E. Michael Harrington

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I like ANNIVERSARIES. There are many on November 26. Here are some dragged up from the depths of my computer:

GOOD NEWS IN 2002

ON THIS DAY IN 2002, the California Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit filed by the DVD Copy Control Association, which had accused Texas resident Matthew Pavlovich of publishing trade secrets. Pavlovich allegedly posted a program on his Web site that enabled users to bypass copy protections and copyright safeguards on DVD's.

The court found that in order for a California business to sue an out-of-state person or entity in state court, it must prove that the person or entity "expressly aimed" harm at the California company.

BAD NEWS in 2002

ON THIS DAY IN 2002, the United States Naval Academy seized 100 computers from students suspected of downloading music files. The punishments were said to include expulsion and court-martial. While on the subject, why not include Dick Cheney style sanctioned torture? Or be like our oilmen (not oil people or oil women) in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia with their often barbaric types of punishment? They are proudly non-Democratic, and their women cannot vote or even drive cars (not due to oil shortage). And the Royal Family are best friends with the Bush Family. Birds of a feather.....

Of all of the crime rings in the U. S., these crimes committed by Naval Academy students are the ones that least concern me, especially as this was in the wake of 9/11 and future military leaders were viewed as more helpful to our national security than not.

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Indifferent News in 2003

ON THIS DAY IN 2003, the Backstreet Boys sued Zomba for $100 million, "saying the record label effectively barred the group from recording a new album because of a preoccupation with a now-completed merger with German media giant Bertelsmann AG."

The B-Boys were seeking $75 million for trademark violation, $5 million for a lost advance and at least $20 million in punitive damages.

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GOOD NEWS IN 2003

ALSO ON THIS DAY IN 2003, there was some good news as Diebold, the manufacturer of very flawed voting machines, announced it was withdrawing more than a dozen legal threats against ISP's that had hosted users who published links to to coroporate documents suggesting that there were flaws in Diebold equipment and irregularities with respect to voting results. Diebold is an example of a shady company operating in a shady fashion that also will use brute force against the First Amendment as it may please Diebold.

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GOOD NEWS IN 2004 because children were taught to sing SCANDALOUS LYRICS and should reap the reward of singing SCANDALOUS LYRICS.

Here is the opening excerpt from the Reuters story:

"A group of former London schoolchildren who sang on Pink Floyd's 1979 classic, 'Another Brick In The Wall' have lodged a claim for unpaid royalties.

Twenty three teenage pupils from Islington Green School secretly recorded vocals for the track, which became an anthem for children with the chorus 'We don't need no education.'

On hearing the song, the headmistress banned the pupils from appearing on television or video - leaving them no evidence and making it harder for them to claim royalties - and the local school authority described the lyrics as 'scandalous.'

The album sold over 12 million copies and the single became number one in Britain and America.

Royalties expert Peter Rowan told Reuters he was appealing to a music royalties society on behalf of one former pupil and was working with other members of the class. He said he was still trying to contact the majority of the group.

'They are owed their money and we lodged the first claim last week,' Rowan told Reuters. 'I've been working on it for almost two years.'

Music teacher Alun Renshaw took the schoolchildren to a nearby recording studio without the permission of the headmistress after being approached by the band's management.

The lyrics 'We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom - teachers leave them kids alone' were described by the Inner London Education Authority as scandalous.

The school was paid 1,000 pounds ($1,860) and later given a platinum record of the song but the pupils were paid nothing.

Rowan said the money would come from a music royalties society and not Pink Floyd. He expected the 23 pupils to receive about 200 pounds each.

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LYRICS quiz:

"Started my life in an old cold run down tenement slum, tenement slum" is from _____________

"I tell the truth 'cept when I lie..." is from ________________________

"I've been too busy drinking she's been too busy thinking about the kind of love she needs and the man she never sees..." is from ___________________

"Practice where the news is read, television children fed, unborn living living dead, bullet strikes the helmet's head...." Is from _________________

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I WANT TO BUY SOME LAND IN THE COUNTRY. I heard a great interview with the head of Progressive Farmer. The organization seems very helpful to those who would live in the country. When I live in the country, I'll develop my farming and growing skills as I intend to raise mint for mojitos, limes for mojitos and caiparinhas, oregano and tomatoes to join forces in all foods, and dark black silicon chips for my digital media devices. I won't be buying my country land anytime soon however as I've got a few other things to do first, like experiment by raising dark silicon chips in Manhattan next month before I try raising silicon in better and more arable country farm land.

http://www.progressivefarmer.com/farmer/

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I GOT TO EXPERIENCE SOME BRAZILIAN LIFE IN FRAMINGHAM last night. I wish I could speak Portuguese, I wish the music was not as loud and of better sound quality (Satan himself set up the large speakers and did so to excessively distort the good music and harm humans), and I wish I wasn't so fearful of dancing - I like to see dance, I'm very good at rhythm, I find almost nothing to be in the Puritanical sense of bad taste when it comes to dancing but I just won't and can't dance.

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CONSERVATIVE

"A conservative is someone who believes that nothing should ever be done for the first time."

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