Will the people we are FORCED to rather generously pay to represent us here in the good ol’ USA … EVER … do anything more than SCREW …
Will the people we are FORCED to rather generously pay to represent us here in the good ol’ USA … EVER … do anything more than SCREW us behind our backs and hand us a teeny, tiny, little 600 dollar “economic stimulus payment” so they can say, “Oooooooo look at all we are doing for you”?? WILL THEY EVER STOP BEING SO ARROGANT???? I seriously believe … anyone who votes for any canidate from the two major parties in this country should seriously have their heads examined. But sadly on many lines of many ballots there will be no other options … and certainly no … “none ‘o these bums!” THESE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ENTRENCHED IN WASHINGTON FOR FAR TOO LONG, TAKING A SUBSTANTIAL PAYCHECK FROM THE TAXES WE PAY, WHILE FEATHERING THEIR OWN RATHER COMFORTABLE BEDS … AND DON’T GIVE ONE DAMN BIT ABOUT ANY OF US! And they are laughing their way into very nice retirements … many Federal Goverment Employees … particualrly at high levels … again people WE PAY rather well … aren’t much better. The U.S. Constitution no longer starts out “We the People” ... It now clearly reads … We the Saps, the Dopes & the Suckers! You want to hear it straighter than that … go on You Tube and listen to what George Carlin has to say about voting and the people running this country. People only nervously laugh at him now. He’s not being funny people. Not at all. Yes, some comedy is based on exageration. But he just doesn’t have to exagerate nearly as much any more. Same with Lewis Black. They don’t have to try … the absurdity of reality is rapidly surpassing that of comedy. We are in trouble. BIG trouble. Folks we are seriously getting … buggered … to be polite … at every bend in the road by these ladies and gentleman in Washington, and all the other little government seats too. The two party system has taken this once great country and ruined it … ruined at least for the majority of the honest hard working women and men struggling harder and harder every day to get by. While they have been getting more and more … we have been loosing ground since the 70’s. Yes, for over 30 years now the REAL income for the Average American Family has steadily dropped as their debt has steadily grown. In that same period REAL wages for the Average American Worker have dropped and benefits slowly disappeared. The AAF & AAW have lost ground in the same period that Corporations … have “out sourced” more … / moved entire idustries out of this country … / received more and more direct support from the Federal Government ... / received more and more concessions and breaks from the Fed … and many have recorded record profits … and that list could go on and on. OK so we are still better off then folks in a lot of places and should be very thankful for all we DO have. It is good and right to be grateful and thankful But here’s the kicker ….. THEY WANT TO TAKE THAT AWAY FROM US TOO! THEY WON’T STOP UNTIL THEY’VE BLED US DRY. WHY? THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING ELSE AND THE REAL PEOPLE RUNNING THIS CIRCUS CAN’T SEE PAST NEXT QUARTER’S PROFIT STATEMENTS. And we are supposed to be thrilled with a 600 dollar check? We are supposed to run out and spend it like kids in a candy store? Lets really mess with their minds … take the check … cash it … convert it to gold or silver … THEN BURY IT SOMEPLACE SAFE! Well I already spent half of mine … I gave it to a firend who lost their job to help them get by. Oh well I am rambling … but I do that when I am angry … and everyone should be. They have the POWER and the MONEY, but there are a helluvalot more of us than there are of them and we need to get aggressive and start DEMANDING better! Particularly from the people who prepetuate the farce of representing us in Washington. If nothing else … at least go read some of the thoughts on votenader.org. We really don’t have to put up with this bullshit … but it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work to get something back for US. And we do have to get our butts moving on this. I started MY morning almost loosing my breakfast reading what I have posted below. This is just so sickening and WRONG. Just plain WRONG. That people we have elected and we pay salaries to would even consider such a piece of legislation is a clear example of just how little they really care about the interest of the people they claim the right to represent. I’ll correct that … It’s not WRONG … It’s OBSCENE! But THIS is business everyday in Washington …. We need to get ANGRY! We need to stand up and FIGHT! We need to say ... WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS ABUSE ANY MORE! And make no mistake about it … it is ABUSE! REAL ABUSE! It should be illegal, it’s certainly unethical … there’s a little word long forgotten in the Halls and Backrooms of Congress and Corporate Boardrooms. Ethics! Ethics are those little things that are supposed to remind you that while you can do just about anything you want … there are times you shouldn’t … and YOU should be the one to stop yourself. WE NEED TO SAY IN MILLIONS OF LOUD VOICES …. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we need to start saying it TODAY. Mind Your Business / You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art / Mark Simon As you know, I usually handle the subjects in my articles with a sense of humor. That is not the case this month. I find nothing funny about the new Orphan Works legislation that is before Congress. In fact, it PISSES ME OFF! As an artist, you have to read this article or you could lose everything you’ve ever created! An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time or by lack of proper registration. Like when parents give up their child to be an orphan, you can give up ownership in your creative work to be an orphan for others to use without your permission. If you don’t like to read long articles, you will miss incredibly important information that will affect the rest of your career as an artist. You should at least skip to the end to find the link for a fantastic interview with Brad Holland of the Illustrators Partnership about how you are about to lose ownership of your own artwork. Currently, you don’t have to register your artwork to own the copyright. You own a copyright as soon as you create something. International law also supports this. Right now, registration allows you to sue for damages, in addition to fair value. What makes me so MAD about this new legislation is that it legalized THEFT! The only people who benefit from this are those who want to make use of our creative works without paying for them, or from large companies who will run the new private copyright registries. These registries are companies that you would be forced to pay to register every single image, photo, sketch or creative work. It is currently against international law to coerce people to register their work for copyright because there are so many inherent problems with it. But because big business, like Bill Gates, can push through laws in the United States, our country is about to break with the rest of the world, again, and take your rights away. With the tens of millions of photos and pieces of artwork created each year, the bounty for forcing everyone to pay a registration fee would be enormous. We lose our rights and our creations, and someone else makes money at our expense. This includes every sketch, painting, photo, sculpture, drawing, video, song and every other type of creative endeavor. All of it is at risk! If the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to everything we’ve created over the past 34 years unless we register it with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that someone wishing to steal your personal creations won’t successfully call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free. In short, if Congress passes this law, YOU WILL LOSE THE RIGHT TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR OWN CREATIONS! Why is this allowed to happen? APATHY and MONEY. Artists have apathy and corporations have money. We need to be heard in order to protect our incomes, our creations and our careers. GET OFF YOUR ASS! That means writing letters to our congressmen and representatives. That means voicing your opinion about how we need copyright protection, as we’ve had since 1976, that protects everything we create from the moment we create it. Currently, your work is copyrighted as soon as it’s created, whether you register it or not. This is the case around the world. However, an Orphan Works bill is also in the works in Europe. I was speaking recently with Roger Dean, the famed artist of the YES album covers, and he is greatly concerned with what will happen if Orphan Works bills become law. “This will devastate the livelihood of artist, photographers and designers in a number of ways.” Dean continues, “That at the behest of a few hugely rich corporations who got rich by selling art that they paid no part in the making of, the U.S. and U.K. governments are changing the copyright laws to protect the infringer instead of the creator. This is unjust, culturally destructive and commercial lunacy. This will not just hurt millions of artists around the world.” “On the other side of the coin,” Dean argues, “what argument will a U.S. court have with a Chinese company that insists it did its research in China and found nothing? If the cost of this is onerous for a U.S. based artist, what will it be like for artists and small businesses in emergent economies?” If an artist, whose work is as famous as Roger Dean’s, is concerned with this legislation, it should be of great concern for all of us. The people, associations and companies behind the Orphan Works bill state that orphaned works have no value. If that were true, no one would want them. However, these same companies DO WANT your work, they just don’t want to pay for it. If someone wants something, IT HAS VALUE. It’s pretty simple. Some major artist and photography associations, or I should say the managers of the associations, support this bill. The reason they support is that they will operate some of the registries and stand to make a lot of money. Some have already been given millions of dollars by the Library of Congress. Follow the money and you will see why some groups support this bill of legalized theft of everything you have ever created. Corbis and Getty Images have opposed the Bill but have a lobbyist in Washington who is negotiating behind closed doors for favorable concessions to them. They are large stock photo and stock art companies. They sell art and photos inexpensively and are trying to build giant royalty-free databases. Do you see how they could benefit from considering most art in the world orphans? Do you know who owns Corbis? Bill Gates. He doesn’t do anything unless it can make a huge amount of money. For years we’ve heard of Hollywood fighting with China to protect the copyrights and income for distributing feature films from pirated DVDs. Our government has worked with the film studios to protect their investment. Individuals in our government are NOW WORKING AGAINST US by allowing our own citizens TO STEAL OUR CREATIVE WORKS. It will be easy for them to get away with it unless we make ourselves heard. Your calls and letters do work. I’ve been involved with many instances of a single letter making a difference in public policy. Tens of thousands of calls and letters help even more. This is not empty talk. I have written letters to my congressmen and I will do so again. I do what I can to let every creator know about terrible legislation like this…thus you are reading articles like this one and you can listen to interviews I’ve posted online. CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR: / Go to http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml to quickly find the phone number, address, e-mail of every U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, Governor and State Legislator. Forward this article to every creator you know and urge them to take a moment to protect their very livelihood. I am giving everyone the right to reprint this article in any form to help spread the word to protect our creative rights. Instead of sitting around watching TV tonight, TiVo that show tonight, write a letter make yourself heard. Letters to our government officials don’t have to be long, but they should be heartfelt. A good story helps. Tell them who you are, how this legislation negatively affects you and that you want them to vote against the Orphan Works legislation. It’s that easy! If you don’t, you will have only yourself to blame when you see other people making money from your art and you don’t see a dime. Spider-Man comic artist Alex Saviuk is also concerned about the loss of copyright protection. “When I found out all the negative aspects of the new legislation, it would almost behoove us to want to do something else for a living,” says Saviuk. “If we would have to register with all the different companies, we would never be able to make a living.” “It would impossible for me to register all my art,” continues Saviuk. “It would put me out of business.” You can listen to my complete interview with Alex online at http://www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com/orphan.html. Think this doesn’t apply to you? Maybe you don’t license your artwork? How about this? Photos on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there is a huge opportunity unauthorized use of your photos…legally. You could see photos you take of your family and kids or of a family vacation used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of them, in every new registry to protect them. Say the average person takes 300 photos per year (I take a lot more than that). If a registry only charges $5 per image, that is a whopping $1,500 to protect your photos that are protected automatically in the current laws. If there are 3 registries, protecting your images could cost an amazing $4,500. Not to mention the time it would take to register every photo you take. Plus, you will also have to place your copyright sign on every photo. That’s not including all your art, sketches, paintings, 3D models, animations, etc. Do you really have all that extra time and money? Plus, even if you do register, the people stealing your work can still claim it was orphaned and unless you fight them, they win. Even if you win, you may not make back your legal fees. It gets even better. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They would then be excused from any liability for infringement (also known as THEFT) unless the legitimate rights owner (you) responds within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work. That means you will also have to look through every image in every registry all the time to make sure someone else is not stealing and registering your art. You could actually end up illegally using your own artwork if someone else registers it. DOES ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS? Do you think the U.S. Copyright Office is here to protect you from this legislation? Think again. Brad Holland of the Illustrator’s Partnership shares his notes from a recent meeting with General Counsel of the Copyright Office. Holland: “If a user can’t find a registered work at the Copyright Office, hasn’t the Copyright Office facilitated the creation of an orphaned work?” Carson: “Copyright owners will have to register their images with private registries.” Holland: “But what if I exercise my exclusive right of copyright and choose not to register?” Carson: “If you want to go ahead and create an orphan work, be my guest!” This cavalier and disrespectful dialogue should have you seeing red. Who the hell does he think he is? Carson should be fired and RUN OUT OF WASHINGTON! None of this could happen with our current laws. Our current laws work and they protect us and our creations. The only people who will benefit from the copyright law change are those who can’t create work on their own or companies who stand to make a lot of money from using our works of art. They pay contributions to Congressmen, which is why they get what they want. We need to stand up and be heard. Every one of you needs to write your Senators and Representatives. We have to protect our livelihoods. It’s that serious. Plus, the technologies being developed for locating visual art don’t work well enough. On March 13, 2008, PicScout, one of the softwares used in the registries, stated to the House IP subcommittee: “Our technology can match images, or partial information of an image with 99% success.” A 1% margin of error is huge when you consider the millions of searches performed for art every day. That means for every million searches, 10,000 images could be orphaned. Plus, this only takes into account images registered on their system. If you have registered all your work on another system, they won’t be searched here and even though you may have spent thousands of dollars registering your creations, a new or unused directory could orphan everything you’ve ever created. This is just one of the many reasons why INTERNATIONAL LAW FORBIDS COERCED REGISTRATION as a condition of protecting your copyright. The United States is about to break international law by making us register our works. The people behind the bill say it’s not forced registration, but you won’t have any rights unless you register. THIS IS SIMANTICS! Of course, this is forced registration and we can’t stand for it! There many, many other problems with the Orphan Works legislation. As a creator, YOU MUST understand what is going on. For additional information on Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists: / http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185. This is not something that is going to go away easily. We need to be vocal NOW! This legislation has been beaten or delayed for the past 2 years and they will keep trying until it passes. This is no time to be quiet and see what happens. What will happen depends on you. Send e-mails and call your congressmen. Ownership of your own creations depends on it. Roger Dean sums this up well, “Where are the colleges and Universities in all this? Has the whole world gone to sleep?” GET ON ORPHAN WORKS E-MAIL LIST: / To be notified of the latest information on the Orphan Works bill and when we should contact our legislators, send an e-mail to illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com and ask to be added to the Orphan Works list. AUDIO INTERVIEW LINK: / I have recorded a fantastic interview with Brad Holland of the Illustrator’s Partnership regarding this bill and what it means to us as artists. Please go online to http://www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com/orphan.html to listen and learn more about how you may lose ownership of all your art and photos. This article and the recorded interview are available for anyone to use in any print or on any website. Please forward this information to every person and group you know so we can work together and protect our creations and livelihoods. Mark Simon is an award-winning animation producer/director and speaker. He speaks around the world on subjects about art, animation and tv production. His copyrighted companies may be found online at www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com and www.Storyboards-East.com. He may be reached at marksimonbooks@yahoo.com. Portions of this article use information and phrasing provided by the Illustrators Partnership.
Am I too cynical? Why do I interpret the financial meltdown on Wall Street to be a power grab by greedy bastards that have bankrupted th…
Am I too cynical? Why do I interpret the financial meltdown on Wall Street to be a power grab by greedy bastards that have bankrupted the country? Are my fears rational? Let’s look at the things we know. The president and his republican goons with the encouragement of the Keating Senator that got away, have been eroding regulations and the constitution as fast as they could. They used every trick and cried wolf at every opportunity they could to scare the public into going along with their plans. They brought us an unjust war in Iraq, delayed any attempt to alleviate global warming, a very flawed “Patriot Act”, rewrote the bankruptcy laws to make it harder for individuals to file, placed so much of our economy into housing that almost every other sector was drained of the capital that would have kept workers employed here, and have denied we were in a recession for the past year. Nothing is ever done by these guys unless it is in crisis mode. The country is being driven to bankruptcy by the same guy that bankrupted his oil companies. Unfortunately the idiots who voted him in chose the guy they’d like a beer with instead of the guys that would have kept us solvent. Now it seems as if they will be swept out of office. Since fear is the only thing that these people seem to know how to do, they are trying disparately to scare us into letting them steal another $700,000,000,000 and put it into the hands of the very people that have been causing the problems. It has all the earmarks of crooks hell bent on fleecing the people one last time. It seems to me, Palin was placed on the ballot because they hope the religious sheep will flock to vote in one of their own because few of them liked McCain. Those with a brain that don’t make over $250,000 per year have only one choice this election, Obama. The worst thing this country could ever have running it is a religious fundamentalist. Their intolerant behavior towards other religions and their view that “God” guides their hand makes it impossible for them to govern effectively. Look at Bush to see what a fool that places “God” above the country’s interest does. History seems to show that greedy conservative Republicans ruin the economy and the liberal Democrats pick up the pieces and get the country moving forward again. As much as I can’t stand either of them (Kucinich would be my first choice), my own wallet forces me to vote for Obama. I hope others vote with their wallet as well.
I am against any proposal to bail out private capital companies with taxpayer money. / / I am tired of years of following hurry up police…
I am against any proposal to bail out private capital companies with taxpayer money. / / I am tired of years of following hurry up polices of George Bush into oblivion. The senators are suppose to be the cool voice of the people over the hubris of a few self-serving idiots. They have allowed the vast majority of the American people fail with out regard and allowed harsher bankruptcy laws for the middle class while continuing to fund the Presidents outlandish spending which has impoverished our country, leaders, and children well into the future. Will we let these malpractice corporate leaders leave with millions yet we would strip the spoils of any other person (doctors) or private individuals (tort) for similar impunity (crashing a car into private property) why do we want to bail these criminals. / / They scream socialism in the face of Universal Health Care for Americans, / yet pass a magic wand of applying socialism (no loan but a gift) to corporate cronies and, oh yes, the offshore corporations. In the old Feudal System the first priority was to protect the people inside the walls so you could tax them later, not throw your resources over the moat to your adversary’s. For once I ask them (Senators) to act as leaders and support the reality of capitalism I fought for in Nam, let the system rise or fail based on the market forces not covering the bad judgment of corporate greed. Stop this rush to judgment and someone yell the “King has no cloths”.
Just read several news articles where not only has Palin fed rumors she is now feeding hatred. One of her “followers” shouted out “kill h…
Just read several news articles where not only has Palin fed rumors she is now feeding hatred. One of her “followers” shouted out “kill him” when she called Obama associated (at age 8) with Ayers. NO ONE NEEDS to feed hatred in this time of our politics. Regardless of your political affiliation, I encourage you to boycott Palin on all accounts. If you are Republican please write Senator McCain and call for her dismissal for fueling hatred. If you are Democrat, do the same. All of us are contributing to this feeding frenzy by allowing so much attention focused on someone who would foster such hatred. There is nothing more costly than this and the government cannot bail anyone out from these types of consequence. No more hatred! / http://digg.com/political_opinion/Boycott_Palin
The problems America faces really are a result of stupidity. Dumb people chose our president by voting for the guy they think is mos…
The problems America faces really are a result of stupidity. Dumb people chose our president by voting for the guy they think is most like them. Just because Bush was the guy they’d most like to have a beer with, the fact that he bankrupted 2 oil companies in Texas (an oil rich state) due to his incompetence was overlooked. His goal from day one has always been about getting as much money for himself and his friends from the stupid tax payers as possible. Lets look at how sports arenas are now built. The team owners threaten to leave a city unless the city builds them a new stadium. The city council members often cave into these jackals (I suspect they are bought off) and give them lucrative deals that make it impossible for the city itself to make any money from the stadium itself. The city pays for the stadium and its upkeep, lets the team owners have the concession, parking, and most of the ticket revenue and the stadium is rarely used for anything else without giving most of that revenue to the team owner as well. By the time the stadium is paid for, the team owners will demand a new one due to the age of the old one. There are many that claim to want change but continue to vote for the incumbents. It is almost always a case of your incumbent is bad, but mine is OK that rules in the voting booth. Congress has a very low rating, but my Congressman is not part of the problem. Try thinking, if congress is bad, all congressmen should be replaced, including yours! Single issue voters are the biggest idiots out there. If the person running is decent in most respects and has promoted good fiscal policies, but is pro choice, isn’t he a better choice to be given the purse strings than the antiabortion guy that has a reputation for reckless financial choices? Then again, many of the morons in the anti-abortion crowd are for the death penalty. What part of being pro life justifies this? Doesn’t your bible say “Thou shalt not kill.”? If so, I don’t see any loophole that says that you can kill if the other person has done bad things, it is only a 4 word commandment. No wiggle room seems to be included. Think carefully, if the 95% of Americans earn less than $250,000 aren’t they going to have more money to spend if their taxes are cut? Is the country going to prosper if the majority of the residents has more money to spend? Consumer spending is the engine that built the economic engine of the country. We didn’t prosper because the rich people bought all the cars and houses. We prospered because the middle class had extra income and spent it. Reaganomics, has been doomed from the outset. The rich do not spend enough to keep the country afloat. There are too few of them. For capitalism to work properly, you need a broad market. If too few people can buy your products or services, you can’t sell them. If more and more of the wealth goes into the hands of fewer and fewer people, there is not going to be enough demand to drive the economy. Under liberal government policies, the rich bear a larger tax burden. This places more spendable income into the hands of more people. Many of them spend and the economy prospers. If you place more dollars into the hands of fewer people, you cut off the economic engine of the country, and throughout our history, liberal politics increased our prosperity. If you are dumb enough to vote for the “Deregulator General” and his fundamentalist fool, you may as well plead for them to provide some lube before they ream you. You won’t be getting any mercy from them. The only option this country has for now is to elect Obama because at least then the economy can start to recover from the disaster Reagan’s policies has caused.
Dear Journal: / At one time a long long time ago there was a senator who was noteworthy and honorable…that man Senator John McCain does no…
Dear Journal: / At one time a long long time ago there was a senator who was noteworthy and honorable…that man Senator John McCain does not exist now, but every once in awhile you see a glimmer of him and you sigh and feel bad for him. He has thrown his lot in with the Neocons (working for and with George W. Bush who smeared and vilified John McCain and swift boated Senator Kerry and Vice President Al Gore) and extreme right wing evangelical Christians like Sarah Palin who is a demagogue of intolerance and hate. Congressman John Lewis made a statement that John McCain is “sowing the seeds of hatred and division” and compared him to George Wallace (John McCain has asked Senator Barack Obama to repudiate Congressman John Lewis’s statement, wonder why? Too close to the truth?…Why hasn’t John McCain spoken directly to Congressman John Lewis )….the person fueling this hate is Sarah Palin with gusto and rabid enjoyment she was booed at the Philadelphia Flyers hockey game, ironic at a hockey game…and of course at her rallies you hear “kill him kill him” and “traitor” and he is an “Arab or Muslim” (ever wonder what law abiding Arab Americans who love America think…like Ralph Nader) and other vile things like “off with his head.” John McCain has tried to stop extreme hateful comments at his rallies they are being recorded and they are a video public record. Every time Sarah Palin speaks more Americans see and know now who Sarah Palin is, it is embarrassing for thinking Republicans, Democrats and Independents and it will affect their vote. The ones that are rabid hateful supporters are not Americans who understand who “We the People” are; they never have and never will. Sarah Palin was found “guilty” or “unlawfully abused her authority” which simply put she is not qualified to be a Vice Presidential candidate and reports that her Gubernatorial administration is “shockingly amateurishly mismanaged” one seventy two year old heartbeat away from the Presidency (?)…that is dangerous, not vetted properly and the non Fox News interviews affirm her inadequacies and her debate was not a debate just jingoistic parroting. Of course some will shout out that she is qualified they may or may not be racist…fascist and ignorant for sure….when you take the position that “they are not like us” or they are “not as patriotic” as them or are not “Christian enough” as them, co-opting God as theirs and all others are damned….muttering that the others “are different” (?). Some publishing images of soft porn Sarah Palin or glorifying a gun toting Sarah Barracuda and images of excreting fluids and body waste on Senator Barack Obama…makes you wonder. It is a zero-sum to attempt dialogue just ideologue diatribes ala Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter et al the extreme right wing nut jobs unleashed…Lord Almighty some are just faux Christians or misogynist prepubescent middle aged men-boys tickling their pickles fawning over Sarah Palin. Stating your position and challenging the opposition to think and respond in kind is part of the election process, you won’t find dialogue just ideologue nonsense proliferating all over the McBush McCain McPalin United Banana Republican Republic of Stupid….You Betcha!!!!
I wish I had the luxury to think that religious nut cases are not any real threat to the US. With the rise of Sarah Palin to such a prom…
I wish I had the luxury to think that religious nut cases are not any real threat to the US. With the rise of Sarah Palin to such a prominent place within the Republican party, I can’t afford to be so blind any longer. The religious right and their desire to be with Jesus above all else is a threat to all life on the planet. I have heard too many people talking about all the signs in their bible pointing to this as being the “End Times”, including some I used to think were rational. The one thing I am sure about, according to their own bibles, only “God” will know when the end is to occur. Until he decides, we are to live our lives treating all with compassion. How dare you wage wars in his name or even try to claim he is on our side when war is the ultimate in inhumane acts. Compassion is not being shown to human beings being shot, bombed, or sliced up. It does not matter if they have the same god as you, your god has forbidden you to cause harm to other human beings. As I read over the bible, I see no loophole within the commandment “Thou shalt not kill!” The majority of the religious sheep, never really read the bible, they let the church elders do that for them and figure that is good enough. Their more learned leaders control the flock to such an extent that most will kill for the purity of their religion. That said, when a flock is told by a charismatic lunatic that he has interpreted the bible, and the “End Times” are near, most of them will not question the interpretation. That Sarah Palin is a member of such a sect, and has been nominated for a position that would put her a heartbeat away from actually having the Nuclear Codes that would make it possible for creating the “End Times” is extremely frightening. It would be bad enough when a known hot head like McCain has the launch codes, but he at least is not actively seeking to be with Jesus any time soon (as far as we can tell). Vote Obama!
This is the only bulletin I will post on this subject because this is normally not my thing. If you do not have an open mind, are set in …
This is the only bulletin I will post on this subject because this is normally not my thing. If you do not have an open mind, are set in your ways, or just don’t give a damn about other people’s thoughts, don’t read any further. This election is a big one for sure, more of a life changing election than any one before this. I have noticed that in times such as these, people tend to let their feelings about things cause them to be ‘ugly’ and hateful. It is sad the the bi-partisan politics has caused this country to split into two groups, but hey, that is the way of the land I suppose. Let me tell you this before you read on; I am educated on this subject so don’t go trying to tell me otherwise for I will throw more articles and such down your throat than you can ever read in your life time. Second, I am neither democrat nor republican and do not care to be. I will vote for what I think is right, not what is popular or what my ‘party’ is voting for. I do not really care for Obama, I don’t really care for McCain, so keep that in mind when reading this. If you claim to be christian, which I do not so don’t try to throw that in my face, do not sit there and slander Obama for being Muslim. Last I remember, good Christians do not judge others; they let their Lord do it. The same goes for the whole race issue. A ‘real’ Christian would not slander Obama for being a black man. Black people have done wonderful things for our country and are no different than you or I. It burns me up when I hear or read people go on and on about how Obama is not Christian or that he is a black man. This whole country was created for those who wanted a freedom of religion or did we not all pay attention in history class? This country is and was dubbed ‘The Melting Pot’ for a reason; people from all backgrounds, races, religions and so forth came to this country so that they could live in peace without being percecuted for what they believed.So now in 2008 people are running around saying they won’t vote for a ‘n*’???? That isn’t Christian people. That is ridiculous. So just because I am of Irish decent and have pasty pale skin and reddish hair, are you gonna say I am not worthy of something or another? What if Obama was Catholic? Or Protostant? Or Babtist? Would that make a difference to you? Oh wait, I guess they are ‘true Christians’ then, huh? Whatever…..true Christians practice what they preach and if what I have written so far offends you, you obviously are NOT one. Moving on… / It is true, Obama is not one of the most ‘qualified’ men to ever have ran for president. What about George Washington? What the hell did he have to go off of? Um…nothing, he was the first in case you didn’t know that one. He turned out to be a pretty good president without credentials, wouldn’t you agree? It is true, I totally agree, when it comes to ‘qualifications’ John McCain has more experience, however, lets look at his running mate who will be taking over if he does make it to the White House and croaks in the next 6 months. FACT: Sarah Palin flat out said she had no idea what a Vice Pres does. (Does that sound qualified to you?) FACT: Sarah Palin wants to take Polar Bears off of the endangered species list so that the government can drill oil in Alaska. Sure, we would all like to stop our dependence on foreign oil however I don’t think that killing off an entire species for that purpose is a good idea, nor do many animal rights activists, which again, I am not nor claim to be. If you know anything about the environment or care to read the paper or at least the Yahoo News once in a while, you would know that every tiny creature in our world is there for a purpose. Go look up the problems with the bee shortage and then you will understand why this would be a problem. FACT: Sarah Palin is completely against abortion in any way, shape, or form UNLESS it could cause problems for the mother. Okay, let me get one thing straight, Im not one of those feminists that think that it is a womans body and she can do what she wants, because I am not. I have friends who do think that way and I do not judge them for that because I am not that type of person. I personally believe that abortion should NOT be used as a form of birth control for any girl who wants to go out and have unprotected sex and then decide she doesnt want to deal with the consequences, but I DO believe that if a woman of any age, gets raped by a stranger, friend, or even a sick pervert realitive, that she should NOT have to go through the mental anquish of having that child. It would not be a good emotional or mental situation for the mother or the child who would eventually learn of how they came to be and possibly the reason of their mothers’ resentment toward them, not to mention that in cases of incest, children are more likely to be born with serious problems both mentally and physically. Sarah Palin wants to rid us of the right to abortion in these cases. I have two daughters and if God fobid some slimeball ever did something like this to them, Sarah Palin would not want them to get an abortion. Sarah Palin would want them to go through with that pregnancy. There are many woman who are going to blindly go to the polls to vote for McCain just because his running mate is a woman. Think for one second how you would feel if your own daughter, your mother, your aunt, your sister, your best friend, any woman or young girl that you know became pregnant from a rape or from incest. Think about how that would affect their life, the life of you and their family….just think about that before you go to the polls. This is a serious issue and as a mother, I won’t stand for that. Sarah Palin is being investigated for about a million things…even hard core republicans who were all against the Bill Clinton/ Monica WhatsHerFace scandal should be able to see through this one. I mean c’mon, how are you gonna be all against Bill for getting his rocks off (not that I think it was right or that I am for him lying under oath like an idiot but still) and being investigated when this chick isnt even in office and is already being investigated? Seriously. So lets see, moving on…yeah, if anyone believes that you can see Russia from Alaska….wow, Im shocked you have the reading skills needed to read this. Even so, lets say you can. So seeing a country from a far distance makes you educated on foriegn affairs? Hell, in that case, I can say about 6 words in French, does that mean I can be VP too?? (I bet I can pull of that MILF look better than her anyways!) ;) Look, all I am trying to say is lets not be uneducated here. Do not claim to be something you are not. Do not judge a person based on their race, their background or what they believe. I’m agnostic, are you going to stop talking to me because I don’t believe in your God? Am I a bad person because my skin is lighter than yours? And more importantly, please do NOT go to those polls Tuesday with the intent to vote for a woman just because she is a woman. Woman have come a long way since we were even allowed to vote. We have become doctors, astronauts, biochemists, and yes, even Hillary and Sarah have shown us that woman can do anything we set our minds to. Please don’t cop out and stop using your brain just because awoman’s name is on a ballet. Thats all I have to say. Hope you enjoyed my rant. Again, if I pissed you off, sorry about your luck, I didnt’ intend to do so, only to make you think about using your head at the polls. ~Peace Out / Shannon aka HahpiStuff
GO BARRACK!!!! !http://images-2.redbubble.net/img/clothing/backgroundcolor:fafafa/bodycolor:heathergrey/size:large/style:mens/view:pre…
GO BARRACK!!!!
In the 1960’s when Gene Roddenberry was creating Star Trek he wanted humans to be a united people that put aside their differences and wo…
In the 1960’s when Gene Roddenberry was creating Star Trek he wanted humans to be a united people that put aside their differences and worked together for the common good but felt it would take a cataclysmic event for people to be at that point. Last night the United States showed that we can get there without having to annihilate each other first. After John McCain gave easily the most gracious and poignant concession speaches I have seen in my lifetime. I started to look back a remember why I wanted him to beat W in 2000, and on September 11th 2001 why him not getting the Republican Nomination over Bush was truely tragic. I hope last night was an indicator that the real Senetor McCain has rejoined us and will finnish off his term with dignity. In 2004 when Barrack Obama spoke at the Democrat’s National Convention I looked at my wife and said, in so many words, there is the first African American President of the United States. Now let us ride this wave of optimism into the future and hopefully lead Earth to be the utopia it deserves to be. God Bless America
O / B / A / M / A / ! / ! / ! So happy :)
O / B / A / M / A / ! / ! / ! So happy :)
Were conservative values satisfied by Reagan’s Piss on Those Lower Than Yourself, or Spread Manure not Money policy (he called it “Trickl…
Were conservative values satisfied by Reagan’s Piss on Those Lower Than Yourself, or Spread Manure not Money policy (he called it “Trickle Down”)? I think not. In order for that theory to work, benevolent employers would spread wealth throughout their companies. Instead of that happening, greed dominated corporate America. Ponzi scheme after Ponzi scheme played out as a company shifted manufacturing out of the US in order to boost profits by cutting costs. For a while, jobs were still plentiful so no one noticed the real costs. The Reagan tax breaks made it easier for some people, eager to cash in, to form new companies that paid lower wages to startup. These companies absorbed employees that had been let go and started to prosper. As they prospered, many were bought by investors that saw an opportunity to make more money. Investors are not the same as owners, in that an owner usually takes time to make sure the employees are taken care of, investors look towards the bottom line and not much else. In a global economy it is always easy to find cheaper workers. As more work is sent out to the lowest cost workers, more workers here get laid off. Our economy is based upon people spending money. The wealthier people did not get that way by spending money. Thus, no matter how much money a wealthy person has, all they are interested in doing is making more money via investing it. It made no difference if goods were being produced locally or abroad, as long as they got a return on their investment they didn’t care. Well paid workers, spend money. It is the goods and services they buy that drives the economy forward. But the trend in America has been to get rid of the production workers. This set us up for a series of recessions. TV’s were among the first things that became so cheap to produce from outside our borders, that now none are made here. But the workers that made TVs were able to find other work for a while, so people still bought them. The auto industry has become another victim. Even though it is cheaper to assemble the cars here than to ship in finished products, most of the parts are now made elsewhere. The workers that used to make the parts sometimes find other work, but often end up going into other fields that pay a lot less. They end up not buying as much. The same trend occurs with other industries and goods, textiles, appliances, and so forth. The US now has a “service based” economy, we no longer make goods for others to buy, we sell information and cater to tourists. Most of the things we buy are produced elsewhere, but as long as some people are able to find work at menial wages, the greedy investor class is happy. The only industry that could never leave, housing, was delivered into the hands of the Ponzi artists via deregulation of the mortgage banks. This meant that a shell game could be played and the last person holding the mortgage may not have a good one. Banks protected their interests by creating layer upon layer of paper “derivatives” they could sell to the lowest levels of investors (those that bought into the market last). As the shell game raised the cost of housing, people were forced to stop buying houses. Temporarily, to protect the banks, interest rates were dropped. In order to keep the only sector still able to generate a profit for the banks, due to the deregulation, the banks issued riskier loans. It is impossible to have houses assembled elsewhere and ship them to a location. In order for builders to cut costs, cheaper labor has to be brought in from elsewhere. In order to actually employ the cheaper labor, trade unions would have to be destroyed. Thus we get “right to work” laws. Why hire a union worker when a non union one will cost you less than 1/3rd the amount in dollars and you can get away without paying for medical insurance as well. Once again, investors are happy to look the other way if labor costs are reduced so the loss of good paying jobs in this field didn’t bother them. The bubble was now primed and set to burst. Problems arose, when the oil companies allowed their market to be overtaken by speculators. Instead of having the direct cost of production and delivery setting the price for oil, deregulation allowed in gamblers that made bets and side bets which eventually came to be the dominating factor in the cost of a barrel of oil. The oil barons made so much more money making these bets that they pretty much have stopped much of their search for new sources of oil. They currently sit on 65,000,000 acres of land that they could explore and drill if necessary, but would rather steal more land from us than spend the money on exploration of their current assets. The obscene profits announced by Exxon Mobil every quarter are not poured back into production or exploration, they are placed into the betting pool. When the cost of getting to work started seriously eroding people’s ability to continue spending money on other goods, the schemes that hid the true cost of Reagan’s legacy started to unwind. People started curtailing their spending, layoffs increased, prices rose, as people lost jobs, mortgage defaults increased. As banks started tightening credit, people cut back further. The cut backs caused more layoffs in order to protect the investors bottom line. The recession started. The only way out of a recession is for people to spend money without using credit. That cannot happen without having jobs here in America. Investors will not part with their money, if they don’t see a benefit to them. Since manufacturing is not done here on a scale that creates the extravagant profits they seek, they are not willing to invest here in America. The only way to prime the economy is to take money from the upper 2% that control most it and get it into the hands of people that will spend it. But in order to get them to spend, you first have to stabilize their housing, food, medical, and transportation costs. It doesn’t matter if you call it socialism, it needs to be done. It always takes liberal policies to get the country out of the recessions caused by conservative greed. History repeatedly shows this to be true. Obama may not be liberal enough to get us out of the mess we are in, but he is a far better hope than McCain (one of the principal architects of deregulation) would ever be.
The best idea Henry Ford had was not using the assembly line to make cars. If you make cars that are expensive, you have to sell them at…
The best idea Henry Ford had was not using the assembly line to make cars. If you make cars that are expensive, you have to sell them at a very high price to the very rich. The rich did not get rich by spending money, and cars that don’t hold their value well are not sought out by them. There was not going to be a huge enough demand for cars unless they could be sold at a cheaper price. The assembly line was the only way to reduce the price, but that alone would not guarantee financial success for any auto maker. Ford’s brilliant idea was to pay his workers a wage that was high enough to afford his cars. The simple act of paying workers more than the going rate for the task gave his employers excess cash that would enable them to buy items (including cars) that were not necessary for keeping themselves fed and sheltered. This kind of liberal thinking fueled the US economy and helped us to prosper. Simply put, you need to have a product or service, and people that want it in order to drive an economy forward. Liberals put money into the hands of many more people. Unlike the rich, who spend very little, the middle class tends to spend money at a much higher rate than the rich. Most do so because they want enjoyment in their lives, working themselves to death is no longer in vogue. The majority of the middle class do not aspire to become rich, which would require them to forego the pleasures that spending provides. This benefits all people that produce, sell, or provide service. The greater the number of people that can spend, the bigger the GNP can grow. That is why our country prospered whenever the government was in the hands of liberals. Conservatives do not spend large amounts of money. Individual conservatives can amass large quantities of money, but because they do not spend much, they do not contribute much to the GNP. They like to think that by making “sound investment decisions” and reaping interest on their money, they make the economy work, but they are fooling themselves. When conservatives take control of the government, they immediately try to rein in spending. This starts a downward economic spiral because when less money is spent, fewer people are needed to work and unemployed people do not spend money on frivolous items. When the economic engine is very large, its power loss is barely noticeable and other parts of it may be able to absorb the workers and keep the engine running. But ultimately conservatism is best practiced on an individual basis and left out of government. Our current crisis started with Reagan’s “Trickle Down Economics”. Placing a very large tax burden on the people that drive the economy, enriched the pockets of investors (those who do not spend money, but try to make their money do work) and in the short term, things looked good. Investors do not like to pay workers, worker pay reduces the profit. In order to make the company attractive to investors, the IATT (Idiots At The Top) look for cheaper labor. This ploy also worked well for the short term. This further reduced the number of people that could and would buy products here. The more IATTs did to improve the return on investment, the larger the reduction in spending power the economy got in return. “Right to Work” What works well for the short term, does not always work well for the long term. When the Bush tax cuts stole more money from the true driving force of the economy, the investor class was ecstatic. The infusion of cash meant they could reap bigger dividends, but it was getting harder to find places to put the cash that would be “safe”. Conmen, thieves, and incompetence had found a happy home among the energy interests so serious people looked for investments in government backed assets and housing. Our once thriving manufacturing sector has been decimated. Almost all consumer electronic gadgets (TVs, DVD players, video games, mobile phones, etc.) are produced elsewhere. Most car parts are produced elsewhere and only get assembled into autos locally these days. Have you looked for domestically produced clothing or furniture these days? Those jobs and the wages that went with them are a thing of the past. The US became a very large service based economy. Information technology was looked upon as our future. But there was no escaping the IATT philosophy, out source it to save money. This caused the bubble in the investment bubble to burst fast. The better the bottom line looked to the IATTs, the worse the economy was getting. It used to be that customer service workers had to have very good language skills. Based upon my contacts with customer support reps, fair to poor English is taking over the market. This is probably because the increase in Asian based users that use the service and do understand the speaker is greater than those of us here in the US that need the service and have a hard time understanding the speaker at the other end of the phone. The IATTs at Microsoft, Dell, Hewlett Packard and at numerous other companies rarely here complaints about this, so due to the enormous cost savings and the increasing Asian market, the problem is going to persist. The only place that outsourcing is not viable is construction. That sector was looking good, so investors looked for ways to increase its profitability. Cheaper labor is one way, so employers were encouraged to hire people at the lowest possible rate. Construction projects are done using teams of contracted and subcontracted laborers. The people that oversee the construction sometimes hire laborers under the table so as to increase their profit. Whether the hired help is here legally or not is not asked in order to provide plausible deniability for the executives of the Architectural firms. Construction is not the only sector that has found happiness in using abnormally cheap local labor (anyone regardless of their immigration status that is willing to work for wages that are below the normal going rate for the job). If the normal rate for a job is $20.00 per hour and a contractor can find someone willing to do the job for $10.00, he will subcontract the job to the other guy and pocket the difference as his profit. Meat processing plants, landscaping firms, janitorial services, and many other places all look for cheap labor and often exploited illegal aliens to get it. Another insidious ways costs are cut in business all over the place is to cut hours back to the point that you no longer have to legally provided benefits for the employee (a favorite tactic of Wal-Mart and many food stores). Deregulation opened up another route for investment. Derivatives and short selling made the stock markets crap shoots. Banks saw credit cards as a money making venture through fees and exorbitant interest rates. Legalized loan sharking (without the danger to your life and limbs) took place. To keep the housing bubble intact, banks sought out ways to increase their customer base through less diligence in checking mortgage applicants ability to pay (they figured it would be easy to sell the same house several times if necessary since the housing market looked great). Conmen saw a chance to cash in on this promising target and encouraged people to take out mortgages low starting rates. This last bastion of “conservative” investment became one big Ponzi scheme. By the time it was recognized as such, it was too late.
Any economic stimulus package that places money into the hands of corporate America will fail. There is no way on Earth you can trust th…
Any economic stimulus package that places money into the hands of corporate America will fail. There is no way on Earth you can trust the greedy bastards that lined their own pockets at our expense to get us out of the economic mess they engineered. It is only by some form of liberal spending agenda that we can emerge from this mess, and there are way too few people with available cash to spend due to the economic incentives of the Bush administration (giving more to the have and have mores ensured very little money would be spent). The only nation that has tailored its stimulus package to maintain growth is China. They are putting the bulk of their money into the hands of those who drive the economic engine, spenders. Corporations are duty bound to create profit for their investors and do so by getting the cheapest labor possible to make their products. That is why whenever layoffs are announced by a company, its stock tended to go up. Conservative’s look at a trend like that and say that layoffs are good for business. That is only true when there is sufficient growth taking place to absorb the displaced workers. When people lose their job, they cut out unnecessary expenses (toys, cars, televisions, etc.). These reductions in sales lead directly to less demand for goods which drives down prices and profits. Further pressure is put on corporations to reduce the workforce in order to maintain profitability. It is a downward spiral that is difficult to get out of. If conservative business interests are allowed to control purse strings, this downward trend will continue. It is almost always possible to find a place with cheaper workers and lax environmental laws, even more so when money is placed into the hands of people in power. Yet the only way profits can be made is when money is spent by the consumers, who buy the goods. Moving your production costs into a cheaper labor market reduces the potential sales of products in your home base, and unless that labor market can also afford your product, you effectively ensure a downturn in your company. It is by raising the standard of living in those markets that you expand your economy, not by exploiting the people. The auto industry is not going to be able to expand let alone survive if people can’t afford their cars. Executives at GM, Ford and Chrysler ensured their doom by not keeping their production facilities here. Retooling and keeping the workers would have ensured that the people that work for them would be likely to buy cars. Most people that were let go by the Big 3 when they did find a job elsewhere, no longer had an incentive to buy an American car (if you can call a car that has had many of its components subcontracted out to foreign workers and merely assembled here, “American made”). On top of that, when other countries were forcing car makers to make fuel efficient cars, our big 3 were conspiring with the oil companies to build bigger fuel guzzling vehicles. When the oil companies got real greedy, look at who got shafted big time. In order to get Americans spending again, well paying dependable jobs are required. One easy way our government can lift a heavy burden falling on industry is to provide a single payer healthcare for all Americans. If all Americans have coverage, the burden is shared by the broadest possible group and costs are reduced accordingly. If corporate big wigs put money into the hands of their workers, instead of their own pockets, there is a chance the economy can pull out of its death spiral. The goal should not be to ensure profits at the expense of workers, for in the long run that benefits no one. The more equitable a worker’s pay is relative to the corporate leaders’, the better the chance that the worker will spend money. The reason for this is simple, Americans tend to spend excess cash rather than to save it. We have the desire for wrapping ourselves in cocoons of comfort and have no illusion of becoming overly wealthy. We work hard and play hard. We tend to save just enough to get the toys we want and are not miserly for the most part. Get us secure enough to spend again, and we will show the World the way to prosperity once again.
The key to economic recovery is job creation. Only people that feel secure in their employment spend money in the amounts needed to keep…
The key to economic recovery is job creation. Only people that feel secure in their employment spend money in the amounts needed to keep our economy afloat. With unemployment rising, spending money that may be needed to keep your house would be reckless. Sales can’t go up without a decline in unemployment. Job loss is the biggest hindrance to the mortgage crisis, refinancing your home doesn’t make any sense if you may lose your job. The downward spiral will continue unless enough jobs at decent wages are created in an area that does not depend upon spending by the general public. With that in mind, what should be done? First, let’s tackle one of the obstacles to job creation, Healthcare. Our current system places the burden of Healthcare squarely upon the shoulders of employers. As a result of the increased cost of care, more employers are opting out of providing benefits. When employers opt out of covering their employees, it increases the costs the other employers have to pay because the cost of care for the uninsured is always covered eventually by the insured that end up paying higher premiums. Notice the upward movement of costs coupled with the downward movement in employers willing to pay them? At some point in the not too distant future, the only people that will have insurance will be government employees as the rest of the employers will not be able to absorb the costs anymore. The way to make the system fairer is for universal healthcare coverage for everyone, at a level that includes all major health problems. Increasing the number of people in the pool to the entire population of the US, should make the per capita rate of Health Care drop, as there would not be any uninsured to be a burden on the system. Employers should be free to offer supplemental coverage for wellness programs (Gym memberships and similar things). If the wealthy wish to opt out of the (socialist) plan, they should be entitled to do so, but only if they assume “all of the actual costs” of their own care. By not having to burden themselves with Health Care costs, employers could increase the number of jobs and the wages so their employees can resume their role in the economy, spending their excess money. Second, the government could require that any house taken over by foreclosure can not be resold unless it meets strict codes for plumbing, electrical wiring, insulation, structural defects, etc. The people tasked with retrofitting these homes would be the construction workers that are currently idle do to the mortgage and housing crisis. That would ease the burden our housing sector has placed on the economy. Third, investment by the government in alternative energy must not be deterred by the false lowering of fuel prices now being done by big oil. They helped create the mess by cutting refining capacity, delaying oil exploration, and gouging the public. The best thing the government can do is to put up money for alternative energy structured in a way that prevents big oil from being able to buy or control these new sources. New energy sources should be controlled by the public so no company can cause damage to our economy in the way oil price gouging did during Bush’s terms.
It’s been stated many times by the founders of Redbubble that they seek to democratize art by allowing everyone to have a gallery of thei…
It’s been stated many times by the founders of Redbubble that they seek to democratize art by allowing everyone to have a gallery of their work on display for public view, with the ability for it to be purchased in various high quality media. An ongoing debate has been occurring since the nascent days of the site regarding quality, and the large amount of uploads that are perceived as lacking in artistic merit. I used to be concerned about this, but have slowly let go of the idea that this is a site that is about ‘meritorious’ art (despite the flourishing debates), and more to do with the idea of participatory community focused around creative activity. I’d like to address the idea of ‘online community’ and it’s contradictions in a future essay, but for now will acknowledge that this community is the ‘front end’ sustained by the ‘back end’ business of print-on-demand. Not an uncommon contemporary business model; one that links the participatory capabilities of ‘Web 2.0’ with a physical business. I’m not implying that there is a cynicism in doing this however, its just one manifestation of the positive (if problematic) use of capital in the social sphere. One idea that has occurred to me lately, and one that is only too evident as Redbubble grows and evolves, is the great irony of the democratization of art: that universal freedom of expression is important to increase the chances of great art occurring, but it also allows the unskilled, the inarticulate and the unimaginative free reign to express themselves. To some, creative expression is merely the documentation of their surroundings, to others it is as much as possible a subjective interpretation using whatever objective means they have mastered. To put it bluntly, democratization leads at one and the same time to greatness and mediocrity, and the thing that defines greatness is it’s rarity among mediocrity, forcing us to think harder about the nature of art itself. / / I don’t for one moment support the idea of an artistic elite, this is impossible to define, but more the idea that mediocrity is the sea on which greatness floats, and maybe we have to begrudgingly accept that cultural evolution involves a certain volume of mediocrity.
It looks like RedBubble and Mrs. Obama are on the same page … “The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free …
It looks like RedBubble and Mrs. Obama are on the same page … “The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it,” she said. “Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.” “We’ve been trying to break down barriers that too often exist between major cultural establishments and the people in their immediate communities; to invite kids who are living inches away from the power and prestige and fortune and fame, we want to let those kids know that they belong here, too.” Obama also gave a shoutout to those who work in the arts, and recognized the contribution that those workers and institutions bring to the national economy, pointing out that “nearly 6 million people make their living in the nonprofit arts industry, and arts and cultural activities contribute more than $160 billion to our economy every year.“ Read the full article about democratizing art at ArtInfo.
*Feat…
Features (not forgetting Richard). ..The magic goes on …..... “I am The American Dream” was featured in LEFT WING VALUES AND PO… AUGUST FEATURES /
Today I wrote a blog post about RedBubble and my impression after one month, especially the democratization of your work which happens as…
Today I wrote a blog post about RedBubble and my impression after one month, especially the democratization of your work which happens as a result of the community of people viewing your images. Anyhow, I decided to put it in my journal here as well. If you’d like to read it, it’s here
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