Several weeks ago, I enjoyed lunch at a Chelsea brasserie with an acquaintance, accompanied by his Parisian boyfriend. Eventually, the topic of discussion drifted to contemporary French politics, and I asked the boyfriend, Phillipe, what he thought of the Sarkozy presidency.
Phillipe quickly responded in English, thankfully, because my spoken French is ghastly embarrassing, that [...]
On the other side of the pond, they had a novel idea. The companies that have made billions in the energy sector get to pitch in to help low income individuals afford to be more energy efficient, allowing them to save money on bills as well as the environment.
Power companies will be forced to spend [...]
For years we’ve seen our government slash and hack at social programs designed to help us when things get really tough. I think there’s been a sense that things could never get bad for us or that these programs were being exploited by people who wanted the easy life. Well we are them and they [...]
I was just reading Richard Cullen’s piece on the lack of popular anti-war music and I think he’s missing something.
Music, say some sociologists, is just one manifestation of a more fundamental trend. Opposition to the Iraq war, which commands strong majorities in the polls, has not produced mass marches on the Pentagon or shut down [...]
You know you’re an unpopular President when you’re a Republican and you’re getting booed like this at a sporting event. Still, not as bad as what Cheney got, nor is it as bad as what he ought to get.
Linux reminds us again that sometimes, the best product isn’t the one created for profit. The open source movement has given us a number of fine products which never seem to be given a fair shake in our economy.
My links for 03-30-2008
In the age of the internet, where intellectual content rights are one of the biggest areas of contention, we have seen a trend that is disturbing. All too often it seems lawsuits are becoming an acceptable means of extracting profit from customers. The biggest culprits in this trend have been the RIAA and MPAA.
The absolute [...]
