Dark Helmet's Favorite Posts Of The Week 4: This Time, It's Personal

from the favs-favs-favs dept

Sat, Feb 23rd 2013 12:00pm — Timothy Geigner

It's Saturday and that means two things: I'm at least a tad hungover and it's favorites time! While I no longer make it a point to comment on every Techdirt post as though I was some obsessive compulsive narcisist (but don't worry, I still am that very thing), I do still read nearly all of them. I think what I like best about the most recent iteration of Techdirt is the diversity of writing styles. Mike has a style, as do Tim Cushing and Glyn Moody and so on. When I began going through my favorites this week, I noticed that there was a post from several different authors amongst them. So here we go.

First, you have to know we're going to begin with what I thought was the most entertaining piece all week, the follow up to On Press Inc.'s antics on Twitter and elsewhere. There is nothing more satisfying to me than seeing a bad actor get slapped down. While it would be nice to see Cushing's smackdown post result in some further discomfort for On Press in the form of actual publisher Knopf taking action to get their name removed from the situation, this post and the one that preceded it laid out the case and evidence beautifully. When something written can make you that angry, you know you've got a bit of blog gold on your hands.

Next, Mike detailed the smackdown of Lindsay Lohan's lawyers, who not only failed in their case against rapper Pitbull for mocking Lohan in a song, but also were sanctioned for plagiarizing their filing. This makes the list because any chance to see a pompous celebrity rebuked over attempts to control their name is a good day in my book, but also because I'm of the belief that of all the rights that our laws afford us, the right to free speech is amongst the most important. And I believe that free speech must include the right to offend. If you're not sure if you agree, I'd encourage you to see this public debate, featuring a personal hero of mine, Christopher Hitchens.

Next, I'll mention Glyn Moody's piece on the Indian government deciding to censor themselves as a method for avoiding criticism. This type of thing is important to note and spread whenever it happens, because it essentially negates any government's attempt at hiding the criticism they're looking to censor. Perhaps one day they'll learn.

And, finally, saving the best for last, we have...me.

The face of an angel. A mentally unstable, vulgar angel. So pretty much Satan, who is now also a lawyer employer.

It appears that I've officially taken on Techdirt's "fake war stuff" beat. To be honest, I love it. Nothing tickles me more than taking dictatorships and theocracies down a peg. To that end, I brought you the wonderful news that Iran made a jet all by themselves...but didn't trust it enough to get a picture of it actually flying for its press release. Instead, they photoshopped it over a stock photo of a famous geological landmark. Why? Because theocracies are stupid, that's why.

So with that, I'll leave you to your weekends. Until Monday, tip a few back for me. My fiance would rather you be the drunk than me.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

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23 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2013 @ 12:44pm

"narcisist"

If you truly were, you'd run a spell check.
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- Richard (profile), 23 Feb 2013 @ 12:55pm
  
  Re:
  and if you were you'd suggest a spelling check.
  
  A spell check is what Harry Potter uses...
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  - Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2013 @ 1:03pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Are you sure? I have a spellchecking imp in my Personal Summoning Circle.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2013 @ 7:37pm
    
    Re: Re:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spellcheck
    
    Suck on this, wannabe language wizard.
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  - G Thompson (profile), 23 Feb 2013 @ 9:16pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Actually he uses a cheque, unless he wants to pay using cash
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous, 23 Feb 2013 @ 1:33pm

All governments suck, regardless of type.
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- Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2013 @ 7:44pm
  
  Re:
  Except for dictatorships where even crumbling a banknote with the dictator's face on it is punishable by death. And so is speaking out against said dictatorship.
  
  I totally love it here! I cuddle and bathe and iron all my banknotes and I never put my wallet in my rear pocket, so the poor banknotes don't get sat or farted on. I warm up the coins in the microwave before spending them. Every day I write at least 2 articles of 500 words each about 'why this place is the best in the world', taking care to write the names of important people/government bodies bigger and more beautiful than other words.
  
  HONESTLY!
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  - Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 24 Feb 2013 @ 2:11am
    
    Re: Re:
    So... you live in the US and are a publicist for the TSA... right?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2013 @ 1:40pm

Fiancee= female.
Fiance= male.
What are you telling us here?
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- Valkor (profile), 23 Feb 2013 @ 8:22pm
  
  Re:
  I think he's saying that he doesn't speak French, or maybe that he is not French.
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- Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2013 @ 2:02am
  
  Re:
  Dark helmet is a gay fish making love to other gay fish
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apauld (profile), 23 Feb 2013 @ 2:27pm

The book description of shaun shane's book on amazon
is now nothing more than a complete bash of Tim Cushing, saying in part "Cushing encouraged followers of his blog to come to this page and post fake reviews as well and click the "we found this helpful" button on Cushing's fake review so it would appear at the top." Does that constitute slander?
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- Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 23 Feb 2013 @ 3:14pm
  
  Re: The book description of shaun shane's book on amazon
  I should publish a book entitled "A Poem Is Nothing" under my pseudonym "Shaun Shane." It would be full of all the information I've gathered on the On Press debacle. If I leave every other page blank like On Press does, it should easily be 50-60 pages, double-spaced, with large margins and plenty of pages for notes.
  
  I'll put this dedication up front:
  
  "Dedicated to the followers of Techdirt, whom I encourage to visit my listing on Amazon and post fake reviews. I also encourage these followers to click the "we found this helpful" button on said fake reviews, in order to game the system in an unhelpfully helpful manner.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Tim "Shaune Shane" "Capitalist Lion Tamer" Cushing"
  
  I'll also make a limited amount of copies absolutely free (say, 3219 of them), available first-come-first-served. Just use the following code when checking out:
  
  THE SHAUN SHANE REDEMPTION
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  - apauld (profile), 23 Feb 2013 @ 10:51pm
    
    Re: Re: The book description of shaun shane's book on amazon
    I'd buy a copy just for the laughs.
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    - AB, 24 Feb 2013 @ 12:12pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: The book description of shaun shane's book on amazon
      Myself as well.
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special interesting, 23 Feb 2013 @ 4:43pm

My favorite post of the week has to be...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130222/10043122070/prenda-lawyer-hires-his-own-lawyer-tries-to-ta pdance-his-way-out-jail-sentence-throwing-prenda-under-bus.shtml

I just cant express how much drooling will happen before the next installment of this wonderfully TechDirt(y) soap opera. I normally avoid the soap opera TV time wasters but the twist of a 'copyright dog' in the doghouse is irresistible irony.
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- That Anonymous Coward (profile), 23 Feb 2013 @ 11:06pm
  
  Re:
  To keep up on Pretenda it would be best to start following my friends...
  Sophisticated Jane Doe (SJD) on
  http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com
  DieTrollDie (DTD) on
  http://dietrolldie.com
  
  Not only is there more information on Pretenda, there is a bunch that hasn't gotten the same coverage, but many other copyright trolls in various disguises.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2013 @ 6:10pm

DH, I can't believe that the Terry Deary article didn't make your list. Maybe you really were hungover.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 24 Feb 2013 @ 9:06pm

Thank you Tim, I have a new face for my nightmares.
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 25 Feb 2013 @ 5:48am
  
  Re:
  You have nightmares about impossibly good-looking men?
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  - That Anonymous Coward (profile), 26 Feb 2013 @ 3:54pm
    
    Re: Re:
    oh baby oh baby oh, light my fire.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2013 @ 5:30pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Invasion Of The Biebers!
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    - That Anonymous Coward (profile), 27 Feb 2013 @ 4:02pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      I feel sorry for the Bebians, that little SOB stole their look.
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