Thursday, October 31, 2013
Obama's continuing war on Privacy
The NSA, the Atlas Shrugged of spying - bulk is better. There's intelligent spying and then there's the indiscriminate, haphazard, random and promiscuous spying as practiced by the NSA...now it's tapping into Yahoo and Google links overseas. Just what in hell were we supposed to learn from Angela Merkel and the Pope anyway? Welcome to President Obama's dystopia.
Labels:
free speech,
government,
international news,
law,
politics,
technology,
terrorism
Friday, October 25, 2013
ObamaPetCare
I don't think people should talk about pet health insurance yet when we can't even get human insurance off the ground. 5 million lines of code......
Labels:
government,
health,
health care,
pets,
politics,
technology
Sunday, October 13, 2013
I need another TMI closet
Robin Thicke told Howard Stern he and his wife Paula Patton have done nearly everything. I know all about Sandra Fluke's monthly birth control expenses and how Michael Douglas got his cancer. Katie Couric once had her colonoscopy filmed and John Mayer has had coitus with Jennifer Aniston. There's older stuff like Bob Dole's erections, Bill Clinton's crooked member. Some quite dated Johnny Carson stuff and Frank Gifford has a thing for smelly women. I don't know where to keep all this stuff. Maybe I'll go to Home Depot and get one of them sheds.
Labels:
celebrities,
entertainment,
health,
humor,
journalism,
music,
politics,
pop culture,
sex/sexuality
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Have YouTube and Twitter gotten out of control?
Al-Shabab the Somali offshoot of al-Qaeda has or had an actual, authentic and official Twitter feed and boasted online of the horrific massacre they pulled off at the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Now one of the most viral videos out there is the one on YouTube involving the hordes of psycho motorcyclists on the West Side Highway in NYC and the only way it got on YouTube was one of the moto-psychos was wearing a helmet cam at the time and recorded the whole thing from before up to and including the motorist who ran over one of his fellow bikers and then the biker gang chasing him down for miles and beating him up in front of his wife and young daughter. Facebook isn't much better with gangbangers having profiles and regularly boasting of their day-to-day and I got to thinking these three major and popular sites have TOS sections that you have to agree to when you first sign up right? A key section usually involves not breaking the laws and not inciting to violence and threatening and harassing people and similar caveats no? From terrorists to common thugs and garden-variety criminals it seems everyone has a site or linkup or feed these days and they're so teched up to the gills that even during the commission of their diverse crimes and atrocities and general social mayhem one of the things foremost on their minds seems to be going online later. Is the omnipresence of Technology doing something to the Brain? or to put it another way does the mixture of criminals and technology make things worse? call it Techno-Porn:)
Labels:
africa,
crime,
free speech,
health,
law,
pornography,
psychiatry,
psychology,
society,
sociology,
technology,
terrorism
Friday, September 27, 2013
A part-time nation with health insurance
This is pretty much what the social/economic landscape is gonna look like when ObamaCare gets fully rolled out. Gold, silver or bronze plan your choice. On the plus side you'll be covered you just might not be able to afford the latest smartphone or HDTV. Look full-time work can exacerbate your illnesses and ailments, better to Kindle with a mug of hot cocoa and rest your back. I've been wondering of late though if HillaryCare would've been any better or maybe they're the same thing. Happy exchange shopping - is there an app for that?
Labels:
business,
government,
health,
health care,
labor,
politics,
society,
technology,
the economy
Saturday, September 14, 2013
The liberal(?) Pope Francis
He gets around town in an older Renault with 190,000 miles on it. Asked on a plane about gay priests and he says "who am I to judge?" Now he says clerical celibacy is not a dogma of the Church and says it can be discussed. Unlike the more foreboding and stern ex-Benedict he's the softie in the Entenmann's box, friendlier and more personal around the edges. I got no problem but if the liberal media starts to like you then there is a problem. I think you have to balance your softness though so as to appear you stand for something, you're not throwing out doctrines and morals. Coolness though cool is not a teaching. My view on priestly celibacy is it may be a blessing in disguise, you never experience having your heart broken but I also think it should be an option. All things considered though I'm getting the faintest whiff, just the wisp of a curl of a liberal pope with more liberal things to say in the near future, dribs and drabs stuff on planes in cars on sidewalks and in interviews. Is he down with Pro-Choice? he might vague the issue. On the Syrian question he's not even discussing the Church's time-honored since Aquinas just-war doctrine he's just tweeting the typical pacifist platitudes. The point's been made the Church needs to eventually move with the times, the Zeitgeist but is the times always worth moving towards? I don't have a firm impression of this pope yet and some feel Jesuits are a problem. I'm trepidatious and hopeful at the same time. As an interesting aside what's in some of those Vatican archives? Keep the theological sleuths busy.
Labels:
gay issues,
history,
Israel/the Middle East,
politics,
pro-choice,
pro-life,
religion,
sex/sexuality,
the media,
war
Sunday, September 08, 2013
Bush put boots on the ground in two wars...
...and conservatives by and large eagerly supported him. Obama wants a limited strike on Syria and he's a weak and confusing leader. Is there a Tea Party Spark Notes to explain all this?
Saturday, September 07, 2013
Ronald McDonald vs. Cheech & Chong
Some issues have come up in a couple of recent posts namely that eating at McDonald's is extremely bad for your health but pot is somehow ok. In the following 3 month experiment which group do you think will come out on top in terms of general overall health? The first group will eat what they consider to be a healthy diet, work out at the gym and all that good stuff but they'll smoke a couple of joints a day 'cause that's what they do. The second group will eat at McDonald's everyday, just once daily is enough and it doesn't have to be a hamburger and a soda. They can go for the healthier options on the menu like the salads, the wraps, the yogurt parfaits and a bottle of spring. I believe they even have some apple thing. So this group does that but they're not into pot and won't smoke it and they can jog too just like the first group. OK so at the end of the 3 month period who has damaged their health more and who will be happier? I once knew a guy who was really into his health, kept detailed charts of his cholesterol levels, plotted this and plotted that on graphs and reports but was a real pothead and was always devising new ways of toking like making a funnel out of Reynold's aluminum foil which I would think your fingers would get hot. He also unplugged all his appliances like the tv before leaving home for the day because he explained there's the trickle-suck effect of the plug simply being in the outlet and even that uses juice. What I want to know is at what point in time do you turn into Howard Hughes?
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
The very liberal NYC Mayoral race
The very not-afraid-to-say-it liberal Bill de Blasio is leading the Democratic pack to replace Bloomberg. You'd think Stop 'n' Frisk were the most important issue facing NYers as they're all running ads against the practice but de Blasio is also touting in commercials he's gonna tax the rich more in order to pay for after-school programs. The thought occured though doesn't he need the rich vote too as there's quite a few of them on the upper sides of the Island? Christine Quinn the Speaker of the NYC Council is second or third in the polling I've seen and Bill Thompson is right there with her and because he's black he's gotten certain major endorsements from other key blacks like the Rev. Calvin Butts. Anthony Weiner is one of them lower-tier candidates always around 8% although he has interesting positions like stop the ban on gay men donating blood at the same time touting the conservative position of more discipline in the public schools. I really don't think NYers are all that jazzed up about the Republican side with Catsimitidis of Gristedes fame and former MTA Chairman Joe Lhota who said he wouldn't hold up the subway lines for a couple of damn kittens. For Comptroller all Scott Stringer has to do is put ads against Spitzer saying "I'm the normal guy." Oh God though am I glad to see Bloomberg go! can't you just picture him on one of them court shows?
Labels:
business,
crime,
education,
gay issues,
government,
health,
health care,
law,
pets,
politics,
race
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Today's fast food protests and why I plan to eat at all three
Growing up I never went to work at a McDonald's, it just wasn't for me and I knew going in the pay was low. The pay is still rather low because Mickie D's is basically an entry-level job for teens and other young people first entering the job market. Other people however don't see it that way. The federal minimum wage is now at $7.25/hour and I've never made the case you could survive on the minimum but if you're 42 years old with or without kids why are you even working at a Wendy's or Burger King? Of course many people who have started at a McDonald's are now managing at a McDonald's but all this socialist unrest is not gonna cause me to eat less at any of the Big Three, in fact I think I'll go out later. Everybody has a political statement to make these days it seems and personally I much prefer to work it out through blogging rather than hitting the pavement and causing social disruptions. I'm not the bumper sticker type but I do break for animals.
Labels:
blogging,
business,
free speech,
government,
labor,
philosophy,
politics,
society,
the economy
Friday, August 23, 2013
Here's what I don't get about ObamaCare
I'm on record as being against it but having said that it seems to me ObamaCare has no teeth, no nails and so companies are being allowed to evade the Law. More and more businesses have decided to cut back on part-timers' hours to under 30/wk. so as to avoid the delayed but inevitable employer mandate. The year 2013 is a kind of lookback period after the mandate finally becomes fully implemented. Now it's obvious why these companies are doing this and the reason solely has to do with evading the employer mandate of ObamaCare. I haven't read the whole thing but seems to me this shouldn't be allowed, it should be illegal. Gov't auditors should then be able to look back at the corporate history of those companies now only recently cutting part-timers' hours to under 30/wk. and so there should be another penalty, a kind of backup penalty that kicks in if it is determined after a gov't investigation that the corporate motive at play here is to avoid having to provide health insurance to their employees working over 30 hours/wk. A Law has to be serious, just sayin'
Labels:
business,
government,
health care,
labor,
law,
politics,
the economy
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Eclectic News of the Day
Culled from different sources I thought these two items were interesting. Are you a sleep texter and in cryptozoological news there's this.
Labels:
health,
science,
society,
technology,
the environment
Monday, August 19, 2013
Chris Christie, gay politics and 016
I've heard of gay conversion therapy and feel folks should be legally able to freely choose it as their therapy of choice. In NJ Gov. Chris Christie just signed a law banning the practice and the focus seemed to be parents choosing it for their children. By my math Christie doesn't go very far in the Republican primaries in 016. We already know he's not appealing to the more socially conservative base but he's also gonna turn off the more libertarian element in the party who'll see his actions as increasing the power of the State to direct parents re the moral and social upbringing of their children. As usual Saty and BB will completely miss the point on this one and my smartphone should be burning up later. Oh btw I had to abort Publius last night.
Labels:
education,
free speech,
gay issues,
government,
health,
law,
political correctness,
politics,
psychiatry,
psychology,
sex/sexuality
Friday, August 16, 2013
Obama, Egypt and what's a coup?
I'm confused about Egypt, they protested en masse against Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and got rid of him, now that they got rid of him with the help of the Egyptian military others are now protesting en masse in support of Morsi. Of course before that everyone protested against Mubarak but seems they can't settle on a permanent leader over there. As everyone knows the Obama Administration esp. Sec'y of State John Kerry won't label it a coup as that would automatically cut off about $1.3B in foreign aid we give Egypt every year. As an aside where in hell does that money come from since we're in perpetual debt and deficit mode these days? Anyway the death toll continues to rise in the Arab Spring turned Red Summer with 275 dead a few days ago although the Brotherhood wrongly claims around 2,000. Mohammad Morsi was destroying basic freedoms like freedom of the press and dealt harshly with political protestors and yet a good slice of the right-wing commentariat seemed to want him to stay even though it was obvious he was turning this North African nation and pivot in the Middle East into an Islamist state. Well if you go back to the days of right-wing Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet many on the Right sometimes have a habit of turning the other way, he was a right-wing kind of dictator so I really don't take right-wing commentary on foreign policy all that seriously to begin with. Remember back in the day when Egypt was a fun topic and gave rise to a song by The Bangles and a skit by Steve Martin?
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Stop 'n' Frisk put on hold in NYC
My liberal gut instinct tells me Stop 'n' Frisk is wrong but my practical side sees it's also a highly effective police tool for reducing crime rates and getting guns off the streets. As you know Manhattan federal judge Shira Sheindlin has basically invalidated the NYPD's well-known and highly practiced stop and frisk program which has led to at least twenty years of markedly lower crime rates than under the David Dinkins administration. Judge Sheindlin also ordered a court-appointed monitor or overseer of the NYPD program and there's also to be a pilot program involving copcams worn on cops in one precinct in areas in every borough with the highest stop rates is my understanding although the PBA is gonna fight this rightfully saying imo that cops already have alot of gear on like mace and flashlights and this is only an extra and unnecessary encumbrance. Here's a complaint I hear alot about gangbangers in general, what's the deal with them and why do they have such notoriously bad aim? it'd be like the Mob going after Castellano outside the steakhouse but instead shooting an innocent grandmother in her rocking chair across the street. Anyway here's my overall view of these matters, when liberalism holds sway the crime rate goes up, way up. In short PC kills, think ChicagoLand.
Labels:
crime,
government,
guns/gun control,
justice,
law,
political correctness,
politics,
race,
society
Monday, August 12, 2013
The Big Business Blog
Soapie has a problem with Big Government or maybe it's just government. BB has a problem with Big Business. I have a problem with Both. Where to begin?
Friday, August 09, 2013
Our technologically disoriented society
ABC News had an interesting segment a few nights back about the recent spike in pedestrians being killed by drivers. We usually blame the motorist but according to the report there are two primary reasons for more pedestrians getting killed. One is many of them the walkers that is are drunk and these fatalities often occur at night (Lindsay Lohan is ambidextrous in this regard, she's driven drunk and walked drunk). The other main reason is folks are walking while texting and not watching where they're going. I see this on a daily basis and not only that you're more likely to become a victim of crime imo while doing this. You're far less aware of your surroundings, your environment which is the first thing they teach you in self-defense courses. Say two black guys are following you, say two guys are following you they may want your wallet or they may even be after your smartphone. Anthony Weiner, alot of people miss the point here. It's not so much that he'd have sex with these women he's just addicted to the tweeting, the texting, the technology of it all. You know when you take a picture of something, say your cat or a birthday cake and you send it off into the wireless ether to wind up on Facebook or Twitter or even your blog? You're amazed at the technology of it all (I did that?) and you feel like you have some magical powers that folks 30 years ago didn't even have and so in some cases images of peckers are happily bouncing around between the cell phone towers. I also think people are paying far too much for their technological needs and not only that all this technology is making them exercise less, I mean how many things can you watch on your tablet? So that's it we're a nation of zombies:)
Labels:
celebrities,
crime,
health,
journalism,
psychology,
sex/sexuality,
society,
technology,
the media
Thursday, August 08, 2013
Reflections on the 2016 GOP field
Chris Christie the apparent frontrunner - I'm not a fan as most conservatives are but there's a concern about his famous personality. It may work well in Jersey but I don't think he has the presidential temperament for the world stage. What is he gonna do tell foreign leaders off? Then there's the latest idea being bounced around of LI Rep. Peter King running. To me he has a touch of the opinionated loudmouth and imo he's not libertarian enough. He'll explain to you why we need the NSA looking through your tv screen into your living room let's say and if somebody leaks this much-needed gov't program they're a traitor and should have their balls deep-fried. Rand Paul the well-known KY libertarian - a longshot but the fave of one person around here. Isolationist foreign policy, would not try to stop most, make that all of the world's current genocides. Then there's the youngish and photogenic Sen. from FL Marco Rubio, would tap into the much-coveted Goya voting bloc but buena suerte in the primaries young man going up against all those GOP hardliners on immigration. Dunno, I'm not all that jazzed up about it all.
Labels:
foreign policy,
government,
immigration,
international news,
politics,
race,
technology,
terrorism
Sunday, August 04, 2013
The narrow political focus of Obama Sucks
Some folks want me to narrow the focus of my blog down to Obama and the Scumbags. It is indeed a fucked up world but I don't know how to unfuck it. Dunno, what do you want to talk about? Snarky is good but don't just be a drive-by, stay awhile.
Saturday, August 03, 2013
The Ole Gray Lady, for my money the most biased paper in America
Media bias is often in the eye of the beholder but I think it's getting harder to deny. The homepage of my mobile browser has been revamped nicely and so I clicked on the NY Times mobile site and read this and there seemed a most definite skewing. The debate is not a new one and it's not really like I mind media bias just be upfront about it. If FOX swings to the Right and provides a kind of counterweight to the predominant leftward tilt of the press it would seem to be a good thing like a menu. Media bias, why care?
Labels:
education,
free speech,
journalism,
politics,
pro-choice,
pro-life,
the media
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)