Giamatti Adams

I've been watching, with great interest, the HBO mini-series John Adams based on David McCullough's best-selling book and I have enjoyed it, for the most part. However, the portrayals of both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson leave somethng to be desired.
Now, I realize that these were not perfect men. Franklin was a womanizer, as was Jefferson. Jefferson had slaves and fathered at least one child with one of them. (Not something you would expect from the author of the Declaration of Independence.) But the film portrays them as merely bit players in our nation's struggle and rise from Great Britain. Not only that, but it also seems to say that these men were barely competent with the tasks given to them.

Franklin is played as a withering opportunist who was non-committal in nearly every aspect of his public service, preferring to advocate whichever position granted him the most ease and least work.

Jefferson is seen as little more than a man-child. Bad posture, seemingly always distracted and openly flirting with Abigail Adams.

While the men we are raised to know as the Founding Fathers were not deities and were certainly not perfect, I think the film does a dishonor to these men by emphasizing their weaknesses, both real and imagined, in place of hardly any mention of their rightful place in our history.

John Adams was indeed a great man, warts and all. Yet to portray everyone around him as incompetent or over their heads while the great Adams alone fights mightily on is a bit much, I should think.

Death Throes of the RIAA?

The geniuses behind the RIAA's multi-millon dollar lawsuits against grandmothers and children have come up with another money-grabbing scheme.

Suing radio stations for "piracy".

No, that's not being overly dramatic. The RIAA spokesperson is quoted as saying that what radio stations do (play and promote music) is, "a form of piracy". Seriously.

Let's imagine a world where the RIAA runs everything. There's no music on the Internet. There's no music on the radio. You'll probably get slapped with a cease and desist order if caught singing, whistling or humming any tune (because the RIAA surmises that, even if the songwriter and/or artist isn't represented by them, they still should get money for it. Honestly.) And the RIAA will still bitch and moan about how record sales are declining and will start suing puppy dogs and homeless people.

Instead of trying to change their business model, they are madly flailing about, hoping to strike anything within their reach. It's pathetic, really.

Oh, and the artists and songwriters they represent? Haven't seen a nickel of any monies received via lawsuits of "file-sharers". Their lawyers are the only ones making anything and they aren't about to let the gravy train come to a halt. If they have their way, we will all be pirates simply because we listen to music. We'll have to start carrying a meter around with us and every time we think of a tune, we have to drop in a quarter or we get an electrical shock. Sounds crazy, right? As crazy as the RIAA suing terrestrial radio for piracy?