And the books were in our heads.

So, on the subject of this, following hard upon this, I have the following to say:

As it so happens, I lament the loss of old bookstores, but by god, I am not going to spit in the face of progress to do it, or for crying out loud, call progress and advancement Fascist. Protecting an industry is wrong when it's car companies clinging to gasoline instead of more efficient engines for aesthetic reasons, and it's wrong when its publishers who want to make a mint on mass market hardcovers. Will the books go away? No. Will they change? Yes, very probably. Is the Kindle the best medium for e-reading? Not necessarily, but that is why we have anti-trust and competition law, and other things to prevent monopoly.

I could say more, and make this truly tl;dr, but I think that I will have said what I mean, now.

Reacharound.

I'm not sure I can, in good faith, continue to call this a moderate blog. In spite of the fact that I am in agreement with the House Republicans on /their/ version of the economic bailout package in general-- one which requires wallstreet use private capital to inject liquidity into the market. I'm wary about the tax law easing part of it, but I'd have to look more closely at the details.

But the thing of it is, my opinions are becoming a lot more socialist than I had expected would ever happen. I believe that a society which required debt to function is fundamentally flawed, and this kind of thing is pretty much bound to happen. And I'm rather not convinced that such a collapse is a bad thing. So I'm rather biased here.

Frankly, I'd rather slice my own damn bread.