That instead of griping about the generous stock options executives are granted, we REQUIRE them to own the stock -- or at least some proxy for it, such as script with value tied to the value of the stock. They can't cash it all in until a reasonable period after they "resign." That way, when the ship goes down, they go down with it.

Think of what would have happened to Enron execs if this had been required of them.

Recently, Black Power icon and former Olympic athlete Lee Evans has been sending communications to Oprah Winfrey, asking for accountability on HIV and AIDS and the racism the AIDS system perpetuates. According to Evans, he has heard that Oprah is aware of his letters. He has received to date no response.

But the so-called "immoral" critics of Oprah's obsession with 200-thread-count sheets have today received a long response from Rebecca Traister.

I think that Oprah is right to demand beautiful furnishings for her school. The next step is to furnish it with privileged information, usually the province of rich white people. It should start with ALL information about HIV, not just the big-lettered, easy, first-grade kind.

Immoral is what I would call being repeatedly informed of the inaccuracies of the HIV antibody test, and the racist applications of it in the world today, and STILL insisting that all the girls in Oprah's school get the so-called "HIV test," which tests for no virus, just antibodies common to many things. The consequences a positive result on this test will have for the life of any young woman gets it are never mentioned: mandatory treatment by deadly drugs, forbidden motherhood, sex forever associated with death, illness, and an early death. And the test is, I repeat, not what the media tells us it is.

If this were a school for poor white girls in Belfast, would they be required to take HIV antibody tests?

Oprah's narcissism DOES lead to harming other human beings. She has refused to answer Lee Evans. She HAS been informed of the dangers. And still she does nothing but perpetuate the harm that is being done worldwide.

How sweet that she thinks of African girls as her "daughters"! But hardly original. Africa is, by now, home to a population acknowledged by the media as nothing but naïve babies. Africans are infantilized because Americans, black or white, feel privileged to be their parents and tell them what is best for them.

The president of South Africa is not Nelson Mandela. It is Thabo Mbeki, a graduate of, I believe, Cambridge University (or was it Oxford?). He faced Cuba-style sanctions for speaking out as an intelligent adult rather than a baby needing to be fed and, in the interest of his nation's economy, he backed down. South Africa was bullied into submission to American AIDS policy.

And THIS is what Oprah feels most proud of. She’s worked hard to be white.

Hannah Arendt wrote, regarding the "banality of evil," that the danger wasn't so much that people would think wrong things; it was that most people didn't think at all. Am I then to feel sorry for Scooter Libby for getting caught being an ordinary guy in over his head? For submitting to unethical power figures instead of better ones?

The man is on trial for lying to a grand jury about a breach of national security. Not for following orders. We should assume from the get-go that a person in his position carries, along with the country club memberships, personal responsibility for what he does. This includes the responsibility to resign if asked to break the law.

The corruption of Scooter Libby's soul is in the royal sense of entitlement that his friend inadvertently describes so well -- and that permeates the Bush Administration. Exactly who works for whom, even if you did go to fucking Andover?

I'm pulling for the prosecution on this one. Because if Scooter walks, there's no accountability by anyone, anywhere.

Dude. Classical music IS better than "The Cure." And I think The Cure is pretty darned good.

He said that current copyright law would chill out the creation of more art, having deep implications for the First Amendment.

So I guess nobody cares all that much if some low-culture knockoff of Bob Dylan gets sued for singing "Green Eggs and Ham," but imagine political or societal satire getting criminalized. The GOP has more money than Salon, so they can sue Salon and YouTube anytime they want for the "Don Knotts IS Dubya" salute. Oh, and the Jim Henson estate will be in touch about the "Dark Side of Kermit the Frog" posted on YouTube, a mock music video of our favorite Muppet frog on a drug-induced bummer. They might own Kermit, but do they own all possible comment about him?

So maybe someday Britney Spears will own all comment about her. No more unauthorized stories of her nervous breakdowns. If you can't say anything nice, don't talk at all. And Dick Cheney could get very sensitive about all those hunting jokes. Remember that "Priceless" ad for Ralph Nader? Not on MasterCard's watch.

Lessig reports that the Marx Brothers once sent a letter to Warner Bros., claiming precedence for "Brothers" because, after all, they had been brothers longer. Walt Disney's first cartoon, "Steamboat Willie," was actually a parody of a Buster Keaton film. I wonder if anyone could parody "Steamboat Willie" today without facing an army of Disney lawyers.

Wake up, kids. Copyright fiefdoms are threatening more than just your Napster downloads. Dude, your mom called; she wants her Sex Pistols albums back. Take some time out from copying your parents' spiky fashion mistakes to actually fight the power.