facebook, or any other site, isn’t responsible for raising your child
1 CommentI was having a great day today. Back from a birthday weekend in Vegas and ready to spend countless hours in front of my laptop. I hop on google reader and begin to catch up on tech news. Apple bricked the Iphone for customers who are smarter then Apple would like, youTube launched adsense (so I guess they make money now) and facebook might face consumer fraud charges. Huh? Consumer fraud. For what?
The Internet social networking site Facebook Inc. that promotes its safety for young teens from sexual predators and promises prompt responses to concerns has been warned by the New York attorney general that it may face a consumer fraud charge for failing to do either, a Cuomo official confirmed Sunday…..
But it’s now a much larger and growing social networking site and the safeguards and apparently the response times for complaints aren’t what they were a year ago, Lerner said. Cuomo is calling on the site to revise its claims.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–cuomo-facebook0930sep30,0,3857577.story
Wow. Revise their claims? Have these people been on My(Slut/Space) or any of other social networks? Facebook has great privacy policies that restrict people’s profiles to a point where you can’t even see a person’s picture. Which sucks sometimes cause you want to see if a chick is hot. She adds you as a friend and turns out to be a whale. However, that’s another topic all together. Maybe facebook should roll out a “pee in a cup to make friends” option or something.
Bad Parents
People need to stop expecting the internet to raise their children. Get your kid’s password and log on their account from time to time. Stop handing off the responsibility of raising your kid to other people. I bet these are the same people that send their kids to school and complain that they sweet little billy is ill mannered.
Come on Cuomo
I knew facebook was getting big but I didn’t know it got to the “If I can get my name in the same headline as facebook it will help my political career” status. Come on Cuomo…there are a lot better ways for the Attorney General of New York to get his name in the paper then riding the facebook wave. You tried to run for governor and had your ass handed to you, since then have made insane claims to get your name out there with some avail. You’re like a D-list celebrity that does stupid things to get into the tabloids. Just release a sex tape, it worked for other spoiled kids.
…Criticism was much more heated, however, in a series of lawsuits and investigations surrounding a Florida based S&L institution in which he was accused of illegal, hostile take-over maneuvers among other things. This problem tapered off after Attorney General Janet Reno declined to initiate a full investigation. A spectrum of excuses and accusations were offered to explain this situation.
In tandem with this last situation is the extremely sharp and heavily documented criticism coming from Catherine Fitts, former HUD Assistant Secretary and FHA Administrator under Jack Kemp and HUD independent contractor under Henry Cisneros and Andrew Cuomo. She, basically, accuses him of fraud and links his name to HUD vendors who also provided him with lucrative benefits of various types.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cuomo
UCLA Student Tasered
5 CommentsThe officers use of force was so wrong. In my opinion, these officers ABUSED this student without cause:
Posted in Life Stuff, Politics
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world peace
1 CommentSome see world peace is a myth, others perceive it as the solution for most (if not all) of the world’s problems. A few hold both opinions true and regard world peace as a myth to problems with no solutions. An even smaller group believe world peace are the words “world” and “peace” used respectfully after each other to assemble a phrase, or maybe sentence, that should only be used in books made for the dead, the guy who wrote Tuesday With Morrie or the authors of He Isn’t That Into You. Contrary to popular belief, world peace is possible and has even been accomplished on a different planet. Although the planet’s inhabitants have all been destroyed, a sad but amusing irony, notes concerning their world peace era have been found and decrypted. A translation is below. The translators notes will be in italics to aid the reader in understanding the translation.
The solution to world peace has been found like a black cat is found in a dark room. Completely by accident and, at first, fought back with a few kicks to the heads. It appears their cats had more then one head but, as far our research shows, still nine lives. This great achievement can not be credited to peace activist, world leaders, or any other gimbling for that matter. A gibling is what we could call a human. Before the great awakening the gibling rabk was in a horrible state. Rabk means race, but not like a race that you run but more a race of people. This is kind of consfusing, I see why the giblings went with rabk. Two key aspects led to the achievement of world peace; survival and hate. On the fourth moon of the 23 month a startling discorey was made by Canadian scientist. Is it more ironic that the giblings had a group of people called Canadians or that these Canadians did something important? The world stood still as the scientist described an alien species which was planning an attack on gblith. Gblith was what they called their planet. Gblings at first paniced but soon came together to fight a common enemey. That is all we needed. All the giblings needed a common enemy to direct their hate towards. Turns our the Jedi were wrong all this time, hate can be used for good. A enemy of my enemy is my friend. Yes, the jedi are real. Wars in the Right West soon stopped and a global g-unti miltary was made. Racist from green to purple came together by directing their hate to the alien aggressors. Borders were knocked down and poor countries were given aid to prepare for the oncoming attack. In the last few years the world has seen peace that most have never imagined. Giblings no longer kill each other over religion because most fear they might die soon and hence are religious. We stand together to fight a common enemy, quite similar to how our coutnry stood next to one of our old bitter enemy, the Hastins, during the Warm War. We are ready and will not be defeated. Not now, not at the pinnacle or our existence. Surely not to the alien creatures who are in the exact opposite state as we are.
An alien species that is riddled with class struggle. Where a small percentage of their population use the largest amount of resources. Where more people have been killed in the name of their Invisble Man then any other reason. They refer the Invisble Man as we refer to God. A species that lets fifteen million children die each year from hunger. We will not lose, we can not lose.
Below is a note found a year into the war
We are going to lose. I can’t believe this. Seriously, the pure irony of it makes me realize that the Invisble Man has a twisted sense of humor. Oh my Invisible Man. The Gibling rabk is finished and for what? It seems the aliens are here for our black water. I curse our oceans but more these horrid aliens. A heartless people who destoryed our world, all the giblings, for nothing more then a resource. We do not know the exact location of their home planet but do know it is somewhere between mars and venus in in a distant galaxy. Oh Invisble Man help us.
May Day, A Day Without Immigrants…
4 CommentsYesterday, May first, was a very important day in America, more specifically, Southern California. The immigrants, both legal and illegal took a stand for what they believe. They stood in large numbers and they stood proud. I, for one, was touched by this wonderful day. This is a part of what makes America so great. It was momentous to see people risk losing their jobs, losing a day of income, or even a nationwide backlash just to make their voices heard and stand up for their beliefs. For this, they succeeded admirably. I feared the worst when I found out that all the Mexicans (I am generalizing here, Im sure a few were too lazy to attend the protests) are going to either stay at home and not buy anything or go attend a rally or protest. Would I really have to go an entire day without fresh picked strawberries? Would it be hard to get a good burrito for lunch? Let alone a decent fish taco. Would my lawn be mowed and edged? Who will bus my table at the restaurant? Surely not the waitress that is working hard to put herself through college.
The results of yesterday taught me an important lesson. Not only was my day not effected negatively at all, there was no traffic on the freeway!! For as long as I have been able to drive (7 ½ years) I was under the assumption that traffic was caused by Asians (I dont think I need to elaborate here). But no! Mexicans cause all the traffic. I made it from Rancho Cucamonga to Fullerton in 28 minutes at 4:30 PM!! A new personal record. Not only was the traffic problem alleviated, not to mention the pollution caused by all the usual traffic, but there was no line at the restaurant to eat lunch. Even the weather cooperated. Yesterday was a wonderful day. This is a tale in which both sides won. The Mexicans got to voice their beliefs and make their statement; and I got to enjoy the illusion of a day with no immigrants.
In response to this glorious event, and to express my solidarity with the Mexicans, I propose that the first of every month… no, every Monday of every week be A Day Without Immigrants! I guess Ill have to change my lawn service day from Monday to one of the other 6 days in a week.
Posted in Politics
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Tank Man Tribute
No CommentsThe ads for the Frontline episode on the Tank Man were a bit misleading. The show never revealed the Tank Man’s identity. Oh well. We may never know, and we may not need to know, yet we already know who he was– the spirit of every student, mother and father of those demonstrations. This is for them:
Posted in Politics
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He is the Tank Man…
No CommentsI had high hopes for China for a few brief days in 1989. The Berlin wall had just collapsed and it looked like the PRC was about to go the same way. But the central government decided to send in troops to crack down on the protests. And from that, the world saw an incredible act of defiance (he stood there for half and hour), which summed every demonstrator’s hope for a reformed China. Who was he? I don’t know, but maybe I’ll find out after watching Frontline:
On June 5, 1989, one day after Chinese troops expelled thousands of demonstrators from Tiananmen Square in Beijing, a solitary, unarmed protester stood his ground before a column of tanks advancing down the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured by Western photographers watching nearby, this extraordinary confrontation became an icon of the fight for freedom around the world. On April 11, veteran filmmaker Antony Thomas investigates the mystery of the tank man — his identity, his fate, and his significance for the Chinese leadership.
Posted in Politics
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Video Games are Turning the Nation’s Young People into…Voters?
1 CommentOf course, when speaking of Political matters, “Young People” can range anywhere from 18 to 40, but that doesn’t mean that the lawmakers are out of touch…does it?
The Entertainment Software Association, has created the Video Game Voters Network. The point of the V.G.V.N. is, of course to inspire legislators to think twice before backing legislation that has-at least so far-been unfailingly stricken down as unconstitutional. The plan is that the threat of gamers that are mobilized, motivated, and prepared to vote in defense of their past-time will convince legislators that the easy “Family Values” votes they get for being Anti-Gamers Rights, might not seem so easy when they realize that Gamers Rights might actually be some of the values of the modern family.
In my opinion it is a beautiful dream. That’s whay I’m linking, to do my part. If you enjoy video games…or your first amendment rights it might be worth heading over and signing up.
Sorry for getting up on that Soap Box like that but sometimes the only way to keep from being stepped on, is to stand up.
Did you know that the Government does not regulate access to or the sale of movies, books or cable TV?
Neither did I. Apparently those systems are totally voluntary too…must be due to that pesky Constitution.
Posted in Life Stuff, Politics, Video Games
1 Comment
Iraqi kids getting beat
3 CommentsJust watch it. Comment and I’ll respond. What is wrong with people, how could you do this to children. The link below is the now famous video of UK soldiers beating up Iraqi kids. It is not like a kid catching a smack or something. A group of soldiers drag two kids behind a wall and beat them while the kids scream out for help. The bastard that is taping is laughing and making fun of the kids for screaming out. There is no blood but be warned the video is not easy to watch. But sometimes, you just have to see something to believe it. I found the video of youTube.com i searched “iraq brutal”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR0hconZnN8&search=iraq%20brutal
Posted in Politics
3 Comments
Politics and Science Followup
No CommentsGeorge C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters’ access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word “theory” at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.
Good riddance, but it’s only a small victory against those Intelligent Design propagandists; and it won’t be a lasting one unless NASA can get its review policy straightened out.
PS- The NY Times article also confirms this appointee’s lack of a degree in case you didn’t think that my prior post’s source was good enough.
Mr. Deutsch’s resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.
Posted in Politics, Science
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War on Science?
3 CommentsI dislike how Creationists are going about attacking Science. They’re spreading propaganda about how the Big Bang is “an unproven theory”– totally misleading. Yes there are unproven aspects of the theory, but there is a lot of evidence that proves the idea of an ever-expanding Universe that once was a small hot ball of gas; what is unproven is what exactly happened in those very early moments while it was a hot ball of gas. Those Creationists are just confusing the issue with propagandist rhetoric.
These Creationists are attacking the Big Bang idea because it gets in their way of their Intelligent Design. They are even portraying Intelligent Design as Science; it is not.
Repeat after me, “Intelligent Design is not science because you cannot apply the Scientific Method [1] [2] to this idea.”
And related to that, you’ve got a very conservative administration whose lackeys are censoring NASA scientific papers; the censoring PR administrator didn’t even graduate with his claimed journalism degree.
Why are we allowing scientifically-untrained persons, whose political agenda may go directly against pure science, take jobs for which they are completely unqualified?
Posted in Politics, Science
3 Comments