|
|
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
| |
2:02 am
|
|
| Thursday, August 27th, 2009
| |
2:29 am
|
As a follow-up to my last post... thank you, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) onigiri , for this. Great example of why nothing being offered currently will actually lower costs overall. It's all insurance reform, not health care reform.
Note: This doesn't address several other big problems with the current focus in the debate. One of these is the assumed position that everyone wants to be insured, and must be. There are, after all, lots of people who are at very low health risk working at companies that turn down medical insurance through their workplace because it costs more than they want to pay and they're willing to take on that risk - just like a type of investment risk, you could say.
current mood:  calm
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
| |
1:03 pm - For those with open minds.
|
A while ago, I stopped picking arguments with the Anthropogenic Global Warming crowd. After a particularly long and arduous fight with a close friend of mine over the topic, I came to a conclusion: it's similar to the fight over evolution with the Creationism crowd. They have so much personal investment into their own theory that they close their minds to anything beyond "the truth". This is a personal frustration of mine: while I am a skeptic, I've been open-minded to actual scientific facts on the subject (in either direction), and the inability to discuss the topic with people who refuse to even consider the possibility of it being incorrect is very, very frustrating.
Considering I look out for these things, I ran across "the Skeptic's Handbook" yesterday. Yes, it's a link to something that argues against it - and it covers nearly every argument, scientific and not, that I've ever heard from the AGW crowd with accurate rebuttals.
For those with open minds: give it a look. If you're a believer in AGW and have found more evidence / support for the theory than is covered by this site, please, send it my way. I'd love to review it from a scientific point of view and add it to my mental database on the topic.
current mood:  thoughtful
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, January 2nd, 2009
| |
9:09 am - Just Remember:
|
|
| Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
| |
5:07 pm - Authoritarianism
|
The coup has already happened, according to one of my favorite Individualist bloggers, Wendy McElroy, and she makes a strong case for it. Instead of just linking this here and letting her speak for me, however, I want to explain some background on the topic from the research I've done... and put forth my own opinion.
Conspiracy theorists have been really busy during the Bush administration - to be honest, he's given them a lot of ammunition to work with - but for the most part, people have seen them as just that: theorists. Mocked for being paranoid and agenda-driven, ruling out all evidence contrary to their claims. However, there's been signs of something very, very dangerous being put into place in the US that is seriously a danger to the continuation of democracy.
Let's take some items in order, and then add them up at the end.
- Bush's Signing Statements: the current administration has used an executive loophole known as a signing statement more than any previous administration. These signing statements, in short, do one thing: they allow the Executive branch to interpret laws passed by Congress as they wish, when the President signs that law into effect. This has allowed him to sign laws while "interpreting" them to allow the Executive branch to ignore their effect completely.
- The Military Commissions Act of 2006: the Constitution guarantees the right to a trial by jury, and the concept of Habeus Corpus allows a defendant to not be held without being accused, and knowing what they are accused of. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 effectively allowed the Executive branch to suspend the 'writ of habeus corpus' to any individual that the Executive branch deems an 'enemy combatant'. Fortunately, the Supreme Court recently ruled against use of this concept on 'enemy combatants' in Guantanamo Bay, effectively repealing the law.
- The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive: This directive by the Executive branch effectively allows it to put the country into a state of emergency, practically at their own discretion, for whatever reason they want.
- Posse Comitatus: As noted, the Posse Comitatus Act is a standing US federal law that prohibits members of the US military from being used as law enforcement within the United States themselves. This law has been unofficially and illegally repealed by the Executive branch, as they have designated an Army brigade to be ready for deployment as "as an on-call federal response force for natural or man made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks"... which is another word for what the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive says the President can announce and define at his leisure.
- The "Bail-out Bill": one of the threats used against the members of Congress was that martial law was a possible result as a failure to pass the bill. Oh yeah, and the bill itself allows the government to use the funding granted to them to buy whatever they want, as shown in yesterday's news that they're using it to buy actual bank stocks. Now that's socialism.
What does this all add up to? It's quite simple: if the Executive branch is pushed hard enough, it has enough precedent to declare martial law and create a de facto Dictatorship with Bush at the helm right now, and they've already been shown to be willing to use it as a threat to get what they want.
Here's where the conspiracy theory comes into play: could they use this to prevent a Democratic victory in the November elections? Many people would look at this concept and scoff, but as we already showed above, this is a plausible scenario, and that frightens me.
There is, however, one very large thing standing in the way of this: Congress still has the ability to impeach, and while the idea hasn't gotten a lot of traction within Congress itself in the past with potential accusations based on war crimes, torture, and sending us to Iraq in the first place, you can be assured that the concept of the Dictatorship would push Congress to act. That is, unless they're not arrested by the First Brigade first.
Now, here's the kicker: remember, all of these same policies will still be in effect no matter which party wins in November, and both parties have been shown to be corruptible. We had best hope that Obama has as great a sense of restraint and morality as he projects himself to have, and that he wins - because McCain sure doesn't.
(Taking my rate of posting into consideration, here's to hoping that my next post doesn't come under the worst case scenario possible from what I've shown here.)
current mood:  contemplative
|
|
(24 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
| |
6:05 am
|
|
| Friday, August 22nd, 2008
| |
3:53 pm - A political statement.
|
|
| Monday, July 28th, 2008
| |
8:21 pm - BULLSHIT!
|
|
| Saturday, June 28th, 2008
| |
12:55 pm
|
|
| Monday, April 28th, 2008
| |
11:45 am - On the FLDS situation
|
|
| Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
| |
5:15 pm
|
|
| Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
| |
11:11 am - NOOOOOOOO~
|
|
| Sunday, January 13th, 2008
| |
8:23 pm
|
I dub thee, Divisional Sunday '08, Day of the 'Dogs. Underdogs, that is.
Yay, the Packers hosting the Giants for the NFC Championship! Looks like they get homefield advantage throughout the playoffs, after all. (Not that the Giants care, with their Road Warrior status...)
current mood:  bouncy
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, January 12th, 2008
| |
3:41 pm
|
GOD DAMNIT GRANT THAT'S NOT HOW THIS GAME IS SUPPOSED TO START. (7-0, Seattle)
EDIT: GODDAMNIT GRANT STOP DOING THAT (14-0, Seattle)
EDIT: Okay, okay, we're doing better now. Good challenge, first down... TIE GAME!
EDIT: And what goes around, comes around! Packers are in the lead, 21-14.
EDIT: Bigby, Bigby, Bigby... What a defensive effort that drive. 21-17.
EDIT: Aaaand a good way to end the first half. 28-17, Packers leading.
EDIT: This game is turning into a slaughter. 35-17.
EDIT: The snow is definitely the Packer's 12th man. 35-20.
EDIT: Ryan Grant is having the game of his life. What a way to come back after those two fumbles. 42-20!
EDIT: Aw, man, we almost had a "IT ENDS HEAH!" moment. Instead, we get the clock run down on a series of 3-and-outs by both teams... and that'll be the game.
current mood:  ecstatic
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, December 17th, 2007
| |
3:17 pm - ...
|
Strangely, when I got back from class today, the only thing my laptop would connect to the internet using was Firefox. No Trillian, no Teamspeak, nothing. ...help?
current mood:  frustrated
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, December 13th, 2007
| |
4:42 pm
|
|
| Sunday, December 9th, 2007
| |
2:26 pm
|
|
| Friday, October 26th, 2007
| |
10:57 pm
|
|
| Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
| |
11:20 pm - Z O M F G
|
|
| Sunday, October 7th, 2007
| |
8:56 pm
|
As a few of you might know, I'm a Packer fan. Got it from my mom, and all. They've been doing pretty well this season, too - a 4-0 record, something that nobody, anywhere, thought they'd be at before the season started.
They just lost a horrific game to the Bears tonight that they should have won. The entire loss rests on the shoulder of one of their receivers, who fumbled away two drives early in the game that were going into scoring position... and dropped a crucial pass in a drive to tie it as time was running out.
Ah well. There is a silver lining to this - they're still in the lead for their division, they get another shot at the Bears later this season for revenge, and less attention will be smothered onto them by the press now. Guess I'll look forward to next week.
current mood:  grumpy
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Friday, October 5th, 2007
| |
4:00 pm - *experimental poke*
|
Hey all you gamers out there... do any of you have Planet Puzzle League for the DS? It's basically Tetris Attack (ya know, the old SNES puzzle game), except you can play with the stylus instead of the buttons... and you can play opponents over Nintendo's WFC, either with people who you've swapped Friend codes with or anonymously against random players.
My friend code: 412429 192808.
Anyone else have this game that's willing to share? (I'm lookin' at you, Mr Irony... you promised me a match years ago!)
Oh, yeah: have butter on a fork.
current mood:  cheerful
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
| |
8:40 pm
|
|
| Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
| |
10:03 pm - Updates on the Job...
|
- I've got three options currently being researched and re-prioritized: Contracting, Safety, and Command Post. The first two are kind of self-explanatory; the third is being researched further.
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is here. And it is good.
- Babo Violent 2 is very addictive and highly suggested.
current mood:  busy
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, August 9th, 2007
| |
12:23 pm - More news...
|
Been a while, people. I've got not-so-good news this time around.
Remember how I said I was getting promoted? Well, being promoted early in a career that they really don't have positions to put people who get promoted into means that you're higher at risk for being involuntarily retrained and put into another career. And the lists for the involuntary retraining just came out.
Twenty programmers in my rank need to retrain or get out. I'm #2 on the list. Guess it's time to find a new job.
current mood:  apathetic
|
|
(8 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, July 28th, 2007
| |
9:54 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
amused
tired
aggravated
excited
disappointed
jubilant
relieved