I am not one to promote the taking of illegal drugs. But I am against laws which put the wrong people in jail.
About 10-15 years ago, law enforcement officials and lawmakers tried to make computer operators liable for every message that passed through their systems. This meant that if you ran a mailing list, and someone on the mailing list posted an anti-government message, both that person and you were liable for its content. Kinda screwy, huh? These laws have been mostly struck down, though there are still some battles being fought. (Sorry, no links right now.)
Looks like the U.S. Senate is at it again. They’re saying that concert promoters should be held liable for up to 20 years in prison if people at their events take Ecstacy and other illegal drugs.
I know the lawmakers are trying to do “the right thing” here, based on the current problems. But the concert promoters can’t stop people from smuggling in a few tabs in their pockets. They can’t prevent a person’s drink being laced with Rohypnol and being date raped. They certainly should provide adequate security in the dance hall in case a problem breaks out, but how is it their responsibility that someone went down to Alphabet City and picked up a few tabs?
I agree with George Carlin. Once the governments of the world start putting a few of the bankers who launder the drug money and the lawyers who defend these drug pushers’ asses in jail, the drug trade would dry up immediately. “Hell, you wouldn’t be able to get drugs at high schools and prisons anymore!” :)
Congresscritters are a commodity now — most of them are interchangeable, even across party lines. But this is America, and in America no one wants to sell a commodity, they have to do something that differentiates their product from the rest in the eyes of the consumer.
What can a congresscritter do to make his sponsors sending money his way and public to vote for him? No one reads voting results, no one listens to speeches, but every time some inane bill is being introduced either in House or Senate, the names of people on the bill is heard. So, just like a lot of “modern culture” compensates the lack of creativity with shock value, and has to constantly increase it as the public gets more and more desensitized, politicians write more and more dumb bills, promote them among their colleagues and get support because those colleagues are too busy writing their own ones to survive a debate, and often can’t afford to antagonize others. Voters, of course, have nothing to do with the process — on the next elections it’s only necessary to get nominated, and party will make sure that personal idiocy will be hidden behind the party’s policy.
What, someone expected democracy here?
you should send that out to people and have them write the congressmen and tell them how the idea is fucked… i just did :)
Just a minor correction.. nobody ever made it illegal to post anti-government messages, at least not in the US. That would be a clear violation of the Constitution, and I don’t think even a mindless group such as Congress would try to get that through. Of course, stranger things have happened.. we once had the Sedition Act after all.
i did a search on google for “fm synthesis wendy carlos” and your site was the second search result (after the notes of a UGA professor).
through that i found your lj and thought i’d add you as a friend… hope you don’t mind.
:I