Happy Birthday iTunes!

 Well it's been five years now for Apple's iTunes and I will admit a great weakness for the service. The Apple business model will probably change over the next few years (or months!). Let's face it, if Amazon can sell songs for the same 99 cents or even 89 cents (for many songs) and be free of the DRM (Digital Rights Management) that restricts the number of copies that can be made to five, then the Apple business model will be forced to change. Apple may now be operating under artist contracts that promise a restriction on distribution and that could force Apple to delay a change until those contracts expire. The limit of five copies sounds reasonable but I have a whole bunch of computers, iPods, stereos and cars and frankly five is just too restrictive for me and I doubt that I am a minority on that subject. This is no, "pity me" rant, rather it is the reality that others are looking at, we want our music on many devices; not only that but we are willing to pay 10 cents less per song to do so!

 This week iTunes is giving away a super-cool song (Worrisome Heart) by Melody Gardot, a very fetching jazz singer, check it out.

 While writing this I was listening to some old R&B on the Mac that holds my iTunes library, some Bobby Womack and the Staple Singers.

 

Bernardine Dohrn - Northwestern's Bullshitting Terrorist

This is amazing, Northwestern Law employee and former Weatherman fascist Bernardine Dohrn claims to have never supported terrorism. Hey lady, you wasted your spoiled young adulthood as a common, selfish terrorist. This known terrorist wrote the following letter to the Daily Northwestern (btw, Northwestern also employs a Holocaust denier Arthur Butz, what a lovely school). Here is the letter from a former member of the Weather Underground Terrorist Group:


The tone of Guy Benson's April 5 guest column, "Law Prof Owes Explanation," is the kind of poorly researched "new McCarthyism" so suddenly fashionable. The reporter says he is denied "both sides of the story," unable to get a "balanced assessment." He quotes my "assistant" and the New York Times quoting my "husband" and asks me to clarify his alleged comments.

Since I speak publicly about the war in Iraq, racism, children's rights, international law and human rights, Benson and all NU students are welcome to be part of the regular give-and-take I enjoy with students, audiences and activists. To clarify, I have never endorsed terrorism, the use of violence to intimidate or coerce a civilian (or any other) population.

I fought the illegal, immoral war against Vietnam and the organized terrorism of my government -- and I unequivocally oppose the terrorism of governments, individuals, and religious, political and irregular organizations. I believe we all have an obligation to speak up about what is being done in our name.

-- Bernardine Dohrn, professor, School of Law

This piece of disingenuous crap from the Daily Northwestern can be found here.

Ms. Dohrn obviously considers others to be too dimwitted to possibly understand her very public and pathetic past, and I must say that if Northwestern students (or anybody else) swallows this woman's crap then they deserve to be treated as ignorant chumps.

I commented on another interesting NU Law Prof here.

Obama has surrounded himself with a group of lying, fascist jackals.

Update: Yesterday (4/25) the New York Post reported that the commencement speaker at NU Law this year will be none other than NU Law Class of '68 alum Jerry Springer. Yes, that Jerry Springer. H/T: Instapundit and Volokh Conspiracy.

...But If You Go Carrying Pictures of Chairman Mao, You Ain't Gonna Make It With Anyone Anyhow...

The Obama campaign has gone out and put some Chomsky-loving kid in charge if their blogger-outreach-hope-changey-online stuff. Add this to Obama's friends those wonderful spoiled-rich-kids-who-didn't-get-their-way-commie-terrorists and Barack's own Grand Wizard sounding preacher and I can see why Hilary Clinton will not leave this race until day one of the Democratic National Convention, at the earliest.

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs

Many Thanks to the late great John Lennon for the Blog Post title, it is a line from the classic Beatles song Revolution:

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
all right, all right, all right

Copyright Lennon/McCartney Apple Music

Cougar Killed in Roscoe Village!

Photo Copyright Chicago Tribune/Candice C. Cusic

Earlier this evening a cougar was shot and killed in Roscoe Village, a neighborhood on Chicago's northside. No doubt this was the same animal that Publia from the Wilmette blog reported on Saturday. The cat likely followed the North Branch of the Chicago River from the Lake Michigan shoreline at Wilmette Harbor down to the woods near Lane Tech and the old Riverview amusement park then across Western Avenue, down Roscoe Street into the heart of Roscoe Village. The four-foot tall animal was said to leap six foot fences with ease.

A Cougar At 4th and Linden?

What the heck is going on up in the North Shore? Flying Debris noted a cougar sighting up near the Wisconsin border last month but in spite of the lakefront being a freeway for wildlife, in my lifetime I have never heard of a cougar as far south in Chiago's suburbs as Wilmette. Publia of the Wilmette blog has reported on a cougar sighting near the 4th and Linden CTA el stop. Sure it's a few blocks from the lake but come on it's an el stop. Publia helpfully reminds her readers to not let their dogs out to investigate large cats, good advice! An acquaintance of mine watched a mountain lion take his 45-50 lb. dog by her neck, leap over a 4-foot fence and head up into the mountains never to be seen again. Let's face it, those cats drag deer carcasses up into trees. Advice to joggers, be careful when you tie your shoelaces in places like the Peter Jans Golf Course, near the 4th and Linden and the Central Ave. (Evanston) CTA el stops. A crouching person is a great target for cats, they like to attack from above their target, especially near dawn and dusk.

Fort Sumter - First Shots Fired 147 Years Ago Today

At 4:30 AM, sparking the Civil War.

Does My iPhone Hate Glenn Reynolds?

That would be Professor Glen Reynolds of the fantastic Instapundit. Some explanation is in order, whenever I use my iPhone's Safari web browser to head on over to Instapundit the phone's screen goes blank when the scroll function is used before the page is fully loaded into memory. The iPhone doesn't store more than one previously browsed page, the phone's non wi-fi download speed is slow and the Instapundit page, with it's graphical ads takes a while to download, combined it leads to some frustration and lots of waiting. The cure is to stop the download (the text on his site downloads pretty quickly) by tapping the "X" at the top right-hand corner of the screen. This problem likely effects other people on other sites but I haven't noticed the problem elsewhere.

This afternoon the Professor commented that although he needs a new phone, he would not be buying an iPhone. I like mine but I can't blame Reynold's, it seems that the phone doesn't like him very much.

I Thought That Bob Barr Was Against Drugs...

...so what the heck was happening on the set of Hannity and Colmes tonight? Former Georgia Congressman, Federal Prosecutor and current ACLU public face Bob Barr was saying that he would run for the office of the President of the United States, as a third (or fifth) party candidate. I was shocked, is there an under-represented community of short, shrill pains in the butt out there? I always wondered how the guy got elected to Congress in the first place, he really comes off as an annoying scold. Who, other than Democrats, would give the guy money?

Hmm, Barr's Wikipedia entry states that he is already running for the nomination of the Libertarian Party for President. I guess that I should have turned the sound on earlier in the interview but the guy is so unlikable...

And what is it with Libertarians? I myself subscribe to some of the ideas that they push, many of those ideas are the basic principles of conservatism but the public faces of the Libertarian Party seem to believe that dramatic changes can be imposed rather than be sold. Libertarians are usually singularly awful at marketing their ideas, making them horrible and often terribly shrill candidates. Far be it for me, a guy who wears a smock at work to mention this but they could also use some fashion tips.

35 Seconds Over the World Trade Center - pt. 2

In this post from last year I commented on the then recently revealed information that the US had waterboarded 3 terrorist for about 35 seconds each. Some clown from CNN went on air yesterday to equivocate that action with the Khmer Rouge's (Cambodian) government's murder of 2 million Cambodians. Here is a simple math exercise for CNN"s Christiane Amanapour: the terminal velocity of a skydiver without an open parachute is about 55 meters per second and the two World Trade Center buildings were 415 and 417 meters high, the question for Ms. Armapor and her colleagues at CNN is simple, how many Americans hit the ground after leaping to their death from the burning World Trade Center in the time that it took to break the 3 waterboarded Islamic terrorists? Having watched CNN I think that I should help them with the math, almost 4 2/3 Americans were killed in the time that it took to break each of the three terrorists who were waterboarded. I will submit that outside of our nation's newsrooms (and Sharia law) there is no such thing as two-thirds of a person so it is reasonable to round that number off. Five Americans hit the ground of the World Trade Center Plaza in the time that it took to break each of the three murderous terrorists by making them uncomfortable. That is a total (non rounded-off) of almost 14 murdered Americans in the time that it took to break all three of the healthy, LIVING, briefly uncomfortable Islamic terrorists.



To paraphrase Davy Crockett, CNN can go to hell, I'm going to Texas.

Wacko-Woman to Run for US Senate?

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that Democrat Dan Seals' Congresswoman (IL 10th candidate Mr. Seals does not live in the IL 10h) Janice Schakowsky is making a bid for Barack Obama's Senate seat if he becomes President. Instead of hunting and pecking at the onscreen keyboard of my Fujitsu tablet I will link to this very illuminating post by Anne of the Backyard Conservative.

The Nuts Don't Fall Far From the Trees

Scientists have given credence to the old saw that "nuts don't fall far from the tree", meaning that crazy parents often begat crazy children.

Hat Tip: Drudge

Seinfeld's Fiat "BTM"

Is this 1967 Fiat Dino 2000 Coupe a Fiat "BTM"?

Like many others I was puzzled over the description of the vehicle that Jerry Seinfeld was driving when the brakes gave up the ghost and he flipped the car before he would've careened into an intersection. The car was described as a Fiat "BTM" and although I am no expert on Fiats I had never heard of the BTM designation and thought that it may be the designation left by an outside tuner. Having no luck finding an example of it on the web (and let's face it, if a picture of a friend's Autocar is on the web, what the heck isn't?) I went to a few books, still no luck. Jerry Seinfeld is a sports car nut (I mean that in the best sense of the phrase) and really there is only one 1967 Fiat that Jerry Seinfeld would drive around the Hamptons, that car is the 1967 Fiat Dino.

The Fiat Dino was the comparatively ugly cousin of the gorgeous Ferrari Dino, they share the Ferrari six-cylinder "Dino" powerplant. The Ferrari was designed by Pininfarina and the Fiat was designed by the now struggling Carrozzeria Bertone or Bertone to us non-Italian speakers. This reporter contacted her auto editor and his speculation was that the car could have been a Fiat Dino Coupe badged BTM to stand for Bertone (B) which is based in Turin (T) and uses a Ferrari engine built in Maranello (M), thus BTM. At this point I am willing to buy that explanation. For starters Seinfeld's brakes failed so yes he was driving a Fiat, Seinfeld seems like he wouldn't drive a pedestrian Fiat around the Hamptons (or anywhere else for that matter), thus it was likely a Dino, he wasn't decapitated so the car wasn't a Dino Spyder and I wouldn't be surprised that the Bertone factory put on some wacky badges on a limited number of cars or even all of them. Right now there is a Fiat-savant in the Fiat America Club who knows the answer to this mystery. Someday that Fiat-savant may come out from under his braking challenged car and give the rest of us an answer.

I should add that the problem with the Fiat Dino is that the parts are either Ferrari, Bertone or unavailable and the engine rebuild is the same price as a Ferrari (see: uber-expensive) and the car is valued as a rare Fiat, not a Ferrari. It is also notable that it sounds as if Seinfeld did a fantastic job of driving through the situation and avoiding harming others. When I heard about it I commented that he has likely had some serious driving instruction and experience. Great job Jerry.

Andrew Greeley - Racists Don't Drive Nice Cars

Yeh, I said WTF after reading the latest excuse for commentary from Andrew Greeley. Mr. Greeley (a much despised Catholic Priest) stated that Trinity United's pastor Jeremiah Wright is not a racist because, get this, his parishioners dress nicely and drive nice cars. Hmmm. Giving absolutely no help to Obama Greeley went on to insult every Catholic in Chicagoland by stating that "(n)o Catholic parish in Chicago I know of displays such relaxed prosperity on a Sunday."

As I wrote in this post, while a college student in the Deep South I protested a Ku Klux Klan rally on the steps of the Mobile (Al.) City Hall and the words of the Alabama Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were little different from the words of Barack Obama's preacher and mentor Jerimiah Wright. In fact, I can state that I have never heard the type of relaxed racism and conspiratorial garbage spewn by Mr. Wright in any Catholic church anywhere, ever.

I must also point out that those parishioners have been on television, we've seen them and they are not good dressers, period.

Barack Obama - One Arrogant Prick

Check out this video of some poor sap trying to get a picture with Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Obama claims that the man is an e-bay vendor who would sell Obama's autograph on e-bay. The offering prices for Obama's autograph are all over the place but the bids are solidly in the $4 area. Was Obama feeling slighted out of his cut of the $4? Further the man was insistent that he did not want an autograph, he merely wanted a photo of Mr. Obama. At one point the arrogant one stated that the man could take his photo but that he (Obama) wouldn't smile. Between Barack and his goofy wife that Obama family is one real class act.

Happy April Fools Day!

Chicago's WXRT is pulling their usual April Fools stunt, this year DJ Lin Brehmer is allegedly missing after celebrating the Cub's home openner a little too much yesterday.