German government does business with criminals

Who would believe a government would actually be buying stolen merchandise on a regular basis? Well, those crazy krauts are at it again. Only a couple of years after the previous scandal when they bought stolen data from a Liechtenstein bank, German officials are looking to buy even more stolen data, this time from a Swiss bank - all to be used as evidence against its own citizens.

Most people would call this a crime. Most courts of law wouldn't even call it evidence. Not in Germany, though.

Plotting new evil

The "axis of evil" are gathered in the White House and plotting new evil in collaboration with the US government. What kind of insanity can we expect as an outcome of this meeting? More censorship? More oppressive legislation? More "guilty until proven innocent"?

Among those expected are Sony's Michael Lynton, Warner Bros.' Barry Meyer, Viacom's Philippe Dauman, NBC Universal's Jeffrey Zucker, Warner Music Group's Edgar Bronfman, Harper Collins CEO Brian Murray, Universal Music Group's Zachary Horowitz, the MPAA's Dan Glickman, the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol, IATSE's international president Matthew Leob, AFTRA'S Kim Roberts Hedgepeth, DGA president Taylor Hackford, DGA exec director Jay Roth and SAG's David White.

Yup, the whole "family" is here, ready to take on new acts of extortion, threats, bullying and corruption. In more civilized countries these bullies are actually convicted for their crime instead of given a carte blanche by the government to do whatever they want. Well, I guess if they refuse to give the "family" this carte blanche at this point they'll each receive a friendly reminder in the middle of the night, consisting of a severed horse head or something.

And why does it come as no surprise that there's no-one from the consumer and human rights side present at this meeting? Goddamn criminals the lot of them.

A ban is always best

So, the Swedish government has decided that cars on winter tires with studs can now be banned from entering certain streets in certain cities. Another brilliant decision by our finest.

This means everyone using studded tires will have to make unnecessary detours to avoid these regulated streets. It also means somebody will have to follow up and make sure that the ban is actually working, handing out fines to those who are caught driving in the "no studs" streets on studs. What an incredible waste of police resources.

Instead of this ridiculous ban, why not impose a charge for motorists who for whatever reason feel the need to use tires with studs during the winter? The driver could pay a fee of say 500 SEK per season in order to drive inside the Stockholm toll zone. This would definitely reduce the amount of people driving on studs, it would let those who still need the studs keep them, and it would generate money. But noooo, a ban is always best.

The wind of change

Traditionally, Swedes love surveillance, they love the thought of a "big brother" watching them and slapping them on their wrists when they do something bad. This has, of course, led to the government increasing their surveillance of ordinary people - just because they can. Thank God this mentality seems to be changing now. The oppression has increased severely during the last couple of years and culminated with the FRA law, which made people think twice about the amount of control a government should have over its citizens in a so-called democracy. The frustration has sparked much needed initiatives such as Piratpartiet.