Censorship Loses - Freedom of Speech Wins

Let's take a break from the economy. I know I need to.

The Letterman Show of Friday, January 30th was surreal, especially if you didn't know the backstory. I didn't.

So when they announced Mary Hicks would be the only guest and there would be a videotaped performance from Dan Hicks, I guessed he was dead, that his wife was going to be out there, and that it would be pretty weird. I got two out of three.

Mary Hicks is Dan's mother, and she was there at Dave's invitation to allow him to undo something that he says has been haunting him for years. In 1993, the show, which was still relatively new, cut Hick's entire performance - his twelfth appearance there. Fifteen years later Dave blamed his own insecurity for the decision. Translate that to he didn't feel like he could stand up to pressure from the network for a routine that was edgier than they found comfortable. What Dave didn't know was that Hicks was dying from pancreatic cancer. So the pain for both of them had to cut much, much deeper; there would be no second chance.

So Dave made amends on national television fifteen years later. He aired the entire routine, saying he hadn't watched it beforehand. That seemed very weird to me, too, until I found out the history. Now I get it. It's the ultimate hands-off - "I'm not even going to watch it first - just air it."

The routine was good - some anti-gay references felt prehistoric though the twist to voyeurism is probably timeless. What apparently scared the CBS back then were Hicks' attacks on Pro-Lifers. That was just funny - he pointed out that they're a pretty grim looking crowd for being so fond of life.

Hicks' mother was gracious, though she made no attempt to hide her bitterness or how hurt her son had been at the time.

And just a sidenote - if you check Wikipedia, Hicks went to his grave angry at a comic who he said stole his jokes, his routine and even his persona. The industry joke, apparently goes like this: Question: Why is Denis Leary a star while Bill Hicks is unknown? Answer: Because there's no cure for cancer.
Hicks told people he gave up smoking just to see if Leary would do it, too.

fascinating world, isn't it?

More Economy Rioting

There was chaos in Paris and trouble all over France as citizens protested the government's handling of the global economic crisis.

Marchers threw bottles and overturned cars in Paris. Flights were cancelled, train and bus service were impacted as workers went on strike, demanding action from the government. Unions say 2.5 million people rallied across France. The government puts the figure at a million.

Most of the anger is directed at President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is seen as sympathetic and helpful to business, while not helping citizens who are increasingly desperate.

Do you have any doubt that this is just the beginning?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/71c25576-eda6-11dd-bd60-0000779fd2ac.html

Computers Are Crashing, Too

Just in case you didn't have enough to worry about, there's a digital pandemic that no one has yet figured out how to shut down. Is your computer already infected? Maybe.

Experts say it's a new Internet plague that seems to be the first step of a multistage attack...and computer security experts from the civilian and military worlds don't know who programmed it, or what the next stage will be. A malicious software program known as Conficker or Downadup is being spread thanks to a recently discovered MS Windows weakness. Thanks a lot, Microsoft. It also spreads through hand carried gadgets like USB keys.

Nine million personal computers are already believed to be infected.


Here's the scary part - these worms can then create a unified system of infected computers called botnets, which will then accept instructions from whoever authored the worm in the first place. An army of obedient digital slaves...and one of them could be your own PC.

An executive with Support Intelligence says if this is a digital Pearl Harbor, we're at the point where the Japanese ships are visible on the horizon.

Microsoft did an emergency patch in October, but it's still spreading. What can you do? If you've got a PC, update. And keep your fingers crossed.

Scary enough when it's your personal computer. How about when it's in your office? One infected computer will infect every computer on the network. And it's possible that what the botnets will steal the PC user's personal information.

Or maybe it'll just send out a lot of annoying spam.


Oh...on a totally different topic, if you've been thinking about visiting New Zealand, now's the time. The NZ dollar dropped to its lowest level in ten years against the US dollar after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand hacked benchmark interest rates from 5 to 3.5 percent. Until now, RNBZ rates had been the highest of all industrialized nations.

Paris Becomes Walmart

Not sure if this is a recession related phenomenon, but it sure is a shift.

When you dream of running away and becoming an artist, that vision must include a cigarette, a beret and a friendly community of starving artists on the streets of Montmartre. Ah, Paris. The grungy center of the civilized universe, where I sat at a little cafe table sipping cafe au lait and watched the Parisian rats running along the cobblestones and under the sidewalk. It's beautiful with the kind of beauty that's real - even more beautiful because it's so imperfect. Part of its charm is its reputation as a haven for creativity.

But now souvenir shops set up near Montmartre are slicing into sales of art by Parisian artists. There are three hundred officially registered artists there - and they're competing with mass produced Chinese pictures that sell for a fraction of what they have to charge to make any money at all.

A BBC reporter asked the souvenir shops where the paintings came from, and it took a bit of persuading to get them to admit that yes, the paintings were from China. And some of them even touch them up themselves!

It's a tough economy. But buying rip off, assembly line art is a bad call on every level. Do you want your money to support a factory or an artist? Would you choose a bigger, bad piece of art over an exquisite small one simply because you have a lot of wall to cover? Do you want bad art in your life?

Thanks to Art News Blog for this one.

Rioting to Work In Japan

Don't believe this is a global recession? The riots in Iceland aren't enough evidence? How about Japan, where hotel workers tried desperately to keep their employer open even after the place was shut down?

After Lehman Brothers went belly up, the Keihin Hotel was shut down in Tokyo and all 130 employees were told they were fired. The firm that owned the hotel owed 6 billion yen to a Japanese subsidiary of Lehman's. The workers resumed the hotel's operations the day after they were fired...and have been running it since October 21st.

A court order supported the owner's decision to sell and ordered police to seize the building. Want to see what desperation looks like? JapanProbe posted the video.

Japan Probe Blog

Another Story From the Second Depression

Meet Charles James Isler. He doesn't have a steady job. He hasn't in twenty years. He stands by the side of the road with a sign reading "I Need Work". You'd think he's one of those desperate souls who has hit hard times and is hoping for an odd job to keep him going. Or maybe he's got a hard luck story, an addiction - maybe he's homeless. Why else would he spend two or three hours standing in the winter cold, bundled against the biting wind as his nose runs, hoping someone will stop and give him something to do for day or two?

According to Mr. Isler, his back to basics career hunt has kept him working on and off for twenty years. "You go to those employment centers and they give you the run around," he told me. "I've always gotten work this way."

That's more important than ever now, as he recently got married. He proudly showed me a photo of his wife when she was a model. Those days are gone, the money's gone, and Charles Isler has responsibilities now.

"She has a sleeping problem," he said. "I have to buy her sleeping medication and she has a high tolerance - I have to buy a lot of it." His wife's name is Lucy. He made a point of telling me.

And so Charles James Isler puts on his coat, his scarf, his gloves and his hat, picks up his sign and stands by the side of a busy street in a small New York town. "I Need Work" his sign proclaims.

I wondered if he worried that as the economy worsens, the work will dry up for him.

"Nah, nah. People need help, they need something done in a hurry and they see me standing out here and take me off."

"And do you do this seven days a week?"

He smiled. "Sometimes. Sometimes. And sometimes I get lucky."

Suing the SEC

Here's a story that may just be the first of many -

Phyllis Molchatsky lost two million dollars she invested with Bernie Madoff. She plans to sue the SEC to get it back.

Molchatsky, who lives in the suburbs of New York City, says she invested everything she had in Madoff's fund through her broker because it seemed steady and safe. It didn't show wild swings either up or down...and her investment seemed a good one. Between 2001 and last year, it nearly doubled. Then she lost everything.

She says the money was supposed to cover her retirement, her adopted son's education, and her own medical bills if her recently diagnosed Parkinson's disease grew worse.

The suit is believed to be the first filed by an investor against the Securities and Exchanges Commission. The argument is that the SEC didn't do its job, didn't oversee what Madoff was doing, even ignored warnings that something was very, very wrong.

Molchatsky's attorney has filed an administrative claim for 1.7 million dollars. The SEC hasn't commented. If they refuse, a lawsuit will be next.

Experts expect the SEC to claim sovereign immunity. That's a holdover from a monarchy that basically claims The sovereign can do no wrong.

That's clearly an outdated notion.


http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=1109949