The Liquor Talking

Now I think a little clarification is in order. I don’t know much about the American Independent Party and they may not care about much but I consider myself an independent politically (that is, I don’t take political affiliation into account when I make my decision on whom to vote for) and I have quite a bit that I care a quite deal about. Education and energy that is not dependent on non-renewable resources, for example, are generally at the top of my list.

Tyler

Aye, there’s the rub.

Independents drive me nuts.

Independents tend to have two, maybe three issues that they care about. They tend to vote for whatever candidate hits their specific hot-button issues. It doesn’t really matter how the candidate stands on all other issues, providing they agree with the voter on the two or three.

People with a party preference tend to have a much wider variety of values and vote for whatever candidate passes a sort of litmus test. As in: how conservative/liberal is this candidate?

Hope that clears things up.

Oh, and congratulations on grad school. I know you’ll do well!

Elim

That’s messed up. I mean it’s your neighbor’s property and all, but surely, luring other people’s cats onto your property to trap them had got to be illegal.

When our neighbor’s cat started going poo in mom’s flower bed, we put up a small, solar powered electric fence. One zap was all it took and the cat avoids our yard like the plague.

I hope you find out which neighbor is doing this. I can only imagine what bizarre revenge you’ll come up with.

Chase

Yeah, I too have a problem with luring cats onto the property to trap them. The animal control officer was good enough to provide me with a general location, but would not disclose a precise address.

While it doesn’t seem to be illegal, it is pretty un-neighborly.

Revenge? Who? ME? I’m all about live and let live, buddy. I have a pretty good idea who it is and when I have absolute confirmation, (every action having an equal and opposite reaction and all) I’ll devise a suitable response. But revenge? Nope, just reaction will do.

Elim

Come on now. There’s got to be someone you like, even a little bit for the republican nomination. It’s after December 31st, so no swift kicks for asking!

Chad

Nope, not really. At this point, it’s probably easier to say who I don’t particularly like.

I’m not crazy about Michelle Bachmann. I’ve not done anything more than a cursory examination of her positions, but she strikes me as being a little nuts. I lack the mental flexibility it requires to follow some of her logic.

I’m not crazy about Newt Gingrich either. While I agree with some of his points, he just comes off like an arrogant, loudmouth prick. I got a real problem with his criticizing fellow republicans as “un-American.”

But like? No, no one I really like yet.

Elim

So I guess if I started my own blog using this and a dozen other stories of yours, your life, your words, your opinions and started promoting that site as my own true stories, you’d be acting like a two year old for doing something about it?

Maybe that’s irrelevant I see as virtual tumbleweeds blow thru your blog.

Stanhope

Nope, I didn’t say that at all.

And I’m having some trouble figuring out what exactly this is in response to.

My first guess would be about the SOPA legislation. If that’s the case, then allow me to retort.

Yes, copyright infringement is a problem. Like I said earlier, when you can download an entire, first-run movie or music CD before it’s even hit the theaters or store shelves, only an idiot would say there’s no problem.

Not wanting to chew this cabbage twice, SOPA just isn’t the solution:

Especially since the movie and recording industries helped create the problem in the first place:

Even if I for one second thought this was about protecting copyright, I’d still have problems with power the legislation grants to the accuser.

Even though c|net is mentioned in the above video, Molly Wood has a pretty good rant about it too.

But if you as a performer feel this bill is the right approach, then by all means, I’m all ears.

If that however isn’t what you’re commenting on, then I guess you’re gonna have to be more specific.

As to the “tumbleweeds” remark, what can I say? This is a hobby blog, so even the virtual tumbleweeds count too.

Elim

No, thanks.

The Transportation (Un)Safety Administration (TSA) is Homeland Security’s publically-paid doofus squad and the biggest public works project since the depression-era WPA. But you know what? At least with the WPA, we got roads, sewers and bridges. With the TSA, we get crapped on daily with no discernible improvement in airline safety. I mean, do YOU feel safer flying after you see some old lady in a wheelchair strip searched?

TSA’s latest assholery took place just in time for Christmas at the Las Vegas Airport. A woman was carrying a frosted cake baked in an tiny jar. (See photo.) Very “in” right now, cute, but really not a big enough portion to justify consideration. Anyway, Einstein, the TSA agent, as well as his supervisor (!) determined that this was a POTENTIAL SECURITY THREAT and confiscated the treat. Their logic went something like this:
1. Liquid in a bottle is probably an explosive!
2. The frosting on this cake in a bottle looks like a gel!
3. Gels are made of liquid!
4. OMG! This cake is going to take down the plane!

So now these geniuses want to monitor blogs? Let’s see…you run a photo of Breadhat Man and I comment, “Hey, Elim! That breadhat is da bomb!” Then, coming soon to your residence in the middle of the night, jackbooted thugs from Homeland Security looking for the secret plans to make breadhat bombs, as well as your list of co-conspirators in all 116 countries. (Most of them Communist enemies, you know.) You’ll be on your way to Gitmo as quick as Jack the cat was scooped up by your friends at Animal Control.

So, no on the “enhanced monitoring” of social media. Not by these folks. As my dear-departed mother would say, these guys don’t have sense enough to pour piss out of a boot.

Di

Or as Chief Floyd used to say “He couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.”

I miss him

It’s fairly probable that DHS already monitors social media. I mean why not? There’s already a pretty extensive database of what, over a billion people, from all over the planet? They’d be dumb NOT to dig into this gold mine.

On the other hand, I gotta wonder exactly how they’ll be analyzing posts:

AGENT 1: Hey boss, there’s a guy in Montana that says he “leiks mudkipz.”


AGENT 2: Mudkipz, eh?  Better tap his phone.


AGENT 1: He also says that people who don’t like corned beef hash are terrorist.


AGENT 2: Call Guantanamo and see if they have any room.

All kidding aside though, I do believe that DHS agents have a pretty tough row to hoe. The really maddening part is that we hardly ever get to hear about their successes, but get a ear load when they are less so.

So there, guys. No need to follow me around today.

Elim

I’m not sure how I feel about the taxpayers paying the government to monitor Facebook and such. I’ve always felt that citizens not only have a right, but rather a responsibility to tell their representatives what to do.

I rather doubt that our founding fathers envisioned anything even remotely like the Internet, so I’m wondering if this is just an unavoidable evolution? There’s no questioning the power of the Internet where commerce is concerned. GoDaddy, Ocean Marketing, Best Buy and Verizon will serve as examples of how consumers can gang up on someone and bring them to heal.

I don’t know how this would work with when elected folk are concerned. With the SOPA thing, the Internet singled out GoDaddy, but what about the rest of the corporations that support this thing? Are they going to see the writing on the wall and adjust? Is hammering the industrial giants that drive the legislative process the way to go?

There’s no way the little guy can hope to compete for attention against corporations who seem to be able to give unlimited amounts of money to elected officials so maybe voting with your wallet might be the new way to get control of the government.

Will social media eventually be seen as people peacefully assembling to petition the government for a redress of grievances?

Robert

Hmmm… Them’s some interesting thoughts.

11 Hand Salutes to you!

Having been stationed overseas, I used to be quite a letter writer. Being in Turkey in the mid-80s, there just wasn’t any other way to stay in touch with friends and loved ones back home. The best part was getting letters though.

There’s just something about a physical piece of paper, sealed in an envelop, properly addressed with a stamp affixed that says “someone cares” a lot more than an email or some posting on Facebook, Twitter and such.

When I’ve written physical letters to my congressional delegation, (Montana has but three critters) I knew that at least some staffer would have to open the letter, scan for key words and select the canned response that most closely addressed my concerns.

Electronically though, I’m pretty sure this is very much automated and even in a sparsely populated state like Montana, chances are slim that any of my representatives laid eyes on the email.

Maybe having a staffer or two watching social media might be more effective, but I have to wonder how they’d quantify the validity of the postings. Will they be able to tell a troll from a real post? Will they investigate to see if the person posting is even in their district? What methods will they use to separate the wheat from the chaff? What Magic 8 Ball will they use to respond?

Peaceful assembly being in the eye of the beholder, it’s hard to predict how elected folk would see such things. Unlike corporations, they have no bottom line, no stockholders to keep happy. I get the sense it would be viewed pretty much terms of: “How will this effect my next election?”

I’m intrigued with the notion of using the Interwebs to pummel corporations into submission. I’m not optimistic that it’ll eventually work where this SOPA thing is concerned. Control of the Internet is just too big a prize to give up on. If they think there’s more dough to be had by pressing forward with it, there may not be enough hell that can be raised to sway them or their rightly purchased law givers.

This SOPA thing might serve as a decent test of the premise that consumers can force corporations to foster legislation we approve of.

Elim

I figure you for a Ron Paul kind of guy. I predict you’ll come out for Ron Paul well ahead of your March 15 dealine.

Max

You may be right. All the same, I’m holding off on supporting someone until I know all I need to about them.

My biggest worry is that the republicans will pick a candidate based mostly on their perceived ability to beat President Obama. I’d prefer that we pick the best conservative available (that’s NOT a nut case) and preach the conservative message throughout the campaign.

The list of things I’m looking for is pretty short and sweet:

Elim