First, read Michael Croft's post here. I had a Latvian-born professor of philosophy at Wittenberg University - a brilliant, benign, sad, yet almost giddy man named Klive who saw ABBA's "Dancing Queen" as the downfall of Western Civilization as we know it - who wrote the official philosophy of education for the country of India. This struck us all as odd, that this very Germanic fellow - who looked very much like an older, jollier Hitler - who taught at quiet little Wittenberg in out-of-the-way Springfield, Ohio, would be the official philosopher of education for the country of India.

But it is certainly no odder than the RIAA's retiring blunderbuss Hilary Rosen rewriting the intellectual property laws for Iraq. I wonder if she would have been hired for the job had this information regarding RIAA sales statistics compiled by musician George Zieman had been better known:

My current consternation comes in the form of a letter from my congressional representative, who states that "In 2001, record sales were down 10 percent because of unauthorized music downloads..."

Yes, sales were down. Other than that obvious fact, there is no empirical data to suggest that downloading is the cause of the problem. I've asked the RIAA. In fact, I would go so far as to say I have relentlessly taunted them in hopes of a reasonable explanation. They offer none.

So think about this. As the original research I conducted indicates (and has been verified by SoundScan via BusinessWeek.com), the record labels began to reduce the number of releases BEFORE the Napster hearings. When they went in front of Congress to complain about downloading, Hilary Rosen could confidently state that sales were going to suffer.

Because it was engineered.

Here's another interesting point. I can go to www.discmakers.com and order CDs for $1.89 each. Not "replicated" but created from a glass master. As I understand it, the current wholesale price for a CD is about $12.

....Why does the government accept the "sales are down" without any consideration of other, equally plausible explanations? And why does the press?

....I've written to every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Commerce Committee and Small Business Committee. I've written to Jay Berman, Hilary Rosen and the Recording Artists Coalition. With the lone exception of Janis Ian, absolutely everyone has totally ignored me. [Interesting-People]

So we have a disingenuous propagandist working for the new Iraq in the very area of her greatest perfidy - and just what she always wanted: a country of her very own to play with.