Letters to the Editor
Tideswimmer
Published Letters: 383 Editor's Choice: 47
-
The question about the lava lamp
[Read the article: Kansas O'Flaherty ... Secret Agent]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Machete, the lava lamp could be many things:
He might have used it to hypnotize KOF, or at least dazzle her enough to make your migrating bench theory possible.
It could be a euphemism for what a TV commercial that keeps playing calls "That certain part of the male anatomy. Imagine Peter Lorre doing the king's voice, "And now, heh heh, I want to show you my lava lamp." If you know what I mean. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Is that a lava lamp in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
Or, the joke is that out of all his palace's vast riches, the king is so crass and stupid that the thing he values most is his lava lamp. Like if I owned a vast art collection of Renoirs, Rembrandts, Monets, and Picassos, and you came over and the thing I was most eager to show you was a ketchup stain on my T-shirt leftover from lunch.
Even if this knowledge can now help you to die happy, my new year's wish for you is that that happiness is postponed for as long as possible, and that you may eventually supplant that happiness wish with something more worthy. May I suggest the certain knowledge that world peace has been achieved?
-
I view this as good news and bad news
[Read the article: DRM goes the way of the dodo: Now, Sony]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kudos to the other big labels for following Apple and EMI into the no DRM world, but a big raspberry to their ongoing insistence on dictating the terms by which I may or may not give them MY money.
If you are going to make your tracks available with no DRM, then make them available, goddammit. If I like Amazon's store better, then I will buy music there. If I like iTunes music store better, I should be able to buy what I want there. Quit trying to force me to chase the music all over the internet.
If the industry doesn't like the power that Apple and iTunes music store have, it's their own damn fault. If they hadn't been such a pack of tar pit bound mammoths, they wouldn't have become mired. But even now they insist on controlling my purchasing habits, even as the tar fills their lungs; glub, glurk, glub.
Hey, record industry. I am not a pirate! I want to give you some money. That's all. WHY DO YOU INSIST ON MAKING IT SO HARD TO DO THAT!?!
I mean, WTF?
-
What's to be afraid of?
[Read the article: GOP to voters: Be afraid, be very afraid]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a true American, the only thing I fear is the imposition of a theocracy, an imperial president running unchecked by congress or judicial safeguards, the gradual erosion of civil rights, and a cowed populace who would trade those rights for any reason at all. No excuse is good enough.
As long as we have our constitution, things will work out fine.
All this talk about terrorists, and explosions, and all that other crap bores the shit out of me.
In short, all the things that really scare me are well on the way to happening. No reason to bring in vague hypotheticals.
-
Some funny stuff
[Read the article: Bill Gates' final CES keynote. (Long live Bill Gates)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've never been a Bill Gates fan. I've spent too many years of my working life dealing in the crap world of MS products that never did work as advertised. Gahhh! Horrible!
Gates has always been overrated as an innovator, in my opinion. His so called "vision" of technology always seemed to be focused more on having Microsoft dominate whatever emerged than having the world benefit from the technology itself. If Microsoft couldn't dominate it, well, lots of luck seeing it get much play in the marketplace. I can't remember the exact words, but early in his career he supposedly took as his motto something like, "Microsoft everywhere!" with the unspoken threat right behind it "Whether you want it or not." Resistance is futile.
But in the past few years, I have to admit that Gates has seemed to mellow. He's started his foundation, and he is one of the few billionaires on the planet that seems to understand that the purpose of having money is not just so one can acquire more money. The video was actually pretty funny in spots, and Gates seems ready to do some good in the world, so I'm willing to say, farewell, Bill. Enjoy your retirement, go forth and do good.
Steve Ballmer still makes my skin crawl, however.
-
Two weeks from now...
[Read the article: Quote of the Day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rush Limbaugh will be saying something like, "We know for a fact that it was only a report on Fox News that kept the liberal media, in the form of CNN's Paul Begala, from personally installing Billary as President. We know that to be true."
And then some idiot — let's just say he's my brother — will be saying to me, "You keep saying that there's no liberal media, well what about Belagula, whatever his name is. He was going to be Clinton's campaign manager. Yeah, no bias there at all! You liberals think you're so smart."
And so it goes, until the climate finally changes and America is turned into the Gobi desert, and the whole damn thing is blamed on illegal aliens.