Category: Stupid

Recording industry presses Congress to raise royalty rates for standard radio

Very recently, I wrote about the announced spike in royalty rates for Internet-based radio stations. After Congress stepped in to delay or even prevent this, the Recording Industry came back with a solution that is clearly designed only to insure evenness in application of the proposed new royalty rates.

As a means of eliminating the appearance of disparity between the performance royalties about to be charged to US Internet streaming music providers such as AOL Radio and Pandora, and what terrestrial broadcasters pay for the same privilege – which, for that category, is currently zero – lobbyists representing the recording industry, according to Billboard magazine, are pressuring Congress to resolve this problem by extending essentially the same sharply higher performance royalty rates imposed on Internet radio to all broadcasters.

If such a measure were to become law, an industry which once had the problem of overcoming the appearance of paying off radio broadcasters to increase the airplay for their songs — a practice known as “payola” — would begin charging broadcasters in all media for the privilege of having their songs played.

I can think of no more effective way to reduce your consumer audience, eliminate as many redistributors as possible, and alienate the vast majority of your customer base than to not only overcharge the providers for the online audience but to also raise your rates to existing terrestrial providers by two orders of magnitude. It appears that Recording Industry executives really are trying to eliminate their industry and make themselves irrelevant even more quickly than the Internet is already doing.

[tags]Recording Industry presses Congress to raise terrestrial broadcast royalty rates 100 fold[/tags]

The REAL Sept. 11th story

Thanks to cow-orker James for this dandy write-up of the REAL story behind the Sept. 11th attacks. I’m pretty sure this is much more accurate than the official report.

BUSH: So, what’s the plan again?

CHENEY: Well, we need to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. So what we’ve decided to do is crash a whole bunch of remote-controlled planes into Wall Street and the Pentagon, say they’re real hijacked commercial planes, and blame it on the towelheads; then we’ll just blow up the buildings ourselves to make sure they actually fall down.

RUMSFELD: Right! And we’ll make sure that some of the hijackers are agents of Saddam Hussein! That way we’ll have no problem getting the public to buy the invasion.

CHENEY: No, Dick, we won’t.

RUMSFELD: We won’t?

Continue reading “The REAL Sept. 11th story”

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here

It is important for men to remember that, as women grow older, it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping as when they were younger. When you notice this, try not to yell at them. Some are oversensitive, and there’s nothing worse than an oversensitive woman.

My name is Jim. Let me relate how I handled the situation with my wife, Peggy. When I retired a few years ago, it became necessary for Peggy to get a full-time job along with her part-time job, both for extra income and for the health benefits that we needed.

Continue reading “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here”

Salon.com in favor of taking away Americans’ rights

There is a lot of good commentary on Salon.com, in my opinion, even though there is a massive liberal bias to what is published there. I recently paid for a subscription because there was enough on the site that I wanted to read but couldn’t that I felt it was worth investing a few dollars to be able to access it. However, the latest article I’ve read on Salon would sound to me like the creation of any of a large number of well known conservatives (also on video so you can hear it yourself) trying to restrict out rights and freedoms were it attacking any American right other than the 2nd amendment guarantee of our right to bear arms. But rather than the more well-known conservative grabs for restricting Americans’ rights that we’ve seen recently, this Salon article is a liberal call to repeal the 2nd amendment, claiming (in reference to the recent Virginia Tech massacre) &147;hitting the delete button on the Second Amendment surely would lower the odds against future mayhem.&148; Maybe I’m a moron, but I don’t see that ridding the US of the 2nd amendment would necessarily and assuredly lead to the reduction in odds of future mayhem. On the other hand, I do believe that allowing students with carry permits to actually carry firearms on campus would lead to fewer victims in future cases, simply because those most in danger are also best set up to defend themselves. But like I said – maybe I’m just a moron for thinking that.

April 18, 2007 | WASHINGTON — Fifteen unambiguous words are all that would be required to quell the American-as-apple-pie cycle of gun violence that has now tearfully enshrined Virginia Tech in the record book of mass murder. Here are the 15 words that would deliver a mortal wound to our bang-bang culture of death: “The second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.”

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Calls out for Don Imus’ resignation

I posted the following article on Sunday via my remote posting setup. I didn’t realize until last night that the article didn’t go up on the site on Sunday. I almost skipped it, but since everyone seems to be talking about Imus more now than when I posted, I figured I could still get away with it. Following is the original post I made Sunday afternoon, unedited. I put it here just so I can look in a week or two and see if Al Sharpton is still expressing his outrage or not. Then I can point back and say “See, I told you so.” or “Guess I was wrong” when we know what he’ll do.

Continue reading “Calls out for Don Imus’ resignation”

Some people just set the bar for stupid higher than others

Scared of being caught for not completing your work on time? Well, it seems at least one person out there thought that setting a small fire in the office would be the best way to hide failure. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out how she planned.

A licensed vocational nurse remained behind bars today with combined bonds set at $330,000 after she was accused of setting a March 28 fire in a North Loop office building that killed three people.

Misty Ann Weaver, 33, was charged with three counts of murder and one count of felony arson in the fatal four-alarm fire at 9343 North Loop East that also injured six people. Her bond was based on $100,000 for each murder charge and $30,000 for arson.

Weaver, an employee of cosmetic surgeon Dr. Robert Capriotti, has confessed to starting the four-alarm fire at 9343 North Loop East, according to officials with the Houston Fire Department and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

HFD Chief Arson Investigator Roy Paul said Weaver wanted to cover up the fact that she had failed to complete paperwork for an important audit for Capriotti. The audit had to do with the doctor’s state accreditation or recertification, Paul said.

Details of the damage done in the full story. I get not wanting to be caught failing to complete work. Setting a fire to deflect from this just isn’t a smart cover though.

[tags]Nurse sets fire to hide failure to complete paperwork[/tags]

The 9/11 conspiracy theorists are still spewing their nonsense

I’m 911lie.jpggenerally not a big believer in conspiracy theories. I actually believe JFK was assassinated by a non-governmental wacko without prompting from government representatives who wanted the President gone. I believe that we Americans were actually surprised by the attack on Pearl Harbor, and that it wasn’t some Presidential plot to get the US into war. I don’t think President Clinton had all those folks assassinated to cover up crimes committed by him and Hillary. And I most certainly don’t believe that President Bush knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks, nor that the government or some all-powerful private entities somehow planned, orchestrated, or covered up facets of the attack and let the attack proceed in order to (among other ridiculous claims) destroy the World Trade Center. However, there are plenty of people who believe those conspiracy theories, and a lot of them especially believe that last one.

Rosie used to just be funny, in my opinion. I remember watching her stand-up stuff around 20 years ago and enjoying it. Now, she’s gotten too wacky for me to listen to her. She’s free to spout her views. I’m free to look elsewhere for something to occupy my time. The above link ties back to a boycott-The-View-because-of-Rosie’s-nonsense bit, which is where the Rosie tie-in comes from in my posting here.


[tags]More 9/11 conspiracy theorists show their silliness, Calls to boycott The View because of Rosie’s zany political spews[/tags]

Note to self – always paint Yes and No on body parts before surgery

Medical mistakes happen. It is an unfortunate facet of reality. It is especially unfortunate when you are the one who suffers because of an error. Just ask this veteran about how unfortunate those errors can be.

An Air Force veteran has filed a federal claim after an operation at a Veterans Administration hospital in which a healthy testicle was removed instead of a potentially cancerous one.

Benjamin Houghton, 47, was to have had his left testicle removed June 14 at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center because there was a chance it could harbor cancer cells. It also was atrophied and painful.

But doctors mistakenly removed the right testicle, according to medical records and the claim, which seeks $200,000 for future care and unspecified damages. He still hasn’t had the other testicle removed.

“At first I thought it was a joke,” Houghton told the Los Angeles Times. “Then I was shocked. I told them, ‘What do I do now?'”

My recommendation for what to do now is get the other one taken off. But use a sharpie, a magic marker, or some durable paint to avoid wrong site surgery the second time around.

[tags]Surgeon removes wrong testicle, Hey Doc – can you just swap those out down there?[/tags]