Monthly Archive for August, 2005

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09
Aug
2005

Privacy is in the eyes of the beholder

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .
original article

There’s been some interesting debate recently on whether or not police can search your garbage without a search warrant. Apparently the police, district attorneys and judges think they can. They seem to believe since that stuff is put there to be discarded and people know it’s going to be handled by sanitation workers and even sorted for recycling there is no expectation of privacy, so it’s ok for the police to search it without a search warrant. And they routinely do.

Journalists of the Willamette Week newspaper in Portland, OR decided they’d exercise their rights to search this public depository of personal information by going dumpster diving in the Police Chief’s, the Mayor’s and the District Attorney’s garbage cans.

They then went to said persons asking whether it was ok to search garbage. All of them said yes…until the reporters told them they had gone through their own garbage. How the tables suddenly turned.

The Police Chief was so upset he cut the reporters off midsentence and stopped the interview. The Mayor summoned the reporters to her office and nearly arrested them on the spot. The District Attorney, however, was playing the “hahhah, it’s funny” game and apparently wasn’t upset at all.

-TPP


08
Aug
2005

Guilty until proven innocent

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , .
original article

Looks like a couple of the Michael Jackson trial jurors are milking in the dough on the media interview circus by basically saying “we thought he was innocent of the crimes accused, but we should’ve convicted him anyway, because he might’ve been guilty of other crimes”.

That’s exactly what was wrong in all the media coverage during the trial. Because the dude is a monkey-loving, plastic-surgery-defaced freak we should put him away, cause we don’t like him. Fine. Let’s go that way, but only if we get to jail other people we don’t like as well. In fact, I have a LONG list of people I don’t like and rather see neutralized before they can do more harm.

In fact, let’s do one better. Let’s have the MEDIA run trials and convict people using website polling:

Q. Should we hang this ugly african-american man?
1. Hell yea, hang the n****, I’m from the south
2. Heavens, no! I’m a tree-hugging liberal intellectual from Vermont, death penalty is wrong
3. Whatever YOU think, Geraldo Rivera
4. Dude, I don’t know, I’m so high I can’t even click on the right freakin button
5. No, but hang this other dude I don’t like

That’d save a fortune and, even better, it’d be a revenue generating activity for the private businesses. What could be better???

-TPP


08
Aug
2005

It’s all about public perception

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , .
original article

Some crackpot government official in Indiana State decided it’d be a good idea to ban all clocks from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicle waiting rooms so that people waiting for hours wouldn’t know they’ve been waiting for hours.

A+ for creative thinking, F- for service

-TPP


04
Aug
2005

NRA out to lunch

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .

Now, I don’t really usually care much what the kooks [1] at NRA are up to, but this time I have to wonder what in the hell are they thinking off.

In 2004 Weyerhaeuser Corporation in Oklahoma fired employees who were carrying guns in their cars parked in the company parking lot stating it was a violation of the company policy barring firearms from company property. The parking lot certainly is company property, so it’s not an entirely unreasonable to hold employees in violation the firearms policy by bringing guns onto the parking lot.

NRA wasn’t having any of it. If it was up to them, kindergarten cops would drive to work in a tank, so they called up a couple of friends in the Oklahoma State legislative office. The friends quickly passed a law that prohibits employers from banning firearms from locked vehicles parked on company property.

The legislation was co-authored by one interesting Oklahoma State Senator named Frank Shurden. He’s also known for other interesting bills. Looks like he’s trying to do that again. He sure got some balls. Wait, but it doesn’t end there. Senator Shurden also wants teachers to paddle unruly kids. I wonder if he’s into S&M. He sure fits the profile.

The law to allow firearms in locked vehicles hasn’t been enacted, because several companies in Oklahoma are opposing the law and got a temporary restraining order against enacting the law.

NRA wasn’t having any of it. If it was up to them, you could hunt deer with an M16, so they called up a couple of friends in the US Capitol. The friends quickly drafted a bill introduced in the US Senate last Friday that would essentially do the same thing as the law in Oklahoma. Naturally several companies are against any such laws, so NRA is calling on nationwide boycotts against them.

Yay for 2nd Amendment!

-TPP

1. No, I’m not talking about NRA members, some of which may actually be quite sane however misguided they may be on a variety of issues. The leadership is, however, pretty much your standard garden variety kook


03
Aug
2005

Liberating Iraq one General at a time

Published in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: , , , .
original article

The Washington Post article describes torture techniques CIA and the US Army used while interrogating an Iraqi General, who walked into a US Army base and surrendered soon after Baghdad fell to the US troops.

Turns out hitting people repeatedly with the butt of an M16 rifle and then sitting on their chest while said person is restrained inside a sleeping bag tied with eletric wire can cause sudden death. Who would’ve thunk it?

-TPP