I know most of you are probably interested in retired Gen. Wesley Clark's announcement that he will enter the Democratic Presidential Primary. Or at least you are avidly following events in the wake of the Ninth Circuit's decision to enjoin California's recall election.
I, by contrast, am monitoring the status of a measure to tax espresso drinks in Seattle at the rate of a dime a cup. Seattlites will decide the initiative's fate in today's local election. Count me among those who will be dumping coffee in the Sound to protest this unjust tax if it passes!
The money would fund early childhood programs, but what's the use if you can't get your act together in time to drive the kids to daycare?
UPDATE: "Latte Tax Creamed," reports the Seattle Times! Liberty maintains a foothold in Ecotopia, as the espresso excise goes down two-to-one in yesterday's election.
It's hardly surprising that many musicians are ambivalent about recent recording industry crackdowns on teenage filesharers and their unsuspecting relatives. While the RIAA touts artists - whom the organization does not represent - as filesharing's most sympathetic victims, the NYT reports that a most signed artists never recieve a single royalty check for CD sales. They apparently make their money through live performances and merchandise sales instead.
Whether or not the RIAA prevails in its scattershot legal war against the masses, technology has radically devalued the main service the labels provide -- high risk, high reward venture capitalization for albums that may not be successful.
Publicists can publicize, and do so for a fraction of what the labels charge. Artists can take care of the "artist development" job, no doubt to the benefit of the art form. What the labels really did was turn out and ship thousands of copies of the product at the risk that those copies wouldn't sell. And that is what isn't needed anymore.
Even with the strongest possible IP laws in place, the industry won't last five years beyond the date the first big stars refuse to renew their contracts with labels in favor of online sales and ala carte promotion. The RIAA is acting with all the desperation of a patient with a terminal illness, but strong copyright will prove to be only so much shark cartilage and snake oil.
Oh dear; Julian links to disturbing new reports of clumsy dissembling on the part of gun researcher John Lott. This former darling of the gun rights movement has surely become its premier enfant terrible. Get us a new economist, please!
Last night I dreamed I met John Cusack. Did anyone arrange this special party favor?
After a two-year hiatus characterized by international gloom, I am excited to see that my birthday is back this year! Yes, in addition to being an international terrorism memorial day, September 11th is also my birthday.
Last year was pretty somber (tho' it had its nice moments), and the year before that was obviously dreadful. But this year the sense of tragedy is not so overwhelming.
Reason's Matt Welch attributes this to a healthy resiliency in American society. I'm going to do my part to help us snap back by having a thoroughly lighthearted evening with some friends.
An interesting article in the Detroit Free Press today describes looping: the practice of having one teacher teach the same children for more than one year in a row as they move from grade to grade. The children may benefit from continuity in relationships with teachers and peers. On the other hand, I can certainly remember a few teachers I'm glad I didn't have two years in a row.
Reportedly, looping is not more widespread because under current rules it requires universal assent from parents, teacher and school district. In a system of school choice, most children could "loop" in those schools that buy into the concept while parents would remain free to move individual children in need of a fresh start.
(Rendezvous on 18th)
Light banter, head tipped
Nothing askew but your tie
Sweet smile, glass held
Dress grazing my knees
Mingling, of course!