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Whoah. Somebody got lazy.

Haven’t posted here in a while… I’ll get to some very fascinating articles this week. Something new for you boys and girls.

Jeff :: Jul.15.2008 :: News 'n' Commentary :: Comments Off

Privacy Rights Get Violated… Twice.

Yea I know they don’t use this currency anymore… it’s just so much cooler than the boring Euro.

So Italy made a serious faux pas by releasing the salary details of all of its citizens for a reason that I couldn’t possibly comprehend. Of course this deliberate and obvious breach of citizen’s privacy rights wouldn’t have been possible without the first breach of privacy — requiring all citizens to report their personal income and keep accounting records.

OK, OK, I know my views in this matter might be in the minority. But Personal Income Tax is a breach of the basic privacy of the individual that wouldn’t be done in a truly free society. One of the basic human rights should be the Right Not To Do Accounting. You can force corporations (which are imaginary legal constructs that are created and destroyed at the whim of the people and have no inherent rights whatsoever) to do pretty much anything, including full accounting statements on a monthly basis for sales tax, corporate income tax, this tax, that tax, and I’m all for that. But requiring citizens to report their income and do accounting is telling the populace a very strong and obvious message: WE OWN YOU, NOW PAY UP, BITCHES.

Jeff :: May.01.2008 :: News 'n' Commentary :: No Comments »

Why Launch A Satellite…

…when you can launch 10 of them at once? Leave it to resourceful, highly intelligent Indians (yes, the ones from India, sheesh) to figure out how to make do with the resources you have. The Indian Space Research Organization set a new world record for multiple satellite launches (in the Launch section, next to “longest distance milk has been launched from someone’s nose”) with their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Reading it, it’s actually kinda cool… but I wonder how many Indians are pissed off that their government can launch 10 satellites but can’t get running water and there’s a food shortage.

Jeff :: Apr.28.2008 :: News 'n' Commentary :: No Comments »

Happy 30th Birthday, Spam!

Believe it or not, spam is 30 years old… on May 1, 1978, a mass ARPANET message was sent from DEC promoting their new servers, a flagrant violation of ARPANET rules at the time (back then the Internet was for U.S. government purposes only). The original e-mail and reaction are pure gold.

Jeff :: Apr.25.2008 :: News 'n' Commentary :: No Comments »

Tax Dollars At Work

This latest bungle by D.C. shows why Wesley Snipes wasn’t too eager to pay his taxes… may as well be flushing the money down the toilet.

Three streetcars purchased [3 years ago] by the District of Columbia for about $10 million are being held in the Czech Republic until the city builds tracks for the cars.

I suggest that the streetcars are donated down here to Costa Rica — we have an urban rail system, complete with tracks and stations, badly needing modern streetcars.

Jeff :: Apr.24.2008 :: News 'n' Commentary :: No Comments »

Meanwhile, On The High Seas…

Looks like piracy is alive and well… I covered this topic before but this time German warships helped a Japanese tanker. This kind of German-Japanese love fest hasn’t been seen since, um, the last time they got together to try to kick our collective asses.

Jeff :: Apr.23.2008 :: News 'n' Commentary :: No Comments »

Celebrate Protecting Nature By… Trashing It?

Here’s a little gem of an article which shows how environmentalist events tend to do more harm than good… at worst they contribute nothing to actually helping the environment. It’s amazing how much disregard for nature there is at these events intended to, you know… protect nature.

Reminds me of all the fossil fuels that had to be used to power Live Earth. Not to mention that a rock concert won’t change the global warming (man-made? Wait, climate change? Didn’t it just snow in Vancouver in April?) issue anyway.

Jeff :: Apr.22.2008 :: News 'n' Commentary :: No Comments »

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The seemingly endless superfluous rants and observations of Jeff Alami

Archive for the 'News 'n' Commentary' Category

Whoah. Somebody got lazy.

Privacy Rights Get Violated… Twice.

Why Launch A Satellite…

Happy 30th Birthday, Spam!

Tax Dollars At Work

Meanwhile, On The High Seas…

Celebrate Protecting Nature By… Trashing It?

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