Sharing is Caring!

Sharing is Caring! Unless of course, we're talking about music and/or STDs. Not quite sure why this is considered news anymore. The capitalist pigs at the RIAA have been after university students illegally downloading music since 2000.

The only thing more pathetic than the RIAA's crackdowns are the responses that the students are giving. Responses such as "it's not like I downloaded millions of songs and sold them to people," or otherwise claims of ignorance do nothing but prove that not only were you a thief, but a particularly dumb one at that. Do the world a favor and throw yourself & computer out of the window...

If students would bother realizing that part of the reason user credentials are required to log onto university networks, is to track Internet usage, we wouldn't be having this discussion right now. Admittedly, usage tracking is becoming more difficult nowadays. We can thank BitTorrent and a paradigm shift towards streaming content for that.

Nonetheless, it is unfortunate that the relatively "innocent" users of peer-to-peer software end up getting reeled in by the authorities. Though I strongly discourage pirating of any kind, the fact is those who keep to the latest file sharing technology usually avoid getting caught. By the time mainstream "ignorant" users adopt a file-sharing technology, the authorities have already had enough time to develop a response to track and nab offenders.

Classic American political dialogue

Or, more accurately, hearing the same flawed, mundane rhetoric you've heard for years on end, except now its brought to the lovely University of Utah campus. Well now that the "war" has come to my motherland how can I not toss my two cents in this bipartisan cesspool of rampant ignorance? It's only a tenth of a ramen noodle. I can afford that.

Here's the video.

It was a showdown between the well-known conservative talk show host Sean Hannity and our beloved "part-time" mayor Rocky Anderson. Each were given 30 minutes of mental masturbation, followed by 15 or whatever minutes of a circle jerk between the two oh-so-charismatic gentlemen and the audience. I only wish I was there to scream out verses from the Book of Mormon. That might've completed the night a bit more tastefully. *spit*

Well I must say that Rocky did an awesome job with his 30 minute presentation. Somewhere in the midst of using the words "disastrous" and "complicit" for the thousandth time, I think he was trying to tell us that George Dubya Bush had been lying to us about WMDs and what-have-you-nuculer weapons in Iraq. Maybe Rocky forgot, but when a person truly believes the bullshit that's gratuituosly spewing out of his rectum, that's not called lying--it's called spewing bullshit out of the rectum. Gratuitously.

Ok but seriously, so there wasn't a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, we didn't find any fabled nukuquclar weapons, and we certainly didn't go through the internationally accepted means of obtaining our goals (which is obviously their oil--Haliburton, you go girl!). But spending hundreds of billions of dollars that could be better invested in education (the Swedes are kicking our asses, by the way), health care, or, gosh, just general economic infrastructure and throwing our really really really real troops at the fray against mindless child suicide bombers is most definitely not sufficient reason to impeach Bush, right? I mean, Cowboy diplomacy worked at some point in our history. I think. Manifest destiny and the wiping out of Native Americans worked pretty well, right? Oh yes, high school history put to good use!

And wiretapping without warrant, detaining U.S. citizens without charges--oh come on! We've been doing that for years! The NSA was practically invented just to investigate your stash of gay porno on remote drive K: hidden under ten layers of folders. This is fact.

So Rocky ended his soapbox lecture with requisite stomach-turning pictures that prove that we're as bad as the Nazis. Disastrous! Complicit! Your esoteric verbiage does not faze me, Mr. Part-time Mayor!

Sean Hannity was brought on board with his wrongfully deserved wailing of boos and applause. His opening remark was a "healthy" personal attack to our part-time mayor; and, when the audience expressed their disapproval, Sean throws a hissy fit. Can't stand the heat Sean? Then get out of our collective sandbox!

When the best argument you have are ad hominem, you know you're in trouble. That's all Sean had on our part-time mayor. Well I should give Sean some credit. He occasionally took a break from personal attacks to spout out the familiar mantra "support our troops" and "Hilary Clinton is a bitch" (Hey! I actually agree with him on that!). Hmm Sean, I wasn't aware that forcing our troops to fight an unjustified war with zero leadership direction in a place that doesn't really want our presence is "supporting our troops." I would imagine that "supporting our troops" would mean taking our troops out of the hellhole and having them fight wars that make any remote sense or...and this is a stretch...letting them spend time with their families? Oh but there I go again, being all wishy-washy.

I suppose its a damn fine thing that Sean isn't president. He stated that if he were president for a day, he would do everything in his power to win the war in Iraq--spending all the resources necessary to get the job done. Funny, I thought that actions were supposed to be based on reality. Not surprising though, coming from a man whose arguments appeal to emotions and not logic, reason, or facts. Such arguments are well-received in academia!

"But if we pull out now then Iraq will go to hell in a handbasket!!!" No shit Sherlock. Maybe we should have thought about that first before diving headlong into a war of attrition, huh? I'll wager my 36 pack of ramen that Bush thinks that the most important chapter in Sun Tzu's Art of War is "how to smash towelhead mudhouses with laser-guided missiles." That would be an awesome read.

I'm not even so sure why I'm taking Sean so seriously. I mean, he certainly doesn't take himself seriously, as clearly evidenced by the fact that his phone rang in the middle of the presentation. Hey Sean, don't miss your opportunity to go golfing with your tax-evading country-club buddies! They'll miss you!

So in the end, Bush won't be impeached (being likened to Mao gave me a good chuckle). Sean Hannity will keep making money hand over fist. Part-time mayor Rocky Anderson will still be our city's adorable laughing stock. Bipartisan politics will continue to cockblock me from voting. And Iraq will still be a ...Disastrous! Complicit! And-so-it-came-to-pass!

I'mma bag me some bad guys

Got an email today from a friend who found some fairly interesting news.

It's no secret that the President of the University of Utah (Michael Young) has been trying to keep weapons off his campus since he took the reins a few years back. For the most part it has been a losing battle. The inhabitants of Utah have stuck to their guns, and for the time being, concealed weapons will make their way to the Utah campus.

No disrespect to those at Va. Tech (families of victims have my condolences), but shootings don't just happen on campus that often. Rather than putting a minuscule amount of effort into prevention, the happy go lucky gun-toting community would like us all to believe that concealed weapons are the answer. Sorry, I'm not the least bit convinced.

I understand though. If packing some heat will make some insecure people feel a little safer at the expense of everyone else around them, then hell, who's to stop them? In fact, I almost feel sorry for the contingency of people who seem to live in a state of perpetual fear. It must be horrible for Brent Tenney (pictured) to wake up every day and consciously realize that "hey, I might get shot up at school." Clearly such psychological pain can only be dulled with the thought of using his 9mm to wound/kill the assailant. Brent says that "it's not that I run around scared all day long, but if something happens to me, I do want to be prepared." Sure thing boy scout, you keep telling yourself that.

Maybe we shouldn't expect more especially when your state Senator (Michael Waddoups) tells you that "if government can't protect you, you should have the right to protect yourself." No senator, bad senator. The vigilante justice system is severely antiquated... welcome to the 21st century.

One last thing made for a good laugh, courtesy of Utah state representative Curt Oda:

"Oda said banning guns on campus might do more harm than good. He said people bent on violence might resort to other, perhaps bloodier methods, such as swords.

'A person that's got skill with a sword in a very big crowd could put a lot more people down with a sword than a gun,' he said. 'They're silent. You'll have people screaming, but nobody knows what's going on.'"

Mmmhmmm... it looks like somebody has been watching a little too much Star Wars.

Bush vetoes bill, more deaths to follow

In the lastest chapter of the Iraq war, President Bush vetoed a war-funding bill with an embedded timetable for troop withdrawl, claiming that withdrawal would be an "admission of defeat."

Talk about sending mixed messages. After duping the American public into believing the existence of WMDs, and then spinning a whole new PR stunt to shape the war (ironically) as a fight for "truth, democracy, and freedom," it looks as though we've finally hit rock bottom. 4 years after Bush declared the conflict over, we are left entrenched in what looks largely like a war of attrition. Still armed With absolutely no direction and no plan, our Commander in Chief sends the message that troops are in combat only to salvage whatever shred of dignity he has left. Let me assure you that this hardly serves as a moral booster. Sure, if we can spread "liberty" in the process, so much the better.

"Failure in Iraq should be unacceptable to the civilized world." Since when did President Bush seek approval from the rest of the world? In fact, last I recall, the world shunned his cowboy diplomacy approach to international politics. Oh right, I almost forgot these are politicians we're talking about...