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ASCAP Says Apple Should Pay For 30-sec. Song Samples
CNet reports on a new money battle brewing between those who generate music and those who profit from selling it on the Net. "Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are making preparations to one day collect performance fees from Apple and other e-tailers for not just traditional music downloads but for downloads of films and TV shows as well. Those downloads contain music after all. These groups even want compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples. ... Apparently, the music industry can't obtain the fees through negotiations. They have begun lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would require anyone who sells a download to pay a performance fee..."
i think a lot of cultures actively endorse masturbation
I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that I actively endorse masturbation, in moderation.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
I wouldn't know much about that, but I respect the rights of others to believe whatever they want to believe. If you want to be gay, be gay. If you want be jewish, be jewish. And if you want to teach your kids masturbation is a sin, then teach them.
It's *none* of my business how you choose to live your life - gay, jewish, or otherwise. And certainly Not my right to overrule your decision and order you or your children to be straight, christian, or pro-masturbation. I am not your master, and you are not a serf.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
> Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist (or so I've been told). And I don't need to prove it,
> since it's a belief and beliefs are a protected right.
Sure you do. If you expect to be taken for anything but a total nutter,
you will justify the claims you make. Not every religion on the planet
is fiercely anti-intellectual. Some of the people you would like to lump
yourself in with there would be very much offended by your mindless attitude.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
You have something of a point, but the root of the instruction is: the testosterone will out itself, in some manner. Either through nocturnal emissions (i.e., laundering your sheets before your parents find out), through masturbation, or through sex, consensual or not.
Just look to the animal kingdom; it's healthy and natural for organisms to rid themselves of excess hormones, and unfortunately we can't just sweat them out. So cutting off the tip of your children's manhood, in the false hope that they won't take up "that sin" is the height of not only hypocrisy, but also child abuse.
Off on a tangent, perhaps, but the root of circumcision was to reduce masturbation. Which is completely natural, as our more-hairy ancestors demonstrate in the zoos. The UK government has it right, and thank you for playing.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
The problem is dictating beliefs to children. I am a rather rabid atheist, and have a big problem with teaching clap-trap in schools (creationism, pure abstinence, etc...), but I have to admit, for the sake of fairness, that us atheists also shouldn't be dictating our values to the religious, no matter how much I think they're a bunch of silly loons. I personally think its fine to flog your knob to your heart's content, but I don't think our schools should say so. Shouldn't our schools focus on... you know... reading and math skills, instead? If I, as a parent, have a serious... pardon the expression... hard on against masturbation, then I have a reasonable objection.
Of course beleifs are a protected right, you (in general, not referring to anyone specific here) are free to beleive that anything is a sin and I am free to beleive that your beleifs are laughable. I'm free to mock them too.
Mocking is fine, dictating how our children learn is a different thing.
But then again, I think the Christian idea of teaching only "abstinence" is silly, and oddly science agrees with me.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
>>>>>> Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist (or so I've been told). And I don't need to prove it, since it's a belief and beliefs are a protected right.
>
>> Sure you do. If you expect to be taken for anything but a total nutter, you will justify the claims you make.
Or what? You going to strap me to the rack and stretch my body until I either recant my belief that masturbation is a sin, or else die??? Come on. This is not the middle ages. This is a modern, liberated society where people are free to believe whatever they want to believe in regards to sex, and the crown/government has no authority to overrule. We are FREE citizens, not serfs.
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>>>Not every religion on the planet is fiercely anti-intellectual.
STRAWMAN ARGUMENT. I didn't say they were anti-intellectual. Most religions like Catholicism have very well-reasoned arguments for why they think masturbation is a sin against God, and will likely protest strongly against the UK government health monopoly telling schoolkids "it's good to masturbate".
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall