Tom's Random stuff

Every time I hear him speak, Ron Paul teaches me something

Ever since I started really contemplating the state of our country with the Military-Industrial Complex and how it controls our government through lobbying and no-compete contracts and political contributions, it has made me angry.  I always thought that we need to make laws to change this.  We need to somehow restrict the ability for lobbyists to control politicians.

I was wrong. 

Ron Paul had a "Town Hall Meeting" in New Hampsure, that he was forced to do by Fox ("Fair and Balanced", yeah right!) because they excluded him from the debates.  In this meeting, he mentioned that restricting lobbyists could potentially violate people's Constitutional rights.  He said the real solution, instead of restricting lobbyists, is to restrict the politicians.  The way to do that is to limit the power the government has.  If we have a small, Constitutional government, the lobbyists wouldn't have any motivation to give money to politicians. 

The answer was so simple, I never thought of it.  This country needs more men like Ron Paul in politics.

George McGovern speaks about Bush-Cheney

This is a well-written cry for help for our country.  This man has the wisdom of age and the experience of having run for President in the past.  He ran against Nixon and he is pining for the days that his old adversary was President...

Read the article here

Another reason I'm being convinced that Universal Health Care is a good idea...

I have decided that Universal health care is a good idea.  Not for the typical bleeding heart "we must cradle everyone in our arms and allow them to suckle on the taxpayers teats"-kind of approach, but ... we're already paying for it anyway.  Just look at all these a-holes in the "Emergency" room that just have a cold or a splinter... never mind the illegals, homeless, etc..  Rather than having hospitals close because their Emergency Room is going bankrupt, we might as well drink the Kool-Aid and get it over with.  Give everyone a basic level of health care (NOT illegals). 

Now, I have another reason: atheism.  I am an atheist (why aren't you?).  This article explains how the rise in universal health care in other first-world countries is just the security blanket that people need so that they stop praying to the Easter Bunny to help them win the Superbowl.  That, and how atheists and agnostics are increasing in numbers at a crazy rate while theist are not.  Yay!

Like Peter Tosh sang...

"Legalize It!"

Here is a well thought out and sensible article that tells us why the 'War on Drugs' is a complete waste of our tax paying money.

Why continue to empower drug lords and kill people over something that people want?  It's just silly.  Like US alcohol prohibition in the past, this will eventually be legalized.  Let's just do it now and get it over with.

Warning... VERY Politically Incorrect

This is one of the infinite reasons that I hate religious people (obviously a bit of an over-exaggeration):

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr110-847

WHY THE FUCK DO WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE ANY FUCKING RELIGIONS AT ALL!!!!!!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHh

1) Don't our legistlators have more important things to do than to encroach on my religious freedom?   Here, let me name a few:
    - American currency is in the shitter
    - Iraq
    - Afghanistan
    - Border Security.
    - preventing Britney Spears from polluting the gene pool anymore

2) How much money is it costing the taxpayers so that these assholes can diddle themselves while talking about how much better their fairy tales are than everyone else's?  ("Jesus could beat up Muhammed".. "Oh yeah, Vishnu could kick all their asses!".. Let's just have an imaginary Royal Rumble with Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Jehovah, God, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, Zues, Odin, Santa, and The Tooth Fairy and Mothra while we're at it... settle it all right now)

3) Poverty
4) Crime
5) Electoral Abuse
6) Corporations Controlling the country

God, I am so angry right now, I could kill a cute baby seal with my bare hands and eat its liver.

PLEASE PEOPLE.  Go Vote For Ron Paul!!!  Put Some Sanity back in the government!!

Helpless

http://www.alternet.org/rights/55993

This stuff makes me ashamed of my country.  That we could ever let this happen is astonishing.  That it still continues is repulsive.  An innocent guy getting tortured for 5 years by the US.  We used to demonize other countries for doing these kinds of things.  I have a feeling the taxpayers will be paying for this in lawsuit settlements once people figure out how to do it in a court. 

I never thought I would say this, but: I think that John Kerry (*shudder*) would have made a better President.  Well, at least I don't think he would have done this.

I hope the music industry big wigs read this...

My friend Chris, a part-time music critic and apparently good writer, wrote a nice piece on how the music industry is just dead wrong on their approach to music sales.  It's chock full of good metaphors and similes and is quite poignant.

Hopefully, someone in the RIAA will read that and have a forehead-slapping moment.

Miscellaneous

• Well, it looks like people are getting smarter after all! :)
• Reasons why I want to hurt 57% of America...
• Putting those traffic cameras to a good use...
• Out of shape teen tries to mug a marathon runner... and yep... you guessed it: run away.  Dumbass!
• Solution to kids feeling bad for not being called on in class?  Don't let anyone raise their hands, of course!  Un. F-ing. Believable.
• An idea that would last about 3 seconds in the US before a pack of hungry lawyers sniffed it out...
• A reason to stop making fun of the Amish in their slow buggies...
• People start realizing that you don't make up for racism with more racism.
• What do you do when a college kid's depressed and contemplating suicide?  Well, violate his right to privacy by telling everyone that he's suicidal and suspend him from school because "...his 'endangering behavior' violated the code of student conduct.", of course!  WTF!?
• I, for one, welcome our new virus-creating super computer overlords.

That's all for now. :)

I'm not one to suggest people sue very often, but...

Some british government agency whose name I won't learn confiscated some software being sold when the didn't even know it was breaking any kind of license!  It turns out they were wrong!  WTF?  Let's just start arresting people because they acted like they could be doing something wrong!!   Assholes

You'd think that people in charge of things like this might have some f-ing idea about what they were doing!  What a bunch of friggin idiots! 

My reaction is so totally out of proportion, but this really pisses me off.

Time to invade Mexico?

I'm thinking it's time to revoke NAFTA and kick some Mexican ass... Maybe we can annex Cancun?

The problem I have with our coverage of Iraq / Afghanistan...

I have been reading a lot of the news about Iraq & Afghanistan ever since before "we" went there.
Today I was reading an article at the Baltimore Sun about an air strike.

Apparently, we were going after Ayman al-Zawahri and he wasn't there.  Supposedly a bunch of strangers came to visit a man in a small village and this man's house was the target.  The CIA thought he was al-Qaida.  Who knows if he is?

Here are some statements from the article:

1. ".. By their count at least 30 people died, including women and children..."
2. "On Saturday, more than 8,000 tribesmen staged a peaceful protest in a nearby town to condemn the airstrike, which one speaker described as 'open terrorism.'"
3. "Zaman, whose home was destroyed, told AP he was a "law-abiding" laborer and had no ties to militants. He was not hurt but said three of his children were killed."
4. "Doctors told AP that at least 17 people died in the attack. But at one destroyed house, Sami Ullah, a 17-year-old student, said he alone lost 24 of his relatives"

OK... I'd like to address these as I see them:

1. Just like people expect "us" to lower numbers, would one not consider that this is an inflated number?  Also, every friggin article states "including women and children".  No shit!  You drop a bomb on a village, there will be what is callously called "collateral damage".  Why does "the media" need to point it out EVERY SINGLE TIME?
2. Do these 8,000 people actually know anything about whether or not the target was actually valid?  Would they rather we march a million-strong army through the streets like the USSR did?  Whether you like it or not, airstrikes are the most humane way we can handle the situation.  As far as it being terrorism: anything that makes you afraid could be considered terrorism these days.  If this target was valid and the people who matter most (the ones doing bad things) realize that we can get to them anywhere, then I am glad that we are practicing this form of "terror" on the exact people we want to affect.  Unfortunately, others will be affected too.  If the majority, the innocent bystanders, realize that these people are targets, maybe these people will become pariahs and the innocent people will either make them leave their villages or at least leave the area, thus isolating them and making them easy targets.  It sucks being in a country that has an active war waging, but I don't think the Afghanis or the Iraqis properly appreciate that this type of war allows them the closest semblance of a normal life as possible during such difficult times.  The media never points that out, do they?
3. Would you expect him to say "Phew!  I'm so glad I skipped out on that.  It would have put a damper on my plans to blow up a military base!".  Of course the guy's going to say "I'm innocent" and then try to gain sympathy right after.  Unfortunately, the statement would be the same whether he was guilty or not.
4. So,  who should we believe?  Doctors?  or one person?  Who knows?  Though this reminds me of another article (which I can't find) where, after a (non-coalition) bomb exploded in a neighborhood, stated that EVERY SINGLE house in the neighborhood lost a child.  As heartless as this sounds, I don't believe him.  For some reason, I feel it may be a cultural thing or something, it seems that the Iraqis (and possible others in the region) use exaggeration as a rule to emphasize things (Think Iraqi Foreign Minister...).

So, the whole situation sucks.  I don't like that the world is where it is right now, but it always seems that the media, regardless of the origin, is always trying to do the "bleeding heart" thing.  "Look at these unfortunate innocent people", "They didn't do anything wrong, the big, bad US did it."

When our own media vilifies our military for carrying out every single operation, how do we expect the world to have an educated opinion on things and just deal with the facts?  Why is it that the only facts that are stated are ones that side against our military?

I'm sure some people will completely disagree with me.  I hope that, if you do, you can reply here without resorting to inflammatory statements.  This is a heated topic and we all know it can get tempers flaring.  I would like to have a discussion on it if you are so inclined.

Tom

miscellaneous update

Here's a bunch of random stuff that doesn't warrant its own posting..

• Green Glowing Pigs??
• DC's Former Mayor doing hard-core drugs again.  Surprise!  NOT
• There's nothing wrong with group sex in Canada, as long as you don't pay for it.
• Scientists discovered how cancer spreads.  Pretty cool step
• North Korea is still doing crazy things.
• In a move that says "can we please stop being the laughing stock of the world?", Dover, PA dumps (Un)Intelligent Design
• The USPTO is planning on reworking software patents.  Yay!!
  

Enjoy.

Walmart and racism. Think people!

So, there's a big story about how Walmart's DVD recommendation software is racist.
This is clearly the demonization of a mega-corporation, because that's all the rage in the US and is partially warranted when they do something wrong, but this is just fishing for excuses to get irate.

So... someone rents Planet of the Apes and it recommends movies about MLK and Malcom X.  OK.  Granted this will cause a snicker from people who think like this.  There are 3 basic ways to take this:

1. Dumb racist: "huh huh ... apes... black people" (NOTE: some people might start here and move to 2 or 3...)
   
2. Sensitive oppressed minority (or ultra-sensitive majority): "That's outrageous!", "I'm going to sue!" / "Someone should sue!"
3. Intelligent thinker: "Wow.  That's a good recommendation considering that Planet of the Apes is all about overcoming racism and slavery"

Which one are you?

Bruce Schneier is always dead on :)

Here's a good article about airline security by Bruce Schneier.  Every article he writes makes so much sense that it's scary.  He should run for office or something.

T

Grag Bag

I often find myself blogging just 2 lines and pointing to another news article online.  I decided that, rather than stopping doing this, I would just combine a bunch together to make it a little less lame.

So, here goes:

1) For all those annoying people who say "It's ridiculous to stop serving peanuts on a plane" and "oh.. you can just take the nuts off that cake and eat it", here is an example of why people need to be more sensitive to food allergies.  If that doesn't make you think more about it, then you're (notice I actually used an apostrophe and "re" there... huh?) a heartless bastard and you can go screw yourself.

2) Sick of navigating the labyrinth of "press 1 for toys, 2 for lubricants, etc"?  (what!?)  Well, this guy is great.  He's got a website that gives shortcuts to phone systems to that you can talk to something with a pulse.

3) This is just plain hilarious.  It's like something out of a bad sitcom..

4) I was just talking with someone about idiots burning stuff down with turkey friers...  It's pretty common, apparently.

5) Thankfully, some people in the middle east are acting (a bit) rationally about the terrorist attacks out there.  Apparently, Al-Zarqawi's family in Jordan has disowned him for attacking innocent children.  I don't know why this kind of thing took so long, but it is very welcome to me.

6) Google proves that you don't have to let the business weenies run everything.

That's it for this one..

Separation of church and State

I came across this article in the Baltimore Sun (my home town newspaper) and it reminded me of the age old "separation of church and State" argument.

I don't understand what can be clearer.  "Under God" is religious.  Period.  Full Stop (if you're British).  It should not be and should never have been in the Pledge of Allegiance.  The Pledge of Allegiance is "...to the United States of America...", not to some religion's idea of a creator.  People who do not believe in a higher being are specifically forced to speak these words or to be singled out.  Either way, it is blatant discrimination based on religion, which is specifically forbidden by the Constitution.

Every time this makes it to courts, judges (who are elected!) wind up either 1) pussying out and refusing to hear a case on a technicality, or 2) Legislating instead of Judging by ignoring the law and leaving it there.

Religious people, often fanatically so, have great power in this country.  This came to mind when I was watching The Daily Show with John Stewart and Keira Knightley (*pause for all the guys to wipe up the drool*) said that Americans don't swear enough.  Brits do it all the time.  They don't have the Bible Belt in the UK, do they?

Anyway, this could turn into an all day rant.  "God" doesn't belong on our currency or in our pledge of allegiance or in our court rooms.  The country may have been founded by religious men, but the specifically guaranteed freedom of religion for a reason: so that people could not be harrassed or discriminated against for their religion.  Official sanction of religion (in any form) is a form of discrimination to those who don't believe.

</rant>

Can we force a state to leave the Union?

Kan-fucking-ansas....

These asshats have voted to destroy the integrity of Science in their classrooms and to become the laughing stock of the entire world.

I mean, for Christ's sake, even the Vatican is saying that these people are dumb (my interpretation)!

I am now going to try to see if there's a hurricane generator somewhere I can send in the direction of the Kansas board of education...

Update: At least the people in Dover, PA got it right and booted every single member of the Board of Education that was up for re-election.

That just rocks!

Hmm... I can imagine what the ID folks would think of this..

Religion is genetic?

Terminology

It's interesting... If you just replace a few words in this article with things like "Insurgents", "Terrorists" and "Islamic" instead of "rioters", "paramilitary groups" and "Protestants", this could be an article about Iraq.

I am of Irish descent and I point out to people often that terrorists are not just from the middle east.  Terrorism has been happening for decades in Ireland.  I hope it helps some people keep persepective and think past racism and religious persecution.

Respect for our government officials...

What I love about this country is that we put our starts and government officials on pedestals.

Of course, the stars' pedestal is 8 miles high and the government officials' pedestal is.. umm... a bit lower than that..(WARNING: foul language in text on this page)

Religious nuts are ruining this country

If we don't stop this soon, we are going to be in a world of hurt.

This stuff really, really scares me.

Someone actually thought this was rational enough to file a lawsuit with a straight face:

A group representing religious schools in California is suing the University of California system. At issue, the question of whether creationist courses in high school are counted as science credit for college admissions.

THE CREATION STORY IS NOT SCIENCE!!!!

Hell, there are TWO creation stories in the Bible anyway!  You can only have one accepted theory of anything.  Nevermind that there are no scientific measurements or anything else in the Bible referring to Creation.  There is no supporting evidence OF ANY KIND for the Creation story.

This makes me so angry, I want to hurt these idiots.

Update: I wonder what they think about this story.  Faked results?  God's just not very inventive and reuses the same patterns over and over again?

Finally! Some sanity from a US judge

Welcome to my blog's new home..

This is the new home of my blog.

Thank you for following me here.

I apologize, but the comments did not make it over with the porting of the archives (it was just too much effort).

I hope this works a little better for all you readers out there (*cough*).

Tom

P.S. Anyone that's interested can also check out my MythTV blog (very geeky topic though)

This is like something out of a bizarre mafia movie...

One of the jurors in the Michael Jackson molestation trial turned up at a fete celebrating his acquittal...

WTF?

Schiavo's Parents Not Swayed by Autopsy

​​​​Hmm... People not believing Science and just believing what they want to believe regardless of the scientific evidence? Sounds like religion to me!

Schiavo's Parents Not Swayed by Autopsy

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Alright... which asshat voted for "Origin of the Species" as a harmful book? Jesus I hate these religious fuckers!
(hehe... I just re-read that sentence... "Jesus", "religious" and "fuckers" all in the same sentence!)

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Next thing you know, they'll ban sports because fat, uncoordinated kids go to school there...

Edmonton school may ban sale of milk

Researchers Find New Source of Adult Stem Cells From Hair

This is great news... BUT...

I actually have mixed emotions about it. I love the fact that it can be a whole lot easier to get stem cells, but I would have loved the current debate about using stem cells from discarded embryos (from in-vitro cases) to have been resolved rationally. People were actually arguing against using the cells, claiming it was human life, when the cells were being discarded anyway. Umm this "life" is being "terminated" anyway. Why not make it a mini organ donor?

Anyway... awesome news. I hope this is as promising as it sounds. We could make incredible progress on lots of diseases that way.

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile...

I'm sure there won't be any "big brother"-style abuse of this... naaaahhh.. never!

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile

MSNBC - Sunni cleric group calls Iraq's vote illegitimate

This is a shocker... stupid fucks.

Boycott the election, thus giving up your option to choose, and then declare the election invalid because you didn't vote.

If this worked, bored, stoned college kids would be calling the elections here invalid. (Heck, they are! -- "Bush stole the election!" -- idiots)

MSNBC - Sunni cleric group calls Iraq's vote illegitimate

The First Nonsmoking Nation - WOW

This is a cool (and well-written) article about how
Bhutan is the first country in the world to have effectively banned tobacco.

I think that's pretty cool. But would never work in a country like ours. Just look at how well it works for drugs :)

Woo hoo!

​​​​Though this will hopefully never apply to me, I am very excited that the US Supreme Court has changed the law in regards to "mandatory sentencing" on federal crimes. There have been ludicrous sentences handed down for people carrying large amounts of marijuana that have resulted in a heavy pot smoker spending more time in jail than rapists and murderers. Now, the existing sentences are to be considered a "guidline" and not mandatory.

Of course, this is going to tie the courts up for years with appeals of current prisoners.

Link to the Reuters article...

Monkeys and Stem Cells = no more Parkinson's

​​​​With all the stem cell related news during the election and considering that our president doesn't support human stem cell research, THIS is really cool. I'm hoping it convinces some people to change their minds. Wonderful things can be done with it.

Maybe Iranian women will revolt and kick some ass now...

2000 year old Iranian warrior woman found...

Thanks to Fark (not really safe for work) for tipping me to this (and much more of my favorite 'news' stories)

Currency woes?

Every time I read the news, there seems to be something about how the dollar is at its lowest versus the Euro. I know nothing about currencies, but I do know this: the Euro is new and, because of that, it will take a while to stabilize.

On the other hand, this article from the Washington Times seems to say that this is not a bad thing and proposes a rather unusual solution to the issue.

Who knows what's right? I don't, but I do think the article gives a really good description of what it means for currencies to fluctuate and how it happens.

Informative at least.

T

(NOTE: I need a better category for things like this.. It's not really politics)

yet another asshat 'activist'

These are the people that made me vote for Bush!

For those who believed the Fanat-ocrats "The sky is falling" evaluation of the economy...

Maybe Alan Greenspan has something to say about that...

A different perspective on vote counting

Instead of those big red and blue blobs the size of a state, here is a breakdown county-by-county
The difference in square miles between Bush and Kerry is very interesting. It shows how much appeal Bush has in rural areas.

Note also how Kerry got votes from LOTS of people that live near water. Perhaps that's the "environmental" vote.

Who knows? It's kinda interesting anyway.

I promised myself I wasn't going to do this...

I promised myself I wouldn’t talk about the election because everyone is posting stuff about it, (here comes the “but”…) but I can’t help it. I always love posing theories to people.

My theory on why Kerry lost the election is this: After all the hate-mongering during the campaigning (and that’s what many people were doing) and all the anti-Bush sentiment, the Bush supporters who would not usually bother voting got angry. They came out in droves and supported someone who was being, in their minds, unfairly attacked. In other words, the liberal propaganda machine backfired.

The more I think of it, the less this surprises me. Here are a few things that make this really easy to understand:

• The amount of completely untrue information floating around the Internet about him. For instance, my cousin would send me all sorts of anti-Bush emails spouting off about various things he did. Some of which he did, some which he didn’t. Most of it was done based on information from other people within the government (and some foreign governments) and, thus, was out of Bush’s control. This is hardly a reason to demonize him. If you want to demonize him, feel free to do it over his social ideals and his religious zealotry :)
• People were “anti-Bush”, not “pro-Kerry”. Everyone who was attempting to persuade me to vote for Kerry would always say “We have to get that man out of office!” I would say “OK. Well, with whom are you going to replace him?” John Kerry? I think not! They guy has all the charisma of a piece of white toast. He seems so aloof. I can picture him at a country club with a tennis racket in his hand, wearing a white Izod shirt with one of those obnoxious yellow sweaters draped on his shoulders with the arms crossed in front of him as if that’s the only thing he can get to hug him. Can you tell I like him? :)
• If the Democrats want to elect a new president, they have to show up with someone with charm and who is likable. Someone like (I hate to say it…) William Jefferson Clinton. I may have despised what he wound up representing, but if a clone of Bubba ran against Bush this time, Bush would have been crushed by him. No more Al Gores, no more John Kerrys.

Well, I guess we’ll all have to see how Hillary Clinton does in 2008. I am guessing that she’ll run versus a Rudy Guiliani/John McCain ticket in 2008. Who knows?

Anyway, sorry I had to broach this topic like the rest of the planet, but I guess there’s a reason everyone’s talking about it.

If you're going to say you met with the UN Security Council, Mr. Kerry... make sure you actually did!

Here is a Washington Times article that shows that Kerry's been lying about meeting with the UN Security Council members and, since he didn't, he is not more in tune with the world views as he has claimed in debates with GWB. "This president hasn't listened. I went to meet with the members of the Security Council in the week before we voted. I went to New York. I talked to all of them, to find out how serious they were about really holding Saddam Hussein accountable," Mr. Kerry said of the Iraqi dictator. Why does he repeat an obvious lie over and over again? It's not like it's too hard to check the facts. And you know someone will! Just a public service announcement for those narrow-minded people who are always calling Bush a liar and think that Kerry's *** doesn't stink.

I'm sick of all this crap!

I can't WAIT for the election to be over!

• "Bush!"
• "Kerry!"
• "Bush!"
• "Kerry!"
• "Bush Sucks!"
• "Kerry Sucks!"
  

At this point, who the f*ck cares?

I can't see much of a difference between their policies, but here's what I understand them to mean to me:

• Kerry wants to raise my taxes. (Boo!)
  
• Bush wants to lower my taxes. (Yay!)
  
• Bush is a religious nut (Boo!)
  
• Kerry is very wishy washy about the gay marriage issue. (Lame!)
  
• Bush's views on gay marriage, like it or not, are VERY evident. (Yay for decisiveness, Boo for his choice)
  
• Kerry has voted against pretty much every military spending bill that's come his way. (Boo! -- How do you lead the military after that?)

I'm sure there's more, but it seems that the policies with respect to Iraq are almost the same. Kerry's not going to randomly pull France, Germany and Russia's armies out of a rabbit hat. They're NOT coming to help. What politically-suicidal world leader signs up to send his people to Iraq NOW? Duh!

All my cousin Renee's endless barrage of anti-Bush emails aside, I'm voting for Bush. No sense switching horses mid-gear (I love mixing metaphors!), when Kerry is just an enigma. Even if I don't like him, at least I know where Bush stands on everything.

No matter what you believe, you should educate yourselves about the choice and MAKE THE CHOICE. As the band Rush says "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice".
If you choose not to vote, you're just letting those inbred, ignorant people you see in Walmart determine your future. (You know the ones I'm talking about... they were the parents screaming at their kids and threatening to beat them while you were grabbing those DVDs the other day...)

So, go out and VOTE!

Kerry family and taxes

For those who think that Kerry has a better tax plan, this might be enlightening.