Eclairé a Pensé

July 7, 2009…

We realize that we, here at The Federation, are simply more intelligent and of course, more enlightened, than the average slob. In otherwords, we are simply a higher life form than those ignorant folks that make up what we like to call Tard Nation. But even realizing this point makes us shake our heads in disbelief at the utter stupidity that we encounter across the Internet on a daily basis. Not a day goes by that we don’t go on a news website and read the day’s events and then have to wade through page after page of idiotic, badly spelled, poorly thought-out comments that people insist on leaving. The type of people, for instance, who will still try to have us believe that President Obama is a Muslim and was not born in this country, or that he is a Communist, terrorist, or Socialist, not to mention all the racist comments that they leave. You wonder if some of them are feverishly typing away at their laptops, as they sit with hooded white sheets and an open jug of moonshine at their local Klan meeting. Then to top it all off, we, the reader, can’t even understand the comment because it was written, as if, by a first grader (incomplete sentences, words all spelled badly) and makes little-to-no sense.

Sometimes, we’ll see comments left that have nothing to do with the story being commented on. Or they criticize Obama for things that happened twenty years ago, or things that simply have nothing to do with him. Or they will quote facts that you just know they completely made up in order to support their idiotic argument. Of course, this is nothing new. We saw the same thing happen when Bush was President, and Clinton before him.

Some people will use a news story about a person who committed a crime, or a story on an entertainer or athlete, as an excuse to unleash bottled-up racist, sexist, xenophobic, and religious-bashing comments that simply are ludicrous and moronic. And as the Web grows larger every day, and more people go on there to leave comments, the more stupidity we run up against.       

It’s enough to sometimes make us want to smash our computer screens in anger. Instead though, we come on this site and simply state our own views. And pray that some misguided fool will wake up and realize that it is better to let us trained professionals do the thinking.   

And so the battle against Tard Nation marches onward…

July 7, 2009…

As The Federation stated recently on this site, the Recording Industry Association of America should be ashamed of themselves for charging a Minnesota woman (by the name of Jammie Thomas-Rasset), as well as a few others, millions of dollars in fines simply for illegally downloading music off the Internet. Well, it seems she is fighting back. “Such a judgment is grossly excessive and, therefore, subject to remittitur as a matter of federal common law,” Thomas-Rasset’s attorney reportedly told the court. Thomas-Rasset’s legal team also argued that evidence gathered by MediaSentry, a company that locates copyright-violating IP addresses, was presented at the trial, which Thomas-Rasset’s lawyers claim broke private investigator rules and thus should not have been admitted.

We hope Ms. Thomas-Rasset, as well as Boston University grad student Joel Tenenbaum, emerge victorious against the evil, dying empire that is the RIAA. It absolutely sickens us that they are being so utterly greedy and vindictive in this matter. The RIAA does not exist to protect the interests of the recording artists. The RIAA exists to protect the interests of the RIAA. They are trying to protect an outmoded business model and grab as much cash as they can before they go under for good. They are clearly desperate and sinking in the floods that are rising quickly around them. We hope they drown in their own sea of greed.  

And while we are on the subject: who is the jury that sided in favor of the RIAA and this ridiculous amount in fines? They should also be ashamed of themselves. We hope everyone on that jury gets caught illegally downloading music someday.  

We are glad to also see that some recording artists are speaking out against the RIAA’s diabolical witchhunt. Singer Richard Marx recently stated,

“As a longtime professional songwriter, I have always objected to the practice of illegal downloading of music. I have also always, however, been sympathetic to the average music fan, who has been consistently financially abused by the greedy actions of major labels. These labels, until recently, were responsible for the distribution of the majority of recorded music, and instead of nurturing the industry and doing their best to provide the highest quality of music to the fans, they predominantly chose to ream the consumer and fill their pockets. So now we have a ‘judgment’ in a case of illegal downloading, and it seems to me, especially in these extremely volatile economic times, that holding Ms. Thomas-Rasset accountable for the continuing daily actions of hundreds of thousands of people is, at best, misguided and at worst, farcical. Her accountability itself is not in question, but this show of force posing as judicial come-uppance is clearly abusive. Ms. Thomas Rasset, I think you got a raw deal, and I’m ashamed to have my name associated with this issue.”

Writing on his official Website, Moby also joined in with his own comments, stating:

“What utter nonsense. This is how the record companies want to protect themselves? Suing suburban moms for listening to music? Charging $80,000 per song? Punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business. Maybe the record companies have adopted the ‘it’s better to be feared than respected’ approach to dealing with music fans. I don’t know, but ‘it’s better to be feared than respected’ doesn’t seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice. How about a new model of ‘it’s better to be loved for helping artists make good records and giving consumers great records at reasonable prices’? I’m so sorry that any music fan anywhere is ever made to feel bad for making the effort to listen to music. The RIAA needs to be disbanded.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. We applaud Richard Marx and Moby for coming out this way and stating what needs to be said. We only wish more artists would speak out on this matter. 

July 7, 2009…

In yet another news story that has left us with a feeling of shock, anger and bewilderment, comes the infuriating decision of a federal judge to tentatively throw out the convictions of Missouri mom Lori Drew, who had been charged with fraud in connection with a fake MySpace page targeting her 13-year-old neighbor, Megan Taylor Meier. As we all know, Megan Meier later committed suicide on October 17, 2006, and the “boy” who harassed her, Josh Evans, never existed. It was a fake Myspace account that adult Lori Drew and her 13-year old daughter (and former friend of Megan’s), as well as an 18-year-old employee of Drew’s, created in order to harass and torment Megan. Eventually, Megan became so distraught over this “boy,” when “he” told her that everyone would be better off with her dead. Despite her parents intense monitoring of the situation, she hung herself.   

As Megan’s mother Tina has stated, what the judge in this case has done has sent out a dangerous message to potential sexual predators, ex-husbands, ex-girlfriends, feuding teenagers, and anyone else who wants to cause harm or get revenge on someone else, by harassing them over the Internet. She is trying to do all that she can to see that federal laws be enacted to prevent this kind of harassment from being allowed to happen without any form of punishment to take place.

89% of the people polled in America found this judge’s decision to be totally wrong. We couldn’t agree more. And we find Lori Drew to be a despicable human being and a terrible role model to her daughter. What kind of sociopath would do something like this, and then show little-to-no remorse in the process? Especially since she was aware of Megan’s propensity for depression and low self-esteem. Absolutely appalling!

Our hearts go out to the family of Megan, who has been torn apart over this horrendous situation. The judge involved in this case, however, should hold his head in shame and embarrassment for throwing out a jury’s decision, and allowing a guilty woman to go completely free. Lori Drew, her daughter and anyone else who contributed to the harassment of Miss Meier, should be held accountable for causing a beautiful young girl to take her own life.