Never Rob a Law Student.

I was supposed to post this a while ago but it slipped my mind:

Why You Should Never Try To Steal a Law Student’s Laptop

by Dan Reilly, posted Nov 14th 2008 at 2:41PM

A thief learned the mistake of trying to steal a law student’s laptop last week after after becoming a punching bag for an Arizona State student he tried to rip off. Armed with a baseball bat, the intruder, Gabriel Saucedo, allegedly climbed through an open window into Alex Botsios’ apartment, waking the student and threatening to smash his head in.

Botsios was willing to let Saucedo take his wallet and guitars. Then the robber made the mistake that ultimately landed him in the hospital — he went for the laptop. According to Botsios, he said “Dude, no — please, no! I have all my case notes…that’s four months of work!” Saucedo, obviously underestimating the fury of an overstressed, overworked first-year, was unsympathetic. That’s when Botsios could take no more.

Wrestling Saucdeo to the floor, Botsios separated the bat from the thief and repeatedly punched him in the face. When it was all over, police had to get Saucedo stitched up before charging him with armed robbery and kidnapping, while Botsios only suffered some scrapes and a bruised knuckle. Most importantly, at least to the student, is that his laptop, which he called “his baby,” escaped unharmed. Next time, Saucedo might want to try robbing a third-year student, as they’re generally more docile.

Source: http://www.switched.com/2008/11/14/why-you-should-never-try-to-steal-a-law-students-laptop/?rss 

In Solidarity With Dave Cournoyer

 I feel obligated to come to the defence of a fellow political science student who is being bullied by the premier of his province of Alberta.  Premier Ed Stelmach is suing a U of A poli student Dave Cournoyer because he failed to register his domain name on the Internet.  Seeing that it was available, Cournoyer decided to purchase the domain for 14 dollars.  Steady Eddie finally decided to catch up to the times and create a website dedicated to all the failures of his government and chronicle the decline of the Conservative dynasty in Alberta when, to his surprise, edstalmach was already purchased!  Now, the honourable member for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville is suing the U of A student to try and get the domain back.

To Ed, I say pick on a guy your own age.  There are plenty of other ways to resolve conflicts with people but hurling lawyers at students is not one of them.  Plus its not very good PR.  Frankly speaking, if you waited this long to register your domain, you really don’t have a case.  I mean, you were first elected in what, 93?  Ok so the Internet wasn’t all that big back then.  But in 1997 you entered into the cabinet as Minister for Agriculture.  Alright fine, I’ll admit, even in 97 the Internet was still relatively a new phenomena and people didn’t really understand the full potential of the net; certainly not politicians.  But come on, by the year 2000, everyone knew what the Internet was and people were fully aware of the potential of it.  OK but even then, lets just say you were naive and still didn’t realize what the net could do for you.  By 2004 you had become the Minister for Intergovernmental affairs.  SURELY you would have realized what the Internet was by then.  But I guess you didn’t and now you are suing a student because you didn’t know what the hell the Internet was.  Like really, do you not feel that this is in some way your fault? Or at the very least the fault of your staff for not having the brains to take up your domain.  Nowadays people register their domain even before they think of running for nomination.  You got elected in 93, became premier in 06 and you are just now thinking of having your site up?

Before this whole fiasco came about, Cournoyer blogged on Daveberta under the auspices of the edstelmach.ca (via redirection) domain.  The blog was used as a means of legitimate political descent against the Stelmach/tory government.  There are some Canadian experts in the field of E-Commerce that argue that by virtue of Cournoyer using the domain for means of political discourse, it is rightfully his. Also, there are some that argue that Stelmach isn’t even popular enough to lay claim that his name a legitimate trademark (I’ll spare the jokes for you guys). 

Typical of the Conservative attitude in the province, there are some that claim this is the workings of the Alberta Liberal Party because Cournoyer was a paid employee for ALP.  Here’s a good example of the typical rant and cry by the right wing Alberta conservative.  Note the infuriatingly flawed logic that’s inherent in the article. 

So in Liberal logic it’s Internet open season on anyone who doesn’t own all the domain names that are slightly connected to them.

So yea, like its that black and white. Mind you, the above article is from the Sun, a newspaper that uses a grade 5 reading level, pictures of semi-nude women, advertisements for call girls, strip clubs and escort agencies to attract readers. So really, I don’t expect any type of sophisticated logic to come out of that paper. But I think you guys get my point. It seems that any type of descent that the Conservatives face is always some sort of ploy by the leftists to gain political points. I am sure that suing a 24 year old university student is perfectly honourable.

If Dave was legitimately slandering Eddie’s name then I would agree that Stelmach has a case against Cournoyer. But because his criticism is of a political nature, there it cannot be considered as being that at all. In fact, I would argue that Cournoyer is being censored by the Premier. I am sure that if Cournoyer were praising Stelmach, calling him God of all of Canada, Eddie would be tipping his cowboy hat at him, at the very least; patting him on he back. I can’t remember them off the top of my head but there were a few federal MPs that found that their domains were taken by special interest groups (I think they were pro same sex marriage when the MPs were anti same sex) and there was really nothing they could do about it. It wasn’t until after the whole same sex marriage was declared legal in Canada that they got their domains “back.”

I got the perfect solution for Stelmach. Go to Register.com and type in your domain. Near the top of the page will be a set of options for you. Choose C, make an offer. If you really care about your name, don’t tarnish it by using bullying tactics. Use the good old free market approach to settle your dispute. The good thing about this solution is that:

1. You won’t make yourself look like a crying baby
2. You’ll spare yourself the criticism of picking on students
3. If you offer enough money, you’ll help out a fellow highly indebted student who lives in the only debt free jurisdiction in the western hemisphere, just in time for the start of the winter semester
4. You’ll be helping out the Alberta economy.

Its a win-win situation.  You’ll get your domain and he’ll won’t have to pay tuition for a semester.  Or at the very least, he won’t have to reach into his own pocket for text books.  Law suits are for weaklings.  This is the real Conservative way of doing things. 

Good luck with your battle Mr. Cournoyer.  Your fellow students are with you.

Paul Chowdhry – Stand Up Comic

My random time wasting on youtube led me to this: Paul Chowdhry, an Asian comic from the UK. This guy’s style is really funny. His deliveries are really good and well…he just makes me laugh. His interactions with the audience are especially hilarious. I’ll give you guys two clips to watch. Good stuff.