Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs challenged major record labels to strip copying restrictions from music sold online, but the RIAA fired back Wednesday, suggesting the company should open up its anti-piracy technology to rivals instead.

This is hilarious. Some dumb “analyst” says:

“All these music services wouldn’t work without DRM,” said David Card, music and media analyst for Jupiter Research. “(Music labels) are very nervous about distributing content that is unprotected.

Ummm…perhaps you should have actually read Jobs’s article? In it he says:

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves.

Major labels are selling most of their music unprotected. It is trivial to rip and share this music. Steve Jobs is apparently the only one looking at this issue logically. The rest are dinosaurs sinking in the tar pits.

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In regards to the non-binding resolution opposing a US troop increase in Iraq, McCain says something to the effect of a vote for this is a vote of no confidence in our troops.

This is the same ol’ warmed over Republican BS that to be critical or opposed to the actions of the administration is to be critical or opposed to the troops on the ground. It is saying that any conflict started for any reason by any administration must be supported 100% by every Senator 100% of the time.

Bullshit! We are a representative government and 70% of Americans oppose an increase of troops in Iraq. Our elected congressional representatives know this and they have a duty to try to get this voice heard.

Bush said they were in “listening mode” and their decision was to completely ignore the Iraq Study Group, completely ignore the sentiment of the populace and completely ignore the congress.

Now I personally don’t think a troop surge is the worst idea in the world if we had clear, obtainable goals and a really good plan to achieve them. This plan is too little too late.

So point 1: McCain should make his case without resorting to this incorrect notion that anything but supporting Bush hurts our troops.

Point 2: Bush has not proven that we are getting closer to achieving our goals in Iraq and it is prudent and sensible for the Congress to use whatever power it has to effect the decisions being made.

I was very saddened to learn that Molly Ivins died. She was a great and much needed voice and she will be missed.

Yesterday one of the quotes of the day on my google home page:

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.

This sums up nicely my main bitch about the Republican war on taxes. The disadvantages of wealth, even if they include a big tax bill, are NOTHING compared to the disadvantages of poverty. I think tax burdens should be kept as low as possible, but progressive taxation makes perfect sense, and the Right Wing sounds like a bunch of baby whiners when they bitch about it.

This poor woman is raped, booked on an outstanding warrant when she reports it and then denied emergency contraception from the nurse in the jail for religious reasons.

WHAT THE FUCK. The nurse should be fired prior to being shot and the cops should be fired prior to be anally sodomized.

smartorstoopid

It is the truth.

I don’t get what is unfair about this question.

I haven’t read this book yet but I just added to my wishlist. I heard an interview with the author, Sam Harris, posted over at Skepticality and it was very good (although the audio quality sucks).

But what cracked me up was the description for this book at amazon.com:

“Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse.”

This is scarily true. The more religious people are the more they despise the non-religious. Most of them act like they know nothing at all of the teachings of Christ. It’s a joke and those people deserve all the abuse they get. If you read the reviews and discussions at amazon you’ll see what I mean.

Now I do understand that people get offended when atheists act like we get it and you religious retards don’t. I can understand the desire to defend one’s point of view when, as it must seem to them, they are under attack. What I don’t understand is why the principles of love, compassion and tolerance seem to disappear from people even as they try to convince us of the “truth” in their faith.

So here’s my own little Letter to a Christian Nation:

Hey, Christians, you would be a hell of a lot more convincing about how true and wonderful your faith is if you didn’t turn into a bunch of evil, petty, intolerant asses every time we debate this stuff.