👤 Stories by Tom

as usual Michael Kinsey hits it on the nose: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090901829.html?sub=AR

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200501%5CNAT20050113c.html

Pretty soon all workers are going to be as hen-pecked as Tech Support/Customer Service workers are now... www.aligo.com/products/workTrack/ Anyone read that sci fi story that was going around the net a while back? It was a dystopian future where the computers ran the world - kinda. Really, it was a socialist utopian story, but the first 90% was this dystopia where the few wealthy business owners lived in luxury while the computers they owned ruled the country. Anyway, it had many flaws in the Xtopian part, but the computers running (at first it was only) the fast food chains I thought was really neat and well thought out as far as plausibility goes. And while the story painted a bleak picture of computers cracking down on workers, all I thought about was the fact that every fast food worker I've known complained mostly about his BOSS. Having a computer tell you what to do seems to me far more pleasant than having some irrational human doing it, and I can't help but thinking now - every time i go into a fast food joint - how much nicer it would be if it was being run by a computer :-) Of course, what I (and the story) failed to realize, is that the first step will just be all the monitoring tools that are so ominous in the story, *but* not in the hands of impartial computers - who aren't yet smart enough to do anything with that data - but in the hands of PHBs! Now that's an actual dystopia.

O.k. Not exactly, but close: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/82132/1/.html The WTO ruled that the US cotton subsidies encouraged over-production and "dumping". For a back story see below It is amusing that John Birchers and other conservative anti-(world)-government and anti-tax-and-spend types like me owe a debt of thanks to the WTO for at least TRYING (the US will probably appeal) to stop one of the more egregious wastes of U.S. taxpayer money. As does the rest of the world. If you haven't read my original post below already you really should. update: http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=asIENZsIZdcs&refer=latin_america

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ordinary/view/

http://www.sundayherald.com/40592

The Best Coverage Very funny, and pretty much sums it up. My favorite part is John's attribiting, to the prosecuter, the quote: "now I have to go arrest every single other person on wall street".

The following essay was written by George Orwell after WWII, it is remarkably apropos to the capture of Saddam. http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/revengesour.html

Arguably the single biggest waste of taxpayer money is farm subsidies. These subsidies enumerated in the much discussed "farm bill" amount to ~100 Billion dollars. Recently The Economist has reported that one

This month has brought to my attention two seperate cases supporting my long-standing belief that taking drugs for headaches isn't worth it. First: It seems that what I have always said is now the scientific consensus. I.e. popping a pill when you get a headache makes you more suseptible to headaches

You have to be an idiot or a lawyer to think that the interstate commerce clause gives congress constitutional authority to legislate regarding domestic violence. www.cyberessays.com/Politics/82.htm [EOT]

Merry Prohibition Repeal day. (I almost missed it!) Read the new york times article and the "related headlines" from 70 years ago, they're interesting:

O.K. I sure in hell didn't put this blog up for things like this, but I'm desperate. So, help me pick my Boy's name...

"Never attribut to malice, that which can as easily be explained by stupidity", is a truism i'm very fond of. However, it certainly doesn't hold for greed. In fact, i'd say you are safe to not attibute to stupidity that which can just as well be explained by greed. (Though it's not like they are mutually exclusive) Research on Ecstasy Is Clouded by Errors

I'm o.k. with the Lust. And i can't exactly cast the first stone as far as avarice goes, but, I've still got some puritanism in me, i'm afraid and it bothers me when someone runs a bank into the ground at taxpayer expense and gets 2 million for, what exactly? (no really, someone tell me.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3240756.stm

Hey, this blog is now official.

I was recently reading in slate (http://www.slate.com) some moron saying that there are "strong arguments on each side" of the issue of whether or not the right to keep and bear arms is an individual or a collective right.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20030922/ap_on_fe_st/cat_infestation&e=1 (buh, this link is no longer good try the next one...)
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep03/171083.asp?format=print They "rescued" 130 cats from an abandoned house. Owner died in 1997 but the owner's "adult son" had been returning to feed the cats. Now, obviously the city needs to do something, but why do they have to call it a "rescue".? I mean, does anyone actually believe they are going to find homes for 130 cats. No, they are going to kill them. But of course the article doesn't SAY that, it says they have been taken to an "animal control facility until authorities can figure out what to do with them." Umm, correct me if i'm wrong here but i'm pretty damn certain that "authorities" know JUST what to do with them, they do it every day. ahh, well this goes to show, i think, that even double-speak can rarely be attributed to malice.

Men paid to sleep with widows, singles http://csua.org/u/3z7

Would someone please explain to me why anyone would give one rat's ass about which design is on the back of the California Quarter. I'm sitting here trying to think of something I care less about (failing, in case you were wondering) and yet NUMEROUS people are out there trying to get out the vote. Encouraging me to play along. I just don't get it.

Asscroft is evidently against a person's right to kill himself. And, like all Federal Do-gooders with no respect for individuals or the legislative choices of Individual States, he thinks he should intervene and prosecute/jail those that are obeying their own local laws and conscience. Much like "Judicial Activism", this is exactly the type of thing that gets conservatives riled, but only when they disagree with the nature of the interference/activism, not when they agree...

Hmm, one would think I get all my drug news from the L.P., but it's just that they seem to have made it their #1 (only?) issue. This mesg. isn't really about drugs though, it is about privilege and hypocrisy. The point that the INCREDIBLY STUPID movie _Traffic_ missed, and one of the (many) reasons i hated it so much. Not only was it trite, predictable and preachy, it also failed miserably in regards to its much touted "realism"; in reality rich/politico kids end up well protected from both the police and drug-lord/pimps.

This year _Politically Incorrect_ was cancelled, largely due to the host making the offensive and wildly controversial statement that it was more "cowardly" to push a button from a great distance and kill your enemies with virtually no risk to yourself than it was to engage in a suicide mission. (it's

Perhaps the American Civil Liberties Union wouldn't have such a bad reputation among conservatives if it stuck to defending civil liberties instead of attacking ones they (i.e. the left) aren't fond of...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2002/07/09/airportjoke.DTL

Libertarian Party political director Ron Crickenberger makes the (not terribly surprising) claim that anti-drug advert.s are likely to actually INCREASE drug use among children. Of course the 1 billion wasted on this program is still only about 1/2 a percent of what we will now be spending on Farm subsidies. -tec

http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/story.php?article_id=23658&layout=printer

Some 6th grader got suspended for drawing her teachers stabbed/hanged. The school claims that it is a terrorist threat! (of course it is, we all know about those groups of 6th grade females and their terrorist demands:

This company sells off-site monitoring solutions to the utilities...

Welcome to the my newly installed weblog. Pretty spiffy eh? Soon i will add some fine rants, rambles or other content. Stay tuned...