Psalm 143

EDITOR'S NOTE: Just in case you forgot, we continue today with Revolution 21's "Psalms for Lent" series.

A Psalm of David.

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.
5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.
6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
7 Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
9 Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.
10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
11 Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.
12 And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

Love in the ruins, Part 2

Remember Phoebe Snow? Well, unless you're middle aged (or close to it), maybe you don't.

Phoebe Snow was The Next Big Thing. Her song "Poetry Man" was all over the radio. She was all over television, too.

Then she disappeared. In the Fox411 column on the Web, Roger Friedman tells us why:

Valerie Rose Laub died on Sunday. She was an astonishing 31 years old. You don’t know who Valerie was, but I’ll tell you: she was Phoebe Snow’s daughter. Valerie was born with such a confluence of injuries in 1975 that no one knew what was wrong. Truthfully, I don’t think to this day anyone ever did figure it out.

Phoebe Snow was 23 years old when Valerie was born. Let’s say that she was as big as Norah Jones, Joss Stone, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and two dozen other female pop stars all rolled into one.

She had a huge hit, called "Poetry Man." She had a monster self-titled album. She was the voice of her generation. You can see pictures of her with other stars of the time on her Web site. She was going to be the next big thing, a jazz, pop and R&B singer of singular magnitude.

And then Valerie was born.

As Phoebe remembers it, everyone told her to have Valerie institutionalized. They said she wouldn’t live very long. For a minute, Phoebe gave in. But then she came out of her shock, and reclaimed her child. By then, she owed her record company, Columbia, albums and money. She would never "recoup" as they say. She would always be in debt. She missed sessions and fought with record executives. She wouldn’t tour because she felt she shouldn’t leave Valerie. She declared bankruptcy.

There were occasional signs that Phoebe might make a comeback. All of them failed. She had a hit single with Paul Simon, "Gone At Last." But nothing further came of it. By 1979, she recorded a terrible album for an Atlantic subsidiary. Her career was really, completely sunk.

Two things happened that helped in the mid '80s: Charles Koppelman heard her on TV singing a Bloomingdale’s jingle. He signed her to an album, and it became a minor hit.

"Something Real" should have relaunched Phoebe Snow, but she was so wigged out from life with Valerie by then, it wasn’t possible. Later she won a malpractice suit against the hospital where Valerie was born, and the money made life a little easier. Just a little.

Valerie was 16 in 1991, the year I remember Phoebe announced that her child walked for the first time. It was a miracle.

With no real diagnosis, and no precedents, Valerie was a medical anomaly. Phoebe talked about doctors in Mexico and alternative treatments, but whatever it was, it was a miracle. And that’s the way things have been since then.

Phoebe and Valerie lived in a small apartment in Fort Lee. Phoebe did occasional gigs, and they would sell out. To say she became kooky is a kind of way of putting it. I don’t know what she was like before all this, but life devoted to Valerie was not easy no matter how much Phoebe loved her.

The child's physical deficiencies were severe, and daunting. Her communication skills were a challenge. At this point, as Phoebe continued to care for her child, the mystery of Valerie became almost spiritual. There was no explanation for why or how she had lived so long, except that Phoebe had willed it.

When I heard that Valerie died, my first thought was relief. She had been released into the cosmos, where her beautiful spirit could roam without the encumbrance of her physical deficiencies.

Valerie did and was able to laugh. She had a sense of humor. But she couldn’t share it with many people, just Phoebe, a few close friends and a caregiver. She was warm, she knew and gave love easily and loved to hug people she trusted. If there’s an afterlife, and just for right now let’s say there is, Valerie Rose is lighting up the stars.

GOD BLESS THEM BOTH, mother and daughter. May Valerie Rose dwell in peace in the arms of God, where she will run, and dance, and talk up a storm.

On the Web: Phoebe Snow's official web site

Love in the ruins

Elizabeth Edwards' cancer is back, and it can't be cured. And John Edwards' presidential campaign goes on.

What?

The New York Times fills us in on today's stunning events:

John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat, said today that his wife’s cancer had returned, but that his bid for the presidency “goes on strongly.”

“The campaign goes on, the campaign goes on strongly,” he said, with his wife, Elizabeth, at his side.

Mr. Edwards said he learned earlier this week that the cancer had reappeared in his wife’s rib cage. He said he and his wife recognized that it was no longer curable, though it could be managed with treatment.

Asked by a reporter whether recurrence of the cancer would cause him to suspend any campaign activities, such as fundraising or travel, Mr. Edwards said no. “We know from our previous experience that when this happens you have a choice, you can go cower in the corner and hide, or you can be tough and go out there and stand up for what you believe in,” he said.

“Both of us are committed to the cause and we’re committed to changing this country that we love so much and we have no intention of cowering in the corner,” Mr. Edwards said.

He said that after the news conference they would leave together for New York and Boston, and then to California on Friday.

Mrs. Edwards said she had the energy to continue the campaign. “I am absolutely ready for that,” she said.

Her doctor said at the news conference that Mrs. Edwards had metastatic, or stage four, breast cancer, meaning that it is an advanced stage that has spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes to other organs. Mr. Edwards said that because the tumor was relatively small and because there was a relatively minimal presence of cancer in other places they were optimistic.

“The bottom line is her cancer is back,” he said. “We are very optimistic about this because having been through some struggles together in the past, we know that the key is to keep your head up and keep moving and be strong.”

“We intend to do exactly that,” he said.

According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, 26.1 percent of patients with stage four cancer live five years or more. By contrast, patients whose cancer is confined to the breast and has not spread to surrounding tissue or lymph nodes have a five-year survival rate of 98 percent.Mr. Edwards said many patients have lived many years, managing their condition in a way he likened to someone with diabetes who rely on insulin treatment.

“I intend to do the same thing I have always done with Elizabeth,” Mr. Edwards said. “‘We have been married for 30 years, known each other longer than that. We will be in this every step of the way together.”

In the hours before the announcement, there had been widespread speculation that Mr. Edwards would suspend his campaign today or withdraw entirely. A few news outlets and political web sites carried what proved to be incorrect reports to that effect before the Edwardses spoke in North Carolina.

So Mr. Edwards’s announcement that he would remain in the race surprised some political insiders, and word of it was relayed quickly across Capitol Hill, with aides telegraphing the news by Blackberry to their bosses. Others crowded around televisions in the House and the Senate, watching Mrs. Edwards speak.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Elizabeth Edwards and the whole family,” Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat who also is seeking his party’s presidential nomination, said in an interview as he walked from the Capitol. “She’s a strong woman of great character and she’s a fighter.”

Mr. Obama, whose mother died of breast cancer more than a decade ago, added: “Obviously, all of us can relate to a family member being sick. I just want to make sure that they are doing O.K. and their family is doing O.K.”

The White House spokesman, Tony Snow, himself a cancer survivor, expressed his support.

“When you have cancer, it’s very important to keep checking,” he said. “She’s being aggressive. She’s living an active life. And a positive attitude, prayers and people you love are always a very good addition to any kind of medicine you have.”

“So for Elizabeth Edwards, good going,” he said. “Our prayers are with you.”

IT'S TEMPTING, AND EASY, to second-guess Edwards' decision to soldier on in the face of a -- sooner or later -- death sentence for his wife of 30 years. But I think it would be wrong.

See, I know a little something about this subject. My wife had cancer. Fortunately, it was a highly treatable form, through surgery and radiation, and so far, so good almost nine years out from her diagnosis.

Here are the steps you go through -- or at least I, as a spouse, went through: First comes the shock. You know how people talk about others "walking into walls"? It's true.

My wife told me the news on the phone. At first, I thought she was joking. She wasn't. And after I hung up the phone, I walked right into a wall.

After the shock comes borderline panic as you start to wrestle with the unthinkable . . . or, more precisely, the unpalatable. Then come desperate prayers. Then a long sitdown with the doctor, who explains everything and offers whatever hope and optimism he or she can.

Praise God, there was reason for optimism in my wife's case.

Then friends and family rally around you as a couple. Metaphysically, it's kind of like being put in your La-Z-Boy, given a warm comforter and being plied with chicken soup and hot tea.

All the while, you're still offering up those desperate prayers. And alone, late at night, when your sick spouse is asleep and can't see you, you cry.

But the funny thing is, when the shock wears off, you quite literally start to feel the prayers of others holding you up and renewing your strength. And, as a couple in this whole mess together, you live.

You live, because what's the alternative? And you live by taking one day at a time. You can deal with today, and you'll deal with tomorrow when it becomes . . . today.

You live, and you love.

And if keeping their presidential dreams alive is how John and Elizabeth Edwards keep putting one foot in front of the other, how they take one day at a time . . . how they go about the business of living, then more power to 'em, God bless their hearts.

Psalm 121

A Song of degrees.

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Mother's Best presents Joe Rumore!

Here's a special audio presentation from Revolution 21 -- don't worry, the regular podcast will post as usual Friday. I thought you just might want to hear this . . . a ghost in the machine, as it were.

What it is, is a recording of legendary Alabama radio host Joe Rumore from Oct. 28, 1949, on WVOK, Birmingham. And it's an extraordinary look back 58 years across the tidal wave of change and cultural revolution that radically transformed America.

But you know all that; it's in the last post, The Tale of the Tape.

Click on the button below. And enjoy.

The way we were, 1949

IF YOU'RE an audio freak who's also a history freak -- maybe an anthropology freak, too -- you know it's a good thing when you're at an estate sale, and you find a bunch of old reel-to-reel tapes.

And you know you've stumbled across a very good thing, and maybe an astounding thing, when you find what looks like brown film canisters.

Brush Sound-Mirror tape. Brown metal reels. From the late 1940s, used with some of the very first consumer tape recorders. EUREKA!

I walked away from that estate sale last weekend with several cans of tape. They came from the Sparrow Advertising Agency, 700 Farley Building, Birmingham, 3, Ala. And they ended up here in Omaha, in this old house. Lord only knows how.

The label on the tape-can lid said to "return immediately." I guess not even an ad agency could afford to throw around such a precious commodity, which audio tape certainly was in the 1940s.

After all, Americans knew next to nothing about tape recording until the Army "liberated" a number of the magical machines from captured German radio stations in 1945. Back then, if you wanted to make a recording, you cut a phonograph record or got a newfangled wire recorder.

But neither of those 1940s options sounded half as good as this marvel of German engineering.

For whatever reason -- Sloth? Forgetfulness? A telegram that said "Never mind"? -- no one bothered to return these tapes to Birmingham "immediately." Or at all.

I am so grateful.

THE TAPE LABELS identified the tapes mostly as being 1949 recordings -- "airchecks" in radio parlance -- of Joe Rumore, a popular host on station WVOK in Birmingham. There was Joe Rumore and Jean Foster, who did WVOK's cooking show. There was Joe Rumore doing the morning "Musical Roundup." There was Joe Rumore with "Hi, Neighbor Time," and there was Joe Rumore broadcasting live from the Alabama State Fair.

All sponsored by Mother's Best flour and corn meal.

I was more than a little stunned that these tapes played . . . and didn't break or shed copious amounts of oxide. Just two spices came undone after six decades, which I repaired using about four times the usual length of . . . get this . . . 50-year-old splicing tape I came across a few years back.

Amazing.

Voices from almost 58 years ago suddenly filled my home studio. Voices of people long dead. Ghosts of a way of life -- of a country -- long lost to "progress" and our Cult of the Autonomous Self.

I LISTENED to these ghosts' whispers. Whispers -- that's what they were. Today, we shout; we scream. We mock and we laugh -- at people, not with people.

I listened, and I found myself acutely aware of what we've lost in broadcasting . . . and as a society. WVOK in Birmingham, "The Voice of Dixie," was about public service, homespun humility, professionalism and good cheer. Listening to the late Mr. Rumore is to experience what only can be described as a certain "sweetness," one I almost had forgotten existed on the airwaves once upon a time.

It was so bittersweet -- given what radio, and we, have come to in these times -- to go back 58 years and listen to Joe Rumore, a good man being kind to people over the radio. Back then, listeners were "friends and neighbors." And that's what Mr. Joe was always saying, "friends and neighbors."

Joe Rumore's interjection, "friends and neighbors," was almost punctuation. Maybe an exclamation point.

Radio (not to mention television) does not deal in "friends and neighbors" today. Yesteryear's "friends and neighbors" are today's targets. And that's tragic.

THESE ESTATE-SALE GHOSTS, rising from between the magnetic particles on rolls of mylar tape -- and even paper tape -- also reminded me of the deep, deep contradictions of the South in which I grew up. I was born in 1961, so the Deep South of 1949 wasn't all that removed from the one I remember -- a place of deep humanity and Christ-haunted culture co-existing, somehow, with its demons of racial hatred, violence and intolerance.

Fortunately, Joe Rumore and his studio full of visitors singing along -- on air -- with a gospel record brought back, for me, memories (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln) of the better angels of the South's nature.

Which, of course, are the better angels of our American nature.

IS IT TOO LATE? Or can these better angels be coaxed to come back and sit with us a spell?

Maybe they could sing along with us to some old gospel records, then retire with us to the porch swing for a cold glass of sweet tea.

* * *

Have I piqued your interest? Here are some websites you can go to:

WVOK Memories

The Life and Times of Joe Rumore

Birmingham Rewound

Psalm 61

To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David.

1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
5 For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.
6 Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.
7 He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
8 So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.

The latest on Kristy

Well, here is the March video installment chronicling the struggle of Kristy Dusseau back toward health and normality from a two-year encounter with a rare, virulent form of leukemia -- and the aftereffects of her life-saving treatment.

What Kristy has been through, you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. You wouldn't.

And while racking up $5 million-plus in medical bills, Kristy also has lost her home, car, job, etcetera, etcetera.

So, in this Lenten season of alms and penance, go to www.kristyrecovers.com and give what you can, eh?

BY THE WAY, here are the two latest updates from Kristy's brother Rob, posted after he uploaded this month's video.

Saturday, March 17

Well, ironically, as I post this, Kristy is getting readmitted to hospital again. This morning she was overwhelmed with uncontrollable vomiting (like the times before), and they want to keep her for a least a few days to make sure nothing is wrong. The video shows how much better she has been doing, but this is the way it's been for the past three years now. It swings back and forth like an old clock.

Sigh. Every time this happens it breaks my heart a little. I really thought she was out for good this time.

I'll let you know more when I do. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Sunday, March 18

My brother and I drove out to spend the day with her this afternoon and she didn't appear to be doing too bad. She has some sort of virus. The doctors don't know which kind, but they do seem very confident that after a few days of antibiotics they will have home again. My brother and I joked around with her for a bit and then just watched her sleep.

Her mood was little low, but not too bad. Dr. Yanik (another favorite) was there with her. He told the three of us that Kristy was the healthiest person on that floor, and that she could expect to be back home in just a few days.

Not too bad.

Thanks everyone for your concern.

Psalm 36

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD.

1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.
4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.
5 Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.

Psalm 4

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David.

1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
2 O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.
3 But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

Psalm 100

A Psalm of praise.

1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

The Mighty Favog speaks! Uhhhh . . . I got nothin'

I KNOW I OUGHT to have some profundities to bestow upon you in this latest podcast, my beloved subjects. Indeed, I expected that I would have much message to go with the music.

But I got nothin'.

The music's pretty cool, though.

FREE BIRD!

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRD!

Where's my damn Bic lighter? FREEEEEEEEEE BIIIIRRRRDDDDDDD!

Sorry about that. I got a bit carried away.

Sorry.

When 'Social Darwinism' surfs the Web

When "inalienable rights" meet unbridled individualism, what you get is The Cult of the Supreme Self grinding out a "Sherman's March to the Sea" against the culture and the common good.

My lifetime has been spent witnessing a culture's -- a nation's -- descent from the supremacy of The Great Balancing Act between individual liberty and the rights of our patrimony, our shared culture . . . the needs of the many. That descent has been into the abyss of total war involving the immutable, uncompromising "rights" of 300 million American individuals.

In this fight are 300 million armies of one, and like any fight to the finish, the strong win; the weak die. It's the law of the wild, as observed by Mr. Darwin, brought to an alleged "civilization" near you.

Two good examples off the top of my head:

-- The "individual" in the legal person of a transnational corporation cleans the clock of the individual worker.

-- Individual adult women obliterate their unborn children, with the assist of weapons of mass suction, or chemical warfare in the form of saline solution . . . or RU 486 . . . or the "morning after pill."

NOW, AS SOCIAL DARWINISM SPREADS to copyright law, we have come to the point where a dying big industry -- the record industry -- is able to manipulate the levers (and leverage) of government in a bid to, in effect, outlaw its nascent "competition." Even when that "competition" actually might be the sinking record industry's digital lifeboat.

In an absolutely must-read article in the Radio and Internet Newsletter, Kurt Hanson explains the whole digital-copyright mess, perfectly illustrating what it looks like when raw power (and Big Money) embarks on the commercial equivalent of total war, enabled by a regulatory structure that has abandoned any pretense of balancing individual rights with the common good:

In the early days of cylinders and 78 RPM discs and so forth, state copyright laws granted owners of the master recordings various rights to manufacture and sell them, but it was an open question as to whether radio stations had the right to play those recordings.

In fact (as I was reminded recently in the excellent book "Something in the Air" by the Washington Post's Marc Fisher), top crooners of the era like Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman stamped "Not Licensed for Radio Airplay" on their records and hired lawyers to try to sue the radio stations that played them.

However, a federal court ruled in 1940 that once a record was sold, the buyer had the right to use it in any manner he liked, including broadcasting it on the radio. In other words, the court determined that there were no copyright laws in effect that had granted that particular monopoly right (the right to control who plays it on the radio, sometimes called a "public performance" monopoly right) to the performer. Recording artists had been granted several rights by Congress, the court concluded, but not that one. Thereafter, radio stations knew they were free to play the records they wanted to play.

And the relationship between recording artists and radio stations turned out to be a virtuous one! When radio stations played a Bing Crosby record, its sales didn't go down (as he was apparently afraid they might), they soared!

A healthy economy developed in which record companies and recording artists encouraged radio stations to play their records, knowing they'd mutually benefit. (In fact, record companies eventually went on to hire huge promotional staffs and establish huge budgets for things like trade publication ads and independent promotion companies to encourage more radio stations to play more of their recordings more and more often.)

Had Congress believed that record companies and performers were at risk of not being motivated enough to make enough recordings to serve the interests of the public, Congress could have granted additional monopoly rights (i.e., a "public performance" monopoly right for those sound recordings). But Congress in its wisdom realized that the performers were already adequately motivated to serve the public interest, and thus did not those grant additional rights.

In fact, it wasn't until 1972 that Congress, for the first time, offered any kind of federal copyright protection for sound recordings at all. (Prior to that, as noted above, the right to sell reproductions were covered by a patchwork of state copyright laws.)

Four years later, the Copyright Law of 1976 established that there was a monopoly right to "public performance" for certain types of copyrighted material, but not for sound recordings. Why not? Not to keep hammering this home, but it was because Congress apparently believed that record companies and recording artists were already sufficiently motivated to keep creating enough sound recordings to satisfy the public good.

(Note: Somewhere in this section of this article, I've jumped from talking about the copyright owner of a performance being the performer to being the record label, since record labels deals with performers generally establish the label as the copyright owner.)

If you're Clive Davis or Andrew Lack running a record label, though, you might instinctively view this whole situation from a different perspective. You might think, "I paid for the making of these recordings. They're my property! They should be mine to do with as I please!"

But that's not historically correct. Historically, you started out with no rights at all. Anyone could copy or use anything you created for any purpose whatsoever that they desired. But government eventually realized that the public would benefit if the government granted you certain monopoly rights for a limited period of time. You'd be motivated to produce more art. And the public would benefit.

So government, using the mechanism called copyright law, gave you certain rights: For example, the government gave you a monopoly right, for a limited period of time, to determine who could use your recordings in TV commercials or in films, or put your best songs on a compilation disc and sell them, or use your album cover art on t-shirts. Those are all specific monopoly rights that legislators decided to grant you.

But they didn't grant you monopoly rights over radio airplay! The government felt it was unnecessary. Copyright law is designed to balance rights and freedoms for both copyright owners and copyright users, in such balance to maximize the benefit to the public. Congress felt that they had given you, Clive or Andrew, a sufficient number of rights to keep you motivated to keep making recorded music.

If you're Clive or Andrew, you may know this intellectually, but nonetheless, you may not be happy about it. You still have that "It's mine, I should be able to do anything I want with it" feeling.

Now let's jump forward to 1995. Technology is changing. Music is now being delivered to consumers in digital, as opposed to analog, form (i.e., on CDs) and is about to be transmitted in digital form on cable TV systems (DMX, MusicChoice, and Muzak) and via satellite radio (XM and Sirius).

Having had this "It's mine, I should be able control it" feeling bugging you for years (remember, as far back as the 1930s!), the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) lobbied Congress to pass a law called the "Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act (DPRA)."

Here was the RIAA's argument: Digital transmissions of music were about to allow consumers to make a "perfect digital copy" of the music being transmitted. Those perfect copies were going impact revenues for recording artists horribly -- so horribly, in fact, that they might lack sufficient motivation to record music thereafter. Given that nightmare scenario, the RIAA asked Congress for an additional monopoly right regarding the "public performance" of sound recordings when a digital transmission was involved.

Congress bought it. (In defense of legislators, the RIAA was very early on the curve here, and there was no organized "other side" to raise any effective objections.)

However, Congress did somewhat limit the new monopoly they granted the copyright owners by adding a "statutory" license, so that the music services wouldn't have to negotiate on a song-by-song basis for each song they wanted to play. As for compensation to the copyright owner, Congress instructed the copyright owners and the copyright users to negotiate a royalty rate among themselves, but, if that failed, Congress instructed the Copyright Office to set up an arbitration panel called a CARP that would hold hearing to determine a royalty rate.

Congress also established the four criteria ("policy objectives") the CARP should use, if a CARP was needed at all, to set the royalty rate --

(A) To maximize the availability of creative works to the public;

(B) To afford the copyright owner a fair return for his creative work and the copyright user a fair income under existing economic conditions;

(C) To reflect the relative roles of the copyright owner and the copyright user in the product made available to the public with respect to relative creative contribution, technological contribution, capital investment, cost, risk, and contribution to the opening of new markets for creative expression and media for their communication;

(D) To minimize any disruptive impact on the structure of the industries involved and on generally prevailing industry practices.

These four criteria are spelled out in Section 801(b)(1) of the Copyright Act, by the way. You may in upcoming weeks hear people talking about "the 801(b)(1) standard" and now you'll know what they're talking about.

Note that those four criteria are perfectly in keeping with the general concept of copyright law -- motivating both creators of artistic works (performers) and users of those works (music services) to keep doing what they do, with the ultimate beneficiary being the public.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the "DMCA") contained a whole bundle of new provisions to add new protections and rights for various copyright owners, including the RIAA, the MPAA, vessel hull designers, and computer software firms.

Within that law, the RIAA got webcasting added as a form of digital transmission that would be covered by a "public performance" copyright. (However, somewhere in this process, the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) got an exception inserted for HD Radio; although it's a digital transmission of music, it was specifically excluded from this monopoly right.)

The DMCA also changed the standard under which a webcasting CARP, if one proved necessary, was supposed to determine the appropriate royalty rate.

The new standard was simpler:

The copyright arbitration royalty panel shall establish rates and terms that most clearly represent the rates and terms that would have been negotiated in the marketplace between a willing buyer and a willing seller.

There were some additional factors the CARP was instructed to look at, but only to help determine the appropriate "willing buyer / willing seller" rate.

Additional language in the law permitted the sellers -- i.e., the major record labels -- to license their songs as a group without running afoul of antitrust laws.

Since the "willing buyer / willing seller" rule requires a willing seller, and the sellers can operate as a cartel (I'm using the term colloquially here) but the buyers can't, this effectively, I believe, means "whatever the labels feel like."

Which is a quite different standard than the 801(b)(1) standard, which cared about balancing the opportunities for both copyright owners and copyright users, etc.

(Incidentally, Congress, unhappy with the outcome of the CARP processes, in 2004 enacted a law called the "Reform Act" that replaced the trio of arbitrators with a trio of judges (the "Copyright Royalty Board" [CRB]). But pretty much everything else stayed the same.)

So here's where we stand today based on the specific bundle of monopoly rights that Congress has granted the various factions:

Copyright owners of sound recordings have not been granted any rights to control which AM, FM, or HD radio stations play their recordings, because Congress felt that the copyright owners had enough other rights to keep them motivated to keep making records.

However, because of an alleged nascent threat of consumers being able to make "perfect digital copies" of songs transmitted digitally, Congress granted record labels a new monopoly right to control who plays their recordings, meaning effectively that . . .

Satellite radio has to pay a royalty for the use of sound recordings, with a rate being set by an arbitration panel based on several criteria that are designed to be balanced to benefit, overall, the public. (That rate is not public knowledge, but is estimated by stock analysts to be about 3.5% of industry revenues.)

Internet radio also has to pay a royalty for the use of sound recordings, but its rate is set by a trio of judges based on a single criterion that can, in my reading, anyway, be interpreted as "almost whatever the labels feel like."

And thus we end up with a situation in we're in right now, in which a trio of judges granted the copyright owners a royalty rate from Internet radio that is effectively, I believe, more than 100% of the total industry's revenues!

(I think this proves my point that the "willing buyer / willing seller" rule, when the sellers can operate as a group, works out to "whatever the sellers feel like." It turns out that what the sellers feel like is "every penny you have...and more.")

Psalm 82

A Psalm of Asaph.

1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

What's the diff between Mexican drug lords and American Idol nuisance Simon Cowell?

The former sell dope to those whose lives are crap, the latter sells crap to dopes.

From The Associated Press via MSNBC:

In an interview to air Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the “American Idol” judge says he’s worth five times more to Sony BMG than Bruce Springsteen.

“I sell more records than Bruce Springsteen, sure,” Cowell says of the 57-year-old rocker, who signed a contract that was reported to be in the neighborhood of $100 million.

“I mean, in the last five years, I’ve probably sold over 100 million records. If (Springsteen) got one hundred (million dollars), I should have got five hundred (million dollars),” he says.

Cowell says he sells all those records because he’s signed “the biggest artist on the planet” — Fox network’s “American Idol.”

SPEAKING OF CRAP, I'm sure Earl May sells more fertilizer than Lamborghini sells cars. So?

If I'm gonna drive cross-country, I'm picking the Lamborghini, not the manure truck.

Want to be a rebel? Defend the obvious

The "natural law is what Eros says it is" crowd has put in a fresh clip. (So much for gun control, eh?) The safety is off. It is taking aim. At the enemy.

Who is David Blankenhorn . . . liberal Democrat?

Say what?

Hey, if it's in USA TODAY, it must be so:

The Harvard-educated Mississippi native is a former VISTA volunteer and community organizer who has made a career of thinking about big issues and telling others what he believes. He's written scores of op-ed pieces and essays, co-edited eight books and written two: the 1995 Fatherless America, which attributes many of society's ills to the lack of involvement of fathers in children's lives, and now, The Future of Marriage. In it, he argues kids need both a mother and a father, and because same-sex marriage can't provide that, it's bad for society and kids.

"We're either going to go in the direction of viewing marriage as a purely private relationship between two people that's defined by those people, or we're going to try to strengthen and maintain marriage as our society's most pro-child institution," he says.

He may sound like a conservative Christian, but Blankenhorn says he's a liberal Democrat.

"I'm not condemning homosexuality. I'm not condemning committed gay relationships," he says. But "the best institutional friend that children have is marriage, and if grownups make a mess of it, the children are going to suffer."

Blankenhorn's attempts to raise consciousness about the importance of fathers led him to help inspire the creation of the National Fatherhood Initiative, a non-partisan group promoting responsible fatherhood. For 20 years, he has focused attention on the fallout of what he sees as a breakdown in the family.

He bristles when people call his think tank conservative; he wants to look deeply at America's core values, and he sees the Manhattan-based Institute for American Values, founded in 1987, as a catalyst for analysis and debate among those with differing views.

The institute's budget of some $1.5 million largely comes from foundations, corporations and individual donations, which support studies, conferences, books and other publications.

"People who say we're a conservative organization are just trying to call us names because they think it'll stigmatize us," he says, clearly rankled that his motives are so often misunderstood.

But as much as his passion for families impresses those who know his work, his blunt outspokenness can be off-putting to people on both sides of the political spectrum. He even criticizes the marriage movement, of which he is considered one of the founders, saying it has "stagnated."

"It's one of the reasons I wrote the book," he says. "I want to stir the pot as much as I can."

THIS GOES TO SHOW YOU. No matter how pure your motives, no matter how impeccable your ideological credentials, no matter how frickin' OBVIOUS any particular cold, hard fact of life might be, you can borrow a whole heapin' helpin' o' trouble for having the temerity to say it out loud.

And the only difference between that state of affairs and some sort of Stalinist police state is . . . well, only the getting tortured and thrown in jail forever part. But between Alberto Gonzales and the Gayfellas, that'll be worked out soon enough.

HAT TIP: Crunchy Con

Psalm 53

To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David.

1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.
6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Kittens in the wood chipper: Fer or agin'?

From the Revolution 21 Well, DUH! Department comes this bit of advice for new Democrat Congress types, courtesy The Hill:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman, has told new Democratic members of Congress to steer clear of Stephen Colbert, or at least his satirical Comedy Central program, “The Colbert Report.”

“He said don’t do it … it’s a risk and it’s probably safer not to do it,” said Rep. Steve Cohen. But the freshman lawmaker from Tennessee taped a segment that last week was featured in the 32nd installment of the “Better Know a District” series. Colbert asked Cohen whether he was a black woman. He isn’t.

Eyes (but thankfully, not heads) roll in Emanuel’s office when other freshmen stumble, such as the time Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) got into a debate about the merits of throwing kittens into a wood-chipper, or when Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) explained that he is not his predecessor, convicted felon Bob Ney (R).

YES, IT IS BEST to let the senior members of Congress makes asses of themselves on The Colbert Report.

Psalm 6

To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?
4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.
9 The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.
10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

An engineering question . . .