It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog. I’ve been working on a site redesign on and off and frankly have been just plain distracted of late and posting articles of interest to my Facebook page instead. This post encompasses multiple articles and is a more expansive idea, so I thought I’d discuss it here instead and then link it to Facebook. A lot has been made of US President Barack Obama’s supposed ties to Islam. He lived in a foreign country for a period of his childhood where Islam is the national religion. His father was Muslim and his middle name is Hussein. There was a lot of fear mongering during the campaign for election and certain groups attempted to foster the notion that if elected president, then Sen Barack Obama would “serve the interest of Muslims” and thereby disenfranchise America from its allies. A lot of this talk died down after election day and the insinuations that Obama was secretly an Arab sympathizer were dropped and during his first 100 days, President Obama was careful to tread lightly in the face of Middle East relations. Many of Obama’s speeches regarding Iran, Israel, and the Middle East echoed those of policy makers before him, with the variation that even hostile leaders were welcome to the diplomatic table as long as they are willing to do so openly.

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3

I read an article this morning that deeply disturbs me. To summarize, in a bid to save failing newspapers, who’ve seen a substantial drop in revenue over recent years, the AP is going to work to lower to cost of newspapers and begin prosecuting bloggers and others who link to articles written by AP members without sharing their own ad revenue or obtaining explicit permission. I won’t go into why I think this is completely stupid and the OPPOSITE of what they should be doing, because I’ve done it below. This is an open letter to the Associated Press about their intended practice. If you agree with my points, I urge you to copy and send this letter to them at info@ap.org.

Pages: 1 · 2

I’ve been quite public about my distaste for the RIAA and its pathetic methods. I’ve called for people to stop buying CDs of artists who belong to the RIAA in hopes we can avoid giving those litigious vipers anything more to fuel their anti-entrepreneurial crusade, but you may ask yourself (as I did), “How do I know who’s with the enemy and who’s safe?” That’s an excellent question. With their roster changing regularly and new mini-labels popping up here and there, it seems impossible to know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. Enter the RIAA Radar. The RIAA Radar uses the Greasemonkey plugin for Firefox to index the item you are viewing on popular sites like Amazon.com against the RIAA membership list to indicate whether a CD is safe to buy or not. When viewing the artist’s purchase page, it displays a helpful message over the album picture to indicate whether this album is “clean” or not. If the artist is an RIAA member, the message is red (buying this album pays for your lawsuit at some point) or green (indicating profits from your purchase are unlikely to be used against you). I cannot express enough how important a tool like this is, or urge you enough to use it to make informed decisions. As such, these are explicit instructions on how to install and use it: 1> Go to the Greasemonkey for Mozilla homepage and install the plugin under Firefox 2> Restart your browser and install the RIAA Radar Greasemonkey script. 3> Restart your browser again and continue about your business. To test I went to Amazon and searched out Metallica, which predictably came up Red. I then searched for Skinny Puppy, which happily displayed Green. I encourage you all to contribute to the RIAA Radar site to support someone who did something good for us all.

I harp on this a lot, I know, but I think it’s important. Even the so-called “forward thinking” Obama administration does not seem to understand the technology that got it elected. According to Wired, the US government has decided to stand behind the draconian copyright penalties the RIAA continues to pursue against ordinary citizens, irrespective of the fact that the damages it claims are completely unverifiable and arbitrary. These organizations continue to suffer the consequences of their failure to understand the complex marketplace they find themselves in now and take out that failure on their consumers. Of course I won’t buy your damned CDs! You charge more than they are worth and your distribution model is irresponsible and excessive! I don’t need more STUFF in my apartment. I need more MUSIC. Instead of still trying to get $20 for a CD you don’t even need to market in print media or injection mold, why not pass some of those savings on to me?

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

It’s been a long time since my last real update and this morning I have a lot to say about, you guessed it, BABIES. Those little bundles of joy that are produced from the disgusting, slimy miracle of birth. I’m not really a fan myself (as you might have guessed), but a lot people are and good for them! There’s been a lot of talk in the news of late about these little poop factories, from the mother of some freshly squeezed octuplets, to the sad story of abortion gone wrong. Everyone seems to have baby fever these days, and while I understand it’s something people get excited about, it continues to mystify me that people don’t reflect on it more seriously. The Western World spends BILLIONS of dollars each year on technology to make women pregnant. Whether you are old or young, infertile, or just plain have no desire to procreate with the opposite sex directly, as long as you have a womb, cash, and some time to kill, pretty much anyone can get pregnant in a safe, sterile environment. While proponents will say this is the miracle of modern science, I beg to differ.

Pages: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4