The GOP made this mess and yet ardent GOPers think this mess is better than any Democrat in office. Since the rise of the Tea Party, a GOP purge of principles has been ongoing. So has the electoral cheating; as of the exit of Dubya, the GOP have operated on the premise that the ONLY way they can win is to cheat and gerrymander. They already knew their goose was cooked but their followers are followers of faith, misplaced as that faith may be. And now Jeff Sessions claims The Bible (some flavor of King James Version is presumed) justifies cruelty committed by government because Romans 13 proclaims that God ordained governments for his own purposes, thus attributing his own purposes to be identical to that of God's...and basically admitting that the American Revolution was an act against God because it was a rebellion against a king put in place by God and whom thereby must be obeyed no matter what.
The excuse I keep hearing was "well, he was an evil King" or "he was a bad King", and so I submit that the same excuse can be applied to the government that Sessions is promoting.
Showing posts with label legal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legal. Show all posts
Friday, June 15, 2018
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Orlando: It's time for the NRA to step up to do proper duty
I've heard the rumblings: I'm not commenting about the Orlando shooting because it's likely I'll run for office again and I dare not step on those particular Oklahoma power toes and I'm reluctant to speak out against Islam because I have Muslim friends. Au contraire.
Partisan politics these days take left-right extremes and are themselves run by right-left extremists. I've always been an independent who doesn't fit in the pigeonhole labeled "moderate" and I don't believe any voter owes allegiance to the success of either party, and that voting is NOT an entitlement program for either party. Dems howl because of the alleged "pro-NRA" position I have in agreeing with Sanders that holding manufacturers responsible for the dead people directly resulting from the use of their products is "a bridge too far" and Reps howl that I agree with a Socialist on something. Both howlers are extremists in MY book.
However, the NRA position that we already have too many gun laws is bogus considering all the loopholes their lobbyists put in aforementioned gun laws before passage, and while they've been very good at howling about an absolute interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, they've also been very good at telling lawmakers what they can NOT do but very short on proposing what they CAN do, and it's high time they step up to be part of the solution.
Come on, NRA--propose legislation yourself that:
1) is capable of differentiating who is a good guy and who is a bad guy before either of them buy guns;
2) is capable of better product tracking than you thusfar have approved of because tracking of any sort does NOT infringe on the 2nd Amendment.
3) establish exactly the type of Due Process you whine about not being there when the Constitution approves of Probable Cause as being proper Due Process prior to formal charges and a formal trial.
4) be better at being constructive about what our proper options could be, that we CAN do, than whining about what we all can't do for a change.
Your whining without offering a solution is a part of the problem, which thusfar precluded your being any kind of solution. That must change. You've regarded the 2nd Amendment as more sacrosanct than the 1st Amendment, which does have reasonable regulation attached, such as outlawing libel, slander, and fraud as NOT protected speech (compared to regarding ALL speech as protected). The 2nd Amendment is an AMENDMENT, not a Commandment.
June 19 UPDATE: You guessed it--I attended another time traveler convention. Just canNOT beat Bartlesville OK at this time of year.
You know it.
Partisan politics these days take left-right extremes and are themselves run by right-left extremists. I've always been an independent who doesn't fit in the pigeonhole labeled "moderate" and I don't believe any voter owes allegiance to the success of either party, and that voting is NOT an entitlement program for either party. Dems howl because of the alleged "pro-NRA" position I have in agreeing with Sanders that holding manufacturers responsible for the dead people directly resulting from the use of their products is "a bridge too far" and Reps howl that I agree with a Socialist on something. Both howlers are extremists in MY book.
However, the NRA position that we already have too many gun laws is bogus considering all the loopholes their lobbyists put in aforementioned gun laws before passage, and while they've been very good at howling about an absolute interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, they've also been very good at telling lawmakers what they can NOT do but very short on proposing what they CAN do, and it's high time they step up to be part of the solution.
Come on, NRA--propose legislation yourself that:
1) is capable of differentiating who is a good guy and who is a bad guy before either of them buy guns;
2) is capable of better product tracking than you thusfar have approved of because tracking of any sort does NOT infringe on the 2nd Amendment.
3) establish exactly the type of Due Process you whine about not being there when the Constitution approves of Probable Cause as being proper Due Process prior to formal charges and a formal trial.
4) be better at being constructive about what our proper options could be, that we CAN do, than whining about what we all can't do for a change.
Coming up with a plan THAT WORKS is 100% ON YOU.
Your whining without offering a solution is a part of the problem, which thusfar precluded your being any kind of solution. That must change. You've regarded the 2nd Amendment as more sacrosanct than the 1st Amendment, which does have reasonable regulation attached, such as outlawing libel, slander, and fraud as NOT protected speech (compared to regarding ALL speech as protected). The 2nd Amendment is an AMENDMENT, not a Commandment.
June 19 UPDATE: You guessed it--I attended another time traveler convention. Just canNOT beat Bartlesville OK at this time of year.
You know it.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
In Right To Work state Oklahoma, a strike apparently closes a coffee shop; bridge eats another truck UPDATE
I'm posting this on the fly right now, and that's the way things appear at this point but the story is certainly subject to fact checking at this point...but...I have a video of a one-person picket at the Great Expectations coffee shop located on N. Van Buren in Enid, where the old Carl's Jr. used to be (gee, Enid can't even keep a Carl's Jr. business--imagine that). Posted on the door of Great Expectations is a notice of a different location. Did they move, or was the Carl's Jr. location a branch?
What I do know is that it was open, doing brisk business being located on a main artery, it added a car wash facility to its parking lot, it got picketed June 9, and then shuttered.
I used to go there on occasion when it used to be Carl's Jr, as I was a fan of something unique in its interior: that mural...
Friday UPDATE: activity was observed at this establishment--3 vehicles, doors open, but still dark inside. Couldn't keep the lights on, maybe? Something that makes me go "hmmmmm". Monday UPDATE: Saw a small wood-sided trailer full of what looks like came from the innards of the establishment. The word COFFEE was painted across the front windows, and that's down now. Has it been sold again? And whence that lovely mural, I wonder I wonder...
Next Friday UPDATE: it's open again, but as a taqueria, no sign of where the mural went. :(
Saturday UPDATE: I have made the pronouncement that TODAY is THE DAY---I'm making apricot BBQ sauce from scratch, and the inner mad scientist is hereby RELEASED!! Muahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Mmmm, smells good, too. Too bad we haven't invented smellevision yet. Whereas whiskey improves standard BBQ sauce, I think I'll take a shot at using brandy. So to speak. Mini-UPDATE: yup, I got some damn awesome apricot BBQ sauce and it looks like the high pectin content of the 'cots really really really thicken the sauce admirably. And I haven't added brandy yet--and here we go, adding the brandy...and...DAMN that hit it right outta da park, and it's now quite literally awesome sauce! This recipe is a KEEPER!
Sunday mini-UPDATE: Egypt erupts again, and this time it's women leading the protests. Yet again, journalists are jailed, though. Here we go again.
....and then there's THIS.
Meanwhile in Turkey, better developments despite Erdogan's re-election: Parliament losses. I also note with great interest that Mona Eltahawy is being interviewed this weekend on BookTV's Afterwords program. Big fan of hers over here.
In this new season of Ramadan, it's well worth mentioning a Libyan Blogger blogger with some GREAT recipes for Eid, for Suhour, and, if you ask me, all year 'round: Laila's Cooking Corner. Laila Arif, specifically.
Monday LOLz UPDATE! You'd think that the City Commission would get wise by now--trucks ain't skeered o no teeth!
Oh here we go, just now put up a clip of Punched Out Judy on YouTube with this as the topic. The episode was submitted for broadcast a little over 24 hours before this happened, and when it happened, I had to laugh my arse off. Here's the clip I just posted, and note that the above still was added at the end of the clip. ROTFLMAO!!!!
And now for another important message...
What I do know is that it was open, doing brisk business being located on a main artery, it added a car wash facility to its parking lot, it got picketed June 9, and then shuttered.
I used to go there on occasion when it used to be Carl's Jr, as I was a fan of something unique in its interior: that mural...
Friday UPDATE: activity was observed at this establishment--3 vehicles, doors open, but still dark inside. Couldn't keep the lights on, maybe? Something that makes me go "hmmmmm". Monday UPDATE: Saw a small wood-sided trailer full of what looks like came from the innards of the establishment. The word COFFEE was painted across the front windows, and that's down now. Has it been sold again? And whence that lovely mural, I wonder I wonder...
Next Friday UPDATE: it's open again, but as a taqueria, no sign of where the mural went. :(
Saturday UPDATE: I have made the pronouncement that TODAY is THE DAY---I'm making apricot BBQ sauce from scratch, and the inner mad scientist is hereby RELEASED!! Muahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Mmmm, smells good, too. Too bad we haven't invented smellevision yet. Whereas whiskey improves standard BBQ sauce, I think I'll take a shot at using brandy. So to speak. Mini-UPDATE: yup, I got some damn awesome apricot BBQ sauce and it looks like the high pectin content of the 'cots really really really thicken the sauce admirably. And I haven't added brandy yet--and here we go, adding the brandy...and...DAMN that hit it right outta da park, and it's now quite literally awesome sauce! This recipe is a KEEPER!
Sunday mini-UPDATE: Egypt erupts again, and this time it's women leading the protests. Yet again, journalists are jailed, though. Here we go again.
 |
| The Itahadiya Palace protest which Egypt says can't be filmed because the protest has no permit. The issue: free the detainees. |
....and then there's THIS.
Meanwhile in Turkey, better developments despite Erdogan's re-election: Parliament losses. I also note with great interest that Mona Eltahawy is being interviewed this weekend on BookTV's Afterwords program. Big fan of hers over here.
In this new season of Ramadan, it's well worth mentioning a Libyan Blogger blogger with some GREAT recipes for Eid, for Suhour, and, if you ask me, all year 'round: Laila's Cooking Corner. Laila Arif, specifically.
Monday LOLz UPDATE! You'd think that the City Commission would get wise by now--trucks ain't skeered o no teeth!
Oh here we go, just now put up a clip of Punched Out Judy on YouTube with this as the topic. The episode was submitted for broadcast a little over 24 hours before this happened, and when it happened, I had to laugh my arse off. Here's the clip I just posted, and note that the above still was added at the end of the clip. ROTFLMAO!!!!
And now for another important message...
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Enid's recent fireworks--Radio Cairo update at the top!
Sunday UPDATE, Radio Cairo English to North America Edition:
I've always loved the music that has come from that station over the decades and was delighted to be invited to listen to the live stream, which is quite a trick to listen to if you don't have a Facebook account you can sign in with, and even so, it'll still ask you to establish an account before you can listen. It's worth all that one-time trouble, though, if you ask me!
STRIKE THAT UNTIL YOU READ THIS FIRST:
The day after I posted this update, I got one piece of Sunni spam that had the tone of a recruitment message, saying that in a quest for deen I should follow a particular Imam. I will not name anyone mentioned by name in that message. If you register for an account and have Islamic content in your playlist, it's clear that you will be spammed in this manner.
Presented by my FB Friend in Egypt, Mayar Adel.
They provide code for embedding, and I'm going to give that a shot below...
Well how about that, by golly! Works only when there IS a live stream scheduled, though, so mind the time. Tonight I heard a very interesting take on events in Ukraine as the broadcast talked about a Ukraine envoy conducting discussions in Egypt during its Economics program.
I wasn't going to post about that just yet, but I've noticed that traffic to this blog really skyrocketed toward this end of the week. I also noticed that I'd gained a couple of new Followers on Twitter, too...so I think I'd better say something about that even though at this point in time, commenting would be premature and considering what's playing out at this point in time, except to say that a request for an appointment has been delivered (the locals will know what I mean by that) and beyond that I can only say....
"Spoilers!"
But by all means do please stay tuned for developments, which I can comment on only AFTER they happen first, and not before. What happened will initiate a chain of events in the future, and so it wouldn't be wise to comment at this time. Just know that I'm just getting warmed up and the best is yet to be. Tick tock goes the clock...and I tried to find a YouTube rendition of The When When Polka but apparently there's no such thing on YouTube...so Frankie Yankovic's Tick Tock Polka will just have to do for now.
Now. It's funny with everybody talking about the past and the future, the value of now gets passed over. But enough of all that--enjoy the polka, for I'm off to the restaurant at the end of the universe with Zaphod Beeblebrox (the IVth) via KUCO. Much to my delight, after losing Vinyl Cafe on the CBC, I find him again on KUCO which now reruns snippets of it from its Story Exchange. G'night everybody!
Oh my dear giddy Autnie Beeb, you're just have to get over it, sweetie. I couldn't be more serious about this than if I myself were facing the worst dread monsters you could ever dream up. Go help yourself to a dozen pangalactic gargleblasters, why don't ya--you sure could do with a different perspective on things. Go lie down in front of a bulldozer or something, and don't forget your towel. Go suck an orange or a lemon.
Late June mini-UPDATE: I know I promised an update on the aforementioned meeting, but, alas, the time stream is still in flux and there are still things I can't mention at this time. Just know that more than just me knows for a fact certain things that will transpire, and they're just the right people to have this knowledge at this time. Time, where it's timing that is important...at this time. One need not be a time traveler to know that karma's a bitch.
I've always loved the music that has come from that station over the decades and was delighted to be invited to listen to the live stream, which is quite a trick to listen to if you don't have a Facebook account you can sign in with, and even so, it'll still ask you to establish an account before you can listen.
STRIKE THAT UNTIL YOU READ THIS FIRST:
The day after I posted this update, I got one piece of Sunni spam that had the tone of a recruitment message, saying that in a quest for deen I should follow a particular Imam. I will not name anyone mentioned by name in that message. If you register for an account and have Islamic content in your playlist, it's clear that you will be spammed in this manner.
Presented by my FB Friend in Egypt, Mayar Adel.
They provide code for embedding, and I'm going to give that a shot below...
Well how about that, by golly! Works only when there IS a live stream scheduled, though, so mind the time. Tonight I heard a very interesting take on events in Ukraine as the broadcast talked about a Ukraine envoy conducting discussions in Egypt during its Economics program.
I wasn't going to post about that just yet, but I've noticed that traffic to this blog really skyrocketed toward this end of the week. I also noticed that I'd gained a couple of new Followers on Twitter, too...so I think I'd better say something about that even though at this point in time, commenting would be premature and considering what's playing out at this point in time, except to say that a request for an appointment has been delivered (the locals will know what I mean by that) and beyond that I can only say....
"Spoilers!"
But by all means do please stay tuned for developments, which I can comment on only AFTER they happen first, and not before. What happened will initiate a chain of events in the future, and so it wouldn't be wise to comment at this time. Just know that I'm just getting warmed up and the best is yet to be. Tick tock goes the clock...and I tried to find a YouTube rendition of The When When Polka but apparently there's no such thing on YouTube...so Frankie Yankovic's Tick Tock Polka will just have to do for now.
Now. It's funny with everybody talking about the past and the future, the value of now gets passed over. But enough of all that--enjoy the polka, for I'm off to the restaurant at the end of the universe with Zaphod Beeblebrox (the IVth) via KUCO. Much to my delight, after losing Vinyl Cafe on the CBC, I find him again on KUCO which now reruns snippets of it from its Story Exchange. G'night everybody!
Oh my dear giddy Autnie Beeb, you're just have to get over it, sweetie. I couldn't be more serious about this than if I myself were facing the worst dread monsters you could ever dream up. Go help yourself to a dozen pangalactic gargleblasters, why don't ya--you sure could do with a different perspective on things. Go lie down in front of a bulldozer or something, and don't forget your towel. Go suck an orange or a lemon.
Late June mini-UPDATE: I know I promised an update on the aforementioned meeting, but, alas, the time stream is still in flux and there are still things I can't mention at this time. Just know that more than just me knows for a fact certain things that will transpire, and they're just the right people to have this knowledge at this time. Time, where it's timing that is important...at this time. One need not be a time traveler to know that karma's a bitch.
Monday, January 05, 2015
Hey Ward 5 City Commissioner, betcha didn't know THIS!
Each one of those campaign signs your team took down are hand-crafted works of art that have a commitment to a private collection. Of course it's a misdemeanor to remove your general usual average cheap campaign signs, but it's quite another to be an art thief, with the theft being artifacts of a private collection. If they were destroyed, there's an additional vandalism charge that goes with that.
Now then--this situation was turned into an advantage when knocking on doors, asking as to whether or not anyone saw anything regarding sign removal. You can remove signs, hon, but you can't un-ring a door bell.
And what has been seen cannot be unseen. People who saw the signs also see that they've been removed by somebody who isn't the candidate whose name was on the sign. While you and yours might like to think people are that stupid, I can tell you that they're not--I've talked to them, and so I know better than that.
Almost forgot to mention that the signs have been photographed for insurance purposes. Ever hear of the saying, "six feet deep and still digging"? You might consider putting your shovel down.
+Tammy Wilson +cityofenid
Now then--this situation was turned into an advantage when knocking on doors, asking as to whether or not anyone saw anything regarding sign removal. You can remove signs, hon, but you can't un-ring a door bell.
And what has been seen cannot be unseen. People who saw the signs also see that they've been removed by somebody who isn't the candidate whose name was on the sign. While you and yours might like to think people are that stupid, I can tell you that they're not--I've talked to them, and so I know better than that.
Almost forgot to mention that the signs have been photographed for insurance purposes. Ever hear of the saying, "six feet deep and still digging"? You might consider putting your shovel down.
+Tammy Wilson +cityofenid
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
Facebook's inane personhood laws
As my regular readers already know, the City of Enid has waged war against its citizens and I'm one of the few actually fighting back. Yesterday, the minions of the City invoked Facebook's personhood law to get me evicted from Facebook.
The trouble is, Google also has personhood laws that, upon receipt of complaint, could get any pen name account bounced off of it as well, so if all my fans wonder what happened to this blog should it disappear, know ye in advance that the City of Enid was behind it. They've been the reason why the stats of this blog have reflected unusually high traffic--there's a video they're monitoring for posting because it's unflattering in a big way, and I haven't posted that yet. Same is true for Gov. Mary Fallin's office. But they have no idea where else I might post that video, and it may be all over cyberspace in all kinds of places before it's all said/done. What matters is that the proper authorities already have possession of copies of said videos, and there's no putting THAT toothpaste back in the tube. As much as Facebook fancies itself to be a proper authority to the point of demanding compliance with its demand for personal documents, it isn't. And neither is Google. (mini-update note--I just posted that statement on Twitter, and it's getting re-Tweeted. There are a lot of people not happy with #Facebook right now)
My fans know where to find me and I celebrate the fact that neither Facebook nor Google own the entirety of cyberspace, and just like that mole in Whack-A-Mole, I'll pop up elsewhere. That's one of the benefits of having a pen name that dates far back into the world of print-on-paper media, as very little of that has been scanned and posted online--I'm in closer touch with my fans than Facebook is with its clients, which it just decided was too big of a group and so culls it with its demands for personal ID documentation it has no legal right to demand as part of its terms of service. Neither does Google, for that matter.
1) Facebook isn't an administrator of elections devoted to curtailing voter fraud, so it can't use that excuse to claim a right to a person's identification documents.
2) Facebook doesn't charge money as a condition of membership and therefore has no right to include bank statements in its demand for personal identification documents.
3) Facebook doesn't maintain roads and has no standing to demand a person's driver's license in its demand for personal identification documents.
4) Facebook isn't a government agency, and as a peer citizen has no standing to demand identification papers of any kind.
3) Facebook has a feature for accounts like Twitter does, to display a check mark on an account to mark it as a "verified account", and that's a case in which the holder of the account voluntarily surrenders its personal ID documents. Facebook fails to realize that ALL accounts for which personal ID documents are surrendered are therefore "verified accounts", but Facebook fails to mark them as such. A voluntary option has become an involuntary demand by Facebook and in that, Facebook commits an overreach and therefore is an EPIC FAIL I can readily kick to the curb. But so is Google Plus should it make the same mistake.
Unless and until any given Internet entity has standing as a government official or financial institution or medical provider, they have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to demand personal ID documents as part of its Terms of Service. Bubbye, Facebook. I won't miss you and my fans can still find me, loser.
Businesses who get snookered by Web dot com into buying a presence on #Facebook don't realize they've been fleeced, but I'll wager it won't take 'em long to find that out that paying for Facebook presence is a rip-off because Facebook itself is a rip-off.
The trend is to make Facebook a verified-celebrities/business-only exclusive club as the customers and fans thereof realize increasingly that Facebook hasn't sufficient legal authority to make the demands it's making on its hoi polloi denizens. I find that, on Twitter, are the very people who have been fed up with Facebook long before Facebook gestapo bounced my pen name off for being a "fake person". Hey, Facebook--Mark Twain doesn't have a birth certificate and you permit THAT fake person to have an unverified account, you idiot.
YouTube is on a similar self-destructive path with its copyright nazis, and everybody who has viewed old pages on this blog with links to YouTube content know all too well what I mean--YouTube has even yanked content that is public domain simply because the person who posted the vids didn't respond to its copyright nazi challenges, and it must be said that, by and large, the average person lacks the legal competence to make a counter argument. I've been hit on by these copyright nazis filing complaints about videos I've made of Christmas displays playing what they claim is copyrighted content being infringed upon. But I don't have an average lack of background in copyright/patent law and I have successfully argued in my favor.
More than once, and that's the problem with YouTube--the copyright nazis make crazy claims like the one they made about the Christmas displays and YouTube bans innocent people because they don't have the ability to respond to such insanity. Like Facebook, YouTube is an insane asylum populated and run by the inmates and is more exclusionary than inclusive. FAIL
Far be it from me to tell my fans to drop their own accounts on Facebook--that decision is entirely theirs to make--but I will say that as long as they or anyone else stays on at Facebook, they're presenting themselves as commercial farm animals to be milked by Facebook advertisers and commercial accounts. People, it's your funeral.
@facebook #Facebook #Enid
The trouble is, Google also has personhood laws that, upon receipt of complaint, could get any pen name account bounced off of it as well, so if all my fans wonder what happened to this blog should it disappear, know ye in advance that the City of Enid was behind it. They've been the reason why the stats of this blog have reflected unusually high traffic--there's a video they're monitoring for posting because it's unflattering in a big way, and I haven't posted that yet. Same is true for Gov. Mary Fallin's office. But they have no idea where else I might post that video, and it may be all over cyberspace in all kinds of places before it's all said/done. What matters is that the proper authorities already have possession of copies of said videos, and there's no putting THAT toothpaste back in the tube. As much as Facebook fancies itself to be a proper authority to the point of demanding compliance with its demand for personal documents, it isn't. And neither is Google. (mini-update note--I just posted that statement on Twitter, and it's getting re-Tweeted. There are a lot of people not happy with #Facebook right now)
My fans know where to find me and I celebrate the fact that neither Facebook nor Google own the entirety of cyberspace, and just like that mole in Whack-A-Mole, I'll pop up elsewhere. That's one of the benefits of having a pen name that dates far back into the world of print-on-paper media, as very little of that has been scanned and posted online--I'm in closer touch with my fans than Facebook is with its clients, which it just decided was too big of a group and so culls it with its demands for personal ID documentation it has no legal right to demand as part of its terms of service. Neither does Google, for that matter.
1) Facebook isn't an administrator of elections devoted to curtailing voter fraud, so it can't use that excuse to claim a right to a person's identification documents.
2) Facebook doesn't charge money as a condition of membership and therefore has no right to include bank statements in its demand for personal identification documents.
3) Facebook doesn't maintain roads and has no standing to demand a person's driver's license in its demand for personal identification documents.
4) Facebook isn't a government agency, and as a peer citizen has no standing to demand identification papers of any kind.
3) Facebook has a feature for accounts like Twitter does, to display a check mark on an account to mark it as a "verified account", and that's a case in which the holder of the account voluntarily surrenders its personal ID documents. Facebook fails to realize that ALL accounts for which personal ID documents are surrendered are therefore "verified accounts", but Facebook fails to mark them as such. A voluntary option has become an involuntary demand by Facebook and in that, Facebook commits an overreach and therefore is an EPIC FAIL I can readily kick to the curb. But so is Google Plus should it make the same mistake.
Unless and until any given Internet entity has standing as a government official or financial institution or medical provider, they have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to demand personal ID documents as part of its Terms of Service. Bubbye, Facebook. I won't miss you and my fans can still find me, loser.
Businesses who get snookered by Web dot com into buying a presence on #Facebook don't realize they've been fleeced, but I'll wager it won't take 'em long to find that out that paying for Facebook presence is a rip-off because Facebook itself is a rip-off.
The trend is to make Facebook a verified-celebrities/business-only exclusive club as the customers and fans thereof realize increasingly that Facebook hasn't sufficient legal authority to make the demands it's making on its hoi polloi denizens. I find that, on Twitter, are the very people who have been fed up with Facebook long before Facebook gestapo bounced my pen name off for being a "fake person". Hey, Facebook--Mark Twain doesn't have a birth certificate and you permit THAT fake person to have an unverified account, you idiot.
YouTube is on a similar self-destructive path with its copyright nazis, and everybody who has viewed old pages on this blog with links to YouTube content know all too well what I mean--YouTube has even yanked content that is public domain simply because the person who posted the vids didn't respond to its copyright nazi challenges, and it must be said that, by and large, the average person lacks the legal competence to make a counter argument. I've been hit on by these copyright nazis filing complaints about videos I've made of Christmas displays playing what they claim is copyrighted content being infringed upon. But I don't have an average lack of background in copyright/patent law and I have successfully argued in my favor.
More than once, and that's the problem with YouTube--the copyright nazis make crazy claims like the one they made about the Christmas displays and YouTube bans innocent people because they don't have the ability to respond to such insanity. Like Facebook, YouTube is an insane asylum populated and run by the inmates and is more exclusionary than inclusive. FAIL
Far be it from me to tell my fans to drop their own accounts on Facebook--that decision is entirely theirs to make--but I will say that as long as they or anyone else stays on at Facebook, they're presenting themselves as commercial farm animals to be milked by Facebook advertisers and commercial accounts. People, it's your funeral.
Friday, October 03, 2014
Local, State issues override inernational at this time: Open Meetings/Records laws
Of course I'm aware of the fact that I've been posting local fru-fru considering all the more dire situations across the globe occurring at this time, but here's a reminder that this blog has Chinese minders, and, more recently, Russian minders and I'm not interested in censorship of any sort.
I spent most of the day yesterday in the Woodward area of Oklahoma because of the following newspaper article:
Notice at the very bottom, the inset referring to "Free Open Records Act seminar". That's what I went to, and it actually covered both Open Meetings and Open Records, at which a booklet was handed out as well as discussed. I have videos of that which I will post later.
The newspaper article mentions possible charges against the City of Enid regarding all of the following marked sections in the Table of Contents except the first one, which I'll address later.
The top marked item is what the City violated when it held a regular meeting of the Commission at Roman Nose instead of at city hall like it was supposed to do.
I also spent some quality time at Gloss Mountain, and I'll post pics of that here, but later. Note to the Chinese and Russians: you don't have t his level of accountability, so don't be surprised when the people you govern don't comply with your forced "harmony". The road to actual true harmony is paved with accountability.
I spent most of the day yesterday in the Woodward area of Oklahoma because of the following newspaper article:
Notice at the very bottom, the inset referring to "Free Open Records Act seminar". That's what I went to, and it actually covered both Open Meetings and Open Records, at which a booklet was handed out as well as discussed. I have videos of that which I will post later.
The newspaper article mentions possible charges against the City of Enid regarding all of the following marked sections in the Table of Contents except the first one, which I'll address later.
The top marked item is what the City violated when it held a regular meeting of the Commission at Roman Nose instead of at city hall like it was supposed to do.
I also spent some quality time at Gloss Mountain, and I'll post pics of that here, but later. Note to the Chinese and Russians: you don't have t his level of accountability, so don't be surprised when the people you govern don't comply with your forced "harmony". The road to actual true harmony is paved with accountability.
 |
| By all means, take a number of other shots. Quite often, persistence pays off, when it's worth it. Never say "never". |
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Balkanization of the music industry via Congress
I stopped being a Roseann Cash fan today. I'm also no longer a fan of Paul Williams either. As I listened to the CSPAN replay of the music licensing hearing Part Deux, I heard two people who overvalued the market value of their creations without regard to the role wide publication had in the size of their holdings. Now rewind to Pearl Jam. That was another case of extremes, where the publicist exerted ownership of content provided by the artists.
At the hearing, I heard both Cash and Williams whine about how publicists and broadcasters were profiting from their material. They never mentioned how they got their big bucks by being publicized by publicists and broadcasters. Cash went so far as demean publication as "the exposure argument". Fair market value of any product is determined by market distribution, idiots.
You can't go viral if you don't share.
I'm now hearing Darrel Issa reading Article I Section 8 paragraph 8, one that I've had to cite quite often in other contexts and is probably the only area in which me & Issa agree on.
"The Congress shall have the Power...To promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries..."
Emphasis: limited Times. But hold that thought for now.
The songwriters would be nowhere without the performers of their content, and the performers are the copyright holders of their own performances. Yeah, that ole Balkanization doesn't end there. Everybody involved in a given production is entitled to their piece, too, and what we now have is a collaborative production denying that the big money isn't in any single one of the components thereof.
I don't have a problem with people getting fair pay for the work they do, nor with the fact that the people who create are the owners of their creation until they sell off the rights to someone else, or die and leave it to progeny. I have a problem with the Terms and Conditions which require (think Creedence Clearwater Revival now) the artist relinquish rights to their creations AND to their own names (think Prince now) as a CONDITION of a publication contract. An entire "plantation industry" which is the recording industry was based on this violation of Article I Section I paragraph 8 because those who signed on to such contracts had no standing to make a Supreme Court-tracked legal challenge to such provisions.
The fair market value of a work is determined by the market it's in, and you don't get to market without publication, which includes broadcasting, terrestrial or otherwise. Two standards were mentioned of a fair market..."the 801B" and the "willing buyer/willing seller" standard, and nobody on the panel is happy with either, preferring to pick and choose from both.
SOLUTION: Read the friggin' Constitution and let the Supremes decide. They should have decided on the basis of Article I Section 8 paragraph 8 decades ago.
Performers, nobody has a higher value for your performance than your fans, and fans tell other people to get you more fans. You don't go viral if you don't share and suing your fans cuts your fan market value. Small market performers have fans just as big as the big performers, but because of limitations on publication, they just don't have as many big fans as the big performers. They still value the small market product as highly as the big fans of the big market product and that fact alone should bring your overestimation of your big market selves down several pegs to where it belongs.
The gentleman representing the NAB brought up an interesting point about giving independent air play to small groups not under contract to major labels, a person who characterized the complaints of songwriters to wanting to charge broadcasters for giving them free promotion...which is about right, IMHO. Giving equal free air publicity for bands NOT under contract is what plantation-style recording labels is exactly what the labels have a problem with, and by proxy, all the songwriters they "own" in their stables, as it lets a bunch of air out of their inflated market value they believe themselves to be.
Sorry, folks, but your estimation of your own value contains as much worthless hot air as your egos do. On that topic, Mr. Arlo Guthrie, in regard to your stinginess with your father's material, noting that your father was better with original words than with original music (case in point, "Union Maid", words to the tune of "Red Wing", which he did not write) We The People whose Land this is (your land, my land), are quite anxiously awaiting your death.
You can't go viral if you don't share. Just ask One Republic, whose music is now like just about everywhere these days. That's distribution that money just can't buy.
Hey radio people--you can stop looking for a post on ARRL Field Day here. I don't like Field Day or any other similar pile-up type contesting. Forget about it.
Sunday mini-UPDATE: Interesting post about a scientist-sculptor on Facebook today. It's actually what a map of the time realm would look like, if you can picture in your mind's eye the pattern that occurs inside the object as well...
At the hearing, I heard both Cash and Williams whine about how publicists and broadcasters were profiting from their material. They never mentioned how they got their big bucks by being publicized by publicists and broadcasters. Cash went so far as demean publication as "the exposure argument". Fair market value of any product is determined by market distribution, idiots.
You can't go viral if you don't share.
I'm now hearing Darrel Issa reading Article I Section 8 paragraph 8, one that I've had to cite quite often in other contexts and is probably the only area in which me & Issa agree on.
"The Congress shall have the Power...To promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries..."
Emphasis: limited Times. But hold that thought for now.
The songwriters would be nowhere without the performers of their content, and the performers are the copyright holders of their own performances. Yeah, that ole Balkanization doesn't end there. Everybody involved in a given production is entitled to their piece, too, and what we now have is a collaborative production denying that the big money isn't in any single one of the components thereof.
I don't have a problem with people getting fair pay for the work they do, nor with the fact that the people who create are the owners of their creation until they sell off the rights to someone else, or die and leave it to progeny. I have a problem with the Terms and Conditions which require (think Creedence Clearwater Revival now) the artist relinquish rights to their creations AND to their own names (think Prince now) as a CONDITION of a publication contract. An entire "plantation industry" which is the recording industry was based on this violation of Article I Section I paragraph 8 because those who signed on to such contracts had no standing to make a Supreme Court-tracked legal challenge to such provisions.
The fair market value of a work is determined by the market it's in, and you don't get to market without publication, which includes broadcasting, terrestrial or otherwise. Two standards were mentioned of a fair market..."the 801B" and the "willing buyer/willing seller" standard, and nobody on the panel is happy with either, preferring to pick and choose from both.
SOLUTION: Read the friggin' Constitution and let the Supremes decide. They should have decided on the basis of Article I Section 8 paragraph 8 decades ago.
Performers, nobody has a higher value for your performance than your fans, and fans tell other people to get you more fans. You don't go viral if you don't share and suing your fans cuts your fan market value. Small market performers have fans just as big as the big performers, but because of limitations on publication, they just don't have as many big fans as the big performers. They still value the small market product as highly as the big fans of the big market product and that fact alone should bring your overestimation of your big market selves down several pegs to where it belongs.
The gentleman representing the NAB brought up an interesting point about giving independent air play to small groups not under contract to major labels, a person who characterized the complaints of songwriters to wanting to charge broadcasters for giving them free promotion...which is about right, IMHO. Giving equal free air publicity for bands NOT under contract is what plantation-style recording labels is exactly what the labels have a problem with, and by proxy, all the songwriters they "own" in their stables, as it lets a bunch of air out of their inflated market value they believe themselves to be.
Sorry, folks, but your estimation of your own value contains as much worthless hot air as your egos do. On that topic, Mr. Arlo Guthrie, in regard to your stinginess with your father's material, noting that your father was better with original words than with original music (case in point, "Union Maid", words to the tune of "Red Wing", which he did not write) We The People whose Land this is (your land, my land), are quite anxiously awaiting your death.
You can't go viral if you don't share. Just ask One Republic, whose music is now like just about everywhere these days. That's distribution that money just can't buy.
Hey radio people--you can stop looking for a post on ARRL Field Day here. I don't like Field Day or any other similar pile-up type contesting. Forget about it.
Sunday mini-UPDATE: Interesting post about a scientist-sculptor on Facebook today. It's actually what a map of the time realm would look like, if you can picture in your mind's eye the pattern that occurs inside the object as well...
 |
| You can see how the fractal pattern extends over a flat surface; The object in the lower left quadrant is the fractal algorithm I have previously used as a basic 2-dimensional illustration of how time isn't linear. All of the objects illustrate the importance of Theta in any given path taken along a time "line" (point-to-point sequential travel). The shortcuts through time's sequences of events is more evident in the other three objects, though, while the upper right object illustrates the principle of parallel universes best, via the center, which also serves as a time/space shortcut illustration. Same is true of the lower right object. The black area in the middle of the upper right object shows only the shortcut. |
Wednesday, April 02, 2014
A fool and his money are some party. R.I.P. Bill Bergadano.
I'm talking about the Supreme Court decision today regarding money as speech in politics where mega-money = mega-phone. And yeah, what we know about Sheldon Adelson's harem of bitches is that they all want him to pimp them out. And I'm sure he enjoys each and every one of their 7-Veil dances.
Oh, look on the bright side--Adelson couldn't buy an election last time and here's the fool and his money Republican Partying again, so we all know what a party animal he is. Keep in mind that when his bitches go to spend all that loot, they'll be spending most of it on the liberal media instead of sitting on the cash so long that it hatches silverfish. The floodgates of money will be open, there will be so much cash in circulation that the Fed won't have to print up extra anymore, and the worshipers of mammon will enjoy a devaluation of their fortunes caused only by their god of supply and demand where their $ supply will now = demand for prime air time slots, a demand will exceed the number of hours in a day, meaning that the primest of time slots will go to the highest bidder, thus raising what the liberal media can charge per minute....rather, per second, in terms of 30 second slots which are the current metric.
I can live with that.
Friday April 4 UPDATE: The idiot who brought the lawsuit in the first place appeared on All In on MSNBC and said that what we have is a "political marketplace", and the court agrees that politics necessarily is bought and sold--that's what a marketplace is, that's what it does.
FAIL
This blog is once again in mourning--this time because of the passing today of a familiar person in shortwave radio circles, especially among the Winterfest regulars. You left us too soon, Bill Bergadano. We will miss you on Radio Scooter International, too. :'(
Friday April 4 UPDATE: Fred Waterer announced that all programming on Radio Scooter International is suspended until after Bill's funeral. Shortwave folk who read this blog are encouraged to visit Bill Bergadano's service site .
Oh, look on the bright side--Adelson couldn't buy an election last time and here's the fool and his money Republican Partying again, so we all know what a party animal he is. Keep in mind that when his bitches go to spend all that loot, they'll be spending most of it on the liberal media instead of sitting on the cash so long that it hatches silverfish. The floodgates of money will be open, there will be so much cash in circulation that the Fed won't have to print up extra anymore, and the worshipers of mammon will enjoy a devaluation of their fortunes caused only by their god of supply and demand where their $ supply will now = demand for prime air time slots, a demand will exceed the number of hours in a day, meaning that the primest of time slots will go to the highest bidder, thus raising what the liberal media can charge per minute....rather, per second, in terms of 30 second slots which are the current metric.
I can live with that.
Friday April 4 UPDATE: The idiot who brought the lawsuit in the first place appeared on All In on MSNBC and said that what we have is a "political marketplace", and the court agrees that politics necessarily is bought and sold--that's what a marketplace is, that's what it does.
FAIL
This blog is once again in mourning--this time because of the passing today of a familiar person in shortwave radio circles, especially among the Winterfest regulars. You left us too soon, Bill Bergadano. We will miss you on Radio Scooter International, too. :'(
Friday April 4 UPDATE: Fred Waterer announced that all programming on Radio Scooter International is suspended until after Bill's funeral. Shortwave folk who read this blog are encouraged to visit Bill Bergadano's service site .
Monday, March 10, 2014
Ghost up-giving: Dan Robinson & time travel classes
Those of us who remember Dan Robinson as just another fellow DX radio hobbyist were always quite proud of him making it into the staff of the Voice of America. But now he's not just retiring--he's fed up, according to what's been reported by BBG Watch.
This is just as big a deal, if not bigger, than the death of Don Jensen. The radio world just isn't going to be the same after this.
Tuesday UPDATE: World Science U finally put some classes online--had to register first, though. As I mentioned before, I intended to sign up for the time-space class and sorta did so at this point. There are two of them: non-mathematic and mathematic, which states that only high-school level of mathematics are required.
I registered for the math version, but after seeing that nonsense about the speed of light explanation on the Colbert Report, I'm tempted to register for both.
In any case....here we go, friends n neighbors....
This is just as big a deal, if not bigger, than the death of Don Jensen. The radio world just isn't going to be the same after this.
Tuesday UPDATE: World Science U finally put some classes online--had to register first, though. As I mentioned before, I intended to sign up for the time-space class and sorta did so at this point. There are two of them: non-mathematic and mathematic, which states that only high-school level of mathematics are required.
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| The math class. |
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| The mathless version. |
In any case....here we go, friends n neighbors....
Thursday, March 06, 2014
SCOTUS case making the news today: search without warrant
My regular readers will have gathered by now that I do have something of a background in law, although I wouldn't grade that background as anything greater than that of, say, a paralegal, just because I know my way around a law library. When one delves into the U. S. Office of Patents and Trademarks, the law (even copyright law, as this office covers the differences among the 3 types) is a little hard to avoid...but that's just for starters.
With that, I'll don my legal beagle hat and address the SCOTUS case of Fernandez vs California which has sparked some controversy on the web today. Searching a house without a search warrant was the battle cry today, decrying another apparent assault on the U. S. Constitution.
Not so fast--the U. S. Constitution mentions this thing called Probable Cause. When a police officer has ample probable cause as he did in this case, no warrant is required even under the U. S. Constitution. The SCOTUS ruling changed nothing.
And now I'll address what I'm sure some of you thought was a peculiar statement on my part in another post about how the U. S. Office of Patents and Trademarks cover copyright law. Well, it does in terms of what can or cannot be patented or trademarked and is more appropriate as a copyright...also cases in which a patent was claimed but the judge ruled that the thing wasn't covered by patent but by copyright law (most infamous case of that was Apple Inc vs. Microsoft over Microsoft's absconding with Apple's operating system and then calling it "Windows". That was a ruling that basically changed the tech world, and for the worse in my opinion). So yeah--you can find copyright law in a patents and trademarks office.
With that, I'll don my legal beagle hat and address the SCOTUS case of Fernandez vs California which has sparked some controversy on the web today. Searching a house without a search warrant was the battle cry today, decrying another apparent assault on the U. S. Constitution.
Not so fast--the U. S. Constitution mentions this thing called Probable Cause. When a police officer has ample probable cause as he did in this case, no warrant is required even under the U. S. Constitution. The SCOTUS ruling changed nothing.
And now I'll address what I'm sure some of you thought was a peculiar statement on my part in another post about how the U. S. Office of Patents and Trademarks cover copyright law. Well, it does in terms of what can or cannot be patented or trademarked and is more appropriate as a copyright...also cases in which a patent was claimed but the judge ruled that the thing wasn't covered by patent but by copyright law (most infamous case of that was Apple Inc vs. Microsoft over Microsoft's absconding with Apple's operating system and then calling it "Windows". That was a ruling that basically changed the tech world, and for the worse in my opinion). So yeah--you can find copyright law in a patents and trademarks office.
Friday, January 24, 2014
A death in the family: R.I.P. PEGASYS
Oh, I know that the nuts in city hall promise that nothing will change but the management, but that's exactly why the PEGASYS we all knew and loved just died. The city had already turned it into a zombie, a walking dead thing by picking its bones before the corpse was cold.
This blog is now in mourning.
The following article can be found HERE but after a few views, they won't let you read unless you're a subscriber, so it will be the policy of this blog henceforth to produce only images of articles under Fair Use law without the ability to post links in the future, as that would prohibit future Fair Use access to everyone else in the future.
Link to the editorial is HERE but lotsa luck getting past the subscription gestapo.
UPDATE: this story isn't over, folks. The remainder of this post will be devoted to visual note-taking for future use. With the feds, the fat lady don't sing until the feds say she can sing.
UPDATE:
The Commish on YouTube
Note to Mr. J. K. and Sir M., Esq.-- if you're under the impression that when I appear to be bragging on my blog about stuff, that you can figure that I'm tipping my hand, you'd be wrong. Welcome to the blog anyway, even though I happen to know that what you were looking for was MSNBC Newsvine. And I'm sure you found all my reports there. Think you found my "secret identity", too, just like Tammy thought she did. Look, kids--everybody knows. If you didn't know, it's just because you're out of the loop, and I can't help that. By the way, as long as you're Googling me, how about try this one: Listensprechen Huffington Post. It'll be lots of fun, I promise.
This blog is now in mourning.
The following article can be found HERE but after a few views, they won't let you read unless you're a subscriber, so it will be the policy of this blog henceforth to produce only images of articles under Fair Use law without the ability to post links in the future, as that would prohibit future Fair Use access to everyone else in the future.
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| Nice sentiment, but the bull in this editorial is the expectation of PEGASYS keeping up with the times with repeated budget slashings. FAIL |
UPDATE: this story isn't over, folks. The remainder of this post will be devoted to visual note-taking for future use. With the feds, the fat lady don't sing until the feds say she can sing.
 |
| This image covers the regulations governing CPB (you know it better as its underling, PBS. It's not cable, but that's covered somewhere further down this PDF file. It's where I'm going with this). |
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| Wikipedia ain't worth much as a reference, but as a roadmap thru federal regulations, not bad as a map. And I totally love maps of all sorts. |
UPDATE:
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| What's the point of an FCC when they don't do enforcement? Amateur radio operators already know they're supposed to enforce compliance on the ham bands but they don't. But radio amateurs aren't 501(3)(c) corporations, either. Perhaps the FTC and/or IRS will have some answers. |
The Commish on YouTube
Note to Mr. J. K. and Sir M., Esq.-- if you're under the impression that when I appear to be bragging on my blog about stuff, that you can figure that I'm tipping my hand, you'd be wrong. Welcome to the blog anyway, even though I happen to know that what you were looking for was MSNBC Newsvine. And I'm sure you found all my reports there. Think you found my "secret identity", too, just like Tammy thought she did. Look, kids--everybody knows. If you didn't know, it's just because you're out of the loop, and I can't help that. By the way, as long as you're Googling me, how about try this one: Listensprechen Huffington Post. It'll be lots of fun, I promise.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Seed catalogs and copyrights, TPP, Tuesday
I haven't forgotten you, believe me; it's just other recent events have overtaken my usual blogging on that topic (well, usual in other places on the Internet--not here--that is), and today is yet another day I should put it off again. I'm now watching a replay of a hearing in the House of Representatives regarding copyright law, and this is important to me when I'm wearing my writer's hat instead of a straw one, and given how this is part of the negotiations of the proposed TPP treaty, and its bearing on software's nature as either machine code under patent or a written work under copyright remains an issue even though the ancient case of Apple Corps vs Microsoft's suit over Windows was supposedly the final answer on that.
I humbly beg your forgiveness for that lapse, and I do promise I'll get to gardening ere long, outside of stating most emphatically that, for the northern hemisphere, it's too early to start seeds, primarily for the reason of the current length of daylight hours. Yes, the days are getting longer, but they're still not long enough yet. Americans, you'll do better if you hold off til mid February unless you live in the southmost tier of the U.S. or in Canada, where even mid February is still too early.
What I can state right now initially on the topic of copyright law is that it's important to read the Terms of Use on websites you create an account on because some, like HBO and ABC/GO, will claim to have nonexclusive rights over everything you post on their site in perpetuity.
Precious few will state clearly that the rights over the content is under the ownership of the author and that the website wants you to agree that it has a right to distribute that content. The latter is clearly most aligned with law as it exists while the former is, I've always asserted, in violation of the U.S. Constitution Article I section 8 paragraph 8, which states clearly that all claimed rights to either patent or copyright must expire at some point to become public domain.
The hearing, which took place on Tuesday, is supposed to be referenced with additional information at www.judiciary.house.gov but as of this posting isn't up there yet.
Edited to add: looks like I forgot to add what this all has to do with the TPP. As it happens, it's copyrights and intellectual property that is the current snag in that going forward, and this whole big-dealing on Tuesday is pertinent to a contemplated change in our current copyright laws, referred to as some kind of copyright law reform. All the hootin'/hollerin' about labor laws under the TPP is seriously overshadowed by intellectual property issues, and even if the secrecy over the TPP has been intact thusfar, I'll bet it's the move toward reforming U.S. laws will be where the chinks in the secrecy armor occur.
As I write this postscript, I'm seeing a Mr. Collins from Georgia making peculiar claims about written laws and annotations regarding the issue of how written laws are exempt from copyright protection...which affects such law publication firms like Westlaw, whose publications which contain written law have been protected by copyright and has been used in legal cases on a citation basis.
The standing of law devoid of annotation is argued effectively as needing to be public domain because the public is forcibly ruled by such law. Annotations exist primarily for use by lawyers anyway, and there's the matter of the legal standing that Corpus Juris Secundum has enjoyed in previous court cases. That is a reference work covered by copyright but is used on occasion to argue law. Should that have the same exemption as written law itself because of its legal standing? Hmmmm.
I also note with considerable interest the presence of Professor Mark Schultz, fellow Saluki. For those who didn't catch this in a previous blog post, my first foray into university life began at the SIU School of Communications Radio/TV department, a School that has always been held by high standards even back in the day when they were still worshiping at the alter of Edward R. Murrow. I changed major when I discovered that I couldn't stop fiddling with the equipment.
 |
| Personal identity info redacted, of course. |
GO SALUKIS!!
And Gus Bode, too. In all this blogging I don't think I ever mentioned that I like basketball, and the proudest Saluki moment was when its hoops team beat the snot outta Texas Tech during March Madness, 2002, and that's when Texas Tech coach was the infamous former NBA coach Bobby Knight. I remember that like it was yesterday.
I can say the same about the NBA Finals when it was the Suns vs the Bulls, and the Bulls had Michael Jordan while the Suns had Charles Barkley. Neither one of those guys did squat for scoring the winning points at the buzzer. It was a Paxson trey shot for the Bulls that sent the Suns packing--but Phoenix threw 'em a massive street party anyway. Barkley had to bolt when the crowd got too intense in front of the Purple Palace...the crowd even managed to unseat a motorcycle-mounted security police officer.
Thank you, George Takei, for a badly needed chuckle.
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| Old-school photo of the Purple Palace (America West Arena), downtown Phoenix, taken 1996. A few years earlier, you could follow those cars down Washington Ave. and drive past a building from which Fleetwood Mac got its name. It housed a machine shop whose name was only partially visible. It was torn down just before I moved. Sure wish I had taken a picture of that, with as many times as I'd taken the Yellow line city bus past it. |
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| Long view of Central Park, downtown Phoenix, behind a bus stop. There's a fountain in the middle surrounded by a brick ledge, against which I propped up a freshly finished drawing of the Grand Canyon at dusk and took a pic of that, only to discover that the bright Phoenix sun made it look rather washed out. |
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| I always take some sort of picture of my artwork before it leaves my hands to be delivered to its new owner. In this case, I wish I had taken a better one. I was able to do that much later, though. The goal is to at least keep a photographic catalogue of every piece I do, and in recent years it's become a major issue that I do this. Anyway, me & the pic were downtown because I had just retrieved it from the company that did the framing. I've since learned how to do framing myself.
Speaking of which...
 |
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| The courthouse, downtown Phoenix. I took that because I take pictures of old buildings. One of the facets of my interest in history includes architecture. This set of pics were taken with the knowledge that I was about to move out of the area. Dad already passed away years before, and now Mom needed undivided attention at this point. |
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| Another view of Central Park, downtown Phoenix |
And now a rewind to the time when the Olympics torch ran through Phoenix. Next is a stack of 3 pics showing the police escort, then the Olympics van, then behind the van with the runners following. I was standing across the street from Central Towers on N. Central.
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| After I moved, and after Mom's funeral, I made a point of taking a pic of her band, the Merry Music Makers. The biggest guy in the middle is Owen Zuck. |
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| Mom, attended by Vivian Crofts (right) and relatives (left--a girlfriend and her mom; the other friend, the sister, had passed away just before I arrived from Phoenix; yup, I cut myself out of that pic, far right). |
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| High school graduation pic |
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| 1980's look with River Song hair. Aka "space hair". That tee shirt is one printed up by Motorola's Chandler plant, USA-1, which I was first recruited by Motorola for. |
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| Always had a fatal attraction to machinery. |
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Updated again--PEGASYS got another broadside yesterday at special board meeting
Usually I'll update an old post on a topic previously covered, but not where PEGASYS is concerned because I also intend to separately send a link to this blog to the City and all concerned on each incident of attack. Vanhooser was unsuccessful in garnering support for his proposal to nix PEGASYS' contract last time around so now he's trying to turn it into Enid's local Pravda arm of the government, advocating a government takeover of this private organization.
When PEGASYS began, it was supposed to have been the local version of CSPAN
--emphasis on the GAS part (Government Access Service). Vanhooser in particular needs a basic education on what "non-profit organization" means and the full implication of what a Government Access Service is supposed to do. It really should be fully funded as part of the cable service contract Enid has with the cable service provider whomever it is because any amount of city funding amounts to a conflict of interest. Vanhooser? Just plain nuts.
Here's the latest news of the pushback via Enid News & Eagle.
Article two days ago
Enidites who care about PEGASYS, show up at that next board meeting. Be there--aloha.
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| First portion of the letter. The rest follows... |
MiniUPDATE, International, Thursday: Egyptian officials have been telling everybody including the AP that 90% of the vote was in favor of its version of the new Egyptian constitution; someone reporting to NPR (program: On Point) about turnout was reporting that the turnout was noticeably lighter than usual. More students die around the Cairo university. In Iran, workers are on hunger strike, while in Yemen, 9 soldiers were killed by militants. I'd provide links but a good number of them are in Arabic. Newsfeed via Twitter.
This just in: CNN reporting that an AP cameraman and his driver were arrested in #Egypt
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| Egyptian artifact dating back to Ramses II |
{Edited Jan.18, noting that I have to conclude that what I did was die trying. Again. When the people whose livelihoods are impacted by cuts that happen over here don't give a snit, it's time to kick that ole bucket, cash in the chips, and bury this thing my own self. Mourning Period begins in 3...2...1....}
My next step is to "seed" these articles in a series on Newsvine. Newsvine is a citizen-reporter community run by MSNBC.
Done. Now to seed the previous article.
Done! Instead of putting the blog post out on Twitter, I put each Newsvine post on Twitter individually.
I'm not optimistic about posting it on Huffington Post because they stubbornly insist that a pen name is the same thing as being anonymous. I ran into this issue with the grand lady herself when working on their Off The Bus project (I doubt if you google that, you won't find my name mixed in that because this was years ago and they've long since taken that website down. It was a separate website before HuffPo was sold to AOL and had been incorporated into HuffPo proper between then and the sale). I did a bit of polling place reporting for them at the time just prior to Obama getting first elected). And yes, Arianna knows my name. ^_^ So do the guys who used to run Arianna Online before she established the HuffPo. Whether she remembers me or not is a whole different question. :)
OCCUPY LOCAL PUBLIC ACCESS CABLE
{Sigh}....and thus the most fervent of New Year's resolutions to not get into any more scraps and stay outta trouble bites the dust. FACT: I don't just roll over for people who expect everybody to roll over, just because everybody in fact does roll over for these people. I never claimed to be average and I ain't gonna start to claim that now.
FACT: I'm an incorrigible congenital stinker. Deal with it.
I have to.
As a beauty, I am no star--there are others more fair by far.
But my face, I don't mind it--because I'm behind it;
It's the people in front that I jar.
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