Music Sharing

   Can I share with you my thoughts on a subject that chaps my aortic artery?
Illegal Music sharing, I really have quite a disdain for it.

Picture This:
   So, You're listening to your favorite Radio station, and you hear a new song by your favorite artist, so you hop on Kazza or Limewire and you're thrilled to find out The Talking Azaleas From a Planet Beyond Neptune, your favorite band, Just released their newest album, Try to Keep the Weed-Be-Gone off of Me. With a click of a computer pointer (that's what it's called now, you know, as the Mus Musculus – or true Mouse, really doesn't appreciate being equated with a piece of bacteria covered computer hardware), you've now got a copy of the song, to sync with your Walkman, or maybe record out to a tape to use with your portable cassette player.

   Maybe you don't use a sharing program like Limewire, but your friends burn you CD's and you import them to iTunes, or you give your friends burnt CD's. Whether you do it over the internet, or with old fashioned compact disks, it's the same thing, and 99% of the time, it's not legal. I realize that most record companies have become quite slack on prosecuting music sharers, but just because you don't get caught doesn't mean it's not wrong.

   It blows my mind how many people have absolutely no problem with it. Maybe it's because it's an audio file and is somewhat abstract - doesn't seem material, maybe cause it's so easy, I don't know, but for some reason people don't see it as theft. Most Christians, Christians have no problem with it. Taking something that doesn't belong to you, without compensation for the product, is an elementary definition of theft. Giving your friend a burned CD for them to upload to their computer is like stealing a car and giving it away. You don't have the right to copy or give away music, It's not your property.


   I'm just sayin'... If you're going to steal something, steal something, rob a bank at gunpoint, steal a vial of tritium from a laboratory for a buddy's science experiment, pick-pocket the Prince of Saudi Arabia. But music sharing? Man, come on, don't be a coward.
I don't get it.

I'm a Texan, but how much?

'I'm from Texas, What Country are you from?'

I saw that quote on a T-shirt the other day.

I love Texas, there is no state like it (no, how dare you say I'm biased!), but I wonder how much of a Texan I am sometimes.
You see, I say Ya'll (actually, I find it hard to come up with an alternative phrase) quite frequently, and every now and then you hear Yonder come from my lips, but I don't ever say Twiced (twice) or Onced (once), and I only say Concreke (concrete, for those of you in Rio Lindo) sarcastically (sarcasm? me?). Also, I'm quite used to 100+ degree Summers in Texas - as long as I'm in the air conditioning, but I can't hardly stand talking about the weather, 'Is eet hawt enuff fer ya, son?', how in the name of Robert E. Lee (GOD rest his soul) am I supposed to respond to that? If the person that asked me that wasn't 305 years old, I'd have said, 'Do I have a choice? Why, you idiot, does it matter if it's hot enough for me, WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?'. I guess that's a problem, to be a Texan that doesn't like 'small talk'.

Well, I don't remember if I had a point when I started this post, so, I guess I'm done for now.

If yer ever in the neighborhood, Ya'll come site a spell in Texas, you won't regret it (well, maybe if you come in august when it's 80,000 degrees, and you feel like one giant mosquito bite).

Bags for the bay (this is great!)

Who says Glenn Beck is a hatemonger? They must not have heard about his current charitable project, 'Bags for the Bay'. Check it out, it's pretty funny.
Mr. Beck's Bag for the Bay [link].