Want To Watch Porn??? Head Over to Univ Of MD…Or Perhaps Not

When my alma mater showed cheap weekend movies it was usually a movie that had either been released on DVD, or movies that were at least out of the main stream movie theaters.  So what was University of Maryland’s choice for this weekend’s movie?  Was it the recent James Bond flick?  Nope…they chose porn!  UMD was going to show a XXX movie called Pirates 2, which is supposed to be the most expensive porn movie to ever be produced.  Now you would think the school’s administration would be going crazy over it, but what was surprising was that they didn’t seem to have a problem with it.  They called it good fun, and an event might keep some folks on campus instead of out drinking.  So everything appeared to be a go until…the Maryland state Senate got involved.  Once the senate got wind of what was going on they were getting ready to add a requirement to the annual budget that said any school showing porn that wasn’t part of a class would not get state funding.  For UMD that comes to about 400 million dollars.  With the pressure on, the group that was going to show the film backed down, and will no longer show the film.  I am not fully clear on why they wanted to show a porno in the first place, but I guess to each their own.  And though the senate can do what they want when it comes to state funding, I don’t think they had cause to get involved, it should have been left up to the school’s administration.  

Now, what really made me laugh was when I was reading an article from the Baltimore Sun.  A senator whose children will be attending UMD next year said this about the showing of the film: ”Pornography is not fun; it’s poison,” he said. “They want to get our kids hooked on pornography.” Yes senator, the school is trying to get everyone hooked on porn…geeze, didn’t you see that in the school’s charter?!?  Sounds like you might be a little out of touch, but maybe that’s just me…

Sorry We Screwed You Over…To Make Up For It We Will Give You The Privilege Of Paying Our Surcharge Fees…

For those that missed the hoopla, Bruce Springsteen played the half-time show during the Superbowl.  Due to the positive reviews that everyone had for the 12 minute show, when tickets went on sale for his new tour, tickets sold out in minutes…or did they?  Many potential ticket buyers were told as they were trying to buy tickets that there were no tickets available through TicketMaster, but if you went over to TicketsNow.com you could buy tickets.  What the people discovered there was that the price of the tickets were for a whole heck of a lot more than the face value of the ticket.

In the aftermath it was discovered that a whole bunch of tickets were sold to ticket brokers (most likely before they went on sale to the general public) so they could sell them on TicketsNow.com for way over ticket price.  Just in case you didn’t know, TicketsNow.com is a subsidiary of TicketMaster (So basically TicketsNow is the legal scalping site for TicketMaster).  1000s of complaints were made from people who either couldn’t get tickets or were fooled into purchasing tickets way above the ticket price thinking that was the price that TicketMaster was offering them at.  And thats when the politicians got involved.  Most of the time I believe the politicians just need to stay out of the way, but this time it might be a good thing since now is the time that TicketMaster wants to play nice so their proposed merger with Live Nation would get approved.

So to make up with the public, what does TicketMaster do?  Well they offer a sweepstakes to the people that were screwed over, and allow them not to win tickets, but have the ability TO PURCHASE their tickets at face value, plus all the fees that go along with it.  And that is not to say they are going to offer this to everyone, but one lucky winner will have the privilege of paying up to 30% extra in service charges, facility charges, processing charges, and convenience charges.

People have been complaining of the monopoly that TicketMaster has had ever since I was a kid.  Live Nation was supposed to be a breath of fresh air, but they turned out to be about the same, and now to survive they are looking to merge with Ticketmaster, creating once again a monopoly that the government doesn’t seem to have a problem with.  I hope that the FTC and congress shoots down the proposed merger of these two companies in hopes that one day will wont be stuck paying 60 bucks for a 30 dollar ticket.

UPDATE - Well it seems that my info was slightly off on what TicketMaster will be doing to make right with the customers.  Here is what TicketMaster has agreed to do according to The Consumerist:

• No more linking to TicketsNow directly from a Ticketmaster transaction screen.
• Ticketmaster will pay New Jersey $350,000 to cover the cost of the investigation (this is where the bulk of the complaints came in since the tour starts in NJ).
• Ticketmaster will stop an advertising agreement with Google which redirected Ticketmaster searches to the TicketsNow website.
• Ticketmaster will hold a lottery to sell 2,000 Springsteen tickets at face value (plus fees) to customers who complained about the botched sales. Another 1,000 customers who don’t win the lottery will be given $100 gift certificates and an opportunity to purchase tickets to an upcoming NJ Springsteen concert.

Does that make it all better? I’ll let you be the judge.

Virginia Passes Smoking Ban!

Unless Governor Kaine goes crazy, starting December 1st, 2009, all restaurants and bars in the State of Virginia will be smoke free.  The only exceptions to the rule are private clubs, and areas with a sealed door and seperate ventilation.  There has been some wording added to allow smoking in outdoor areas, but this exception worried me a whole lot less than the defeated amendment which would have allowed smoking in places that don’t allow minors.  Since most of the places around me are bars, this would have ruined the use of the bill for me.  Luckily the amendment was dropped.  I’ve been waiting for something like to get passed for years, and I am glad we have finally gotten to that point.  If you would like to read more, here is an article from the RT:

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Innovation Or Just More Of The Same?

For those that know me, I have been pretty supportive of the loans given to GM and Chrysler.  I thought (think) that by keeping them alive the government is keeping hundreds of thousands of people working, if not millions.  Yesterday both GM and Chrysler had to present plans to the government which detail how they are going to get out of the mess they are in by restructuring the company, restructuring their contracts, and restructuring their debt.  What I believe we got was more of the same posturing, and not only that, requests from both companies for more money.  Slowly the details on the plans have started to trickle out.  GM will be closing down one way or the other Saab, Hummer, and Saturn brands.  Chrysler stated that they will be working towards a working agreement with the Italian company Fiat, and discontinuing three more models (which they said they were going to do anyway).  Both companies said they made progress on their deals with the UAW, but neither would provide evidence of such…other than talks are “on going”.  

Without putting all my words together yet, I have come away quite disappointed.  Neither speak to innovation, neither speak to how to survive in the future…both keep their hopes alive that they market will improve, just keep giving us money until then.  My support is waning, and I have begun to believe that even if we are not saying that both GM and Chrysler are bankrupt, in reality that’s exactly what they are.  GM has 35 billion in debt…21 billion of that was collected last year alone.  GM is saying that they are coming out with new innovative cars that everyone wants, and we have the Chevy Volt which will take over the car business as we know it.  I wish they explained who is going to be able to find a loan for a $40,000 battery pack, and how are you going to make money off of it when you probably can make about 1000 of them each year (at a loss mind you).  Chrysler is saying that their fate falls with the acceptance of their alliance with Fiat.  They say they have a bunch of new models coming out that will bring people back.  They released a diagram which laid out their plans until 2015.  Outside of a new large sedan, and a new Jeep Grand Cherokee, everything else will basically be Fiat based or a niche electric vehicle.  Chrysler’s plan for a new mid size car (think Accord, and Camry), won’t be coming out for another 3 years.  With the plan that Chrysler laid out, I cannot imagine how they can survive alone for the next 24-36 months without tax payer dollars. 

So needless to say I am disappointed. I was expecting big things from GM and Chrysler today, instead I got a piece of bad steak and some steak sauce to make it easier to go down.  Following this post, I’ll follow up with a few more examples how innovative these companies really are.

Want To Know Where The Stimulus Money Is Going? Yeah They Have a Website For That

I cannot tell if this is just another dog and pony show, or if the new administration is really trying to change things, but for their first time, the White House has created a website to provide all the details on the new stimulus package, and where the money is going.  There isn’t too much information yet, but they say more will come as the dollars dolled out.  Even if the site only allows me to track if any money is going for Bridges to Nowhere, or to movie studios, or to arrow companies, I will be consider the site a success.  New information I learned just from the homepage?  That tax relief portion is the largest chunk of the money.  Click on the follow link and take a look around.  Hopefully this is a start to something new, and not just a new way of putting lipstick on a pig.

Recovery.gov

Landmark Day in Virginia (Hopefully)

In an election year, it’s amazing how much delegates and congressmen alike do what the will of the people tell them…leaving most lobbyists to wait till the year after reelection to get their agendas in.  This year was no different with anti-smoking regulations finally making it out of the VA House sub-committee.  For the past three years any anti-smoking agenda has passed the VA senate, but never made it to the House for a vote.  This year will be different.  If the legislation passes, smoking will be prohibited in all bars, restaurants and public buildings unless there is a separate area closed off with its own ventilation.  The house could still kill the bill, but this has been the best chance so far of making into law.  Click the link below if you would like to read more:

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UPDATE: So the house added an amendment to the non-smoking bill that would allow smoking in any place that doesn’t allow minors…because you know second hand smoke only affects those 17 and younger…hopefully the senate will not agree to the amendment and we can get that part thrown out.  Since most of the establishments in my area do not allow minors after a certain time at night any way, this would make this bill pretty much useless to me…

Inauguration Day Is Here

No matter how you feel about Obama being elected President, no one can deny that history is being made today.  Over 2 million are expected to be on the Mall today watching the historic event.  I’ll stay in my warm office thank you, but that doesn’t mean I will be missing anything.  Everything is scheduled to kick off at 10am, and you could pick any channel you wanted and I am sure they have coverage already.  Being at work, I’ll be streaming online, so you can find those too if you dont have access to tv.

Don’t Need To Go To D.C. To See Obama

Obama will be taking a really long route to the inauguration this year.  Obama will be taking a train ride from Philly down to D.C. to get to his swearing in.  During his trip he will be making a stop in Baltimore on Saturday to make a speech downtown.  The speech will be open to the public (whoever can withstand the sub-freezing temperatures expected on Saturday).   For more info on the speech location, times, and how to get there click the link below:

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2009 Economy – The New President’s Challenges

CNN Money had a decent article on 4 major challenges that the new President will face, and how it will directly effect you.  I think the part how it describes the influcences on our lives was the best part.  Here are the four challenges it goes over, and the link to the full article.  Enjoy!

1. The bottomless housing pit
2. Fear and loathing in the banks
3. Another day, another 26,000 jobs lost
4. The bill that will come due

 

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