Well foks,..I've seen Internet Regulation mentioned lightly in a couple of blogs lately, and I thought I'd create a blog based upon the fears I see of Internet Regulation. I kinda like this topic as it's a double-edged sword..in some ways I feel it should be regulated, in others not at all.
I wonder what part of internet regulation bothers people the most. Internet sales tax? Freedom of Speech issues? Is there a chronic fear of being spied upon?
What is currently being presented to the public as potential items which may be regulated, as I'm not sure what people are up in arms about quite yet.
So..to get the ball rolling, and to get under the skin of a few readers (heehee)... I'll discuss the concepts of internet regulation to which I say...Oh hell yes! That's right......I just said that. ;)
Firstly... I'm a complete supporter of our government intruding into the binary chronicles of any suspect terrorist.. and that person's relatives, particularly if a link is established to Middle East connections/communications-- or with any country if a known terrorist is on the other end.. I'm sorry if that bothers somebody, the thought of such does not bother me in the least.
Planning an event of terrorism happens to be against federal laws, against our nation and against our people. I do not worry if the feds eavesdrop on somebody who doesn't pan out to be a threat. They are free to eavesdrop on me anytime...they are free to read my blogs. In fact I wish half the theiving assholes in Washington would indeed read my blogs! Just don't take away my right to call them delusional scumbags without a clue. I do have that right, it is not against federal law.
When it comes to upholding federal laws-- the laws which define and regulate us as a nation and a people--I do not believe that the most advanced medium of communication ever known to man should slip through the cracks as being "untouchable" because somebody is afraid their "rights" might be violated. Might I inquire: Your right to do what exactly?---break federal laws? Cough-cough-- you have no such right. So...if you're involved with human trafficking, the latest in home-made bombs big enough to rattle a city, or any other major crime.. I say "Book 'm Danno!"
I know, I know... right now there is a vintage boomer college professor, probably psych-soc, reading my blog...about to kick off his Birkenstocks, fire up a doobie, and attempt to recall again just what happened at Woodstock after he took the brown acid....and he's upset over my defiant attitude towards personal freedom. To himself, he represents the embodiment of personal freedom. To me, much less, but he is free to speak here. For a second or two...LOL
Does anyone hate me yet? Because I'm about to go where men fear to tread most of all. and that topic would be internet porn.
If we are to ever discuss the "regulation" of the internet, and if we are ever truly going to take a look at serious societal problems which may result from a medium of communication being completely abused, as well as federal laws being broken.. you can't ignore porn.
A Playboy magazine on a newstand is wrapped in plastic. Why? So a minor does not view the pages, and it is only sold to an adult. It's the law. It's illegal to transfer pornography to a minor, period. And since this is largely a boomer site, most of you know what you were exposed to by the age of 8 years old. Not much. You were likely much older before you understood much about sex, or even cared... or at best it was a fancy little curiosity among you and your friends, largely left as such when you were turning 10 or 11. Your reality check is that 10 and 11 is not extremely unordinary these days for full blown sex or school bus blow jobs.I heard some news story a few months ago about two 8 year olds getting caught having intercourse.
And you call this "freedom"? The only thing it can accurately be called is a self-induced societal cancer, eating away at our youth, which was created completely by adults. Those adults are YOU, or anyone else who thinks this should continue... or that we should adjust our expectations for the lives of children by making them completely aware of all aspects of sexuality by the age of 5 or 6. If you carry this notion, you are nothing short of a child molester, but instead of involving yourself with one child, you are molesting a nation of children. You are destroying childhoods....because of what? Some sort of bogus, self-inflated sense of entitlement towards your imagined right to internet porn.
How many millions... even billions of times each day do you suppose minors are exposed to internet pornography? Mind you, the stuff they are viewing is vastly worse than the stuff you viewed when you turned 18 and went to a porn theater for the first time. And you expect a 10 year old, or younger, to do the right thing with said exposure? What about with a constant bombarment? What about with a whole nation of children who begin to believe that what they are viewing is normal, and it's the thing to do? We're already there.
But it's against federal law to transfer that porn to that minor. it always was and hopefully always will be. These laws exist for a reason... many reasons... all good.
So...my final item of mention to be regulated is indeed internet porn. And it should begin with the absolute banning of all open source material, as well as the banning of all porn, if and until there is some method established to insure an accurate age check. If adults don't want to go that route online, they may just have to go to the adult bookstore. But honestly, if you are ever going to spare the future generations from this nightmare... you will not only need to face the problem square on, but also have the balls to admit there even is a problem.
Hate me yet???LOL Tell me more...tell me of my wicked, craziness... or tell me why I'm wrong in saying these items should be regulated.
Also..feel free to further discuss the topic of regulation.
Well.... I can't say I successfully created any following here to the show I was recently addicted to on the television, but since tonight was the finals of the Sing Off competition..I'll be waiting until next year to see the next one.
A group called "Committed" won (yay!)...and the final voting was done by the viewing public. I, myself, called in and voted for Committed, I was so moved by those guys and their incredible talent. I cannot wait for their first album!...and a recording contract with Sony was part of the winnings.
More than anything, I'm bummed the show is over. It was the most entertaining thing I've seen in years, and it's the most talent I've seen in decades. ALL the groups in the competition were incredible in their own right and own way.. but wow, the final four groups were nearly impossible to choose from. I honestly believe they will all be recorded, and will all be touring soon.
The group Committed, however,will be going the way of Take 6, my ever-favorite acapella vocal group of all time..and they will also share the same path.. a gospel one. They came to the show after being discovered by talent scouts, hiding out somewhere in a church in Alabama. Absolute ANGELS of jazz-Gospel voicing.
I'm still amazed by it all...craving more...as there is something incredibly powerful about serious acapella work. It leaves me to believe there really is no instrument on earth more interesting than the human voice itself...nor one more touching or powerful.
Even those of us who are musically inclined...well.. we sometimes kid ourselves and others when we suggest we can sing a little...as when you witness what occured on that show, you can rest assured you're not much at all. Yet, when you are somewhat musical, you have an edge in hearing and sensing things that others do not and cannot.
The number of times I had either chills running down my spine, or tears welling up in my eyes were too numerous to count,,,and it was all because of the most emotionally intense and finely crafted presentations of combined human voices that I've ever heard or seen.
All said... I kinda liked the show. sorry if you missed it! :)
I'm kinda wondering about the nature of this place. Is it just me, or does everyone's friends list look the same? Do we all have to have the same friends? LOL
Sure, it's true...this place needs to grow so we can choose from millions instead of a few hundred. And of course the MySpace family is to not be denied.. to that we indeed need a lot of repetition among friends lists.
So, with all said thus far...I suppose it's also true that I'm weird. Can we all agree to that? (thanks...LOL). And I"m really, really, REALLY, weird about who I accept as friends...at least from here on out.
Oh....and I forgot to mention that I'm COMPLETELY CRAZY in that I like to have friends who either already know me from elsewhere, or whom actually desire to get to know me in some way...even one sentence is a great start! Like I said though...I'm a raving lunatic that way! Are you a lunatic like me??? ;)
I know..I know..it sounds completely crazy... but I'm holding out for that one-liner from anyone who has invited me to be a friend. Anything....anything at all... "Hey...love that old car, what is it?"... or maybe.."Good gawd, saw your comment on Ziatia's blog and about wet my pants!"... or...or... "Damn...you crack me up just lookin' at ya!"... Know what I'm sayin'? Let me know we have something in common... make it light or bring me your best Howdy-Doo game. But please do not be a "friend collector" for no reason at all.....I beg of you.
So...what do ya think? Am I being too picky? Anyone? Hmmm???
Good morning folks. I hope you are all enjoying your slumber as I type--seems I fell asleep too early on the couch last night, and I"m at the keyboard at 4 in the morning, now...LOL
I just read a blog by my friend Vic, regarding the current debate in government about firther taxing (or not) the rich... and various aspects of our current economic situation. Let it be no shocker I find myself in agreement with Vic, but I wanted to touch base on some aspects of our economic situation which often go unstated.
As a person who struggles to make it on his own out here...completely on his own...(ie...self-employed, I have to buy health insurance and all other types of insurance... and have NO provided retirement plan, etc... ) , I'll have to say that life gets scarier all the time. Having recently turned 50 y/o, I received the wonderful surprise of a 20% increase in my health insurance premium. On top of that, it would seem that ALL forms of insurance keep rising...and you honestly must allow yourself to wonder why.
In an economic downturn, the cost of home insurance really has no need to rise. Your property is not worth more, in fact it's worth less, and the cost of materials and labor in rebuilding a burnt/damaged structure are down also. The price of building materials is down due to lack of demand, and the cost of labor is down because of unemployment...as it should be. Yet such things are never reflected in an ever-rising home insurance premium, are they? Why not?
The only answer I can arrive at is one which reflects an all-encompassing problem within nearly every industry within our country, especially among the industries and/or products which we consider essentials/ neccessities.
Whether discussing medical care, health insurance, gas-electric, telephone, school, law enforcement, basically any system of government, and nearly any system supporting a basic "need" of all people, as well as any and all industries based upon a unionized workforce, there has been a heirarchy established over the last 50 years or so which can no longer sustain itself, and especially it is true that the PUBLIC can no longer sustain said entities. The consistent pay raises, the lavish offerings of retirement packages, health care benefits, etc which have been extended to the employers and employees within ALL of these enterprises over the years has finally reached the level of "critical mass" in which it MUST break down, as the public cannot any longer sustain it. None of it.
Within ALL of the heirarchies of mention, there is one common element flowing-- that of expectation; that of increased expectation, and DEMAND... by all within. Call it a sense of entitlement, if you will, that things will always get better, the profit will always increase, the pay and benefits will always increase, often to the point it's become contractual and binding law in which the lawyers themselves build entire practices based upon the exploitation of these senses of entitlement.
I'm here to say that everything we are experiencing during these troubling times is precisely due to all of the above.
So...when we watch our government whacktards, Democrat and Republican alike, debate over issues such as the taxation of the rich, or the extensions of unemployment benefits...the actual problems are being ignored completely, as the problems themselves have been aided and abetted (and extorted from) for decades by these very government wonks from hell. These very dorks have created laws which support these senses of entitlement, and it remains to be the very item which eats this country from the inside out.
NONE of them desire to say "it's over"..."yours/my expectations can no longer be supported"... "your days of excess and promise is a bag of shit that's about to be dumped into the giant fan of history".
But this is precisely what is happening. Essentially every system which has been overbuilt through over-expectations, and abused through the coerced billing cycles to the public at large is about to implode...crushed by it's own weight of irresponsibility and selfishness. This process will not be stopped.
While we watch it all fall upon itself, we will feel a great deal of pain...all of us. Correction is often a bitch. And there are two potential endings to this story.
Potential Ending #1. After it all blows apart, America will return to being a land of personal accountability and responsibility, generated by realistic goals and visions, creativity and hard work.
Potential ending #2. After it all blows apart, the entire American way will desolve, the Constitution and design of this country will be shredded, and we will fall to Socialism or worse, with everyone essentially working hard each day for the government itself.
Such are my thoughts....
Should I go back to bed and claim it all as a bad dream? What do you think?
Mere minutes ago, the boob tube revealed to me a couple of news stories about Christmas time stampedes, shoppers going bonkers, shoppers fighting over the last "special sale" item on the shelf. Seriously.. a real video of two dudes duking it out in a store!
Oddly, I've found many days lately in which I'd felt the true Christmas Spirit welling up inside of me. When I see such nutbars out there clammoring over "things"...camping outside of a store so's to be the first to enter the store.. arrg. There really could not be a sicker commentary made for our society. It just keeps getting worse, doesn't it? People are obviously so far removed from any sense of Joy Among Men, the Spirit of Giving, the Glowing of Hearts, the Warmth of Love, and the Peacefulness of Heart and Soul, that it seems horribly sad. And I said all of that without even mentioning the Birth of Jesus Christ, the one who is to get all the credit for the Joy, the Spirit, The Glowing and Peace.
It really makes me wonder how many people feel anything that they can at least claim for themselves to be the Christmas Spirit. Can you feel it? While some may define the Christmas Spirit in a slightly different manner, in many ways it will be the same. I guess I have a few thoughts along that line, perhaps advice on how to NOT get caught up in the agony, and how to make the worm turn inside of you, so you can enjoy what's going on.
1. Never profess to hate Christmas music. Mmmm-Mmmm... I have found a real oldies station near me..( and I don't mean classic rock).. I mean a REAL OLDIES station that is playing some of the best Christmas stuff I've heard in years. I'm totally diggin' on a daily dose of Bing, Nat, Leena, big bands, big names..even more contemporary Christian stuff like Take 6. it's heavenly, I'm tellin' ya. Sing it! Put your heart in a good place for a change!
I'm doing it, why can't you? And I'm doing it in a construction zone, in major house remodelling job in which there is and has been no furnace! YES...it's been miserable, and I'm singing about it, thank you very much.
And how about those bell ringers outside the stores as you enter?? What do you say to yourself when seeing these people? "Oh no...another one!"?
Might I ask you to just tweak your mind a teensy-weensy bit in the other direction... and suggest you say to yourself.. "Oh cool.. another kind heart who is putting himself or herself out on a limb, suffering the weather, because they so enjoy being the middle-man in an exchange of goodwill and giving..an event which is totally dependent upon ME and MY own goodwill."
Because that is the truth of what's going on. That bell-ringer is a medium.. a conduit through which your own heart travels. So...kick in a buck... and when that person says "God Bless You"..take it to heart..and then return it... "You are the blessing Ma'am..keep up the good work"... and smile. I dare those who normally walk by the bell ringers to do this... it very well may change you.
It may even change the way you shop and what you're shopping for. Throw that stupid list on the ground and shop with your heart...calmly...and enjoy.
Think I'm crazy? I may indeed be.
What are your thoughts on the Chrsitmas season? Do you have the Christmas Spirit this year, or is just a time to dread each year? Any tips on how to make a potentially bad situation feel better? Tell me more.. :)
Tell me..Has anyone else heard the latest about an Atheist Society in New Jersey that recently had a massive billboard erected for the Christmas Season?...calling Christmas a myth? I believe I heard the cost of the billboard to be around $20k.
Say what? You want to spread the word of your own belief so much that you spend twenty grand... not in an effort (cough--of course) to demean Christians during the Christmas season...but in order to "appeal to the closet atheists"?
And just what the Sam Hill does an atheist group do anyhow? How long does it take at a meeting to say.. "Hey, I don't believe in much of nuthin'... where's the hookers?"
Folks... I am neither an athiest, nor a full-blown Christian who walks without an ounce of doubt.. but these New Jersey asshats take the award for being the biggest bunch of lunatics I can ever imagine when it comes to discussing "beliefs"!
To erect a billboard in an effort to encourage and support the belief system of "nuthing" must be much akin to making love to your own exhaled air. ...halitosis included.
And please tell me what kind of exoticly dumb lump of sand would read such a billboard and say "Wow...those are my kind of people...the "nons"...I must join them and break bread, and tithe, and come out of this closet which has kept me bound in secretive disbelief for so long.
Make my day Santa... drop me a couple of bound and gagged New Jesey Atheists in my stocking please... and make sure they won't break open easily, as I'd really like to beat the stupid out of every one of their narcissistic carcasses.
This will be my first blog test for YouTube videos.
I rarely consider myself a listener to country music... love all kinds but.. country usually is not for me.
...BUT THIS SONG KICKS BUTT!
As She's Walking Away, by the Zack Brown Band, with Alan Jackson featured on lead vocal.
Folks... The vocals are fabulous, reminds me of the way Alabama became overnight superheroes of country so long ago. All the ingredients are here. This truly is the country shiznits....love it!
* I'm thankful for a roof over my head during this nasty-weather moment.
** I'm also thankful to the guy who bought and placed that roof... namely me. :D
* I'm thankful for all the people who bring a smile to my face.
** I'm also thankful that life has a way of getting even with those who bring me stress.
* I'm thankful for all the MySpace friends who have joined me here, or whom I've joined here.
** I'm also thankful that nearly everyone on this site would like to string-up the MySpace IT Geeks by the scoobs and run them up an ice cold flag pole.
* I'm thankful for flannel, dual-layer fabric long johns, leather, and comfortable work boots.
** I'm also thankful for people who dress more fashionable than myself.
* I'm thankful this place is designed for decent-minded adults.
** I'm also thankful we're not 100% decent, and that some younger ones are sneekin' through the cracks.
Oh sureeee... you're thinking the OldePhart is gonna rub your nose into all the fun he's been having this weekend, aren'tcha?
Nothing but LAUNDRY, all weekend...that's right LAUNDRY!
LOL... Vintage laundry. If any of you recall from MySpazz, my volunteerism at a local charity/thrift found me sorting clothing, and through that (-plus my experience in the antique business-) I'm becoming knowledgable on vintage clothing.
We've had it piling-up at the mission, but I've also been buying it elsewhere with plans to sell on ebay and also start a vintage line in my folks antique shop. Yep..not a terribly masculine thing for a carpenter to fall into...LOL.
BUT...we'll have a vintage buyer from Chicago coming down in a matter of days...just happened to locate her shop on MySpace, sent an email...instant success! Very interested, she is.
Honestly, I'd love to be a "picker"... the guy who goes out and does the hunting. The thrill of the hunt with this stuff is just like anything else.
But I can promise you one thing... the laundry aspect sucks the scum right off the pond in yur grandpa's back 40 ! (cement pond fer sum of ya'ns I reckon)
