Recent Comments:
Fun Facts About the CD on Its 25th B-Day {Switched.com}
Feb 27th 2008 9:25PM Sad commentary about the cd. I beg to differ. It's an amazing format in so many ways. When it first came out, I was happier than a bean. So many records I bought sounded like hell. If you were into anything that had soft passages it was all record noise and ticks and pops. First time listening to a cd was total magic. Being able to have direct track access, shuffle play and exquisite sound is not such a bad thing. Cd's are easy to copy to your computer (for your ipod) and then there is the cd recorder. If you love music, this format still is the best. Downloading is ok, but it's not the same. The reduction of cover art is the only downside to the cd. Reasonable care will have them lasting for a long time. I still have 20 year old cd's that play fine. Great format.
Ron Paul Fanatics Run Down Hannity {Political Machine Blog}
Jan 9th 2008 1:03AM It's nice to see a news bully like Sean Hannity get what they have coming. Sure, he can dish it out from the safety of the newsroom along with all the rest of the goons on Fox News?®. But can he take it out to the streets? Nope. The streets are not stage managed by Roger Ailes. Or any of the other pathetic corporate media types. It is not the business of the people to allow the annoying propaganda that sputters from Fox to take place on their streets. Take it back and rip it up. That goes for the rest of the corporate media as well.
Fortune Puts Radiohead's Name-Your-Price Album on List of Dumbest Ideas {Switched.com}
Dec 29th 2007 6:44PM Anyone who thinks a business magazine is going to salute an idea that derails the dominance of large record labels to grab the lions share of the profits is dreaming.
Why Did the MPAA Ban This Torture-Documentary Poster? {News Bloggers}
Dec 27th 2007 9:15PM Of course the MPAA has an agenda. For an amazing look behind the curtain of this organization, check out the film :"This Film Is Not Yet Rated". It will blow your mind.
Trent Reznor Tells Fans to Steal Music {Switched.com}
Dec 12th 2007 4:33AM The sad fact is that more and more people don't want to pay for music anymore. They undervalue it because it is easy to steal. Blaming the record companies is just wrong. There are so many different record companies. Some are mega huge, and have massive amounts of money available. Some are tiny and just barely scraping by. Some people are really trying to offer quality product, but in the current environment, they are having one hell of a time connecting with people who really care about music and value it and the artists who create it, and are actually willing to pay for it. If your attitude when you look over a vast array of cd's at a shop is that there will be two good songs and the rest will be crap, why bother? How is it that so many people have such a hard time finding a cd that is actually good all the way through? They exist you know. Many cd's. Sometimes it takes some patience and repeated listening. Sometimes it takes real listening, not just having music in the background while your talking or cleaning the house or driving. While it's definitely true that there is a lot of rubbish out there, there is still a lot of interesting and different music to be found. You just have to look. People have it made today. You can go to a site like CD Baby and spend the whole day listening to full samples of every song on an album and choose whatever does it for you. Most sites also include user commentary as well as related music and recommendations to check out. Barnes and Noble enables the customer to listen to any song that is on any album that they sell. Now that is amazing. Many other sellers have listening stations. A site like Amazon offers pre listening and offers a huge selection including easy access to used sellers. I mean, how much better could it be? Add to this the growing number of internet radio sites that allow the listener easy access to the artist and song title for later purchase if you find yourself liking it. The argument that all this is shit because cd's cost a lot is ridiculous. The cost of a cd today is roughly about the same ratio of average income per hour X 2 as it was years ago. You can easily find cd's at a price point of $12 or $13 today. Most are discounted heavy. If you wish to go back to a time when records were $2.98, bear in mind that the average music buyer was probably making $1.65 an hour or so. (This being in the 60's as an example.) So how bad is it? Comparing the manufacturing costs of a cd versus its retail price and getting all pissed off is a little weird. There are a lot of people splitting up that pie before any of it reaches the actual creators. Record companies cannot count on an identical margin off every cd they release. Some do well, but the majority sell somewhere around 5000 copies. That ain't exactly a lot. An overwhelming amount of people in the music business, including small labels are barely making it at that. So lighten up everyone. Music is a great value. Better than a DVD you might watch 5 times at the most in its lifetime. A great cd will be played for years, off and on. The investment in music is a far better investment than beer or going out to an expensive restaurant. No one seems to complain with the same bitterness about those kinds of things. All that is consumed fast and is gone. But not music. It's still there to give you another ride. It has value and it's worth it.
Why Atheists Should Say, "Thank God for Christianity" {News Bloggers}
Oct 23rd 2007 5:28PM Beyond the usual revulsion for anything that D'Sousa says, there are a few things that should be placed at the front on this argument. First off, not believing in Christianity does not make you part of another religion. The idea that there is an atheist belief system equivilent to religion is nonsense. Not accepting Christianity or any other faith does not mean your beliefs are of a certain, predictible order. Also, the Christian and Muslim belief systems insist that you either accept them, or very bad things will happen to you. In Christianity, those bad things include BURNING IN ETERNAL HELL FIRE. Think about that. Who would ever want to believe in something like this? It is so absurd. If you need a barage of threats in order to act morally or honestly, then you're kidding yourself, plain and simple. Also, none of the Christian believers ever talk about one of the main (of many) contradictions in the bible. That is that there were multiple gods. Says so in the old testament right towards the beginning. It says that there were many "sons of god" and that they were very interested in "the daughters of men." I think you can figure out for yourself what that meant. Why is this never mentioned? So much for mono-theism.
Corporate Propaganda in the News {News Bloggers}
Oct 12th 2007 6:43PM The corporate news media is crap. Is there really anyone out there that doesn't know that by now? They are in the business of influence and people often forget that. Their real business is selling ads. Influence. And it doesn't stop with that. Corporate or political influence is available for sale by the media. That is what they do. People have the wrong idea about them. They do not exist and never have existed to keep us all properly informed. They will and do sell out to anyone for money or legislative favor. Remember the cheer leading they did for the war? This is not an accident. That's what these people are about. State run media could not have done a better job. We've had documentaries about how corrupt the health care industry is. We've had documentaries on how corrupt corporations are. We've had a documentary on how idiotic Fox News is. (Outfoxed) We've had numerous documentaries on how corrupt the war is. We really need one on the media. A history of the lies told to the people. Of the manipulation. And of the aftermath.
Check out "War Made Easy" or "Why We Fight" for some of that. We really need a major documentary that looks deeply at the so called "Fourth Estate." No other business has this kind of built in trust, yet it is not at all deserved. Now they totally own the elections process in this country. They decide who they want to win and steer the population towards these candidates. Any substantial candidate with real issues has got to take on the media and if they do, it'll be the Dean Scream Part 2.
Poll Shows Trouble for Dem Candidates {AOL Elections Blog}
Sep 24th 2007 5:44PM Ok, first thing. This piece identifys this polltaker as a democrat. Says who? Since when do democrats use language (especially when conducting a poll) that are the exact triggers for conservative revulsion of supposed democrat behavior? (and do it when polling conservative districts) The piece offers this quote from the pollster: "Some people say (your democratic incumbent) is a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton and will support her liberal agenda of big government and higher taxes if she becomes president." So check out the key words: Liberal. Big Government.
Higher Taxes. Also "She" and "Her". What happened to Obama? The piece also emphasizes and in fact underlines the "fact" that this is a Democratic pollster and this is the first time they've gotten results like this. Democratic pollster? I think not. This is a republican shill pretending to be a democrat pollster in a piece that is disguised as neutral but is not. This pollster is a member of the Democratic party for real as much as Fake Fox News Democrat Pollster/Strategist/Consultant Pat Cadell is. Pat is wheeled on stage and identified as a Democrat and then proceeds to rip into the party at every point, agreeing with the prevailing republican agenda. It's called fake and it is manipulation of the lowest form. Read and view your news carefully as there is so much lying and manipulation going on. Truth is much harder to come by. If you want a great Democratic candidate, check out Mike Gravel. The news media barely mentions him but you will be surprised at what he has to say. If you are tired of all the news media manipulation (they in effect pick the frontrunner candidates out for you and get rid of anything that actually has an air of authenticity and fresh perspective)then look harder and more carefully of what the media place before you. The media is the true killer of freedom in the US.
John Kerry Protester: Major Cocktase? {News Bloggers}
Sep 18th 2007 4:35PM It amazes me how many comments on this have been in support of tazering this kid. I've only seen this clip and nothing else on this, but if that kid's questions are so annoying to so many that they think a proper tazering is what he had coming we are all in major trouble. What we need in this country is more people to stand up and ask tough questions. More people everywhere. At phony town hall meetings with scripted candidates and bland questions posed by the "news" media. In congress where there is nothing but bland uniformity. As a country, at this point in time, we all would have benefited by some tough, insistent questioning of so called public servants and their news media lackeys.
Student Tasered at John Kerry Speech (Video) {News Bloggers}
Sep 18th 2007 4:21PM Amazing video and very indicative of how bullshit all these question and answer fake inclusionary sessions are. Kerry is a public representative. At least, that's what politicians are called. But in fact these people are constantly insulated from any real, direct interaction with the public and are always sheilded from any real questions. Everything is essentially scripted and it bores most American's to death. What was wrong with the questions? What's the problem with the questioner? He didn't follow the script. Polite, softball questions only and more droning, boring responses. Good luck for democracy in America. I saw a clip on tv once of the British people on a small, question and answer thing with Blair and they were allowed to go at it and ask tough questions or to display their anger. I thought it was amazing. It would never be allowed here.
