Anyway, I was listening to another TED address today that I found a link to somewhere – just where escapes me now, but I’m getting sleepy early.

In the address, the speaker talks about how Facebook is tailoring what they display on your news feed by what you’ve clicked on in the past.  Those who have clicked on conservative links aren’t as likely to see many links posted by liberal friends.

A dear friend would say just stay off Facebook, they collect too much information anyway.

Did you know, Google does the same thing?  So do other news sites and search engines.  Not just from your browser history, but even analyzing the browser you’re using and your operating system.  Two people on two different computers will get 2 totally different results when searching Google for the exact same search term.  (See the video and the search for ‘Egypt’ on Google).

Smacks of Big Brother doesn’t it?

Check out the presentation below.  It’s only a bit under 10 minutes so won’t take much of your time.

My response was Hell NO because of the NDAA that he signed on Saturday (December 31).  On the face of it, the NDAA simply funds the Defense Department.  Sounds great, with all the soldiers that need paid, right?

Yet there was an insidious addition to the 2012 version of the bill.  This addition allows the government to arrest American citizens on American soil and hold them indefinitely.  Without trial.  Without legal resource.  All because they’re suspected to be a terrorist.

Let’s just make the Bill of Rights null and void, right?

Ben Franklin is often quoted as saying

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

In actuality, I found an article suggesting he didn’t write this quote, but someone else during the Revolutionary War.  Either way, it’s something for us to think about.

Both of these bills would allow an entire website to be taken down because of any suspected pirated or stolen content.  This might sound great to an artist, but think of it this way.  Someone sings a Beach Boys song and uploads it to YouTube.  YouTube can be shut down.  The whole site, not just one specific video.

DCMA currently allows a copyright owner to go through legal channels to get copyrighted content removed.  Apparently for some copyright owners, DCMA isn’t enough.  The number of companies and organizations supporting SOPA have been at times surprising and other times no surprise at all.

GoDaddy was vocal in supporting SOPA until a very public backlash that turned into a PR nightmare.

SumOfUs is encouraging people to email Google to withdraw from the US Chamber of Commerce because the Chamber supports SOPA.

Now Sony, Electronic Arts (EA Games) and Nintendo have apparently withdrawn support for SOPA.  Yet though they’re not listed as supporting this bill, they’re still members of the Entertainment Software Association, and the ESA supports SOPA.  Oops.

This bill is turning into a PR nightmare for companies that rely on the Internet for their business.  Yet they’re still pushing for the bill’s approval.

Since I’m not as eloquent as I’d like to be tonight, I’ll end with this.  Adam Savage has an article in Popular Mechanics that’s available on their website.  In this article, he explains why SOPA and PROTECT-IP are a bad idea.  Check it out here. (Opens in a new window).

From YouTube:

Edited to add the following, posted from OccupyOakland.

And one more: I know my parents don’t agree with Bernie, but this is what I’ve been saying when my parents ask my opinion of what’s going on, or at least part of it – that deregulation led to the economic problems we’re having:

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so tongue in cheek several years ago when I said Bernie for Prez

The Republicans are definitely living on another planet.

Occupy Wall Street has been marching on Wall Street past the original 14 days planned.  They’re now coming up on 21 days – if I remember correctly.   Similar groups have been marching in other cities across the country.  They want to see real change.  They want to see those who caused the crash pay.  They want to see those who benefited from the crash pay as well.  Of course, in most instances the two are the same.

Members of my family who read my blog aren’t necessarily going to be happy with what I have to say next.

The Tea Party is partially responsible.  I’m not saying their entirely responsible, but the whole no-compromise thing? Yea, it’s not working.  It’s gridlocking the government.  Nothing is being done.  Instead, we’re heading into another recession, with many people not even having the base they did before the first one.  MarketWatch is calling this time lost decades, saying that 2000 to 2010 is a lost decade as well.  (source – opens in a new window)

I get very irritated at some members of my family who blame Obama for everything.  One of my brothers blamed Obama for the AT&T and T-Mobile merger not going through.  Uhh yea, he doesn’t have his hand in everything quite that much.

Does that mean I like who he’s appointed for some things like head of USDA? No, I absolutely don’t.  Even worse the person who is the head of the FDA.  Does that mean he tells them how he wants them to decide on issues?  In most cases, I’d say no.  I’d say he just went with who his backers wanted in those positions.  You know, like some of the bigger pharmaceutical companies wanting someone who was going to be soft on them as head of the FDA.  The companies trying to push genetically modified organisms (GMOs) would want someone soft on them as head of the USDA.

Does that mean I think Obama has done a (excuse the phrase) piss-poor job so far?

Yes and no.  I think he’s trying too hard to appease everyone.  I think he had good intentions with the healthcare bill, but the big pharma and insurance companies weren’t exactly going to let the government cap their profits with a true healthcare bill, and of course they had the ear of a number of congress-persons who were drafting the bill.  It is unacceptable that no one read the bill before passing it, especially Obama.

Want to know the worst of it? Conservative multi-millionaires are now buying offices.  Not for themselves, but they’re pretty much paying the campaign costs for any conservative that is running for office, especially in states that could be swing states.  Like North Carolina.  Check out what the New Yorker has to say about Art Pope. (new window).

I find that the scariest of all.  Even middle of the road, almost conservative democrats are having mud slung at them so a Tea Party republican can be put in.

The dirty politics?  I foresee a lot more marches.  And eventually more than simple marches.  It might truly be history in the making.  We may be watching the fall of America.

That’s even scarier than the dirty politics.

Now, I know my brother that reads my blog is going to say that I’m only reading liberal papers, and not the ‘fair and balanced’ Fox News.  Yet, Fox has nothing about the protests going on across the country.  Instead, the US News section has a number of articles about Amanda Knox coming home, and the Fast & Furious inquest.  Oops.  I’d think the Fast & Furious inquest should go under politics.

But then again, what do I know? It’s not like everyone’s unhappy with mostly the same thing when you tear away the politics of the issue.

Then again, there were a number of people who cheered at the Republican debate when someone said that we should let a 30 year old without insurance die rather than help him have some sort of insurance so he can go to the doctor.

That shows real heart, doesn’t it?

This week, he linked to a speech given by historian Niall Ferguson at The TED Conference, called ’6 Killer Apps of Prosperity.’ (link is to the official YouTube version of the speech).

One of his comments got me to thinking.  At about minute 17, he says something about the West collapsing on itself because many civilizations operate on the edge of chaos.  I look at our political system and see the chaos he’s talking about, but I wonder how close the chaos we see now is anything like the chaos that we would have seen 200 years ago, soon after the American Revolution and the founding of our country.  One question I’ve been thinking about since I heard the speech is to wonder whether we’ve fallen further into chaos over the last 100 years.  Prohibition, & gun running might come to mind initially, but what about the ‘Mountain Men’? What about people like Ted Kaczinski? The ones who don’t trust the government because it’s gotten too big? (too big to fail?? is there such a thing?).

I know my view might not be popular, but I foresee a revolution coming.  The second American Revolution will be as bloody as the first, with the heads of some of the bigger corporations like insurance and pharmaceutical companies being the ones that have the most problems or are the first targets.

I only hope I’m wrong.  I’d love to see this country right itself.  But, when the economy starts showing some improvement, the politicians need to keep their hands off.  When you start a fire, you don’t pile the logs on the glowing embers, you wait for the flames, for the fire to be ready for the logs.  I’m not taking aim at any one side, both sides are causing the problems and neither side is acting as part of the solution.

The article is http://tech.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=story&sid=11/09/17/2237256 (Opens in a new window)

How much oversight is there for big companies.  According to NewsWorks.org, Merck reported high profits last year.  Yet now they’re planning on laying off 13,000 jobs by 2015.  From what I’ve read, the CEO makes wonderful money though.  If you want to consider a mere $24mil in 2010 wonderful money (pay rate from FiercePharma.com).  Maybe it’s just scraping by for those high paid CEO’s.

Yet from the looks of things, some of these high paid CEOs couldn’t find their butt with both hands and a map.  Sorry, but someone needs to regulate what’s being done (and no, I’m not talking more government regulation, let’s try for some self discipline by the companies).  If the company is making enough profits to pay their CEO that much money per YEAR, why are they laying off employees 2 years later?  Does anyone on the Board of Directors stop to think about who makes the high pay possible? I know some people serve on multiple Boards.  Others serve on a Board of Directors in addition to their own full time jobs.  Do they have the time to sit down and figure out the budget and look over work load reports??  Do they even bother gathering work load reports? Are they concerned about just the bottom line?

At the company I used to work for, my former coworkers are working 10 and 12 hour days to keep up with the work load.  Some were doing it before I left, now everyone is.  Yet when I complained about the work load, the department manager kept saying there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  I sincerely hope for my friends’ sakes, the light isn’t an oncoming train.  Or a hyperactive kid with a glow stick.

In other news, the ice cream truck just passed by, yet it’s thundering and getting ready to pour.  I wonder how much business he’s going to get.  LOL

To help close the gap in the budget, California is selling their surplus on eBay instead of just auctioning it like most states.  To try to get more money out of these repos and impounds, the governor is autographing many of the items.  All a great idea, in my humble opinion. 

What I find really hilarious on one level and mind boggling on another are the comments being made at the bottom of the article.  There are many, many people saying that the problems with California are the fault of the liberals in charge, etc etc.  Uhh, hate to break it to you, Schwarzenegger is a Republican.  The whole problem with California’s economy is two-fold, and neither problem can be placed at any one party’s feet. 

First, they were spending much more than they were making for years.  You can’t do that. 

Second, many in California are being hard hit with the problems with the housing bubble and the economy tanking. 

So in essence, California was spending as much as if not more than they really had coming in, and then they suddenly had less coming in.  Oops.  Seems to me, that’s the problem many people are having too. 

On a personal note, I’m sorry I haven’t been posting much.  It’s been a very busy summer.  My oldest made it off to boot camp, and I’ve gotten one (form) letter back from him already.  I’m sure I’ll hear from him again soon… this time in his own words

My first question is whether Rush Limbaugh has brain damage or if he was just  born a frelling idiot.  I mean he says he wants Obama to fail.  Does that mean he wants the United States to fall apart?  How bad does he want everything to get? Is he just totally clueless or what??? Talk about sour grapes.  This guy is pouting so much that his side didn’t win the elections, that he’s now trying to sabotage the current president and congress.  Uhh yea, idiot.  No better name for him.  Incindiary entertainer or not, the man’s a freaking genius… NOT.  Our country needs Obama to succeed because we need to get out of the economic mess we’re in.  I do have a question for Rush though.  Is he so frelling out of touch with what’s going on with the working class and the working poor or does he just not give a flying fuck about them?  Obviously he has enough money to keep himself sheltered from the problems with the economy.  Since he doesn’t want to do crap about helping fix it, does he want to donate some of his money to help those who are having trouble because they lost their jobs??? I mean even MicroSoft is laying people off.  How about donating some of his money to help those who have lost a good portion of their retirement funds from the greedy idiots on wall street?  Oh yea, I forgot.  Rush only cares about good Republicans or maybe he just cares about himself and his hyper inflated view of his own importance.  Windbag.  Whatever. That tells you how much his opinion is worth.  There are as many good Republicans having problems because of the economy as there are good Democrats having problems because of the economy.  Not everyone is in trouble because they got loans that were more than they could afford.  Some people are having to choose between paying their electric bills or buying food.  Some it’s even more basic, they’re having to choose between buying food and paying their rent.  Yea, then those people who lose their place to live and looking at losing their kids as well.  After all, they’re neglecting their kids if they’re homeless.  Yea, Michigan needs to do something about that.  That’s just WRONG.

As for the rest… well then there are the good little Republicans.  Instead of just badmouthing the stimulus package that Obama wanted to pass, they should have tried to contribute.  Instead all I see is how it’s full of pork, and how it’s a bad idea.  THEN DO WHAT YOU WERE ELECTED TO DO AND WORK TOWARD A COMPROMISE! OTHERWISE SHUT UP AND PLAY NICE WITH EVERYONE ELSE!

Can we tell I’ve been reading the news a bit too much today?

That doesn’t mean I’m going to let the Democrats off the hook.  I saw some of what’s included in the stimulus package.  Some of that could have waited. Yes, it’s pork.  The Congressional Democrats need to play nice too.

Then there are those who think that we should just hand over more money to Wall Street.  I mean the vacation packages and bonuses weren’t enough.  We, those of us who used to be middle class and the working poor obviously need to pay for those nice fat bonuses at some Wall Street firm.  Yea, I know there are strings to the new part of the bailout, but what about the money from last year?

Speaking of the money from last year, I read somewhere today that separate from that $700 billion in Wall Street bailout money is another $2 trillion or so in money given to banks.  Uhh SAY WHAT???

Maybe everyone in congress should share whatever they’re smoking with the rest of us poor saps.  Then we won’t mind so much paying for excessive spending in government and the greedy saps on Wall Street and in the other investment banks.  Maybe they should be made to give the money back like they’re talking about making Madoff do.  That sounds like fair justice.

I’ve been doing more looking at social media lately.  It kinda makes me wonder where things are headed.  I wonder what my kids are going to see that I never would have dreamed of.  Though MySpace may seem ubiquitous, I’ve found out that some of my family has profiles on there.  My reading list looks like my brothers and my music choices look like my sister’s.  Very interesting how that turned out.

I keep reading about how the democrats came up with a plan for helping the economy that they made some compromises on to try to get approval from both sides of the aisle.  I really would like to see this plan to know how much is crap because the republicans are still saying it’s too much and they won’t approve it.  I’m curious how much was really compromised and why it won’t get passed.  We all know something needs to be done out there.  Someone needs to sit down and hammer out a compromise that everyone can agree to.  Playing petty games is what got us into this mess.  Oh and Pres Obama, sorry that your girls schools were closed, but that’s living in the south, especially DC.  LOL I learned that one the hard way myself.

I found out tonight that Hertz doesn’t offer unlimited mileage for minivan rentals.  That makes no sense.  People who rent vans are gonna be taking family vacation type trips.  Why charge extra like that?