The Tax Foundation - Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data

More fuel for the fire...

The Tax Foundation - Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights

If half of this is true at all, then the Media War has begun....

Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Each Household to Have a Firearm

Sounds like a good idea to me....

Proposed Ordinance asks Each Household to Have a Firearm [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Gonzales Wants New Web Rules, ISPs Should Preserve Customer Info To Help Fight Kid Porn

Gonzales Wants New Web Rules, Attorney General: ISPs Should Preserve Customer Info To Help Fight Kid Porn - CBS News

I'm not sure I like this. Fighting child porn is noble, but once this data is required to be kept, then it will be used in many different cases, some criminal, some civil (like divorce cases)

What other industry is required to keep data so long? What about international porn sites? Will this just drive the cost of internet access up without providing anything usefull?

Like I said, I'm not sure... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

14,000 languish in American hands with few rights or charges filed

I was very supportive of this type of think at first. Even the US constitution says "habeas corpus" can be suspended during armed rebellion or time of war (or something like that). But its been 5 years since the attack and we should be able to release most of these people now.

I fear the next administration's (of whichever party) is going to have to air some dirty laundry about this...


U.S. detainees face a legal vacuum - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?:

This makes the WTC Conspiracy theories look tame...

If this was written in just a little bit more "neural" language I might have read past the first page. But its not, its written to appeal to people's emotions, not their reason. I know when an author is tring to manipulate me and not reason with me. And I don't put up with it. If you have a point to make, MAKE IT!!

Maybe it was just meant to be an introduction, but the first few paragraphs made so many extreme claims with more footnotes than anyone could ever follow. Foot notes are great, but the narrative needs to back up some of these claims better.

I'm posting it here not because I agree with it, but just because its interesting... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Is There an Elephant in Here?

The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party.

Wow, this is great. Now I understand why I'm not so happy with president Bush. I have a large Libertarian streak in me, but as a Christian I'm concerned about some of the social issues of the day.

The Democrats fail on both accounts, so they are not really trying to get my vote at all. But I'm sick of the big spending Bush administration and this Congress.

I hate to say it but I'm kinda hoping Dems win the House this year.

TCS Daily - Is There an Elephant in Here? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

An Open Letter to Microsoft - Why you shouldn't kill FairUse4WM - Engadget

An Open Letter to Microsoft - Why you shouldn't kill FairUse4WM - Engadget


We know that you're already probably working to fix the, um, hole that's been discovered in Windows DRM 10/11, but we're going to ask you this anyway: please don't stop consumers from using FairUse4WM to remove copy protection from music they've downloaded.

We understand why you put DRM on these files in the first place – the major labels won't grant you (or rather the companies that are using your DRM) a license to sell their music without it – but there are some good reasons why you should let this one slide.

For starters, it'll actually make consumers more likely to buy music and sign up for subscription services like Napster To Go and Rhapsody To Go. This sounds counterintuitive, but it's not. Being able to strip out the DRM on a file actually makes it more useful – and thus more valuable – for the consumer.

Shortly after posting the news, we got a slew of messages from readers and friends telling us they were signing up with a PlaysForSure service provider because they were no longer worried about being able to play the songs they've downloaded on their MP3 player. Since you can already get the same music for free if using P2P networks, all DRM does is make it harder for honest consumers to enjoy the music they're paying for. It's difficult to justify paying for a less useful version of a song when with a little effort you can find it elsewhere in a non-copy protected format.

We're big fans of the subscription services, here at Engadget, but let's face facts: the damn things don't work very well. It's pretty easy to download tracks, but it's a serious pain in the ass to successfully transfer them to a portable device. The only way for DRM to be successful is if it's painless and seamless, and we get tons of emails from consumers complaining about how hard it is to get Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo Music Unlimited, etc. tracks on to their players, or, god forbid, Macs.

Are a lot of people going to pay $15 to sign up for a subscription service, download a ton of music, and then cancel a month later? Absolutely, but that's not a big deal. Those people were never, ever going to sign up for a service that offers locked down music anyway, so be happy that you squeezed any money out of them at all. (Yeah, this does make it tougher to offer free, unlimited trials, but that's not the end of the world.) Could those same people then put all the music they've just downloaded up on the P2P networks? Sure, but all that music is available there anyway, so it shouldn't make a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things.

So just try and look the other way this time. We've been on the verge of canceling our subscription services for a couple of months now (too many snafus involving DRM licenses and device syncing), but FairUse4WM has changed our minds now that we can actually download music with the confidence that we'll be able to enjoy it. Does the fact that we could quit and "keep" the music that we've been "renting" a problem? Theoretically, but what's going to keep consumers paying those monthly fees isn't the threat of losing access to their collection (though that's part of it); what keeps them paying is the continuing access to a large, frequently updated catalog of new releases and older tunes. DRM makes paying for music less attractive than stealing it; FairUse4WM flips that around and makes paying for music more attractive since you can more easily play the music you've purchased on the device of your choice.

Without a doubt you guys in Redmond are getting an earful from the record labels. You promised them a secure system, and you failed. They might already be threatening to withdraw their licenses for their music, but here's where you have to stand up and explain to the labels why they need to chill. Send Steve or Bill or J or whomever to smooth things over. We aren't assuming this is going to be an easy thing to make happen, but c'mon, you guys are /Microsoft/, if any company has the clout to make this happen and drag the entertainment industry into the 21st century, it's you. The music industry needs to accept that there is always going to be a certain amount of piracy, and then just get on with the business of selling digital. Let 'em keep the DRM in place if they want – we can all pretend that it still works -- just make it possible for anyone who really wants to get rid of it to take that extra step.

Besides, whether the RIAA likes it or not (or realizes it or not), you'll be doing the right thing for both consumers and the music business. (And isn't that the point of all this?) FairUse4WM means that all our PlaysForSure tracks will actually play for sure, so please don't go and spoil it.

Sincerely,

Your friends at Engadget [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The Fertility Gap

Liberal politics will prove fruitless as long as liberals refuse to multiply.


OpinionJournal - Featured Article

"It would appear liberals have been quite successful controlling overpopulation--in the Democratic Party." [This Post Continues after the jump...]

My Problem with Christianism (Andrew Sullivan)

I'll never understand why some people think their (and my) religion is of so little importance that it can't even effect the way I vote.

I mean, am I supposed to vote the OPPOSITE of my belief just to prove I'm tolerant of different beliefs?

Is my religion supposed to be something I check at the door when I enter a political discussion?


My Problem with Christianism (Andrew Sullivan)


Original Link I found on Tounge-Tied [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The Rule of Law

Link Here [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Billy Graham's New Thinking on Politics & the Bible

An interesting read.
I would like to sit down and talk with this man...

Billy Graham's New Thinking on Politics, the Bible - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Apple's Copy Protection Isn't Just Bad For Consumers, It's Bad For Business

Interesting Read...

InformationWeek | Digital Rights Management | Opinion: Apple's Copy Protection Isn't Just Bad For Consumers, It's Bad For Business | July 31, 2006 [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Stem Cells: The Hope And The Hype

Interesting...still reading it...

TIME.com: Stem Cells: The Hope And The Hype -- Aug. 7, 2006 -- Page 1: "Stem Cells: The Hope And The Hype"

Here is a list of the common lies put forth by people who support Embryonic stem cell research. The quoted text is from the article, which surpisingly actually does point out some of these lies (or hype)

Lie #1: A cure is just around the corner for you or your grandpa.

Last month, when President George W. Bush vetoed the bill that would have expanded funding for human embryonic-stem-cell (ESC) research, doctors got calls from patients with Parkinson's disease saying they weren't sure they could hang on for another year or two.


Lie #2 It's not a human life (but then they have to say "compared" to you or me). What gives them the right to compare one life to another? Why can't they just admit it is a human life and deal with it. Oh, we don't experiment on other humans, so admitting embryos are human life would kind of end the discussion.

Opponents of ESC research--starting with Bush--argue that you can't destroy life in order to save it; supporters argue that an eight-cell embryo doesn't count as a human life in the first place--not when compared with the life it could help save.


Lie #3: We only talking about embryos that would be destroyed anyways...

Extracting knowledge from embryos that would otherwise be wasted is one thing, but scientists admit that moving forward would require a much larger supply of fresh, healthy embryos than fertility clinics could ever provide.

Tied to #3 is the possibility that any cure might require embyroic cells related to the patient. So couples might create an embryo for the sole purpose of destroying it to save themselves. This is mentioned offten for some reason!

Lie #4: Bush's VETO a bill that would have fixed everything

Congress tried to address the problem with its bill to allow funding for research on any leftover embryos donated by infertility patients. But even if Bush hadn't vetoed the bill, it wouldn't have solved the supply problems. One study estimated that at best, a couple hundred cell lines might be derived from leftover IVF embryos, which tend to be weaker than those implanted in patients. The very fact that they come from infertile couples may mean they are not typical, and the process of freezing and thawing is hard on delicate cells.


Lie #5: The Scientific community reviews the "ethics" of all research. So I have to ask, just what is the "Scientific" basis for "Ethics"? When you have a bush of Scientists doing "ethics reviews' is it really surprising that they find doing science "ethical"? Also, is the option to shutdown ALL embryonic research really "on the table" in these reviews? It's a joke that they even go through the motions of these "reviews".

After exhaustive ethical review [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The UN Actually Praises Israel !!

All I can say is WOW...
I still don't understand all that is going on, but Israel is actually getting support from the UN, so something weird is going on.

Maybe I've been watching too much CNN. The UN actually expressed disapproval of CNN and the BBC.

The world is turning upside down (or maybe back right side up...)

TCS Daily : Technology - Commerce - Society [This Post Continues after the jump...]