random quotes ... to amuse, inspire, enrage:
  Is a young man bound to serve his country in war? In addition to his legal duty there is perhaps also a moral duty, but it is very obscure. What is called his country is only its government and that government consists merely of professional politicians, a parasitical and anti-social class of men. They never sacrifice themselves for their country. They make all wars, but very few of them ever die in one. If it is the duty of a young man to serve his country under all circumstances then it is equally the duty of an enemy young man to serve his. Thus we come to a moral contradiction and absurdity so obvious that even clergymen and editorial writers sometimes notice it.

tagged: war, conscription, ethics
  —H. L. Mencken, Minority Report.

Archive for February, 2009

Obama’s ongoing copyright industry promotion: FTC edition

Friday, February 27th, 2009

aka, “the copyright industry suckup continues”, this time with the elevation of FTC commissioner Jon Leibowitz to Chair. Leibowitz is a former MPAA lobbyist (well, “vice president for congressional affairs”).

following in daddy’s footsteps

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

A health blog (why a health blog?) at the NYT covered research showing that as the 20th century progressed, more and more women followed in their father’s footsteps, career-speaking. Men have for a long time followed in their fathers’ footsteps at a rate of about 30%; women born in the 1910s followed in their [...]

egg rights: South Dakota’s latest ventures into unintended consequences

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

South Dakota is at it again, with a new egg rights bill that defines “any organism with the genome of homo sapiens” as a person under the South Dakota Constitution. Man it’s hard to keep up with all the really poorly thought out legislation from that state!
Broadsheet has the simplest quickest coverage, and links [...]

The DOJ and current copyright conflicts of interest

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

The Dept. of Justice is threatening to weigh in on one of the numerous cases relating to the Constitutionality of statutory damages in copyright law. In case anyone hasn’t heard this, the Obama Administration has larded the DOJ with numerous copyright litigators and lobbyists.
I just sent the following letter to whitehouse.gov:

I’m [...]