No sex no drugs and no rock and roll

Canada is busy working on a piece of legislation to make it easier for authorities to snoop on your internet browsing habits, The one side pushing this bill says that it's to try and catch pedophiles. Only problem. It wouldn't require any warrant or oversight by those doing the investigating. It would require ISP providers to put tracking devices within their server systems and establish a data base for all cell phones via their sim cards. I can envision all sorts of abuses and misunderstandings in this scenario. Click on a blind link and wind up with the RCMP at your door. And no browsing videos of your daughter or sons' school play on Youtube lest someone get the wrong idea.

There's a drug shortage in this country. Really? You could have fooled me. But seriously, it appears that hospitals and pharmacists are in a real pickle. I was surprised to find that some cancer drugs have a shelf life of only two weeks and then must be tossed. That's part of the problem. What is a physician to do? Administer a drug that may be out dated and ineffective or not give the drug at all? And finding alternatives isn't always easy either. You just know this will open the door to all types of cheating with repackaged or diluted medications. But considering all the side effects you hear from the disclaimer on the TV ads I think I'll take my chances with the disease.

Michael Jackson Whitney Houston and scores of others. While one sector of the population face a drug shortage there seems to be an abundance among the rock and roll crowd but then there always was. The powers at the top would like nothing more than to drug test us all especially those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. I have a better idea. Why don't we start with at the top and work our way down then maybe we could weed out the dopers in congress that is if they aren't too busy with their strip clubs and hookers. Take heart ladies of the night the republican convention is coming up fast. And if they have their little SOPA way then the music on the net will surely die. Bye bye miss American Pie.

Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter

Saint who?
Okay drop the lace encircled hearts and put down the Godiva chocolates. The real story behind this day wouldn't make headline news. Oh but maybe the old guys' conviction and sentence would hit the back pages of the tabloids. Here's the back story. Or one of them because you know things get lost somewhere in the story telling down the ages. The dude was a Bishop or a priest, even they forgot, who married couples in Africa much to the displeasure of the Roman big wigs. They threw him in jail. Remember this was back when they were lighting their roads at night with burning christians. They tried beating and stoning him to death. Didn't work. Finally they beheaded him. Talk about some heavy capital punishment. At any rate, they buried him and he was forgotten about. And like all strange traditions of that church made him a martyr a couple of hundred years later even though they couldn't remember who he was or what he did. For all they know it could have been any number of people but that never stops them from adding another saint somethings' day to the calendar. There's only 365 days in a year so I guess they have to double up on their martyrs because they ran out of days a long time ago and just who gets February 29th sure looses out.

And now we get to modern times. Aside from the child molestation cases and all the pay outs from the church that have hit the headlines of late it seems the Vatican is running amuck with it's own internal problems. With kick backs and bribes you'd think they were acting more like the Mafia than a supposed religious organization. But let's face it these are no saints running the show. Contrary to popular belief they aren't just a step below deities. They are humans and just as screwed up as you or I. And all the bells books candles holy water and beads isn't going to change it. So save your veneration. What an epiphany!

Web and I don't mean spider

I was busy yesterday watching the goings on in Greece but not through any old school TV news channel. Just about everything outside Casa Demeur is now presented in real time in your face right here on the net. The thought hit me that nothing like this has ever existed before. As I watched a rather odd ballet of protester and helmeted riot police run back and forth about an Athens main square, I could also read the chat stream from people all over the world. But that wasn't even the best part of the experience. With only a minor delay, 4 seconds, information could be passed from anyone the world over to the reporter on the ground there. He could respond either by voice or typing information into the chat box window. As he was a bit tied up with tear gas canisters being hurled around and I'm sure it's no easy job holding and framing the scene with a laptop camera he gave us a verbal portrait of the action with occasional updates from the other Livestream media team members. A group of very brave individuals if you ask me. But the real beauty of the experience aside from watching history happen in real time from a distance is being able to talk to the people of the country and get a true understanding of their plight without the filtering and spin of some news organization. No corporate ideology being pushed here. In fact no commercials unless the broadcaster chose the cheaper free rate in which case an ad was positioned at the bottom of the video portion of the screen. What will they think of next?

Alternative Internet

There has been much talk of late about SOPA and ACTA and a kill switch for the internet. A bit paranoid if you ask me. Imagine the complexity of trying to scan through hundreds of billions of web pages looking for illegal content. No program could do it accurately without doing damage to the rest of the net. As for a kill switch that wouldn't happen for long without corporations howling about lost revenue. Even in Egypt it was only put out of commission for a few days while the protesters relied on their cell phones.
I remembered having read an article a few years back about the future of the internet stating that a new method was being developed for delivery that could be faster, totally private, and no need for a service provider. This must have scared the bejesus out of governments. I'm not that tech savvy but from what I've read it works something like this. It's a network made up of wifi connections and a simple computer program. Information leapfrogs from one computer to the next and theoretically could travel around the world as it does today. It could therefore get information from the net and yet not be part of the net. The system also doesn't use web addresses so it's basically untraceable.
Then I understand that some Germans are on the verge of launching their own satellite in an effort to create another alternative but I haven't investigated that completely.

It all may be a bit quirky at the present time with pixelated video and distorted sound at times, but then again I remember having to fumble with rabbit ears and fine tune on the TV set many years ago.

The clown circus revisited

(Hat tip to the Rev. Dan for the photo but I think he stole it too.)

And which clown had the best tricks in the latest clown beauty pageant? Hard to say considering most of the contests didn't count for real. And the turn out? As Yogi might say they're staying away in droves. Who else but the craziest of the crazies would come out for this lot.

Cast of characters

Mint Raw Money - Keeps thinking he's the man to beat while his fellow party members are treating him like he farted in a room without windows. Just released the info on his Swiss accounts the Friday before the Superbowl. Oops didn't bother to tell the election committee. A hat tip to Mr. Goldman for that choice of monicker.

Eye of Newt - Wonder if he's found his next notch for his marital gun belt. Long nights on the campaign trail can be lonely you know. Which campaign staffer will grace his next wedding album will be anyone's guess. So you think having to resign from congress doesn't matter when you were caught with ethics violations and fined? You couldn't get a job at a Walmart with that record.

Rick Sanitarium - Thinks he speaks for the entire Catholic church in his quest to rid the nation of birth control. Go ahead boys keep up the fight to outlaw those evil pills and see what big Pharma has to say about it. Not to mention it's cheaper for the insurance companies to dole out pills than pay for babies. So that's two groups that will be pulling their backing. Ricky also seems to have forgotten that most of us older folks grew up in the 60s with sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Ron (What century is this?) Paul - Has an evil plot to steal all the delegates while the rest of the clowns aren't looking. Buying delegates is so much cheaper than having to buy an entire electorate. You'd have thought Mint would have figured that one out.
Ron is just jonesing to take this country back to the 1890s when there was almost no government agencies and pesky regulations. Try Somalia Ron no interference there. Just watch out for the pirates, thugs, kidnappers and thieves.

Sarah Barracuda - Cheerleading from the sidelines but for whom? You need to work on a new routine babe. The old talking points are getting thread bare. Starting to sound like a parrot. Family values raawwk. Lower taxes raawwk. Conservative values raawwwk. She has to have blonde roots. Just has to.

Herman 999 Cain - Okay he fell out after shooting himself in the foot multiple times. But his suggestion is to vote for ourselves. Vote for the American people he says. In other words none of the above. O my god I think he's right. What you witnessed with his campaign was performance art nothing more. Entertaining as it was it did little to further the cause.

Just wonder when the call for more clowns will go out. This bunch just isn't cutting it. Would it be a Bush? Probably not may have name recognition but after his brother tanked the country there still a bad taste in everyones' mouth. A Chris Cristie? A fat clown but with no experience and unwilling. Sarah said she give it a try if no one else would but we know she'd quit half way to the convention because who'd actually want to do real work when adoring fans will pay her for doing nothing.
Makes you wonder who they'll pick for VP. I know Ronald McDonald and Bozo are already booked with full schedules.

Portugal you're up next. Friday pussy looking sad

I had wondered if Greece would take the bait and bite on the "bail out" if that's what you can call it. Come to find out the European financiers threw in one last $380 million condition (translate more job cuts) to the agreement. And now Portugal is waiting at the trough for it's third turn at covering its' debts. No details yet as the banksters are waiting to see how the Greek deal goes even though that deal was signed. (Correction the deal has not been signed yet as I first read.) In digging into Portugals' background I find the usual suspects. Corruption and an inflated investment bubble that popped leaving regular people to face the rounds of austerity programs lavished on them by their government.

What amazes me is how patient people around the world really are at present. One would expect riots in the street with a few heads hanging from pikes. In reading the news this morning, started writing this last night, I find some minor clashes in Greece, but now even the police realize that they are going to receive a financial thrashing with lower wages and pensions. From the Greek news:

Even the police, who have repeatedly clashed with protesters since the crisis broke out more than two years ago, announced resistance to the creditors' demands.

"As we can see you are continuing this destructive policy, so we warn you that you cannot make us fight against our brothers," the Greek Police Federation said in an open letter to the troika.

Portugal is in no better situation having taken two bail outs already and now set to take a third. For a second there I though loan sharks were illegal until I remembered we have our "pay day loans" those 300%+ loans almost guaranteeing perpetual servitude.
A rather astute observation from a professor living in Portugal:
It will be difficult for Portugal to save its way to prosperity. Their attempt to rein in the deficit by reducing government spending while simultaneously raising all types of taxes may prove ineffective in the end. I hasten to add that no one, not a foreigner like myself and, no, not even the “policy elites” here in Portugal, knows for sure what will be the ultimate outcome. That is inherently unknowable. But given the enthusiasm shown by rating agencies for punishing countries no matter how responsibly they try to act, Portugal can depend on facing higher borrowing costs in the future as a result of continued and unrelenting bank and sovereign debt ratings downgrades. How then do the Portuguese outrun lighting?

But I think the analogy is a bit wrong there. It's more like, kindly attach this ball and chain to your ankle while we lower you into the water.

There doesn't seem to be any bank fails of late and why should there be when most are making out like bandits.

Dirty rotten lying greedy bastards

Banks got 7.7 Trillion dollars for the mess that they created and what did the homeowners who lost their homes get? Settlement is for $25 billion but for those who actually got kicked out of their homes a paltry $2000. And nothing said about one of these crooks going to jail for the scam mortgages or robo signing documents. Last time I checked forgery on that scale was still a felony.

You've heard of a bank robbery? Well now we have:
Homeowner Heist

Twenty five million homes have been foreclosed on from 2007 to 2011 and I'd bet more are to follow yet little was done to stop or even slow the process. So we were robbed twice. The banks got a bail out and nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The justice department sat on their hands and watched this happen and not until last month did our government even begin to address the problem. It was a multiple win for the banks as I see it. They got the fees for closing the bad loans in the first place. They got the initial mortgage payments that went mostly to interest. Then when the homeowner couldn't pay they slapped on late fees. Unless the homeowner files bankruptcy he gets hit with the foreclosure costs. The bank gets to keep the property. And to add insult to injury the bank can go after the homeowner for the difference between the mortgage balance and what they can sell it for which is called deficiency of lien. And what did banks do when poop met fan? They raised the fees on regular customers checking savings debit and credit accounts many whom probably don't even have a mortgage.

Here's a bit of info that nobody is considering in all this. For all his blather, and you know that's all it is, Newt Gingrich rants about going after Fanny and Freddy (you'd think they were Bonnie and Clyde the way he talks). Well if they did that the big boys Chase, Wells Fargo and all would take a beating for you see they hold secondary mortgages on all or most of these loans. Keep peeling back all the layers of rating fraud, scam mortgages, liar loans and all and you have an onion with nothing in the middle. And Newt for all the BS that he's feeding you was promoting the very thing he's now saying he's against. Historian my butt!

And good luck trying to get a mortgage these days. Be prepared to provide proof of every financial transaction of the last twenty years. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't ask for a cavity search. Late on a car payment back in 1975 could disqualify you. Credit score better be in the high 700s or higher to pass their approval. One error and they'll show you the door but you think any of them will see the inside of a prison for what they've done?

Pot luck

Random bits and pieces today. That's what you get at a pot luck. And don't eat the deviled eggs they've been sitting out too long.

Of all the home sales here in the state of Washington last year one half were either foreclosures or short sales. Saw two places near me go for a song. Lucky I guess to have Boeing in my backyard. Well not that close but you know what I mean. Costs and wages are all relative. When I was a young kid a candy bar cost a nickel and now it costs a dollar but back then a good wage was $50 a week. Today that would just about cover a weeks' worth of Starbucks.

The game of chicken continues with Greece. One side like a pushy salesman wanting them to hurry up and sign the deal and the other knowing that the product is damaged but needs it anyway. No other stores to shop at either.

See another nations' leader has headed for the exit. The head of the Maldives stepped down after the beginnings of a coup came to his door step. Not a good day when you see the police take the protesters' side when you look out the window in the morning.

Speaking of police I see the police of Brazil aren't too happy. They're on strike and about 300 took up residence in the legislature building. Their wages and working conditions must be pretty bad for them to do that. All it takes is a touch of corruption and you don't know who to trust.

And no I didn't bother with the latest political beauty pageants mostly because they don't count anyway. How crazy have we become to waste millions on a primary election that doesn't count? Don't answer that. I know this is a country crazy enough to sell diet pet food so what would you expect?

Contraceptives. What's all the fuss? 99% of the nation uses or has used them. Does this mean the 1% get to dictate? A non issue if you ask me. The problem locally is that the Catholic hospitals here have taken over most of the public hospitals. The clinics have changed hands so many times I don't know what their names are at present. Small "doc in the boxes" as they're called have gotten quite bad over the years. I have no objection to foreign born doctors but when he tells you you might have mange you have to wonder about his past credentials.

Now as you leave my little pot luck here don't forget to tell your friends. And as you depart please pass up the bowl of mints. They've been there for years. They're only for show.