Blue Sky On Mars

The Bill of Rights was created to protect people from the corruption that comes from a government with absolute power (absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say). I don’t think the founding fathers anticipated that the Bill of Rights would be needed to protect against the “entertainment industry”. The story is that in Delhi, India, the international arm of the Motion Picture Association has been granted a general warrants that “[permit] police to search any premises suspected of containing pirated products, and permits officers to open locked premises without delay.” So, if you live in Delhi, Joe Moviemaker can get the police to come storming into your house practically on a whim.

Aren’t you glad we have the 4th Amendment?

Politics

2008 is the first year in which I am eligible to run for President, so naturally I had planned to throw my hat into the ring. But, now that Christopher Walken is running, I know that there’s no point

Still, it seems a little funny to think of Zorin as our President. Or Colonel Angus, for that matter.

Walken’s speeches would be great to listen to and watch, however.

Politics

I get all my political news from Rolling Stone. (Yeah, right.) In reality, though, The Long Emergency over at RollingStone.com is a book excerpt about the coming crisis brought on by “peak oil”. Peak oil is the term used for reaching the maximum possible oil production. It’s all downhill from there. I was aware of peak oil’s coming, but I wasn’t aware that some are predicting that 2005 is the year we reach it.

The Long Emergency (excerpt) is long on doom projection and short on useful suggestions. I don’t know if the book itself offers more. The main suggestion for dealing with the problem is to build more nuclear power plants, though the author is not certain we have the means to do it.

While I do believe that peak oil is going to cause a huge shift in many ways, I don’t buy into the extremes of the doom mongering of the Long Emergency. One author, reading articles and formulating opinions on the coming crisis, does not have the ingenuity of millions of people around the world working in the various fields that can help the situation.

The positive aspect of articles like this is that they raise awareness. The Bush administration has not been good at making people aware of reality, and rushing up to Alaska to get a couple pints more of oil is not a viable solution. As more people become aware of peak oil, they will start seeing business opportunities.

The Long Emergency focuses on how difficult it will be to replace all of those fossil fuels. However, the problem can be attacked from both the production *and* consumption angles. I bet that *everything* we use can be made more energy efficient. Consider that 10 years ago, a “60 watt” lightbulb took 60 watts of power. Today, you can get a bulb of equivalent light output that takes just 15 watts. Computers have been made more energy efficient for the sake of longer-running laptops. Hybrid cars get double the gas mileage of traditional cars, and 3-4 times the efficiency of the SUVs that are clogging our streets.

If you take everything in your house and make it a few times more energy efficient, things like solar power become far more viable.

Doing all of this will cost money, but it is money that we’ll have no choice but to spend.

Update 10:44AM EDT: It’s worth pointing out that the Senate has just approved a sweeping energy bill, which is the first of its kind in 13 years.

The bill provides $14.5 billion in tax breaks and potentially billions more in loan guarantees and other subsidies to encourage oil and gas drilling, improve natural gas and electric transmission lines, build new nuclear power reactors and expand renewable energy sources, especially construction of wind turbines.

Let’s not forget that the Bush family has significant oil industry ties, so it shouldn’t be overly surprising that this bill was, as CNN put it, a “tepid response to reducing the country’s consumption of oil”.

Cory Doctorow had an interesting quote to go along with the death of the broadcast flag: “The fact is, elected lawmakers are not suicidal enough to break their constituents’ televisions.” Considering that the automotive and oil companies represent 8 of the top 10 global companies, according to Fortune, I’m sure that the lawmakers are very leery of “breaking” their constituents’ cars as well.

This Congress and administration is not going to be forced into action. It’s possible that the president will not be forced into action between 2008 and 2012 as well. Assuming that peak oil is actually being reached this year, I’m guessing that crisis mode will start for sure before 2016. Let’s hope that the response to that particular crisis is not to throw out chunks of the Bill of Rights.

Politics

The Associated Press gathered up White House spokesman Scott McClellan’s statements about the CIA leak. “On the record” can be a beautiful thing sometimes. As I understand it, government press conferences are public domain, so I’m including the quotes here:

Sept. 29, 2003

Q: You said this morning, quote, “The president knows that Karl Rove wasn’t involved.” How does he know that?

A: Well, I’ve made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. … I’ve said that it’s not true. … And I have spoken with Karl Rove.

Q: It doesn’t take much for the president to ask a senior official working for him, to just lay the question out for a few people and end this controversy today.

A: Do you have specific information to bring to our attention? … Are we supposed to chase down every anonymous report in the newspaper? We’d spend all our time doing that.”

Q: When you talked to Mr. Rove, did you discuss, “Did you ever have this information?”

A: I’ve made it very clear, he was not involved, that there’s no truth to the suggestion that he was.

Oct. 7, 2003

Q: You have said that you personally went to Scooter Libby (Vice President
Dick Cheney’s chief of staff), Karl Rove and Elliott Abrams (National Security Council official) to ask them if they were the leakers. Is that what happened? Why did you do that? And can you describe the conversations you had with them? What was the question you asked?

A: Unfortunately, in Washington, D.C., at a time like this there are a lot of rumors and innuendo. There are unsubstantiated accusations that are made. And that’s exactly what happened in the case of these three individuals. They are good individuals. They are important members of our White House team. And that’s why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved. I had no doubt with that in the beginning, but I like to check my information to make sure it’s accurate before I report back to you, and that’s exactly what I did.

Oct. 10, 2003

Q: Earlier this week you told us that neither Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams nor Lewis Libby disclosed any classified information with regard to the leak. I wondered if you could tell us more specifically whether any of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

A: I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that’s where it stands.

Q: So none of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

A: They assured me that they were not involved in this.

Q: They were not involved in what?

A: The leaking of classified information.

July 11, 2005

Q: Do you want to retract your statement that Rove, Karl Rove, was not involved in the Valerie Plame expose?

A: I appreciate the question. This is an ongoing investigation at this point. The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, that means we’re not going to be commenting on it while it is ongoing.

Q: But Rove has apparently commented, through his lawyer, that he was definitely involved.

A: You’re asking me to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Q: I’m saying, why did you stand there and say he was not involved?

A: Again, while there is an ongoing investigation, I’m not going to be commenting on it nor is … .

Q: Any remorse?

A: Nor is the White House, because the president wanted us to cooperate fully with the investigation, and that’s what we’re doing.

Politics

Dave Winer points to Rebecca McKinnon’s roundup of reactions from Muslim bloggers to Thursday’s bombings in London. The reactions are what you’d expect (and hope for): sadness for those lost and anger at the terrorists. I’m curious about the reaction from “normal” Muslims around the world. Given the state of infrastructure, the standard of living, and government censorship in the Middle East and elsewhere, looking at reactions from bloggers will only give you the view of the well-educated and well-off. To really get a sense for how people feel about the situation (and how much popular support these terrorists have), we’d need to hear from the proverbial “man in the street” from Muslim nations.

Politics

Apparently, a real request has been filed to build Hotel Lost Liberty on the current site of Supreme Court Justice Souter’s house. That is a very appropriate way to protest the eminent domain ruling, and I’m quite certain that Hotel Lost Liberty and the Just Desserts Cafe will definitely provide better revenues to the city. Via Boing Boing.

Politics

I must remind you that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is just a theory, not a fact. As with any theory, it is good to consider other points of view.

Funny, Politics

I’d just like to draw some added attention to the commenter on this post who is seriously that we just take the oil from Iraq to reduce our gas prices. I thought it was a troll, but apparently that’s not the case. Check it out!

(Curiously, the commenter in question, Kyle, appears to be from a “blue state” based on his domain name.)

Politics

In February, I posted a Legal Guide For Bloggers that is currently the #1 match on Google for the phrase “legal guide for bloggers” (update a few hours later: that link has already fallen to last on the page of search results! Google works fast!). That’s not likely to continue to be the case now that the EFF has published:

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

In my posting, I had collected up a bunch of links to good resources if you find yourself at the wrong end of a Cease and Desist (is there a right end?). The EFF’s guide is very in-depth and will likely cover any questions you may have. That’s the place to go if you run into trouble.

Thanks, EFF!

Politics

I’m completely in favor of copyright holders (even the big conglomerate sorts) making money from their labors. However, I’m not in favor of copyright holders decimating the public domain (which is effectively a Constitution-granted right) and restricting what I can do for my own personal use with the items I buy (which is just stupid and bad business).

Thanks to Boing Boing (and the EFF’s Cory Doctorow) for continuing to highlight the arguments against infinite copyright and DRM.

Politics