The Bananaverse

When you have a “media mogul” saying that doing this is a bad idea, I think you have a problem.

From the Washington Post today:

Monopoly or Democracy?

By Ted Turner

Friday, May 30, 2003; Page A23

On Monday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to adopt dramatic rule changes that will extend the market dominance of the five media corporations that control most of what Americans read, see and hear. I am a major shareholder in the largest of those five corporations, yet — speaking only for myself, and not for AOL Time Warner — I oppose these rules. They will stifle debate, inhibit new ideas and shut out smaller businesses trying to compete. If these rules had been in place in 1970, it would have been virtually impossible for me to start Turner Broadcasting or, 10 years later, to launch CNN.

The FCC will vote on several proposals, including raising the cap on how many TV stations can be owned by one corporation and allowing single corporations to own TV stations and newspapers in the same market.

If a young media entrepreneur were trying to get started today under these proposed rules, he or she wouldn’t be able to buy a UHF station, as I did. They’re all bought up. But even if someone did manage to buy a TV station, that wouldn’t be enough. To compete, you have to have good programming and good distribution. Today both are owned by conglomerates that keep the best for themselves and leave the worst for you — if they sell anything to you at all. It’s hard to compete when your suppliers are owned by your competitors. We bought MGM, and we later sold Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner, because we had little choice. The big were getting bigger. The small were disappearing. We had to gain access to programming to survive.

Many other independent media companies were swallowed up for the same reason — because they didn’t have everything they needed under their own roof, and their competitors did. The climate after Monday’s expected FCC decision will encourage even more consolidation and be even more inhospitable to smaller businesses.

Why should the country care? When you lose small businesses, you lose big ideas. People who own their own businesses are their own bosses. They are independent thinkers. They know they can’t compete by imitating the big guys; they have to innovate. So they are less obsessed with earnings than they are with ideas. They’re willing to take risks. When, on my initiative, Turner Communications (now Turner Broadcasting) bought its first TV station, which at the time was losing $50,000 a month, my board strongly objected. When TBS bought its second station, which was in even worse shape than the first, our accountant quit in protest.

Large media corporations are far more profit-focused and risk-averse. They sometimes confuse short-term profits and long-term value. They kill local programming because it’s expensive, and they push national programming because it’s cheap — even if it runs counter to local interests and community values. For a corporation to launch a new idea, you have to get the backing of executives who are obsessed with quarterly earnings and afraid of being fired for an idea that fails. They often prefer to sit on the sidelines waiting to buy the businesses or imitate the models of the risk-takers who succeed. (Two large media corporations turned down my invitation to invest in the launch of CNN.)

That’s an understandable approach for a corporation — but for a society, it’s like overfishing the oceans. When the smaller businesses are gone, where will the new ideas come from? Nor does this trend bode well for new ideas in our democracy — ideas that come only from diverse news and vigorous reporting. Under the new rules, there will be more consolidation and more news sharing. That means laying off reporters or, in other words, downsizing the workforce that helps us see our problems and makes us think about solutions. Even more troubling are the warning signs that large media corporations — with massive market power — could abuse that power by slanting news coverage in ways that serve their political or financial interests. There is always the danger that news organizations can push positive stories to gain friends in government, or unleash negative stories on artists, activists or politicians who cross them, or tell their audiences only the news that confirms entren!
ched views. But the danger is greater when there are no competitors to air the side of the story the corporation wants to ignore.

Naturally, corporations say they would never suppress speech. That may be true. But it’s not their intentions that matter. It’s their capabilities. The new FCC rules would give them more power to cut important ideas out of the public debate, and it’s precisely that power that the rules should prevent. Some news organizations have tried to marginalize opponents of the war in Iraq, dismissing them as a fringe element. Pope John Paul II also opposed the war in Iraq. How narrow-minded have we made our public discussion if the opinion of the pope is considered outside the bounds of legitimate debate?

Our democracy needs a broader dialogue. As Justice Hugo Black wrote in a 1945 opinion: “The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public.” Safeguarding the welfare of the public cannot be the first concern of large publicly traded media companies. Their job is to seek profits. But if the government writes the rules in a certain way, companies will seek profits in a way that serves the public interest.

If, on Monday, the FCC decides to go the other way, that should not be the end of it. Powerful public groups across the political spectrum oppose these new rules and are angry about their lack of input in the process. People who can’t make their voices heard in one arena often find ways to make them heard in others. Congress has the power to amend the rule changes. Members from both parties oppose the new rules. This isn’t over.

The writer is founder of CNN and chairman of Turner Enterprises Inc.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

So here’s the deal:

I’m watching Oprah (sort of, I’m tearing apart the guest room and taking breaks) and she’s talking to people on Death Row in Illinois, people who got the death penalty and some spent more than two decades there waiting to die before the governor of Illinois emptied Death Row and made them serve life without parole from now on.

Here is the thing, though: As the death penalty goes, if a state has it, fine, and if not, fine. I”m not really weighing in on that, I think it’s a choice thing, some places have that choice and some don’t. But if you’re going to have it, then use it for sobbing out loud. I think that if you are going to have a death penalty you should also have a timeframe enforced as to when someone should take that walk. I understand that there are lots of laws involved with the death penalty, your decision is appealed, you get to appeal as long as you can and all of that. I’m not saying that should go away, but there should be a relative timeframe on enforcing that penalty, like, within 12 months from the last appeal being denied, maybe. It costs more than I make in a year to house a prisoner, and while people say that execution is expensive, it’s about half that cost from what I understand. It may seem like a lot, but it’s ONCE. Tell people that it has cost X dollars to house all these prisoners who have been living on death row for 1, 5, 10 or more years and then see if it doesn’t end up being a grassroots movement to narrow this gap between being given the penalty and having it enforced.

I think that spending some vast portion of your life more or less waiting to die in a little concrete cell is about as clear a case of “cruel and unusual punishment” as there is. Last I checked there were still laws against that.

OK, I’m done now. I have more closet to disassemble and re-rar.

1. Why yes, it was.
2. Why yes, it is.
3. Have you tried some Phillips Milk Of EmoMagnesia? Or perhaps some Sex-Lax? (:
4. Amen!
5. either a) you inherited my poor sleep habits, b) going out is more draining than you thought, or c) all this other bullshit on your mind is wreaking havoc on your night time. My guess is c.
6. My guess is that it’s just hard to break the habit of “well, one nice day, now it’s gonna rain for a week.”
7. I’m not sure. Why do you?
8. If you think planning is stressful, wait till you actually move! Need help?
9. Disappear how?
10. Too much drive thru.
11. Depends on what for, but I’m guessing no.
12. Call one person a week. Maybe two. That’s all it takes. Or drop an email.
13. I think they are related to Capn Crunch.
14. I guess so.
15. After like, a week? Damn.
16. Generally, yes.
17. Since the season isn’t even over yet, your wait is long indeed. But let me know.
18. I think this answer lies somewhere in between.
19. It might be time to get a haircut, and you aren’t sleeping well. Combined with dollar drinks, it’s not surprising.
20. I think you need maintenance before you break altogether.

(note: “glurge” is a term for all those sappy sickening emails that you get from your mom.)

So I got this message about some kid that has cancer and if you forward this message it will send money someplace or something, I don’t remember. Here’s the reply I sent back, and since most people don’t care about removing the previous sender’s info and stuff, I backtracked through all the headers to send this mail to a lot of people. Here’s what I said:

—–
Hello.

You may remember me from such emails as “Bill Gates Wouldn’t Give You The Time Of Day Let Alone A Trip To Disneyland”, “No Kid Ever Died From Pop Rocks And Soda I Used To Do It All The Time”, or other such fine works of literature. (If you don’t get this, ask one of your Simpsons-watching friends about Troy McClure, and I’m sorry for the obscure reference.)

I’m here to tell you this is fake. Fakety fakety fake.

“But Verso!”, you gasp, “How can this be? I got it in my email, surely it is legitimate!”

Alas, you are mistaken. This story is as fake as Pamela Anderson’s bustline. How do I know this? Am I some sort of knower of mysterious knowledge?

I’m glad you asked. As a matter of fact, I am. It’s called Snopes, and it’s located at
http://www.snopes.com
where you can go find out about all this stuff and whether or not something is fake or real or maybe nobody knows. I found the message below by searching on the name of the person who “signed” the message. This is more recent than the last one that I received, this started in 2000 and if you want to know the entire sordid history of this little email you can find it at
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/children/arling.htm
along with all the other fakety fake email and virus warnings and “send this to everyone you know” messages.

To sum up: Fake. Delete it. Tell whoever sent it to you to delete it. Tell everyone who sends you this sort of thing that they need snopes.com in their lives. Snopes: Learn it. Live it. Love it.

The inbox you save may be your own.
—–

Yeah. I’m pretty proud of that message.

Moral: Don’t spam an eloquent bitch who has a lot of free time.

SO!

Today JeffRo and I took BianP to the beach with us. We called her yesterday and said “We decided to take you and the kidlet to the beach with us tomorrow” and she said “she’s with her grandparents” so I said “we’ll start again…we decided to take you to the beach with us tomorrow” and she said ok and we packed it up and left this morning early and had a good time except I forgot my phone at home. Otherwise it was SUPER fun! We had lunch at Spirit Mountain’s buffet, and gambled a bit, and went to Lincoln City and chilled on the beach (I’m now a little pinker for it) and the sun was gorgeous and the weather was perfect! I don’t think we could have filled out all the paperwork and gotten a better day!

Then we went to Tillamook to tour the cheese factory, or tried, because we got there just at 6 and they were closing. Then we drove back home. It was a lovely day and reminded me just what it is that is so cool about living here. It almost makes tards like the unholy trinity of Packwood/Mabon/Harding tolerable to think that we can do these things that a lot of places really can’t.

JeffRo took off his shorts and had his swimsuit underneath so he got in the water. I got some good pictures of him looking like he’s having some kind of oceanic seizure. They are priceless. I found Liz a whole seashell on the beach (after we talked about how hard it is to find a complete one) and I sat in the sun with JeffRo as he dried and we talked about whatever which was nice too.

We had a super good time. We tried to eat at Camp 18 but I lost it so we just came home and now I’m going to bed because all that fresh air and crap made me TIRED!

Thanks you guys. I had a really good time today.

I take that back.

I am DEVOURING Vesuvian spaghetti like a woman possessed. mmmmm.

and last night at the off the heezy hizzle party we went to I had a cream filled chocolate frosted Krispy Kreme donut. It was really cool. K. That’s all. really.

1. Don’t open a bajillion tabs in Safari. It gets pretty pissed.

2. I am eating Vesuvian spaghetti like a woman possessed.

Thank you. That is all.

so!

If you make me do a bunch of research and make a bunch of phone calls so you can decide to bag the entire project since you don’t get another 3 day weekend until the 4th of July, then don’t get all pissed off when you don’t say a goddamned thing about doing it on Sunday and then when you say it’s time to help I ask “help what?” because that isn’t going to get you anyplace. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And one more thing: Quit fucking telling me “fine! don’t help!” or “go inside then, I don’t want your help” because it’s bullshit and we both know it so just un fucking clench and let me get on with my day, ok? thanks.

Democracy Means You!

“War is not the answer”
“except to all of America’s problems” (Simpsons the other night)

And while I’m not sure he’s the guy, I like Howard Dean’s approach to the campaign process. Check it:

His Official Site
His Official Blog
His Official Supporters

And he even has a place where you can take action of your own.

I like that he’s embracing tech, it’s like he realizes the geeks are a group of people who vote too, not guys or girls or rich people or black people-geeks come in all those flavors and lots more. I think it’s interesting that he’s going about it this way. I guess we’ll have to see what happens, but it seems that he’s getting attention from others too, and he certainly has a nice sidebar on his blog of links to pick from. I am of course suspicious that it’s just his staff that sets this up, but there’s a chance he’s really into all of this. I mean, he’s the first candidate to announce he’s raised a million, and he did it without a single fundraiser-it ALL came from the net. If nothing else maybe this will show that the net is a force to be reckoned with, and we aren’t all just Comic Book Guy and taped up glasses.

I’ve been such a political person lately. Maybe it’s just that all this free time makes it possible. I’d like to thank Governor Bush and his devastatingly insightful economic policies for giving me the free time to spend on doing whatever I can to make sure he’s not allowed to leave his finger on the button (you know, the button that starts nukyular war against terra) for four more years. Thanks George!

Yup. I thought this was really interesting. So here you go:

Interesting account by BBC World News of the Pvt Jessica Lynch “story”:
By John Kampfner

Private Jessica Lynch became an icon of the war, and the story of her capture by the Iraqis and her rescue by US special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the conflict. But her story is one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived.

Private Lynch, a 19-year-old army clerk from Palestine, West Virginia, was captured when her company took a wrong turning just outside Nasiriya and was ambushed. Nine of her comrades were killed and Private Lynch was taken to the local hospital, which at the time was swarming with Fedayeen. Eight days later US special forces stormed the hospital, capturing the “dramatic” events on a night vision camera.
They were said to have come under fire from inside and outside the building, but they made it to Lynch and whisked her away by helicopter. Reports claimed that she had stab and bullet wounds and that she had been slapped about on her hospital bed and interrogated.

But Iraqi doctors in Nasiriya say they provided the best treatment they could for the soldier in the midst of war. She was assigned the only specialist bed in the hospital and one of only two nurses on the floor.
“I examined her, I saw she had a broken arm, a broken thigh and a dislocated ankle,” said Dr Harith a-Houssona, who looked after her. “There was no [sign of] shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound - only road traffic accident. They want to distort the picture. I don’t know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury.”

Witnesses told us that the special forces knew that the Iraqi military had fled a day before they swooped on the hospital. “We were surprised. Why do this? There was no military, there were no soldiers in the hospital,” said Dr Anmar Uday, who worked at the hospital. Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this happen “It was like a Hollywood film. They cried ‘go, go, go’, with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show for the American attack on the hospital - action movies like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan.”

There was one more twist. Two days before the snatch squad arrived, Harith had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance. But as the ambulance, with Private Lynch inside, approached a checkpoint American troops opened fire, forcing it to flee back to the hospital. The Americans had almost killed their prize catch. When footage of the rescue was released, General Vincent Brooks, US spokesman in Doha, said: “Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this happen, loyal to a creed that they know that they’ll never leave a fallen comrade.” Private Lynch is said to have lost her memory.

The American strategy was to ensure the right television footage by using embedded reporters and images from their own cameras, editing the film themselves. The Pentagon had been influenced by Hollywood producers of reality TV and action movies, notably the man behind Black Hawk Down, Jerry Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer advised the Pentagon on the primetime television series “Profiles from the Front Line”, that followed US forces in Afghanistan in 2001. That approached was taken on and developed on the field of battle in Iraq.

As for Private Lynch, her status as cult hero is stronger than ever. Internet auction sites list Jessica Lynch items, from an oil painting with an opening bid of $200 to a $5 “America Loves Jessica Lynch” fridge magnet.

But doctors now say she has no recollection of the whole episode and probably never will.

I am by no means an arbiter of taste.

Only slightly less obvious is the fact that I am a hard-wired geek.

That being said, these guys amuse me to no end, for a few reasons. Mostly that they are really into what they are doing. Also because they filmed a video in a) Times Square, and b) in full-on hobbit garb.

Yeah.

That’s it.

Oh, wait, one more thing:

According to MC B. Dil, Elf booty got soul.

Thank you. That is all.

So I am watching eMpTyVee Icon: Metallica right now (well, I was flipping and this beats the Weakest Link) and I realized that Avril Lavigne’s band, for example, isn’t too bad. It’s just her that fucks it all up. And how do you think they’re going to get jobs in another few months when her tour (mercifully) ends? “I played Sk8r Boi in 12 countries” isn’t really something to put on your resume, you know? While I hate to say it, Limp Bizkit didn’t do bad either. It’s just Fred that ruins them. Am I the only person who is fully convinced he should be stopped? He’s some sort of overcompensating out of control frat boy or something, and I just don’t understand it. He can’t rap and he sure as shootin’ can’t sing, and I don’t think anybody who would be their fan is all about like “but the band has great musicianship, man” because they barely know the words when ALL the words are “I did it all for the nookie” or something equally insightful.

While I’m the first to admit I’m a shameless pop hussy from time to time, there are some things that just never made it with me. This whole rap/metal thing is one of those things. However, Live put out a new album and they fully rock and it is a fully rock album, so I’m hoping to go pick that up today.

What a buncha music opinions I have today!

So I’ll continue:

- I really do enjoy the new Michael Jackson album. I’m just sad it took Justin Timberlake to make it.

- Truly the world is entitled to a new phase of rock music. Maybe Metallica is the band to bring it back with their new album, but Lars destroyed any credibility these guys had with me (and I don’t care who you are, the black album is amazing) when he went off about Napster and downloading and blah blah blah and maybe if he’d adjust that drumstick in his ass (I’m not optimistic enough to think that he’ll remove it altogether) he’d be a happier person. Downloading used to be the least of his problems, till he shot off his little mouth about it, and now everything they ever did on tape is available on the net to spite him. He should have known better. I downloaded some on principle.

- I wish I could hear a new soul song on the radio. Ain’t no soul in the mainstream these days. Hall & Oates had it to a certain extent (remember “blue-eyed soul”?), and I think Culture Club did a decent soul song, and George Michael (solo) was approaching that, but there’s nothing out now that really sounds like it is a faithful cover of maybe a Temptations song, or a Supremes tune. And I think that’s missing from everything on the charts, whether it’s a “soul” song or not. All the feeling tends to get smushed out during the mix these days, I guess. It sucks. I like that. When I hear more feeling in my cell phone’s ringtone, pop music is in a sorry sorry state. Seriously. Some things are evident, really: how would 50 Cent be so popular if it weren’t for people crying out for something different?

- I don’t know how he read my mind, but I just saw a quote from Dave Grohl that says “Music today always feels like it got a boob job” and it’s weird how I was just goin to use him as an example that you can do what you want and still get noticed. Good is good, even if I don’t like it or whatever, it can be good. Dave Matthew Band, for example, are a band with amazing musicianship, and the skills there are just mindblowing, really. But I’m not a huge fan. I appreciate what it is they’re doing, but not a lot of jumps out and grabs me.

- It’s terribly interesting how different people approach a remix. I find them here and there and I really like to hear something that I can identify by the artist, but also by the remixer as well. It’s cool to me to get to hear a Dave Matthews Band song, and know it’s them, but also be like, “this HAS to be an Oakenfold mix” and be right. I like to see what element of the original a remixer will amp up and use for the basis of a new version.

- When oh when will the labels learn?

I’m done for now. it’s lunchtime and stuff.

Am I the only one amused by the fact that this summer’s American Idol tour is going to be sponsored by POP TARTS!?!?! Cuz, you know, it’s like, true and stuff. Thank you. That is all.

This is the Labor Department’s ranking of selected cities for 2000-2001. I’m sort of interested that this is what they ranked. hmm. It’s ranked by alcohol spending though. We’re second in reading! Powell’s must help that somewhat. Woo! Interesting gov junk from verso today!

ALCOHOL READING
San Francisco $744 $266
Denver $625 $137
Honolulu $554 $163
Portland $514 $226
Seattle $468 $170
New York $450 $195
Wash. D.C. $434 $205
Chicago $431 $158
Los Angeles $412 $148
Philadelphia $373 $144

Source: Department of Labor

So tonight was FOW. We went and had a good time. We knew some people and stuff and it was fun. Then we were going to go to karaoke but I didn’t want to since all the people who said they’d go weren’t going, and others who were invited to go with us had to do other stuff (I have to get up at 5am, etc) so they couldn’t go either. I wanted to bag it but JeffRo wanted to go and he was driving so off we went.

Now I’m glad we did! There was a new guy tonight running the show, and some of his CDs were skippy and it made the monitors do interesting things, but he had Praise Chorus! So I rocked me some Jimmy Eat World, and after I was done this guy came up to me and said that song was awesome and wanted to know who sang it so I told him and I wrote it down on a coaster for him so he could find it himself. And while I was flipping to see what else there was to sing this other guy (an older guy, probably mid-50s) talked to me a little as I was going through the book and he was really nice and I talked to him for a bit. JeffRo sang Don’t Leave Me This Way and Dream A Little Dream. I did Praise Chorus and Love At First Sight by Kylie. People dug it I guess, I got compliments after both performances. I just can’t believe they had Praise Chorus. I love that song so much!!

And we ran into Shemity and JR and Jamie and Rondo while we were there, so we had a good time. It was neat! I couldn’t believe I wanted to go home instead. Praise Chorus! Woooo!

I was going to take this test with everyone else on my friends page, but now I’m not gonna because I got a good look at the questions and I can make it be whatever I want so nevermind.

It’s not like I need the world to fall at my feet when they hear it, but it’d be nice if someone listened once in a while and was like, “hey, that’s not too bad” or something.

I’m probably not making much sense, but I haven’t made breakfast or lunch yet either, so that may have something to do with it.

I just heard a guy from the FBI say that “every new person who gets on the internet is a person that could be doing harm” or some shit like that. WTF? Doesn’t anything good come from the Net? Or did I make friends and get a husband and chat with fantastic people all over the world in some other mystical way that doesn’t get any coverage?

And then they had the nerve to talk about “here’s how you keep your kids from meeting FBI agents for sex” or some such bs. (The story was all about how a minister in the Couv was busted for trying to boff a 13-year-old girl who wasn’t a 13-year-old girl at all, but an fbi agent.) Why does channel 8 have to dispense parenting tips now? bah!

I’ve just had it with the news again lately. I sort of listen but then I get all worked up. Maybe I should just not care about world events. snarl.