BIG BROTHER IS ALMOST THERE: NO PLACE TO HIDE

Apparently the FBI has built the most massive data base in the world. An AlterNet article by Tana Ganeva writes:  The FBI claims its database (IAFIS) is the largest in the world. There are 70 million subjects in the master criminal file, 31 million civil prints, as well as 73,000 known and suspected terrorists by the U.S.or by international saw enforcement agencies who work with the U.S.  For more detail, click here.

When we were able to trust law enforcement, all of us who knew we were doing nothing illegal felt safe.  After hearing all the false accusations, people illegally moved out of the U.S. by mistaken identity, none of this should feel entirely comfortable to any of us.  I have little fear of the database but tremendous fear of the people who run it.  Since the human hand is required in everything, the possibility of human error looms high.  There are none of us who haven't had our medical records show up with errors, billings inaccurate, charges inaccurate, and almost anything that can go wrong, at some time doing just that when a human has had a hand in it.

"The agency's plans for Next Generation Identification (NGI), a massive, billion-dollar upgrade that will hold iris scans, photos searchable with face recognition technology, palm prints, and measures of gait and voice recordings alongside records of fingerprints, scars, and tattoos. :writes Ms Ganeva

Soon the saying, "You can run but you can't hide " will have us all running back to read the writing of the psychotic author of 1984.  We will watch movies like Vendetta and Matrix, and search ways to find freedom from this perpetual scrutiny.

ACCEPT REALITY; LEARN WHEN IT IS FIXED AND CAN'T BE CHANGED

I've heard lots of inspirational talks but haD never heard this woman before.  Most of them substitute the concept ,usually in religion, of faith. Instead of faith in Christ, Allah, God, Rush Limbaugh or Timothy Leary, you are simply asked to have faith in yourself.  You are preached to by many sources that you first have to 'love yourself' and have 'faith in yourself'.  The only faith I have ever had in myself is faith in my abilities: to think quickly, consider my options, then check out my resources, In this sense, faith is: knowing that there is no free lunch and that if there is to be a solution to the problem, you will have to work it out for yourself.

A friend sent me a YouTube link which I found delightful.  The secret to success, as she tells it, will be explained at a later lecture. She debunks all the usual pleas to love yourself, etc. and all the ridiculous 'faith' requests which are impossible for most of us to plug into.  Thespians can easily bring on tears and  portray all kinds of instant emotion.  They get paid for doing it and it is not attached to their 'real' lives.  The operational word most important to our lives is reality.  Reality can be changed under some circumstances but an important skill to have been learned before maturation is that reality cannot always be changed and one must learn the difference in that particular reality.  A skill that should be gained in the maturation process is how to discern reality.  A process of elimination and some empirical thinking is good here.  One must never fuss and waste time and energy trying to change that which cannot be changed.  Generations of scientists tried to change iron into gold.  They  wasted a great deal of both time and energy before accepting that it can't be done.

It makes me wonder how I ever got along before Google and YouTube. The biggest danger in life has gotten to be that my Internet connection will fail or my computer will lose stored data.

TRY TO REACH THE TECH: FUN AT COMCAST

Happily at my computer,paying a bill online, an error message indicated the site I was on was either too busy to accept my payment or was having a problem. "please call back later"  When the  same error message was repeated too many times, I tried another site and found I could not get on the Internet.  Since Comcast also has my phone service (*!@# these 'package deals') my phone was not working, though my cable TV was still speaking to no one in another room.

A trip to another room for my cell phone, rarely used,meant this call ate up whatever minutes I have for the year on this and the last service call to Comcast.  I by now am feeling the steam level in my head building.  Through the usual phone maze, I finally got to a very nice technician barely still in the USA he was so far away., This gentleman told me he had endless patience.  I'm sure I used up his endless supply in the next several minutes though he remained  through the next many frustrating minutes..

I was asked to reset my cable modem  ( I had to get a flashlight and stand on my head to do that).  The reset did not solve my problem.  I pulled the AC off the modem.  Rebooted my computer (which went psychotic and played the Windows startup sound as in an endless loop.  I shut off the computer, also disconnected, waited and reconnected the AC, and still could not get on the Internet.  Another reboot of the computer which definitely had a problem (which had not existed before loss of the Internet and phone.) was dinally seemingly back as before the glitch and loss of contact with cyber world.


All of this is another household chore like preparing meals, cleaning house, washing clothes, etc. Life is full to time consuming tasks.  Just as I would lose all my teeth if I didn't tip, floss and brush them, so I will lost all my data, photographs, and things I have written if I don't keep my computer healthy, a task which would br easier if I didn' have to rely and on an impersonal corporation spread all over the world...

NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY

Mitt Romney has won but none of the other candidates got out of the race.

The candidates are now bordering on mealymouthed ridiculousness.  Santorum claims he was out there to talk about 'faith and family'. Why am I not surprised that he is a loser?

Gingrich commended the Speaker in New Hampshire for having been able to cut 11% out of their budget. He spoke a bit more to the goal of most Americans,  jobs, economic growth, and interesting new programs.  He claims to understand the principles and the practice of Washington business.  He said it would be wonderful what could get done with a Republican Congress and Gingrich as the president. Then he started to criticize
Obama as having no ideas then went on to give a speech about less government, no regulations, and the rest of the Republican mantra.

The Republican turnout of voters was significantly less than the turnout in 2008.

Tom Brokaw thought the Romney win was evidence that he is being charged to straighten out the economy and  change the lack of jobs.  There is still a very long road for them to travel until voting day in November.  Will we survive the campaign?

NO WONDER WALL ST AND MAJOR REPUBLICANS WANT ROMNEY

One can no longer be surprised why the Republican old guard wants Romney to be President.  One needs only to listen to former employees of companies bought out by Bain or to watch this video.

Peter Grier of the Christian Science Monitor writes an interesting article about the negative ads about Romney and Bain,  In true 'all-or-nothing' form many seem to want to blame him for the financial collapse.  It would be naive to think this one man could have done all the damage.  However, neither does it mean he didn't play a significant role since he cannot really count as a job creator.

If Romney gets the Republican nomination it will be for all the wrong reasons.  Ron Paul is just too old to be starting a job that would not end for him until 5 years from now.  Huntsman looked pretty good until I heard him say he thinks we should follow the Paul Ryan plan; Huntsman has no desire to support social security or Medicare.  Gingrich was sent away in shame once for his ethics violations.  Has anyone seen evidence that he is to be the first leopard to have changed his spots?  Buddy Roemer, really???? Rick Perry wants to considered as President after he was videotaped supporting his state of Texas in seceding from the USA/

Soon we will learn more meaningless poll numbers.  Ho-hum!

WHERE IS OUR FOCUS THESE DAYS?

Unless one looks at news sources from other countries, it could be easily assumed that nothing of interest happened in the world today beyond the NH primary debate, following the same people debating last night as well in New Hampshire.

At least Al Jazeera covered the Occupy Wall St. protests.
Homeless are occupying abandoned homes through many states.

An Italian Newspaper reports that a Senate Stenographer receives as much salary as the Spanish King.

The Athens News writes the media and politics are tied up; that freedom of the press comes only if you own one.

Meanwhile, back at the USA ranch, we are at the mercy of Murdoch controlled media as well as other conglomerates and entertainment companies who own the media pretty much.  People will vote our next president on his 'truth'...laughable if he is a Republican from what I am seeing and hearing.

USA, A LAUGHING STOCK FOR THE WORLD

We used to be hated by the world during GW Bush era; presently with the Republicans in the Congress obstructing everything that Obama suggests (that they used to believe in) Now, with the blatancy with which the Republicans in Congress are obstructing any thing that they used to believe in or have brought forward.  This is not behavior for which politicians can claim pride.  It explains why the polls show them in single digits of favor.

An American Marine, now in Canada, suggests on YouTube that we become part of Canada as they are far ahead of us for their people.  Ber sure to scroll down until you see the picture shown above and click on the arrow to play the video. Comedians take the pulse of the American people far more accurately than the politicians do.  Naturally the video is tongue in cheek but the maxim 'out of the mouths of babes' can be substituted here in the form of 'out of the mouths of the comedians...'..

Our Republican candidates put on a great show on Saturday evening, debating in New Hampshire.  Lies, history re-writes, were but a few elements of the reflected idiocy. and lack of awareness of the real and most prioritized issues which the citizens of this country plead to have heard rather than as they are now ignored.  I do not consider going back to Iraq (though the Iragis do not want us there) to presumably preempt Iran from taking Iraq over, taking their treasures, etc.

To date during the debates, they offer no positive solutions other than to take back anything that has passed during the Obama administration.  They seem to want to get rid of "Obamacare' as they call it, get government out of our lives by eliminating Roe vs Wade, disallowing all contraceptives, and bringing out where it mimics the naive values of Regency England before doctors realized first cousins should not marry.

Equally amazing is that they all speak with the same forked tongue...get rid of Obama and go back to the Bush era of war and the skid down to a recession/depression where the middle class is as 'under water' as are many house mortgages.  The candidates must forget that not everyone who goes to hear them will vote for any of them and that when they deny that they said what everyone heard them say, the media plays the clips disproving their denial, over and over.  It is as though they forget that TV allows their viewers to hear these things while they are being said, repeatedly, so they are difficult to miss.  This way, those who weren't old enough to have heard them the first time gets the archived tapes played ad nauseam.