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Not that High Tech

Overheard in Facebook, by an “author of nine novels”: What if everybody on Facebook from all over the world got together separately at a specific day and time and sent…

Not that High Tech

Obama gets Nobel cartoon

The LA Times had a very interesting article about how they decide to write an opinion piece. (This was far more fun than most opinions they actually run. And, hint, Meghan Daum is one of the worst.)

The Times editorial board meets three times a week to discuss what we’re going to say in our editorials, but sometimes news breaks between meetings and we scramble to reach a consensus through e-mail. The announcement that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize is a case in point.

Oddly enough, considering how rabidly liberal they are, the majority of them decided, like I did, that Obama didn’t exactly deserve this Nobel Peace Prize. Regardless of whether the Nobel committee decided this back in January, a couple weeks after he entered the office – which is what I read – or more recently, he just hasn’t had time to do anything to deserve this. And I’m not so sure that he will anyway. Promises, promises.  

Barack Obama Entertainment

Google steals books. It has also broken the DMCA and copyright law, which was already shaky. Hey, everything online is free, right? Why not pictures, photos, cartoons, articles, and books? Google is the new Establishment, killing content with unlawful competition.

I was trying to decide what to do for my Slate cartoon today, and found that once again Google was in the news for lifting not just orphan books, but every book ever written.  I did my first Slate cartoon about Google a few weeks ago, and  the news then was that FINALLY the Justice Department was investigating Google for anti-trust violations and being an obvious monopoly and stealing all books for itself. Today, however, the New York Times reports:

The Justice Department, which submitted a 32-page filing to the court on Sept. 18, said it was concerned the agreement could violate antitrust law by giving Google “de facto exclusive rights for the digital distribution of orphan works.” Orphan works are books whose authors are unknown or cannot be found. The Justice Department also said it wanted the settlement to comply with procedures for class-action lawsuits.

But the department also said it hoped the agreement could be saved because of its many benefits to readers and scholars.

google book settlement

So the Justice Department has been bought. What benefits to readers are more important than benefits to the authors??? Scholars? Hello, if a writer wanted her work to be given away for free she’d start a frigging blog, or post research on a forum. And the f -ing readers can go BUY THE DAMN BOOK. Does the Justice Department understand anything at all about intellectual property? How about merchandise? Merchandise is not DONATED, it is SOLD.

Christopher S. Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, said the settlement would bring benefits for the visually impaired because the more than seven million books scanned by Google would be made available in audio editions.

Did you notice that part? SEVEN MILLION BOOKS STOLEN BY GOOGLE? Oh, and guess who else decided they wanted all these books for themselves, besides the blind? The League of United Latin American Citizens. Apparently this group forgot to go to school,  or go to the library, and don’t know what a bookstore is.  

Not that High Tech

David Letterman cartoon on affairs

Oh, David. First Sarah Palin, and now this. I used to think you were cool beans. Then I stopped watching you, but I still respected you. Now…

Well, what you said to Sarah was not appropriate, especially about her kid, but comedians say far worse at times. And it’s not like you’re as vulgar as Jimmy Kimmel is, at times.

But this confessing to your audience is GROSS! Don’t you know it’s wrong to hang your dirty laundry out in public?! No one cares! Tell it to your lawyer or your shrink or your manager!

And now, tonight, you even talk about how you have to make it up to your wife. OMG!!! This is not a self-help group, so just keep quiet, and STOP TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF. 

Entertainment

Ted Rall is a liberal who hates most things President Obama has done this year. I am (mostly) conservative, who thinks Obama is doing a decent job, although I can’t point out anything in particular that is great. So we’re kind of going in opposite directions, but I enjoyed pointing out to him recently on Facebook that it’s fun watching him hotfoot over to the other side!

capital punishment cartoon

I know Ted only slightly, from a gallery in Santa Monica  that we were both in, Impolitic, that had rather fantastic parties. (Hi, Josh!) We also share the same publishers (NBM and Andrews McMeel), although my books there are about chocolate, and true love cartoons, and  unfortunately he dropped the ball on those topics. (America Gone Wild: Cartoons by Ted Rall and The Year of Loving Dangerously). We’re also both in Slate and Gocomics.

But we had similar cartoons this weekend, both about murder by the state (capital punishment), although we were attracted to different stories. I am disgusted and appalled by states that still believe that they get to play God and decide when someone dies. On PURPOSE. This includes California, my current state. In the incident last week, Ohio did its damndest to kill Mr. Romell Broom for allegedly killing and raping a 14 year old girl. They couldn’t find a vein to torture him with their lethal drugs, which suffocate you and stop your heart. (Why didn’t they try waterboarding?) CNN points out that Ohio has had a few problems in this area before.

The  LA Times had a good article about the attempted execution, saying the Ohio asshat officials wouldn’t allow him to talk to his attorney as it stretched out to 2 hours and 20 minutes, and that he started to cry, covering his face, after an hour. They also said he flinched when they inserted a shunt in his leg. Can you imagine that?!

Weisberg said California is a prime example of a state that retains a death penalty in theory yet rarely conducts executions despite having the nation’s biggest death row, with 685 condemned prisoners.

In California, executions have been on hold since early 2006: Lethal injections have failed to fully anesthetize inmates in six of the 13 executions conducted in the state since capital punishment resumed in 1976.

I think at this point, everyone would agree that it is cruel and unusual punishment in his case. Well, maybe not Ohio. I always liked them before. Not so much now.

Ted’s cartoon after the jump. 

Sad Cartoons See ya later