The Pete's blog

RT @jeffpulver: RT @davidscohen If they need you and don't know it then make more noise. If they don't need you then make more value.

More Amazing Rice Field Art In Japan (includes progress shots) (http://ping.fm/E2WBn)

I'm a big believer in the power of myth. My only gripe is when people don't admit that what they believe in is a myth in the first place. See, I don't think aa story has to be true in order to learn valuable life lessons from it. So, I can be an Atheist and learn from Jesus, or not believe in the Federal Reserve and still earn and spend money. The thing is, I understand and admit that both are myths--fictions that don't represent anything provable.

Now, the only reason I bring this up is because the other day, an Internet acquaintance of mine and I were talking about political party differences between my country and his (he's in Germany) and naturally taxation came up (check the comments to see the convo). He referenced that little chestnut of historical Americana, "Taxation Without Representation" via the Boston Tea Party, and suggested it was our "founding myth."

I did take issue with this, but only the part where he suggested that it was our "founding myth."

Oh, I agree it's a myth in that the "Boston Tea Partiers" were likely Freemasons who probably worked it out with the British East India Company (run by Freemasons) to let them throw British East India tea into the harbor, thus making it a kind of "false-flag operation," and thus, a myth--but the idea that our country was founded on this myth? Nah, that's not accurate to me at all. So, here's how I replied (emphasis added for effect):

My country's founding myth is that all men are created equal and that we have "inalienable rights" like the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Firstly, when our "founding fathers" said "all men" they clearly meant "all land-owning white males" since, according to the rules they, themselves, wrote, only men who owned land would be allowed to vote.

Secondly, all men (and women) are not "created equal," they are "created equally." Which makes that not just a myth, but a grammatically incorrect myth. In fact, saying we are all created "equally" is a more accurate statement than saying we are all created "equal" since that suggests "equal" is a state of relative identicalness. Saying we were created "equally," says we were all created in the same way--via a sperm penetrating an egg.

But saying "we're created equally" allows for things to go south once a human is conceived. You get your random-ass genetic combinations, you get your genetic mutations and you get your recessive genes kicking in (or not). We're all created the same way, but then random chaos muscles in and who knows how we're actually born? From there it all depends on your parents, where they raise you and how rich you are.

Third, we don't have universal health care here, so "life" is not guaranteed.

Fourth, if we're suspected of terrorism we can be detained and held indefinitely if the government decides to. So there goes the "liberty" part.

Finally, in order to afford a home, food, electricity, the Internet and so on, we need to have a job that consumes 8-10 hours of our lives (including commute time) every day. Adding that to 8 hours sleep and an hour for each meal and that leaves 3-5 hours per day for that "pursuit of happiness" stuff. Of course, add in chores, dealing with family, replying to emails running errands AND trying to keep up with the news, and the pursuit of happiness gets relegated to your next vacation, which is usually just 7 days long.

Sorry--you said something about a tea party? Yeah, those guys are arguing over a myth, too.

Oh wait, you probably meant the Boston Tea Party. We've now got these right-wing morons who think America is under attack by liberals. They've been holding "tea parties" (aka protests) to voice their anger about government run health care. See, THEY believe the myth that government-run health care will put private health care out of business and that the government will decide who lives and who dies and that it'll make us all Nazis (since Nazis were socialists)...

I'm sorry, I think I lost track of your point...

And then there's the myth that terrorism is a real threat to us, when statistically, we have a WAY bigger chance of dying from cancer than we do from terrorism.

I'm sorry, I should stop typing now...

Indeed, I should.

So. Jealous. :) RT @grantimahara http://twitpic.com/j38xq Best. Experiment. Day. Ever. Just add ponies and ice cream. #fromset #Mythbusters

INDEED! RT @SteveIsaacs: Hey Universe- please stop making "Saw" movies. Thanks, Steve.

thepete.com: Hi no tori 2772: Ai no kosumozon (1980): http://ping.fm/4WB9W

FYI: This movie's Japanese title is shown above. It was released on VHS in the US back in the 1990s with the title Phoenix 2772.

Try to find this movie.

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Yeesh... I haaate to say this about an Osamu Tezuka film but, for me, it was not a positive experience. I LOVE Tezuka's stuff, normally.


Technically any good? The animation is definitely stunning by 1980-standards. Obviously, it's looks dated by today's standards. But that's not even what bothers me about this movie. The plot is incredibly thin and the goals are achieved with amazing ease. What's worse is that there are big, long sequences of "humor" where "cartoon" characters dance around and act silly doing nothing to move the plot forward. These scenes seemed inserted to please international audiences since, at the time, most folks outside of Japan would have trouble wrapping their heads around an adult storyline told in animation, so we see what I can only describe as a Jar-Jar Binks prototype and some of his friends who are equally annoying.


How did it leave me feeling? Disappointed and longing for Tetsuwan Atomu (aka Astroboy) or Black Jack, two of Tezuka's other creations.

Read a longer review of Hi no tori 2772: ai no kosumozon that I wrote for Otaku-Complex.com here.

Sadly, for fans of this movie, it's hard to find anywhere and hasn't been released on DVD in the US. If you find a US distributor, please let me know. It's Tezuka, so I want people to have access to it.

:) RT @MSampo: Spam subject line of the day: "Dumbass, look here." Oh, well, sure I could...HEY!

RT @NewYorkology: Considering uptick in terror alerty-ness, pls keep in mind Twitter can amplify false rumors fast. Good to clarify [...]

OK, now after bitching about Obama calling for Americans to take responsibility for their health care by paying for insurance, I'd like to suggest my solution:

Learn from history.

You remember history, right? It's that thing that happened before now.

It's got all sorts of lessons for us to learn about what to do and what not to do--especially when you look at other countries!

See, in every other "civilized" nation in the world, health care is a right, not something you pay for. After all, what would "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" be without "life"?

So, I say you keep private insurers where they are for the folks that don't trust government-run health care, but start up a UK-style NHS for those of us who don't trust private health care or the insurance companies.

Who will pay for it? Well, ideally, us--in that we'll still be alive thanks to it--but also our kids who will also benefit from it. If we're REALLY smart, we'll even take the money we normally spend on our military bases around the world and spend it on health care.

After all, if we keep going with the current system, tens of thousands will continue to die every year, not thanks to terrorist bombings (terrorists aren't that good at killing), but thanks to a lack of affordable health care.

So, yes, I'm suggesting not only that we learn from history (GASP!) but also that we learn from OTHER COUNTRIES. (HEAVENS!)

Oh and we should also check the stupid labels at the door, too.

All this crap about "socialism" isn't going to help anyone on either side of the political wall. Hitler wasn't a bad guy because he wanted his citizens to have universal health care (did he?) he was a bad guy because he slaughter loads of people after he invaded a bunch of countries without a good reason.

Not that we would EVER do that!

COUGHnativeamericansCOUGH
COUGHiraqandafghanistanCOUGH

But I digress.

The point is, ditch the labels, learn from history and other countries who have done this successfully before.

Nothing will be perfect so grow the hell up.

All I know is that I'd like to go to the dentist for the first time in ten years. The two times I've been to the doctors in the same amount of time was when I went to the LA Free Clinic.

Everyone knows that I'm not some lazy bastard either, it's obvious I'm not freeloading on the system or whatever. I work my ass off all the time, I just don't make a lot (or any) money for it. I like to think that my good health and, in fact, my life is worth a bit of your money, just as much as I already feel the same about your health and life.

But until you start clicking that Paypal donate link (and not even for a while after that), or hire me, I can't afford Mr. President's plan.

So, what the hell are people like me supposed to do?

thepete.com: TheDailyLego: LegoRecognizer! (from Tron @tomzer1's request!): http://ping.fm/3wDif

Last month it came out that Blackwater (or whatever the heck they're calling themselves these days), has massive ties with the CIA.

Seems like when the CIA wanted folks killed, they just outsourced it to the private sector.

This is how it starts folks--private contractors come in and do your empire building for you and the next thing you know, some dude with an Indian accent is asking what foreign leader you want to axed next.

OK, so it probably won't happen exactly like that, but the Blackwater story will continue to flow downstream just like it has been for years now. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill has been going after them for many trips around the sun and even wrote a book about them. And here comes the Christian Science Monitor and CNN (see: the screencaps in this post, sources: here and here), both mainstream news sources that reported on not just Blackwater but Blackwater getting hired to kill folks for the CIA. This isn't the first time the guys from DarkH2O have been in the MSM, either. They've gotten press for "possible" massacres, random killings and maybe you remember those "contractors" who got pulled from their SUV outside Fallujah, killed, set on fire and hung from a bridge? Yeah, those dudes were Blackwaterians.

Gee, what would have made Fallujans mad enough be that horrible to a couple of guys in an SUV?

Regardless, nothing they've done stops Blackwater from existing and I believe they're still doing things for the USG, too. If memory serves there were even Blackwater guys on the ground in New Orleans after Katrina.

How can any of this be legal? It's like the Federal Reserve only with guns. How do you expect your senators and/or House reps to control what this armed corporation does in our names? It's not like you or I can just vote Eric Prince, CEO of Blackwater, out of office anymore than we can vote out Ben Bernanke as the guy running the Fed.

More and more keeps coming up about Blackwater (really scary stuff, too) and yet no one seems to do anything about it.

Neat.

Want to learn more about Blackwater? Read Scahill's book or at the very least visit his website: RebelReports.com. He's also on Twitter.

OH and in case you're curious, Blackwater changed it's name to Xe Services...

...and then changed it again to US Training Center. At least, you end up at the US Training Center website when you aim your browser at: BlackwaterUSA.com.

Yeah, they're having some issues with their image lately. Can't imagine why...

Buy it from Amazon!

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Definitely entertaining and, more importantly, educational. I do take issue with a few things this documentary fails to present, however.


Technically any good? It does a great job of telling the story of oil. This was all stuff I'd never heard before and the way the film presents this history (and it's eventual irony) is incredibly powerful and dramatic.

However, the film concludes that there is little hope for us. It takes on a very pessimistic attitude and quotes no one who points out that there actually is hope. I don't need touchy-feely "get involved! call your congressman!" kind of stuff, but showing one guy saying "ethanol's a dead-end" and not presenting anyone who might disagree doesn't make for an accurate documentary of the problem facing us.

I actually agree that ethanol is not going to "replace" oil (no single alternative will), but I know for a fact that there are people who are big proponents of the stuff that did not make an appearance in this film.


How did it leave me feeling? Disappointed since it does such a great job of looking back and such a rotten job of looking forward. We'll find a way out of this messy black stuff (we have to) but, based on this film, you'd think humanity hasn't solved big problems before.


Final Rating? GSN - Go See Now. Despite the downer message of A Crude Awakening, I think it's got some amazing facts in it that make it a must see.

Yep! Still going!

So, in part 1 the issue was Obama actually explaining to ABC News that car and health insurance are comparable.

In part 2, I focused on the lack of responsibility taken by the USG to keep practical poisons away from us.

Last time, in part 3, it was all about spending buckets on alleged military threats instead of providing universal health care for free.

This time I'd like to delve into the nitty-gritty of how Obama's plan would even function. OK, so the understanding I have is that "most" Americans would be forced to have health insurance. Those that couldn't afford it would get a tax credit.

Not very useful for people who are out of work and therefore aren't paying any taxes.

See, ya can't get a tax credit if you're not making enough money to pay taxes.

AND, if you're not making enough money to pay taxes, odds are, you're not going to be able to afford health insurance either, so guess what!

If you can afford it the least, you get no help.

New boss same as the old boss.

"No Child Left Behind" ended up with a lot of child's behinds left.

Now Obama-brand "change" seems to be promising to be about as effective, with Obamacare equating to "Obamacares about corporations more than it does people."

Rt now in NYC at midnight, w/less than a week to go in Sept, it's 75 degrees. I've only been here for 17 mo, but I don't think that's normal

Back on September 15, I got the latest edition of the privacy newsletter from EPIC.org in my inbox. In it, they talked about a BUNCH of things, including a new-ish policy on searching personal electronics. You can probably see the screencap of the news update from their website in this post, but just in case, here it is in text form:

Homeland Security Privacy Office Okays Suspicionless Seizure of Personal Information Stored on Digital Devices of US Citizens: The Department of Homeland Security released a Privacy Impact Assessment for searching electronic devices possessed by travelers, including US citizens, at US borders. The agency determined that laptops and cell phones are equivalent to briefcases and backpacks and granted itself broad authority to seize these devices from travelers and to copy stored data whether or not wrongdoing is suspected. The DHS policy fails to comply with the intent of the federal Privacy Act and leaves US citizens returning to the United States subject to surveillance by government and an enhanced risk of identity theft.

This is just LOVELY.

It's one thing to assume we might have something that could actually harm the specific flight we're about to board without any reason for suspicion and have our bags searched, but to assume we might have illegal data that would somehow be used to harm the plane or other passengers?

This is big brother big time.

Damn, and I'm flying to my dad's in California for Christmas this year. Great. Gotta remember to delete all my child porn.

JOKE.

IT'S A JOKE.

Ironically, this whole move will just encourage sales of netbooks and the use of TheCloud for file storage. Why carry your data around on you and risk having some DHS guy come across it and steal your business idea or otherwise peak into your private life?

I know we literally don't have a "right to privacy" in the Constitution, or anything, but I do believe there's an amendment that promises something about not being subject to "unlawful search and seizure."

Then again, I guess this is technically legal, huh?