JOURNAL: ANECOTES: Intel-paid “vacation” to Phoenix I took around 1997

Heh — while cleaning up my “c:\pub” directory, my repository of personal stuff…. I stumbled upon a TXT file of an email I sent telling everyone about my Intel-sponsored trip to Phoenix that I had in 1997 for some job interviews. Too bad I didn’t get the job, but then again D.C. has been very flexible for me and our house is still worth 2.5X what we paid for it so it’s not a total loss here, only having to work 6 out of 10 yrs to survive comfortably. But I digress. I was quite poor as a student — though I had my parents to bail me out if there was a real emergency. It was funny how much I appreciated things like.. being able to reimburse paying for water. Anyway, the recount of my trip is past the jump…

 

date_created_gmt = 20090304T01:22:00

Read on for today’s interesting stories.

 

links for 2008-08-15

Nader Says Free the Dopers, Jail the Corporate Crooks. FIVE YEARS for North Dakota Man Who Bought $32 Worth of Salvia Divinorum.

 

JOURNAL: MEDICAL: Biopsy results: not cancer. Radicular cyst (again).

Well, it’s not cancer. It was simply a regrown radicular cyst, possibly thanks to the suckitude of my last oral surgeon, possibly thanks to the suckitude of the 3 root canals in those 2 teeth, or possibly due to none of the above and simple bad luck and/or genetics.

Doctor’s recommendation is for me to get the area cleaned out again, losing tooth #19 & #20, and paying $1150 out of pocket because Carolyn’s Aetna insurance only covers 50%. They told me there that most people’s Aetna covers 80%, so a special thanks to Carolyn’s employer for giving out shitty dental benefits. But then again, dental benefits are getting shittier and shittier by the year, with most companies scaling back maximum yearly payout from $1500 to $1250 in the last 10 years. My dentist was just commenting on how this has gone down, despite dental costs going up. People: Pay attention to your dental benefits when seeking employment. If a few people turn down employment based on inferior benefits, companies will be forced to negotiate better scams. It is unfortunate that our capitalist system will gradually move towards exploitation unless each individual is individually vigilant. This is one of the reasons why socialized health care can be much better for the average person.

So, it’s either $1150 out of pocket to go back in in an equally invasive procedure — or I can wait for when and if it grows back, and have an equally invasive surgery for a mere $135 out of pocket. So I am being encouraged to not deal with the problem, or pay over eight times as much.

[sarcasm on] Gee, our capitalist health care system is the best on the planet. It’s so good that the republicans have prevented us from running things like the rest of the civilized world does. It’s great that money encourages people to seek out less healthy solutions. [/sarcasm off]

It would be cheaper (in terms of total money spent; NOT for me) to fix it for good with the apoco ($1150), yet I am encouraged to keep coming back and pay for cheaper surgeries ($130), thus giving the insurance companies more profit by having more business. Keeping me sick for their profit; fining me 8X as much if I want to get better. Welcome to America. (How do I get out?)

 

LINKS: 45 days in jail for selling bacon-wrapped hotdogs, Jessica Rabbit as a real hot chick, hilarious stoner arrest, and other ridiculous stories

It’s a crazy day today! Check it out… The Jessica Rabbit picture is a realization of many childhood fantasies!

 

LINKS: Infocom, Blockbuster, water wars, fake shows, real drug addiction stats from the govt, UN pro-Islam censorship, what constitutes child porn?, Dollar Store tips

• WATER WARS: UN rejects access to water as basic human right — You have no right to live; you are a slave. “A hungry man is never free.” – Even truer for a thirsty man. They actually removed all references that recognized access to water as a human right from their resolution! Bottled water buyers have increased the potential profit so much that there are now likely corporate influences on global politics. The privatization of water has been one of the most important events to happen to us as a species in decades, is a much bigger deal than fighting over oil and energy, and is generally under-focused in the media. It’s only going to get worse. (tags: water rights UN)
• Read on for more stories.. Lots more today———>

 

LINKS: Federal marijuana decriminalization bill, Dubai bans Twitter, rape, RIAA, photographers’ rights, Darwin, wiretapping, and being firstborn sucks

WAR ON DRUGS: Federal marijuana decriminalization bill introduced — tell your congressman to support it here. Surveys tend to show that around half of Americans support decriminalization of marijuana. Since this is not a direct democracy, and you don’t get a vote, letting your congressman know what to do is the only way you will be represented. So speak up. Of course this wont make a real difference, as only 1% of marijuana arrests occur at the federal level. But federal penalties are draconian and extreme. (tags: marijuana Democrats BarneyFrank)

More stories past the jump —>

 

LINKS: Tim And Eric album, Pirate Bay anonymous blogging, Facebook disses the dead, Twitter saves someone, and more

I gotta figure out how to get this Tim And Eric album.  Anyway, read on for the list. I think I’m slowly learning what not to do to mess up the formatting with the new version of wordpress.

 

LINKS: Asshole Officer Franklin White shoots an 8-year-old kid, Parachuting cats, recreational drugs, bad cops & censoring ISPs, 6-year-old felony sexual harassment

ABUSE OF AUTHORITY / TECHNOLOGY WAR / CENSORSHIP / CORPORATIONS: Time Warner/RoadRunner blocking web access to BadCopNews.com — but only in Southern California, where Officer Franklin White shot a mom & her 8-year-old son in an alleged road rage incident. Assuming the cause and effect are true (And they certainly seem to be), then if this does not anger every American reading it, I question whether you belong in my country. Corporate censorship is legal, but you can be damn sure it was government pressure that caused this. DON’T PAY FOR ISPs THAT WORK AGAINST YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. What the hell? You pay money to access the internet, a world of information, and you can’t even find out about a local cop that shoots 8-year-olds, because the company you paid has decided to give you the privilege of paying for your own censored ignorance? FUCK YOU, COMCAST. Someone should burn a flag in front of their headquarters. Read on for PARACHUTING KITTIES.

 

LINKS: Celebrity D&D stats! Ancient anime. ISPs spying on you. 14yo felon took apart camera.

Particularly funny are the D&D stats! Did you know George W. Bush constitution is really high? I think it should be 0. (There’s a joke that exactly 3 readers got.)

 

LINKS: Apple hypocracy, taxpayer-funded censorship, 6-year-old charged with sexual harassment, Roommates.com lawsuit

Read on for the links, and an explanation (in the comments) of why Apple’s legal action is both unnecessary and hypocritical.

 

LINKS: photographers’ rights, underly-harsh punishments, hipocracy, tire tracking, AOL 911 censorship

D.C. stadium visitor forced to delete pictures (no, it was not Glen) “We have the authority to ask them to remove the picture from the camera.” (“ask” could be the operative word in that statement) STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, people.

TECHNOLOGY WAR: All cars in the last 2 years broadcast their identity in plaintext on RF spectrums. In other words, they could, for example, create a bomb that only explodes when a specific car passes it, without any sort of camera attached. NOT GOOD. And sold to us as being “for your protection”, of course. How long until it’s illegal to disable these?

If the War On Drugs is so important that we have the highest prison population in the planet because of it — then why are the police allowed to be above the law? Cop+Wife stole pot and cocaine from evidence room. Not charged. Think you wouldn’t be charged if you stole this from an evidence room? Why do they get off free? With great power comes more responsibility, not less! Remember — this is the cop that baked the weed up into brownies with his wife, ate them, then called 911 saying, “I think we’re dying. Time is going really, really slow.” It was all over the news. Of COURSE they’re not charged! Now he can continue to be a cop elsewhere! And really, I think all drugs should be legalized — but the fact of the matter is, it is a crime that they themselves arrest people for, but somehow they themselves are exempt at the same time. It’s quite easy to to not question the validity of enforcing a bad law, when that law is not forced upon you.

UNDERLY-HARSH PUNISHEMNTS, VIDEO INCLUDED: How much jail time do you think you would get for pushing a cop down some stairs? Officer Fernando Trinidad is scum. If it’s the other way around, however, cops can push you down some stairs, and, get this–only lose 8 hours vacation time. Your tax dollars at work to abuse you.! They actually charged her w/battery on a law enforcement officer, but they were of course dropped. It’s a typical police tactic to charge someone they abuse with battery, so that they will go away and not complain about the brutality in exchange for charges being dropped. But of course, once dropped, these people usually sue (and they should — cops lie when they make deals all the time, and would like to put you in jail, if they decided their gut told them that was there you belonged).

911: AOL News site bans PrisonPlanet.com links, because this corporation doesn’t like other news sites talking about 911 conspiracies Real nice. AOL customers pay for the privilege of being censored? Or, if it’s free — the “value added” by using it is that you don’t get alternate viewpoints. Just fucking dandy. Anyway, this is old news, but PrisonPlanet just heard about it… probably because nobody uses AOL services :) ZING!

 

LINKS: This Is Your Brain On God, and Comcast sucks.

This Is Your Brain on God. Very interesting article about research into stimulating your brain to make you perceive God. Other research has already shown that our brain has been hardwired to have religious experiences from the start, so this is the next logical step. By the way, Comcast HDTV sucks. Just look at these screenshots. Comcast is a shitty company. Drop them now. Find alternative ISPs using http://www.broadbandreports.com.

 

LINKS: idiotic abuses of authority in schools, UN supports censorship, Scientology, Sony==Pirates

Reporter videotapes cheerleading competition; charged with felony possession of obscene matter depicting sexual conduct of a person under 18! So… um… Why isn’t the school in trouble for hosting public competitions that depict sexual conduct of persons under 18? Now the reporter will fail security clearances, even though the charges wont stand. Looks like the system can fuck you, even if you don’t deserve it. Or maybe the guy had more on the videotape… But videotaping a cheerleading competition is grounds for your arrest and search of your videotape?!?! Hello? It’s a public event. Photographers rights! Buuuut… SCHOOLS ARE STUPID… SO… When an athletic girl strains ligament, is hospitalized, put in a brace, given crutches — guess what happened next? (This was Hillsborough — I assume the same one where they dump arrested cripples onto the floor to make sure they are handicapped.) The school took her crutches away from her — FOR NOT HAVING A DOCTOR’S NOTE — causing her to further damage her knee. And have surgery. Inevitable lawsuit ensues — and I hope they get millions. YOU DON’T DO THAT.

WAR ON TERROR: U.S. tortures their prisoners of war – no shit – more news from Captain Obvious. How many of these accounts have to come out for this to stop? Does nobody give a shit that we are treating some individuals as bad as China or Nazi Germany? The constitution was specific: ALL persons have rights, not just citizens. When the constitution talked about voting, it said “citizens”, not “all persons”. Duh. But the global government does not care about constitutional rights — hell, United Nations Secretary-General stands behind the censorship of Fitna. I seem to remember appeasement didn’t work with Hitler in World War 2 — so why are politicians trying to appease fundamentalist muslims who want to censor anything that might offend them? If the United Nations is supposed to define human rights, why be a fucking hypocrite about free speech? FUCK YOU, secretary-general Ban Ki-moon — this IS about free expression, contrary to your attempt at doublethink by stating otherwise.

SCIENTOLOGY IS A DANGEROUS CULT: IRS documents leaked (full pdf). Another great leak brought to you by ANONYMOUS, the full version of the Church Of Scientology IRS-related documents. Grab this while you can. Grab this now, and own a piece of history regarding how Scientology deals with money. Probably about as bad as Sony BMG, which was raided in France, and found to be operating their network with pirated software. Now they are being sued for piracy. Remember Sony going out of its way to sue anyone who “pirates” any of their technologies, and to even stop modchips? They’re hypocrites (just like the UN today). What are they thinking? They’ve rootkitted their customers, they’ve idiotically sued a great accessory shop because they dared to sell their PSPs, and now this? All I can say is: Another day, another shitty Sony story. Viva la France!

 

LINKS: Starbucks hates Wiccans? Pregnant smoking not so bad? Cops kill people in and out of jail…

Starbucks hates Wiccans? We’ll see what the lawsuit eventually says. Smoking while pregnant found to be neglible (but not harmless) during the first 5 months of pregnancy. Sounds like an interesting study whose results are bound to be very unpopular, and thus highly contested due to the irrational emotions children bring out in people. I blame DNA.

ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Cop’s tactics in arresting a DUI cause a man to go into a permanent coma. He was never charged. 17 years later (3/2008), he is charged with murdering disc jockey Donald Munsey. This is what happens when you ignore a problem. Penalties for police should be GREATER than those for civilians, not less. Those with more power must also have more responsibility for those actions. Christ, even Peter Parker’s uncle knew that. Either way, the growing trend is hurting both the people, and the law itself, because many have little respect for the law when they behave like this. And did Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Office in Maricopa County treat alcoholic inmate worse than a dog? Sheriff had bragged about treating dogs better than humans at their jail. Inmate dead from lack of medical attention. “Jurors won’t much like an alcoholic who steals from his family. But they also might recognize that being arrested is not a death sentence. And that once a person is in Maricopa County jail, he’s our responsibility.” Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s attitude and actions are quite pathetic to me.

 

LINKS: Technology War (religious censorship of Fitna movie), War On Drugs vs dying child’s last wish, tasered to death over hot pockets

CENSORSHIP/RELIGION: Network Solutions takes down website for hosting anti-Islam movies — free speech online is controlled by only a few corporations, and they just want everyone to get along so that we keep buying stuff. When your domain name holder can pull your account at any time, you don’t truly have the freedom to express what you want. Avoid NetworkSolutions, and avoid GoDaddy. Go elsewhere for your needs; these guys are not YOUR friend, not even when you PAY them.  But you can still watch it on Google Video HERE.

Speaking of religion… SCIENTOLOGY IS A DANGEROUS, CRIMINAL CULT: Read about Gareth Cales and Sean Carasov — it looks like Scientologists poisoned Sean Carasov’s cat, then had him arrested for “threats” which have not been disclosed, much like Keith Hanson. Ultimately, on the protest day, Gareth had to have the police intervene to keep them from being followed into the subway. This is scary stuff. All Scientologist leaders should contract cancer and die. The world would be a much better place. All hail ANONYMOUS and XENU! 6AUP602!

WAR ON DRUGS HURTS CHILDREN (VIDEO SEGMENT): Douchebag U.S. Prisons Deny Man Temporary Release So Dying Daughter Can Have Last Wish – To Hug Her Father. Um, what about a conjugal visit? Man is in jail on a drug conviction. Remember: Drugs are victimless crimes. It probably hurt the child a lot more to lose a father, than how much “society” was hurt by the father’s actions. Yet here, a child has become a victim to a compassionless system; the American Justice system — which imprisons the most non-violent people of any system in the planet. Laws are not Morals, and in my book, non-violent criminals are, for the most part political prisoners.

Speaking of children…Child tasered to death after Mom makes him return to store he works at to face discipline for stealing Hot Pockets …. I guess before tasers, they would’ve shot him in the head? Of course, if you shoot someone unarmed, you tend to get sued. But if you TASER them & they die from “exicited delirium”, then a cop gets to blame the victim, avert the lawsuit, AND get away with cowardly murder. This is the 3rd taser death this week, and at least the 2nd time in a week I’ve read about a mother losing her son because she called 911. This is why I propose a softer “811” manned by people who actually risk their lives by not shooting anyone they perceive as a threat. It would basically be handled like the stereotypical people in white who bring you to the insane asylum.

 

LINKS: Scientology, Nicotine, Cop-On-Cop Abuse, and more Cop Abuse

SCIENTOLOGY IS A DANGEROUS CULT: The Profit – The movie Scientology doesn’t want you to see. (download torrent here). Get the banned movie here! Not just 8 minute clip that everyone has seen, but the whole banned movie. Special thanks to ANONYMOUS for fucking Scientology over at every possible juncture.

DRUGS: Researchers have deteremined which gene to ‘knock out’ to reduce tobacco carcinogenocy. Of course, study is funded by Philip Morris. Either way: Many people smoke, and many people will continue to. This cannot ever be stopped. EVER. Philip Morris must be considering that they would make more money if their customers didn’t die, and that their lawyer fees might be lower if they weren’t sued by states due to the strain on the health care system. (Cost of freedom, folks. Cost of freedom.)

ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Federal agent sues after being tasered and arrested at a ball game for not immediately removing an american flag he was hanging. Lots of cop-on-fed violence for no charges being filed! In the end, the only way we may gain our civil rights is if more police are abused by other police. “He said she said” becomes a level playing field when both people work for the government. Someone’s going down. The best we can hope for is that our police start shooting, abusing, and brutalizing each other — that would reform the system much faster than lawsuits. OVERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS: Don’t call 911! Mom calls on her son for taking her car. Son is now paralyzed, most likely for life. They tasered him, against their own policy (lawsuit!) from the top bunk, where he fell, and broke his back. Don’t call 911 if you value the life of the person you are calling 911 about. This is why I propose a softer “811”, to be staffed by more heroic people than our gestapo police. People willing to risk their lives. Right now, police die less than fisherman, farmers, garbage men, & taxi drivers.

 

LESSONS IN FREEDOM: The last armed revolution in America was in 1946, against local government.

The Battle of Athens, Tennessee – 1946 – last armed revolt against the government. Very interesting stuff. This is a big, big, big part of why gun control is anti-freedom. Yet somehow, I still don’t see this as being possible today.

 

TECHNOLOGY WAR: LiveJournal sexual censorship, emotion-tracking employee wristband, and a funny Twitter article

Haha – Twittering the Twitter Revolution. Funny article, written in “twitter-speak”, about a journalist who tried to wirte about how un-compelling twitter was, but ended up getting sucked in to it for over an hour. I love how the twitter t-shirt says “wearing a twitter shirt”. TECHNOLOGY WAR: Social Control: Emotion-Tracking Wearable Device Lets Your Boss Monitor Your Feelings. I covered this on my blog before, when Microsoft announced the patent for a similar device. Well, HERE IT IS. You wear this, and you think happy thoughts while wearing this, or you get fired. This is the corporate future of slavery. It is best to REFUSE AND RESIST. Better to be homeless and free, than wage-enslaved with a wristband. LIVEJOURNAL: Six Apart/SUP Erases Porn, Sex… and Fandom from LiveJournal popular interests. People are still around, but only in the shadows. This is what you get for adopting a corporate blogging platform. Had you self-hosted your blog with open-source software, nobody would have been able to censor you or make you hide. This is why people need to find solutions for themselves, instead of depending on corporate offerings for everything. Back in 1995, the only webpages were personal webpages in personal spaces. Today, almost everyone’s space — even my own — takes place under a corporate umbrella. We are trading freedom for convenience (and I have too). This is bad.

 

LINKS: SADDAM HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 911, Cops try to pass law banning website that rates them, record movie profits this year

RateMyCop.com causes police anger – of course cops are anti-free speech if it means criticizing police or bringing their abuses to light. Record Year For Hollywood (what about all the big bad nasty pirates with peg-legs and swords?!). No link between Saddam and Al Qaida! DUH!