Category: Politics

More Stupid Laws

Representative Edward J. Markey has brought forth the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. It was just passed by the House and is on its way to the Senate.

The bill, apparently, is an attempt to force technology companies to make web sites and devices accessible to the blind. Of course it’s a rather long bill to simply accomplish that so I’m guessing there are some other hidden surprises are buried in that bill.

I have a problem with this type of legislation (if that surprises you I’m guessing this is your first time visiting my site, welcome). Back in college I had a professor who was Hell bent of forcing all her students to create accessible web sites (she was the instructor for a couple web development classes). Sure that’s fine and all until you realize one major problem, you handicap your capabilities by doing this.

This site you’re reading right now is mostly text. I post very few images or other media here. Even with something as simple as text this site probably isn’t accessible to any screen reader on the planet. Why is that? Because I use WordPress. WordPress, like almost every other content management system on the planet, throws a lot of extra junk into a website. Need proof? Look at the source code of the page you’re viewing right now.

Screen readers also can’t interface with well when a page uses scripting, which almost all pages do (as I know because I use NoScript to block most of it). Scripting is needed for a lot of things including active content (think Google Maps). You just can’t get around it when you’re making dynamic web pages (OK you can but it’s a development nightmare and requires all active work be done server side thus requires far more hardware to run the same site). And that’s just web pages.

Devices are a whole different world. I’ve mentioned the whining over Amazon’s Kindle not being accessible (which they fixed when it was brought to their attention I might add). In the case of the Kindle that is a device that can be made accessible pretty easily because it only works with text. Tell me how can you make a touch-screen based phone such as the Evo 4G, iPhone, or Palm Pre accessible to a blind person? There isn’t technology available at an affordable price that can create a braille touch screen. Combine that with the fact that since there are no physical controls on many new phones there is no way to “feel” your way around the interface even if it reads everything to you. Amazon did prove if it’s practical to make a device accessible to disabled individuals it will be done. Otherwise it can’t be done because our world is regulated by reality which most politicians don’t understand.

The bottom line is people with disabilities have special needs. I’m sorry to say but these people need devices that are specially made for them. It’s a fact of life that when a minority of people exist that have needs different than the large majority not every device can be crafted around that minority. Doing so would slow our technological progress to a crawl or make everything so bloody expensive nobody could afford them. Just imagine how expensive automobiles would be today if they had to be accessible to the blind. Yes it would have to drive itself which would require a ton of on board sensors, computers, and other pricey equipment. Needless to say it’s not practical by any means so the blind simply aren’t allowed to drive.

You can call me an insensitive asshole for stating this but that doesn’t make it any less true. I simply am a big enough asshole that I don’t care what people think of me and thus am willing to state the blatantly obvious.

The RIAA and Logic, It’s Like the Brady Campaign and Logic

Apparently the RIAA is lobbying for the mandatory inclusion of FM receivers in all mobile devices. I can’t for the life of me follow whatever passes for logic with these people. How can you justify making a law to mandate the inclusion of FM receivers in mobile devices? Seriously what’s your justification? Please tell me because I my head hurts just trying to figured it out.

Is it to get people to listen to the radio? That probably isn’t going to work and I’ll tell you why. My Evo 4G has an integrated FM receiver (it wasn’t mandated by law but HTC figured if they’re going to throw in the kitchen sink then why not an FM receiver). I assume it works because everything else on the device does but I’ve not actually tried it. In fact I haven’t listened to an FM radio station since… shortly after I graduated high school I believe. That’s about the time I discovered FM transmitters that plug into iPods.

Now with my Evo I have an amazing data connection with Pandora and Last.fm. If I want to listen to a radio station I just punch up one of those two streaming services and listen to a station that doesn’t have advertisements and plays music I like (or at least attempts to). I pair that up with my Motorola T505 which connects to my Evo via Bluetooth and transmits the music I’m playing over a selected FM band. This means while I’m driving around I have my Pandora or Last.fm radio station playing music over my FM radio. Oh and it doubles as a hands free calling device to boot.

Sorry RIAA you’re business model is dead and buried. You can’t salvage it at this point and frankly nobody likes listening to the radio anymore because they play more ads than content. After all you can lobby for a law which forces every mobile device to have an included FM receiver but you can’t force anybody to utilize it.

Why I Don’t Contribute Money to Politicians

Says Uncle made a post exemplifying why I never made campaign contributions. Not only are politicians crooked and back away from their promises the second the gain power but most of the time they do something I like but also something that pisses me off.

Target recently donated $150,000 to Tom Emmer. Tom Emmer’s main campaign promise is to build jobs here in Minnesota through attractive businesses. Because he actually wants to improve conditions for businesses here businesses like him (strange huh). I’m willing to bet money that’s the reason Target donated money to his campaign but of course Tom Emmer isn’t liked by gay rights activists so they now hate Target.

No matter who you donate to somebody is going to hate them and thus in turn hate you.

Also I’m not one to defend a politician but I need to point a few nuggets of information (they aren’t verifiable facts, just hearsay and information) I have at hand in regards to this article. The article states the following:

Follow the money. At least, that’s the message delivered by an article at sfist.com by Matt Baume, who tracks $150,000 from Target’s coffers, through a political action committee (PAC) known as Minnesota Forward, all the way to Tom Emmer, who himself supports a Christian rock band in Minnesota that travels around the state saying that it’s moral and righteous for religious people to kill gays and lesbians.

The group they’re talking about is You Can Run But you Cannot Hide. It’s a “band” with at least one member who goes around spewing anti-homosexuality propaganda. From an article posted on a Minnesota liberty group I partake in the following was stated with one of the “band” members on a ministry radio show (I can’t back this up and fully admit it is hearsay, don’t take it as actual evidence but me providing the information I have at hand):

‘Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,’ Dean said on a ministry radio show May 15. ‘This just shows you that they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in Bible of the Judeo-Christian God., but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.’ “

So yeah not a nice guy and I can see why gay-rights activists are alarmed by anybody who associates with this group. What has been reported is Tom Emmer has had Dean over to his home at least once. There hasn’t been any mention of him giving money or support to the group or even talking to them since that one meeting. It could mean Emmer is a huge Christian who believes in pushing his religious agenda or, more likely, it could just mean the group asked to meet with him once and he obliged.

I’ve mentioned Tom Emmer on here before. Another pro-liberty group I hang out with met with Mr. Emmer and did a question and answer session. I walked away with the impression that he’s pro-liberty enough not to push any religious agenda but of course being a politician he could change the second he gets into office. Either way I figured I should present the information I have at hand so you know all the cards on the table.

Minnesota Primary Results

Well the (few) votes have been counted and the unofficial results are in for the Minnesota primaries.

Running for governor the Republican Party has Tom Emmers, Democrat Party has Mark Dayton (although by a narrow margin), and the Independence Party (which shouldn’t be a party considering they claim to be independent) has Tom Horner.

The interesting one was the Democrats who seem to be torn between Mark Dayton and Margaret Anderson. She was ahead when I went to bed last night but Dayton was declared the winner when I woke up. The other two parties seemed to be pretty unanimous in their decision.

Honestly the turn out at last nights primaries were so low a ghost town could have obtained more voters.

Now That’s Blatant

It appears our Senate is in such a hurry to push a piece of legislation they forgot to actually name the fucking thing. Take a look at H.R. 1586 [PDF}:

SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the
‘‘______Act of____’’.

That’s a catchy name! Boy our Senate is just flat out blatant about not even reading bills anymore. According to the summary the bill is:

‘‘An Act to modernize the air traf- fic control system, improve the safety, reliability, and avail- ability of transportation by air in the United States, provide for modernization of the air traffic control system, reauthor- ize the Federal Aviation Administration, and for other pur- poses.’’

I haven’t a clue what else is in it but it must be important if they didn’t even have time to give the bill a fucking name. Cripes! You’re government at work.

Your Government is Hard at Work

One thing we have to say about our federal government is that they certainly are hard working blokes. Take for instance the FBI. In essence they are a federal police force tasked with all sorts of jobs including granting government protection to exercise your second amendment rights in the form of NICS checks, enforcing interstate crimes, and of course spending your tax money trying to get Wikipedia to remove the FBI logo from the FBI article. Apparently they are using the following law:

18 U.S.C. 701 prohibits the manufacture, sale, or possession of any badge, identification card, or other insignia, of the design prescribed by the head of any department or agency of the United States for use by any officer or employee of that agency.

Funny because, as government employees, the FBI works for me. Combined with the fact that my tax money pays for their existence I’m entitled to reproduce the logo which I own since I paid for it. What law is does that fall under? Christopher Burg Fuckin’ Said So Law. Yeah it’s really obscure, good luck finding it.

It’s a Good Idea, It’ll Never Pass

Here’s an interesting bill presented to the Senate. I posted previously about how many states are making it illegal to video tape police officers while they’re on duty. Well H. Con. Res. 298 seems to be a desire to establish a law barring federal and state governments from making it illegal for a citizen to record an on-duty police officer:

(3) members of the public have a right to observe, and if they choose, to make video or sound recordings of the police during the discharge of their public duties, as long as they do not physically or otherwise interfere with the officers’ discharge of their duties, or violate any other State or Federal law, intended to protect the safety of police officers, in the process of the recording.

It makes sense and therefore probably doesn’t have a chance in Hell of passing. After all it will go against national security… according to the abusive police.

They Needed a Law for This

The Senate went and passed a bill being touted as the “libel tourist” bills. What this bill does is prevents a person in the United States from having to acknowledge a libel lawsuit in another country. It seems a popular way to shut somebody up is the file a libel lawsuit against said person in a country where you are most likely to win.

The strange thing is I didn’t realize our country would force somebody to acknowledge such a lawsuit. I figured if somebody from a foreign country sued you over something that violated the Bill of Rights you were under no obligation to acknowledge that lawsuit while inside of our borders. Apparently that wasn’t the case.

And This is Who My State Elected People

I haven’t said much about the Kagen hearings because there really isn’t much I can say that hasn’t been said by somebody else already. Also I know she’ll get the confirmation regardless so I’ve decided to spend my time elsewhere. But I must say this is the kind of fuck up the majority of people in this state voted for when they filled in the little circle next to Klobuchar:

How crucial is the “Twilight” phenomenon to the cultural fabric of America? Enough that one’s opinion on it is apparently worth knowing before determining whether she should sit on the highest court in the land.

During her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Solicitor General Elena Kagan was jokingly asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, for her thoughts on a particularly pressing issue.

Yes senator Klobuchar wasted her time on the floor asking about fucking Twilight instead of say… oh I don’t know something on consequence.

To everybody outside of Minnesota let me state that I’m very sorry for what a majority of my fellow Minnesotans have done. I promise the rest of us will work hard to correct this problem. Also thanks goes to Random Nuclear Strikes for my daily depression. But also another hat tip goes to him for the best response ever on the subject at hand.