Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Officials: Blackwater guards offered limited immunity

Article


However, some kind of limited immunity was apparently offered by State Department investigators when they questioned the Blackwater personnel apparently involved in the shootings, the officials said.
..
..
He also said that those limited protections(reference to the limited immunities above) "would not preclude a successful criminal prosecution,"



Thank you for your signed confessions of guilt.
And the deal we made for your immunity is off.
Get ready to go to jail guys !

lol !

Only in America you say ? Pity !


Meanwhile, Iraq's parliament is considering a draft bill that would require security companies operating in the country to obey Iraqi laws with no immunity, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Tuesday.

"All security companies operating in Iraq, those affiliated with them and non-Iraqi parties they have a contract with, are subject to Iraqi civil and penal laws," al-Dabbagh said. "There will be no immunity."


It's a muslim country.
If a muslim accuses a non muslim of something , the non muslim is automatically found guilty , not because anyone thinks he's guilty , but because it is a requirement of Islamic Law to make the life of the non muslim as hard as you possibly can so as to force him to convert.


You take away their immunity , they're leaving.
You give them immunity they shoot innocents.

You just can't win , can you ?
No , you can't. You can't be a civilian and a soldier at the same time. It's a contradiction , and this whole "civilian security agency" is now having that contradiction exposed for all the world to see. You're either a soldier and subject to being shot by your commander for disobedience, or your a civilian and all your commander can do is fire you and ship you back stateside. And civilians not subject to military dicipline have no business in the war zone. Especially not with guns in their hands.

Get under proper military authority and subject to military dicipline (and thus immunity) , or get the hell out of Bagdad ... there really isn't a third option.


The U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure last month that would punish contractors working in a war zone if they committed an act that would be considered a crime under U.S. law.


Hey ! Lets kidnap a few upstandig Iraqi's children and have their parents issue false accusations against the security people ! Yeah , take them hostage and force them to be false witness. Then we can criminally prosecute every single security peron in the whole country , on the cheap , and drive them out !

oohhhh I like this game ! Can we fabricate some evidence too ?

Soliders belong in a war zone.
Civilians belong at home.
Never the twain shall meet.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Retailers may face restrictions on buying lottery tickets


Article



Ontario lottery retailers may soon be prevented from buying and cashing personal tickets in their own stores.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation tried to impose such rule in August, but retailers fought it and the OLG backed off.

Chris Wilcox of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association warns retailers will fight any move to prohibit them from buying or redeeming personal tickets in their stores.


Now why would you care about such a resstriction ? You can just go down the street and buy a ticket from your neibours store ?
I'll tell you why.
Because only in your own store can you take the lottery tickets into the back room and work on them for hours at a time , with no one watching , with any x ray machine or other gizmo your engineer son from university just whipped up.
And that's a very special thing not to be given up on lightly.

CORRUPTION CORRUPTION !

How does it feel , as a customer , to know that the owner of the store you're buying tickets from has already rifled through them with an x-ray machine to give himself first shot at any of those winning scratch and win tickets ?


Proposals for such a rule followed reports that retailers were cashing in winning lottery tickets at a rate far higher than the general public.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Canadian War Protesters


Protesters march against Canada's mission in Afghanistan



In Ottawa, about 100 determined protesters met at the National Gallery of Canada in the early afternoon -part of a collective group of protests - which Canadian Peace Alliance organizers were calling the Pan-Canadian Day of Action Against War in Afghanistan.


Metro Ottawa has a million people , and you could only raise 100 to protest the war? Hang your head in shame !


"War is not the answer," Batsch said. "You don't fight to create peace."


And what is the answer ? Let them grow poppy and sell it to our children ? Let them conquer the world ? These are the people that believe it's their god given right to kidnap people off the street , torture them into converting to Islam , and if they don't believe you're sincere, it's ok to murder you.

Or shall we fall back on the the tired old "The government should do something. I don't know what , but not this. Something ! " Something magical...wave a magic wand or something , yeah , thats the ticket !


His daughter Jamie said the war had gone on far too long and the federal government was not paying attention to the voice of its people.

"They shouldn't be making decisions that not everyone agrees with," she said.


Yeah. We need 100% agreement to do anything ! every last person in canada must agree to the latest tax increase or it shouldn't happen !

Don't think that will work.


"When I think about the lives lost, the devastation and the millions of dollars wasted, I get really angry," said Collette Lemieux, co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance, to more than 50 people gathered in downtown Calgary.


Wow. I sent my son off to war .. and he got hurt ! I don't think we should do that anymore. Let the muslims conquer the world , I don't want my son hurt anymore ! Whats that you say ? They conquered the world and now they want my son to be a suicide bomber because one muslim faction hates another ?

lol !

Friday, October 26, 2007

Sympatico : Reloaded

Received the most interesting letter in the mail today (Canada Post, not email)

INSTANT REGISTRATION NOTICE FROM DELL

This notice is to confirm that Dell has signed you up for Bell's Total Internet Service
"The Service" BECAUSE YOU PURCHASED A DELL SYSTEM YOU WILL RECEIVE THREE MONTHS OF THE SERVICE AT NO COST! As you agreed to over the phone ...


I agreed to nothing. I told the dell rep I didn't want it , already had a provider and was very happy with it.


... in order for Dell to register you for the service , you consented to ...



I consented to jack squat. I said I didn't want it. The operater said "Then when they call just decline" and they never called, they just fired a modem off at me and told me congradulations your service is active !


Dell transfering your name , phone number, address , and pre-authorized payment or credit card number to Bell. As was explained to you , your credit card or pre-authorized payment information is required because you will be automatically charged following your first three months.

You should receive a package by bell ...


Yadda yadda yadda.

You handed them all my personal information despite me saying "No , I don't want it" , including my credit card number ? Is that even legal ?

These people are scoundrals. Absolute scoundrals. I despise them , Dell and Bell. I will never buy another product from either of them ever again.


d

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Despite improvements, nurse shortage still predicted, numbers show

Article

Why are we short on nurses ? Why have I been living in this country for my whole life, more than thirty years (a lot more , I don't want to give away my age) and I've been hearing about the nursing shortage the whole time ?

Because Nurses Cost Money !

It's a simple equation. Nurses do not bring money into a hospitle. They cost it money. There were these nurses aides that used to help nurses with their chores, but they got cut too. Why ? They cost money.

What brings money into a hospital ?
Not much. The government doles out a flat some and tells them "don't spend it all in one place !" and thats pretty much it.

Doctors are worse.
You wanna know why there are only 250 new doctors per year permitted to join the medical ranks in ontario , and why thats not gonna change ? I'll give you a hint. It's not because of their 100 000 $/year salary.

It's because doctors put people in hospitals. And that costs money. Lots of money. When you have to wait six hours to see a doctor , you give up and go home , or don't go at all , a lot of the time. If the wait time were to be cut to three hours say ... guess what ? Twice as many people would wind up in the hospital ! And we don't have that much bed space ! Heck , we don't have the bed space for the doctors we do have !

And of course Doctors write perscriptions.
And if you just got sick , you're probably suddenly out of work , and that means the government's paying for your perscription.

And you thought doctors were costing you money before the perscription game ?

The doctor shortage / nurse shortage , etc , isn't really a staff shortage. It's a money shortage. Big time money, not just the salary of a few extra workers, we're talking building new hospitals and paying vast amounts in perscription drugs. The actual salary of these people is microscopic compared to that.

Free medical has it's drawbacks , it seems.
It's much better than what we had before (that would be the "no money , no doctor" system) but it isn't problem free.

Best you can do is set up a team to look for cost savings I guess. Maybe manufacture your own generic drugs that are commonly used that the copyrights have run out on, things like that.

Store owner sweeps up big lotto winnings off ticket from his own business

Article


WINNIPEG - Many store owners dream of making a lot of money with their business.

Blair Knutson did it the unconventional way - he bought a Lotto 6-49 ticket from the grocery store he owns in Gimli, Man.


CORRUPTION !!!

Oh honest we checked his story and double checked it and made sure he wasn't looting the customers tickets looking for a winner and swapping it for his own losing ticket ... honest I don't have an x-ray machine in the back and I'm scanning every ticket that passes through the store waiting for the big strike and foisting the losing tickets off on those suckers ..I mean customers ...


CORRUPTION !!!

Millions of dollars at stake here.

You can't honestly be the owner of a Casino , say , and then sit down at the table for a couple of hands of black jack. It's not illegal , but it rings every alarm bell of corruption there is. It should be illegal.

This is just bogus, and why I don't play the lottery ,and why no one should.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

War Unto Bankruptcy

Article = none , personal opinion

What happenned to "lets make a good product at a good price " ? When did we lose sight of that , and the emphasis of business shifted to "kill the competition , then when we're a monopoly triple our prices"

I ask because of a recent event at my work. I take calls for a cell phone company , and we have an ... interesting policy. If a person is a bad credit risk , or they're obnoxious and call a lot and are always asking for insane things , we are to gently edge them out the door and foist them off on our compitition. Other customers we bend over backwards to keep.

The idea is that you stick the competition with the bad customers while you keep the good ones, thus poisoning the well and , well , sinking them.

The more interesting point is that I've seen this policy twice now. Once for internet , where I used to work , now for cell phones. It seems to be an industry wide tactic.

Personally , I think these guys are idiots, and there really arn't very many bad customers. There are instead "deceived" customers that you tricked into your business but really didn't want it , never used it , couldn't afford it ,e tc etc.

This is a text message I received on my phone. Keep in mind I never sent a message to these people and have no idea who they are.

"Got your iPhone ! Bought and paid for ...$700 in your hands...should be here by end of week or early next week at the latest !"

Obviously the idea is I reply to the text message and ask what the heck are you babbling about , and then I get stuck with a fast talking salesman trying to sell me a 700$ iPhone.

When did deciete and trickery become standard sales tactics ? No wonder you have "bad customers" if this is how they became your customer in the first place.

I had a job long long a go , phoneing people up and trying to sell them carpet cleaning. I only had it for four hours and then I quit, but it was very interesting. There was a script they put in front of you, on it it had all the usual responses a customer might give when turning you down , and how you would answer them.As far as the script went , the customer would have to be an unreasonable and stupid idiot to turn down your offer, that part came across pretty clearly even if it wasn't explicitly stated. And if you fell for it , even if you didn't need it , it was considered your fault for being stupid enough to fall for our sales tricks.

Sympatico still takes the cake if you ask me , for just firing off a cable modem at you and then when you ask "what the heck is this ?" you get a salesman on the line and a big long fight.

These people are prepared for you , they have all their tricks lined up, all their lies ready to go, and lots of practice dealing with "difficult sales".

It seems the day of producing an honest product at an honest price are over. Now it's how much can I rip you for.

Bin Laden calls for jihad in Arabia and Sudan: Web

Article




It is the duty of Muslims in Sudan and ... the Arabian Peninsula to wage jihad (holy war) against the crusader invaders," said the speaker, who sounded like the al Qaeda leader.


First , I give this article Kudo's for brevity. Two paragraphs, staight to the point, no political distortion. This guy did this thing , thank you and good nite.

Second , I give Osama himself Kudo's for helping in the war on terrorism.

Have you ever played any kind of military simulations on the computer ? Don't you know that you attack your enemies one by one , with overwhelming force. You don't start a war on five fronts and demand your troops go wild and kill everyone ! This would be how you lose wars.

Oops..you're the enemey commander. We want you to lose this war. Please, keep right on going the way you're going. :)

Status of the war on Terrorism: Lots of attacks inside the middle east. Maybe one attack ,more often useless than not , ever six months, IN ALL OF THE WESTERN NATIONS. Someone on our side of the fence is definately doing his job properly. I have no idea who it is, but I defniately give him kudo's too.

As for the Liberals who want to pull our troops out of afghanistan and thus let the druggies, I mean terrorists , continue to finance their terrorism with the poppy seed unhindered, you I give the Golden Rassberry award. BLLLTTTT ! I hope you rot in hell cause if you ahve your way those terrorists will be hitting right here at home instead of the other side of the world.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Add the Sidewinder Gaming Mouse to your gaming arsenal

Article



In designing its new Sidewinder Gaming Mouse, we imagine Microsoft's product designers going over the features of the Logitech G5 and the Razer DeathAdder and asking "what else can we cram in there?" For a suggested price of $80, the Sidewinder delivers all of the complexity hardcore gamers demand in their mice, plus it goes a few steps farther.


Wow. Microsoft is putting out a mouse for windows.
You know what that means don't you ?
It means soon there will be an update, and the drivers for this mouse will be part of the operating system. You'll just plug it in and this 80$ 10 button gamers delight of a mouse will simply work !

It means other people's mice that they sell that worked fine before the update, now will suddenly stop working , or start being really really glitchy.

It means when you phone microsoft to ask how come your mouse that worked fine for literally years suddenly doesn't work anymore after that last patch , you'll get told "It's not microsoft certified. Contact the manufacturer , and that will be 75$ on your credit card , thanks for giving the credit card number in advance before we let you talk to a live human being. "

It means other mice manufacturers will be run out of business fairly shortly, and microsoft mice will rule the world !

Either that or the trend to switch to Linux will grow slightly stronger and stronger.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

How to kill a free version of Linux

Article


On October 4, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told a group attending a presentation in London that Red Hat customers are using Microsoft's intellectually property without permission and suggested they should be required to compensate Microsoft accordingly. O


Step 1 : Buy Red Hat Linux

Step 2 : Now that you control the programmers, "accidently" include some proprietory microsoft code

step 3 : decide you're not going to sue red hat , you're going to sue the red hat user base.

Step 4: Watch as everyone abandon's red hat real quick.

Step 5: Find another annoying version of Linux that you don't like , repeat as required.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Sympatico : The Continuing Saga

A year ago I bought a Dell computer. I've been a pretty good customer, always had money in the bank when they took their 30$ / month , stuff like that.

They phoned me up the other day , informed me Bell Sympatico was going to call and try and be my internet provider , since an icon for it had been on my desktop on the computer.

I said ok and the call ended.

Then I wondered, why is bell calling me ? Did Dell sell my info to them despite promising only to share it with their own internal agents (And affilliates , and ..a few other things ...which probably amounts to any bum walking down the street with a few coins in his pocket and an interest in my affairs).

I had this big speach about privacy ready to go , and was waiting for Sympatico to call.

Today , they didn't call. Instead the postal delivery man buzzed me from down below to inform me I had a package from Sympatico. Went down , and what do we find ? A Sympatico cable modem , for getting you online. No , they hadn't warned me it was coming or anything.

But yes, my wife had a bell telephone in her name , and they'd pulled this stunt once before. It seems they're firing these modems off without warning to people at random.

I informed the postie I didn't want it , wasn't touching it, and refused to sign for anything. Last I saw of it he was examining the box , probably looking for a return address.

I'm now preparing another speach about underhanded marketting tactics and why I hate dealing with such companies, in case they decide to stick the thing on my cell bill or make some kind of combined bill or something.

Still waiting ... still wondering what's next.

(edit)

Waiting for people to call is a very stressful thing , and I have enough stress in my life. I phoned bell / sympatico and informed them I'd never asked for the service and had refused delivery of the modem. They "say" they cancelled the account (they'd tacked it onto my wife's phone line , ha ha , man she would have been pissed despite her being the one telling me not to phone them) and apologized, and hey , no modem in hand , not much they can do.

I'm still dissapointed I didn't get to use either of my speaches on them.

:(

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Taliban: 'We will not negotiate'


The Taliban will never negotiate with the Afghan government in the presence of foreign forces," Ahmadi told The Associated Press. "Even if Karzai gives up his presidency, it's not possible that Mullah Omar would agree to negotiations."


You have to understand. We , the Sacrifical Priests of Islam (call us Iman's, please) enjoy wealth and power beyond anything you westerner's can possibly immagine. We literally have the power of life and death over our followers , and if any of them give us any lip at all , we draft them into the war in afghanistan which is doing an excellent job of getting them all killed off.

And if we can't get at them , we point a gun at their little boy or girl , and tell him to put on an explosive vest and go talk to that american soldier over there.

You do understand , We've been doing this for ages. Ill trained militia with only one gun and a few bullets for every three soldiers, sending them in mass attacks against hardenned positions of our enemies ? The milita of course are loaded with people who we think will cause us trouble , and this is a good way to get them all killed off.

It's the same deal here.
We're getting what we want.
You're killing off our own internal undesirables and dissidents.
Why in the name of Allah the Merciless would we want to stop murdering our own people now ? It's been a great thrill ride so far.

We have the largest drug producing place in the world. It's only a province, but it produces more poppy seed, which gets turned into Heroine ,than any nation in the world. Do you have any concept how filthy stinking rich we are while those stupid Martyr's and True Believers do all the dying for us ?

Fight on. And never surrender ! And throw another basket full of hundred dollar bills on the fire to keep us warm it's getting a little chilly out there.

:)

Friday, October 05, 2007

ory says MPPs will get free vote on faith-based funding

Article


Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory tried to assuage embittered party faithful and win back Ontario voters Monday as he promised caucus members a free vote on his controversial proposal to extend public funding to the province's private religious schools.



So what was it the conservitive leader said that started this "The thing I like about public school is that they're public"

Well, I went to public school for all my youth. My major memories were of bullies beating me up , because I was a smart ass, because I sometimes actually bothered to study , because I made them feel bad because I passed my courses, and they didn't so they were going to beat me up.

Actually , they did me a favor. Because I was so unpopular , the drug dealers who hung around on that one block walk from school to the bus stop never bothered me. I knew they were there , and I knew what they were about, but we had little to do with each other. They were "networking" and they wanted the popular students recruited so they could turn them around into sales men, and some little runt of a brainiac that everyone hated just wasn't any use to them.

so despite living through the 70's and 80's in a public school system rife with druggies, I never smoked a joint or popped a pill the whole time.

I keep hearing from friends and family. The public school system hasn't changed much. The school kids still punish you severely for actually bothering to study, and the druggies still consider it their personal hunting grounds.

It's time to face facts.
Point Blank : The public school system has failed. And it failed a long time ago. No one who has a choice in the matter wants to send their kids to school, because of the drug problem. A problem that has been around since my day , which makes it 30+ years , and hasn't gotten a witt better.

It's time to try out a more diversified system.
In the states they give a certain amount of money per child for education , and that money follows the kid to whatever school he goes to. Such a system would provide too many targets , each too small , for the drug dealers, and would get rid of the problem of bullies who punish you for actually studying while in school, since with a high teacher to student ratio those bullies can't make a move without every teacher knowing whats going on and giving him the boot.

Television is an evil thing you know.
Through out my child hood I lived in ottawa , and I spent more time watching TV than doing home work. Two years though , I lived in the country. No TV out there. Just a radio and not much to do but be bored. My marks went from 60ish % to 90% , just because there wasn't any TV to watch.

TV is an evil thing.
So are public schools , at least in the cities ( the one in the country I was at best luke warm on at the time , but from a parental perspective It would be considered a joy to send your kid there)

Go for the private stuff. The city public schools should be considered nothing but a plague ridden drug fest best avoided.

I know, most politicians would deny it if they read this article, probably point out to various mediocre and meaningless successes the public schools have had. But no one would beleive them. Why ? Because the vast majority of the public who grew up in Canada actually went to the public schools, And so the schools are a victem of their own lack of success. Every canadian graduate knows the true situation , and the politico's arn't doing much but making themselves look like idiots for denying it.

Stupid Linux Hype

Why the Unbundling Windows Sceptics are Wrong


n doing so, the Globalisation Institute draws a distinction between open, free markets, which exist for computer hardware and demonstrate phenomenal innovation and price performance, and laissez-faire markets, dominated by the corporate equivalent of Somali warlords – specifically, operating system platforms.

In response, others have replied with reasons they believe would prevent such an approach from succeeding.

The following are the key arguments they introduce against the unbundling of Microsoft Windows from consumer PCs, along with an explanation as to why these arguments from the 'unbundling sceptics' are invalid:


.
.
.

The usability and technology world doesn't revolve around Walt Mossberg. Mossberg may have indicated that desktop Linux isn't for the average user, but it's also possible to find many pundits who will say that desktop Windows isn't for the average user either; that doesn't stop most PC makers from bundling Windows with their PCs.

In the end, it's all about what you're used to. Mossberg is used to Windows, so it seems more 'normal' to him. In time, people will, due to the increased uptake of Linux bought about by a liberated market, also find that it too is 'normal'.



I have linux. 7 full reformats to get it installed properly. The world may not revolve around Mossberg, but Linux still needs work.


It would also add complexity for end users, counter to The Institute's claims. People buy operating systems pre-installed with bunch of different applications beyond what comes with the operating system. Office productivity apps, security apps, you name it. An uninstalled OS would force users to find and download or buy those apps. That's an added and inconvenient step that would cost hours.


More than hours. Most of the linux apps are crap. And the Linux office suite isn't ready for the big time yet , not as of Ubuntu 6.10 , though it's been a while since I tested it.

Long and short of it :

Windows is a pirate, and they're ripping you off good.
Most of the alternatives (Apple OS2 , etc) are in fact just as bad. Either they lack the vast selection of windows software, or they make you pay through the nose now that you're stuck with their os.

Linux offers the promise of getting out of this trap. But it is just a promise so far, it has not yet bloomed into the full flower of how great it could be.

And articles like this that make promises that Linux cannot keep , do nothing but stunt the growth of that flower. Linux is getting there, but it isn't ready for main stream yet. And thats the state of the Linux situation at this moment.

Monday, October 01, 2007

U.N. condemns deadly Darfur attack

Article


United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed outrage after rebels killed at least 10 African Union soldiers in an unprecented attack on a peacekeeping base in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur.


Someone should do something about this !

Someone else, not us, police troops are way to expensive and we don't feel like getting into a gurilla war with some rebels right now. Maybe the USA could do someting ? Nope, they're busy right now.

Ok, we'll just pull out all our troops and forget about the place. Just like Canada did. Because, lets face it, if we're not prepared to go to war, if we're not prepared to defend our own troops, then we have no business putting them there in the first place. We're out of here !

I've said it before , and I'll say it again.
The UN is a joke.
It wants the USA to pay for everything (voted themselves a pay raise they did , at US expense) and it want's the USA to do everything, provide all troops for every issue in the world.

No wonder the rebels are happy to kill off a few UN peace keepers, they know they'll get away with it. They know the result will not be a war, it will be the peace keepers leaving them to do their racial cleansing in peace.

The UN is a toothless tiger , used by the USA to cloak it's own political agenda as "world opinion" -- see ? Half the nations in the world are with us on this one ! -- and simply abandoning any other issue that doesn't make their political horizon to a bunch of time wasting thumb twiddlers that refuse to make a move on their own without "the big man of the neibourhood" helping them out.

If the member nations of the UN don't actually get off their collective butt's and do something.... well...I guess we get to continue laughing at them.

And the rebels get to continue killing their troops in perfect saftey , knowing there will never be any repercussions for their actions, except of course, for the UN Troops running away in terror.