The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds. -- Tryon Edwards
I’ve always believed it from the moment I first heard of her… but after reading an article on Sarah Palin’s War on Science. I’m appalled. *THIS* is the candidate the conservatives want in a vice president? One missed heart beat away from the president of the USA… in a time such as ours currently? *REALLY?!?!* *WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?*
I don’t know what to do… really… I’m at a loss… why? I want a good reason why? I’m tired of the petty terrorist, or he hates America crap, or he’s a socialist… Wake up, we just bailed out private banks… we’re socialist already UNDER REPUBLICAN CONTROL (and if its for the reason of color… shoot yourself now, you don’t have a reason to live)… and can’t we just get beyond paltry party politics for a minute and just look at a thing called HISTORY, you know… that dreaded class that was forced upon you in your early schooling years… ya know they did that for a reason….
Look, I’m not saying he’s perfect, I don’t know how he could be where he is, and be perfect. He still has to pander like every other politician… but they pander for you, you know that right? They spoon feed you whatever crap they believe you want to hear. And they dodge questions and flash something shiny to divert your attention from what really matters. All I’m saying is look at the history, as that’s really the true measure of the person. And from where I’m standing… (I realize there is “less” history for Obama, but go from what there is).
The answer is obvious… more of the same… or actual Change(tm).
I’m So sick and tired of this idea that this country was founded on some Christian establishment or ideal. Its so far from wrong it astounds me. Up until the 1950’s, the national moto was E Pluribus Unum, (”from many, one”) , and In God We Trust was not added until an Act of Congress in 1956. I know our school systems are bad, but since I wasn’t there THAT long ago, I know they are not teaching this. So where does this non-sense come from? The Media? ie: Fox News? or what? It’s absurd and I can’t take it anymore. I will call anyone out on this anytime I hear it… and this reason alone, I will NOT vote for McCain.
What is it with people? They’re willing to give up everything because some situation will “never happen to them”. And do it in the name of “freedom”, and the “war on terror” or the “war on drugs”? Why? I’m writing about this article: ‘No-knock’ Searches Get People Killed. This is ludicrous. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. The “ware on drugs” is costing us BILLIONS every year… and guess what? In case you hadn’t been able to tell WE STILL HAVE DRUGS! What does that tell you? Its not working. Never has, never will. Face up to it. Whats the best thing to do? Legalize them! Make them a controlled substance, just as prohibition never worked, neither will the war on drugs. Want drug related crime to go down? Legalize. Eliminate the black market for them, making legal controlled methods for distribution and even consumption if you want. You might be surprised that most if not all people would prefer such methods.
And then comes the other issue in that article. Which I’ve heard the news media talk about before, only in a different light. There was a news broadcast a year or more ago, that said District Attorneys do not like the “CSI Affect”. As a result of the popularity of the show, juries were wanting the DA’s to present more evidence and wanting a solid conviction, wrapped up all nice and neat like they do in the show. To be honest, I’m dumbfounded by this statement really. To have a DA, who’s job it is to convince the jury of a persons guilt. Complain when they aren’t convincing the Jury. After all, we are all innocent until proven guilty by our constitution. To make an assumption otherwise is just simply wrong. We are also allowed to protect ourselves from unlawful entry into our homes, *regardless* of who is entering. To have *one* innocent man go to jail is a crime. *EVEN* if that means that 100 guilty men/women go free as a consequence of the DA/police not doing their jobs(And yes I do realize that makes their jobs EXTREMELY hard, and they should be). To have the representatives of law breaking the law themselves and fabricating evidence is truly criminal and they deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
I also dread our next election. Because I know people are tire of Bush and all the crap hes pulled, which means people are probably going to vote Democrat. The sad thing… the Democrats are JUST AS BAD as he is! I’ve only seen one or two that will actually try to fix the mess we are in. But they are not the popular candidates, because of their candidness to the questions most politicians give pre-fabricated bull-shit answers to.
So, the question becomes “Where do I want to move to? Which country knows the *REAL* meaning of freedom? and patriotism?” Anyone know? because I’m really tired of all of this… it gives me such anxiety.
Well, if you didn’t think Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was a complete and utter moron before. Check out his latest showing of complete incompetency. He now wants to put people in jail “for life”, when “thought” to have committed copyright infringement. Thats correct, I did write “thought”, and so did he. You don’t actually have to be proven to have committed copyright infringement, they just need to believe you did, and show “thought” of committing copyright infringement. I just don’t know where to begin with this… I mean… this is completely ridiculous.
I’m so sick of Democrats “talking” about democracy like they care about it. Don’t even get me started on the vast majority of Republicans on the subject either. I’m so sick and tired of people being apathetic about government issues that cause them to not vote. There are enough non-voters in this country that all it would take is for them to vote for someone that is exactly the opposite of everyone else that is running, Ron Paul comes to mind. Or the new crazy Democrat from Alaska. At this point I’ll take either. They should be able to swing the pendulum back in the opposite direction. Something… I really don’t know how much longer I can take all this BS.
My brother came home last week from his LDS mission in South Africa, and he would continually remark that we(being people living in the US) don’t know how well we have it. Which to some degree I agree with him. However, not everyone in this country would agree. I’m not trying to downplay the situations that people live in in South Africa, or any other 3rd world country for that matter. I’m sure its not something I would like to live with either, and I am grateful for the thing with which I am privileged to. This however does not mean I should just take what I have and be “happy”. Wanting more, wanting things to be better is a very worthwhile cause. My brother had made the claim that I shouldn’t be so hard and critical of our government and our current leadership, because I don’t have to put bars on my windows and worry about someone shooting through my windows. I *very* much disagree. As I said, yes I understand that South Africa, in most parts, is very much a 3rd world country, and here I am “living the dream” in the U.S. of A.. The current self proclaimed leader in this world of ours. Heres where I’m comming from, comparing the US, to South Africa is like comparing apples and oranges, they are NOT the same thing. Because of the history surrounding each country and the forms of government in place and the like… the two countries are *VERY* different. In order to make any kind of fair comparisons, you need to look at countries where there are more things that are alike than are different. The so called “1st world countries”. This is how they gain these labels in the first place. And when ranking 1st world countries, guess where the US falls, in all the areas that should matter? Dead LAST. Sure, we still top the charts in military power and expertise, but this is also coming into question and China is the up and coming star in this arena. But we are still the only 1st world nation that does not give Health Care to every citizen of this country. Our public education system is failing miserably and lieing about it to cover up this fact. And something I’m more inclined to follow, we are also falling way behind in Broadband connections for our citizens as well. America isn’t much for being the land of the free like it used to be. No instead we want to keep people from entering this country, we want to hold people indefinitely and without charging them with any crime, and then torture them so we can charge them with a crime. We want to award multi-billion dollar government contracts to companies that our Vice President has a stock in. We want to have wiretaps and listen in on phone calls without warrants. All of this is *against our constitution*. The foundation of this country! And the american people just blindly accept this, because we feel we need protection… from what? Yes, 9/11 was a tragedy. It resulted from what I can tell, was our leadership asleep at the helm. Now, they’re asking us to give up our freedoms that this country was founded on, for some pseudo safety. Our elected officials are running away with billions and our freedoms, and all the American people seem to care about is who’s the real father of Anna Nicole’s baby! *WTF!*
I know I’ve posted before about this whole net neutrality. Which might possibly make it through this time around. And if we can’t get them to properly label their connections(I doubt you could force it too, because these same companies are currently getting away with advertising unlimited usage of their internet connections but booting you off if you use to much bandwidth.) like I and previously commented about. I’m for this net neutrality as it is definitely needed. Letting the money grubbing telco’s decided whats “best” for consumers is a joke. Nor is letting the market figure it out. There simply isn’t enough competition for that to work. Anyway, I found this article, that gives a bit more detail about the situation, and I think its pretty close to accurate as for why the telco’s want this net neutrality bill not to pass. I love the thought of them trying to outlaw encryption too… Thats like trying to stop the p2p networks… and we know how well thats worked out.
What is this world comming to… more and more we seem to be drifting towards a Police State. The reason for this rant? Well its over a situation reported on by TIME.
Wolf was thrown into federal prison for refusing to testify before a U.S. grand jury and for failing to hand over unpublished video footage he shot during a raucous clash on the streets between San Francisco police officers and anti-G8 protesters last year. Wolf posted some of the video on his blog, and some clips were aired on TV newscasts that later paid Wolf for the footage. But the feds are demanding to see everything that wasn’t made public. They allege that the unused portion of Wolf’s video may show the patrol car being set afire — part of a federal crime, the government asserts. Wolf denies there is an attempted arson on his videotape. The feds say they have jurisdiction over the case because the police car is partly U.S. government property since the S.F.P.D. receives federal anti-terrorism money.
So… because the US government gives money to the SFPD that means they used that money to buy a police car that was later set on fire by some anti-G8 protesters? Wha?!? It doesn’t make sense… I mean an employer has no right to any of the property or other posessions an employee might buy as a result of their pay check from the employer… so why would they have any right to this police car, assuming the money that paid for it came from the government? I’m not entirely sure about Mr. Wolf’s rights as far as refusing to testify before a U.S. grand jury, but I don’t see how or why he should be required to give up his video footage. When multiple parties have said there is no information on the tape that the police/government are looking for. It seems they just want the tape to identify those at the protest, but traditional journalists are protected by California Law to not require them to give up information while gathering news. Why can’t an independant journalist be afforded this same protection? To make it worse… hes looking at a year in prision just because he won’t stand before a grand jury on the issue. The whole situation stinks to be honest. I don’t condone the act of violence that the anti-G8 protesters performed by burning the police car, however, they still have their right to protest, which is why he shouldn’t have to give up the tape, since it doesn’t have the actual act of burning the police car on it.
This is just one more instants that I feel the police(and/or our executive branch) have over stepped boundries they they really shouldn’t be crossing. I haven’t written on the previous ones, but there have been a few in the news over the last couple months, and I’m really at a loss for words about it… It seems we as a people are giving up everything that was fought for by our founding fathers and since. Many people died to give way to the freedoms we’ve enjoyed over the last 2 centuries, and this is how we repay their sacrifice… I close this with a quote from one of those founding fathers
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
I know I’ve written about this alot, mostly because I’m very concerned about it. I for one do not want the big ISP/Content provides such as the telco’s and cable companies making toll roads on the internet. As such, I was of the opinion that a Net Neutrality law would restrict that. However, after watching some very funny bits from the Daily Show, and actually seeing these people I’m trusting to create this law… I’ve completely lost all faith that they could ever do it right and I’d rather have to deal with the technical pieces and public awareness pieces of the situation instead of trying to get them to fix their broken law. I was reading Pete Ashdown’s Blog today and noticed he has written about a new opinion about the whole debate.
Which comes from the point of view of “labeling”. As Pete puts it:
labeling laws are a good way to inform the consumer and keep economic playing fields level. For instance, the “juice” vs. “cocktail” labeling law informs purchasers of the content of their purchase, but keeps regulation low.
This works with Net Neutrality by really defining for everyone what the “Internet” really is. Up until recencently I’ve never really thought about it in the terms needed to define it as a label, but I’ve always believed what it stood for and why it was good. The Internet is the network to connect networks, or an internetwork connecting networks. Meaning its existance is mearly for connecting two ends together, or “A World of Ends“. Any attempt to filter, and “limit” this world has changed what it is, and shouldn’t be labeled an “Internet connection” but something else. Forcing this type of labeling seems like the ideal solution if you ask me(and one I had never considered), which Pete also endorced. I must say I agree and will in turn continue to support Pete. He has my vote!
Also the organization that is backing this new idea is located at: http://dpsproject.com/ and they also have my support.
For those that don’t know, the “Last Mile” refers to the connection from the end user(consumer’s residence) to their ISP’s backbone. This is also the portion that the Net Neutrality debate is talking about. There was recently an article in the column I, Cringely on pbs.org, talking about a “solution” to this whole debate. A thought I believe I’ve mentioned previously on one of my rants. Essentually the article is calling for a community owned Fiber To The Home (FTTH) network, paid for by the home owners in the community. While I personally agree with this, this also would be impracticle in more urban areas, where better wireless access would be much easier and cheaper. As I’ve said before I would love to have UTOPIA in my house. It simply is a FTTH infastructure built and backed by the City. Its operated by a non-profit organization, and they allow anyone to provide services over it. However, since the city I bought my house in, did not support UTOPIA when they were looking for cities sign up. I’m not sure when the next time will be that they can join, and if its a long way away, I’m going to look at what it would take to just get the community I live in to join up with UTOPIA, since I never thought that just a community could before. Which also reminds me… I need to look up the transcripts from any and all meetings the city counsil had with regard to UTOPIA.. So I know who not to vote for come elections.
I support UTOPIA just as I support the city maintaining city roads. The city controlling the fiber infastructure is the best solution because that puts the city council immediately in control of the “last mile” of their infastructure, and could allow the citizens to vote to keep it current and working. Also allowing as many providers as they feel they need to keep up competition. This situation also provides exactly what the anti-net neutrality people want to do, let the market figure it out itself without legislation. However, this still doesn’t account for the credits and such that the Telco’s were given to “upgrade” the nations infastructure. And maybe we should make them help pay the cities to pay for this community owned FTTH.
