Now I Just Might Boycott The iPhone

AT&T is selling the iPhone.

I don’t like what AT&T is going to do.

Thus Apple will take the hit.

No, really. What’s a shiny new iPhone compared to keeping these CopyNazis off our necks?

I can buy an iPhone anytime. But I can’t restore lost freedom.

Bless The Maker And His Water. Bless His Coming And Going.

Kefitzat Haderech

–linkswipe via Warren Ellis (goddam, how is he everywhere? Maybe this explains it!)

A Microsoft Photo That Encapsulates The Entire Frikkin World From Its Dim Past To Its Armageddon Future

Who are these people?

Look. Just look. If it all doesn’t pop out at you, you shouldn’t be reading this blog.

No. I won’t tell you.

So don’t email and ask.

–linkswipe from The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

Quote Of The Day: John Scalzi, Undead-American

INTERVIEW: Zombie John Scalzi

Also, clearly, I’m going to have to start writing about the prejudices the pre-dead have against us.

Previously in this blog (Scalzi):
Well Fuck You, You Snooty Bastard!
Scalzi Faces The True Horror Of Having Fans
Because I’m A Mean Bastard: Help Send Scalzi’s God-Ignorin’ Heathen Ass To The Creation Museum!!
Scalzi Gives Me Another Reason Never To Want To Play Videogames
Scalzi Seems To Be A Bit Upset, He Do
Lack Of Backup Files Spreads Worldwide!!!
Just Read & Now Reading
Just Read & Now Reading
Everyone Knows What To Do About Everyone Else (Not That I’m Any Goddammed Exception!)
John Scalzi Tells The Blog Nazis To Get Lost Too!
Scalzi, Scalzi, Scalzi. That Rat!
Get The Word, Nerd
Nerd Word
Blogroll Addition: John Scalzi
WwwwwwTF?

Previously in this blog (Death):
Happy Lifeday To Me!
Happy Deathday To Me
Quote
My Tombstone
Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye!
Yes, I Understand That I’m Dead
He’s Fucking Right!
Life After Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death
I Got Your Spooky Right Here

FSJ Gives Today’s Outrageously Funny Bellylaugh!

Oh this is so so so so good!

Safe for Work, Possibly Problematic for Christians and Other Children.

Update: She asked to have it removed.

Dammit! I should have FURLed it. It was soooo funny!!!

iPhone: Add Your Comments To frog design Blog!

iPhone a Potential Boon for Web Developers

In light of the WWDC announcement of iPhone apps really being web-based fake apps, I emailed the frog design blog that posted the above article and asked if they would update it. For now, they have reopened Comments to the original article.

Add your voice!

YouTube: Unreleased Barry Gray Music From Gerry Anderson Movie

Journey to the far side of the Sun – DJ Mark Almond

Ambient track to chill out with, an unreleased track used in the 1969 movie by Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, Journey to the far side of the Sun. Nice!

The video sucks, but it’s Barry Gray music!!

Previously in this blog:
Gerry Anderson category

Video Monitor: Asleep On The Job

Yesterday I mentioned that I would download and try a Firefox plugin called Video Monitor.

Well, it’s not very good.

One of the search terms I have it set for is “Gerry Anderson.”

No new items have shown up.

I just did a manual YouTube search and there were actually two new videos.

Bah!

I’ll keep using it, though, because I’m lazy and maybe it’ll pick up something I miss. But I’m not counting on the bloody thing!

“Lockdown, USA,” A Documentary To Reform NY State Drug Law

Anyone who has read this blog knows my position on drugs: I hate the goddammed things and have zero pity for those whose lives get fucked up from using them. If you haven’t the guts to face the shit of life without fucking up your brain, tough shit on you. Millions — if not billions — of people wade through this miserable existence without fleeing to drink or drugs. Those people matter to me; not you fucked-up addicts. Especially you fucked-up addicts who infest the streets of New York City with your fucked-up behavior who make a miserable life even more miserable for me and people like me who don’t use drink or drugs. (I would begin to have sympathy if you fucked-up addicts would at least behave civilly — but it’s not in you, is it? So please die die die! OD ASAP.)

That preface out of the way, I got this in email from The William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice and I run it because I agree with their stance that treatment is preferable to imprisonment:

For Immediate Release:
June 12
Contact: Douglas Greene 516-242-4666 douggreene@earthlink.net

Screening and Discussion of “Lockdown, USA,” a New Documentary Film about the Rockefeller Drug Laws on Thursday, June 14

Advocates and Family Members Join Together to Demand Gov. Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Bruno Keep Their Word and Enact REAL REFORM of New York’s Draconian and Inhumane Drug Laws Before Session Ends Next Thursday

New York– On Thursday, June 14, advocates for Real Reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws and parents of Rockefeller Drug Law prisoners will be discussing Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s failure to act on Rockefeller Drug Law reform as the legislative session enters its final week.

Following the legislative update and comments from parents of Rockefeller drug law prisoners, there will be a screening of a new documentary about the Rockefeller Drug Laws, called Lockdown, USA. The screening is being sponsored by the Real Reform New York Coalition, Cures not Wars and the Drug Policy Alliance.

The evening will conclude with a stand-up comedy performance by Randy Credico, Director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, who is featured in the film.

Assembly Bill 6663-A, which was passed by the Assembly on April 18, 2007, would expand drug treatment for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, and continue sentencing reform by allowing certain people serving time for “felonies to apply for resentencing” a key piece missing in changes to the law made in 2004 and 2005. The bill would also increase judicial discretion and allow for some people convicted of first- and second-time drug offenses to receive treatment and probation instead of prison.

Companion Senate Bill 4352-A is stuck in the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, and Senate Majority Leader Bruno and Gov. Spitzer have other legislative priorities before session ends on June 21.

“The last small reform to the Rockefeller Drug Laws was clearly not enough. My son Ashley is a prime example of this, because he is serving a 7 to 21 year sentence for a first time, nonviolent offense,” said Cheri O’Donoghue, who will be speaking. “Senate Majority Leader Bruno, Speaker Silver, and Governor Spitzer have all promised real reform. The Assembly has acted — where are the Senate and the Governor? These inhumane, racist laws have been around for over 34 years, and enough is enough.”

New York’s Drug Law Reform Act of 2004 (DLRA) lowered some drug sentences but it fell far short of allowing most people serving under the more punitive sentences to apply for shorter terms, and did not increase the power of judges to place addicts into treatment programs. While advocates and family members are encouraged by the modest reforms, they are clear that the recent reforms have no impact on the majority of people behind bars. Most people behind bars on Rockefeller charges are charged with nonviolent lower-level or class-B felonies.

Advocates and family members of Rockefeller Drug Law prisoners will be screening Lockdown, USA, a new documentary which follows the unlikely coalition working to change the Rockefeller Drug Laws: outraged mothers and community members, formerly incarcerated people, hip-hop community leaders, and many more. The documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2006 and has screened at film festivals around the world, captures the series of events that forced the political establishment to reconcile with the burgeoning movement to repeal the draconian, racist Rockefeller Drug Laws. Hip-hop megastar and multi-platinum artist Jim Jones released “Lockdown, USA,” a single about the Rockefeller Drug Laws, on May 8, 2007, the 34th anniversary of the Laws.

What: Discussion about the Rockefeller Drug Laws and legislative status of reform bills with Real Reform advocates and families of Rockefeller Drug Law prisoners; Screening of Lockdown, USA follows; Stand-up comedy performance by Randy Credico

When: Thursday, June 14, at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Yippie Museum Cafe, 9 Bleecker Street.

Who: Gabriel Sayegh (Director, State Organizing and Policy Project, Drug Policy Alliance); Wanda Best (wife of Rockefeller Drug Law prisoner Darryl Best, whose story is featured in Lockdown, USA); Ricky and Cheri O’Donoghue (parents of Rockefeller Drug Law prisoner Ashley O’Donoghue); Randy Credico (Director, William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice).

Go see the embedded YouTube video and the link on that page to get the single as an MP3 file.

And now this coda: Should the laws change to favor treatment over incarceration, and millions of you fucked-up addicts are on the streets and then go on to make life even more miserable than it already is, I swear on the Very Blood Of Christ I will use my last breath to campaign for the death penalty for you motherfuckers. I will be merciless and I will be relentless. So be good if you’re let out. You do not want to fuck with me. I have more willpower than you do and those in power will feel like suckers for having had mercy upon you. They will then listen to merciless people like me, not to you or to your families or to your supporters, so keep that in mind.

Well Fuck You, You Snooty Bastard!

The Scorn of the Literary Blog

The whole point of a review is to set one mind against another, and see what sparks fly. If the reviewer lacks an individual point of view, or struggles to repress it, there can be no intellectual friction, and therefore no interest or drama.

When I write about books in this blog, I do not consider them to be reviews. They are advocacy pieces to make you rush out and buy a book that I liked and that I think you should read because you’ll also like it. I won’t waste my time — and your’s — writing about books I hate (and there are many!). (Well, at least most of the time… and it shouldn’t be thought that just because I’ve mentioned a book, but haven’t written about it, that it’s a bad book. I just don’t have time for everything.)

Formal book reviewing puts me to sleep. I’ve tried and tried to read the reviews in The New York Times Book Review. They generally inspire one of two reactions in me: sleepiness or anger. Sleepiness because their verbosity is overwhelming without actually saying anything. Anger because the reviewer is the star, not the writer of the book.
Plus, I’m often left asking, Who is this eejit writing this bullshit?

Literary criticism is only worth having if it at least strives to be literary in its own right, with a scope, complexity, and authority that no blogger I know even wants to achieve. The only useful part of most book blogs, in fact, are the links to long-form essays and articles by professional writers, usually from print journals.

Oh what absolute bullshit. And maybe that’s why many people hate reading what you reviewers write. Because it’s also bullshit. It’s all Look At How Clever I The Reviewer Am and too little of How Clever This Author Is (Or Isn’t). I don’t give a fuck about you book reviewers. I couldn’t name a single one of you. And when I’ve seen reviews credited to real, published authors, I’m left wondering if the review is there because the editor is a friend of that person and knew the writer needed the money to make a rent payment or needed the money to help pay for the orthodondist of the writer’s kid. I can’t see real published authors turning around and joining the ranks (and they are rank!) of reviewers when a real writer’s time is so precious and should be devoted to real writing.

John Scalzi — from whom I have linkswiped this — offers his opinion too. And he does it, of course, in far cleaner and less hectic language than mine.

The whiner who wrote the original piece reminds me of the character in this: What Is This New Technology Called The Book?

Prior relevant posts in this blog:
Derek Raymond: He Makes All Others Look Like Shit
Mother’s Day Gift Recommendation
No More Blogging Today. Blame Author Ken Bruen!
Overclock Your Mind
Photo Album: America The Illiterate
Note To Self: Upcoming Book To Read
Heather The Hot: Recommended Reading
Get The Word, Nerd
Nerd Word
Ralph Nader Has A New Book
This Month’s Subhead
I Begin The Month With Sherlock Holmes
Search Is A Generic Function That Will Be All Machine-Generated
When “Free” = $$$
Charity Auction: Get Your Name In A Mystery Novel
This Month’s Subhead
Philip K. Dick Freaks Me Out Even While He’s Dead (And He’s Still Dead, Isn’t He?)
Book Drooooool!
Help Out Someone Being Crushed By MammothMedia!
Larry Beinhart
Congratulations to Warren Ellis
The Astounding Christopher Fowler
Christopher Fowler Slays Me
Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May
Bill Bryson: Two-Fisted Gusto!
The Homo Fag Queer We All Owe
That Funny, That Nasty, That Charming Man
Wilmerding-Dong-Ding-Ding
Morrissey
M. Dylan Raskin – Part 2 (of 2)
How Everything Happens
M. Dylan Raskin – Part 1 (of 2)
I Miss Jack Tramiel
He Did Not End Raising Bees

Books category
Writers category