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This confession will probably get me thrown out of the Biased Liberal Media Elite, but on many evenings, I sit at home in an easy chair next to the parlor stove and watch TV, rather than attend wine-and-cheese gatherings in Georgetown -- any Georgetown.
Granted, I got disgusted with the local cable monopoly when it replaced CSPAN with UPN, but the free market came to the rescue last summer with one of those little satellite dishes that brings in channels by the score.
Thus I can usually find something if I feel like
watching TV, although there seem to be a lot of programs on
with titles like History's Mysteries
or Unsolved
Mysteries.
Those are often interesting, but when a cavalcade of commercials comes on, of course I reach for the remote to find something else.
And what I find is a mystery: How does every channel know when the other channels are running commercials, so that it can schedule its commercials at precisely the same time, thereby insuring that I don't miss a single Nike spot -- especially the one that shows an arrogant runner going down the middle of the street right next to a wide empty sidewalk.
It does make me root for some Darwinian selection, in the form of a manic driver from one of the spewt commercials who'll come careering down that road, but I'm digressing. Is there a central broadcasting clock somewhere which insures that when I'm shifting between the Simpsons rerun and the Law and Order rerun, I'll always hit the commercials?
I happen to know that is the case for public-radio fund-raising -- a station manager told me they agree on which weeks to air their pleas, so that listeners can't avoid the begathons.
But for commercial broadcasting, the mystery remains: How do they know?
That's not the only mystery. Another is how anyone could have trouble believing Thomas Penfield Jackson, the federal judge who found that Microsoft is a predatory monopoly.
Consider this. Last fall, Microsoft made a $135 million investment in Corel, a Canadian software company. Corel specializes in graphics programs, but it had been developing a version of Linux, the shareware operating system that could compete with Microsoft Windows.
After the Microsoft investment, Corel announced it would no longer develop the Linux operating system with its open source code.
And on Feb. 14, this came from Jim Allchin, who's in
charge of operating-system development at Microsoft.
According to Bloomberg Financial News, Allchin said he was
concerned that the open-source business model could stifle
innovation in the computer industry, and I don't think
we've done enough education of policy makers to understand
the threat.
Not that Microsoft ever innovated
anything, and
open source code means that a system is open to tinkering
and innovation, but this does show a bully's mindset: If
all else fails, lobby the government.
Speaking of bullies, for a while it looked as though our legislature was going to make it harder for bullies to operate in the public arena.
People who do things like sign petitions or issue honest opinions to public bodies have been threatened with litigation -- SLAPP suits. HB 1150 would have raised the hurdle for SLAPP suits, so that corporate bullies would have to have a real cause for legal action, rather than just use the legal system to tie up their opponents in depositions and discovery.
HB 1150 passed unanimously in committee, and through the second reading on Feb. 20 in the House of Representatives with 52-12 vote. But on the third reading last Wednesday, it died because 20 representatives changed their votes, making for a 32-32 tie, which is the same as a defeat.
Something happened overnight to change their minds. I suspect the influence of monied lobbyists, but to be honest, it's a mystery to me how anyone elected to represent the citizens of Colorado could vote against a bill that makes it easier for citizens to participate in public decisions.
According to the legislature's website, these are the representatives who changed their votes: Kay Alexander, Gayle Berry, Timothy Fritz, Michael Garcia, Diane Hoppe, Cheri Jahn, Bryan Jameson, Steve Johnson, Kenneth Kester, Shawn Mitchell, David Schultheis, Nancy Spence, Lola Spradley, Debbie Stafford, Bill Swenson, Abel Tapia, W. Webster, Frank Weddig, Al White and Tambor Williams.
So, even if many of our schools are trying to adopt bully-prevention programs, certain of our legislators have decided that bully-protection is more important.
And if you run across one of them, maybe you can get an explanation, solve this mystery and let me know. Just be to sure to call during a commercial break.
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