The ugly, the bad, and the ugly

Here are links to four sites and articles which are not really connected, but which I found to be interesting. Hope they're useful to you.

American Institute of Philanthropy
This website is worth checking out before you donate to any charity, especially since some that just sound wonderful only give as little as one per cent of the money they take in to the cause they espouse. It's the new American way-- profiting from others misery and sucking in the gullible.

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes after Personal Use
(washingtonpost.com 12/30/07)
The egregiously greedy recording industry, already having filed about 20,000 lawsuits against people who download free music and share tunes, has now filed a suit against some poor guy who owns 2,000 CD's and downloaded them on to his own computer. They are claiming that the MP3 files he made from his legally owned CD's are "unauthorized copies".
How long before they claim that it's illegal to listen to the CD's themselves?

Circuit City reaps what it sowed
(The Agonist 12/26/07)
Several months back, Circuit City, in an admirable display of "corporate conscience", canned 3,000 experienced retail salespeople and replaced them with new workers who could be paid much less. That sort of thing is supposed to be good for the bottom line, and for shareholder equity. Well, HA HA HA!! Their stock, which was around $25.00/share last December, has dropped to $5.06/ per share as of Friday. Greed kills, and it couldn't have happened to a more deserving company. If all of the greedy corporations who pad their bottoms lines by screwing their employees suffered a similar fate, Costco would be about the only company left.

U.S. seen internationally as an "Endemic Surveillance Society"
(Think Progress 12/30/07)
Privacy International
(12/28/07)
I saved this one for the bottom of the list for a reason--It's where the U.S. stands in the world in protecting the privacy rights of its citizens. To earn this distinction, our government had to trample on a lot of Constitutional rights and break a shitload of laws, but nothing ventured- nothing gained, and the Bush administrations single-minded pursuit of its goal has brought us an honor reserved for what are commonly the most repressive regimes on Earth. Doesn't it give you a warm feeling? Makes you want to salute "Old Glory"? Want to whisper the good news to your neighbors?