The following is a recent posting by Wil Wheaton. You might recognize the name from movies such as Stand by Me, or television shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory. Hopefully, you have also read one or more of his books.
Wil Wheaton – Feb 10, 2012 – Public
Caution: contains political thoughts.
I’ve been thinking:
- If government was acting in the public — and not the corporate — interest, #Occupy wouldn’t be necessary.
- If journalists were adversaries to the rich and powerful — instead of their stenographers — #Wikileaks wouldn’t be necessary.
- It’s pretty unbelievable to me that a group of people who covered up pedophile priests for decades has any moral authority at all.
- I keep hearing conservatives complaining about government intruding on their religious freedoms. It’s hard to take them seriously when they’re doing everything they can to impose their narrow beliefs on the rest of us.
Pretty interesting, when you think about it.
On November 7, 2011 · Comments Off
Simple Analysis 4.0 beta draft #1!
100% digital, done with the GIMP this time around. A little tongue and cheek prod at both Apple and Occupy Wall Street’s worship of Apple products while vilifying the very foundation of what Apple is; a multi-national corporation that has outsourced American manufacturing. Yes, Apple builds stuff in China too… They are a regular computer company that imports components and uses cheap labor costing Americans jobs… Just like that evil Microsoft and IBM.
Really, if they truly were devout in their Socialism, they’d run Linux devices. Every single one of them, but they aren’t smart enough to (well, some have got to be… but in general…).
On October 24, 2011 · Comments Off
Once again, GWOT Veterans are in the cross hairs of the very government they served to protect YOUR liberties… When you sit and read the articles, keep in mind how easy it would be to construe a wounded Veteran from recent operations in Iraq who loves to be prepared and live outdoors showing up at a surplus store. Having been wounded, and losing limbs, they can easily be ‘profiled’ according to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force handout as a domestic terrorist. This after MIAC, and the DHS Report in 2008. BOHICA!
David Codrea’s Gun Rights Examiner article: http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/fbi-adds-preppers-to-potential-terrorists-list?CID=examiner_alerts_article
PDF of the FBI handout to Colorado Surplus stores… ColoradoFBISurplusStore
On July 27, 2011 · Comments Off
Twitter account @Husker4Palin is run by one of the contributers here at Politics4Nerds.com. The man running it is a very nice person, with a wonderful wife and two very sweet children. He is deeply ingrained into politics and is someone I feel could actually make a very good politician, if I could finally get him to understand that Reaganomics only worked on paper, not in principle. Yet, I wish he would close his twitter account…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against Twitter, nor am I against a person using twitter to spread their thoughts, ideas, beliefs, or even coupon deals. What I am getting tired of are twitter accounts that do nothing aside from retweeting something else. I hate to bring up this account directly, but I feel I must. It was several months ago that he wrote an amazing piece, which can be found here (). The article was great, and now, like so many others, I see his talent being wasted by becoming a “re-tweeter” of information that is not even looked at.
Case in point, a recent retweet went out requesting Palin supporters to grab their keyboards and defend her and her movie as well as assisting forum poster Neil Flagg over at IMBD. First off, the original tweeter could not even get the name of the site correct (which is IMDB.com), but they are asking for assistance for political debate on a movie forum. Sadly, due to the limited viewing of the movie, I’m guessing that the majority of the people posting have not even seen the movie!
Twitter users need to stop retweeting every tweet from groups they follow and need to get back actually publishing and posting their ideas.
So, @Husker4Palin, what are your thoughts on retweeting?
On June 22, 2011 · Comments Off
Well, it looks like Verizon is the latest to get rid of unlimited data as well as charge for tethering under a capped plan. As much as I would love to explain in my own words what is wrong with this, let me share this well thought out piece from an Ars Technica poster.
Original author, DannnyB:
I have an interesting situation. My water utility sells me metered water for washing dishes, watering the lawn, showering, and other limited purposes.
The utility offers a Tasting plan for an additional monthly charge. Under this plan, I am allowed to use the water also for cooking and drinking. (Even though my water use is metered, and each gallon of water for cooking and drinking is delivered by the same pipes!)
Dear customer: our records indicate that you have been using water for cooking and/or drinking. Please upgrade your water rate plan to our convenient Tasting plan that allows for this usage. If you continue to use water for cooking and drinking, you will be signed up for the Tasting plan automatically.
I think the Tasting plan is just a fee that they made up. It isn’t a service they provide. They just want more money from me. I’ve got a workaround of using a container to obtain water from another room for the purposes of cooking and drinking.
Some people shout: Theft of service!
But what service? They’re already delivering water to me, and metering it, and I’m paying for it, and its delivered by the same pipes!
Some people shout: but you signed an agreement and using the water for cooking and drinking is a breach of that agreement!
Ask a lawyer about the term “unconscionable contract”.
Nobody in their right mind would agree to this if they had any actual choice in the matter. Just because they have the power and can force you into paying this ridiculous fee or doing without doesn’t make it right.
I say that this Tasting “service” is no service at all, it’s just a fee for delivering nothing at all extra to me. It’s a case of the utility wanting something for nothing. Yet people seem to think it is somehow wrong to use the water I’m paying for for drinking or cooking unless I sign up for the more expensive Tasting plan.
In order to add legitimacy to their Tasting plan, the water company says that the Tasting plan is actually delivering something: it includes an additional 2 Gigabytes of water per month, giving you 4 total Gigabytes of water.
But what if I only need 2 Gigabytes of water and therefore my existing monthly 2 Gigabyte plan is plenty? The water company already charges $10 per extra Gigabyte of water I use over the limit. So if I used excess water, it’s not like they wouldn’t get paid.
Furthermore, once I sign up for the Tasting plan, they don’t make any distinction between water used for drinking/cooking and water used for other purposes. I could use 3/4 of it for tasting, and 1/4 for bathing/dishwashing. Or any other split. Or all of it purely for tasting. So then if I paid for Tasting and used only 2 Gigabytes of water, which I already had paid for, then why did I need the Tasting plan?
I seem to be very confused about stealing water for tasting. Someone please set me straight.
I think the above hit the nail on the head quite nicely. I have no problem with the concept of paying for tethering on an unlimited plan, but if my smartphone plan is already capped, why am I being double charged? I just don’t get it.
It is times like this that I am grateful to be grandfathered into my Alltel plan.
On April 13, 2011 · Comments Off
Really, if any agency deserves budget cuts more than the TSA let me know… Wait, never mind, I can think of a few myself… However, maybe we should do away with the multiple redundant bureaucracy that is the Dept. of Homeland Security and send ‘Big Sis’ Napolitano back to New Mexico. Its obvious that these ‘enhanced’ screening techniques often times end up being used on children who aren’t involved in terrorism; along with grandmothers, grandfathers, and I’m sure handicapped folks. Being a father of toddlers, this disgusts me; being a GWOT veteran who went forth to kill terrorists in their own nation, this angers me further to see these amateurs ignore techniques that are far less intrusive and far more effective (yes it involves profiling behavior, not race; though since most of the crazy suicide bombers stem from one part of the world… however that behavior profiling might also yield some other results in other arenas such as battling drug smuggling…). So here it is folks the articles for your perusal from Glenn Beck’s The Blaze: Little Miss Drexel’s folks, and the Jihad Jammer. So, which Americans should we screen more closely?
Today I ran across an individual who believed in ‘not participating’ in the political system, to the point of not even voting; and yet they lead a ‘Freedom Initiative’ movement that is working to audit the Federal Reserve (an action I do indeed agree with very much). However, Its my opinion that not voting, this person has indeed abdicated their citizenship and indeed for me their opinions regarding the Political Landscape in the United States. Not voting is turning over and ceasing to fight (rhetorically) and surrendering to the whim of whom ever is in charge; not voting and complaining about government is not only surrendering to the whim of such government, but complaining without doing any thing to positively effect said government.
As I go through the Constitution of the United States, I see the vote and participation of the Citizen a requirement for the maintenance of this Republic. In order to keep the Republic from slinking into simple “mob rule” of Athenian Democracy, the Founders established a Representative Democracy in the Legislative Branch of our Government through the House of Representatives. All bills involving revenue and its generation (taxation) must start in the House, the PEOPLEs Representatives chosen directly through the democratic process in each district based on population size in order to get the best representation possible across the land (and by no means perfect, and currently exploited in many cases sadly). In the beginning, until the 17th Amendment in 1912, our Senators were chosen by our State Legislators, this separated the democratic process from the direct democracy into the representative democracy that prevails through the rest of our government. Since we chose our State Legislators directly, they in turn would vote for the Senators based upon their obligations to their State Constituency. This created a bit more of a ‘refined’ wing to the Legislative Branch of government, as the Senate is where treaties and other affairs that affect Foreign Policy are decided. Now, we have more direct control over our Senators, and I can’t say its the best thing as now it seems we have greater mob rule in the Senate… But I digress, voting is still critical no matter if we vote directly for the Representative, or we elect a State Legislator to chose our Senator. Ben Franklin’s quote about maintaining the Republic comes to my mind on this issue.
While I find myself getting angry and blurting out “YOU DON’T VOTE? DON’T BITCH!” quickly followed by “Maybe we should remove your citizenship and turn you into a resident” I’m not going to actively seek to do that. No, the idea doesn’t make me a Fascist, those that think so should compare and contrast the Fascists to the Communists and re-assess. I’m not a Fascist, I’m a Federalist, and one that believes strongly in taking responsibility for the maintenance of my beloved Republic. While I rhetorically hammer folks for failing to do so, I have NO INTEREST in actually carrying it out. In many cases such shocking language is required to get some people to stop and think about their apathy and its impact. I’m furious at the 30% turnout at the polls during elections. My point with those conversations is to indeed get folks to get off their butts and out to the polls. Those who don’t believe in this cornerstone of this Republic should indeed be ashamed. Besides, when you cease to vote, no one needs to take your Rights as a citizen away from you, you just cast them aside yourself. All I do when I mention the heavy handed ‘stripping’ is point it out… And advocate for your protection as merely a resident.
When asked how would they would go about changing the government without voting, this person responded with the question of how can we change it with voting. What a stupid response. Its just an evasion, just like the very politicians we seek to remove from power by simply voting for someone else. Sure, voting isn’t the perfect way to ensure our government remains the protector of our natural God given rights, however it sure as hell beats a bloody removal from power of a dictator that takes years to really build up for. Every two years, we overthrow by force of the ballot, sections of our government be they local, state or federal. In a lot of cases, we keep the same people. Thats part of being a Representative Democracy (and if you don’t know what Representative Democracy is, you need to remove your head from your cranium and LEARN something, thereby becoming a better informed Citizen, and I daresay VOTER).
When we vote, and things don’t turn out our way, we have every right to be angry, and we still have recourse to express our opposing points of view. Even when a person is elected to an office, they have obligation to protect the rights of all their Constituents, no matter if they voted for them or not; and they are accountable to them. What we have witnessed here is the failure of many politicians to realize this duty to protect the rights of all Citizens; not the failure of Representative Democracy and the ballot box. Instead we have the perfect storm of Voter apathy, corruption of Government, and failure to fulfill duty. Because the Voter participates in the system, they have every reason to experience righteous indignation and anger. The non-participant, abdicates theirs by virtue of failing to partake in the most basic, and important, office of our nations government, Citizen.
Voting is, by its very nation, the Citizen applying force against the government. Force need not be violent and deadly like we first visualize when the word ‘force’ is used. Force of will is what it is. If the framers of our Constitution didn’t believe in the awesome responsibility of Citizenship and the power of the Ballot Box over Government, we’d have been left as peons and peasants with not ability to Vote from the get go of the Constitution. Peons and Peasants can’t vote, and are required to accept their lot in life and submit to the Citizens who can vote, hold property, and carry arms. Our Founders understood this well, and unlike the Roman Republic, and those that followed up until our Constitutional Convention, they worked to ensure all Americans were Citizens (even if the final draft conspicuously left the Slaves and Native Americans out of the picture… It is interesting to note that Ben Franklin went on to be one of the leading Abolitionists of his day… It was indeed a political concession in order to get the Southern States to ratify the final draft of the Constitution, that the process of Amendments was written in to support such changes).
For me, it is utterly alien to believe that Voting is trivial and pointless. The results vary greatly, however it is my obligation to vote. I feel compelled to vote, even though I know for certain that things might not always turn out exactly my way (300 million Americans, I’m sure not everyone thinks like I do…). Too many Flags over too many graves stones for me to not vote. But then, if you don’t think that American servicemen die to secure such Liberties, by all means, continue with your apathy and ignorance. If you don’t vote, how do you plan to change government and secure your rights? Revolution? Thats the way it seems some folks are going right now… After all, look at what those 14 Democratic State Senators did in Wisconsin… They knew they’d be defeated and just decided not to vote, jump state, and ensure the Unions had time to gather a storm of protestors with the intention of intimidating the peoples chosen representatives and governor into changing their minds about public employee collective bargaining.
To me, not voting is a cancer to this Republic. Its motivated by apathy, or anarchy. Neither is conducive to the continued health of this Republic.
On March 1, 2011 · Comments Off
“Most people spend their lives buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people who don’t care”
– John F. Kennedy
The simple quote above is one of the biggest reasons we as a Nation are facing the collapse of our economy. From individuals, to corporations, to the Government itself, they are to busy spending money they don’t have on things they don’t need; be it social programs that need to be weeded/trimmed to military spending that needs to be reduced/cut, both parties are guilty.
Heck, lets be honest, we are all guilty.
What are you doing to stop it?
On February 25, 2011 · Comments Off
Something tells me I won’t be serving on a jury anytime soon, or maybe I won’t be selected for a jury anytime soon in spite of being in the pool. Why you might ask? Well, I’m blogging and I’m all over Facebook as well… And cartooning… So, my opinions are out there, and with my views on the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Rule of Law I know some District Attorney (or even Public Defender/Defense Attorney) will likely seek to disqualify me from selection. From what I’ve read here in Network World News and the link to the Wall Street Journal its apparently the latest trend. Not only has the jury become rigged with Jury Consultants running around town looking at where potential jurors work, live, and even shop; now they go further by using the hacking technique called ‘social engineering’ (one of the oldest tricks in the book, predating computers by being around since the beginning of time).
You really can’t hammer these lawyers too badly, as some people (myself included, namely because I have a public blog where I post my opinions quite openly) don’t give a darn about privacy at all. Their Facebook and MySpace pages are open to the world. Lawyers, jury consultants, and even judges tend to exploit this in various ways (do read the articles…). I can’t say I’m too terribly depressed about not being hit with jury duty, and likely never going to get selected due to my views… But I’m also angry because of the manner in which these attorneys have found a loophole around the Constitution and the manner specified for jury selection that has been used for centuries. But then, they are attorneys, and folks post without thinking on Facebook (or they just don’t know about privacy settings and carefully picking their friends). I still find the idea of jury consultants disgusting, this doesn’t even allow for a truly random jury pool from the start in my opinion. Get rid of the consultants, let the attorneys dig on the Internet when they question the jurors in the courtroom!
Then we have states like Maryland (east coast Liberals, what else do you expect?!) which allowed their Department of Corrections to demand user names and passwords in order to keep a job?! While I don’t believe the ACLU really to have American Liberty at the heart of their organization, sometimes they do get things right in some cases (even a blind squirrel gets the nut sometimes…); especially in the case this case. Its one thing for an agency to have specific guidelines for social media (perhaps restricting access to it on State or Federal computer systems…), but its absolutely another to require that personnel turn over PRIVATE user names and passwords over for months at a time. Thats just pure exploitation. Thats just Big Brother Big Government right there for you (no matter the party name!).
On February 22, 2011 · Comments Off
The TSA continues its invasive pat-downs and body scans under the direction of Big Sister Janet Napolitiano and the Dept. of Homeland Security! One of our Democratic State Representatives, Sharon Cissna (D-Anchorage) was returning home from Seattle when the body scan showed details of her scars from her mastectomy… So they wanted to touch her ‘prosthetic device’ in one of their wonderful ‘enhanced patdown’ searches that have no probable cause beyond your desire to fly. So, she was force to return to Alaska by sea instead because she decided to refuse to submit, AGAIN. This was her second trip through a TSA checkpoint in which the body scan still lead to an enhanced pat down. How sick can the TSA get? But then, there is no communication, or safety, in what they do.
Why no safety? Well in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, an undercover TSA agent was able to bring in a handgun on her person in her undergarments EVERY TIME she went through the checkpoints in spite of the ‘enhanced pat downs’ and body scanners. So, flag breast cancer survivors, yet miss firearms. Good to go TSA! Time for Napolitano to be FIRED. Two EPIC FAILURES in the same week, and its only MONDAY!
You can check the National News or Francona to see the best analysis of the latest Middle East violence, protests, and counter protests… I’m going to focus a bit on Wisconsin a bit here. What disturbs me isn’t the mass protest of Government workers; this is the unelected bureaucracy protesting the actions of the democratically elected State Legislature, an elected body acting on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Tax Payer. Its almost funny, as this is the polar opposite of the TEA Parties who represent Mr. and Mrs. Tax Payer… Really, I think is great that the Unions are shutting down education and kicking Mr. and Mrs. Tax Payer’s kids out the curb because they can’t get the retirement pension and health plan they want for nothing anymore… Let them show their true faces, and how ugly they can be and how much they really care about the public they claim to serve. What galls me is the spineless Democratic State Senators who are working for this special interest group (SEIU, Government Employees Unions, National Educators Association, etc.) by subverting the democracy they claim to so cherish by jumping state lines and going to Illinois instead of doing their SWORN duty of representing Mr. and Mrs. Tax Payer and voting ‘No’ to the Governors budget. Instead, since they are hopelessly out numbered, they run. They hide, they derail the democratic process by not even showing up to vote and do their sworn duty to their constituency. Honestly, I wonder why Wisconsin puts up with this and just doesn’t tell them not to come back. I personally believe this type of action should be grounds for removal of said legislators… This is nothing short of dereliction of duty.
The reality of the problem goes back to a combination of several factors. We haven’t seen this kind of government debt since the end of WWII! But what else can you expect?! Post WWII we had a generation of Veterans enter college and the labor force, have LOTS of kids (future Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayers…), and exit a couple decades of lean times (Great Depression and a World War…). Between the kids, and the end of real hard times, its no wonder we saw the deficit shrink during the 1950′s (in spite of increased government spending on things like Defense and the Space Program). Now, we have that generation of Baby Boomers retiring in droves sucking up all the wonderful pensions and Social Security that was set aside, and designed for the sustained population growth of the 1940′s, and boosted incredibly by the Post War Baby Boom. Instead, all the kids of the Boomers fell for the Population Bomb myth, quit having kids; and now have left the next generation of kids not even born yet on the hook for untold billions of our national debt… Which leaves painful cuts to pensions, medical benefits, and yes even government jobs necessary if we are to continue to even have basic functioning governments at the local, state, and especially national level. We shouldn’t wonder why the Constitution limited the Federal Government; the Liberty aspect is painfully obvious with the TSA situation, but it goes beyond that. Governments have been the biggest booming employers, those who pay taxes have become fewer and fewer; pensions got bigger and bigger with more benefits along with growing recipients, but the population of tax payers to fund such programs shrinks and shrinks.
Public employees, like their private sector counterparts, are going to have to learn to invest privately with their meager base pay or not retire at all. Cut now, or lose your job later. Your choice.
Personally, I’m trying to plan for my future, and already at 28 I know I’m going to HAVE to work past 65 just to survive. There is no Social Security for me, there will be no one I can work for who will be able pay me a pension. Thats just life, and its time for other people, especially teachers and other government employees to accept this as their reality also. Go ahead, hold that the government responsible for your unfunded liabilities, just ignore your union bosses and the 125% over funded pension plans they receive while they keep your pension only 75% funded… Just don’t cry when the government you want to hold accountable slams the door shut and vanishes leaving chaos and anarchy in its wake (I won’t shed a tear when you get swept away in it either, after all looking at your union rave in the Madison WI capitol, it looks like thats just what you want after all…).
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