According to an article on The Register this morning, a leak from the European Commission suggests that Microsft may be fined “less than one per cent of the company’s $51 billion cash chest”. I’d certainly be disappointed if this were the case, as this would most certainly not be a disincentive to Microsoft to continue their illegal anti-competitive policies.
Let’s hope Commissioner Mario Monti has something better up his sleeve! Well, we’ll know tomorrow anyway.
I’m pissed off. Very pissed off. I’ve just been reading an article on teenage drinking on the Irish Independent website. As is fashionable at the moment in some unimaginative elements of the Irish press, all of our problems are blamed on alcohol. Never mind that it was much less of a problem before the advent of “convenience parenting”.
Convenience parenting is a term I coined this morning to describe the phenomenon of irresponsible parents who seem to think it’s a good idea to dump their children in front of the television or computer, and forget about them until meal times. Listen… if you don’t have time to bring up a child properly DON’T BLOODY WELL HAVE CHILDREN!!!
Bringing up children responsibly means spending time with them, teaching them right from wrong, encouraging them to spend time outdoors with friends, engaged in sports or other forms of social activities. Children from a young age tend follow their parents example. Would you like to see your child turn into a lager-lout who spends all his/her time in front of television watching the latest soccer match? Or would you prefer that he/she is out playing football, hurling, camogie, rugby (or any number of other sports) with friends? Or engaging in volunteer activities?
Yes, alcohol is problem. Alcoholism is nothing to be scoffed at. But alcohol is NOT the reason for teenage violence, teenage rape and other aberrant behaviour. Let’s grow up, stop blaming the latest fashionable scapegoat for our problems and look at our own individual lifestyles. Or don’t you care enough about your child’s future?
I didn’t believe it was possible. I didn’t think that insane, right-wing lunatic currently running the US economy into the ground could make me lower my opinion of him any further. I thought he’d reached rock bottom. Well… it looks like he’s bought some rock breakers, because he’s currently descending into the depths at a rate of knots.
This disgusting excuse for humanity has resorted to television ads showing bodies being carried from the ruins of the World Trade Centre in an attempt to get himself re-elected. Apparently, he believes that the biggest single failure to protect US citizens lives in recent history is something he can be proud of.
He is showing utter contempt for the feelings of victims families. This man is a mercenary who will let nothing, never mind standards of common decency, stand is his way as he attempts to get re-elected, so that he may continue spending billions of US taxpayers money making his friends in the oil and arms industries ever increasing amounts of cold hard cash.
Read the BBC article here.