religion, politics, law and stupidity

2007-02-02T20:18:00.000-08:00

The phishing attack crap and filled-in form is above above.

If you post a resume you could get phished. I used Linux, Thunderbird and Konqueror to have some fun. I filled in the blanks with crap. I believe it is fairly safe to do so.
__________________________
The original email message:

Because9of9unusual1number7of7invalid7login4attempts1on7you4account,9
we0had0to9believe1that,8their5might7be3some9security5problem7on7your8
account.2So1we3have9decided3to2put2an2extra2verification3process0to0
ensure0your4identity1and8your9account0security.8Please9(click here) to8
continue4to7the1verification4process3and9ensure2your1account2security.3
5
Thank2you6for8your4patience9in0this8matter.9
0
Bank9of4America1Customer7Service

__________________________________________

Their online form is better each time they do this. Unfortunately for them they are not accustomed to American language usage. Note the lack of possessive for MOTHER; it should be MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME. Note the password sent in clear as part of the URL in the URL address bar. I entered die_asshole_die as the user and killPHISH as the password. Look at their crappy grammar in the email message. What idiots. I removed the web page that I was directed to via the click here link.

I like to use the number 6 frequently as it is part of the number of the beast in the bible even though I am not a Christian.

Profanity gets the point across. It is a powerful exclamation point.

Too bad I cannot have the opportunity to unload my .45, 12 ga or something similar in their specific direction (not general direction). I need some target practice. I prefer moving targets as it is more of a challenge.

2007-01-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

Comments responding to

"Vatican Condemns Saddam Execution"

Amos,

I agree with you. As a recovering Catholic I looked at the history of the Catholic Church and was ashamed to call myself Catholic. I applaud your speaking up.

If we do not remember our history then we will repeat it. Even if it happened MORE than 1000 years ago. The Catholic Church dominated for many years by killing or having 'governments or monarchies' kill for them any opposition.

I also know the Bible well enough to duke it out with the Baptists, no mean feat that!

A little-known fact is that the Church encouraged the killing of children with birth defects such as being a hermaphrodite. I am waiting for two hermaphrodites to attempt to get married. Should we deny marriage to someone born with both male and female genitalia?

Paka.

2006-10-31T21:16:00.000-08:00

Scroogle, an alternative to Google without the data retention

An email to my friends:

All,

You guys probably know by now just how political and paranoid I am. I have never been comfortable with what I have learned about Google and its ties to the CIA and other US government agencies. Furthermore I do not like the loss of freedoms because of King George and a cowardly Congress.

Google retains a record of ALL searches along with your IP address. That means that the government or business partner or former lover or whatever or whomever could get access to these searches LINKED to you or your family. I like my privacy. I don't care to have the government know that I may have looked at naked women, learned how to grow better pot, tried to find dirt on a politician or accessed legal information for example. In other words Google could be asked to provide all internet provider IP addresses for all persons who looked for better ways to grow pot and then come knocking their (your) door with a search warrant. That would not be a stretch for King George and his ass-kissing Supreme Court that he packed. Congress has been kissing his ass for some time now as well. Hopefully that will change in a week.

I discovered Scroogle and will use it from now on. I like what they do and it is really simple to use. Later I will use TOR to surf the web anonymously when I have the time to set it up. I do not like snoops and snitches.

King George and his ilk have been trying to get all internet searches and other personal information retained by the internet providers for a period of years or more so that they can look for "kiddie porn" access. Let me tell you that is a farce. They want ALL information retained. Type in your SSN and see if anyone has it anywhere on the web and that is retained (along with your IP address). Names of friends typed in Yahoo people search will also be retained. Look for tax information and that will be retained and the assumption could be made that you are attempting to evade taxes. George Orwell (the book 1984) would be proud.

So if you feel like I do then look at this site and protect your privacy. Pass it on if you can.

If you forward this then please delete the email addresses that came with this before sending it on. That will protect the privacy of the previous recipients. Thanks.

Information came from Michael Hampton at:

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/10/30/google-intelligence-cooperation-reprise/

Scroogle here: http://www.scroogle.org/

and Scroogle search scraper here: http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

and Yahoo search scraper here: http://www.scroogle.org/scraper7.html

http://www.scroogle.org/donatesc.html when I have a job and a few bucks to send.

There are two reasons why an ad-free scraper of Google's main search results is important. One reason is personal, and the other is political.

On a personal level, your support for Scroogle says that search engines should not be tracking you and retaining this information indefinitely. Not only does Google scrape much of the web, but they keep records of who searches for what. If information about your searching is accessible by cookie ID or by your IP address, it is subject to subpoena. This is a violation of your privacy. Someday Google's data retention practices will be regulated, because Google is too arrogant to do the right thing voluntarily. In the meantime, you should not be leaving your fingerprints in Google's databases.

There are other proxies that can protect your privacy on the web. Almost all are general-purpose proxies that cloak all of your web activity behind an IP address that is not easily traced to your service provider. One is Anonymizer.com. A possible problem with this one is that the founder, Lance Cottrell, has connections with the FBI and the Voice of America. It also costs money for a reasonable level of service. Another is Tor, which is much more secure. But it is also slow, because Tor is a complicated system that needs networks of volunteers to run server software. Juvenile surfers from video pirates to rogue Wikipedia editors tend to clog free services such as Tor, which slows them down even more.

Since Scroogle does just one thing, it is fairly fast and simple. But because it does only one thing, it is vulnerable to action by Google. They could block our IP address, which would require that we relay requests to other servers that are more difficult for them to locate. They could also centralize their system more in order to better detect and throttle any outside address that does too many searches per minute. Finally, they could make minor changes in their output format on a regular basis, which would break our scraper and require frequent reprogramming. Any of the above might quickly get too complex and expensive for us, and that would be the end of Scroogle.

One action that Google is less likely to take is to serve Scroogle with a cease and desist letter. This introduces the second reason why Scroogle deserves support. As a nonprofit with a history of activism on privacy issues, it would be difficult for Google to sue us on the grounds that their search results and rankings are copyrighted. The main reason for this is that we are noncommercial. None of our sites has ever carried ads, we have zero employees, and our gross annual income is about $10,000. Our lack of commercial intent strengthens our claim that we have the right to scrape Google. It's obvious that we are doing it in the public interest.

Showing Google's results without their ads is another political statement. About 99 percent of Google's total revenue comes from ads, and these are ruining the web. Thousands of "Made for AdSense" domains are spewing garbage. Since these sites need content to trigger Google's ads, they steal it by scraping legitimate sites, or generate their own by purchasing junk from bulk writers. Meanwhile, click fraud is rampant. Zombie botnets are used to click on ads. If you cannot afford to buy a botnet from some shady character, then you can contract with someone in a country where labor is cheap. They will hire people to click on ads all day at below-minimum wage.

It's time to stop pretending that Google's revenue model is anything more than a temporary bubble, and it's time for Google to start developing more socially-responsible sources of income. Showing Google's results without the ads amounts to more public-interest advocacy. It says that the web spam situation is intolerable.

We remain vulnerable to blocking, throttling, or breaking by Google, which unfortunately is legal if they decide to stop us. But the longer Scroogle exists and the more our traffic grows, the stronger our statements become. We cannot survive many more months without at least one more server, even if Google leaves us alone. While we could apply for foundation grants, our experience tells us that foundations are about ten years behind on Internet and other high-tech issues. Any funding proposals we send out would strike them as bizarre and incomprehensible. It's not worth our time to send out proposals to foundations.

That leaves us asking lots of Scroogle users for small contributions. Searchers who prefer Scroogle are making a unique statement about important issues. Nothing else we know of is making the same points as effectively.

2006-10-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

After Shootings, Some Teachers Get Guns

Here.

"If someone's going to get into this school and harm the kids, there needs to be an immediate and deadly response," said Nick Pond, a teacher. "That could be an amazing deterrence to anyone who wants to harm kids."

Hooray, some common sense. I WANT to retain the option of being able to shoot back. Bullies are homicidal, not suicidal.

That is why I urge all law-abiding citizens to get a concealed carry permit as you will never know when you will need to defend yourself or a loved one. I have a variety of guns so that one is appropriate whenever I carry one. Some will fit into my pocket. For home defense my favorite is a Ruger P90 .45 with laser. Very, very accurate and whomever intrudes my home without permission will not, and I mean not, testify in court against me as I will not shoot to warn or wound them.

Remember that in the US the police are under no, and I mean do mean no, obligation to rush to your defense. This is according to the United States Supreme Court. They don't have to leave their donut shop of choice to protect you. You are on your own.

2006-10-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

UK gallery scraps art, fearing Muslim rage: curator

Details. "

PARIS (Reuters) - A London gallery has decided not to show some works of art because it fears they would upset Muslims, a curator said on Friday, a week after a German opera house canned a Mozart production for the same reason.

The director of Britain's Whitechapel Art Gallery decided to remove works by surrealist artist Hans Bellmer from an exhibition the day before it was due to open, one of the museum's curators, Agnes de la Beaumelle, told Reuters.

"The motive was simply to not shock the population of the Whitechapel neighborhood, which is partly Muslim," she said."

Muslims, get a life. You say that your leaders are non-violent. Bullshit. Every rock, every bomb, every bullet proves how violent your religion is.

2006-10-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

Microsoft warns software pirates

CNN. Gates started as a thief. Just because he was not charged with a crime does not mean that the civil lawsuits mean nothing. He and his company have been sued time and time again for theft of someone's software.

Who says crime does not pay.

I am glad that Linux exists as I WILL not buy Vista. It is a piece of crap with all its anti-theft features. Who wants a piece of software that can cripple itself on a whim if it thinks it has been tampered with?

Gates is trying to keep kids from stealing his crap. What a laugh.

2006-10-03T23:08:00.000-07:00

chicken-shit son of a bitch

Molest my child and die! No excuses. No reasons. You will die.! you son of a bitch...

My .45 is vey accurate. Very, very accurate. Very, very accurate. Good enough to blow off your fuckin' head. Be afraid, be very afraid...I shoot for the head in case you are wearing body armor.

2006-09-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Don't pirate software, use open source

Jakarta may have an answer to piracy here.

"Open source seen as piracy cure

JAKARTA: Since the level of software piracy in Indonesia remains the third highest in the world after Ukraine and China, a senior official says the country should "go open source".

Sofyan Djalil, the minister of communication and information, said the widespread use of open source software is the best way to stop piracy. Open source licensing allows users to share and modify programs without violating copyright laws.

He told House of Representatives lawmakers in a hearing Monday night that Indonesia was in the process of developing a program called Indonesia Goes Open Source (IGOS).

If successful, he said, IGOS would allow Indonesia to save money and reduce its dependence on foreign computer technology. -- JP

"

Amen to that.

Microsoft may have to rethink their position as many of these people cannot afford its software. You cannot be sued for using open source software.

2006-09-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

'Jihad' auto dealer ad upsets U.S. Muslims

I have to laugh at these Muslims crying, posturing and bitching about this ad.

Mitsubishi asked the car dealer to not run the ads. He agreed.

"The radio advertisement for the Dennis Mitsubishi car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, has "a whole jihad theme," said Adnan Mirza, director of the Columbus office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations."

"Mirza said the Council on American-Islamic Relations would likely contact the dealer to "offer some kind of cultural or sensitivity awareness training.""

Damn it, the Muslims are the ones who need cultural and sensitivity training as well as learning how to get along with each other. You are not going to get respect by shooting or blowing up those who do not agree with you and your gods.

2006-09-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that Congress should require Internet providers to preserve customer records, asserting that prosecutors need them to fight child pornography.

Details here.

I say bullshit. The Feds want all information that they can get and it is not limited to child porn. Banking records. Political unrest. People angry with the government. They want it all.

Don't be intimidated or fooled: Child porn is just an excuse that no one can object to. These are my civil liberties we are talking about and the government has no right to gather or cause to be gathered information about me unless I have done something wrong. The Feds will have access to all our internet information. This also includes our emails. In my opinion the Feds want a continous wiretap on our emails and internet usage without a search warrant.

2006-09-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Australia Catholics get it right about Muslim religion

here. They said:

"The head of Australia's 5.1 million-strong Catholic Church went as far as to say that violent reaction "justified one of Pope Benedict's main fears" about Islam."

I echo that.

2006-09-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here's the Pope's quote about Muhammad:

14th century Byzantine Emperor: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Every person killed or maimed by a Muslim in the name of Muhammad supports this statement. You cannot claim to be peaceful and non-evil while blowing someone up, shooting them in the back, and other evil deeds.

2006-09-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Nun killed, Muslims suspected as a response to Pope's implied criticism of Prophet Muhammad

CNN. The nun was shot in the back three times. The assholes could not even look her in the eye as they shot her. Real brave assholes.

Would the Prophet Muhammad approve of this murder and violence? Then the Prophet Muhammad is violence personified, isn't he? Violence and murder is being done in his name. The Pope was correct in implying the Muslim religion is evil.

2006-09-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Muslims upset over the Pope's quote about Muslim violence and evil

and are trying to frighten the West into never saying anything bad about their religion. They are using fear, intimidation and violence to achieve this. Cannot anyone see what is wrong with this and speak out about it? Ah, fear.

We should believe that all Muslims are peace-loving or they will kill us? Huh? Kill me for saying that their religion is a violent one? They kill kids, defenseless nuns, women and men. Don't they have a life other than killing? Can't they create anything like art, music, more mathematics and so on?

Muslim actions speak louder than their words about violence and the Prophet Muhammad. If Muhammad preached non-violence then why are so many Muslims killing in the name of the Prophet Muhammad?

Would the Prophet Muhammad approve and sanction the beating to death a woman who was a nun in the Catholic Church? Then why did the Muslims do this atrocity and others in his name?

2006-09-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with pornography?

Not a thing for adults as long as the sex and the actions are not forced. If a man or woman likes exposure of their bodies or sex activity then there is nothing wrong with it.

Who objects? Religions first of all. Regulate sex and you control your flock. Governments next l but I should substitute religion and businesses. America is based on an expanding economy with more and more people as consumers and workers for factories as well as supplicants for religions.

A man or woman masturbating to porn is not likely to get married, have kids, go to church and reward the priests, rabbis and ministers with money for marriage, baptisms and burials. No marriage means no kids. No kids means no workers for factories and consumers for goods.

No wonder the Republican party is against drugs, abortion, prostitution and same-sex marriage. Business will suffer economic losses.

2006-09-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Rape, Muslim law and Pakistan's shame

Image being a woman and getting raped in Pakistan. In order for prosecutors to get a conviction there MUST be at least four, that is 4, men to testify to the rape. As if a rapist is going to invite voyeurs to his rape of a woman.

Shameful. I have no desire to respect the Muslim religon for crap like this. Muslim support of this or silence against it is shameful.

This is the same crap that American justice used in rape cases in this country when it was assumed that the woman was asking for the rape. Up to the 60s it was VERY difficult to prove rape in this country.

No woman should be violated. NO means NO!

2006-09-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Kofi Annan is an ass

and has no business in telling America that we have no business in the far east.

The world and America needs Iranian oil. That is it in a nut shell. That is why we went to war and why we need to win. Iraq fears American control of Iranian oil. It would reduce OPEC's power considerably. China's thirst for oil is another factor.

There are many things I don't like about GWB but I do support his gun control policies and the war in Iraq.

Iraq and Vietnam of my era have a lot in common.

2006-09-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hezbollah accused of war crimes in Israel

Details here. Why don't these assholes grow up? All they do is kill, kill, kill.

Pit bulls scare the crap out of me. Doberman pinschers ditto. There may be really nice dogs among these breeds but experience says otherwise.

Muslims are close to this same fear factor. I don't see the American Muslims condeming this activity. By their silence they are supporting Hezbollah.

The last dog that frightened me I gut shot as I had the choice of shooting or getting bit. I may hesitate if a Muslim frightens me and I don't frighten easily. I may...

One defination of a coward: a person backed into a corner with no way out. Desperation leads to desperate measures. I do not see where any, and I mean any, Muslims are backed into a corner by Israel. This is crap that the Muslims have done on their own.

It boils down to my god or goddess can beat up on your god or goddess so capitulate to me or else....

2006-07-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) cheated me of money

in the early 70s. Since they are owned by General Motors (GM) I have refused to buy any GM products since.

I purchased a used car from a dealership in northern California. The car was financed through GMAC. I was laid off and gave the car back to the dealership as a voluntary repossession. The wholesale value was $1300 and I owed $1100 so I believed I might get some money from the sale of the car under California law.

A year and a half later the dealership attempted to collect nearly $300 for their loss on the sale of the car. I did some digging and found that the dealership owned another dealership and they sold the car to the other dealership for about $800. Then they sold the car from the other dealership for an unknown amount but kept the profit. They cheated me of the profit and attempted to collect more money from me.

There was a class action lawsuit (surprise!). Unfortunately the statute of limitations had expired 6 months earlier for me.

Since I learned of the class action lawsuit I have not purchased a GM product. I have bought 8 new cars since.

This is why I don't give a damn about GM's financial woes.

2006-06-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

More RIAA crap and tire thumpers

USAtoday had an article where it stated,

"The RIAA has sued just over 18,000 individuals for sharing songs online, with 4,500 settling for about $4,000 per case."

My math says that 13,500 did not pay anything. Why? Also this adds up to about $18,000,000 of extortion from grandma.

If I was to be sued I am certain that I would go to court with a tire thumper taped to my lower leg with velcro as it would get past a metal detector. Then I would thump a few heads with it since I could not afford this nation's legal system. A person gets as much justice as they can afford or can fight for. In this case I would have to settle for a few knots on the pate.

A trucker uses a small baseball bat made of hickory to check if he or she has a flat tire by thumping the tire with the bat. The bat is called a tire thumper. Very effective. Very painful.

2006-06-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

It is about time the Muslims realize that they had better take sides otherwise all hell will break loose.

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Terror suspects arrested in an alleged plot to attack Canadian targets had turned their attention to exploding truck bombs in the heart of Toronto's financial district, including at the Toronto Stock Exchange, according to a news report Thursday.

CNN. Islamic leaders on Thursday called on government and law enforcement officials in the nation's capital to attend a summit by the end of the month and look at ways to work with them on extremist views among the young people in the country's 750,000-strong Muslim community.

"Terrorism is a complete contradiction with the teachings of Islam," Karl Nickner, director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, told a news conference in Ottawa. "It's a global problem and Canadian Muslims will never stop denouncing this ideology of terrorists."

2006-06-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

Al-Zarqawi Dead

We finally got the son of a bitch. CNN has the story.

If i would have had the SOB in my gun sights then he would be dead, dead, dead. I am a pretty good shot with a rifle--notthe best but I have killed my share of deer, etc. Vermin like coytes as well. Shooting the SOB would be like shooting vermin.

'nuff said. Congrats to intelligence and our Armed Forces. Good shooting to the F16 pilot.

2006-06-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

MPAA strikes again...

The MPAA has sued http://isohunt.com/ for allowing people to share movies, etc. Why doesn't the MPAA offer reasonably priced movies and other content?

I personally don't buy or watch many movies or purchase CDs. I have all the music that I want and a book is more enjoyable entertainment. Plus I have the internet to entertain me.

I know that if the MPAA ever sued me I would kick the crap out of their management one way or the other.

Let me tell you the story of the small city (Mount Shasta, CA) cop who liked to beat the crap out of drunks on the way to the jail from the bars across the street. He was a bully, pure and simple. Someone took a shot at him one night with a hunting rifle. The bullet passed through the back, then the front windshield, just above the steering column. The cop said that he was doing paperwork using the seat as a table; my guess he was sleeping. Needless to say he quit beating up on the drunks. Sometimes a warning shot is the only tool we can afford.

Illegal but effective. I know that if I was dying of cancer then I would consider taking a few bastards and bitches with me. Perhaps that is what Hilliary Clinton, Kerry, Feinstein and others are worried about and why they want to disarm us. To quote Lazarus Long, "My status in hell will be determined by the honor guard that I take with me."

BTW I am a life member of the NRA, a life member of the VFW, and have a concealed carry permit. I can kill coyotes at 400 meters with my 30.06 and accelerators, a .223 bullet with sabot immune to ballistics tests. I don't advocate violence as a rule but do not rule it out. I will give up my guns when they pry my cold, dead fingers from around it. Period.

2006-05-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

Israel: Iran 'months' from making nukes

Good article here at CNN.

Iran may have one bomb or the capability to make one. If they use it on any country then all hell will break loose. The whole world will hate and fear these religous zealots. Iran will suffer for generations.

Why will they suffer for generations. Because Israel has at least a dozen nukes and the means and resolve to deliver them. Iran will be glass-covered cities. Radioactive ones at that.

Maybe Iran believes that Allah will protect them. This idea that my god can beat up on your god is a bunch of crap. Show me proof that any, and I mean any, god exists and that it is advantegous to worship that particular god and I might be first in line kneeling.

2006-05-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

Domestic right-wing Christian groups stop .xxx

Come on, Christians, get real. Sex is fun, sex is great and sex is good for you! Quit taking your crappy and stupid morality and forcing it on non-Christians. It would be so much nicer to have porn identified as .xxx. One stop shopping and one stop blocking.

Don't believe these Christians did this? Check here. Maybe if some of you Christian assholes would actually read your Bible and learn about the history of the creation of the Bible then you might not be so uppity and smug.

The Bible was wrtten and edited by mortal man. God had nothing to do with it. In fact there is absolutely no evidence that any one god, goddess or other is the true and correct one to worship.

2006-05-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

Wetbacks now have rights according to Mexican authorities...

...the Mexican government intends to sue in American courts to stop Bush's deployment of the National Guard to prevent the passage of illegal immigrants from Mexico.

From CNN:

"In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, the local representative of Mexico's National Immigration Institute, said Tuesday she will ask the Mexican government to send a protection force, Grupo Beta, to remote sections of the border."

Bullshit. They don't have rights to cross our border other than we don't shoot on sight--yet. Maybe a few 'gators in the Rio Grande? Hungry ones? I'd go for that.

2006-05-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

We don't need the National Guard on the border with Mexico...

to stop illegal immigration. What we need is strict enforcement of hiring practices. American jobs for American citizens, not illegals from Mexico and elsewhere. We don't need to pull American workers off their jobs to go guard the border so that those illegals who get past them then will get hired to replace the worker in the National Guard sent to stop him or her.

If you hire an illegal then you should go to jail. That alone is the only way to stop the flood of illegals in this country. But George Bush Jr has no balls to do this.

Besides I want to go to McDonalds and speak English, not Spanglish, to order my lunch.

2006-05-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Fuck you, RIAA and MPAA, for all your legal crap against ordinary people...

...more details here . A quote here:

The RIAA -- seemingly deliberately -- provoked a massive confrontation, in which the MPAA, the American Association of Publishers, and the United States Attorney General, are lining up against not only Ms. Barker and all the other RIAA victims out there, but against the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the trade associations which represent most of the giants of the internet and computer industries.

Ms. Barker made a simple motion to dismiss the complaint, saying it did not give her adequate notice of the infringement she's accused of.

In response, the RIAA made its most shocking and outlandish arguments to date, claiming that merely having a 'shared files folder' on one's computer, and thereby 'making files available for distribution', is in and of itself a "distribution" and a copyright infringement. I.e., even if the recordings were legally obtained, and even if no illegal copies were ever made of them, the defendant is still guilty of copyright infringement.

Learning of this, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Computer & Communications Industry Association, and the U. S. Internet Industry Association -- realizing that if this absurd argument were accepted the entire internet might be shut down in the United States, since the internet is nothing more than a giant network of hyperlinks making files 'available', and also realizing that Ms. Barker doesn't have the financial resources to wage a full scale war protecting the entire internet from destruction -- were quick to file amicus curiae briefs pointing out to Judge Karas the absurdity of the RIAA's arguments.

Here's a note to you, RIAA: I quit buying your fuckin' music. I might listen to it on the radio but that is it. You are a bunch of assholes, money grubbin' at that.

You assholes will never get another dollar from me. Count on it. I will not buy CDs or DVDs or tapes. I don't need your crap.

To the readers of this post: Profanity is the super punctuation of the new age. A mere exclamation point does not equal one 'fuck you' in getting my point across. Pretty language does not cut it. Sorry.

2006-04-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Illegal immigrant problem understated...

No wonder our kids cannot find part-time employment. Too many asshole employers want to make more money than their honest competitors by hiring illegals--then they pocket the difference in wages between what they should pay and what they can get the illegals to work for.

I believe these employers should go to jail. CNN has an excellent article. One pallet manufacturer, IFCO, had more than 1,000 illegals arrested at their facilities. That is more than 1,000 of our kids and adults who did not have a job. This is just one employer.

IFCO owners and managers should go to jail for this. But they won't.

In Florida half, that is 50%, of construction workers did not show up for work last week because they are here illegally and are afraid of being deported. How many Americans are out of work because these illegals are willing to work for beans and a cardboard shack? This is criminal.

2006-04-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

Sing "Star-Spangled Banner" only in English as written...

...not Spanish, not Mexican and not any other language. If you cannot learn enough English to live here then, damn it, go home. Read more here: CNN .

I am really pissed at all the Mexicans in this country waving the Mexican flag and also expecting me to honor their (unoffical) national independence day, Cinco de Mayo.

If you are in this country then honor our traditions, national anthem, and language. Or the the hell out!

Why are Spanish and Mexican two separate languages. Ask General Electric when a Spanish company contracted for service manuals to be translated from English to Spanish and GE, to save a peso, had them translated in Mexico. The Spanish were really pissed at being insulted.

2006-04-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

Rehab and $30,000 buys Limbaugh a "Get Out Of Jail FREE" card

Ah, it must be nice to make $125,000,000 a year (more or less) and not do jail time like us slobs must do if convicted of the same crime. You get as much justice as you can fight for or pay for. If you or I did this then we'd get a year in jail at least.

More here at CNN .

I have tried to listen to his radio show but could not stand his rhetoric--actually crap. His 'ditto-heads' cannot think for themselves. I have worked with people who thought he was the greatest but I found him to be a pompous fat asshole who laughs all the way to the bank. He panders to telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to know.

Here is a man who points his finger at others for using drugs and then gets caught 'doctor-shopping' for powerful pain killers. Please give me the pain killers if I am ever forced into listening to his drivel! What a hypocrite! Too bad he is off the air for only 5 weeks. I don't listen to him anyway.

2006-04-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Save the internet and our first amendment rights

to free speech. More news here savetheinternet.com :

"Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most. Your local library shouldn’t have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to have its Web site open quickly on your computer.

Net Neutrality allows everyone to compete on a level playing field and is the reason that the Internet is a force for economic innovation, civic participation and free speech. If the public doesn't speak up now, Congress will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by telephone and cable companies that want to decide what you do, where you go, and what you watch online.

This isn’t just speculation -- we've already seen what happens elsewhere when the Internet's gatekeepers get too much control. Last year, Telus -- Canada's version of AT&T -- blocked their Internet customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to workers with whom the company was having a labor dispute. And Madison River, a North Carolina ISP, already tried to block its customers from using any competing Internet phone service."

2006-04-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

Digital piracy worse than child pornography
and I wonder when it will become illegal to resell a book?

The Inquirer has an interesting view on the US's pending new DMCA upgrades.

It seems if you beat the crap out of a member of the RIAA or movie industry then you can get 6 years in prision but if you download one of his precious videos you can get 10 years in prison (the same as a child molester). I wonder if the sentences would run concurrently? If so then if I am looking at ten years in prison for downloading a movie then I ought to be able to have some pleasure beforehand.

Lazarus Long (Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love") summed it up so well: "My status in hell will be determined by the size of the honor guard that I take with me." So I ask you, "Just how much status would I get in prison for stealing a video? For beating the crap out of the RIAA?"

If I download one of Microsoft's pieces of crap then again I might get 10 years in prison but Billy Boy Gates' won't do any prison time for m$ reverse-engineering a lot of other people's software and then selling it as his own. He did not do jail time for theft. That is what it is: theft. Is it OK for m$ and other corporations to steal but not for me? Should I incorporate in order to do my downloads? Hey, there's an idea. The RIAA can only get the assets of the corporation.

Ain't America great or what? You get just as much justice as you can afford or can fight for. Or politicians you can buy. With billons you can buy many of them...

All this DMCA crap is why I enjoy reading science fiction. I cannot download it but I can buy as much as I can read for a few dollars at flea markets and used book stores. I can trade and resell. Favorite authors include Heinlein, Asimov, Zenna Henderson, Spyder Robinson and many others. I have some books that I have reread more than a half dozen times and did not have to pay a reuse fee each time.

I wonder when it will become illegal to resell a book?

2006-04-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

Local family sued by record companies and they don't even own a computer . . .

The story here. The RIAA are assholes, no doubt about it.

Record albums, cassettes, 8-track tapes (ugh), reel-to-reel tapes and other older media should be copied to mp3 formats. Then the media sold, traded or given away.

I am old enough to remember cassette tapes (and 8-track tapes to a limited extent) becoming the greatest recording media because we could record economically off the radio, copy from records and copy other cassettes. Quality in a car was plenty good enough for these cassettes. I didn't need high fidelity of 20 to 20,000Hz response, which you could not get from a cassette anyway. More like 100 to 10000Hz if you were lucky to have excellent equipment. In a car music loudness was more important than fidelity.

Cassettes were traded as desired. And albums. Why did we do it? Because we could not afford the music was the reason. We were kids and we were broke. It was 3 to 5 bucks for an album with perhaps 2 or 3 desired songs, sometimes less. A 45 often was in mono. Minimum wage was less than 2 bucks an hour. If we could find a job...

Any of the USB audio cards for a PC today can do a respectable recording from a good quality TV or CD player. Good quality playback to analog then analog back to digital with no rootkits and other crap to worry about. There is software out there to convert mp3 files to cda format which is what you will find on a CD. Google it. Try 'convert mp3 to cda' as a search term. Then you can play your music in a car CD player that does not have mp3 capability.

I saw earlier version of Magix that would make regular CD music from mp3s. The box mentioned its capability but the instruction manual ignored this feature. It is as if they did not really want this feature to be used.

So am I encouraging people to copy and share. Sure because I know what it is like to be poor. And to envy the kids with money. Music memories are important to me.

I own over 500 CDs of music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I went back years later and purchased high quality media (CDs) so I could continue to enjoy the music of my youth. 28 CDs are Beach Boys. If the RIAA had pissed me off with threats and punishment towards me and my friends back then I would have bootlegged everything. Even today when I can afford any CD I want to purchase I am selective because there is too much orphan music meaning many songs of my youth have not been recorded to CDs. I am tired of buying one CD for for the one song that I don't already have on previous purchases. I miss the days when we could buy a 45 rpm for a single song that we wanted. Now I will be looking for a download site to fill in those individual songs that I am missing.

Sharing is what is happening now. P2P file sharing is easier than trading with your buddy down the street but copying will be done. Slowed but not stopped.

My blog likely will end up being removed because I say that copying is OK if you are broke. I will just start it up somewhere else. I am using a pseudonym anyway. I will just select another one.

Enjoy the music and avoid the RIAA.

2006-04-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

A handgun saved my life in Watts, California . . .

At the time of these two incidents I was a resident of California; currently I live in Texas. In the early 1980s I was on vacation and decided to drive to Los Angeles via Interstate 5, cross to Malibu Beach for a visit, then travel back up the Coast Highway (101).

While in Los Angeles I got lost and ended up in the Watts area of Los Angeles. This is a problem as I am white. I had to stop for a traffic light. It was a 6-lane divided street and I was in the left lane with no other vehicles (witnesses) around. A right turn was out of the question as I knew the street that I was on would take me towards Malibu. While stopped I observed 6-8 black males to the left and the same to the right getting up and walking in my direction. Their eyes were focused on me. I was a runt in size compared to these 'gentlemen.' I was driving a '77 Toyota Land Cruiser. None of these individuals were carrying window-cleaning equipment so I did not believe that they were coming over to wash my windows for a 'small donation.'

To put it bluntly, yes, I feared for my life as there were no cops anywhere and I was the only white person. It would have been dangerous for me to attempt a right turn onto a busy street and I still would have the problem of returning to the original street to continue my trip.

I grabbed my holstered handgun (6-shot .22 magnum) and placed it in plain view on the dash of my vehicle. All dozen or so 'gentlemen' saw the handgun and decided to return to where they were sitting.

Did the mere showing (threat if you prefer) save my life that day? There is no doubt in my mind that it did. Could I have tried driving away? Possibly. Would I have shot to kill if needed? Yes but only as a last resort. I don't believe in warning shots.

The moral of this story is to use a GPS to avoid places like Watts. Carry a gun only if you are prepared to use it and take the legal consequences, especially in California where the dozen or so black gentlemen would have more rights than a single white man.

And, for the record, I would not turn myself in like Bernard Goetz did in New York for shooting the 5 black gentlemen (1984). He did the correct thing in shooting them as I believe that he would have been robbed or worse; this was self-defense, not vigilante justice. Had the blacks not been threatening then he would never have shot them.

Why am I writing this? I am looking to move from Texas and considered California where I am from. I left in 1992. I likely will end up in Idaho where I can defend myself and be armed sufficiently to do so.

2006-04-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

Philips patents an 'anti commercial zapper'

Read all about it here .

Can you image not being able to change the channel when a commercial comes on? The next thing we will lose is the ability to mute the damn annoying things. Or turn the TV off while it is commercial time. Perhaps our TVs will remain on constantly like in Orwell's book, "1984." It is not propaganda, its adverts, so it is OK.

Here is a brief quote:

"The advert enforcer

If a new idea from Philips catches on, the company may not be very popular with TV viewers. The company's labs in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has been cooking up a way to stop people changing channels to avoid adverts or fast forwarding through ads they have recorded along with their target programme."

Just when we thought DRM was bad enough.

I am using SuSE 10.0 Linux and KDE. The multiple windows is a great feature. Perhaps I will start using my computer as a TV and avoid this crap.

2006-04-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

Bible-thumpin' at my front door...

Today is Saturday and the day that Mormon and 7th Day Adventist send their people out to spread the word of their religion.

Knock, knock (actually ring, ring). I had seen two old men with white shirts and black pants walking down the street knocking at each door. I knew that I would receive a visit. So I was prepared...

...when they arrived to offer to preach to them about my religion. I told them that it was only fair. They wanted to stay on the topic of Lord Jehovah. They did not want to hear about my religious leader: Paramahansa Yogananda. So they left.

I am not with the Self-Realization Fellowship but with Swami Kriyananda in Grass Valley, California. He has his problems with women and sex but at least it is not young boys that he is having an affair with like the Catholic priests have.

I don't like bible-thumpers as I have learned that the bible that they are quoting from is a piece of crap. I have seen where mortal man wrote it, edited it, and twisted it.

I don't like the two new Supreme Court justices but I would rather keep my right to keep and bear arms. A lesser evil is the religous crap that will happen now.

I will NOT pray in school, in public places, in government, to the Christian gods. Perhaps they should pray to my gods...

2006-04-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

New York Outlines Options For Microsoft Class Action...

...once a thief always a thief. Micro Soft was once two words and even then stole or 'misappropriated' the software of others like MIT. This is not libel since it is the truth and nothing but.

Microsoft, one word this time, has lost many lawsuits for stealing the software of others and stealing from us. The lawsuits filed for anti-trust have been a joke, a total joke. Microsoft has given the US government so many backdoors to our computers that the government went soft on them. New York got rebates for Microsoft products as part of their anti-trust lawsuit...what a joke.

This is why I use Novell's SuSE 10.0 and Firefox to do this blog. I also use the same software to run my business except for tax software and would use it if it was available.

2006-04-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

High school dropout problem is not with the schools...

but with families, friends, peer groups and society. I spent grades 4, 5 and 6 in Weed, California, elementary school where there was one classroom for each grade. There were Anglos (like me), Hispanics, African-Americans and a smattering of everything else. There was no 'seperate, but equal' crap.

I observed that all students in my classes had the same teacher, same books, same tests, same assignments and yet the blacks got the lowest grades (often failing), the Hispanics were somewhat higher and the Anglos on top. Why? I was expected to study, to do my homework and prepare for tests. Failure was not the fault of the school. If I did poorly my Dad whipped my butt. Talk about incentive! I also lost privileges like TV and desserts.

I have been a teacher and observed the same problem with the various ethnic groups. The dropout problem is not from the school or teachers by and large but from the student, his or her peer group, family and so on. They are responsible and must be held accountable.

In the 1970's when I lived again in Weed I met a great individual, a black minister named the Rev. Green. He and his wife were outstanding people and they did make some improvements within the 'Colored Town' part of town. They were the only black family in town that subscribed to the newspaper. I know because I delivered it.

Think I am full of bs? Go to any high school in the morning and see how many books each student from the various ethnic groups are carrying. I rest my case.

2006-04-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

Decorated conscientious objector buried with honors

and among the bravest of the bravest...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/04/doss.funeral.ap/index.html

Because this is a copyrighted story I cannot quote much of it, only link to it.

Sir, I salute you and wish I could have been there at your funeral as part of your honor guard. You were a brave man.

2006-04-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Wetback, dryback, wetback...

OK, I admit to being prejudiced against wetbacks. I live in Corpus Christi, Texas, where there is a sizeable population of them.

I am a Vietnam-era veteran and a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). I did my time in service for this country in its hour of need.

Just how many of these 'Guest workers' will fight to defend our country? They should be required to register for the draft if they want to work in this country. If they are cowards and unwilling to defend our country then what right do they have to enjoy the fruits of labor here? Why should I defend this country for them? And if there is a draft then perhaps they should be first in line to be drafted.

So they are wetbacks to get here, drybacks while they work here and wetbacks again when they flee like cowards to go back home.

I am a life member of the National Rifle Association, have a Concealed Carry Permit (my blog is a pseudonym), armed to the teeth and willing to do whatever is necessary to defend my country against all enemies foreign and domestic. If this country is attacked the next sound will be splashes as the guest workers go back home. Good riddance as we should have prevented their entry if they are unwilling to be drafted to defend our country.

2006-03-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

Geek uses packet sniffer to catch his girlfriend cheating

More details here:

http://www.lenholgate.com/archives/000638.html

I am sorry to hear of your problems with your girlfriend. I have been there and know a little of what it is like. Unfortunately for men there is less support then women have from their friends.

With my notebook I used AirSnare and Ethereal (in XP) to see if neighbors, etc., are bootlegging my WiFi (not to spy on my family). I had some suspicious activity so I now use WEP to stop it. The software combination worked quite well. I could monitor all the WiFi traffic. The router came with Windows software to log all traffic leaving the router if I wanted to do that.

I also log into my wireless router and check to see who is using it. I use a desktop running SuSE Linux and Firefox via Ethernet cable. I am nearly weaned from Windows. Unfortunately I cannot do my taxes with TurboTax yet in Linux.

Now that my SuSE 10.0 Linux on a HP notebook can use WiFi and WEP I now have all the family members using WEP (they use XP). FYI, a Linksys WPC11 ver 4 wireless adapter works well with this flavor of Linux right out of the box. I mention this as I tried numerous wireless cards until I found one that worked without a lot of technical skills that I don't have.

I now have many more neighbors due to housing construction behind my house. Also my equipment is on the second floor of a wood house. I discovered that the new wireless cards and routers can have a range of more than 100 meters so there are many houses within that radius. My estimate is at least 25 houses within that circle. I feel that router to router is possible so that radius could at least double. All the more reason to monitor and encrypt.

My step-daughter is typical pain in the rear and knows it all. When her mother mentioned that she was bootlegging a neighbor's WiFi at the apartment where she lives while at college I pointed out just how insecure her email letters to her boy friends were. Both her mother and she tried to jump on me for eavesdropping on her conversations at home (as if I really care--I never used the logging feature of the router).
The point of this is to show that WiFi that does not use encryption at least to the router is exposed to everyone using the above mentioned software. At the router the data is loggable.

So good luck in recovering from this breakup with your girl friend. Sometimes people just grow apart through nobody's fault.

So please be aware of the insecurity of WiFi. If I can monitor my system's activity then almost anyone can. I wonder if I should have never said a thing to my smart-ass step-daughter? Nah, 'cause her mother (and I) would have to pay her fines and lawyers' fees if she is caught stealing WiFi access.

2006-03-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

Where will America's future scientists get their chemistry sets if chemistry sets are banned?

Don't think it cannot happen? Think again. I remember quite well my first and only chemistry set at about the age of 13. When I ran out of candles as a heat source I scraped pine resin and used that. Stinky, smoky and my Dad finally put a stop to that.

The amount of the chemicals listed that a chemistry set would contain is insignificant. But what about our schools' ability to teach chemistry (and physics)? At College of the Siskiyous in 1967, Mr. Kinkade, the Teacher, required the students to identify various metallic samples. I remember that mine was aluminum and I had a heck of a time getting it to react to the acid.

This country MUST encourage more people to enter the sciences. For many of the below listed materials I can figure out substitutes and alternative methods of manufacturing them using nothing more than an electric sander and lots of time grinding into fine power the aluminum cylinder head from a car or the magnesium parts from a motorcycle.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/legalaction.htm

The United States CPSC has initiated criminal legal action against us and other chemical suppliers.
In short, the CPSC would like to ban the public from all access to chemicals. This would mean an end to hobbies such as model rocketry, pyrotechnics and of course chemistry. One by one, our freedoms are slowly being taken away from us - this action must be stopped now.
Specifically, the CPSC is focusing on certain chemicals and metals at this time. The current CPSC injunction would require:

"Not sell, give away or otherwise distribute any of the following Metals for which the particle size is finer than 100 mesh (or particles less than 150 microns in size) to any recipient who does not possess a valid
manufacturing license for explosives issued by the ATF:"

Aluminum and Aluminum alloys
Magnalium metal
Magnesium metal
Magnesium/Aluminum alloys
Titanium and Titanium alloys
Zinc metal
Zirconium metal

"Not sell, give away or otherwise distribute any of the following chemicals to any recipient who does not possess a valid manufacturing license for explosives issued by the ATF:"

Antimony and antimony compounds
Benzoate compounds
Nitrate compounds
Permanganate compounds
Chlorate compounds
Perchlorate compounds
Salicylate compounds
Sulfur

2006-03-03T09:33:00.000-08:00

Censorship is alive and well at SecureComputing

and BoingBoing has ways of evading their censorship:

http://www.boingboing.net/censorroute.html
Some information, such as child porn or how to build a nuke, should be restricted or blocked. Sites like BoingBoing have neither so should not be censored. I discovered these links from http://www.ioerror.us/2006/03/01/this-is-secure-computing/ or http://www.ioerror.us/ .

I will post more as I find them. I grew up reading anything I wanted. I had my first library card when I was eight years old in the little town of Tennant, California! My Mother was the Librarian and she did not believe in censorship. She permitted meto read anything I wanted. Later librarians were just as open as she was. I cut my eye teeth on robert [Anson] Heinlein. I remember his middle name very well because librarians have a habit of adding his middle name in pencil to the title page. I have never understood why they did that. In my opinion his masterpieces include "Time Enough For Love" and "
Stranger In A Strange Land." The latter gave us the term 'grok'. I recommend these to everyone although many religions would find fault with them.

The following is from BoingBoing's web site listed above:

A group called Peacefire created proxy software called Circumventor to bypass censorware. Install this software on your home computer and allow others to use your proxy to access the web, or use your proxy from work or school to access any web site. (Thanks, Sean!)
Bennett Haselton of Peacefire, who developed Circumventor, says:

"For 90% of users in the USA affected by SmartFilter, there is no reason to use anything but Circumventor. The reasons are:

1) It's simple to set up. Just run three simple point-and-click installers. We even have a wizard that comes up automatically to help you set up port forwarding on your router if you've never done it before.
2) You are not required to install anything on the "censored" computer, you just bring a URL in with you to work.
3) It works even if the censored network blocks direct connections to IP addresses outside the network (which would break some of the other solutions recommended in this guide).

"If you're in Iran, Saudi Arabia, or some other country censored by SmartFilter, then your best choices are (a) TOR, or (b) use a Circumventor if you can get someone in a "free country" to set one up for you. (The reason Circumventor works for 90% of workplace-filtered users in the U.S. is that they can almost always set it up on their home computer and take the URL in with them. But not everybody in a censored *country* has someone outside who can help them.)

"Circumventor is the *only* method (as far as I know) that will work reliably on computers where people are blocked from installing their own software (or even changing proxy settings) -- because after you install it on your home computer, all it gives you is a URL, and you can take that URL in with you to work and use it whenever you want. Many people in workplaces and libraries are blocked from installing software on their computers. Or even if they could, it would be a definite 'smoking gun' if anyone noticed that the software had been installed; whereas our software leaves fewer traces. (There is a 'smoking gun' in the form of a URL in the URL history, but that's much less likely to be noticed than a TOR icon on your desktop!)"
Rich says, "This cgi-bin script is the guts inside Peacefire's Circumventor - a Perl CGI script that proxys for you. While Circumventor is a full script to get it working under Win2k/XP, the cgiproxy script alone lets you get it going on Linux and (presumeably) Mac OSX. And the best part - the setup is dirt simple - if you're already running a web server, pretty much just drop it in your cgi-bin directory.

2006-02-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

Gracenote, CDDB and freedb musings

I have had several software programs that I paid good money for. When I purchased and installed them they worked well in looking up CD music tracks. Now they don't want to fetch the information. The issue is with Gracenote when the software accesses the music database.

A Google search shows that the CDDB is no longer accessable because of Gracenote claims to ownership and is demanding ever increasing licensing fees. We the people filled that database.

My iTunes is broken and my Creative products as well. Other people are having problems.

I contributed some of the songs listed in that database and always assumed that it was open for all of us. Imagine to my surprise to find that we were misled or lied to. Henceforth if I have the opportunity to add songs to that database the information will not be accurate at all. In fact it might go beyond gibberish. Look at is as my version of the Boston Tea Party or civil disobedience. Or a poison pill. I get real sloppppy with my tyuping.......or can you delete the information that I contributed?

I intend to speak of this issue far and wide. I also will continue to promote Nero products as they use freedb. I will encourage other software companies to change to freedb. I will also encourge someone to write a intercept software program to convert requests from software like Creative to query the freedb database instead.

I have to use XP currently because equivalent software does not exist for Linux yet. Both of my computers are now dual boot with XP and SuSE 10.0. I now have even more reason to switch to Linux.

Power to the people!

2006-02-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

I believe that Corporate America sometimes goes too far so please donate or assist Patti Santangelo in her fight against the RIAA and their lawsuit against her and her family:

You can make a PayPal donation by clicking the button under the picture below, or you can send a cheque or money to:

Patti Santangelo
C/O PO Box 274
Hartsdale
New York 10530-0274

All donations are held in escrow and Patti personally approves all outgoings and expenses.

2006-01-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

...will be the normal topics of the day for my rants and raves.