There’s something very wrong with this

I thought people being arrested for tracing the money trails at the DNC were bad enough, but this is horrible.

http://www.twincities.com/rnc/ci_10364066

http://www.denverpost.com/politicswestnews/ci_10363015

Peaceful protests are protected by this little document called the Constitution. (Ok, it might be somewhere in the amendments, probably under free speech, but technically its still the Constitution.)  I don’t care what party does it, but there is no excuse for keeping funding secret or restricting free speech.  These are not the actions the government of a free country takes.  China was critized for doing the exact same thing, which is a message to both parties.  Take care of your own problems before showing your hypocracy.

A dare for everyone

So this was brought to my attention today.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/feature-articles/mccain-attack-honorable.php

I dare every single person that see this to quote these as facts when talking about John McCain.

If you’re into the whole equal opportunity thing, you can replace John McCain with Barak Obama.

This didn’t take too long to happen

I’m already sick of the presidental campaigns.  Simple as that.  “Why are you sick of our country’s most cherished tradition?” you might ask.  Well, I get the point.  Obama’s popular and McCain’s a Republican.  Somehow, these have become the major issues, completely missing the major points.

People need to see the major problems with this whole process.  First, there need to be at least 2 more major parties.  You’re either Republican, Democrat, or wasting your vote.  I think, for once, that I speak for a huge number of Americans when I say neither side has it right.  Republicans are usually pretty smart when it comes to economic issues. (note: Bush Jr. is not a real Republican.  No self respecting Republican would ever spend that much, especially after a Democrat balanced the national budget.  He should be hanging his head in shame over that, but he’s to stupid to realize that he even fucked up in the first place.) Democrats, not being Republicans, must disagree on these issues, usually making them wrong.  Case in point, oil companies.  To tax or not to tax.  Obama says tax and use that money for an “energy rebate.”  Problem is, a tax is a cost, and to make up for it, prices would be raised, using what will most likely be the amount of that nice little energy rebate.  A tax break, on the other hand, would reduce the cost of production, therefore dropping the price.

Democrats are usually more in tune with social issues.  If the Republican party always had this “we must hold close to old fashioned” morals, we’d still be using seperate-but-equal facilities and buring gays at the stake for not adhearing to the traditional family.  Now, Democrats are the ones pushing for social justice in this day and age.  Now, I’m not so nieve to think that everyone wants equal rights for everyone, or any of those other causes.  Hell, I’m technically for gay marriage, but I’m not against it either.  I just don’t see any reason how, as a straight man, two gays being married would hurt me.

Yes, we need at least 2 more parties.  I’m throwing out 2 categories here, if anyone wants to add more, go for it.  Every party has an economic and social stance.  Currently, we can choose either completely conservative or completely liberal.  Mix the 2, and we have 2 more parties, and I would finally be completely happy with a candidate.

Now, take a second to get all that maniacal laughter out.  Happy with a candidate?  How can that happen?  Well, until we get corruption out of the government, its not going to happen.  I don’t mean old school political machine corruption, I mean buying influence.  For example, look at net neutrality.  The force in the government against net neutrality is comprised of the politicians who are supported by companies that are against net neutrality.  Without the money changing hands, net neutrality would not be threatened as much as it is.  This goes for every industry and corporation.  The lobbying needs to stop.

We all know the world would be better if all this happened.  We all know it won’t.  It’s all too engrained in government to change.  The only thing that matters is the letter in front of someone’s name, cause that determines who supports him, and what he stands for.

RIAA has gone too far

First, this was bad.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/08/music_biz_still_trying_to_kill.html

I love Pandora.  I love finding new music, and Pandora was a great legal way to do it.  The sad thing is theres another issue at hand.

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/muxtape-shut-down-by-riaa

This really is going too far.  Not because of the royalties, but because it is a complete bias toward the distribution method.  This can be a huge cash cow for the industry, but its working only to burn the bridge to the future.  The internet will become the choice for music distribution, if it hasn’t already.   They need to stop litigating and start evolving.  Simple as that.  No more favoritism.  Times have changed, and no amount of lawsuits can change that.

Quite possibly the most amazing Olympic moment I’ve ever seen

Last night, the finals for the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay was held, and it was one of the most amazing races I’ve ever seen.  That damn reality show has nothing on this.  There are a couple reasons for this.

1) The the anchor of the French team said before the race that they would smash the American team.

2) The previous world record time would have only place either 5th or 6th in the race.

3) The race finished with an amazing come from behind from behind win for the Americans.  With a finish that amazing, it wouldn’t matter what country finished like that, it was that close.  Eight tenths of a second was all that seperated gold from silver.

4) In celebration, we got this

If I remember correctly, he was facing the French team when he struck this pose.

Afterward, the announcers said Michael Phelps was done with his toughest events.  He only set new world records in those events.  If that is saying anything, then Phepls is going to be doing a lot more smashing before this thing is over.

Some people have too much time on their hands

While having a few beers, I found this on digg.com.

This scares me almost as much as it makes me laugh.  The fact that someone came up with this idea isn’t bad enough.  The rickroll meme needs to die.  Now.  All this does is give the meme a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart in a dramatic scene after mistaking heroin for cocaine.  Then again, it did make me laugh my buzzed ass off.  All in all, I would have to salute whoever made this.

Why I don’t like politics

This might end up getting long so bear with me.  I’m making this simple so people can understand where I’m going with this.  When I say politics, I don’t just mean public offices.  I’m talking about all those stupid little games people with power like to play.

Stupid little games like McCain has decided to play.  I don’t know where the he got the idea to bring Paris Hilton back into the spotlight, but there can be some horrible outcomes to this that nobody anticipated.  She was forgotten by the public.  Well contained you might say.  But now, she’s lose.  It’s only a matter of time before the tabloids pick up on her again, and I have to see her face plastered every damn time I get some beer.  Last time that happened, she spread like the plague.  She was absolutly everywhere and had to be dealt with. Apparently I’m not a typical guy since I don’t find her attractive.  Not at all.  And I found her shenangins cruel and tragic, meaning they were not even shenangins to begin with.

Don’t get me wrong, that video she made was pretty hilarious, and I do appreciate her not being a constant media story.  She moved out of the spotlight, and most people wouldn’t want to give up that kind of fame.  My problem here lies with McCain.  There was no reason for him to bring the media’s former favorite fuck up out of retirement.  Trying to kill me in my dreams is one thing, but now he’s messing with my reality. (Yeah, I said it.  He tried to kill me in my dreams.)  The fact of the matter is, media can be a horrible thing, and that’s coming from the mind of a media junky.

And on that note, TO THE SOAPBOX!

The good thing that McCain’s attacks have done is proven that media isn’t completely one dimensional.  Media is, has been, and should always be about communication.  And that, my friends, is the beauty of the internet.  It is media in its purest form.  It is a medium where people can communicate, which brings me to another point.

The Olympics opened today, and NBC has claimed exclusive rights to braodcast most of the events.  And they play to beat people over their heads with it.  In the old days, where TV was the main way to broadcast information, there was a small door for sending information to the masses, and traditional media guarded it like a bouncer at a night club.  Everyone wants in, and the big douchebag in a suit decides who gets in.  The internet made that door huge, but some people don’t want to change.  The club is open to everyone, and NBC threatening to sue people that post any information from the olympics without their consent is just wrong.  They aren’t the bouncer anymore, they’re the fat rent-a-cop that should stick to what he’s good at.  Like eating donuts, and not trying to chase down the kids that are trying to do what any business does.  They fill a need.  Bloggers posting results online will not cut into NBC’s ratings.  They need to let it go.

I’m sorry to get political this quickly, but this has been bothering me a bit.  If I had some money, I’d cheer myself up by getting a hold of a Brett Farve Jet’s jersey and wear it in Wisconsin.  That’ll be good for a laugh.  If anyone’s done it, put a link in a comment, I want to see if you made it out alive.

Quick! Duck and Cover! The Beginning of Void Society

I’ve finally gotten around to starting a blog.  Now everyone can see what kind of twisted ideas I come up with on a semi-regular basis.  Just a few things about this.

1) Posts will come when they come.  Nothing will be regular.  When I think of something to rant about, you can bet I’m gonna be ranting about it.  I’ve been ranting before, but now I have an audience.

2) I’m willing to take ideas on what to rant about.  I tend to be pretty opinionated, and I don’t like the idea of backing down.  Unless I’m wrong, but that doesn’t happen very often.

3) Contrary to popular belief, I’m not really that arrogant.  I just like to act full of myself every once in a while.  Its good for the soul.

4) This is my first crack at web design and content, so cut me some slack.  On a related note, this is going to be under construction for a while.

So, now that nobody can be pissed at me (HA! well disguised disclaimer!) I’m gonna let this go in whatever direction it goes.  I’m not a control freak, and this will probably have a mind of its own soon enough.