Political

So now it comes out that India's military strong-armed Nokia, RIM (Blackberry) and Apple into providing back-door access into their cellular phones using what sounds like some sort of rootkit application similar to Carrier IQ's rootkit.  The explicit purpose?  Unlike the supposedly benign purpose of providing cellular providers with helpful data to assist customers who are having technical difficulty, as claimed by Carrier IQ (right, sure), RINOA SUR is meant to spy on India's citizens.

So combine that with the increasing pressure to pass SOPA and you've got a nice recipe for complete takeover of all systems, whether they be on tablets, cellular phones, notebooks or desktop computers.  Clearly, Richard Stallman was correct from the beginning.

Now when I say takeover, I don't mean that you won't be able to use your computer.  I mean that you won't be able to use your computer without everything you do being recorded, and possibly interfered with.  I mean that what you do on your computer could possibly be used against you, and if you think you have nothing to hide, that won't protect you. I mean that someone else could use your computer to frame you, if they didn't like what you say or what you stand for.

A rootkit with backdoor access provides more than just a way to snoop.

Why do I have CyanogenMod installed on my Motorola Droid?  Because I don't trust Motorola or my carrier to provide me with a phone OS that has not been compromised.  Why does my personal laptop only have Ubuntu LINUX installed, and no other operating system?  Because I don't trust Acer or Microsoft to have provided me with a laptop and Windows operating system that are 100% secure from intrusion.  I don't even have the original hard drive installed.

Call me paranoid if you will.  They've been calling Stallman paranoid for years.  But the fact remains that commercial interests drive closed operating systems and software, and because there's no way for the code to be inspected by a 3rd party, there's no way to find out immediately whether it's been compromised, intentionally or otherwise.  If making money from software sales is the provider's primary goal, they will sell out their customers in order to sell their product, every time.  Prove me wrong.  I dare you.

Redhat LINUX generates money via Enterprise support contracts.  The software is free.  It is open source and can be inspected by anyone.  The likelihood that it, or any other distribution of LINUX, contains a hidden backdoor rootkit or some other access for military, government or law enforcement officials to snoop, compromise or take control of computers or servers upon which it has been installed is next to nil. I won't say it's impossible, but I will say it's highly unlikely due to the fact that the code can be independantly verified by anyone.  If it did have such a backdoor, it would be discovered almost immediately, as compared to the seven years it took for the RINOA SUR agreement to come to light.

I call bullshit on all of this.  Apple, RIM, Nokia, and anyone else who pulls this sort of crap to generate sales - fuck you.

To anyone else who wants to prevent this from happening - now is the time to start looking at making the switch to LINUX.  If they've been doing this to cell phones for the past seven years or more, what have they been doing with your Apple or Windows computers?

Just a quick thought: Imagine the United States was someone having a big party, and all of the other countries were invited.  A BYO (Bring Your Oil) party.

BP came from Great Britain, and brought with it some party favors, just like everyone else. Only these were tainted drugs - that oil well was of a significantly inferior quality.

The United States decided to partake in BP's oil wells (the US gets paid %$ for every gallon) and suffered from an overdose.

So who do you blame?  BP for the drugs (oil well)?  The US for partaking?  Or the US for throwing the party in the first place?

Who are the parents who get to wring their hands at the hospital, waiting to see if the US is going to pull through?  Where are the police to break up this party?

Alright, so Congress can't figure out how to overhaul healthcare for some reason.  The best we keep hearing is to make it easier for everyone to get healthcare insurance.  In my opinion they are ignoring the main problem about healthcare in the United States.

It doesn't work.

Sure, if you need to go to the ER because you had an accident with a power tool, and they need to stitch you up so you won't bleed to death, that's one thing.

But cancer, diabetes, thyroid problems, heart disease, etc...

Do you see many of the friends and family members you know with these conditions making full 100% recoveries?

If I had to point my finger at one target, I would say the issue is that it is more viable for hospitals to keep their patients coming back in order for them to stay in business.  Because doctors/hospitals get paid by insurance companies no matter what, it becomes less important to ensure that the patients actually recover from their condition, and more important that doctors see as many patients as possible each day.  To complicate the matter pharmaceutical companies offer financial rewards to doctors who promote their drugs, even if the drugs will not necessarily help the patient at all.  There are many drugs that are being used that have harmful side effects.  These side effects offer additional opportunities to capitalize on the patients by prescribing additional drugs to counteract the side effects.  And the circle continues.

Doctors in the current U.S. medical system have a tendency to perform battlefield medicine.  What that means is as long as the patient no longer has the symptoms they are complaining about and can perform their daily business, the doctor is satisfied.  The problem with this idea is that treating a symptom usually does not cure the patient of a condition.  What typically occurs next is additional symptoms will show up as the patient's condition worsens.  These symptoms will in turn be "treated" while the actual issue is ignored, until the point when the body gives up and cancer or death occurs.

So....in my mind it is more important that we fix THIS issue in the U.S. healthcare system, more than ensuring that everyone can get insurance.   After all, what's the point of having health insurance if the healthcare you receive doesn't help you?

Here is what I propose to help fix the healthcare system in the United States:

Make doctors more accountable by withholding payment until a patient is truly well again.  If you are a doctor and you don't get paid after failing to properly treat your patient, perhaps you might start actually taking the time to listen to your patient, try to find the source of the problems, and not just give them some pharmaceuticals that will only make their symptoms go away.

Prevent insurance companies from paying doctors until a patient has determined to either a) have cooperated with the doctor's treatment plan and shown significant improvement or b) has been shown to not have complied with "doctor's orders".

Create an independent group that assesses whether patients have or have not been "cured" of their original condition enough so as to not continue to have issues with their health.  This group will also assess whether the patient actually followed the doctor's recommendations - in the event that the patient did not follow orders, payment will be sent by their insurance company to the doctor/hopsital anyway, and their insurance premiums will go up.

Forbid the practice of SPIFs or kickbacks to doctors who prescribe new medications being pushed by pharmaceutical companies.  Money from pharmaceutical companies should have absolutely NO impact in a doctor's decision making process when it comes time to treat a patient.  However, it might not be a bad idea to reward pharmaceutical companies when a particular drug works well for a patient in the form of a gratuity from the hospital/doctor who treated the patient in question.

Look...the current healthcare system is a mess because people are trying to make money, and they way they are going about it is all backwards.  Because of this priorities have gotten thrown out the window, aside from the priority of getting money.  Let me try to explain my line of reasoning.

A patient's health should be the first priority.  Anything else should come after.

A lot of people in the U.S. ignore their doctor's recommendations.  The best way to motivate them to "follow doctor's orders" would be to punish them by making their insurance premiums more expensive.  Don't punish people because they got sick in the first place - that's typically not something they can control.  Punish them when they refuse to do their part to get better.  Sadly - the possibility that their condition may get worse or they might die is typically not as much motivation as having to pay out more money each month, but hey - whatever works.

Insurance companies shouldn't have to pay a doctor if the doctor is not doing his or her job.  Nor should the patient.  If a patient sees a doctor several times and their health gets progressively worse each time, why is the doctor/hospital getting paid?  That makes no sense at all.  On the flip side, if a doctor is realizing hey - this isn't working and I'm not going to get paid until I change my approach and try harder - maybe then the patient will start getting the correct treatment for their condition.

We need an independent entity who's sole purpose is to assess patients after they have been treated is a necessary checks & balances system.  The people who are in this organization should have no direct ties to hospitals, doctors, insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies - they should be completely autonomous and independent.  It should be fairly obvious with most patients as to whether they are making progress or not, or whether the patient has been following doctor's orders - when I was a computer repair tech it was fairly easy to tell when someone was lying to me about what they were doing with their computer, and I suspect people lying about their eating/exercise habits would be about the same.  Based on these assessments (and they would need to take place over the span of a few years to insure that everything is as it should be) this organization would make one of the following recommendations:

1) Patient is cured, pay the doctor/hospital

2) Patient has made no progress, do not pay the doctor/hospital

3) Patient's health has significantly worsened - the doctor/hospital must pay the patient the amount of money that would have been paid to the doctor/hospital for the treatment to compensate them for their loss of time and worsening condition

4) Patient has made no progress because he/she has ignored doctor's orders - pay the doctor/hospital

Oh hey - did I mention the necessity of this independent entity performing assessments would create a ton of new jobs?

I'm sure there's more to this picture that I'm missing, and I expect everyone will have their own opinions on this, but in general I think these ideas would go a fairly long way toward restoring health to Americans, as opposed to just perpetuating the problems with the current Healthcare Reform Bill.

Hope the link comes through. Some interesting facts/data about Global Warming NOT happening. Lot's of links on this page to click on and read some interesting stuff if one is interested. Makes one really wonder about what is behind all the propaganda. JD http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.iceagenow.com/Snow_on_...

A friend of mine pointed out that in our society, it seems that any time there is a Republican President in office, there seems to be an inordinate number of zombie films playing at the box office.

However, he pointed out that when a Democrat President is in office, vampire films dominate the box office instead.

Seeing as how we just elected a Democrat as President and there is currently a vampire flick at the movie theaters (Twilight), there will soon be a prequel to the Underworld series, and there was also Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead released this summer - perhaps Hollywood has a better perspective of the political climate in the US than the rest of us.  Or perhaps I'm just smoking crack.

But seriously - when you think about it - don't the Republicans just want us to be zombies and not think for ourselves?  And don't the Democrats seem like vampires with the way they tax everyone?  Food for thought.

I'm not always a very communicative person, but there are times that I take advantage of my Aquarian side and rail against what I consider not merely injustice, but plain and simple hypocrisy and ignorance.

Tomorrow, millions of Americans will sit down with their loved ones around a table filled with various foodstuffs, and most of them will consume turkeys.  Our oven has a bad burner coil, so we're hoping that tomorrow we'll be able to have turkey dinner, but that depends on someone else cancelling their precooked turkey dinner order from the local grocery store.  Otherwise we may just head out to the local Chinese restaurant.  But I digress.

Brigitte, Willow and I (and probably before the day is out tomorrow Autumn can be included in this list) know full well that Thanksgiving, as described to us in Elementary school by our first and second grade teachers, is a complete and utter farce.  We give thanks to the native people of this land (and most people also give thanks to God) for helping the first colonists of North America survive their first winter in a strange new land after they arrived to colonize, deforest and ultimately steal away this land from its former inhabitants and caretakers.

See...that's the part they don't teach you in school.  The part where white man, who fled Europe and came to the Americas to be able to live in a place where they could practice their religion and beliefs without fear of prejudice and tyranny, subjugated an entire civilization that had dwelt in these lands for centuries simply because these colonists believed they (the colonists) were superior beings.

These white men (and women) believed the native people who had lived in harmony with this land, in such a way as to not upset the delicate balance of nature and to ensure that their children and their children's children and so on would be able to continue to benefit from the bounty offered across this North American continent, were mere barbarians who were uncultured, uncouth, violent, aggressive and stupid.  These same "barbarians" shared their food and game with these white strangers who were too superior to ensure they had proper food supplies of their own to survive the harsh winter season, and in so doing sealed their own fate.

"No good deed goes unpunished," is one of my new favorite phrases, and I've certainly got enough experience to prove that statement correct.  Out of kindness, the Native American people doomed themselves.

Of course, there is no way to know whether the first colonists of North America might have survived without the help of its native people.  There is no way to know whether their death would have ended North American colonization, or whether it would have merely delayed it.

Regardless, these kind people, their children, their children's children and so on are still being punished for their kindness.  So while you bite into that turkey leg, remember the descendents of those who offered such kindness deserve our respect, and our sincere apologies for the actions of our "founding fathers", in return.

Have you ever watched one of those movies where everyone is doomed, they're all gonna die, but they're okay with that because they've got a good leader they can depend on?

That's pretty much how I feel this morning.  Not that we're all gonna die...duh...but the planet is changing, the world is changing, the seasons are changing, the economy is borked, catastrophes are occuring with greater frequency, more evil is committed by our brothers and sisters each day, we are in the time of Kali and chaos is descending upon the world.

I feel better knowing we will be lead by someone who will not depend on the use of fear to keep order.  I feel comforted by the fact that the ant hill will not get stirred from up above.  I am finally looking forward to the great changes that are upon us, whatever they may bring.

This morning, I am at peace in my mind.

So it's election day, and the United States has gone nuts like it always does around election time.  Reports of voter intimidation are rolling in, and most likely there will be lots showing up in the news and online about how peoples votes were changed by the computer systems, how they were not permitted to vote without showing multiple forms of ID, and various other issues.  And as always I am rather disgusted by humanity at large.

Most of my intelligent friends are well aware that we locked into a vote for a "giant douche" and a "turd sandwich", to quote South Park.  If you are one of those crazy religious voters you could compare this to God versus Lucifer, although I'm sure different people have different ideas about who is who.  Seeing as how I try to avoid direct politics (which is not always possible) and religious debates (which is even less possible sometimes) I'll just leave it at that.  I don't particularly believe either candidate is honest or will deliver on their promises, but I do know that one of them is the oldest candidate ever to run for President, and in the event that he passes away before his term is over, the idea of his Vice President stepping in to lead the country is something I am truly afraid of.

Of course, it takes some real effort to sit back and realize that the system most of us take for granted is one grand illusion.  I know this, because I watched a city dissolve into pockets of humanitarian efforts surrounded by numerous deadly and hostile individuals and groups due to lack of power and flooding.  If you have not yet watched Blackout I highly recommend it - in my opinion it is a highly accurate portrayal of what can happen when things we take for granted are no longer available, such as electricity, refrigeration, heating / air conditioning, clean running water, elevators, subway transportation, automobile transportation, bus transportation, railroad transportation, food delivery, food preparation, healthcare services, emergency services, police protection, etc., etc., etc.

All it takes is a severe electric power outage in a major city to cut off all of the above in a matter of just a day.  In New Orleans these things were not available in certain areas for MONTHS, and there are still areas that do not have all of the above.

What I am getting at is that ultimately, while it is important this election that we have a president who is capable of doing a proper job, it is only a small part of the big picture.  One man is not going to change everything, although it is possible for him to get the ball rolling.

For those of you who are unduly worried about our future based on this election, just remember that the true powers-that-be will do what it takes to prevent nationwide rioting and panic.  After all, that's what the economic bail-out was for, right?