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Monday, February 24, 2014

Snowden Leaked Information on Illegal Government Activities




I don't know why Americans tolerate their rights to privacy and anonymity to be violated by the US government and US corporations, but we do.  Edward Snowden, the NSA-contracted employee who leaked vast amounts of information regarding illegal, unconstitutional, and criminal activity perpetrated against United States citizens has been vilified by the Obama administration and just about every institutional organization except the Salvation Army and the Red Cross (even those organizations may not think too highly of Snowden, but I'm not going to ask them for comment because I don't give a shit about what the Salvation Army or the Red Cross think about anything).

When the US government violates the laws of the United States, it is no less a criminal organization than the Mafia or murderous drug cartels ... the US government just gets away with their crimes more often.

I'm not saying that efforts against foreign and domestic terrorism aren't vital to the safekeeping of any nation.  I'm saying that secret courts, or courts with no oversight that have only nominal transparency, are not really courts.  In a court an accused has the right to a defense, to demand specific charges be proved before a jury of his peers before he or she is convicted, and that prosecutors abide by the laws of evidence and the legal procedures outlined in the US criminal code for obtaining that evidence.  Metadata collecting and spying on every keystroke of every e-mail of every US citizen doesn't count as abiding by the law, secret courts or "star chambers" aside.

Bush, Jr. started this nonsense and Barrack Obama -- despite sensible campaign promises to "protect" Americans' liberties -- has expanded illegal surveillance and data collection.  The Obama administration's bullshit claim that they have reviewed and augmented any "perceived" transgressions by the NSA is clearly the same as when a John says he'll only come on a hooker's face and then, at the last minute, rams his red-white-and-blue cock into her mouth to spew endless metadata spermatozoa into her gullible, toothless mouth.  (Sorry, I know that's crudely over-the-top and, perhaps, the worst mixed simile in the history of mixed similes -- perhaps someone should contact the Guinness Book of World Records.  It's just that I feel very profane when I'm super-disgusted with the actions of the government of my country.)

Terrorism can be fought legitimately, successfully, vigorously by using legal investigation techniques.  Domestic spying on all US citizens under the fear-mongering specious claim that unless the government has access to all information on every US or foreign citizen in the world it cannot effectively stop America from being turned inside out.  Illegal wiretapping and warrant-less e-mail gathering and keystroke-recording of the internet is not an anti-terrorist activity.  It is an egregious violation of FDR's "Four Freedoms."  There is no excuse, no rationalization, that can negate the brutal reality that the United States government has unleashed a propaganda machine to weaken our nation, to make us more susceptible to the pernicious virus of authoritarian paranoia under the disingenuous auspices of national "security."

Cyber attacks on our nation's massive computer network by foreign enemies and terrorists has only been encouraged by our government's mishandling of the basic human principal of privacy.  We are not guaranteed privacy by the US Constitution -- that is true -- but we are guaranteed by the constitution that intrusions into our homes, into our private castles, by the government be done legally, with warrants and reasonable suspicion and probable cause -- and intrusions into these sanctuaries must be justified and we must be able, as private citizens, to challenge any intrusion into these domains through open courts.

The US government has put the nation at much greater risk than the US government can ever legitimately claim Edward Snowden ever did by leaking information regarding illegal covert activities.  It has put our rights at risk, and once all our rights are at risk, our lives and security are meaningless.  The government's jihad against American privacy and the concept of privacy as an element of human rights, fundamental as any liberty, is something that must be ended ... through the justice system, through voting out supporters of warrant-less eavesdropping ... a jihad, of course, without violence.  A democratic and secular jihad.  Call your congressman/woman and senator today (or, if you're hungover from a night of alcoholic/cocaine-fueled debauchery with a toothless hooker, do it tomorrow) and let them know that being an American means being free before it means being "safe" from terrorists.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Random Minimum Wage and Marijuana Legalization Thoughts

This is probably, as usual, just going to be a jumble of random thoughts I'll try to weave into a cohesive summation at the end and, as usual, fail miserably.  You've been warned.

Random thought no. 1:  Marijuana will eventually be legalized throughout the United States.  I don't celebrate this because I don't smoke marijuana (not because I object to it in any way; it just doesn't sit right with me; I don't care for onions, either, but I don't think onions should be illegal).  The conservative states will hold out against legalization the longest because the South and the Midwest "Heart" of the country are full of people who still believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and that witches should be burned at the stake.  Marijuana is not a completely innocuous substance, but neither is vomit or alcohol.  If you want to drink vomit or alcohol, I have no objection to that, either.  I do object to other adults telling other adults what they can or cannot put into their own bodies.  If you disagree, I fully understand.  I hope you don't mind if I think you're stupid or just simply ignorant.

Random thought no. 2:  The minimum wage needs to be raised.  Inflation has skyrocketed since 1973 and the minimum wage has made it almost impossible for people to lift themselves out of poverty without selling enormous amounts of marijuana to supplement their direly insufficient wages (see Random thought no. 1).  Admittedly, raising the minimum wage isn't the complete answer to income inequality in the United States, but try feeding yourself on 7 or 8 bucks an hour, let alone a family, without selling marijuana to your local elected official's teenage children.  (Note:  I do not advocate selling marijuana to juveniles even when it inevitably is legalized.  Let juveniles get pot illegally, like I always had to when I was fifteen years old and could only buy a quarter-ounce every other month).

Random thought no. 3:  The world may or may not be on the verge of imminent doom.  This has nothing to do with Random thoughts nos. 1 and 2, but on the fact that we keep shitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and then wondering stupidly why the Arctic ice is receding at an unprecedented rate in geological time.  The Earth may very well remain and the cockroaches will overtake the planet as the most intelligent form of life.  My condolences to the cockroaches; the position is one they may not relish.

I lied about my intention of weaving these random thoughts into a cohesive summary.  Sorry.  And fuck you.  Because you're just another human high on pot, complaining about how the minimum wage is going to send the world to hell and turn it over to the cockroaches while you pollute the atmosphere with your stinky deodorants and your car exhaust fumes.

If the end comes soon enough, let's throw a pot party for the cockroaches.  They'll need it.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Science vs. Creationism: New Proof on CSPAN!



There's been a resurgence in the media lately concerning the "debate" between creationism and the indisputably accurate theory of evolution.  Ken Hamm, an insane entrepreneur who founded the Creation Museum in some backwater hick state not worth mentioning, debated on CSPAN the geeky-looking but immeasurably smarter Bill Nye (aka "The Science Guy").  It was embarrassing for anyone with a functioning cerebral cortex to watch the debate because it was sort of the same as watching Einstein debate Larry the Cable Guy (in this analogy, Larry the Cable guy is Ken Hamm and not Bill Nye "The Science Guy.")

Why do people insist on clinging to unsupportable beliefs?  I'd ask Ken Hamm, but he would just say they are completely supportable beliefs because the Bible is literal proof of everything he says.  So I won't ask Ken Hamm.

Faith and spiritual beliefs and voodoo are fine.  They have a cultural place in history and everyone has a right to believe in crazy shit.  Who am I to judge them?  After all, I believe outer-space aliens are conspiring every day to misplace my keychain, especially on mornings when I am hungover from consuming too much melatonin and Benadryl.  But let's be realistic here:  If you believe that science should support your crazy, paranoid, delusional faith and magical beliefs, you're a dumb twat ... with all due respect.

But Jesus will forgive you for your stupidity.  It's what He does.

Amen.