A conviction at any cost

Have a look at Peter Sunde's blogpost on how the dutch branch of the entertainment mafia, Brein, are committing a serious crime fabricating evidence in a desperate attempt to convict some people of something that shouldn't even be considered a crime, in a country these people have no connection to whatsoever.

So, what's worst? Fabricating evidence to get people wrongfully convicted, or possibly aiding in copyright infringement by providing an infrastructure that lets people communicate and share files with each other? Who should really be on trial here?

Of course the outcome of this ridiculous case is already given. Brein's fabricated evidence will be accepted without and questions by a court consisting of people with close affiliation to copyright lobbying organizations, and another miscarriage of justice will be committed.

If anyone's interested the documents are available at wikileaks.

Socialists don't work

Only 43% of socialist voters in Sweden feel the current politics are to their advantage, which leads me to the conclusion that most socialist voters don't like to work, they prefer to sit on their ass and cash in that social security check every month.

Of course it's upsetting for them to see people who actually make their own money getting to keep a bit more of their paycheck, while their own welfare benefits are shrinking and they are increasingly forced to get out into that cold, estranged world of work.

Democratic (Banana-)Republic of Sweden

The chance of the guys behind Pirate Bay ever getting a fair trial in the "Democratic (Banana-)Rebublic of Sweden" look slimmer than ever. As if a corrupt police investigator and a legally incompetent judge wasn't enough in the first trial, two of the judges in the upcoming trial, Kristina Boutz and Ulrika Ihrfelt, are involved in entertainment industry lobbying organizations. Which is perfectly fine by Svea hovrätt, even though they contradict themselves quite a bit:

Samtidigt konstaterar dock rätten att SFIR, som Kristina Boutz är medlem i, ser efter rättighetshavares intressen och rättigheter.

Trots det har det "inte framkommit några konkreta omständigheter som tyder på att SFIR har ett särskilt intresse av utgången i just detta mål eller att SFIR engagerat sig i de konkreta frågor som ska prövas i målet"

I guess you'd have to be on the entertainment mafia payroll to get the reasoning. One of the defendants, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, sums it all up pretty well:

"Men det var ju såklart inte oväntat, det verkar finnas en lag §13.3.7 som säger att "i tillfälle pirate bay anmäler för jäv, så stämmer inte detta. Jäv får enbart utdelas i tillfälle målsägande sidan så bestämt"

By default any claim by the defendants is completely ignored by Svea hovrätt, and everything put forward by the claimants is instantly accepted - no questions asked. It's pretty obvious who's calling the shots, to say the least, and I don't really see the point in hosting another mock trial wasting a lot of tax money when we'll just get a default ruling for the claimants anyway. I have to say I'm completely fascinated by the fact that this miscarriage of justice is so blatantly being carried out here in Sweden. I mean, had it been Congo or Iran or something, but Sweden?

Everything is OK

Found this over at opassande.se.

Surveillance, inc.

Opassande.se has published a brilliant, and chilling, list of all the new and oppressive surveillance laws passed, implemented and being discussed in Sweden and the EU, many of them bizarrely enough written and directed by the entertainment mafia themselves, giving them a carte blanche to continue their extortion business at the sacrifice of ordinary people's integrity and legal protection.

It's an utterly revolting list, and it certainly makes you question what kind of society you live in.

Google censorship "a mistake"

Apparently last week's decision to exclude thepiratebay.org from Google search results was a "mistake". Riiiight.

In the meantime the entertainment industry mafia is doing what it does best: Bullying and threatening perfectly legitimate businesses.

It's David fighting against Goliath again. Good versus evil. Small entrepreneurs versus a global mafia(a).

Stocks and stuff

DN had an article this weekend on how to invest your money, in stocks or funds. These are only my two cents, but I'd stay far away from funds. My experiences with these two are the following:

Funds:
+ Buy shares for any amount of money, and forget.

- Problem is, you fund agent will also forget. To manage the fund, that is. No matter how "actively" a fund is supposed to be managed, in the real world they usually don't do much trading.

- You'll pay quite a lot, often 1-2% of your total share amount in fees. This will eat up quite a lot of the profit.

- Selling your fund shares is a hell. It often takes two business days, and during that time the rate might have dropped significantly, which could cause you to lose a lot of money. Quite simply, when you press that "sell"-button you have no idea at what rate your shares will be sold.

Stocks:
+ Quite a lot more fun than buying and forgetting those fund shares.

+ No fees except the broker's commission when you buy and sell.

+ You get your dividend usually every year, some times even several times a year.

+ You buy and sell at the price you want, and the transaction is made more or less instantly.

- There is a risk that a company in which you own stocks goes bankrupt, which is why it is important to spread your risks.


If you want to put your savings in a fund, consider the exchange traded XACT funds, Bull or Bear. There's no annual fee, and you trade it just the way you trade stocks.

Apart from that, forget about those funds. Create a nice and diverse portfolio of stocks instead, with a couple of investment companies with different strategies, some "safe" large cap stocks, and a smaller number of underdogs, just to make it a bit more interesting.

Google censorship policies

Search engine Google is no stranger to sacrificing freedom of speech on the altar of mammon and censoring links to content found objectionable by various oppressive regimes in order to gain market shares. This censorship has up until now been limited to specific countries, which is bad enough, but not half as bad as the global censorship they've launched today, based on the demands of a global, oppressive regime (see picture on the right).

I've already removed Google from my Firefox searchbar, and I expect a lot of freedom loving people will do the same (you can find other search engine plugins here). Since money and market shares is the only language these people understand, I guess a decline in traffic may have an impact. Now if only I could summon the know-how and enthusiasm to move my blog away from Google that would be swell...unfortunately I don't. Not at the moment, anyway.

Today's lesson

Today's lesson to all you miserable punks out there who have nothing better to do with your pathetic little lives than messing up your own neighborhoods: Threats of arson and violence do actually pay off. Congratulations guys, and my condolences to the society.

All work and no fun

Apparently the average monthly salary in Norway is 41.000 kronor, as opposed to the Swedish average of 27.100 kronor. And this figure is supposed to tempt Swedes into moving. First of all, I'm assuming the Norwegian numbers have been converted into Swedish kronor, which means the average salary in NOK is 32.800, far from as impressive.

Second, you're gonna need every little bit of those extra kronor living in Norway, where a car costs as much as a house, having a beer at a restaurant will set you back about 500 kronor, and a big old steak costs more or less an arm and a leg.

Sure, you can make a few more bucks working in Norway, but unless you're planning on living in a box and eating out of a dumpster that money will disappear before you can say "kjempemorsomt".