Pure Defect

It would seem the amorphous entity known simply as Anon (not to be completely associated with 4chan) has decided to start an internet war with the practitioners of Scientology. This of course riles up some, however those of us who have had even a brief peep into the pseudo-religion realize that they are mostly full of shit. Lets recap the wonderful things done either directly by Anon or indirectly by those who have been influenced by them.

The opening volley started out as a full-on distributed denial-of-service attack against several which seems to have done a bang up job of keeping several high-traffic Scientology websites offline for the past few days at least and shows no signs of letting up. If you want to keep your eyes peeled to their efforts on this you can poke around digg a bit to find the link, or just save yourself the pain of digg and click here. Given that most of the targeted sites are still either down or spotty at best I can't help but wonder where all the money the CoS collects has went to, because its obviously was not invested in IT people or pipes large enough to mitigate the effects of the attack.

A Denial-of-Service however is a simple thing, and its also largely anonymous so there are no assess dangling over the fires of some volcano that just happens to be filled to the brim with lawyers on the Scientology payroll. What came next was twice as good not just because of the public reaction (which was stellar) but also the fact that these people stuck themselves out on a limb by being unmasked in public in front of a CoS building protesting with signs reading "Honk if you hate Scientology". This of course elicited many lulz from me, so much so in fact that I felt the need to blog about it because the more people who get behind Anon and the efforts to expose and ultimately eradicate the Church of Scientology the better, so if you were on the fence before about this get off your ass and join the fun!

Labels: 4chan, anon, digg, scientology

So right before I'm about to retire for the evening I happen to come across this gem of a story that I can only describe as a mixed bag because of the conflicting contents it holds. Seems like a straight-forward home invasion with intent to rob (and likely murder) the homeowners, and since it takes place in Britain its pretty safe for the invaders to assume that the victims will be completely unarmed and defenseless. The guy is even compliant (as so many are taught to be these days) yet still the scumbags beat him, but when he decides to man up and actually throw some violence back their way they scamper off. I have the utmost respect for this man simply because he shrugged off the victim mentality that is programmed in to the minds of many of his countrymen (and arguably the world at large) and decided to stand up to thugs who had no right to deprive him of his life or his property.

"We were going to die anyway, that's what I thought. I thought, if I am going to die then I would rather die like a man than a dog."

Kudos to you Mr Dwyer, you have successfully manned up and used violence in exactly the type of situation it is supposed to be used in. This ranks right up there with the stories of grannies defending themselves with their ancient revolvers, sons taking baseball bats to those who would do unspeakable things to their mothers, and every other person who has stood up for themselves when society tells them to lie down and take it like a dog.

Labels: crime, society, violence

When a parent rejects a certain percentage of the 'advice' given forth by so-called experts I'm sure a large slice of society cringes in horror and secretly whispers about them being a terrible parent, but I for one rejoice when people toss out some of the utter tripe that is force-fed to parents these days. This is just one of those things I hope serious parents toss out the window.

2. What you say: "Watch your language!"
What they hear: "I've tuned out what you're really trying to say."
A better way to say it: "I'm so glad you came to talk to me, but I have one request for the future. I find that word offensive, so please don't use it."

I was told plenty of times growing up to watch my language and although it didn't do much to stop my use of profanity in the long run it sure didn't make me run screaming away from all communications with my parents. Instead of heaping on the wishy-washy shit a parent would be better off trying something like "Try that again with out and we might be getting somewhere" or even tell them that you don't permit usage of a particular word, but pulling that limp-wrist "zomg im offended" crap is just weak and doesn't indicate that YOU the parent are in charge and you don't intend for them to use a specific word in your presence. People are offended all the time these days; those of us with some sense shrug off most 'offenses' because its nothing more than bullshit. A little firm direction by parents is far more effective than some of the crap this article is suggesting.

4. What you say: "Don't worry -- it'll be okay."
What they hear: "You're such a drama queen!"
A better way to say it: "I totally understand what you must have gone through. Tell me about it."

While I agree that this common line indicates a high level of pussyness its not going to make the children turn out better by rewording the same bullshit sentiment. Instead of coddling them tell it like it is and don't hold back the punches, kids in fact do need to hear that things are not perfect storybook happenings and that things will go bad, they will not always be ok, and they don't need to break down and analyze every setback in life or all they will do is spin their wheels. Instead try telling them to suck it up and get on with life.

7. What you say: "Why did you (miss your curfew, hit your sister, etc.)?"
What they hear: "You messed up again."
A better way to say it: "My guess is that you missed your curfew because you were having fun and didn't want to come home, but that's still not okay."

This one cracks me up because it violates one of the simplest directives that everyone should live by; thou shalt not assume. (we all know what happens when you do) The whole purpose of asking a child for reasoning behind their actions is to give them a shot at honesty and in the event that they attempt to lie you can point out that they were continuing an unacceptable pattern of behavior by attempting to cover up the real reasons behind the original infraction.

After reading such crap as the original article suggest I can only sigh and be thankful that this nonsense was nowhere near as prevalent or approved of during my childhood as it is today; its just a shame my nephew and his peers will be subjected to this counter-productive drivel

So there was all that buzz a while back about the federally mandated minimum wage being raised to something in the 7$ range, and the people rejoiced. However those people were obviously high, because they didn't see the move for what it was; a way to raise approval levels of politicians and nothing more. Lets have a look at why it doesn't mean the first damn thing for anybody no matter if they make minimum wage only or pull in 8.95$ an hour.

Obviously if you earn more than the minimum you aren't going to be affected by the hike because employers have no reason to tweak your pay as long as you are above the new limit. I would dare say few if any employers are going to up someones wages when there is no specific law telling them they have to, so those of you sitting higher up on the scale are pretty much boned. But it should still help those who are earning the bare minimum right? Wrong! At the current moment I believe its set at 5.85$ an hour for those on the very bottom, which is more than the previous increment, however nobody stops to think about taxes. I personally make 6.50 an hour at a total crap job, however if I work 20 hours in a week I do not get the 130$ that works out to because of taxes, the rule of thumb that I've used for ever to keep an eye on how much I will actually get is to take off a dollar from my hourly rate, thus putting me at 5.50 which is below the federal minimum. Those who are at min wage are actually making 4.85 an hour, which obviously is also below the limit.

Once the final raise is in place in July of 2009 the new minimum wage will be 7.25$ an hour, which although it will raise my personal pay to that level for example will still make my actual wage 6.25$ which is again below the minimum. So if I'm not benefiting from it, and definitely nobody who is locked to that lowest figure then who exactly is this mandated raise supposed to help out? The answer of course is nobody that really needs the help; politicians! Those worthless weasels have conned the people yet again into believing they are working for us, when in reality their only concern has ever been themselves, otherwise they wouldn't do shit like this to bolster their sagging approval ratings. So the next time some snide yuppie who makes a 6 digit salary talks about how wonderful the raise to the minimum wage is slap them across their smug face and explain to them that its not helping a damn person except the fat cats up on the hill.

Labels: minimum wage, politics

The word on the interwebs is that Hillary Clinton is considering dropping out of the presidential race if she suffers any more significant defeats. I may not have a horse in this race, but I can think of at least a few who I would love to see falter and she is definitely one of them. I didn't like a good deal of what her husband did, wasn't impressed by her time in congress, and something tells me if those two reactions are any indicator of how I would like another Clinton president I think her as the big cheese would go over like a brick. I never figured Hillary would react in such a way to a few setbacks, but perhaps this election year will be full of surprises politically...

Labels: hillary clinton., politics