Monthly Archives: February 2004

As New Paltz goes, so goes the nation…

The mayor of New Paltz is following the lead of the mayor of San Francisco. Gay marriages have begun on the court house steps of this small, New York town. The governor of the State of New York is examining his options.

So…what mayor of what small town will next decide he wants a little bit of limelight? This could be fun to watch, as town by town decides to join in.

Quick! Call the mayor of Belleville!

[Note: While the above is a joke, in reference to my prior post on Belleville and trends, this would be a huge coup…and would guarantee some interesting press. In that while Belleville is pretty much a fairly insignificant town on the national scene, there is a fairly important individual who happens to live there. Bishop Gregory, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. I have no idea what the Mayor’s thoughts are on the issue, but I highly suspect while the he is a Democrat (had to looks this up actually), he has no intent of starting what would likely start if he made such an announcement.]

As New Paltz goes, so goes the nation…

The mayor of New Paltz is following the lead of the mayor of San Francisco. Gay marriages have begun on the court house steps of this small, New York town. The governor of the State of New York is examining his options.

So…what mayor of what small town will next decide he wants a little bit of limelight? This could be fun to watch, as town by town decides to join in.

Quick! Call the mayor of Belleville!

[Note: While the above is a joke, in reference to my prior post on Belleville and trends, this would be a huge coup…and would guarantee some interesting press. In that while Belleville is pretty much a fairly insignificant town on the national scene, there is a fairly important individual who happens to live there. Bishop Gregory, President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. I have no idea what the Mayor’s thoughts are on the issue, but I highly suspect while the he is a Democrat (had to looks this up actually), he has no intent of starting what would likely start if he made such an announcement.]

A national trend – beginning in *Belleville???*

Might Belleville, IL actually become known as a trendsetter?

Perhaps.

A restaurant there, Eckert’s Country Restaurant, “recently started offering children’s DVDs and portable players for use while families dine.” In only one week demand has forced them to increase supply. Any parent with kids knows how hard it is to get a restless youngster to behave while at a restaurant. The restaurant is calling it a “Sports bar for kids.”

National Industry experts can’t come up with another restaurant that’s tried this yet. But it’s such a natural idea (at least it seems so to me) that I can’t imagine others won’t hear about this and say “let’s do it too!”.

As the article notes – Eckert’s realizes this is a risky proposition — kids are known to break stuff. They’re probably hoping that the profits from the increased business will outweigh the costs. I suspect there are already, or soon will be, sturdy ‘kid proof’ dvd players on the market.

Time to get out the bullet proof vests

Missouri Supreme Court has declared the Concealed Gun law constitutional.

(In part…they do say that in four counties it violates the Hancock Ammendment, since it doesn’t fund the gun permits, and all legislation must provide for funding.

So in those four counties gun permits won’t be allowed to be distributed until such funding is provided. They continue to argue since the statistics of how much it would cost were only provided for those counties, it doesn’t violate the Hancock Ammendment in those counties statistics weren’t provided for. As if somehow permits will be free of charge, there.)

But even in those four counties, people can conceal their guns purchased with non-concealed gun permits in their glove compartment.

It doesn’t really say when it goes into effect, but since the injunction against the law was removed, I suspect the law goes into effect immediately, unless a new injunction is somehow placed against it.

***

Interestingly, with the Hancock Ammendment not being applied state-wide, they have opened up the possibility that this will become, and remain localized.

Those counties where the people are against the idea…these counties will open a new case against the law, and argue the Hancock Ammendment. It will be a fairly straight forward process. Since the State Supreme Court granted the arguments of the four counties that already have done so, there’s no reason to suspect other counties won’t get a parallel response. But those counties where the people like the law, don’t have to pursue the course.

Naturally, if the legislature updates the law to actually provide enough funding, then this way out is closed.

What she said

fellow local blogger, Angelweave writes about falling behind in the books she intended to review in her blog. (Not in the books she has read.)

I haven’t read as much as she has, however, I mentioned in January there were several I had read recently I was going to review. And of course, you haven’t seen any of those reviews yet.

She also speaks about authors emailing you when they discover your reviews. My only similar story is in high school I wrote my favorite author, and he wrote back. In high school, my favorite author wasn’t Victor Hugo, it was Joseph Heller. And at the time, Heller was alive. So receiving a letter from him wasn’t spooky. [Read the postcard he sent me.]

I will write those reviews. At the top of the list:

Three books of poetry: 2 of Victor Hugo, 1 of Yehuda Amichai
Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons
and maybe Judith O’Brien’s Mary Jane (Yes, I’ve read it. Research. I’m writing a young adult novel.)

I still haven’t read Jimmy Carter’s novel. But once I’ve finished it, I will review it.

Cogito Ergo Mortuus

(My apologies if my rusty Latin is incorrect. I’m sure someone will correct me if it is.)

A pastor put a sign in front of his church in Denver

“Jews killed the Lord Jesus” The pastor claimed it wasn’t hateful, to quote him, “It would be hateful if it pointed at anybody alive today.”

Reminded me of reading Longfellow’s poem in High School: The Jewish Cemetery at Newport

1. How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves,
25. Gone are the living, but the dead remain,

and the poem ends:
57. But ah! what once has been shall be no more!
58. The groaning earth in travail and in pain
59. Brings forth its races, but does not restore,
60. And the dead nations never rise again.

To quote Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain: The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated!

Apple also being sued over trademark violations – by Beatles

The case brought agaisnt Apple awhile ago by the Beatles Entered London’s High Court today.

Apple Computers was named partially as a nod to the Beatles “Apple Corps”. In 1989, when Apple computers added ‘music capabilities’ to their computers, the Beatles and Apple Corps sued. (Music capabilities included items such as ‘alert sounds’). A deal was worked out in 1991 that granted Apple Computers the right to their logo for “computers, data processing and telecommunications”, but not music.

With the introduction of ITunes, Apple Corps sued again.

Apple probably believed ITunes fell enough under computers and telecommunications. That’s now being settled by the courts.

Eminem sues Apple over copyright infringement

Eminem has sued Apple for apparently using some of the lyrics to his song Lose Yourself in an ad.

My pipe dream is that this wasn’t a communication problem, and that Apple’s lawyers made a conscious decision to ignore Eminem’s refusal — deciding if he sued, they’d fight under the Fair Use clause.

This of course would be a horrible business decision since it would infuriate the music industry, and ITunes would probably suffer. (No, it definitely would.) So it is likely just a pipe dream.

But the music industry insists that quoting lines from songs, regardless of the amount of quoting, isn’t fair use. They insist on being paid for even the slightest use. Actions that would clearly be covered under the “Fair Use” clause when dealing with written works, BMI, ASCAP, and musicians will sue over when it comes to their properties. And people pay rather than fighting it in courts.

What we need is someone big enough and strong enough to say, no, sorry, you don’t have the legal right to do this. The Fair Use clasue of the Copyright Law applies to you too.

(Note: We are not dealing here with the use of Eminem’s voice, or even the sampling of his music. We have a boy in an ad singing lyrics.)

Update

Here’s section 107 of the copryight law, aka the Fair Use clause It does imply it is not meant for commercial endeavors. So Apple would not be a good candidate for bringing this case. We need another musician using someone’s music/lyrics in their own song (as comment or criticism). We need to go a little further than the parody battles that have already been fought — such as 2 Live Crew’s (I think it was them) parody of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman.

As suggested in the comments section, Apple’s best defense would be they got permission from someone other than Eminem who they believe had the authority to grant permission. Or proof of some communication from Eminem that could have been misinterpreted dated after the communication they’re presenting.

Apple’s other defense might be somewhat circuitous. The evidence Eminem is presenting is a letter from Apple lawyers asking a question, paraphrase: “To confirm, you aren’t granting permission.” The article doesn’t mention any evidence being presented by Eminem of a response to that letter.

Maybe Apple’s lawyers are going to try to claim that a lack of response implied consent. But absent any evidence that Apple did or tried to pay Eminem the $300,000 (the agreed upon compensation for the song Slim Shady, which Apple wanted Eminem to grant Losing Yourself for instead)…I don’t know.

It will only cost you 30 pieces of silver

Evidence Mel Gibson’s intent with his latest movie has nothing to do with money:

Official Movie Merchandise

Yes, that’s right, you can buy yourself a pendantthe shape of a nail, it will only cost you 30 pieces of silver. (Yes, that was way too easy, and I should have refrained.)

I found out about this latest development at Xoverboard

Most interesting, I find the Aramaic lapel pin, Aramaic Pocket Reminder, and the Aramaic Passion Mugs. Each contains the “Aramaic word for Passion”.

It looks Hebrew to me, not Aramaic. (I don’t know if it’s the Hebrew word for Passion, or the Aramaic word written with Hebrew letters.)

But since I’m no expert, I will let you make the decision yourself:

Here’s the graphic for the mug from the site:

Here’s the Aramaic alphabet

Here’s the Hebrew alphabet

[look at the Hebrew letters labeled: Samek, Bet, Lamed, Het, Alep]

Perhaps someone should tell Mel his merchandisers have made a small mistake.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: I have been informed that both Aramaic and Hebrew lettering have evolved over time, and the Ancient Aramaic I am more familiar with and linked to above actually pre-dates Jesus. By the time of Jesus the two languages were both using the same letters. Therefore, the merchandise, while tacky, is actually linguistically correct, and it is I who made the mistake.

Ralphing

Nader has announced he is running…this time as an independent, and not as the Green Party candidate.

I’ve heard enough people who I know voted for Nader in 2000 say they wouldn’t vote for him this time around, that I am not too concerned about his affect on the election.

Third-party candidacies are often about protest votes. Bush was enough of an unknown that enough people who were upset with the moderate-conservative policies of the Clinton presidency were willing to make a protest vote for Nader. Bush is no longer an unknown. There will be no need to look for a protest vote from the Left. (Nader might get some 2000-Bushies to vote for him though.)

At least, that’s what I hope.

(Oh, sure, there are other newspapers I could have linked to, but I thought that was a fun one. Nader claims that both parties look the same…it might be an “Ivy League” mentality thing. Since Nader graduated from Princeton, he might think everyone from Yale is the same. And now that it looks like Kerry might get the nomination, he decided to step into the race. Come to think of it, that might be why he entered the race in 2000. Gore graduated from Harvard. It might be an Ivy League rivalry thing)