yes" or "No" on the recall. The "Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1065126905916241302003-10-02T13:35:00.000-07:002003-10-02T13:35:05.720-07:00Rush a Drug War Victim?
Here is a roundup that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution just published, concerning allegations that Rush Limbaugh was hooked on OxyContin and purchased his pills via the black market.
I quit listening to Limbaugh's show several years ago, after he had made one comment too many in support of the Drug War. Limbaugh has long styled himself a champion of free enterprise, Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1061408693691446932003-08-20T12:44:00.000-07:002003-08-21T10:12:54.943-07:00Death Throes of the Drug War?
I have made comparisons between the Drug War and the Vietnam War over the years. Perhaps it is time for another. You be the judge.
Earlier in the week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed this story about the just-concluded 2003 Seattle Hempfest.
Organizers estimated that the Hempfest drew its largest crowd ever -- between 175,000 and 200,000 -- and that "a "Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-1056840187352338512003-06-28T15:43:00.000-07:002003-06-28T15:43:07.376-07:00CAN THEY BUY YOU FOR A DOLLAR? HOW ABOUT $1.89?
I just read a Washington Post story about President Bush's recent, lucrative fundraising stop in California. The report estimates that Mr. Bush seeks to raise a warchest of around $200 Million for the 2004 campaign. I presume that Mr. Bush's major opponent will attempt to raise a comparable, though perhaps much lesser amount before the General Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-954538512003-06-08T23:07:00.000-07:002003-06-08T23:07:44.190-07:00DELIBERATELY BURIED, 'EH?
Today, Bush administration members Powell and Rice are trying to say that Saddam Hussein's "Weapons of Mass Destruction (TM)" were just, by golly, too well hidden for our conquering forces to find in just a few short weeks. Check out this AP newswire report, which I found in the San Jose Mercury News.
Clearly, the WMDs were too well hidden for Saddam to actually USE Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-905979082003-03-12T09:56:00.000-08:002003-06-08T23:09:32.000-07:00LETTERS, WE WRITE LETTERS: WHY A BUDGET CRISIS?
Only ten days after my previous publication, the Santa Cruz Sentinel ran yet another letter of mine, in which I questioned the nature and causes of California's so-called "budget crisis". As a bonus, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call from Bob Suhr, the key proponent of last year's repeal of the Santa Cruz County utility tax. He Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-899772882003-03-01T17:48:00.000-08:002003-03-01T17:59:37.000-08:00LETTERS, WE WRITE LETTERS: VOTE LIBERTARIAN, GET A GOOD NIGHT'S REST
The Santa Cruz Sentinel published another letter of mine, in which I took the opportunity to recommend votes for Libertarians:
Vote Libertarian, sleep well
Thumbs up to doctors who prescribe civic protest to reduce the anxiety and depression caused by the incessant drum-beat to war. Some of us, however, healed ourselves long Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-897598372003-02-25T21:42:00.000-08:002003-02-25T21:50:41.000-08:00DEAR MR. PRESIDENT -- YOU MAY BE IN MATERIAL BREACH OF YOUR AGREEMENT
With war perhaps only days away, I sent the following to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, via the email links provided at www.whitehouse.gov:
Before You Make War...
February 25, 2003
Dear President Bush and Vice President Cheney-
Your oath of office requires you to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-823161772002-09-30T08:28:00.000-07:002002-09-30T08:34:52.000-07:00LETTERS, WE WRITE LETTERS: THE KEY ARGUMENT AGAINST THE DRUG WAR
In the aftermath of the DEA raid on nearby WoMen's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, and in the atmosphere that led to the nationally infamous pot-giveaway at the Santa Cruz City Hall, I wrote yet another letter to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. This time, I talked about the constitutional invalidity of the drug war. They published the Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-816821962002-09-16T11:16:00.000-07:002002-09-16T11:23:04.000-07:00...THE RIGHT TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES...
CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: "Sign" my petition to demand Davis, Lockyer defend California from Feds
One of my responses to the recent DEA raid on the WAMM pot-farm in Davenport, was to draw up a petition on "e-the-people," a petition service available through the Santa Cruz Sentinel's website. If you are a California resident, Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-805318932002-08-21T11:28:00.000-07:002002-08-21T14:21:14.000-07:00THE MAKING OF A "FLUORIDATION WACKO"
I think I may very well be on the (rail?-) road to being labeled as a "fluoridation wacko." Years ago, Santa Cruz voters approved an initiative ordinance that prohibited the medication (including fluoridation) of the municipal water supply, after a heated and acrimonious campaign. Last year, the Watsonville city council secured grant funding to fluoridate Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-794689972002-07-27T00:21:00.000-07:002002-07-29T06:58:35.000-07:00RIAA-LITY CHECK
I don't know about you, but I am mad as hell about two recent developments, brought to us courtesy of the Recording Industry Association of America, alias RIAA.
In the first case, the RIAA, along with their partners in crime, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), influenced the US Copyright Office to burden the nascent internet radio industry with so onerous a "Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-789557342002-07-14T19:44:00.000-07:002002-07-17T23:32:06.000-07:00PAYING TO SKIP TV ADS?
The chairman of the Turner Broadcasting System, Jamie Kellner, has warned us TV viewers that if we continue to skip ads using such devices as VCRs -- especially TiVo, ReplayTV and other Digital Video Recorders -- we may find ourselves paying for TV channels that have traditionally been free. "Don't think for a moment there's a free lunch involved in this," he says.
Let meJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-788430282002-07-11T18:20:00.000-07:002002-07-14T19:20:51.000-07:00TIME FOR THE DRUG WARRIORS TO GO
Some recent, highly significant events, related to the War on Drugs, have helped hasten a general realization in American society that it is past time for the Drug Warriors to declare "Peace With Honor" and go home:
Event 1: Activists have once again succeeded in getting a measure to approve medical marijuana onto the ballot in Washington, D.C., despite vigorousJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-783973062002-06-30T16:56:00.000-07:002002-06-30T17:03:49.000-07:00"PLEDGE" WEEK
The Honorable Alfred Goodwin of the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals has declared unconstitutional a requirement that schoolchildren say the "Pledge of Allegiance," because the words "under God" are seen as "respecting an establishment of religion," or "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (depending on your point of view). Either way, Judge Goodwin clearly felt that the pledge Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-768636102002-05-22T18:25:00.000-07:002002-05-22T18:39:07.000-07:00CHANDRA COVERAGE: REUTERS, 1 - AP & OTHERS, 0
I just wanted to thank Reuters reporter Alexander Ferguson for doing what AP apparently wouldn't do: paying attention to the basics of "Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How." Early headlines on the discovery of bones in a Washington park trumpeted that they "Could be Chandra Levy's." Looking around, I found essentially the same story at the websites Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-764679992002-05-12T13:01:00.000-07:002002-05-12T13:04:59.000-07:00WE SEND STACKS AND STACKS OF LETTERS (4 in a series)...
Observing the many US flags on automobiles and in home and business windows, not to mention the tattered WTC flag that has been paraded around since September 11th, I thought that there are several other flags we might be inspired to see in recent images. So I wrote a letter to the paper and The Santa Cruz Sentinel printed it today:
DrawJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-758515982002-04-26T09:04:00.000-07:002002-04-27T09:40:17.000-07:00WE SEND STACKS AND STACKS OF LETTERS (3 in a series)...
I actually did send the following letter, concerning recently-passed faux "campaign-finance" reform, to my local paper, and it was printed in the January 30th Santa Cruz Sentinel. Unfortunately, I signed it with my full name and they somehow omitted my surname. Oh well...
January 23
Big government always corrupt
The Sentinel promotes Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-758369272002-04-25T22:13:00.000-07:002002-04-26T09:05:57.000-07:00WE SEND STACKS AND STACKS OF LETTERS (2 in a series)...
Back in May of 2001, my local paper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, ran an editorial concerning the Supreme Court's then-recent ruling that there is no "medical necessity defense" against the federal Controlled Substances Act. I never sent the following response, but only because I couldn't squeeze it down to their 250-word limit. I'm proud to Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-757816712002-04-24T14:11:00.000-07:002002-04-26T09:07:01.000-07:00WE SEND STACKS AND STACKS OF LETTERS (1 in a series)...
Here is something I wrote to the auteurs of O Brother Where Art Thou?, just to show that somebody was paying attention. No response yet from Joel or Ethan...
January 28, 2002
Joel & Ethan Coen
C/O United Talent Agency
9560 Wilshire Blvd. #500
Beverly Hills CA 90212
Dear Sirs,
I finally caught O Brother, Where Art Thou? on cable last Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348212.post-756582252002-04-21T13:09:00.000-07:002002-04-26T09:10:31.000-07:00Billions and billions of blogs, the author of each a star in his or her own mind. That is the online world's apparent direction, one that seemed clear, even inevitable, during the years when I was a Forum Host for America Online. As Host, I posted original messages and articles, reposted news and views found elsewhere, policed the posts of others, and ran live chats in their News Channel's Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686052627916038253noreply@blogger.com