Social Insecurity: The Ticking Time Bomb

June 21st, 2005

Social Insecurity: The Ticking Time bomb

They say we have until 2017 to “fix” Social Security. I say we better start now.
However, I think Washington politicians in general suffer from a sort of “credit” problem. Now, I’m not saying this affects them all, but I do believe it affects enough of them to cause a problem. I’ll explain what I mean. People love to take credit for things, and it’s no different in politics. Politicians want to have their name behind a bill that changes our political and social landscape. They’re willing to go to such extremes as to curtail the efforts of others.

I think this is where we are at with Democrats and Republicans. One side tries to do a good thing while the other side calls them Nazi’s. And one side tries to do a good thing, while the other accuses of ‘bait and switch’ tactics.

While some of it might be true, we need to start working together on things. Politicians could learn a thing or two from Robert Yates: “It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the credit.

Take our looming Social Security issue. It needs to be fixed. The Bush administration wants badly to push through this idea of “personal accounts” while Democrats (and even other Republicans) say this is an incredibly stupid idea—They’re probably right.

It doesn’t take away from the fact that there is a problem and the two sides need to sit together to find a meaningful solution.

Pick your nose. No really, do it.

January 14th, 2005

According to a top Austrian doctor, picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy! He says, that we should be encouraging our children to pick their noses and eat it… “Dr Bischinger said: “With the finger you can get to places you just can’t reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner… and eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body’s immune system.” Apparently eating from your nose would work just like a pill when it arrived in the intestines. Should we all forget what our parents have taught us? After making so many, have they made another bad judgement call?

I find this to be very discusting! Anyone who does this is weird in my opinion, but then again what you don’t know can’t hurt you. I guess? I wouldn’t be able to get over it if anyone told me that about themselves.

source: www.davesdaily.com

Liza Minnelli’s bodyguard gets raped by…Liza Minnelli?

November 10th, 2004

Liza Minnelli
The former bodyguard and chauffeur to Liza Minnelli
accuses the singer of forcing him to have sex with her and is seeking more than $100 million in damages, according to court papers unsealed on Wednesday.
————-

You’ve got to be kidding me? First off, he’s a bodyguard. If he can’t protect
himself (from a little old lady) how the hell is he expected to protect
someone else, especially a little old lady?
He’s a bodyguard for crying
out loud. Isn’t it his job to know how to protect himself, and other people?

In the eyes of any logical-minded judge, it shouldn’t matter that she has lots of money and is considered powerful in some circles–she’s an old lady! She can
perhaps sing him to death but I don’t see her holding down someone and forcing
sex upon them. That is simply ridiculous. Oh, and he wants $100 Million dollars.
That seems rather exorbitant.



What if she said she would fire him if he didn’t have sex with her? Perhaps only then can I see this as being “forced”.

Christopher Reeve has passed away

October 11th, 2004

This news traveled very fast and it is most unfortunate. Most news organizations mentioned:

“Reeve’s family asked that donations be made in his honor to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, formed in 1999 to boost collaboration between experts working on treatments for spinal cord injuries.”

Out of respect, here is a link (which I didn’t see in any news articles) to the foundation and their donation page:
www.christopherreeve.org

Unfortunately, the site was down at the time I posted this (”Too many users are connected”). It was accessible beforehand. Refreshing a few times eventually loads the page.


update: (ramdac) It seems news of his death has traveled faster than a speeding bullet. Thanks for that one prence.

Bush denounces the ads! Ha!

August 23rd, 2004

Bush denounces the adsLast
week, the Kerry campaign made desperate calls to Bush to denounce ads that accused John Kerry of inflating his own Vietnam War record.

It is my opinion that the Kerry campaign thought Bush wouldn’t say anything
about it–wrong.
Today, Bush
denounced the ads
saying "I think they are bad for the
system".  Bush also went on to say that broadcast attacks by outside
groups have no place in the race for the Whitehouse.

Naturally, the democrats were still not happy. “The moment of truth came and went, and the president still couldn’t bring himself to do the right thing,” Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards said in a statement. “We need a president with the strength and integrity to say when something is wrong.”

“Too little, too late,” added party chairman Terry McAuliffe.

They’re pissed because Bush didn’t say something earlier. Apparently, Bush
"ignored" calls to condemn the ad while it was running, or so they
say.

To me, it doesn’t matter. Bush denounced them. There. Done. Is
it any surprise that the Kerry campaign is still not happy?  I’m
getting sick and f*cking tired of this overly-political bullsh*t from the likes
of Kerry and his cronies.

It’s good that Bush spoke up about this–even though I think he didn’t have to.
It’s also good to see Kerry doing the same thing. on August 18th, Kerry
asked one of his allies to pull an anti-Bush advertisement
.
Kerry asked the MoveOn PAC to pull a commercial assailing President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard, even though it was produced in response to an ad attacking Kerry’s Vietnam War record.

“This should be a campaign of issues, not insults,” Kerry said in a written statement.

It’s good to see these men at least attempting to act
"presidential" in this race. Well, at least sometimes– then they’re not acting like 13 year old snot-nosed brats.

Wizard People, Dear Reader

April 10th, 2004

I found this story while browsing through Waxy.org

Wizard People, Dear Reader is an unauthorized
re-envisioning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by Brad Neely. To
experience it, viewers need to get a copy of the first Harry Potter movie and
watch it with the sound off, replacing Neely’s narration with the original
soundtrack.
Here’s a full description
of how it works
Download the files:  Disk1
(69 MB) | Disk2 (73 MB)
Let me know if these links die, I’ll put up an alternate link.

This is hilarious. Just play the mp3 along with the DVD and
listen to the mp3 instead of the movie. It’s pretty damn funny.

Congress Expands FBI Spying Power

November 24th, 2003

You may remember some time ago I wrote an article about
The Patriot Act II“. Well things have changed a bit since then. Ryan Singel has recently published an article on wired.com regarding Congress and their actions to circumvent having to pass the Patriot Act II. They’ve just expanded Powers to the FBI.

“Congress approved a bill on Friday that expands the reach of the Patriot Act, reduces oversight of the FBI and intelligence agencies and, according to critics, shifts the balance of power away from the legislature and the courts…. “
“…A provision of an intelligence spending bill will expand the power of the FBI to subpoena business documents and transactions from a broader range of businesses — everything from libraries to travel agencies to eBay — without first seeking approval from a judge…”

Apparently intelligence spending bills are considered sensitive, so they are usually drafted in secret and approved without debate or public comment, Singel reports.

Justice Department officials tried earlier this year to write a bill to expand the Patriot Act. A draft — dubbed Patriot II — was leaked and caused such an uproar that Justice officials backed down. The new provision inserts one of the most controversial aspects of Patriot II into the spending bill.



For the full story, please click here.

Thanks to Wired.com and Ryan Singel for publishing this information.
Click here to see other articles by Ryan.
Slashdot Also has an Article about this.

‘Ghettopoly’ hits the stores.

October 9th, 2003

Ghetto OpolyA
‘Ghettopoly’ board game is held by a demonstrator during a protest outside an
Urban Outfitters store in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2003. Many in the
black community are outraged over the ‘Ghettopoly’ game, sold by the retail
chain Urban Outfitters, that has ‘playas’ acting as pimps and game cards reading
‘You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50…’ Black
clergymen say the game, the brainchild of a Pennsylvania man, should be banned.
(AP Photo/Mark Stehle)


Perfect, we’ve de-segregated Monopoly now?  All in all, this has got to
be a funny game.  I wonder what the average number pimps and hoes that get
shot up during the course of this game is?  Why does it look so
dirty? 

The Center for Responsive Politics

July 15th, 2003

2003: Public Service Announcement
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Support for the Center comes from a combination of foundation grants and individual contributions. You can support the work of the Center directly by contributing through opensecrets.org.

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(currently under a grant of $10,000)

Remote CD Tray Hack

June 12th, 2003

Woah killer. I found a way to open someone’s CD tray through IE.
It’s Designed for: Windows 9x, ME, 2K, XP; Internet Explorer 5.0+; and Media Player 7+.


Click here to see A diagram on how it works.

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