Part I here.

My wife got a call from Wal-Mart today. The woman she talked to had yet another completely erroneous account of what my bad experience with the store was.

Something about being charged twice for an item and calling the company president. Wasn’t me.

Anyway, irony once again proving itself fully alive and kicking, I called them back and… guess what… was stranded on hold for ten minutes until I hung up, listening all the while to strange, old-school countrified Muzak that was badly tuned in and staticky. Like a David Lynch acid trip to the tune of Brenda Lee’s evil twin.  Read more 

And why does anyone care what she thinks?

Lambert asks what is up with the latest craptaculence from Julie Bosman’s keyboard, and where have all the decent reporters gone? Good questions; there’s a story beneath the story here, and it encapsulates everything that is wrong with what is fraudulently passed off as contemporary “journalism.” Let’s dig down into the muck a bit, shall we?  Read more 

This is what happens when the Supreme Court becomes controlled by radicals:

For years, Johnson & Johnson obscured evidence that its popular Ortho Evra birth control patch delivered much more estrogen than standard birth control pills, potentially increasing the risk of blood clots and strokes, according to internal company documents.

But because the Food and Drug Administration approved the patch, the company is arguing in court that it cannot be sued by women who claim that they were injured by the product — even though its old label inaccurately described the amount of estrogen it released.  Read more 

SP is doing his best to sound like a cranky 30something bitching about how much Kidz today suck. But this struck me:

I was scrolling around iTunes today just listening to some of the new ’alternative’ (never mind the irony that they are all mainstream) artists and it occurred to me that there is very, very little original music therein. Most of it is either a cross of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day and Sarah MacLachlan. I guess when there are but a few companies that dominate the mainstream music publishing business pathbreakers and innovators aren’t marketable. In the past there seemed to be, at least once every decade, a breakthrough band—or town—that changed the calculus. But music today and for the last several years has remained very stale.

I was in the car the other day on a long drive with no CDs, and I wasn’t in the mood for Newz. Skipping around metro area stations (I was near the airport) I was sort of shocked by how much the stations I knew sounded, well, exactly the same as they did over 10 years ago, when I last lived in the area. Not just alike, but really, the same. It was sort of creepy.  Read more 

CBS owned 41% of broadcast media, in clear violation of Federal law, in 2000. CNN sat at the crossroads of a merger AOL and Time Warner wanted, for profits; but the Clinton FTC didn’t let it happen. Along comes W, promising less regulation, and the stage was set. Suddenly all the media had a bottom-line motive for scuttling any political opponent of W. Not just “mainstream media” but the ENTIRE news industry: W promised them PROFIT$.

First, go read McCamy Taylor at Democratic Underground’s excellent backstory on this. Then tell me why Bush hasn’t been impeached yet.  Read more 

EFF wants to know:

Well, with its 100,000 DMCA takedown notices aimed at YouTube users, now it’s Viacom that is netting its share of dolphins. Among the 100,000 videos targeted for takedowns was a home movie shot in a BBQ joint, a film trailer by a documentarian, and a music video (previously here) about karaoke in Singapore. None of these contained anything owned by Viacom. For its part, Viacom has admitted to “no more than” 60 mistakes, so far. Yet each mistake impacts free speech, both of the author of the video and of the viewing public.

Did Viacom take down your video? Let them know if they did. DRM Current copyright law is one of the worst things to happen to free speech in this country, and if it weren’t for all the other horrors shredding the Constitution, this would be a much bigger issue.

Here's the 'news' report. Barf. Of course, "no drugs or weapons were found," but one never can tell with those people. I mean, look at them! They've got baseball caps on, and they're not sitting on their heads properly. Honey, hide the pearls. As the TechDirt folks point out:

hree years ago, we were a bit surprised that the RIAA had hired a former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and jokingly (we thought!) suggested that perhaps the RIAA was getting ready to bust down some doors. Not long after that, we were dismayed to hear that the RIAA had taken to dressing up foot soldiers in uniforms that made them look like they were a part of the FBI or some other law enforcement agency in order to intimidate street vendors. When that wasn't enough, Hollywood lobbyists pushed to have the FBIplay the role of enforcer, even having them raid a school at one point.  Read more 

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