The folks at CBS and the folks at Time-Warner have broken off negotiations and the CBS-owned channels, including Showtime, TMC, FLIX and Smithsonian have gone dark for millions of Time-Warner subscribers in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other markets. I am one of them, having recently abandoned DirecTV for Time-Warner. Can I time it or what?

This is, of course, a dispute between two corporations that each make eighty truckloads of money per hour but want to make 81. This could probably be settled if the CEO at either company was willing to forego this year's salary increase…but those salaries are more important than the interests of the customers.

What should happen here won't happen. Congress should vote that the so-called "free" channels that use the public airwaves like CBS, have to be free to the public at all times. CBS shouldn't be demanding retransmission fees from cable operators for any channel I can pick up on my roof antenna. Then they could just duke it out over the premium channels at their leisure and with less urgency on anyone's part.

But like I said, that won't happen because Congress doesn't believe in passing laws that cut into corporate profits. The Republicans would vote for free abortion-on-demand and Democrats would abolish Social Security before they'd do that. It won't even be discussed.

I can live without any of those channels indefinitely. My next "must see" show on CBS is probably The Tony Awards and that's not 'til next May. Both companies may be surprised how many people will learn that they can live without them, too.

If you're thinking of signing up for Uber, here's a promotional link that you might want to use. As I understand it, if you sign up via that link, the first time you take a ride with them, you get $10.00 credit. More importantly, I get $10 credit. Give it a try. Can't hurt.

Hearing from a lot of people today who use and love Uber. I have to go to Las Vegas several times in the coming months to work on a project and I was wondering how to use it there. How would it work for, say, an airport pickup? The answer is that it doesn't, at least not in Vegas, where laws have been configured to protect the existing taxi industry.

That doesn't bother me. Vegas cab drivers are some of the best in the country and they deserve to make a living. But let's watch. I think Uber is the new business model for the industry of charging people to drive them quickly and without ceremony from Point A to Point B, and that the taxi biz will have to reconfigure itself within that model. Limousines, I suspect, will not change much because they're about luxury, usually prearranged. Also, a lot of limo bookings are a matter of someone sending a car for you…and Uber isn't arranged for that. But the times, they will be a'changing…

The horrors of war…

This is a guarded rave for a new service called Uber. It's guarded because yesterday I took my first (and so far, only) trip somewhere via Uber and it's possible I got their one great driver and the unique experience of having everything work exactly as desired. But it sure didn't feel like an outlier. It felt like a quantum leap over the (as of now) old-fashioned way of taking a cab somewhere. If it's always like this, they've got my business…and that's in part because they might force the regular taxi industry to adopt their model.

Here is how Uber works. You sign up at their website, which involves putting a credit card on file. You give them the number of your iPhone or Android (the only smartphones they support at the moment) and you download the corresponding app to put on that smartphone. You also have the option of uploading a photo of yourself for reasons I'll explain. All of this is free.

Okay, so then the moment comes when you want to go somewhere. You go into that app and first of all, you tell them where you are. Or you can let them tell you where you are via the G.P.S. built into your Smartphone. Then you tell them where you want to go, which you can do by entering the address or doing an Internet-type search for the place.

Then you tell them what kind of car you want. The default is the "Black Car," which I gather is a limo-style towncar. In some areas, you have the option of an SUV for larger parties or of something they call "Uber-X." This may be a smaller car or a Hybrid or both. (And in some areas, Uber is not available at all yet. Better check and see if yours is before you get too excited about this.)

They'll tell you how long it will take their nearest driver to get to you. If you want, you can get an estimate of the fare. Then you hit the button to send your order and seconds later, you receive a text message that Harry or Phil or Enrico or whoever is X minutes from you. You also get a photo of your driver and his current recent rating by other Uber customers.

When he shows up, you get another text message that he's arrived. The photo you may have uploaded may help him recognize you…but either way, you find each other, he opens the door for you, you get in and he takes you where you want to go. When you arrive, he opens the door for you and you get out and that, by God, is all there is to it.

There's no tipping. There's no cash handled at all. It's all billed to your credit card. You get an actual record of the trip online and you can download a real receipt. The advantages if you're on an expense account or wish to bill the trip to your company are obvious.

It all sounds very neat and efficient…which brings us to the question of how it works in reality. Yesterday, for me, it was perfect.

I had to go somewhere out in the valley and for reasons I won't bore you with, didn't want to drive. I entered the info. I selected Uber-X. My estimated time of driver arrival was five minutes. My estimated fee for the trip was $25-$28. When I sent my request, I saw a picture of my driver and it said he was George and he had a 4.5 star rating out of a possible five. A second later, I received a text message that said, "Hi Mark, your Uber is en route! George (4.9 stars) will pick you up in 3 minutes." George made it in two. He was driving a new, late model Mercedes Coupe (I think it was a Coupe) and it was as nice and comfy a ride as any I've ever had in my life. There was friendly, spirited conversation all the way, though he made a point of telling me he'd gladly shut up if I preferred, which I didn't.

We got there efficiently and he insisted on hopping out of the vehicle to open the door for me. He also made it clear that they're serious about this "no tipping" thing and that he wouldn't accept cash from me. There is no option in Uber to add a tip to your credit card. Mine was charged $28 for the trip, which was 8.69 miles in 25:46 and the online, downloadable receipt gives you all this info.

So how's the cost? A Black Car or SUV would have been considerably more but I'm pretty sure I couldn't have gotten there by cab for much less. I used a site called the L.A. Taxi Fare Finder and entered the same route. It came back with a price of $31.98 and that's without tip. I tried entering a two-mile trip to my doctor's office and the Fare Finder said $8.10, not including tip, whereas the estimate from Uber for a Uber-X car was $6-$7 with tipping disallowed.

I cannot think of a way in which my experience could have been improved. At my leisure later, I used the Uber App to give George a richly-deserved five-star rating. George was an Armenian gent who told me he worked fifteen years as the head of valet parking for a swanky restaurant up on the Sunset Strip. When it closed, he became a driver for Uber and he is wildly happy with it. So, you may get the sense, was I.

There are apparently other, similar services popping up but this one worked so perfectly that I may not be investigating alternatives. Maybe my next Uber ride will be in a cattle truck driven by a guy with no teeth and photos all over his windshield of Anthony Weiner, who takes me to my doctor's office by way of Lansing, Michigan…but so far, I am impressed.

You gotta feel sorry for Anthony Weiner. Here he was, doing everything possible to convince America he was the creepiest guy who could possibly ever be mayor of a big city…and I have to say he was doing a fine job of it. Then along comes this guy in San Diego to usurp the title and show him up. That's just plain unfair. But I still have confidence in Tony. He'll come up with something to vault back into first place and to inspire more songs like this…

Why do I have the premonition that before long, we're going to read another news story about George Zimmerman firing his gun at someone?

Every so often, I receive a residual check for some TV show I've written. I've gotten eight or nine from the Writers Guild in the past week and I think so far, they total under ten bucks. The lowest is for an episode I wrote for Bob, the sitcom in which Mr. George Robert "Bob" Newhart played a comic book artist. The check was for a nickel. Fortunately, I do not have to give my agent back then 10% on residuals.

I was shocked…but not at the amount. I was shocked that Bob is still running somewhere.

Actually, that one may even be worth less than a nickel to me because I may not be able to cash it. It was made out to a personal corporation I no longer have (but did when I wrote that episode) and interestingly, addressed to my then-agency which is no longer in business. Fortunately, the way residuals work, it wasn't sent to that now-extinct agency. It was sent to the Guild which forwarded it directly to me. That's just one of about eighty thousand services the WGA does for its members. I'm guessing I could persuade my bank to accept it anyway and if not, I could send it back to its maker for a name change…but it is, after all, for five cents. It's of more value as a conversation piece. Or scratch paper.

Such checks are not uncommon. One day one year, I sat down to lunch with Howie Morris, a wonderful actor/friend I miss very much. He hauled out a large wad of checks he'd just received. "I guess lunch is on you," I said…but he responded, "Take a look at some of these." They were mostly from Hanna-Barbera shows like The Flintstones and Atom Ant and there was even one in there for the episode of The Jetsons in which he played rock idol Jet Screamer and sang, "Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah." The tune went something like this…

No, come to think of it, it went exactly like that. That was, by the way, Howie's first voice job for H-B and the first such gig he had in Hollywood when he moved out here from New York.

After lunch, Howie began endorsing those checks and being a good forger, I helped out. This was back when he was doing autograph shows and selling his signature for ten, sometimes twenty dollars…but here he was writing it over and over for an average of about eleven cents. I suggested he get a rubber stamp made but he said, "No, they cost eight dollars and I'd lose money on the deal." The whole inch-thick pile turned out to be around forty dollars.

There is or was (I'm not sure of the proper tense) a bar in the valley called Residuals — a place where actors and writers could congregate and drink their checks. If you brought in one for under a buck, they'd give you a beverage in exchange and then put the check up on the wall. Makes you feel sorry for the poor guy who gets one for $1.01. If it had been for the amount of my Bob check, it might have bought something.

Every so often in one of the above-the-line Hollywood guilds, someone has a brainstorm. Whenever Paramount or Universal or any studio processes and sends a check, it costs them ‐ by some accounts — around ten bucks per transaction. If it's that, they spent $10.05 to send me my nickel Bob check.

Such checks have prompted many to suggest the following bargain: The union and the employer agree that the latter will pay no check under, say, ten bucks directly. Instead, they will triple the amount and give it to the proper union's pension and/or health fund. Obviously, the precise numbers can be juggled a bit but there's surely a configuration where it would be a win/win for both sides. The studios would spend less. The writers, actors or directors would get more, albeit indirectly.

Why hasn't this been instituted? The producers would go for it in a flash. So, I have a feeling, would the majority of members in the Writers, Actors or Directors Guilds. The obstacle seems to be that it would infuriate — and perhaps rightly-so — a minority in those labor organizations. I'm told that when it was brought up once at a Screen Actors Guild meeting, several livid actors leaped to their feet and began screaming. One reportedly hollered, "I haven't worked in three years! Residual checks under ten dollars were all I got last year…and now my union wants to confiscate 100% of my income for the year!?"

The fellow who told me this, who worked at SAG, said, "It just didn't seem worth getting so many people so upset. They really looked forward to getting those one-dollar checks." That's apparently why this will never be instituted. But it's still a good idea…

• Trying to think of more things Anthony Weiner can do to make sure he loses. Maybe wearing a Hitler t-shirt and mugging a nun.

Lewis Black delivers a somewhat serious but interesting commencement address…

Fred Kaplan explains the Bradley Manning decision to us. Sounds like the judge made the right call.

A reader who I'm not sure would want to be identified by name wrote to ask…

Inspired by your latest Tales of Your Father, a question occurs to me that you might not know the answer to. As I'm sure you're aware, most people who set out to be professional writers do not make a living at it right away. In fact, even most of those who manage to sell their stuff never make the bulk of their living from it. I certainly won't attribute all of this to luck; apart from raw talent you obviously work at it. (I have no idea how you can keep up your blog so well and do your professional writing, for instance….)

The question I have is: for someone trying to break into professional writing today, what's the most open market to aim at?

The reason I realize that you might not be the best person to answer that question is that the market has changed so radically since you started writing, and the markets you make most of your living from today are, I think, not the ones you would advise a beginner to shoot for (at least not if he's hoping to make money at it). I think you've mentioned comics specifically as a near-impossible field for a writer to get into these days, and I'm pretty skeptical at a beginner getting television assignments either. (And, apropos of your story, porn novels of the type you're talking about are pretty scarce these days, too…VCRs, DVDs, and the internet have pretty much wiped them out, though I'm sure there are still some kinds of writing jobs to be had in that industry.)

But while you're writing for more selective markets, if you do know of any segments of the industry that are crying out for people who can put sentences together and even spell most of the words right, it might be something of interest to some of your readers besides just myself.

(Just as an aside: some years back…ten or fifteen, I think….I attended a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on breaking into comics as an artist or writer. Most of the time was spent talking about art, but when it came to writing, they said there were four basic paths: (1) be an artist, and if you're good, someday they might let you writes some of your own stuff; (2) be a successful writer in another field; (3) move to New York, get a job at Marvel or DC as an assistant editor, work long hours for low pay, and hope to move up; or (4) submit unsolicited stuff and hope it stands out in the slush pile. The pro editors there all agreed the latter was possible….but none of them could remember actually ever buying anything that way…)

Well, you're right that you're asking me for advice with a problem I really haven't faced since 1969…and in a line of work that is forever changing. But I think I can give you a few tips…

Stay out of slush piles. There's a reason they're called that. Most of the unsolicited submissions that any editor or producer receives are not very good. Now, you might think, "Ah, but then my superior work will really stand out" and the answer is that assuming your work is superior — and it may not be as superior as you'd like to think — it doesn't. Being in that pile lumps you in with the folks who are in there because their work is so unexceptional that they haven't been able to be considered via any more direct, dignified route.

Moreover, in most companies, very little attention is paid to the slush pile. The top folks with the power to buy things rarely (if ever) look at it. Often, it's assigned to glorified interns to cull through, meaning that your work is read by people who hope not to find gold in them thar hills because they themselves want to fill any openings and get away from glorified interning.

The main path to writing comic books these days seems to be to your #2 — to have credits in movies or TV or gaming or any of the fields which comic book publishers like to think of as their main areas. Only a few comic book publishers these days are interested in publishing comic books for the sake of publishing comic books. Most see the comics as loss leaders to leverage them into other, more lucrative areas.

The secondary path — and it's a distant second — seems to be to make a splash with a comic for a small publisher. But it's hard to do stand-out work at a publisher which hires its artists at the 99-Cent Store and if you do great work in that venue, it may not get noticed in the major leagues. I started writing comics in 1970 and I don't recall it ever being this difficult for a newcomer to break in.

There's rarely a high-profile marketplace that is easy for new writers to crack…and for the same reason that there's never a lottery that's a cinch to win. Too many other people want to do it…and if the number of openings were to ever double, the number of applicants would probably triple. The one that would be easiest for you depends on two things: What you're good at and what kind of connections you have. You may think you can write anything but even if that's true — and it isn't — you're better at one kind of material than another. You need to weigh demand against the things you're best at and pursue whatever has the best ratio. If you're best at writing Gregorian Chants and second-best at writing wacky sitcoms, I'd go with the latter.

But really, it comes down to access. Do you know anyone in any company for which you'd like to work? Do you have a non-pushy way of approaching someone? And if you don't have access, you need to look for the markets that aren't high-profile, the ones that don't have a slush pile. That's what I did back in '69 when I submitted to Laugh-In magazine. There was an editor sitting there with pages to fill and no one to fill them. This never happens with Superman and Spider-Man.

It's not easy to become a professional writer and it's more difficult, though in a different way, to remain one for any length of time. It never has been easy and it never will be so I don't encourage anyone. I think a lot of people who believe they'd be happy to work in that area would actually be happier doing something else.

You have to be willing to accept a certain uncertainty in your life and you need to really, really keep a good perspective on your work and its value. If you undervalue it or overvalue it, you cannot succeed. And you need to be pragmatic about where you can get your work read and actually considered by people with the power to buy or hire. Once you have experience and a rep, it's different…though often not as different as you might think or wish. I'll post more tips here in the future as I think of them.

Steve Benen notes an interesting thing about Obamacare…

The pattern isn't exactly subtle: if you live in a state where officials want "Obamacare" to work, the law looks great. If you live in a state where officials are actively trying to undermine the law, regardless of what it does to you, your premiums, and your family's access to quality and affordable care, then — you guessed it — the news isn't as encouraging.

Makes you wonder how many Americans are going to suffer or maybe die without insurance…or pay more for the insurance they do buy…because some people just want don't want their political opponents' plan to actually help people. Read the whole piece.

Your bucket of sloths is right here…

I don't care if Juan Williams is on Fox News. He's right about the Republicans and health care in this country.

And that statistic about how 57% of the nation would like to see the entire Congress thrown out? How about asking everyone if they want to see their Congressperson — you know, the only one they get to vote about — thrown out?