mac insand 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (581)

• On the post: Hertz Shells Out $168 Million To Settle 364 False Theft Reports

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2022 @ 01:18pm

  Insurance Premiums can hurt, though

  The way insurance works is that the customer is basically placing a bet that something will go wrong. The house, through actuaries, calculates the odds to set the premium. When a customer, such as Hertz, changes the odds through bad actions, the premiums change. I know details of one company where premiums jumped as a result of some accidents. The premium jump stung so much that the company implemented an aggressive program that included sharing premium savings with the employees. The employees were also given goals of finding ways to prevent issues to increase their shares in the savings. The only way a casino is going to lose is if it's owned by Donald Trump. As odds change, premiums will change to recover the losses. Especially if the insurers are publicly held, stockholders will demand that those premiums increase enough to recover the $168M payout.

• On the post: Rubio’s Bill To Ban TikTok Is A Dumb Performance That Ignores The Real Problem

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2022 @ 08:25am

  If Only We Could Ban Acronyms

  Look, I've made enough acronyms in fun, but I really hate when we actually have serious issues and a group takes an obscenely wasteful amount of time tossing acronym ideas back and forth. If we would just give a simple name and begin work, many organizations would be far more effective. Then again, since we're talking about our government, maybe they should be more about acronym and less about performance.

• On the post: Trump Says It’s Defamation To Call His Lying About The Results Of The 2020 Election ‘The Big Lie’

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2022 @ 12:04pm

  Definitely both!

  I definitely believe that Trump is a liar and an idiot. At the same time, he's a rocket scientist in comparison with his supporters.

• On the post: Trump Says It’s Defamation To Call His Lying About The Results Of The 2020 Election ‘The Big Lie’

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2022 @ 11:35am

  Not only a non-case, but CNN is doing Trump a favor!

  Look, given the mountain of evidence that the election results were clear, honest, and decisive that Trump lost, CNN has two alternatives: call Trump a liar or call Trump a moron. Granted, either would be true (my strong opinion), but calling him a liar is better than accusing him of being so abjectly stupid that he believes what he's saying.

• On the post: Fraternal Order Of Police Helps Boost Telecom Smear Campaign Against FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 06 May, 2022 @ 07:06am

  FOP

  One pattern I've noticed among the police officers that I know is a disdain for the FOP. Apparently the FOP is mainly for bad cops, and associating with the group in itself makes a cop look bad.

• On the post: It Can Always Get Dumber: Ron DeSantis Moves To Eliminate The Ridiculous Disney Exemption To His Unconstitutional Social Media Bill Because He’s Mad At Disney

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2022 @ 01:39pm

  Pass the Popcorn

  I'm really anticipating the fireworks, even if I am naively optimistic. So this would be state autocrat is going up against a global company that has already successfully bought off Congress to ridiculously extend copyright twice, owns ABC, and has media distribution that he can only dream about. He thinks he can win a PR war like this? Not that I'm cheering for Disney, though I'm sure as hell not cheering for DeSantis. This could still be fun to watch.

• On the post: Instructor Who Teaches Cops To Dowse For Dead Bodies Issues Hearty Defense Of Corpse Witching

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2022 @ 11:10am

  dowsing memories

  Wow. This reminds me of a story from my first job after school. The building was fairly old, and an engineer received a task of mapping pipes under the building. The pipes in use were easy, but he was also supposed to map out those that were not in use but still in place under the lowest floor. I knew about the task but didn’t think anything of it until I was walking down the hall and saw the engineer with two bent pieces of wire in his hands. I saw but repeated “I will not ask” several times before turning around to ask. Sure enough, he was trying to find dried out, disused pipes with dowsing rods. I admire the people being gentle by calling this pseudoscience. To me, dowsing is clearly antiscience.

• On the post: Rep. Ken Buck Threatens To Use Antitrust To Attack ‘Woke’ Apple

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 05 Apr, 2022 @ 06:42am

  Now I have a definition for "Woke"

  Now I get it. "Woke" translates to "not stupid."

• On the post: Even As Trump Relies On Section 230 For Truth Social, He's Claiming In Lawsuits That It's Unconstitutional

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2022 @ 10:40am

  Damn those numbers!

  Donald Trump is firmly opposed to anything with numbers higher than he can count!

• On the post: Judge And Jury Say Sarah Palin Failed To Prove 'Actual Malice' In Defamation Case Against The NY Times

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2022 @ 06:26am

  A bit of irony

  Let's just say that she had won the case, what would this have meant for her? How many times to she and her ilk make far less substantiated connection claims? How much could she be liable for if she claimed that she could see Russia and Russia sues for land devaluation by being in an intellectually-depressed zone? What about a group that claims that video games lead to violence, and then a study comes out to show either that's not true or the opposite? Fox "News" makes gross distortions hourly that, as they put it in defending Tuckums from a defamation suit, no reasonable person would take seriously. Everyone at Fox should be happydancing that this lawsuit did a complete faceplant.

• On the post: New 'TLDR' Bill Requires Companies Provide Synopsis Of Overlong, Predatory Terms Of Service

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2022 @ 06:52am

  RepublicWireless would be a good model

  Probably the only EULA I have ever read was the one from RepublicWireless a few years ago. It was written for the average person, rather than a legalese-fluent attorney, and there were nice bits of humor sprinkled in. Someone had fun writing it, and I actually read it a couple of times. The new EULA (https://republicwireless.com/pages/terms-and-conditions) is still good, but not as much fun to read as the one I remember.

  I think that we just need a lawsuit or two to claim that EULAs that are long and difficult for the average person to read are an unreasonably onerous burden. Expecting us to follow the rules means communicating them clearly.

  Regards

• On the post: Not How Any Of This Works: Pandemic's Wrongest Man Sues Twitter For Kicking Him Off The Platform

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2021 @ 12:28pm

  Re: Re: Unjust Enrichment

  I love the irony. The rubes are giving money to grifters in the interest of 'owning the libs.' This leaves less donation money left to fund the right-wing*. TOL (The Orange Loser) has several grifts going, and he's inspiring others. The parasites might well kneecap the right for the midterms. *Let's not bother with calling them conservative, anymore. No ideology left besides identity politics.

• On the post: Birds Aren't Real, And Kids Are Not So Susceptible To Conspiracy Theories (Their Parents On The Other Hand…)

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2021 @ 01:05pm

  Let's give a hand to Discordianism!

  I have my Hand of Eris tattoo, do you, Mike?

  :D

• On the post: GOP Claim That Biden FCC Nom Gigi Sohn Wants To 'Censor Conservatives' Is AT&T & Rupert Murdoch Backed Gibberish

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2021 @ 08:58am

  "conservative"

  So, there is officially no longer any philosophy associated with the word 'conservative.' If you're willing to wear the red cap, then everything you say, no matter how vile or anti-American, is automatically covered by the 'conservative perspective' umbrella. So much for having any principles, at all.

• On the post: Josh Hawley Thinks We Should Break Up Twitter Because He Doesn't Like The Company's Editorial Choices

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2021 @ 07:02pm

  Hawley keeps proving me wrong

  Just when I think that I've exaggerated Hawley's lack of intelligence and decide that he can't be as stupid as he looks, he proves me wrong.... every. Single, time!

• On the post: The Bad Apples Control The Bunch: USA Today Report Details Law Enforcements Punishment Of Good Cops

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2021 @ 05:40am

  Punishing Good Performance

  This reminds me of a friend that got disciplined at UPS for doing too good of a job. The shop steward said that he was making others look bad, and that couldn't be tolerated.

• On the post: Ridley Scott Blames His Latest Movie Bombing At The Box Office On Facebook And Millennials, Rather Than Pandemic And Poor Marketing

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2021 @ 01:29pm

  an old fart that saw the previews and paid attention

  I am part of the target market, and I saw the previews. Covid or not, I wouldn't have gone even if free. The movie looks boring AF!

• On the post: Josh Hawley: The War On Men (?) Is Driving Them To Porn And Video Games (Things Many Men Like?)

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2021 @ 04:01pm

  SMFH

  Just when I think Hawley can't be as stupid as he looks, he opens his mouth again.

• On the post: Ken Popehat White (Again) Shows How To Respond To A Completely Thuggish Legal Threat Letter

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2021 @ 01:41pm

  "govern yourself"?

  Awww... I was hoping for a classic Popehat "snort my taint!"

• On the post: Apple, John Deere Investors Pressure Companies On Their Backwards Repair Policies

  

  mac insand ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2021 @ 09:39am

  I freaking love my Framework laptop!

  When it comes to repair, Framework looks to be the anti-Apple. Mine came in, and I got the DIY version. I wasn't used to the tiny wifi antenna connectors and munged one. $7 to Amazon and new antennas were here and working in under 24 hours. Sure, it weighs a little more because of connectors instead of hard-soldered pieces, but I'll take it. I know that this venture is still beginning, but I'm happy to support. If successful, then, in a couple of years when the CPU is a bit underpowered and the battery is starting to fail, I can just replace.

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