Quote of the Day [12.26.24]

“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

Luigi Mangione
Manifesto on United Health

Link of the Day [3.10.15]

What I felt when reading through today’s link the first time was resignation. I already knew that we gave up a lot of our freedom for the safe, security we needed to defeat a bunch of know-nothing, backwards scaremongers of the Middle East. But the more I read, the more I got angry.

What the hell man?! This is supposed to keep us safe? I feel safe already? FUDGE these guys.

Then the article started getting into some of the specifics. Like how the ‘white hat hackers’ are cracking our development tools to inject malicious code into our applications. That just makes me disgusted.

Is this our United States? Is this what we wanted? We wanted to feel safe for this? Thanks, W. FUDGE that guy. FUDGE you guys for giving in.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/10/ispy-cia-campaign-steal-apples-secrets

Quote of the Day [3.22.10]

“[T]he emotional core of opposition to reform was blatant fear-mongering, unconstrained either by the facts or by any sense of decency.”

Paul Krugman, “Fear Strikes Out” NY Times, Monday March 22, 2010

Quote of the Day [11.12.09]

"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."Thomas Paine, "Dissertions on First Principles of Government"

Quote of the Day [1.16.09]

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Scenes from the last Saturday of 2008

“Hey! The Great Escape just started.”

“Steve McQueen can’t make it over the big German gap!”

Just start baby. Please start. Yosh!

“Anyone know any manga with cat girls?”

“Cat girls? Not my taste. Good luck.”

Hmmm. Yozakura Quartet.

Worst lamb gyro ever.

“Mmmm. Pralines and cream milk shake.”

“Yuck. Pralines and cream milk shake.”

Anime? Miyazawa!

Link of the Day [10.29.08]

Why should those old fogies in Florida decide the outcome of the election? Why living in a thoroughly blue state with no chance for your red fool of a candidate keep you from appreciating your vote? Why should we have to worry about what the two people who live in Idaho and the four people in North Dakota need in their next president? Why do we still have an electoral college?

I don’t know. I don’t really care. I live in a thoroughly blue state that will always seem to do the right thing for me to worry about. I treat voting as a civic duty. I missed out on it for ten years, and when I did get to vote, the stupid old fogies elected president fucktard.

If you want your vote to count, then you should support the national popular vote referendum or whatever they call it. Even if you don’t, you should visit the site to understand why our system may be antiquated.

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

Link of the Day [10.22.08]

Socialism? Funny that you should mention it, Senor McCain. As Matthew
Yglesias points out, your pal, Palin, seems to be right in the middle of
a socialist collective in Alaska. The government has nationalized the
means of production. Alaskans own the oil, which in turns funds the
state. Rugged Alaskans? Do these guys even work? That's rhetorical,
but it does get into how silly leveling charges of socialism at Obama
are. If I do recall, it is the current, Republican administration, that
is in the midst of nationalizing the banks.http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/10/socialism.php

Quote of the Day [10.15.08]

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude."Amendment XV, The United States Constitution