2000.08.30
Last month the Wall Street Journal had a story about a marriage in Kansas that
was posthumously anulled because it was revealed that the wife had previously
been a man. Now, based on the same logic, two lesbians will be able to get
married in Texas because one of them is a male-to-female transsexual!
Houston Chronicle: Houston couple
plans Texas' first legal lesbian marriage.
"Rep. Glen Maxey, D-Austin, the only openly gay member of the Texas Legislature,
said the unusual case in Houston shows exactly why government should not be
getting involved in the private lives of its citizens. 'Because government got
involved in something they should have never gotten involved with, you have
these absurdities and seeming irrationalities,' he said."
And here's Chuck Anderson, the Texas Christian Coalition's executive director,
with an opposing opinion:
"It's creepy."
2000.08.25
WSJ: The
Survival of Falun Dafa Rests on Beepers and Faith.
"Experience quells the temptation to turn on his cell phone. Not only can
conversations be monitored, but the phones are dangerous even when they
are only switched on. That's because security agents can figure out which
transmitter the phone is getting its signal from. In a city like Beijing, where a
high density of mobile phones means transmitters are located every few
blocks, police could trace Brother Li and follow him through town."
This has been a pretty big story for the last year and a half. A paranoid
totalitarian government has turned a new-age fad into an underground resistance
movement by imprisoning, torturing and killing ordinary people for meditating!
2000.08.17
A political story from yesterday:
Paul Krugman, NYT: What would have
happened if Bob Dole had won?
"I've been going back over Mr. Dole's economic program
-- which, remember, was centered on huge tax cuts
-- and trying to calculate what today's economy would
look like if those tax cuts had been enacted. One clear
conclusion is that even if the economy had grown as
fast as it actually did, the federal budget -- certainly
the non-Social-Security budget, and probably the
whole shebang -- would still be in deficit....
"Anyway, the economy surely wouldn't have grown as fast as it did....
"Not long ago America faced a choice between sober,
sensible fiscal discipline and huge, irresponsible tax
cuts. We chose discipline, and were rewarded with
growth beyond our wildest dreams. So why would
anyone today propose exactly the kind of
irresponsibility we were lucky to avoid four years ago?"
2000.08.03
New York Times:Record
Companies Explore Online Music Subscriptions.
This is close to what the record industry should be doing, although the
encryption thing is probably a problem. How does their encryption system work?
I don't want to have to listen to everything on the computer I used for the
download. I want to copy the music to a player and jack it into my car stereo,
of course.
But this quote near the end of the article really sends up a red flag:
"One record industry executive said the contractual issues aside, the
labels would probably have to make only 5,000 to 10,000 of their
200,000 title libraries available to meet consumer demand, which is
concentrated among a few artists."
Man, this guy couldn't have said more clearly, "We suck."
This company's entire catalog of music would probably fit on a 2 terabyte disk farm.
So, assuming they can figure out a decent search engine and really good broadband
access (see, for instance, E*TRADE), there are no inventory and distribution
issues. Assuming their precious encryption system really works, there are no pirating
issues. And with their subscription system, people could even pay for the music. But
instead of making their entire catalog available, they will probably limit the selection
to Brittany Spears and the Backsteet Boys because ...
THEY SUCK!
