The Scent of (Short) Roses

Haven't posted in a while, yes I know... As I was just informing my "friends" over at Profind, there is something called "real life" that too many people online seem to forget about...

If you're one of those people, put down your laptop or get away from your computer desk and go out.

Even if you go out alone, just go out...

Go to the bar...

Go to the movies...

Go shopping...

But now and then get up and get away from the computer and the internet... There is a whole world of fun, social interaction and adventure out there... Don't get so lost in endless arguing over religion and how wrong other people's viewpoints on this, that and the other thing are... It's called "real life." Look into it!

Now, some complaining...

So I picked up my copy of Knight Rider, Season 3 on DVD on Sunday... This is in addition to Seasons 1 and 2 which I already had...

It was bad enough that my Season 1 package included two copies of the second disc, thereby shorting me the first four episodes of the series...

Now, upon viewing some of my favorite episodes of Season 3, namely: K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R., Dead of Knight, Halloween Knight and Knight in Disgrace, and so on, I find that even the popular 80s tunes that were covers in the original series run have now been replaced by NEW covers! As I remember, and I could be wrong, Laura Branigan and Billy Idol both allowed their hits, Self Control and Rebel Yell respectively to be used in the series, and many other hits of the time were also included such as a cover of Bananarama's Cruel Summer. Now even the original cover of Cruel Summer has been replaced by a new cover! And the covers of Self Control and Rebel Yell are so incredibly obvious!

Now, just that the original songs (or original covers) have been replaced is not so much the big issue to me...

Sure, I would have loved to hear Laura and Billy singing the songs that got me hooked on them the first time I saw K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R. or Dead of Knight, but I can live with the songs being covers...

What I don't like is paying $40.00 a pop for Universal to also edit out about 25% of the sound effects on the DVD remasters while their HDTV channel shows all the original episodes with all the original sound effects and musical score in tact in HD for fucking free!

If you're going to disrespect your audience so much, then drop the price of a season of a popular series in half... It is not worth it to pay for remasters that are so flawed...

Now I've heard through knightrideronline.com that Universal will be offering replacement discs for this Season...

Good thing for KR fans...

But how many great Universal productions are and will soon be available on DVD that have similar imperfections?

We pay a lot of money to see our favorite series on DVD...

We deserve better than to have imperfect copies sold to us...

You can't always get what you want; but sometimes you get told to "fuck off" as well...

I spent an hour on the phone today, majorly bitching out my celluar provider...

I won't name names, but let's just say they cause more trouble than they ever solve, and they like to pass the responsibility of paying for their blunders onto their customers... (Now some of you are thinking, Firehawk, why not just find a new carrier? Answer: they're service is fantastic, and they give us certain options that no other provider does... And, by and large, their services are second to none)

And if that isn't a big enough "klew" for those in "the know," they recently merged with another slightly more problematic provider for big $$$...

If you don't know yet, then I'm not telling... I'm an asshole like that... =)

But for hilarity's sake I have dubbed them the, "Pennsylvania Annoyance Bureau."

Anyway, back to the story...

I had a mobile AOL Instant Messenger service on my phone... Over the weekend it was active but I switched it off to take a series of messages on the computer... When I was finished I tried to sign back on- to no avail...

Thus insued nearly 36 hours of fighting with my cell phone, hoping that the demons of stupidity would exorcise themselves from my mobile device...

My hopes were dashed by said demons...

So, first thing this morning I call up my cellular service provider and kindly (at first) explain the situation... After going through some motions with the CSR (who was extremely kind and understanding) she determined that I was not entitled to have the service at all becauseI had no Wireless Internet package on my cell plan...

So I've been using mobile IM for the past two years without paying for it... I should be happy, right?

Actually, no...

I recently changed my plan with my CSP in an effort to save a few bux per month on services I wasn't using... When I did this I asked, specifically, if the change in service plan would affect my text messaging and mobile IM services as those were two that I wasn't looking to get rid of...

Of course, they told me changing plans would not remove those services...

Of course, the CSR I talked to this morning told me that the exact opposite was true...

In the end, I ended up having another $10.00/month service added to my cellular phone bill... Now, you're probably thinking that an extra 10 bux per month is no big deal- and you would be right... However, this particular CSP's "extra" costs and taxes amount to, approximately 12 dollars per month... That is added to a bill that is, before taxes and "extra" fees approximately 55 dollars... That means those "extra" fees and taxes (taxes which will now rise because of the new service) are 18% of the total cost of the bill...

Does anyone else find that to be just a tad excessive?

You may, or you may not...

But I'm sure you're wondering why all of this is blogworthy...

Glad you asked...

Several months ago I switched from cable to satelite TV service. Which, before I say anything else, has been fantastic... Contrary to certain cable TV providers (whose names happen to sound pretty funny when you change the first vowel and subsequently give their company name a sexual connotation) you do not lose reception with STV when it rains, snows, when the wind blows or when your dog sneezes... And while it's not quite HDTV, STV reception is hella-good... FAR superior to anything I ever got with cable... But now to the point:

When I made this switch I signed up for this service through my local phone company... I also switched from the cable provider's high-speed Internet service to the phone company's DSL service. (Also, to combat false advertising by cumca-- sorry, the friendly neighborhood cable company there is virtually no noticeable difference (if any) between a $30.00 DSL package and a nearly $50.00 HSI package in download speeds.)

As a part of my having these multiple services through the local phone company I was told I would get a discount on the satelite TV portion of the bill... While this discount only amounted to a few dollars off per month, it was still something that was promised in return for my business...

So, last month I notice that my monthly discount is absent from the bill...

I call up my phone company, sure that James Earl Jones would never lend his voice to a company of theives (hint hint), and explain the situation...

During the initial call I was told that a supervisor would have to return my call as there were none available and the CSR did not have the authority to take action on my behalf in this situation...

Funny how many situations arise that the CSR can't actually help you with...

So I patiently waited over a week for a return phonecall...

Had I not taken action, I would still be waiting...

Again I called up that phone company who's name rhymes with "horizon" and explained the situation... Luckily a supervisor was available that time around...

As in my situation with my cell provider, I was getting a discount (at least for the first two months) that I was "not entitled to." Oh, the discount existed... But one needed to have a certain level of service that I did not have...

And before you ask, no, I was not told about this when I signed up...

Although I did ask.

Yes, when I was told that I would get a discount of so much off of each monthly bill I asked if that was for the life of my plan and would the conditions change and eliminate it I was told no. And I was never told that I needed a certain level of service to get the discount- I was told that I qualified for it simply for having service through Darth Vader's phone company...

Not so, according to my friendly supervisor...

Endlessly repeating this to her did little good to earn me the discount again...

Now the point, after 20 or so paragraphs...

Why do we as consumers let companies who provide services like these lie to and manipulate us?

Are we not entitled to have the services we are promised under the conditions we are promised them?

I can't be the only person alive who thinks that when you tell a potential customer, "sign up for my service and we'll do this for you for the life of your contract," that you should follow through on that, and that silly conditions that you aren't told about up front should earn you those discounts or additional services even if, according to the person you talk to later, you aren't entitled to them?

When I sign up for something based on certain conditions I expect them to be met... I don't expect them to change a few months later and be told that I am shit out of luck...

And I think most of you agree with me...

Of course your welcome to try and out-asshole me and play devil's advocate...

Hope you enjoyed my boring rant... Or else, I hope you're thoroughly annoyed that you spent 5-10 minutes reading it... Have a nice day, fucks...

Pearls and Swine

In a nutshell: Most people are sheep.

It's true- and you know it.

Most people will follow any leader or obey any master so long as they like what they're being fed.

And sometimes the most unlikely people will take advantage of this fact...

Quote of the moment: "Let me get this straight... The Indian casino owners where using what is probably the whitest man in America after Bryant Gumbel to hoodwink other very white AND moral superior fundies AND IT WORKED????" -Omacar



Pensito Review: Politics and Media

Ralph Reed: The Rhinestone Choirboy
Posted December 27th, 2005 at 12:56 pm by Jon

Did he fleece his flock? In the 1990’s, as the head of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed became the face of Christian conservativism. And what a face: Scrubbed and clean - innocent-looking as a choirboy. He had the unctuous, soothing demeanor of a televangelist but even when he spoke about God, his message was always politics.

“I used to tell people he was going to be either President of the United States or Al Capone. “
- Ralph Reed’s Mother

Since leaving the Christian Coalition in 1997, Ralph Reed has concentrated on politics, serving as chair of the GOP in Georgia and overseeing the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign in the South.

In the late 1990’s, Reed’s fortunes changed. He created Century Strategies, a political consulting and lobbying firm that offers its clients - politicians, corporations and others - access to fundraising and opinion-leading among to Christian organizations.

Recently, however, investigators into the Indian gaming scandals have uncovered evidence that Reed may have abused the trust of Christian groups by surreptitiously using their political clout to line his own pockets with millions of dollars.

The accusations come as Reed’s campaign for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 2006 appears to be faltering. He has been ahead in fundraising but was recently behind even the Democratic candidate in the polls. The lieutenant-governorship was to have been his springboard to the presidency in 2012.

What could torpedo Reed’s chances for good is the allegation that disgraced GOP uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff secretly paid Reed to hoodwink the Christians using money from Indian tribes. And now Reed’s political fate, and maybe even his personal freedom, are shackled to the man at the bullseye of what could very well be the biggest political scandal of the decade.

Interestingly, Reed, Abramoff and rightwing anti-government activist Grover Norquist have worked together in political skulduggery since 1983, when they took over the College Republican National Committee. Back in those days, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed called themselves “the Triumvirate.” Today, all three members of the Triumvirate appear to be in very big trouble.

The Secret Deals and a Cover Up

Beginning around 1999, Jack Abramoff apparently laundered millions of dollars from Indian tribes who owned casinos in Texas and Mississippi through Ralph Reed’s Century Strategies, and Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).

The Senate committee found numerous memos between Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, and Grover Norquist discussing how to move more money through (c)4s to obscure or deceive the source of the money.

Reed’s alleged role was to enflame moral outrage over gambling among Christian activists and then assist them in pressuring politicians and voters to put a stop to particular gambling activities including casinos in Texas and a state lottery in Alabama. What the Christian groups did not know was that Reed was being paid millions by other Indian casino owners allegedly to con the Christians in order to put their competition - the Texas casinos and Alabama lottery, for example - out of business.

[FH comment: but hey, as long as they don't "disfellowship" anyone it's all good!]

As Bob Irvin, a prominent Georgia Republican and former Speaker in the Legislature, put it:

“[Reed’s] M.O. is to tell evangelical Christians that his cause of the moment, for which he has been hired, is their religious duty, and therefore they need to write regulators, turn up at meetings, or whatever. As an evangelical myself, I resent Christianity being used simply to help Reed’s business.”

[FH comment: No, what Mr. Irvin objects to is the fact that most Xtians, and most people in general, are sheep- and Mr. Abramoff made them look it!]

The scheme may have been immoral but it appears to have been quite successful:

[In 1999,] Ralph Reed delivered what was expected as a consultant to two Alabama anti-gambling campaigns: victories over proposals for a state lottery and video poker, and donations totaling $1.15 million.

But Reed didn’t tell the campaign organizations — and, he insists, he didn’t know — that the money came from a Mississippi Indian tribe trying to protect its casinos from competition.

The money’s path to the Christian Coalition of Alabama and another anti-lottery group echoes Reed’s entanglement in a scandal surrounding Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Indian casino money in Texas.

In that case, Abramoff hired Reed in 1999 to build public support for closing the Tigua tribe’s casino in El Paso. The casino closed in 2002. Immediately afterward, Abramoff, who had kept his role secret, offered to help the Tiguas reopen the casino — for $4 million, according to Senate testimony.

Reed’s ignorance about the true source of the funding appears to be disingenuous. An investigation by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, chaired by John McCain, found otherwise:

Emails implicate Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, as knowing the Choctaws were “financing his company’s work in 1999 when he was trying to defeat gambling initiatives in Alabama.”

In emails to Reed, Abramoff is quite open about the money laundering scheme, according to the McCain committee’s report:

The committee found “numerous memos” between Abramoff, former head of the Christian Coalition Ralph Reed, and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform on “how to move more money through (c)4s to obscure or deceive the source of the money.” One e-mail has Abramoff complaining to Reed that a certain group “does not have a (c)4; only a (c)3. So we are back to ATR — Americans for Tax Reform — only. Let me know if this will work. Just do this through ATR until we can find another group.”

Reed is also vulnerable to charges of attempting to hide his role in the Texas episode, for which Abramoff paid him $4.2 million. He is accused of illegally failing to register as a lobbyist in Texas. Failing to register incurs only a small fine, so Reed may have chosen to risk being fined for not filing rather than registering, which would have required disclosing the identity of his client and the amount of his fees.

The Triumvirate

If the scandals that radiate out from Jack Abramoff engulf Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, it will be a strange twist in the intersecting paths of three men whose careers have taken them high into the rarified world of political power.

They met around 1981 when Reed moved to D.C. to work for the College Republican National Committee (CRNC). Jack Abramoff was chairman of the group, and Norquist was its executive director. The three young men quickly formed a working partnership:

At the CRNC, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed formed what was known as the “Abramoff-Norquist-Reed triumvirate.” Upon Abramoff’s election, the trio purged “dissidents” and re-wrote the CRNC’s bylaws to consolidate their control over the organization. Reed was the “hatchet man” and “carried out Abramoff-Norquist orders with ruthless efficiency, not bothering to hide his fingerprints.”

In 1983, Reed was also accused of plagiarism at the University of Georgia. He wrote a scathing article for the school newspaper about the world-renowned Indian peace activist Mahatma Gandhi. (Title, “Gandhi: Ninny of the 20th Century.”) Another student recognized large sections of Reed’s writing as being word-for-word the same as the text of an article from a recent issue of “Commentary” magazine.

Caught red-handed, Reed responded with what has become a familiar tactic from the American rightwing, he attacked his accuser, a fellow student named William Reid:

“Mr. William Reid’s thinly veiled personal attacks on my character are a poor substitute for the truth.”

Reed never apologized or acknowleged his guilt.

The Taint of Scandal

Today, one of the old CRNC Triumvirate - Abramoff - is under indictment and has announced his intention to cooperate with investigators. At least two other major players in the scandal, Adam Kidan and Michael Scanlon, both former business partners of Abramoff, are also cooperating with investigators.

It is quite likely that Reed may feel like a noose is tightening around his neck. Indeed, Reed’s supporters are already blaming the liberal media for his woes. (Logically, it’s hard to see how “the media” could have forced Reed to fleece his own flock for profit. )

What will be revealed as the Abramoff scandals unfold is whether Ralph Reed was simply a cog in the wheel of a sleazy operation or one of the masterminds who is a target of federal prosecutors. In any case, he’ll be lucky if he can avoid tarnishing his aura of choirboy innocence after the complete details of Abramoff’s sordid dealings have been exposed to daylight.

Boxers or "legal" briefs?

Are there any real men left in the world, besides me?

Seriously, are there?

As Americans- leaders in "societal evolution," you would think that we would be above such things as lawsuits over adult-style razzing in chatrooms, wouldn't you?

As this article shows, we are not... In fact we're sinking further and faster every day...

You can read this article here but don't bother, as I'm posting it all here:

Man sues chatroom pals: I was humiliated beyond what 'no man could endure'
By J.K. Dineen
Court TV

Mike Marlowe fully admits that he sometimes gave George Gillespie a hard time in that AOL chatroom.

But never in his wildest imagination did he expect to be sued in court for what he characterized as "razzing."

"We gave him crap," said Marlowe, a 33-year-old welder in Fayette, Ala. "I'm not going to deny it. I teased him and he teased me back. He gave it back better than he ever got it."

A generation ago, such petty personal beefs might have been settled with fists outside the corner bar, but now it's the Internet age — and Ohio resident George Gillespie instead filed a $25,000 lawsuit against two erstwhile cyber chums he met in the sprawling 900-room, mostly anonymous society that makes up AOL's chat universe.

Gillespie, 53, claims that Marlowe and Bob Charpentier, a 52-year-old Oregon resident, insulted him and harassed him in the AOL chatroom called "Romance — Older Men" to the point where it inflicted "severe emotional distress and physical injury that is of a nature no reasonable man could be expected to endure it."

The complaint, expected in court on Jan. 31 for a pretrial conference, also names AOL as a defendant for allowing the alleged harassment to take place.

Gillespie alleges that the duo intruded into his "private affairs." The complaint states that Marlowe actually drove from Alabama to Ohio to photograph the plaintiff's home, which he then posted on the Web. He also allegedly went to the courthouse in Medina to dig up personal dirt on Gillespie, which he then also disseminated over the Internet.

The case is not simply "someone conversing in a chatroom" but also involves "harassing someone in Ohio," which gives Ohio courts jurisdiction, according to Gillespie's lawyers.

"Had the defendants stayed in the chatrooms, there would be no jurisdiction here, case closed" Gillespie's attorney Theodore Lesiak stated in the complaint. "Defendant did not."

But Marlowe said he works 60 hours a week at an autobody shop and laughed at the notion that he would drive from Alabama to Ohio to take pictures of Gillespie's house.

"I have never been to Ohio and I have absolutely no desire to go to Ohio," Marlowe said. "There is nothing there — the Cincinnati Bengals are there, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame maybe, and that's about it."

Even if Marlowe did take a trip to Ohio, posting a picture of someone's house on the Internet does not violate privacy laws, according to Chris Hoofnagle, attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"Those norms require the aggressor to engage in behavior that is highly offensive to a reasonable person," he said. "Taking a picture of somebody's house and putting it up on the Web is not that."

Hoofnagle said Gillespie's emotional distress claim will also be tough to prove.

"We live in a rough society, as compared to Europe, where offending someone or directly cursing or attacking their dignity can give you a cause of action," he said.

Power Struggle in 'Romance — Older Men'

Charpentier said he first encountered Gillespie more than five years ago and at first, the two chatters were friendly. But Charpentier says he quickly became disenchanted by what he saw as Gillespie's mean streak.

Things really turned ugly four years ago when Charpentier traveled to Kentucky to meet another chatroom regular, a woman who was also a friend of Gillespie's. The blind date did not go particularly well, and when Charpentier returned to he discovered that Gillespie had gone on the attack.

"He just came in slamming on me, saying all kinds of derogatory crap: that I was a fat, bald, broke old man who sits around in a rusted wheelchair," said Charpentier, who has a chronic back injury. "I don't even own a wheelchair."

Charpentier, who has filed a response seeking to reserve the right to file a $125,000 countersuit against Gillespie, said Gillespie threatened to kill him and "made sick and disgusting remarks about the passing of my grandmother."

"He is an AOL computer thug, that is all he is," Charpentier said.

Marlowe characterized the dispute as a petty power struggle. He said Gillespie was the de facto leader of the "Romance — Older Men" chatroom, and didn't like it when he and Charpentier challenged his authority.

But Marlowe said he never took the chatroom antics personally — until he was served with a lawsuit.

"I don't know how four years of bantering back and forth led to this insane nonsense," he said. "It's just the Internet, for God's sake. It's nothing important."

Michael Gordon, an attorney for AOL, declined to comment, saying, "This is just the beginning stages of this thing."

Megan Gray, a Washington D.C.-based intellectual property attorney who specializes in cyber issues, called it "a loser of a case." She said the Communications Decency Act gives AOL immunity from chatroom misconduct.

"AOL cannot be held liable for the actions of people on the site," she said.

She also suggested the case against Marlowe and Charpentier was doomed.

"The Internet is such a vibrant, young medium, these types of cases are not taken seriously," she said.

Hitting "god" where he "lives!"

Recently I became aware of an old JW teaching that insinuated that "god" "lives" in the stellar constellation Pleiades.

This is utter BLASPHEMY.

All you fools and sacreligious whores know full well that "god" lives on the Planet Shakaree, which lay beyond the great Galactic Barrier!

And you also know that "god" bears a striking resemblance to George Murdock...

Now off with you- go preach the word of George... (Murdock, not Costanza)

The "devil" is an Ice-Cube fan...

I can just hear "him" rapping along to "I Gotta Say, It Was a Good Day" while checking up on this report from www.msnbc.com :


MSNBC News Services
Updated: 10:02 a.m. ET Jan. 12, 2006

MECCA, Saudi Arabia - At least 110 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in a stoning ritual at the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca on Thursday, medical officials said.

A doctor with the Saudi Red Crescent said he had heard reports that up to 300 people may have been killed. The doctor was identified only by his nametag, Dr. Abbasi.

Separately, a medic told Reuters, “It’s likely to be around 300 in the end.”

Footage from the scene showed lines of dead laid out on stretchers on the pavement and covered with sheets.

Earlier, journalists counted at least 50 bodies lined up on the ground and covered in white shrouds. Some were being placed on trucks by medics.

The stampede broke out as tens of thousands of pilgrims filed past al-Jamarat, a series of three pillars representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.

The ritual -- in its final day -- has seen deadly stampedes in the past, including one in 1990 that killed 1,426 people and another in February 2004 that killed 244.

Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a ministry spokesman, said the stampede happened after some pieces of luggage dropped from moving buses.

The pilgrims apparently tripped over them as they were rushing to the pillars, he said. Al-Turki said there were deaths but could not immediately give an exact number.

'People were piling on each other'
"I saw people moving and suddenly I heard crying, shouting, wailing. I looked around and people were piling on each other. They started pulling dead people from the crowd," said Abdullah Pulig, an Indian street cleaner who was working nearby.

Ahmed Mustafa, an Egyptian pilgrim, said he saw bodies taken away in refrigerator trucks.

"There must be dozens of people dead," he said.

Mina General Hospital, a small facility several hundred yards from the site, was filled with injured, and some victims were sent to hospitals in Mecca and Riyadh, said Ismail Abdul-Zaher, a doctor at the hospital.

Ambulances and police cars streamed into the area, and security forces tried to move pilgrims away from part of the site, though thousands continued with the ritual.

Construction proves ineffective
The pillars are located on a large pedestrian bridge, the width of an eight-lane highway over the desert plain of Mina outside the holy city of Mecca. A number of ramps lead up the bridge to give pilgrims access to the site, and the stampede occurred at the base of one of the ramps.

The stampede took place despite Saudi efforts to improve traffic for the massive crowds of pilgrims at the site, where all 2.5 million pilgrims participating in the annual hajj must pass, move from pillar to pillar to throw their stones, then exit.

Saudi authorities recently widened the bridge and built extra ramps and increased the time pilgrims can carry out the rite -- traditionally done between sunrise and sunset.



The score so far:

Devil 2000+
"Believers" 0

Greatest......Website......EVER

http://www.thehonkytonkman.com

Perverse Pleasures

I am in the drive-through banking lane at the bank this afternoon depositing my paycheck when a loud vehicle, a Daihatsu I think, pulls up behind me...

No big deal right?

Well, not to me- but I do believe I ruined this inDUHvidual's afternoon...

And I enjoyed every second of it...

Rather than getting upset at this guy's poor manners I decided to bolster my own enjoyment by fucking with him...

Lately I've encountered more than a few people who like to be impatient when they're behind me in the drive-through lanes at the bank... And I believe the best way to deal with annoying people is to annoy them in kind... So my operating strategy for pay day has been as follows:

You know those recepticles in the drive-through banking lanes that you put your paycheck and deposit slip in? You press "send" and the capsule-like container shoots up through a tube over to the teller's booth... A great convenience- also a great means of causing annoyance to impatient person behind you who is beeping his or her horn (knowing that a horn's echo is 10 times as annoying in a somewhat closed in space like those drive-through banking lanes are- at least at my bank), turning their stereo up really loud- with their subwoofers hitting as hard as they possibly can without blowing out, or just in general looking disgusted and sticking the arm with the watch on out the window and pointing to it- hoping you'll see them...

When these people are behind me I am tickled to raise their ire just a tiny bit more... When I'm finished doing my business, instead of just leaving the capsule in the machine I send the empty capsule back in to the teller, thereby forcing the idiot behind me to wait at least another 10-15 seconds for the item to come back... That is if the teller hasn't left the window, in which case the person has to wait longer...

It just goes to show that there is more fun in messing with an annoying person than their is in being annoyed by them...