Obama and Free Speech

You don’t hear about it much in the mainstream media. In fact, you may not have heard about it at all. Anti-Obama media is being attacked not only by Obama supporters, but by Obama himself.

I think it’s fairly typical for people to attack the other party or other party’s leader via phone calls, blogs, writing letters, etc. To take it a step further, I’ve been hearing about people that are afraid to put McCain stickers on their vehicles because they are being vandalized. Of course, you can’t exactly prove it’s an Obama supporter but it certainly seems that the people are “anti-McCain.”

But Obama himself takes the cake. Obama’s lawyers have filed numerous threatening letters to radio stations, the NRA, TV stations (ABC) and other media outlets for people speaking out against Obama. Fairly “thuggish” behavior for such a nice guy.

I’d like to point out that democrats are not the only group to try to stifle free speech. Right-wing republicans have been doing it for years and are still doing it. The slight difference is that right-wing republicans attack free speech under the guise of moral turpitude, where as democrats seems to attack free speech in order foster their political agendas by suppressing opposing points of view.

Deceptive Politics

Obama appears to like to deliver speeches and campaign ads in a interestingly deceptive manner. Politics is a game. Make no mistake. And Obama plays it as well as any, but most of you are deceived by it. He’s no politician. He’s different. He is….The One.

The two incidents that strike me are one in which Obama made a reference to “..at least keeping machine guns out of the hands of teenagers.” (sorry, that may be a paraphrase and not an exact quote). If I recall correctly the speech made a reference to keeping guns out of the hands of illegals and teenagers.

Ummm…someone needs to tell him that it’s already illegal. He isn’t proposing anything new nor is he shedding some golden light on the situation.

The other incident is part of his campaign in which he attempts to lure the vote of women by lying about McCains voting record on a law that would provide equal pay to women.

You would think that since Obama is a lawyer he would know that it’s been illegal to deny equal pay to women since 1963 via the Equal Pay Act, and reinforced in 1964 via the Civil Rights Act.

BTW – McCains female staff earns $1.04 for every dollar that his male staffers earn while Obama’s female staff only earn 83 cents for every dollar that his male staffers earn.

Hoper is Gone!

The last few weeks have been a bit stressful. My friend, Hopper, decided to join the Army. He’s a crazy bastard anyway, but now I know he’s completely freaking nuts. He sold off a lot of his stuff, put some into storage, and then needed a place to stay while he waited for his day to ship off to basic (boot camp).

I have a spare room so I told him to stay with me if he’d help out. He did, but I could really see it stressing him out as the day loomed over the horizon. He was drinking a lot and Hopper can be a bit obnoxious anyway….but when he’s wasted he can be especially difficult to deal with.

In any case, he left last week. The house is quiet again and I think I am regaining my sanity. I don’t do too well with roommates. I need my space and my solitary time.

I hope he’s doing well in basic.

My Bike Is a Torture Rack

My family had a reunion right off of Lake Nacadoches in E. Texas. One of my distant cousins lives there and hosts the party every year or so. I haven’t been to one since prior to Katrina mostly due to my work schedule not allowing me to go. I was actually going to make the one that coincided with Katrina, but you can guess the rest.

My great aunts are all getting up there in age. They have a myriad of problems. One can’t hear. One can’t see. One is having short term memory loss. Another can’t get around too well. But they are all pushing 90 and have had a pretty good life so I certainly don’t hold any of that against them. I got to see some people I hadn’t seen in several years so that was pretty nice, too.

Several members of my family live in or near Houston. Most of them had their houses wiped out and it was touching to hear their stories and how they are handling it.

I took the bike to save gas. I average about 43mpg when I slab it down the highways like that. Compare that to the 12 or 13mpg my truck gets and it’s a quick economic decision. Besides the weather is ½ way decent right now especially in the mornings. It’s even cooler out of the Metroplex so it was fairly nice to get on the bike and ride.

But I still have a sports bike. It still has low clip-ons, raised foot pegs, etc. It gets uncomfortable after a while. My round-trip total was 457 miles and you can figure I was on the bike about four hours straight each day (Sat. and Sun.).

Today I can really feel it in my traps. They are going to be sore for a day or two. Even my butt is a little saddle sore from droning for so long. Surpassingly, the twisties wear you out in a completely different way. You have to use your muscles differently as well as rapidly altering your position on the bike. It doesn’t give you much of an opportunity to get sore in any one spot.

And, as luck would have it, our reunion coincided with some Harley event just outside of Chireno that I believe is called the Wild Hog, or Hog Wild rally. Something like that. I never saw the huge throngs of bikes that others saw, but I passed a good many Harleys on the highway. Some of them even gave the friendly biker wave, but most of them were too goddamned stuck-up even for that (me being on a sport-bike and all).

And as I was trying to make my way back….it happened. It’s the number one reason I hate riding with or around cruisers. I was clipping along around 75mph (speed limit was 70) came over a hill, around a bend and all of a sudden I am in traffic…. In the middle of freaking nowhere on a Sunday morning (before Church lets out). Can you guess? That’s right…a whole stream of bikes going under the speed limit. They didn’t leave a trail of motorcycle parts, oil, grease and beer cans…. Well, they might have done that. Harley’s are known to throw parts going down the road – another reason not to get to close to the back of ‘em. But what they did leave was a wake of pissed off cagers (cars) about a ½ of a mile long.

It’s hard enough to pass on the country roads in a car. You just don’t have much time before you are back in a no-passing lane. But when there are 30 bikes to get around you simply can’t do it.

Theoretically, it should be easy for me. I worked my way around all the cagers stuck behind the bikes and then hit the pack. If the speed limit was 70, they were doing 50 – 55 mph. When it dropped to 50 I thought “well at least we are already going 50” and they would slow down to 30mph. Are you fucking kidding me????

Most bikers have the common courtesy to scoot over to the right-hand side of the lane and let a fellow biker go by. But not these folks. I kept waiting for a nice up-hill climb that opened up to two lanes to let the slower traffic get to the right so that others can get by, but it never happened. Mile after mile goes by and I’m thinking soon…soon…soon…I can get by these assholes. But no, it doesn’t happen. But finally…a passing lane. Not a big one, but I downshifted hit the gas and blew by about 10 or 15 of ‘em before I had to scoot back into the pack. I am sure they were not very happy about that as I split ‘em. Another passing lane and I went back to the oncoming lane and got by the rest of them. I think the leader was flipping me off. Fuck him.

They faded from my review mirrors as I got back up to the speed limit (and maybe a little extra). I just shook my head. I don’t get it. Why ride a bike and be such a nuisance to everyone like that?
For some reason, I was reminded of a conversation I had with Jenny not too long ago. I was telling her I hated pot-luck lunches because people always bring stuff I hate – beans, potatoes salad, cole slaw, some pasta-something dish and everything is slathered in mayonnaise. To me, riding a Harley is like that. You are one of the people that goes to the pot luck all the time. Your dish is just like every other dish and they all get by, but none of them really stand out. Your bike is the mayonaise. As Jenny said “enjoy your mayonnaise.”

Lazy Charities

A day or two ago I was talking to Hopper about a birthday party one of his kids attended. Apparently the parents of the birthday boy / girl sent out the invites with the note that the child was registered at a store (Toys R Us?) and could people please make sure they don’t buy and give the same toys.

Are you kidding me? Since when did kids start registering for their toys? The point of a bDay party is to celebrate that particular day with your friends and have some fun. Yes, it’s nice to get some really cool toys but it seems awfully presumptuous to expect people to go down to the toy store and look up the registry information.

I think I would be offended to get such an invitation.

Today, a friend of mine emailed me about a fund-raiser their child is doing for school. Their child is very young and the fundraiser is online. One of the selling points – it’s all online so there is no cash exchanged, the items you buy come directly to you, and the child doesn’t have to get out and canvass.

WTF? What the hell kind of lesson does that teach our children? That isn’t being entrepreneurial and assertive. That’s being lazy, pure and simple. Why not just ask me for money? I’d appreciate that more than trying to disguise it behind a rouse of the child trying to raise money for school.

Fundraiser are supposed to be about hard work, creativity, and social networking. This type of fundraising doesn’t encompass any of those things.

I fear for the future of our children.

PS – I just received another one of these things from another friend. This time it was to go and order pizza’s, but plug in the kids ID code to get the discount and credit the kid’s program.

Obama – I think not!

A few days ago a friend told me that they thought there wasn’t anything they could say to convince me that Obama would be the right candidate to vote for. They are probably right, but not because I won’t listen to reason.

First off, I flat out do not like him. I do not like politicians in general, and no matter what he says he is clearly a politician. Obama is a very charismatic person. But I am leery of anyone that people “flock” to so readily without providing anything other than rhetoric. I find all this talk about “change” and calling him “the one” deeply disturbing. People that are able to orchestrate large scams are often able to do so because they are able to draw the people in the way Obama has. It’s not until later that someone says “how did he manage to do that?” So again, I don’t like him and I don’t trust him.

Now what about change? This one is leaving me empty. Anyone who takes that office will be a change from what we have today. And who says change is a good thing? When the Nazi party took over Germany that was definitely a change, but I’d say that mankind has agreed that it was not a good change. BTW, I’m not comparing Obama to Hitler unlike so many people that would ludicrously do that to Bush.

Ok, so change. We get that, but let’s be more specific and move on.

Obama, like many democrats, favor socialistic policies – whether they come out and say it or not. Socialized medicine, increasing control and regulation of and by the government, increasing taxes (but not for everyone!), are all socialistic policies. Even today, congress is leading the way to put us in the same financial positions as our brethren in the U.K. and France (two countries that are suffering disastrous consequences).

Financial policy? Every economist I have read so far indicates that they think his policies will be a disaster. He’s already had to revise them because they were so far off the mark he couldn’t get elected with them.

Obama favors gun control, and I think I’ve written enough about that.
http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2008/09/obama-and-your-2nd-amendment-rights.html


Foreign policy experience? Forget it….but at least he has Biden to help with that.

Leadership experience? Just about nill as far as I can tell. I’ve read his voting record and while there are a few things I’d agree with I simply do not agree with most of his policies (the few he actually cast a definitive vote on as opposed to being “present.”).

And finally, my biggest problem with Obama. Forget the crap circulating out there that is pure bullshit for a moment. Obama has strong Muslim ties including financial, political, and family ties. I’ve posted articles on this before as well. Prior to running for President Obama was well known as a Muslim sympathizer. Combine that with other things that he has said / done and I simply do not trust his loyalty to the United States. And let me be frank for a moment – fuck everyone else. This is the U.S. and our country and countrymen (women) should come first. Take care of ourselves and then we can worry about other people.
http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2008/02/obama-and-my-concerns.html


Notice I haven’t bagged on McCain / Palin. Well, it’s not that I like McCain and Palin….but this was about me not liking Obama.

But the good news….. I think Obama will probably get elected. People had enough of republicans for a while and even though the democratically controlled congress has a lower approval rate than Bush I think people will vote for Obama. So the good news? That the President of the United states can’t control the country. Sure, they can do a lot of damage (or a lot of good!), but ultimately it’s Congress that we need to worry about. They can’t do much without Congress.

Fat Ed's Furry Fucking Guide To Metal

AT&T And Binding Arbitration

I’ve been trying to keep track of arbitration information. In some ways, it appears as if consumers are slowly turning the tide on big corporations forcing them into arbitration. Recently there have been several cases in where the courts told the big companies to take their binding arbitration and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine and that they would be going to court.

I’ve seen other cases where the courts indicated that they violated the law and they couldn’t hind behind the guise of arbitration.

And then behold what I get from AT&T (I have DSL)….

For all Members:
Arbitration Agreement. We have added language that requires customer disputes with AT&T regarding AT&T Internet Services to be submitted to binding arbitration or small claims court. Arbitration is less formal than a lawsuit in court and often faster. In addition, AT&T will pay for all costs of arbitration, no matter who wins, as long as your claim is not frivolous.


First off, here is the big bully company forcing people into arbitration. Did you notice that they’ll pay for it? Of course they will! They want to control the entire process just like all the companies! This is their way of ensuring that you get fucked. I also like the part about AT&T paying for all costs of arbitration no matter who wins, as long as your claim is not frivolous. Who do you think gets to decide if your claim is frivolous? Probably the arbitrator….who is already being paid by AT&T. Yeah, that seems fair to me.

I am generally opposed to the government sticking their nose in private business. I’ve said that over and over and over again. Yet, I fear that we may have another instance where capitalism has broke down. The companies are too greedy and the general consumer too ignorant to know any better. It has gotten to the point where you don’t get a choice anymore and that’s bad for consumer. This will be an instance where I favor some type of government intervention. I don’t think that it has to be made illegal, but it should be made optional.

Blink and You May be Ripped Off!!

In the mail today I received my new chase Visa card with Blink. My existing card doesn’t expire for a couple of more months, but I guess Chase wanted me to start using their new Blink technology right away.

What is Blink? It’s similar to a “smart pass” card some of you use at the gas station. For specialized readers, you can simply hold your card up to the reader and it will read your credit card information. You don’t even have to sign for anything. In fact, you don’t have to take your card out of your wallet. Isn’t that nice?

See, they’ve embedded an RFID tag in the card. That way any merchant or technology savvy hacker can glean your credit card information just by being in proximity of you. Isn’t that special? And since you don’t have to sign for purchases over $25 they can use that card all they want before you probably realize it’s been duplicated.

Oh! Now, I almost forgot! They do tell you that it works just like a normal credit card in that you have the same type of theft protection. So if someone did rip off your credit card then all you have to do is tell them it wasn’t you…..provided that they don’t ask you to prove that it wasn’t you. I mean, you didn’t sign anything, right?

Needless to say that because I work in the wireless space I am not too keen on RFID tags with this type of information in them. I called chase to get a normal card, without an RFID tag:

Me: Hi, I just got my new credit card with the Blink RFID tag.

CSR: Great! What can I do for you.

Me: I’d like you to cancel it and send me another card without the RFID tag.

CSR: Can I ask you why you want to do that?

Me: Because I work in the RF space as well as IT and I don’t think it’s secure.

CSR: It’s very secure. You don’t even have to swipe it like a regular credit card. In fact, you don’t even have to take it out of your wallet. (I don’t bother to explain this is what bothers me. I guess they haven’t seen the articles, forms, and videos of hackers stealing credit card info just by sitting on the subway train next to you.)

Me: I see. So you’ve seen all the youtube video’s of people hacking these things, right?

CSR: Uh, no. [silence] Let me see what I can do to get you another card.

Stormbringer Coming….

Hurricane Ike made its debut in North Texas and then left without too much excitement. For those who were on the coast, they got hit pretty hard. Galveston, Houston, Beaumont and all the other cities really suffered.

We had a bunch of evacuee’s shipped up here from the coast. The highways were a little congested and DOT signs were telling evacuees where to go. Jenny told me that she heard some folks call in from the coast that refused to evacuate and were now stranded on the second floor of their home in two feet of water.

But here?? Despite all the warnings and emails and everyone freaking out and stockpiling water, food, candles, batteries, generators etc., we only got a little rain out of it.

And no, I am not kidding. People were flocking to the stores to buy extra water and food….food that you could cook without electricity! People were buying generators and spare candles and all kinds of crap.

I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and while Ike was a big hurricane we are still almost 300 miles from the coastline and they just don’t have much of an impact this far inland. Dallas got it a little worse than we did, but there weren’t any high-winds (a few gusts) and no record breaking rainfalls. We had a nice all-day soak and managed to cool off into the 80’s.

No electricity going out. No fires. No blown down trees. No flooding. You get the idea. In fact, by about 9:00pm on Saturday night the “worst” of it was over and I spotted a BMW with the top down at the local Starbucks. That’s how bad it was here.

I feel a little ripped off. I had my water hose ready to put out fires (yes, people were suggesting that) and I was ready. But it was really disappointing. It was barely windy enough to take the kites out. Imagine if you had the opportunity to have sex with your favorite supermodel / actress / etc., and they weren’t any good in the sack. That was Ike in N. Texas.

PS – this is how people senselessly get killed in hurricanes.

Obama and Your 2nd Amendment Rights

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know I’m not a big fan of Obama. I’ve made a bit of an effort not to just rail on ‘em, but this is one issue that has come to light and it concerns me.

Recently when the Supreme court upheld the second amendment I was bothered by the fact it was a 5-4 decision. To me, it shouldn’t even be that close but my friend pointed out that a 5-4 vote may not be what it appears.

In any event, Obama was questioned about it and it and in typical politician style he flipped and flopped like a well lubricated fish so you couldn’t quite get a straight answer.

The NRA is posting synapses of his 10-point-plan:

1. Ban use of firearms for home self-defense.
2. Pass federal law eliminating right to carry.
3. Ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.
4. Close down 90% of the gun shops in America.
5. Ban rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting.
6. Increase federal taxes on guns and ammunition by 500%.
7. Restore voting rights for five million criminals including those who have been convicted of using a gun to commit a violent crime.
8. Expand the Clinton semi-auto ban to include millions more firearms.
9. Mandate a government issued license to purchase a firearm.
10.Appoint judges to the U.S. Supreme Court and federal judiciary who share his views on the second amendment.

That doesn’t sound much like someone that supports the second amendment. If you google Obama and what his official policy is you will find something close to the following: “As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms.” And then he’ll turn right around and support banning hand guns.

Even if the NRA is a little over the top, I don’t think they are too far off the mark. Here are some examples of Obama and his “support” of the second amendment:

- Respects the 2nd Amendment (Feb. 2008)
- Supports local governments to enact handgun bans (Apr. 2008)
- Obama endorsed Illinois handgun ban (Apr. 2008)
- Co-sponsored a bill to limit gun purchases to one a month (Oct. 2007)
- Concealed carry OK for retired police officers
- Stop unscrupulous gun dealers dumping guns in cities
- Keep guns out of inter-cities.
- Bush erred in failing to renew assault weapons ban.
- Ban semi-automatics, and more possession restrictions.
- Voted NO on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

You can read between the lines but it basically says that he’ll publicly support the 2nd Amendment to appease people (voters) but he clearly favors enacting other laws and supporting lawsuits in an effort to take our guns away.

Maybe it’s not a big deal to you. Maybe you aren’t into guns and don’t get it. That’s fine. I was raised in the south and have been around guns all my life. But for me, it’s more than that. The second amendment provides us with a mechanism to curb and prevent a tyrannical government from imposing it’s will upon the people via an act of force.

It has been shown that throughout history once this basic mechanism is taken away, the ability to defend yourself, that those who protest against the government and could enact change are swiftly silenced.

And I’ll break out my “what if stick” or as Jenny said, my “slippery slope argument” and ask you….which constitutional right do they have to take away before YOU get upset?

Medical Bills You Shouldn't Pay!

Here is an interesting article about how medical companies are ripping off patients, most of the times quite illegally. It’s worth a quick read and you might find yourself in a better position next time you have to visit the doc!

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_36/b4098040915634.htm

Killer Remote!!

This last weekend I finally broke down and bought a new remote control. I know, I know…big deal, right? But I’ve never been very happy with any of my remotes that have come with my stereo / TV components. Even the ones that do some of the other functions on the other remotes only do just that…..some of the functions.

Plus, anyone else trying to watch my TV or a DVD was completely lost. You had to change the TV to the correct inputs, then you had to set the receiver to DVD, and then there was the DVD player itself.

For a while I was checking out remote controls and trying to find a really good universal remote that could replace all my remotes and have macro functionality. I didn’t want to get into a $1000 remote (yes, they have $1000 remote controls) and as I looked around Harmony seemed to be the one that consistently got good reviews. Sure, some people didn’t like them or they didn’t do some odd thing just right but overall most people were happy with them.

Since I had a spare $200 from my piggy bank I went ahead and used that money to pick up a Harmony One remote.


It has a docking station that recharges the batteries. This is good for two reasons. First off, you don’t have to replace the batteries all the time. Secondly, you almost always know where it is if it’s back on the docking station.

But the best part? I spent about 30 minutes setting it up and it worked like a champ to control all of my stuff (including my iPod dock) the first time!!! Setting it up was really pretty simple. You install the software, create an account, and then plug-in all of the devices that it will control. The database at Logitech has all the devices in it and then it programs the remote via a USB port. Real slick.

The remote supports things activities such as “watch DVD” – turn on the TV, set the inputs, turn on the AV receiver and set it to DVD, and then turn on the DVD player and start playing the disc (if one is in there) – all with the touch of ONE button. Not two, not three, not switch devices and change things. One button. *click*

You want to turn everything off? One button.

You want to switch from watching DVD to satellite TV? One button
Switch from satellite tv to HDTV tuner? One button.
Listen to the iPod? One button.
Make scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon? Well, better get your honey to do that one for you and perhaps she only has one button you have to push.

Oh! I almost forgot…. It’s touch-screen. Really really cool. I’m still learning where all the buttons and stuff are and the one I have the most problem with is the volume and the channel as they are on the opposite sides of the remote from my old one. I keep hitting the wrong one, but since the remote has a motion sensor and it lights up when you pick it up it’s easy to look down real quick and hit the right buttons.

Is it pricey? Yes. But it freaking ROCKS!!! It has serious bling! and cool factor. It replaced seven remote controls and it did it all without batting an eye.

Give me a month and I can tell you all the crap wrong with it, but right now I am very impressed!

Killer Rainbows Doom Earth!

Here is a ‘tard that is so caught up in the scaremongering she has completely forgotten about basic science. I mean, oh my god!! It’s a freaking rainbow created by sunlight through water vapor!!!! The world is going to end!!!