More thoughts on the news
The RIAA can suck it.
I wouldn’t choose to use a Microsoft product to manage my toaster, let alone something important.
This sort of thing shouldn’t be this hard. I think the default action should be to assume a species is endangered, then step back from that position as studies are made.
See, this is one of the many reasons to not trust the judgement or capability of Microsoft. Seriously, they’re a company of mostly assholes.
We, as a species, are incapable of not shooting ourselves in the foot. Prove me wrong kids, prove me wrong.
Speaking of. A “tax holiday”? What the hell is wrong with everyone?
Here’s what I’d do, with the free hand of a what-if I had godlike control over governmental structure. Subsidies, gone. Farmers and airlines can rise and fall like any other industry. Aid from time to time…. maybe. No more deals, no more half assery. Governmental studies would be reviewed by a panel of normal people, including scientists from an appropriate field, and dismissed if found to be useless or pointless. Disband the IRS, introduce incredibly high sales tax. Everyone pays, less paperwork, far less bullshit in a year. Yes, this would mean you’d have to tax cross-state purchases, since it would be a federal tax. Disband the DEA, let them get real jobs. Seriously, the “war on drugs” is almost as wasteful a pursuit as the RIAA’s spazzy jihad. Streamline the shit out of all branches of the government. Those people have way too much time on their hands. Pull our armed forces out of Iraq, allowing it to collapse into whatever form it’s going to take on anyway. The same is likely true of Afghanistan, you know, that country we stomped all over then forgot about? Also, need to take a really close look at what’s what with defense spending. What? Gasoline? Oh. Well, much as I hate to say it, tax the living crap out of it. Get it to $6 a gallon or so. Mercilessly pursue oil companies for environmental controls and fees. Do the same for all fuels. It’s the only brake available, the only way to slow usage. Otherwise it’s assholes in “dualie” pickups and H(insert number)’s forever.
Of course, this is all still bandaids. The world needs to have less people. A lot less. We either need a frontier, such as space, a lot of deaths, a lot less births, or some mix of the three.
I should really not stay up so late.