Random Stuff by George Ziemann -- December 19, 2009 For your amusement, here are a few of the things I am pondering this week, including "How long can the music indystry possibly last without changing their tune?" Music Industry -- Word is that album sales are down another 20 percent this year, just like last year, the year before, and the year before that, although 20% of the music industry is a lot smaller than it was three or four years ago. In an effort to reverse this trend, the record labels have begun to, uh, form a secret anti-consumer copyright treaty. Well that's not going to help sales. This year, Apple gave in a little and offered tiered pricing. Why? The labels wanted to increase their per-song price on iTunes. While those of us wanting to list with a lower price are given their option as well, I doubt the big dogs choose it very often. They only asked for a higher price, while the country is in economic decline. Another move guaranteed to slow sales. American Idol seems to be the only effort to locate new talent, and they'll never find the next Beatles that way. I don't want to say that today's music sucks, but a glance through the list of albums released in 1969 makes the last two decades pale in comparison. The number one song for 1969 was "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies, so we had our share of pop drivel, too, but it didn't come at the expense of every other genre. So the real question is how long the RIAA members can keep up their current pattern of behavior. They've certainly pursued it longer than I thought they ever would and still show no signs of intelligent life. Maybe they will chase the invisible pirates all the way to bankruptcy. The only thing I know for sure is that I will not buy an RIAA album ever again. I don't think I'm the only one. Swine Flu -- Turns out that it's not going to be the killer epidemic that it was cracked up to be. In fact, it's about the same as the regular flu. I haven't caught either one. Universal Health Care -- A year ago, this sounded like a really, really good idea, at least to me. And my doctor, who is sick of dealing with insurance companies instead of treating patients. Now, with "health care" abandoned, "health reform" bills abound, all pretexts to do everything but reforming the hold insurance companies have over medical treatment (and the ability to deny it). Who's responsible? Everybody. The Republicans are obstructing anything Obama and the Democrats introduce, with no regard to its merits -- merely political posturing. The Democrats, with a solid majority, don't have the balls to stand up to the Republicans and make things happen anyway. Obama has sold out to the insurance companies, the very thing that we were trying to control. Nixon v Bush v Obama -- Noticed in an article the other day that 40 members of the Nixon Administration were jailed for their involvement in the Watergate incident, which involved an attempt to spy on the Democratic Party leaders. Bush began the practice of spying on everyone. As far as I know, no one was ever jailed for this gross offense, which Obama has allowed to continue. Nixon was chased out of office in disgrace for what is now widespread government practice. Aussie Madness -- Since it has worked so well for China, Australians are going to be censoring the Internet now, in a move that is sure to piss off the majority of the population. This will also make it virtually impossible for plumbers to search for parts, since they foolishly gave them catchy names like nipples, ballcocks, and couplings. In fact, if you turn your morality wa-a-a-a-y up, you can read sexual overtones into every simple act that involves plumbing, or the rest of the contents of a hardware store. This is one one of the million reasons that censorship in a modern, developed country is not going to fly. If by some miracle it does survive for a while, the effect will be that we all begin to see Australia as a backward nation, increasingly unable to take part in meaningful discussions because their incoming information has been reduced to what is politically acceptable.