Who Wants To Go To Jail? Who Wants To Go To Jail?

So now my New York City has come up with a new plan. Brilliant, brilliant plan. The police are now leaving briefcases and bags out with wallets in them, containing cash and credit cards, in order to entrap would-be thieves. But in fact, innocent people who have picked up the bags to try to bring them to the authorities are being charged with robbery or whatever charges come with taking a bag sitting there all alone. How insanely ridiculous is that? I swear I have heard on the news these terrible stories of citizens trying to do the right thing getting brought up on false charges.

Now in Florida, the police have a similar entrapment sting going on but with cars instead of bags. This is a whole other tier of robbery, as a bystander cannot drive a "wayward" car to the local police station to return it to its rightful owner. And what the police do is rig the cars so that the would-be thieves, once confirmed they are trying to steal the car, get locked in the car and the engine shuts down and they cannot escape. The police monitoring the car nearby come out and arrest the thieves. Now this I feel is also entrapment, but stealing a car and picking up a handbag are two totally different things. Especially when trying to steal a car cannot be misconstrued as anything else. And the lines of returning a bag and stealing it can be totally blurred.

Now this also brings into play the campaign that New York City has launched about reporting bags left alone in public places. So how does this all tie in together? I have no idea, but I foresee disaster. Or at the very least, citizens like me (insert snickering here) reporting each and every bag we see, annoying the police, as we should rightly do so for this inane sting they have set up. Think about it. It's quite comical....

Fool-iani

New York, New York....If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere....

Except Giuliani didn't really make it here. Yes, he rose from lawyer to DA, US Attorney to Mayor of New York City, but he is trying to rest his laurels for presidential office only on the fact that he was mayor of New York City. But not really ever a popular one. And the funny thing is, his politics aren't all that bad, but he's a real SLIME BAG. He cheated on his wife, his son is estranged, his choice in police chiefs left much to be desired, in Kerik and Kelly. He has this way about him of being horribly offended if you question him on anything. I have heard the saying that when Giuliani talks about his presidential bid, two things come out of his mouth: a lie and 9/11.

And about 9/11. What the hell is his problem? He acts like he single handedly brought New York City back from the brink of destruction. Hell ANYONE that would have been mayor of New York would have looked good by crying on camera, showing solidarity to the firemen (who by the way don't like Giuliani) and policemen, meeting with victim's families.... He was damn lucky that something of this magnitude happened toward the end of his term, which happened to have overshadowed the problems he was having with minorities clashing with the police at the time. He never did anything to alleviate the problem. He just stood on his soapbox, smug, basically saying that the police had every right to do every misdeed they did to the minorities of the city because they were the police and there was too much crime here. I think the only crime was letting that sleazebag stay in office after the shooting of Amadu Diallo. Or the vicious beating of Abner Louima. Both of which the city's residents were unsatisfied with the outcome of the punishment for the officers.

And now it has come to light that he billed small city offices for the security he used to go out to the Hamptons to meet with his mistress. His Deputy Mayor Joe Lhota tried to assert that other mayors of the city had done so, and when it was brought back to him that they did not, he backtracked on his statement, thus embarrassing Giuliani and his camp. And of course Giuliani has done his predictable, usual M.O.: he's denying, double-talking and once again taking the offensive stance that someone should even have the audacity to look into his past dealings.

And this right on the heels of his association with Bernard Kerik.

Now I think if Giuliani were smart, he would have used his term as New York mayor as a sort of model as to how people would react to him. And he hasn't. But then again, men like him don't think that people see him in a negative light at all. He seems to only focus on what he wants to about himself and nothing else. And he expects the rest of the world to do the same. This is hardly the kind of man I want in office as President of The United States. Far be it from me to rest this decision based solely on a man's personality, but he just gets under my skin. And I'm bleeding from trying to scratch out Bush....

UGH.....

I can't believe that my home state, my HOME STATE is out of control insane!! I have been wanting leave New York for a while now, and it seems the time is right, seeing as the outlandish craziness here is reaching new heights (or depths if you want to look at it that way) and driving the sane folk away....

First off, lets talk about Elliot Spitzer, or as I like to call him, damn fool that can't shut the hell up for two seconds to actually get any kind of task or job done and won't even compromise on issues because he needs to have his way. But let's call him The Howler for short. So between this whole ridiculous argument about Bruno's use of the state helicopter, not having the state's education budget released (now here it is two months after school has started) and his not so cool plan for having illegal immigrants get driver's licenses, I am ready to call for his swift and final termination. Granted, we need a LOT more Democrats with his kind of energy (sans the bullish brattiness), but he has turned out to be a real pain in the ass. At this point in the game, everything with him is an argument. Everything. And people are sick of him. He really doesn't seem to be getting much more done than his predecessor--he who cannot have his named mentioned for the sliver of a chance he may come back and eat our young and bring pestilence and plague. The Howler swore up and down thewre'd be change from day one, and the fool that I am that falls in love too easily believed him. And my heart has been broken. And now I'm pissed.

Now let's turn to the plight of the NYC cab drivers, if plight is a word you would like to use. Not me. Here is another case of people bitching and moaning, and it seems that here in New York, there is a lot of bitching to get your way. So the cab drivers are upset about the TLC having mandated credit card machines and GPS units installed into every car. Somehow this has thrown the cabbies up at arms. Let me tell you my take on it. First, the cabbies state that they will lose money if people use credit cards. I can't possibly foresee HOW that could happen. No, what I think is going on here is that the cabbies for years had probably been skimming the cash. You can't skim off credit cards. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't using credit cards bring down the crime rate of thieves mugging cabbies for cash?

And the GPS units, they say, is an invasion of privacy. Oh really? So what job do you know, pray tell, that has any modicum of privacy? In fact, what aspect of life here in America has any iota of privacy? Again, no. What I think is that there are those who may be involved in illegal activities (and by illegal activities I mean terrorist activities) that can now be tracked. So in a sense, yes, that may so be an invasion of privacy, but in wartime, there is no privacy for potential enemies. Sorry. That's just the way it works for the safety of the greater good.

And the other thing is how the cabbies are protesting that the city has no right to tell them what to do with their cars. WHAT?!?! Are they seriously for real? In order to get a medallion, you have to pay FEES to the TLC, or Taxi and Limousine Commission. The TLC is who regulates the fares. Cabbies have to register their cars with the TLC. So what the HELL are the cabbies talking about? These people have messed around and lost their minds.

And this is only part of the mess I am neck deep in here in New York....

O.J. Gives Me Heartburn....

Wow.

So it's all come down to this. Orenthal James Simpson going to jail not for the murders of two people which we all know he did, but for the harlequin-esque robbery he committed in Las Vegas this month. And this after the circus show surrounding his supposedly fictitious book "If I Did It", of which I can't believe that someone actually published and is peddling this filth to the masses. (I won't even get into the morons that I think would buy the book...on tape because obviously retarded cretins like that can't possibly read.)

But wait, it gets better. I have recently found out that because of his loss in the civil suit to the Brown family, all the proceeds of the book go to the family. So the Brown family is making the money off the book that this idiot wrote about his crime.

Am I taking crazy pills?!?!

Is it normal for a family to financially profit off the untimely death of a loved one? Since when has it become that MONEY has substituted for justice? So instead of seeking an eye for an eye, we have come up with a "Civil Suit". Oh yes kids, we don't care to avenge the death of a loved one anymore, nor do we care to fight to get a violent offender off the street to keep them from committing the same or other crimes. No, we just seek to get money. Get paid, as it were. Because after all, doesn't the money make you feel better, assuage your grief, quell your tears? I mean, getting enough money will bring the loved one back from the dead, no?

So there we had it, the Brown family all broken up on camera, shrieking and crying over the slaying of their beloved Nicole. They vowed to make O.J. pay for his crime. And pay he is. Not with his time and freedom spent behind bars, but with money. And it seems to me a little too convenient that since he was broke after paying Johnny Cochran all his legal fees, he would hatch a scheme to make money the only way he knew how: sensationally. And then the vultures swooped in....the Browns, as we call them.

Now, I am not fooled in the least about this situation. This is not a story of an "American" tragedy, and we should pour our hearts out to the grieving families. Oh no. This is the story of lust and greed. Lust on the part of O.J.'s jealousy of his former wife dating around, and the greed of the Brown family in which they dumped the memory of Nicole for money. And shamefully don't even care that the money they are getting is off of peddled smut, fashioned from the blood and bones of the slain daughter and sister they once had. No, as long as they get what they deserve...

It's enough to make me bang my head on the desk. Again.

So what next? Will O.J. somehow, superhumanly rise above the law yet once again? Will he somehow be set free to once again commit other crimes--old as that mofo is--until we realise what a low-brow, oafish, criminally insane dolt he really is? Or will his charges stick? Will he go to jail and serve a sentence behind bars with all the other dregs of society? In light of my experience in this lifetime, fools usually slip through the snares of life that the rest of us seem to catch ourselves in.

More of the Same?

Hello kiddies - Baby Bear is back after a long hiatus. However, I could not stay silent forever you know. So today I am here to talk about Beyonce. Oh yes, that vixen songstress who is undoubtedly getting many scores of young ladies in trouble with her "Irreplaceable" song. Let's delve in, shall we?

So as many of you know the song is about her breaking up with a guy that's been cheating on her. And she's throwing him out. So the lyrics of this song are what she is saying to him as she's putting him out and calling a cab. Now, first off, she talks about how she had bought him a car and he was driving around town in this car she purchased for him. By my guess, it doesn't sound like she had been with him for very long in the first place, yet she bought the cheating asshole a car. Now I have always told women that I know that you know straight off the bat if a guy is a slime. You choose YOURSELF whether to go with your gut instinct or to ignore it. Obviously in this scenario, not only did she ignore it, but chose to buy him a car thinking that would get him to love her more. Uh, no. Sorry. He just uses the free car to shuttle around his flings. This is not good for young girls to be listening to. It's bad enough for them to see the video images of Beyonce scantily clad dancing pretending to be a strong woman - what strong women do you know that walk around with their tits and ass hanging out all over the place?

Now the real beef I have with this song is when she states that she can replace this guy "in a minute". And in fact, he's on his way over to see her as she's putting the cheating boyfriend out. OK. Now, if she's putting this idiot out after what seems like a short while, she goes and replaces him with another guy that OBVIOUSLY she hasn't known that long!! So what is she doing? Replacing one asshole with another one? Showing that she can't spend time alone because GOD FORBID a woman be without a man for a while and work on getting herself together and realise that she needs to take time to meet a nice, decent guy. Or at least don't patrol the bars and clubs looking for Mr. Right. Again, young women are getting the message that guys (as well as women) are interchangeable, all you need is a warm body hanging off your arm and everything will be OK.

Ladies, let me tell you something: There is no woman in the HISTORY of women that likes men more than I do. I swear to God, men consume almost every one of my thoughts. And there's nothing wrong with that. But you have to understand one thing: men are incredibly STUPID. I'm not saying that to be mean or hurtful, but to lower yourself to their base level in order to get them is even more stupid. To tell a man that you can replace him in a minute is saying that you are a piece of ass and will offer it up to the next Neanderthal that comes down the pike. To not make a man appreciate the VALUE you offer other than your body is stupid. Thus, this song is just dumbing down our young women. We women are supposed to kick a man in the butt to get him to do something other than grunt, scratch, fight and fuck. We are supposed to be put together ourselves because, after all, we are mothers and have to teach the young how to act and survive in society. I can't imagine the mothers of these asshole men are proud of what they have become. So I realise that though I love these hairy bastards that are strong, smell good, muscle ripped, not-so-soft and pretty, I have to be SMARTER than them. And it's really not that hard. Just think above the base level and you'll be more than fine.

So ultimately what this song seems to fail to understand is that she may be putting out the loser boyfriend and she's all empowered for the moment, but she will be singing the same tune again because it doesn't seem like she knows how to find a good man. And that's why women seem to be so unhappy with men a lot these days - they don't know how to break out of their own vicious cycles.

New York's Finest?

The New York City Police Department has reached all kinds of lows in the past fifteen years, however, the lowest they have gotten is $25,000 per year. As in the starting salary of rookie police officers. Yes, that's right. The starting salary of people that are supposed to fight crime and protect the city in times of strife are only making $25K to start. It has come to light that the Department of Parks and Recreation is looking to hire three new puppeteers with a starting salary of between roughly $32K and $50K with complete benefits and union status. And what has the city done to try to supplement the low salary of starting rookies? Offer them a low interest credit card "to make ends meet". Is this the best they can do?!?! Put these poor cadets into DEBT?

**Parks spokesman Warner Johnston called the puppet job "a very skilled position."

"It's not just someone with his hand up a puppet," he said. "It's someone who has to create and maintain the marionette. It's an artisan position."

The new puppeteer will work at the Marionette Theater in Central Park - and also make rounds in the "PuppetMobile," doing performances in city parks and recreation centers. [NY Post, 13 March 2007]**

Oh my fucking god - this one is so wide open I CAN'T crack on it... but I can get $50K per year plus benefits for putting my hand up a puppet's ass? What's Condoleeza doing after she's out of office?

And it makes me wonder - where is all the money from my parking tickets going? What about the unusually high city taxes I pay? Lottery tickets? Parking meters? I wonder because if it's not going to pay the cops, it sure as hell isn't going to fix the potholes in the streets, repair busted parking meters that people get ticketed on anyway, more police video cameras on the streets (I will get into Big Brother in a later post), beefing up the 311 hotline (it STINKS Bloomberg), cleaner streets in Manhattan, more available parking, etc., etc. It leads me to believe that some fat bastard is getting fatter off of MY tax dollars!! And that pisses me off. This is the most expensive city to live in the country and we can't fix a fucking POTHOLE? Here Bloomberg, I have a suggestion for you. How about the new recruits can make overtime by filling in potholes on weekends? Or how about we give the beat cops brooms so they can sweep while on patrol? Oh I know, how about when on beat, we give them quarters to watch our cars for half an hour? Yeah, then they'll really rack it in and supplement that income, and not only that, will always have change for laundry!! Righteous!!

It sickens me the kind of financial management we have here in the city. I just CAN'T hear officials bitch anymore about how the city is broke - because we're NOT. Someone is skimming that money into his or her own pocket. And I can't wait for the day that this salary gets so out of control, there will be a strike by officers - then New York will REALLY know the meaning of hell...

And I just have to put in here that I do NOT read the NY Post - I don't even line the catbox with it. NY1 (another example of "quality" journalism) pointed it out this morning in their "In the Papers" segment. Don't laugh. I like NY1 to listen to when I get ready for work in the morning. I mean, how else do I get my daily dose of violence, carneage, heartbreak, murder, rape and the fluff story?

Hot Tip

I just wanted to share my new recent passion - a question and answer site called Yahoo! Answers. I swear I have been so into that site!! What it is is a site in which you create a profile and then you go answer posted questions by the Y!A community and you can post questions yourself. As you interact with the site, you gain points which as you earn, get you to higher and higher levels within the site in which you get greater access to play around. In the higher levels you can rate questions and answers and participate more frequently. I believe they keep your participation limited in the lower levels because the darn thing is so addictive!! The questions are about everything you can think of - from computing and gaming and downloading to pets to romance to automotive queries. Personally, I tend to gravitate toward the moire personal questions. And the asker of the question can rate who has given the best answer and best answers give you about 10 points. They even link to your email so you can be notified when your questions are answered - and they tend to get answered pretty quickly - and also when you have received a best answer rating. Y!A has made me look forward to logging into my email everyday. Not only is it cool to see how many points you can get, but you also get that warm and fuzzy feeling when someone appreciates the time you pout into answering their questions. And that, my friend, is better than chocolate in my book!!

Just A Thought

Today I am cranky. I am in the mood for letting something out...

On the issue of Americans who are adamantly against gay people and gay marriage, let's be real for a second. What exactly is the problem? Because I don't buy the "it's against the bible" garbage because your hypocritical selves are doing so many other things that go against the doctrine of the bible. Nor does your argument that they are destroying society hold any water either. Gays aren't destroying society, WE ALL are destroying society. Perpetual hatred and torment of gays isn't making this a place where everyone is free. Period. If you want to call America free, then goddamnit, let people, let ALL people be free. Freedom isn't about your free choice to discriminate against whomever you choose - and I think people have fundamentally made that mistake here in the U.S. Freedom is free to be who you are, and if you can't deal with other people, then you are FREE TO GO. Now, personally I wouldn't want anyone to leave the country over such a matter as not being able to expand your horizons and opening your mind. It is sad that people are so unwilling to do so, and I know it's because they are told not to - just following some agenda that someone else is telling them. But I digress.

But what strikes me about all this is that I don't think that homophobes have anything substantially wrong with homosexuality other than their OWN shortcomings. Gays are a scapegoate for those that are shitty, insecure, unhappy people who feel they need someone to look down upon and tell themselves when they look in the mirror, "I am a little pissant, judgemental, approval whore but at least I'm not gay!!" And that is what gets them to step out of their doors and face the world. How pathetic homophobes are. They have some kind of defect about themselves they just can't get over so they try to put their hatred on gays rather than themselves. Because when you hate yourself, there is not much to live for.

So why don't you stop hating on gays and try working on yourselves - we'd all be better off for it.

Is Barack Obama Black Enough?

Uhhh....what the hell is that supposed to mean? Really, what the HELL is that trying to convey? What, is there a way that one acts to be "black"? Are there degrees of being black? And if so, why would he need to be MORE black in a racist country against blacks?

Oh I get it, so they figure that Obama will CERTAINLY get the black votes, so now they are trying to turn blacks against him by saying that he's not black enough, playing on black people's views of self identity. I see. So this is what it comes down to now. Absolutely NO trace of political value or affiliation, but rather Obama not being black enough and Hillary being a woman. I guess the Republican machine has tried to knock their political standpoints but know they won't win on that point because the country is sick of Republican bullshit, so they once again attack the candidates by something they cannot help about themselves, nor should it have anything to do with politics.

You know, the only thing that I like about the Republicans is that they give me so much to write about...

Fuckers.

Hospital As Stark Scary Death Box? Hardly

Well kids I spent the whole day today in the hospital waiting for my mother to get out of her triple bypass surgery. She is doing just fine now. But as I was sitting there in the waiting room, I had time to think - especially when the battery wend down on my laptop.

First thing I noticed is that the waiting room was nothing and I mean NOTHING like it is on TV and in the movies (goddamnit, duped again). There were two couches squeezed into a corner of a long hallway, edged out of the way of the passing meds, patients and lumbering hospital beds whizzing by. There was no actual room, there were no tissue boxes on nice end tables, hell we didn't even have a fucking water cooler. Nothing. It was pretty disappointing that the waiting room is not even really a room.

Also, the peple in the hospital looked really SICK. I mean, I know nobody wears makeup and has great hair in the hospital, but some of the patients I saw were really messed up. Hair all every which way, live spots, wrinkles, sallow faces, tubes all over the place, blinking and beeping, asleep, eating slowly, staring into space, watching TV... Duped again!! I had never seen such a sorry bunch of people in my whole life.

I won't even get into what the food looked like that they were feeding these sick people.

But with all this around me, I did realise again that the hospital was different than portrayed in Hollywood. It wasn't scary. There were warm toned tiles on the floor, the couches were warm toned too. Plants were everywhere you looked in the halls and lounge. There was no weird smell that I had always heard people speak of. I didn't feel like death was looming around every corner. It didn't seem over sanitized. I was taken aback by that. And the staff was very nice and informative, not cold and trying to run somewhere else rather than talk to you.

Granted I don't watch any of the popular hospital shows - god, the first and last one I watched was St. Elsewhere. Remember that? The only Hollywood hospitals I ever got was in movies - and in the movies it's a lot more graphic and scary. I guess that was my only frame of reference before sitting in the hospital today. And I have to say that I can't really bitch about the hospital like I do everything else I do here.

Besides. I don't have the energy to do so anyway - sitting in the hospital "waiting room" all day can wear you out!!

Tobacco Company Vs. The Drug Dealer

Now, we all know that tobacco is highly addictive, even more so than heroine. And it has been widely publicized that the tobacco companies have been adding MORE tobacco to their cigarettes, not less, even as they have paid out more and more money to smokers who have sued them. I even read in the New York Times that the tobacco industries stocks have gone up and continue to rise (perhaps, in my opinion because the state of our country is so FUCKED UP).

So why is it that the drug dealer on the corner is the one to go to jail for selling addictive drugs and the tobacco companies are not? Like I stated in my earlier post, it is partially because cigarettes cannot be made in your backyard, so these giant companies can make them and make a fortune on it. Cocaine, marijuana, heroine, meth, speed and ecstacy can all be manufactured relatively simply at home. An industry could not regulate it, thus not make billions on it so hey!! let's make them illegal because some fat bastard CAN'T make money on it. So there is the stark hypocracy of the all mighty dollar versus whether or not there really IS a "war on drugs", and the government is waging this war because they really, really care about you. (Insert snickering here.)

"War on drugs". Let's think about that for a second. What that is stating is that any drug that is illegal is being targeted by the law. And the legal drugs?

Alcohol - kills more people every day than probably all the other drugs, legal
Cigarettes - so fucking toxic, like Chris Rock says, it's killing people that don't even smoke!!
Sleeping Pills - addictive, psychologically dependent, legal
Antidepressants - they have convinced us all that we are depressed, so we need to not be depressed and buy this or that pill so we feel better - BULLSHIT
Caffeine - addictive, ruins your stomach, your nervous system, your heart, legal
Pain Killers - also highly addictive, psychologically dependent, legal
Asprin - the most abused drug in the whole country, we are told that it is safe, but it causes ulcers and other gastrointestinal problems, even death, people overdose ALL THE TIME, legal

I don't see the difference between cocaine and anything listed above. Nor heroine, nor marijuana.

So where's the war? The war they are fighting is against individual people or small groups cutting into their exclusive "addiction money". And in fact, the war is not really a fight. How can a drug dealer fight the system? We have been taught that he is breaking the law - what law? He is not forcing the drugs on anyone else like the ad campaigns by the medical/pharmaceutical companies, cola companies, cigarette branding/advertising, the USDA. The drug dealer is not subliminally making our children buy his drugs. The drug dealer is not in every store, in every neighborhood, ONLINE on every billboard. The drug dealer doesn't pretend to be anything other than what he is - trying to make money. Politics, medicine, religion and the law have all come together to mix into a nice hypocritical stew in which the little man is fucked. The only war that needs to be waged is the war on the lies....

One Ply, No Love

Why can't we get two ply toilet roll at work? Why do I have to sit and fight with the roll dispenser, squatted over the toilet bowl, cursing under my breath at the toilet roll that will only turn like half a millimeter and break off part of a one ply square? I just realised today how much freakin' time that wastes - they'd rather save a couple of bucks than save time, but they keep telling us time is money. So in essence, the one ply toilet roll at work is COSTING money because my bare ass can't get wiped in time to get back to the desk and annoy people with my sales calls. Two ply could MAKE the company money!!

Not only that, but god DAMN the one ply and it's sandpaper-like wipe. All ladies know that we wad that paper up into a freakin' grapefruit in order to sufficiently wipe with some kind of cushion. Again, the one ply is costing the company money. God forbid you have to really try to wipe clean - it's like a microdermabrasion procedure on your...part of the body that doesn't need one, let's put it like that.

Are the one ply toilet paper companies trying to sand the wrinkles out of America's sphincters?

I Did It Again....

I was so good for a while - I swear!! But now I have done it again. I drank too much last night. It was wine...again. I realise now that wine is so easy to drink. It's not like liquor in which when you sip it, it burns a bit and you feel it as you drink then at some point you can stop. With wine its different. It's like grape juice...with benefits. It goes down so easy and you just get happier and happier when you drink. And pair that with not having eaten last night and that is a recipe for me sitting here at my desk still drunk wishing to god that my head would crack open and blogging when I should be working. Damn. Oh great Bacchus, why have you bestowed such a wonderful but ridiculously wicked nectar upon mankind? Why did you let it get into my hands?.....

What Have I Done To Deserve This?

I went snowboarding up in Killington, VT this weekend - I highly recommend it, awesome slopes. They had a shitty bar though, but I digress. However, it was a five or more hour drive from Brooklyn so being on the road for that long, my boyfriend and I started to get a little hungry. So we decided we were going to stop somewhere that was good. Then mile after mile we began to realise that there IS NOTHING GOOD TO EAT on the highway. Only McDonald's (if you really, really, really want to get fat), Burger King (for fat and gas, and I'm not talking petrol), Roy Rogers (for the runs and trauma toward eating for days afterward), Denny's (if you have absolutely no qualms about throwing up right after eating), Bob's Big Boy (I have no idea what the hell that is), Pizza Hut (heart stoppage) and a few other eateries in which they might as well hand you a salt lick. It was unreal. It's like you're driving for hours, your back hurts, you're tired and when you get hungry, all you want to do is eat, but eating at any of these places when all you need is a hot meal is likely to make you violently angry. And still hungry. My advice - pack food before going on a long car trip.

To the Families of the World Trade Center Attacks Who Are Pushing For the Memorial

Now before I say what I have to say, I would like to start out by saying that I feel for the families that have lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. I am in no way trying to be disrespectful by what I am about to say, and though I have not personally lost someone I knew or loved in the disaster, I still feel like I have lost my fellow New Yorkers, my fellow countrymen, and to me, these folks are in my heart just as they are in the hearts of those closest to them.

That said, I must say, however, that I have about HAD IT with the families of the WTC victims stalling the building of the new World Trade Center, just because they don't like the specifications of the memorial dedicated to those who have perished in the disaster. Well at this point, loved ones, you are no longer memorializing the people who have died, you are making this all about you, all about your own grief about losing your family and friends. What about the rest of us? Like I said, the WTC attacks have deeply scarred me in a way that I don't fully realise myself, but I feel the best way for closure - and many other New Yorkers will agree with me - is to have the building go back up. It will be six years this September since the tragedy, and still we are stuck on this same issue of the memorial and I just can't take it anymore. I want the building and the memorial to go up so I can move forward about it. The towers had been there my whole life and I frequented the Windows on the World bar, so the towers were a part of me. Not having anything there is just a stark reminder of the tragedy.

I think that you families somehow are feeling that going back and forth about the memorial is somehow paying homage to your loved ones, perhaps a few of you are hoping against hope that somehow it will bring the lost back to you. It is not. This memorial has become a political nightmare and in fact, making me resent the whole idea and just wishing that they scrap the whole project because I just can't take it anymore. I hate saying that, but this is what's happening to me, a staunch New Yorker!! I feel that the energy that you have put into fighting for the memorial you want could have been put to better use fundraising for the memorial you wanted to your exact specifications and have put it up a long time ago and the new building would already be there. That is if all of you could agree with each other on the issue of the memorial. Far be it from me to side with the fat bastard (my term for the rich business man, mostly the greedy ones), but let the owner put his building back up!! How did this become about you? There are people all over the world who are losing loved ones on a daily basis through war and terrorist attacks who KEEP GOING. They don't dwell on death the way we do and I think that's it's strange, but equally important that we realise that war has now come home and future wars will be fought in urban areas and we have to start coming to terms with that fact, especially if the president still insists on waging his war in Iraq. More terrorist action will happen here in the U.S. and more death and destruction will follow. The world is changing and we must pay homage to our loved one's by being strong.

Drug Companies, Part 2 - What Goes Around Comes Around

An Old Cholesterol Remedy Is New Again

sic - FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
By MICHAEL MASON
Published: January 23, 2007

Perhaps you heard it? The wail last month from the labs of heart researchers and the offices of Wall Street analysts?

Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant, halted late-stage trials of a cholesterol drug called torcetrapib after investigators discovered that it increased heart problems — and death rates — in the test population.

Torcetrapib wasn’t just another scientific misfire; the drug was to have been a blockbuster heralding the transformation of cardiovascular care. Statin drugs like simvastatin (sold as Zocor) and atorvastatin (Lipitor) lower blood levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, thereby slowing the buildup of plaque in the arteries.

But torcetrapib worked primarily by increasing HDL, or good cholesterol. Among other functions, HDL carries dangerous forms of cholesterol from artery walls to the liver for excretion. The process, called reverse cholesterol transport, is thought to be crucial to preventing clogged arteries.

Many scientists still believe that a statin combined with a drug that raises HDL would mark a significant advance in the treatment of heart disease. But for patients now at high risk of heart attack or stroke, the news is better than it sounds. An effective HDL booster already exists.

It is niacin, the ordinary B vitamin.

In its therapeutic form, nicotinic acid, niacin can increase HDL as much as 35 percent when taken in high doses, usually about 2,000 milligrams per day. It also lowers LDL, though not as sharply as statins do, and it has been shown to reduce serum levels of artery-clogging triglycerides as much as 50 percent. Its principal side effect is an irritating flush caused by the vitamin’s dilation of blood vessels.

Despite its effectiveness, niacin has been the ugly duckling of heart medications, an old remedy that few scientists cared to examine. But that seems likely to change.
*******

Now doesn't that seem to fit in with what I had mentioned earlier here in the blog - first my speaking about the shaman vs. the drug company then my scathing rant about the drug companies themselves (goddamn legal drug overlords). Well now you see it is coming full circle, as I already knew (especially since I wear my conspiracy glasses). And is it really such a coincidence that Pfizer is closing it's plant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn? It seems that they had sunk all their money into backing this drug which caused more harm than good when all the while there has been a vitamin that does the same healing, but of COURSE they would not let you know that. In fact, there have been press releases I have seen that have tried to downplay the benefits of vitamins - and in fact the FDA does not even recognize the claims made on packaging by the makers of vitamins. Hmmm. Do you think it is also a coincidence that people who are into "health" and "vitamins" are looked down upon as new-age space cadets? Empty gurus who are holding on to a passing fad? Well the fad hasn't passed and I think more folks should look into the benefits of vitamins and healthier alternatives to Western medicine. Western medicine is based on MONEY, not health or healing. Here in the U.S. we put a program on Discovery Channel every once in a while which touts the miracles of modern medicine and medical technology in which we reapair the cleft pallet of a young Philippine child, or straighten the spine of an African boy or repair the severely deformed face of a young American girl stricken with severe Treacher-Collins disease. These are all good things, but one must understand that these are extreme medical cases that need extreme measures. Yes, we in the West are awesome for that. But not for drug therapies. We should be learning from the East in that respect. And not only learn from the East, but give people the choice to choose whatever such healing we so desire - not to try to downplay every other alternative. Sounds a lot like politics to me...and medicine should have nothing at all to do with politics.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh........

'Tobacco pandemic' fuelled by nicotine hike

13:22 18 January 2007
NewScientist.com news service
New Scientist staff and Reuters

Cigarette makers increased the amount of nicotine that smokers typically inhale by 11% between 1998 to 2005, perpetuating a "tobacco pandemic" that makes it harder for smokers to quit, according to a new study.

Manufactures have been intensifying the concentration of nicotine in their tobacco and modifying cigarette designs to increase the number of puffs per cigarette, the researchers claim. "The end result is a product that is potentially more addictive," they say.

The team at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US, analysed data submitted by major cigarette brands to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which in August 2006 released its own study showing nicotine levels steadily rising.

The amount of nicotine that smokers typically consume per cigarette regardless of brand per year rose by an average of 1.6% between 1998 and 2005, according to the new analysis of the state's health records.

Massachusetts has required tobacco companies to submit annual reports on cigarette nicotine yields since 1997, longer than any other US state.
Cancer role

"Cigarettes are finely tuned drug delivery devices designed to perpetuate a tobacco pandemic," says Howard Koh, the school's associate dean for public health practice and former Massachusetts commissioner of public health.

Nicotine yields rose in cigarettes of each of the four major manufacturers and across all major cigarette market categories – from mentholated and non-mentholated to full-flavoured, light and ultralight, the researchers found.

Nicotine is the main addictive component of tobacco, but studies have demonstrated that the chemical also plays a direct role in cancer, by speeding up the growth of tumours.

Tobacco industry officials were not immediately available to comment. Phillip Morris, part of Altria Group Inc and the largest cigarette maker, has said nicotine levels fluctuate from year to year but there has been no steady increase.
Sales dropping

The most recent federal tobacco tax figures showed that the number of cigarettes sold in the US fell in 2005 to the lowest level in 55 years, dropping 4.2% from 2004, the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999.

That continued an eight-year decline in cigarette smoking since the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between US states and the tobacco industry that settled state lawsuits over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses.

"Our findings call into serious question whether the tobacco industry has changed at all in its pursuit of addicting smokers since signing the Master Settlement Agreement," said Gregory Connolly, director of the Harvard School of Public Health's Tobacco Control Research Program.

He said tobacco companies had failed to warn consumers about rising levels of nicotine since the 1998 settlement, urging US states to step up scrutiny of the industry.

Banks, Or As I like To Call Them, Legal Loan Sharking Mafioso

Listen to my tale of woe, it's terribly sad but true....I had checked my balance two weeks ago to make sure I had some money in the bank. I did. So I went out and spent, as usual, doing my weekly shopping: groceries, pet supplies, laundry and the likes. Then the weekend hits. I go out, pay for food and drinks and then end up at a bar that takes cash only. OK. I step out to an ATM to get some cash and come to find out I have "Insufficient Funds". I was shocked to the point that I stared at that ATM screen wondering how it had learned to lie. Next morning I get online and as it turns out, when I had checked my balance previously, I sure enough did have money there. But as luck would have it, a check I wrote had cashed probably the minute I had logged off and it was just the amount I thought I had. OK. So why did the bank let me keep spending money, spiraling me into a negative balance? Why was I not alerted that I had gone under? Why was I still allowed to spend money that wasn't there? The loan shark gets his cut of money you "borrow". Somehow my bank has now extended a line of credit to me that I did not ask for!! Oh yes kids, the banks now say they are "covering" any spending you do so that you don't get a decline on the register of you seem to have insufficient funds. They have come up with the line that they are looking out for you. But lo, each time you run your pretty little card, they charge about $35 for an "Overdraft Fee", on EACH purchase you make. The loan shark effect. So in essence, that is a LEGAL fee they charge, like a loan shark, for you "borrowing" their fucking "kindness". This is legal!! It's only legal because it it a set amount, not something that they can change at a whim (for now). And you know why they know they can do this? Because they they have come up with the GENIUS plan to offer you free checking if you have direct deposit. You see kids, that's how they GET YOU. If you have direct deposit, they KNOW they will get that money back, plus their fees. So they let you spend and spend so that they may amass the overdraft fees into a large sum to take away from you when you get your salary deposited into your account. Brilliant. Just fucking brilliant how capitalism has turned into this ugly monster which manufactures greedy monster zombies and all but stamps out the poor. When is this going to end? How long are people going to put up with this? When does this kind of sneaky thievery cross the line? When are the rest of folks going to get angry enough to affect a change?

I swear to god and everything good left on this earth the conspiracy is real.

This Is How I Feel Today

Painkillers

I got my painkillers...and I am not happy. I feel somehow in the painkillers department, I have gotten totally shafted. I don't know what it is but I have an unusually high tolerance to painkillers - Novocaine, Codeine, Vicadin, Motrin, etc. with a specific tolerance to Novocaine. When I go to the dentist, he has to pump me full of the stuff - to the point where he is looking at me like I'm crazy, like this is unheard of that I have to get like 7 or 8 shots to numb me out. Even when I have gotten stitches the two times I have, both doctors were like, "Whoa!!" when I kept asking for more painkillers, more painkillers. And the really sad thing is that when I do get the sufficient dosage I need, it is not even enjoyable for me!! What are these stories I hear of people being addicted to the painkillers and take them recreationally? I HATE the way I feel on these painkillers and I don't even know why they call them painkillers because when I take them, I'm groggy and still in pain. Still in pain!! So what's the freakin' point? My codeine today has me feeling kind of like I'm floating in water and has killed my appetite. Actually, almost any drug I take kills my appetite. And then people are asking me how I can possibly function at work on codeine. How? THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING FOR ME. I want to be all loopy and dreamy and nod in and out like they do in the movies or on TV. I want THAT. Why can't I have that? This freaking codeine hasn't even tackled the sensitivity I'm feeling in my teeth. God!! What the hell? I'm getting gypped big time.......

Life Is Good...................................Sometimes

I have no complaints today. I don't know why. I have been doing very little work at work and have been cracking jokes with my co-workers all week. Good thing the management team has been in this meeting all week so they haven't heard my laughs resonate through the office. However, my desk is right in FRONT of the conference room. So they can see me throw my head back and open my mouth. May be it has something to do with my theory that if the boss is away, you feel more comfortable at work. I got a lot done early in the week, but have since just meandered and killed time until today, Friday before the three day weekend. And people are having drinks after work today. Which is awesome - I get to better know my co-workers so I can actually WALK around the office and BS with people next week!! Is there some kind of office etiquette that frowns upon that? Is it wrong to joke around with co-workers and get them to laugh during the workday? Do they do that in Europe? Actually I don't picture the Danes laughing and joking in the office, yet I have an ex that told me they'd go to lunch and get WASTED and then get back to the office to turn off their computers and go home. I think I need to move to Denmark. I know Brits do that too, except they stay in the office. I have no idea if the French kid around, but I suspect some Italians do and the Spaniards probably do too. Germans? Hell no. But they are very nice people as tourists!! That's probably when they feel they can cut loose. I heard on the news this morning a story about people's attire at work, as expressed by management. They said that people who want to move up should dress for the position that they want, not the one they're in. Oh-kay. I don't know what it means in my office because I work with tech geeks (I'm not saying geek to be mean at all) and we all wear jeans and stuff. The two owners of the company wear slacks and button down shirts. Even management is very office casual. A suit around here is like an eyesore. Perhaps that's why I feel I can joke around. When I worked in offices where you had to wear a suit, I didn't feel like I even HAD a personality. I was a drone, in a suit, just like everyone else. I would kill myself if I had to work all the time in a place like that. Oh, and this weekend is going to be awesome because I got a prescription for pain killers (unfortunately I am deep in the middle of major dental work). Happy days...

Drug Companies, Or As I Like To Call Them, Legal Drug Overlords

Shaman. What ever happened to him? How has this wonderful person been discredited to the point that we are willing to give our money, trust and personal health decisions to a faceless company that doesn't give a rats ass about whether we get well or not? But they are not discredited? How do we accept the fact that in order to try to soothe, prevent or cure one condition we must risk getting a whole host of side effects? And then we are given more drugs to help the side effects, which in turn is just making some fat bastard rich and the sick sicker. Whose original idea was it to privatize drug therapies? How did we turn away from the shaman? Far as I know, I don't think anyone had as hard a time with taking drugs to get well in the past as we do today. And I think the problem is that we are putting artificially manufactured products into our bodies.

Now, I had been taking a medicine for a while to help with my general mood (not anti-depressants) and stamina. I won't even get into how it's not covered by my health insurance for another few years (arrrghh!!) and how expensive it is. So I really can't afford it right now, being that I have other things I need to take care of in the meantime. But I had started taking a B-100 complex vitamin and realised that it seemed to have the same affect as the medication I was taking and could not afford. HA!! Never in a million years would the Overlords suggest that before you try a harsh drug therapy to take some vitamins. Vitamins?!?! Oh god no, you can get those anywhere!! I always try to be fair, so in all fairness, the expensive drug DID help me....but it's freakin' expensive. That's the point. And I don't think I've ever heard of someone having side effects from vitamins.

I don't feel that peoples best interests are at the heart of big business. The Overlords are even screwing doctors!! There is even the paradox of the "War on Drugs". Give me a break!! Why can't someone chill out and smoke a joint legally, but the Overlords can give you a pill for "restless legs"?!?! I swear to god the person who came up with that gem is laughing about how stupid people are to buy a drug for restless legs. Ohhh, you make it sound like a syndrome and then they can sell you a pill for it. Legally. What about anxiety? Marijuana will clear that right up (for the most part). Hyperactivity? Marijuana. Loss of appetite? Marijuana. Sleeplessness. Marijuana. I could list some things that I think other illegal drugs would help, but I don't want to seem like I'm promoting illegal drug use. Except Marijuana. But at one time cocaine and heroine were legal. And I just don't believe the bullshit that they are highly addictive and are harmful. So are sleeping pills, but they are legal. What's the difference you ask? Cocaine and heroine are easily accessible, some big business fat bastard can't hoard it for himself and get richer and richer. That's what drives the drug market - what can be grown or made in your backyard versus what can't and the one's that can't can be taxed and sold at whatever price some fat bastard chooses. Think about it kids. Think about it.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Oh how wonderful it must be to be a scientist nowadays. Not like the days of yore when Galileo was around and revolutionary ideas got you killed. Oh no. Nowadays being a scientist is cushy, civil and reverent. Yes, you can come up with any postulate or theory your little heart can dream of and so long as it is something that is based mostly in theory, then you can pretty much push your standpoint for your own agenda. That is how I view the scientists of today. Especially geologists (with respect to dating the earth), physicists and theoretical mathematicians. I read an article in a published science journal about a physicist who thinks he has figured out through complex mathematics that while particles in quantum mechanics seem to behave unpredictably, if we could track the underlying states, we can predict the behaviour of particles. In essence this article was stating that in being able to predict the behaviour of quantum particles shows that we have no free will. Now, I don't know how a physicist can make a leap from particle behavior to a persons choice between wearing the red or blue sweater today, but if all the math and lab time keeps him busy, then hey, stay busy but keep your theory out of the realm of my decisions.

Here's my theory: Scientists, and man in general, for some inane reason likes to view the world and the universe in neat, predictable boxes which can be accessed anytime one questions the world around them. I guess they fail to see that the universe is chaotic, as WELL as following some BASIC laws, but the chaos is what ultimately makes things happen. No one can reliably predict anything - not the weather, not the football game, what someone will say, etc. It bothers me they spend time and money trying to find ways to force this agenda of categorizing the universe down our throats. Funny how we all are taught in school that there is always an exception to every rule, but these brilliant men and women fail to apply that rule to physics.

I also do not believe in the big bang theory. It just doesn't sit right with me. They say that the universe started out as a little point and was all gaseous and super compressed and then heated up and exploded and thus became the universe. Really? So when the universe was a little point, an had room to explode, that means there was already space around that compressed point in order for the gaseous ball to explode. That would constitute as the universe already, wouldn't it? It may not have looked like the place it is now, but there was still enough space for this hot gaseous ball to expand. And there had to be something there in the beginning to have created the gasses to be the ball. That means there was something already there to create the gasses. You see, I don't think that scientists can conceive of something that does NOT have a beginning or end. I believe the universe IS. That's it. It IS. It has always been. It always will be. I think scientists need to understand the fact that perhaps on some level, we will never fully understand the universe because humans don't really have the capacity to do so. Or at least they have to stop viewing the universe with their own ideas and start looking at it as a newborn child would, learning as you go along and accepting things as they are, not the way you want them to be.

If You Try to Tell Me There's No Global Warming...

...then I'm likely to believe that you are a retard. Or an oil lobbyist. Actually they're the same thing. So why in hell, here in New York City, do we have a 73 degree day? 73 degrees in January is just mind-blowing to me, especially since I can remember huge blizzards we've had in the past. I'm going to be dating myself here, but I remember the blizzard of 1980 in which the snow drifts were above my head (I was a kid). I remember one year trying to help my father dig the car out of the snow and literally almost feeling my bones freeze beneath the skin on my feet. I remember Halloween being kind of hard to do because it used to be so cold. Thanksgiving? Fugeddabouit. Christmas used to ACTUALLY be white. If you had told me years ago that I'd be missing the snow in the future, I would have beaned you with a snowball. And speaking of snowballs, I must say that the one thing about snow in New York City is that it wouldn't stay snow for very long. The snow that wasn't dirtied by the many car and bus tires was morphed into ice, thus "snowball" fights here was a fight for your life. You had to be like Neo in the Matrix dodging bullets. I've seen kids with their heads busted open by bricks of ice. Oh, and one year a friend of mine and I were sledding in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn and the thing about that park is that the land is above street level, especially with all the snow we used to get. So when he was flying down this hill, speeding toward the street, he like did this movie car stunt thing in which he launched into the air and hung there for what seems like an hour and then came down in the middle of the street and stopped. Needless to say all the adults on the hill lost their minds and ran for him to get him out of the way of any oncoming cars. But it was fun!! The kids were cracking up. I miss those days. And even though it sucked back then freezing your toukus off, it was still cool to have something to show for the winter season (besides a speed knot on the head from a "snowball").

My Wonderful Boyfriend, the Sequel

For those of you who read my previous post entitled "Remember Kids", I just have to tell you that my boyfriend did it again.

I'm not kidding.

Back From The Other Side of....

Well kiddies, after a long but well deserved hiatus, I am back. And still blissfully pissed about a myriad of things. I don't even know where to begin!! I was having a conversation last night about teachers. In my job now, I have to speak to a lot of teachers all over the country on the phone and let me tell you, I know why we are behind every other damn country on the planet in education. J.H.C. these people are totally unorganized, belligerent, mildly retarded (I wish I could post some of the emails) and downright ridiculous. Why do I have to explain to the same woman 10 TIMES in 10 different phone calls how to make a purchase order from our company?! I swear to you it was so bad that I went through various stages of psychosis. First I was pleasant about it, then I was wondering what the fuck was wrong with her, then I got angry having to repeat myself over and over again, then I just went into this numb sort of state, then I just laughed about it. Then I got pissed again. And again. I hate to say it, but the American Indian schools I have to call....holy God. I don't think the women that answer the phone know what time it is, what year they're in and what planet they're on. It's pretty sad actually. Then there's Rhode Island. Because of those fuckers, I can now see why people go postal.

The thing that gets me in all of this is that these are the people teaching our children!! How does an unorganized generally hateful person teach young kids? How does one who can't figure out how to transfer a call mold minds? Someone that can't put together a coherent thought in an email is teaching little Johnny to read?!?! Now, don't get me wrong, at about the Superintendent level or speech or reading specialists, you see a lot of Dr. So-and-So's and when your speak to them they seem to have it together. But it's the Principals that really scare me. They scare me just as much as the students that sat next to me in college and read at a third grade reading level. I guess those people went on to be teachers, and one made it all the way up to President of the United States of America.

Now, being the way that I am, I'd like to question a few of these people and just ask them what the hell happened when they were supposed to be qualified to graduate from college. The Rhode Island folks just need a closed fist "slap" - perhaps it would knock some sense into them. Some I'd just like to tear into them and let them know that they are in fact stupid, plain and simple. But alas, I'd get fired in a heartbeat if I did that. And that's exactly why dumbasses get into the positions they are in - no one tells them they're freakin' idiots!!!