Collections agencies keep calling looking for someone whom I won’t mention, and then start pumping me for information when I say that he’s not here. They won’t tell me why they’re calling, but they want to know my name? Fuck them.

Oh, and we’re moving back to Kansas in a few weeks.

What pisses me off most about Palladium, and the way our copyright laws are heading in general, is the issue of ownership. When I buy something, I want to be able to do whatever I want with it. Period. If I buy a book, I want to be allowed to resell it, or give it to a friend, or prop up a table with it. When I buy a CD, I want to be allowed to put it on my computer, to use tracks from it in a compilation CD for my car, or to use it as a coaster. In short, once I’ve paid for it, they can’t tell me what to do with it.

They don’t agree. The way things are going, I will never be able to buy media again, in the real sense of buy. I’ll pay for a book and download it, but I won’t really have any rights to it. I’ll only be able to read it with designated software. I won’t be able to put it on a disk, or another computer, or print it. I can’t sell it to someone else when I’m done. At any point the publisher or the government can remove it from my hard drive or revoke my privilege to use it.

Imagine dropping your kids and their favorite movie off at your parent’s. Your parents put the movie in their player, and it won’t play because they’re unauthorized. You all may even be flagged as a pirate and barred from further purchases. Imagine buying a movie on pay-per-view, or just subscribing to HBO, and not being able to record it.

This stuff is extremely important. We all have to let it be known that this sort of “progress” will not be tolerated.

The supreme court upheld a law to extend copyrights another twenty years. How stupid is that? Copyrights are supposed to expire to encourage creativity. If you can feed your family for generations with one big hit, why should you try to do anything else? If no one can ever reinterpret or build on your work, the theme dies out.

I love that I’m now getting spam about anti-spam software.

My favorite word this year is “grabasstic.” As in, “What kind of grabasstic, unorganized question is that?”

The Sum Of All Fears is a must rent DVD, but not for the movie. The movie is decent, but the real gem here is the commentary with the director and Tom Clancy. Clancy is a loveable, know-it-all asshole that is just a wonderful foil to the director. Here is how he introduces himself at the beginning of the commentary: “Hi, I’m Tom Clancy, and I wrote the book that they ignored while making this movie.”

Through the whole thing, he lets us in on what parts are “total bullshit,” and how it would happen in real-life. Meanwhile, the director tries to defend his choices and egg on Clancy simultaneously.

Definitely worth a listen.

“Alex has the best journal on the planet!” –Norman Mayhew Rodd

“Alex’s journal is the most boring piece of garbage ever to have wedged itself on a hard drive. The magnetic charges storing it should be ashamed of themselves.” –Snaw Beatrice Stickwicksen

Critics agree. My name is Alex.

It IS pushing someone down the stairs! This is the funniest game ever! Minutes to learn, a lifetime to master.

Porrasturvat, Stair Dismount.

Download it here.

I was listening to talk radio today, like I do, and I’m always offended by people calling up and making fun of liberals. Their jabs usually have no basis in reality, and present a caricature of the left that is just narrow sighted. What bothers me most about these shows though is how much the hosts egg on this divisive behavior. They just don’t seem to understand that American politics is not divided into conservatives and liberals, but politicians and citizens. Politicians don’t care if you’re conservative, liberal, or neo-nazi as long as you vote for them. As long as people keep being encouraged to engage in petty squabbles over liberal and conservative, they won’t educate themselves on the issues, and, most importantly, they won’t unite to fight the establishment.

“Noam Chomsky is one of America’s most prominent political dissidents. … [H]e has authored over 30 political books dissecting such issues as U.S. interventionism in the developing world, the political economy of human rights and the propaganda role of corporate media. … This archive … contains the full text to many of Chomsky’s major works.”

Only read this if you’re not a jack-booted homeland security thug specialist.