Free to Search and Seize – NYTimes.com
A nice opinion piece to read about the current assault against American rights and liberties with historical context. Something everyone should read and consider whether the United States is on the right path or not.
Many thanks to WordPress.com for their timely response to some technical issues we had with the blog. Their service and response is much appreciated.
Rochester Woman Arrested After Videotaping Police From Her Own Front Yard
In May, the Rochester Police Department arrested a woman on a charge of obstructing governmental administration after she videotaped several officers’ search of a man’s car. The charge is a criminal misdemeanor.
The only problem? Videotaping a police officer in public view is perfectly legal in New York state — and the woman was in her own front yard.
Welcome to the Fascist States of America. If the police want people to trust them they need to stop acting like the very thugs they are supposed to protecting society from. A person video taping a cop is no threat unless they are planning on doing something illegal themselves. Interestingly, the second person to video tape the first persons arrest is somehow not considered a threat by the same cop. Obviously the police officer is abusing his authority at this point. Worse is knowing the trumped up charges they’re throwing on the woman are obviously a means of intimidation and harassment for doing what is considered perfectly legal in the state of New York (and I suspect in a number of other states as well).
This screams to me that the cop and those protecting him are corrupt. After all, the police are constantly saying people should have nothing to fear from being recorded by the cops. So why is this cop afraid to be held to the same standard?
I find it amusing that business complain about that lack of employee loyalty to a company, especially when said company does the following after announcing record profits:
This is exactly what happened to an associate of mine. I’m not surprised in the least when he told me just left (i.e. quit without telling anyone) and never intends to go back since he had another job offer he had been mulling over. Obviously he took the offer and starts his new job next Monday.
Sorry businesses of America but just because the economy is bad doesn’t mean you get to treat your workers like garbage. Have at least some perfunctory (if insincere) respect and courtesy for your employees by at least not rubbing your outlandish bonuses you are giving to the big wigs in their faces while screwing over the average worker by cutting their time (and as a result their paychecks and/or benefits). The ones who stay in spite of things like this only stay long enough to do one of the following things (if not all) as a result of your arrogance and callousness: a) they stay long enough to get a better job (and depart without notice), b) they’ll look for every way to screw your business over as they feel they are being screwed over, c) will try to destroy your company’s reputation by doing as poor a job as they can without getting outright fired, and d) steal whatever information/clients/knowledge they can to give to your competitor (whether it is legal to do so or not).
Businesses need to remember that loyalty is a two way street. If you have nothing but contempt for your workers who made your profits possible then you should not expect, let alone demand, loyalty or even decent productivity in return from those you treat poorly. There are many American workers who work hard despite less than ideal wages and are plenty loyal to their employers simply because they are treated with respect and consideration. Just some thoughts for the day on why businesses need to shape up before they end up destroying themselves.
Mitt Romney Refuses To Sign Pro-Life Pledge
I’m glad both Mitt Romney and Herman Cain have refused to kowtow to the Susan B. Anthony group (so far). The fact that this group arrogantly presumes to be the sole arbiters and dictators to a potential Presidential candidate on how they theoretically would run the United States based on a narrow extremist view based on religious opinion is disgusting and insulting. Americans are tired of the special interest groups (be the leftist wackos or right-wing nuts) trying to impose their dictatorial agendas upon the nation. Americans want less government in their life, less interference in their personal decisions, and certainly less arrogant elitist douche bags’ socio-political agenda forced on the public.
It is the so called pro-life wackos that piss me off the most. I personally oppose abortion, except in the case of rape, incest, and harm to the mother. The extremist pro-lifers all abortion banned even if it costs the life of the mother. Worse these same self righteous ass-hats oppose genuine sex education and pregnancy prevention programs while at the same time undermining adoption efforts of people who wish to adopt (i.e. opposing singles or gays from adoption or racist notions like adoptions only being allowed within a racial group). In combination with other activities these so called social conservative groups are after I can only conclude their ultimate intent is to enslave women to second class citizen status. What else explains a heartless disregard for a portion of the American public and their fellow citizens?
As a libertarian minded individual and strict believer of equality under the law, I encourage Mr. Romney and Mr. Cain to remain steadfast in their refusal to sign regardless of their reasons. To do otherwise would prove they are spineless cowards, incapable of carrying out the primary role of the President of the United States: representing the hopes, desires and aspirations of all the people of this country. If doing so means they don’t get elected in the primary elections then the GOP has nothing to complain about when the lose to Obama in 2012 (which is exactly what will happen if a right wing christian fascist is selected to challenge Obama). The control of the special interests must end!
I think it is safe to say Americans are sick of the extremists destroying the country and the election process because of their hijacking of the political parties. It’s time the Republican Party (and the Democratic Party for that matter) be taken back by the people of the United States from the insane special interest and would be oligarchs that are destroying the country in their efforts to impose their dictatorial agendas.
China: U.S. ‘Internet War Being Waged Against Multiple Nations’
The Chinese military accused the U.S. on Friday of launching a global “Internet war” to bring down Arab and other governments, redirecting the spotlight away from allegations of major online attacks on Western targets originating in China.
This is one of those times where you can’t help but be amused by a nation’s hypocrisy, in this case China, over cyber warfare. As is typical of the Communist Chinese MO they conduct espionage, sabotage, or other sorts of aggression, overt and covert, and then try to claim to be a victim of, or champion for, others to deflect attention away from themselves and their own illicit activities. Problem is nobody is going to distracted.
What this is really about is China being pissed off on two fronts: a) the more public revelation of the existence of their Blue Army[1] cyberwarfare unit, and b) the United States Defense Department planning to make (or already has made) a policy in which a cyber attack proven to from a foreign power would be considered an act of war. The former reason angers the Chinese because it puts to lie (once again) China’s public proclamations of peaceful intentions in the world. The latter reason hinders how far the Chinese government can at currently attempt to hack U.S. systems without being blamed for potentially provoking a war (however unlikely that is with the currently weak willed U.S. administration and legislature). The Chinese, for all their posturing about being outside the world’s realpolitik, rely heavily on pretending to be the poor misunderstood reformed communist dictatorship oppressed by the evil West to garner sympathy and deflect attention away from its own imperialistic activities.
Ironically, in China’s latest attempt to deflect any criticism away from itself, it is hurting its image in the Arab world. How? By implying that the Arab people’s desire to get rid of their corrupt governments is not legitimate and is in fact a conspiracy by Western powers (read: United States) to undermine such efforts. That can’t possibly read well on the Arab streets of Egypt, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, and elsewhere where people rose up to legitimately protest corruption and other socio-economic problems and were met with bloodshed and violence. In effect, China is telling the people of the Arab world who support and continue to participate in the so-called Arab Spring that it supports the governments that oppress them. So much for China’s image of benevolence. The Arab world isn’t foolish enough to believe for a moment that China has Arab best interests at heart, something they already know from dealing with the West.
[1] The Blue Army is a designation not only of the cyber warfare unit in the Chinese military but of a special forces branch. Presumably the cyber warfare unit is part of this greater Blue Army unit China claims only exists during training.
After nearly two decades, it’s time to say goodbye to the food pyramid. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled a new symbol — a plate, left — that replaces the widely recognized (and often criticized) icon that’s been advising American consumers on what to eat since 1992.
Whatever. Everyone I know stopped following the USDA gulde lines a long time ago after the food pyramid came about and they ended up gaining weight when they followed it. What I find amusing about the “plate” is it is more reminiscent of the four food groups model I was taught in grade school.
There are still things I find annoying though:
Cutest couple. Most likely to succeed. Class Clown. Top 5 Worst People of All Time.
OK, so that last list probably isn’t seen in most school yearbooks, but it’s raising the ire of parents and community members in Arkansas. The Fox affiliate in Little Rock reports the names in the Russellville Middle School yearbook include, in order, Adolph Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
The only explanation for Bush and Cheney being on the list in the Yearbook is:
The teachers have failed to properly educate the children at this school. If these children had been properly educated they would know of genuinely evil people deserving to be on that list such as Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Tse-tung, or Enver Pasha. Properly educated the children would realize it is rabid socio-political ideology that fueled the large scale pain and suffering these people inflicted.
Unfortunately it seems the teachers were obviously too busy propagandizing and pushing their own rabid leftist ideology to do their jobs. They’ve forgotten that it is their role in society to educate, not indoctrinate. It is not their place to push any ideology, be it political, religious or social, upon their pupils. Truly good teachers present an unbiased learning environment for all. When teachers express an opinion as fact the students learn that to earn favor with the teacher is to mindlessly repeat the opinion back for fear of retaliation (a bad grade) or social stigmatization (for not simply going along with the group). This also leads to pupils believing their individual opinion is not relevant unless approved by the masses and a lack of critical thought and awareness. Opinion becomes twisted into pseudo-fact, with students unable to tell the difference between fact and opinion.
An example of this inability to delineate between fact and opinion occured when I returned to college. I met a number of young people who fell into the sinister trap our failed education system has become. They truly did not understand the difference between fact and opinion. A young Hispanic girl I knew was wrote a report on abortion, specifically a case for banning abortion. A touchy subject to be sure but what got her an F on the paper and a demanded rewrite from the professor was her reasoning. She believed abortion was wrong therefor it was wrong. Her opinion was fact and therefor everyone else had to agree with her. She was flabbergasted when no one in the class agreed with her paper. Had she included studies on physical and psychological effects of abortion to back her paper in a logical, factual manner, her conclusion that banning abortion would then have been an acceptable report to the professor (who stated thus after she refused to rewrite the paper) and the class.
So why some ask why there should be controversy over a “minor incident” involving a middle school yearbook. I say it is an indicator of an endemic problem that is getting out of control in the nation’s school systems. Indoctrination and hyper partisan political propaganda are replacing education and discourse. It may explains why so many young people I know lack awareness of history, and therefor a proper comprehensive context, with which to compare what is going on in their lives and the world today. Too many have become brainwashed not to think for themselves, preferring to listen and parrot jingoistic phrases and meaningless proclamations without taking the time or effort to see if those phrases and proclamations are even applicable.
Had someone been more objective and less political in the case of this yearbook anyone with honesty and integrity could see that including Bush and Cheney were inappropriate additions when compared to the first three on the list. Even Manson really shouldn’t be there in levels of worst people of all time as he is far outstripped by others in the amount of terror, violence and lives lost. But then the leftist political propagandists who added the list to the yearbook (obviously it wasn’t done by children) knew they would then have to explain why so many of the worst individuals in human history were of leftist political leanings.
Gray3's Thirdsphere 