The International House of Bacon

* A pretty decent overview of the Obama speech from Michael Medved (thanks Melvin). After not thinking about it for a while, I still think the Obama speech was better than the general consensus on the right appears to believe, but that general consensus might be that turning point to uniting behind McCain the way they would against Clinton. Still, there is room for discussion as to what the speech said and accomplished, and Medved does raise a few interesting questions. Other interesting things I read in response to the piece: Caroline Glick’s powerful personal story which speaks to how many of us would have liked to see Obama respond, John Derbyshire at National Review picking apart some of Obama’s statements.

* Ron Paul is angry that the GOP hasn’t looked to his base of supporters. Well, duh, what did you expect?

* Today’s the 5 year anniversary of the Iraq invasion. I’ve read more than my share of opinions on it at this point that I won’t bother rehashing them all here - although my position as to what “good” foriegn policy is has changed since the war began in 2003, I still think Iraq was a good move to make, and still think we’re in a better position to finish it properly now than we were back in May and June of 2003. I still wonder how things would have worked out differently had we partitioned the country off, but at this point I’m more concerned with finishing right and getting out than bailing and having to fix it again later.

* Marijuana decriminalization of an ounce or less was passed in the New Hampshire house this week. Another reason to love this state. Unfortunately, Gov. Lynch plans to veto it - another great reason to vote him out in November.

* Jonah Goldberg notes the hypocrisy between Obama’s position on Wright and on Don Imus. Don Imus makes an insensitive comment with humorous intent and Obama things he should be fired. Wright makes years and years of comments that are as ugly - if not uglier - and we’re supposed to let that slide. Yeah, I think there’s a bit of a problem there. Obama did say that ” there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group.” I suppose simply being an advisor absolves all that.

* Scientology doesn’t get a restraining order against Anonymous. I’m more amused by the Anonymous/Scientology feud than anything else (I’m not virulently against Scientology, and 4chan runs a good TF2 server, so…), but seeing this back and forth is great.

* Drew Carey at Reason.TV on the human organ market. The fact that we’re so backwards in regards to organ transplants as a society is something that depresses me a lot.

* Finally, mp3 audiobooks at libraries are coming sooner than I would have anticipated. I hope this trend continues.

So much for me not being busy. Hopefully I can write a bunch of stuff over the weekend. I’m sure you’re all very, very excited.

* Michael Gerson was a former Bush 43 speechwriter, so that would probably dismiss 90% of what he has to say in most minds anyway, myself included. I was still compelled, however, by his point of view on the image of the United States overseas. Essentially, we’re well liked in Africa, well liked in Eastern Europe, well liked in Japan and India, and Europe’s unhappy more because of their increased pacifism than anything else, which is largely something that’s unavoidable for the “superpower” anyway. You might not agree with him, but it’s a very interesting position, regardless.

* David Brooks, the “conservative” (quotes intentional) columnist for the New York Times, points out that as Obama’s campaign slips into attack mode, one of the hallmarks of his campaign is eroded as a result. Not that I haven’t been noting that for weeks already or anything…

* If I felt that Ann & I could handle it, I’d push harder to consider homeschooling our own future kids. This chilling California Supreme Court ruling is one I desparately hope will be overturned. This worries me greatly, and I know about the slippery slope fallacy, but what’s next?

* As a postscript to the Michelle Obama stuff from yesterday, I found John Podhoretz’s commentary on it to be illuminating:

[F]or a 44 year-old woman to tell a black audience that things have “gotten worse during my lifetime” is astonishing. When Michelle Obama was born, racial intermarriage was against the law in at least two dozen states. Governors were standing in front of university and classroom doors, attempting to bar black children and teenagers from entering white-only institutions. The per capita income of African Americans has risen sixteen-fold over the past 40 years. Black homeownership has risen tenfold. The black poverty rate has declined from 75 percent to 25 percent.

The piece is relatively short, but really spot-on, IMO.

* Go figure - heavily Democratic-weighted polls show the Democratic candidate winning in November. Y’don’t say.

* This is embarrassing:

McCain’s likely to trounce the eventual Democratic candidate on security issues anyway - when one of your foriegn policy advisors decides to go on national television and concede it like this, well, that’s easy enough.

* I won’t lie - I worry about this quite a bit. Who would have thought a history book that has the KKK as a subject would cause this much trouble?

* From Willisms, a correllation between Iraq war deaths and Iraq war coverage. Some of this might be attributable to the campaign season, but the trendlines are still interesting.

* Depending on who you talk to, the Boston Public Library DRM protest was either a complete flop or an interesting diversion. I’m still of the position that the old way of protesting (marching, waving signs, etc) is dead in a nation with a 24 hour news cycle and an up-to-the-moment blogosphere, but this was destined to fail to begin with. After all, do most people who use a library know what DRM is anyway? And if they do know, do they really care? Probably not.

* Go figure, the New York Times of all publications prints an interesting look at the American Middle Class.

* If there’s any evidence that regulatory measures have gone completely haywire, here’s a story about a topic dear to my heart: the right of Los Angeles vendors to sell hot dogs wrapped in bacon.

* At Cinematical, a cool collection of photographs celebrating Alfred Hitchcock films. I love stuff like this. Also, a while back, they posted Disney animated recreations which are pretty cool.

A quick follow-up to the post from yesterday, it’s worth highlighting:

Scot Colford is the Applications Manager at the Boston Public Library. His position is essentially similar to mine - DRM is annoying, but it gets more materials to more people. He left a comment to direct people to The Boston Public Library’s digital blog, and it’s worth reading for the other side of the coin.

Preface: I do not consider myself an expert on all library systems, or even everything that’s out there and available for libraries to use. I’m speaking more from experience and knowledge than any sort of all-encompassing position, so keep that in mind.

Apparently, an anti-DRM protest against the Boston Public Library is scheduled for this weekend. DRM, for those who aren’t aware, is shorthand for Digital Rights Management, which is the system most major companies use to restrict content access of digital media. It’s what keeps you from installing the same disc of Windows on two computers, what keeps you from playing songs from iTunes on a SanDisk, etc. I’m not a huge fan of DRM, but the simple reality is that many companies are, and thus we’re stuck with it for the time being.

The protest we’re seeing is one mostly out of ignorance, unfortunately. Should DRM-enabled material be used at a library? Maybe that’s your position, but consider this - it’s ultimately not your library’s decision:

* If your library lends DVDs, the copy-protection scheme is not optional. Studios install those.

* If your library allows for downloadable audiobooks (probably through the Overdrive system), the DRM there is solely so the major publishers can get on board without having to worry that their audiobooks will be posted up all over the internet.

* If your library has music CDs or books on CD, any DRM you encounter is, again, at the behest of those producing the media, not those lending it.

If you’re going after your public library for having DRM-enabled materials, you’re essentially telling the library that you want them to be on the cutting edge of technology for materials, but you don’t want them to allow you to access it. The reason your library has downloadable audiobooks and DVDs is because people want them, period. Get rid of the DRM-enabled materials, and you’re essentially getting rid of a lot of the materials that the library is offering.

A better protest would be to start harassing the publishers about it - those groups are the ones that are looking for DRM on their audiobooks. Harass the movie studios - they’re the ones that insist that DVDs remain encypted. Harrass OverDrive - they have the oomph to get them on board, and they’re making the decision to offer DRM to get more materials in your hands. Don’t protest the library - they’re offering you a newer service that may be imperfect, but is better than not having it at all at this stage.

Again, this may not apply at every library, but think before you act.