I'm a HUGE fan of internet radio. It's allowed me to hear more and varied artists than I'd ever hear on any other radio, be it terrestrial or satellite. There is simply no other medium like it, in my estimation, for experiencing the vast wealth of music that awaits us.

Having said that, there's a movement afoot by Copyright Royalty Board to increase webcasters' royalty rates between 300 and 1200 percent over the next 5 years! Quite simply, this will most likely kill off most - if not all - internet radio stations, since the financial burden will drive them off the air. There are many reasons for the Board's actions, but here's what the folks at www.savenetradio.org say:

"At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 – that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters’ royalties will grow exponentially!

Before this ruling was handed down, the vast majority of webcasters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop. Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease webcasting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress, and webcasters’ demise will mean a great loss of creative and diverse radio. Surviving webcasters will need sweetheart licenses that major record labels will be only too happy to offer, so long as the webcaster permits the major label to control the programming and playlist. Is that the Internet radio you care to hear?"

Suffice to say, this is a make-or-break time for webcasters, and a kind word on their behalf to your elected official(s) might go a long way to preserving this fantastic means of experiencing new music.

This Post Is Not About MoCo, But I Like This Picture

Okay, so I find this picture amusing, sad and interesting on a couple of levels. First, not only is Roman Catholic San Fran Nan doing her best to appease her Islamic hosts in Syria (where the picture was taken), but then she goes and performs the Sign of the Cross at the tomb of John the Baptist (in a mosque no less!). Huh?

Second, her whole trip to the Middle East and meeting with terrorist-supporting tyrants really rubs me the wrong way. In America, there's a policy and procedure for contacts with foreign heads of state. The precedent was established a couple hundred years ago - it's called the Logan Act. I wonder why Nan thinks she's above it?

Sometimes wrong is wrong. In this case, Nan is wrong. Period, full stop.

UPDATE:

Seems even the venerable Washington Post takes offense to the Speaker's misguided freelance diplomacy. In their editorial, they remind Nan that "Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug" and that "the really striking development here is the attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president."

Honestly, it beggars believe that the Speaker of the House thought she could take U.S. foreign policy on as her own cause. Isn't that why we have the Department of State?

I leave you with this sobering image:

Ag Reserve - You May Already Be Here!

I get a lot of email - most of it junk, to be honest. I love it when the good folks at Montgomery Countryside Alliance send me their updates. It helps remind me why I like living here, and how we have to keep fighting the good fight to keep developers out of our precious Agriculture Reserve.

This month's edition contained the following:

"Have you ever driven north into rural Montgomery and wondered when you are entering the Agricultural Reserve? Have you ever taken a friend into the upcounty who didn’t know that the working farms and beautiful landscape was a unique part of Montgomery County? In January, the County Council unanimously approved a resolution reaffirming its support for the Agricultural Reserve and requesting that signs be erected on major roads entering the Ag Reserve to let travelers know when they are entering the area. Artist Tina Thieme Brown is working with the county on a design for the signs. Montgomery Countryside Alliance thanks the Council and county staff for supporting these signs as a way to raise awareness about the Reserve!"

Swill Business

I have just one question (and I already know the answer - hint: $$$$): what the hell is Montgomery County STILL doing in the liquor business?

Read this and see if you can fathom why we're the ONLY county in the entire U.S. who actively (micro)manages the entire liquor trade. Ike Leggett at least lets it slip that booze means bucks - BIG bucks - for the county. They offer up some other feeble reasons like keeping the number of liquor stores at a minimum (this is a good thing?) and restricting sales to minors, but my sense is that the county is simply addicted to booze, in an economic sense.

So, rather than allowing market forces to decide the county's alcohol distribution, we force some citizens to become law breakers when they travel to other jurisdictions to find the beer, wine and other liquor that the MoCo doesn't or won't sell. Call me perplexed.

You are now free to discuss amongst yourselves.

Ike Leggett may want to consider moving. I suspect he's going to get Jerry Weast's knickers in a twist with the budget Leggett's submitting to the County Council and I suspect that means things could get ugly - fast. So Mr. Weast might not get everything he's asked (re. demanded) for in this latest round of ever-escalating budgets, and Ike's promised to up spending "more than 6 percent without raising taxes in his $4 billion budget plan." Now THAT would be a nifty trick of accounting; spend more without taking in more, and without going into debt. Us homeowners should be so clever! But I digress.
My favorite line from the WaPo article is "Leggett also has signaled that he is willing to take what could be a politically risky course by rebuffing the school system's request for a nearly $137 million increase in its budget." Politically risky, in this case, is roughly the same as challenging Jerry Weast to an old fashioned duel with live ammunition. This could get interesting. I mean, for years Mr. Weast was handed pretty much anything he asked for under the regime of Developer Doug Duncan. Now, here comes the upstart Ike Leggett, saying 'wait a minute' to Jerry and the School Board. Like I said, this could get good!

By the way, for a glimpse into the alternate universe according to Jerry Weast, I highly recommend this website for some added perspective on our esteemed Superintendent.

Sorry for the quiet here at the Western MoCo Observer. Seems the Observer's been out of town for a few days, having traveled out west to the Great White North to do a bit of skiing at Whistler / Blackcomb, the biggest ski area in North America.

While it was fun, and the skiing alright, I have to report that the conditions were sometimes very challenging, even to an advanced intermediate skier like myself.

Don't get me wrong; it snowed every day I was there, so each morning found a fresh layer of snow covering the slopes (in fact, they report that the epic snow conditions this season have verged on record-breaking). It was supplemented by almost non-stop snow throughout the day, which is sort of why I'm hesitant to say it was an extraordinary skiing experience. The weather at Whistler (cold and often very foggy), combined with the driving, non-stop snow, made navigation down the slopes a real challenge at times. I found it somewhat difficult to judge the terrain, and often had to slow to a crawl simply to see where I was going. At one point, while standing near the peak of Whistler, it was so foggy I couldn't see people who were standing just 10 yards away from me, although I could clearly hear their conversation. It was really weird.

Anyway, The Observer's glad to report no broken bones or injuries of any kind (unless you consider injuries to pride because of a couple of spills). A good time was had by all.

Next year I doubt I'll venture so far west in search of perfect snow. Utah and Colorado (my usual ski destination) will probably get the nod in 2008.

Tree City USA

So, MoCo's been named a "Tree City USA" by the National Arbor Day Foundation. It gives me all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings, until I sober up and realize that pretty much everything the previous MoCo Council and "Developer" Doug Duncan did was facilitate the hasty uprooting of said trees, in deference to developers and their almighty dollars.

I'm reminded of that old chestnut "Silent Running," where the earth's remaining trees are put aboard space ships and sailed around the galaxy, presumably because the earth itself was either too crowded or too polluted to sustain them. Yes, it was sort of a hokey plot - very reminiscent of the whole 70's Earth Day mentality - but it did make you pause to consider the course we're on (and no, I'm NOT referring to glo-bull warming). How long til we start visiting trees in the MoCo Tree Museum (Hat tip: Joni Mitchell)?

On the local level, exactly how many trees are we willing to do without in the interest of progress and development? How many trees (hundreds? thousands? tens of thousands?) will be turned into toothpicks to make way for the ICC? As I stated in a previous post; once that piece of open space is developed, it's gone for good.

Yes, some development is good, just like preservation of open space is good. Balance is the key. Developers and folks like Rich Parsons want us to believe that progress as a county can only be measured by the amount of development and "business friendly" paving and construction. I disagree.

Progress is how much quality of life we preserve, and in turn pass on to future generations.

2 Billion Is A LOT of Sweet Moolah

Do we live in strange times or what? Today I read that Jerry Weast has had his contract renewed for four more years, MoCo teachers got their raises, and most astonishing, the MoCo school board approved a staggering $1.98 BILLION budget. My friends, that is a LOT of money.

I cannot overstate the importance of education in today's world, but in a county our size, am I wrong to think that TWO BILLION dollars is one hell of a lot of our tax dollars? It seems to me that, for that kind of money, we could be hiring private tutors for each and every school aged child within the confines of our great county.

Call me old fashioned, but it simply beggars belief that we are spending that much money. Where's it all going? How much of that money is spent on lawyers and lawsuits? How much is spent on feel good programs which do little more than punch the politically correct ticket?

As the parent, I know what the MCPS is doing. I've seen it in action, up close and personal. I know that "portable classrooms" aren't really that. I know that some sex ed programs aren't really life lessons, but instead are are the County's way of indoctrinating our youth. And most of all, I know that $2 billion is a ton of money that, if it were spent properly and with a reasonable amount of oversight, we'd have thousands of Rhodes Scholars pouring out of each and every graduating class.

Forgive my cynicism, but Jerry Weast and his band of merry pranksters seem to have gotten one over on you and I - again.

$2 Billion! Wow!

Babaro Dead At Age Four, A Nation Mourns

In keeping in the spirit of the two previous posts, which have little to do with actual issues impacting life in Montgomery County, I humbly submit for your review the following article from one of the web's funniest humor sites, The Onion. What I really love is the accompanying photo, which I think is a real hoot:

"Barbaro was a great horse, but an even better person," said Cheryl McElroy, still visibly shaken after filing past Barbaro's coffin and placing a single red rose upon it. "He taught us how to triumph over adversity and how to persevere in the face of overwhelming odds. He showed us that anyone could win the Kentucky Derby if they just believed in themselves—even you or I. And he proved that people can lead perfectly normal, productive lives after breaking their long pastern bone and being diagnosed with laminitis of the left hoof."

I have a few horse-loving, horse-owning friends in the area, and I'm sure they'd not see the humor in this article, but who cares? I think it's hilarious. By the way, if you're in a bookstore, be sure to check out one of The Onion's "best of" collections. They're well worth the price of admission.

Global Warming - Another Name for What We Used to Call Weather

Well my friends, the monolithic media warned us, and now the "Prognosticator of Prognosticators" has pronounced it: we're due to have six more weeks of global warming, followed by an early global warming period (formerly called "spring"), and after that, expect endless global warming, and an accompanying amount of media blathering about how your light bulbs and family station wagons are melting the polar ice caps - and don't you feel bad about that? Our imminent demise is now a fait accompli.

I, for one, have taken to 1) physically removing my furnace to avoid being tempted, and to wearing three sweaters to bed at night, 2) riding my daughter's Razor scooter the 16-miles to work in Bethesda each day, and 3) using only non-tallow candles in place of electric lights in every room of the house. From here on out, the only electricity I'm using will power my computer to keep you, dear reader, informed of the earth's rapid temperature increase (note: the electrical power will be supplied by my furious pedaling on a small personal generator while I sit at the keyboard - no oil, coal or nuclear isotopes will be harmed in the production and delivery of my blog updates / random, chaotic web surfing)

That is all.