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Search Results Archives: April 2006

April 29, 2006

Al Gore is an Eco-Religionist

by Pat — Categories: Eco-Religion, Movies, Politics2 Comments

And the failed politician even stars in a new movie all about this religion of worshiping the Earth and its Eco-System. The Movie is not out yet, but the trailer is here. Gore serves as the Preacher for this religion, and he tells everyone how we have all sinned by using nuclear power and oil. And corporations are evil of course.

Newsweek celebrates its 31 year anniversary on Climate Change alarmism over a probable pending Ice Age by doing a Puff Piece on Reverend Al and this stupid movie.

The trailer says, If you love your planet… If you love your children… You have to see this film. Its a bit disingenuous to phrase it that way, I mean, after all, who doesn’t love the planet, which is life, and who doesn’t love kids?

And of course, it has deep, ominous crashing sounds. And shots of giant cooling towers from an unknown Nuclear plant encroaching on some tiny neighborhood. I think its photoshopped. And isn’t Nuclear energy non-polluting to the atmosphere, which would never contribute to the mythical “Global Climate Change?” But of course, they have to show nuclear energy too, because in this religion, any use of energy is a sin, and Nuclear energy is the biggest sin of all.

The rest of the trailer goes on to try to blame Bush for Katrina, and for some reason, the trailer also shows a nuclear bomb going off. Is this supposed to be a movie, or is this a really long campaign commercial?

My prediction is that this movie is long on “problems” and offers no solutions. What does Reverend Al want all of us energy sinners to do? Vote for him so he can ruin our economy by forcing us to revert to an Agrarian Society? Didn’t Pol Pot try that with the Cambodians? How did that work out?

Tasia and Jimmy Lee Still Rock

by Pat — Categories: Distractions, MusicNo Comments

They have only three instruments- two voices and a guitar- and they sound absolutely incredible.

I caught them again last night at a local venue and they put on a terrific show. See my prior review here, and check out their latest schedule at http://www.jleelive.com/

April 28, 2006

Lo-Jack for Whores

by Pat — Categories: Cyber, Humor, Stupid People1 Comment

As the Duke Stripper case clearly demonstrates, hookers, whores and strippers take safety too lightly. They wear next to nothing, are completely unarmed, and are supposed to do their jobs in the dead of night. How will they ever protect themselves?

Why, its Lo-Jack for Whores, From Ronco! Those 5-inch platform shoes have plenty of room for everything the girl-on-the-back needs for personal protection. It has a GPS, an audible alarm, and could provide emergency locator services for the police, the fire department, or maybe even your pimp.

This sounds like a joke, but I’m not so sure. From the pages of the project designer, Aphrodite Project here:

One of the main concerns of contemporary urban sex workers, even in areas where prostitution is legal, is violence. Each sandal will have an audible alarm system, which emits a piercing noise to scare off attackers. The shoes are also outfitted with a built in GPS receiver and an emergency button that relays both the prostitute’s location and a silent alarm signal to public emergency services.

The shoes will transmit their location via APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) originally developed by Bob Bruninga, US Naval Academy Satellite Lab, in the late 1970s. APRS uses amateur radio to transmit position reports, weather reports, and messages between users. It is free and open to the public, and used by police officers, fire fighters, and other public service workers across the country to track their locations.

Companies like Rave Wireless (www.ravewireless.com) have developed tracking methods that utilize cell phone signals to provide reliable positioning indoors and in urban environments. The shoe design may incorporate this technology and/or Rosum TV-GPS, which uses commercial broadcast TV signals to determine locations.

Okay, I see several problems with this technology. First, Pimps would use this to keep his tabs on Trixie, and if the technology is really good, he would be able to tell everytime Trixie’s feet were in the air too.

Wouldn’t the cops just use this to roundup the whores? Shouldn’t they? Prostitutes are safest when they are off the streets.

And you think its annoying to wake up with the neighbor’s car alarm going off down the block? Now you have to put up with listening to shoes going off when someone smacks around a whore behind a dumpster.

And why stop at hooker shoes? Why not go with the Urban Sex Worker Utility Belt? It has pockets for condoms, a convenient pump for lubrication, moist towellettes, and of course, room for extra gum. It also has holsters for lipstick and pepper spray.

Eco-Religion: Blast From the Past

by Pat — Categories: Eco-Religion3 Comments

Today marks an anniversary in Eco-Religion History. Thirty-One Years ago, Eco-Religionists made a valiant effort to take existing meteorological data and spin the world into a pending catastrophe! And politicians just wouldn’t listen to the experts, despite the fact that evidence showed we were all doomed! Billions of people were going to starve! Weather patterns indicated that mankind was having a negative effect on the weather, leading to the highest rate of disastrous natural weather phenomena to date!

Sound familiar? It should. These things have been said about global warming for years now. But when this was said 31 years ago, it was not about carbons causing a green-house effect. It was about carbons creating a blocking effect, keeping the sun from heating the earth, thus plunging the world, in ten years, into an…

ICE AGE!

From a NewsWeek Article, dated April 28, 1975. Copy Here.

“The Cooling World” – by Peter Gwynne
April 28, 1975 Newsweek

There are ominous signs that the Earth s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now.

The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars’ worth of damage in 13 U.S. states.

To scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world’s weather. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. If the climatic change is as profound as some of the pessimists fear, the resulting famines could be catastrophic.

Reid Bryson of the University of Wisconsin points out that the Earth s average temperature during the great Ice Ages was only about seven degrees lower than during its warmest eras and that the present decline has taken the planet about a sixth of the way toward the Ice Age average.

Others regard the cooling as a reversion to the little ice age conditions that brought bitter winters to much of Europe and northern America between 1600 and 1900 years when the Thames used to freeze so solidly that Londoners roasted oxen on the ice and when iceboats sailed the Hudson River almost as far south as New York City.

Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.

Do you think Eco-religionists abandoned the whole Ice Age predictions because someone came up with a way to melt the ice caps, whereas, with global warming, there is no easy way to cool a planet?

And what is this about a cooling period in the 20th century? Eco-religionists constantly tell us that the Earth has been warming since the advent of the Industrial Revolution.

The fact is that this country is cleaner, more environmentally safe and sound, and more fuel efficient than 1975. Don’t let Junk Scientists or Eco-Religionsits tell you otherwise. Any attempt to frighten you and tell you otherwise should be treated with the same amount of skepticism as if someone were trying to convert you to Scientology, because they use fear tactics, guilt and bad science as the foundation to do so. Hat Tip to Moonbattery.

The Real Racists in Durham

by Pat — Categories: Politics, RoP, Stupid People1 Comment

Well, the New Black Panther Party sounds like they mean business. They want to “conduct their own investigation” into the alleged rape of a paid prostitute at Duke University. And from their public statements, it looks like it will be violent.

From the News-Observer Here:

DURHAM – The national chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense says his group intends to march at Duke University on Monday to “deal directly” with lacrosse players about charges of rape of an escort service dancer whore at a team party.

Duke’s campus police are coordinating with the Durham Police Department to prepare for the black-separatist group, which has a reputation for coming to its protests armed.

“We are conducting an independent investigation, and we intend to enter the campus and interview lacrosse players,” Shabazz said Thursday. “We seek to ensure an adequate, strong and vigorous prosecution.”

One of the key tenets of the New Black Panthers is owning firearms and knowing how to use them, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a national Jewish group that has monitored Shabazz and his followers for years.

“They are a racist and anti-Semitic group,” said Myrna Shinbaum, a spokesperson for the New York-based league. “These guys come armed. They carry shotguns to demonstrations. The authorities down there should know this.”

Asked whether his followers will be armed when they come to Duke, Shabazz chuckled and said, “I don’t know if I can comment on that.”

A flier distributed by the group this week displays photos of Finnerty and Seligmann and calls for those who have “had enough of disrespect and racism from Duke” to assemble at the front gates of the university’s West Campus at 10 a.m.

“We as black men cannot sit idly by and allow white men to rape black women, regardless of what our sister (who by nature is a queen and a divine black woman) was doing,” Shabazz is quoted as saying in a media release announcing the event.

Sounds to me like they want to form a lynch mob. Get a rope.

And if that whore in Durham is considered a queen to these racists, and represents divinity, then the Black Panthers have a completely screwed view on monarchy and God.

This one stupid drunk whore, who has accused others of rape in the past, has set race relations in North Carolina backwards by 20 years. And I still say she ripped those poor Duke Lacrosse Boys off of 400 bucks by being too drunk to properly perform her lapdance duties.

And Shabazz is, or course, a Moslem. Here is a video of him threatening other protesters outside of the Danish embassy in Washington DC during the height of the Cartoon Wars, and he says that George Bush is the Number 1 Terrorist in the World. He’s kooky, dangerous and Islamic, and racist.

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the video link and some history on Shabazz.

Rosie is Ratings Poison

by Pat — Categories: Belch.Com, Stupid PeopleNo Comments

Is there a weight limit on those couches? Move over ladies, make as much room as you can, because ABC is going to announce that they are moving Rosie onto the View. Now with all of the clucking of the hens, ABC is adding the gobble of a turkey.

You can hear Rosie’s response to this glad news by clicking on her picture below:

From Access Hollywood Here:

Access Hollywood has learned that Rosie O’Donnell will be named as the newest co-host of “The View,” replacing the exiting Meredith Vieira.

ABC will reportedly make the official announcement will be made tomorrow, Friday, April 28.

O’Donnell will replace Vieira who is leaving to replace the departing Katie Couric on NBC’s “Today.”

Daytime TV ratings cannot tolerate militant, angry lesbians. Kiss that show goodbye.

April 27, 2006

Rebuilding At Ground Zero

by Pat — Categories: RoP4 Comments

Construction on Freedom Tower began today. I bet that really pisses off Moslems.

From Reuters here:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bulldozers rumbled into a giant pit on Thursday to begin building a new skyscraper to replace the World Trade Center in an act New York’s governor said symbolized the city’s comeback from the September 11 attacks.

Work on the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan began a day after developer Larry Silverstein and the land owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, resolved long-running acrimonious disputes over money, security and design.

The 1,776-foot (540-meter) tower will be among the tallest in the world.

“We are not going to just build low in the face of a war against terror,” New York Gov. George Pataki said. “We are going to soar to new heights and reclaim New York’s skyline.”

The site will include three other high rises plus a residential tower that will surround a memorial, museum and cultural center dedicated to what relatives of the September 11 victims consider a sacred site.

Construction is scheduled to be finished by 2011 or 2012.

On my last trip to New York, despite that it was below freezing outside, I made a point of visiting Ground Zero, and it was immense. Now that rebuilding has finally begun, we can celebrate the completeness of Al Queda’s failure to intimidate America.

America is obviously divided politically, but I daresay that this nation is stronger than ever, both economically, and with a spirit of purpose. I can’t wait to see the new Freedom Tower when its completed.

Snoop Dogg Trashes Heathrow

by Pat — Categories: Humor, Stupid People2 Comments

This is just the way he rolls.

From ThisisLondon.com Here:

A mini-riot erupted at Heathrow airport after rapper Snoop Dogg and a 30-strong entourage clashed with police in a departure lounge.

The men – mostly minders – apparently turned violent after being refused entry to a first-class lounge, smashing up a duty free shop, throwing bottles and attacking officers.

It took riot police over an hour to arrest the “20-stone men”, who were then led out in handcuffs, with one shouting: “This is how it goes down in LA.”

Witnesses believe the group, who were travelling from the US to South Africa, were refused entry to the British Airways lounge as only a few had first-class tickets. It is thought they became abusive towards staff and were turned away from their flight, running riot when police tried to guide them out of the airport.

Six men, including the 34-year-old American rapper, were arrested. A Heathrow worker, who took photos from his mobile phone, said: “There were all these huge, 20-stone men smashing up display cabinets and throwing people around. I saw Snoop Dogg on the ground, with four riot police trying to put him in handcuffs. His minders were throwing bottles at people.

“There were 15 riot vans and eight police cars outside, with dog sniffer units. They were throwing the policemen around like pillows. Then the police used pepper spray on them.”

This sounds so hilarious. No word yet on whether anyone’s Pimp Cup got damaged. Im not sure if any bling was lost. Or if any Grillz were loosened. And no word on Snoop’s stash of fatties or blunts, either.

It took the London cops longer to subdue the men because the cops over there don’t carry firearms. So to capture the men, the Bobbies had to rely on a good, old-fashioned beat down. The one thugged-out brutha that was struggling and shouting “This is how it goes down in LA” apparently also just found out how it goes down in London.

Snoop is now one major milestone closer to being the first “Gangsta” rapper to have an arrest record on every continent. With the North American continent, and now the European continent behind him, he can clearly focus on Africa. I wish him all the best on his endeavors.

My Pizza Tastes Like Embalming Fluid

by Pat — Categories: Humor, Stupid People, You're Fired!2 Comments

I used to deliver pizzas back in the day, and I remember those days fondly, driving around in the car, listening to the radio, making enough scratch for gas and beer- and all the free pizza you could eat. Usually the customers had no idea how dirty the delivery driver’s car was. I kept mine filthy. I had Big Gulp cups, napkins, condiment packets, bottles, cans, and other assorted debris co-mingled with my Pizza delivery necessities, such as maps, a spotlight, a pizza apron, etc, piled in the foot well of the passenger seat. It was kinda gross, but its not like the trash got onto the pizza or anything.

But this is a little creepy-

From the Smoking Gun Here:

APRIL 27–In what will surely repulse Pennsylvanians, a Domino’s delivery man used a car to transport corpses to funeral parlors when he wasn’t using the vehicle to bring pies and Cheesy Bread to pizza enthusiasts. Last Friday, a Lower Southampton Township Police Department officer pulled over a 1993 Buick after noticing the vehicle did not have an inspection sticker. Additionally, William Bethel, 24, was driving with a suspended license, so cops informed him that the vehicle was going to be impounded. According to a police report, when officers began taking an inventory of the station wagon, they noticed a stretcher in the rear of the vehicle (along with rubbish and wet clothing) where “pizzas were sitting to be delivered.” Asked about the items, Bethel explained that when he finished delivering Domino’s pizzas, “he transports deceased bodies in the same vehicle for a funeral home.” A police check with local health officials determined that the use of the car for stiffs and slices did not violate county ordinances. Bethel, who was not arrested, is facing $400 in fines for driving with a suspended license and operating a vehicle without an inspection certificate. The station wagon is registered to Carl Delia, owner of a so-called removal service that delivers dead bodies to Philadelphia-area funeral homes.

Okay, so this begs the following questions:

  • Do the corpses get delivered to the Funeral Home in 30 minutes or less or the next stiff is free?
  • Will this scandal, coupled with the events portrayed in the 1982 Movie “Night Shift” which also highlighted problems with the Philadelphia Morgue finally cause Philly to overhaul its mortuary policies?
  • Why does grandma’s body smell like pepperoni?
  • Has the driver ever accidentally mixed up his deliveries, such as dropping off a Large Pepperoni and Sausage and an order of Buffalo Wings to the Philadelphia Memorial Chapel Funeral Home and dropped off the smelly homeless vagrant “John Doe” stiff to 15 Potter Street?

April 26, 2006

Another Day, Another MySpace Predator

by Pat — Categories: MySpace1 Comment

I really don’t post everything that Trench posts on his excellent site, MyCrimeSpace.com. I just cherry pick a few of the disturbing ones, so Thanks, Trench.

In this instance, a predator that works with troubled teens stalked and molested a 14-year-old girl.

From Hernandotoday Here:

MySpace contact results in man’s arrest

BROOKSVILLE A 24-year-old Spring Hill man has been charged with sexual battery after he met a 14-year old girl on a popular Internet site, then had sex with her, according to an arrest affidavit from the Hernando County Sheriff s Office.

James M. Tarduno, 3137 Wiltshire Ave., was arrested Tuesday and faces charges of lewd and lascivious battery on a child.

The victim told investigators that she met Tarduno on MySpace.com, a popular social Internet site frequented by young people.

The two corresponded for a month online and through text messages on cell phones, then made arrangements to meet for sex, according to the report.

Tarduno met the victim at her house last Friday and they walked to Tarduno s home, where they had sexual contact in the driveway, the report said. They also had sex in Tarduno s station wagon, police said.

According to the report, Tarduno worked in security at Eckerd Youth Alternatives E-How-Kee Camp, a camp in Brooksville for troubled youngsters.

Tarduno started as a night watchman at the camp earlier this year and had no direct contact with youngsters there, said Lou Anne Banks, a spokeswoman for Eckerd Youth Alternatives, when reached Tuesday afternoon.

Banks said Tarduno passed law enforcement background checks at the time of his application. She said Tarduno no longer works with us as of this morning.

Trench also notes on his page about a sting roundup in Florida where 24 sexual predators were lured to a home to engage in sex with minors. As Trench asks, “It’s 10 o’ clock. Do you know who your kids are talking to?”

Go See United 93

by Pat — Categories: Distractions, Movies, RoPNo Comments

The move about the heroes aboard United Flight 93 that refused to allow Moslems to use the flight to attack the Nation’s Capitol opens on Friday. Everyone should go see this film.

See the Trailer Here.

The reviews are already pouring in.

From Rotten Tomatoes here:

4/4 “When I compile my Top 10 list of films for 2006, United 93 will be on it, and almost certainly close to the top.”
Click for Full Review

James Berardinelli, REELVIEWS

“A few people made extraordinary use of those tormented minutes, and United 93 fully honors what was original and spontaneous and brave in their refusal to go quietly.”
Click for Full Review

David Denby, NEW YORKER

“Greengrass has made not only a thoroughly fact-checked film but a film that uncontrovertibly comes from the heart.”
Click for Full Review

Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“Taut, visceral and predictably gut-wrenching.”
Click for Full Review

Brian Lowry, VARIETY
3/4 “Their story is told with devastating realism, stirring up a fresh sense of horror and erasing five years’ distance from the attacks.”
Click for Full Review

Lisa Rose, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER

A- “[Paul Greengrass] keeps a cataclysmic story scaled to the vulnerable men and women involved.”
Click for Full Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

4/4 “United 93 is a shattering, yet effective tribute to men and women who, when faced with unimaginable terror and all-but-certain death, dared to resist their fate using whatever they could get their hands on.”
Click for Full Review

Yahoo Jumps Into DVR Market

by Pat — Categories: Cyber2 Comments

… In a way. They are giving away a free software-based DVR player. So with a hardware upgrade, you can turn your PC into a Media Center. This is certain to poke some Media Player companies in the eye, such as Microsoft, Myth TV and Sage.

From CNET here:

Yahoo has released a beta version of software that turns a PC into a digital video recorder.

The software, Yahoo Go for TV, is free to download. After the software is installed, people plug their computer into their television’s video and audio input connections. The computer can then record and play back shows on the TV just like with a standalone DVR. Consumers can also play DVDs, music, photos or other downloaded content.

The cost of a few cables and TV tuner card, in comparison with the hundreds of dollars being shelled out for DVD players or DVRs, could lure consumers away from DVR competitors like TiVo.

The Yahoo software, as of yet, only runs on Windows and requires a computer with 20GB of disk space to store recorded programs, 512MB of RAM and a 1GHz processor.

Yahoo also has a partnership with Tivo, whereby Tivo customers can use Yahoo to schedule recordings and downloads remotely. I’m not sure how happy Tivo will be about this either. I suppose this may be a vehicle for Yahoo to make some ad revenue, but I’m not sure how that will work.

April 25, 2006

Consumer Confidence All-Time High

by Pat — Categories: Politics1 Comment

I was out shopping yesterday with my wife at the local Home Depot around 11:00 in the morning, and I was stunned at how crowded it was. There were dozens of work crews lined up and loading their vans with lumber, tile, piping and other equipment for both regular construction and private DIY projects. Also, local nurseries had literally DUMPED tomato plants, squash plants, flowers, mums, and scores of other plants, and the prices were outstanding.

Everyone was loading up on springtime goodness and carting the flowers home, and as we drove away, I remarked to my wife about how great our economy seemed to be doing, and that I had never seen such activity at Home Depot before.

Today, a report came out about the consumer confidence index. Despite all of the predictions of doom and gloom over the rising cost of gasoline, Americans are enjoying what appears to be a boom. People are buying things for their homes and businesses, prices are still low, and there is a shortage of available workers because of such low unemployment.

From Reuters here:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence in the economy reached a four-year high in April as better job prospects temporarily offset unease over rising gasoline prices, according to data released on Tuesday.

In addition, sales of existing homes rose at a pace faster than expected in March….

Other economic data showed consumer spending was stronger in the third week in April than in the same week last year, aided by a late Easter holiday weekend and a spring clothes shopping spree in some parts of the country.

The strength in consumer confidence was especially surprising in view of the recent jump in gasoline prices.

“The consensus had been expecting a fall due to the recent spike in energy prices, but it appears that the firm labor market and improving incomes, plus the positive effects of rising equity markets are more than offsetting this for now,” said James Knightly, economist at ING Economics.

Much of this boom is due to Bush’s tax cuts, and these cuts should be made permanent. Also, this information should be trumpeted in all of the newspapers, but the Press is loathe to give Bush credit for anything, especially for turning the country around after the devastating attacks against our economy on 9/11/2001.

Moslems Angered. What Else is New?

by Pat — Categories: RoP2 Comments

Now Moslems, those intolerant followers of a medieval warlord, are angry that there are other people that find the Moslem lifestyle and belief system to be offensive to their western values and sensibilities. And they want those that are offended to be punished, but secretly, they want them dead, decapitated and humiliated.

Professor Wichman of the University of Michigan sent the following email in response to planned Moslem demonstrations about the so-called controversy of the existence of artwork that depicts the medieval warlord, Mohammad.

Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest.

I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called “whores” in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.

This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile “protests.”

If you do not like the values of the West — see the 1st Ammendment — you are free to leave. I hope for God’s sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.

Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Now there are Muslim groups that are calling for the Professor to be punished by the University for exercising his free speech. If the University doesn’t punish the Professor, I am willing to bet a deep-fried Pork Rind that the Moslems will try to punish the Professor themselves.

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the pointer.

April 24, 2006

American Cyber Companies KowTow to Commies

by Pat — Categories: China, CyberNo Comments

Google censors Chinese search results. Microsoft has agreed to censor its blogs in exchange for China to quit pirating its software. Yahoo has turned over usernames and other logged information about its users to Chinese authorities that subsequently led to arrests of some dissidents. And Skype has agreed to provide a version of its software that will remove banned words from its text chat feature.

These are distasteful things, and as a freedom-loving society, we Americans view such gross actions on the part of the Chinese government and its censorship campaign as an intolerable act. And to see our own American-based companies working with the Chinese government to suppress the freedoms of its people is equally astonishing.

Michelle Malkin debuted her new website, HotAir, which is an excellent video blog about conservative issues, and her first feature is a video about these issues of Chinese censorship and American corporate kowtowing in order to get a slice of the Chinese market. See the video here.
Don’t get me wrong, I also dislike the activities of the American companies, who, in order to compete in the market, must comply with Chinese national law, of which, censorship is a big part. But I have a different take, and its one in which the ends justify the means.

With the tools that Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and skype are providing (remember, skype also has encrypted voice chat), Chinese citizens for use in their pursuit of freedom, the chinese citizens will be able to better organize and express their feelings about freedom on a scale that they have never been able to achieve as farm peasants or factory workers. Yes, the Chicoms are trying to make some examples of its citizens, and it is sad. The US government should put pressure on the Chicoms about that.

But not necessarily US businesses. They know business, and it is not their job to be diplomats. We have a State Department for that. And a congress that could pass laws against the types of business dealings that these companies are engaged in. Whatever the distaste, they are not breaking any laws of the US.

The Chinese are pursuing their freedom every day. The number one cyber attack detected every day are internet probes from China looking for anonymizing open proxy servers. This represents a nation of people who desperately want free speech and to circumvent government censorship by trying to surf the web as an anonymous person from any other country. And the penalty of scanning the internet, or hacking of any kind, is harsh. Now, with Google, MS, Yahoo and others, they have the necessary tools to help them achieve their goals by expressing themselves, organizing, sharing information and learning more about the rest of the free world.

Free speech is much harder to obtain with gardening tools than it is with the world’s best software.

April 23, 2006

Idiot Vandals Caught Because of MySpace

by Pat — Categories: MySpace, Stupid PeopleNo Comments

Nothing says “fun” like trashing a few trailers at a construction site. Nothing says “dumbass” like using the computers at the construction site to update your MySpace blog while you are doing it.

From the Modesto Bee here:

MySpace.com leads detectives to two suspects

By MICHAEL MELLO

PATTERSON It was the next best thing to leaving a calling card.

Investigators said two teens who “completely thrashed” three building contractors’ trailers this week used a computer in one of them to access several pornography sites. One of the boys also logged onto his MySpace.com Web site to write several messages, then left the screen up when he fled the trailer, police said.

“It was pretty awesome to find that Web site on there,” Detective David Hickman said. “It had his name, phone number and address. It was like an invitation: ‘Give me a call. Come arrest me.’”

You don’t need to be a cyber-forensics specialist to catch some people. Thanks go to Trench at MyCrimeSpace for the pointer.

Imagine There’s No Stupid People

by Pat — Categories: Stupid People1 Comment

Well, stupid people all across America will shell out 10 bucks a piece to see some pay-per-view fakery in which John Lennon is purported to speak from beyond the grave. I can’t wait to hear what he says- probably along the lines of “Sucker!”

From Reuters here:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A controversial television seance airing on Monday will claim it has reached the spirit of John Lennon, but viewers will have to pay $9.95 to find out what the peace-loving Beatle has to say.

The special, being carried on pay-TV service In Demand, was organized by the producers of a 2003 attempt to channel the late Princess Diana. That show failed to find Diana and received reviews that could have sunk the Titanic but it is estimated to have grossed close to $8 million.

The program features what is described as an Electronic Voice Phenomenon, or EVP, that a psychic on the show claims is the disembodied voice of Lennon speaking at a seance in one of his favorite New York restaurants, La Fortuna.

EVP is based on a belief that spirit voices communicate through radio and TV broadcast signals.

“The Spirit of John Lennon” is being done without the knowledge or consent of Lennon’s estate or his widow Yoko Ono, who declined comment. Her longtime friend and spokesman Elliot Mintz has called the entire exercise “tacky, exploitative and far removed” from the icon’s way of life.

Thank God that the 20th century ushered in the era of the cathode ray tube. Who knew that the disembodied spirits of celebrities past would rely on the technology to speak to the living?

Anyone who believes that you can speak to the dead is a moron. And soon to be 10 bucks poorer.

April 21, 2006

Bad Internet Laws Proposed

by Pat — Categories: Belch.Com, Cyber, PoliticsNo Comments

Attorney General Gonzales is attempting to ressurect a stupid law from the Bill Clinton administration that would place an unfair burden on free speech by demanding that website operators, like me, place some type of code on webpages that might contain explicit material.

Um.. Isnt that what Internet Filtering Software is for? If this law passes, wouldn’t that put those companies out of business?

From CNET here:

Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday.

A mandatory rating system will “prevent people from inadvertently stumbling across pornographic images on the Internet,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at an event in Alexandria, Va.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales proposes making government warning labels mandatory on sites containing sexually explicit information.

Site operators face 5 years in prison for violating rating system intended “prevent people from inadvertently stumbling across pornographic images on the Internet.”

The Bush administration’s proposal would require commercial Web sites to place “marks and notices” to be devised by the Federal Trade Commission on each sexually explicit page. The definition of sexually explicit broadly covers depictions of everything from sexual intercourse and masturbation to “sadistic abuse” and close-ups of fully clothed genital regions.

“I hope that Congress will take up this legislation promptly,” said Gonzales, who gave a speech about child exploitation and the Internet to the federally funded National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The proposed law is called the Child Pornography and Obscenity Prevention Amendments of 2006.

A second new crime would threaten with imprisonment Web site operators who mislead visitors about sex with deceptive “words or digital images” in their source code–for instance, a site that might pop up in searches for Barbie dolls or Teletubbies but actually features sexually explicit photographs.

A third new crime appears to require that commercial Web sites not post sexually explicit material on their home page if it can be seen “absent any further actions by the viewer.”

A critic of the proposal said that its requirements amount to an unreasonable imposition on Americans’ rights to free expression. In particular, a mandatory rating system backed by criminal penalties is “antithetical to the First Amendment,” said Marv Johnson, legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union.

I hate the ACLU for many of their unamerican stances. But I agree with them on this. When has a fully clothed genital region ever been determined to be pornographic? And if I want to post things about stupid whores that do stupid things, would that be sexually explicit? Probably. By displaying a federal logo, I would be limiting my own free speech because search filters will be able to squelch me. This is not cool.

I keep my own pages to a PG-13 rating, and the government should not have to open up a new division within the Federal Trade Commission to police the internet. Any proposed laws in this direction will fail in Congress. What a stupid idea.

April 20, 2006

How Did McDonald’s Recover?

by Pat — Categories: Belch.Com, DistractionsNo Comments

After Morgan Spurlock of Supersize Me fame came out with his documentary on McDonalds and its health effects, McDonalds made a commitment to corporate recovery and they revamped their menu to be more health conscious. Is Morgan to thank for the company’s recovery?

Tim Blair thinks so-

Just three and a half years ago, McDonald’s was struggling mightily. Its stock had tumbled 56 percent in 10 months and the company had reported its first quarterly loss. Sales at existing stores in the United States, by far McDonald s biggest market, were not growing and in many instances were declining.

Stung by obesity lawsuits and criticism from books like Fast Food Nation, the company’s brand seemed passe and the high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium cuisine appeared poised for a long decline.

But that did not happen. Today, McDonald’s business, both in the United States and globally, is growing; the chain gets some one million more American visitors a day than it did just a year ago.

Since 2003, according to the NY Times, revenue for McDonald s has increased by 33 percent and its shares have rocketed 170 percent. The burger chain has, you might say, been supersized.

But I have a different take on the turnaround. Spurlock may have been the impetus and final nail in McDonald’s healthy food, but since that movie, McDonalds did away with anything Supersize.

I happen to love the fountain soda at McDonalds, and its pretty quick to hit a drive thru and get a jumbo soda. But you can’t even get that anymore.

But you can at the competition!

What McDonald’s did was literally make lemonade from lemons. They stopped giving away 33 percent more product for free. And the competition didnt. McDonalds led the way with new innovative menu items such as the McGriddle, and now BurgerKing is introducing a similar product. This has allowed McDonalds to conserve cash and expand the business.

Spurlock would love to take the credit, but I say its great management at the company that brought about the change.

MySpace Massacre Averted

by Pat — Categories: MySpace1 Comment

5 teenage boys were foiled in their attempt to duplicate a Columbine-style shooting on the anniversary of the attacks- by an alert Myspace woman.

From FoxNews Here:

Cops: Kansas School Shooting Foiled After MySpace Messages Intercepted
Thursday, April 20, 2006

RIVERTON, Kan. Five teenage boys accused of plotting a shooting rampage at their high school on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre were arrested Thursday after a message authorities said warned of a gun attack appeared on the Web site MySpace.com.

Sheriff’s deputies found guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one suspect, Sheriff Steve Norman said. Authorities also found documents about firearms and references to Armageddon in two suspects’ school lockers.

“What the resounding theme is: They were actually going to do this,” Norman said.

Deputies’ interviews with the suspects indicated they planned to wear black trench coats and disable the school’s camera system before starting the attack between noon and 1 p.m. Thursday, Norman said. The suspects apparently had been plotting since the beginning of the school year.

Officials at Riverton High School began investigating on Tuesday after learning that a threatening message had been posted on MySpace.com, he said.

“The message, it was brief, but it stated that there was going to be a shooting at the Riverton school and that people should wear bulletproof vests and flak jackets,” Norman said.

School officials identified the student who posted the message and talked to several of his friends, Norman said.

But Riverton school district Superintendent David Walters said the significance of the threat didn’t become clear until Wednesday night, after a woman in North Carolina who had chatted with one of the suspects on Myspace.com received more specific information that there would be about a dozen potential victims, at least one of whom was a staff member. She notified authorities in her state, who contacted the sheriff’s department, Norman said.

Norman said that the potential victims were popular students and that the suspects may have been bullied.

“I think there was probably some bullying, name calling, chastising,” he said. He also said investigators had learned the suspects were computer buffs who liked violent video games.

About 900 students in all grades go to school on the campus.

The North Carolina woman should receive some type of award for calling the cops. She averted a deadly attack. It will not be long before the details of the suspects comes out, and when they do, I will post the links to their myspace pages.

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