Scribd.com Allows Users To Steal My Book Again!

OK so I don't make a fortune from the books I have written, at least I get a few bucks now and then in royalties for my hard work. I am no J.K. Rowling and I never will be writing the kinds of non-fiction that I do, but at least I get the knowledge that some folks find what I write and publish to be worth buying.

That brings me to the website Scribd.com. This site is to literature and intellectual property what Napster was to music. Their high and mighty mission is about making information available etc, etc...but what the site does is post and steal intellectual property. Now the owners will say that is not their intent, yet the allow folks named "anonymous" to put anything at all online and claim they are the owners of the copyright. Funny, I have never read a book published by "anonymous" except the Big Book of AA.

One of my books has shown up on this pirate site 3 or 4 times. Now, granted they do remove it after I send them a stern legal notice, but that is lame. If they are going to continue to allow "anon" to keep putting it up there then they are complicit in the intellectual theft. Funny how no publishing house has sent this before a Congressional Committee like the music industry did to the pirates at Napster?

I am for the free and open exchange of information, but I am not for putting something written by another author online and claiming I own the copyright. Doing that is what is called THEFT and just because its a book doesn't mean you can steal it. Of course these are the same folks who "share" files over the internet and essentially steal movies and music as well.

Enough rant. Now I have to see if Scribd.com will really take my book off their site or not. Wonder if J. K. Rowling has seen Harry Potter on this site? I did find Angels and Demons a few months ago and I know that surely wasn't written by "anon627". Go figure!

GOPosauric Park!

New Film Outs GOP Governor Charlie Crist

Here is the trailer:

Maine Becomes 5th State To Allow Same Sex Marriage

The State of Maine has become the latest to allow same sex marriage. The governor signed the bill into law today making it the 5th state to allow equal rights for LGBT people.

I can only hope the Supreme Court of California realizes how wrong Prop 8 was! Now if Texas can only figure this out!

Bristol Palin - Spokesperson For Abstinence?

The Bizarro World of the right wing keeps popping up on TV lately. The latest glimpse into the cognitive dissonance of the right is Bristol Palin promoting the virtues of "abstinence" on Good Morning America. Say what?

Yes the poster child/unwed mother whose unexpected pregnancy was trotted before the media as part of her mothers political campaign is promoting abstenince as the best form of birth control. Of course this ignores the reality that premarital abstinence pledges among teens are ineffective and often counterproductive -- teens are just as likely to have sex but less likely to use condoms or other forms of birth control according to a major study.

Of course Palin said back in February that abstinence is "not realistic at all." Apparently she had not yet seen the media opportunity as an abstinence proponent. Like her mother, Bristol is showing all the signs of becoming a media whore. (This is not a reference to her unexpected pregnancy with her boyfriend!)

Ford Announces New Electric Car

The guys at Ford apparently really do have a better idea. They announced the rollout of the Ford Focus...Electric Model!

Scheduled to appear sometime in 2011 the electric Focus will run 100 miles between charges and be an ideal car for city dwellers and folks with short commutes. This morning news came that a former SUV plant in Wayne, Michigan will get a $550 million makeover to produce the new electric cars.

Ford is leveraging technology from Magna International to produce the car. Meanwhile, GM is struggling to produce the Volt completely in-house. With a proposed $40,000 price tag I seriously doubt if I will be driving a Volt in the future, but a reasonably priced Ford? Might happen.

Dom DeLuise Dies

A man who made me laugh more than just about anyone has passed away. Dom DeLuise star of TV and Movies passed away this morning. Dom was lloved by everyone who worked with him and his death will be felt throughout the industry.

Joe The Plumber - Your 15 Minutes Is Up!

So who gave this guy a microphone? Joe the Plumber, (not really a plumber nor a "Joe" since his legal name is Samuel Wurzelbacher), has opened his big mouth again and this time he is slurring me and my friends. In one of his rants he invokes some very bad theology and claims that God was very specific that he wanted none of this "queer" stuff. Then he says he would never let his children near any homosexuals, even though some of them are his friends.

Earth to "Joe". Your 15 minutes of fame is up!

Michael Savage Banned From UK

Well our old friend Michael Savage, aka Scumbag, has been banned from entering the United Kingdom because he is considered to be fostering extremism and hatred. What could they be thinking. After all this is the humanitarian who says an autistic child is just "a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out."

Extreme? Savage calls the Quran, the sacred Muslim holy book, a "book of hate". (Obviously he has never read it.)

OK, most of that was intended as ironic, I know my conservative readers don't do irony, but I just can't help myself. Michael Savage is a loud-mouthed provocateur in the same league as Ann Coulter. If he has a genuine well considered opinion, it is so clouded with his hate filled rants that no one can hear it.

The UK realizes this and classifies him in the same league as Fred Phelps and Egyptian cleric Safwat el-Higazi. Thes efolks are really cut from the same cloth. Savage is just another extremist. His difference is he wears an American flag pin insteas of a turban, but he is just as dangerous. It's time US radio stations realized that and turned him off. The air would be so much clearer.

Closing The Offshore Tax Loophole

When US companies like Halliburton or Caterpillar change their corporate headquarters to the Cayman Islands, they don't move their offices, just their legal mailing address for tax purposes. Why? So they don't have to pay taxes in the US. It's a complicated loopholes and I am simplifying the technique, but you get the idea.

These corporations are making their profits in the US and then stealing the tax dollars they should be paying on their gains.

President Obama has proposed changing the tax laws to close this loophole. In the process the US will get several billion in taxes in the next few years, and we need that.

It's about time!

Cowboys Practice Structure Collapses On The Team

The line of thunderstorms that just passed through Dallas left a swath of wind damage in their wake. The most visible damage was the training facility at the Cowboys Valley Ranch facility. The team was on the field during a training exercise as the 60 mph winds tore the walls and cause the entire football-field sized structure to collapse.

Just saw the video from cameramen on the scene as it happened. The whole building began buckling and lights swayed just prior to the collapse. About 10 people are reported to be injured from the falling structure.

Severe storms continue in the area.

N1H1 May Have Started In The US

N1H1 is hardly as catchy as "Swine Flu" but every bit as serious, and contrary to the shouts of the right wing who have tried to make this an "immigration issue", this strain probably started in the US.

The CDC is now saying it looks like the strain began back in 1998 in US hog farms. The cases found in Mexico may have actually paralleled some here, but it's too early to tell.

The CDC is taking this very seriously, and comedians ridiculing the situation aside, the folks in Virology are not amused. The virus is a hybrid of a swine/avain/human influenza and that means it can travel from human to human.

"We're in unprecedented territory really," said Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., which operates a laboratory that works with the World Health Organization. So far, the virus is treatable with antiviral medicines. It appears less deadly than first thought, as long as good medical care is within reach.

The outbreak was detected early in Mexico and that may be a saving grace. A worldwide pandemic on the scale of the Spanish Flu has been expected for a long time. Let's hope this isn't the one.

Hannity Still Silent On Waterboarding Demonstration

Sean Hannity, far-right standard bearer and media whore, has yet to make good on his boast that he would volunteer to be waterboarded for charity. He claimed this would prove it wasn't torture.

Since then Keith Olbermann has posted a $1000 per second prize for Hannity for every second he can endure the torture. So far no word from Hannity.

I'll help out. Since I have experience waterboarding people (albeit in a consensual SM sense as part of an interrogation role-play) I will galdly volunteer to perform the duites. I suspet I will not be taken up on my offer, and it's a good one too. My version of the turture is much milder than the kind indulged in by the CIA and other rogue government agencies. They bring their victim to the verge of drowning, a potentially deadly practice that risks getting water in the victims lungs. That often leads to pnuemonia.

So Mr. Hannity, my offer is this. I will assist in whatever capacity needed to help you raise funds for charity. I assure you that I won't do any permanent damage, but that you will gleefully confess to just about anything to get me to stop.

Sounds sadistic? You betcha.

Danny Gans Dies In Las Vegas

If you have never been to Las Vegas you might not have heard of Danny Gans. Gans was voted entertainer of the year numerous times in Las Vegas and had his own theater at the Wynn Encore Hotel & Casino.

Gans died unexpectedly last night at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 52.

Maine Senate Passes Same Sex Marriage Bill!

Word just came in through Americablog that the Maine Senate has passed the Gay Marriage bill. Same sex marriage in Maine is one step closer to reality. Now it moves to the House where an easier time is expected.

Republican Virginia Foxx - Certified Idiot! - Calls Mathew Sheppard Murder A Hoax?

Republicans love to rewrite history. Take Rep.Virginia Foxx, who tried to tie the swine flu to a democratic administration. She said it's "interesting that it happened before under Carter in 1976."

If she had bothered to look at the dates, she would find it happened under Ford. But let's not let reality get in the way of the GOP agenda. She also blamed the Smooth Hawley act on FDR, an act written by Republicans and enacted under Herbert Hoover! Of course she also called it the "Hoot-Smalley" act. Face it Foxx is an idiot!

Then this walking bag of misinformation went on to call the Mathew Sheppard murder a hoax! Someone needs to put duct tape over her mouth before she says something even more outrageous.

Keith Olbermann has the details!

Swine Flu - Redux?

In 1976 I caught the Swine Flu. It was a real ordeal and I spent a week stuck in a hotel room during my travels getting various medications from a local doctor in Agawam, Massachusetts.

Now I figured I would be naturally immune to the newest strain but the doctors tell me differently. Apparently the crafty virus has mutated into a novel form of the virus and just like everyone else, I am vulnerable.

Living in Texas, the state with the largest border with Mexico, the launching point for this wave of pandemic, does make me a bit nervous. The best consolation comes from people taking precautions seriously and schools closing to avoid spreading the disease. Schools are a breeding ground for diseases. Lots of kids, sneezing, coughing and in close contact spreading whatever they have to each other. Share and share alike?

My hope is that parents who keep their children at home will not decide to bring them to work with them. If they do, the same problem will persist, but this time it will be adults who spread it.

The flu in Mexico seems to be more deadly than other countries, and that is a mystery. The fact that this flu is killing the young and strong is also a mystery. It bears a frightening resemblance to the Spanish Flu epidemic that decimated the worlds youth in 1918. Let's hope that isn't repeated.

So what to do? Listen to the recommendations of the CDC and be reasonable. Avoid close contact with large crowds, but don't hide at home and shiver.

Wash your hands and cover your coughs and sneezes, and just maybe we can nip this in the bud.

The Long, Slow Demise Of Michael Steele

It's like watching a slow motion train wreck. Michael Steele, the token minority chairperson of the GOP has steadily had his power extracted by the ultra-conservative faction that runs the party now. The latest slap in Steele's face is a resolution, calling for a new set of checks and balances on the chairman's power to dole out money including new controls on awarding contracts and spending money on outside legal and other services.

Steele is the "dead man walking" of the GOP and apparently he doesn't know it yet.

Arlen Specter Switches Parties!

If I were looking for a real indicator of a "sea change" in American politics, this would be it. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching parties. The longtime moderate voice of the GOP has thrown in the towel and says freely that the party has moved away from his beliefs.

"Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."

The GOP is fast becoming a fringe party and none too soon for me. The radical far-right factions that have kidnapped the GOP are pushing it into irrelevance. Once Al Franken is seated as Senator from Minnesota, Specter will give the Democrats a filibusterer proof majority and the real work of rebuilding our country can begin.

Iowa Gay Weddings Start Today

Wedding bells will be ringing in Iowa starting today for same-sex couples. Though there is a three day waiting period after getting a license, a judge can grant an immediate license.

Iowa has not state residency requirements for marriage!