Cosmic Sitcom™

You really think Republicans are all about lowering taxes and cutting spending? You’re only half right.

New York’s size may be intimidating but I’ve rarely found people more compassionate and honest than I have here.

The Founding Fathers would look at the things we’re not so proud of today — our nasty politics, greed, warmongering — and likely conclude this is pretty standard American behavior that has survived through today from their own era.

It’s a good thing scientific principles don’t depend on a popularity contest to be true or we’d still be in the Dark Ages. Playing on the emotional appeal of “fair play,” creationism proponents in Texas want the theory of evolution included in the curriculum, weakening the rigor of the state’s science education.

Are we gays so afraid of being labeled that we long for a future where we’re simply unremarkable? The release of ‘Blood and Fire,’ which I co-wrote with noted scifi author David Gerrold provoked a startling amount of homophobia disguised as open-mindedness. But those people aren’t fooling anybody.

An Internet fan film stands toe-to-toe with more expensive studio productions, pointing the way to releasing the chokehold on quality exerted by needing to succeed in mass media.

While record labels continue to flail about for a new business model, it turns out they were making stupid mistakes long before the Web.

Fans’ creative efforts set off 2001’s Potter War, in which Warner Brothers backed off after being excoriated in the media for beating up on kids. So now we have fan-created Wizard Rock. Awesome.

The Web offers artists the ability to reach out directly to fans, but to be successful you have to know what fans want, and then provide them some nice stuff for free and a lot of cool stuff for purchase.

The Nebula controversy over fan-produced Star Trek: Phase II is an awards tempest in a writers’ teapot but it points to a looming change in what constitutes a ‘professional’ production in the age of the Web.