The Cult of the Cool Mac: Made with 100% USDA real meat!

New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller gave us a story on Monday, describing what tunes were on President Bush's iPod.

Ignore for now that niggling distraction as to why they devoted a page to this crap when the same day brought news of a new plague virus; hostages and assassinations in Iraq; nuclear bomb materials in Iran; a crisis of leadership in the World Bank; accusations of unlawful trade practices causing the hike in gasoline prices (when surpluses are rising); economics experts debunking the fed's position on the quickly ebbing dollar; leadership in Congress taking bribes, trading votes and "influence peddling" and so on.

A gem in that pot of boiling fluff was this quote:

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist during the 2004 campaign.

That's right! President Bush had his friend copy tunes onto the iPod for him. A civil copyright violation with penalties including up to $150,000 in statutory damages PER-SONG!

It's one of those little details that points out how rediculous is the RIAA's battle to control our otherwise private lives. Odds are that the president never realized that sharing music files was illegal. The music industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress for ever-more harsh, restrictive and invasive laws to protect income that never naturally belonged to them. Historically, people have always freely traded music as a joyous part of mutual culture and socialization. It's a natural, healthy instinctive thing to do.

I'd love to see that cease-and-desist notice.

Read the story:
White House Letter: President Bush's iPod