Click images for desktop size: "Weeki Wachee" by UnknownThere's a few things bugging me.
The RAIA, the Congress and baseball. Not necessarily in that order.
The RAIA has always bugged me. They are a bunch of jerks who view people only as walking wallets, sort of like the worst kind of pimps you find in the seedier parts of town.
This is the group set up to make sure that the records were made to the same specs so that all records could play them. They were sort of like a 50's version of THX Sound.
Then when the record companies decided they didn't want to pay the record artists any more money the protected that.
Its one of the interesting things they touched on early in "The Soprano's". It was common practice to sign acts to record records. They never got paid, even though the record companies were dumping thousands to DJ's to bribe them to play the records. That led to the payola scandal. The RAIA was a part of that.
They justified it all somehow: The acts, they claimed, benefited because they got free advertisement. They didn't get paid but they got to keep all the money from playing clubs and concerts . . . which promoted the records but they never bothered to justify that part so there's no official line there.
As to the payola a a lot of DJ's lost there jobs and ruined their careers and lives. No record company went out of business. No record company exec went to jail or got fired.
I guess, you could say the RAIA did a good job for them.
Now the RAIA says that when you buy a record or a CD or a digital download you don't own anything. You've bought air. You're allowed to listen to it at their grace. And the rapidly escalating prices are so that the musicians will get paid their fair share, except now they want to cut the musicians share from 9% to 4%.

Click images for desktop size: "Angry Shark" by Anonymous Don't confuse the RAIA with ASCAP or BMI. ASCAP and BMI collect money to pay to the writers of the songs. The RAIA has no connection to the musicians or writers. They only represents the suits who hate music but like money.

And now the Senate has completed the rape of the Constitution. They increased unilaterally the right of our Government to spy on us . . . by a 67 to 31 vote. Rah!
Amazing that the constitution which has done pretty well for 220 years has suddenly found itself obsolete after 8 years of George Bush. Some of the Supreme Court Justices are even saying nonsense about how the Constitution is outmoded and no longer valid . . . they're Bush appointees of course.
For some reason every thing that comes out of a conservative mouth lately sounds more and more like the old commie rhetoric, rhetoric we were taught to fear and take with skepticism.
I guess you really do become what you hate most.
Clinton didn't attend to vote on the measure. Obama has remained silent. The Republicans are all for it.
Its the old, "the guilty don't deserve any rights" and the innocent don't need any rights.
I think I'm going to vote for whatever sacrificial lamb the Green Party is running this year. Nothing can be worse than supporting the wholesale merchandising and destruction of America.

Then we have the new witch hunt, the new McCarthyism - Steroids.
I remember when Lyle Alzado died. He was a killer line backer for the Raiders back when the Raiders were good.
He died because of steroids and Human Growth Hormone. He died directly because he wanted to be bigger and stronger.
I remember Canadian Ben Johnson blowing Carl Lewis off at the starting line and setting a world record because of steroids.
And I remember the NCAA barring Oklahoma's Brian Bosworth from a bowl game because of steroids. (Bosworth was a bust for the Seahawks - but he did make an amusing movie, "Stone Cold").
Nobody reacted then, when it could have done some good.
When I was coaching in Texas its impossible to believe how many of my kids came to me and asked if I thought they would benefit from juicing up.
At first I thought they were trying one on to see if I'd bite. They were serious.
Of course I told them no and explained all the pitfalls and told them about Lyle Alzado etc. I worry most now about the kids who didn't ask me.
I never had a kid come back from summer break 25 pounds heavier and 20% stronger. I don't know how I would have handled it. Probably the wrong way.

Click images for desktop size: "Astro Boy" by Makaski Inc Instead of protecting the kids and not just punishing them we have a stupid congressional investigation.
One the one hand our country is falling apart but we take massive amounts of time and man hours and money to protect our entertainments so that they can be sold more readily to us.
As much as I think that this investigation is wrong headed and not geared to accomplish anything meaningful (There'll be no penalties for the owners who demanded bigger faster athletes, or to the coaches who turned their eyes away and only viewed the results. There'll be no lessons for the vulnerable children, there'll only be Joe McCarthy style headlines for the witch hunters who bring down the biggest stars.) I've been following the testimony of Roger Clemens. I would like him to be innocent. I would like to think he did all he has done out of toughness and stubbornness and a lively arm.
After the inept display by congress today I really don't know. Clearly most of the committee have already made up their minds as to how they're going to decide and proceed. Most of the questions weren't fair and slanted in an ugly way.
Henry Waxman is the head of the committee. He was also my congressman for an incredible amount of years. I always thought of him as a Hollywood lobbyist. I voted for him because my unions recommended him. He was the kind of Congressman who sent you a survey at election time so you could tell him what he needed to be doing. It was multiple choice and there was no space to write anything down. You had to put your own stamp on it to mail it in, proof he wasn't corrupt I guess.
Waxman did not behave very properly I thought. He didn't keep things smooth and fair in a pursuit of the truth. He accepted things at face value and without a sense of fairness. He let cruel things be said to Clemens, cruel things that were not in pursuit of truth but sounded more like a punter who dropped a hundred bucks on a game Clemens pitched in.
I want Clemens to be drug free. I will be disappointed if he took drugs.
But I don't think America will be a better or a worse place to live in no matter what he has done.