Sunday morning reading

Another incident in which the protection of "intellectual property" means hiding the property so no one can see it-

"The Day the Buffy Music Died."After learning that fans of the canceled cult favorite have been, horror of horrors, demonstrating their undying love for the show by attending theatrical screenings of the Emmy-nominated musical episode "Once More, with Feeling" for the past year, 20th Century Fox's attorneys started sharpening their stakes. The studio, which owns the rights to the former WB (then UPN) dramedy red-lighted the dress-up and sing-along tour this week, canceling all future screenings ...

On another subject ...

"It's As Ridiculous As If They'd Given Goebbels One in 1938." Alexander Cockburn does a more thorough job than I did detailing Al Gore's career as a war monger.

Retired war monger wins peace prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has done its part for global warming by ensuring that hell freezes over, naming Al Gore a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Gore, a co-conspirator in the administration that deployed U.S. troops to Somalia, Bosnia and Haiti and bombed Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, shares the prize with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose chairman, Ranjendra Pachauri, Gore denounced for his "virulent anti-American statements" when Pachauri was being considered for the post of chairman.

Gore spent the 1990s supporting the Bush I and Clinton administration imperial adventures abroad – a quick Google search found this 1995 interview where he defends the invasion of Bosnia, for example. The most interesting thing, for me, was the introduction of the interview: "In Washington, Jim Lehrer conducts an interview with the Vice President where they discuss a Senate resolution to support the troops, but not the administration's policy in Bosnia." For those of you who've just joined us, this was a Republican Senate and a Democratic administration. The two parties routinely exchange their rhetorical positions on such debates depending upon whose ox is being, um, gored.

Those who were rightfully aghast when George W. Bush was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize should be, but won't be, aghast at Gore's actual award. After all, Gore is a member of the Butter-Side-Up Party, and Bush is a member of the Butter-Side-Down Party, and so they are opposites, doncha know.