My Errant Mind

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. ]

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.

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…

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.

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?

A woman dying in an emergency room of a hospital, ignored by the staff after lying on the floor for more than an hour, would be bad enough to hear. However, she was forced to be in that room against her will, involuntarily committed for “agitation and psychosis” according to the article on CNN’s website.

Maybe she was in pain from a medical condition that needed to be treated, you think?

So let me get this straight. You involuntarily check someone into a mental institution emergency room, and leave them there for 24 hours? What kind of emergency care is that, first of all? That person then falls face first out of a chair onto the floor and is ignored for an hour…until some complete moron of a staff member finally does their job and checks on that person? And what does this person do? Kicks the person with their foot?

I wonder if you need to go to medical school to learn that?

Another fine example of how government and the system will take away your rights and freedom and prematurely end your life. Medical care in this nation is increasingly something to be had only for the wealthy while the poor get ignored. I hope someone sues the facility in question and puts them out of operation. People that incompetent and inhumane should not be working in the medical profession anywhere in this nation.

Had this woman not been detained against her will, she could have sought medical attention in an emergency room of her choice, or someone could have taken her there.

I mean, why go through the trouble of admitting her, taking away her liberty, costing taxpayers money, and then embarrassing yourself and your profession by doing nothing and letting her die on the floor of your waiting room? The people who admitted her ought to have their feet held to the fire as well.

This is incompetence of the grossest kind.

Looking out in the backyard, enjoying the sort of thing you miss out on when living in built-up urban areas…

It appears that a prisoner was murdered in Prince George’s County Correctional Facility in Maryland, and likely by law enforcement officers since the man was in solitary confinement at the time. Yet another example of how our police and government have veered far away from their intent in this country.

The story is that officers put him in his cell and when they checked on him 20 minutes later, he had died of strangulation and asphyxiation—along with two broken bones in his neck. And no one knows who did it? There are surveillance cameras and yet agencies are already dragging their feet on the case, most likely because the 19 year old man who was murdered is black. More importantly, because of what he was—according to the article—suspected of having done.

Ronnie White was believed to have been driving a white truck that was thought to be stolen, and which struck and killed police Cpl. Richard Findley. Believed to be driving the truck? Thought to be stolen? Either he was or he wasn’t driving the truck, and either it was the truck that killed the officer or it wasn’t.

Whether or not someone knows for a fact he was driving the truck that struck the officer is an altogether different matter from what the circumstances were surrounding the officer’s death, and is something that should have been determined in a court of law. Perhaps striking the officer was accidental? Perhaps it was the officer’s fault for acting improperly? Perhaps it was a different truck altogether? It is hoped an investigation will bring these details to light.

Regardless of the circumstances around the officer’s death, however, is the matter of justice.

Do we want to live in a police state where the police determine your innocence or guilt, and carry out your execution without the benefit of a trial? If police are murdering people they arrest, shooting them dead on the street out of suspicion, tasing and killing people—from decorated Marines to pregnant women and the mentally impaired—why aren’t Americans more outraged?

My heart goes out to the family of the officer killed. And believe me, I have no sympathy for any criminal who kills. However, if we are expected to live and abide by the laws of this land, that means everyone should be expected to do the same, including law enforcement officers. Were I a member of officer Findley’s department or a friend, I would completely understand the urge to want to take revenge on his killer.

But we aren’t supposed to do that. We have trials, laws, judges and juries. If we are not guaranteed those things, then there is absolutely NO POINT OR REASON FOR ANYONE TO OBEY ANY LAWS OR TO LIVE IN A CIVIL MANNER AMONG OTHERS IN SOCIETY!!!

Why on Earth would anyone submit themselves to a government that will do as it pleases with no regard for law, procedure, process, liberties, rights, or protections? If one’s fate is left to the whim of police officers or any other government official who has all the same problems as anyone else, has all the same weaknesses of character and spirit and is every bit of capable of acting criminally in their own right (and there are plenty of dirty law enforcement and government officials in this country), then why would anyone ever make the mistake of allowing their person to be taken into custody…or submit to the legal system?

A smart person and one with any backbone, might as well fight it out and in fact turn criminal in an obvious manner. It would be better to have some say in your fortune and whether or not you die on a given day than to submit and be murdered while you sleep by some criminal who wears a badge.

Our society has started to unravel in many areas and for many reasons. The past decade has shown us to what extent Americans cannot and should not depend on law enforcement agencies to protect their property, their liberties, or their lives.

For a significant number of Americans, law enforcement officers and the government are the greatest threat to their lives that they face on a daily basis. That is inherently wrong, and is the very sort of thing we fought against when we took on the Nazi regime in Germany during WWII, isn’t it?

Yet another example of the jack-booted thuggery right here at home in America. Doesn’t this meet the definition of domestic terrorism under homeland security laws and the Patriot Act? It is an attempt, after all, to subvert the law of the land and destroy our society and way of life by eroding the foundations upon which it is built.

Whatever the outcome of this case, one thing is assured: whomever murdered this young man in cold blood will likely receive justice where he was afforded absolutely none.

Well, it has been nearly a week since Congressman Paul dropped out of the Presidential race, and I’m just now working my way out of the disappointment to get around to writing about it. Americans have missed out on the best opportunity to change the direction of our country they are likely to have during this century.

It amazes me how people complain about everything you can think of…gas, war, the economy, foreign trade, outsourced jobs, illegal immigration, our national deficit, our prestige as a nation…and yet most chose to vote for those who have been instrumental in creating the problems in all of those areas. And, who will keep our nation headed down the path that will lead to a collapse of our country as we know it.

There is, of course, the underlying reasons that all of that occurs: people are comfortable with the status quo or profit from it. Americans have bought into the lies perpetuated by a few in the establishment, and even intellectuals and scholars tend now to believe fallacies such as the notion that America could not exist or thrive without the dozens of taxes created in the last 100 years, never mind the fact we did fine without them at some point.

Congressman Paul has a new project, The Campaign for Liberty, which will attempt to get more Libertarian politicians elected. I wish him the best of luck.

America, you missed a great opportunity…

[I wore a t-shirt in high school with that very saying on it over 20 years ago. Ron Paul was fighting for what's right long before I was born, and is the only person who has run for President in my lifetime worthy of my vote. He's going to get it in November, whether he's on the ballot or not...]

I give CNN credit for at least publishing the articles, but I found it funny to see the sort of scenario you find occasionally due to advertising revenue models. One recent article about gas prices and ways to confront the issue featured advertisements with Father’s Day gifts…with a photo of a green Lamborghini that your dad could zip around in for a bit—for the low price of $1495.

Wow…what not a great way to beat the expense of high dollar gas—blowing $1495 for a few hours of driving a car. Not that I don’t appreciate muscle cars, hot rods, racing, dragsters, etc., as I totally do. But what a perfect example of how to drop the ball with demographics. CNN could use some help in their marketing department it seems.

The article was interesting, though. Another article I found of interest was: Oklahoma’s painful car culture.

Oh, and you might as well check out: Is America’s suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare?

Maybe it’s only funny to someone with a marketing background? Oh well, it’s late and I’m bored…

Okay, if you have read any of my posts on open source, you know that I have taken issue with Suse and Novell for their Microsoft deal. However, I am curious to check out the upcoming release: OpenSuse 11.0 should be out Thursday, June 19th.

Why?

Well, while I don’t like that Novell caved in to Microsoft and bought into their fear-mongering tactics, I can appreciate the direction of the OpenSource distro and the progress it has made. One thing I can say from first-hand experience is that Suse will install more smoothly on more systems and has the polished look and feel that makes it a prime candidate for luring corporate/office users away from Microsoft’s ailing platform.

So, I’m going to take a hard look at OpenSuse 11.0, put it through its paces as I consider what distro I should recommend to folks. This is, of course, an ongoing issue/challenge when it comes to Linux as I look for a good SOHO distro that also has the potential to step up and handle the duty at the SMB and Enterprise levels…all while staying user friendly and easy to use.

And, since I am going to take another look at OpenSuse, I might as well give XandrOS another look (I had written it off as well since it climbed in bed with Micrsoft also). Then again, maybe not. I understand the need of businesses to work with integrated networks and can appreciate the difficulties and justifications of cost and ROI when facing the prospect of phasing out legacy systems…but some of the XandrOS licensing and pricing schemes/tiers are starting to look an awful lot like those that come out of Redmond’s greedy resident.

Others I’m about to test include Mandriva Spring 2008, Zenwalk Linux 5.0, Simply Mepis 7.0, Freespire 2.0.8 and the latest Fedora release (which I have put off trying out for some time because of lingering memories of how the Fedora project was being run).

I have run across a lot of fun distros, a lot of slick distros, and some really dismal ones as well over the past few years. A lot of distros have great potential, but there seems to be a common underlying theme of poor project management, lack of focused direction, and ego clashes…with far too little marketing and business sense in the mix. Just when you feel like one distro might make a nice home on the digital range…something comes along to spoil the idyllic moment.

It is my great frustration that I’m not a programmer or I would have started my own distro by now. In the meantime, it gives me something to do on slow days when caffeine levels are climbing, this constant installing and kicking around under the log-on prompt.

There are some things for which no words will ever be truly adequate to express the way one feels. After reading about this article from Sacramento news site KCRA.com and waiting overnight to see if I could find them, I still haven’t.

Passers-by witnessed a man brutally “punching, slapping, kicking, stomping, shaking” an infant on in the middle of the road, according to Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Deputy, Royjindar Singh. At least one, a volunteer fire department Chief tried to intervene, but was unsuccessful. An elderly couple called 911 and reported the horrific attack.

The man was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer whose chopper made an emergency landing nearby so that he could intervene. Prevented from reaching the scene of the attack on the road by an electric fence, he shot the man. The man died at the scene.

According to the man who tried to confront him, the attacker said there were “demons” in the child.

There is indeed evil in this world, and that man murdering that baby so violently is an example of it as clear as they come. It is no abstract religious dogma, but something real. It exists, and when evil people are killed, the world is a better place for it.

What a truly disturbing story, for so many reasons and on so many levels…