Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. (ELLC)
Matthew 13:31-32
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (NIV)
Everyone is entitled to my opinion
Brilliant Minds Think Alike, But Brilliant Lines Cost You
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALEveryone’s entitled to David Brinkley’s opinion, but they have to pay for Ashleigh Brilliant’s thoughts.
Mr. Brinkley, the television journalist, says he has been the victim of “a shakedown.” He says the culprit is Mr. Brilliant, but more than that he won’t say: “I don’t want to get into it because I don’t want him coming back at me. We’ve paid him off. Now I just want to get rid of him.”
Mr. Brilliant’s racket: professional epigrammatist. Creating and copyrighting pithy mottoes has been his livelihood since 1967. So far, the 63-year-old former history professor has copyrighted 7,540 aphorisms, which he licenses for postcards, T-shirts and other products. They range from his favorite, “Fundamentally, there may be no basis for anything,” to No. 7,540: “My plan is to get through life without ever having a plan.” And they include No. 461, copyrighted in 1974: “Everybody Is Entitled to My Opinion.”
After Mr. Brinkley’s book with a similar title was published last fall, Mr. Brilliant wrote him a letter saying: “I have always had the utmost respect for you and your work … but I am sorry to tell you that there is a legal problem.” Noting that Brilliant v. W.B. Enterprises Inc. found that even a short, catchy phrase is entitled to copyright protection, Mr. Brilliant explained, “I am obliged to fight tenaciously to retain those rights, because my entire livelihood depends on it.”
Mr. Brinkley acknowledged in his book that he paid $1,000 to a friend of his daughter, Edwin Craig Wall III, for thinking the title up one night over dinner.
But Mr. Brilliant thinks Mr. Wall was just “subconsciously quoting” the saying, not creating it. “I impute no dishonesty to Mr. Wall,” Mr. Brilliant wrote to Mr. Brinkley, “but there is also a very good possibility that he had somewhere encountered it on one of my products.”
Indeed, the world of epigrams is fairly well-mined with Brilliant copyrights waiting for infringement. He has now settled 134 infringement claims, he says.
And in this case, too, he won in the end. Random House, which published Mr. Brinkley’s book, paid him $1,000 for the rights without agreeing to or contesting Mr. Brilliant’s claims.
All of which reminds Mr. Brilliant of thought No. 1,862: “Before you go to sleep tonight, please remember that all my dreams are copyrighted.”
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
My opinion is that
| People like Mr. Brilliant give professional epigrammatists a bad name |  |
If restricting other people’s freedom of speech is what his “entire livelihood depends on” then it’s time to get a new job.
Stephen Berry for Tamaki
Libertarians come and libertarians go … and some libertarians come back, older and wiser, and on steroids! Such a libertarian is Stephen Berry. One time Deputy Leader of the Libertarianz Party, this time around Berry is an Independent candidate for the Tamaki electorate. His website is here.
I’ve always loved Berry’s press releases. ACT – Classically Illiberal Stinkers is an all-time favourite.
“Any person who openly advocates a war on people of whom they disapprove could be called many things, most of which are uncomplimentary, but they can not be called ‘classical liberal.’ They are an authoritarian.
“I had always thought that classical liberals supported individual freedom and ownership over your own body and life,” Berry says. “Now, either I am mistaken about what a classical liberal is, or Newman truly has no political integrity. No prizes will be awarded for the correct answer.”
It was press releases like this one (and constant aggravation from Muriel Newman) that inspired me to join the Libz. Indeed, my first press release as a Libz spokesman, Smoking ban poll causes alarm, followed a week later.
There are many candidates to choose from in Tamaki this election. Most of them offer varying degrees of the status quo; only one offers the alternative of individual liberty. That candidate is Stephen Berry …
Unlike the other candidates for the seat of Tamaki, I am not going to bribe you with election lollies obtained through taxation. I am not going to promise to spend more of your money on special interests. I am not going to pretend that the solution to local and national issues is more Government. I am not going to tell you how to live your life, spend your money or what you must do with your property!
I am standing on a platform of individual freedom. Real individual freedom – not the watered down illusion that the Act party will offer. I am advocating true personal sovereignty – unlike the National party which has a constitution espousing freedom while they ban substances they do not approve of. I promote complete economic freedom – in contrast to Labour and Green politicians who wish to steal your money to redistribute to the lazy.
Bring it on!
I am Tamaki’s only freedom candidate!
Vote Stephen Berry for Tamaki! (And give the ALCP your party vote!)
God bless you all!
Sabbath bloody sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you
Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” (NIV)
Death metal Friday
Everybody’s looking forward to the weekend.
Why I am a libertarian
Because
A person can not consistently argue for personal liberties and at the same time be opposed to economic liberty.
[F]or those who can not reconcile the idea that someone who advocates free market capitalism also supports decriminalizing cannabis, consider this – both are expressions of the rights of individuals to live their lives as they see fit. No one else owns your life or what you do with it. That applies equally to the drugs you take and to the productive labour you choose to engage in – and the subsequent disposal of all wealth thus produced.
Read more here.
Alcohol is a Class C controlled drug analogue
Wine drinkers may be imbibing illicit drug
Drinkers of wine, sherry and port may be unknowingly breaking the law and consuming small doses of the party drug fantasy, an illegal class B drug.
The revelation has brought calls for wine to be tested to see if there are traces of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), or its precursor gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) – the active ingredient in fantasy.
The Ministry of Health has only just been made aware of the issue and is working through how to deal with it.
But alcohol is already a Class C controlled drug analogue.
 |
|
The substance at the top is 1,4-butanediol (“Fantasy”), a class B controlled drug.
The substance at the bottom is ethanol (“Alcohol”).
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 states that
controlled drug analogue means any substance … that has a structure substantially similar to that of any controlled drug …
I shall drink
I remember that a certain man whom I once comforted on the loss of his son said to me, “Wait and see, Martin, you will become a great man.” I have often thought of these words, for, as I have said, such utterances have something of a prophetic quality. Be of good courage, therefore, and cast these dreadful thoughts out of your mind. Whenever the devil pesters you with these [anxious and despondent] thoughts, at once seek out the company of men, drink more, joke and jest, or engage in some other form of merriment. Sometimes it is necessary to drink a little more, play, jest, or even commit some sin in defiance and contempt of the devil in order not to give him an opportunity to make us scrupulous about trifles. We shall be overcome if we worry too much about falling into some sin.
Accordingly if the devil should say, “Do not drink,” you should reply to him, “On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount.” Thus one must always do the opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more often if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me? Would that I could commit some token sin simply for the sake of mocking the devil, so that he might understand that I acknowledge no sin and am conscious of no sin. When the devil attacks and torments us, we must completely set aside the whole Decalogue.
— Martin Luther, letter to Jerome Weller, 1530.
[Cross-posted to SOLO.]