Google’s Knol A Flop

Google’s Knol is the most underwhelming thing you’re likely to hear about among the major IT players this year. If you can even find the site (what a dropped ball, Google, sorry…), you aren’t going to be impressed when you get there.

Touted as a direct competitor to Wikipedia, it fails miserably. Don’t lose any sleep tonight Wikipedia, you have nothing to worry about.

As with most Google projects, this one creates a lot of hype but doesn’t really do anything. Should have kept this one hidden away with the rest of the projects your PhD’s love playing with.

There’s nothing really on the site for general users. The articles are of lower quality than what you find on Wikipedia. In fact, it looks like a platform for beginning authors who can’t get published elsewhere more than a direct competitor for Wikipedia.

I’m not going to bother considering it for SEO concerns or any other concerns…except to monitor it for content theft since Google gives their site special consideration and gives higher rankings to duplicate content on its own site. That’s an incentive for theft right there.

How boring is it? You probably didn’t hear about the site until now. Even so, I’m not even bothering to link to it. Trust me, you would only hate me for wasting your time.

Wikipedia works because it is a social site, and not another platform for stirring up AdSense revenue by encouraging so-called SEO experts to gobble up the algorithmic crap you throw on the floor after dinner each night.

Why I Left Grassfire.org Behind

There are some good ideas and some good causes out there. For a while, Grassfire.org seemed like it was a great tool to address issues that Congress was failing to tackle. However, it is apparent now that Grassfire.org is not a site I want to associate with.

Why is that? Well, I’ve been supportive of the majority of their efforts, and even blogged to help spread the messages they have been trying to get out in order to attract attention to specific issues. However, that changed recently with the site’s efforts to pressure members of Congress into allowing the issue of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to be debated in Congress.

On this issue, I am entirely at odds with Grassfire’s position. But that’s not why I unsubscribed from the Grassfire newsletter, deleted it from my bookmarks. It is because of censorship of a sort.

You see, when Grassfire first sent out its first alert about the issue and the efforts of Harry Reid to block the issue in Congress (and while I don’t particularly like him, I applaud his efforts on this issue), I had posted on their message boards how I disagreed on this issue. It was a rather tame posting as well. But trying today to go to the message boards, I find my IP address has been blocked. Whoa…that is the first time since I discovered the Internet back in 96 that anything like that has ever happened. I’m still puzzled about it, but in retrospect, I don’t care.

I’ve seen Grassfire.org for what it is. Opinions that don’t gel with the ‘powers that be’ are unwelcome it would appear. Further, the fact they’re trying to pressure Congress into allowing drilling in the Gulf of Mexico close to shore is reason enough to disassociate myself from the site. Out at sea is about the only place left you can escape the horrible skylines of America, plastered with high-rise buildings and crap advertising. Why screw that up and have ugly oil platforms dotting the horizon close to shore?

We need to be getting away from oil dependency, not looking for ways to drag it out as long as we can. There are already vast areas of the Gulf of Mexico where oil companies are already allowed to drill…but they have not bothered to. And, we have seen what happens when a hurricane blows through. Who feels the costs of that sort of supply interruption? Consumers. Oil companies are making profits in the billions every year, record profits even as they force record breaking prices on their customers. Coincidence? If you think so, perhaps you’ll be interested in this genie in a lamp that I have for sale…

We’re one of the most technologically advanced nations, and yet we pay far more for fuel than many nations do. At the other end of the spectrum, Venezuelans pay $0.12 per gallon compared to what we do here in America. Pretty pathetic that our government and technology can’t bring us closer to that price point, isn’t it? Even drilling in the Gulf won’t contribute to that. Oil companies will find some excuse to keep prices high…rebels sucked 1000 barrels out of some pipeline in Nigeria…there was a leak in a pipeline running through the Balkans….always some excuse why Americans will have to pay more even for oil we extract here at home.

It’s time to get away from letting oil corporations and utilities corporations control our lives. The only way we head in that direction and do so safely before the oil runs out and societies around the globe begin to suffer a wide variety of effects from that, is to do so now–while we have the resources, need, and the will to do so. Allowing drilling in areas close to shore will only spoil the coastline, fatten the pockets of oil companies at our expense, increase the risks of ecological disasters, keep us addicted to oil, and create a dangerous false sense of security by lulling people into complacency that causes them to ignore the issue and put it off on the next generation once again.

Any drilling in the Gulf is unlikely to produce any real change at all except in the minds of weak-willed traders anyway, not for several years. Hell, if traders simply were told to “grow a pair of balls” and quit selling over every panicky sounding piece of news it would do more for the economy than anything. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen that isn’t already happening? What really will change between now and next year on a global scale? We go to war with Iran? Obviously it will be to get Iran’s oil, right? Just like we’re draining Iraq dry of its oil 5 years later, right? We aren’t getting jack crap in the way of oil from Iraq. It would have been less costly to squeeze it out of oil shale than spending what we are on this war.

In any case, the oil companies have screwed up our world long enough and caused enough problems on a global scale that it is past time to move on and find another paradigm. Since Grassfire.org is too myopic in its agenda, I took this as a sign that it was time to move on. Any organization that is a friend of big oil companies is no friend of mine. It’s those same corporations that drive policies which keep our borders insecure and allow rampant illegal alien invasion and keep the income levels of the American people at levels that keep them near poverty.

It’s long past time to change our society, eliminate the attitudes that expect some divine right to speedy travel coast-to-coast and 60 mile commutes to work every day. Just because you bought into that sort of mindset does not mean the rest of us should suffer for it.

And since Grassfire is aligned with that very mindset which I find a detriment to our national security and social well-being, I am only too happy to leave it behind.

Goodbye Grassfire. And good riddance.

Taking It To Yet Another Content Thief

I hate scrapers. I hate people who steal original work from others and try to pass it off as their own. Here is one more on the list of many I have dealt with. My original post: Comparing Tactics Of WTO Negotiations To Nazis

Check out how the loser who has the blog Cumulatelove.com stole an article of mine and tried to pass it off as original work, and my response.

Here’s a screenshot…

My blog posts being stolen...

Here’s what I posted as a comment:

You have reproduced my original content without my express permission and without attribution, which constitutes a violation of copyright under the Digital Millennium Act, and is therefore a crime.

If you do not remove my content from your site immediately, I will contact your hosting company, ISP, and domain registrars and inform them of your criminal activity. This means Vivid Media GmbH all the way through PublicDomainRegistry.com and proper law enforcement authorities in Germany and the USA will be notified.

You have 48 hours to comply before I will pursue legal action. Content theft is a serious crime.

Sincerely,

Sean Wilson
My Errant Mind
http://errantmind.wordpress.com/
(original author of this stolen content)

This is another example of the crap and spam and scraping that goes on through the company Vivid Media GmbH and other such companies that provide convenient cover for spammers and hackers alike. It’s time for governments to crack down on who can and cannot become a domain registrar, and perhaps licensing webhosts or something that makes them more accountable.

My Zoom GFX-8 Power Supply Search

Zoom no longer makes the power supplies for the GFX-8 multi-effects unit, which sucks. I have one, you see. I need to find a new one as my power supply is suffering, and a week of searching online has turned up nothing. The big problem is the female plug on the adapter, which is the world’s most obscure size, apparently.

I’m hoping there is another Zoom GFX-8 user (or electronics guru) out there who knows of some secret stockpile of them or a suitable alternative and that they will be so kind as to point me in the right direction.

The specs for the supply are:

• Output Voltage: AC 12V
• Output Current: 500mA (*)
• Inside Diameter of Plug: 3.0 mm
• Outside Diameter of Plug: 6.5 mm
• Length of Plug: 9.5 mm

Yes, it’s a 12 VAC power supply with a huge female barrel plug that no one seems to carry. I’m wondering about whether or not it would be easier and smarter to just de-solder the input jack on the unit and replace it with a more common sized one?

I had been thinking of this readily available unit: Littlite - wxf

It would be easy enough to get some ring terminals and wire for a cord going. But I can’t find any of those darn 6.5mm/3mm/9.5mm female barrel plugs anywhere. I will probably buy those things anyway, and snip my original plug and a few inches of wire off and then use some butt connectors to join the resulting plug and whip to a long, custom cord. But still, I would rather find something meant to work commercially available.

I love the sound of my GFX-8, but this will probably be the last Zoom product of any kind that I buy. You don’t just leave customers hanging that way. That’s horrible business practice. I can’t help but wonder how many previously happy customers Zoom is alienating with this lack of simple support? Hell, they could have at least flooded the market with adapters or stockpiled the plugs and sockets for replacement parts.

I’ve always been a stompbox guy until the past three or four years when I decided I wanted to try and eliminate pedals and be able to turn several effects off and on quickly in order to play some industrial/electronica influenced rock/metal. I’ve even been planning to go rackmounted…gasp. I bought a PODxt Live, which, while sounding decent broke after just a few months of almost no use (and I babied it, it never even made it onto the floor, just being used for recording). I spent 5 months trying to get it repaired and discovered that Line6 has some of the absolute worst technical support and service centers I have encountered in this life, so I sold it off after it was repaired, along with my Randall power amp.

Thought I would give Zoom a try and revisit the idea. Granted, this unit is a model that’s been out for several years, but it seemed like a good deal and sounds great. In fact, I really like it. But, there’s always some damn catch, isn’t there? The power supply is poorly made and mine has bare wire showing now.

I have always preferred plugging into pedals and a good amp, and this is a major pain in the ass. The tube and pedal junkie in me is having a good laugh, saying “I told you so,” on a daily basis. F***ing digital…

Rackspace IPO Almost Here

On August 4, Rackspace will go public.

I have mixed thoughts on this particular IPO for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, I like it because if there is a solid webhosting company that can go public and thrive, it’s Rackspace. On the other hand, what will answering to finicky demands of more shareholders and the markets do to a company whose model has been based around Fanatical Support ® in the long run?

I suppose any company reaches a point where it has to weigh decisions about whether or not a particular risk is worth the potential payoff. Hopefully, the company has a good plan in place to ensure that it has nowhere to go but up and on towards bigger and better things. Otherwise, stockholder driven corner-cutting is the thing most likely to destroy Fanatical Support ® when you get right down to it.

Do I like the idea of putting the very heart of one’s business model on the line for increased funding when that business is already making healthy profits and has no pressing need for the risk? Not particularly. I would consider improving hiring quality and better ideas and practices and strategic thinking avenues—and pursue them until there was absolutely no gain left to be had in those areas.

And maybe they have.

Of course, I have a lot of high hopes for them on this one. A friend of mine is a one of the guys who helped get the company up and running after he left the Army, and I would love to see the company he’s been part of for so long do even better. So, of course, I’m going to be wishing them all the luck in the world.

Not so sure about the auction for buying shares though…seems like that could hurt them more than help. We’ll see. Good luck, Rackspace!

Song Of The Day: Black Label Society - Fire It Up

OK, what can I say? Today’s Song of the Day just rocks like the Apocalypse—and what more reason do you really need than that to listen to it? Good music to listen to while working. It’s also one hell of a fun song to play on guitar.

And hey, you might as well enjoy it now while you can, before the Apocalypse arrives and there’s no more convenient electrical supply for your stereo. Besides, the roaming freebooters and cannibalistic armies of the post-apocalyptic world would hear your stereo blaring and come looking to enslave you (or chow down on you) if you crank it up after the fall anyway.

Zakk Wylde and the band tearing it up in fine fashion. Enjoy…

YouTube Divorce Case: Woman Whines About $750,000 Settlement

Tricia Walsh-Smith is whining about her $750,000 divorce settlement after a judge appropriately decided to grant her husband, Phillip Smith, a divorce in the wake of her YouTube escapades.

Unhappy with the decision, she suggests her husband is “…basically throwing me out on the street.”

With $750,000 from a prenuptial agreement, which she agreed to, and which the judge enforced. What’s not to like about that? Oh, I know, she won’t be living the lifestyle she’s accustomed to, is that it?

The $750,000 Mean Street

Maybe she should do something to earn the money that will let her live the lifestyle she was accustomed to. Or, better yet, she should get over herself and join the rest of the world’s non-millionaires.

I mean, it must be a rough street to live on when you can just pay cash for a new home, new car and go back to college if you like…or start your own business.

Who in their right mind likes that kind of whiner, really? Someone whining because they only received $750,000 in a divorce settlement is about the last person on Earth you would want to have to endure for company. I say about only because there are those that whine about getting millions in a divorce settlement. Now, if she had to go dig through a trash can for her meals, I would cut her some slack, but folks, that just isn’t the case.

I’m sorry, but if you can buy a lear jet or 60′ sailboat with your divorce settlement (even used), you don’t qualify for being “put out on the street” status. Literally, billions of people around the world would love to be in your shoes.

And if you’re going to argue that her attorneys will get a lot of that, so what? She would have it all if she had simply agreed to the terms of the prenuptial agreement and not hired one. I have no sympathy for her at all.

Let’s look at what earned her a paltry $750,000 settlement.

Is Spousal Support An Antiquated Practice We Should Abolish?

The notion that someone is entitled to someone else’s retirement funds, wages, or anything else if they do something to end a marriage is antiquated and the sort of inequality that still exists but that you won’t see feminists doing anything about. The notion you should have to support a former spouse has no place in a modern, enlightened society when you get right down to it. The notion of legal partnerships being more of a basis for a relationship than those things which make a marriage relationship–such as love, fidelity, trust, caring about another, etc.—is part of the reason we have so many attorneys who help create more and more messy breakups by sticking their nose in the middle of what would have otherwise been amicable dissolutions of relationships.

It’s all about money and who can get as much as they can or hold on to as much as they can. What ever happened to two people going their way with what is theirs? Their debt, their income, their possessions, their choices and the repercussions thereof.

The Life We Choose

I know, I can hear those women who will whine about “I gave up my life to have kids…” Yes, YOU DID. You chose to get married. You chose to have kids. And certainly there is a responsibility towards those kids. But that doesn’t change the fact that in a divorce, former spouses shouldn’t support former spouses. What needs to change, if anything, is putting responsibility in such cases (where those in a marriage feel they need equity and equal opportunity and time and fun and whatever else one sacrifices when raising kids) back on both parents to do their share in raising children. Even if it means fathers being stay at home dads for a couple years and then switching off as things go along. All things that should be decided ahead of time. What tends to get ignored in those cases where many women suggest they “gave up” something to raise their kids is the fact that SO DID THE HUSBAND/FATHER.

He gave up time with the children and his wife and time away from things he might like to do, and took on additional responsibilities as well. How then should a woman feel she is somehow owed for what she gave up—while the man shouldn’t be compensated for what he gave up? It’s like there is something unfair or wrong or to not like about being with or raising children in the first place in the minds of many. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t have had any to begin with. Sure, I would be all for having a working spouse help cover the relocation and resettling costs by a non-working spouse…but after that, their life is their responsibility, not their former spouse’s.

But, if you willingly choose to get married, have kids, and stay at home…well, that’s YOUR CHOICE. If at a later time, you regret your choice, someone else shouldn’t have to support you because YOU DIDN”T THINK AND PLAN EVERYTHING TO THE EXTENT YOU SHOULD HAVE. And that includes the husband as well. I’m all for there being a plan by both, agreements worked out ahead of time. Perhaps that’s what we need, is to embrace the whole legal mess attorneys have created in order to eliminate it. I mean if both a couple were required to sign a prenuptial and agree to the terms in order to get married, there should be no need for attorneys in a divorce at all.

Getting Lawyers Out Of The Equation

The judge can just see what the prenuptial states, and adjudicate the case accordingly. To each what they agreed to. A responsible thing. Eliminate attorneys altogether from the equation and send them back to dealing with criminal and corporate law or chasing ambulances. If the couple has had joint income (say, due to a business venture), make them produce the appropriate documents stating the percentage of partnership/incomes due, and assets and debts, revenue statements…from there, it’s all simple math.

The Marriage Didn’t Turn Out Like It Was Supposed To?

I am sure a lot of women will cry foul at my suggestion. Probably make statements like, “But what if he turns out to be an asshole or you just can’t get along and he’s basically broke the promise you made with your love?” I’m not unsympathetic and I understand where you’re coming from.

Couples Need To Take Responsibility For Their Actions

Perhaps you should have taken more time to get to know the person, though? Perhaps you should have money in savings (instead of wasting it all on one day out of vanity, which makes sense, right?) so that if you need to leave that whole excuse many abused women use to suggest that they can’t—because of finances or not having a place to stay—is eliminated? I’m not suggesting anything remotely like women are responsible for abuse in those cases, either, so hold your rantings inside. What I am suggesting is that we are all responsible to some degree for our own well-being, and if you choose to put yourself in a bad situation and then choose again to stay there, you have as much culpability in the crap you endure for simply not standing up for yourself.

I’ve heard more women than I care to whine about some guy, but who they keep going back to because “he’s really nice…unless he just got out on parole again, or is on crack, or when he’s not shooting up smack with my brother, or when he’s not beating the crap out me, or when he’s not trying to sleep with my sister…”

Yeah? Is there anything inside your head besides dead air space? If so, try using it.

If someone wants to argue the psychological aspects of it, tell it first to the rest of society who teaches women to be weak, not stand up for themselves, condones abuse, ignores those things like child abuse which create unhealthy mindsets in the first place, and to those men who won’t stand up for a woman—be she a member of their family or a complete stranger. When YOU have sufficiently crusaded and/or complained to others enough and changed the society we live in by doing YOUR part to ensure many women don’t have or use that psychological crutch of the weak to lean on in the first place by destroying that mentality of self-pity, THEN YOU CAN COMPLAIN TO ME…and I might listen.

I’m doing my part right now. And I’ve done my part by taking more than one piece of crap to task that seemed to think it makes them tough to beat a woman (or to call them all sorts of vulgarities in public places). As far as I’m concerned, it is the rest of society that refuses to hold people accountable for their behavior towards others, for the mentality they spread and allow to spread, and for not employing tough love to tell someone “if you don’t like the results, change what you’re doing.” Or punching some asshole right in his pie-hole and knocking a few teeth out as a reminder that his behavior is unacceptable. If that makes me a monster, I’m glad to own up to my fangs.

[NOTE: to those who intend to whine about violence and how punching an abusive jerk would be promoting more of the same, blah blah-blah blah... Give it a rest. Violence does solve certain issues, mostly surrounding the issues of personal safety. In fact, that's the best justification for it in the world. And quit being hypocritical: it it weren't for violence, you wouldn't have the benefit of enlightened thinking of Western civilization that gives you a right to vote, live in a free country and decry the only reason you aren't a slave in a far away land...or the right to take self-defense classes and carry a concealed weapon that would let you shoot anyone trying to beat you dead. But hey, really, tell me how waking someone up to the wrongness of their actions, even if a bit rudely (and it isn't like they don't mind rudeness themselves, beating women or children, right?) is somehow wrong.]

Back to the point, what if the guy turns into a real jerk later in the marriage? Did he break “the promise?”

I don’t know…does that mean if you get fat, take up collecting Oreo cookie package wrappers as a hobby, and let yourself generally go—and no longer appear worth all the money I’m spending to keep you in the lifestyle to which you became accustomed (and which I can no longer enjoy because you’re putting me in debt)—that I should say, “Sorry, but you broke the promise?”

People need to discuss expectations when going into a marriage. Then think, and plan and most importantly take responsibility. Believe me, I learned the importance of it the hard way myself.

I think we need Federal legislation that makes pre-marriage planning and prenuptial agreements mandatory. And if there are points of contention, only public defenders should be allowed/assigned to a divorce case. Taking the money out of ruining lives will bring some sense of sanity and humanity back into our society and make it more civil than it is now.

If nothing else, maybe the media will have to actually look for real news to write about and my blog posts won’t be so boring to write.

Here’s her second video on the subject where she whines about not being able to have her plays produced. Oh, don’t you just pity her? I think she believes she’s too good to wash dishes or something. Complaining about your expensive attorneys after stating “In New York, if you don’t have money, you’re nobody,” somehow doesn’t earn you any sympathy at all in my book.

[Update: Now there's a woman who was awarded $150,000 because her fiance called off the wedding. This is fucking idiocy at its worst. No wonder this country is going to hell.

She complained that "...her fiance's promise of marital bliss amounted to a binding contract," according to the article on WSBTV.com's website.

Really? I ought to be able to go back and sue my ex wife for breaking a contract then shouldn't I? What about the ex girlfriend's who said we were going to have blissful futures together?

I can't stand anything about our legal and justice systems in this country, nor about the kinds of people that push our country in the direction of this kind of stupidity. Everything is this insane "you fucking owe me" mentality.

What's next? I wouldn't be surprised if some asinine lawyer starts advising people spouses should be payed a salary to perform their functions. You know, I can already hear someone wondering at both ends of the spectrum about it---one about how life will suck because they will only be able to afford a $300 per month spouse (not much left after the bills are paid) or face a life of living single...and the one who is wondering about what they might be entitled to for $10,000 per month. I mean, surely threesomes and doing windows and cooking will at least be included for that, right?

$150,000 because you made a bad romantic choice? I ought to be a friggin millionaire by now.]

Police Use Taser On Blind Woman Barely Able To Walk

There needs to be some legislation removing tasers from the hands of law enforcement officers altogether. The latest? They used a taser on a blind woman who can barely get around. This is just ridiculous and and horrible incidents like this are happening on a weekly basis now across the nation.

Dayton, Ohio police say the woman was being combative and punched an officer after becoming combative after telling police her son wasn’t there. Their excuse doesn’t hold up when you consider the woman is blind.

Her version is that she was on the phone when she answered the door and they tried to force her to hang up. When she refused, they assaulted her and took her to the ground, then tased her—which some witnesses seem to agree to.

Police were looking for her son it appears.

Watching video of this woman, who is almost morbidly obese and blind and can barely get around, one cannot imagine how or why she would need to be thrown down and tased by police. Police say they followed procedure? What procedure is that? Tase anyone who questions their presence, reasons or the legality of what they’re doing? What ever happened to police protecting and serving?

It’s been replaced by arrest and abuse, that’s what.

And so this woman had to seek medical care and officials say her condition could be life threatening.

So much for being safe in your own home. Let’s see…we’ve had decorated Marine Sergeants, pregnant mothers, obese blind women, the mentally ill, and the elderly have all been victims of tasing. It seems police are so poorly trained that they can’t restrain people like they once did. Worse, it seems they don’t even have the common sense and training to open their eyes and ears and use people skills.

Kicking in doors and heads and juicing people with gadgets and running around in black BDUs and carrying black rifles seems to have low qualification levels and to be the preferred modus operandi of police forces. The average American has more to fear from police than they do from criminals in many places, and it shows signs of spreading even to rural communities as well. What a sad state our nation is sinking into.

Comparing Tactics Of WTO Negotiations To Nazis

The headlines all sound like everyone is so shocked that Brazilian Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, made a comment which is true. He said that certain tactics employed by certain governments negotiating in the Doha trade round reminded him of the sort of things Nazis did. What’s the big deal?

It’s absolutely true.

Especially where he takes them to task for misrepresenting the talks and the ulterior motives many of the more industrial nations have in engaging in the talks. Contrary to what the headlines suggest and the official reaction of those retards who lead our country, I’m glad to hear someone in politics telling it like it is. Wish we had a few more of those sorts of politicians in our own country (and no, moonbats don’t tell it like it is) to help Ron Paul out.

“Goebbels used to say if you repeat a lie several times it becomes a truth,” Amorim said. And that is exactly one of the tools in the propaganda toolbox of all nations, including the United States’ own political toolbox. In fact, George Bush’s Presidency has pretty much been built upon that premise, as have the Clinton’s careers. WMD’s, blue dresses and airport snipers come to mind.

Are the WTO negotiators really that shocked at the accusation, or just the fact someone sees their tactics for what they are and called them on it? Our government and others are doing many things the Nazi regime once did, and have done the same or worse in the past. The recent revelation of the US military doing nothing and thereby condoning the machine-gunning of thousands of innocent civilian Koreans in the Korean War is merely one disgusting example of how our government hypocritically condones and allows atrocities and war crimes to occur…even AFTER using those same excuses to wage war on Germany.

What’s shocking isn’t that the Brazilian Foreign Minister made the accusations, but that more people don’t know enough about politics and history to realize it is true that our government has agencies and politicians and workers in it every bit as corrupt or morally decrepit as any that served in the Nazi regime, and that they use the same tactics, and have perpetrated or condoned more than a fair share of evils of their own. Large industrial nations’ governments are just more subtle in the way they persecute, kill, poison, imprison, destroy other nations, impose their will, take resources and enslave the masses.

Where it isn’t so subtle is the terrible acting by those serving in governments.

Social Network For Book Lovers: GoodReads.com

If you haven’t come across it yet, you might want to check it out if you’re a book lover. GoodReads.com is a social networking site for the lover of literature, and if you’re wanting to find, well, good reads, you will find a lot of suggestions from others.

It is a nice concept really. People reviewing books and sharing thoughts on various topics and authors…and publishing information and the ability to order any books you come across are right at hand. Nifty.

You might even strike up some friendships. If so, you can add those newfound friends to your friends list, much like other social networks. It’s a nice niche social network for those who are tired of getting swamped with pointless widgets or “poked” on Facebook and thousands of irrelevant bulletins and invites to events in another reality on MySpace.

Check out GoodReads.com (which also has author bios and information). You might enjoy it!

[A very special thanks to CJ for introducing me to the site. ]

Columbian Government Violates Geneva Conventions, Commits War Crimes

Not surprising really. The GOC (Government of Columbia) used the International Red Cross logo in violation of the Geneva Convention during its recent hostage rescue. Pretty much the same thing terrorists do, isn’t it…hiding in mosques and such?

There isn’t much difference between Columbia’s government and the FARC. Columbia has had a corrupt government for many years, and certainly engages in less than legal and ethical activities. It even supports some narco-trafficking paramilitaries. But the GOC is on good terms with our own Federal government, and signing deals with Panama and the Port of New Orleans and the American Congress just as fast as it can.

America has neglected Latin America for far too long, and now China and even Hezbollah are rampant throughout South America. The governments we’re on good terms with aren’t exactly progressive nor without their share of oppression and human rights abuses—not to mention they contribute to the global narcotics market in no small measure. Which even Afghanistan does. Funny how we support so many nations producing so much of the drugs on the world market, isn’t it? Even funnier that our own military and law enforcement agencies even aid and abet narco-trafficking and human rights abuses (such as against the Mapuche and other citizens in Chile).

I’m sure there’s a good reason for it though, right?

Anyone out there actually think anything will happen to Columbia for its war crimes? That’s what using the Red Cross logo in a military operation constitutes after all. Nothing will happen to Columbia’s government, no one will stand trial, and no one will go to prison or be executed or removed from power. It is perfectly fine to violate the law when those carrying the biggest sticks (and waterboarding like it’s a sport) are your patrons after all.

No Worries, Bush Says All Is Well

Despite the largest bank collapse in recent history with IndyMac, despite the problems with mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite oil prices through the roof for no real good reason, despite massive layoffs, despite wars, despite growing problems with gangs and drugs and crime across the country, all is well, according to our President.

Sort of brings to mind the whole ostrich with its head in the sand image, doesn’t it?

And isn’t it funny how the two mortgage leeches…errr…lenders and even the collapsing bank, have the same sort of names, right down to the syllablic emphasis? It’s basically “la-de-da.” Which is pretty much what President Bush is saying about all the bad stuff wrong with our nation and its current situation and direction.

It seems like someone spoke the secret codeword and “all financial institutions with the 3 syllable la-de-da sort of name should fail this week.” Kind of makes you wonder about conspiracy theories and who controls the world’s wealth all over again, doesn’t it?

Maybe since oil dropped a whopping $7.33 (For light sweet crude. I wonder, by the way, if that’s what the oil companies call it because of geological characteristics or what it means to their bank accounts?) Bush thinks all is well? There’s been no real reason for rising oil or gas prices in the past several years other than speculators driving it up to their benefit, right? The situation around the world hasn’t changed really, and while demand has increased a bit, there has always been a surplus in supply it seems to me.

Or, are there other reasons, such as other commodities and products growing scarcer, other markets that are in part responsible for driving up prices in all other sectors? Some certainly think so.

A lot of the argument is fear over supply availability if there’s a war with Iran, which is being driven largely by American war rhetoric. I wonder how much of that media war drumming is paid for by those with their hands dipping into the pockets of big oil companies? But there should be no need for war with Iran if we start drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, right? Wrong, greedy corporations never have enough, and nothing we do will change that.

I hope Congress DOES NOT OK drilling in the Gulf. It won’t “reverse the psychology” as Bush suggested. What the hell does that mean anyway, really? That people won’t fear oil shortages for a few more years because 8 years from now there will be a few more drops in the bucket?

It’s time to stop wasting billions of dollars on Iraq already, and start pouring that money into our nation’s own infrastructure and finding sustainable energy and development paradigms for the future without oil, which will arrive. It doesn’t matter when, it IS coming, and the sooner we prepare for it instead of squandering our resources trying to hang on to a sinking ship, the better off we’ll be as a society. People need to start asking their city councils and elected officials what they’re doing right now, today, to ensure their communities will have power and agricultural and other resources a generation from now.

What will become of your children and grandchildren? A time is approaching when communities (especially larger cities) are going to face large scale predicaments when they have no sustainable local economies, utilities infrastructure and agriculture. Small towns ought to be coming up with solutions today for how they will provide power generations and sustainable local economies 10, 20 and 50 years from now. Those that don’t are signing the death warrants for their communities.

With food rationing in parts of the world, and hoarding in others—including the USA—(and the UN predicting even worse to come), will your community survive if no one locally farms? Will retailers be able to have food brought in from the outside with skyrocketing fuel costs? And what of the rising epidemics of salmonella and ecoli outbreaks, which show every sign of increasing in frequency and intensity? What will your community do when there is no more petroleum or coal or natural gas? Sure, that may be even several generations away, but when that time comes, it will be too late to address the issue for most communities.

After all, if EVERY community in America has the same issues of resources drying up at the same time, do you think the Federal government can possibly come up with the money and resources to create solutions for them all at once? Hell, we can’t even keep pot holes fixed on highways as it is as a nation, or get water to a major city hit by a hurricane for nearly a week—what makes you think an event of civilization-altering scale will be something the government is equipped to handle? The government is trying its best to keep you in the dark that such a time is even coming.

Most people probably don’t give a damn, it’s sad to say. But those who will be retiring 5 or more years from now are going to find their retirement shrinking as inflation and costs of living (costs of everything in fact) continuing to climb at rates that will far outpace any wage increases. Especially on a global scale. The US dollar is pitiful against the Euro right now, partly because of our President’s lack of concern for the economy and partly because no one in government right now has the slightest clue how to fix it all (aside from Ron Paul, who understands economics and monetary policy better than any member of Congress or anyone in the President’s administration).

And now that Swiss Banks are losing their luster and rolling over for the IRS, a lot of other economic issues are going to crop up in the near future—just wait and see. The US government is going to become the most aggressive wage garnisher/tax collector on the face of the Earth by 2020 and there are a myriad reasons why. That is, if it survives that long.

Honestly, I think we’re in as bad a situation as any that we’ve been in since this nation’s founding with the sole exceptions of The Great Depression and the American Civil War.

With the recent formation of a Mediterranean Union, the European Union, the African Union and so forth…does anyone really believe still that the North American Union (let’s call it what it is though, the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership, which our political leaders keep trying to hide, or else they will deny any such agenda exists…) is not in the works? Already, Canadian and Mexican militaries have the OK to enter the sovereign territory of the USA in event of major disasters, and our military has the OK to enter theirs as well—under the auspices of helping restore civil order and so forth.

I know there will be a lot of Americans who simply won’t accept that. I sure as hell would view any Mexican troops entering the USA as an invasion and sufficient grounds for throwing off our government for having turned on us. Our own nation was formed on several arguments for independence, one of which was that King George was quartering troops among the citizenry in times of peace. I wonder what the hell makes our present government think for a minute that not only quartering foreign troops among us in times of peace but having them restricting the freedoms and rights of American citizens or arresting them or physically imprisoning them will be anything less than cause for another Revolution? Same goes for Canadian troops. Any foreign troops being invited into our borders under any such guise of restoring civil order will spark the Second American Revolution or the Second American Civil War.

They know it will, which is precisely why they are sure to invite both country’s militaries, because they know it will take overwhelming odds to defeat any American citizens who choose to rise up and throw up an oppressive government. Which probably means that the renewed talk of another assault weapons ban isn’t just coincidental.

Or does everyone else think that American laws and policies are not starting to line up more generally with those such as found in the Europe, Canada and Australia?

By the way, the smart thing to do in the future is to ask your bank about their mortgage/lending policy, debt outstanding and so forth, and to avoid those heavy on mortgage lending, you think? Given the current state of the USA’s economy, it would make a lot of sense to start stuffing your rainy day money away in overseas banks or investments.

Just thinking out loud…

Another Reason To Be Disappointed In America

I used to be proud of my service in Korea, and looked back fondly on my time there. That is, until today. Looking back after reading an article detailing the US military and its lack of intervention in the massacre of thousands of Korean civilians, I have a different feeling about the country, my time there, the leadership of America and the military commanders and officers serving at the time.

Bluntly speaking, I’m disgusted in those in our military who sat by and did nothing about mass executions of civilians. Bluntly speaking, I’m ashamed of my country for what it did—which at the very least was to do nothing, and at worst was to actually condone or encourage it through tacit approval by its refusal to do something about it.

What am I talking about? Lining up political prisoners and machine gunning them to death and putting them in mass graves. Not just one incident of it, but a policy and practice of it, every bit as heinous as the war crimes committed by the Nazis in WWII. By one of our allies, and after we took those Nazis to task for the very same sorts of things, which probably makes it even worse in my opinion because it adds the element of hypocrisy.

Right now I couldn’t be much more disgusted in my country, those who led it, and those who lead it now. I will never think of my time in South Korea the same way again. Gone will be what good memories there were, replaced by a revolting, sick thought that I ever helped protect the country of those murdering bastards and sick degenerates. No wonder the communists hated them so fucking much.

Those South Koreans were no better than the communists they fought against. And towards McArthur and all the American military officers who did not stop those atrocities, I look down on them as spineless cowards, despicable, disgusting and weak excuses for men who I wouldn’t piss on—even if they were on fire and begged for it.

You would think that as one grew older and wiser, they would be able to find more reasons to love their country. That’s not the case at all for me. I find more and more reasons to want to see it changed from its present form, much like our founding fathers saw many reasons to change the government which they themselves lived under prior to gaining independence.

Which is why I didn’t even celebrate Independence Day this year. I’m done celebrating the beginning of this government we have to endure, and all the cowardly, evil, crooked, profiteering, corrupt, freedom destroying bullshit that it propagates under the false pretense of freedom and democracy. It’s all about money and power, and that’s all life will ever be about in the eyes of the government here in America.

It hasn’t been about the people, democracy, rights, freedoms and liberties in over 200 years, which is part of the reason we already had one Civil War.

There needs to be a history class in high schools focusing on all the ugly, disgusting, revolting things our nation has done, and who did them—so that we put an end to the mindless worker-drone production line that those in power so love (which, of course, is why it will never happen). We also need laws that prevent any military aid or foreign aid to any nation which allows or condones human rights abuses, the status of which is reviewed each year.

Which if we are to avoid hypocrisy, means we need to hold our own government accountable and have a better means to do so. Elections are simply insufficient means of doing so. So is impeachment, as it is only initiated by other politicians (who are by nature reluctant to do so, for fear of it becoming a commonly used tool whereby they themselves might be removed), and despite popular belief—removal from office is not mandatory if one is impeached.

As an American, I am tired of seeing our nation helping Israel, Arab dictatorships and monarchies, African warlords and various potentates around the world who keep their people in bondage. But in truth, we need to hold our own government accountable first. It is fast becoming one of the worst governments of all for violating personal freedoms, privacy, liberties, and for human rights abuses.

I don’t mind taking other nations to task when security necessitates it. I’m fine with war as sometimes it is necessary. But it is altogether a different thing to close with and destroy the enemy who was taken the battlefield willingly and under the laws of warfare as generally agreed to by nations…and machine-gunning innocent civilians—men, women and even children—in the name of expediency, political protectionism, or anything else for that matter!

What the South Korean military did is the same as what the Nazis did, and the same thing Al Qaeda does—murdering innocent people. Looking back at history in that context, and looking at what is happening today, I find it highly hypocritical that we’re at war with terrorists for doing the same things our allies in South Korea did.

The only difference I see is that Al Qaeda isn’t murdering those innocents of our enemies…just the innocents of our allies and those on our side. I wonder if America would be engaged in a global War on Terror if instead of flying planes into the World Trade Centers, Al Qaeda had instead flown them into the Kremlin, or downtown Beijing?

Probably not.

Zimbabwe No Improvement Over Rhodesia

Well, the whole world has seen it and been aware of it for decades. I just thought I would remind anyone who might have forgotten. Also, I wonder if there’s anyone out there who would like to see Rhodesia revived? Drop me a line, I’m curious.

Couldn’t possibly do any worse than Zimbabwe has done and is doing.

Don’t you just love the mess that the UK, USA and other Western governments have made out of southern Africa with their guilty conscience agenda?

Who knows, maybe the whole region is ready for change, what with the rampant crime and racism in South Africa. Waitaminute…racism in South Africa? That’s what all the violence lately is about. So much for fixing the country by handing it over to the ANC. Racism and ethnic strife both, against whites and black non-South Africans alike.

Some of it is part of the effort aimed at land reclamation and distribution that has been going on in Zimbabwe and South Africa both. One particular target are the white farmers of the region.

Maybe there is an apocalypse on the way? Maybe there’s more to the prophesies of Nicolaas “Siener” van Rensburg than meets the eye?