Current news media out of touch?

Is it just me. or do we not need the modern news media anymore? I mean seriously, you cannot get any more polarized views unless you watch Faux news' Oreilly or Hannity... and shouldn't Hannity be catching that mouse? That being said, yes, I lean to the left... but I also believe in gun ownership.

CNN's recent 10 sites that will guarantee to make you laugh were anything but that, and you can't mod them down or introduce new sites... blagh. By the way CNN writers, if you're reading this, we're sick of hearing about MJ. He's dead, and we get it. How about keeping the focus on Iran's election? That's relevant to tomorrow.

Newspapers are dead. You can't mod down or up a writer for a biased article. You can't be heard in newspaper print... you'd be lucky to get a print correction blurb in the editorial column that no one reads because the page is full of sponsored ads. I will say however, that at least the ads are not annoyingly animated to distract you from the article itself. On the web we are resorted to employing adblock plus and the like to prevent our kids from seeing porn advertisements whilst researching homework.

Newspapers, like ISPs exist for one reason and one reason only... advertisers now known as spammers pay, and they pay well. I suppose the question ultimately remains... how much would you pay for uninterrupted and unbiased news be it either print, television, or online? and can you even find such a resource?

I digress...

William M. Nett

2001 Honda Shadow Questions

I've scoured the interwebs for simple questions regarding my bike and have thus far found nothing helpful that didn't require a paid for subscription... Seriously? I own a 2001 Honda Shadow and was wondering about basic maintenance, like oil specs, spark plug gapping, the usual stuff that's included with the bike.

To be specific I was curious about the oil requirements and after my bike's battery died at McDonalds on my way to work, only after dissembling the bike did I discover that which Clymer's holds so dear. I live in Florida which gets a lot of rain, so I was concerned.

The 2001 Honda Shadow uses by default 10-40W oil, and while they don't recommend bump starting or jumping off a car battery (both of which I call BullCrap on). They conveniently suggest contacting the dealer. I did perform a jump twice, with no issues. What I didn't know was that the bike was supposed to be trickle charged every 30 days. She's charging now, but I digress and ask is the battery supposed to be draining if the power and engine switch is turned off? By my rationalization, there should be no load or closed circuit on the bike when everything is turned off. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Will

Ban the tasers!

Ok, as a former Military Police Officer, I completely comprehend the necessity of escalation of force and the use of non-lethal weapons to subdue a suspect or offender... but this taser device has just got to go. Since 2004, 300 'suspects', 'detainees', and yes 'criminals' have died due to being tasered. I think that's enough to revisit the device's use and or deployment. For some a single dose was enough, for others... it took several applications.

For some reason we've dropped the use of pepper spray, and gone to tasers. We even have an incident of a BART Officer mistaking his gun for a taser, and killing a face down and handcuffed 'detainee'. Make no mistake in training, I've been pepper-sprayed, gassed, and water gunned, all effective methods of disabling a person without having to send 10,000+ volts through a person's body. I can only think of one other device designed to the same thing... the electric chair. Believe me, having three feet of mucus dripping from your face changes your whole perspective and yes, it slows you down. These tasers are abused and are not being used by their designer's ideals, and its no wonder why.

Bad cop makes a mistake (surprise!) Agency gets sued. Agency has less money, hires cheaper cops. Agency hires idiots who watches C.O.P.S. on TV... and ends up with idiots like these:






FYI.... you cannot be arrested for trespassing unless a sign has been posted or you've been asked to leave and you refuse.

Idocracy is here!!! Run for the hills!!!

Is it just me or is Idocracy becoming a reality? Seriously... Florida's Publix is selling obviously cheaper garbage bags at the same cost with the same specs, Verizon doesn't know the difference between $.002 and .002¢, and Vonage thinks that they can just change their term of service imposing customers at will with no recourse? I have no recourse but to face palm and wonder... How did this happen?

Florida's Publix is selling a thinned out version of their trash bags with the same UPC code of lesser quality. Here's the proof:


I'm not done yet...



And Vonage? From their their Terms of service...

6. LENGTH OF SERVICE.
6.1 Service Term.
We provide our service to you indefinitely. Your service term refers to the period of time for which we will bill you periodically in advance (for example, one month or one year). The service term is the term that you selected from the options available when you signed up for our service. Your first service term begins on the subscription date, which is the date you first ordered service or the date we successfully process your payment, whichever is later. It is not the day you receive the equipment you ordered or the first time you use the service. Your service will continue until canceled by you or by us as provided for herein. Please note that the obligations of this agreement begin on your subscription date and are indefinite.

You read that right they can charge you indefinitely. I closed my account with them last night under the premise that my service would stop until the end of the monthly contract (which they do NOT tell you or publish and frequently change.) and was subsequently charged $42.00. My phone is dead. Thankfully, I purchased an alternative solution. Its no wonder their stock on NASDAQ is about to be delisted.

Caveat emptor... Buyer beware.

I swear, if they start watering plants with Gatorade, I'm leaving this country.

If I were president

First action? The abolition of special interest groups... no room for lining political pockets. A president should not have ANY affiliations with special interest groups period, no exclusions, no exceptions. The job may not pay that well as compared to being a CEO, but it's not supposed to. You're leading a country... not a company.

Iraq, run through from coast to coast, wipe out Baghdad Bob, knock out Saddam, and leave a calling card, "Fsck with us again, and we'll be back." Pack up your troops and leave. To occupy a foreign country is neither our job, nor advantageous to us. If I woke up tomorrow and saw foreigners invading my country and trying to maintain a presence, you can bet I'd be taking out those foreigners. As far as I can recall, my oath was to protect the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic... it didn't say I'd occupy a country I have no beef with. The only reason we're still there is oil... America wants to control it, even if the country gets divided.

Fear of terrorists; Hitler used this ploy on the Germans, it didn't work out so well for him, and it didn't work out so well for the USA with regard to Japan or Vietnam... isn't your Toyota due for a fscking tuneup?

Wake up America, NY shops are now accepting Euros, that's how degraded the US dollar has gone... it is nearly worth the paper that the world bank has printed it upon.

Iran? Be leery Americans... and remember that when you grab a tiger by the tail, there's teeth on the other end. We've lost over 4,000 American lives thus far. If we enter Iran, we will lose more than ten times that, and you'll still be making $9.00 an hour.

Pull out of Iraq, and leave a strong card... "Don't make me come back."

Where the hell is my remote?

American television sucks, we have more commercials today selling snake oil craptastic products than any other country in the world. Even the BBC has less! Sure the Brits complain that they have to pay for an annual television license, but I pay for cable at a price that probably far exceeds the cost of that license, and if you've ever watched BBC, there are a lot less commercials! Special channel packages also piss me off. I could get cable TV with HBO and Scrotumax but I had to pay additional money for hardware to watch TechTV. That's bullcrap.

Some of these craptastic products annoy the hell out of me, like the cell phone reception improving sticker that turned into the RF frequency protector. Anyone who's owned a wi-Spy and saw the screen go ape-shit when you heat up popcorn in a microwave knows that in the grand scheme of RF saturation, a cell phone ain't a blurb of whats out there thats harmful. It very much reminds me of the 1970's magazine scam for a solar-powered clothes dryer at a cost of only $30.00. For their prompt payment, people received fifty feet of clothesline and a few clothes pins.

Point is, that we have more advertisements for drugs that can cure whatever ails you, more advertisements for crap that doesn't work, more advertisements trying to sway people from what works for them, and I just want to watch a fscking television show!

Time to get a TiVO.

Airline Miles

Airline miles in my opinion is a farce... if you don't actively watch the airlines, you won't get credit for your miles. I have made three trips alone to Europe this year and out of the four flights I incurred (three one way and one round trip), only one flight showed up on my delta miles card. One would think that if I used my miles card to establish my identity and receive my boarding pass that my account would reflect my trip? Um... not. I still had to call up Delta and prove to them that I took the trip weeks after the fact. Delta still owes me about 12,000 miles, and the outlook is grim that I will ever get credited with the miles even though I had the crappiest seat on the plane (aisle seat, back of plane, next to bathroom) during my last flight. Thanks Delta...