For once my state is doing something decent. Texas believes that Sony BMG violated the state's anti-spyware law when it included technology on cds meant to prevent consumers from ripping their music into mp3s or transfering the files onto their iPOD.

Without asking users, the CD automatically installed the copy-protection program when discs were loaded into a PC � a necessary step for transferring music to iPods and other portable music players.
Attorney General Greg Abbott accused Sony BMG of surreptitiously installing "spyware" in the form of files that mask other files Sony installed as part of XCP.
This "cloaking" component can leave computers vulnerable to viruses and other security problems, Abbott said, echoing the findings of computer security researchers.
"People buy these CDs to listen to music," Abbott said. "What they don't bargain for is the consumer invasion that is unleashed by Sony BMG."
Security researchers say XCP is spyware because it secretly transmits details about what music the PC is playing. Manual attempts to remove the software, which works only on Windows PCs, can disable the PC's optical drive.
Sony executives have rejected the description of their technology as spyware. A spokesman for the New York-based label did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment on Abbott's lawsuit.
Sony BMG initially rejected the uproar over XCP as technobabble.
But after security experts discovered that XCP opened gaping security holes in users' computers � as did the method Sony BMG offered for removing XCP � Sony BMG agreed last week to recall the discs.
Some 4.7 million had been made and 2.1 million sold. CDs that had XCP included releases by Van Zant, The Bad Plus, Neil Diamond and Celine Dion.

Honestly, I expected a class action lawsuit brought by consumers. Now that a state is involved, well this brings more exposure to the whole fiasco. Hopfully consumers will realize that they do not have to buy into DRM (digital rights management) schemes.

I will be watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! It will actually be my first midnight movie too. I'm kinda excited, though I'm rather worried. I've been known to fall asleep easily during movies after a certain hour, but never in a theater. Hopfully not here.

In the NYT today a report has been released finding that the FDA's decision to reject Plan B as an over the counter medication was rather suspicious.

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, concluded in a report released Monday that the Food and Drug Administration's May 2004 rejection of the morning-after pill, or emergency contraceptive, application was unusual in several respects.
Top agency officials were deeply involved in the decision, which was "very, very rare," a top F.D.A. review official told investigators. The officials' decision to ignore the recommendation of an independent advisory committee as well as the agency's own scientific review staff was unprecedented, the report found. And a top official's "novel" rationale for rejecting the application contradicted past agency practices, it concluded.
The pill, called Plan B, is a flashpoint in the debate over abortion, in part because some abortion opponents consider the pill tantamount to ending a pregnancy. In scientific reviews, the F.D.A. has concluded that it is a contraceptive.
The report suggested that it quickly became apparent that the agency was not going to follow its usual path when it came to the pill. "For example," it said, "F.D.A. review staff told us that they were told early in the review process that the decision would be made by high-level management."

Abortion politics? Apparently Plan B prevents a zygote from sticking to the uterus, assuming the woman did get pregnant after having sex.
Personally, I'd be more worried about the safety of the drug, and if it is, well...

The roomie and I went to see Goodnight, and Good Luck yesterday. What a fantastic movie, and the lead who played Murrows is going to get nominated for an Oscar in the leading actor category.
Goodnight is a quiet film, but almost every minute of it is so tense it's difficult to believe the events portrayed actually ocurred. Then I realize that they did, and it makes me smile because here's a reporter who stood up for what he believed in. Such integrity on television rarely exists anymore. It's controled by sponsors and corporations who decide whether a story is too controversial to air. Newscasts, too one-sided.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I can't help it. I left the movie theater struck by the parallels between then and now. Murrows and his staff took an enourmous risk when they challenged McCarthy, and even though their reactions were fictionalized, I'm pretty sure their struggles internal and otherwise were profound. They reported on the truth because it was the right thing to do despite the threats. It was an amazing movie.
On that note I honestly believe that the future of journalism lies not in tv anymore, but in the internet. Just look at all the weblogs out there devoted to reporting the real news, uncensored with its supporters willing to pay the bills with a few clicks. These are the new reporters.

It's election day in Texas, and while there aren't any races today, there are tons of amendments. Some of them are just puzzling. Others make me cringe. The one that will make national news tomorrow will be Proposition 2, which defines marriage as strictly between a male and a female.
What is marriage anyway? Is it the union of two loving individuals who promise to be loyal to each other in sickness and in health till death do them part? Are husband and wife the only ones capable of acheiving this? Does God command it as such? If so then something must have happened somewhere because statistics show that people really don't respect the sanctity of marriage anymore. Till death do us part? It's more like, "till you bore me to death."
Sanctity of marriage.
Is this a fundamental right? Furthermore, these are unions made in churches blessed by priests. Surprisingly, it's a more religious movement that seems appalled to the whole idea that a male might be attracted to a male, a female attracted to a female. These same religious people can't even keep their own marriages in check. For whatever reason, adultery, disatisfaction, an arranged marriage, the point is that this so called union between a man and a woman really isn't as sacred as it used to be. And if it is, then the religious component should be kept out of it.
Marriages work and marriages fail, the gender shouldn't make a difference.

I was going to title this LOSER, but the bar exam is a sham. I failed, or rather, I didn't acquire the necessary points to pass the exam, again. I'll know tomorrow if I was close, but at least for now the waiting is over. Hello pinot grigio, goodbye stress!
Honestly, I'll be a fifth timer if I take it again. In Texas it means it's a do or die situation. I honestly hope my score improved.
For now I need to look for a job. Out of curiousity, before I raid Career Services at St. Moo, what can you do with a J.D. fellow readers. I'm bilingual, female, and disABLED. That makes me tres appealing, does it not?

Saw the Corpse Bride, and then did much avoiding of Texas blogs. Then my roommate convinced me to look at the site. The list is not up. Chances are, it will be up tomorrow.
Damn you, Texas Board of Law Examiners. Damn you!
Anyway, I'm going to see Serenity tomorrow. "I am a leaf on the wind..." ::sniff::

I AM STRESS.
I was the nut talking to myself in the middle of the street.
I made my roommate read a newsfeed for one of the Texas blogs I frequent because I panicked. Stabbed in the gut, plastic bag over my head, panic. I see white space with black little sticks in all the wrong patterns. That is my nightmare. After all it's happened before. Even after chatting to myself all day that I had conquered and surpassed the evil test from hell, I freaked.
I hate myself.

What happens when you mix Plato's Republic with Quentin Tarantino's "Resevoir Dogs?" Why a very sick and twisted take on justice and philosophy of course! (warning, unsuitable language ahead)

Alcibiades: Socrates, you're supposed to pour your libations on the ground, not drink them till you're talking like a crazy Bacchae bitch.
Socrates: Normally, I'd be pouring libations with your spinal fluid right now, but since I'm feeling at peace with the universe I'll try to enlighten your sorry ass instead. Imagine there's this dark, underground cave.
Alcibiades: Yeah?
Socrates: And there's this rapist-motherfucker, and he's got this gimp, right, tied up in the cave. See that?
Aristotle: Okay.
Socrates: And this rapist, he's a sick motherfucker, so let's say one day he sends down a coupla pipe-hittin' negroes to cut the gimp's ear right off.
Alcibiades: Cut his ear off?
Socrates: Yeah, and gouge out his fucking eyes. Now wouldn't you say that the ear and eye are the proper receptacles of the senses of sight and hearing, respecitively?
Alcibiades: Clearly so.
Socrates: So, moreover, would you not agree that this gimp's senses are imperfect?
Aristotle: Why, yes, Socrates, I suppose they would be a trifle damaged.
Socrates: And what do things look like to someone with imperfect senses?
Alcibiades: Dark?
Socrates: No, motherfucker, nine letters, begins with "I."
Aristotle: Imperfect.
Socrates: Bingo. So you'd say this gimp, you'd say this gimp motherfucker would be unable to perceive true perfection -- but that don't mean it don't exist. Now if you brought him out of the cave, into the light, things would be less dark, and his eyes might heal a little, he might begin to see a glimmer of light, thereby gaining the idea of true perfection --
Aristotle: What kind of argument is that? Your theory of the forms rests on an arbitrary and vicious act of violence.
Socrates: [Draws his gun.] Aristotle, you're Plato's student, I respect you, but I will put fucking bullets through your heart if you don't take back what you said about me being violent now!
Aristotle: [Also drawing gun] You shoot, you'll be dining with Lord Hades tonight. I repeat. You kill me, your ass is eating pomegranite fucking casserole for the rest of eternity.
Alcibiades: Shit, man, you're acting like a bunch of fuckin' Spartans. Am I the only philosopher around here?
Socrates and Aristotle: [To Alcibiades] Shut up!
Alcibiades: Guys, guys, calm down. Look, I've got it. Let's have a symposium -- we can all drink wine and make speeches in praise of love.
Aristotle: What are you, some kind of pansy?
Socrates: Shoot that dipshit.
[Socrates and Aristotle turn in unison and shoot Alcibiades, then turn back and again aim at each other.]

Here's the funny thing. Some of my classes in law school were eerily reminiscent in the way this mashup is written up, sans the lethal weapons of course. Who doesn't remember the odd professor throwing out the occasional cuss word when a student fails miserably to answer his question. Professor would love to throw a book at student, instead he has bundles of humiliation waiting in the wings and normally it happens in front of the entire class!
Ironically, those are sometimes the best professors.
Via Boing Boing

Day 1: Is over! This week just gets more and more painful. I'm cursed with stress syndrome, and the payback will be a migraine. I DO NOT WANT A MIGRAINE. I have been migraine free for a month. This may mean nothing to people, but to me it's like winning the $1000 jackpot. Three months with no migraine: lottery here I come!
People love to tell me not to stress. Hello!! 4th timer here. Granted, last time the stress became so bad that I gave myself a nasty headache and made my first visit to the ER. It won't happen this time. I've taken up knitting since then...
Switch places with me! Have my nightmares. Share in the disappointment time and time again. Seriously, what a rush.
First day down and only three or four more to go...