Wednesday, June 07, 2006
The results are in . . .
. . . in California’s primaries, that is. I was rather disappointed to see Phil Angelides beat Steve Westly in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Angelides’s candidacy is problematic. Not because of the candidate himself, but rather because of the parts of the party to which he has pandered--basically, the pacifist, protectionist, isolationist, environmentally extremist, economic redistributionist, “we love Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore” wing. Angelides’s victory over Westly reaffirms the strategy of pandering to the worst elements of the far left. It is now critical that Schwarzenegger keep the job. Not because he’s
performed well--he threw away what should have been a sure thing on redistricting and embarrassed himself, the state, and its voters by vetoing the gay marriage bill--but rather because it’s critical to show that when the Republicans nominate a centrist and the Democrats pander to the loony left, the Republicans can win even in a blue state.
I would have been much happier working to get Westly elected. That, however, is no longer a realistic option. The only way that Angelides could get my vote now is to explicitly repudiate the very people to whom he’s been pandering--and I do mean explicitly. (Perhaps something along the lines of: “Sheehan, Moore, and their followers can all go to hell. Whatever they think they’re doing, the economic and foreign policies that they advocate would destroy the country and have significant negative reverberations abroad.") Since I don’t expect that to happen, I will probably have to go work for Arnold’s people.
Does anyone know where to find a Republican in San Francisco?
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Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Supremes Get One Right
The Supreme Court released its opinion in Illinois Tool Works v. Independent Ink this morning.
Independent Ink arrived at the Court from the Federal Circuit as an important new addition at the patent/antitrust interface. The immediate reaction seems to be that it represents yet another elevation of IP rights over sound competition policy, and that it will retard the development of reasonable policies concerning aftermarkets.
I disagree.
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Thursday, January 26, 2006
Blogger Finds Himself Mired in Hectic, Uninspired Period
No, it’s not that nothing interesting has happened lately. It’s just that I’ve been too busy to comment on it. I apologize deeply to my reader (or maybe even to both of them). Meanwhile, if you like my writing style, feel free to peruse the archives, check out my CV, or even better, buy my book.
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Monday, November 21, 2005
The Ripples of the Grokster Case
Grokster officially died a few weeks ago. Somehow, that caused folks beyond the somewhat narrow confines of geekdom and IP awareness to notice that, slowly but surely, something was amiss in our thinking about file sharing. The folks at MIT Press asked me to draft a few thoughts about it for their blog, The MIT PressLog, in part to promote publicity for Digital Phoenix. Every little bit helps. Read my thoughts about ”The Morality of File Sharing.”
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Monday, October 24, 2005
Three Strikes and You’re Out?
As Reuters tells it:
France said on Monday it was too early to seek sanctions against Syria, whose officials have been implicated by a U.N. report in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
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Thursday, October 20, 2005
Guest Blogger: Chaim Scheff on Global Temperature Management
My friend Chaim Scheff asked me to post his thoughts on Global Temperature Management. I reserve the right to agree or disagree with them as I think about them some more. - BA
From Chaim:
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Sunday, October 09, 2005
Turkey’s Road to the Future
I recently returned from Turkey, my last stop of several in Europe and the Middle East. Both regions had momentous summers, from the French and Dutch rejections of the EU Constitution, through the terror bombings in London, to Israel’s painful disengagement from Gaza. It was no surprise, then, that two questions arose wherever I went: What is the future of Europe? And what is the future of the Middle East? But it was only in Turkey that the questions converged to a local issue.
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Friday, October 07, 2005
No Third Way
Perhaps because of domestic troubles, perhaps because of the accelerating spate of truly brutal attacks abroad, perhaps because of recent reports suggesting the demise of the “Bush Doctrine,” George W. Bush took the time yesterday to reiterate his abstract beliefs. His speech, once again, was excellent and inspiring. An excellent editorial in the Jerusalem Post discussing his speech an editorial culminated in the ultimate tragic observation:
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