Who’s Watching Me Now… The IRS?
May 15, 2008
While some of you might recognize the lyrics of Rockwell’s super hit of the 80’s and laugh, you should probably think twice about before clicking your next hyperlink. It has recently been reported that for some time now the FBI has been using fake hyperlinks to trap suspected downloaders of illegal porn. While I can appreciate the vigilance of our government and them taking the subject seriously, mass emailing it along with spamming the internet with it is a little too Big Brother for me.
First, I see this as blatant entrapment. Federal law makes it is illegal to attempt to access child pornography, whether you get your hands on it or not. Read more
Those who control oil and water will control the world - Digg
March 30, 2008
New superpowers are competing for diminishing resources as Britain becomes a bit-player. The outcome could be deadly
I have long been saying that it was water not oil that really matters in the world. If you have ever thought Tibet was about land you would be greatly mistaken, unless you were referring to the watershed from those mountains. There will come a time in the not so distant future when oil hits $200 a barrel, or maybe even $150/barrel that Americans decide they have had enough and make the hard switch to biofuels. I am not much of a conspiracy theorist, but I can put two and two together and many large corporations have been buying farm land for decades and losing money on it. They wouldn’t do that if there wasnt a future profit motive to it. That tells me others have seen a biofuel future too.
When America refuses to pay the burden of oil, it won’t take long before we are producing most of our own fuel, as we did more than a century ago. Then let us ask what happens to the rest of the world. The hardest hit will be developing countries that often rely on food subsidies from the US. We will simply say, I am sorry there is no wheat or corn for you, because we moved our surplus production that you have relied on for decades into sorghum, switchgrass, and oilseed crops. Don’t think for a moment that Americans aren’t going to feel that pinch too. Given our habits most Americans would rather have cheap fuel, then they would a sandwich especially when the cheap bread goes to five dollars a loaf.
In some respects $5/loaf will be good for the people. years ago when government statistics were put together they gave a much higher weight to food prices when they decided what poor was. For years now food has not kept up with the price of housing, which has over taken the American budget. Of course this being the American government we are talking about, they are likely to decide that after decades of study and sitting around with their heads up their asses that the cost of housing really is what we should base poverty levels on. Coincidence? I very much doubt that, this is the US government we are talking about.
I know what some of you are thinking, so what if a bunch of people in Africa starve. Well you should care, not just because they are human beings either. Africa is not only a land of tribal peoples, but of great Muslim extremism. if you think we have the Islamicists pissed at us for our involvement in those oil rich countries, think what happens when we tell the ones we have been feeding all these years to suddenly go fuck themselves. Without water and without food, they have nothing to live for except to hurt us, and hurt us they will. They flock to terror training camps with not a holy crusade, but revenge in their hearts…
Is there a solution to all of this? Not an easy one, and not one that doesn’t mean changing our habits and demanding better fuel efficiency now, rather than cheaper fuel prices later. We will never see dollar a gallon gas prices again, but I do believe it is possible to see twenty miles per dollar spent on fuel.
Justices hear Second Amendment case
March 19, 2008
Yesterday the justices heard and had many apparent opinions over what could possibly be the most important and far reaching Bill of Rights case in a very long time. The case in question is the District of Columbia’s 32 year old ban on handguns, which many critics don’t find successful and parties on both sides of the debate see as probably over reaching. According to some court watchers, “…a majority of justices appeared ready to say that Americans have a “right to keep and bear arms” that goes beyond the amendment’s reference to service in a militia.”
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Read more
Don’t be a Dick
March 18, 2008
Dick Cheney is neither stupid nor naive. I can say a lot of things about the man, but neither of those really apply. However the rhetoric he is spouting about freedom while perusing the Middle East might lead one to that conclusion.
“You and I know what it means to be free…”
That is one of the most laughable things I think I have ever heard the man say. Americans have no idea what freedom is. If you think it is having an alternative between Coke and Pepsi or McDonalds and Burger King, you would be wrong. Freedom was having the choice of dozens of smaller locally owned businesses to choose from that Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, and Burger King forced out of business in a war of corporate consumerism. America rolled over, because giving up freedom to choose was supposed to be the cool thing to do. Too much individualism would lead us down the dark and murky path to anarchy. Bullshit! Too many choices meant we were free to choose something other than the establishment.
We keep telling the troops that we are fighting to give the Iraqi and Afghan peoples freedom, but that is the last thing we want them to have. Do you know what happens when they have true freedom? They inevitably make choices that are not in our best interests. The Palestinians had the freedom to vote and what did they do? They chose Hamas. What is needed right now in Iraq and Afghanistan is not freedom, it is security.
“We’re helping them fight back because it’s the right thing to do and because it’s important to our own long-term security,” Cheney said. “As President Bush has said, the war on terror is an ideological struggle and as long as this part of the world remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export.”
If these people wanted freedom, they would need us to fight back for them. When The World Trade Center was attack, we were told this was a financial attack on America. Oh how right they were. What has been the cost of it so far? I am not talking just about the deficit spending by the government either. How has the rise of prices and down turn in other areas affected your ability to function? How will the war affect your children’s economic well being? We were told this war would pay for itself? Will it fix the economy of the dead and dismembered?
Dick tells the troops we are doing this because it is the right thing to do. I scratch my head at this notion. These were people who didn’t yet want freedom, they weren’t willing to give up everything in the name of it. Janice Joplin got it right when she sang “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose…” When the pain of change is less than the pain of death for you and your family, then you are ready for freedom. Neither the Iraqi nor the the Afghani people were ready for that yet. What we did was give them anarchy in the name of our own national vanity.
Dick wants you to believe that their lack of freedom was a threat to our nation’s interest, he also thought that helping corporate giants squash middle class mom and pop businesses was good for your freedom. It is time to think for yourself and not be a Dick!
Don’t be a Dick
March 18, 2008
Dick Cheney is neither stupid nor naive. I can say a lot of things about the man, but neither of those really apply. However the rhetoric he is spouting about freedom while perusing the Middle East might lead one to that conclusion.
“You and I know what it means to be free…”
That is one of the most laughable things I think I have ever heard the man say. Americans have no idea what freedom is. If you think it is having an alternative between Coke and Pepsi or McDonalds and Burger King, you would be wrong. Freedom was having the choice of dozens of smaller locally owned businesses to choose from that Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, and Burger King forced out of business in a war of corporate consumerism. America rolled over, because giving up freedom to choose was supposed to be the cool thing to do. Too much individualism would lead us down the dark and murky path to anarchy. Bullshit! Too many choices meant we were free to choose something other than the establishment.
We keep telling the troops that we are fighting to give the Iraqi and Afghan peoples freedom, but that is the last thing we want them to have. Do you know what happens when they have true freedom? They inevitably make choices that are not in our best interests. The Palestinians had the freedom to vote and what did they do? They chose Hamas. What is needed right now in Iraq and Afghanistan is not freedom, it is security.
“We’re helping them fight back because it’s the right thing to do and because it’s important to our own long-term security,” Cheney said. “As President Bush has said, the war on terror is an ideological struggle and as long as this part of the world remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export.”
If these people wanted freedom, they would need us to fight back for them. When The World Trade Center was attack, we were told this was a financial attack on America. Oh how right they were. What has been the cost of it so far? I am not talking just about the deficit spending by the government either. How has the rise of prices and down turn in other areas affected your ability to function? How will the war affect your children’s economic well being? We were told this war would pay for itself? Will it fix the economy of the dead and dismembered?
Dick tells the troops we are doing this because it is the right thing to do. I scratch my head at this notion. These were people who didn’t yet want freedom, they weren’t willing to give up everything in the name of it. Janice Joplin got it right when she sang “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose…” When the pain of change is less than the pain of death for you and your family, then you are ready for freedom. Neither the Iraqi nor the the Afghani people were ready for that yet. What we did was give them anarchy in the name of our own national vanity.
Dick wants you to believe that their lack of freedom was a threat to our nation’s interest, he also thought that helping corporate giants squash middle class mom and pop businesses was good for your freedom. It is time to think for yourself and not be a Dick!
Don’t be a Dick
March 18, 2008
Dick Cheney is neither stupid nor naive. I can say a lot of things about the man, but neither of those really apply. However the rhetoric he is spouting about freedom while perusing the Middle East might lead one to that conclusion.
“You and I know what it means to be free…”
That is one of the most laughable things I think I have ever heard the man say. Americans have no idea what freedom is. If you think it is having an alternative between Coke and Pepsi or McDonalds and Burger King, you would be wrong. Freedom was having the choice of dozens of smaller locally owned businesses to choose from that Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, and Burger King forced out of business in a war of corporate consumerism. America rolled over, because giving up freedom to choose was supposed to be the cool thing to do. Too much individualism would lead us down the dark and murky path to anarchy. Bullshit! Too many choices meant we were free to choose something other than the establishment.
We keep telling the troops that we are fighting to give the Iraqi and Afghan peoples freedom, but that is the last thing we want them to have. Do you know what happens when they have true freedom? They inevitably make choices that are not in our best interests. The Palestinians had the freedom to vote and what did they do? They chose Hamas. What is needed right now in Iraq and Afghanistan is not freedom, it is security.
“We’re helping them fight back because it’s the right thing to do and because it’s important to our own long-term security,” Cheney said. “As President Bush has said, the war on terror is an ideological struggle and as long as this part of the world remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export.”
If these people wanted freedom, they would need us to fight back for them. When The World Trade Center was attack, we were told this was a financial attack on America. Oh how right they were. What has been the cost of it so far? I am not talking just about the deficit spending by the government either. How has the rise of prices and down turn in other areas affected your ability to function? How will the war affect your children’s economic well being? We were told this war would pay for itself? Will it fix the economy of the dead and dismembered?
Dick tells the troops we are doing this because it is the right thing to do. I scratch my head at this notion. These were people who didn’t yet want freedom, they weren’t willing to give up everything in the name of it. Janice Joplin got it right when she sang “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose…” When the pain of change is less than the pain of death for you and your family, then you are ready for freedom. Neither the Iraqi nor the the Afghani people were ready for that yet. What we did was give them anarchy in the name of our own national vanity.
Dick wants you to believe that their lack of freedom was a threat to our nation’s interest, he also thought that helping corporate giants squash middle class mom and pop businesses was good for your freedom. It is time to think for yourself and not be a Dick!
