Category: looky

something cool I found on the internets

California Canary

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According to this article ( a summary of the report from the Tax Foundation), the same states that voted for Bush in 2000 were the same ones that receive the most Federal aid.

Tell me Bush doesn’t practice partisan politics! Look at the change from 1992 to 2002!

Oh, there were a few anomalies: for example, people in Alaska, why would you vote for Bush? He completely screwed you guys!

It makes me wonder: is this why swing voters or Bush supporters don’t see a giant crisis in America? Because they’ve been getting better services as a reward for looking the other way while Bush and his friends literally destroy the country? Of course they are against government spending! They don’t need more money- they are getting all of ours.

So wouldn’t this be an argument to vote for Bush’s reelection? No way. We are just the canary in the mineshaft, ladies and gentlemen. Once the budget starts running out of our money, you red states are next. And you’ll see what we’ve been missing. It’s happening already.

Example: Fire departments. The fire department in Richmond is completely gutted. The Berkeley Fire Department has had cuts also. Those are the first two cities I checked, there are probably more just in my neighborhood!

If this pattern is left to run unchecked, the United States will become a cross between ancient Rome and modern India. A place that was once great, with crumbling evidence everywhere of monuments and utlities which once worked. But 95% of the population will be uneducated and permanently poor. More of what you can look forward to:

  • No retirement plans
  • No social security
  • No public schools

  • Open sewers
  • Nonpotable tap water, if you happen to live in a place with running water
  • Privatized fire departments run by insurance companies, who will only prevent your house from burning for a hefty fee.

  • Kerosine generators and coal furnaces running in the basement to provide the power for your house

  • Roads so messed up you have to drive a SUV or pickup to get to the store or to visit a friend. Either that or you’ll be walking- public transportation won’t exist.

Why should you care? That will just be for poor people right? Wrong. Are you in the top 5% of the population? There is an easy way to figure this out- Last year, the top five percent of taxpayers made more than $189,835, and the top one percent more than $462,053.

Is that you? No? Then forget it. Your tax cut was a wad of table scraps to make you shut up. You will not be above the widening gap. You’re one of us, and until you wake up, you are just a burden to those of us trying to solve the problem.

More reading:

DOOM!

R Robot

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A robot which blogs neo-con rhetoric.

Pretty funny… but how do we know Rush Limbaugh’s shows aren’t written the same way? Maybe his producers should save some money and just hire R Robot.

R. Robot — who has passed an unofficial Turing Test a couple of times — is a rhetoric simulator. He shuffles grammatical chunks into into thousands of loathesome new templates. He’s a Perl CGI script, hooked up to a Movable Type engine for good measure — making him the first blogger who is also a computer program (to the best of our knowledge.)

…

His adjectives and nouns are taken from a Newt Gingrich memo called “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.” It recommends using words like “candid,” “pristine,” and “reform” for your team’s ideas, and imagery like “machine,” “abuse of power,” and “decay” for the other guy’s.

Web link of note: R Robot
(At http://www.rrobot.com/weblog/)

God vs Bush pt 2

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Remember the path of the hurricane?

Here’s another marker in God’s war on Bush: The religious tract!

For the record, it’s not a real Chick tract, and it never claims to be. It’s by someone named Bryce Sames (?!).

The cool thing about it is the “booklet version” which lets you make your own little booklet, with a copy machine, scissors, and a stapler. I’m making mine tonight. I guess I could just print it out double-sided and get the same result!

The Devil Makes Three

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Mixing styles from the ragtime and country music of the twenties and thirties to the rock and roll and punk music of their adolescence, The Devil Makes Three pushes the boundaries of acoustic music. Citing influences as varied as Steve Earle, the Reverend Gary Davis, Memphis Jug Band, and Django Reinhardt, the band combines tight vocal harmonies with idiot-savant finger style guitar to create an exciting and original sound.

Web link of note: The Devil Makes Three
(At http://www.monkeywrenchproductions.com/)

Don’t Be A Sucka: Flip Flopping

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Would you call someone who quit smoking a flip-flopper? You would? You must be a real asshole.

For the rest of us, no. Someone who quits smoking has come to their senses. They realized they were doing something stupid, and then they stopped doing it.

Being pig-headed is not a virtue. If you, hypothetically, lied to the entire world about something and caused the destruction of several countries and the deaths of insane numbers of people, and frittered away trillions of dollars on your rich friends, “staying the course” does not make you a good person. Hypothetically. Refusing to see when you have made a mistake in the face of insurmountable evidence is a little immature.

And for the people who make excuses for this kind of irresponsible person? Who think that someone coming to their senses or actually thinking about new evidence is “flip flopping?”

Don’t be a sucka.

You Forgot Poland

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Politics Makes You Stupid

This is like All Your Base… it’s a giant page of photoshopped photos incorporating the phrase “You forgot Poland.”

In case you didn’t watch the President’s disastrous performance in the first debate, what happened was Senator Kerry was describing the paltry support other nations have contributed to the Iraq War- mainly because America has systematically alienated the rest of the world, and the case for a war in Iraq is, was, and always will be extremely weak.

But rather than address the reasons for this, or how we have lost over a thousand Americans and killed wave after wave of innocent people (at last count over 10,000 people), all Bush could say was “you forgot Poland.”

The invasion force of the “49 nations” included America, Britain, Australia, and, yes, Poland. Let’s look at the breakdown:

  • United States: ~250,000 troops

  • United Kingdom: ~45,000 troops

  • Australia: ~2,000 troops

  • Poland: 184 troops

Does this look like a “coalition” to you? I count 4 nations. Look at the numbers of troops.

Web link of note: You Forgot Poland
(At http://www.youforgotpoland.com/)

Dude, Where’s My Job?

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Yesterday was a busy day for me. I got back on my schedule at the gym, and got in at a reasonable time. ShaC was doing something important and I got really absorbed in something I was working on, so I ended up going to “lunch” around 3 pm.

One hour and a giant Jamba Juice later, I wandered back to the office. Everyone in engineering was clustered around one cube. I started working anyway.

After about five minutes, they were still talking. I walked over and asked what was up. “Layoffs,” they said. Joshua had been laid off, along with several people in the next row. Uh oh!

One of the senior engineers told me there was one more envelope, and I should check it wasn’t mine. One the way to the section of the building where management has their offices, I saw ShaC – he didn’t know if I was on the list, but he sure was, and so was Catherine, his teammate. He was cleaning out his cube.

My manager, who had taken over our group when our previous manager left, had seemingly left for the day. For ten minutes I didn’t know for sure if I had a job or not.

I finally found the CIO/CFO. Yep, my job had evaporated, along with over half of Engineering. We went over the various papers.

So uh… there it is. The economy is recovering! That is why all the jobs are still hemorrhaging from America! Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.