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July 29, 2006
Drunken Tirades and the Mainstream Media
From a lady I know in New Jersey:
"I am convinced that even if Mel Gibson did not use four letter words in his denunciation of the Jews, he still would be accused of being an anti-semite just the same. And, even if he had not used the word Jew in his criticism of the Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon, he would still be accused of being an anti semite for having the chutzpah to do so in the first place. Gibson's comments, no matter how distasteful they may seem, still has a right to say them."
True enough. And furthermore:
[And]"you can not criticize Israel and the Jews. It is no secret that the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC)wields considerable influence in Washington, so much so that a Senator from the American heartland, or a Congressman from south of the Mason Dixon Line,who would not know the difference between a Zionist and a cob of corn, suddenly become staunch supporters of Israel. I'm wondering how many will post my opinion for fear of being reprimanded. So much for feedom of speech!"
Funny how that sort of thing works ain't it?
Posted by Ali Massoud at 06:01 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2006
Air Marshals Place Innocents on Secret Watch List
"[These] unknowing passengers who are doing nothing wrong are landing in a secret government document called a Surveillance Detection Report, or SDR." Reports a Denver Colorado TV station news report on incident reporting system use by the US Air Marshall Service.
When I was in college during an management studies class we were told that if you don't give people enough work to do that they either drag tasks out to use the available time or they lie about what they are really doing with their time (i.e. reporting cold calls that they didn't actually make & etc).
This would be funny in a "I told ya so!" kind of way were it not for the estimated 200,000 or so Americans who are on the feds "no fly" or "close scrutiny" watch lists. Imagine how fookin' funny they find all this?
Via Slashdot.org/
Posted by Ali Massoud at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)
A Pissing Match Between Two Skunks?
Creates quite a stink eh? The mainstream media TV news personalities on the cable news networks, (CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC) are currently engaged in pissing match it seems.
"[Fox News CEO Roger]Ailes, appearing Monday at the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association, was referring to a weekend incident at the gathering in which Olbermann whipped out a mask of [Bill]O'Reilly and gave a Nazi salute.
Ailes said Olbermann picks on Fox's O'Reilly to boost his ratings.
'Clearly he has no viewers except those he gets when he attacks Fox News,' Ailes said."
No doubt Mr. Ailes. Olbermann is just as big a jerk as O'Reilly IMHO. If you seek actual news a viewer would be better off watching Colbert or the Daily Show, where there is no pretense about "straight news" being reported. What they do is instead straight-out entertainment and commetary for those who enjoy such stuff.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)
July 22, 2006
Elect Us? No Way in Hell Folks
"Okay, let's move on. Suppose the Institue for Justice or the ACLU brought suit successfully and gerrymanders and detailed technical election laws favoring the Dems and Reps were abolished. A mightly big "if" but stay with me. What makes the LP and its new reformist leadership think the average voter will chose to vote for a party that promises them nada in terms of electorally distributed goodies?"
Link here.
And so there you have it.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2006
UK Authorities Blame iPods for the Rise in Violence
No really.
"CNET reports that the British Government today attributed the country's 22% rise in street crime to iPod robberies. This has hit CNET close to home. Guy Cocker, a CNET (Gamespot) journalist based in London, was mugged last week. The muggers held 'a semi-automatic weapon to the back of Cocker's head and told him, "we're taking all your stuff"'. CNET's solution to the problem is suggestions on how to conceal your iPod from attackers. These include 'The gaffer tape method,' 'The Coke can method,' and 'The Christopher Walken method.'" [emphasis mine]
(via Slashdot.org/)
Living in a place like England must be absolute paradise for thugs and robbers of all sorts. A nation of sheep is the perfect breeding ground for a population of wolves, eh? So I would predict that things are not gonna get better (for the sheep any way) any time soon. Personal weapons and individual acts of self-defense are already illegal there so..I wonder what the nanny staters are gonna recommend the government do? My advice would be to emigrate.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
Fool Me Twice
Since force was involved in the form of the draft and the IRS, "gotcha twice" might be the better descriptor. The median age of death for a black man is four years below the age of social security eligibility. On schedule, my older cousin won't get a refund of any of the FICA taxes he paid all of his working life. And this was after bearing physical and psychological wounds all of his adult life he received in the calamitous foreign adventure called Vietnam.
Godspeed Lloyd.
Posted by Robert Jackson at 10:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 18, 2006
ARI Moves Beyond Wog Bashing and Gets Real..
Which sure is a welcome change for them too.
"We gave legitimacy", says the Ayn Rand Institute commentary, "to Hezbollah--just as we did to such enemies as Hamas in the Palestinian Authority and the budding theocrats in Iraq and Afghanistan. These people all came to power through democratic elections promoted by the U.S. But a murderer does not gain legitimacy by getting elected to the ruling clique of his criminal gang--nor does anyone gain it by becoming an elected official of an anti-freedom state."
People as individuals have rights not states, not political parties or factions. And these rights aren't diminished or set aside just because some people voted on it first. There may be hope for the uber statist Randians yet.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2006
Patriot Act Bypasses Facebook Privacy
"Not being exposed to this sort of stuff is one of the principle reasons that I really, really like being self-employed. Because you get none of this kind of shit from someone you are trying to get to employ you as a wage slave or contractor. Unless they show me in advance why the hell it’s relevant to the work or task that I am seeking to be hired for they’re out of luck. I don’t need to piss in a cup, disclose my politics, religion, or personal sexuality to anyone. I’d rather live in a plywood shack in Montana and crap in bucket and wipe my ass with pinecones and eat bullfrog stew for the rest of my life."
Posted by Ali Massoud at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
The Last Honest Socialist is Dead
I laughed out loud when reading the headline, “Last Socialist to Run Major U.S. City Dies.” Mr. Zeidler was perhaps the last honest, admitted socialist- which would have been a much more accurate headline. When reading of his political beliefs and accomplishments I see nothing that differs from the goals and policies of today’s ruling elites. They just repackage their identical philosophy and give it a different title.
Posted by Roger Young at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 07, 2006
Western Union Blocks Cash Transfers to Arabs
"Western Union is blocking money transfers to people with Arab names. They have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed. 'In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was Mohammed.' Western union claims they are merely following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links." (via slashdot.org)
No racial profiling here, eh? Full story link.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 03:30 AM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2006
Who is the Worst Slumlord in NYC? The Feds!
The Village Voice, an alternative news daily based in NYC, held a contest for the dubious honor of being the worst slumlord in New York. Guess who won? Why the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) that’s who. And they won hands down too. How’s that you say?
“The current HUD scandal”, says the article, “is rooted in an earlier one. In the 1990s, corrupt real estate investors exploited HUD's 203(k) program, taking huge mortgage and renovation loans based on inflated building values. As landlords, they then spent the rent and let their buildings rot. James Lewis, who founded Harlem Operation Take Back to press HUD to rehab the 203(k) buildings and who now works for a low-income-housing developer, estimates that speculators defrauded the government out of close to $200 million in the city. After City Limits exposed the scandal, HUD started large-scale foreclosures on the buildings. Rick Echevarria, associate director of Bushwick Housing Independence Project, estimates that around 3,000 people across New York City have been directly affected by the 203(k) implosion.”
Greed, corruption, politics, bureaucratic agendas, and powerful monied interests all came together to make this festering pus.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2006
America is Safer Today..
.because the US Secret Service and local police raided a home and a business in suburban Boston and seized a digital camera that contained pictures of Angelina Jolie's and Brad Pitt's new baby. Whoa! I feel safer already.
This dangerous criminal posted two or three pics of the newborn on the Internet too the dastardly fiend! But no more. The camera and the perp are in police custody today. And some people try to tell us that we can live free without a state. Who'd bust people like this if we didn't have a state then?
Posted by Ali Massoud at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
July 01, 2006
NY Times Responds to Critics
The NY Times apparently growing tired of the shrill and often hysterical attacks on it for reporting on the US Treasury Department's snooping on everybody's personal finances, has responded to some its critics.
"The Times has defended its reporting, saying publication has served America's public interest. Its executive editor, Bill Keller, said in a statement on Thursday that the paper took seriously the risks of reporting on intelligence.
'We have on many occasions withheld information when lives were at stake,' Keller said. 'However, the administration simply did not make a convincing case that describing our efforts to monitor international banking presented such a danger. Indeed, the administration itself has talked publicly and repeatedly about its successes in the area of financial surveillance.' " [my italics]
So there you have it folks.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)