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I think it is probably time I stopped watching the news.  Every time I watch I re-affirm the knowledge that the human race is doomed to extinction.  In the movie Men In Black there is a quote that goes something like this.  “A person is smart, People are stupid”  I’m sure I butchered the quote, but its close enough to get my point across.  Watching the news just makes me realize how little the collective human intelligence amounts to.  The strength of a chain is no stronger than its weakest link.  Likewise the cumulative intellegence of the human race is only equal to the stupidest person.

Through most of last week the news was going on about some polygamist compound the police broke up.  Apparently they got a phone tip from some little underage girl who was forced to “get married” so some bastard could rape her under the guise of his religeous beliefs.  The very concept baffles my mind.  I remember a similar story in the news where some mormon kids from B.Y.U. were expelled.  They were going to Nevada to get married so they could have sex without breaking thier religeon’s rules, and then having the marrige anulled the next day. 

The whole concept of a religeous belief is supposed to help guide people who may have trouble making the right decisions without guidance.  There really isn’t much point to it if you decide to do what any intelligent person can obviously tell is wrong and then obfuscate the religeous rules until you justify what you are doing.  I guess I’m just old fashioned, but I believe that you either choose to do good or do evil.  The choice you make doesn’t change if you wrap up what you are doing with a bunch of religeous crap.  Its still either good or its evil.

What upset me enough to take the time to write this post on my blog wasn’t the whole polygamist thing.  They’ve been caught and stopped.  One can only hope that sufficient punishment is dealt out.  The thing that got under my skin is the stupid lawyer who was on the news trying to say they needed to throw out all the evidence because the “rape” took place in a temple.  Some Legal mumbo jumbo that could have a misconstrued legal basis.  I’ll go back to my statement before.  Either you chose to do good or you choose to do evil.  I don’t care where there is a loophole in the law anyone with even an ounce of self respect would have realized that the argument was just plain wrong, and would never have uttered a word. 

For this and this alone I belive the Skumbag lawyer should be tried as an accessory to rape.  If he is honestly low enough to actually make that argument knowing full well that the police had a warrent and had found evidence within the temple, he truly is an accessory to rape.  Truthfully I know they wouldn’t be able to convict him.  In all reality the law only really fits in about 95% of the cases.  There is always some a-hole who figures out to do something so stupid that the law just can’t have enough caveats to cover it.  I used to belive it was the judges job to fill in for that other 5% with common sense.  After the McDonalds coffie cup incident I can’t even belive in that. 

The only way I’ll ever find peace with this is if some kind soul decides to handle the situation Al capone style.  The Skumbag lawyer can take a dirt nap along with all his bastard rapist buddies.  Then maybe someone who chooses to do good can find a loophole in the law to let good old Al off the hook since he would be the only one doing the right thing.  At the end of all this, All I can say is Thank GOD I am an Atheist.  My mind just can’t handle all the backward religeous rules that make right wrong and vise versa whenever the situation demands. 

For the record: At no point does forcing a fourteen year old girl to have sex with you ever become right no matter how many bibles you bend her over!

I was on my way to work a few days back when I got pulled over for speeding.  I admit I was speeding so the ticket was justified.  I was going 70 in a 65 zone by my account.  (Probably about as fast as everyone else on the interstate.)  I wasn’t late for work, in fact I was early and I was only going a bit fast keeping pace with the rest of traffic at that time of morning. 

To describe the scene, I got into the far left lane and there wasn’t anyone in front of me for a good 30+ car lengths.  Its still quite dark outside bieng around 5 am.  A car pulls behind me and gets right on my rear bumper.  I don’t appreciate the bright lights in the rear view mirror so I speed up a bit to keep from getting blinded by the bright lights.  Now I’m going 74 and this guy pulls right up behind me.  We repeat the process again and again until I’m getting up to around 80.  I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to speed up anymore and I start looking for an opening to change lanes.  I figure I’ll change lanes and slow back down so this jerk will finally go around me.  Just as I finally find a spot to get over and am starting to change lanes the guy with the high beams turns on the blue and red.

I guess it really doesn’t matter what the scenario was.  There is no chance I am going to take a day off work and go try to fight the ticket.  In fact he could have pulled me over for something I wasn’t doing and I still would have had to pay the ticket.  Bottom line - It costs me more to take the day off work than it does to pay the ticket.  Then assuming I didn’t successfully fight the ticket I’d be paying double.  Bieng a working class stiff has doomed me to just take it and suffer.  I can’t afford to do anything more righteous.

 The truth of the matter is that I wouldn’t have been going more than 70 if the cop hadn’t been driving behind me so closely that I felt uncomfortable.  I admit I was wrong by speeding up and in fact I’ve already paid the ticket.  Still I feel I was pushed.  The cop said he “paced me at 80.”

I’m not sure there is anything to be done here.  I just wanted to rant about it to get it off my chest.  After all those who don’t speak up are doomed to never change anything.  I feel like this whole “Pacing” thing is dirty politics.  I’m not going to be the one to do anything about it though.  I will be busy watching my family starve till next payday.  After all the money to pay this ticket comes out of our food budget.  Thats the only place where I can find a few bucks and not start getting nasty phone calls.  In the end, I’m just glad there is always cheap ramen!

It probably seems strange to the people I know that I have started to write a blog.  I really don’t enjoy talking to anyone.  In american textbooks the man who invented the telephone is revered.  You can see it everywhere you look people pack around cell phones as if they are an attachment of themselves.  I on the other hand don’t fit nicely into that niche.  I really honestly believe the telephone is among the worst inventions ever to plague mankind.  Sure it has its good points, but as a whole it hurts human development. 

If you take a room full of people (say a jury for instance) and give them a topic to argue about, eventually everyone will come to a consensus.  This is a powerful tool when deciding legislation as it finds ways to be fair to almost everyone.  However say among this group you needed to develop a creative new idea.  Almost instantaneously all creative developments get averaged out among the group.  Unique individual advancement cannot thrive within a strongly connected network. 

To relate this phenomenon to computers concider a shared task networked between two computers.  In this task both computers have been assigned half the work and they need to communicate their calculations regularly in order for the other computer to continue its operation.  Now concider that both of these machines have equal specs.  This creates a situation where both machines can perform optimally.  Now change the scenario and make one computer run half as fast.  What happens?  Well now both computers can only do as much as the slower machine can.  The combined eficiency of the entire network is only equal to the number of stations multiplied by the speed of the slowest station. 

You’re probably thinking that this computer networking talk doesn’t really relate to people, but in fact it does.  If you gather together a group of athletic teens to play basketball and then stick one guy in a wheelchair on the team, what happens?  The guy in the wheelchair feels great to fit in.  The rest of the team feels good about making him feel good, and we all picture this ideal world where everyone is equal.  At the same time we turn a blind eye to the fact that we lose every game and spend alot of time talking about our teamwork.  This shows both a good quality and a bad one of human nature.  Its great that everyone wants to be connected, but it will ultimately be our downfall as a society.  Picture two teens, Suzie only wants to hang out at the mall, and has no apirations.  Jimmy is brilliant and could be an astronaut or engineer.  He wants to study.  Stick them together on the telephone.  Jimmy and Suzie end up going to the mall.

My point in going into all of this is that its important for us as individuals to find a way to disconnect from the social network from time to time.  You can call it “Me time” or simply think of it as shutting the door and focusing on your work.  Many of the worlds greatest inventors are thought of historically as eccentric.  What this eccentricity really means is that they didn’t conform to the societal network and found a way to explore a separate path amidst their group.  Not everyone is capable of producing something great, but even those who are won’t be able to do it stifled within the boundaries of polite society.

A number of years back I believe that someone higher up on the political chain recognized that there are people out there like me who feel the need to not be connected all the time.  Getting back to what todays blog is about, there are times when I simply don’t want the phone to ring.  (more often than not)  I need to have it there for an emergency.  I can forgive an interruption if someone is in the hospital or something like that.  However telemarketers really aren’t someone I need to connect with.    A national do not call registry was created for people like me who simply don’t want to be disturbed with stuff like that. 

At first the do not call registry worked surprisingly well.  I suppose the threat of bieng fined thousands of dollars got some of the more aggressive companies to back off.  What prompted todays rant is how the registry is beginning to fail.  I don’t know whether the law has changed, or if telemarketers are beginning to find loopholes in the law, but I have started getting regular solicitations again.  I count five this week alone.  I have dutifully reported each occurance in a despirate hope that someone will find these callers and leave their corpses in a ditch somewhere.  I know its hopeless though.

A word of advice to those of you still calling me…  I really don’t care if you are collecting money for breast cancer research, the local fire department, or just to put it in your bank account.  I put my name on the do not call registry because I DONT WANT TO BE CALLLED!  I make it a habbit to NEVER EVER give any money to anyone who cold calls me. 

As for the politician who drafted the bill, you need to go back and fix your work.  You left one big gaping loophole in your bill.  The part where it exempts non-profit organizations and surveys from bieng fined for calling me is just wrong.  They are soliciting me just the same as everyone else.  Do your constituents a favor and fix it!

If you are going to take away people’s rights or property, you better not let them know until it is too late. If you are going to take away people’s rights or property, then it is best to hide your intent under the banner of a fight against something so bad that no one dare oppose the fight. For example, suppose that you operate a nationwide furniture store chain and want to eliminate local competition from independent operators. You could ask your Senator to sponsor the “Wipe Out The Little Guy Act of 2008″ but it is unlikely that your Senator or the public would give you much support. A much better strategy would be to hide your intent to wipe out your competition inside a bit of legislation that appears to fight a battle that everyone would support. For example, how about the “Furniture Consumer Protection Act of 2008″ in which you tout the benefits of protecting consumers against deceptive furniture sales practices and price gouging etc. Then in the middle of the Bill you hide a provision that would allow you to press charges against anyone who tries to sell the same types of furniture that you do — effectively putting out of business the pesky independent stores across the country that compete with you. If you read the “Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008″ carefully, you will see that this is exactly what it will do. It will let government and big business take away websites (the virtual equivalent of store fronts) from individuals and small businesses — without the due process protections that exist in the current domain name resolution protection and even the current trademark law. It is a brazen grab by the big to take over what belongs to the small. Everyone should support efforts to reduce phishing and online fraud. No one should support the anti-competitive power grab hidden in this Bill as currently worded.” - Bob Connor

By now, we all take the internet for granted.  We just assume its going to work when we turn on the computer and that when we type in a dot .com its going to get us where we want to be.  The web is a great thing and it provides an avenue for everyone to get their voice heard.  My rant Blog is an example of that.  You probably won’t belive it, but right now the internet is in danger. Seriously!

Truth be told, nobody can be right about everything.  The answer to that dilemma is to take everyones ideas, mix them together, and come up with a consensus that works for almost everyone.  Then take the few who don’t agree and force them to conform with the general consensus.  The Snowe bill, an anti phishing act introduced by senator Snowe seems at its surface to be aimed at stopping phishing scams.  This pice of trash Legislation is so full of loopholes that it actually becomes a risk to free speech itself. 

The changes introduced by the bill are supposedly aimed at making it harder for a scammer to register a domain name and use that domain name to perpetrate their scam.  One would hope we all know that this won’t actually stop the scammer.  Someone smart enough to purpotrate a Phishing scam wouldn’t register the name legitimately in the first place.  What it will do is unbalance the way the domain registration and arbitration system works strongly in the favor of trademark owners.  Which by the way has nothing to do with Phishing.  As an example of this, say a Hewlet Packard spots someone re-selling an HP computer on ebay.  If the seller didn’t get explicit permission to use the trademark”Hewlett Packard” in their ad the seller is in violation of the Anti-Phishing Act of 2008.  Furthermore, for letting the seller post the listing, Ebay is also in violation.  Now HP can legally file criminal charges against the seller, Ebay, and sue for up to $6 Million in damages.  Futhering the problem, if the Snowe bill passes HP can take Ebay.com away because it is bieng used to infringe on HP’s Tradmark rights.  The icing on the cake is that HP wouldn’t even have to prove that their trademark was abused for Phishing.  All they would have to do is say their tradmark was used without permission and they’ve already won. 

The example above is probably never going to happen.  Why?  Because Ebay can afford expensive lawyers and even if they fought it out the matter would be settled.  But now think of this what about the same scenario except instead of ebay you have a mom and pop computer shop going up against HP.  Chances are Ma can’t afford all them fancy lawyers.  The end result will be a bankrupt competitor that HP shut down just because Ma can’t afford to fight back.

Presently if someone really had a grudge against Ebay they could register EbaySucks.com and rant away.  (Yes, I’m sure its already taken.)  Under current trademark law this is acceptable, and rightfully so.  The person isn’t infringing on the companies business.  Trademarks are there to prevent other people marketing similar products and confusing consumers about what they are really buying.  (Trade - Mark)  Think about the meaning of the words.  The Snowe bill will effectively kill these types of websites by allowing companies to take away the domains that contend with them without any type of arbitration.  In the end its free speech on the internet that lies in danger here.

To summerize I urge everyone to write their congressman and quash this bill.  Hopefully this senator can find himself a good telephone and then hang himself with the wire…  Seriously this isn’t the first piece of anti-internet legislation he has been involved with, and its downright shamful that he had the nerve to pitch it as a consumer friendly anti-phishing bill.  I’d much rather have the guy in office who just got busted for whoring it up.  He may have hurt a few people’s religeous sensability, but he wasn’t hurting everyone. Snowe is dangerous.  He is risking damage to the world economy and may even succeed in breaking the internet. 

With the presidential elections in the air alot of social topics are finding the way back into the news.  Everyone seems to want to know what their candidates think about abortion, immigration, capitol punishment, racism, and the economy.  I’m far from an expert any any of those fields, but perhaps its time we got the oppinion out there of someone who isn’t an expert.  What I’ve decided to blog about today is immigration.

Picture for a moment a scene from COPS where an officer drives by an alleyway and spots a gang hanging out.  The same typical scene plays out everyday in virtually every low income area in america.  The cop stops by to hassle them a bit while checking to see if they are up to no good.  From the officers point of view he sees a group of boys hanging out somewhere they shouldn’t be and a high probablility that they are about to commit a crime.   From the boy’s point of view they feel like the cop is out to get them. They invision racial profiling and any number of other concepts as why this cop decided to “Pick on Them.”  Most of these boys will see things the way the cop did after another 20 years or so.  assuming they live that long  They’ll look back at all the dumb things they did as kids and feel smarter for having grown out of it. 

This same scenario exists for illegal immigrants living illegally in the united states.  Every day they hear about more bills and legislation meant to “pick on them.”  The big difference is that the gang kids eventually grow up, get into better societal circles, and realize their mistakes.  Immigrants on the other hand get trapped into small divided communities where everyone has the same problem as they do.  They don’t get the opportunity to grow through the benefit of good social interaction.  The law continues to get harsher hoping they’ll go away.  Just like the gang kids though they don’t really have anywhere else to go.  If they fit in the country they came from do you really think they would have come here?

I’m going to let the cat out of the bag here and openly admit to everyone that I am not a great person.  I really don’t care whether we let them in or kick them out.  All I really want is for the problem to go away.  When I make my decision as to who I will vote for it doesn’t have anything to do with the candidates oppinion of abortion.  It doesn’t have anything to do with anything that doesn’t affect my bottom dollar.  I’m going to vote for whomever promises me the biggest tax refund.  Provided I think their claim is legit.

Illegal immigration hurts my pocketbook.  Money I pay for taxes goes to healthcare, public roads, emergency services, ect.  The more people who are drawing on that tax budget without paying into it the more it costs me.  Illegal immigrants are using the same roads and the same emergency services as the rest of us.  They just aren’t paying for them.  So the billion dollar question is how do we fix the leak in the budget?

Here is my approach:  Run a background check on anyone who wants to be a legal U.S. Citizen.  Make them pay for it.  If they can pass the background check let them in.  That way we can start charging them taxes.  We should eliminate deportation and instead jail anyone caught without papers.  Not to be mean, but as incentive for them to get legal and start paying taxes like the rest of us.  We can even run the background check and get them papers while they wait in a cell.  This will take a good portion of the criminal element that exists here without legal papers and eliminate it.  The millions of undocumented illegals will provide more than enough in additional taxes funds to cover any major flaws in the idea.  I know the reason alot of illegal immigrants don’t get legal is because of the exhorbitant cost.  There isn’t any reason it should cost more than a background check and a printed ID card. 

 For those of you who “Wish they would go back to their own country.” Think about it like this.  Why are the ones that really bother you here?  They came across the border to sponge off our economy and send money back to their families in other countries.  If we offer papers freely, and start charging taxes here is how it will go.  The ones that really want to be a part of the United States will get papers and pay up just like a good citizen.  The ones that are here to Sponge off our economy will either stay here illegally, or they will leave.  With threat of harsher punishment they will have a real motivation to either conform or leave.   Its different to come here and live illegally if all they have to fear is deportation. 

Face it, its not the fact that they are here that really bothers you.  Its the fact that they are here living tax free without fear of the law, while you and I are both paying taxes and following regulations every day.  Its time we opened up the borders and put everyone on a level playing field.  The United States would not look like such an attractive destination to the third world if we make it so life is just as difficult here as it was where they came from.   We could finally get back to the great capitalist society the united states was meant to be.  People with great ideas would flock here where their capitalist intentions could flourish.  People who want to be a drain on society would find it hard to compete in a more driven society.  Eventually the bottom tier of our population would start to emmigrate away, making a better life for those who are willing to work hard and conform.

Generally in the mornings I watch a part of the news to see how the traffic and weather are going to treat me.  I commute for over an hour each day and I like to be prepared for what is to come.  Usually this ammounts to me listening to the reports while I get dressed with the television in the background.  During this past week I caught a comment about Fidel Castro resigning in the scrolling text across the bottom of the screen.  I think the name Castro probably drums up different feelings in me than it does to most americans.  I decided he would be a good topic for my latest blog.

It would be in poor taste for me to stand up and declare whether I think Fidel Castro was a good person or a bad one.  History shows that he has done many things that a god may condemn him for.  The very thought of guerilla warfare brings ideas of bombings, murders, torture.  You get the idea.  However if you stand back and look at his life he has always done what he belives is right.  As a young man he rebelled against and eventualy overthrew the leadership of his country.  He didn’t do this out of a viscious desire for power, but rather out of a bitter distaste for the current regime. 

Once in power Castro made policy to make Cuba better.  He started importing oil from the soviet union to improve the economy of his country.  He may not have thought this one through entirely as the oil refinerys in cuba were built and owned by the United States.  When they refused to process the oil that he was importing because it was coming from a communist country, Castro found himself in the middle of an international affair.  Again, to the dismay of practically everyone in the USA, he made the decision to do what he felt was best for Cuba.  He appropriated the oil processing plants.  This was done in much the same way as the government here would take your house or land if they needed to build a highway.  You would get a check for how much they figured it was worth and you would be thrown out. 

The decision for Cuba to become a communist country really didn’t have much to do with communist beliefs.  Rather the United Stated Presidency forced Fidel Castro into it by pressuring him to do things that were in the best interest of the USA instead of the best interest of Cuba.  By siding with the soviet union, Castro gained the external financial support Cuba needed and avoided the fine print that would have come along with US Support. 

 A while back I watched a documentary about the Cuban trade embargo.  The whole thing was supposed to make you think about how the embargo has made life terrible in cuba because trade is restricted.  The point the director was trying to make was obvious.  However after watching the show I walked away with a different feeling.  To me Cuba looked to be a paradise free from the financial enslavement that the big cities offer us.  The people of Cuba embody the spirit that once made us great. 

I would like to site an example from the documentary.  The name escapes me at the moment.  If I needed someone to weld something and there was a welding wire shortage we as americans would go to great lengths to import welding wire.  My project would wait until the wire became available.  If it never came available my project would probably never be finished.  In this documentary there was a man in this situation who did bodywork on cars.  He took apart a chainlink fence and straightened the wire to use for welding.  In all my years I’ve never met even one person who had that kind of spirit.  I know that strength resides in me, but I feel life wither away at it.  This strength that made us great in the 1940’s and 1950’s has long since died for the average american.  Any employer can attest to what I’m saying here.  When is the last time you found an employee who just finds a way to get a job done even when it seems impossible?  I’m not talking about a business owner who is doing it because of the financial incentive, but an employee who is doing it just because they know it needs to be done.

One thing that I and Fidel Castro have in common is that we were both  born into religeous families and grew to be devout atheists.  I think this perspective has shaped the way I see things.  Instead of viewing his leadership with fear and hate as most americans do I can see the reasoning behind the way he ruled.  The trade embargo set against Cuba has over the years put cuba out of the minds of the average joe.  Most would only think of cuba as the place that exports those illegal cigars.   I won’t stand up and say that Castro was a good man.  I won’t even say he was a brilliant dictator, as a true genius would have found a way to avoid things getting bad.  The Cuban missle crisis, the Trade embargo,  The assasination Attempts.  In fact most of his dealings were like the thoughts of a child.  The usa won’t play with me, fine I’ll go play with russia, na na na…  What I will say is that I respect him.  To stand up against the big bully known as the United States for his entire life through multiple assasination attempts and rule in a manner that he believed in takes guts.  He must have a set of cajones that any man would be proud of.