Gifts from Valerie

For the last few years, around Christmas time, my friend Valerie has put a list of things she might like on her LiveJournal, offering to swap gifts with her readers. Last year I felt like all I had to contribute was stuff I could buy, rather than make, so I skipped out. This year I decided, “what the heck” and sent her something from her Amazon wish list. 

I received her gift today — a book on the game of Go (which I expected) and a Go-centric graphic novel (which I had not).  She also included a cute card:

Thanks, Val!
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Plugging the Analog Hole

There’s a law on the table that aims to plug the analog hole by making every digital recording device include copy-sensing-and-disabling technology.

This is so staggering that I almost wouldn’t believe it, if not for the other crap that’s come out of the recording industry via Congress. I wonder who they paid for this one. I’m going to look right now (and I promise I didn’t before).

Hm. A Mr.Sensenbrenner. Never heard of him. I expected it to be a known RIAA shill (that I had heard of before). Surprising a bit — I suspect he belongs to the MPAA rather than the RIAA. Let’s see.

Political Money Line indicates that he received the most money from Communication and Technology groups. I wonder how much was from technology groups, and how much from communication? I can’t tell, because I’m not a paid member of the site. I suspect, given that tech companies generally lose on DRM, and communication companies (read: MPAA, RIAA) win in the short term, that those contributions came from the MPAA.

Yet another (qualified) example of how your votes don’t matter, only your money. This sort of thing is what drove me to join the EFF. If media groups’ paying legislators to make your life more difficult concerns you, you should too:

ADDENDUM: I know at least Jack Valenti, a lobbyist for and former president of the MPAA, has paid him off. I don’t know how many other MPAA/RIAA lobbyists have.

ADDENDUM #2: Here’s an RIAA-Free list of CDs. You can vote with your dollar by not giving it to those groups, too.

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“Intelligent” Design Not Allowed in Dover, PA

ADDENDUM 2005-12-21: The judge’s memorandum opinion (PDF) is a fantastic read, especially after about page 20.

Finally, a judge ruled that teaching “Intelligent” Design in Dover, PA schools violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs, [the judge] said.

Further,

“We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom,” he wrote in his 139-page opinion.

They have been fairly brazen:

Said the judge: “It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.”

I was beginning to wonder if the country was totally clueless to this hoodwinking. I guess not. Truly, this is a cause for celebration.

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