What a crazy weekend full of parties. Friday night was chill, but Saturday we went to Jason & Anna’s 2nd Annual Memorial Weekend bash. It was pretty fun, and Jason didn’t quite make it through the night unscathed :) We crashed there, and awoke to the loud clanging of cleaning.
Then after a couple hours we headed on over to Eli’s place for his “recovery BBQ”. That was cool too, and we got to play guitar hero and eat bacon-wrapped shrimp!! We couldn’t stay the full party because we had a party of our own to host. So we left and got home around 6PM.
I was exhausted, and just laid down for a few minutes, but could only afford to do so for about 15 minutes. We had to rush to prepare for our party, with the first guest arriving before 8PM. Hardly anyone came until 9:30PM or so anyway, at which point the party became decently packed. We didn’t invite as huge of a list as normal, a lot of guys were too wasted to show up, a few unexpected girls showed up, and I daresay it was a 50%-or-better ratio. Best…Ratio…Evar.
Saturday night ended with a couple people getting in a fight, and I had the brand-new experience of breaking up a fight, something I’ve never done before. Let alone at my own party. Let alone in my own bedroom.
Some people just don’t respect the sanctity of people’s bedrooms. Given that this same person went out and pissed in my yard — NOT during a party — rather than use the bathroom like a proper civilized individual, I somehow suspect that I should have realized something was wrong with said person earlier. I had also previously asked that he not be brought over.
Oh, the drama!
But there were other really fun things happening during the party. Cool things. Hot things. Stuff that doesn’t suck. Yes.
Finally, I crashed — last of everyone who was still there — after watching the episode of American Dad that I fell asleep during. Around 4:30AM. Got up the next morning and we headed to Shannon & Christian’s BBQ. It was pretty chill, and I saw everyone who didn’t bother to show up at my party the day before. And they heard about it ;)
We left early around 6:15PM, because we had to go home and clean our house some for the county inspection we had tuesday.
Ever since the party, our place has been plagued with the smell of death. If anyone knows what it could be, please let us know. It’s smelled like a rotting dead corpse ever since the party. Sick.
UPDATE: 1/24/2007: Another party with another fight. Read about it here:
This is a repost. I did not write this. The original writer is anonymous.
TOP SECRET FACT:Most modern cars have tracking transponders! While you drive on highways. Wires in the road and 14 feet above, work fine and log your car movement. Read on for more.
Jesus. Apple starts a class action suit using a guy's name as the main plaintiff without his permission. Now, he is asking to be removed from the suit, and they are essentially suing him.
So now we have it: Lawyers suing their own "clientele".
I'm sorry to call him a retard, but I'm trying to call attention to the seriousness of the situation here.
New Orleans Police shot and killed a mentally disabled man six days after Katrina struck. They claimed he reached into his waistband so they shot him. This was a lie. Autopsy results revealed he was shot in the back.
The police were called to the scene to stop violence. Why? To protect innocents from being hurt. What did they do? They hurt an innocent. If they cannot perform their job, they do not deserve it. They deserve jail time.
Meanwhile, everyone here in Fairfax County is supposed to be all sad that 2 officers were shot. Wah wah. There was a funeral procession that created traffic jams and everything. Was there a funeral procession when the Fairfax County SWAT team raided the wrong address and killed an innocent optometrist? Hell no.
So basically, we're being told (manipulated?) to be more sad when a cop dies in the line of duty — a known risk — than we are when a cop does the very oppositte of his job and kills an innocent. I personally think a cop killing an innocent is 100 times worse than a criminal killing an innocent. The criminal was acting in his own nature and will face justice (in theory). The cop is acting against his job description and will get away with it (always).
I invite any reader to follow-up on this case months from now to see if there was any resolution whatsoever. I would guess no.
In America, being mentally disabled is a crime punishable by summary execution. Just ask the guy who was shot in the airport tarmac while his wife screamed, "He's bi-polar, he didn't take his medication!". His crime? Not being mentally competent enough to realize that he needed to follow their instructions. Did they shoot to disable? No, they shot to kill. As usual.
You really think we're that different from other oppressive regimes around the world? We're just more precise, that's all.
Holllllllllllllllllllllllllly shit… My wallet lost on 3/27 was returned to me today at work!
Now, I really would have preferred my wallet with $500 being returned, compared to my wallet with $71. But still, it's nice to have something go right for a change. Of course, everyone made me go give the girl $10 for finding it.
So, it was in a chair. In the conference room. Where we had all been instructed to move our chairs last week. In fact, it may have been inside the chair that I sat on while I worked all day.
If that is the case……… Then I went through all kinds of hell to replace a wallet that was six inches from my ass, 40 hours a week. I hope that's not the case but I wouldn't put it past myself.
Basically, I had to cut up all the cards inside of it. But at least I have a building access badge again.
I was looking through some of my old photos, and this one brought a quick rant to mind.
The “…And Justice For All” is quite ironic, as I think Blacksburg is the town with the least justice for all.
I don’t even know where I should start.
My friend D having girls lie that he pulled a knife on them, and then having a judge rule that he is guilty for a crime he didn’t commit?
Or my friend C who was attacked by 2 others, his heart literally stopped, with multiple reconstructive surgeries done on multiple people — and the perpetrators got ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASSES as a punishment. Read on for more. (more…)
Well, I must say I am both sad and relieved that two shows Carolyn & I watched religiously for 8 years (actually only 7 for Malcolm) are both over. (Malcolm In The Middle, That 70’s Show). (more…)
This is what they gave us, to satisfy the freedom of information act?
One frame with a few pixels of the nose of the plane?
Does anyone else have any other frames of the plane? This was all I could find.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click on the image to go to my FlickR page, where you can mouse over it and it will point out where the nose is.
Thank you, Dept. Of Justice, for such clarity.
I am wondering if they were ordered to release a video of a plane, and this is their way of doing the bare minimum.
Either way, don’t believe the lies. This doesn’t prove all conspiracy theories right OR wrong. Until they release an actual videotape, many of us simply are not willing to believe with 100% confidence that a 757 struct the Pentagon on Sept 11th.
FromSlashDog.org: "After the EU recently ratified controversial data retention laws for ISPs and other telecommunication companies, it now looks like the US government will get full access to the data. From the article: 'US authorities can get access to EU citizens' data on phone calls, sms and emails, giving a recent EU data-retention law much wider-reaching consequences than first expected'. Apparently, the US has been calling members of the EU to 'ensure that the data collected […] be accessible to them'."
It's just great that the U.S. is "persuading" other countries to give us their data. I sure as hell wouldn't want other countries having data about me, and I don't think anyone from Europe wants the U.S. to have data about them. This is just technology used globally for oppression. This is all part of the globalist agenda, anyway.
I mean, now that it's out that the Bush administration has spied on tens of millions of Americans, they are going to let the tendrils reach even farther? The European Union's data retention laws are horrid. ISPs must keep track of who you emailed for six months. SMS messages are monitored, as are phone calls (which must be kept for two years). And the U.S. gets access to all this to boot.
Pretty soon, there will be no place for anyone to hide.
As always, some featured comments I found by various people:
No, terrorists have never heard of encryption.
No, terrorists cannot route packets to foreign computers and back.
No, terrorists have not heard of proxy servers.
No, terrorists can't steal cellphones, or setup phony account to make calls.
No, terrorists have no other means of communication.
Come on, they are terrorists, they are dumb, right? The only reason why they attack anybody is because they are evil, right? Plluuuueeeaaasssee.
I'd be surprised if with all this data retention and spying (both US and EU) there will be single terrorist caught *before* the act.
Guess how many terrorists have been caught by the London camera network – which was installed to track down terrorists. If you guessed "zero" you'd 100% correct. Instead that very camera network is now used to keep track of every vehicle that enters the inner city on London.
"Hey, at least we're not violating our own constitution on this one." [HAHAHA]
Only in America, the land of the free, can the government illegally spy on your phone calls, internet activity, and reading habits, and get away with it. Hell according to some poll, American citizens are OK with it. In my eyes it's treason what the gov't is doing. If this is the land of the free then why do I have to worry about what I'm saying on the phone when I'm talking to my friend about buying a firearm? Just the phrase "Let's go shooting today" can get me on a red list? Please.
I would bet that the only way Europe would agree to this is if the US agreed to pass similar retention laws and allowed European access to that data.
Country A can't spy on its own citizens (legally), but country B can (because they are "foreigners"). Country B can't spy on its own citizens (legally), but country A can (because they are "foreigners"). Gee, I wonder how they'll solve that problem?
Looks like the terrorists are winning. Our governments are becoming more corrupt and we are losing our freedoms. Soon, we will be in the same position as those living in the middle east. However, everyone will be wearing shawls over their head and face, not for impropriety concerns, but to hide from the cameras on every street corner that are watching our every movement.
Read about Britain's new process of watching every car in the country:
Of course America is on top, by a long shot. We are the least free nation in the world, in terms of incarceration. And India only has 29 per 100,000 in jail? Maybe India's not so bad… They have a tech industry. They have legalized marijuana in certain areas. They are the largest democracy on the planet. They have a lot of poor people that can be hired as servants. Hmm….
Aided by the corporations — AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth — the NSA has been secretly gathering phone call records of tens of millions of Americans; the majority of whom aren't suspected of any crime.
Only Qwest refused to give the NSA information. Yay Qwest. Stand up for our rights. Can I switch my phone service to Qwest somehow? The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qest. "They told us they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. In other words, the current administration is completely unwilling to even attempt to do things legally.
The usefulness of the NSA's domestic phone call database as a counterterrorism tool is unclear.
Created by Truman in 1952, the NSA is charged with protecting the US from foreign threats. The agency was considered so secret that the government previously refused to confirm its existence. Insiders used to joke that NSA stood for "No Such Agency." In 1975, an investigation revealed that the NSA had been intercepting, without warrants, international communications for more than 20 years at the request of the CIA et al. The spy campaign, code-named "Shamrock," led to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was designed to protect Americans from illegal eavesdropping. This is the law that George Bush has blatantly decided to break. He is above the law, and can go over the constitution whenever he wants. And he has appointed Attorney Generals who will support him every time (of course).
Jamie adds: Traditionally, the devices which record dialed phone numbers are called pen registers, and trap-and-trace devices. The ECPA provided some legal privacy protection. It was controversial when Section 214 of the Patriot Act amended 50 USC 1842 to allow the FBI to record this information with minimal oversight. The Department of Justice has been required for some time to report to Congress the number of pen registers and trap-and-traces, though in recent years [PDF, see question 10] it declared that information classified.
So, DOJ circumvents their requirement to report by declaring it a matter of national security? Just typical.
Dear Osama,
please can you start using the telephone more often? We're having real trouble finding where you are! It would help if you phoned one of your relatives, spoke loudly and clearly into the phone, and if you can say a few of our keywords that would be great.
Thanks!,
The NSA
This database might also be useful for trying to track down those pesky leakers. For example, a search could be done for all phone numbers that have called Dana Priest of the Washington Post or Jim Risen of the New York Times. According to independent journalist Wayne Madsen (himself a former NSA employee), the NSA has targeted journalists in a codeword project formerly called Firstfruits
Repeat after me: The terrorist threat is minimal.
In the last ten years, smoking has killed 4 million Americans. Traffic has killed 400,000. Terrorism has killed 4,000. When will you stop handing total power to the government just to fight this one, close to irrelevant risk? And why not spend those many billions on the healthcare system and traffic safety? Or Katrina?
I think you don't appreciate how clever this really is. Once the terrorists are no longer jealous of your freedom, they will lose interest and leave you alone. All the NSA has to do is remove all of your freedoms and the problem is solved.
This is what happens with 50 people wear Best Buy-like uniforms and walk into a Best Buy semi-pretending to work there, but not actually doing any work.
Pictures were taken. Hidden cameras were used. Police were called.
Boycot Best Buy! They screwed me over on my warrantee, refusing to fix or replace my $400 cd player, but not before wasting over 12 hours of my time with me bringing it in for repairs that they later said were only cleanings (they never fixed the unit, not even once). I have since refused to buy any items from Best Buy. I listened to skippy music for over a year.
(And Mom & Dad, I still have no use for those Best Buy gift cards, does anyone want to buy them back from me?)
U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has snuck the dreaded and condemned "broadcast flag" into a bill on Net Neutrality. In effect, it would allow broadcasters to veto any features of digital televisions and downstream devices. This would ultimately give Hollywood studios control over technology and ensure that technological innovation does not affect their business model.
One alarming element of the broadcast flag proposal is how it prohibits the use of free and open source software in digital TV applications (including PC operating systems, video drivers, etc). This is because tech companies would be required to build devices to be robust, to resist the attempts of their owners to modify them.
Um………… Can we say "load of crap"? As a user of open-source video drivers who has used his video card to record hundreds of gigs of television, I do not want my rights to use my technology as I see fit taken away.
Net neutrality is good, but this bill is a poison pill that should be rejected.
“A study by US and British researchers on frequency of illnesses shows that even when you compare like groups in the US and the UK, people in the US are considerably sicker than their counterparts in the UK. This is after factors such as age, race, income, education and gender were taken into consideration. (more…)
ZD-Net has the latest on a sweeping telecom bill in the Senate. The bill provides no support for net neutrality. The bill does, however, include a provision to authorize the FCC to outlaw digital receivers that record broadcasts. The article states that those receivers would be replaced with devices that treat anything with an audio broadcast flag as copy-protected.
Are Americans going to march off the cliff like lemmings, allowing their rights to be sold to corporations? The law already allows us to make recordings of any shows we want. They are trying to take this way by incrementally placing restrictions on the technology. Don't let it happen.
Sorry, I lost the link to the original article but you can read about it on http://www.slashdot.org
and I daresay it was a 50%-or-better ratio. Best…Ratio…Evar.
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