Via Rolling Stone:

In the second file-sharing copyright-infringement trial against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota jury ruled that the 32-year-old mother of four owes $1.92 million to the four major labels after downloading and sharing 24 songs, Billboard.biz reports. The staggering ruling comes out to a cost of $80,000 per track illegally shared, a massive amount that the RIAA hopes will finally convince people to stop downloading music illegally.

Roger Cohen writes:

I also know that Iran”s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I”ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I”ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!”

Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “We want liberty!” accompanied her.

It looks like WJW Channel 8 Fox News in Cleveland has yanked down the video because the whole world is mocking Todd Meany for being such a weenie. Long live YouTube! What do you suppose Faux News would use for a stand-in for Andrew Sullivan?

From Google:

Today, we added Persian (Farsi) to Google Translate. This means you can now translate any text from Persian into English and from English into Persian – whether it’s a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message.

It gets so quiet you here that high-pitched empty-room hum.

And then the whispers start…

22 August 1865

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free- papers in 1864 from the Provost- Marshal- General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you are sincerely disposed to treat us justly and kindly- – and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty- two years and Mandy twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages has been kept back and deduct what you paid for our clothing and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, esq, Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night, but in Tennessee there was never any pay day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

From the Cincinnati Commerical via Ta-Nehisi Coates…

Translation: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Via Daily Dish…

Andrew Sullivan writes:

This is more like the American revolution than the French one. They are asking that the regime live up to its own commitments – i.e. an election that is actually fair within the circumscribed rules. They have essentially called Khamenei’s bluff. And by remaining silent and peaceful and insisting on a fair election and using neutral slogans like Allah O Akbar, they are avoiding the trap of being dismissed as mere Western puppets.

I do not know where this ends. But I am not sure it ends with either total crackdown or total revolution. What the Mousavi movement wants is a revolution within the system. What they want it perestroika and glasnost. Of course, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad realize that this could lead to what perestroika and glasnost led to in Russia: the end of everything. And this is what the neocons fear: a reformed Iranian leadership that is still devoted to nuclear development.

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

WHY DOES KIM QUARTIMON STILL HAVE A JOB…? That may seem like a very odd question since Kim Quartimon is not breaking any laws but as a Walmart employee, common wisdom says that advocating for a union ought to be a fast ticket out the door. Has the election of 2008 changed Walmart? Keep reading…

WALMART WORKERS FOR CHANGE SPEAK… I missed this one but I”m having an interesting afternoon exploring the Walmart Workers For Change website which features the video below. The group is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers union and seeks to: Keep reading…

JUST ANOTHER WALMART SHOPPER… It really does help to be able to maintain a good attitude about life. Blogger Talia turns a Walmart visit in search of the sound track to Pride And Prejudice into a sweet piece of shopper theater. She speaks for many I”m sure. Keep reading…

SAVING WALMART, ONE LOLCAT AT A TIME… The website I Can Has Cheez Burger remains silent on it”s association with Walmart. Clearly there is a financial arrangement and that arrangement requires the owners to post the game a certain number of times in order to get their check. Keep reading…

HOO HAH, DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE SHOES… Last week, 4 June, marked the 20th anniversary of the massacre on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. In those 20 years the authoritative capitalist government of China has convinced Americans, through its lackey Walmart, to sell their soul for cheap plastic crap; like shoes. Keep reading…

WILL WALMART SEND SMOKERS PACKING…? I”m 100 percent behind the possibility. To explain my zealousness in this matter I confess I”m a recovering, three-pack-a-day smoker, 28 years clean. But I have to wonder why this news is being played so low key. Could it be because people aren”t buying it? Keep reading…

COULD BULLETS BE NEXT…? There”s just something about discount ammunition that I find repulsive, and I became a member of the National Rifle Association at 16. I wonder if guns and bullets could go the way of cigarettes if Walmart gets even more healthier, friendlier and greener. Keep reading…

HEAD That”s why… I provide instructions for creating a small but powerful rocket motor wholly out of stuff available at Home Depot or SuperTarget. There”s just something so… satisfying about homebrewing a rocket with stuff you got at Walmart. Yup. Keep reading…

THE CHARM OF SOMETHING FOR NOTHING… I meant to post about Liar”s Poker author Michael Lewis” perspective on last year”s Wall Street crash earlier because of the insights it offers to what being a corporation in a Republican America means. The snip below is Lewis”s conclusion. Keep reading…

WALMART BACKING CHICAGO ROBO CALLS…? When it comes to Walmart”s urban strategy, we write more about the City of Chicago than any metropolitan area in the United States, with good reason. Walmart”s beachhead on Chicago”s south side is well established and the generals want to push inland. Keep reading…

BLEEDING MONEY… One of the reasons I think Walmart and its peers are not good for a community is that they represent a net capital loss to the community, first to other parts of the country and, particularly in Walmart”s case, a net capital loss to the nation. How does that work? Keep reading…

WALMART… WALL-E… WALBESE… B”N’L… Charles Courtemanche and Art Carden”s The Skinny on Big Box Retailing: Wal-Mart, Warehouse Clubs, and Obesity notwithstanding (anyone else read it yet?) I immediately made the association with Wall-E when I read the question: Keep reading…

Go ask Alice…

And this line borrowed from Faulkner sealed the deal:

The Lost Cause isn’t just “lost,” it’s barely a cause.

At least 10 teens contract swine flu during ‘Birthright Israel’ trip

Oynk!

Alexandra Harney writes:

Japanese companies are worried that herbivorous boys aren’t the status-conscious consumers their parents once were. They love to putter around the house. According to Media Shakers’ research, they are more likely to want to spend time by themselves or with close friends, more likely to shop for things to decorate their homes, and more likely to buy little luxuries than big-ticket items. They prefer vacationing in Japan to venturing abroad. They’re often close to their mothers and have female friends, but they’re in no rush to get married themselves, according to Maki Fukasawa, the Japanese editor and columnist who coined the term in NB Online in 2006.

Imagine the horror of not being a status-conscious consumer.

From This morning’s email:

Haaretz readers received an email earlier today calling for support for Barack Obama and his Mideast peace policy. We wish to make clear that the email contained commercial content and not editorial content, and was inadvertently sent out without stating this fact. The contents of the email do not reflect any official Haaretz editorial stance, and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Thank you

Haaretz.com

Everybody regrets hitting the send button sometime.

When I read this I know that many of my students would respond that they can read, write and do arithmetic. My response would be: When you can read, write and do arithmetic as well as Lebron James plays basketball, then we can talk.

Roldo Bartimole writes:

I”ve been rummaging around in old stuff trying to put some old writings in some order. I came across a column from June 1988 that I”ll repeat below.

I think it stands up 21 years later and provides some background or, if you will, history. It was entitled “When Duties Become Incentives” and appeared in the Cleveland Edition. Boy, do I miss the Edition. [So do I, Roldo. JH] Here it is:

I have a friend who from time to time chastises me about the nature of my negative attitudes toward the Cleveland Establishment and its role in Cleveland affairs.

He suggests that in addition to writing about the problems one should be encouraging the Establishment to take on a role in solutions.

He has the belief that “if they knew,” they would do something about the conditions. Continue Reading »

This is now. Now is,
all there is. Don’t wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.

Sit at the Beloved’s table,
feast with gusto, drink your fill

then dance
the way branches
of jasmine and cypress
dance in a spring wind.

The green earth
is your cloth;
tailor your robe
with dignity and grace.

Begin by Rumi

And an alternate translation.

This is now. Now is.
Don’t postpone till Then.
Spend the spark of iron on stone.
Sit at the head of the table;
your spoon deep in the bowl.
Seat yourself next to your joy and have
your awakened soul pour wine.
Branches in the spring wind,
easy dance of jasmine and cypress.
Cloth for green robes has been
cut from pure absence.
You are the tailor, settled
among his shop goods, quietly sewing.

Would Americans feel differently about the Middle East if we had read Rumi in school?

Robert Reich writes:

1. Stop bankers from making huge, risky bets with other peoples” money…

2. Prevent any bank from becoming too big to fail, and…

3. Root out three major conflicts of interest:

(1) Credit-rating agencies should no longer be paid by the companies whose issues are being rated…

(2) Institutional investors like pension funds and mutual funds should not be getting investment advice from the same banks that profit off their investments, and…

(3) the regional Feds that are responsible for much bank oversight should no longer be headed by presidents appointed by the region”s bankers; non-bankers should have the major say, and the regional presidents should have to be confirmed by the Senate.

And he concludes:

Genuine financial reform will be almost as difficult to achieve as real universal health care. Immense private interests are amassed against the public interest in both cases because staggering amounts of money are at stake. But they are the two most important domestic issues right now. Keep careful watch, and weigh in.