500 Days of Capitalism

500 Days of Capitalism

I was going to go with Capitalism: A Love Story, but that's been used and you'd probably think I was just talking about a Michael Moore film.

But you see, we owe a lot to capitalism. It's literally the best thing possible! Never mind what the poor people starving in the cold winter weather have to say about it. Capitalism - Literally the cause of everything awesome in life...



I mean, I keep shoving money into my baby's mouth but it keeps crying. What the fuck, Capitalism. Maybe I should just take it to the store. I hear that food is very abundant there thanks to the wonderful nature of capitalism.

But don't you see!? Literally everything in this video is true. The capitalist mode of production is wonderful, but it has inherent contradictions which must be resolved by executing that narrator.

CapitalismIsLife posted a video "Capitalism = Longer Life" which proves that capitalism only cares about perpetuating itself. Look, look, I just made a big sloppy mess all of your argument. Keep the change.

Don't you realize that without capitalism, that baby wouldn't live a better life than babies of color. Indeed, this is in the proper location on Youtube as marked by the whole EDUCATION. Though I do have to say that they're actually sort of right. The socialist in me hates to admit it, but maybe they're on to something here..

Here is the current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has significant presence (abbreviated list)
82 -- Australia
78 -- United States
82 -- Japan
81 -- Israel
80 -- Italy

Current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has only modest presence (abbreviated list)
71 -- Philippines
66 -- Russia
70 -- Honduras
65 -- Pakistan
59 -- Senegal

Current life expectancy in nations where capitalism has little or no presence (abbreviated list)
30 -- Haiti
47 -- Nigeria
45 -- Afghanistan
40 -- Zimbabwe
64 -- North Korea



You see, Capitalism ended this nightmare of a short life for Western Europeans. In a historical blink of an eye, it virtually wiped out poverty, countless diseases, hunger, child mortality, human misery and the need for child labor. It also ushered in, for hundreds of millions of people, unprecedented levels of wealth, health, and abundance. Life expectancy in Western Europe, as a result, more than doubled to at least the age of 75.

Though, I'm pretty sure governments were responsible for most of those things. By instituting national healthcare systems and labor laws. Capitalism is like that guy who runs a pyramid scheme. For the majority of the time you trusted him things were going very well and you thought his system worked out perfectly. That is until your investment drops rises drops drastically because of him yet you continue to do as he asks of you because you are told things will get better if you just hold out while still supporting him.. then bam!

I would also like to take a moment to point out that longer doesn't necessarily mean better. If anything, capitalism can be summed up with the opening to Soylant Green...

In communism you would get to own everything! Capitalism is like the last 3 weeks of summer when its rainy out and maybe your friends are out of town and you're bored and you wish school would just start already.

Just in case that you want to have a further discussion of how capitalism was a tremendous improvement over feudalism, please refer to the works of Karl Marx. Just don't fear, the more they talk about capitalism, the further we will slide back into feudalism.
Capitalism is basically an improvement on feudalism and has coincided with growth. Marx wrote about this, as bizzarofry pointed out. This doesn't mean it's the only system that could have accomplished that growth or that we should continue on with it. I mean, if we do stick with it we end up with more of this sort of shit.



So I guess the question is how much you value your ability to buy whatever you want and most of all, are you one of the upper crust who actually can live out your dreams of capitalistic involvement?

Why Hello, Mister Speaker of the Waaaaaaaaaa...

Why Hello, Mister Speaker of the Waaaaaaaaaa...

My god, have you've seen the new speaker of the house? What a fucking cry baby. I mean, seriously, I haven't seen someone cry this much since I saw the last pixar film.



Watch those three videos. You'll notice that in the second two, it's the same string of words and the same crying going on. Why I noticed these things, maybe I just don't like to see a grown man cry. Either that or I'm annoyed with the whole 9/11 cry fest.

It's pretty clear that his staff gave him crying lessons. Tons of research indicates that the republicans are seen as unemotional and calculating, so I wouldn't put it past them to resort to strategic crying.

I guess you can take it as a whole conservative weeping as a meta-narrative response to there being a black man in charge. So you can't blame it if a strong man can cry. Though, I'm guessing it has more to do with the fact that he's probably terrified on what to do and crying is the first thing that came to mind.

Or maybe he's just allergic to honesty. Then again, which politician isn't? Rim shot! If you squeeze an orange, does it not cry juice? So it shouldn't be any different with this guy.

It can't be that he actually believes the narrative that he's spewing out and isn't a bad person on purpose, right? Perhaps he just has a thyroid problem and we should all lay off the guy.

I mean, I shouldn't judge because I'm such a big baby myself, but you'd think that the guy would man up since he's in such a position of power. It's like in that Sopranos episode where the local boss cries when he's arrested at his daughter's wedding, and then no one respects him because he was balling his eyes out.

All that I'm saying is that an Alpha-reagan-male would never cry because he actually was coached for years to be a good actor. Way to lead us into the future, asshole. It's hard to be a speaker of the house when all that comes out of your mouth is Waaaaaaaah.

Plugging A WikiLeak...

Plugging A WikiLeak...

So the world wide manhunt for the criminal mastermind of our nations secrets has been over and Julian Assange is in British custody. I'm sort of waiting for the news reports to come in that Julian Assange is under suicide watch but somehow shot himself in the back four times.

I would like to point out that if the US managed to get a hold of Assange for espionage or whatever they'll throw against him, and successfully convict him, thus putting him to death for reporting information while the actual murder of civilians by members of the US military that he has exposed will be punished with less than a decade of jail time at the very worst.

I mean, did anything actually happen to the Apache crew that murdered journalist and shot up a van full of kids, killing their father while he was trying to help the wounded.. You know,t he first WikiLeak that was released. You know, probably not.

But look at how we make a criminal out of nothing. Look at this following news piece and you tell me what's wrong with this picture.



Why yes, we have to arrest him right now because we don't have enough information to arrest him.. Wait, what? I guess for future reference, we should ensure that future sources releasing the truth stay anonymous. Otherwise the figurative head of them will be arrested on stupid charges because foreign government's love them their secrets to be kept secret.

On the morning show Matt whatever his name said that finally, the world wide manhunt for Assange is over. Yes, such a world wide manhunt that he turned himself in. Man, those hunters must be tired of um.. not searching.

Rumor is going around that he's such a threat that while Assange is being kept in prison, he's being secluded and isn't even allowed to talk to his lawyers. Not really the case while he's in Britain, but they sure want to do that to discredit him in some shape or form.

Just imagine if WikiLeaks had simply provided documents to a newspaper and had not set up a website or discussed its role in providing them. It would have been a news article in the New York Times with the protection of the sources happily applied to them.

Then we wouldn't be faced with our government trying to just point and say that Assange is a rapist, thus meaning that any and all documents that this rapist organization leaked out about our nation should be taken with a grain of salt and proven completely false.



They sure as hell are treating him like some sort of Bond Villain. I guess he does have all the make up to be one. White hair, a creepy disposition. I mean, it's not every day that you see some Bond Villains OKCupid online dating profile. I mean, yeah, he does seem a little crazy with things like

"I like women from countries that have sustained political turmoil. Western culture seems to forge women that are valueless and inane."

But then again, it's OKCupid. Who isn't a little crazy on there? I also have to command him on his use of a description. What with the visuals of being some Nordic looking gent and carrying brown paper packages tied up with strings, what's there not to love about him? And it's not like he didn't give you any warning about his creepiness. He said it right there,

WARNING: Want a regular, down to earth guy? Keep moving. I am not the droid you're looking for.

Ah yes, a star wars reference, clearly that alone should discredit anything this man leaks out about our very open government. But yeah, I'm not sure why he has the understanding that OKCupid is some sort of amazing place to find a date.

Why hay, how can I find a girl that isn't valueless and inane and first-worldy? I know, OKCupid.com! At least that shows how much higher it is than Plenty of Fish. Now that's where all the valueless cunts go.

You know, being a proud slumlord is something I aspire to be. But it's not the panty dropper that it used to be. I mean, Assange may be creepy, but then again, I've never seen any OKCupid profile that was not embarrassing. That's including my own.... and my girlfriends... and any girl I ever met or dated from there. To be honest, OKCupid isn't that bad. Yes, there's plenty of crazies on it but you'll be able to find someone who shares your interest..

I mean, my OKCupid profile was great because it cleverly disguised the fact that I'm a complete monster in real life and maybe a sociopath. Oh, not to mention my true body shape.

I think the real problem with online dating is that most people complain that there's not someone out there that fits their "perfect" image. Like most guys want someone who looks like Sofia Vergara and it's just a matter of coming to grips with the fact that you may be just as worthless and shallow as the "vapid cunts" that people just love to complain about.

It's not a matter of asking "why it's so hard to find girls who share my interest," and that actually comes to mean "Why is it so hard to find huge breasted red headed five foot ten amazons with low standards who share my interest"

Thankfully I found mine.

I dunno about you, but it's pretty clear to me. WikiLeaks is not some attempt to create openness in our governments and give to the people the ability of full disclosure. It's all just a vehicle for Assange to get laid.

I really do wonder if anyone ever has had a dream of sweeping some hot piece of ass straight off her feet with a well timed quote from Marx or perhaps some Mao quotes will be better suited.

Why hey, what's this?

Thu 29 Jun 2006 : Krill to the baleen of the feminine

I've always found women caught in a thunderstorm appealing. Perhaps it is a male universal, for without advertising this proclivity a lovely girl I knew, but not well, on discovering within herself lascivious thoughts about me and noticing raindrops outside her windows, stood for a moment fully clothed in her shower before letting the wind and rain buffet her body as she made her tremulous approach to my door and of course I could not turn her away.

But then, just when one might suspect that men are krill to the baleen of female romantic manipulation, I found myself loving a girl who was a coffee addict. I would make a watery paste of finely ground coffee and surreptitiously smear this around my neck and shoulders before seducing her so she would associate my body with her dopaminergic cravings. But every association relates two objects both ways. She started drinking more and more coffee. Sometimes I looked at her cups of liquid arabicia with envious eyes for if there were four cups then somehow, I was one of them, or a quarter of everyone one of them...

Man, what the fuck is that? He's basically fantasizing about protecting a woman from rain. It's like the Wizard of Oz but instead of some smart old man behind the curtain, it's just some creepy nerd with a thesaurus.



Hard hitting journalism

But what's with the fake name? I know my name is bad, but can't you use a better handle? Harry Harrison sounds like a real name which is nothing like Julian Assange. Not to mention he's really someone from history.

Harry Harrison (born March 12, 1925) is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He is also (with Brian Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

At first glance you just have to wonder if this is yet another CIA attempt to discredit mister snitch, but then you look at the last Online date and it's Dec. 31, 2006. Looks like quitting OKCupid was his new years resolution. So yeah, it's way too perfect for it to be fake, I'd bet money it's real and there's no way Assange would refute it. He'd probably just take it down. That is if he's ever allowed to touch a computer again.

Now that Assange is free, I wonder how many hours it will take him to delete this embarrasing OKCupid profile. Though, if no one else understands it, I bet he would realize that this page will be on the internet forever.

Much like I just realized that this blog will be on here forever... and ever. Oh man, the shit I've said. That will never stop haunting me. But hey, it's not like you folks with LiveJournals in the past don't have that shit hanging over your head, so stop judging, judgy.

The Wallstreet Journal Hates California

The Wallstreet Journal Hates California

Have I mentioned how much I hate the Wall Street Journal lately? I mean, it's down right the most awful shit that can ever be printed. I say that with as much pride given how stupid my blog is. But that should show you that even my level of poor grammar and spelling errors is far better than the Wall Street Journal's dribble.

California: The Lindsay Lohan of States
Sacramento is headed for trouble again, and it shouldn't expect a bailout.

By ALLYSIA FINLEY

Listen up, California. The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You're the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it.

After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We'd feel sorry for you if you didn't constantly flip us the bird.

Instead, we're making bets on how long it will be before your next meltdown. Oh, wait—you're already melting down.

Opinion Journal's Allysia Finley argues that California is suffering from spending addiction like starlet Lindsay Lohan.

You've racked up nearly $70 billion in general obligation debt, and that doesn't include your $500 billion unfunded pension liability. Your own analysts predict you'll face a hole of at least $80 billion over the next four years.

Your government's run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums. When they're not taxing or spending, they're creating regulations and commissions like the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology and the California Blueberry Commission. Many businesses would leave if it weren't for your sunny climate.

Which may explain why you're so obsessed with climate change. If your climate changes, no one, including your Hollywood friends, would tolerate you anymore. So you've created a law to tax carbon emissions—no matter that it will kill jobs.

It's not as if you don't recognize that you've got problems. Roughly three-quarters of you say you're headed in the wrong direction, according to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. You're even more depressed than Illinois and New York, and you've got sunshine 10 months of the year!

You appropriately give your government low marks—28% approval for outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 16% for the legislature—yet you continue to re-elect the politicians who got you into this mess. Not a single incumbent state legislator lost re-election this year, including one Democrat who died a month ago (no joke). What's scarier is that you've just given almost all of the keys to statewide offices to Democrats.

Jerry Brown will be your new (old) governor. This is the man who acted as a gateway drug to your spending addiction three decades ago when he gave public-sector employees collective bargaining rights. Helping enforce your wacky laws will be Lt. Gov-elect Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor who flouted state law by allowing same-sex marriage. On the plus side, he has nice hair and loves you just the way you are. This is what he had to say after winning his race:

"We're nothing but a mirror of our consistent thoughts. You tend to manifest what you focus on. If you look around for what's wrong, you'll find it. But as all we know up here in San Francisco, when you focus on what's right, you see it all around you. . . . There is absolutely nothing wrong with California that can't be fixed by what's right with California. . . . If you're from another state, you'd love to have the problems of California."

You've also just re-elected Barbara Boxer (that's Senator Barbara Boxer) to a fourth term. She boasted on election night that it's her "eleventh straight election victory, and what a sweet one it is . . . [since] everything was thrown at us, including the kitchen sink, and the stove and the oven and everything, millions of dollars of negative ads from known and unknown opponents, millions and millions of dollars."

We've tried to help you, California. Some spent millions on campaigns to entice you to change your reckless behavior. And you told them to kick rocks.

So here's our final warning: When you inevitably crash and burn, don't count on us to bail you out.

Ms. Finley, a lapsed Californian who still wears Birkenstocks, is an assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com.

Yup. That settles the year end debate. This is the worst article I've read all year. I swear officer, she was asking for it. She shouldn't have been wearing that short electoral process.

It's crazy that even though he has a pretty vast Network studio located in Los Angeles, Murdoch sure loves to hate California. Once he bought the paper they just gave up on anything resembling journalism and focused on the whole class struggle journalism for capitalist.

This article instills strange and totally unjustified California Pride. Yeah, we may have a tax system that will never lead to a balanced budget and forget even paying for the shit we're proposing every election, but still, this is my state and I'm damn proud of it. Even if California did it to itself through shitty proposition system.

Who do we have to blame for all this? Well, for starters, how about everyone who voted in 1978. Prop 13 was and still is total shit. The idea that we put so many barriers between us and collecting state revenue while allowing more ways to create corporate tax loopholes is beyond reasoning. We're just really stupid for buying into it. It's not even politicians who are doing anything. It's proof enough that democracy doesn't work.

How else do you justify voting for limit on taxes and wonder why we can't fix our potholes and why your kid's tuition is so high? We can't really blame California government. They got little to do with their choices. But at the same time, don't call us Lindsey Lohan!

It really doesn't help that the federal government neglects urban development and focuses on rural policy on corporate handouts. Though I'm sure California voters would still find a way to fuck things up if we had some sort of helpful federal support in place.

No matter how beautiful the landscape that California has in its national parks and forests, it's not going to last. Especially given the fact that the proposition that would have secured non-discretionary funds for the state park system failed. Which will probably just lead to more loss in park access.

Prop 24 would have closed corporate tax loopholes, but California voted against it. I would call California voters retarded, but I am a Californian and I also have volunteered time working with disabled people and retarded people actually have better judgment than the state's prevailing opinion on most political issues.

In short, if Prop 19 was the main reason why you were sad this election process, you're pretty much not worthy of voting.

But hey at least we didn't elect a criminal for governor like Florida. To no one's surprise, criminal Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott may have already broken both tax and labor laws before ever stepping foot in office. It turns out that his campaign is trying to pay its workers in American Express Gift Cards, rather than through actual paychecks.

If you weren't familiar with it, Florida elected a Governor who's medical firm blatantly broke the law by overcharging the government by billions of dollars for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. So is it really much of a surprise when he's breaking the law again?

Mark Don Givens told Florida's WTSP News that he was expecting a paycheck after he made phone calls and knocked on doors for the Scott campaign, which made jobs a top issue in the election. Givens said he and other workers were upset after they were told by the campaign that they could not offer them a paycheck and given American Express gift cards instead.

"This would violate both tax laws and labor laws," Melanie Sloan, the Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) told TPMmuckraker in an email. "It looks like the newly elected AG will be investigating the newly elected governor.

I'm not sure, but I doubt that anyone in Florida realizes how horribly screwed they are right now. Let's just say they're more screwed than we are in California. Especially since Scott will also be able to pass anything he wants thanks to the massive GOP majorities in both the State Legislature and State Senate.

Though the only thing separating failing states like Florida and California from working ones like all the other 48 states is simply a couple of years.

The Million Dude Hangout

The Million Dude Hangout

Today Jon Stewart, no - not the black green lantern, gathered today in what I hope isn't remembered in the vein of our generations Woodstock, though Woodstock also had corporate backing and was attended by rich kids who got drunk and high all weekend too. So maybe I'm being a little bitter and misguided in thinking that.

But still, this is a rally to bring back sanity and the chances are there's going to be so many awful costumes in the crowds that it'll make Washington look like it's comic con with politics. Not to mention the amount of folks going there simply to get drunk and potentially get laid with total strangers in the middle of the national mall is far from anything near restoring sanity. Which I guess is where Stephen Colbert comes into the picture.



You should be afraid of the amount of folks who will probably get arrested for indecency. Ironically a tens of thousands of person event about political discourse that won't have any political discourse because, a series of speakers lecturing to a massive crowd isn't discussion. Do I also need to point out that "restoring sanity" is a pretty empty gesture. Then again, this is the daily show... The place you go when you want to laugh about total lack of function that politics serves.

This rally just comes down to one major battle.. Viacom vs Newscorp and who will come out on top. Newscorp is pretty damn ugly, but they give me a pay check. Viacom is obnoxious in every possible way. So really, this is a battle between two really ugly beast.



I'm curious as to what the turn out for this will be. I'm going to go with about 400,000 people. Most of them will be stoned out of their mind or at least with some sort of "legalize pot" banners and not really concerned about politics in the slightest. After this whole event the media will then not shut up about how much young people care about politics for the next few days before the results in Tuesdays elections comes out and shows that the young voters didn't actually give a fuck.

To expect folks to go to the rally and not just be looking for fun or to say they were there is silly. The last thing they actually want is some sort of serious lecture about political discourse and the current standing of our nations health.

The Daily show the other day had Obama show up on the show and even though I voted for the man, I had to laugh when he said the following.

"This is the most significant piece of legislation in this nation's history."
-Obama, regarding the healthcare law that was passed on The Daily Show

I just have to wonder if he's actually buying his own bullshit. Maybe he's just saying it in hopes that the stoned out viewer watching the show will potentially buy into it. I mean, that was just so out there.



Then he went on to correct the expectations of "Yes we can"

"Yes We Can, but it's not going to happen overnight. When I say that when we promised during the campaign, change you can believe in, it wasn't change you can believe in in 18 months. It was change you can believe in, but you have to work for it."
-Obama

Yeah. He's a hundred percent correct... just not in the way he means.

Troops to exit Iraq in 18 months, officials say
2/25/2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama is expected to order all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by August of 2010, administration officials said, closing the door on a war that has led to the deaths of at least 4,250 members of the U.S. military and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

It's pretty clear that the level of expectation that Obama inspired in all of us is just not something we're going to reach. Is that a bad thing? By no means. It's just reality and we should hanker down for some tough times.



He's certainly did a lot more than Bush did in getting us out of this hole we dug for ourselves. I guess folks just hoped and had some expectation that we would take some express magical elevator out of it.

This rally for sanity may be comedy.. and it may just be a place for like minded Daily Show viewers to enjoy some jabs at the system we feel so disenfranchised with, I'm just hoping that it gets a larger attendance than Glenn Beck's rally. Now that would be some fucking comedy gold.

It's A Dead Man's Political Party

It's A Dead Man's Political Party

Who could ask for more? Leave your punched hole card at the election stall. I have to say that this story, it's something else. It's like that episode of twilight zone where the guy made his heirs wear masks, only not really.

Described by family as lively, humorous and politically conservative, Mr. Unsworth's newspaper obituary reflected all those qualities with the following request:

"In lieu of flowers the family respectfully asks that donations be sent to the American Cancer Society, or to the campaign of anybody who is running against President Barack Obama in 2012."

"He was not really a big Obama fan," said his daughter Donna Barnes.

and then some other dead guy did something similar back in July. Clearly these folks are just more victims of Obama's death panels, I hope they get the justice they were seeking for. You have to realize, it's as if the dead have risen up out of their grave an are carrying comically grammatically wrong signs like any other tea bagger.

But I've come to realize that this isn't that uncommon of a thing. Political parties actually get a lot of money from estates. I bet you can guess which one gets more. So in a sense, it's like an estates tax but to one evil organization instead of another (The US Government)

I'm not sure how one of these folks can really do this with a straight face. "When I die, please donate to self-serving rich people." I guess they just want to die the way they lived, scratching the backs of their rich friends on the suffering of the poor. Though, this could be said for just about every charity. "Fuck you, get mine!"

Maybe I should stop complaining and just join them. My lack of money shall be donated to the socialist party USA candidate! God knows they'll need it. Especially when weed is legalized. Once that happens the student socialist clubs and the student libertarian clubs will lose 2/3 of their members.

Like, literally 3/4ths of the self described socialist I've met say they totally support communism but don't think it'll work so they vote libertarian instead. So what I'm trying to say is that when you die, just bury your mass amounts of money with you.

WikiLeaks: Hacking The Gibson As Public Enemy #1

WikiLeaks: Hacking The Gibson As Public Enemy #1

In this edition of Know your Enemy, let me introduce you to Wikileaks.

If you haven't ever heard of Wikileaks and believe it to be some sort of strange Wikipedia website, you are wrong. Most of all, you're pretty out of the loop. That's where Wikileaks comes in. Wikileaks first showed up on the internet around 2007 and the pinned founder Julian Assange is the public face of the site. He's essentially the Bill Paxton character from True Lies.

Their main interest is exposing oppressive regimes all over the world. Highlighting and shedding light to otherwise unscrupulous situations. And since our nations hands are as dirty as the next, it was good to hear that Wikileaks was breaking ground by releasing previously top secret documents.

Julian Assange, proprietor of the WikiLeaks website, on which he has already published about 76,000 classified documents relating to the Afghanistan war, says he will within weeks publish another 15,000. Assange hopes these disclosures will lead to war crimes trials to punish Americans.

The initial disclosure was comprised of raw battlefield reports and other materials classified at the "secret" level. Many of the documents reportedly contained the names and locations of Afghans who have aided U.S. and NATO troops. The Taliban took note and promised punishment of those people. Other damage done by the publication of these documents is still being assessed.

The second round of disclosures may be worse. The Obama administration seems content with chest-thumping threats of possible prosecutions of Assange. Which, even if they are brought successfully, seems a long shot given Assange's life beyond U.S. courts' jurisdiction and thus won't prevent disclosure.

And now, given Assange's actions are based outside the U.S., in nations where Assange is safe from U.S. court action, another "Pentagon Papers" case or even an attempt at prosecution would be pointless. But we have a right to act to protect our secrets. And act we must. So what should be done to prevent Assange from publishing them?

A friend of mine, a more-or-less retired CIA paramilitary operative, sees the solution in characteristically simple terms. "We should go get him," he said, speaking of Assange.

When my friend says "get him," he isn't thinking of lawsuits, but of suppressed pistols, car bombs and such. But as heart-warming as it is to envision Assange surveying his breakfast cereal with a Geiger counter, we shouldn't deal with him and WikiLeaks that way.

At the risk of abusing the Bard, let's "Cry havoc, and let slip the geeks of cyberwar." We need to have a WikiLeaks fire sale.

A "fire sale" (as those who saw Die Hard 4 will remember) is a cyber attack aimed at disabling -- even destroying -- an adversary's ability to function. Russia did this to Estonia in 2007 and Israel apparently did this to Syrian radar systems when it attacked the Syrian nuclear site later that year. The elegance of this is that if we can pull off a decisive cyber operation against WikiLeaks, it can and should be done entirely in secret.

Plausible deniability, anyone?

And it's easier said than done. WikiLeaks functions, according to one expert I conferred with, through a network of computer servers in several countries. Moreover, Assange has a small army of "supporters" helping to hide and distribute information. The servers' network is hidden behind a wall of anonymous communications links. That makes a cyber attack hard to do, but not impossible.

There are legal restrictions that could prevent our military cyberwarriors from holding the fire sale. Could, but perhaps -- if interpreted aggressively -- wouldn't. This would be a good time to follow the military motto that it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. However, STRATCOM (Strategic Command) hasn't -- according to one source -- taken on any offensive missions yet. And the new CYBERCOM boss, Gen. Keith Alexander, hasn't even set policy for how and when such offensive operations could or would be done.

Which brings us back to the spooks. They have the capability, but will they use it?

Probably not. The intelligence community is now ruled by the Department of Justice with the backing of the White House. Attorney General Eric Holder's iron grip even overrides the legal obligation the IC has to advise congressional intelligence committees of its activities. One senior intelligence community source told me that no information goes to Congress unless and until Holder's crew reviews and approves it.

As that source told me, Holder is interested in prosecuting terrorists, not gathering intelligence. It stretches credulity to believe that he -- or Obama -- would allow a fire sale attack on WikiLeaks.

Over the past decade, America has been unwilling to defend its secrets and punish leakers. Under Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, fear of media reaction prevented the investigation of some of the most damaging leaks in history, ranging from the New York Times's publication of the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program to the Washington Post's publication of the CIA's secret prisons for terrorists. The people who leaked those secrets were left unpunished by Gonzales's Justice Department refusal to subpoena the reporters and force disclosure of their sources.

In Unrestricted Warfare, the highly controversial 2002 book by two active duty Chinese People's Liberation Army officers, Cols. Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui pose the difference between historical warfare and modern warfare by the juxtaposition of two concepts. First, to "fight the fight that fits one's weapons"; second, "making the weapons to fit the fight." They insist that the modern battlefield is everywhere, from distant nations to the streets of every city. And every computer network.

China has probably invested more time and resources to cyberwar than any nation. Its cyber attacks -- espionage and disruption -- on our military, intelligence and defense contractors occur every day. Liang and Xiansui note that computer hackers "…are adopting a new tactic which might be styled 'network guerilla warfare.'" Just so.

The WikiLeaks publication of secret information is just the beginning. There will be more leakers sending more secret information to offshore websites for publication. Unless we interdict and disrupt them, WikiLeaks and its progeny will have free rein to publish any secrets that may fall into their hands, or which they can convince or pay people to give them to publish. The courts are not agencies of national defense. The military and intelligence communities are and it is through them we should act.

Our government has the obligation to act aggressively to protect our secrets. We need to, as Liang and Xiangsui wrote, make the weapons to fit the fight. That includes development, deployment, and use of every cyber weapon our computer scientists can devise to protect our secrets.

WikiLeaks should be hit with the cyber equivalent of napalm. Let's have that fire sale. Burn, baby, burn.

"you want me to hack the planet?" - dj qualls, 2003

One of my favorite things about this whole Wikileaks situation is watching these wannabe armchair cyber-warriors theorize electronic warfare scenarios like they have any idea what they are talking about. Turn off Die Hard 4, homie. None of this Hackers bullshit is real.



It's pretty obvious that they get all their ideas from Hollywood and have zero clue about the reality of the matter, but it's still a little silly, don't you think?

Let me just point something out again from that massive wall of stupidity..

A "fire sale" (as those who saw Die Hard 4 will remember) is a cyber attack aimed at disabling -- even destroying -- an adversary's ability to function. Russia did this to Estonia in 2007 and Israel apparently did this to Syrian radar systems when it attacked the Syrian nuclear site later that year. The elegance of this is that if we can pull off a decisive cyber operation against WikiLeaks, it can and should be done entirely in secret.

Oh, okay. So the model we should follow are from a movie about events that never happened. DDoS attempts that the Russian government probably didn't have anything to do with that turned out to be nothing more than a temporary nuisance, and an attack against Syria's outmoded, centralized air defense network that had more to do with actual, conventional bombs than it did CYBER WAR!

But hey, thank god men of this caliber are keeping a watchful eye out for our country's interest in cyberspace! No wait, not only is this really stupid, but it's totally irrelevant to the case at hand, one that involves hypothetical attacks against a single organization rather than against The Internet: All Of It!

Even better is that Wikileaks is set to release CIA papers TODAY! At least according to yesterday's Twitter feed. I'm crossing my fingers that the paper is titled "How to frame Julian Assange for rape." Even just a memo describing Assange and his background, residences, etc. would be pretty funny.



But this means that I'm certain to remain glued to the computer screen for updates all day. I sure hope that he has plenty more "INSURANCE" files to release and that the C.I.A. didn't just trick him into blowing his load. But let's face it, this is probably going to look a lot like this;

"welp. we broke the rules of engagement a fuckload lately, probably shouldn't have, but w/e this is war"

I think the most comical part of all this is how our nation is talking about our secrets, like Wikileaks is going to tell everyone what we wrote in our Lisa Frank diaries. At best, they're not going to expose anything that people haven't already been talking about for the last 4 years or so in how our nation is fairly corrupt.

This notion that those secrets belong to us, and our possession of them is contingent on our not being in of possession of them. The second everyone knows about our secrets, they'll cease being our secrets. Proof, like that, they'll be our truths or disclosures or our pile of documents that we'll never read or care about. Disclosure is theft! The theft of American property.

Not to mention that by this point, Wikileaks could make up whatever they want now and the government would just refuse to confirm or deny any of it. What's that? Secret documents about how Bush liked to wear women's under pants under his flight suit?



The first of the documents has already been cranked out. And what happens to be the first top secret thing in the pipe line? Looks like you should invest in American Terrorism Futures!

This CIA "Red Cell" report from February 2, 2010, looks at what will happen if it is internationally understood that the United States is an exporter of terrorism; 'Contrary to common belief, the American export of terrorism or terrorists is not a recent phenomenon, nor has it been associated only with Islamic radicals or people of Middle Eastern, African or South Asian ethnic origin. This dynamic belies the American belief that our free, open and integrated multicultural society lessens the allure of radicalism and terrorism for US citizens.' The report looks at a number cases of US exported terrorism, including attacks by US based or financed Jewish, Muslim and Irish-nationalism terrorists. It concludes that foreign perceptions of the US as an "Exporter of Terrorism" together with US double standards in international law, may lead to noncooperation in renditions (including the arrest of CIA officers) and the decision to not share terrorism related intelligence with the United States.

And full document..

This all is referring to US agents and citizens directly funding and/or doing the terrorism. The piece also shows that US agents were involved in the abduction of an Egyptian cleric which they originally said they had nothing to do with. The C.I.A has not commented on any of the allegations, but I'm pretty sure I can guess what they will say..

But even then, everyone probably knew they did have something to do with this already. It is still kind of cool to have them actually admitting to it. I mean, let's face it, does it come as a surprise to anyone that the C.I.A. creates terrorist? I thought, for sure, that everyone already knew that. What next, you're going to want me to be surprise about how the intelligence management all have at least 4 separate computers each and still can't check their email?

Come on Wikileaks, where's the hard hitting shit? I just have to ask where's my god damned F-15's dropping 500 lb bombs on civilians video, Wikileaks. You promised! Most of all, why haven't they exposed the aliens yet? Come on Wikileaks, get on the ball here.

The Census On The Census

The Census On The Census

Well, you may have finally received your 2010 census. You may have heard this little 10 question/10 minute piece of paper that just hit your mail box from the warning letter you received last week. I bet you're wondering why in the year 2010, we are still resorting to paper to get a Census going. The Census department's reasoning behind this is that they can't build in the appropriate security measure to be able to handle such a system.

I know what you're thinking, why aren't I outraged by this? Billions of credit card transactions are flying across the internet at any give moment. You can get your licensed renewed on the DMV online, So why can't you do a silly little Census on the internet and save the money wasted on postage stamps and paper work?



Busy work, of course. In this tough economic time and the fact that the unemployment numbers are still high, the Census provides a lot of jobs for folks. It's busy work. It's not really something that you need a qualified person to do. This is work that is much easier than a cashier or bagger at the grocery store. You simply count people. How hard is that? The count can do it, for Christ sake.

Employees will be sitting at computers typing in all this information that you provide from your 10 minute/10 question survey you got in the mail. I have to admit that I find it weird that they ask for your name. What's the point of that if they're asking for age/race data? Consider me a little tin foil when it comes to that regard, but it is a little odd to get too detailed on this. Besides, don't you get my age, name and social security every year when I fill out my taxes?



Though I try not to be too tin foil. I have a buddy who was all freaked out and told me how some co-worker showed him a video about how the Census is a big conspiratorial invasion of privacy- blah blah blah, When I showed him how short my form is he was a bit surprised.

I'm not really sure how anyone can complain about the privacy levels of the Census. I mean, every year you fill out a 1040 with detailed information about your income, social security, bank accounts and so forth. So why are you complaining about a Census form?

Just think how fucked up it would be if we did do this via the internet: "Okay, Grandma, now hit the submit button. The SUBMIT button, on the left. Grandma no, grandma not the cancel button!" Fuck that noise, keep the mailing going on, even if they're pissing away a lot of money.



I guess it just hit me that the IRS is not allowed share their information, so the Census can't just knock on the IRS doors and ask to borrow the list of people that have filed for taxes in America. Once the Census is done, they are allowed to share the general statistics, no personal information.. So I have to wonder if our fear of our privacy.. or should I say illusion of privacy is not holding us back on bigger and better ways to go about in our nation's over all growth.

At Artwalk in Downtown the other night there was a Census 2010 promotion booth giving out Census freebies to anyone who walked by. They told me to take one of everything I wanted. I got; A hat, piggy bank, pen and pencil, tote bag, chip clip, key chain, small fold-out mirror and a note book with the Census logo on the front. I was a little confused by this level of giving and had to ask why they were giving me a lot of free shit. They said that it was okay because I was paying for it with my tax money... at that point my free stuff didn't feel very free...



I know a lot of my neighbors and folks on my street are all like "Man, I'm not filling that shit out, fuck the government!" even though it takes all but four minutes to fill out. The most challenging part is remembering your own age. Even though my birthday is coming up I always think I'm either older or younger than I really am.

There's many people who are throwing theirs out because they feel that asking how many people live in a home is an invasion of their privacy. I'm tempted to toss my Census form into my compost pile. Go Green, motherfuckers!

But I wont, even if I just got so annoyed at it. You see, if you take a moment to read it you'll be seriously offended as well. One question ask "Please tell us how old you are", only to be followed by "And now give us your full birthday".... Um, just do the math you lazy fuckers. It's bad enough you hired a slew of morons to do this Census, perhaps you could make them work?



Then there's a part where they said to include all people who live in your house/apartment, including babies, on your form. Do people seriously forget to include their babies on questions like this?

Then it's also hard to remember the names of all the MIGRANT WORKER ROOMMATES that I have here. Way too many to list in one sitting. Does it surprise you that you can claim undocumented migrant workers on the census? It'll only be a couple of years before you will get tax breaks for them as well.

This brings up a new question though. How many undocumented workers are you going to claim live with you? I live in an empty apartment building that I'm trying to convert into apartments. Each unit is about 700-100 ft, so I think I can get away with 5-6 people per unit. that's 20-24. Ha, oh man, I'm going to really fuck with their book keeping. Though, I probably shouldn't lie about it because overstating would give more representatives to California and really, we're already the laughing stock of the nation, no need to give them the surprise that we have over a million more undocumented workers.. at the very least.



The biggest offensive shit on the Census form was nothing more than how to write. In that it told me to use a blue or black pen. Oh.. FUCK YOU CENSUS, How dare YOU tell ME what to do. I showed them though, I filled it out using a yellow crayon. Score one for the little man!

I think that in one week, we'll all be receiving a letter asking us if we have filled out our Census and mailed it in.. A week after that we'll all receive a thank you letter. But before that we'll get a letter informing us of the upcoming thank you letter, and the subsequent letter containing form D-308B-2010, "Request for replacement letter of thanks, U.S. Census 2010".

Fuck The Census 2010

Fuck The Census

Today in the mail I received a letter from the Census department. At this point I was all for it. Yeah, I've seen your constant bombardment of ads on the TV like the following ad;



and being that I have worked in an election polling place, I knew the importance of these sorts of things on the local level. So I figured that I would set aside 10 minutes for 10 questions and do this THANG! Got my glasses on, poured myself a nice glass of Whiskey and was ready to rock in my favorite chair with my favorite pen.

I thought to myself that this thing was a little thin. Man, they must have been on cost cutting mode since the state of the countries economics is pretty grim. Good for them, I thought. I opened up this official sounding letter and what do I see?

Dear Resident

About one week from now you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly.

Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.

Thank you in advance for your help

Sincerely
Robert M. Groves
Director, U.S. Census Bureau

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!?! was my first thought. Are you fucking kidding me. You sent me a letter in the mail to let me know that I will get a letter in the mail next week? That's like calling someone up to tell them that they will get a longer call later. We already spent a couple million just advertising the Census on the Superbowl for fucks sake, do you think people AREN'T aware of the Census coming?



This didn't serve any purpose other than waste tax payer money. If it was to warn you that you have 7 days before you get a letter, guess what.. I think we already knew it was coming. And those who didn't, chances are they didn't even open this two paragraph letter to begin with, nor will they open another Census letter when they receive it. In fact, I think that they would just throw away the real Census letter thinking that they already got it in this stupid practice letter.

The only thing that this accomplished was it wasted government money. If this was sent to every residence then you have to factor in just how many people got this. That's 42 cents per letter. 42 cents for two paragraphs to tell you that another letter is coming. You just spent double the money you needed to the Census department and for what? To keep the Post Office afloat?



Just think about how much of the money tossed at the hands of the United States Postal System that could have been sent to schools. Especially since budget cuts are causing massive amounts of school changes in teachers and in the level of education given to the children attending. Especially when 45 billion was tossed towards Citigroup. AIG was given 180 billion by the government in the bail out. If you look at how much the cuts on education across the board you'll really be shocked when you realize that the budget shortfall that is causing education to suffer is that same amount.

Wasn't it Obama himself who said the following:

"The fact is, Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money, bartered and traded, divvied up, among lobbyist and special interest. And it has been aplace where waste - even billions of dollars in waste is accepted as the price of doing business. Well, I don't accept business as usual. And the American people don't accept it either, especially when one of the most pressing challenges we face is reining in long-term deficits with threaten to leave our children a mountain of debt."

Seems like we're leaving our children a mountain of shit along with that debt. We're curbing education programs because they are not the priorities and foolishly spending money like this.. all in the name of potentially giving future government funding to areas seems like a catch 22. So you're going to find out which areas need that money to fix their infrastructure? With what money do you plan to do that with, exactly?



Maybe it is the mentality that we don't have to worry about balancing that check book. If we need money China will back us up and loan us the money. Even though it seems that we're not only broke, but we're reaching our potential credit limit with those places. We like to say that we're looking to prevent the future from having to pay for our mistakes but every single action we seem to be doing says otherwise.

And what's the Census for? Yeah.. it's a great way to telling corporate governance what new market demographic they should be exploiting/coercing/oppressing/favoring over the next ten years. Hell, chances are that since the political system has already collapsed as given proof in moronically sending a "heads up" letter about getting a future letter, we should just ignore the real Census letter and rebuild after all the baby boomers are all dead.

So.. How About That School System?

So.. How About That School System?

Perhaps this may sound like I'm in the position as a teacher here because this is generally stuff anyone how doesn't work in the school system doesn't really give a fuck about. Well, they'll say "Teachers get a bad rap" or "We should support our teachers", and yet still live in a society that really doesn't care.

If you've spent any time in or around public school since the original No Child Left Behind Law was enacted back in 2002, you've probably heard teachers complain that: "It makes them teach to a test" and "it punishes low preforming schools by giving them even less funding". Well no more! President Obama's secretary of education Arne Duncan is here to end this nonsense by making sure those low preforming schools can't even tell how much money they're going to get because that's entitlement. And entitlement is wrong.



Public education funding has been falling off a cliff in probably every state in the country. In California, my great land that I call my home, they finally seized that much sought after price of lowest per capita public education funding for K-12 education! YES, WE CAN! This has gone hand in hand with the promotion of charter schools and "merit pay" both locally, state wide, and nationally with Obama's "Race to the Top" where states who end barriers to charter school creation and merit pay can compete for a pool of 4 billion in federal education funding for this year.

The main goal of this push is the weakening and destruction of the teachers unions, one of the last strong public sector unions in the country, and the privatization of K-12 eduction, to allow companies to finally squeeze some profit out of a largely untapped market. I'd have to say I doubt Bush could have gotten away with proposing anything like this. There's barely any room to the right of this politically, outside of pure voucher programs.



I know this all sounds pretty boring to you, the parents and future parents of this shitty public education attending children. But if anyone of you is interested, here's an article on why Charter Schools are complete and utter shit. Why Charter Schools Suck Dick

For those who don't want to click, the short version is this; They are better funded (for now) and can discriminate on who they admit, allowing them to artificially select for higher test scores and non-special needs children. Here's an article basically saying that the school systems are about as racially integrated now as before Brown v. Board of Education, and with the recent rise of charter schools, seem to be trending farther downward. JUST CLICK HERE TO READ IT...

If you can't afford to pay for a private school you have no business living in America to begin with nor are you properly able to bring up a child. So please don't try to do so. Charter schools are so fucking bad. They're barely better than homeschooling. I went to a charter school before private school and I got a really piss poor education as well being fucked up socially. That sort of shit happens when you have to wake up dawn to catch a bus to get across town. I'm not saying Private school is so much better.. but as shitty as my private school was when they pimped out their stupid religious message, they still taught a whole lot better than when I was going to a charter school.



Charter schools have also been statistically shown to not be any better academically so it's basically all they're good for is fucking up your kids. Much like throwing a sea water fish you get at the beach into a fish tank and hoping it survives a couple of days.

I have to say that reading about the failure of education makes me more depressed then reading about the failure of Health care. It does make you feel like if public education was the nation's #1 priority and had the same kind of funding our military does, with only absolutely brilliant people teaching K-12, we'd be well on our way to a utopia in a couple of decades. But as it currently stands, I can't decide if this is more or less depressing then the fact that southern schools are basically turning into christian indoctrination camps.



Now you'll probably ask how one would be able to measure what students learn in school in the absence o standardized testing. Maybe we can easily judge it by all sorts of metrics like literacy rates. Plus measuring achievement or whatever is okay, we just shouldn't tie in funding into it.

We also shouldn't close down low-performing schools and move the kids to other low-performing/borderline schools, increasing the amount of time they spend on the bus (decreasing the amount of time they have for schoolwork, etc.) and increasing the chances that their parents won't be able to meet with the teachers as often, since those low performing schools are usually in poor neighborhoods where car ownership is not as high as the suburbs.

It's a very simple way to kill off public education. Sure, closing the school they transferred from removes that school's scores from the district, but all they are doing is movng the problem around and creating a cascading effect, since those kids are going to eventually drag down the schools they are transferred to. They need to address the problems in the original school.



I'm actually really surprised by all this. I would think Republicans would not those schools closed as some of those kids could end up in the same schools with their kids and possibly drag their kids' schools down in the scores... Ha ha ha ha. Just kidding. Everyone knows those rich families sent their kids to a private school that actually cares about the level of education they give.. unless it's catholic. Then it's just bible camp.

In all this the district has been looking at bonuses for experienced teachers to go into low-performing schools, but they aren't going to have time to help raise the scores, because the state/feds can exert so much fucking pressure on them by hanging a huge pay check over their heads slightly above their reach. Instead the vicious cycle of deliberately underfunding/fucking over public schools and then using that as an excuse to underfund/dismantle public schools has always infuriated me.



You see, once a school fails to meet the minimum requirements for the standardized testing, they are in trouble. Even if they make changes and start bringing the scores back up, if they don't meet the acceptable ratings pretty fast, the school is closed by the state and the school staff is reassigned to other schools, and the students are bused to other schools.

Sure, they can re-open the school under a new name (what the fuck does changing the name does for test scores, I do not know) such as making it a magnet school and with only a fraction of the former students (I don't know why either). Some of it's suppose to change with some new legislation going into effect this year - there is suppose to be more time for schools to get back up, but it's still a lot of pressure - without the bonuses, they get paid the same as teachers at a good school and if the school doesn't come up fast enough, they can get reassigned elsewhere.



There was a debate over the district being pro-active and closing low-performing schools before the state got the chance to and then allowing them to re-open as charter schools run by private companies. It really fucks over low-income neighborhoods, which is where most of these schools are. The way it's been done in Texas, it's literally a great way to fuck over minorities and non-English speakers.

So yeah.. That's my long winded opinion on the state of our public schools. How can we fix it? Well, Waldorf schooling does seem like a good option. But ultimately I would be talking out of my ass if I even suggested I knew how to fix the problem here. All I can tell you is that the solutions that have come up so far are not going to improve on the situation.


I'm sure this has something to do with Waldorf schooling... HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR

Judging Judy

Judging Judy

Did you know that Judge Judy makes twenty times more than all the supreme court justices put together? Yup, that's right.

Combined annual salary of Supreme Court Justices: $1.8 million
Judge Judy Sheindlen's annual salary: $45 million

I would like to apologize to all my female readers, I don't mean to use such complicated math here, but it's pretty clear that $45 million is more than 1.8 million, but you should look past that issue and see that we clearly have something wrong with our capitalistic system and free market when the person who looks over court cases of complete morons gets paid more than people who are eventually going to be faced with trying to over turned


We may all be awaiting her judgment on the case of Grumpy neighbor v. 14 year old minority child.

I have to say Fuck the supreme court. With no more barriers to direct corporate donations to presidential campaigns, presidents are gonna earn mo money for their campaign from corporate sponsors on a daily basis than all those people combined. Sure they don't make as much but the benefits are great. All expense paid duck hunting trips with Dick Cheney and Exxon executives.

But before you think I'll cry out Death to America, let's look at this from an outside perspective. Judge Judy deserves it more than the current Supreme Court. We should actually put Judge Judy on the supreme court. Judge Judy is actually correct in her judgments and is entertaining. I suspect if she was on the supreme court and got on people like she did on her show, our country would be a lot better.



Clearly her services are much more valuable than the supreme court. Judge Judy is a huge liberal and was disgusted that prop 8 passed. Can't say the same for the current supreme court. Fuck them. Besides that, Judge Judy would not take any of Scalias shit. She wouldn't let anyone interrupt her because she is always louder than anyone who steps into the court room. Some one raise her voice to her and she would go EXCUSE ME, EXCUSE ME, EXCUSE ME I AM TALKING, I AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM TALKING, I AAAAAAAAAAAAAAM TALKINGGGGGGGG. That'll shut up anyone trying to derail this shit.



What other reasons are there that she would rock?
-supports gay marriage
-supports stem cell research
-she's pro-choice
-supports the patriot act
-opposes legalizing marijuana
-voted for Obama

Okay, Okay.. so she's not VERY liberal, but she's liberal, she's like an Obama liberal but that's why you have judge Greg Mathis and Joe Brown to push the socialist agenda we want. Just no more white male supreme court judges, please..



One day that I had off and I went to visit my now retired father, he was watching Judge Judy and felt that watching the shoe was much more important than talking or spending any time with me. So it's clear that if she was on the supreme court, a lot more people would be open to actually giving a fuck about the issues in our world today.

Judge Judy would own corporations like she owned the cell phone scammer and call them idiots and berate them for like an hour or more. You think she'll be lenient on the issues? Pfft, she usually judges people on other factors. Like those times where there's really no evidence but she's already made up her mind and mocks them for 7 minutes before making a judgment for the plaintiff. Again, you can predict it like afternoon rain in Florida. "Excuse me! Don't interrupt me! EXCUSE ME. EXCUSE ME. EXCUSE ME!!!!: Judgment for the plaintiff.



Though I guess it may not always work. You really haven't seen Judge Judy till you've seen an episode in which she has made up her mind in favor o one party because the other came in dressed like trash or wouldn't spit out their gum. If you wanted to prevent that, the supreme court justice should make $10 billion a year so they can't be motivated by business interest.

"Yeah, try and by me off, fucktard, I'm already loaded!" - Clarence Thomas.

If Judge Judy, Judge Greg Mathis and Judge Joe Brown were the supreme court then America would be a utopia. In fact, I would gladly have Scalia and Thomas paid $45 million a year to get off the supreme court and settle tenant disputes on cable.



If the supreme court judges made a giant amount of money their decisions would become biased in favor of their business interest, I suppose. They would issue rulings on certain cases that have such broad scope that it would be very hard to say when a conflict of interest was happening. Maybe it's better that you pay the public servants a living wage and nothing more. You probably shouldn't use the patronage system. We should restrict the fuck out of lobbying and campaign finance. Record everything, make it available to everyone.

There's some good in government. Me saying that right now is a rare instance. Judge Judy is the only judge left we can trust.

Thinks about it. Judge Judy is binding arbitration that the parties enter into, so much like the Supreme Court, you cannot appeal Judge Judy's rulings to any highr court. Judge Judy IS the Supreme Court.

Now this is just a perfect way to end this:

Poking The Idea of Needle Exchange

Poking The Idea of Needle Exchange

A couple of weeks ago in a quick post about pot getting a victory in Washington D.C., I mentioned that the bigger news story in that piece was that there was going to pass a law about needle exchange. That it was more important than the whole pot stuff. I got some feedback in that people were still opposed to it. I had to stop for a second and realize that there was still any sort of backwards place that would be opposed to this.. I still don't know if I can believe it. I mean.. really?

It shocked me to no end that there were people like this one fucker on Freeper who had this to say on the matter.

Freeper on Needle Exchange Program posted:

I prefer the Darwin method.

Joseph Farah posted:

So why all the clamor for this new cause du jour? It comes down to the worst kind of political pandering to a tiny special-interest group. Sure, everyone can feel better about themselves for allocating taxpayer dollars to needle exchanges, but, ultimately, it's nothing more than misguided, phony compassion. There's nothing caring about swapping needles. It's another example of symbolism over substance. But it's even worse than that.
This idea is the natural extension of the condom distribution scam. The same activist groups promoting needle exchanges continue to insist condom giveaways are the best way to safeguard people from contracting AIDS sexually. In both cases, however, we are not treating the root problem -- namely, irresponsible behavior. In fact, we're condoning it. Just as anal sex, with or without a condom, is risky and potentially deadly, so is drug abuse -- with or without clean needles.

How can we justify taking even one dollar away from research into finding a cure for AIDS and spending it on such reckless fantasies? Let's face it. In this age of deficit spending, there's a limited pool of federal money available for all health issues. If some local governments in New York and San Francisco want to experiment with wacky ideas, God bless them. But let's not force the rest of us to subsidize their Kevorkian- style madness.

The needle-exchange lunacy is evidence that our society is losing, not only its moral center of gravity, but its ability to reason -- to think logically and respond rationally to political, social and medical problems.

Let me give you an analogy: You see a guy playing Russian roulette with two bullets in the chamber. One bullet, in this case, represents the imminent death a drug user faces from organ failure or accidental overdose and the other represents the dangers of contracting AIDS. This policy is the legal, moral and practical equivalent of, upon finding such a person, removing one of the bullets from the gun, giving it back to him and saying, "OK, continue your game."

Is there any individual -- let alone society -- who wants that on their conscience? Not me.

now, read this:

Department of Health and Human Services posted:

Since the AIDS epidemic began in 1981, injection drug use has played an increasing role in the spread of HIV and AIDS, accounting for more than 60 percent of AIDS cases in certain areas in 1995. To date, nearly 40 percent of the 652,000 cases of AIDS reported in the U.S. have been linked to injection drug use. More than 70 percent of HIV infections among women of childbearing age are related either directly or indirectly to injection drug use. And more than 75 percnet of babies diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were infected as a direct or indirect result of injection drug use by a parent.
[...]
In February 1997, Secretary Shalala reported to Congress that a review of scientific studies indicated that needle exchange programs "can be an effective component of a comprehensive strategy to prevent HIV and other blood borne infectious diseases in communities that choose to include them." She also directed the Department's scientific agencies to continue to review research findings regarding the effect of needle exchange programs on illegal drug use. The scientific evidence indicates that needle exchange programs do not encourage illegal drug use and can, in fact, be part of a comprehensive public health strategy to reduce drug use through effective referrals to drug treatment and counseling.

more than 75 percent of babies diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were infected as a direct or indirect result of injection drug use by a parent.

Let me repeat that in bold so you can re-read the statement.

MORE THAN 75 PERCENT OF BABIES DIAGNOSED WITH HIV/AIDS WERE INFECTED AS A DIRECT OR INDIRECT RESULT OF INJECTION DRUG USE BY A PARENT.



Can you fucking believe that? I know the internet is full of assholes, I'm one of them. But even I wouldn't dare call myself a "moralists" and run around saying shit that is clearly smoke blown directly up my ass with a straw. These Moralist are full of shit because what they stand for is the exact opposite of any real morality.

Social conservatives demand purity even in the face of good policy... I know, shocking. I shouldn't be surprised but I am. It's like being surprised that the sun is coming out in the morning. But how dare they say that those AIDS babies must pay for their junkie parents' transgressions, isn't that right you fucking red neck hicks. Demand blood and pain. That's the ticket.

Needle exchanges? Fuck that! Why would you want the government encouraging the use of hard drugs, am I right? Around 2000, Sydney established the medically supervised injection center in King's Cross. It was intended as a trail to examine the effect of a supervised injecting room where one would have drug uers in the suburbs. After the usual stream of vitriol from conservatives and Sydney business owners about druggies filling up the streets, it was built and has been running for 8 years there down under. It's operated by Uniting Care, a part of the Uniting Church. Which is a bit of a surprise to see that at least Australian God botherers actually do that whole "help the unfortunate" and "do unto others" business that the churches here claim to.

The Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) aims to reduce harm associated with illicit drug use by supervising injecting episodes that might otherwise occur in less safe circumstances such as public places or alone. Specifically, it is anticipated that supervising such injecting episodes will reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality associated with drug overdoses and transmission of blood-borne infections, while providing ready access to safe needle syringe disposal. It is also hoped that by extending the circumstances in which health professionals have contact with injecting drug users (IDUs) more, particularly those most "at risk", will be engaged with the health and social welfare system sooner than otherwise.

The Sydney MSIC is at 66 Darlinghurst Road Kings Cross, in the centre of the Kings Cross business district. Access is from Darlinghurst Road.

No drugs are sold or kept on the premises. Registered clients receive clean needles and equipment, and advice about their health.

The MSIC conducts tours of the premises for members of the public on a regular basis.

Here's a 2003 Report into the Center by the MSIC Evaluation Committee, and here's number of background articles and reports on the Centre up to 2008. The conclusions of the 2003 report include:

• the MSIC made contact with its target population, including many who had no prior treatment for drug dependance
  
• there was no detectable change in the heroin overdoses at the community level
  
• a small number of overdoses managed at the MSIC may have been fatal if they had occured elsewhere
  
• the MSIC made referrals for drug treatment, especially among frequent attendees
  
• there was no increase in risk of blood borne virus transmission
  
• there was no overall loss of public amenity
  
• there was no increase in crime
  
• the majority of the community accepted the MSIC initiative
  
• the MSIC has afforded an opportunity to improve knowledge that can guide public health responses to drug injecting and its harms
  

Basically all the bullshit complaints against the center turned out to be wrong and it has had a measurably positive impact on the lives of people who had nowhere to turn to before. Since then the fine folks in Sydney have seen the installation of sharps containers in public bathrooms in the City and some positive steps to treat drug addiction as an illness and not a crime.



It's really simple. This shit works. Sadly they don't consider it in the states. Since 1989, Congress has restricted the use of federal funds for needle exchange programs. These are the same fuck ups and voters of fuck ups that opposes HPV vaccines. They also actively oppose vaccine use to control the spread of HPV in young girls because protecting them from a disease will make them more likely to fuck more, I guess. Who knows why really. Causation is usually hard but, for them, it may be REALLY simple. Just my read on their thoroughly idiotic reasoning.

I mean, as long as the baby survives long enough to be born, conservatives don't give a shit what happens after wards. Maybe the baby should pull itself up by its own bootstraps and develop a cure for aids, right? What kind of morons defend an unborn childs right to life but beyond that just doesn't give a fuck about its well being after. Introducing needle exchanges and free condom programs is pretty much the number one reason our government got HIV rates to some of the lowest in the world.

Again, THIS SHIT WORKS!


To assume that people will be encouraged to do more drugs is like saying that the presence of hospitals encourages people to take risks with their health. We might as well abolish medicine. It's really sad that the only time a conservative believes in darwinism is when it's misapplied to marginalized poor people.

I said it before, I'll say it again...

fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff!