When an international treaty is wrong - Criminals should not be treated the same as non-criminals

An ACLU lawyer blasted Arizona Governor Jan Brewer again.  She had written a letter to the state department complaining about them reporting the Arizona law on immigration enforcement to the UN Human Rights Commission.

Reporting Arizona law to UN was correct - CNN.com: "What the U.S. report does not say, and what Brewer should be concerned about, is the fact that SB 1070 violates U.S. human rights obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is binding on all levels of federal, state and local governments."

His complaint (and that of many others) is that the law will discriminate against Latinos.

Well, No shit Sherlock!

SB 1070 requires that when the police stop someone for a crime, if there is any doubt to their immigration status, the police have to check.  Most of the time, folks are stopped for misdemeanor crimes like speeding or expired license plates.  Yes, those are crimes.  Anything that violates a law is a crime and those who violate the law are criminals.  You may not like it, but if you have ever willing exceeded the speed limit, then cupcake, you too are a criminal.  You violated a law.

Ok, so first off, only those suspected of committing a crime are subject to the law.  For this to be discriminatory against Latinos, then it means that Latinos must at least be suspected of committing crimes more often than any other race.  Not likely.

The second part requires the police to check the immigration status of anyone in doubt.

That's a bit more discriminatory.  I doubt that Arizona gets many illegals from Canada, Asia, Europe, etc.  so I'm pretty sure that any Caucasians, Asians or blacks stopped will be here legally.

What Arizona DOES have a problem with are those illegally crossing the border from Mexico.  Guess what race most of them are?

So yes, if you are a Latino and are stopped for committing a crime in Arizona, I'd expect you to have your immigration status confirmed.  And yes, it is solely because the color of your skin matches that of the criminals in Arizona illegally.

If I have a problem with groundhogs in my garden, I don't go looking for birds.  Only our Federal government is that stupid, excuse me, politically correct.  They are the ones who ignore young to middle aged Muslim men at the airport and choose to "randomly" strip search grandmothers in wheelchairs and returning Iraqi vets in U.S. Military uniform.  They are the ones who don't want Latinos stopped when trying to stop Latinos from illegally entering our country.

If you are Latino and here legally, wonderful!  If you wish to stop the immigration problem and "discriminatory laws", then tell your cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters who are here illegally or thinking of becoming illegals to go home and stay there.

Disclaimer: This blog post was created using MarsEdit on my MacBook Pro. I love the combination of quality hardware and software that is stable and functional while making it easy to get things done. All original content is copyright ©2008-2010 by Rick Cross, all rights reserved.

Who Paid For this *DUH* Moment Study?

Study: Breast, ovary removal cuts cancer risk in high-risk women - CNN.com:

Someone spent a ton of money on a four-year study that shows that women who have mastectomy's don't get breast cancer.  I mean, come on, how can someone actually fund a study that is so damn obvious from the outset?  Gee, I wonder if I can get funding to see how wearing full dentures affects getting tooth cavities?

In the hope of saving us taxpayers a ton of money, here are some other amazing results, we can just pretend that we did the studies:

• Foot amputees get fewer ingrown nails and fewer cases of athlete's foot
• Bald people don't get split ends
• The lack of the Y chromosome prevents prostate cancer (males have XY pairs, females, XX pairs)
• Those who die at a young age suffer fewer cases of senior dementia

If someone REALLY was hoping to fund those studies, you can just send me the checks.

Thank you.

Disclaimer: This blog post was created using MarsEdit on my MacBook Pro. I love the combination of quality hardware and software that is stable and functional while making it easy to get things done. All original content is copyright ©2008-2010 by Rick Cross, all rights reserved.

Netflix - Streaming Movies for Windows, Mac and anyone who pays Netflix for a solution.

I've mentioned before in here about streaming video on demand from Netflix.  While it isn't top of the line quality video, it is a great service for a good price.  Even the least expensive Netflix DVD rental plan supports unlimited streaming for just under US$9.00 per month.  It is a service that my wife uses a lot.

For those who don't know, Netflix uses someone else's streaming video service.  They didn't set up their own servers or write their own software.  Nothing wrong with that after all, why reinvent the wheel if someone else is willing to do it for you?

The service used, uses Microsoft Silverlight.  Silverlight is Microsoft's version of Adobe Flash (literally), with proprietary DRM added.  Flash supports DRM of course, that's how Hulu.com is able to stream tv shows and movies while keeping the intellectual property rights holders happy.  But you know Microsoft, they need their own.  Anyway, Silverlight works very well for this.  As long as you're running Windows or Apple's OS X.

Linux and Android mobiles can run Flash, with Adobe's DRM.  Linux runs Hulu.com video perfectly.  My HTC EVO smartphone using Android 2.2 (Froyo) ran Hulu video perfectly, until Hulu blocked it.

Android can't run Hulu video as Hulu doesn't have streaming video distribution rights for mobiles.

iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad can't run Flash of any type because that's the way that Steve Jobs wants it.  (Some wags insist that the reason the iPhone didn't have a flash for the camera until recently was that Steve thought they meant Adobe's Flash)

Linux can run Silverlight via an open-source version called Moonlight.  But no DRM as Microsoft won't license it for Linux.

Android can't run it either, but then again neither can anything from Apple that starts with the letters iP. (Because that's the way that Steve wants it.)

Funny thing, Steve Jobs keeps pitching iPxx's support for HTML5, that with it there is zero need for Flash or Silverlight.  But even the head honcho at Netflix points out that HTML5 doesn't support any kind of DRM, therefore can't be used to legally distribute video from most intellectual property holders.

The bottom line is that you can only watch Hulu.com using Windows, a Mac running OS X, or Linux.

You can only watch Netflix if you are running Windows, a Mac running OS X or (later this year) an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Netflix says that there isn't enough Linux market to justify the expense of creating a Linux non-Silverlight application.

Yet, Netflix decided to write a free native application for a device with half of the market size of Linux?

There alone is proof that Apple (or someone with a vested interest in Apple) has paid Netflix to write a streaming video app for the iPxx devices.

Sadly, the app may not run on the new iTV from Apple.  The $99 Apple TV replacement is an iPad in a box sans display.  Apple has disabled HD output from the iTV.  Apple sources have revealed that the A4 chip (same one used in the iPad and iPhone 4) doesn't have enough horse power to render HD video.  Actually it could, but on only on a tiny screen where you're not likely to notice artifacting and other errors.

So, if you want to watch streaming video over the internet, here are your options:

• Amazon Video on Demand - Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, Android 2.2 smartphone (change settings to turn off the request for mobile version), Tivo.
• Hulu.com - Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, Android 2.2 is capable but blocked by Hulu, perhaps other TV type boxes.
• Netflix - Windows, Apple OS X, Apple iPxx devices (soon), numerous large screen TVs, DVRs and other closed boxes.