Hence the line "...and not old books." In the original post. It's obviously ironic that he would talk about reality and truth when his job and beliefs are wholly based on fantasy and superstition, greed, murder, persecution, and ritualized tyranny over his all-to-real subjects around the world. Forest for the trees...forest for the trees.
I don't believe it because it a subjective argument. You SAY you have a "better quality of living", but how could you possibly know that? I have an amazing quality of living. You Europeans make assumptions based on bad information and you want to believe that it's so bad here. But it's not. I live here. I should know.
I've actually been stopped by police because I cut through a black neighborhood where crack was available on every street corner. The cop figured a white guy driving through there must be buying drugs, and probably 9 times out of 10 he'd be right, but I was number 10 and was just using it as a shortcut. Pot is illegal. Simple fact. There is no God, therefore you have no God-given right to smoke anything. Simple fact. But I bet you go about smoking your pot without much hassle unless you do stupid shit like be obvious when you're looking to buy it. Millions of people smoke pot every day without any of the issues you seem to have. Maybe you're just doing it wrong? The ideals that this country was based on still apply. But if you're going to be a dick and do something that is currently illegal - and has been for a long time - then you're going to get hassled. It's just common sense. Pot is classified as a controlled substance. There are already laws on the books dealing with controlled substances so no amendment is necessary.
I'm very vocal and active in my community and attend city and county commission meetings and have gotten into shouting matches with politicians. No cars are parked outside my house and no shakedowns have ever occurred. Freedom in America is alive and well. Stories of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.
The deaf eyes thing was a joke about reading this kind of nonsense about how the US is not free anymore etc. It's just bullshit rhetoric by people who are pissed off because of the wars. We put ourselves out their as a beacon of freedom and democracy and that pisses a lot of people off who want oppression and religious rule. We make ourselves an easy target because we give a shit about defending those ideals and when you want to make an omelet you gotta bust a few heads...eggs. Eggheads. No such thing as a "God given right". God does not, nor has one ever, existed.
Saying the US isn't a free country is just ignorant bullshit. Terrorists have decided they don't like our way of life and it's become imperative that we do what we can to protect our way of life from their meddling and violence. So it's tougher getting into the US now - oh, but that's OUR fault of course. Waaah. Just another whiny European. Take more shots at the easy target. All the while you still wish you lived here. I live here. I know firsthand about my freedoms. I rail against my government at county commission meetings whenever I see fit - without ANY repercussions. You can go right to Washington D.C. and voice your opinion directly to your Congressman or Senator. You can assemble and protest about anything and everything if you feel like it. You are protected and have the right under the Constitution to disagree with the government publicly and in the press without any backlash. I exercise these rights whenever I see fit. The US is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and that just pisses people off because they are petty, jealous assholes.
It's obvious that my first premise was correct by being thankful and feeling fortunate to live here. With so much criticism coming from the rest of the world we must be doing something right. It's all just a bunch of sour grapes from the lot of you. You believe the stupid sensationalism in the press about the dumbass Tea Party and other nonsense that gets attention. If you had half a brain you'd be able to see right through that crap. That's a very small percentage of the population, but they make a lot of noise. Big deal. Unfortunately ignorance knows no boundaries so you Europeans see that shit and think it applies to everyone here. Yeah, that's real smart of you. You're SO insightful and intelligent and know exactly what the US is about and how it's people think. Idiots.
I love this country not because I'm patriotic, but because this country stands for all the right ideals. While we may stumble at times in the application of those ideals, whether YOU want to believe it or not we try to reinforce those ideals in ourselves and in others all the time. The US does a tremendous amount of good in the world that doesn't get big press headlines. People only want to concentrate on the negative because it's easier and we make an easy target because we put ourselves out there in the name of freedom and democracy. If you can't see that, or at least even TRY to see that, then your opinion has no value. It's just more jealous anger directed at the wrong country. Why don't you aim a little of that hostility at the nutjobs who attack freedom, not those of us who promote it.
Absolute bullshit coming from someone who doesn't live here. Blindly supporting my country? You did not R MY FA. Don't like it? Don't come here. I wish for once we just actually did what everyone thinks that we do and just bust into countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela and just openly tell them that we are taking their oil and there's nothing they can do about it. Line up the warships and tankers offshore, drop in the tanks and troops and finally prove all the whiny Europeans and jealous Muslims right. Instead of having this nonsense bandied about by ignorant hippies. It's so easy to take shots at such a large target. Of course the US has absolutely NO positive impact in the world and has been such a horrible example of freedom throughout it's history. How could I possibly like the country I live in, let alone love it? Yeah, I'm the blind one, but you should remove your own blindfold that hides the real US from your sight and only allows you to see what is being force fed to you by your anti-US media.
To say I'm being affected by the same kind of syndrome as the Russians is proof positive that you have no idea what you are talking about.
Just goes to show you that some societies (and apparently their "leaders" more so) just can't wrap their minds around the concept of freedom after so many years of oppression and state-sponsored censorship. I even hear some Russian ex-pats speak of how the people there have just come to expect oppressive government and even go so far as to embrace it now. As an American I can't wrap my mind around that, but I guess I understand the underlying reasons for it. Despite what some think about my government and some of it's people, I feel so very fortunate to have been born in the US and I remind myself - and stories like this also remind me - how truly fortunate I am to live in a free society. And dumb comments about how the US isn't really a free society will fall on deaf eyes. I love my country for better or worse, and not just out of blind patriotism, but because the ideals set forth to create this country are the best we've come up with yet. I truly feel for the people of oppressive regimes and hope that one day they get to bask in the warmth that is freedom of thought and expression.
Receiving Stolen Goods: The offense of acquiring goods with the knowledge that they have been stolen, extorted, embezzled, or unlawfully taken in any manner.
Now, the "knowledge" that they have been stolen is the sticking point. It's quite possible that the new "owners" of the dog had no actual knowledge that they were receiving stolen property, but that would have to be determined by law enforcement and subsequently the court if law enforcement was convinced that the new owners could have reasonably suspected that the dog was stolen. Either way, the property should be able to be recovered and returned to the original owner, which I have a feeling is what will be the ultimate outcome of this case.
This sounds like something from the Idiocracy movie. So...I put Lojack in my car. Car is stolen and sold to someone on the street within minutes. Cops find stolen car in possession of new "owner". Lojack can't tell you where your car is now because of Data Protection Act?? Um, no. Not in the US. Like a previous poster already pointed out - BUYING STOLEN PROPERTY IS IN AND OF ITSELF A CRIME WHETHER OR NOT IT IS DONE KNOWINGLY.
This is nothing but wishful thinking and total bullshit. This is just a story to try and create a self-fulfilling prophecy by pulling the wool over the eyes of uninformed and ignorant consumers. Thankfully the rest of us know better and will see to it that this nonsense just goes away quietly.
...but I don't much care if you think it is. I've got your subject "right here". Belief in a god, any god, is a delusion. Einstein was an atheist. Thanks for playing.
...a delusional nutjob is still a delusional nutjob, and mentioning God as the driving force behind the concept of mathematics and physics is just blatant pandering. Someone writing about sound, and already established - he's providing no new information - scientific information just to spread their message of superstition seems to me to be the worst kind of trolling. It's very subversive and dishonest. Obviously the reviewer has the same agenda as the author and is just as dishonest. Slashdot should be ashamed for allowing this kind of nonsense to get through. Big deal, a book about stuff that other people have discovered, but with a not-so-hidden agenda. If you can't see through this tripe then you need not be reading \. at all.
You could argue that, but then you'd be wrong. I grew up going to church every Sunday. I was involved in all the youth group activities and trips. I helped with the high school youth group when I was in college. My very best friend - who went on to become a home-schooling, compound-living, batshit crazy fundie - was the youth minister. But it was always a social thing for me. I never fell for the mysticism because it always just seemed so silly. Once I was old enough to realize that I was actually ALLOWED to not believe without harsh social and familial repercussions then that was it for me. But I've always known that it was all nonsense. The problem is that some people's lives are so wrapped up in the church from the time they are children that they would basically have to start their lives completely over and risk being an outcast to all their friends and family who believe. Why do you think preachers constantly talk about faith in their sermons? It's to keep driving an unnatural message home to keep the flock brainwashed and subdued. Superstition in our more modern world just isn't as necessary to explain things as it used to be, so it becomes more and more unnecessary to have faith in something that has lost its usefulness and meaning. People who "turn to Jesus" in times of personal strife and hardship could just as easily turn to the pillow on their bed and pray to it and the end result would be completely the same. Claiming otherwise is just being dishonest and deluded. Personal spirituality is basically harmless, but unfortunately we have these dumb books that people seem to think are so important as to kill for. You get two people in a room that believe in the same delusion and that's where the trouble begins.
Slashdot doesn't shape my views. Calling me a "sheep" is the most blatant example of a pot calling a kettle black. My views are my own and based on my own observations. Like the fact that there has never been any...ANY...empirical evidence for the existence of ANYTHING supernatural EVER existing...EVER. It's all hearsay and myth. God is a delusion. Plain and simple. If you believe that a supernatural being exists who created the universe and pulls the strings then you are deluded. There just isn't any argument about that. The wars we fight, and have fought throughout history, have been largely based on 1)Access to water and arable land to feed an empire's people/army, and 2) One people pissed off at another because they don't believe in the same superstitions. And OF COURSE Islam is based on superstition. At least Buddhism is non-theist, but it's still pointless. I call ALL that nonsense superstition every day. I make it my mission in life to point this out! There are too many examples to list here how religion is holding us back as a civilized species. Maybe not so much here in the U.S. or Europe, but the hold that Islam has on the Middle Eastern Arab states is a pox on those people that needs to be cured. Fundamentalist Christians aren't much better with their trying to wedge Creationism into the public school curriculum as some sort of scientific alternative to evolution. Religious fanatics need to be stopped at ever turn. People who believe in God and that Jesus literally ascended into heaven and is going to come back and the world is going to end are mentally ill. Yes, you are mentally ill and need help. It's sad, but true. And until this is recognized and dealt with by society we are doomed to an existence of bigotry, war, genocide, torture, and utter stupidity by religious leaders, all in the name of one god or another. We got rid of most of the others, we just need to dismiss one more and get on with becoming an advanced civilization. As long as religion is allowed to cloud the judgment of otherwise rational human beings civilization advancement will be stunted.
I'm glad you prefaced that comment with, "As a christian..." so I could just ignore the rest of it as brainwashed nonsense. OF COURSE marriage is just another way for religion to control our sex lives. In Arab countries the church IS the state and vice versa and they try to control every single aspect of people's lives - in public and in their own home. Fundamentalist Christians who would have their way would like to see the same thing here, only instead of in the name of Mohamed it would be in the name of "Jeay-zuzz!" This entire situation is solely created by superstition and the church's power lust. Just another example of why religion is the single biggest roadblock to the advancement of the human race. But it least it helps promote it's own opposition and hopefully that opposition will continue to get smarter and stronger and we can wipe out this plague that has had our species mentally shackled for 2000 years.
Wow. I've served on a jury 3 times in my life. It's amazing that I'm capable of typing this right now. I'm guessing you posted what you did just to invite everyone who has ever served on a jury to respond. I'm sure you don't believe that what you posted has any real basis in fact. If you do then you would be the perfect candidate for one of YOUR juries.
You have it exactly correct. Right next to the dude getting sand kicked in his face. That x-ray spec ad always titillated me as well. I also had quite the dirty mind as a young boy...hell, I still do.
This seems to me to be a bit overstretching the "truth" about Wikipedia and smacks of a little trollness aimed at it. I don't advocate citing it in cases of real-world serious business such as law or education, but for every day research about general knowledge it's relatively "truthful" enough to be of good use. You're basically claiming that because it's "crowdsourced" it must be useless rubbish. Certainly there is plenty of mass stupidity out there trying to pose as truth, but an informed researcher will be able to sniff out the garbage in the information they are looking for and a really smart researcher will use more than one source to try to confirm and cross-reference each one to get a consensus of "truth" from multiple sources.
I like Wikipedia for general non-life or death use.
My office's Web Sense blocked the site as being "Tasteless". Obviously our IT dept. has never had grilled zombie. It's pretty damn tasty with the right marinade. But be sure to cook it above 160 or you'll turn into a zombie.
Just because it's a religious nut stealing the logo? FAIL. They should go after him as if it was just some guy running a business using their logo. Because that's exactly what it is - just some guy advertising his business using a stolen logo design. Nothing more. Let the religious lunatics wax hypocritical about persecution. It just pushes them further to the fringe and, hopefully, eventually off the edge into oblivion. This kid glove approach towards religion is archaic and needs to cease and desist, as it were.
Kind of. Basically he's just talking about upgrading from a demo. Granted, the demo was the full version, but software and groceries are Apples and oranges, as it were. People will pirate software - forever. Some will never buy it, some will buy it sometimes, and some will always buy the stuff they end up liking. Our human nature regarding this isn't going to change anytime soon - blame Napster and Kazaa (for me it was Morpheus). But make a good DRM- and hassle-free demo and people will buy/upgrade it if they like it. If it's crap they won't. But adding DRM only guarantees resentment and piracy from some and resentment and disinterest from others. And if it's bad DRM then you've just turned off an entire group of people who purchased your game legally. It's like what Woody Hayes (old Ohio State football coach) said about passing (yes, a long time ago), "There are 3 things that can happen when you pass the ball, and they are all bad." That's how I see DRM. I buy all my music from Amazon only if it's DRM-free.
Slashdot Mirror
Hence the line "...and not old books." In the original post. It's obviously ironic that he would talk about reality and truth when his job and beliefs are wholly based on fantasy and superstition, greed, murder, persecution, and ritualized tyranny over his all-to-real subjects around the world. Forest for the trees...forest for the trees.
I don't believe it because it a subjective argument. You SAY you have a "better quality of living", but how could you possibly know that? I have an amazing quality of living. You Europeans make assumptions based on bad information and you want to believe that it's so bad here. But it's not. I live here. I should know.
I'm very vocal and active in my community and attend city and county commission meetings and have gotten into shouting matches with politicians. No cars are parked outside my house and no shakedowns have ever occurred. Freedom in America is alive and well. Stories of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Saying the US isn't a free country is just ignorant bullshit. Terrorists have decided they don't like our way of life and it's become imperative that we do what we can to protect our way of life from their meddling and violence. So it's tougher getting into the US now - oh, but that's OUR fault of course. Waaah. Just another whiny European. Take more shots at the easy target. All the while you still wish you lived here. I live here. I know firsthand about my freedoms. I rail against my government at county commission meetings whenever I see fit - without ANY repercussions. You can go right to Washington D.C. and voice your opinion directly to your Congressman or Senator. You can assemble and protest about anything and everything if you feel like it. You are protected and have the right under the Constitution to disagree with the government publicly and in the press without any backlash. I exercise these rights whenever I see fit. The US is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and that just pisses people off because they are petty, jealous assholes.
It's obvious that my first premise was correct by being thankful and feeling fortunate to live here. With so much criticism coming from the rest of the world we must be doing something right. It's all just a bunch of sour grapes from the lot of you. You believe the stupid sensationalism in the press about the dumbass Tea Party and other nonsense that gets attention. If you had half a brain you'd be able to see right through that crap. That's a very small percentage of the population, but they make a lot of noise. Big deal. Unfortunately ignorance knows no boundaries so you Europeans see that shit and think it applies to everyone here. Yeah, that's real smart of you. You're SO insightful and intelligent and know exactly what the US is about and how it's people think. Idiots.
I love this country not because I'm patriotic, but because this country stands for all the right ideals. While we may stumble at times in the application of those ideals, whether YOU want to believe it or not we try to reinforce those ideals in ourselves and in others all the time. The US does a tremendous amount of good in the world that doesn't get big press headlines. People only want to concentrate on the negative because it's easier and we make an easy target because we put ourselves out there in the name of freedom and democracy. If you can't see that, or at least even TRY to see that, then your opinion has no value. It's just more jealous anger directed at the wrong country. Why don't you aim a little of that hostility at the nutjobs who attack freedom, not those of us who promote it.
Absolute bullshit coming from someone who doesn't live here. Blindly supporting my country? You did not R MY FA. Don't like it? Don't come here. I wish for once we just actually did what everyone thinks that we do and just bust into countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela and just openly tell them that we are taking their oil and there's nothing they can do about it. Line up the warships and tankers offshore, drop in the tanks and troops and finally prove all the whiny Europeans and jealous Muslims right. Instead of having this nonsense bandied about by ignorant hippies. It's so easy to take shots at such a large target. Of course the US has absolutely NO positive impact in the world and has been such a horrible example of freedom throughout it's history. How could I possibly like the country I live in, let alone love it? Yeah, I'm the blind one, but you should remove your own blindfold that hides the real US from your sight and only allows you to see what is being force fed to you by your anti-US media. To say I'm being affected by the same kind of syndrome as the Russians is proof positive that you have no idea what you are talking about.
Just goes to show you that some societies (and apparently their "leaders" more so) just can't wrap their minds around the concept of freedom after so many years of oppression and state-sponsored censorship. I even hear some Russian ex-pats speak of how the people there have just come to expect oppressive government and even go so far as to embrace it now. As an American I can't wrap my mind around that, but I guess I understand the underlying reasons for it. Despite what some think about my government and some of it's people, I feel so very fortunate to have been born in the US and I remind myself - and stories like this also remind me - how truly fortunate I am to live in a free society. And dumb comments about how the US isn't really a free society will fall on deaf eyes. I love my country for better or worse, and not just out of blind patriotism, but because the ideals set forth to create this country are the best we've come up with yet. I truly feel for the people of oppressive regimes and hope that one day they get to bask in the warmth that is freedom of thought and expression.
Receiving Stolen Goods: The offense of acquiring goods with the knowledge that they have been stolen, extorted, embezzled, or unlawfully taken in any manner. Now, the "knowledge" that they have been stolen is the sticking point. It's quite possible that the new "owners" of the dog had no actual knowledge that they were receiving stolen property, but that would have to be determined by law enforcement and subsequently the court if law enforcement was convinced that the new owners could have reasonably suspected that the dog was stolen. Either way, the property should be able to be recovered and returned to the original owner, which I have a feeling is what will be the ultimate outcome of this case.
This sounds like something from the Idiocracy movie. So...I put Lojack in my car. Car is stolen and sold to someone on the street within minutes. Cops find stolen car in possession of new "owner". Lojack can't tell you where your car is now because of Data Protection Act?? Um, no. Not in the US. Like a previous poster already pointed out - BUYING STOLEN PROPERTY IS IN AND OF ITSELF A CRIME WHETHER OR NOT IT IS DONE KNOWINGLY.
1687. Nuf said.
This is nothing but wishful thinking and total bullshit. This is just a story to try and create a self-fulfilling prophecy by pulling the wool over the eyes of uninformed and ignorant consumers. Thankfully the rest of us know better and will see to it that this nonsense just goes away quietly.
...but I don't much care if you think it is. I've got your subject "right here". Belief in a god, any god, is a delusion. Einstein was an atheist. Thanks for playing.
...a delusional nutjob is still a delusional nutjob, and mentioning God as the driving force behind the concept of mathematics and physics is just blatant pandering. Someone writing about sound, and already established - he's providing no new information - scientific information just to spread their message of superstition seems to me to be the worst kind of trolling. It's very subversive and dishonest. Obviously the reviewer has the same agenda as the author and is just as dishonest. Slashdot should be ashamed for allowing this kind of nonsense to get through. Big deal, a book about stuff that other people have discovered, but with a not-so-hidden agenda. If you can't see through this tripe then you need not be reading \. at all.
You could argue that, but then you'd be wrong. I grew up going to church every Sunday. I was involved in all the youth group activities and trips. I helped with the high school youth group when I was in college. My very best friend - who went on to become a home-schooling, compound-living, batshit crazy fundie - was the youth minister. But it was always a social thing for me. I never fell for the mysticism because it always just seemed so silly. Once I was old enough to realize that I was actually ALLOWED to not believe without harsh social and familial repercussions then that was it for me. But I've always known that it was all nonsense. The problem is that some people's lives are so wrapped up in the church from the time they are children that they would basically have to start their lives completely over and risk being an outcast to all their friends and family who believe. Why do you think preachers constantly talk about faith in their sermons? It's to keep driving an unnatural message home to keep the flock brainwashed and subdued. Superstition in our more modern world just isn't as necessary to explain things as it used to be, so it becomes more and more unnecessary to have faith in something that has lost its usefulness and meaning. People who "turn to Jesus" in times of personal strife and hardship could just as easily turn to the pillow on their bed and pray to it and the end result would be completely the same. Claiming otherwise is just being dishonest and deluded. Personal spirituality is basically harmless, but unfortunately we have these dumb books that people seem to think are so important as to kill for. You get two people in a room that believe in the same delusion and that's where the trouble begins.
Slashdot doesn't shape my views. Calling me a "sheep" is the most blatant example of a pot calling a kettle black. My views are my own and based on my own observations. Like the fact that there has never been any...ANY...empirical evidence for the existence of ANYTHING supernatural EVER existing...EVER. It's all hearsay and myth. God is a delusion. Plain and simple. If you believe that a supernatural being exists who created the universe and pulls the strings then you are deluded. There just isn't any argument about that. The wars we fight, and have fought throughout history, have been largely based on 1)Access to water and arable land to feed an empire's people/army, and 2) One people pissed off at another because they don't believe in the same superstitions. And OF COURSE Islam is based on superstition. At least Buddhism is non-theist, but it's still pointless. I call ALL that nonsense superstition every day. I make it my mission in life to point this out! There are too many examples to list here how religion is holding us back as a civilized species. Maybe not so much here in the U.S. or Europe, but the hold that Islam has on the Middle Eastern Arab states is a pox on those people that needs to be cured. Fundamentalist Christians aren't much better with their trying to wedge Creationism into the public school curriculum as some sort of scientific alternative to evolution. Religious fanatics need to be stopped at ever turn. People who believe in God and that Jesus literally ascended into heaven and is going to come back and the world is going to end are mentally ill. Yes, you are mentally ill and need help. It's sad, but true. And until this is recognized and dealt with by society we are doomed to an existence of bigotry, war, genocide, torture, and utter stupidity by religious leaders, all in the name of one god or another. We got rid of most of the others, we just need to dismiss one more and get on with becoming an advanced civilization. As long as religion is allowed to cloud the judgment of otherwise rational human beings civilization advancement will be stunted.
They need to recruit the inventor of the Internet to help secure it. Al Gore finally has a real job!
I'm glad you prefaced that comment with, "As a christian..." so I could just ignore the rest of it as brainwashed nonsense. OF COURSE marriage is just another way for religion to control our sex lives. In Arab countries the church IS the state and vice versa and they try to control every single aspect of people's lives - in public and in their own home. Fundamentalist Christians who would have their way would like to see the same thing here, only instead of in the name of Mohamed it would be in the name of "Jeay-zuzz!" This entire situation is solely created by superstition and the church's power lust. Just another example of why religion is the single biggest roadblock to the advancement of the human race. But it least it helps promote it's own opposition and hopefully that opposition will continue to get smarter and stronger and we can wipe out this plague that has had our species mentally shackled for 2000 years.
This is absolutely the most perfect story ever. It has every single element necessary for complete entertainment.
Wow. I've served on a jury 3 times in my life. It's amazing that I'm capable of typing this right now. I'm guessing you posted what you did just to invite everyone who has ever served on a jury to respond. I'm sure you don't believe that what you posted has any real basis in fact. If you do then you would be the perfect candidate for one of YOUR juries.
You have it exactly correct. Right next to the dude getting sand kicked in his face. That x-ray spec ad always titillated me as well. I also had quite the dirty mind as a young boy...hell, I still do.
This seems to me to be a bit overstretching the "truth" about Wikipedia and smacks of a little trollness aimed at it. I don't advocate citing it in cases of real-world serious business such as law or education, but for every day research about general knowledge it's relatively "truthful" enough to be of good use. You're basically claiming that because it's "crowdsourced" it must be useless rubbish. Certainly there is plenty of mass stupidity out there trying to pose as truth, but an informed researcher will be able to sniff out the garbage in the information they are looking for and a really smart researcher will use more than one source to try to confirm and cross-reference each one to get a consensus of "truth" from multiple sources. I like Wikipedia for general non-life or death use.
1. make cool product that everyone likes
2. alienate an entire segment of the population who would buy cool product
3. ????
4. profit!!??
My office's Web Sense blocked the site as being "Tasteless". Obviously our IT dept. has never had grilled zombie. It's pretty damn tasty with the right marinade. But be sure to cook it above 160 or you'll turn into a zombie.
I'm all for removing any laws protecting religion in any way. Tax them and regulate them out of existence. How's that for an atheist agenda?
Just because it's a religious nut stealing the logo? FAIL. They should go after him as if it was just some guy running a business using their logo. Because that's exactly what it is - just some guy advertising his business using a stolen logo design. Nothing more. Let the religious lunatics wax hypocritical about persecution. It just pushes them further to the fringe and, hopefully, eventually off the edge into oblivion. This kid glove approach towards religion is archaic and needs to cease and desist, as it were.
Kind of. Basically he's just talking about upgrading from a demo. Granted, the demo was the full version, but software and groceries are Apples and oranges, as it were. People will pirate software - forever. Some will never buy it, some will buy it sometimes, and some will always buy the stuff they end up liking. Our human nature regarding this isn't going to change anytime soon - blame Napster and Kazaa (for me it was Morpheus). But make a good DRM- and hassle-free demo and people will buy/upgrade it if they like it. If it's crap they won't. But adding DRM only guarantees resentment and piracy from some and resentment and disinterest from others. And if it's bad DRM then you've just turned off an entire group of people who purchased your game legally. It's like what Woody Hayes (old Ohio State football coach) said about passing (yes, a long time ago), "There are 3 things that can happen when you pass the ball, and they are all bad." That's how I see DRM. I buy all my music from Amazon only if it's DRM-free.