Category Archives: Contributors
If you hate Citizens United, think twice about that anti-SOPA campaign.
In late January, Justice Scalia drew the ire of Democrats and civil libertarians when he said the following about the flood of soft-money, political ads flowing from the 2010 decision in Citizens United v FEC: “I don’t care who is … Continue reading
Tilting at Wordmills
This morning, a friend sent me a message asking if anonymize is the verb form of anonymous; and my first impulse was to say that no such verb exists, other than perhaps some corporate neologism. A quick check on the … Continue reading
Anti-Piracy Battle Reveals Dysfunctional Thinking
So, last week dealt a few blows to supporters of new anti-piracy legislation, and today, websites around the world, including some biggies, have gone dark in protest of anti-piracy legislation. The guts of SOPA have been eviscerated to … Continue reading
Unintelligent by Design
Since the State of Missouri decided to take up this hogwash this week, I thought I’d re-post an old piece of mine on the subject. There is nothing intelligent about the so-called Theory of Intelligent Design. The fact that this … Continue reading
Glad Tidings and Misgivings
I’m an atheist from a Jewish family and have celebrated Christmas my entire life. In my childhood home, Hannukkah meant watching my mother search for our menorah for eight days while the Christmas tree gleamed in the living room and … Continue reading
Citizen Journalism – The Burden is on the Reader
Yesterday, I was listening to a discussion with Tom Brokaw broadcast on NPR from The Commonwealth Club. Asked his opinion of news and information in the digital age, the veteran journalist said that he believes the variety of available content … Continue reading
Beware “The Man” in Boy’s Clothing
Another View of the Battle Over IP legislation. It is no overstatement to say that we live in volatile times bordering on revolutionary. It is only natural, therefore, to revere whatever is new, young, and iconoclastic, particularly when a vanguard … Continue reading
Opinion Piece on Copyright Legislation
12/2/11 It isn’t often that the needs of independent artists are aligned with those of men and women in the military; but, as someone who is directly concerned with both, I urge my colleagues in the creative community as well … Continue reading
Stop Sharing the Hype – IP Laws Really Do Protect Artists
Let me say in the interest of full disclosure that my film gone Elvis has been blogged about by the organization Copyright Alliance, that I am one of CA’s members, and that I am on good terms with its director, … Continue reading
Headless
You may rightly ask, what is Wasington Irving’s famous villain doing in a 4th of July parade? The real answer is that the school master (Jesse Merwin c.1809) of Kinderhook was supposedly the inspiration for Irving’s character Ichabod Crane. As … Continue reading
