In These Times

Latest Comments view all 4

• • 06 Jul 09
  • 1:24 pm

  Nonprofits can work. I think ConsumerReports.org has been successful at getting online subscribers to its content because the nonprofit model seems less corruptible and more independent. We just have to convince the public that reliable public institutions and government are as important as reliable appliances and cars.

  Posted to Death of the Newspaperman

• • 18 Jan 08
  • 10:47 am

  Absolutely, fair use is a critical right to preserve; efforts to eliminate it in the name of "protecting copyright holders" to me smells like a bait-and-switch tactic to criminalize dissent. Artists are among the first to be silenced in a society headed toward totalitarianism. How do users keep the online providers from overstepping bounds in enforcing copyright? By remembering that the proividers' livelihood depends on contributions from users. We can always protest their policies by removing our contributed works. Without them, they're stuck with the same corporate-produced works available on network television; they lose their competitive (and artistic) edge. Lastly, thinking …

  Posted to Save the Dramatic Chipmunk

• • 04 Oct 07
  • 3:00 pm

  While disclosure regarding cloning and genetic modification is important in terms of food safety, I hope it doesn't take a great famine for the general public to understand how cloned and GM foods are a serious threat to food *security*. It's taken millenia for mankind to develop its seed banks and livestock breeds; these could be wiped out in a generation by "Big Ag" if we can't keep an eye on the situation.

  Posted to Recipe For Disaster

• • 25 Sep 07
  • 9:44 am

  Remember that the pro-gun lobby has the benefit of monetary support from firearm manufacturers who have a great financial stake in defeating gun control legislation. For gun-control activists to mount a truly symmetrical campaign, they will need to identify a business interest with a stake in controlling guns. I don't know who that might be.

  Posted to Let's Pry Open Those Cold, Dead Hands