Muy Caliente!

From Yahoo News article “Dems, incumbents get wake-up call“:
“Obama now faces a much tougher challenge persuading these mostly moderate Democrats to put themselves further at risk by backing such liberal priorities as expanding government’s role in heath care or limiting greenhouse gases.”
Not really. I would think that he should focus on improving the economy and reducing the government’s interference in our daily lives. In NJ, 10% of the population is unemployed. A minimum of 10% of the population therefore needs healthcare. Sure not every unemployed person needs healthcare if there spouse is employed, but there are also those employed not qualified for employer healthcare. At any rate, if the campaign, and thereby the democrats, were focused on creating jobs, say 5%, then that’s 5% less people who would need government healthcare and that’s a good start! Right now people want their job, they want their house, and they want some cash in the bank. The democrats picked the worst possible time to pitch their ill conceived health care plan. Greenhouse gases? Really? People still believe in global warming? There are plenty of environmental crisis’s around the US and the world; some of which could reasonably solved. Why all the money and effort into a highly debated scientific opinion? If the democrats think that passing this health care bill now or greenhouse gases will get people back on the democrat train – forget it!
I am also very upset with the current government getting so involved in the trademark/copyright fiasco. If the government is fighting for corporations, who are they fighting against? Me. And you. The original idea for the trademark was so I couldn’t make some soup in a can and sell it on the street as Campbell’s. It was to protect the consumer. Copyrighting was to protect the original artist (note the word art in artist) from others plagiarizing or stealing an idea. Both concepts have been long lost. If I buy a song online and it is illegal for me to play it how I want to play, or put it on a CD, or change its format – I am not plagiarizing the song! It is for my own use. The artist is not losing any money if I try to play an iTunes song on a non-Apple MP3 player. If I am convicted and go to jail, the artist doesn’t get any money. Copyrights are meant to protect the artist and if the artist doesn’t benefit from the law, what’s the point? The record label. The corporation. They are the ones who benefit. And that is who these laws are written for. Well, I believe that corporations exist to serve me. As soon as I exist to serve a corporation, it’s time to burn DC down and start over.
Notice before I mentioned artist. Art will always be free. It always has been and always will be. Sure there are costs involved. If I buy a CD, well that CD cost something and the liner, and the gas the trucked used to deliver it, but the music should be free. All the artists I know don’t do art for money; they do art to express themselves. Sure, it’s nice to make a living by your art but I’m sure they would still be doing it if they didn’t. One band I really enjoy and respect offers their latest album online for free. They just want to express themselves and for you to listen. If you like it, great come to a show, show your support, and tell them afterwards you liked it. That’s all they want. One solution would be if everything was this way. The media is free. If you like it, make a donation. It would end the commercial BS they call art these days. Books? Great – throw it online and let the people read your original story before some money-grubbing editor reduces it to some commercial slurry. Movies? Same deal. That’s what’s great about places like YouTube. Got an idea? Get a camera and shoot it. It might be better and more original than anything coming out of Hollywood. Special effects can only carry something so far.
Visual arts? Well, I can only speak as a photographer – don’t be so worried about people stealing your stuff. Apply for a CC license so it is attributed to you so no one claims it’s theirs and don’t worry if it’s used in an ad or magazine, be flattered!!
As I have been writing this I’ve been thinking more and more ideas but I will stop because I don’t want to write anything I haven’t fully thought through. You’re probably sick of reading this by now if you’ve even got this far. More to come though – for sure!