From the comments of a story on the woman charged with videotaping four minutes of the Twilight movie:

She was charged with a felony. By the government. And arrested.

Unregulated markets are not good either. But this is not a case of that. This is a case of poor regulation.

Furthermore, a free market is a theoretical thought experiment implying equal ability and knowledge among participants and no force or fraud. It is a thought experiment alone and an unregulated market would immediately devolve away from it. They are, in fact, entirely mutually exclusive.

In short, learn more.

Link

Am I the only person who gets more satisfaction from managing their queue than actually sitting down and watching something?

Heather sent me this bad boy.

Freaking brilliant.

Lately the discussion about pirated media and software has fallen out of the headlines. This is a subject that I’ve been following rather closely, not just because I’m a big music fan but also because I firmly believe that, if unchecked, the MPAA and RIAA will eventually succeed in eroding away some pretty basic rights. Here are some recent bits of news.

Earlier this month the RIAA announced that they were ending their practice of suing those they suspected decided had shared music.  Although they are not dropping cases they’ve already started, their new approach involves forcing ISPs to threaten disconnecting the service of those who use Bit Torrent sites. I for one think this approach will fail. Since ISPs can’t be held responsible for how their customers use the Internet they really don’t have any vested interest in cutting off service and therefore, revenue.

I found this post today on Max Barry’s blog.

The most famous cases of the RIAA suing end users and the only one to go to trial is that of Jamiee Thomas who was found guilt and ordered to pay the RIAA $222,000 for allegedly having shared 24 songs.  Almost a year after the trail the judge, without being petioned by the defense, declaired a mistrail after deciding that simply having music in an open access folder was not a violation of the copyright act. The RIAA recently requested permission to appeal the mistrail decision but the judge denied their request. (Wired.com)

I’ve never read the Wizard of Oz and I’ve always assumed that I knew the story.  It turns out, and this shouldn’t surprise me, that there’s a lot more to the story than what made it into the movie.  There are back-stories for the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. 

In church today our pastor told us about the Tin Man’s story.  Apparently the Tin Man was the son of a Woodsman who himself became a Woodsman when he grew into a man.  He met and fell in love with a young lady and asked her to wed him.  The girl said yes and the Tin Man set to work earning the money, preparing to take care of his bride.

The woman’s mother opposed the wedding and went to the Wicked Witch.  The Witch put a spell on the young woodsman’s ax.  Every time he swung the ax at a tree the ax would swing wildly.  Before long the ax took off one of his legs.  Refused to admit defeat, the woodsman went to the tinsmith who fashioned a leg for him.

The woodsman continued to work with his enchanted ax and took off his second leg and then an arm.  Each time, for each limb, he would visit the tinsmith and have a new limb fashioned.  It was only a matter of time until the ax cut into the woodsman’s chest. 

Now made entirely of tin, the woodsman took on a new moniker, The Tin Man, and continued to work, cutting down trees in the forests of Oz.  He no longer had a reason to work though.  His bride was gone.  With nothing else to do, the Tin Man worked even harder.  He didn’t even stop to oil his joints. 

And this is how Dorothy found him.  He was completely seized up with rust and within reach of the oil but unable to grab it.  He was unable to help himself. 

After Dorothy helped him the Tin Man said the following (and I’m paraphrasing):

The greatest loss I have experience was the loss of my heart.  For one cannot love who has not a heart. 

I don’t see a lot of movies these days.? Until tonight the last movie I saw in the theater was probably Batman Begins and the last movie I sat through on DVD was Donnie Darko back at R and N’s. I’ve watched two movies in the last twenty-four hours.? Let’s go to the map!

First of all, I watched Garden State, as mentioned before it was a gift from my sister for my birthday.? It wasn’t bad, but could have been better.? In the interest of full disclosure I’m a big fan of Zach Braf and an even bigger fan of Natalie Portman’s body so I started off assuming I’d enjoy it – and had it come out seven or eight years ago it surely would have been on of my favorite movies.? Now days it was just another movie.

It couldn’t help but compare it to a truely great Natalie Portman flick, Beautiful Girls.? Each of them include someone coming home to their New England hometown to face their pasts and while there they meet up with a uniquie, self-confident, smart local girl played by Natalie Portman in both cases.? In both films that main character learns from seeing his old friends and the mess their lives are which, along with the girl, he finds the strength to make the touch choices in front of him.

Garden State felt like a lot of character development with no real plot though.? Over and over we got to meet some really great characters that, if they appeared at all, only made later appearances as background, not the interesting pieces of the story they could have been.? It almost would have been better to not have them there at all.

While Beautiful Girls is a better film, if you want to have a guilt free crush on Ms. Portman check out Garden State.? Marty (Natalie’s character in Beautiful Girls) is a lot more interesting of a character but she’s just thirteen.

Tonight I went and saw The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with my parents.? This one wasn’t bad for what it was.? Needless to say I didn’t have high expectations for this one, it stars Will Farrell for goodness sake.? My only real comment is that comedians need to realize that you don’t have to fill your movie with sex, religion and race jokes to be funny.? English is a pretty robust language, you don’t have to try to shock people to make them laugh.