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Tag: "change"

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By Erich Vieth on September 25th, 2009

Maher: American is the land of get nothing done

Bill Maher is distressed about America’s lack of capacity to do good things and stop doing bad things. Our mechanism for meaningful change is completely broken.

Well, I hate to be a nudge, but why has America become a nation that can’t make anything bad end, like wars, farm subsidies, our oil addiction, the drug war, useless weapons programs - oh, and there’s still 60,000 troops in Germany - and can’t make anything good start, like health care reform, immigration reform, rebuilding infrastructure. Even when we address something, the plan can never start until years down the road. Congress’s climate change bill mandates a 17% cut in greenhouse gas emissions… by 2020! Fellas, slow down, where’s the fire? Oh yeah, it’s where I live, engulfing the entire western part of the United States! We might pass new mileage standards, but even if we do, they wouldn’t start until 2016.

What do we need?

a) leaders with balls, and b) a general populace who can think again. Barack Obama has said, “If we were starting from scratch, then a single-payer system would probably make sense.” So let’s start from scratch.

I find Bill Maher to be especially insightful–he cuts right through the BS over and over. This particular article by Maher was especially well written.

Corruption • Environment • Politics
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By Tony Coyle on April 30th, 2009

Culture and Copyright in the 21st Century

On 24 March, 2009 Lawrence Lessig delivered the keynote speech, Getting the Network the World Needs, at the OFC Conference in San Diego, CA. This is a revision of a REMIX talk, distinguishing between parts of the 20th Century that were Read-Only and parts that were Read-Write.

His brilliantly delivered thesis discusses how culture prior to the 20th century was essentially read-write, everyone consumed and created the culture interactively. During the 20th century centralization and control of media and distribution transformed our culture to a read only - where creation was almost exclusively the province of professionals and professional distribution channels (tv, movies, music).

He then suggests that the 21st century brings the promise and the demand for building a read-write culture once more, and for moving far beyond the mash-up of the past decade. He also discusses the necessary legal and infrastructural changes needed to accommodate this changed reality.

Warner Music has tried to serve a DCMA takedown, based on his inclusion of some music and media clips - despite the obvious and clear “fair use”.

Communication • Culture • Economy • Entertainment • Intellectual property • Noteworthy • computers
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In by the hair on our chinny chin chins
By Erich Vieth on January 21st, 2009

In by the hair on our chinny chin chins

Yes, the Bush Administration is now gone, with Bush himself finally helicoptered out.  And just look at this exquisite satellite photo of yesterday’s crowd for the swearing in!
We’d like to think that the American people have now seen the light, and that we can now rationally approach solutions to the massive problems we now face [...]

American Culture • Politics • ignorance
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By Erich Vieth on July 10th, 2008

Complacency II

I wrote about complacency once before. I focused on the complacency of most Americans in the face of the energy crisis that is clearly upon us. We have no assurance that gasoline won’t double or triple in price over the next five or 10 years, throwing our economy into a massive depression. With [...]

American Culture • Consumerism • Energy • Environment • Food • Good and Evil • Meaning of Life • Politics • Psychology Cognition • Technology • global warming • ignorance • snake oil
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By Erich Vieth on July 09th, 2007

How often should one clean one’s bathroom drinking cup?

I raised this question at a recent family gathering, because I see it as my role to raise such questions:
Assume that you’re living alone. How often should you clean the drinking cup you use in at your bathroom sink?

The first answer came from a brother-in-law who cautiously answered in the form of a [...]

Health • Humor • Psychology Cognition
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Who changed the Bible and why? Bart Ehrman’s startling answers
By Erich Vieth on October 22nd, 2006

Who changed the Bible and why? Bart Ehrman’s startling answers

How often do we hear people “explaining” religious beliefs by stating ”The Bible says so,” as if the Bible fell out of the sky, pre-translated to English by God Himself?  It’s not that simple, according to an impressive and clearly-written book that should be required reading for anyone who claims to know “what the Bible says.”
The 2005 bestseller, Misquoting Jesus, [...]

American Culture • Education • History • Reading - Books and Magazines • Religion
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