RANT: I am SHOCKED a la Casablanca to find that politicians don’t act in accordance with their professed beliefs

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/
0,,1964075,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

http://tinyurl.com/ymjz6m

Hardliners turn on Ahmadinejad for watching women dancers
Robert Tait in Tehran
Tuesday December 5, 2006
The Guardian

*** begin quote ***

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who flaunts his ideological fervour, has been accused of undermining Iran’s Islamic revolution after television footage appeared to show him watching a female song and dance show.

*** end quote ***

Please, lying and two-face-ed-ness is a universal political meme or gene.

I am SHOCKED a la Casablanca to find that politicians don’t act in accordance with their professed beliefs. I believe the appropriate Bible verse is “by their fruits”. So, don’t be shocked when a politician, any politician, of any nationality, ilk, or gender, says X and does Y.

It’s amazing, and I am SHOCKED (see above reference) that people would be so naive!

And, I am shocked, shocked, SHOCKED to find there is gambling going on at Rick’s cafe. Now where are MY winnings. ;-)

I think the more newsworthy story would be when the man bites dog, or a politician is found to inadvertently conform to their stated beliefs. Isn’t in amusing that there are “no smoking” laws all over for the peasants, but all exempt Capitol Hill. Doesn’t that send you serfs a message?

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Posted by reinkefj

FUN: 440 out of 39,000 participants showed up

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/
200612/kt2006120519152511900.htm

Samsung Plaza Eats Word on Ferarri Raffle Mishap
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

*** begin quote ***

A simple mistake could have cost Samsung Plaza an unexpected 123 billion won in a promotional lottery event, as 440 people showed up claiming they had won the first prize _ a Ferrari F360. The sports car is priced at 280 million won apiece.

*** and ***

The department store, which is located in Pundang, south of Seoul, held a lottery for customers with three Ferraris as the top prize. A silver one was on display in its lobby, luring passers-by to join the draw.

Customers had to pick six numbers out of 26 on the lottery ticket, which were covered invisible with a silver coating. The possibility of winning the first prize was calculated as 0.0004 percent, or one in 230,230. However, in some way, 440 out of 39,000 participants showed up with the right six numbers scratched out. Some suspect that they used a clever method to see through the silver coating.

*** end quote ***

Never underestimate the laws of probability.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: FTL’s Mark read my email on air last night

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

http://www.freetalklive.com/

http://ripple.radiotail.com/357/FTL2006-12-04.mp3

The difference between “LAWS” and “laws’
An email sent to the Mark at Free Talk Live

***Begin Quote***

Perhaps, you guys could help redefine the language.

I see the “Law of Gravity” as having more gravitas than the Federal, State, and Local “Laws”.

Never mind all the other rules, regulations, and diktats that gubamint issues. Let’s just focus on “Laws” for a moment.

I like the “Law of Gravity” and its many cousins like the “Law of Supply and Demand” or the “Law of the Conservation of Momentum”. They are universally fair and non-discriminatory. So, I don’t refer to what the criminal gangs do in their various dens of iniquity do as “making laws”.

We need to recapture the high ground.

When they neuter our language they give themselves more power. Imagine considering anything done by politicians as a “law”! Absurd! If you must refer to their “laws”, (I’m thinking of that Crocodile Dundee line “that’s not a knife. this is a knife” by crikey), then “we” should always preface it with “Federal Law”, “State Law”, or even “Weenie Law”. Add some diminutive to differentiate it from the big hairy natural LAWS. Their weak lame efforts to make laws should be called something like “law-lettes”, “wannabe laws”, or “pathetic attempts at law”.

P.S.: Remember when we get people laughing at them, their influence and power shrinks. Look how fast the cellphone tax disappeared. Almost overnight. When the media picked up that the people were calling it “The Spanish American War tax”. Like the Wizard of Oz, they can’t let themselves be be laughed at because then we will see how pathetic they are!

Best wishes from behind the lines
in the Pepuls Repulik of Nu Jerzee

***End Quote***

He read it live last night at the beginning of the second hour and was kind enough to give me a heads up. I’ll try and snip it for my collection.

We just have to keep people laughing at them.

UPDATE: I clipped out their reading and discussion of my email. Here’s my effort for your enjoyment. Glad I could give them a chuckle. http://home.comcast.net/~reinkefj/FTL_READS_20061204.mp3 Laugh at the politicians; it’s the most demeaning thing that you can do to them.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Do you use the same password for different accounts? No!

Monday, December 4, 2006

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/passwords/
poll–do-you-use-the-same-password-for-
different-accounts-219219.php

Do you use the same password for different accounts?

***Begin Quote***

A UN agency reports that the explosion of usernames and passwords required for web sites puts users at risk – because folks use the same password for lots of different accounts.

***End Quote***

Do you?

I use the “generate password” function of RoboForm to get a nice long random string.

Then, when I setup the website, RoboForm steps in and saves it for me. Then when I revisit the site, it “suggests” my logon information.

http://www.roboform.com/

Now it’s NOT free. Unlike what you usually find me advising you, here’s the rare instance when I think you should actually buy something. Do you really want to trust your security to a free utility? To me, thirty buck is cheap insurance.

P.S.: If you wonder how I created those great email addresses, that I DARE an alpha spammer to find, like A9355A8E7B32583A58D8, F2F967D552AF5A8278AD, or D94BAE6E7FBDBCADC888, then you can guess that I generated them with RoboForm. Since most people reply to email or will click on your mailto:name@isp.nnet, no one cares what you call yourself.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera

Monday, December 4, 2006

http://www.scanr.com/default.aspx

Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera

***Begin Quote***

scanR is a service that helps you capture information contained in whiteboards, documents and business cards. scanR lets you use your mobile camera phone or digital camera to clean photos of whiteboards, documents and business cards, extract the printed information, and get a digital file in your email, contact manager, or fax.

***End Quote***

trying it, but my first attempt didn’t work.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: 30 Essential Pieces Of Free Open Software for Windows

Monday, December 4, 2006

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/01/30-essential-pieces-of-free-and-open-software-for-windows/

http://tinyurl.com/wtn8s

30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows

***Begin Quote***

Recently, I received a fresh new laptop from Dell. Upon receiving it, I did the traditional “installation of Windows from scratch” on it to remove a lot of the garbage that is preinstalled on Dells. Then I got really busy installing tons of great software that takes care of pretty much every software need I have. Not only was all of the software free, every piece of it was open source, which means that the code is peer-reviewed; no spyware here!

What follows is a list of thirty pieces of software that are the cream of the crop of open source software for Windows. Not only is every piece of it free, almost all of them directly replace expensive software packages.

***End Quote***

use five. But, I’m getting weaned from the Dark Side.

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Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: LinkedIn — A MySpace for grown-ups

Monday, December 4, 2006

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/
2006/12/01/8394967/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

http://tinyurl.com/w5hhh

 

A MySpace for grown-ups
Social networking has been great for the kids, but not of much use to business – until now. With Reid Hoffman’s MySpace-for-grown-ups at a tipping point, these days you’re either LinkedIn or left out.
Business 2.0 Magazine
By Michael V. Copeland, Business 2.0 Magazine senior writer
December 3 2006: 2:38 PM EST

***Begin Quote***

LinkedIn is a three-year-old service that takes your personal business network online. People don’t use it to discover new bands or track down a date – there’s nothing social about this network.

LinkedIn is all about business: recruiting, sales, investment. It’s not exactly a marketplace or a job site but rather a community of more than 8 million people who rely on one another to get things done.

***End Quote***

IMHO it’s a better resource than Monster, Yahoo Jobs, or any “job” site.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: The newspapers should use rss to transform themselves

Sunday, December 3, 2006

http://www.blogmaverick.com/
2006/12/02/rss-the-newspapers-revenge/

http://tinyurl.com/y7zgc2

RSS – The Newspapers Revenge?
Mark Cuban
Dec 2nd 2006 5:11PM

***Begin Quote***

… how do you differentiate the paper from the net ? Its easy. For features, Online is where you put it up first to let people know you are working on it. Online may be where you intentionally overwhelm them with TOO many choices and too much information. Put up a complete 45 minute interview with Mark Cuban with a 400 word summary and you know how many people will listen to the entire interview ? None. People will read the 400 words and make a decision if they want more. Polished ? Absolutely not. And thats what differentiates it. Its your tease for the indepth article where you add context to the interview, write in depth about how wonderful, exciting and exceedingly handsome I am, get quotes from others confirming the same and create a story with such depth that maybe someone will believe it, but many will buy the paper expecting to find and read it.

***End Quote***

Now, I thought the fellow was a bozo. Between his reality show that made him look like an trivial idiot and his antics on the basketball court, I didn’t care for his whole act.

But, here, he seems to generate some strategies and tactics that could morph the moribund newspapers into web businesses.

Very interesting thinking.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Just tell Kathryn Johnston to file a civil rights lawsuit!!!

Sunday, December 3, 2006

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Dec-03-Sun-2006/opinion/11015664.html

 

Hate to say I told you so, but keep those Kevlar jammies handy
Dec. 03, 2006
VIN SUPRYNOWICZ:

***Begin Quote***

If the courts will not defend the sanctity of our homes, Americans retain the right and duty to do so ourselves.

Back in June, the justices who told us armed goons breaking in our doors in the dark of night were just hunky-dory said we were not without remedies. Why, Justice Anthony Kennedy said our legislatures can intervene if police officers do not “act competently and lawfully.”

Oh, sure. Think a single cop will go to jail for lying on this search warrant affidavit — already a crime in every state?

Not only that (Justice Kennedy explained from his marble palace), people whose homes are wrongly searched can always file a civil rights lawsuit.

Oh, fine. Just tell that to Kathryn Johnston.

***End Quote***

In the new Amrka, the inmates have no rights.

War on Drugs?

What a joke. Like the War on Poverty, there is no opposing state. It’s just a war on the Bill of Rights. With us as the victims.

We’re victimized in so many ways: we pay for the “justice” system; we pay to keep a whole lot of people in jail; we pay for gobs of people to watch them; we pay for a literal “army” of drug enforcers; we pay for the gubamint to dole drugs to us on prescriptions; we pay for a slew of drug regulations; and on and on and on.

Even the drug dealers like this current nonsensical system. They use the police to minimize the competition. Where else could they get an armed gang to take out the competition for “free”? No, it’s all cozy. The police get bribed. The politicians can have a straw dog to rail against. And, these drug dealers get rich.

I suggest we sick WalMart on them. Let’s legalize all drugs. Pardon all non-violent “drug offenders”. Shut down the DEA, FDA, and all their ilk. As anyone who has had to compete with WalMart can tell you, drug addicts will be able to buy their drugs for pennies. Young adults, dying from poisons in the illegal drugs or from varying potency, will be saved by WalMart’s insistence on quality. Can’t you just see the opportunities?

We need to end this supposed “war” on drugs. Disempower the gang in Washington from any role in “drugs”. Allow the invisible hand of the marketplace to “nuke” the violent drug gangs. Free the drug companies from any restriction, legislation, regulation, or inspection by anyone. And, terminate any regulation of “health care practitioners”. Certainly, the industry will figure out how to certify its members. Think Underwriters’ Laboratory.

It’ll be easier, cheaper, and a lot safer.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: What happened to America as a “free speech zone”?

Sunday, December 3, 2006

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=4818233

Peaceful remembrance and angry protest mark farewell to man killed in police shooting

***Begin Quote***

Members of the New Black Panther Party and other angry demonstrators used the word “pigs” to describe police. It was clear from the start this group had no permit for their protest, but given the escalating racial tension here in Queens the NYPD wasn’t going to stop them. And some of the extremists in this crowd would have kept right on going had police tried.

***End Quote***

On both the TV and radio stations, they are continually pointing out that there was no permit for the demonstration.

Permit?!?

What happened to America as a “free speech zone”?

This is just the media trying to propagandize us into to believing that we need the massa’s permission to speak out.

Argh!

May I suggest that we all email the Newsroom at eyewitness.news@abc.com and point out their ignorance of the First Amendment.

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Posted by reinkefj

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