Category: Interesting Reads

That’s the message from the Australian government to Muslims who might prefer Sharia law to the democratic law Australia currently lives under.  It is my opinion that we Americans should take the same stance with people who live her that don’t like our style of government or our national language.  But I’m sure that’s just crazy talk on my part.

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown.

[tags]Australia, Muslims, Good leadership[/tags]

(via boingboing)

Well, maybe not quite “signs away your past” really, but certainly the Smithsonian is certainly making a choice to restrict a lot of content paid for by your (and my) tax dollars. The Smithsonian has signed a first-refusal deal with Showtime networks which gives Showtime the power to decide who can and cannot use video in the Smithsonian’s archives. Oh, it might be worth mentioning that some of that content is public domain. But Showtime still gets to decide who can use it. Hmmmmm.

On March 9, Showtime and the Smithsonian announced the creation of Smithsonian Networks, a joint venture to develop television programming. Under the agreement, the joint venture has the right of first refusal to commercial documentaries that rely heavily on Smithsonian collections or staff. Those works would first have to be offered to Smithsonian on Demand, the cable channel that is expected to be the venture’s first programming service.

. . .

One well-known filmmaker, Laurie Kahn-Leavitt, said she had been told recently by a Smithsonian staff member that her last film, “Tupperware!,” a history of the creation and marketing of the venerable food-storage containers, would have fallen under the arrangement, because much of the history of Tupperware is housed at the Smithsonian. The documentary, which won a Peabody Award in 2004, was broadcast on “American Experience,” the PBS show produced by WGBH, the Boston public television station.

“This is a public archive,” Ms. Kahn-Leavitt said. “This should not be offered on an exclusive basis to anyone, and it’s not good enough that they can decide on a case-by-case basis what they will and won’t approve.”

[tags]Smithsonian[/tags]

(via Snopes)

Ben Stein is great.  He is entertaining and intelligent.  When he has something to say, it’s usually worth reading.  So tonight, I’m posting a link back to an article he wrote on the faux patriotism of the Hollywood “elite” at the Oscars.  A brief snippet follows:

I did not see every second of it, but my wife did, and she joins me in noting that there was not one word of tribute, not one breath, to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan or to their families or their widows or orphans. There were pitifully dishonest calls for peace — as if the people we are fighting were interested in any peace for us but the peace of the grave. But not one word for the hundreds of thousands who have served and are serving, not one prayer or moment of silence for the dead and maimed.

Basically, the sad truth is that Hollywood does not think of itself as part of America, and so, to Hollywood, the war to save freedom from Islamic terrorists is happening to someone else. It does not concern them except insofar as it offers occasion to mock or criticize George Bush. They live in dreamland and cannot be gracious enough to thank the men and women who pay with their lives for the stars’ ability to live in dreamland. This is shameful.

[tags]Ben Stein, Hollywood[/tags]

(via boingboing)

If you’ve read much of what I post, you might have picked up on the fact that I think Digital Restriction Mangling is a bad thing.  I knew I wasn’t the only one, but here is someone who is really dedicated to hating DRM.

Welcome to the “official” I Hate DRM site.  Over the last couple of years and especially over the last couple of months, the DRM issue has really received a lot of press.  I created this site because, as a consumer, I am fed up.  I feel like all of the entertainment that I love is slowly being eroded away by overly greedy companies.  This website is meant to be a platform to capture how DRM is changing the way paying customers are receiving content.  I want to hear your complaints, your horror stories, your whatever…even your good stories if you have one.

. . .

I created this site because I could no longer sit back and let this stuff happen without saying something.  The single consumer has little power and I didn’t know what else to do without going overboard.  So I figured I would start up a site and dedicate it to the horror stories around DRM.  My hope is that, at some point, someone from one of these companies realizes that DRM only hurts paying customers.

[tags]DRM hate[/tags]