Unleash The What?

During my usual morning perusal of various blog and social sites, I came across a story about a website attempting to get back at The Pirate Bay by selling Anti-Pirate Bay t-shirts.  The site, called Unleash the Bats, uses the Pirate Bay’s own logo in some t-shirts of it’s own, along with other materials aimed at supposedly helping angry artists spread the message about how evil TPB is to the ‘creative industries’.  As to what “Unleash the Bats” means, I honestly couldn’t take a guess.  Maybe it’s a British thing?  More than likely it’s just an idiotic thing though…

The article on TorrentFreak reminds us that TPB really could care less about their own copyrights, even highlighting how Peter Sunde from TPB has sent Unleash the Bats a message offering them the link to higher quality images to use for their branding.  I guess the ultimate question is, do the ‘creative industry’ executives actually think something like this is going to work?

Though generally I try to stay out of the discussion as much as possible, I should make it clear that I love The Pirate Bay.  I watched the results of their case, and continue to watch as the lines of deceit and deception are revealed.  Watching a group of ‘industries’ completely miss the point time and time again is definitely fun for me, what about you?

 

- Andy

What Election?

Super Tuesday has come and gone, and with it a large portion of hope that we Ron Paul supporters would receive the brokered convention we have hoped for all along.  By no means is it impossible, but the odds have been stacked against us in a way that is truly daunting.

I've seen a lot of negative attitudes pop up ever since the passing of Super Tuesday, and I have to say I'm somewhat ashamed of those bearing those attitudes.  For those of us who were willing to listen, we know that this was never about the election.  Dr. Paul, without question, ran to win the presidential nomination, and he still continues to do so despite what most of the media would have you believe.  However, now we see that with the thousands, if not millions of newly active citizens in this country, the long and difficult fight to take back the country has never been more important nor closer to success.

I hope nobody gets the wrong idea.  I will soon be ramping up my own volunteering for the Paul campaign in my area, hoping to help him secure Pennsylvania's delegates.  This election is far from over and there is still a decent chance that our beloved brokered convention will rear its beautiful head.  We'll be ready if it does, as will Dr. Paul.  The real question is, will you be ready to defiantly raise your fist and fight back even if we end up losing the convention?

Lose the election?  What election.  This isn't about an election, this is about my country, and I won't ever forget that.

 

- Andy

The Department Of Education

I had a discussion recently with a friend of mine regarding Ron's talk of eliminating the Department of Education (ED).  The core of the discussion revolved around an objection to this idea, based on the premise that getting rid of the Dept. would create a society ripe with unequal education.

There are many arguments on both sides of the case for eliminating the Department of Education, and I am not an expert on the subject.  I am the son/grandchild of numerous teachers at various levels of education, and I have only a basic understanding of the impact the ED has on people like my mother, a 15+ year elementary school teacher here in Pennsylvania.

Why would Ron Paul want to abolish the Department?  I think a more confusing question would be why aren't the other 'Republicans' on the stage with him including the same thing in their own platforms.  When the ED was established in 1979/1980, Republicans opposed it fervently, touting it's unconstitutional nature.  Even as recently as the year 2000, the Republican Liberty Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the ED.

Why would we do it?  For the same reason that we need to abolish quite a few other agencies in our federal government.  No single item is independent of others in the current financial and civil crisis.  Given how unsuccessful recent ED programs have been despite enormous increases in available funding, we should realize that as a rule, the ED is a practically useless bureaucracy.  Regardless of the intention, it is failing, and in doing so is just contributing to the downward spiral that our federal government has entered due to its massive overspending and reliance upon the Federal Reserve.

With my understanding of Dr. Paul, I believe that saying he doesn't care about the equal opportunity that should be afforded to children in all parts of the country is a misunderstanding and a poor judgement call.  It is not the responsibility of the federal government to regulate our schools in any way, but rather it is meant for our local and state governments to handle.

If we as citizens are so truly concerned with the welfare of our fellow Americans and the quality of their education, it is up to us to do something about it.  If you need anymore proof that the nation is harmed when our federal government takes charge on issues it's not meant to, you should look no further than the education system and the victims of hurricane Katrina, who are in some areas still in horrible shape thanks to the overwhelming effectiveness of FEMA.

As the failure of programs like the No Child Left Behind Act become more generally accepted and garner more hatred from the educators in our country, it should be our immediate goal to give control of all processes of education back to the states completely.  Our states are more than capable of working together without the intrusion of our national government, and that is what Congressman Paul is working towards.

 

- Andy

Ron Paulapalooza

Once again, I've gone a while without talking much to you all.  I do apologize, but as compensation for my absence, I'd like to introduce you all to a new project that I've been working on.

As you can see from my various posts, I am a Ron Paul supporter.  I am a believer though that regardless of how he finishes in the Republican primaries, we (his supporters) need to continue our activism with our federal and local governments.  In the spirit of that, I've joined on board with a festival by the name of Ron Paulapalooza.

The event, which is planned for the July 4th Weekend this year, looks like it will become a very entertaining concert.  We've selected our location and are seeking sponsorships from anyone and everyone so that the event can be a success.  If you get a few moments, check out the web site and let me know what you think!

www.ronpaulapalooza.com

 

- Andy

The Ron Paul Movement

First: The Plug
On November 5th, 2007, Ron Paul supporters around the country raised $4.3 million in a 24 hour period.  It has created more buzz for him in a week than he's received in almost the entirety of the past year.  This was an amazing accomplishment, one that all Ron Paul supporters can be proud of.  We can't stop there though, and a new movement has been planned on the anniversary of The Boston Tea Party.  On December 16th, 2007, we will be trying again to break the $10,000,000 mark in online/phone donations in one day.  To pledge your hand in this, please visit www.teaparty07.com and pass it on to everyone you know.

Second: A Response
I've had quite a few people make comments to me recently that one of the reasons they don't think they'll vote for Ron Paul is that they think he will have no power to do anything even if he is elected next year.  Congress does make the decisions, but I think we can easily overcome this fear that Congress will stop him from getting anything done.  It all begins by taking a step back and viewing our political situation.  Our representatives often thrive on the fact that we as a people are apathetic towards our government and it's inner workings.  Our government, which was created to be 'of, by and for' the people, is no longer run by us, the people.

Voting in Ron Paul, a candidate who stands for those things held so dear in our constitution, if nothing else is a way of sending a defiant message to those currently in power.  It sends them a message that the time has come where we won't put up with their purposeful ignorance towards what we want as a people.  If you can believe this, and I don't think it should be a stretch, that should be all the reason in the world to vote for Ron Paul.

Finally: A Finale
I have pledged to donate $100 of my money on December 16th.  I hope that many of you will join me with a pledge of your own, even if you can only pledge $5, it is helpful.  Tell your friends, tell your family, and most importantly, stand behind something we haven't had for as long as I can remember: A Truly Good Choice.

 

- Andy

A Ron Paul Milestone

I thought I'd write something about this here.  First, the back-story...

Ron Paul's campaign posed a challenge to his supporters on Monday September 24th.  The challenge was to raise $500,000 for his campaign's 3rd quarter postings.  Within 2-3 days, they had raised the $500,000.  As a result, the challenge was changed, and we (the supporters) were told to try raising $1,000,000 by the 30th on midnight (the end of the 3rd quarter).

Needless to say, the group of people who keep 'spamming' the debate polls, have done their part in showing just how cunning they are.  Through almost 12,000 donations, by 10:31pm on Saturday September 29th, 2007, we had raised $1,000,000.  As of the writing of this post, there is still some more time left before the deadline arrives, and the total count for the fundraising is well over $1,025,000 and never stops rising.  To 'capture' history, I decided to take a screen shot right when my screen showed me we'd gone over the million mark:

 

- Andy

Quite A Few Updates

Alright, so its been -quite- a long time since we've last spoken.  I won't apologize for it as the reason I've been so flaky with this blog is due to my excessive amounts of work towards adding features for little old you.

ZibTech Computers
A ton of work has gone into the ZTC web site, there's more details on that if you go to my news post.  What it comes down to, is that we've finally finished the inventory system and its in testing phases.  Once it leaves that, we'll be putting together things like our product listing and configuration.  Very exciting stuff!

Zibings Network
The Zibings Network updates really come in the form of two things.  First and foremost, we've sorted out a ton of bugs in the connection code and are now testing it on the ZTC site.  So far, its been running almost flawlessly, so we're happy.  Secondly, we've begun recoding ZibNetBot, which you all know and love.  He'll be redone in PHP and run as a Windows Service on our dedicated server, and from what we've done so far I can honestly say I'm looking forward to getting it done and seeing him in action.

Zibings Technologies
With the addition of someone to the Zibings Incorporated team, some new life has been breathed into Zibings Technologies, or as it was once named...Zibings.com Web Services.  I won't go into too much detail, as that would be giving away juicy secrets, but I will say that we're working on something useful for ourselves and for the company.  All of it is aimed at bringing something to life that should've been alive for years.

Epoch Gaming
Ahh, Epoch Gaming, my favorite little thing to forget about, how I do love thee!  For once, Epoch has taken a large step forward on a few fronts.  The web site has been resurrected and is being tweaked to work with the current version of ZSF.  Also, we're preparing to plug in the ZibNet connection code so that it works properly with the network.  Add onto that the fact that we've begun having development meetings for Forgotten War...for once I can gladly say that we haven't forgotten about good old Epoch.

Zibings Incorporated
We've recently added a new Director of Marketing.  Though his name is also Andrew, it is not the same person as me, which means the world to me.  He's already proving to be a very effective and motivated addition, so I think I speak for everyone when I say that his joining us is a welcome event.

 

That's about it for now.  I'm still out campaigning of sorts for Ron Paul, but its been hard to get much done with all the work being done on Zibings.  I'll make another entry when I can, and maybe someday I'll be caught up enough that I can fulfill my dream of blogging on a daily basis.  Until then...take it easy!

 

Andy

Ron Paul...Enough Said

Those of you who are close to me have probably noticed as of late that I've been becoming increasingly upset/disgruntled with our government and even to an extent my religion. All of the specifics aside, Zibings' new Director of Marketing (who is a Democrat) pointed me towards a seemingly little-known Republican candidate for the presidency in 2008. His name is Ron Paul, and I must say that this man has quickly and completely sealed my vote for the 2008 Presidential election. I respect people who are willing to put their neck on the line to stand up for what is right, and never before have I seen a politician do just that. I could go on and on about my respect for this man and the words he speaks, the ideas he has...but for now I've decided to let a video give you some excerpts of what it is he stands for. Oh how I'd love to be proud of my country again...





- Andy