In which every journalist who reported on the previous Oregon Mall Shooting, of which this was obviously a copycat, every newspaper and network that chose to publish or broadcast the previously mentioned Oregon Mall Shooting, are prosecuted for the willful and premeditated murder of the 28 victims, thereby ending the murder of innocents....
Newspapers no longer publish news of suicides, knowing that this leads to copycats. But they cheerfully publish stories that inspire unbalanced people across the nation to compete and / or do better in the slaughter of innocents. They are complicit, this news published with the view of gaining readership/audience share, copycat effect be damned.
Journalists, broadcasters, networks and publishers be damned, you are liable and this hangs upon your rotten souls. And if you should run into one on the streets, feel free to take matters into your own hands, take comfort in knowing you'll probably be saving a life...
- Details
- Category: Rants
As we near 1984 - ever nearer - with the ubiquitous televisions in every pub and shop and more surveillance cameras than people to fill them, it's not a surprise that the government is attacking what few freedoms remain to us.
By which I mean the C-30 Bill undertaken and proposed by the contemptible Vic Toews, which would allow the police unprecedented freedom in monitoring Canadians online activity, giving them unrestricted access to server logs, email and texting histories, etc.
Now there's some backlash to this, there was - once upon a time - something known as "due process" in which police had to have warrants and just cause to invade ones privacy and personal space, so Mr. Vic Toews seeks to align the public with his somewhat Orwellian government dystopia by re-branding the proposed bill an "Anti-Pedophile" legislation, thereby polarizing the idiots who actually considered he might be acting in the public interest.
In further defense of his cause he suggests that police forces across the country are in favour of this - because, after all, it will help them to weed out the child pornographers.
"Oh, the children, please won't somebody think about the children...". Yep, that's the level of hysteria.
The police would, of course, stand behind any bill that gave them further powers and less accountability. Put forth a bill that allows police officers to fire their weapons at their own discretion without accountability and you'll find that all the police stations across the country are in favour of it. Put forth a bill that allows police officers to collect cash for traffic tickets on the spot and you'll find every police station across the country greatly in favour of it. In short, police officer's will support anything that gives them greater power with less accountability, what organization wouldn't?
A fine example of how police already respect your privacy - when checks and balances are in place - is here: http://www.citypages.com/2012-02-22/news/is-anne-marie-rasmusson-too-hot-to-have-a-driver-s-license.
Further to the "debate" (not a debate, really, any right-minded citizen would oppose such a gross abandonment of civil liberties) - it comes out that Vic Toews hasn't even read the content of his own bill:
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/02/18/pol-thehouse-vic-toews.html
Now when the government has reached the height of it's powers and is busy in the purging of all contrary points of view, I'd like it noted that I haven't read this blog post.
The election of these people is the biggest proof of the failure of the democratic process I've yet observed. No kidding.
In further capitulation to the regulation and suppression of freedom of thought, comes this article: http://www.caut.ca/pages.asp?page=1061 - now, really, shouldn't Universities know better, and be actively lobbying for the free exchange of ideas? PWNED by the government. So, while one might lament that one's politicians are sadly undereducated in any real sense of the word, there's always the possibility that they were educated at the University of Toronto or Western Ontario, where freedom is fast becoming a memory.
And, if you're curious, there's still a few places working to keep the internet free (at least in spirit).
Visit: http://openmedia.ca/
- Details
- Category: Rants
And on facebook, briefly, really just checking on the co-workers status on days off, when I see that one of the co-workers, a weekender, is playing farmville.
I see this because she's online all day, the game sends out alerts to all her friends telling them what she needs - "So and so needs a -----" or "So and so needs a -------? Do you have one to give her?".
It's inane. Entirely. I want to message her the same farmville messages that keep appearing on my facebook telling her that "So and so needs a life....", but probably that wouldn't go down so well.
- Details
- Category: Rants
At the restaurant we're besieged with sales calls.
The latest a scam to "improve" your online reviews - reputation management, as it were, the theory being that if you pay this company money they'll improve your restaurants/business reviews by posting loads of bogus reviews that rave about the service, or - as has been done in the US, simply by logging in and deleting negative reviews, because coincidentally they happen to own the reviewing websites.
Now this completely undermines the "fairness" inherit in the process of reviewing restaurants, and destroys whatever use the internet might have had in helping customers decide where they would like to dine. Never mind that, in this instance it's not about the customers, it's about the reviews (and one has to wonder then if these companies don't perhaps stoop to posting negative reviews themselves, just so that they can remove them later for a fee....).
In short, it's a fucking scam of the worst order.
- Details
- Category: Rants