iPhone Phones Home, Tells Everything

Caveat: I am not a developer so what I am about to reveal may or may not be news to the developer community.  Nevertheless, this is not something that I was aware of previously and I have not seen any mention of this in the media that I subscribe to (which is a fairly broad cross section of the online press).

Further, to my knowledge this is not something that has been specifically authorized by me in the course of my use of either my computer or the software on it or my iPhone and the software running there.  I did not grant permission for this information to be transferred anywhere and I did not ever to my knowledge see any request to allow this information to be collected much less shared and shared without my knowledge.

Here’s the deal.  Today I was going through the console on my Mac Book Pro trying to see if I can figure out why it suddenly won’t display anything on the screen (I was doing this using LogMeIn since I could not work on the computer locally since the display has apparently died.

During the process of digging through the console to see if there was any obvious cause for the completely unexpected display failure I came across something that I found as unexpected as the aforementioned problem and which I (and possibly other iPhone owners) will find very disturbing.

As you can see, this is a snapshot of my console log file.  It shows some surprising information – at least from my perspective.  Unless I am completely misinterpreting this information it looks as if the iPhone is logging everything that happens to it and I mean everything, from usage stats on the baseband to which applications are installed, when they are used and when they malfunction, and then, when you connect your iPhone to iTunes the phone downloads all this information to your console where it is logged.  Further, judging from the text adjacent to the baseband logging details this information has been “submitted”.

This begs the question: SUBMITTED WHERE???

Again, I wasn’t asked if I wanted this information collected and I sure as hell wasn’t asked if I wanted it submitted either.  If I am correct and what is going on here is that without my prior knowledge let alone my consent this data is being transmitted back to Apple for their own purposes (after all with literally hundreds of crashes of the mobile Safari browser on this iPhone alone, if the data were being used for my benefit someone would have contacted me don’t you think?) using my computer to collect the data and my Internet connection to transport it.

When a Microsoft application crashes and the crash reporter wants to send information back to Microsoft they have the courtesy to ask your permission.  They also take time to explain in writing what is being sent to them and what is being done with it.  They make certain guarantees at this time as well about personally identifying information and how that data is to be used.

I fail to see where such courtesies are being extended to me by Apple.  I fail to see an explanation as to what is being collected, whether or not it is personally identifying or what Apple intends to do with this information once they’ve managed to snoop it from my phone and computer.

Frankly I think this is outrageous.  The fact that this data is being collected at all without requesting permission to do so is bad enough.  The fact that it appears to be sent via clandestine transmission to Apple without any prior disclosure seems to be a criminal trespass based upon my understanding of the privacy laws in this country.

This strikes me as a grotesque abuse of my trust.  What if I had personal medical information stored on my phone?  At this point how would i know who at Apple had accessed this information or with whom it had been shared – again all without my knowledge or consent.

Since when did owning a mobile phone void one’s right to privacy or exempt a company from the need to disclose their data collection policy?  When did Apple wake up and decide that it was okay to spy on their customers in this truly repulsive fashion?

Now, as I said at the outset of this post, I am not a developer so it is possible that either this is something that has previously been discussed and I am late to the party – it is also possible that I am misunderstanding something about these console log statements and that what I think is going on really isn’t.

However, on the off chance that I am neither late to the party nor misunderstanding these log files then this is a real issue that deserves some real attention.  I sincerely doubt that I am alone in feeling completely raped by Apple’s data collection policies and the fact that I don’t appear to have been included in the decision making process about which data will be logged, collected and reported regarding my use of a device that I bought and paid for and for which I have not in any obvious way been notified of zero privacy nor authorized anyone to keep tabs on my beyond my approval for AT$T to track my usage of their network for billing purposes.

Is this grounds for a class action?  I’ll let the lawyers tell me the answer.  Is this grounds for a consumer-company smackdown.  I think it is.  If what I think is going on is really going on then it’s time to put Apple in its place.  The back door was bad enough but this latest is simply egregious.

Posted in Apple, big brother, Blog Power, iPhone, mobile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Remembering Marc Orchant – gone one year today, very much in my thoughts…

marc_and_sue_by_scoble

marc_and_sue_by_scoble

I can hardly believe that it’s been a year since the world lost the irreplacable soul, friend, father, coach, mentor, husband and so much more wrapped up in the being of a man I knew as Marc Orchant.

My time knowing Marc was much too brief – barely two years, yet in that short time he had a profound influence on my life- an influence that carries on without him in so many ways both big and small.

Marc and I had a regular routine consisting of Skype, phone, twitter and email that carried on throughout the say comprising multiple cross threaded dialogs – we were very present in one anothers lives even though I lived in California while Marc had no intention of moving from his beloved New Mexico.

Anyone that knew Marc, even a little, knows that he was the consummate educator/geek.  He loved technology and he loved helping people discover how useful it was for themselves.  He was very much the Zen Master of technology – giving people just enough help that they could sort things out themselves and thus own the knowledge rather than fixing whatever it was and creating another dependent tech user.

Marc had an almost childlike love of things shiny – much like my own – however while one might see me as a person who refuses to grow up Marc’s delight was more sage – wiser somehow – he was wiser in so many ways.

A short time after meeting Marc and beginning to work with him at Foldera I knew that we’d be friends for life.  I had no idea that in this case that meant such a short, short time.

In any case I am rambling incoherently because I’m still not ready to accept that he’s gone and that in this lifetime I won’t have the gift of his friendship, the benefit of his counsel or the pleasure of his intellect in my own life. The world seemed darker the day Marc left us and there are still so many shadows were he used to light things up.

Later today I’ll be flying back from London to LA and hopefully will be able to share a few of my experiences with Marc from the prior couple of years.  If anyone reading this has anything they’d like to share please comment or send me an email (oliver at owstarr dot com) and I will post it for you.  If you are interested in sharing anything productivity or GTD related that originated with or relates to Marc, including content he published previously – I’ll be posting that sort of material to GTDtimes.

Posted in Marc Orchant, Personal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How Stupid is Palin? Very. (and corrupt, too)

Perhaps it’s a bit unsporting to go after Sarah Palin  – the much maligned Hockey Mom from Alaska – particularly given that she and her family are know known in some circles as the Wasilla Hillbillies after the way they behaved during the McCain campaign but the news that continues to come to the fore about this person is simply too much to ignore.

The latest – aside from her drama and theatrics which included “going rogue”, refusing to speak to McCain while on the Straight Talk Express (perhaps renamed the “not talking express” or maybe the “stop touching me express” or possibly even the “i’m a third grader express” though that might be insulting to third graders that appear to know more geography then the cartographically challenged Palin who must be one of those “US Americans that needs maps and doesn’t has maps” but I digress.)

No, the latest is that this woman who clearly hasn’t realized that in the gun fight of world politics she’s armed with one of those clown guns with a flag that unfurls from the muzzle with the word “bang” on it – hardly the requisite hardware when even the most minimally armed adversary she’s going to face is packing a howitzer – this polititard apparently can’t even identify Africa on a map of the world and hasn’t quite learned that the aforementioned is a continent and not a country!

It’s somewhat terrifying to think that the person who would be charged with brokering a peace deal in the middle east can’t even find the area on a map.  It’s even more frightening to contemplate what else she simply doesn’t know.  After all it was hardly like we had unfettered access to her to randomly question her about all manner of topics that might be important to carrying out the duties of the POTUS in a competent manner.

I can only wonder what else the McCain staffers know but which they aren’t yet telling.  It has since come out that in addition to her lack of knowledge about the earth she has a profoundly broken sense of ethics.  During the campaign word leaked to the press that Palin had spent some $150,000 of campaign funds at Neiman Marcus outfitting herself from head to toe in high-fashion designer garb so that she could look exactly like that icon of fashion Tina Fey.

What we didn’t hear (at least until later) was that the sum was actually somewhere between $190,000 and $200,000 and that it included some $40,000 for her secessionist hubby (who doesn’t appear to like the country but seems to like the country’s political donor’s money just fine), and thousands more on outfits for her kids who were apparently sporting brand new Gucci shoes while disrupting business on the erstwhile Straight Talk Express which according to one staffer was at times more like the “Baby Poop Express”. (what’s next  breast feeding while attending to a visiting foreign dignitary? and no, I’m not bashing motherhood or women here – just Palin and her clearly compromised sense of what is reasonable.)

The Gucci shoes in particular when coupled with what the children where apparently dressed like prior to the spree resulted in the creative but apparently appropriate moniker “the Wasilla Hillbillies” which so funny and so on beam that when I heard it what I was drinking literally came out my nose as I snorted in laughter.

From what I understand Palin had to buy and then the campaign staff had to schlep 13 new suitcases to carry all the clothing she purchased from one place to the next during the tour.  Not only is this unfair, ludicrous and irresponsible it also begs the question – if she wasn’t planning on keeping it (as she claimed on national television where she said that after the campaign it would be donated to charity) why would she have spent so much money on suitcases to pack it all around with her?  (and you can bet that she didn’t buy those suitcases at Wal-Mart either.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they came from Louis Vuitton or maybe Tumi.

So has any reporter bothered to track where the clothes went after the bus had pulled into the garage and the sun set on McCains last big battle?

Not that I’ve heard.

What I want to know is if the Gucci shoes the kids are sporting went to a deserving inner-city youth from the projects or if they now sit mud stained and damp in some mudroom in the Governer’s mansion in Alaska?  And what about all the suits she bought her hubby not to mention the tailored pink and beige suits she wore herself?  Did she hang onto them once again breaking her word to the very people she claims to wish to serve?  If not then I’m sure that she should be able to tell us which charity they went to?  After all such publicity would be good for the charity wouldn’t it?

My bet is that those thirteen bags (whatever brand they turn out to be) was delivered to Palin’s residence within a few days (if not a few hours) of her arrival back home and that their contents are now safely ensconced in the WB’s newly expanded clothes closets.

What makes this whole clothing issue all that much worse (and far more worrisome from the perspective of her future political ambitions) is that again according to McCain staff this spree was “one step shy of stealing”.

According to the unnamed source a wealthy McCain supporter had given Palin a credit card to use for the purpose of purchasing 3 suits for the Republican National Convention.  The staffer reports that this was the extent of the permission that Palin was given and that upon seeing the receipts for the nearly $200,000 in charges the donor was shocked beyond words.

As a country that is reeling from the collective shocks that commenced with the subprime mortgage crises and which have now extended to the financial markets, the banking system, the automotive industry and soon to the credit card companies too – a country saddled with a nearly incomprehensible national debt and a budget deficit that is hard to imagine let alone manage, it hardly demonstrates the sort of restraint or fiscal responsibility that we need in a leader when the first chance she gets she basically steals from a campaign contributor and goes off on a buying extravaganza like an oil-rich third world dictator at a Russian arms bazaar.

Seriously.

All humor aside though, this is very troubling.  There are still some people – let’s call them “right wing nut jobs” that haven’t realized that this woman is not only stupid she is dangerously unhinged.  She is clearly corrupt without apology, has the ethics of a Bush-Rice hybrid, and the IQ of Dan Qualye with a head injury. It is obvious that rules are something that only apply to other people and that the only laws that you break and the ones where you got caught breaking them.  She appears to believe that power is to be used for personal gain and that being elected to a high station gives one certain inalienable rights to mistreat other people and to use that power expressly for personal gain (or worse, personal and/or vindictive satisfaction) as well as for enforcing her personal religous doctrine (which is a far cry from sane let alone reasonable) upon anyone and everyone – and God forbid she (or her whack job preacher decide that you’re a witch which could literally mean your life is in jeopardy.

All I can say is thank God McCain lost.  I said it before but it was worth saying again.  Now let’s just hope that people don’t forget the bullshit she pulled this time around when 2012 comes up.  Provided that we’re all still here and that neither a pole shift nor the crossing of Nibiru cause a global cataclysm that renders all elections superfluous because you can count on her trotting out that bs folksy enunciation and that false-as-hell wink because the truth is that Palin is just dumb enough to believe that she’s got the people fooled.

Please, oh, please don’t let’s prove her right.

Posted in Blog Power, Personal, Political | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Final Shot at Impeaching the Criminals: Will Bush Pardon Himself?

I’m going to put big money on an affirmative.  That is unless we, the people, do something to prevent it.  From “The Pen”


Impeach Bush Before He Pardons Himself

According to Seymour Hersh there is a conga line of insiders waiting
until January 20th to spill the beans on the gross criminality of the
Bush/Cheney administration. Waiting . . . because if they did it now
the two of them would be tarred and feathered on the way out the
door.

But we the people do not have to wait. We can and must demand the
immediate impeachment of both Bush and Cheney for what is already
known. At the very least the defiance of congressional subpoenas at
the behest of the White House is an open and shut case for
accountability now.

Impeach Now Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php

Because as his final constitutional insult, his final spit in the
face to the American people and all rule of law, it is transparently
obvious that Bush is planning the most wholesale and wrongful pardon
of the worst political criminals in American history, his whole
criminal gang, INCLUDING himself.

And don’t think that is not their precise plan. Please, what power
has Bush NOT abused? What heinous, self-serving, shameless and
dishonest act has he ever shied away from, when he was torturing and
eavesdropping and lying us into wars of corporate aggression. Does
anyone doubt that is what he is planning on doing?

And when you submit this action page, you will have one last chance
to get one of the “Impeach Both!!!” caps, which after January 20th
will no longer be available from us for love or for money.

Impeach Now Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php

Will Congress now act? That is not the yardstick of the worth of our
activism. We speak out because we must speak out, whether we are
heeded or not. Let history record that we spoke out until the last
minute to the eternal shame of those who did not. Because when enough
of us speak out at once, the worst thing that can possibly happen is
that we are building the progressive base for the REAL change of the
future.

So Bush most certainly is planning on pardoning himself. And all the
right wing lock down ideologues in the corporate controlled media
will call it “healing”. Let’s all make nice with war criminals? Shall
we all make nice with the gang rape of our economy, our environment
and our Constitution? We think not.

And one more thing. You know that come January 20th the right wing
will start calling for the impeachment of our new president, over a
endless litany of the most ridiculous of trivial trifles. In fact it
has already started even though he has not even taken office. If they
are so hot on impeaching someone, let them speak out now, when it
truly is called for, or shut the hell up in 73 days.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Is Forbes Against Gay Marriage?

This just hit my in box from the Forbes/Adify Blog Advertising Network:

I am writing to you with some urgency because our partners at Adify have proposed a short-term campaign for us to run across the Forbes.com Business & Finance Blog Network.
The campaign is very unique in that it is political in nature and may potentially be objectionable to some readers.  We ask that you please take the time to consider whether  you’d like this advertisement to run on your site. It is up to you to decide whether you will accept this campaign.
Some details on the campaign:

The campaign advocates a “Yes”  vote on California Proposition 8, which touches on some potentially sensitive  issues related to familial values and marriage.  Specifically, a “Yes”  vote on Proposition 8 advocates a ban on gay marriage in California.

The campaign will run only in the  300×250 ad size and will feature a video similar to a political television  commercial.

The campaign is Geo-targeted  exclusively to the state of California.

The overall CA-only campaign CPM  is  $2.85 to you.
We are hoping to set this campaign live ASAP as it only runs until November 4th – election day.
To provide you with an opt-out/reject opportunity for this single campaign, Adify has rejected this campaign across our Network. It will appear in your rejected area, at which time you could choose to accept it. We’ve been assured by Adify that the ad WILL NOT automatically serve on your site.”  You can preview the video for this campaign in your Adify account as well.
Please let me know if you have any questions- feel free to call my cell phone listed below.
Have a nice weekend.

My Response:

I do not wish this advertisement or any like it to run on my site.  I believe that all people should have equal rights under the law and any law that discriminates on the basis of gender, age, race or sexual preference is both wrong and unconstitutional.  Further I find the advocacy for such a law personally abhorrent.  People should not be limited in their rights simply because other people don’t like their choices.  Whom a person chooses for their partner whether be it for sex or for life has no impact on others so why should those other people that are not impacted in any way have the right to make a determination about the rights of anyone else?

I personally think that Sarah Palin is an imbecile. I simply cannot imagine a country with her as its Vice President let alone its President.  In fact I think this would be enormously detrimental to all Americans in so many ways it is difficult to imagine, much less quantify in any rational way.  This however, is simply my opinion and I do not grudge others their own opinions even if it is different than mine.  Further, I don’t strive to limit the rights of those with a different opinion their opportunity to exercise their right to choose the candidate of their preference even though this choice will have much greater bearing on me and my life than anyone’s choice about whom they marry.

Why this is even a question boggles my mind.  What small minded fear-based bigoted self-righteous meddling moron would spend time, money, or waste the public’s limited attention span on something so totally inconsequential as limiting the rights of people that make different choices to choose whom they wish to lawfully engage in matrimony?  Don’t we have bigger problems than a couple of men or a couple of women choosing to live in a respectful and loving relationship?

This is a modern day witch hunt.  Make no mistake about it.  These same do-gooder right wing Christians are the exact same morons whom a century or two ago were the ones having witch hunts and burning blacks on crosses and before that they were the ones that were holding the inquisitioner’s hearings in Spain.

Shame on Forbes for even considering this ill-intentioned campaign and shame on any blogger whom either out of misguided beliefs or worse, simply for a few dollars would choose to display any of the rhetoric this group espouses.

Sincerely,

Oliver W Starr

Posted in big brother, Blog Power, Personal, Political | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Most Amazing UFO Footage to Date

Britain’s “The Sun” is reporting on some of the most amazing UFO footage recorded to date. From the Sun:

The 42-year-old and a number of residents claim the UFOs were spotted over a four month period between May and September near the compound in Istanbul.

He said: “I don’t know what these things are. We filmed them several times and they are totally unknown to us. I was very excited when I saw them and I want the world to know that UFOs do exist”.

Almost two-and-a-half hours of footage was filmed featuring a variety of objects ranging from incredible flying saucer-type ‘craft’ to clustering orb-like lights hovering in the night sky.

Genuine

The clips were handed to the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Centre in Turkey who interviewed witnesses and painstakingly combed through the footage frame by frame.

International UFO researcher Haktan Akdogan said: “In this amazing video footage, physical forms of UFOs and their metallic structures are clearly noticeable.

“What is more important is that in the close-up of some footage of the objects, entities in them can be distinctly made out.”

He continues: “We have spoken with all of the witnesses and had detailed analysis conducted on all two-and-a-half hours of footage.

“After conducting all of the analysis we came to the conclusion that this video footage is 100 per cent genuine.

“The objects filmed are structured objects and are not the result of misidentification or natural phenomena, aircraft or astronomical objects.

“They are not the results either of any kind of computer animation. Now is it a time for world governments to acknowledge the reality of UFOs.”

From what I can discern from the video, it appears that this craft is what Bob Lazar referred to as a “sport model” only even smaller.  In fact to me it looks all the world like a sports car cockpit with a clear bubble over the center space where it appears that there is something controlling the vehicle – pehaps the alien pilot??

I paused the video numerous times during the segments where this clear section is visible and it even appears that you can see some luminous controls on a dashboard.  I kid you not.

So, is this real or is it a well executed hoax?  So far the experts are proclaiming the footage to be genuine but we will have to see if it withstands future scrutiny.  If it is legitimate then it is clear that we are getting closer than ever to disclosure, either because it is the right thing to do or because the extraterrestrials are tired of waiting…

Posted in Personal, Ufology, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What to Expect from a Palin Presidency

We all thought that Shrub was the stupidest person to ever ascend to the Oval Office but it now appears that it is possible – likely even – that some time in the next four years we will be victim to someone even dumber than the current presiding potted plant actually inheriting the position of Commander in Chief.

Now, I’m not writing to discuss the reasons why this might happen – save to say that if the democrats are so stupid that they don’t get their shit together and put an end to the republican voter fraud this time around then they deserve to lose this election.  No, I just want to prep you for what we ought to prepare for under a Palin Presidency.

Nations with morons as heads of state have long been the butt of jokes based upon the idiocy of their leaders so with a leader so clueless that she doesn’t even have a clue that she’s clueless (so clueless it turns out that McCain staffers have revealed that she didn’t know that Africa was a continent!) we should expect no less from our friends abroad.

With that in mind I thought I’d give you just one example of the sort of humor that we should be prepared to “enjoy”.

Here’s a funny:

The leaders of China, Russia and the US are discussing their space programs.  The Chinese leader says “in two years we will put a man on the moon.”  Russia’s leader, Putin, ups the ante by saying “Really?  In five years Mother Russia will put a man on Mars.”  President Palin, not wanting to be outdone by either man says “Well, Gosh Darn it Boys, that’s real impressive, but’chya  know what we’re gonna do?  The Good ‘Ol USA is gonna put a team of men and women on the sun!”

The Russian and Chinese leaders are stunned.  Putin looks at President Palin and says “But certainly you know this is impossible.  It would be a suicide mission!”

Palin derisively rolls her eyes, winks at the audience and says “Well Mr. Smarty Pants, that shows what you know.  We’re going to land at night!”*

Oh the horror!  Somebody wake me please and tell me this is all a bad dream.  With so many smart people in this country is this lineup really the best we could possibly do?  Sad, sad, sad…

*Yes, this is my own original humor.

Posted in big brother, Blog Power, Personal, Political | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

It’s True! Anyone Really CAN Become the President!

If there was any doubt that in this country anyone can become President that doubt was dispelled tonight during the Vice Presidential debate. I’m still shaking my head at the inane responses that Sarah Palin delivered in between mangling words like nuclear (God help us, a second person in the white house saying “nookular”), and inventing names – who’s General Maclleland?

I wish that I could believe that the American people are smart enough collectively to realize that this robotic toady who doesn’t know what the word “maverick” means even though she said it forty five times tonight, is so completely incapable of leading this country that if McCain has any decency at all he has left orders to the secret service that should he die she should be taken out for the good of the country.

I know that sounds terribly callous but my god, I am more qualified to be President than she is if for no other reason than that I realize that I am completely unqualified for the position.  I accept this even though I know what the Bush Doctrine is, I’ve been to more than one country outside the US, I can say “nuclear” correctly and I don’t attend some wacky church where people speak in tongues, fall down in spiritual trances or go on actual witch hunts (seriously, check this out Palin’s Kooky Church – is it a cult or just a freak show? )

The moderator of this debate should be taken out behind the chemical shed and put out of our misery too.  Since when, in a debate, is it acceptable to simply ignore the questions that are being asked and to go off on irrelevant tangent after irrelevant tangent.

Do people really care what she did when she was Mayor of Wasilla? It’s ironic that she chided Biden for pointing out McCain’s mistakes by stating that he was focusing too much on the past when virtually every concrete thing she said was a reference to something that happened (or that she did) during her term as governor or mayor.

Her fake folksy down home lingo and pantomimed theatrics up on stage  (good God do we want a president that will wink during a State of the Union address?) were beyond ridiculous.

The fact that she had the temerity to mock Joe Biden to speak to him in a condescending way or to correct him (and be wrong in so doing) was just preposterous.

I find the idea that she could potentially become President to be so incredible, so inconceivable, so utterly ridiculous that it should guarantee that McCain loses this election.  Anyone that had any doubts about his judgment should now know all that they need to know, his judgment is a joke.  His running mate is a joke and his presidency will likely be the stuff about which jokes are someday told once we get beyond the pain and cost that having her in office will doubtless cause.

I can only hope that folks are smarter than I give them credit for and that like me people see Palin for what I can only describe as a charicature not a real person and a completely and totally inappropriate choice for either the Vice Presidency or worse, the Presidency.  Vote NO on Palin, Vote NO on McCain.  Save this country, save yourself, save our face in the world, keep that charade of a politicion out of office.

Posted in Personal, Political | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Frightening Facts About W3C and Truth, Free Speech and the Net

Editor’s Note:  The post below comes direct from one of the best newsletters you will ever have the opportunity to receive for free:  Mercola.com.  This publication by Dr. Mercola covers health, politics, food safety and other topics that should be of interest to anyone concerned about living a long healthy life.

As someone that has worked in the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industries and has a long history of getting published as well as consulting for many of the top companies I have some pretty firmly established opinions on this topic.  Dr. Mercola is the first MD I’ve come across with whom I actually agree.  Seriously, this guy gets it and he even brings stuff to the forefront that I hadn’t seen before. I am continully impressed with his newsletter.

Below is an article that should scare the crap out of all of us.  Since when is the W3C supposed to be the arbiter of truth or the “decision maker” about what is and what is not a “conspiracy theory”?  I can’t tell you how big brotheresque I find this thought to be.  If it comes to pass that we have the opportunity to voice an opinion we must make it clear in no uncertain terms that we view the W3C as a web standards body and not as an entity charged with determining the validity of content.

The public does a perfectly fine job of voting with their clicks and page views and Google’s PageRank (among other things) is a good indicator of what the public thinks. We doin’t need a couple of biased individuals cow towing to the highest commercial bidder to be telling us what is or isn’t valid online.  We are certainly capable of making these decisions for ourselves thank you very much.  WC3 keep your influence where it belongs if you over reach you’re going to get spanked.


Big Pharma Ties Want to Shut Down Vaccine ‘Conspiracy Theories’

big pharma, pharmaceutical, W3C, world wide web consortium, tim berners-lee, www, web, internet, freedom of speech, censorship, conspiracy, conspiracy theory, vaccines, MMRA foundation populated by the giants of business, banking, government and military wants to “vet” websites and limit the spread of information that it says creates “conspiracy theories”.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says it is worried about the way the web has been “used to spread disinformation”. They want to introduce a new system that would give websites a label for trustworthiness or unreliability.

One “damaging conspiracy theory” they want to shut down is the notion that MMR vaccines are harmful. Of course, this “conspiracy theory” stems not from paranoid forum postings and misquoted blog entries, but from scientific research into the mercury based preservative thimerosal.

Thimerosal was developed by Eli Lilly, and Merck is the world’s largest supplier of the MMR triple jab — and it is little wonder W3C considers such information to be “damaging” given that Eli Lilly and Merck are both paid up and approved members of the Consortium! If anyone should be labeled with an “unreliable” rating, it is the WC3.

Posted in big brother, Biotech, Personal, Political | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Want to Write Your Congressional Representative? Just don’t use their email address…

I recently wrote Jane Harman, one of the state congressional representatives from California. I got a reply to my original letter – a form response that was dated four months prior to the date I sent the letter.

This bothered me and finally I decided to respond to that form letter with something a bit more direct. It seems that Mr. Harman cares a great deal about what her constituents have to say. So much so that her email address doesn’t even work. Nice. That’s one way to turn a deaf ear to the voter.

I hope you’ll all join me in showing her and those like her like that loud-mouthed do-nothing Nancy Pelosi that have squandered their political capital and our good faith by completely failing to accomplish anything that they promised and for which we voted them into office that we won’t tolerate being lied to and that we don’t give second chances.

When these folks come up for re-election let’s send them packing. It’s just too bad we can’t fire them on the spot. Politics are amazing. There are few jobs on the planet where you can fail so spectacularly for so long and still collect your pay check every month. It seems to me based upon the last few years that we need a new system that gives the voters a more immediate means of removing from office non-performing individuals. Anyone have any ideas?

Anyway, for those that are curious, below are my choice words for Representative Harman:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

CA36IMA.PUB@mail.house.gov


From: Oliver Starr
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:02:15 -0700
To: “Rep. Jane Harman”
Subject: Re: your message

Dear Representative Harman,

Thanks so much for your form letter in response to my original statement of
concern for a number of issues that are profoundly influencing every man,
woman and child in this country.

At this point all I can say is that every one of you should be fired. You
have failed to do your jobs, failed to protect our troops, failed to
regulate wall street and failed to support the working middle class.

Now you are all pushing for a bail out of the richest one percent in this
country simply because they made bad bets and now can’t pay what they owe.

How ironic that those of us that pay our taxes, pay our mortgages on time
and scrape and scrimp to make ends meet and maybe have dinner out or go to
the movies once in a while are being forced – not asked mind you but
required to bail out a group of executives that spend more on lunch each day
than some families can afford to spend on food for a week.

It’s amazing that as a group these executives who ran their companies into
the ground are so incapable of accepting responsibility for their own
actions that they would rather see their companies bankrupted and closed
down then take one dime’s cut in their multi-million dollar golden parachute
severance plans. Don’t people that ruin their companies get fired for
cause? When fired for cause should a person still be eligible to collect a
multi-million dollar severance? To me that seems ridiculous. If I screw up
and mess up my company do I get a severance package? Does the government
come and bail me out?

Does congress hold a special session and try to figure out how to save me
and my business and guarantee that if I have to walk I will do so with
enough money that neither I nor my heirs will ever have to work another day
in this lifetime? Ha! Don’t make me laugh.

Doesn’t it seem strange to you that the person architecting this bailout
used to run one of the firms that has gone bust? Or that his personal
fortune from that firm is in excess of 700 million dollars? Did you not
think that perhaps some of the decisions that actually caused his firm to
blow up were made on his watch? And now you expect us to hand over roughly
a trillion dollars – that is $2300 for every man, woman and child in this
country to this same incompetent idiot who is insisting upon no oversight?

Why is that? What is he so afraid of? What will be hidden from the eyes of
the world if he gets his way? Just how stupid do you think we are? (I guess
that last is a redundant question, after all, collectively we are dumber
than cattle having elected Bush (twice though both victories are highly
questionable), Pelosi (though I don’t think we’ll be seeing her for a second
term) and even you – who can’t be bothered to reply to letters even with a
form letter that is up to date. Pathetic.)

In any case I don’t expect that you’ll actually read this – I’m sure that
you pawn this sort of stuff off to some lackey of yours, most likely a
college intern that knows about as much about the real world as anyone
subsidized by mommy and daddy is likely to.

So if I know that you won’t read this and that even if you do the only
response I’ll get is another piece of crap form letter, just why am I
writing this at all? Because I intend to republish it on several blogs that
get upwards of a million visitors a month. Collectively they add up to
several million unique viewers, certainly enough to have an impact on a
vote.

So now the question you should be asking is “what can I do to make these
people decide not to vote me out of office?” Well, I’m not going to help
you out with that one Ms. Harman. After all, we hired you to do a job you
promised us you were capable of doing. So far you haven’t demonstrated the
sort of competency that we require which makes you look pretty dishonest in
the eyes of most of the public.

At any rate, if you want another term I sincerely suggest that you start
showing us some of the things you promised during your campaign. We’re
tired of this war, we’re tired of our rights being trammeled and the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights being shredded by the President’s
poisoned pen. We’re tired of a limp wristed majority leader that looks like
the biggest liar since Nixon and we’re tired of our money being used in ways
that we never approved and don’t believe is right.

Today if you ask the average person if they feel like their government is
acting in the best interest of the people or in their own selfish well being
and that of their fat cat friends I think you know what most of us would
say.

Once a long time ago people got sick and tired of their taxes being used in
ways contrary to their interests. They called it taxation without
representation. Eventually they got so pissed off about it that they had a
party and started a revolution.

Ask yourself this? How much longer do you think we’re going to take this
crap before we start a revolution of our own? And who’s heads will be on
the pikes first do you think? We are tired of the duplicity and we’re sick
to death of the good ol’ boy war profiteering network. We’re sick of the
lobbyists and the no bid contracts and of handing out our hard earned
dollars to the most selfish and least deserving. We’re tired of a
do-nothing congress that cow tows to an out of control pseudo dictator that
has no respect for the people the Constitution or this country, and we’re
pretty sick of photo copied responses to letters like this.

You have been warned.

Sincerely,

Oliver Starr

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