For the first time in forty years,
there is not a single UK act on the Billboard top 100 singles chart. A lot of people argue that it's because manfactured crap is interchangable, so there's no need to import it, but plenty of American artists still make it in the UK, so I'm inclined to believe there's something else at work here. Any ideas as to what that something might be?
posted by aaron
on Apr 24, 2002 -
71 comments
"...The Copyright Office followed almost to the letter the RIAA's wish list." The final nail may be about to be driven into the coffin of online music streaming in the US, as the Copyright Office issued its notice of proposed rulemaking on the issue. The proposed rules are extremely favorable to the RIAA, to the point where many streamers are saying they'll simply have to shut down. Even worse, any ruling will be retroactive to 1998, and streamers will have to pay the announced rate on everything they've streamed since that year.
posted by aaron
on Feb 20, 2002 -
16 comments
When Chyrons go very, very, very, very, very, very, very bad. (Or, How To Lose Your Job In Just One Second) Niger Innis is the spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, one of those scary
conservative African-American groups. He's also a regular MSNBC pundit. Well, he was on there the other day talking about Enron, and whoever was in charge of plugging the names into the rundown that hour was a little sloppy with his or her typing and ... well, just click on the link.
posted by aaron
on Feb 6, 2002 -
68 comments
"I have no hesitation in describing this mentality, carefully and without heat, as soft on crime and soft on fascism. No political coalition is possible with such people and, I’m thankful to say, no political coalition with them is now necessary. It no longer matters what they think." Christopher Hitchens says that intellectuals of the left who seek to understand the new enemy are no friends of peace, democracy or human life. Two different versions of the same article
here and
here. Along the same lines, a piece from
The Economist arguing that "Whatever its mistakes,
the idea that America brought the onslaught upon itself is absurd."
posted by aaron
on Oct 2, 2001 -
57 comments
The Tragedy in Cartoons. One of the more interesting effects of a national tragedy is that it always somehow causes the nation's editorial cartoonists to suffer massive, collective brain damage. Across the country, they rush to their easels and whip up cheesy, embarrassing caricatures of Uncle Sam crying. Or the Founding Fathers crying. Or - in this case - a comparison to Pearl Harbor. Or - if your local cartoonist is feeling particularly creative - the always crowd-pleasing
weeping Statue of Liberty. As Cagle notes, "Fully half the nation's cartoonists drew the same cartoon on the same day." Including Cagle himself. A tragedy in cartoons indeed. Some psychiatrist really ought to study this phenomenon.
posted by aaron
on Sep 14, 2001 -
20 comments
The charges of "lewd conduct against a child under 14" against Paula Poundstone have been DROPPED. She pleaded no contest to a couple other charges related to the fact that she had been driving drunk with her kids in the car. I'm posting this because child molestation charges ruin careers and entire lives. Since we covered the initial charges here quite a bit, it's only fair to note her apparent innocence just as prominently, especially during a time like this when any non-attack news is being largely ignored. (Indeed, this story itself is nearly two days old.)
posted by aaron
on Sep 13, 2001 -
15 comments
The ACLU has been taken over by psychopathic haters in Hawaii. The First Amendment Conference subcommittee of the state board had planned to invite Clarence Thomas to a public debate with ACLU national president Nadine Strossen, as part of a regular series of such debates that has included many big-name conservatives, including Antonin Scalia. But when certain members of the main state board found out, they flew into a rage and demanded the invitation be recinded. Just SOME of the reasons why these three ACLU board members members, all black, are refusing to allow Thomas to participate (note that these are all direct quotes, publicly stated by state ACLU board members): He is an an Anti-Christ. He is an Uncle Tom. He is an asshole. He is a Hitler. He is a Goebbels. And worst of all, he
married a white girl. When the ACLU starts to violently attack freedom of speech and freedom of thought, where else can we turn?
posted by aaron
on Jun 25, 2001 -
27 comments
"The members of U2 kindly request that
all fans of the group be physically attractive. In order to have a Beautiful Day, we require Beautiful People. Thank you for your understanding." (BTW, it turns out the article is wrong. HBO had nothing to do with it; it was entirely U2's decision.)
posted by aaron
on Jun 14, 2001 -
7 comments
The Rumor is spreading. The
Tallahassee Democrat gets up to 10 calls and emails a day asking why they haven't printed it.
Vanity Fair is sort of writing about it in its July issue, they say. The Internet is all abuzz. But it seems that nobody can prove The Rumor, so instead they're simply going to keep talking about the fact the rumor exists until either someone comes forward with documentable proof, or until practically everyone knows about it anyway and thus the desired damage is done, regardless of whether The Rumor is true or not. It seems to have something to do with high-ranking Republican Florida state government officials and blowjobs, though. The same old "friend of a friend heard that Jeb and Katherine Harris are lovers" BS, or something newer? Doesn't the media have a responsibility to keep their trap shut until and unless they can come up with some real proof, rather than forcing it to come out by making the lack of provability into a so-called news story?
posted by aaron
on May 11, 2001 -
42 comments
Disney's Michael Eisner on what to do about all those kids who use Napster:
Arrest and prosecute the little SOBs. I know I'd sleep better at night knowing that those devious conspiratorial 11-year-olds were behind bars. [second item]
posted by aaron
on Mar 16, 2001 -
15 comments
The House has passed the bankruptcy reform bill that Clinton vetoed at the end of the last session. I'm mildly optimistic that it won't pass the Senate, given that the Democratic vote in the House was split. But should we be worried at all?
At first glance, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. But so many consumer groups are against it, and it seems to benefit credit card companies while hurting individuals, so I'm inclined to think we should leave things as-is. Especially since personal bankruptcies are down and credit card issuers' profits are up. Anyone know more about this?
posted by aaron
on Mar 1, 2001 -
7 comments
The obvious next step has been taken: An Oregon state senator
introduces a bill that will expand the definition of hate crimes to include ecoterrorism and illegal actions motivated by anticapitalism. Block a street, go to jail?
posted by aaron
on Feb 13, 2001 -
48 comments
Like the rest of Europe, Germany is going through a histrionic BSE scare. So Germans switched to sausage and pork. And then they were told pork contains anabolic steroids. So they switched to venison. And then they were told it might have BSE too. So the Germans, who hate veggies, are starting to "starve."
And raid zoos for meat. Hey, where'd all this paté come from?
posted by aaron
on Jan 27, 2001 -
5 comments
So, who are you going to vote for? Yes, it's that time again, as the 2004 presidential campaign gets underway!
The Des Moines Register asked registered Iowa Democrats to declare their favorites. Who are you supporting?
posted by aaron
on Jan 26, 2001 -
12 comments
This time it's for real: A
Stage Three Power Emergency has been declared in California this evening.
Rolling blackouts are expected, especially in Northern California. If MeFi goes down tonight, this is why. Nothing like government intervention disguised as "deregulation" to muck up the works.
posted by aaron
on Jan 11, 2001 -
27 comments
Ebola is for wimps! Some Australian scientists were trying to come up with a mouse contraceptive vaccine, for use in pest control. And they succeeded. Unfortunately, the virus they created works by killing mice before they can breed, and killing them very very well. Oh, and it's extremely vaccine-resistant: 100% death without vaccine, 50% with. And any kid with a Li'l Johnny Gene Engineering Kit could conceivably make a human version. Anyone got some smallpox virus laying around?
posted by aaron
on Jan 10, 2001 -
5 comments
Let's give a big "Yahoo!" for censorship! Yahoo caves in and bans all "hate materials" from being sold through its auction service
anywhere, not just in France. What is "hate material," of course, will be defined by Yahoo itself, in ways they haven't yet bothered to deliniate. (I'm going to go out on a limb and venture that "No Fat Chicks" bumper stickers will still be allowed, along with anything else that denigrates groups that don't have politically-effective special interest groups behind them.) In addition, they'll now charge for listings. Are these smart ideas for a site whose auctions have a pretty anemic response rate in the first place?
posted by aaron
on Jan 2, 2001 -
15 comments
The lead that Al Gore once enjoyed in most presidential polls in wake of the Democratic convention has all but disappeared, according to the latest
Voter.com Battleground 2000 poll released Thursday. The survey reports that the vice president’s numbers are slipping and George W. Bush is back on top for the first time in weeks.
posted by aaron
on Sep 14, 2000 -
22 comments
The Washington Post speculates on
the future of Canada. More directly, they question whether it
has a future. Is Canada doomed to eventually join the United States?
posted by aaron
on Sep 12, 2000 -
25 comments
Another corporation shoving dioxin-contaminated food down the throats of unsuspecting consumers. In this case, more than 2200 times the amount allowed to be in a
refinery's waste water. Obviously,
Ben and Jerry's must be stopped.
posted by aaron
on Aug 17, 2000 -
14 comments
Enough of these pansy-assed candidates. Gore? Bush? Nader? Feh on them all, clueless newbies, no real experience. It's time for a candidate who's been there. A candidate who's a true stateman. A candidate who is tan, rested and ready! It's time for us to rise up and say
Nixon 2000!
posted by aaron
on Aug 14, 2000 -
9 comments
Craig Kilborn calls for the assassination of George W. Bush on national television. "Just a little joke, of course. huh huh huh." Yeah, sure, maybe, though not at all funny, and also wildly illegal. CBS and Worldwide Pants have been forced to apologize, and the Secret Service has an active investigation. It should be noted, though, that this aired last Friday, and CBS and Worldwide Pants said and did nothing until this got talked about on a New York radio show yesterday. Why do I get the feeling that if, say, Regis got on his show and made the exact same "joke" about Al Gore, he'd be fired before 10:30 am and be blackballed for the rest of his life?
posted by aaron
on Aug 9, 2000 -
29 comments
Is this for real?!? The Blair government in the UK is proposing to change the rape laws so that any man accused of such a crime will be
guilty until proven innocent!!! (Even weirder, this tidbit is halfway down a story that thinks the bigger news is that they want to make sex in public legal. Which is fine, I guess, as long as I'd retain the right to hose them down if I saw them out on the sidewalk in front of my house.)
posted by aaron
on Jul 28, 2000 -
5 comments
Another day, another piece of
unconstitutional net-censorship legislation in Congress. And this time it's authored by your pal and mine, John "Watch Out for Charlies!" McCain. Perhaps we should start a deadpool for all these bills, giving out some cash to whoever guesses the dates on which the courts throw them out?
posted by aaron
on Jun 27, 2000 -
4 comments
"Fellow citizens, Arabs everywhere, the National and Regional Commands of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, the Central Command of the Progressive Democratic Front, People's Assembly, Council of Ministers, the Armed Forces Command, Vocational Syndicates and Popular Organizations in Syria, the children of the great who departed, Bashar, Maher, Majd and Bushra, the Assad and Makhlouf families, announce to the Arab Nation..." Man, I wish we American peons could get obituaries like this!
posted by aaron
on Jun 10, 2000 -
0 comments
