Take another look and see exactly what's wrong with this case (I've bolded the major points):
The grand jury is investigating whether the Lancaster County coroner gave reporters for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal his password to a restricted law enforcement Web site. The site contained nonpublic details of local crimes. The newspaper allegedly used some of those details in articles.
If the reporters used the Web site without authorization, officials say, they may have committed a crime.
In interviews yesterday, the reporters' lawyer, William DeStefano, and the coroner, Gary Kirchner, disagreed over whether Kirchner had given them permission to access the site.
And yet, they move on to draw this conclusion as fact:
"We know the source," she [Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Eshbach] said. It is a password-protected Web site, she said, essentially "a bulletin board in a locked room, and it is getting into that locked room and seeing the bulletin board that makes this a crime."
Seems to me that the bar of "reasonable suspicious" has been lowered an awful lot for this case. I wonder when they'll start raiding people's homes on a whim. Oh, wait...
State agents raided Kirchner's home outside Lancaster last month and took computers, he said.
I glanced briefly at TFA and immediately closed it having seen the motherboard they used for this. I have had nothing but heartache using Gigabyte products, and strongly discourage others from using them as well. If you go to Newegg and read some of the reviews, you'll see what I mean. Here's an example: GA-K8N51GMF-9
. They have other boards with similar complaints being posted.
Call me vindictive, but the headache I've gone through struggling with Gigabyte's products and tech support makes me very biased on this topic.
This couldn't be more wrong. What artist wants to have the spread of their music choked off? The music they put their blood, sweat, and tears into? It's not like they're gonna make any more money by having their music "digitally protected" on the radio, either, so where's the advantage? Don't most music "pirates" get their music from ripping CDs, anyways? I can't say I've ever known anyone that pirated music by recording it off the radio and then distributing it.
good for the fans,
Yeah, because I like being told what I can listen to, when I can listen to it, and where.
and good for business.
Whatever you wanna think. They're not getting my business, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.
I think maybe you have some misconception of what Magic: The Gathering is. It's a card game. Nothing more. I hardly think my parents made a bad decision allowing me to partake in the game after seeing what it was all about. The true "stupid decision" they could have made was to let me engage in it without knowing anything about it. The same applies to violent video games. I have talked to them about it since, in the many years that have passed. They still don't like the game much even to this day, but never saw harm in me playing it once they understood it.
And of course children should obey the adult they are entrusted to (be it a teacher or whoever), but if this leads to behavior that you don't like, you're saying that you would demand that the school enforce your views on the issue not just for your own child, but for everyone's? You have no right to speak for anyone's children but your own.
On something like the candy issue, you lose pure and simple.
Wrong. If I set a rule for my child, I expect them to obey it. If someone else causes them not to, then it's my responsibility to intervene on behalf of my child (whether their judgment was good or not), and only my child. This is how I was raised, and it worked pretty well.
If you truly believe that the only way to keep your child safe is to endorse universal censorship, well, that's your decision. I call it paranoia, but hey, that's me.
I can understand the difficulty of dealing with certain aspects of exposure, especially dealing with schools. I don't like the fact that during school hours, public schools can legally act as a "guardian" of your child. My school always pushed this fact, even when they weren't actively using it, and it always irked me. As far as school goes, when and if I have children, I intend to make sure they understand that my word supercedes that of the school. If, to use your example, I don't want them having sweet snacks at school, they would need to understand that even though I'm not there with them, they should respect my decision against them having candy there. If I find out that they are still being given the candy, then I would go to the school to have a chat with their teacher, or the administration if it went that far.
I would not, however, try to push a broad generalization that no child at the school should be offered the candy, just because I feel the need to protect my children from it. This is the approach that censors are trying to take on the stance of violent video games. If a parent fears that their child might be exposed to such games outside of their house, then it is still their responsibility to identify when and where that exposure may occur and limit it, no matter how difficult that task may be. For example, when I first became interested in Magic: The Gathering, my parents forbade me to play it. They called up the parents of my friend who introduced me to it and asked them to not let him play the game with me or let me attend the weekly Arena sessions he went to (Arena being the nationwide M:TG league). They also asked me to refrain from playing it at school. Naturally, I didn't listen, and played a bit at school with other people's cards. They found out about it and punished me. Eventually, though, I showed my parents the game, convinced them that, though it depicted violence and the like, it was just a game, and that I understood this fact. Afterwards, they let me do as I please with it. They did not, however, contact my school and try to get M:TG banned completely (unfortunately, some else's parents did, and sadly succeeded).
Wow, I'm ranting. Okay, in general, my point is very simple: everyone should deal with their own issues, violent video games being just one of many. Generalized censorship is not a thing to be endorsed.
And yes, I realize I'm wide open to rebuke due to the fact that I have no children of my own. We were all children at one point, so we've all had experience from one side of the table. Having grown up and realized that my parents' decisions were in my best interest, I see that as being validation of my stance on this issue.
You didn't really say anything in your post. You posed two questions:
Who is the "you" making the decission
The "you" in question should be the parents, not the lawmakers.
and how does that "you" develop the weights needed to make such choices?
First off, by taking responsibility for your children, and making your own intelligent decisions on what you think is good for them and what isn't...not relying on censors to do the job for you.
My post was perfectly relevant. If the grandparent (well, great-grandparent at this point) feels that video games don't cause behavioral changes, that's fine. If and when he has children (assuming he doesn't already), that's his decision to make. At least he made it.
Easy. It's called being a parent. If parents these days were doing their jobs, this wouldn't be an issue. It's not the video gaming industry's job to babysit kids. If kids are getting their hands on violent video games that they otherwise shouldn't be playing, it's the parent's responsibility to put a stop to it, not to point fingers at the industry as a whole because they don't want to be liable for their lack of parental guidance and care.
When I was a kid, my parents kept strict tabs on what I was playing/doing. They were hesitant to even let me play the shareware version of Doom when it first came out, as they were already concerned about the effect Castle Wolfenstein may have been having on me. We had a discussion about it (bear in mind, I was like, 8 or 9 at the time), and I made it very clear to them that I knew the difference between the game and reality. Once they saw that the games weren't making me a violent child, they made more allowances. I stress again, ONLY after determining that I could handle it. Hell, they did the same thing with Mortal Kombat AND Magic: The Gathering.
Too many young "Generation X" parents these days rely on technology (i.e. TV, computers, video games, etc.) to keep their children occupied while they try to hang onto a piece of their former lives, in which they were carefree and couldn't be held accountable for anyone or anything. If they can't deal with being parents, then they shouldn't have had children in the first place. To these people, I say, grow a spine, man up, and act like a loving parent instead of being a worthless burden on society. Discipline your children, and look after you and yours.
This is true...the price they wanted for the software suite was quite ridiculous. Especially considering I ended up putting Fedora on it. Given that Maple and Matlab were practically the only things I used it for, it worked out well, since they had Linux installations for both of those on sliderule. Back when I was a dumb freshman I let Waters work on my laptop once. Since I always ended up wiping it again after they were done with it, I just didn't go back after that, except to get the mainboard changed on a couple of occasions (lousy soldering job on the AC power mount).
Then again, I had a full ride, so I never really saw the cost of the laptop at any point.:)
The laptops RHIT provides for its students are an invaluable tool (though by the time you're a senior, you sneer in jealousy at the freshmen and their shiny new laptops). I applaude ISU in this decision.
I went to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (webpage), which is right down the street from ISU. In fact, I still have a few friends at ISU. Rose has provided laptops for its incoming freshmen since 1995. Granted, Rose is a private school, but having experienced first hand the laptop-oriented education system, I must say I approve of this move by ISU. Of course, I'm biased in thinking that they're just taking a page out of our book.:)
I actually heard talk of this a coupla years ago. I never actually thought it would go through. All I can say is, well...I've seen/used ISU's network on several occasions, mostly when visiting friends. If this laptop thing is gonna be a success, they really need to take their connectivity issues more seriously, especially in a few years once EVERY student has a laptop, because their bandwidth is pretty bad as it is.
Yeah, no kidding. I was reading through that part and came across this, which set off my BS alarm:
If that sounds like a bunch of technobabble nonsense, don't worry. You don't have to know what it means, you just have to know that it makes life easier on developers and improves performance.
This article is filled with buzzwords and baseless assurances that the Vista upgrade is worth it, while they provide little to no real information on how the changes will help anyone. Way to pander to computer illiterate. Because when a new (and likely vulnerable) OS comes out, they're the first ones we want to have using it, since the majority of them couldn't upgrade their software or install an anti-virus package to save their lives.
In all honesty, I think they're dusting off XP, slapping a new shiny front-end on it, and sticking it back on the shelves.
Yes! Let the Bush bashing begin, because in times of uncertainty, the best course of action is to blindly accuse the most visible public leader in the nation. Sorry, Dubya, that'd be you!
Seriously though, how exactly does the Bush administration have anything to do with this? Granted, I doubt Dubya could even spell DNS, let alone know what it stands for. But 99% of the things he's blamed for are just the ignorant masses pointing their fingers at the politician most visible to them: the President. It doesn't help that he's made some questionable decisions during his administration, either, but that hardly makes him liable for the majority of the things he's accused for.
This is taken directly from icann.org:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. These services were originally performed under U.S. Government contract by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and other entities. ICANN now performs the IANA function.
So tell me exactly how Bush, or the government in general, has anything to do with this situation?
According to the included documentation and online help for Project Origami, yes, it is supposed to produce paper swans. However, practical use shows that instead of producing paper swans, it produces crumpled paper wads; and that's if it doesn't crash or BSOD in the process.
When asked, Microsoft will insist that the unexpected output of the device is not a bug but rather an unpublished feature that will be completed and included in a future release. What they won't tell you is that only paying subscribers to MSDN will have access to the new release (i.e. fix).
I also understand that the nation of Japan intends to file an antitrust suit against Microsoft if they attempt to package their Origami project with the release version of Windows Vista.
Last I checked, nothing in this world was free. You go to another country, and you have to pay their taxes, not to mention their airline fees (depending on which airline you choose, if you need to fly at all), and must meet any prerequisites for entering their country. Once you're there, do you just stand around gawking? Well, some people do, but everyone I know goes travelling to see the sights. That costs money. You can buy culture, or rather, you can buy the chance to experience a certain culture.
As for debate, I'd put more credibility in the parent poster's debating ability than yours, as you've just proven that you have no concept of the first rule of debating: attack the issue, not your opponent.
Now, whether or not music can be considered "culture" from a consumer standpoint, I'm not so sure. See, as I understand it, in many cases the artists themselves see little to no profit from CD sales and the like. Much of their revenue comes from touring and concerts, which I don't think are generally free anywhere in the world. And it's not like you can download an illegal copy of the concert and get the full experience of having been there.
The artists have their rights same as the rest of us to protect their works, but the fact of the matter is that many artists prefer to share their music for free, as it gets them publicity and good PR, which leads to a large fanbase and high concert attendance. The real aggressors here are the folks at the MPAA, who have, in the past, filed lawsuits against filesharers without even informing the bands they represent.
The MPAA has become a powerful middle-man entity, that, personally, I believe serves absolutely no purpose.
I guess that makes sense, but that's certainly not the vibe anyone I know gets, nor have I witnessed such firsthand. Then again, it haven't really seen it come into play between Terre Haute (where I went to college) and Indy (where I live now). In fact, you really gotta be doing something incredibly stupid to get pulled over on I-70, I-74, I-65, or I-69 (i.e. >= 100 mph). And don't even get me started on I-465 around the city...I don't think they stop anyone on there unless they're committing a felony or something. I figure, just don't break the law, and you won't have to worry about it.
most people with those stickers or tags get them because they are speeders or have something to hide (like routine DUI people) and thus watched more closely
Furthering the proof that there's no good reason to get them.:) So anyways, what were we talkin' about? Oh, yeah, telemarketers. They suck.
No kidding, we've got the worst kind of police bribery here...legalized bribery. You give the state cops some money, you get this little sticker and put it on your license plate. They see the sticker and cut you some slack, even if you're breaking the law. What kind of lazy ass police force do we have? It's like paying for your citation in advance...why the hell would you do something like that? And what's worse is now they crack down on people without the sticker. I've had friends get pulled over for doing less that 5 mph over, just cause they didn't pay the FOP's "asshole" tax. That's 100% pure grade A All-American BS.
Between that and the (supposedly) recently repealed citation "quota" and, of course, the DNC list fiasco, Indiana has been a real hell hole to live in for the past few years. Though having moved to the Indianapolis area, it hasn't been nearly as bad as up around Chicago, where I'm from.
Mostly when I got telemarketers or FOP, I just told them I was dead. Or that I was dead, but I'd be back in a few hours if they wanted try back then.
was "for no particular reason" equivalent to "just for fun"? Having fun is something we do impulsively, without wanting or needing a reason for it? Were that the case, this would be a country of incompetent, pleasure-seeking ignoramouses.
Sometimes I wonder what I would be doing now if he had given in and bought me a NES.
Obligatory Baseketball quote:
"You still hangin' out, playin' Nintendo?"
"Well, if you must know, I'm in my second year of med school and I'm training for the Summer Games. What are you two up to?"
"Just hanging out. Playing Nintendo. Cock."
Slashdot Mirror
Take another look and see exactly what's wrong with this case (I've bolded the major points):
The grand jury is investigating whether the Lancaster County coroner gave reporters for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal his password to a restricted law enforcement Web site. The site contained nonpublic details of local crimes. The newspaper allegedly used some of those details in articles.
If the reporters used the Web site without authorization, officials say, they may have committed a crime.
In interviews yesterday, the reporters' lawyer, William DeStefano, and the coroner, Gary Kirchner, disagreed over whether Kirchner had given them permission to access the site.
And yet, they move on to draw this conclusion as fact:
"We know the source," she [Senior Deputy Attorney General Jonelle Eshbach] said. It is a password-protected Web site, she said, essentially "a bulletin board in a locked room, and it is getting into that locked room and seeing the bulletin board that makes this a crime."
Seems to me that the bar of "reasonable suspicious" has been lowered an awful lot for this case. I wonder when they'll start raiding people's homes on a whim. Oh, wait...
State agents raided Kirchner's home outside Lancaster last month and took computers, he said.
I glanced briefly at TFA and immediately closed it having seen the motherboard they used for this. I have had nothing but heartache using Gigabyte products, and strongly discourage others from using them as well. If you go to Newegg and read some of the reviews, you'll see what I mean. Here's an example: GA-K8N51GMF-9 . They have other boards with similar complaints being posted.
Call me vindictive, but the headache I've gone through struggling with Gigabyte's products and tech support makes me very biased on this topic.
a balance that's good for the music,
This couldn't be more wrong. What artist wants to have the spread of their music choked off? The music they put their blood, sweat, and tears into? It's not like they're gonna make any more money by having their music "digitally protected" on the radio, either, so where's the advantage? Don't most music "pirates" get their music from ripping CDs, anyways? I can't say I've ever known anyone that pirated music by recording it off the radio and then distributing it.
good for the fans,
Yeah, because I like being told what I can listen to, when I can listen to it, and where.
and good for business.
Whatever you wanna think. They're not getting my business, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.
I think maybe you have some misconception of what Magic: The Gathering is. It's a card game. Nothing more. I hardly think my parents made a bad decision allowing me to partake in the game after seeing what it was all about. The true "stupid decision" they could have made was to let me engage in it without knowing anything about it. The same applies to violent video games. I have talked to them about it since, in the many years that have passed. They still don't like the game much even to this day, but never saw harm in me playing it once they understood it.
And of course children should obey the adult they are entrusted to (be it a teacher or whoever), but if this leads to behavior that you don't like, you're saying that you would demand that the school enforce your views on the issue not just for your own child, but for everyone's? You have no right to speak for anyone's children but your own.
On something like the candy issue, you lose pure and simple.
Wrong. If I set a rule for my child, I expect them to obey it. If someone else causes them not to, then it's my responsibility to intervene on behalf of my child (whether their judgment was good or not), and only my child. This is how I was raised, and it worked pretty well.
If you truly believe that the only way to keep your child safe is to endorse universal censorship, well, that's your decision. I call it paranoia, but hey, that's me.
I can understand the difficulty of dealing with certain aspects of exposure, especially dealing with schools. I don't like the fact that during school hours, public schools can legally act as a "guardian" of your child. My school always pushed this fact, even when they weren't actively using it, and it always irked me. As far as school goes, when and if I have children, I intend to make sure they understand that my word supercedes that of the school. If, to use your example, I don't want them having sweet snacks at school, they would need to understand that even though I'm not there with them, they should respect my decision against them having candy there. If I find out that they are still being given the candy, then I would go to the school to have a chat with their teacher, or the administration if it went that far.
I would not, however, try to push a broad generalization that no child at the school should be offered the candy, just because I feel the need to protect my children from it. This is the approach that censors are trying to take on the stance of violent video games. If a parent fears that their child might be exposed to such games outside of their house, then it is still their responsibility to identify when and where that exposure may occur and limit it, no matter how difficult that task may be. For example, when I first became interested in Magic: The Gathering, my parents forbade me to play it. They called up the parents of my friend who introduced me to it and asked them to not let him play the game with me or let me attend the weekly Arena sessions he went to (Arena being the nationwide M:TG league). They also asked me to refrain from playing it at school. Naturally, I didn't listen, and played a bit at school with other people's cards. They found out about it and punished me. Eventually, though, I showed my parents the game, convinced them that, though it depicted violence and the like, it was just a game, and that I understood this fact. Afterwards, they let me do as I please with it. They did not, however, contact my school and try to get M:TG banned completely (unfortunately, some else's parents did, and sadly succeeded).
Wow, I'm ranting. Okay, in general, my point is very simple: everyone should deal with their own issues, violent video games being just one of many. Generalized censorship is not a thing to be endorsed.
And yes, I realize I'm wide open to rebuke due to the fact that I have no children of my own. We were all children at one point, so we've all had experience from one side of the table. Having grown up and realized that my parents' decisions were in my best interest, I see that as being validation of my stance on this issue.
You didn't really say anything in your post. You posed two questions:
Who is the "you" making the decission
The "you" in question should be the parents, not the lawmakers.
and how does that "you" develop the weights needed to make such choices?
First off, by taking responsibility for your children, and making your own intelligent decisions on what you think is good for them and what isn't...not relying on censors to do the job for you.
My post was perfectly relevant. If the grandparent (well, great-grandparent at this point) feels that video games don't cause behavioral changes, that's fine. If and when he has children (assuming he doesn't already), that's his decision to make. At least he made it.
Easy. It's called being a parent. If parents these days were doing their jobs, this wouldn't be an issue. It's not the video gaming industry's job to babysit kids. If kids are getting their hands on violent video games that they otherwise shouldn't be playing, it's the parent's responsibility to put a stop to it, not to point fingers at the industry as a whole because they don't want to be liable for their lack of parental guidance and care.
When I was a kid, my parents kept strict tabs on what I was playing/doing. They were hesitant to even let me play the shareware version of Doom when it first came out, as they were already concerned about the effect Castle Wolfenstein may have been having on me. We had a discussion about it (bear in mind, I was like, 8 or 9 at the time), and I made it very clear to them that I knew the difference between the game and reality. Once they saw that the games weren't making me a violent child, they made more allowances. I stress again, ONLY after determining that I could handle it. Hell, they did the same thing with Mortal Kombat AND Magic: The Gathering.
Too many young "Generation X" parents these days rely on technology (i.e. TV, computers, video games, etc.) to keep their children occupied while they try to hang onto a piece of their former lives, in which they were carefree and couldn't be held accountable for anyone or anything. If they can't deal with being parents, then they shouldn't have had children in the first place. To these people, I say, grow a spine, man up, and act like a loving parent instead of being a worthless burden on society. Discipline your children, and look after you and yours.
If T is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
I'm smellin' a lot of "if" comin' off this plan...
This is true...the price they wanted for the software suite was quite ridiculous. Especially considering I ended up putting Fedora on it. Given that Maple and Matlab were practically the only things I used it for, it worked out well, since they had Linux installations for both of those on sliderule. Back when I was a dumb freshman I let Waters work on my laptop once. Since I always ended up wiping it again after they were done with it, I just didn't go back after that, except to get the mainboard changed on a couple of occasions (lousy soldering job on the AC power mount).
:)
Then again, I had a full ride, so I never really saw the cost of the laptop at any point.
Absolutely. RHIT, Class of 2005, baby. :)
The laptops RHIT provides for its students are an invaluable tool (though by the time you're a senior, you sneer in jealousy at the freshmen and their shiny new laptops). I applaude ISU in this decision.
I went to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (webpage), which is right down the street from ISU. In fact, I still have a few friends at ISU. Rose has provided laptops for its incoming freshmen since 1995. Granted, Rose is a private school, but having experienced first hand the laptop-oriented education system, I must say I approve of this move by ISU. Of course, I'm biased in thinking that they're just taking a page out of our book. :)
I actually heard talk of this a coupla years ago. I never actually thought it would go through. All I can say is, well...I've seen/used ISU's network on several occasions, mostly when visiting friends. If this laptop thing is gonna be a success, they really need to take their connectivity issues more seriously, especially in a few years once EVERY student has a laptop, because their bandwidth is pretty bad as it is.
Yeah, no kidding. I was reading through that part and came across this, which set off my BS alarm:
If that sounds like a bunch of technobabble nonsense, don't worry. You don't have to know what it means, you just have to know that it makes life easier on developers and improves performance.
This article is filled with buzzwords and baseless assurances that the Vista upgrade is worth it, while they provide little to no real information on how the changes will help anyone. Way to pander to computer illiterate. Because when a new (and likely vulnerable) OS comes out, they're the first ones we want to have using it, since the majority of them couldn't upgrade their software or install an anti-virus package to save their lives.
In all honesty, I think they're dusting off XP, slapping a new shiny front-end on it, and sticking it back on the shelves.
Yes! Let the Bush bashing begin, because in times of uncertainty, the best course of action is to blindly accuse the most visible public leader in the nation. Sorry, Dubya, that'd be you!
Seriously though, how exactly does the Bush administration have anything to do with this? Granted, I doubt Dubya could even spell DNS, let alone know what it stands for. But 99% of the things he's blamed for are just the ignorant masses pointing their fingers at the politician most visible to them: the President. It doesn't help that he's made some questionable decisions during his administration, either, but that hardly makes him liable for the majority of the things he's accused for.
This is taken directly from icann.org:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. These services were originally performed under U.S. Government contract by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and other entities. ICANN now performs the IANA function.
So tell me exactly how Bush, or the government in general, has anything to do with this situation?
But does it run Linux?
According to the included documentation and online help for Project Origami, yes, it is supposed to produce paper swans. However, practical use shows that instead of producing paper swans, it produces crumpled paper wads; and that's if it doesn't crash or BSOD in the process.
When asked, Microsoft will insist that the unexpected output of the device is not a bug but rather an unpublished feature that will be completed and included in a future release. What they won't tell you is that only paying subscribers to MSDN will have access to the new release (i.e. fix).
I also understand that the nation of Japan intends to file an antitrust suit against Microsoft if they attempt to package their Origami project with the release version of Windows Vista.
You cannot buy culture
Last I checked, nothing in this world was free. You go to another country, and you have to pay their taxes, not to mention their airline fees (depending on which airline you choose, if you need to fly at all), and must meet any prerequisites for entering their country. Once you're there, do you just stand around gawking? Well, some people do, but everyone I know goes travelling to see the sights. That costs money. You can buy culture, or rather, you can buy the chance to experience a certain culture.
As for debate, I'd put more credibility in the parent poster's debating ability than yours, as you've just proven that you have no concept of the first rule of debating: attack the issue, not your opponent.
Now, whether or not music can be considered "culture" from a consumer standpoint, I'm not so sure. See, as I understand it, in many cases the artists themselves see little to no profit from CD sales and the like. Much of their revenue comes from touring and concerts, which I don't think are generally free anywhere in the world. And it's not like you can download an illegal copy of the concert and get the full experience of having been there.
The artists have their rights same as the rest of us to protect their works, but the fact of the matter is that many artists prefer to share their music for free, as it gets them publicity and good PR, which leads to a large fanbase and high concert attendance. The real aggressors here are the folks at the MPAA, who have, in the past, filed lawsuits against filesharers without even informing the bands they represent.
The MPAA has become a powerful middle-man entity, that, personally, I believe serves absolutely no purpose.
- Logitech files an antitrust suit against Dell for packaging keyboards and mice with their computers.
- Goodyear files an antitrust suit against Ford for packaging tires with their vehicles.
- A tissue cloning lab files an antitrust suit against God for packaging internal organs with humans.
I guess that makes sense, but that's certainly not the vibe anyone I know gets, nor have I witnessed such firsthand. Then again, it haven't really seen it come into play between Terre Haute (where I went to college) and Indy (where I live now). In fact, you really gotta be doing something incredibly stupid to get pulled over on I-70, I-74, I-65, or I-69 (i.e. >= 100 mph). And don't even get me started on I-465 around the city...I don't think they stop anyone on there unless they're committing a felony or something. I figure, just don't break the law, and you won't have to worry about it.
:) So anyways, what were we talkin' about? Oh, yeah, telemarketers. They suck.
most people with those stickers or tags get them because they are speeders or have something to hide (like routine DUI people) and thus watched more closely
Furthering the proof that there's no good reason to get them.
No kidding, we've got the worst kind of police bribery here...legalized bribery. You give the state cops some money, you get this little sticker and put it on your license plate. They see the sticker and cut you some slack, even if you're breaking the law. What kind of lazy ass police force do we have? It's like paying for your citation in advance...why the hell would you do something like that? And what's worse is now they crack down on people without the sticker. I've had friends get pulled over for doing less that 5 mph over, just cause they didn't pay the FOP's "asshole" tax. That's 100% pure grade A All-American BS.
Between that and the (supposedly) recently repealed citation "quota" and, of course, the DNC list fiasco, Indiana has been a real hell hole to live in for the past few years. Though having moved to the Indianapolis area, it hasn't been nearly as bad as up around Chicago, where I'm from.
Mostly when I got telemarketers or FOP, I just told them I was dead. Or that I was dead, but I'd be back in a few hours if they wanted try back then.
Nope, sorry. This is a fruitless offer. Windows doesn't contain flaws. It has unpublished features. No money for you.
was "for no particular reason" equivalent to "just for fun"? Having fun is something we do impulsively, without wanting or needing a reason for it? Were that the case, this would be a country of incompetent, pleasure-seeking ignoramouses.
Oh, wait.....
Oh, I'm well aware. It wasn't meant to be a direct correlation.
However, one of the motivations that put us at odds with Cuba in the first place was fear for our business interests in Latin America.
Either way, you push someone into a corner, there's no telling how they'll react. I don't think China will just cross their arms and pout.
You know, I remember a time when an embargo imposed by the US almost resulted in a nuclear war...
That nuclear war would have been against a Communist nation (who was, consequently, protecting another Communist nation)...
Last time I checked, China claimed to have nuclear weapons...
Last time I checked, China had a Communist government...
Should I be scared now? History is repeating itself.....again.
Sometimes I wonder what I would be doing now if he had given in and bought me a NES.
Obligatory Baseketball quote:
"You still hangin' out, playin' Nintendo?" "Well, if you must know, I'm in my second year of med school and I'm training for the Summer Games. What are you two up to?" "Just hanging out. Playing Nintendo. Cock."