tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-141167482024-03-14T04:29:12.809-04:00Joel's humanistic blogJoel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.comBlogger184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-58286785175142228952022-09-03T00:00:00.001-04:002022-09-03T00:02:48.154-04:00Daily Dracula<p><a href="https://dinosaurdracula.com/blog/halloween-countdown-2022/#more-41358">"I will be updating Dino Drac’s Daily Halloween Thing every single day between now and 10/31. It’s basically a blog-within-a-blog."</a></p><p>And I'll be updating <i>this</i> blog, and not only to blog about other blogs (or <a href="https://nicksagan.blogs.com/nick_sagan_online/2005/11/welcome_to_the_.html">wheels within wheels of blogging about blogging</a>).</p>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-88930605385724310462022-09-01T23:57:00.006-04:002022-09-01T23:57:26.716-04:00Two Months of Daily Blogger?<p>Nice to see <a href="http://www.i-mockery.com/">I-Mockery</a> get <a href="https://twitter.com/imockery/status/1565414765207310336">redecorated</a> for its annual "Two Months of Halloween" celebration. And I'm going to see how many days I can keep up Halloween-related posts, even if they won't be <i>all</i> my posts even tangentially like they were on that site's <a href="http://www.i-mockery.com/blabber/">Daily Blabber Blog</a> (even during the many times it wasn't quite daily).</p>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-12666742591625241992022-06-14T12:59:00.006-04:002022-06-14T12:59:37.645-04:00Who Said This?<p>"For after all, the struggle for American independence is typical of the continuing fight for human liberty everywhere in the world."</p>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-42224283887998515062022-06-01T23:36:00.005-04:002022-06-01T23:36:48.533-04:00I'm Gonna Take Me Drac to the Past<p>I was inspired to try a <a href="https://joelschlosberg.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/hello-wordpress/">move</a> from this BlogSpot blog to WordPress by a webmaster who made a similar move to a new website <a href="https://twitter.com/DinosaurDracula/status/1532020104522780676">a decade ago today</a>.</p><p>That didn't get me to blog much more than I was already barely blogging. But if I am going to have a personal blog, it might as well be back here.</p><p>So here I am.</p>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-68821549710257779572022-03-01T23:56:00.002-05:002022-03-01T23:56:18.779-05:00I Didn't Totally Blow the Months Off, Either<p>I thought I'd take less than two months be blogging here in 2022, but I have been sending in my monthly <a href="https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/author/joelschlosberg">op-ed commentary pieces</a> to the <a href="https://thegarrisoncenter.org/">William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism</a> (this month's is on its way later this week) for my editor Thomas L. Knapp, for whom blogging less than once a day is <a href="http://knappster.blogspot.com/2022/02/ok-i-didnt-totally-blow-month-off.html">partially blowing the month off.</a></p>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-39142047561860992902021-01-01T23:48:00.001-05:002021-01-01T23:48:11.036-05:00More Troubles, More Twitter<p> A decade ago today, I joined Twitter.</p><p>Then I waited a month of "figuring out how to use it" to <a href="https://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2011/02/im-on-twitter.html">blog</a> about joining Twitter.</p><p>Then I spent a couple years neglecting blogging while figuring out how to use Twitter.</p><p>Then I spent more years neglecting both blogging and Twitter. Sometimes on Facebook, sometimes just not posting much online at all.</p><p>But I'm still here... and <a href="https://twitter.com/joelschlosberg">there</a>.</p>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-69319365007544909252020-09-16T23:59:00.003-04:002020-09-17T00:09:55.660-04:00Man in Black Smart (Queen of Queens Smarter)<p>While tickets are available for the Queens Drive-In's screening of Men in Black, I may as well blog my <a href="https://issuu.com/queenschronicle/docs/south_04-23-20small/8">letter to the editor</a> from back in April about the cosmic classic, and how the real-world Queens borough hopefully is more exemplary of its populism than its simultaneous distrust of the populace.</p>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-35200717133806929902020-07-06T21:58:00.000-04:002020-07-06T21:58:36.898-04:00Sneak Previews are 2020Today's film-industry headlines, as foreseen by <i>Premiere</i> magazine 21 years ago:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N3fdkAQkS1w/XwPWnu59tZI/AAAAAAAAAuI/dMiPpt-ZY20fcO6_ugaDi6KBuHGXmXHFACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/9E05E878-CF4B-425D-A09A-B984AF4E279E.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N3fdkAQkS1w/XwPWnu59tZI/AAAAAAAAAuI/dMiPpt-ZY20fcO6_ugaDi6KBuHGXmXHFACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/9E05E878-CF4B-425D-A09A-B984AF4E279E.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-31965005375802626082020-04-21T22:39:00.002-04:002020-04-21T22:41:51.260-04:00A, My Name Ain't Archie<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="71OhMTfRBkL.jpg (877×1280)" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71OhMTfRBkL.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="219" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alex P. Keaton's favorite economist with Leonard E. Read favorite tool</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Someday, I'll get around to elaborating on how everything wrong with American politics is that it's in the image of <i>All in the Family</i> rather than <i>Family Ties</i>, but for now, I have a <a href="https://www.qchron.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/tv-s-archie-vs-alex/article_9efe203c-84e3-5cca-9b79-07a4794e3b17.html">letter</a> championing Alex P. Keaton over Archie Bunker that made it to the <a href="https://issuu.com/queenschronicle/docs/south_04-09-20small/8">editorial pages</a> of the <i>Queens Chronicle</i>.Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-39765112544216924882020-04-20T11:49:00.000-04:002020-04-21T22:36:02.099-04:00Monopoly: Snake Versus Giant Octopus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3g00000/3g02000/3g02800/3g02835v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="800" height="255" src="https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3g00000/3g02000/3g02800/3g02835v.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/15071">"Small Business Versus the State"</a> went up over the weekend at <a href="http://knappster.blogspot.com/">The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism</a>. This is the first time I've contributed a column to comrade <a href="http://knappster.blogspot.com/">Thomas L. Knapp</a>'s news commentary project since 2018, but we're gearing up for more to come.Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-55377290703465087292020-02-22T19:57:00.001-05:002020-02-22T20:10:20.247-05:00lbo-talk-sign-offBefore Doug Henwood <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20200217/000462.html">announced</a> yesterday that his venerable mailing list described as a "<span style="background-color: white;">forum for the discussion of economics, politics, and culture from a broad left perspective</span>" was shutting down, I admit that I was unsure whether <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">lbo-talk</a> was still going, with so few messages hitting my inbox that I was genuinely unsure whether or not it had quietly vanished. (The <a href="http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/">website</a> for the Left Business Observer it was named after tersely notes that periodical ceasing its increasingly erratic publication seven years ago, and the actual content hasn't been updated since Barack Obama's <a href="http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Obama.html">candidacy</a>.) Yet while he insists that "lbo-talk has said enough" and is enough of a Marxist to quote Karl that "Last words are for fools who haven't said enough" I am enough of a foolish Bakuninist to note that, as moribund as it was in its later years, its extensive <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/">archives</a> offer a lively chronicle of the early-Internet left through the Battle of Seattle, 9/11 and beyond.<br />
<br />
Both the content and the style offer many lessons for younger comrades who only know a slicker but inhibited Internet dominated by corporate social media giants like Facebook and Twitter. And that includes comrades far outside the realm of stereotypical hard leftists and their fellow travelers, given that the old threads even contain some kind words for <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2007/2007-March/006200.html"><i>Reason</i> magazine's Nick Gillespie and Jesse Walker</a>, Ayn Rand scholar <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2010/2010-January/000153.html">Chris Matthew Sciabarra</a>, or <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2009/2009-February/001890.html">Lew Rockwell of The Mises Institute</a> (who was even <a href="http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio_1.html#050317">on Henwood's radio show</a> back in the days when George W. Bush provided a common enemy). To quote another sort-of-Marxist leftist's famous last words, "Don't waste any time mourning," but some time spent in lbo-talk's archives may lay ground for its successors (well, besides <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/books/bhaskar-sunkara-editor-of-jacobin-magazine.html">the one it already has</a>).</span>Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-15484286460848485212020-01-16T23:34:00.002-05:002020-01-16T23:37:35.566-05:00another day, another pair of letters to the editor<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tgStKualfOA/XiE2SqHb3VI/AAAAAAAAAqU/cZdcs2ol50A_-yHwAec01_A2QigfXtGxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The%2BRussians%2BAre%2BComing%2Bthe%2BRussians%2BAre%2BComing%2B%25281966%2529%2Btitle%2Bsequence%2B0-51%2Bscreenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tgStKualfOA/XiE2SqHb3VI/AAAAAAAAAqU/cZdcs2ol50A_-yHwAec01_A2QigfXtGxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/The%2BRussians%2BAre%2BComing%2Bthe%2BRussians%2BAre%2BComing%2B%25281966%2529%2Btitle%2Bsequence%2B0-51%2Bscreenshot.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Russians were going to have come in 2010!</td></tr>
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<b><a href="https://www.qchron.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/u-s-and-russia-in-space/article_38fb67d7-90b3-5557-ba97-ea618b6f477a.html">"U.S. and Russia in space"</a></b> in the <i>Queens Chronicle</i> looks back at the little-discussed sequel to <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>, and how it envisioned less tense relations between the US and the then-assumed-to-still-be-Soviet-in-the-2010s Russia. (I should also clarify that I am not now, nor have I aver been a member of the Russian conspiracy, though I technically can't truthfully deny association with <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2002709321/">"H.U.A.C."</a> since the "House of Un-American Activities" was the unofficial nickname for the home of some college friends back in the day.)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sj_90kpspxc/XBskFJCsQTI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/3HGi8UOI3iIhgjNBInS6LOqrc6sdCM1QwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/2914CE00-30E3-40DC-9F5B-85E5B324A79D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sj_90kpspxc/XBskFJCsQTI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/3HGi8UOI3iIhgjNBInS6LOqrc6sdCM1QwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/2914CE00-30E3-40DC-9F5B-85E5B324A79D.png" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This image is a rerun, but so is the content it's illustrating.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.queensexaminer.com/view/full_story/27692533/article-Reducing-costs?instance=lead_story_left_column"><br />"Reducing costs"</a> in the <i>Queens Examiner </i>(and the other outlets in the Queens Ledger/Brooklyn Star Newspaper Group) asks free-market advocates to stop brushing aside concerns about "materialism, social inequality and economic instability" and instead start pointing out how economic freedom can address them. If you've wondered why your local paper doesn't have quotes from 19th century left-populist free market economists, it may be because <i>you</i> aren't writing them in! (And yes, this letter is basically an abridgment of <a href="http://c4ss.org/content/25659">one of my old C4SS pieces</a>, but since they haven't bothered to try to get newspapers to run their stuff since <a href="https://c4ss.org/press-room">2016</a>, I may as well follow the wisdom of Abbott and Costello: "If there's anything else I want you to do, I'll do it myself!")Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-1836678751485189092020-01-02T15:57:00.001-05:002020-01-02T15:59:28.931-05:00Yesterday...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7oMIVuzwL64/Xg5W7nlLqKI/AAAAAAAAAqA/bnH-GynD-vUry9InRx2NAMoRYLbWLb6GgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/runningmanposter2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1272" data-original-width="854" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7oMIVuzwL64/Xg5W7nlLqKI/AAAAAAAAAqA/bnH-GynD-vUry9InRx2NAMoRYLbWLb6GgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/runningmanposter2019.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"THE YEAR IS 2019. America's finest men don't run for President."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
... my troubles definitely weren't far away, but it was a day of several significant milestones:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>all of the events of <i>Akira</i>, <i>Blade Runner </i>and <i>The Running Man</i> were finally all definitively set in the past of 2019 and before;</li>
<li>it was the 9th anniversary of <a href="http://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2011/02/im-on-twitter.html">me joining Twitter</a>;</li>
<li>it was the 10th anniversary of my blog comrades <a href="http://darianworden.com/blog/">Darian Worden</a> and <a href="http://knappster.blogspot.com/">Tom Knapp</a> getting <a href="https://aaeblog.com/2010/01/01/c4ss-welcomes-darian-worden-promotes-tom-knapp/">hired/promoted to do good work at the Center for the Stateless Society</a> (Darian wound up penning around <a href="https://c4ss.org/content/author/darianworden">100 commentaries</a> while I've only managed <a href="https://c4ss.org/content/author/joel-schlosberg">about a third as many</a>, let alone Tom's <a href="https://c4ss.org/content/author/thomaslknapp">250+</a>);</li>
<li>the belated growth of the public domain that began (after a twenty-year hiatus imposed by retroactive copyright extensions) with <a href="http://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2019/01/when-copyright-atrophies.html?m=0">the lapsing of 1923 copyrights a year ago</a> continued for works published in 1924.</li>
</ul>
Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-40659613234226423732019-12-31T23:58:00.000-05:002020-01-01T02:47:13.498-05:00letters to the editor roundupI've been quiet here, but I can't let the decade end without noting my presence on the letters to the editors pages in the last weeks of the 2010s:<br />
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<a href="https://www.qchron.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/whose-school-rules/article_b38e90c1-7d26-5f1a-80d9-838a3b3f5b5b.html">"Whose school rules?" in the Queens Chronicle</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.qchron.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/hitchcock-s-genius/article_e3989a6a-c811-58e8-a872-c4fa29ccc722.html">"Hitchcock's genius" in the Queens Chronicle</a><br />
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<a href="https://issuu.com/queenschronicle/docs/south_11-14-19small/10">"Vendor cap vs. progress" in the Queens Chronicle</a><br />
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"<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/who-knew-debs-supported-gun-rights-for-individuals-11575489737">Who Knew Debs Supported Gun Rights for Individuals?" in the Wall Street Journal</a><br />
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"Chanukah Songs Beyond Sandler" in The Jewish Week (week of December 7, not online yet)Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-85374754632715552242019-10-15T23:50:00.000-04:002019-10-16T00:10:40.196-04:00Memeo Trasho<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QKZOt0vDCjE/XaaX6_seqPI/AAAAAAAAAog/U2xlaCCvs_g-EkplmD-3K2WXds4eT36WACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/2F9F664B-A8D4-4D89-AA73-58FC7BDE2255.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QKZOt0vDCjE/XaaX6_seqPI/AAAAAAAAAog/U2xlaCCvs_g-EkplmD-3K2WXds4eT36WACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/2F9F664B-A8D4-4D89-AA73-58FC7BDE2255.jpeg" width="241" /></a></div>
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Wouldn't you know it, today is <a href="https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/National_Grouch_Day">National Grouch Day</a> on a week in which ToughPigs.com is running a <a href="http://www.toughpigs.com/contest-ernie-bert-memes/">contest</a> to make memes based around <i>Sesame Street</i> pals Ernie and Bert. So I'll make up for not yet linking to their past contests which yielded a <a href="http://www.toughpigs.com/oscar-memes/">trash bin of Oscar the Grouch memes</a> and, a bit farther down the street, a <a href="http://www.toughpigs.com/cookie-memes/">cookie jar of Cookie Monster memes</a>. Both compilations of humorous image-caption combinations include submissions by this very blogger, who may not have found his way to Sesame Street (or won the contests) but was able to indulge in dated references to everything from Atari 2600 games to Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liners to the Lazy Sunday SNL skit.Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-68276729720172836082019-10-08T19:00:00.000-04:002019-10-08T19:02:01.869-04:002 QR R 0 2 QR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hcq_WHV15UA/XZ0TVTZIY-I/AAAAAAAAAoE/7jet2NCr9nkliSKfWvplDw4aTlDxdN3lQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/image_6cce1b39-f087-4446-b45a-7b75004e45bf_grande.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="454" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hcq_WHV15UA/XZ0TVTZIY-I/AAAAAAAAAoE/7jet2NCr9nkliSKfWvplDw4aTlDxdN3lQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/image_6cce1b39-f087-4446-b45a-7b75004e45bf_grande.webp" width="302" /></a></div>
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The <a href="https://issuu.com/queenschronicle/docs/south_10-03-19small?fr=sMjAxZTE2OTA">current issue</a> of the <i>Queens Chronicle</i> newspaper has <a href="https://www.qchron.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/bus-stop-wet-day-no-info/article_17d3f244-ab6c-5b24-a4bf-16bbcc16315b.html">a letter to the editor by yours truly</a> about the latest of the MTA's bad decisions endured by NYC transit riders. I kept it as concise as possible for print, but on my own blog I can try to expand a bit on why the removal of QR codes was so particularly annoying:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>It takes a bit of technical know-how to explain what exactly QR codes actually <i>are</i> — they're sort of like an Internet-connected update of bar codes for the wireless age — but their removal eliminated the benefit they had for riders who knew how to use them, without any countervailing gain for those who don't.</li>
<li>The QR codes linked to significantly more useful and accurate schedule information than could be conveyed in the static schedules that were phased out for supposedly being too costly to maintain, and can keep access to up-to-date info <i>without</i> needing the physical printout to be replaced: each code is tied to a webpage link which not only can theoretically updated periodically, but is in real time.</li>
<li>Actually using a QR code requires a working, charged smartphone that may be fiscally out of reach for some passengers -- but so do the newer printed guidelines on the bus stops, which only provide directions on how to call up bus schedule information rather than the info itself.</li>
<li>The webpages the QR codes used to provide links to are still up and running on the <a href="http://bt.mta.info/">MTA Bus Time website</a>, so it's still possible for savvy users to personally access the links via bookmarks or search -- but it takes more time do so so (and more than enough time that a bus can be missed while looking to see if the bus is going to arrive!), and runs the risk of pulling up the info for the wrong bus stop (often, bus stops in opposite directions on the same line have identical names), whereas the codes would always be for their own specific stop.</li>
</ul>
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It's just a baffling case of fixing what ain't broke, reminiscent of the early Internet copypasta about how <a href="https://cis.gvsu.edu/~kurmasz/Humor/engin.html">"Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet"</a> ... except that features are only being removed.</div>
Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-28536819119951732042019-08-10T13:21:00.000-04:002019-08-10T13:29:59.250-04:00Noisy Words for Silent MoviesWhen I read a quote by the founder of a Queens film festival asserting that its movies weren't "low-quality – like avant-garde, silent film, black and white – something that mass audience wouldn’t care to see" I just had to write in to explain just how many audiences such "low-quality" films were attracting in NYC, and my reply made it to the <a href="https://digital-editions.schnepsmedia.com/QC07252019/page_29.html">pages of the July 25 issue</a> of the <i>Queens Courier</i>:<br />
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<br />Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-74730477568762310472019-04-01T23:15:00.003-04:002019-04-01T23:15:45.186-04:00Joel Schlosberg Announces a Return to Regular BloggingWell, I didn't intend for three full months to pass since I last blogged here for New Year's Day. My intended returns to regular blogging, on the other hand, have never really worked out in the past.. but I may as well drop in on the one day nobody believes anything they read online anyway.Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-10360322230942343532019-01-01T23:12:00.003-05:002019-01-01T23:12:44.600-05:00When Copyright Atrophies<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fk7uEYEDzgE/XCw5CLDxfWI/AAAAAAAAAis/6Y0hpU_xLK8CS-RP2UGL4UMgk9x89wHpgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-01%2Bat%2B11.04.16%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="600" height="41" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fk7uEYEDzgE/XCw5CLDxfWI/AAAAAAAAAis/6Y0hpU_xLK8CS-RP2UGL4UMgk9x89wHpgCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-01%2Bat%2B11.04.16%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">slogans from Eric Eldred's campaign to overturn the Copyright Term Extension Act</td></tr>
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Never thought I'd live to see today... the day on which new works enter the United States public domain.<br />
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In the mid-1990s, it still seemed to be a routine matter for copyrights to expire on older work, with the occasional <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/29/business/publishers-wince-as-1920-s-classics-go-public.html">news story</a> about which works of 1920, 1921, and 1922 were becoming free for all to access, publish and <a href="http://homepages.law.asu.edu/~dkarjala/OpposingCopyrightExtension/publicdomain/SecretGardenDWs.html">adapt</a>.<br />
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Then in 1998, 20 years were added to all existing copyrights, after copyright holders realized they could simply lobby for increasing the lengths of existing copyrights that were about to lapse (as opposed to the gradual lengthening of how long copyrights will last on <i>new</i> works). <a href="https://cyber.harvard.edu/eldredvreno/cc/">Eric Eldred's taking to court</a> the unconstitutionality of such potentially-perpetual retroactive delays (which pretty clearly contravene the Constitution's statement that such terms shall last "for limited times") resulted in the Supreme Court upholding them in 2003.<br />
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By the time <a href="https://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2005/07/my-first-anniversary-at-distributed.html?m=0">I joined Distributed Proofreaders</a> the following year, I thought that we'd be confined to merely digging up more and more obscure material from before the 1923 cutoff date. Yet while those 20 years took, well, 20 years to pass, the feared "oh wait, we need 20 <i>more</i> years to, um, go back in time to give century-old creators more incentive" renewal has not. (Ironically, works created in 2004 would have become public domain today under the original copyright length of 14 years.) Americans can finally create like it's 1923!Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-40785675646830222262018-12-19T23:53:00.000-05:002018-12-20T00:10:01.312-05:00Three are Free, Baby<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It has been a while since I last <a href="http://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2018/08/its-world-world-world-wide-mad.html">blogged</a> about <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/author/joelschlosberg">writing</a> for <a href="http://knappster.blogspot.com/">Thomas L. Knapp</a>'s <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/">William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism</a>, but at long last I've capped off a planned troika of op-ed commentaries started this summer with the Oscar-baiting <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/13924">"The Madness of the Academy."</a> <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/13989">"Can't Stop the Bookstore"</a> struck back with my examination of how Amazon's $15 wage may not be the pure concession it has been assumed to be on both sides of the conflict. Along the way, I took a look at the forgotten history of corporate liberalism, explained how a small bookstore has succeeded where Barnes & Noble failed, and found a plotline that <i>The Simpsons</i> hasn't done yet. The trilogy concludes with <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/14125">"Protectionist Presidents are the Parents of Our Country's Trusts"</a> taking on the still-current fallout of Trump's trade policies, uncovering the hidden history of free trade as a progressive cause.Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-36788518913673599582018-08-30T23:49:00.000-04:002018-09-09T09:31:44.344-04:00It's a World, World, World, Wide MadWhen I <a href="http://joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/2018/08/in-which-i-grouch-about-oscars.html">posted</a> last week about my commentary piece <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/13924">"The Madness of the Academy"</a> I didn't know if my take on the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film would get any attention. After some time circulating through the series of tubes, I dare say that it's more popular than the Oscar itself. It's made its way to the <i><a href="https://www.nhregister.com/opinion/article/Forum-The-madness-of-the-academy-13171395.php">New Haven Register</a></i>, <i><a href="http://citizensjournal.us/the-madness-of-the-academy/">Citizens Journal</a></i>, USA Today's <i><a href="https://www.thespectrum.com/story/opinion/2018/08/26/opinion-madness-academy/1099230002/">The Spectrum</a></i>, and <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/23/the-madness-of-the-academy/">Counterpunch</a> (and, via Counterpunch, to <a href="https://www.open-mind.news/index.php/2018/08/23/the-madness-of-the-academy/">Open Mind News</a>, <a href="https://radiofree.org/the-madness-of-the-academy/">Radio Free</a> and <a href="http://bestsellermagazine.com/news/The-Madness-of-the-Academy">Bestseller Magazine</a>).<br />
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It's even made it to the print-as-in-on-actual-newsprint opinion pages of <i><a href="https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-register-citizen-torrington-ct/20180824/textview">The Register Citizen</a></i>, <i><a href="https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-middletown-press-middletown-ct/20180824/281715500473360">The Middletown Press</a>, <a href="https://issuu.com/conceptionssw/docs/daily_lobo_09_03_18">The Daily Lobo</a></i> and <i><a href="https://issuu.com/cityweeklynewspaper/docs/cw_archive_180823">Salt Lake City Weekly</a></i>. And no, I'm not Tom Knapp (but then again, that's what I want you to think - have you ever seen us in the same place?), but the words inadvertently credited to the guy who created <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/">The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism</a>, wrote 99% of its content, encouraged this piece and got it ready for publication, and sent it to thousands of outlets are mine (as corrected in the <a href="https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/feedback-from-aug-9-and-beyond/Content?oid=10443123">online version</a>). And I dig <i>Salt Lake City Weekly</i>'s cool and well-designed layout, in which a reader opening the page to those words of mine would see them in the company of Peter Yarrow, He-Man and She-Ra with beer buddies Skeletor and Orko (the Trollan's imbibing explains a <i>lot</i>), and even an installment of Tom Tomorrow's cartoon <i>This Modern World</i>!<br />
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This won't be the last op-ed I write for the Garrison Center (how many I write and how fast I write them depends on how much Tom has to pay me for them), but if there are any publications you think will be interested in running this not-yet-dated take on the Academy, let them know!Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-13134611904733986562018-08-20T18:49:00.003-04:002018-08-20T18:49:36.570-04:00In Which I Grouch About the Oscars<a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/13924">"The Madness of the Academy"</a> is my take on the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film, my first commentary piece in a long time for <a href="http://knappster.blogspot.com/">Thomas L. Knapp</a>'s <a href="http://thegarrisoncenter.org/">The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism</a>. I've enjoyed getting back in the op-ed writing game and set to write a couple more in the coming months ... but I'll be able to write more of them if Tom has more money to buy them from me!Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-67586777933419302862018-06-17T23:48:00.001-04:002018-06-17T23:48:36.156-04:00Mother Knows Bester<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_p1QR7hm6Xw/WycrMhdKDGI/AAAAAAAAAfY/QxQdnBhy5qI3wgncPM9PGaPOiQhLfAq8gCLcBGAs/s1600/The-Munsters-The-Midnight-Ride-of-Herman-Munster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1435" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_p1QR7hm6Xw/WycrMhdKDGI/AAAAAAAAAfY/QxQdnBhy5qI3wgncPM9PGaPOiQhLfAq8gCLcBGAs/s320/The-Munsters-The-Midnight-Ride-of-Herman-Munster.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What, me patriarch?</td></tr>
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<a href="http://reason.com/archives/2009/12/16/beyond-pleasantville/1">"Even in Pleasantville, there was more to life than Pleasantville,"</a> as <a href="http://jessewalker.blogspot.com/">Jesse Walker</a> noted, but there was even more among the undead in Mockingbird Heights:<br />
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"Herman, as head of the house, I think you should get to the bottom of this. Now, you go right on upstairs and have a father-and-son talk with your boy."<br />
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"Well, gosh, Lily, I'm not very good at that, y'know, dear. You're his mother. Why don't <i>you</i> go up and have a father-and-son talk with him?"<br />
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"No! A think like that is up to the <i>father</i>!" Anyone who's watched <i>Father Knows Best</i> for nine years ought to know that."<br />
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"All right. But Donna Reed always handles these things on <i>her</i> show, y'know."<br />
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(Eddie's parents in the <i>Munsters</i> episode "Operation Herman")Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-83260678607362564452017-06-03T16:33:00.001-04:002017-06-03T16:43:23.547-04:00Hidden Treasure: The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre<div class="p1">
<i>The first of an upcoming series of Joel’s overlooked personal favorite places, events and other things that should be better known.</i></div>
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<b>What is it?</b></div>
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A palatial movie theater.</div>
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<b>Where is it hidden?</b></div>
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In Jersey City, New Jersey.</div>
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<b>Why is it a treasure?</b></div>
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<i>The screen is huuuge</i>. Like, very huge. That-aquatic-dinosaur-in-<i>Jurassic World</i>-that-dwarfs-a-whale huge. While some IMAX and similar screens may be larger, the sheer feeling of an entire building devoted to one humongous screen is like nowhere else.</div>
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<i>Popcorn and drinks are a dollar each.</i> With tickets usually going for $8 (less for double or triple features!), there’s no better value for a dropped Hamilton.</div>
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<i>The building is unique and historic.</i></div>
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It dates back to 1929! Built just before the stock market crash, the last pre-Great Derpession moment when lavish building for a mass audience was economically feasible, it maintains much of its original style. Much of the facade still needs fixing up from decades of disrepair, but the core functions of a theater are fully operational, and the twist on the original grandeur makes it perfect for an Addams family reunion (which actually was a theme this past Halloween!)</div>
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<b>How did I find it?</b></div>
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I knew about it for a while (I’d sometimes seen flyers for its upcoming screenings at NYC theaters such as Film Forum), but it was the closing of Manhattan’s Ziegfeld theater in early 2016 that spurred me to check it out.</div>
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<b>Why is it hidden?</b></div>
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It’s a little out of the way of the NYC-focused revival theater circuit, and not as hip as the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Yonkers and Brooklyn. As a non-commercial theater, it doesn’t do current releases or have big marketing campaigns. (Then again, the Ziegfeld was neglected when it was run like a typical big-chain commercial theater in its later years.)</div>
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And unfortunately, it lacks a working air conditioning system, so it has to take a summer break during peak moviegoing season.</div>
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<b>What is the path to the treasure?</b> Well, literally a PATH, since it’s across the street from the Journal Square PATH station. “JSQ” is part of a subway line (though not part of <i>the </i>“NYC subway” system, another reason it’s quasi-“hidden”) that bridges New Jersey and Manhattan and connects to various transit systems.</div>
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There is one last movie screening tonight before the summer break — <i>The Red Shoes</i> at 7PM — and the building will be open for the JCArts Annual Year-End Gallery Show.</div>
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Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14116748.post-18120376360184667822017-06-01T23:58:00.002-04:002017-06-01T23:58:19.061-04:00Is this thing still on?It's been a while.<div>
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This blog was never updated on a daily basis even in its early heyday, but it trailed off in a major way. Some of this is due to Twitter and then Facebook, and my <a href="https://joelschlosberg.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/hello-wordpress/">attempted clean break to Wordpress</a> was unsuccessful in starting new momentum where the old had stopped.</div>
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But I've been craving a return to the old-school blogosphere from the maelstrom of gossip and trivia and venting that is social media. That's where everyone seems to be nowadays, but some of my fellow bloggers who started around the time I did, like <a href="http://knappster.blogspot.com/">Tom Knapp</a>, have kept at personal blogging with a regular if relatively small readership, so it can be done.</div>
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And I was sick through most of May, so any attempt at doing a whole month of writing would have to wait.</div>
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So in a new month, here I am. Are you?</div>
Joel Schlosberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08398507139594460538noreply@blogger.com0