Time, hatred, bewilderment, and hope

It's been a relaxing week. I've been sleeping in, reading what I want to, surfing the internet, staying up (way too)late, and doing all those decompression things that I feel the need to do after a particularly grueling year. I've been busy relaxing. A little exercise, reading my book in the hot tub. (few things on earth are quite as relaxing - for both mind and body).

Granted, there have been a lot of very disturbing things happening in the last few weeks. The murder of an American citizen and the video strikes me as particularly heinous. The exploitation/molestation of prisoners in Abu Ghraib is personally disgusting. I don't, however, think that the U.S. should cut and run from Iraq now. I personally hope that we find whoever killed Nick Berg, and turn them over to the Iraqi government for trial and punishment. I think that the people responsible for Abu Ghraib should be tried and punished. And I think that people should get the hell off Rumsfield's back. I think that neither he nor Pres. Bush were responsible for what happened there, and I'm very, very sure that Nick Berg wasn't.

And Sudan being on the U.N. Human Rights Commission when the U.N. reports that it's carrying out massive human rights violations seems insane.

Aside from the war in Iraq and Sudan's seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the House of Representatives held hearings on Wednesday on a new bill, H.R. #107, the Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act, (DMCRA) which would repeal or change some of the more onerous provisions of the DMCA, codify fair use in digital media, etc. Portions of Valenti's testimony I found very enlightening. Not. Who is making hundreds and thousands of illegal copies of DVDs? Not your average Joe Consumer. And not I. You could argue that filesharers are doing so virtually, but they aren't burning DVD after DVD, which is what it seems that Mr. Valenti is referring to. I haven't had a chance to look at the actual text of the bill yet, but I'll do so today, and probably have a run-down up tonight.

That is, if I'm not relaxing by the pool or something...