If You Don't Believe it is Theft, Then it Must Not Be!

Interesting opinion piece over at the NYT, by a teacher, who pirated the Internet for years from her neighbors' unsecured networks. There's a word for a person like this, but I can't quite put my finger ion it.

It may have been unfair, but I don’t believe I was stealing: the owners’ leaving their networks password-free was essentially a gift, an ethereal gesture of kindness.

Really? And if your neighbors had left their doors unlocked, would you feel free to raid the 'fridge, thinking it was an ethereal gesture of free food?

She says she did "freelance work from home", applied to graduate schools, paid her taxes online, streamed new episodes of “Friday Night Lights” each evening for a whole winter, reply to e-mails, video-chatted with my sister...until the neighbor "pulled the plug" by securing their network.

Sometimes I’d imagine my anonymous benefactors... thinking, “Well, I have Internet to spare.” And, really, who doesn’t? Home wireless networks can usually support five or more computers, yet there are only about 1.4 computers per American household.

Oh. So, as long as your neighbor has something in abundance, you can take it without asking for it? There's a great, if obvious, line in The Rocketeer, where the hero's much put upon assistant tells him, "If you "borrow" something without asking, that's stealing!"

And then the author slips in this bit of fluff at the end:

Perhaps the solution is a simple, old-fashioned gesture. Just knock on a neighbor’s door, and ask if she might be able to spare some wireless.

Read the piece for yourself, and see if there is the slightest indication that she ever asked permission to use any of their bandwidth? And some of her activities were real bandwidth hogs: she was streaming video and having video chats. Did it never occur to her that while she was enjoying herself at the neighbors' expense, they may have been putting up with slower downloads and less performance than they paid for?

I don't want to accuse her of hypocrisy, (Editor's note: Yes he does), but I'd be willing to bet that the good Ms. Rubenstein doesn't have a wireless network, and if she does, it has a password protecting it.

BTW, The word you are searching for is "leech".

H/T Closet Conservative

Cross posted at LCR.

Family Guy Crosses the Line?

Caution: Adult content and insensitive, tasteless attempt at humor:



I hesitated in posting this. One, because I hate to give these guys any more publicity, two because it is utterly tasteless, and three, because it's been bugging me a long time and it took me this long to do something about it.

I wrote the following letter to a local TV station. It was long overdue.

To whom it may concern:

I would like this letter to be entered into your public file. It concerns your airing of the program “Family Guy” at 4:30 PM on weekdays.
You run a disclaimer before the show, but since it airs in a time slot where children are out of school and many parents are still at work, I do not believe that a mere disclaimer is sufficient to keep the adult and often inappropriate content away from young, impressionable minds.

You acknowledge by the disclaimer that this is intended for mature audiences, but air it in an "after school" time slot. I would not presume to censor the show in any way, but the time slot the syndicated show airs is inappropriate for children and thus does not serve the needs of the community.

Please move this program to a more appropriate time slot, should you decide to continue airing it. Thank you.

It was addressed to the station, and signed, delivered by snail mail.

If anyone wants to complain about a similar situation, tell the station you want your comment to go into their public file.

Station license holders must demonstrate that they are providing programming in the best interests of their community, in order to keep their license. Any negative information in the public file is perceived as a threat to their livelihood. For that reason, a letter addressed to their public file will have more impact than say, a call to their switchboard. I was once told that if you wanted to put the Fear of God into any radio or TV station, all you had to do was walk in during business hours and ask to see the public file.

Family Guy is funny at times, offensive at others and gross most of the time. Any adult who wants to watch it should be able to. But, trusting a latchkey kid to police himself and not watch it? Why not leave your liquor cabinet unlocked with your car keys on top of it sometime?

"James Cameron Hearts Ecoterrorists"

Entertainment Weekly interviewed director James Cameron and had the following exchange:

EW: “Avatar” is the perfect eco-terrorism recruiting tool.”

JC: Good, good. I like that one. I consider that a positive review. I believe in ecoterrorism.”

After I picked my jaw up from the floor, I thought: Now I'm doubly glad I did not shell out any money for this propagandapalooza! Domestic terrorism in no less odious than that which is imported. Terrorism of any stripe should be eradicated, not encouraged.


H/T Weasel Zippers
Cross posted at Say Anything

Democrat Uses Reform Group to Launder Strip Club Money

According to the NYT: Al Gore Supporter and lawyer, Louis Posner, who

"... fervently contested the result of the 2000 presidential election and started an organization advocating voter reform used it to hide profits from another venture, the police say: a strip club that offered more than dancing."

I can't believe it! Not only that a Democrat was involved in something this shady, but that the New York Times was able to find it, but I haven't heard a peep about it!

The lawyer, Louis Posner, ran the Hot Lap Dance Club out of a fifth-floor loft in Hell’s Kitchen, where the police said the wealthy clientele paid as much as $5,000 for sex with dancers in private rooms.

...According to the police, Mr. Posner, a 52-year-old tax lawyer, funneled the club’s money to an account for Voter March, the grass-roots demonstration organization he started shortly after the 2000 election that has been largely inactive since 2004. He deposited money into several other accounts, the police said, adding that the amounts were low enough to avoid raising a red flag at the Internal Revenue Service.

Investigators seized $570,000 from 13 bank accounts and two safety deposit boxes held by the Posners, all of which could be traced back to the dance club, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.

Do hot lap dances cause global warming?

According to the police, in addition to sponsoring events with Vincent Bugliosi about Bush stealing the 2000 election, Posner ran a prostitution ring out of his club, the Hot Lap Dance Club, where employees say they were required to have sex with Posner in order to work there. No wonder Posner was so testy about the 2000 election -- he wanted to preserve the glory of the Clinton years. -Ann Coulter

Hat tip Ann Coulter
Cross Posted at Say Anything