Rants, Ruminations & Random Thoughts

Our Justice System is broken.

2007-05-10T22:30:13Z

Our Justice System is broken.

I’m sorry, but it is, and I believe it’s almost beyond repair. The article below is one example.

Paris Hilton not expected to serve full 45-day sentence

By Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writer
11:07 AM PDT, May 10, 2007

Despite being sentenced for 45 days in county jail for violating her probation, socialite Paris Hilton is expected to spend three weeks -- and perhaps less -- behind bars, L.A. County sheriff's officials told The Times today. Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Hilton's sentence could be cut nearly in half by state law allowing for credit for time served for good behavior. In addition, he said, overcrowding in the jail system could further reduce the time she spends in custody.

Overcrowding has been a major issue in the L.A. County jail system, with some inmates -- even violent ones -- serving as little as 10% of their sentences. (If that standard was applied to Hilton, she would serve less than a week in jail.)

Actress Michelle Rodriguez, who starred on "Lost," was sentenced to 60 days in jail for a probation violation last year but ended up serving less than a day in jail.

In statement released by her attorney this week, she said: "I do not expect to be treated better than anyone else who violated probation," she said. "However, my hope is that I will not be treated worse."

Now, I’m a firm believer in law & order (how can I not be w/ Mom’s fascination w/ it), but can someone explain to me what the deterrent is when you assign someone to 45 – 60 days in jail & they spend less than a day/week there?

Do you really think that letting them out after serving only 10% of their sentence has really taught them a lesson? Obviously she has no respect for the court or the laws of the land, otherwise she wouldn’t have been arrested a 2^nd time driving on a suspended license after the first DUI. I don’t buy her dumb blonde routine either, trying to talk her way out of the 2^nd arrest by denying that she new about the suspension when she had the suspension paperwork in the glovebox! Come on now! She’s such a famewhore that her little jail stint is actually going to make her money by upping her non-celeb status even higher! That & now she’s got supporters trying to get a gubernatorial pardon for her by saying the excitement of her life helps make people who live vicariously through her happy! WTF!?!?!?

Our Justice System is broken, part 2.

I’ve got this engineering assistant here at HB, who supposedly works for me. I say supposedly, because for the past 3 months he’s been at Jury Duty. Yes, Jury Duty for the past 3 months. He’s only in the office Thursdays and every other Friday, which also happens to be the Friday I don’t work, so I only see him on Thursdays.

Now obviously it’s got to be an important trial right? Some vile murder/rape/kidknapping thing that’s keeping him away from work for so long, right? Wrong. Supposedly it’s some medical malpractice thing, it’s not even criminal court it’s civil court! I’m sure you’e asking what my intrepid engineering assistant knows about medical malpractice? Well, the answer is, nothing. That’s right, nothing. He’s just your average joe who has a job that will actually pay for his jury duty time. Now, get this, he’s actually been at work the past couple of weeks, but he’s not done w/ the trial. Why is that you ask? Well apparently, the judge had a vacation scheduled, so they’re taking a break w/ the trial, but not before the judge met w/ all the jurors to tell them that instead of the trial ending in early june, like it was supposed to, it’s going to end in Mid July. WTF?!?!? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?!?!!? It’s ok for the judge to put the entire trial on hold for 3 weeks so he can go sip margaritas in the sun, but I’m stuck having to pull double duty on my design jobs for half a year because my IAE drew the damn short straw & couldn’t come up w/ a good excuse to get out of Jury Duty?!?!?! That’s Bullshit!

This is why I’m a fan of Military Justice, give me a 3 judge panel any day over a Jury. I want 3 people who’ve committed their life to the law making decisions not Joe the plumber and Jane the retired librarian. Leave justice to the professionals, I don’t trust my peers, as people, in general, are fucking stupid.

You have got to be F*****G kidding me?!?!?

2006-07-12T22:34:50Z

Saw this article today on the internet.

[b][i][u]FCC checks live TV tapes for dirty words[/b][/i][/u]
[i]Foul language during sports broadcasts is commission's latest target
WASHINGTON - In its continuing crackdown on on-air profanity, the FCC has requested numerous tapes from broadcasters that might include vulgar remarks from unruly spectators, coaches and athletes at live sporting events, industry sources said.[/i]

So, the FCC wants to police CROWD NOISE now?!?!? You have got to be f******g kidding me?!?! I’m sorry, if you are so g*d-d*mn sensitive that some A**hole b*tching in the stands behind a reporter doing a sideline interview offends you, perhaps you need to go live in a cave somewhere.

Newsflash, PEOPLE DRINK & GET BELIGIRENT AT SPORTING EVENTS, THIS WILL INCLUDE SWEARING!!! I don’t think that Fox should be fined $325,000 for me calling the ref a blind M*therf*cker for making a bad call.

I’m in a quandary….

2005-10-27T18:30:02Z

Now I’m all for free market economics. I don’t think that government regulation of things really helps anything. However, article titles like the ones below just piss me off.

Exxon Mobil, Shell Post Record Profits

ConocoPhillips quarterly profit surges 89 percent

All these oil companies were crying when the hurricanes hit the gulf this year, saying how horrible the impact was on their industry & how they were in such trouble & everyone needed to conserve gas to prevent shortages. Here they are less than 3 months later, crowing about their record profits! I wonder if there was any government assistance thrown at these companies to ‘help’ them recover from the hurricane damage? Or what the ‘tax breaks’ were that they received?

"We are capturing the benefits of high oil and gas prices and refining margins," Shell Chief Financial Officer Peter Voser said, referring to the profit margin on each barrel of crude that is refined into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Capturing the benefits on refining margins?!?!?! So what they’re saying is that they were able to jack the price they sell refined gas for, greater than the added amount it’s costing them to refine it. That certainly sounds a lot like price gouging to me. I HATE how the oil companies play on the public’s perceptions and fears to manipulate their profits. The fact that there are so few major oil companies (especially after all these mergers) makes me totally buy into the conspiracy theory that they collude on gas & oil prices.

I mean look at the way gas prices fluctuate. Take a typical scenario, a major supply pipeline in the Middle East breaks/is blown up/whatever, gas prices at the pump here jump $0.10/gal overnight. The oil in that pipeline won’t be refined and turned into gas for a month, but the oil companies immediately play on the fears of the public to sqeeze some profit out of us. But when you get a situation where there’s good news, ie. pipelines repaired, new oil field found, etc. you see no downward movement in the price. This is dirty pool, my friends! It doesn’t help that we’ve got a President in office who was raised on Oil Money, not that I’m anti-Bush, because I’m not, but it pisses me off that he turns a blind eye to the shenanigans that the oil companies play in the name of profit.

Something needs to be done about the rampant gouging going on. A company shouldn’t be reporting its third quarter revenue was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and touting how they’re making record profits on their refined product when that profit is going to lead toward a collapse of the economy.

I just don’t get Celebrities…

2005-09-26T17:43:08Z

I mean, what the hell makes these people think that just because they can [sing,act,tell jokes,etc.], that somehow makes them experts in all fields of knowledge?

Saw this on the Drudgereport.com yesterday…

STREISAND DECLARES 'GLOBAL WARMING EMERGENCY'

NEW YORK -- This summer's back to back superstorms are proof positive we have entered a new period of "global warming emergency," artist/citizen Barbra Streisand warns.

As hellstorm "Rita" churned in the Gulf, Streisand sat down for a promotional interview with ABCNEWS's Diane Sawyer. "We are in a global warming emergency state, and these storms are going to become more frequent, more intense," Streisand urgently declares.

What bugs is the fact that these ‘Celebrities’ blatantly whore out their fame to futher issues that have no basis in fact. (Ref: Tom Cruise & his Today show appearance slamming the use of anti-depressants - “You haven’t studied the History of Psychiatry, Matt, I have” . . .Ass!)

Remind me, when did Barbara become the nation’s leading expert in Global Warming??? Did she get a doctorate in Meterology or Environmental Climatology??[Like that? I think I’ve got a new profession to use when I go out drinking – Hi, I’m an Environmental Climatologist can I buy you a drink?]

Come on, you’re a god damn singer/actress! I could care less about your ‘opinion’ about the climate & global warming! YOU’RE NOT A FRICKIN’ EXPERT! YOU’RE AN ENTERTAINER!!!!

What’s worse is PEOPLE BELIEVE THEM!!! How stupid do you have to be to buy into the crap these pseudo-intellectual fucktards spew? Come on! This country really needs a IQ test as part of the Voter Registration process, I’ve got it down to a single True/False question.

1. I get my information on News and International Politics from Oprah.

If you answered True, you don’t get to vote. Simple.

As for her statement about “back to back superstorms are proof positive we have entered a new period of 'global warming emergency.’”?

How about we look at that. Rembember, I’m not an expert, but the people at the National Hurricane Center, as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are. Note, this took me all of 15 seconds to look up on Google. There was a list of about 20, but I’ll just hit the highlights…

Galveston Hurricane 1900 - Category 4 hurricane. This hurricane was the deadliest weather disaster in United States history. The damage to property was estimated at $30 million. Remember that’s in “1900’s” dollars.

Atlantic-Gulf Hurricane 1919 Category 4 intensity as the eye passed just south of Key West, Florida and the Dry Tortugas - the storm is ranked as the third most intense to hit the United States. The death toll was estimated at 600 to 900 people. Of these, more than 500 were lost on ten ships that either sunk or were reported missing. Damage in the United States was estimated at $22 million. (Again in “1919” dollars.)

Great Miami Hurricane 1926
The Category 4 hurricane's eye moved directly over Miami Beach and downtown Miami Every building in the downtown district of Miami was damaged or destroyed. The great hurricane of 1926 ended the economic boom in South Florida and would be a $90 billion disaster had it occurred in recent times.

Hurricane Audrey 1957
Audrey was first detected over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. Damage in the United States was estimated at $150 million.(1957 Dollars)

Hurricane Camille 1969
Camille tracked north-northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico and became a Category 5 hurricane until it made landfall along the Mississippi coast. The combination of winds, surges, and rainfalls caused 256 deaths (143 on the Gulf Coast and 113 in the Virginia floods) and $1.421 billion in damage.

Hurricane Alicia 1983
Alicia formed over the north central Gulf of Mexico and drifted slowly westward and northwestward while steadily strengthening which brought Alicia over the western end of Galveston Island, Texas as a Category 3 hurricane Alicia was responsible for 21 deaths and $2 billion in damage in the United States.

Right there. 7 Gulf of Mexico Hurricanes across the past 100 years. Those are just Gulf of Mexico Hurricanes. I left out all the Atlantic Ocean ones. Makes the current two seem not all that impressive, doesn’t it?

I don't want to downplay the obvious destruction & suffering caused by Katrina & Rita, both were devistating hurricanes & we should do all we can to help the people there recover from them, but damn it, just because your horse didn't win the presidential race is no reason to go & politicize a national disaster. Help the people first, then go piss on Washington. Celeb's on the whole are people who have way more money than they know what to do with, so rather than bitch to us normal folk about contributing, they really should put their money where their mouth is...especially if it'll shut them up.

What the hell is up with some people?!?!?!

2005-08-31T16:48:34Z

I swear, some people out there don't know when to just SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

First, A comment from the German Finance Minister:

"The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies."

And from a couple of German Newspapers:

Scientists are quite calmly saying that we will see this kind of thing more often. After all, this is what they have been forecasting for years -- climate change, human-caused and irreversible. If this man-made warming continues, we will have to expect stronger storms in future."

Here's one that really bugs, RFK, Jr., this ass wrote a whole commentary piece entitled "For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind"

He opens his BS with:

As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.

Then he goes into a 5 paragraph blathering of environmental politicing over CO2 regulations, then rolls right into:

Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and--now--Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.

In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast.

I can't believe that in the face of the suffering & disaster of Hurricane Katrina, that assholes like this take advantage of their pseudo-celebrity to soapbox on issues that promote ideas, that are loosely based on statistical analysis, linking changing wetather patterns and (insert flavor of the month environmental policy) as PROVEN SCIENTIFIC FACT! and then have the audacity to go & state that maybe it was "God's Will" that Mississippi got hit harder because of their governor supporting some lame ass policy over Greenhouse gasses!

I'm suprised that there are actually still voices of reason out there in the media.

From Germany's "Die Welt' Newspaper:

"hurricanes are a natural phenomenon. They occurred long before humans could be affected by them. Whether the frequency and intensity of these storms has truly increased in recent years has not yet been proven with statistics." Whether humans have aversely affected the Earth's climate or not, the paper says, one thing is clear "we have modern technology to thank that Katrina was not able to do more damage."

SHOCKING! A news organization with a rational statement. Just imagine the extent of the damage & loss of life if we didn't have the weather tracking & prediction technology we have.

People are stupid...

2005-08-24T20:49:26Z

Police Arrest Two Suspected Of Releasing Alligator In L.A. Lake

LOS ANGELES -- Two people were arrested Wednesday for allegedly turning an alligator loose in a small city lake, where the reptile has evaded capture while drawing many spectators.

The two people were taken into custody at a home where officers also seized other alligators, turtles and snakes.

The Machado Lake alligator was first seen Aug. 12 and has drawn crowds of the curious, who look through binoculars or lob treats such as jelly doughnuts into the water.

PEOPLE! WILD ANIMAL! It's a carnivore! As in eats meat, you know, rabbits, squirrels, small dogs, CHILDREN!!!!

Television crews have staked out the lake, but the gator has generally been camera shy. Rarely have people seen much more than its eyes poking above the surface of the water in recent days.

A crew from Florida's Gatorland attraction started scouring the lake Tuesday and offered to take the gator back with them if the city doesn't want to keep it.

"We have a 110-acre park where alligators live a long, happy, sheltered life," Gatorland spokeswoman Michelle Harris said. "We think he would make a nice fit."

But the gator's fame appears to have rubbed off on Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

"They offered to take it back, but we haven't decided that's the right thing to do," Hahn said. "After all, it's an L.A. gator."

Oh for Love of God! Why do we have such moronic people in government! It's not like it's a puppy dog. IT'S A FRICKIN' ALLIGATOR! Killer of the Everglades. From a Travel Safety website:

The American alligator, alligator mississippiensis is responsible for all known alligator attacks on humans.

Reasons for Attack:

Defense - of territory, nests and themselves. They are highly territorial, especially males at certain times of the year and females with nests and young.

Such as, say having numerous television camera crews staking out it's home waters?

Appetite- they get hungry and they can and do eat people, though it's not a preference.

I'm sure at some point the ducks at the man-made lake might decide to find a different less dangerous pond to splash about in.

Accidental - they make mistakes, just like humans. 'Uh oh, that doesn't taste like a gazelle!'

Bad attitude - a few are just plain bad tempered animals and will grab anything that moves.

It's items & the response of government officials like this that make me want to go purchase an island somewhere, declare myself king & live outside of society as much as possible to avoid all the idiots.

This is supposed to be better?!?!?!!

2005-08-24T18:51:26Z

Evangelist backs off Chavez assassination call

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said on Wednesday he was misinterpreted and there were a number of ways to "take him out" including kidnapping.

Of course! Because Kidnapping a foreign leader by the United States instead of outright assassination would be much more acceptable to the rest of the world governments!

"I said our special forces could take him out. Take him out could be a number of things including kidnapping," Robertson said on his "The 700 Club" television program.

"There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted," Robertson added.

Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1988, said on Monday of Chavez, one of Bush's most vocal critics: "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." He made the comments during his "The 700 Club" television program.

See, this is why I have a problem with religion in general. You get idiots like Pat Roberston, or Osama Bin Laden, or that 'Nation of Islam' guy who feel that their world view is the only view people should subscribe to. I totally support their right to express their views & prothesletize their religion to try and drum up more followers/worshipers, but I also believe that they should keep their religious ramblings out of international politics. A popular US religious leader calling for the murder/kidknapping of a foreign diplomat by US special forces DEFINITELY does not help to 'improve the image' the US is trying to cultivate with other countries.

This guy may be a dictator, but lets get one conflict resolved before we go kicking down the door of the next bully on the block, ok?

My first rant...

2005-08-15T17:43:28Z

Welcome to my LiveJournal. I've been reading other people's LJ's here for a while, mostly fanfic writers, & finally broke down & signed up for one myself. Don't know if anyone's actually going to read it, but at least it's a fun place to put my thoughts & rants down. This is one rant I went off on a week or so ago when I read the accompanying article on the Space shuttle & the environment.

Environmental damage on Earth seen from shuttle

By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources.

"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.

Collins, flying her fourth shuttle mission, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too.

"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."

See, I call bullshit on this. I highly doubt that the planet has 'lost' that much atmosphere over the past million years or so. There's proof that Air breathers have been around for over 100,000+ years. We've (being humans) been on the scene, what 8,000 years? and we've been actively polluting the atmosphere for say the last 200, & that's being generous. Somehow I don't believe that a can of hairspray is going to bring about planetary extinction.

Also some of the Discovery channel shows have pointed out that from space, it's really tough to tell where Man has actually had an impact on the planet. I remember one show saying that the first man-made type object recognizable from space as you approach the planet are some of those Indian figure drawings out in the desert, the ones that are like 100 mi tall and 500 years old.

It's BS that they can see the deforestation & erosion caused by man. Erosion? Where do they get erosion? It's not like we're out there strip mining anymore? Ocean Erosion just happens, nothing we can do is really going to change it. Not like you can hold back 10 trillion gallons of seawater from the entire coastline.

COLUMBIA TRIBUTE

The combined crew of Discovery and the space station, nine in all, paid tribute on Thursday to the Columbia crew and other astronauts who have died in space accidents. They took turns speaking while television shots from the shuttle showed it passing over a sunlit Earth, then into night.

"Tragically, two years ago, we came to realize we had let our God down. We became lost in our hubris and learned once more the terrible price that must be paid for our failures," said mission specialist Charles Camarda. "In that accident, we not only lost seven colleagues, we lost seven friends."

"We let our God down?!?!? O.K. Allow me to quote from my favorite television website. "God is in the tub!" It's an expression indicating that perhaps bugging God with requests is something like bothering your mom to break up fights between you and your brother when she's trying to relax in the bathtub. I really doubt that if there is a God, that he was kicking around the multiverse & said, "Hey those assholes down there have been playing w/ the space shuttle way to fast & loose, time to throw a monkey wrench into the mix. (flicking his/her finger at the incoming Columbia.)

Lost in our hubris?!?!?!" I don't see how overbearing pride happened to cause the crash. Again allow me to quote from another entertainment source, the movie Armageddon.

"Did you know we are sitting on 2 million gallons of fuel, and a thing with 270,000 loose parts that was built by the lowest bidder. Kinda makes you feel good dont it?"

People meet Mr. Murphy, he's come up w/ several laws. Most of which revolve around things not going according to plan. Life is like that. Shit sometimes gets fucked up, you deal & move on, not make pansy ass speeches about how we let God down because we were arrogant w/ our pride in the space program. Suck it up, learn from the mistake & move on. The crash was tragic, but with adversity comes advancement, Nietzsche - 'What does not kill me, makes me stronger." Simple, and to the point, if you didn't die, learn from the mistake & don't make it next time. If you do die, you're in a better place & not having to worry about the next time. So cut out the metaphysical crap NASA & Science, there's no place for it when it comes to Science, leave it for in the classroom.