How much are you willing to pay?
A few day ago I was perusing one of about a dozen sites I… peruse… when I
found another story about the corporations planning to strip you of your current
rights. Yes ‘”the” Corporations, like Hollywood and the Movie Industry, and the
Record Labels. In a world where alot of wingnuts fear “the government”, usually
without good reason, there is an issue where we should all be concerned, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement (aka
ACTA). What is ACTA you might be wondering? Well let’s look at wikipedia’s
first paragraph “a proposed plurilateral trade agreement which is
claimed by its proponents to be in response “to the increase in global trade of
counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works.”[1]
The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit physical goods,
as well as “internet distribution and information technology”.[2]”
What’s that? It’s a secret internet treaty being negotiated in secret. If you
read through it, which you can’t because it’s negotiated in secret you’d see
the push for a global set of copyright rules that would have ISP’s respond to DMCA-style takedown notices under a 3 strikes rule. In
essence your ISP would be required to terminate your internet connection after
receiving 3 complaints against your IP address. Someone have a beef with you,
they complain 3 times and poof your gone, disconnected from the internet. Not
just you, but everyone in your household because they’re all at the same IP
address.
Safe Harbor? Forget about it. Due process? Gone. And ISPs would lose their
safe harbor status, so they’d be responsible for everything posted from users.
Now think about it, a company would complain against you, demand your user
information and your ISP would hand it over, why wouldn’t they? What’s the
reason to hold out for you and disrupt their business? So YouTube,
Photobucket, Flickr, MySpace, Google/BING/Yahoo… anything with user generated
content… gone. That just leaves “The Corporations” and their product. You
should be worried, you should be concerned. With most people now using the
Internet for fun, communication, sharing, and work it could all come to a
grinding halt. What goods a wifi connection when you can only watch what the
corporations want you to see? You hate ads? You like free software of any kind?
Be prepared for seismic changes if this goes through. Alot of people fear a one
world government, maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong, what they should
fear is a One World Corporation with the powers of a government. How much is
your freedom of expression worth? You may find out soon and you might not be
able to afford it.
Want to find out more? http://www.eff.org/issues/acta
Why would anyone consider him anti-american?
No, I’m not talking about Barack Obama. I have every confidence in him, even though he may not be your candidate you have to give him his due. He’s the first black President and he’s an underdog. He didn’t seem like he had a chance in hell and he overcame criticism by staying on message and selling hope. Yeah, it may sound corny, but why does it? What’s wrong with hoping for something better? Striving for a goal, no matter how unattainable it might first seem? The pilgrims came to America in hopes of escaping the church. Columbus set sail hoping to find a new world. We first set off into space in the hope of getting to the moon. The Wright brothers built a contraption in hopes of flying. There’s always been hope in some form or another throughout history. Though, this isn’t an article on hope. This is an article about one of the most anti-american people on the radio. Rush Limbaugh. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve never liked Limbaugh, he’s a blow hard, a liar, and a racist. That’s not opinion, listen to any 3 shows of his and you’ll see how he thinks. Limbaugh, hates America it seems and thereby anyone who thinks he’s preaching the gospel is obviously a United States hater as well. Limbaugh had this to say about President Obama "I don’t want this to work. So I’m thinking of replying to the guy, ‘Okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.’" Now to put this phrase in context Limbagh also says "Look, what he’s talking about is the absorption of as much of the private sector by the U.S. government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care. I do not want the government in charge of all of these things." Okay, as a capitalist I can understand that being your point of view. Hating liberals, sure go ahead, that’s your right too. But how can you call yourself an american and hope that the leader of the country fails, and might I add, should he fail, we ALL fail. So in essence, Rush Limbaugh wants democracy to fail, all because he’s an egotistical ideologue. Can you say blind hatred? if we get attacked, sure blame him, if the economy tanks on his watch AFTER his plan is implemented, feel free to criticize the man. But I consider Limbaugh an anarchist, he’d rather be right and have the country suffer, then to allow his racist ignorant views to be imperiled. Good thing to know we’ll never run out of ignorance with people like that around, even in the new era of Hope.
For other posts about this insanity see these interesting opinion pieces:
well… you know what, just Google it, don’t take my word on it. Anyway, back to this whole anti-American thing. Why is it most hard righters don’t believe in the premise this country was founded on? I mean leftists may be radicals wanting sweeping changes for changes sake at times, but the right would rather have things stay the course even if the course is off a cliff, as opposed to allowing another point of view be attempted and failed. It’s pretty obvious the last 8 years was an abject failure. i don’t blame Bush entirely, I blame people that didn’t have enough sense to see what was happening to the country. Economy in the toilet, predatory banks, our encroachment in foreign countries, the so-called erosion on morals. This stuff didn’t happen over night, but it did get a boost during the Bush administration.
Can you even blame Cheney and the crew? I mean seriously, those that don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. now, I’m not saying Bush was as bad as Hitler, Hitler was a better speaker. The comparison isn’t unfair either, before you get started, Hitler was evil, but in his defense he was mentally unstable. Bush isn’t unstable, he’s… simple.. not like stupid, but simple in his world view, good/bad/black/white/right/wrong… the world’s not that simple and therefore his basic belief system is what made him a horrible President , though I believe he may be a pretty decent guy in person. See Bush and Hitler offered the same thing, security. Hitler from the jewish people, Bush from "terrorists". In both instances people gave up basic rights and freedoms in the cause for security, those that didn’t were branded unpatriotic, or traitors. sound familiar? <Cont’d in next post>
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