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What the hell is PETA doing?

So, PETA has been known for its tactics for decades now, guilt-tripping the public every time someone decides to eat a hamburger, or not eat completely bland vegan food, or “degrade animals” by having pets. They LOVE to blast the media and visitors to its websites with pictures of animal “inmates” in testing laboratories, pulling at the hearstrings of aimal lovers while engaging in guerilla tactics against corporations and anyone who disagrees with their sometimes-extremist positions.

And yet, something very mysterious is afoot. Because recently, some PETA officials were charged with animal cruelty after being caught regularly and illegally dumping the bodies of animals in shopping mall dumspters:

PETA has scheduled a news conference for Friday in Norfolk, Virginia, where the group is based.

Police found 18 dead animals in the bin and 13 more in a van registered to PETA. The animals were from animal shelters in Northampton and Bertie counties, police said.

The two were picking up animals to be brought back to PETA headquarters for euthanization, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said Thursday. Neither police nor PETA offered any theory on why the animals might have been dumped.

Now, remember, a lot of the people who support PETA will often picket animal shelters who euthanize stray pets. So what the hell are they doing euthanizing pets as well? And simply dumping them in someone else’s trash? That certainly doesn’t seem like a dignified way for Fluffy to get his sendoff, does it?

There’s no business like a media frenzy

With Michael Jackson reportedly in the the financial dumps, and his accusers not likely to see much notoriety beyond the trial, at least someone benefited from all this:

Carmen Jenkins, 46, said a surge in sales at her Coffee Diem store near the courthouse would help her buy a new BMW. The coffee shop, popular with journalists for its caffeine, food and wireless Internet connection, had only a few patrons the day after the verdict.

A chalkboard sign on the storefront Tuesday politely announced: “Dear Media, We will miss you very much. Thank you for everything.”

So there you have it. Not everyone hates the media for causing such a ruckus. Though I have to wonder, just how much extra coffee does one have to sell in order to afford a new BMW solely on those proceeds?

Blackberry anxiety

rim clown

A while back, there was anxiety over whether Research in Motion might be forced to stop selling its Blackberry devices, over a patent infringement case. Well, for a while, everyone thought Blackberries would continue to thrive, as later on, a settlement was struck between the feuding companies that everyone hoped would make all sides happy.

Unfortunately, it now appears that RIM and NTP cannot play nice as rumors surface that the deal is starting to unravel, again raising the possibility that those cool little gadgets that companies depend on for mobile e-mail will soon go the way of the dodo in the US:

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