Del.icio.us

I always like to think that I keep up to date with the new services online, but one of them slipped past me.  http://del.icio.us

This is a very cool website that allows you to bookmark websites and share those with others.  You can also tag the sites with any information that you want.  For example, you might tag my blog as "truth."  :-) Just kidding.

It also works if you are not always using the same computer and is a good way to locate sites that you might be interested in.  It is free and I highly recommend it.

You can view my bookmarks by clicking here.

Why 2011 might be like 1984

Imagine this: You are walking down a crowded city street, or driving down a major thoroughfare.  Up head you see several police cars and a large line of people.  What is this?  An escaped prisoner?  A DUI checkpoint?  A seatbelt check?  As you get to the front of the line, you are greeted with "your papers, please."  

Welcome to America, 2011.  The REAL ID act is very real, and is going to be implemented for everyone over 50 years old as of 2011, and those over 50 will follow a few years later.  

Despite what the government tells you, carrying around "tamper proof" ID does not make our world safer.  This act was created in response to 9/11 (what else?) and is designed to make sure that any amount of anonymity American's had is gone.

The government (and when I say government, I mean Fed.  Many states are pissed off about the billions of dollars this implementation will cost them) has said that law will require states to verify that anyone applying for a driver's license must prove they have authorization to be in the United States by showing some type of passport, birth certificate, visa, etc.  Many states already do this part.  The next will create a massive federal database of everyone person with a driver's license.  And these special licenses (you will need to visit the DMV soon to get one) will be required for entry into federal buildings or airports (in theory you will not need ID to get on the airplane, but will be subject to an "intense" screening; maybe in Guantanemo).  

How fucking far down this road do we have to go until Joe America realizes that this is complete fascism?  First it was the airplanes.  What if the next terrorist attack is at a shopping mall?  Does this means I will have to show my new Soviet-style internal passport everytime I go to Macy's?!

Does showing ID make anyone safe?  Who is to say that someone with a legitimate ID, who is authorized to be in America, who has lived here for 10 years, is not a member of a fanatical organization?  If someone is on a suicide mission, it does not matter to them if they identify themselves or not.  We are not dealing with DB Cooper here.

I sincerely hope that more states will join Maine and several others in refusing to implement this policy.  Supposedly citizens of those states will not be able to fly.  But if just 1 out of 50 states takes a look at the Fed and flips them the bird, this whole law could go away quickly.  Someone like Ron Paul could be elected president before it is all too late, but I'm scared we might be past that point.

Another good point is that nothing is tamper proof.  Maybe this ID will be as good as anything else the government makes and be full of so many holes that we can all change our name as easily as a visit to Bob's ID Chop Shop.  Who knows what the future holds?

We can still change the outcome.  Visit this site and see if there is something you can do to help.  It is run by the ACLU, one of the only groups that still is vocal about our privacy. http://www.realnightmare.org/

The Nazi's tattooed serial numbers on prisoner's forearms.  Uncle Sam let's you carry yours in your wallet.

Ron Paul on Racism

Ron Paul was on The Situation Room on CNN tonight at 5:35 to talk about the purportedly racist statements he made. Ron Paul appeared extremely angry at the hint that he is a racist. He made some of the following comments (Note: Some of these are not direct quotes):

I am not a racist. Rosa Parks and MLK are some of my heroes. Libertarians are incapable of being racist, because that is collectivist sentiment. Libertarians see people as individuals not as groups.

I probably get the most black votes out of republicans and this is being undermined.
I attack two wars that damage minorities the most: the war overseas and the war on drugs. The war on drugs is racist because blacks are more likely to go to jail for the same drug crime as whites.
This has been going on for 10 years. I had a moral responsibility to know what was going out under my name and I should have, but I am not a racist.
“And maybe this is part of the anti- Ron Paul view. I got excluded from the debates. Maybe this is the knock down Ron Paul because I am getting more votes from the blacks.”

At one point Wolf Blitzer attempted to interrupt Ron and Ron Paul angrily said:

“I gotta get my message back because you got the other message out.”

Wolf Blitzer: “This (racist statements) didn’t sound like the Ron Paul I’ve come to know.”

McCain Wins New Hampshire

John McCain, worst Republican in the race, a socially conservative, fiscally liberal authoritarian who lost his marbles in Viet Nam and never found them, has won the New Hampshire Primary, according to CNN.  I am convinced that there is no worse choice for a president than Mr. McCain, not even Hillary Clinton.

McCain has publicly stated that if we need to be in Iraq for the next 100 years to get the job done, he is all for it.  He also does not believe in free speech.  He is not the right man for this job.  I'd rather have 4 more years of George Bush than 1 second of John McCain.

Rigging an election

The New Republic published an article today entitled "Angry White Man: Ron Paul's Bigoted Past." In the article, the author discusses a newsletter published, but not written, by Ron Paul that he claims is extremely racist. Among his gripes:

1. Ron Paul believes that the War Between the States (AKA the "Civil War") should not have been thought.
This statement is not racist. Ron Paul simply believes, as I do, that states have the right to secede if they choose to do so and that Abraham Lincoln's mission was not to free the slaves, but to strengthen the federal government at the expense of the people.

2. Ron Paul is anti-semitic because he called Israel "socialist." Israel, like Europe, tends to be more socialist than the United States. This is a fact. Criticizing Israel is not anti-semitic. Furthermore, the author of this insidious article mentioned early in the article that this was published by an organization founded by a Jewish man named Murray Rothbard, who inspired a young Ron Paul.

3. Some of the articles talked about militias. This goes back to the issue of States' rights, and it is likely these militias that Ron was referring to. Ultimately, the people of the States' give power to the federal government, not the other way around.

It should also be noted that Ron Paul likely did not write any of these articles himself, just as Steve Forbes is not the author of everything in Forbes magazine. Ron Paul specifically states that he did not edit this article.

Most shameful of all, this was published on the morning of the New Hampshire Primaries, in which Ron Paul likely had at least 10% of the vote going into the primary. He now (as of 9:45pm Tuesday) has 8%.

I believe that the New Republic deliberately released this article on this day in order to damage Ron Paul in the state with more libertarian leaning independents than any other. Publishing this article is pure election manipulation. While not illegal, I question the ethics of this magazine.

The New Republic should be ashamed of itself.

Ron Paul's statement is available here.

No More Fox News

I used to watch Fox News often, mostly Bill O’Reilly and Hannity & Colmes. No more. Fox News recently snubbed Ron Paul by saying that he was polling too low to be in the debates. Their threshold? 10%, which is exactly what he got in Iowa and what he is currently polling at in New Hampshire. Shame on Fox News. Rudy “911” Giuliani only got 4% in Iowa, so why he is allowed to participate in the debate?!?!?!

What network or show do I recommend watching? MSNBC, specifically Tucker Carlson’s show. He is cut from the same cloth as Ron Paul and his network is probably the most neutral out there. Check him out sometime, he is the Bill O’Reilly of MSNBC and a Ron Paul supporter.

So is Jim Cramer on the sister network, CNBC:



Ron Paul hosted his own town hall meeting tonight, which gives him a lot more speaking time than in the debates. You can view it below (there are 2 parts to it):

Future Whitehouse Conflicts of Interest?

A law professor predicts that, if elected president, Hillary Clinton would nominate Bill Clinton for the Supreme Court.  A practice like this makes me think of Caligula appointing his horse to the senate.

It would definitely be a conflict of interest and nepotism.  

It is for reasons like this that I think spouses of presidents should be excluded from the Presidency.  A husband and wife can easily function as one unit and nobody knows what was Slick Willie's policy and what came from this wife.  Since we have term limits on this office, it should apply for the family unit.

From .blogspot to .com

For those of you who read this blog often, you will notice that I have just taken it from a .blogspot.com to a .com

I like to think of myself as always being on top of technology, but I have to admit that this is the first .com that is registered in my name.  I like the title of my blog, I think that it is catchy, makes sense.

It used to be very expensive to own a domain name, but I am only paying around $10 a year for this, which I think is worth it.  

One thing that this means is extra motivation for me to keep blogging, to keep putting my views on paper for the world to see.  I hope that everyone will support me by continuing to check-in from time to time.  If you have an RSS reader, you can always subscribe to my blog (email me if you need help with this).

Take care, and thanks for reading.

The Revolution in IA

Ron Paul beat Rudy Giuliani in the Iowa caucuses.  With 10% of the vote, Ron Paul was merely 4% away from 3rd place.  This great showing proves that Ron's message of freedom is a popular one.  Time will tell on how he does in New Hampshire. 

Some people commented that it is disappointing that Ron Paul finished in 5th place.  I think that with the narrow margins separating him from McCain and Thompson, this was a victory, especially considering that he beat the former front-runner (Giuliani).

Moving on to the bigger picture, it is shocking that Obama beat Hillary by 9%.  While Obama has never made this campaign about race, it says something when a mixed raced person can win in a state that is very white and conservative.

And Mitt Romney.  Talk about a disappointment. 

Fantasy Football 2007

Fantasy football 2007 is now over.  I had one main team that I followed throughout the season, most likely because I had money on it.

Though my roster varied throughout the season, here were the highlights:

QB's: Kitna, Warner, E. Manning, Schaub

RB's: Gore, Jones-Drew, Kolby Smith, Ryan Grant.

WR's: TO, Calvin Johnson, Chambers, Chris Henry

TE: Whitten

Overall my team did well, but was too inconsistent, so I lost some close games.  I ended up in 5th place, one spot out of the playoffs.  I beat both teams in the consolation round, and ended up in 5th place.

Total investment:

Buy-in: -$100

2 high scores for the week: $28 * 2 = +$56

Runner up: +$20

Total: -$24

So it cost me $24 to play football this year, plus the $10 I spent on stattracker (which I don't count because it works in all my leagues).  Overall it was a lot of fun and I will play again next year.

Bottom line: Play fantasy football, it's fun.

Nexuiz

I've been playing an interesting game lately.  Apparently it has been around for a long time (2-3 years) but I had never heard of it: Nexuiz.  It is a Quake-like game that is pure deathmatches played online vs. either some bots or other players.  It works for Windows, Mac and Linux.  It is definitely worth checking out; it is quite addictive and also easy to learn.

I think the strangest part of this game is that it is 100% free opensource software.  What this means is that you do not have to pay a penny for it and it is developed by people volunteering their time.

You can download it here: http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/index.php?module=downloads

Ron Paul Videos

These are all worth watching:

It's Official: Ron Paul is a contender

Last Sunday, Ron Paul raised over $6M in 24 hours, this is more than any candidate in history in that time frame. 

So what happens next?  People left and right are scared to death about a candidate who has a great amount of support from many different peoples.  So they attack him by showing that he accepted a $500 donation from a white supremacist.  Big fucking deal.  I gave Ron Paul $10 on Sunday, and could have easily given more than $500.  Should they have to do a background check on me before I can donate?  

Ron Paul makes a good point: he will not return the money, because then this guy would have another $500 to spend berating blacks, Jews, or whoever it is that he thinks is inferior.  Ron Paul, on the other hand, can use the money for good.  I agree with Ron and see no problem with him keeping the money.

So, problem over right?  Of course not, this is politics!  

Now another white supremacist (one that is not even much recognized by his fellow whackos) decides to make a statement that Ron Paul goes to dinner all the time at some Thai restaurant in Arlington to meet with white supremacists.  Has Ron been to the restaurant?  Probably.  Did he meet with these guys?  Maybe.  

Who cares?  Anyone that knows Ron Paul know that his policies have nothing to do with the supremacy of any race.  His campaign unites people of all backgrounds, racial and otherwise. 

And here's another point.  

HE DID NOT MEET WITH A WHITE SUPREMACIST GROUP.

He addressed the Robert A. Taft Club, which is a very conservative organization but hardly a racist group.  If you read deep down in these articles, they say that members of this group have "connections" to Neo-Nazis, without backing it up with any facts.

It's time to end these smear campaigns and support the only true American Patriot running for president: RON PAUL.

Back on a Mac

I received a new Mac a few days ago for my birthday (which is today, the 18th for anyone who forgot).

Its a Macbook laptop. Very nice. Hopefully I will never own a Windows box again. Everything about the Mac OS X is great, I'll post some more details later, but in summary the interface, applications, utilities, etc. are much more intuitive. Also, zero viruses exist for OS X. The hardware itself is great, it even has a built in camera.

The only problem was the Mac I first got had a battery issue. I took it to the Mac store at Tyson's and they replaced the entire laptop (since it was only a few days old). The new one works fine.  It's nice to be free of the chains of Microsoft.  I can still do just about anything that I could on my old Windows box and probably a lot easier.  I even bypassed the whole Word, Excel, etc with NeoOffice, a free office suite that serves my needs.

I owned a Mac for about 3 years in college, and sadly, I sold it when it got old and bought a Dell instead.  The Dell lasted, but as with all Windows machines it gets really, really slow overtime and all sorts of bizarre error messages start popping up.  

There are lots of cool features built in, like screen capture (see above), a great calendar, email client, automater, and of course the i's (tunes, photo, etc.).

The Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln was not our best president. In terms of job performance he did a very poor job. Keep in mind that the president's job is to uphold the constitution. In this regard, Lincoln did a very similar job to George W. Bush. He was faced with a new era, a situation outside of his control, and he was willing to throw away decades of individual freedom to do what he thought would save his country, even if it meant destroying half of the United States.

That being said, the Gettysburg Address was a great speech, one that I had to memorize in school, and there are a few lines that always manage to move me:

"The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here."

"...this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."