App Permissions - for the NSA to collect your data

How many saw Brian Williams special interview with Edward Snowden last night? Probably didn't make much of an impression on ole BB though we learned for instance that the NSA can turn on your smartphone even when it's off and take pictures. Don't know what they'd do with my cat though or me watching Home Shopping Network. Brian Williams called this chilling and then we also learned that Mr. Snowden was not just a low-level "hacker" or NSA contractor but had worked for the CIA as a spy overseas, had training in this area and so knows what he's talking about. Also he had a nice haircut and for the ladies out there a couple of moles here and there. NSA's main concern is preventing the next big terrorist attack or even small ones leading up to that but with all these lone fuseboxes out there getting ready to blow who populate the social media and leave copious e-trails with not infrequent weird rantings you'd think there'd be an algorithm for that. I mean if we're gonna give up our privacy en masse in these massive data-mining sweeps it's not too much to ask to go to the mall or get a bite to eat in relative safety. He also said ask the US Government why he wound up in Russia. Then I went to bed.

Other thoughts on the Santa Barbara shootings

I was watching the PBS Newshour last night and Judy Woodruff was interviewing reporter Adam Nagourney of The New York Times. I didn't know this but Mr. Nagourney stated quite clearly that the guns 22-yr. old shooter Elliot Rodger used in the seaside massacre in Isla Vista were all legally purchased and CA has some of the nation's strictest gun control laws on the books. I've long felt while I'm fairly in support of gun control in many cases and welcome some legislation to that effect I'm also realistic enough to know it's not the magic bullet if you'll pardon the pun. It was truly a bizarre manifesto Rodger left behind and my first thought was angel dust or bath salts but you know what's scary? if you're this Nutz and you're NOT on drugs, I mean at least ex-rapper Big Lurch can fall back on that. My other thought was let's say Rodger in his YouTube videos and other postings steered clear of the more violent and weirder elements it would have come across as angry and whiny but truth be told many men would have agreed with him. So instead of discussing maybe a valid social issue or two once the person behind the "cause" resorts to violence that invalidates the cause right off the bat so then the trending topic turns to potential armies of psycho virgins training in the caves somewhere instead of maybe what alot of men can relate to. I honestly think if he was this far gone take away ALL his guns he would have easily found another way to commit mayhem perhaps with a samurai sword say. This is one of the very rare times when I actually agree with the Scientologists as I don't put much stock in psychiatry as a whole as the guy had his therapists and counselors and look what happened. The debate needs to go beyond gun control and the latest theories of the shrinks but that's where it seems to be stuck:)

Radical Islam still happens

It's nice to see Hollywood celebrities and liberals in general finally addressing the real war on women. One yearns for a Jack Bauer-type to take on Boko Haram and rescue those 276 Nigerian schoolgirls being held hostage probably in some primeval jungle but what we got instead is Obama's Hamlet tendencies in the foreign policy arena, hashtags, Anne Hathaway and hey can you believe they're STILL talking about Donald Sterling? At this point I DON'T CARE, don't care if he has the N-word tattooed on his ass cheek. I think the latest version of 24 rocks but if there's one thing Chloe constantly looking like Ozzy Osbourne fighting terrorism is massively distracting. 24 too is getting back to having radical Islamist elements in their plotline and all this just might take the spotlight off the far lesser threat if you can call it that of the Christian Right and Gary Bauer (BB & Saty opening). Some Techno Thoughts (Again) The other day at work everyone was walking around looking at their smartphones and the thumb was constantly scrolling. You know one day homo sapiens is gonna evolve to the point where we all have thumbs like the great apes and we'll be walking hunched over into traffic. They say technology has an asocial effect, don't wanna say anti-social but there are times to be perfectly honest when I'd rather be with my tablet than my friend no offense. Downloaded a great app the other day, not just a file manager but a real file explorer so you can actually see what's taking up all that storage space and why. Root capabilities is even on the menu but that's soapie territory and I don't intend to go there. OK so to tie it all together do you think Boko Haram really cares about the First Lady's hashtag?

The contradictory world of technology

This happened to me once, you'll be on your tablet and a startling message comes up - "You're running out of storage space." Once you calm down you realize it's not all that tragic as you have many files that aren't that mandatory for you but you were in a downloading mood. Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" video never made sense anyway but all the same you were encouraged to put all that content in in the first place. So this important notification suggests deleting media content, unpinning stuff, uninstalling apps so you get yourself a cache cleaner and you feel like you're cleaning house. Google Play boasts they have over 700,000 apps in their appstore and not that long ago you were actually encouraged, nay pushed to get all the apps you could muster but now a very important app comes along, actually it's an App Uninstaller because you may have installed too many apps that you don't really use that much. I was looking over my download history this morning and this mobogenie apk file must've automatically downloaded like over 10X. I don't know whether to say thanks for the pup, I actually like mobogenie but I feel like BB sometimes that maybe it's a good idea to take a break from the technological scene once in a while. You're pushed to download as part of this digital consumerism then you're told you should clean house. It's like taking up smoking just so you can quit.

The Donald Sterling Matter

A thumbnail summary for the few troglodytes out there - LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA Commissioner for making racist comments in a private conversation with his ex-girlfriend. She kinda looks like a model and he looks like a sagging bag of flesh so the word golddigger comes to mind but I digress. What if you went to your uncle's place of employment and said to his boss "you know what Joe said when he came over on Thanksgiving?" Many people have conservative Dads, do you want EVERYTHING leaking out about what was said in the living room especially after the goblet's been sipped a few times? OK you say the uncle is not a millionaire who owns a sports team so episodes like this is gonna churn out the usual pc self-righteous commentary. I already know you never said anything stupid in your life, hell you could smoke ten joints in a row and nothing stupid's gonna come out 'cause your software programming is so right on. Maybe it's because Al Sharpton has predictably involved himself in this case so I reflexively go the other way, dunno. OK throw your coins into the fountain:)

Thoughts on the double canonization

Yesterday's double canonization in Rome of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II -- I think most of the three million pilgrims were there for the latter to be honest. I hate to be a balloon-popper but I still don't get why the "good pope" of Vatican II was even elevated to sainthood. If it was simply that he changed the Latin Mass into the vernacular and did some other hip things that's not too high a bar imo. Even in death he could only muster one miracle not the two usually required for the Catholic Hall of Fame so they simply waived that standard and included him yesterday. I don't think most folks have the slightest issue whatsoever with canonizing John Paul and there were so many saintly pointers during his life and papacy but I think it was his divinely patient endurance of his acute suffering near the end that easily pushed him over the line. So WHY was John XXIII elevated? Here's my theory -- not that long ago there was serious talk of elevating to sainthood none other than Pope Pius XII, he was on the edge but it soon became apparent that that wasn't in the cards, ain't gonna happen and if you have to ask me why you haven't studied your history. So my astute theological hunch is that Roncalli was a substitute for Pius yesterday, they wanted to do a double coronation anyway but didn't want to burn the bridge to Judaism in the process. At any rate I know who I'm praying to during tough times and it ain't the Vatican II guy.

Is a Sebelius book in the works?

She's now being kinda more blunt and candid on the talk show circuit about the whole health care debacle. Yeah yeah I know she voluntarily resigned but in my book the president still threw her under the bus. Makes ya wonder why Jay Carney is still sticking it through when it would probably be better for the both of them to work on the same book and rake in the dough. Smaller networks of doctors and higher premiums, the federal government deciding what treatments you get - what's not to like? They say in particular cancer patients are gonna be screwed bigtime under ObamaCare. I don't think though the Sebelius resignation is gonna swing the midterms in a more positive direction for the Democrats if that's the strategy here, I mean it's not like she's the Frankenstein who created the thing in the first place.

The liberal obsession with the Koch Brothers

Sounds like a brand of soda pop. I never really heard about the Koch Brothers until liberals started talking about them so much. Conservatives also seem to like to comment on the liberal obsession with the Koch Bros so conservatives have an obsession with their obsession just like they have an obsession with reading NY Times editorials (hey guys they're just editorials, don't let them ruin your day). Charles and David Koch of the Koch Industries have been responsible for much charitable giving to various cultural and medical institutions but Harry Reid and Chuckie Schumer say they're unAmerican for funding anti-ObamaCare ads and for calling for smaller government. BB has a bit of a Koch fetish too so maybe he can explain. The pro-Obama Hollywood tripe that spews out daily is ok though.

Further thoughts on Pope Francis

Haven't been selling as much seafood at work as we thought we would despite a fairly strong demographic showing of Catholics in the area then I thought maybe I missed the memo, maybe this theological modster changed the rules again and we can now eat meat on Fridays during Lent. He has so many things in his head that are spilling out right now (e.g. civil unions) that the Vatican is scrambling to spin things along the lines of don't read too much into his words he's still upholding Church teaching but I'm wondering how long they can do this before they say Houston we have a problem. He was recently voted Man of the Year by BOTH Time magazine and the gay-rights magazine The Advocate so unless he's down with that I would have expected a polite but clarifying letter-to-the-editor to the gay review. The phrase I'm hearing most lately is he's some sort of rock star. That's kind of an interesting analogy considering the personal history of most rock stars and it kinda puts faith on a cheap pop culture level (Justin Biebs in charge of interfaith/ecumenical affairs?). If I may borrow a line from the classic Sidney Poitier movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Francis seems to be saying to all the mostly dead popes except one who have gone before him "it's time we got the dead weight of your generation off our backs" (Spencer Tracy was a great actor btw). Things are murky right now but Francis' foglight seems to be beckoning in the opposite direction so try not to hit all those traditionalists bobbing in the water as you steer towards some progressive's promised land. Does he have a Facebook page yet?

Mitt Romney had a better grasp of foreign policy

Just sayin'. Most countries these days are responsible for at least one or two positive contributions to the civilization-at-large. Of course everything is Made in China today but Japan has given us superior cars and cameras for example and even South Korea has Samsung headquartered there. Has Russia ever given us a digital camera, a computer chip, a smartphone or a new tablet? Russia is known for two things only - vodka and its military buildup. I remember learning in high school that a large % of the Russian economy, maybe it's even the majority is devoted to its keeping up its military might. Putin is an anachronistic leader and seems to have a very bad case of those cold war blues. Putin doesn't like Pussy Riot, he doesn't like the gays and he's not into going forward. Of course Obama's red lines mean nothing, it'd be like Gilbert Gottfried being a bar bouncer. A former director in the KGB vs. a former Chicago community organizer and I'm thinking my Dad is right Hillary would have been a better president at least on the world stage. So what's gonna happen now if Crimea becomes officially annexed to Russia again? is Obama gonna issue one of them executive orders he likes so much say banning the import of their famous drink? It's like as soon as the Sochi Olympics were over Putin couldn't wait to get back to the action. So has anyone apologized to Mitt Romney yet?

& oh btw Happy Birthday

I'm just a few days shy of my 50th B'day and already I got a one-year membership offer from the AARP in the mail yesterday (didn't know they did this that early)and if I join now I get a free tote bag. Then for practically the whole past year my doctor has been peppering our discussions with the subject of colonoscopies. I feel like a vampire, I've been alive for half a century already. There's something gauche and vaguely offensive imo about all of this as I feel you should enjoy your birthday without incident instead of others overlaying it with dreadful reminders. It should be a light and happy time no matter what your age but in this case instead of thinking about a birthday cake with candles they got me thinking about the ass then the AARP got me thinking about my mortality (how much more time do I have?). Hell instead of downloading the latest issue of the Nat'l Review why don't I just subscribe to Arthritis Today? So is a colonoscopy indicated at the exact stroke of midnight as soon as you turn the big 5-0? I think it has more to do with our cultural OCD obsession with round numbers that end in zero. Remember all the media coverage of the 47th anniversary of JFK? didn't think so. Maybe in a few years time, hell maybe in a few months I'll get a brochure from Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. I've pretty much decided after much thought and Internet sleuthing the full hardcore 4' colonoscopy is off the table for me and I've said as much. As well I don't need a handy travel bag with the AARP logo just yet but thanks just the same. I pretty much just want to enjoy my birthday so leave me alone. You turn the 1/2 century mark and they got one foot in the grave for you already. Lastly conservatives have spent a lifetime talking about the importance of the rich and powerful that they can make you feel pretty insecure about yourself. Of course the sex-drenched men's magazines don't help matters and don't take into account all your romantic failures so when you put the two together you're supposed to be a Trump or a Koch Bros. who gets laid all the time. Better yet after you're done with me you can put a birthday candle in there and leave the tote bag on the side:)

Cyber-nosy management (or watch what you tweet)

Not a week goes by when I don't read about the issue of watch what you post on social media it may affect your future job prospects or job you already have. Tesh is big on this but he's big on all the latest trends anyway and he just goes with the latest mainstream thinking as it evolves. My feeling - a boss who snoops in your cyberspace is not worth working for plain and simple. The ONLY matter at hand is are you qualified to get done the job at hand done? Look you get a busted pipe in the middle of winter I don't care that the local plumber may post socialist ravings on his blogsite nor should the plumber's boss care if he's a good one. I'm truly not getting this issue and why it's so much discussed and why some bosses feel the need to delve into your online personas. Of course if you're posting a personal scat video online then ok but by and large Free Speech is like a reservoir, row around and dip in and troll what you like it's all good and it's no concern of anyone else's much less a potential employer. Then again I don't put much stock in your basic job interview, I mean you could suck at them and still be a kickass worker but the smooth talkers and bs-artists always skate through. "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" dunno, my hands shake when I have too much coffee? Discuss:)

Yonkers snow removal (not)

The other morning I called up early to find if street cleaning was suspended as there was still a ton of snow and ice from a previous storm in the spaces. Street cleaning was still in effect despite the fact they didn't remove the snow. Just sayin':)

When dorks become dangerous

Bored with masturbation and stalking the girl next door they've turned to malicious code. Turns out my techno-problem is fairly common and yahoo'ed it yesterday. Others say too they can't sign into their blogs from their smartphone apps even though they're using such premium browsers like Google Chrome and Opera. Last night I had a fairly long web session on my phone, wasted more than a few minutes but judging from the various sites I visited I came to the fairly strong conclusion we're in the middle of a kind of minor cyberattack. I mean you're trying to download a Kasperskey antivirus scanner but what gets downloaded instead is Spicy Games, c'mon. Tech support forums, imo most don't help the user to resolve his or her particular problem. It's usually the same old pat techno-answers probably by some guy in Rangoon (clear cookies, cache or go to Settings and get a signed browser, works better) and in the end the gadget-user still has the problem. It's like with tinnitus, most mainstream doctors will tell you there's about four or five main things that cause it only it doesn't explain your tinnitus. So whether it's the doctor who can't just admit ignorance and bafflement or one of them techno-advisors it's always our analysis of the problem HAS TO be right, try it again. So the moral of the story is there are alot of sucky sites out there only Healthcare.gov is the most prominent and gets the most press. Blame those Chechen contractors if you like.

Wintertime ramblings

I wonder if the mayor of Atlanta believes in global climate change. I've lived through bigger snowstorms in the past but this winter has been very disruptive. Yonkers hasn't been preparing the roads this winter, what's up with that? Couldn't get out on some days so couldn't blog and comment. Well I could but my browser app on my smartphone that I've been using just fine all this time has become erratic and I've had trouble logging in lately and here I thought I was cool with the technology. Maybe it's this vast NSA info-vacuum/umbrella they have covering the world right now that have been giving people's devices problems. Guys just what is it that you're looking for? A bad winter for me, not only the app but the roving dog that killed a neighborhood cat, a mysterious pain that comes and goes in my hip area (bursitis?), Dad tripped inside and pulled a muscle but is doing better and work is weird. Philip Seymour Hoffman -- you know I think the Charlie Sheen/Justin Bieber stuff is all made up hype and PR, make 'em into bad boys but the ones we never suspect are really doing stuff. I never got the whole heroin thing, first off I hate needles and what happens when you run out of places to shoot up? I'm just getting back on track here. Guys can I have my app back?

Grammys

Now I know why I never really watch any of those major award show extravaganzas on Sunday nights at least not in their entirety. I skim and surf them at best but when it comes to the music awards shows like the Grammys it always inevitably devolves somehow into black/urban music aka rap/hip-hop which isn't really my thing and from what I saw somehow combining that with Imagine Dragons didn't work imo. Beyonce & Jay-Z, you know if we stopped helping celebrities trend on Yahoo everyday they might not be the massive ego-trippers they've turned into. Help them out will ya, google a major disease instead. Lots of parents and others are up in arms over Jay-Z and his wife's raunchy routine last night, what is it somehow classier when Beyonce twerks instead of Miley? and oh yeah there was some type of gay mass weddings going on although I must've missed that part. I've never liked the mixing of politics and any type of major awards show from LA but they all do it and that's usually when I change the channel to a NutriBullet infomercial or a Sanford and Son rerun. I honestly don't even know who won I was so turned off.

I don't know why we expect like we still have privacy

Maybe BB can explain why the Government needs to collect 200 million text messages a day. What a banal undertaking! The operative principle is despite ethics or legality Government does what it wants. This aside what is the practical value of this NSA program called "Dishfire"? none that I can see. Obama as usual fails to inspire or lead.

Send your laundry bill to the Port Authority

Imagine being stuck in traffic on the GW Bridge for four hours! I wonder how many car seats were ruined. If I ever have to commute this way I'm gonna head out with some Depends first. You know if you're gonna deliberately close four lanes on the GW at least have the human decency to spread out a few Port-o-Sans here and there. I agree with NJ Assembly Deputy Speaker John Wisniewski who said Christie is simply "not believable" and how could his deputy chief of staff have planned and done this all on her own? They say an email is forever and my mother always said don't put down certain things in writing. I guess that Port Authority executive David Wildstein is discovering that. Look I never liked Christie as much as some folks here, was never taken in by his NJ bluster and always thought he was somewhat overrated. He said a curious thing during his press conference yesterday that Ft. Lee NJ Mayor Mark Sokolich was never even on his radar. What is that supposed to mean? it kinda implies something else, that if he was on his radar the whole thing may have been plausible. I don't see how in hell Christie becomes the GOP standard-bearer in 2016. In retrospect maybe the whole lapband thing was a waste of time.

Cheech & Chong MD

As you know NY is only the latest state in the union that wants to jump on the medical pot bandwagon. Well actually it's Gov. Andrew Cuomo who wants to by reactivating some kind of dormant pro-medpot law that's been on the NY books for some time now so it's more of a fiat thing but there's something unintentionally funny about a bunch of 60-70 year-old patients on the cancer ward toking together in the midafternoon in the sunroom overlooking the river. It is in my view a very paradoxical and contradictory public health message to be drumming into our skulls on practically a daily basis the unmitigated evils of tobacco use and yet somehow pot under certain circumstances may even benefit you healthwise. Even if it does help some folks manage certain types of chronic pain better risk/benefits ratios should be better explained by the health establishment which they don't seem to be doing imo e.g. maybe you'll live with your glaucoma better but you might do some damage to your brain. Over on the free speech front I was reading over on Drudge today how Fox News' Megyn Kelly got in some hot water for saying Santa was white. I'm always of the view that you should be able to say what you wanna say and anyway since we wanna do the right thing we can make Ole St. Nick black if you want, have him divorce Mrs. Claus because he's been a closet gay all his life and also put a roach in his hands.

A status check on feminism

Last night I was watching an always interesting local program here called Chasing NJ and there was a segment on the increasing number of women who are getting breast augmentation surgery without the benefit of general anaesthesia. The host had asked one woman what was her motivation, after all we're not talking a critical and life-saving operation and she said so she can feel more "confident." So I got to thinking about the apparent increasing cultural irrelevancy of modern feminism, the guys want a nice ripe soft breast to handle so wouldn't want to disappoint the boys would we? So who's more sociologically relevant here Hef or Gloria Steinem? Now before you get on my case I actually agree with a few points of feminism our society's overemphasis on beauty and physical perfection being one of them but you have to ask yourself whether feminism as an overall life philosophy has ever really caught on. I mean are women demanding larger and thicker penises? It would seem for all the talk of women's empowerment these days we're still at heart a bit of a patriarchal society. Thanks gals.