Category: Rambling

Rambling: raving; ranting; blah-blah-ing; shit-what-is-she-going-on-about-now?; general useless drivel unrelated to much else, including reality

bookmark_borderSOPA/PIPA

Posted on by PaulaO

UPDATE: as soon as I posted this, I found a growing list of sites that are going dark on Jan. 18th. Sopastrike.com
 If this site were bigger, I’d add it officially to the list. Yes, my sites will be going dark for 24hrs.

Below is a modified version of something I posted over at Lesbian Fiction Forum.

I’ve heard bits and pieces about this but not enough to understand it. So I’ve decided to do some research. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

(SOPA is the House version and PIPA (Protect Internet Providers Act) is the Senate version. Most of what I found online was about SOPA and noted that PIPA is essentially the same thing. I’m still looking into PIPA so what I have below is specific to SOPA.)

On the surface, stopping online piracy is a good thing. We authors are fighting this all the time. I was thinking this act is a good thing. But it’s not.

Basically, what SOPA will do is this, using this site as an example:

Let’s say I want to tell you of my love of chestnut trees. I go to Wikimedia Commons and use an image that is labeled as such that I can use it. However, the person who uploaded that image did not have the proper right to do so. The original photographer (or owner of the tree) sees the image on Wikimedia Commons. Now, under SOPA, that photographer can shut down not only Wikimedia, but for anyone and everyone who downloaded that image because by law, the webhost would have to release every IP address of anyone who downloaded it. Including me. They can then shut down my site AND have access to all of YOUR IP addresses as well. AND unless my webhost and Wikimedia Commons webhost could show that they actively tried to censor us, THEY would be punished.

Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but it makes me concerned for the fringe groups such as LGBT. They could shut down as many sites as they want. All they have to do is find one bit of copyright infringement. Not only could they shut down the sites, but also the IP addresses of everyone who visited.

I looked for some stuff of SOPA in plain English. I found a big graphic that helped me to understand it better:
http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/ … ternet.png

Electronic Frontier Foundation has several letters from some big groups against SOPA as well as articles that talk about the bill:
https://www.eff.org/search/site/SOPA

January 18th is Blackout Day. Many sites will be putting up a censorship marker for 12-24hrs or more to show what would happen if SOPA passes. These include Wikipedia (maybe?), Reddit, Icanhazcheezeburger (LOL cats), and several others. The list is growing as the news of it expands.
http://techland.time.com/2012/01/12/sop … ay-follow/

The irony of it all, is the original introducer of SOPA, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, would be guilty under his own proposed laws and his own sites would be shut down. (although it is a reach since the image is from an archived version of his site)

While I think it is great that congress is trying to do something, I think they have no fucking clue or are getting bad advice. Most sites I read today said a lot of campaign money and donations to the introducers of these bills come from the Big Companies who want to shut down any and all piracy (like the record and movie companies).

And it’s not just that they’d shut them down. But they block the DNS of that website. Every website name is assigned one when that domain name is registered. If my webhost shut me down, I could simply move to another site with the same name. Not so with this. I would have to start over with a new website name. And trust me, real piracy sites are prepared for this and it would just be a blip for them. They’d just move on and restart.

Trust me, online piracy is something all writers know about. I’m not a big enough name that any of my stuff has been pirated but I know people who have. Piracy is NOT “sharing” and it is not “good for the writer”. It is taking money out of the pockets of the writer and their publisher, plain and simple. Want to help me and other writers? Promote our work by encouraging your friends to buy the book. “Sharing” with hundreds of online users is piracy.

But back to SOPA. This isn’t the way to do it. This is NOT how piracy should be stopped. It is akin to killing the dog to get rid of the fleas. They’re just going to go to another dog. And another. And another. And…

Contact your congress person. Tell him/her to not support it.
http://americancensorship.org/ – website with more (and better) information
http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html – good infographic
http://my.americancensorship.org/ – for stuff happening in your state/region

bookmark_borderPostal Service

Posted on by PaulaO

I just read an interesting article about an interesting division of the USPS.

Poor Penmanship Spells Job Security for Post Office’s Scribble Specialists

It describes how, even though machines have greatly advanced their ability to read handwriting, there are still many letters that get bumped out by the machines because it can’t read them. 5% is a good drop rate but it equaled (according to the article) 714,085,866 letters last year.

But the point I want to make is not exactly related to the article. It is related to the comments. And here is my point:

NO TAX DOLLARS GO INTO THE POSTAL SERVICE

Let me repeat that.

NO TAX DOLLARS GO INTO THE POSTAL SERVICE

The money you pay the IRS, not a penny of it goes to the post office. Their entire budget is dependent on the mail they deliver. (however, there may be some miniscule amount that is spent on govmint employees who must interact with the USPS in some way) The current problem as I see it, is the Govmint required them to make a huge ass payroll payment. Which they kinda did. The payment was so huge, it is an overpayment. The post office is asking the govmint to give them a break and not make the next installment. The problem though, is that “income” is counted in the US budget. So removing that huge chunk from the budget would make it short, although it’s not really. Add into that the far too many unions who are not exactly working together very well and the many employees within those unions who are still working without a contract (such as rural carriers) for several years now.

So, bitch all you want about how money is being wasted on sending poorly addressed letters at the same price as perfectly written ones (I kinda agree with you on that one) but, please, show your intelligence and stop with the “my tax money pays for that?” shit. ‘Cause it ain’t. Your tax money goes to more important things. Like a 10 year war in two countries, one of which we never should have invaded in the first place.

[disclaimer: my darlin’ is a non-union rural carrier]

bookmark_borderDoes It Hurt, Vick?

Posted on by PaulaO

I hate Micheal Vick. I hate who he is and I hate the NFL for letting him back in. I hate the money he is paid. I felt satisfaction at knowing he was hurt during last week’s game as well as yesterday’s. And I hate that feeling. Hatred is not a good thing, it does nothing to further along neither myself nor my species.

But I still feel it.

I turned to Lorna yesterday (we didn’t see the game, just a report of it) and said “Ya know, he ought to be put down if he can’t play, right?”

No one can be involved in dog fighting business for SIX YEARS and be “cured” like he claims to be. How many dogs did he brutally put down (either with his own hands or, at the least, knew about and condoned) for not being able to fight? How many dogs were wounded? How many unagented, unpaid dogs suffered through the fights only to die through yet more suffering? The humans didn’t just inject them, they beat them, tortured them to death.

And yet, the survivors of that racket live on. I believe only four of those dogs had to be humanely euthanized. The others live on either in real forever homes or at that dog sanctuary.

Which species came out ahead of this? Did we, the humans? I don’t think so. Just thinking of him makes me mad. Just thinking of the alleged Humane Society of U.S. and their support of him makes me madder. The NFL for desiring money over conscious. No, it is the dogs that came out ahead. They survived something most of us could not. They came out of it still loving life and, yes, even humans. Would I be able to do that? No, I would not. My reaction toward Vick even after all this time shows the truth.

So, Vick, next time you limp to the sidelines, I hope you think of those dogs you killed. I hope you see the irony of this and I hope you wince. I hope, really hope, that you feel that first inkling of true shame for what you did.

bookmark_borderOn the Fringe

Posted on by PaulaO

Not that long ago, but before the ADA was thought of, womyn’s groups, festivals, gatherings, whatever were all inclusive almost to a fault. No perfumes, no chemicals; interpreters for the deaf, readers for the blind, wheelchair accessible everything; people of all skin colors, hair colors, and belief sets were welcome. No one was left out. Well, except for perfume wearing racist anti-cripple people.

Now, long after the ADA is law, accessibility and inclusivity is gone. Gay bars? In basements or up stairs. Lesbian dances? In a really cool place up stairs. Womyn monthly dinners? Up stairs. Anyone interesting in moving the venue or making the place accessible? Nope. “Gee, you’re right. Someone ought to get right on that.”

So, again, Lorna and I won’t be going to the Women’s Dance this month. Nor will we go to the Lesbian/Gay Prom. Or the monthly dinner. The LGBT community has a growing case of NIMBY syndrome. (not in my back yard)

bookmark_borderSarcasm – Gotta Love It

Posted on by PaulaO

And I do! Oh how I love it. And irony too. Oh, and while we’re at it, I enjoy laughing. A lot.

Which is why I like this article titled “A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Never!“.

Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that (which, together, comprised the most active April for tornadoes in U.S. history). No, that doesn’t mean a thing.

It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advisable to try to connect them in your mind with, say, the fires burning across Texas — fires that have burned more of America at this point this year than any wildfires have in previous years. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they’ve ever been — the drought is worse than that of the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if they’re somehow connected.

If you did wonder, you see, you would also have to wonder about whether this year’s record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest — resulting in record flooding along the Mississippi — could somehow be related. And then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming, and to the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air.

(…)

It’s very important to stay calm. If you got upset about any of this, you might forget how important it is not to disrupt the record profits of our fossil fuel companies. If worst ever did come to worst, it’s reassuring to remember what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the Environmental Protection Agency in a recent filing: that there’s no need to worry because “populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations.” I’m pretty sure that’s what residents are telling themselves in Joplin today.

So yeah, I laughed. But I also wanted to cry. I think often about just what kind of world we are leaving for the kids. While we have professions in “social media”, they’ll have professions in “global clean up” and “how to make rafts out of credit cards”.

I personally know several people who go absolutely frothing at the mouth at the very notion of “global warming”. Each time we got yet another snow storm or the temps stayed below freezing for the second week, there they’d go ranting and raving about how if it is a “global warming”, why is it snowing outside?”. Heavy sigh.

Which reminds me of a joke/parable.

There’s this place that has flood watch out. Neighbors say do you need anything? Guy says no, God will provide.
Then it is a flood warning and they’re told to evacuate. Neighbors say come with us and guy says no, God will provide.
Water is lapping at his porch and the local police, along with the Nat’l Guard, offer him a ride in their Hummer. No, the guy says, God will provide.
Water is now up to the second floor and a rescue boat comes by but, that’s right, the guy says God will provide.
The flood is now up to his roof and the guy clings to the chimney. Helicopter lowers a rescuer but, nope, God will provide.
The guy drowns and he’s standing in Heaven and he says God, why didn’t you provide?
God says “I did, you idiot! I sent your neighbors twice then a Hummer, a boat, and a helicopter!”

So Gaia and God have been trying to tell us we’re about to drown (metaphorically speaking. maybe) yet, we just ignore them.

bookmark_borderFree Speech and Copyright

Posted on by PaulaO

For future reference, you can always tell when I am writing (vs playing World of Warcraft) because I am putting up posts here.

That said, I am a big fan and supporter of Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Basically, in a nutshell, EFF is an organization representing and fighting for the rights of email, stuff on the internet, and cell phones. Basically. They’re much more than that, of course.

Apparently there is/was this big event called the “e-G8”. Not exactly sure what or who they are but I just read an article about the co-founder of EFF and his attendance at this event.

When Barlow had a chance to speak, he expressed his own surprise at being on the panel, “because I don’t think I’m from the same planet, actually.” He then proceeded to trash the foundational assumptions of everyone who had just spoken.

I may be one of very few people in this room who actually makes his living personally by creating what these gentlemen are pleased to call “intellectual property.” I don’t regard my expression as a form of property. Property is something that can be taken from me. If I don’t have it, somebody else does.

Expression is not like that. The notion that expression is like that is entirely a consequence of taking a system of expression and transporting it around, which was necessary before there was the internet, which has the capacity to do this infinitely at almost no cost.

(source)

Later, after the Big Boys up front with him had a chance to change their pants, they confronted him about it.

Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterand took Barlow to task for his dramatic statements. “I do not share this apocalyptic vision of some dictatorship that will be creeping back through the internet into our lives to control our thoughts and the way in which we function,” he said. Some controls on the internet are eminently reasonable—we need “economic solutions to economic problems.”

The head of Universal Music France talked about just how much money was necessary to nurture new talent. DIdn’t Barlow understand economics?

“If you’re spending $5 billion on new artists, we’re not getting our money’s worth,” Barlow cracked, and he reframed his argument in economic terms of scarcity and abundance.

“Trying to optimize towards scarcity, as you are by all of your methods, is not going to be in the benefit of creation, I promise you,” he said. “It’s not IP enforcement that gets you guys properly paid.” In his view, payment comes from building a product that people actually want to buy—and the movie industry’s repeated record box office takes in recent years show that people have no problem coughing up the cash for something of value.

“I am not against being compensated for what you do,” concluded Barlow.

So why would I, a crippled up old Southern lesbian, give a rip? Well, on a large scale, I don’t want them to start regulating the Internet. Once they start regulating it, they start controlling it. I don’t want them in my email and certainly not controlling what I can or cannot post. On a much smaller scale, I do believe there is a need for some sort of regulation, but not of the Internet itself. There are hundreds of web sites where people can upload whatever so that other people can download whatever. This includes music, books, movies, photos, etc. Some are legitimate. The vast majority are not. There are people who actually scan in entire paper books into .pdf format then upload them so others can “enjoy” them. This is theft. It is piracy. I’ve discussed this before. So on the one hand, keep your nose out of my stuff. But on the other hand, I understand about copyrights. We can’t copyright ourselves to death or we’ll be in a massive gridlock. But a copyright needs to be honored.

So, folks at e-G8, work on shutting down online piracy. You can keep arresting and suing the user but until you get the pirate and the pirate sites, it’s like bailing water without turning off the faucet.

bookmark_border2012 Election

Posted on by PaulaO

I almost wish the Mayan calendar does mean the world ends next year. I don’t think I can stand another election campaign. If they’d just talk about what they will do or where they stand but, no, they have to spend money cutting each other up and that crap.

At any rate, the Republican “race” is looking interesting. I laughed when I heard Gingrich was going to run. Still laughing, actually.

But now I am laughing harder. I’d heard he’d had a bad week with the press so when I found an article that lists it all out, I was pleased.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Newton Leroy Gingrich

As everyone knows, this was the week that the federal government hit its deficit ceiling. That was the story everyone thought would dominate the week. Yet, somehow, Newt Gingrich surprised everyone by managing to hit his own first. And in the first full week of his life as an official candidate for president, too! For well over a decade, Gingrich had flirted with running for president, and just over a week ago, he finally decided to officially take the plunge. But by the time the sun had set on his campaign’s first weekend, political touts had cause to wonder if his aspirations were over. Let us now pause and take stock in the bizarre and awful week of self-inflicting wounds and puzzling decisions that the former speaker of the House has had, shall we?

(source)

It is a well done article and, after reading well over half of it, I’d not found an error. But I stopped reading because I couldn’t read for the tears of laughter blocking my vision. Seems as though, after an interview on the yawn worthy Meet the Press, and after several days of denials and apologies and all that crap, Gingrich’s spokesman Rick Tyler sent out a press release that reads more like a jumble of Haiku than a statement.

“The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding,” Tyler wrote. “Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.”

While it is indeed humorous, it is actually more painful than funny. That is, until I see that Cothbert (who I do not watch) covered this on his show.

(you can slide over to about 0:58 to miss out on the cheering audience or skip his part and get right to the meat of it at 2:38 or so although what he says sets the rest up quite nicely)

bookmark_borderThe Value of Proofreading

Posted on by PaulaO

I have noticed this more and more lately and it is quite disturbing. Usually, it is glaring errors in the article itself but now I’m seeing it in headlines. And not just headlines from small magazines and the like. This one is from CBS News.

A vane Osama bin Laden shown in new videos
CBS News – Bob Orr

(the sad source)

In case you missed it:

Noun
vane (plural vanes)
– (countable) A weather vane.
– Any of several usually relatively thin, rigid, flat, or sometimes curved surfaces radially mounted along an axis, as a blade in a turbine or a sail on a windmill, that is turned by or used to turn a fluid.
– (ornithology) The flattened, web-like part of a feather, consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft.
– A sight on a sextant or compass.
– One of the metal guidance or stabilizing fins attached to the tail of a bomb or other missile.

and

Adjective
vain (comparative vainer or more vain, superlative vainest or most vain)
– overly proud of oneself, especially when concerning appearance
– having very little substance
– effecting no purpose; pointless, futile.

I’m betting my 11 yr old niece (who wants to grow up to be a writer) wouldn’t mix up the words. And I’m betting that if she did, she would see it on the first read through. Real journalists don’t make those kind of mistakes. Real news editors wouldn’t let it go past their desk. But I’m thinking that both species are endangered. Journalism just isn’t what it used to be.

I know it may seem trivial, but it’s not. This was a major news source (CBS News) and a big headline. I knew at a simple glance that it wasn’t right. Had it been Fox News, I would not have been surprised. But CBS? I expect more.

bookmark_borderDoes it get better?

Posted on by PaulaO

I mean, really, does it?

We (the collective LGBT we) may or may not soon be allowed to die for our country. That’s both a Yay! and a Yay?

But we will be allowed to die for a country in which we still are not free. In most states, our most basic rights are not allowed.

We can still lose our jobs. Yes, just for being gay.
We cannot visit our partner in the hospital. Family only it says.
We cannot make decisions for our ill partner without paperwork that damn well better be perfect. Are hets even asked for proof of their marriage before making decisions?
We cannot marry our partner. Not the partner we’ve been with for over 20 yrs. But hets can marry someone they’ve known for a few seconds.

The list goes on. And, frankly, that list shows no signs of getting shorter.

So does it get better? Or do we just get more caloused at the way society treats us? Do we just get better at coping? At getting sarcastic to cover our pain?

bookmark_borderSarah Palin Rant

Posted on by PaulaO

(I’m in a bad mood again. Consider yerse’f warned.)

I saw a headline a few days ago that made me twitch. It was where Palin said we (meaning the US) need to stand beside our North Korean allies.

Now, I’m not a history buff. I couldn’t tell you the time frame of the Korean War. But I could tell you which side we (meaning the US) are allied with. It ain’t the North.

I assumed I had mis-read and since I wasn’t interested in a blood pressure increase, I didn’t read further. Today I came across this article: (bold text is my doing)

Why Sarah Palin’s North Korea Flub Matters

Sarah Palin provided prime material for news outlets and comedy programs when she said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Wednesday:

“But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.”

If she hasn’t already, I’m sure Palin will say that the “elitist,” “lamestream” media is doing her wrong, and that she is once again a victim of “gotcha journalism.” And Palin’s small but passionate group of supporters will undoubtedly argue that Palin made an honest slip of the tongue, something that could happen to any of us. Her supporters are right. Saying “North” instead of “South” is something that any of us could easily do.

But here’s the thing: Any of us did not stand up two years ago and claim we were qualified to fill a job that is a heartbeat away from the American presidency. We haven’t written books, made speeches, endorsed candidates and spoken to the (mostly right-wing) media as if we were policy experts. And we haven’t been scouting office space in Iowa for a 2012 presidential run.

(snip)

That’s the real story about the Palin flub about North Korea that the media isn’t covering. It’s not that she misspoke, but that anyone cared what she had to say on the issue in the first place.

Sarah Palin, with her reliance on spouting talking points, simplistic approach to issues and complete lack of experience beyond a half term as governor of a state the size of Columbus, Ohio, is not competent to be discussing North Korea. (Columbus, Ohio’s population is bigger than Alaska’s, 769,360 to 698,743.) And shame on any media outlet that treats her opinions as if they’re worth anything.

The real damning Palin quote in the Beck interview is the one in which she worries if “the White House is gonna come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea’s gonna do.” Putting aside her usual butchering of the English language, she takes a complicated problem facing the United States (and the world) and reduces it to a talking-point political attack on the president.

Her comment reveals that she has no understanding that we are dealing with a North Korean leadership that may not be rational and may even be self-destructive. And one with the firepower to kill legions of South Korean civilians. To her simplistic, politics-driven approach, it’s only about how the Democratic president isn’t tough enough. (As an aside, she is talking about a president who has increased troops in Afghanistan, stepped up drone attacks on the enemy, and taken out more Taliban and al Qaeda leaders than George W. Bush ever did, but I digress… )

Personally, the fact she baled out of her job as governor just half-way through her term tells me she got a case of the big-head and wanted more. To hell with her obligations to Alaska. She’d ridden that boat as far as she thought it could take her then jumped to another.

I sincerely doubt the Republican Party is insane enough to nominate her to run for President in 2012. I know they have slid backwards a lot lately but, surely, not that far back.

As y’all know from previous posts, I full support the right of Free Speech. I support Palin’s right to open her mouth and continue to prove she is an idiot. What I don’t support is this “pot calling the kettle black” mentality and here I will digress some.

What the fudge are they doing calling themselves the Tea Party for? They injure the original Tea Party folks. The original one, which happened in Boston harbor in 1773, was an early act of rebellion by the Colonists against Britain and Big Corporations. (read about it on Wikipedia) Basically it was about taxation without representation.

Now we have these idiots Americans who call themselves the Tea Party as a response to the way they think America is being run. Thing is, they started this group at the change of government, putting total blame on a brand new President and NOT on the previous administration. Um, wha…? They protest the acts of this new administration, blaming it for the unemployment, the recession, and for not acting quick enough to do what they want. Um, wha…? The original Boston Tea Party-goers did something. They stopped bitching and they did something. Granted, that something got everyone in trouble (the 5 ‘Coercive Acts’) but they did something at least. What has the current Tea Party done? Caused a huge rift in an already crumbling political party, brought all the nut cases out from all sorts of closets, and made us the further laughing stock of the rest of the world. (please, please, stop calling them “tea baggers”. makes me gag)

We can’t act as a nation with so many directional pulls. On the one hand, McCain (bless his twisted heart) says the repeal of the DADT push by Obama is ‘politically driven’ (duh, it’s Washington. what else fuels the crap there besides money?). What is Palin’s comments based on? Sheer love for this country or sheer love of the power and big-head case she has? No, it is also politically driven but for some reason, for her it is allowed. Oh, that’s right, she’s a Republican and therefore exempt. Riiiiight.

One last thing and then I will shut up. Maybe.

I think that when a person holding a political office decides to run for another office, they need to quit first. While H. Clinton was running against Obama, who was looking out for the state of NY’s interests in the Senate? While Palin was joy-riding with McCain, who was looking out for Alaska? And after losing, they all go back to their original jobs and proceed to represent their constituents against an opponent they lost against. It ain’t right. Not right at all.

Let’s say Lorna wanted to work for FedEx. But first, she needs to show that FedEx delivers better than the USPS and UPS and how she, as a future employer of FedEx, would be a good representative if hired. Meanwhile, she is still delivering mail for USPS. How far do you think that would last? And how happy do you think USPS would be when she returned, unhired to FedEx, to get back to work for a company she ignored and/or mistreated?

So why would the state of Alaska, NY, and all those others even WANT them back?