Slow Posts...

I will freely admit that I have been avoiding my blog lately. There are two primary reasons. First, studying for the bar takes up most of my time, so unfortunately, my career gets in the way of my punditry. I hope that it has to do with volume, and not the job itself. That I won't determine until after I find a job (anyone need a good appeals associate?). In the alternative, my other reason for not posting as often as I would like is my loss for words at the absolute stupidity of things going on in business and politics.

First, corroborating the story about Weird Al and online sales, it appears that the numbers don't really work in the Artists' favor. This ads a new dimension to my previous rebukes of the massive media companies. Why would an artist want to create anything when his or her net profit will be next to nothing? Why would an entire business, namely the executives at the RIAA want to deal in a commodity that does not promote an interest in creating more of that commodity? Especially when the result is a prohibition on dancing. Digital music and/or digital video in a format that fills a computer or media player should exist solely for the convenience of the end user. This means that the only format available for sale should be something in tangible form on a CD or DVD. License this sale only, giving the owner rights to do with it as they please so long as it remains in their sole possession. In English, this means that a buyer/end user can convert for their own use the music or video on a disk provided they don't distribute to some third party. Interestingly, this is how things were, when people were making money and enjoying the use of what they paid for. Now, no one wants to buy because they can't even dance to their music. The RIAA is in desperate need of a reality check, and what I hope is eventually the absolute end of these kinds of greedy business types. Should they be out to make money? Sure, that is the purpose of business. But good business also requires you create something that people will want to buy all the time, without the fear of frivolous litigation.

Second, debates on the Iraq war have been heating up in Congress. It's no surprise that these are the abominable tactics of stupidity in Congress. I can fully appreciate zealous debate, but this is little more than petulant. I won't even respond to the first two points on this list simply because only a half-witted automaton with no substantial support for his/her position would relegate themselves to using pedantic patronization more suitable for adolescent siblings. As for the third, the postulation that the Iraq war is necessary to prevent further terrorist attacks is predominantly unsupported. If anything, arousing more disdain for the United States by continuing this fruitless military effort will create more terrorists cells interested in attacking the United States. Waging a war is NOT the solution. Rather, we, as a nation, should be working on vigilance and security, demonstrating to would be terrorists that we won't respond in an ineffective manner to the threat. How about promoting democracy, or providing economic support to alleviate the disdain that breeds anti-American extremism. After all, There has not been a war between two nations with a McDonald's since World War II. Legislators who have put their own interests, or the interests of their political parties before the Constitutional interests of their constituents should be ashamed. Thank goodness we have the power to hold the government responsible for their transgressions against privacy rights.

Finally, one of the keys to a stronger America, politically and economically, is energy independence. Whether it's ethanol, wind power, or hydrogen, the reality of the situation is this country will never be able to get anywhere without a fundamental change in our energy consumption, or satiate our energy needs. Ethanol is a good start, but it has to be made of both corn and the more powerful sugar derivative, especially considering some already pointed out the relative futility of relying on any one fuel source for satisfaction. The only plausible solution may be hydrogen fuel cells, and it appears that the technology may be coming over the horizon in the near future. What's stopping this trend? Ineffective government regulation favoring big business (surprised?). It's amazing what owning a Congressional representative can do for you. It's time to fix the systemic problem.