Saturday - February 26, 2005

Viewpoint

Vladimir Putin: Leave Him Alone utin is doing the best he can to straighten out a complete mess, one he inherited from Boris Yeltsin. Make no mistake about it. Yeltsin was a drunk and he has almost killed himself with his drinking. On his watch, the former Soviet Empire got its first taste of democracy and the old Soviet party leaders simply moved from running the country to running their own version of the Mafia. Crime was rampant and corruption the order of the day. Governors of provinces were bribed to ignore the Russian Mafia’s activities and money flowed out of the country in a steady stream as these criminal warlords invested overseas.

While Yeltsin wandered about in an alcoholic haze, the Russian country was gradually deteriorating into almost total chaos. All during the 1990’s, America turned a blind eye to Russia and simply laughed at the destruction of the old Soviet Empire. President Clinton rode the wave of the internet economy and fought to keep his pants zipped while renting out the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. Enron and several other American companies were practicing corrupt business activities on a grand scale that would not end until the goofball Clinton administration was replaced. The same thing was happening in Russia, except on a much larger and much more dangerous scale.

This is the mess Vladimir Putin inherited: a country whose infrastructure was quickly rotting, a currency that was headed straight down, political corruption throughout government, rampant crime and terrorist attacks from Chechnya. The mainstream media in America simply poo-poo’ed it and wrote it all off as “bumps in the road on the way to democracy”. This was utter bullshit and also patronizing, to say the least, on the part of the media elite in the US .. who, by the way, were sucking up to Clinton and ignoring his transgressions while fawning over his “leadership”. Complete crap! Clinton and Yeltsin were simply two sides of the same coin - two inept populists who coasted on the newly found peace created by Reagan and Gorbachev.

With the 21st century arriving, both America and Russia had to make some hard choices. In America, the economy was going into the tank with the collapse of the internet bubble and in Russia, the criminal elements had taken over the country. America needed George W. Bush and Russia needed Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, America found itself embroiled in a foreign war after the attacks of 9/11. President Bush had to revive the economy while fighting an unwanted war at the same time. Because of this, the deficits have ballooned and security has had to be tightened. The liberal left in the US has been screaming its collective head off about “infringement of civil rights” ever since 9/11 without pausing to consider that the US is under attack. That same liberal left in the US is also now accusing Putin of “backsliding on democracy” and “creating a new police state” in Russia.

Utter rubbish! Putin is simply doing what needed to be done after the train wreck of the 1990’s. He has gone after the Russian criminal element, shut down their operations, regained control of the corrupt regional governors and gone after the Muslim terrorists in Chechnya. He has gathered more power at the federal level in order to clean out the mess. Bush has had a tougher road of it because the US is more of an established democracy with a vocal, angry press watching his every step - not to mention the leftist opposition elements.

Putin has quietly gone about the business of rebuilding Russia into the great country that it once was. The real test of his administration will come in a few years when he gets it all sorted out and starts to surrender the power he has recently acquired - if he chooses to. Russia is not America, not by a long shot. Our Russian friends still have a long way to go on their road to freedom and democracy. For the time being though, Putin is the man for troubled times and the US should back him in his struggle.

As the leftist media in this country attacks Putin and accuses him of everything from “returning to Stalinism” to being “the anti-Christ”, we all need to remember the early years of our country. George Washington had to put down a rebellion or two and America had its share of bumps in the road in the early years. The key test came after Washington served two terms and a lot of people thought he should accept permanent leadership, sort of a king. Washington gracefully stepped down and power passed to others who carried the torch of freedom along. Putin will face that decision in a few years. That will be the time when we get the measure of the man. Now .... it is just too early to tell. Why don’t we just give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being? Russia could be a very valuable friend and ally in the near future. Let’s let Putin (and the Russians) sort their problems out on their own and help them regain their place in world affairs. As one great country to another ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/26/2005 at 10:30 AM   
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   Thursday - February 10, 2005

Viewpoint

The Sixth Sense: Moonbat Barometer The years from 1900 to 1910 were a frantic period for mankind. Allegiances were shifting all over Europe, countries were signing common defense agreements and everyone was starting to choose sides. War clouds were gathering over Europe and soon would envelop the European colonies in Africa and Asia. Britain and Germany became involved in a naval arms race when Britain built the HMS Dreadnought. Britain, France and Russia formed their own little club. Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire formed their club. Japan and Russia fought it out in the Tsushima Straits and the Russian navy was destroyed.

In technology, Wilbur and Orville Wright proved that manned flight was possible and France, Italy and Britain immediately jumped on the new technology to see how it could be used in warfare - while America slept. Albert Einstein started formulating his ideas for quantum mechanics and physics that would turn the scientific world on its head and lead to the atomic bomb. Automobiles were starting to be mass produced and the internal combustion engine quickly found its way into the armies of the world in the form of tanks and mobile artillery. The telephone and telegraph were making instant communication possible over long distances.

From a societal standpoint, the world was slowly going mad. Serbian nationalists were bombing and shooting their Austro-Hungarian masters. The Irish were bombing and shooting their British occupiers. Socialist parties were forming all over the world (even in the United States), women were starting to demand the right to vote, the ACLU was created in the US, the Boxer Rebellion in China was the first attempt to run Europeans (and the US) out of China, the Boer War was out of control in South Africa, Carrie Nation was destroying saloons in the name of prohibition of alcohol, President McKinley was assassinated, Kaiser Wilhelm II was almost assassinated, typhoid outbreaks in the US killed thousands, a tsunami in Hong Kong killed 10,000, Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed Naples, explorers finally reached the North and South Pole, a revolution in Persia forced the Shah to flee to Russia, the Prime Minister of Egypt was assassinated, Portugal became a republic and King Manuel fled to England, and a revolution in Mexico and a terrorist bomb at the Los Angeles Times building round out the societal picture. Oh, and let’s don’t forget all the strikes, murders, killings and terror associated with the birth of the modern labor movement and unions.

In other words, things were going to hell in a handbasket at breakneck speed.

America had coasted through the preceding decade ( the “Gay 90’s") on the backs of two presidents whose names would quickly be forgotten, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland. Who, you ask? Never mind. In the 1900’s, America found Teddy Roosevelt and started waking up to prepare for a long century in which we would assume hegemony over the world.

Now, let’s review: (1) Europe was polarizing, (2) new technology was about to make warfare extremely deadly, (3) unrest and revolt in the Balkans, (4) turmoil in the Middle East, (5) global terrorism with bombings and leaders being assassinated, (6) America was beginning to wake up only to find itself attacked from within by socialists, morality reformers and labor unions.

Fast forward one hundred years. Things sure haven’t changed, have they?

The recent tsunami demonstrated that animals have a Sixth Sense about impending disasters. The animals exhibited strange behavior such as abandoning their feeding grounds and disappearing. Consider this .... human beings are animals also. Might we not also have this Sixth Sense? Is it not possible that humans can sense impending doom, not just from nature but from societal shifts and political changes? I think it is very much possible.

Now, how would humans react if their Sixth Sense told them the proverbial feces was about to hit the ventilator? Run for the hills? Maybe—We already have extremists hiding out in camps in Montana and Wyoming, not to mention hidden bunkers all over the world. Would humans divide themselves into “us” and “them” and start circling the wagons? Maybe— You’re either for us or you’re against us. Would humans strike out in frustration and anger at the futility of a changing world threatening to engulf them in bloody warfare by indulging in terrorism, mindless protests and all manner of ungodly acts of outrage on their fellow humans? Maybe—Remember 9-11, “human shields”, Darfur? And speaking of God, might it not be possible that these humans would look around, sense the impending danger and decide God was dead and attempt to wipe Him from the collective consciousness for not doing something about it? Maybe—What else is “complete separation of church and state” but a denial that God has a hand in the affairs of nations?

I don’t intend this to be an apologist statement for the bad behavior of humans in bad times but what we’re seeing today with people like Ward Churchill, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Howard Dean, Al Gore, John Kerry, Jacques Chirac, Yassir Arafat, and other assorted (and seemingly insane) members of the Hollywood establishment and the news media is just a manifestation of the same warped behavior that has plagued mankind since time immemorial. [Note: I’m sure you can all think of several more names to add to this list of people who are behaving strangely lately.] Bad times and impending doom make people say and do strange things. Things that defy logic and greatly offend everyone’s sense of human decency, responsibility and above all respect for their fellow man.

Maybe these people are just the equivalent of the canaries that miners used to take into coal mines to alert them to any rising levels of dangerous gases. The canaries fell over and died long before the gases reached levels high enough to kill the human miners. If these people have a better developed Sixth Sense than the rest of us, maybe we need to keep a better eye on them.

The crazier they act, the closer we probably are to the storm cloud that is developing over the horizon. I have no idea what this storm is going to do or when it will hit but I intend to keep a wary eye on these people. Right now, the Moonbat Barometer is dropping fast. I need to go stock up on plywood and duct tape .... oh, almost forgot, plenty of ammo too.

The cycle of history has come full circle since the 1900’s. I hope to see you all on the other side of this upcoming storm. Take care.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/10/2005 at 04:53 PM   
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   Tuesday - January 18, 2005

What Needs To Happen To Social Security

This is a very complex issue but one the overhaul of which every American needs to consider.  It just can not continue to operate the way it does.

For the purists who will not tolerate talk of privatization, you have to think about this:  there are fewer and fewer people working for every one retiring.  These workers can not support paying buttloads of money to support retirees at the current rate.  Estimates are that in a few years we will only have two workers contributing for every retiree.  Back in the 40’s this number was 42!  FORTY FUCKING TWO!!! 

Alternatives are few:  do nothing and run the program into bankruptcy by 2042 (hey, I don’t give a shit, I’ll be dead)—or—reduce benefits --or—increase the age of retirement to 72, then 73, then 74, then 75—or—pay higher social security payroll taxes.

There are those who say we need to raise the payroll ceiling currently set at about $90,000.  What these people seem NOT to understand is that if I make a lot more money but pay more into social security, then my social security check DAMN WELL better be higher than everyone else’s because I paid more.  These moonbats who are proposing raising the ceiling do so under the assumption that payouts still stay at today’s levels.  Typical socialist bastards.

THE MATH

So......what other alternatives are out there?

Privatization.

I did a quick bit of math via Excel and plotted out the life of a 20 year old earning $20,000 a year to start, averaging a 3.5% raise over his lifetime, and taking out 13% of salary for “social security.” (Note: fully privatization means that the employer who currently pays approximately 6.5% with the individual the other 6.5% to total 13%, would give that to the individual as it is his anyways!)

I factored in a “modest” growth through investments of 4% per year of these deducted monies (a 5 year CD now earns 4.5% so I am being reasonable) and at the age of 65 this person had about $650,000 in his account!!!!!  Of course, by then people will be living longer, working longer, and their nest eggs will be considerably larger. 

Do you realize this person could then withdraw $2700 per month and NEVER touch the principle?  (of course, that assumes a 5% growth of portfolio at retirement and does not factor in inflation but STILL!!!!) All that money is HIS!!!!  Or goes to HIS heirs when he dies.  Our current Social Security system does not do that.

I then raised the rate of return on the “social security” withdrawal for those same 45 years to 5% and the nest egg shot up to $830,000 or almost $3500 per month!!!!

In order to simulate a “real life” scenario of individuals actually taking ownership of their lives and retirements, I assumed this fictional individual was prudent in his investment style with periodic adjustments to the portfolio based on risk analysis (basically this means that the younger you are the more risk you can subject your money to and as you grow older you remove some risk by diversifying your portfolio to bonds, CDs, cash, money market instruments incrementally.)

So I raised the growth rate to the stock market average of 9% for the first 20 years; then a 7.5% average to reflect a blend of stocks and bonds for the next 20 and a 6.5% rate to reflect more risk aversion for the last 5 years.  The nest egg ballooned to almost $1.73 million dollars!!!!

Just 5% of that per year is $86,000 in retirement FOREVER!!! (over $7000 per month) The principle remains UNTOUCHED!!!

I also ran those numbers assuming someone staying in college, getting out and getting a $30,000 a year job.  The only variables I changed were that starting at 24 they’d be fully invest for 20 years and then stay with a mix for 15 more years yielding 7.5% and the last 5 years at 6.5%

At only 4% for the full 40+ years they’d have $980,000 (yielding over $4000 per month)

In the variable scenario they’d end up with almost $3 million ($12,345 per month)

Go ahead, do it yourself and see.  And since we almost always end up with increases in salary outstripping the nominal 3.5% I factored in, you can JUST IMAGINE what the numbers would be.  As an example, I started out in 1971 earning $200 per month (yes, $200 a month!) and when I retired it was close to $4500. There is no way that $2400 per year compounded at 3.5% would ever get close to $50000+ in 26 years.  So therefore I feel I am being very modest in my models.  For those with drive and ambition, the amount of money they’d have to partially fund their “retirement” would balloon exponentially.  Of course, this also assumes that anything they put away in this system is NOT their sole retirement.  Businesses can not all of a sudden change THEIR systems just because the person privatized.

One other note, I’ve yet to be able to somewhat accurately be able to project what social security would need to pay to future retirees to resemble what they get paid now.  But if my initial projections are correct, there is no doubt in my rabid mind that the system is doomed to failure---QUICK!!!

Witness how I admitted my difficulty in determining what social security would be paying workers in future dollars. But the leftist morons in this country who insist there is no crisis keep falling back on the argument that social security would stay solvent until 2042 and then would pay out 75% of what they pay now.

Did you catch that?  “WHAT THEY PAY NOW?”

Have any of you readers any clue how little $16700 would be worth 40 years from today?  These fucktards do not even admit that they’ve considered the fallacy of an argument that does not take into account inflation and the decrease in the dollar’s worth for the future.  If you do the math based on low inflation of 2.5% and using the rule of 72, that $16700 would be the equivalent of having your check sliced to less than $700.  Is that what you want?

MAKING THE CHANGE

Of course, all this change does not happen overnight.  Our congress-critters need to stop abusing the social security trust fund to start with.  We then need to understand that not everyone will be able to participate at these levels so some sort of “phase in” process needs to start.  I look at it this way:  if you are under 25 you go immediately to the private plan.  Any monies contributed by you in previous years get refunded to you plus whatever amounts your employer contributed (plus interest.) Between 25 and 45 you should have the option to stay in the current system or opt out fully or partially. After 45 you stay in the system as it is today.  This way no old people or those closer to retirement need to fear being left out in the cold.

Furthermore, those who opt out totally are just that---OUT!!  The government will take NO RESPONSIBILTY for their retirement benefits.  If they are stupid and stay fully vested in the market until 70 and then the market goes in the shitter and they get wiped out---so sorry, time to die!

Also, the government will have to assume a several trillion dollar obligation (much of it unfunded) in order to continue to pay off those still either totally in the system or partially in the system until they all die off.  But that debt, like all others, will continue to decrease in value with time.  After everyone in the old system is dead the debt can either be paid off slowly or just left alone because inflation makes it worth less and less every year.  A similar example is taking out a mortgage for 30 years.  Today the payment is high but as you get better and better paying jobs and raises, that mortgage amount stays the same yet the value of the dollar has gone down.  So your $900 note is chickenfeed 29 years from now.

For those who partially opt out then you will be guaranteed a social security check commensurate with a pro-rata percentage of what you contributed and the Social Security administration would be tasked with maintaining a second set of tables simulating today’s system in order to keep percentages and payouts similar.

So there you have it.  We all know social security is going to go down the tubes.  The moron democrats and their stooges, the AARP, are out there beating their drums scaring everyone into thinking if we change the system they will be eating cat food and going without medication while living in refrigerator cartons.

But if you look at this realistically, can there be any way for you to STILL think we need social security in today’s form?

MORE DISCUSSION

Let’s keep going.  Who said this about social security recently? 

“(programs) are threatened by the looming fiscal crisis in Social Security.” There should be no new spending — or, more importantly, no tax cuts — “before we take care of the crisis in Social Security that is looming when the baby boomers retire.”

Most of you already guessed:  Bill Clinton.

So why is it that asshole Harry Reid, the new minority leader of the senate, says we don’t have a social security crisis? And why is it the democrats are now piling on yapping the same thing? Where the fuck were they in 1998?  What has so fundamentally changed in 6 years? 

The Cato Institute back in 1998 wrote that shitbird, Clinton, agreeing with him and asking him to consider personal accounts.

Hell, Clinton even proposed some privatization himself.

But I will go out on a limb and state the only reason Clinton said what he said was to start of shitstorm of discussion amongst the partisan hacks and media to take attention off his troubles.  That’s just the kind of guy he was. 

The price of doing nothing is discussed here.

For more info and a lousy alternative not privatizing click here.

Here is what the President plans to do.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?

It appears the bureaucrats at the Social Security administration have been told to start an education campaign about the mess Social Security is in.  They are none too happy!  I immediately discredited their complaints when I read this:

“Trust fund dollars should not be used to promote a political agenda,” said Dana C. Duggins, a vice president of the Social Security Council of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 50,000 of the agency’s 64,000 workers and has opposed private accounts.”

Can you believe it?  The SSA has 64,000 employees!

Again, I ask the question: where were these useless fucks when Clinton was saying the system was in bad shape?  Like many civil servants, these people have been feeding at the trough too long in jobs too easy collecting too much money as salary.  Take away their trough!! FIRE THEM ALL!!

And don’t forget to go here to get lots more info.

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 01/18/2005 at 09:25 AM   
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   Thursday - December 30, 2004

A Final Farewell To Those We Will Miss

It’s that time of year to bid a final farewell to several people who shuffled off this mortal coil during the last year. The departure of these people brought a tear of sadness to our eyes. There were others we were glad to see go but that’s another story for another day. Here is our gallery of famous faces who left us in 2004 and who we will miss dearly ....

Farewell, Gentlemen! We will miss all of you. Each and every one of you contributed in some way to making this a better world with the talents God gave you.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/30/2004 at 11:16 AM   
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Vioxx (AGAIN!)

I’ve posted a couple of things about the Vioxx scare and how we need to take responsibility for our decisions.  You can read the first one here and the second one here.

As I implied before and make very clear now, since Vioxx and Aleve and all those other names in the news have a greater risk, I say they should stay on the market, companies should change the label to reflect the newer findings and let people decide.  A small minority (in this case) should not have power over a vast majority that might be helped by carte blanche demanding these medications be removed from the shelves.

But, as luck would have it, a couple of good writers have come to my aid.

Once more, I bring you the lucid arguments of Thomas Sowell who starts with is:

The government will allow you to risk your life for the sake of recreation by sky-diving, mountain climbing or any number of other dangerous activities. But it will not allow you to risk your life for the sake of avoiding arthritis pain by taking Vioxx.

More:

Businesses that conduct dangerous recreational activities are not being denounced for “corporate greed” by making money at the risk of other people’s lives. But such charges are flung around regularly about pharmaceutical companies

He then goes on to excoriate the media for the hype they attach to assholes like Rachel Carson and her DDT scare which is now responsible for millions of death of humans due to mosquito bites because there is no other effective way to eradicate them.

Or the fact that if one boxer dies from taking a whack to the head, the whole world is up in arms yet no one really cares much when hundreds die in boating accidents..  What makes one death in boxing so much more precious?

And he hits the nail on the head with these:

Facts don’t matter to those for whom principles don’t matter, however loudly those principles may be proclaimed. Many so-called “thinking people” do remarkably little thinking.

This is heady stuff and they are not going to give it up for anything so mundane as facts or logic or principles. The best that the rest of us can do is to stop calling their ego trips idealism.

Another great piece was written by Emmitt Tyrrell.

He also puts most of the fault over this hysteria on the backs of the media (and lawyers hoping to grab a cash cow.) He explains:

“(W)e now have journalistic hysteria over the Giant Pharmaceuticals and their alleged reckless pursuit of profit. The trial lawyers’ pursuit of profit will get little attention. Witnesses will turn up who will insist that they recognized the painkiller’s dangers all along. They will claim Vioxx’s producer did, too.”

The operant phrase there is the fact that the lawyers’ pursuit of millions will get little attention.

There’s much more written here that you should see for yourself.  Go ahead.  Get smart.  Take the blinders off.

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 12/30/2004 at 07:48 AM   
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   Wednesday - December 29, 2004

Follow-Up On Vioxx

A few days ago I posted this where I talked about Vioxx, Celbrex, etc. and the risks associated with those drugs.

Well, from one who writes much more eloquently than I ever could, read Thomas Sowell’s take on how we are undermining our own ability to make personal decisions.

He uses this analogy concerning how football players are reducing padding on their uniforms:

The NFL players know that padding gives some protection against injuries—but at a price. Carrying the extra weight of padding around slows players down, making them less effective on the football field and perhaps less able to quickly get out of the way of tackles and collisions. In short, they understand that safety is not a free lunch but something you have to pay for, in one way or another.

He goes on to say that although these players are making tradeoffs, there are those who are making decisions for others who just can’t grasp that concept.

A fine read.

I feel vindicated.

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 12/29/2004 at 07:57 AM   
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   Monday - December 06, 2004

On Being A Real Man

Doug Giles writes an excellent piece reminiscent of Kim duToit’s “The Pussification of the Western Male.”

He describes men, as described via Hollywood and TV as:

“despicable, cruel, pusillanimous, selfish, ineffectual oafs, veritable bumbling idiots who need women or some gay guy with a Queer Eye … to help us through our primal fog towards metrosexual healing.”

He goes on to say that there are three traits for properly raised men to possess. These traits should allow expression of man’s biology and are:

· Competition
· Independence
· Responsibility

I couldn’t have said it better.  Give it a read.  I think you’ll agree.

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 12/06/2004 at 06:39 AM   
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   Monday - November 22, 2004

Will Humans Catch Computer Viruses?

It might sound like a silly question, but if the futuristic idea (and ideal) of linking man and machine comes to fruition, it might become a real concern. Do you think cyborgs are only fodder for sci-fi stories? Think again: a professor of cybernetics in England has, according to ZDNet, wired his nervous system to a computer and implanted himself with an RFID chip. In fact, he says that someday the majority of people will be borged and those who aren’t will be considered a “subspecies.”

Sure, one can enumerate the advantages that would come with having a direct interface between brain, body and machine. It would be neat to be able to tap into a huge database instantly, at the speed of thought. And it would be nice to have enough memory so you never again have to spend an hour backtracking your steps to determine what you did with your car keys.

But in order to fully take advantage of computer enhancement, the “human computer” would need to be networked - and we know the risks networking presents for regular old machines. Imagine someone uploading a virus to your brain, or hacking into your darkest fantasies. Such a thing is probably a long way off, but it’s what some scientists are working toward. If we think we have privacy issues now, just wait until we all have the ultimate connection, all of the time.

On the other hand, there are many who think such research should be banned. But what about the positive applications of the same technology? Implanted chips could someday allow the blind to see and those with spinal injuries to walk again. Should we restrain researchers in the cybernetics field out of fear about some of the uses of the technology? And if, for example, the U.S. banned such research, would that allow other countries to create far superior human beings that would someday be this country’s downfall?

Development of technology that integrates biology with computers seems to be inevitable. The U.S. FDA has approved the use of RFID chips in humans for better access to information about hospital patients. The Italian Ministry of Health recently completed a six month trial of the technology. Several officials in Mexico have had chips implanted as protection against kidnapping. Some nightclubs in Spain allow customers to pay for drinks via an implanted chip.

Are we moving inexorably toward the day when we not only can but must have a chip implanted at birth, which will be used to store our medical histories, credit histories, purchasing habits and everything else of importance about us? Will that information be accessible to government agencies, companies with which we do business, and talented hackers? Is such a universal ID system the solution to protecting against terrorists and other criminals? Will those who aren’t “chipped” not only be considered “odd,” but in violation of the law?

What do you think? Does the potential good of the technology outweigh the huge potential for abuse? Are you looking forward to becoming a ‘borg? Is resistance futile? Would you have your children chipped to protect them against getting lost or kidnapped? How about your pet (millions already have)? We’ve visited this question before, but new developments make it more relevant than ever. Has your mind changed as this technology has become more common in practice? Let us know what you think. Sound off ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/22/2004 at 01:58 PM   
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   Tuesday - November 16, 2004

Guest Post: English 101-b

English 101-b

Supplementary Lesson to English 101-a

This supplementary lesson will concentrate on the originality of concentrated memorandums and letter-switching shit.

We will take two well known words, and systematically alter, renew, restore, add to, supercede and supplant individual letters, in an attempt to form new but hopefully related words.

All right, let us begin with the two words - Yasser Arafat

Inspection revels the first word, Yasser, contains the word, “ass”. (That certainly is related.) We can then seek more information with respect to this three letter word, “ass”.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines this word as:

1. Any of several hardy gregarious African or Asian perissodactyl mammals,
smaller than the horse, and having long ears; especially an African mammal
that is the ancestor of a donkey.

(It is doubtful that anyone has ever seen Arafat’s ears, as he most always
has a rag wrapped around them, so this cannot be verified. The “ancestor
of a donkey” certainly seems to be on the right track.)

2. A stupid, obstinate, or perverse person—often compounded with a
proceeding adjective.

(My example: He is a fucking dumb-ass. In my
example, it is used as a postpositive intensive with words of derogatory
implication. Certainly we can all agree that this is most relevant.)

All right, let us continue. Our next step is to rearrange the letters and see what we come up with. Ah-ha! I see the letters aysers. Can you see what I see? I see the word “ay”, pronounced “eye”. and I see the word sers, pronounced “sores”. Together, the word eyesores is formed. Is this relevant? Yes, it is, because all of the paeloswinians are eyesores.

That’s the end of this lesson. Your assignment is to complete the transformation of the word “Yasser” as well as the word “Arafat”. A quick glance reveals to the most casual observer, the word “fart”. Relevant? Carry on!

Thank you all, class dismissed.

-- Iacobus

Posted by Iacobus     on 11/16/2004 at 05:40 PM   
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   Sunday - October 24, 2004

Viewpoint: Guest Post

Defective Brains Department: by BMEWS Member - Jaguar The Democrats and the Left have lost their Collective Minds. Seriously, what the hell is going on? They are still pissed off about the 2000 election, they are still convinced that the Supreme Court gave the office of president to President Bush, yet they ignore ALL the facts of the entire fiasco.

Gore tried to steal the election, with the HELP of the Florida supreme court, he almost got away with it. They were going to allow him to change the rules of the election, they basically legislated from the bench that what the legislature did was unfair and that he could do whatever it took to count those ballots until he won. The Supreme Court basically just slapped them into next year, and Bush finally got what he had already won, namely Florida’s Electoral votes. Gore attempted to STEAL the election in the courts, and if Bush had NOT been willing to fight him, then we might have had President Gore trying to deal with 911. That thought ought to give every right thinking Americans the cold chills.

Even worse, foreigners are joining in. Have you read the Guardian lately? What the devil is up with these people?

On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod’s law dictates he’ll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?

WTF is going on? I mean really, what has gotten into these people?

Or perhaps this interview on MSNBC with the Swift Boat Vets?

O’Donnell completely lost it, the man was a total LUNATIC, shouting over John O’Niel of the Swiftvets whenever he tried to respond to a question. Calling him a LIAR, and how he has been discredited etc. What discreditation is he talking about? I have yet to see ANY kind of firm response or criticism of his book “Unfit For Command” by anyone on the left. Just because they say it, it must be true? Come on ..

Then we have the myriad of Bush/Cheney signs being stolen around the country. Did you know there are people putting barbed wire around their Bush Cheney signs to protect them? What kind of nonsense is this? Since when does the left have the right to shut up the right? No, we don’t agree, but I have yet to have an overwhelming urge to destroy a Kerry/Edwards sign, I look at the sign, shake my head for the persons sanity and intelligence level and move on, But EVERYONE has the right to their political opinion, but on the Left, it is .. “If you don’t agree with me, then you can’t have an opinion”.

That is just a symptom of an endemic problem within the Democratic party.

Kerry claims that it was the wrong war, at the wrong time etc, etc, but NEVER quotes himself from 2 years ago, when he was claiming that Saddam was indeed a threat and that the president needed the authority to take him out.

There are SO many of these, that I am NOT going to go over all them, It would take this entire page.

Now we move onto Voter intimidation, the Dems have put out a booklet, stating that if there is NO intimidation, that they need to do a PREEMPTIVE strike, so in other words create a problem where none exists.

Now we find out that Early voters in Florida have been intimidated at the polls by Democrats. People asking others who they are going to vote for, and if they say “none of your business” then they are automatically put into the Bush column and harassed clear to the voting booth.

This is INSANITY, this is just plain crazy.

I say the Democrats have lost their minds, collectively and individually.

Now, we move on to the other things that the Democrats are doing to win no matter what it takes.  10,000 lawyers, some hired, some pro bono, have been unleashed upon the voting offices to look for voting irregularities, what irregularities you ask? Well, they are going to look for “voter intimidation”. Translation, they are going to intimidate voters. They are going to look for double voters, people that have voted in one precinct and then come and vote again. Translation: They are going to make sure that those double voters go unnoticed, or will cry “Voter Intimidation”. Fun Huh?

Then we have the Republican headquarters break-ins all over the country, the union thugs are really going for this one with gusto, they actually took over a headquarters for a couple of hours. Talk about intimidation! Then the broken windows, the stealing of election literature, laptops, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

They have lost their collective minds, completely and have absolutely gone insane.

I have come to the conclusion that the Democrats are panicked completely and absolutely freaked out.

They have been in power for 50 years, and when they were kicked out, they were completely awestruck! How could the American people kick such intelligent people, who were taking such good care of the country, out of office? HOW DARE THEY DO THAT? The American people have no idea what they are doing, so we must get back in power, for THEIR OWN GOOD.

So, they have gone to the politics of desperation, silencing ALL those who disagree with them, intimidating voters so that they will vote how the Democrats WANT them to vote, and attempting to destroy any and all that would speak out against them.

The 527’s are a disaster, but it was the loophole that the Democrats wanted, JUST FOR THIS ELECTION. George Soros has dumped quite a bit of his personal fortune into defeating George Bush, so that his man, Kerry, can be in the White House, a man that Soros feels that he can control.

This is getting very dangerous, as we get closer to the election, the crazier the Democrats get. It is getting a lot like what Germany was like in the early thirties, as the NAZI party succeeded in shutting up any and all opposition.

The Democrats CAN NOT be allowed to succeed. They must lose, and by HUGE margins. Kerry and the Democrats cannot be allowed to get away with their voter fraud, where there are more registered voters then there are residents, such as in a few counties in the upper Midwest. They must be overwhelmed. The right must come out in GREAT HUGE numbers, and put this to bed once and for all.

The Democrats must not be just defeated, they must be OVERWHELMED!! They must be destroyed at the ballot boxes, because if they are not, they will just become bolder and crazier.

If the Democrats lose by 2%, even 3%, they will claim that the election was stolen from them, and we will be in court for months trying to straighten the mess out. Not only that, but the Democrats will lose whatever sanity that they have left.

The Democrat masses are at the beck and call of their leadership, and that leadership is not at all ethical or sane. That will spread to their sheeple as well. Those masses can and will resort to violence to get their way.

We must NOT allow that to happen. They must be overwhelmed in a LANDSLIDE, so that it is IMPOSSIBLE for them to claim that the election was stolen. I guarantee you that there will still be some violence, because again, they are not altogether sane, but a landslide will blunt it, and hopefully destroy any hopes that they have of ever regaining power again.

They must be ABSOLUTELY convinced that their lies, their demagogery and deceit will not be allowed, nor believed. They must be thoroughly convinced that they have gone too far to the left and must come back to the center or lose any and all hopes of ever having ANY power again.

The Socialist party of the United States(The Democrat Party) must be thoroughly defeated, and I believe that it can and will happen, but we MUST, we HAVE to get our base to the polls. We cannot allow single-issue voters to kill it for us. You single-issue voters MUST put your issue with President Bush aside, whether it is the war in Iraq, Abortion, whatever.

We are talking about the survival of the country here, and I am NOT overstating this .. we are talking about the SURVIVAL of the United States as we know it.

The Democrats have lost it, and will resort to violence if that is what it takes to make things right to them.

It is a very stark choice.

You either believe that terrorism is evil and the United States has the right to take preemptive action to protect ourselves, or you believe that the UN should have control of our national security. You either believe that the individual knows best how and what to spend their money on, or the government can make that decision for you better. You either believe in personal responsibility and the state answers to the people, or you believe in a collective socialistic dream where everyone answers to the state.

There is a stark contrast here, the Kerry vision of big government: the US answers to the UN, and we go down as the greatest power in the world onto the ashheap of history and the terrorists are just another reality of life and we will have to learn to live with it. Bush’s vision: the US answers to NO ONE, we have a right to defend ourselves and will, we remain the greatest power on the planet, and destroy terrorism and danger to American citizens wherever it hides.

The choice is clear, at least to me, vote for Bush, and the country remains safe, defended, and we are truly free, or vote for Kerry, where the US is an evil nation that must answer to the UN, and we are getting what we deserve when terrorists attack us, and big government will answer to no citizen, government knows what is right for us, and we had just better lie down and take it.

I know who I will vote for, won’t you join me?

WE need to DEFEAT the Democrats, and not allow their cheating, lies and dishonesty to steal the United States from us.

Vote BUSH, and VOTE PROUDLY!!!

-- Jaguar

Posted by Jaguar     on 10/24/2004 at 10:44 AM   
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   Saturday - October 16, 2004

Viewpoint: Guest Post

Choices .. Clues For Sale: by BMEWS Member - Steel Turman Is it just me or are people just getting more stupid? We are faced with a choice. An ‘election’ ... or at worst ...a ‘determination.’ A court ruling.  NOTHING like a plebiscite. Not even close. Perish that thought, the ‘plebes’ are either not smart enough or capable of deciding their own future. I am smart enough to decide. Most folks I know are too. Why then do some folks insist on telling me how I should choose?

I guess they get paid for it. And they’ve been earning their freight of late.

One side says that the other guy is going to bring on Armageddon. The other side says that guy will end life as we know it. Hmmm, seems kind of like the same to me.

Here is the choice. It’s simple. Has to be for us stupid folks.

There’s a guy wanting to be our leader who actually, I know THIS is going to be hard, leads. He has plenty of caveats and is a religious man. I say that in a derogatory sense. Not the brightest bulb in the lamp and not what we would prefer as the leader of the world. But when he says something ... we know he means it. I like that.

And there’s another guy who wants to be our leader. He’s real smart and has lots of education. He’s been in public service most of his life. Doing what he thinks is the ‘people’s business.’ A man of thoughtfulness. Considers all the angles and nuances and comes to a conclusion. Seems to me that what he concludes is he will tell us whatever we need to hear. I don’t like that.

I find that to be the paramount issue. One guy speaks his heart and one guy speaks his perceptions. I can deal with that.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but we DO have a war going on. Not like WWl or WWll but still a war. The enemy said it is war. They brought that to us on 9/11. BOOM. War. I know there are folks out there that think it’s not up to their standard of war, but that don’t make anybody less dead.

It IS a WAR.

That makes my choice pretty easy. I’ll go with the guy who leads and speaks true.

Going with the other guy ... well he doesn’t sound like a guy I’d put in charge of my landscaping, much less put in charge of my world.

Now there will be some naysayers out there. ‘Oh, that war mongering bastard’ and such. And some will say that an even and quiet discourse will resolve any conflict.

Me, being from Earth and all, would reply ... get a fucking clue. I’ll sell you one, or as many as you require. But do clue up. Or be stupid.

Steel Turman
Reno NV

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/16/2004 at 10:16 AM   
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   Monday - October 11, 2004

In My World

The New Ruling Class: Dissecting The Meritocracy There are two Americas. Quite a few politicians, pundits, and other assorted plant life have made note of this phenomena in recent years. There is indeed a stratification of society in America. It is a caste system whereby certain individuals perceive themselves to be of more value to American society than others. In their minds, this self-perceived importance endows these individuals with the “right” to educate and guide those who are less endowed with mental prowess than themselves. These people have convinced themselves that they are natural leaders and the rest of the population should do nothing more or less than just follow their leadership. This new aristocracy is a “meritocracy”. Here is the formal definition from Webster: meritocracy - “a form of social system in which power goes to those with superior intellects”.

Ah, but there’s the rub. Who determines which individuals belong to the meritocracy and are thereby chosen to be given power over the “sheeple” as the meritocrats have named those under their care?

(pardon me while I segue into full sarcasm mode here ....)

According to them, the meritocrats are self-proclaimed by their very intelligence. It should be obvious to anyone with an IQ higher than room temperature. Of course, all you sheeple are too mentally handicapped to see that very fact so just take their word for it and be on your way.

The poster child for this movement was Al Gore until the 2000 election when a deranged populace (quite obviously the beer-drinking NASCAR crowd - sniff) somehow managed to cast enough votes against him in the Presidential election to throw the whole question of leadership to the Supreme Court, which is dominated by far-Right conservatives who had no business deciding who should lead America. That is how America ended up with this horrid, uncouth, rough cowboy from Texas who was a “C” student in college and was a drunk for most of his life when he wasn’t going AWOL from the National Guard. Al Gore was a highly intelligent member of the meritocracy. He had loyally stood by the side of President William Clinton (a Rhodes scholar, for God’s sake) during his troubles when the evil Republicans tried to smear his good name with accusations of adultery, false testimony and other sordid crimes. Vice-President Gore was a privileged child of the Washington, DC environment whose father had served his country honorably for decades. Vice-President Gore deserved the Presidency. How dare those “sheeple” vote against him, and what form of bad government allows a group of obviously biased judges to select the President Of The United States? How dare they?

Well, the 2004 election is going to be very different! The meritocracy have chosen a new leader. He is John Forbes Kerry, an aristocratic man of giant stature who understands that America needs the meritocracy to retake power and dissolve all the abysmal mistakes made by this Bush person over the last four years. This “pretender” has dragged us into a miserable foreign war that none of the other civilized nations want a part of. Saddam was contained and we didn’t have anything to fear from him and bin Laden could have easily been reasoned with - we could have just given him plenty of money and nuclear secrets like President Clinton did with the North Koreans and all would have been hunkey-dorrey. Eh, what?

(excuse me while I shed this slimy sarcasm cloak ....)

How many rabid Leftists do you know that believe everything in the previous paragraphs? I know quite a few. Sadly, their minds are made up and the rest of us are too ignorant to understand why there is absolutely no reason to argue with them. They proudly proclaim to the world at large the education they received at university where they were introduced to Chomsky and Kant. They will bore you for hours with quotes from Dylan Thomas or James Joyce. They know which wine goes with which food and which fork to use when eating salad at a formal dinner.

What many of you “normal people” may not realize is this is an attitude that is inculcated in their heads at college. You see, the Liberal world of academia not only bends their minds toward a Liberal slant on everything but the professors and administrators at our colleges are also insidiously convincing them of their moral and intellectual superiority by virtue of having learned at the feet of such wondrously intelligent professors.

(go ahead and gag over that last paragraph .... )

Yes, we have two Americas. They are not as different intellectually as the Left would have you believe. The so-called meritocracy does not have a monopoly over brains and intelligence. Neither are they the sole possessors of college educations. Neither are they any more capable of rendering moral judgement than anybody reading this. We all know the difference between good and evil, pleasure and pain. We all know what is right and what is wrong. We do not need anyone telling us who to vote for and we damned sure don’t need this patronizing attitude from the “meritocracy”.

I have a BA in Music from the University Of Alabama, a BS in Computer Science from Troy State University and a MS in Computer Science from Troy State University. Now that I’ve dropped out of the fast lane of high profile computer consulting I have plans to finish the two books I’m working on and start on my Ph.D at either UAB or UAH. I’ve paid my dues several times over. I’ve read Chomsky and rejected nearly everything the man had to say as psycho-babble with no basis in real critical analysis. I was given an IQ test in college in 1968. They told me my score was in excess of 160. My reply was “So?” I passed my SAT(1967), ACT (1967) and GRE (1991) with scores in the top 2% in the nation. Does all that somehow endow me with the right to tell you what is right and what is wrong? Not no, but hell no! I can make observations and create a discourse with you and hopefully we will both gain from the exchange. I would be an idiot to think I could achieve more than that. Especially if I adopted a condescending attitude toward you. No, I had rather remain a member of the human race than elevate myself. God and gravity both make sure my feet stay firmly planted on the ground. Neither one of which can be deterred indefinitely.

As for Professor Chomsky and the new “meritocracy” I highly recommend they go back and read one man’s works that they obviously missed in the process of matriculation .... a fellow by the name of Spinoza. I would recommend they start here with Spinoza’s “Ethics”.

Here is a little something from the aforementioned treatise to help get them started on their way to enlightenment and hopefully gaining a little humility to go with their arrogance and ego ....

“No positive quality possessed by a false idea is removed by the presence of what is true, in virtue of its being true.”

Ponder that while I take my extremely high IQ, my college degrees and my undeniable intellect and go have a beer with my friends and discuss the latest issue of Playboy and whether or not the designated hitter rule has ruined the American League (I believe it has).

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/11/2004 at 10:34 AM   
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   Sunday - October 10, 2004

Viewpoint: Guest Post

Putting The Left In Perspective: -by- BMEWS Member - Joe R. (Illegitimi Non Carborundum) One of the toughest goals to achieve in political discourse, I believe, is to remain focused on the facts and not to be trapped in ideology. When one becomes trapped in ideology, one’s views, no matter how factually supported, can be seen as one those of a “Kool-Aid drinker” - you know, all those Clintonista-types that gave their smooth-talking charlatan/messiah a pass on everything, and who now chant the “anybody but Bush” mantra echoed by the Hollywood elites and other neo-Bolsheviks on the left.  And, to be fair, there are those who think that President Bush and the Republican party are the answer to everything. Both positions are not desirable for a critical, independent thinker ....

My position is simple:  I love America, and I despise, no, I HATE the left - period.  The left will tell you that they love America, too, but I have found that their idea of “America” is drastically different than mine.  Many leftists feel that America should resemble more of Canada or Western Europe in its domestic and foreign policy; even the other day I heard one remark that the founding fathers were, “liberals, not stupid conservatives.” So, armed with misinformation and revisionist history, they have embarked on a mission for the last 75 years to restructure this nation’s values in a utopian image of what it could be, based not, however, on its traditional values, but (I’ll say it because few others will) on the “values” presented by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Nietzsche (many of whose ideas were incorporated by the former two).

As in any movement, there are the architects, those with the actual design, or plan, and the followers of the movement to whom that movement’s ideas are meant to appeal.  Any anti-establishment movement must, by design, either possess or create a class of victims, disenfranchised (even if only through perception) by the status quo.  That is the root of leftist philosophy - class struggle leading to class warfare leading to redistribution of wealth and property (exempting, of course, the ruling class).  Specifically, Lenin knew this as he saw communism drift across the waters to the USA and thusly referred to the American Left as “useful idiots.” He and other communists here and abroad, immediately realized that America’s rights of free speech could be used against itself by those who sought to exploit those rights to the furthering of a given agenda.  They realized in time that a communist invasion of the military kind was increasingly unlikely, so they sought to change minds and hearts, by infecting the body politic, the body academic, and the body civic gradually, over the course of many generations.  Once enough people are “re-educated” and they significantly displace the rest of us, the job is over, the battle is won with hardly a shot fired.  So, with Noam Chomsky (Minister of “Truth") leading the academic wing, Michael Moore (Minister of Propaganda) and the other Hollywood idiots leading the propaganda wing, and the ACLU (Ministry of Justice) leading the civic/legal wing, the enemy seeks to promote it’s political wing to the White House.

So, what does this have to do with the election of 2004?  Everything.  This, my friends, is the last gasp of hope we have as traditional Americans.  Not because President Bush is such an outstanding president who understands these things - I don’t think he does or cares as he has a war to prosecute against an elusive yet very real enemy.  But John Kerry knows these things.  He was and is still a part of the communist movement in the USA.  He is the Manchurian candidate if there ever was one.  He spoke out against the war in Vietnam prior to going over there with a political agenda to work the system:  Write oneself up for commendations based on questionable circumstances at best (I am being nice here); leave the scene as quickly as possible; then come back home (subsequently going to Paris to meet with NVA officials while on his first honeymoon) and commit treason and perjury while still an active duty officer in the US Navy.

Here are some post-war activities the Senator and some of his pals engaged in.

For analysts like Bill O’Reilly to refer to Kerry as a “patriot” is a slap in the face to every man and woman, living or dead, who has served our nation honorably and proudly; and it will not get O’Reilly that interview he so desperately wants with the Senator.  To give Kerry a pass on his seditious acts as a result of “youth” is shameful.  Sorry, Bill, but at Sen. Kerry’s age then, I was a United States Marine serving in Somalia, fully responsible for my actions.  Oh, let us not forget, either, Kerry’s trip to Nicaragua with Sen.

Tom Harkin in the early 80’s when he met with Daniel Ortega, returned to the senate, and voted against funding for the Contras.  At almost the same time the bill was shot down, Ortega got on a plane to Moscow to collect $20 million to fund his war.

Read it here.

My friends, the choice should be overwhelmingly clear next month.  Take a look at who is funding and backing Kerry, then at Bush.  Who do you identify with more?  Even if you believe in the “extreme right-wing Christian conspiracy” or a “war for Haliburton” behind the President, do they scare you more than an internationalist-socialist with an anti-American past and present?  If so, please move to Canada where they have every cradle-to-grave government entitlement you seek for this nation, and leave us here to struggle to preserve our American traditions and destroy the Islamic scum that threaten our very way of life.

Do I sound like I am slipping into ideology?  Perhaps; but that does not negate the facts.  It only makes it tougher for those on the other side to accept. Noam Chomsky and I might agree on many “facts,” but our respective interpretaion of those same facts lead us to drastically differing conclusions.

Chomsky would call me a jingoistic, right-wing imperialist.  I would call him a comfortably tenured and insulated, anti-American academic with little (if any) real-world experience outside the classroom at MIT.  I don’t wish him any ill will; only that he puts his money where his mouth is and leave the country with the rest of his cancerous, left wing polyps.

This nation barely survived the radical communist movement of the 1930’s, then the 60’s (during which Chomsky was a vocal anti-American rabble rouser in the streets), but has continued to slip slowly to the left since then.  Consider the following, written by Professor Alexander Tyler while the thirteen original colonies were still a part of the British Empire, regarding the fall of the Athenian Republic:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.”

We stand on a precipice now.  Jumping off the cliff with a vote for Kerry will place us so far to the left that the only recovery, I fear, will be the rise of a true dictator and another civil war in the next 20 to 50 years.  Or, you can hold your ground at the cliff’s edge and stand up for our America, not some perversion of America resembling a quasi-socialist welfare society.  Do not let these people win at the ballot box that which they could not win in the streets during the 1960’s (and are still trying to win today in the courts by judicial fiat).  They may be a bit older, but they are still the same.  They may have turned in their protest signs for law degrees, but they are still the same.

They may have burned their tattered bluejeans for Armani suits, but they are still the same.  They are communists who will stop at nothing to destroy the fabric of this country.  Will you let them?

Joe

“Let me remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; And let me also remind you that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
-- Senator Barry Goldwater

Posted by Illegitimi Non Carborundum     on 10/10/2004 at 03:34 PM   
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   Thursday - October 07, 2004

In My World

National Security Database: A Very Bad Idea On this matter, I am an expert witness. I do databases for a living. I live, eat, sleep and breathe databases 24/7. For the last eighteen years that is all I have done. I have installed, configured and maintained databases for Fortune 500 companies and several government agencies, including the Department Of Defense and the Department Of Energy, to name a few. Oracle, DB2, Informix, Sybase are all database companies that I deal with on a regular basis, especially Oracle. With all that said, let me make this perfectly clear ....

Senate bill S.2845 (National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004) has a provision in it that would let government counter-terrorist investigators instantly query a massive system of interconnected commercial and government databases that hold billions of records on Americans.

This is a very bad idea. Let me repeat. This is a very bad idea. Got that?

Why? Because the government wants to make use of a tool that companies have been increasingly using more and more over the last decade. This tool is called “Business Intelligence”. What is it? It is an analysis tool that examines data stored in data warehouses and recognizes patterns that allow businesses to make better marketing decisions. For example, how many of you have a “shopping card” from your local grocery store or pharmacy? Almost all of you, I’d bet. You flash it at the store when you buy something and you get a 10-20% discount on purchases. That’s a good deal, isn’t it?  Your local CVS pharmacy or Kroger food store simply asks you to fill out a form giving them your address and a little personal information about yourself and in return they give you hefty discounts on purchases. That sounds like a sweet deal, right? Well, it is until you start getting unrequested mail from various companies asking you to sample their products or you find that the products you normally buy have been moved to opposite sides of the store requiring you to travel across the entire store to make your normal purchases (and increase the chance you’ll buy other items on your trek).

Are you starting to get the picture yet?

OK, here is the bottom line: these companies are peeking into your mind and examining your habits, based on your buying preferences. Every time you visit the store, your purchases are recorded and stored in a massive data warehouse (a specialized kind of database). They are using that information to increase their business and you are helping them by letting them track your purchases. Now, apply that same approach to government. Do you really want the federal government (a.k.a. “The Nanny State") being able to gather information about your movements, locations, habits, purchases, registrations, etc.? Even more, do you really want the federal government examining all of that information with complex analysis tools that recognize patterns about your behavior?

Yes, it might help identify terrorists before they strike .... but it could also be used for other bad purposes as well. There are endless possibilities for database systems and analysis tools like this to be misused, particularly when government bureaucrats get involved. I’m not trying to scare you with a “possible” bogey man. This bogey man is real and businesses are already using these tools to get into your private life. What makes you think the government will do any less?

And one more thing .... as one of my old Computer Science professors told me ages ago, the only 100% secure computer system is one that has been unplugged from everything, locked in a safe, dropped in the deepest trench in the ocean and guarded by a fleet of nuclear submarines .... and even that is not always enough. From personal experience, I can tell you that he was dead right on the money.

So what can you do? Well, if the idea scares you too then write your Senator before they pass this legislation. Otherwise, you could have no privacy left in a few years. They will know everything about you. Voting patterns, buying habits, travel plans, income, expenses, liquidity, gun registrations, police records, medical history, etc. The list goes on and on. And with the proper business intelligence tools they can even figure out how often you change underwear and whether you pick your nose. No, really.

Think about it .... do you want George Orwell’s chilling prediction in his book ”1984” to come true? .... Big Brother Is Watching You

If so, all you have to do is sit back and do nothing ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/07/2004 at 11:01 AM   
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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