] Eleven years before that, two cosmonauts overshot their
] touchdown site by 2,000 miles and found themselves deep
] in a forest with hungry wolves. That's when Russian space
] officials decided to pack a sawed-off shotgun aboard
] every spacecraft.

So we've all heard about the 300 mile mistake now. But I couldn't pass up this "low-tech" bit. It should be titled "When technology just isn't good enough, there's always a shotgun".

Returned space crew lucky, others faced wolves

] "The record companies are history," says James Hetfield
] of Metallica, the band that stood up to file-swapping
] juggernaut Napster. "They won't be around much longer
] unless they get with it and morph into something new
] that's going to help get music directly to the masses.
] The Internet is about as direct as it gets. Putting a CD
] in a store is like putting a rotary-dial phone in front
] of a kid: 'What's that? There's no antenna.' Downloading
] is a sobering change."

So James, you and Lars FINALLY got cracked upside the head with the clue stick? Ironic - had you let Napster move to a subscription model, Kazza, Bearshare and other decentralized P2P networks wouldn't have blossomed and you COULD be getting revenue for your songs today.

Stupidity is painful, isn't it?

Laughing Boy

Piracy has its hooks in

] In his new book, Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap
] Labor in the American Black Market (Houghton Mifflin, 310
] pp., $23), Schlosser examines three disparate
] commodities -- marijuana, strawberries, and
] pornography -- to burrow deep into the nation's
] subterranean economy, which racks up as much as $1
] trillion in off-the-books transactions each year.
]
] Schlosser intends Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness as
] part of a trilogy, to be completed with a book on the
] U.S. prison system. %u201CThey%u2019re about the history
] of America over the last 30 years

Something I'll have to pick up soon.

The Village Voice: Features: Pot, Porn, and Strawberries by Jessica Winter

] Two years into President Bush's term, the damage he has
] done to the nation and the world is incalculable. On
] issue after issue, Bush does what's good for big
] corporations and right-wing extremists at the expense of
] the public. The Wage Slave Journal offers this scorecard
] to help you keep track of all of the evil deeds Bush
] commits and, more important, to provide a record for your
] perusal when November 2004 rolls around. Be sure to
] bookmark this page; Bush keeps it full.

This site will INFURIATE you - quite the sh*t-streak "Shrub" has so far. And this isn't just some bitter democrat rambling in a blog - each item is marked with a link to the news story it was drawn from.

And we have at least 20 more months to go? Oh goody - I'm sure the best is yet to come...

Laughing Boy

George W. Bush Scorecard of Evil

sdodson wrote:
] Laughing Boy wrote:
] ] Most likely the sons and daughters of the same people that
] ] want the confederate battle emblem put back on the Georgia
] ] Flag.
] ]
] ] ] A year after holding that school's first racially
] ] ] integrated prom, Taylor County High School in rural
] ] ] Georgia has returned to its segregationist ways and will
] ] ] be holding two proms again- one for white students and
] ] ] one for all students.
] ]
] ] Nice job kids! You've done a fine job of perpetuating the
] ] stereotype that all southerners are racist rednecks.
] ]
] ] Laughing Boy
]
] While I'm not for changing it back, I don't think it should
] have changed in the first place. I think people bitch and
] moan about something that noone really gave a damn about. It
] was a complete waste of time and money to even do.

I'll assume you refer to the changing of the flag back in 2001? I'll up your ante and say your right - it should have never been changed in the first place. And I'm not talking about 2001 - I'm talking about 1956 when the confederate battle emblem was put on the flag as a symbol of solidarity and resistance against the racial integration movement.

The flag was changed to its current version mostly due to pressure from corporations and organizations that threatened to boycott the state of Georgia if the battle emblem remained in place. Georgia was not the first southern state with a confederate themed flag to cave into these demands. This was done in the interests of the state as a whole to avoid economic backlash and potential loss of jobs.

So now it’s back in the Georgia house under debate. Our current governor made this issue a corner stone of his campaign – “Roy Barnes stole your flag” and it will likely appear on a ballot in the next election. These short-sighted nostalgic morons do not even begin to comprehend the damage and credibility (not to mention tax dollars) they are costing this state by continuing to make this an issue.

Laughing Boy

RE: Open Invitation for Georgia to Join This Century

,----
| VANCOUVER - A top White House drug policy official is threatening
| retaliation from the U.S. if Canada relaxes its laws against marijuana
| possession.
|
| David Murray, right-hand man to U.S. "drug czar" John Walters, says he
| doesn't want to tread on another country's sovereignty, but warned
| there would be consequences if Canada proceeds with a plan to
| decriminalize the possession of marijuana.
`----

Would the shrub administration get off its f*cking highhorse please?

CBC News: U.S. warns Canada against easing pot laws

] During this crisis patriotism as practiced in the United
] States reached alarming levels of intolerance and
] violence. The right of the other to dissent was
] unceremoniously thrown aside. If we take what happened to
] the Dixie Chicks as an example, one is hard-pressed to
] justify or even comprehend the incident. One of the
] ladies said she was ashamed of Bush being from her home
] state of Texas. She said it while performing on a stage
] in London. Had the Chicks been living under Saddam, we
] know a priori what would have happened. But knowing they
] lived in the United States one thought that the debate
] would have maintained a semblance of civility.
]
] Instead, they were attacked, taken off radio stations,
] and callers to the same stations spewed so much venom
] that it inevitably culminated in on-the-air death
] threats. Obviously, democracy is skin deep. I thought it
] was just foreigners like me who received death threats
] and viruses through their emails. I was wrong. This
] raises another issue: Could the Homeland security people
] tell the world why such people were not apprehended?
] Those who threaten to kill someone for reasons of
] ideology or a point of view are terrorists. No argument
] there. In this time of high security alert, it is amazing
] that such people get away with it. In all honesty, it is
] not very different from any petty dictatorship where the
] party clique and those close to power can do what they
] like when the rest are robbed of their basic rights.

I was displaying the American flag magnet on my car upside down for a while. The flag when displayed as such is a well-known distress signal. And thats how I feel the state of the country and our freedoms are - in distress. I finally gave up - everytime I parked in a large parking lot, I would return to discover it had been "righted" again.

Moral of the story - speak your mind; exercise your freedom of speech. PROVIDED your in line with the right wing idology.

Laughing Boy

The Dixie Chicks & Civility

Road trip anyone? :D

] The much-ballyhooed roller coaster, opening to the public
] Sunday, soars 420 feet - a third higher than the
] current record holder. And it hits 120 miles per hour,
] nearly twice as fast as most coasters.

Laughing Boy

Roller coaster lovers get a new high - 420 feet

] This site is a coalition effort of bloodthirsty hawks and
] ineffectual doves united in admiration for Mohammed Saeed
] al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information (currently on
] administrative leave).

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the humor or current events topic ;)

We Love the Iraqi (Mis)Information Minister

] Private investors, who have chipped in $40 million to
] develop the process, aren't the only ones who are
] impressed. The federal government has granted more than
] $12 million to push the work along. "We will be able to
] make oil for $8 to $12 a barrel," says Paul Baskis, the
] inventor of the process. "We are going to be able to
] switch to a carbohydrate economy."

Interesting! If this pans out, it really could change everything . . .

Anything into Oil