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November 26, 2005
There is no god but man.
Man has the right to live by his own law - to live in the way that he wills to do: to work as he will: to play as he will: to rest as he will: to die when and how he will.
Man has the right to eat what he will: to drink what he will: to dwell where he will: to move as he will on the face of the earth.
Man has the right to think what he will: to speak what he will: to write what he will: to draw, paint, carve, etch, mold, build as he will: to dress as he will.
Man has the right to love as he will.
Man has the right to kill those who thwart these rights.
- The Equinox, A Journal of Scientific Illuminism, 1922 (edited by Aleister Crowley)
Posted by andrewanissi at 03:12 PM
Is Bush lying about his lies?
by Andrew Greeley, Chicago Sun Times
November 25, 2005
SOURCE
Not only did the Bush administration deceive the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, it is now deceiving them about the deceptions. In a burst of political tantrums, the president and the vice president have shouted that it was "irresponsible" to assert that there had been deception and it was unfair to the troops fighting in Iraq.
| "What honor do Bush and Cheney have left?" |
Continue reading "Is Bush lying about his lies?"
Posted by andrewanissi at 02:56 PM
November 23, 2005
An Unnecessary Crisis - Setting the Record Straight About Iran's Nuclear Program
[This is a NY Times full-page ad by the Iranian government to explain their position on the legitimate use of nuclear technology by a sovereign nation.]
THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2005
(Author: Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United
Nations - 622 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017)
In a region already suffering from upheaval and uncertainty, a crisis is
being manufactured in which there will be no winners. Worse yet, the hysteria
about the dangers of an alleged Iran nuclear weapons program rest solely and
intentionally on misperceptions and outright lies. In the avalanche of anti-Iran
media commentaries, conspicuously absent is any reference to important facts,
coupled with a twisted representation of the developments over the past 25
years. Before the international community is led to another "crisis of choice",
it is imperative that the public knows all the facts and is empowered to make an
informed and sober decision about an impending catastrophe.
Continue reading "An Unnecessary Crisis - Setting the Record Straight About Iran's Nuclear Program"
Posted by andrewanissi at 12:34 PM
November 21, 2005
Sprint Brings Music Direct to Cellphones, But Price Is Too High
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
November 17, 2005
The legal music downloading business has taken a big step forward in recent weeks, and I'm not referring to Apple Computer's much-touted move to sell videos on its iTunes Music Store. I'm talking about something that got much less attention: the launch of the first legal music downloading service you can access right from a cellphone.
Some cellphones already are able to play songs copied from computers, or streamed from an online radio-type service. And cellphone carriers have long sold snippets of songs as ringtones, which can be downloaded onto phones. But the new Sprint Music Store, unveiled by Sprint Nextel a couple of weeks ago, is the first service that allows complete songs to be purchased and downloaded directly from a cellphone, without a computer.
This Sanyo 9000 downloads songs.
This is a potentially big deal, because many more people carry cellphones all the time than they do iPods or other portable music players. And they can use their cellphones in places where they can't easily use a PC. The much-touted Apple-Motorola ROKR phone, introduced earlier this fall, doesn't let users access the iTunes store.
I have been testing the new Sprint Music Store and found it works well. The user interface is clean and simple, even on a small screen. The downloads, and playing of previews, are very fast over Sprint's new broadband-class Power Vision network, which is required to use the music store, though it's deployed in only parts of the country so far. Song playback sounded good on both phones I tested.
Unfortunately, Sprint and the record labels have decided to spoil their breakthrough service by setting a stratospheric new price for the legal download of a single song: $2.50. That's 2.5 times the 99 cents that Apple and others charge on their online stores for a better-quality version of the very same song. Right now, Sprint is offering the first five downloads free, but starting with the sixth song, the $2.50-a-song price kicks in. The charges show up on your cellphone bill.
Continue reading "Sprint Brings Music Direct to Cellphones, But Price Is Too High"
Posted by andrewanissi at 08:48 AM
November 18, 2005
Sony's DRM woes expand to include copyright infringement
by Simon Aughton
from PC Pro: News
If Sony BMG was hoping that the controversy surrounding its copy-protected CDs was going to die away, it was reckoning without infamous hacker Jon Lech Johansen, better known as DVD Jon.
It seems that the XCP software from UK company First4Internet that Sony had been using to prevent unauthorised copying of its music CDs, until it agreed to recall some 4.7 million discs, contains code 'infringing the copyright of several open source projects', Johansen notes in his blog. This includes code that he himself wrote for VLC, a free cross-platform media player.
The code was uncovered by Finnish software developer Matti Nikki, who also discovered other copyright violations.
Continue reading "Sony's DRM woes expand to include copyright infringement"
Posted by andrewanissi at 08:12 AM
November 16, 2005
When In Paris ... What Should Algerians And Moroccans Do?
by Frances Stead Sellers
Frances Stead Sellers is an assistant editor of Outlook for The Washington Post.
Last summer I visited a woman in Paris for whom I once worked as an au pair. Over lunch in her apartment in the city's elegant 7th arrondissement, Chantal told me that she was about to leave for a trip to Iran with a few female friends, and she described - with her exquisite French fashion sense - what she planned to wear. She had bought several long robes, she explained, and they would reach from her neck out to her wrists and down to her ankles, thus shrouding her entire body. When her adult daughter suggested she could show respect for Iran's Muslim culture by covering only her hair with a simple silk scarf, she said, No. Not the slightest piece of neck must show. She planned to conceal everything but her face.
When in Iran, Chantal explained, she would do as the Iranians do.
Not that such accommodations would be expected of visitors to Paris these days, she added, slightly acerbically. Or of visitors to Amsterdam, London or Rome, for that matter. Even many immigrants who now make their homes in those cities, Chantal said, continue to live largely according to their old ways.
Continue reading "When In Paris ... What Should Algerians And Moroccans Do?"
Posted by andrewanissi at 10:23 AM
November 15, 2005
Confessions of a Repentant War Supporter
by William Frey
SOURCE: antiwar.com
I supported George W. Bush in the presidential election in 2000, believing then that he best reflected my love for America and our tradition of liberty. I supported the war in Afghanistan. In March of 2003, I believed the invasion of Iraq was justified based upon prewar revelations presented to Congress and the American people. Accordingly, the indictments contained herein apply, first and foremost, to myself.
Continue reading "Confessions of a Repentant War Supporter"
Posted by andrewanissi at 10:09 AM
November 11, 2005
Asterisks Dot White House's Iraq Argument
By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 12, 2005; Page A01
President Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics of the Iraq war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that Congress saw the same intelligence the administration did before the war, and that independent commissions have determined that the administration did not misrepresent the intelligence.
Neither assertion is wholly accurate.
Continue reading "Asterisks Dot White House's Iraq Argument"
Posted by andrewanissi at 11:34 PM
November 07, 2005
Paramount's shame
Movie studio tries to profit off culture of real-life violence
SOURCE: Democrat and Chronicle (www.democratandchronicle.com)
(November 7, 2005) — Executives from Paramount Pictures didn't return calls we made to inquire whether billboards for 50 Cent's semi-autobiographical movie Get Rich or Die Tryin' will be going up in Rochester.
Paramount, which is producing the film, has received so many complaints from outraged citizens that it's funneling them to an answering machine that promises to "take into consideration all thoughtful comments."
Right.
Paramount, which has plastered posters of 50 Cent holding a gun in one hand and a microphone in the other near schools and scenes of gang violence, clearly doesn't consider anything but its bottom line.
Protests have forced Paramount to remove some of the billboards. Complaints should intensify.
In his song "Gunz Come Out," 50 Cent, whom Paramount is happily glorifying, raps "gangstas who signed with me actually let their guns talk." His entourage got involved in real-life gun battles with a rival rapper's outside a radio station earlier this year.
Companies must not get away with promoting the culture of violence.
Call Paramount at (323) 956-5000, ask for corporate communications and tell them to stop it.
Posted by andrewanissi at 07:45 AM