xmichaelx 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (712)

• On the post: Dick Cheney's Crystal Ball Says That NSA Surveillance Could Have Stopped 9/11

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2013 @ 02:03pm

  Stong locks on the cockpit doors could also have stopped 9/11.
  
  Passengers who hadn't been told all their lives to give criminals whatever they want could also have stopped 9/11.
  
  Following up on all the intelligence about a terror attack pre-9/11 could also have stopped 9/11.

• On the post: Eric Holder Wants To Stop And Frisk The NYPD

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2013 @ 04:40pm

  Holder?

  "Holder?s handling of civil rights has been aggressive and commendable"
  
  How's that whole wiretapping thing working out?
  
  Also, who are you, and what have you done to the normally rational website Techdirt?

• On the post: Eric Holder Claims Terrorists Are Involved In 'IP Theft'

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 16 May, 2013 @ 09:47am

  Re:

  average_joe said: "Maybe the Attorney General is privy to evidence that you are not? I mean, he is the Attorney General after all, and you're just a tech blogger. "
  
  Funny, that was exactly the rationale for invading Iraq. Anyone who bothered doing any research at all could see that Iraq was no threat to the U.S., and no threat to any other country (any more so than the whole rest of the despotic countries in the region). The Republican party line was, "He's the PRESIDENT -- don't you think he's privy to information that you're not?"
  
  The answer was no, just as the answer to average_joe's ridiculous supposition is no. If there was evidence, there would be a million reasons to release it, and no reasons not to.
  
  Going through life trusting that "daddy government will take care of me" is dangerous. For all of us.

• On the post: Washington State Allows Third Parties To Brand Youthful Offenders For Life At The Low, Low Price Of Only 69? A Record

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2013 @ 05:12pm

  Re: Re:

  "so you're one of those idiots who thinks a 5yo who shoplifts a candybar/toy should be treated the same as a adult who robbed a bank?"
  
  Feel free to show us a 5-year-old who's been convicted of a felony.
  
  If you're going to create straw men, at least create believable straw men.

• On the post: Judge Finds Himself In Contempt Of Court When His New Smartphone Interrupts Closing Arguments

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 16 Apr, 2013 @ 09:24am

  Penultimate

  "...considered by many to be the penultimate act of rudeness."
  
  Penultimate doesn't mean what you think it means.

• On the post: People Who Have Actually Heard of the Supreme Court Don't Like It Very Much

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 05:56pm

  Adobe Peace said :"... it's of no practical value for the average guy-on the street to know anything about the U.S. Supreme Court ... He has zero influence on what that Court does or who its members are."
  
  False. Elected officials choose Supreme Court members, and the 'average guy on the street' directly influences who those officials are.
  
  If more people understood that the Supreme Court are the people who actually decide what laws *mean*, then they might think more carefully about who gets elected to choose them.
  
  But probably not.

• On the post: Florida Homeowner's Association Sues Resident For Critical Blog Comments, Seeks Identity Of Other Commenters

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2013 @ 04:17pm

  2 reasons

  There are only 2 reasons HOAs exist:
  
  1) To give small, weak people a modicum of power.
  2) To funnel money into illegitimate businesses.

• On the post: To Argue That 'Copyright And The First Amendment Coexisted For 200 Years' Is To Ignore Reality

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2013 @ 02:54pm

  Another problem with the Internet...

  ...is that it's not actually a *transmission* medium. It's a copying medium.
  
  That is, in order for me to read your article (and for you to read this comment) a brand new copy HAD to be made.

• On the post: London Police To Set Up Special Copyright Crime Police Force

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2012 @ 11:25am

  How many children will be raped while this task force does its work? Surely there are better places for London to spend its resources.

• On the post: Fake Sandy Tweets Spark Widespread Debate About The Limits Of Free Speech

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2012 @ 01:01pm

  I struggle to see how his tweets are at all "loathsome." Mildy inappropriate might be a better term, and even then only because people were dying because of the storm elsewhere.
  
  Nothing he tweeted was news, or should have been construed at all as news. NYSE flooding? Really? Someone, somewhere cared at all about that? Enough to bother retweeting? That's about as newsworthy as the Reddit pic of sliding doors holding back flood waters. IOW, not at all.
  
  If this is what reporters rely on for their "reporting" then it's time they choose another line of work. (And if this bit of sophomoric tweeting is what Techdirt considers "loathsome" then it's time to put on your big boy pants and take a look around. Or at least start reading your own coverage or actual, meaningful events.)

• On the post: Norwegian Researchers Compile The World's Largest Drug Test

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2012 @ 07:46pm

  Been doing this in most u.s. cities for years, although I don't know how much info is shared. Every year I enjoy the Vegas report (mostly allergy meds and meth).

• On the post: Now The RIAA Wants You To Believe That You Should Be Paying Much, Much More For CDs

  

  xmichaelx ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2007 @ 12:45pm

  buy used

  buy used -> rip -> sell back to used music store
  
  This is my method, and every CD I buy costs exactly what I believe it's worth: about $3.
  
  As a bonus, I support a local business while not supporting the RIAA or the colluding musicians.
  
  I only pay full price for local bands, or bands that sell online without major label interference.
  
  On a side note, when I managed a record store, major labels bent over backwards to give me and my employees free CDs. Thousands of them every year -- more than we even had storage space for. Guess CDs aren't that expensive after all. We made a small fortune selling these promo CDs to the used music stores.