Wasted money…government

Someone please tell me why LA is funding Jackson’s memorial service?
This is really a pressing need for funding?
His family cant do it?  None of them have a cent?  What?
Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t much see why any government should be any more interested in funding his memorial then they would be mine if I dropped dead.

Celebrate him all you want. But please, government funding should NOT be used for such ridiculous expenses. How about taking all those millions of dollars and giving them back to the tax payers. Makes more sense if they can’t find anything at all to use it on.

Murderers receiving more then law abiding citizens…

How to treat murderers better then law abiding citizens

Ah, the wonderful usage of American Tax Dollars… ensuring prisoners in maximum security prisons that are jailed for murder can live in luxury wearing designer clothing, playing new video game consoles, getting 3 nice personal meals a day while sitting back relaxing and watching TV and the warden encourages the guards to develop personal familial relations with the aforementioned murderer.

A lesson from the government: Want to live an easy assured life with no worries and all you could want? Go kill someone.

Google kills paid Google Videos….. and steals your videos

 Google sent an email to users of Google’s Download to Rent/Own Service, at the bottom was this small note-

After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.

That right there is the big hole is DRM, you can own content and legally have purchased it. But the second the seller decides they no longer want yopu to have it… it’s gone. You purchased it?  Too bad, you may “own” it but their fully within their rights to take it away any time they want. No refunds, nothing. It’s gone.

Digital Rights Management is an euphemism for copy-protection services that (mostly) treat consumers like criminals, and deprive them of their fair use of acquired content.
Assume your customers are criminals, and assume they intend to steal your content and assume they intend to give it to everyone they know. That’s the DRM they’ve worked so hard ensure.

Congratulations everyone, your a criminal. You’ve been annointed and will be treated as a criminal. Doesn’t matter what you ever have or ever will do.

Even content that you “purchase” (i.e. not rented content) isn’t actually owned by you and it can be taken away. That’s ludicrous, but that’s what the governments have all been so ardently supportive of the music/movie/tv industires in shoving down our throats.

Imagine if these were DVDs: one day, a man from Virgin Megastore shows up at your door and says, “We’re taking away all your videos. Sorry!
That’s DRM in a nutshell.

The theory of friends

Thoughts on something I read in the newspaper today:

You know, I read in the newspaper today about something a murderer stated in court. It struck me as rather depressing.
It essence he excused his killing as an act of mercy, apparently the couple he killed were friends of his.
He stated that he viewed his having friends as a weakness, and so he had to kill them as he was afraid that caring for anyone but himself would hold him back in life.

It’s a sick and twisted point of view. One would imagine having friends would benefit him in life, not hold him back. It would seem rather lonely to give up caring about anyone, and in turn anyone caring about you.

I would imagine most people would find the thought of losing a friend as upsetting, he found the thought of having a friend as somehow loathsome. Quite the contradiction from the norm.

Personally I much prefer my stance that having people that care for you, and are willing to be there for you when needed… ie. friends, as being a good thing… not something to be afraid of.
I guess that’s obvious.. I merely felt like commenting as the thought of someone viewing friends as a concept to avoided as truly depressing.

It’s fitting enough for the newspaper though. The news in by it’s very nature depressing. It’s the nasty stuff that makes the headlines, I doubt people would want to read the news if it was filled with nice sweet articles about people helping little old ladies across the street. 🙂

Anyway, I’m curious what anyone else has to say on the article I mentioned above?

Government sponsored Prostitution

Sounds like a sickening thought?
Apparently it's pretty accurate in Germany.

I find it disgusting enough that prositution is legally a profession in Germany, but I will grant that a number of people would argue it should be even if I could never begin to understand such a sentiment.

It gets worse however, the German government can potentially almost force someone into prostitution….
apparently if you are an unemployed female seeking employement with the unemployment board and turn down the offer to work in a brothel you forfiet your unemployment benefits.

That's lovely.
Want unemployment benefits? Sure…. oh but first we have a Brothel intered in hiring you, and we've also got an interview for a nude modeling job lined up. Don't like it? Too bad, that's law and every job agency in the country is legally obligated to push you into prostituion.

That's absolutely sickening.

Information courtesy of UK 'Telegraph' newspaper.