[Asinine] Bankrupt Millionaire: Indiana Who?

Looks like another fool got into a legal letter flame war with The Pirate Bay… and lost… spectacularly.

I’ve never heard of Indiana Gregg, but I sure as hell won’t be buying or downloading any music after reading her and her representatives ridiculous and embarrassing name-dropping bombing in their email.

“Having sat on cross parliamentary committees, resolved to regenerating music and culture in my country, i’m afraid you may just have picked the wrong person to cross swords with on this occasion.” Ian Morrow (courtesy of TPB)

Very stupid. Here’s the list of emails of the elites that Ian invokes to show how powerful and connected he is:

Ian Morrow <ian@gr8pop.net>
Alex.Salmond.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Pauline McNeill <pauline.mcneill.msp@scottish.parliament.uk>
Barbara Orbison <BOrbison@orbison.com>
eugene.duffy@mirror.co.uk
Kenny.MacAskill.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
john dingwall <j.dingwall@dailyrecord.co.uk>
Jack.Mcconnell.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Margo.MacDonald.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Duncan McCrone <duncan.mccrone@mcps.co.uk>
Mick Blacklock <mick.blacklock@ppluk.com>
Robbie Miller <robbie.miller@jacobsonmiller.com>
alan.boyd@bbc.co.uk
phil <phil@gr8pop.net>
graham@gr8pop.net
Andy Harrower <andy.harrower@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk>
Mark Taylor <mark.taylor@mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk>
Stanley Banks <stanley@wardlawbanks.com>
Paul Bedford <Paul.Bedford@ingeniousmedia.co.uk>
Veronica Tyrrell <Veronica.Tyrrell@scotent.co.uk>
George Falconer <george.falconer@scotent.co.uk>
Connie Howard <CHowardMus@aol.com>
thom hardwell <thomsongs1@yahoo.com>
jimdaddario@hotmail.com
Magnus Martinsson <martinsson@playgroundmusic.com>
<torgny@playgroundmusic.com>
David Philpott <davidphilpott@philpottreed.co.uk>
Christian Ulf Hansen <christian.ulf@virgin.net>
douglasmcfarlane@btinternet.com

Normally I’ll just read the legal threats, laugh and forget about it but this one is the most asinine and presumptious yet. Just for curiousity, I’ll be watching out for copywrong discussion by the Scottish Parliament and press articles from The Mirror, The Daily Record and The BBC on copywrong.

It will be interesting to see how much influence the small label, bankrupt millionaire, Indiana Gregg has over these groups, if any. I’m aslo interested in seeing if the Scottish Parliament works for the people or the corporates.

HT: Torrentfreak

Oh and BTW: Ian, copyright kills culture, it kills creativity. Would we have heard of Shakespeare if media companies had existed in the 17th Century to make sure that none of his plays were reproduced?

How much exposure has Indiana Gregg actually had as a result of sharing of her music between friends? (a: probably not much TPB can do for her – click on the link for irony-goodness)

As far as anyone who has an ounce of intellect is concerned, Bittorrent is the new radio. But then is that really free?

It wasn’t video that killed the radio star, it was his own record label.

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[Whoops] Sir Robert Mugabe

Is it just me or was anyone else blown away by the fact Adolf had a Knighthood?

“Mr Mugabe, condemned over violence ahead of a presidential run-off election, was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1994.

The Queen has approved a recommendation from Foreign Secretary David Miliband to strip him of the honour.”- BBC News Online (where else?)

Ok there is multiple fail here, so where do we begin?

The fact that Sir Robert Mugabe even had a knighthood suggest the whole system of knighthoods is a farce and clearly broken.

Sure the Queen has taken the knighthood away now… Well done M’am, but to have to be advised by the critter, rather than being one’s own decision, shows a disconnect with the real world.

But stripping Sir Robert Mugabe of his Knighthood now is probably the worst mistake of all! Not only is it like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, all this will do is feed his egomania and rhetoric.

I mean, what does Sir Robert Mugabe keep telling his people?

“The Commonwealth is a mere club, but it has become like an “Animal Farm” where some members are more equal than others. How can Blair claim to regulate and direct events and still say all of us are equals?” May 2000

“We have not stopped singing to the theme of unity and the theme of love. Even the whites are free to live here. But they must change. Your kind – the British kind – are very difficult to change. We rate them as the most conceited, the most arrogant, the most selfish and the most racist in our situation.” – June 2000 BBC Interview

“We are in a war to defend our rights and the interests of our people. The British have decided to take us on through the MDC.” – February 2002 Elections

“We belong to this continent. We do not mind having and bearing sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans. We have not asked for any inch of Europe or any square inch of that territory. Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe.” – 2002 Earth Summit

“We cannot discuss with allies of the West. The devil is the devil and we have no idea of supping with the devil.” – February 2004

“He is arrogant – he thinks by virtue of his being white, by virtue of his being the prime minister of Great Britain, he can dictate to us.” – February 2008

I mean, does this sound like a man who sees a Knighthood as some kind of honour? Isn’t a Knighthood just a symbol of the very Western power, superiority and elitism that Sir Robert Mugabe rallies against?!

What Her Majesty has really done is relieve Sir Robert Mugabe of the burden of hypocrisy.

How would Sir Robert Mugabe gone about spewing so much rhetoric and trash-talk if our leaders and the MSM had referred to him respectfully by his proper title all along?

Would Sir Robert Mugabe have found it as easy rale against the West if we all kept referring to him as Sir Robert?

That is why, I, for one, will refer to him from now on as SIR ROBERT MUGABE, and demand as of publishing this blog post that the President of Zimbabwe has his Knighthood immediately reinstated!

Disclaimer: The quotes featured above are thanks to the work of Quoting Mugabe, The Bearded Man and Sokwanele where many more quotes can be found.

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Technorati Tags: mugabe, queen, knighthood, politics, bollotics, zimbabwe, quotes, britain, europe, milliband

[Evil] The Secret of Bill Gates Success

The BBC News has a gushing article and interview with Bill Gates on their site:

When these criticisms are put to Mr Gates, he says he finds it “ironic” that he could be accused of such a thing when Microsoft had “evangelised” its software to other companies, begging them “please write software for our platform”. – The Secret of Bill Gates Success

Is that why their new Silverlight (competitor to Adobe Flash) software won’t work on Linux?

I only ask because for some reason ITV has done a deal to make their programs available via streaming off their website using Micro$ofts Silverlight platform. Which means I can’t watch the latest episodes of Headcases online.

Channel 4 also has similar restrictions, due to their 4OD service only being available for M$ Windows OS’es. This is apparently due to their program makers insistence on using DRM. But why then show 1 minute clips of TV programs interspersed with 2 minute long advertisements between each clip? What really pisses me off about Channel 4 is their lying free-beer tagline “Free Catch-Up”. It’s not free, it’s DRM’d, so why call it free? Why not simply say “M$ Users Catch-Up” or “Programs Made Available for Download with DRM”.

Oh well I guess it’s back to Bittorrent for enjoying content that is supposed to be freely available for all to watch. Well done to ITV and Channel 4 for passively promoting piracy!

Hats off to BBC at least for making their i-Player stream on Linux. Or is it just hats off to government for pwning the BBC and forcing them to make it available for taxpayers?

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[Linklove] Get Your Blog On…

I find myself lacking time to post, and even more time to keep the sidebar updated, so here goes…

If you link here, or intend to, or I comment from time to time on your blog and I haven’t included you in the blogroll then leave a comment and I’ll update it.

Promise.

[Religious Paradigm] Religious Guilt, Shame and Fear… Why It’s A Good Thing

I suspect that when anti-theists (particularly those who have left religion) list guilt, shame and fear as reasons not to believe in God, they are really referring to self-doubt, confusion and uncertainty that everyone experiences either during their teens, during difficult times or at other times during their lives – especially when they begin to look inside themselves and question their own set of pre-held beliefs, prejudices and bias*.

Taking an example from Steve Pavlina (see my previous post). He asks people to abandon guilt and fear and move towards an ambiguous spirituality of your own. Let’s apply this message to a pedophile Priest (also mentioned in his rant). I would imagine and hope that a pedophile Priest (or indeed anyone, believer or not) would be feeling guilt whilst appearing on the exterior to be a person of righteousness. I would hope they are feeling tremendous guilt.

Guilt is the only way that God can work, through the Holy Spirit to bring an end to the perversion. Of course God could act through others, even the authorities – but how would someone defend their vigilantism, or bring a conviction based on the evidence “God told me he was a pedophile”? What happens when the authorities are implicit in covering up the act? Then perhaps God could stop the man and those involved himself, but this is not usually how God chooses to intervene in human affairs – for many good reasons – but that is another subject that has already been addressed many times elsewhere.

What of shame? Shame is usually the result of having your dark secrets exposed to the limelight. Suppose a thief is caught after breaking into the house of an old woman, beating her and stealing her savings. Should he not feel some shame along with accepting his punishment? What about an act which is not classed as a crime? Should a married who is caught having an affair at the office not feel some shame for his disregard towards his wife and children? Shame is a part of remorse and regret. It’s necessary to make the first steps of reconciliation towards the person or persons you have hurt. How else would we have gotten the phrase “Have you no shame?!”

Fear of God is something that is widely misunderstood. Once again, it is not some sort of control mechanism that the church uses to maintain the allegiance of it’s subjects. Consider the criminal in my example above. He has been caught and sent to jail, but this does not necessarily mean he agrees with the justice system, or that he even thinks he has done anything wrong. Suppose there is a fault in the prosecutions case and he gets away scot free, or his sentence is particularly lenient and it is not felt by the public to be long enough. He walks out of the court/jail and raises his hands, smiling in celebration and defiance. The national newspapers have a field day! There would be calls for criminal reform, columnists climbing over each other to condemn the thief, the judge, the justice system and bemoan the tragedy of it all. Why?

The thief, you see, is not just lacking in shame, he’s lacking in fear.

If a person truly believed in God, believed that he could be angered by injustice and believed that there was such a thing as a Lord of the Earth who will come to judge the quick and the dead. That there is such a thing as Hell (which is simply a place God is not). Would they commit crimes such as the one I speak of above? Would they celebrate being let off by human courts in the full knowledge they had gotten away with an evil act, in the knowledge that there was a heavenly court to come, with a judge who sees all and knows all?

Consider the dictators throughout history and the dictators who are alive now- the leaders of Zimbabwe, the Chinese Government, The Burmese Government and so on. It is irrelevant whether they atheists or not. These people have no fear of humans – no-one is rising up and no-one is attacking them – and obviously they have no fear of God. They are the highest authority of their country, they know this and in some cases they consider themselves to be equal to God**.

If you do not personally believe in God, then it is useless to blame God or religion for their atrocities since they are the highest authority and therefore the non-existent God is not responsible, you may as well blame a pink unicorn or teapot or something. However, if you do believe in God, then you should have a hope that one day there will be a reckoning, and that people like the Chinese troops in this video below, will, in fact, one day come face to face with the Alpha and Omega, ready to settle the score.

When I see things like this, I have to believe there is an angry God watching:

A fear of God is healthy – not for you, rather, for those around you and for those who you lead or serve. Incidentally this is also why we are told to let God have vengeance, rather than take it into our own hands (yes that means the idiots who kill abortion doctors will also face the wrath of God someday too).

We are also told that God is patiently waiting for all to repent and when they do they can put fear to rest, but this is again, a subject for another day.

*NB: I’m not referring to people have been physically or psychologically abused.
** Incidentally this ties in well with original sin and the curse of death. Natural death is a necessary tool in assuring that no human being, no matter how evil, lives forever and escapes injustice. It also benefits those ruled by evil dictators. If no-one does rise up or challenge them, at least we can take comfort in the fact they will eventually grow old and die. No-one can escape natural death (except, perhaps, the very few righteous friends of God)

[Conspiraloonacy] Is The BBC Anti-Obama?

Sorry for the lack of theory or substance to this post, but I’m in the middle of a huge file system recovery at the moment.

I’ve noticed a slight anti-Obama / pro-Hillary slant over the last few months on BBC coverage. I was slightly suspicious but decided it was without merit. That is until tonight, on the first evening of Barack Obama as the confirmed Democratic nominee, in the background I’m listening to a Republican analyst and BBC correspondent on BBC World News discussing Obama in quite a negative light. Even now, the BBC frame his fight for the Presidency as needing the “older white woman” (their words, not mine). From BBC Online;

“He needs her to help heal the wounds of the Democratic Party and therefore his sworn enemy to become his most ardent campaign general.”

– Obama Has A Mountain To Climb

Really? He really needs her? Campaign General? I can’t fathom why the pro-Hillary slant (and it is a very slight slant, easy to overlook). Could it be something to do with their global operations? Does someone high up at the BBC have ties to Hillary?

I don’t know but if I find enough time to look a bit further, I’ll post results.

Oh, and congratulations to Mr Obama, surely the next President of the United States! (short of a meteor strike, or crazed Hillary supporter).