Recently a friend of mine posted a pretty short and simple bulletin on her MySpace profile, encouraging people to vote for Obama. A commenter posed a simple question: “what makes you say that?”

It’s utterly impossible to post a lengthy, well-formatted comment on that damned site (they’ve been at it for years; you’d think they could get basic formatting right), so I’m just shoving it here Read on if you care.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Presidential Election Politics

The Pirate Bay is, for those not “in the know,” one of several popular websites wherein a popular activity is supported and encouraged. That popular activity is what the content cartel calls “piracy.” Just about everyone else calls it “not a big deal” (and I tend to agree). The good news is the legal systems around the world are starting to realize that it’s also “not a big deal” too — recently access to the The Pirate Bay website was blocked for Italian users (by an Italian judge), and the website responded with an appeal.

Technorati Tags: Geeky Internet Politics

The latest bag of shit to land in my inbox from the idiots at the “American Family Association” is this hilarious voter issue guide. It’s a handy breakdown of what the two presidential candidates support and oppose.

I genuinely wonder if anybody over there at the AFA actually looked at this thing objectively before they shipped it out for all the world to see — it really is a menu of hatred. If you want to hate the stuff described on this list, you vote for the red guy (McCain), but if you largely think we have rights that need protecting, you vote for the blue guy (Obama).

Technorati Tags: AFA Politics

Well, hell, it was done to me last year (by a smaller, less-significant company run by an egotistical would-be megalomaniac with a bruised ego), so why shouldn’t the RIAA try to silence one of its most vocal critics by pursuing legal sanctions against him¹ for calling their litigious activities frivolous and wasteful? Trouble is, this guy’s a lawyer.

This is the single best example of how broken our nation is. The court system wasn’t put in place so people could abuse each other. Imagine the look on a founding father’s face if he realized that a couple hundred years after he created our modern legal system, it would be used to bankrupt people for bootlegging a CD. The legislature wasn’t put in place to be purchased to the point that it simply rubber-stamps laws that private corporate interests wanted on the books, but that’s where we are now (with the DMCA long-codified in law, enhanced last year with additional laws, and now the Senate Judiciary Committee fast-tracking yet another enhancement that gives the federal government the power and mandate to bring civil suits against file sharers itself). The executive branch wasn’t mean to be a de facto dictatorship, but here we are.

How much more of this will it take to get some of you people off your asses to vote, to hold your elected officials accountable, to demand punishment of the real criminals, and to reclaim our fucking country?

Technorati Tags: Content Cartel Politics

I guess they ran out of “new” stuff to complain about, as today’s AFA “Action Alert” wants me to bitch out McDonald’s (including by complaining to local restaurant managers) about a new side issue stemming from the previous whining about McDonald’s daring to support gay and lesbian community efforts to be more “integrated” in its workforce.

The complaint now? McDonald’s applied for a discount rate for that pro-homosexual summit it sent some employees to earlier this year. Those bastards — not only are they trying to integrate homosexuals into their corporate culture but they’re actually taking advantage of group rates when sending people to conferences. Yeesh.

Sarcasm aside, why exactly is this a specific complaint? If you’re mad about them going to the conference in the first place, that’s fine. But why would you be pissy that they took advantage of a discount? Isn’t saving money a good thing?

Why do dickheads like those running the AFA get to be tax-exempt, anyway? All they’re doing is spewing hate speech. If I claimed to “love God(tm)” would that mean I could solicit (and accept) donations on a tax-free basis to continue running my site? Sigh. I should start my own religion.

Technorati Tags: AFA Politics Stupid People

Not that this sad Caylee Anthony case deserves any more media attention, but this leads into one of the topics I’d wanted to start writing more in-depth stories about — my intense dislike for Homeowners Associations (HOAs). This entry was prompted by the news that in response to protesters showing up at Casey Anthony’s place to say their piece, the local HOA there is suing them to make them stop. From the article:

According to the lawsuit: “The association is seeking to reasonably limit the nuisance activities that have caused irreparable harm and damage to the quiet use and enjoyment of the residential neighborhood.”

Technorati Tags: Politics Stupid People

The latest “action alert” I received from the AFA¹ nags at me that it’s “not too late to be a part of the largest pro-family, social conservative event of the year.” Just as we’re trying to encourage and support younger folks to register and vote this time around (to kick out some of the “old guard” bullshit that’s been crippling our nation for eight years straight now), others are doing all they can to get their crowds out there to vote the opposite way, and to discourage our voters from voting

The biggest bummer to me about the “young whippersnappers versus old farts” argument is that the younger generation (the hippies, Gen-X’ers, etc.) never have figured out that there’s more of us than there are of them. Every time somebody (18 years or older) got annoyed at how the “older generation” treated them, they should have made sure they were registered and voted the old fuckers out.

So many people get noisy about “conservatives” trying to trample their rights and steal their freedoms, but how many of those noisy people actually vote for politicians who might actually try to preserve rights and freedoms?

Meh. It just bugs me I blog, but I also vote. I protest, but I also vote. I wish more out there did the same.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Presidential Election AFA Politics

Recently, students at Virginia Tech were stunned to learn that Montgomery County (the county that houses Virginia Tech) has some very interesting ideas about exactly who is eligible to vote in the upcoming Presidential Elections.

It turns out the county is actively trying to discourage legal voters by trying to convince them that they can’t register to vote in the county where they live unless they want to start paying local taxes (car registrations, etc.,) and rob their parents of the right to declare them as dependents. They claim students can lose their scholarships, be required to register their cars in their college town, and more. All of their claims are, of course, wrong, but they might discourage someone from voting who otherwise would have. Younger people are leaning towards Obama in large numbers. Hmmm… I wonder why anyone would want to discourage younger people from voting in the general election this November? Gosh. The mind just boggles.

If you’re a college student in Virginia and you’re wondering if you’re allowed to vote even though your home address is in another state, please make sure you understand this: Yes, you can vote, right from your college address. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, and start yelling loudly (to all the local, regional, and national press you can find that will listen) if someone tries to actually stop you.

Don’t let these jerks get away with this. Learn the law, and make sure they know you know the law when it comes time to vote. And remember their names — these are the people to vote against when their names come up on the next ballot, because they’re trying to trick you out of your vote.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Presidential Election Politics

The Large Hadron Collider was successfully activated, tested, and used today. Yeah, that same LHC that quite a few paranoid, moronic wingnuts said would destroy the Earth has been successfully started and used, and we’re still here.

What now, guys? Where’s that thunderous rhetoric about the destruction of the Earth at the hands of microscopic black holes? Where’s the doomsday you were warning about?

All that silence you’re hearing? That’s the sound of thousands of very embarrassed people, hoping to slink away unnoticed to wait for the next “big, scary thing” they can hate, while the rest of us perk up and get excited about the real science being done by real physicists and real engineers … right now.

That silence will soon be replaced by cheers as the scientists doing actual work start learning more about our universe with the help of this giant machine. Feel free to openly mock anyone you know who actually parroted the “we’re going to die because of this machine!” paranoia. It’s okay to point out they were wrong. The sky isn’t falling today.

Technorati Tags: Geeky Science Stupid People

In typical government bureaucrat fashion, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters blames those stupid Americans (that’d be you and me) for driving less because gas prices are high — all as the cause for a $200 million shortfall in the federal highway trust fund. You see, we’re not buying as much gas (because we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing by driving less, and because it’s pricey these days) as we should be, and that’s running the highway coffers dry.

Sorry, everybody. Guess I fucked up the highways.

Technorati Tags: Politics Stupid People