Does anyone have a source on any statistics on the cost of piracy to the movie studios?

Still, at the same time you can't fault the studio for trying to protect their property. I think these days we all think we're entitled to free entertainment because it's so accessible, and it's easy not to feel guilty when you're plucking intellectual property from giant movie studios that have truck loads of money. The reality is that the films are their work, and they have a right to control where and how is it distributed, just as much as a student film makes has control over his work.

Of course, it goes without saying that any photo editing that would deliberately mislead the public should be punishable, but in my view this is no different than an article that is deliberately misleading, they should both be handled in a similar way.

However, as others have pointed out, there are many reasons to cut back our burning of fossil fuels even with global warming aside. Do you like the convenience of a plastic spoon? Hard to eat Wendy's chili without one. Guess what, all that stuff comes from petroleum, and we don't have an infinite amount of that stuff.

Also, the fact that the city of Toronto has something called the AQI (Air Quality Index). If our whether reports include a number that indicates how safe the air outside is to breath, we are already in serious trouble.

Having said that, the corporate structure that is so pervasive in our economy dispenses a unique brand of social, political and environmental injustices on an unwitting public.

Corporations are bound to the will of the share holder, whose primary investment goal is to see their stock. For this reason the corporate structure must remain in a perpetual state of growth to ensure continued investment. A CEO of any given corporation will particularly feel the heat to grow. Considering the often short life span of their jobs, CEO will be more than motivated to make a large profits in a short period of time.

Big profits and continuous growth leads the corporate world to seek whatever advantage is available. If labourers will work for literally peanuts in South Asia, then setting up a factory overseas just makes good business sense. Of course there is little concern for working conditions or fair wages, that sort of defeats the purpose.

Regulations, particularly those pesky environmental ones, are sometimes view as road blocks to a windfall of profit. While there maybe some regulations in place that are unfair to business, the majority of regulations are in place to protect the environment, or uphold fair business practices. Corporations have the ability, however, have a disproportionate voice compared to the people to lobby for their interests through the government. To lobby isn't always a bad thing, but a corporation will typically be able to afford smarter, more experienced lobbyists than say an environmental group.

Large corporations aren't a bad thing, but there needs to be a better balance between their needs and the needs of the environment, and the environment.

"Xenu . . . was the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Scientology holds that their essences remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm."

Is there any doubt it's retarded?

It worries me that people, such as yourself, can watch Fox News and feel that it's balanced. Truth be told, most news outlets in the States seem to be more about opinion than actual reporting. To get a good taste of the difference I suggest reading the BBC News, or even CBC News up here in Canada. While no news will ever be completely unbiased, these two networks at least attempt to present news with some sense of balance.

Equal airtime for right wing and left wing analysts is great, and you're right, I do see that a lot of Fox News, but if you think that they are being any at all fair to those left wing analysts, my friend, you are not watching close enough. Being yelled down by O'Reilly, or having him cut their mics is not a fair way to treat opposing viewpoints. Hannity performs this feat quite effectively as well.

Fair and balanced isn't about cheerleading a sitting president, it's not about starting political fires about people's middle name's being Hussein, or barking about someone not wearing an american flag pin. This is all bad reporting, in every conceivable fashion, and if you think otherwise, then I'm very afraid for your country's future.

Thoughts?

On the other hand, Olbermann doesn't really ever debate with anyone. Most, or all of his guest are just people that already agree with him.

It's worth asking the question, however, which pundit would you trust to be more fair? Olbermann or the comparable O'Reilly?

The Anti-Christ bit was a nice touch. Something about that seems so very Christian, as soon as there is world peace and unity across the globe we're all fucked.

Maybe my history is a little fuzzy, but isn't communication with the enemy what saved the world from a nuclear disaster during the Cold War? Why is it so odd to meet with your enemies?

I don't really begrudge Americans for the attention their country gets on the world stage. The USA is one the most, if not the most, powerful countries on the planet, and things that happen in the United States greatly affect the people who live outside of it. That's just a fact.

If I was going to begrudge Americans for anything it would be listening to them call themselves the greatest country on earth. Now that is ignorance at it's best.

"[W]ith those resources, which would take years to develop, you would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels," McCain said when asked about offshore drilling. "We are going to have to go to alternative energy, and the exploitation of existing reserves of oil, natural gas, even coal, and we can develop clean coal technology, are all great things. But we also have to devote our efforts, in my view, to alternative energy sources, which is the ultimate answer to our long-term energy needs, and we need it sooner rather than later."

Sounds more like Obama doesn't it? What happened to McCain? He used to be a good guy.

"He tells us global warming will turn hurricanes into super storms, produce droughts, wipe out the polar bears and result in bleaching of coral reefs"

Okay, so these are three things we know are already happening, but they are presented to us like they are outlandish fear mongering.

" . . . during an interglacial period is the Earth warms up, the glaciers melt and life flourishes."

The suggestion is we're in an "interglacial period" now as our climate is naturally warming, and life on earth thrives. Sounds great, right? Except that we know that life is not flourishing, nearly every ecosystem on the planet is in decline. By his own example, polar bears are suffering, coral reefs are diminishing and life within them disappearing, frogs in Australia are dying, etc.

"Earth has cooled for almost ten straight years. So, I ask Al Gore, where’s the global warming?"

While this is true, it is not indicative of a long term trend. Climate science is extremely complicated and there are many, many factors that affect overall climate temperature. Our current plateau seems to the result of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7376301.stm

"Here’s the bottom line: the entire global warming scientific case is based on the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuels. They don’t have any other issue. Carbon Dioxide, that’s it."

This is categorically false. That Mr. Coleman would even suggest that we believe only Carbon Dioxide to be the main factory in global warming is laughable. Methane is a contributer for example, a gas that has increased from the large cattle farms. Soot from our emissions has increase the rate of melting of snow pack and ice up north which in turn puts more water vapour in the air and causes temperatures to increase.

I'm going to stop there, since I'm at work and should actually get some work done.