GOVEROTRAGEOUS: It’s not YOUR house; it’s theirs!

Monday, February 1, 2010

http://www.azcentral.com/community/swvalley/articles/2010/01/27/20100127-avondale-condemned-no-electricity.html

Avondale condemns home: Solar, batteries insufficient
Avondale woman says city treated her unfairly
by Eddi Trevizo – Jan. 27, 2010 10:52 AM
The Arizona Republic

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An Avondale woman who spent 11 days sleeping in her car said the city treated her unfairly when her home was condemned in December for lack of electricity.

But city officials said Christine Stevens violated building codes, a health and safety concern because Avondale homes are required to have heating systems and a running refrigerator.

*** end quote ***

Where does the gang masquerading as “city officials” get off telling people how to live?

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: An example of a pure security system

Monday, February 1, 2010

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1f88d16f510d886b38f9ad334219fe45.131&show_article=1

US State Department clerk sentenced for passport peeking
Jan 22 09:22 AM US/Eastern

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A US State Department file clerk on Thursday was sentenced to 12 months’ probation for illegally accessing dozens of confidential passport applications of movie actors, professional athletes and other celebrities. The employee, Susan Holloman, 58, was also ordered by the judge in the case to perform 75 hours of community service. Holloman, a file assistant at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, admitted that between February 2007 and December 2007 she repeatedly logged on to the department’s secure computer database and viewed passport applications belonging to some 70 celebrities and their families.

She acknowledged to prosecutors that she had no reason to access the passport applications, other than “idle curiosity,” a State Department press release said.

*** end quote ***

The more interesting question with respect to technology is why was “idle curiosity” possible?

The security systems are obviously REACTIVE rather than PROACTIVE. There should be a way of specifying the “business requirements” such that there isn’t an open playground of personal data.

But, this is the gooferment, and it can’t do ANYTHING right!

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POLITICAL: Energy independence; absent leadership

Monday, February 1, 2010

http://www.keywestlou.com/2010/02/sunday-is-supposedly-day-of-rest.html

My Life in Key West

Monday, February 1, 2010

*** begin quote ***

The article contained an observation that sticks with me. The United States has depended on the Middle East for years for its power supply, to wit: oil. That if the United States did not get into the manufacture of renewable energy quickly and in big time, our energy dependency in the future would move to the Far East. China!

And we would have replaced one less than friendly peoples for another in satisfying our energy needs.

All very interesting. Thought provoking. Part of Obama’s State of the Union speech.

Talk is one thing. Action another. Obama has to move us in the direction of manufacture and use of renewable energy dramatically. Now, not tomorrow. And everyone, Democrat and Republican alike, should support him in this endeavor. This is not a No issue.

*** end quote ***

(1) Unfortunately for us, OBH44 is an inexperienced “talker”; not a “do-er”. We need a “leader”; not a “community organizer”. Every politician lectures us about “energy independence”. Little gets done. If we still funded the Federal Government on tariffs and duties like the Dead Old White Guys wanted us to do, then the gooferment would be a lot smaller and less intrusive. AND, we’d have energy independence. because solutions here would be cheaper than imported oil from there. Maybe we might have a car industry too, instead of having sent allt he jobs overseas. Too late, we get smart. It might be way too late.

(2) With all the secession talk, maybe Mike and Tina can do some stuff for real. When the S hits the fan, maybe we can replace the FED’s “dollar” with a Constitutional gold and silver money. The we’d be once again the envy of the world with “honest money”. Maybe then we could get working on the national debt so that we don’t condemn the children to Haiti-like poverty. Inter-generational theft will be how we are remembered as the progeny try to pay off the Chinese.

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RANT: Media Bias – Cost the FDIC?

Sunday, January 31, 2010

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Regulators-shut-banks-in-apf-1868747589.html?x=0&.v=2

Regulators shut down banks in 5 states
Regulators shutter banks in Calif., Fla., Ga., Minn., Wash., totaling 15 bank failures in 2010
By Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer , On Friday January 29, 2010, 10:48 pm EST

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators shut down a big bank in California on Friday, along with two banks in Georgia and one each in Florida, Minnesota and Washington. That brought to 15 the number of bank failures so far in 2010 atop the 140 shuttered last year in the punishing economic climate.

The failure of Los Angeles-based First Regional Bank, with nearly $2.2 billion in assets and $1.9 billion in deposits, is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $825.5 million.

*** end quote ***

And, where, pray tell, does the FDIC get “its” money?

Yes, the taxpayer.

Either directly or indirectly.

Neither the gooferment, nor any corporation, have ANY money that doesn’t originate from a real person.

Some of the FDIC money is extracted from the banks that it “insures”, but that is extracted by the surviving banks from its customers which are, presumably, taxpayers.

Now, with the supposed “insurance” fund broke, it gets “its” money from the Treasury which means we borrow it from China!

Argh!

Hopefully, the AP writer will learn that 825.5 comes from the poor taxpayer.

And, we wonder why we are in a depression?

Economic illiteracy!

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NOTRECOMMENDED: O’Reilly and Beck Bold and Fresh; not live!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

201001311006.jpg

OK, maybe I’m a sucker. I went to the movies last night. Yes, it was a (poor quality) movie. Not the live remote performance that I was expecting. I felt suckered. The previous night, I went to the Senior Showcase, EB Vo Tech, where aspiring high school seniors displayed their talent. One of their presentations was a better quality than the “professional” one I watched last night.

Now, I understand that weather in Norfolk prevented the live performance. But I felt cheated. It was supposed to be “live”!

The film was obviously edited. I paid for the full performance and I think some of the good stuff was left on the cutting room floor. And, if it was edited, why is there a twenty minute “intermission”. Sorry, that could have been cut. Maybe it was for the old folks to tap a kidney. But, I suspect it was to allow the theater to push some over-priced “refreshments”.

On to the content, I was again disappointed:

* Beck spent to much time mocking Nancy Pelosi’s physical characteristics. At first it was funny, but after a while it got boring.

* O’Reilly was “abbreviated”. He got in some great points about was NOT in Obama’s SOTU, but it seemed like, in his head, the TV timing bell went off and he’d truncate his thought.

The audience was obnoxious. It addition to being mostly old and lilly white. The guy next to us was a fidgeter; guy behind us dropped a big tub of popcorn; and the old lady behind us kept commenting to her party about what the guys were saying. Argh! A chorus of cellphone conversations would have been less distracting.

(18 seats per row, 50 rows, pretty much sold out, 900, time 25$, 225 * 100, 22500$ per theater, times 200 theaters, !!!4,500,0 00!!!, over a million a piece for two hours of work? Hmmm!)

As far as the content was concerned, I had the following observations:

* Beck is NOT a libertarian. No self-respecting libertarian would have a demonstration planned for 8/8/10 in from of the LINCOLN memorial.

* O’Reilly is an interesting amalgam of professed small government but pro-war guy. Interesting, but dangerous. He did correctly identify that OBH44 ignored the Iran threat in the SOTU and has potentially by ignoring them made the world a more dangerous place. If israel has to take Iran on, we are in a world of hurt.

* O’Reilly pointed out that in the SOTU address OBH44 avoided the whole “War” topic. (And, neither mentioned OBH44’s failure to praise the troops. I can’t imagine any President missing that point.)

* Beck makes a good case that the Progressives are the problem.

* O’Reilly was funny in his description of how the folks will wake up and right the ship. Hope he’s right. I’m not so sure.

* Beck portrayed OBH44 as evil; O’Reilly characterized him as an inexperienced unprepared Chicago corrupt politician. (O’Reilly was especially on point with his: comparison of Chicago’s South Side with Haiti; Reverend Wright’s 2M$ mansion in a all-white suburb, AND the KSM terror trial in NYC. He reminded me of Judge Judy when she says “If it doesn’t make sense, it’s not true”, when O’Reilly says that the “folks” can feel when the politician isn’t telling the truth. (Like when their lips move!)

Sorry, but I can’t recommend this.

I shoulda went to see Avatar; it’d been cheaper.

Yeah I know, violating my own dictum, “Shouldas, wouldas, and couldas” will kill you.

It was: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Desi and Lucy, and probably more physically accurate Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy.

But not as timeless, or not as funny.

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http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/01/the_beckoreilly_bold_fresh_tou.html

“15 minute intermission” live in Tampa

Why was ours 20 minutes?

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INTERESTING: Celtic Woman. a strange allure?

Sunday, January 31, 2010

http://www.irishcentral.com/IrishAmerica/Celtic-Woman-the-women-behind-the-Irish-musical-phenomenon-82109502.html

Celtic Woman: The women behind the Irish musical phenomenon
By Aliah O’Neill, Irish America Magazine
Published Thursday, January 21, 2010, 11:14 PM
Updated Friday, January 22, 2010, 7:29 AM

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The answer as to why American audiences have responded so enthusiastically to Celtic Woman has not always been clear. When I asked Lynn Hilary, who joined the group in 2007, why she thought American audiences continue to be so responsive to Celtic Woman, she admitted that at first, she wasn’t sure. “I didn’t really understand it for a long time, that they would react in such a way,” she said. “They’d be crying and on their feet every night applauding us. But American people really identify with Ireland, and a lot of Americans have Irish in their ancestry, so Celtic Woman allows them to re-identify with their roots and gives them a feeling of belonging.”

*** end quote ***

Have to admit, I’ve seen the ads, watch some of the PBS, and there is some sort of strange allure? Just like Riverdance, which having seen live twice, it has that “grab” characteristic. Maybe it’s like Irish hip hop? Or with Celtic Women, it’s full size real women in movement — as opposed to the hollywood “heroin chic” that makes women look like refugees from a Nazi Death Camp? But 40$ for a DVD of 20 songs. Not going to happen.

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RANT: We’re broke

Saturday, January 30, 2010

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aC7VY11v6aMw

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Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama, acting on a pledge to support nuclear power, will propose tripling loan guarantees for new reactors to more than $54 billion, two people familiar with the plan said.

*** end quote ***

As much as I like nukes, we can’t afford it. And, it’s more socialism!

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TECHNOLOGY: WEP is worthless!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

How To Hack Wireless


Safe for work

Warning for WEP users. Don’t do your banking, or anything important, on that connection.

Don’t you just love command line stuff? How long until it is packaged for the script kiddies?

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: wh ?ASKS? justice

Saturday, January 30, 2010

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/28/
2010-01-28_white_house_orders_justice_department_to
_look_for_other_places_to_hold_911_terro.html

White House asks Justice Department to look for other places to hold 9/11 terror trial
BY Kenneth R. Bazinet, Adam Lisberg and Samuel Goldsmith
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Originally Published:Thursday, January 28th 2010, 8:04 PM
Updated: Thursday, January 28th 2010, 9:14 PM

*** begin quote ***

The White House ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

Last I checked the Justice Department WORKED FOR the White House?

I think I’d have different conversation than “asking”. A long the lines of “Bring me the head of the idiot who decide this!”

Does Holder have pictures of OBH44 with the proverbial goat?

How is he keeping his job?

Argh!

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FUN: codswallop

Saturday, January 30, 2010

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/codswallop

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