Satan’s Garden

Well, the Utards in the Utah House of Representatives are at it again. Michael Morley-R, has submitted a new bill, H.B. 407, which would create a self-imposed censorship system for ISP’s, quaintly known as a Community Conscious Internet Provider (CCIP). This would allow the attorney general to issue a seal for qualifying ISP’s, and impose fines against CCIP ISP’s who violate the snooping, Orwellian “anti-porn” content censorship that the bill demands.

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a not-for-profit advocacy group in Washington, voiced skepticism about the proposed legislation.

“The bill demeans the concept of community by labeling those ISPs who block content access and spy on their customers as a CCIP,” Chester said. “They might as well use the acronym to mean ‘Communist-like Control over Information Privacy.’”

The bill requires that ISP’s basically spy on the network traffic of their clients and prevent any “unwanted” material from being transfered on the Net. If your ISP decides to become CCIP certified, you have no choice but to go to another ISP, because as a client you are forced to meet the CCIP standards that your ISP has vowed to. If there are no competing ISP’s in the area who are not CCIP, you’re stuck.

It’s not even remotely surprising that such a bill has hit the Utah house floor. The Mormon influence on the Republican Party in Utah is overwhelming. The Mormon philosophy has long been, that if you stick your head in the sand to avoid looking at something you don’t like, it will magically go away. This is part of the reason why they try to prevent their followers from having any exposure to things deemed inappropriate.

The message of bills like this is clear: The moral values of their religion are simply not strong enough to guide their followers to perform the prescribed behavior, so they must force their standards on them (and everyone else) to obtain obedience by force of law. They use the well over-worn mantra of “Save the Children!” as their rallying cry and go for the forced execution of behavior control, Bill of Rights be damned. What more can you expect from a religious group that believes in Magic Underwear?

In any case, I can’t think of a single rational ISP who is going to go along with this crap if it passes. This means they’ll make CCIP certification mandatory for all Utah ISP’s once this law is in place. Fascism sneaks up on you like that.

Well, it would appear that this winter has set some amazing records. This quote says it all:

The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C — a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year’s time. For all four sources, it’s the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

Time will tell if this trend continues, but I personally think with sunspot activity at a low, we stand a good chance of entering another “little ice-age”. If nothing else, it shows just how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of climate.

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of “an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”

So begins a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, which covers some of the uglier reasons why these programs exist. Most Americans don’t want to know this information, but I’d suggest you read the article anyway.

Such are the dreams of tyrants.

As the authors so rightly state, the amount of information, well in the public eye, seems to escape most. Of all the individuals out there, radio personality Alex Jones seems to have his finger on the pulse of the information better than anyone else. His website, PrisonPlanet.com contains a vast archive of documented material that is frankly quite scary to peruse. Though some might discount his personal opinions and rants as “conspiracy theories”, it is hard to dismiss the reams of information he and his team have compiled, with links to sources far and wide. Reputable sources, I might add. If you want a good feeling of uneasiness, head on over and read for a while.

Hurricane Katrina should have taught anyone looking at the government’s response to the disaster, as being the blueprint for action if we are attacked again. From confiscating firearms (they’ll get mine barrel first) to forced evacuations, it is clear that Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution is interpreted broadly. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 has repealed the protection of the suspension of habeas corpus from the Posse Comitatus Act, the military can now be used for imprisoning US civilians without caring about such pesky things as civil rights. The Bill of Rights is officially null and void to the view of the military when dealing with civilians. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s the law. Look it up.

Naturally, such power is useless unless you can station troops within our borders for law enforcement, which the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 specifically does. It allows the President to declare a “public emergency” for any reason he sees fit and station troops anywhere in the US, without the consent of any local authority. It also allows the complete control of any local National Guard units. Again, no conspiracy here. It’s the law.

Everything has been put in place, one piece at a time since 9-11, to create a condition where complete military control of the nation can be had by the President. This allows the Executive branch of the government dictatorial power at whim. And America, for the most part, is oblivious.

If history has taught us any lesson, it is that power taken by government is always used. It’s just a matter of time.

I don’t personally use Windows for anything but a gaming console, so if you’re not a Linux or BSD propeller head, this blurb might not mean anything to you. Windows users don’t have a desktop choice, so this entire topic is going to be an alien encounter, and if you think that Vista’s Aero is an advanced interface, you’ll definitely be traveling well outside of known space here. One thing to think about, however, poor Windows laden sods: KDE 4 applications will run on Windows. Perhaps this article might not be of interest to you, but KDE4 might be after all is said and done.

Currently I’m running KDE 3.5.8 using Compiz-Fusion 0.6.2 as the window manager and it is a beautiful marriage of functionality for how I work on a computer. So, I was excited to see what KDE4 had to offer that might improve things or simply surprise me. I took a little time over the weekend to checkout KDE 4.0.1 on my Kubuntu 7.10 system and I have to say that my feelings are mixed.

On one hand, Plasma seems to be heading toward its desired goal and will likely be an improvement to the desktop metaphor in the long run. Personally, I don’t use the desktop for anything but a background image, as I hate icons and widgets being covered up by other Windows I’m working in. I find it very annoying to have to close or make windows transparent to see the widget and I don’t want a widget on top of my working application, either. Dragging widgets off the desktop and into the taskbar can avoid the desktop clutter, but I already have this. I run a single session of gkrellm and all widgets I need for monitoring and what have you are in a contained dock which isn’t covered and takes little room on the screen. So for me, Plasma probably won’t offer a lot, as it adds nothing to my work environment. However, for the typical desktop user, I think it will add quite a bit to the experience.

It is good to see the typical file and folder concept extended to be more than a visual key to a hierarchical filesystem. Container systems such as KDE3’s Basket is a similar step in the right direction. Organization of material by thought process, rather than filesystem placement is a more natural organization system. Aside from a few anal people like myself, most don’t really implement much of a logical hierarchy to their personal files to be useful in locating needed material. Plasma’s not-quite-finished ability to “zoom” between relational structures has some real potential and that holds my keen interest.

I also liked the polished look of things, though the default large font sizes annoyed me to no end. Once I had that straightened out, my general experience improved dramatically. The OpenGL additions seemed to work seamlessly and frankly, I’m a sucker for eye candy as long as it has some functionality as well. (Though, there was nothing there that I don’t already have with Compiz-Fusion, KDE-only users will appreciate it.) The true integration with Compiz-Fusion’s virtual desktops via the KDE desktop manager was a long desired feature on my list and it’s implemented beautifully.

Honestly, my enthusiasm wanes about there. There are many things that I found disappointing with the interface and I hope it is not a sign of things to stay.

First and foremost, where did the traditional hyper-configurable nature of KDE go? The whole reason that I chose KDE over Gnome was two fold: the ability to customize everything, from the layout of menus, to the exact width and height of specific applications when opened (to name just two of thousands of customizable settings); and the integrated application intercommunication that DCOP made so easy to use.

KDE4 hasn’t lost the application intercommunication, it has merely switched to D-Bus, still allowing modular components to be used by multiple applications and cross application communication is still there, (though I haven’t played with it yet, as I have with various scripts to manipulate the DCOP environment in KDE3,) but the GUI customization options are simply gone. It’s dumbed down, giving no where near the flexibility of KDE3’s normal environment. Mind you, since a lot of configuration is apparently now being handled by XML files (D-Bus standards,) or so I’ve read somewhere, perhaps customization is merely a text editor away. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single source of documentation for doing any of this yet. I’ll admit as well that I have to learn D-Bus usage in general, as I’ve barely examined the system. I am actually excited about D-Bus being used, though, as Gnome and many other applications use D-Bus - allowing the functionality of KDE to extend well outside of the scope of KDE itself. I would imaging it is Compiz-Fusion’s support of D-Bus which allows the KDE4 virtual desktop manager to interact seamlessly, for example. This was a great decision on the KDE design team’s part.

I mentioned the large default font sizes earlier and I wish I could say that this ended with fonts. The new taskbar is a eye sore, far too large for my tastes. There is no option to resize the taskbar in KDE4 at all and that’s inexcusable in my book. I want control of my interface, especially a part that intrusive. Speaking of super-sized interfaces, everything in KDE4 felt that way. It reminded me of working on the Amiga years ago. Huge this and large that - a veritable Duplo Lego block desktop. This would be excusable if you could tweak it how you wanted from the default, but again, such is not the case. This Windows-like behavior of locking you into someone else’s aesthetic viewpoint, really turned me off. The lack of customization for each application came to be no different than the general desktop. It’s gone. KDE4 applications seem as non-customizable by default as Gnome or plain X Window System. It can be done, I’m certain, but a simple GUI method for doing so is missing and desired. About the only thing kept from KDE3’s customization system is the ability to change keyboard shortcuts.

By far the worst of the interface change is the main menu, Kickoff. The layered, step-into approach that Vista blew chunks with, is mirrored here. Eh gads! I can’t express how annoying this menu system is for me! I find it clumsy and slow. The original Kmenu and Tasty Menu (which I use in KDE3) are far superior. One can only hope that decent replacements for Kickoff come out for KDE4. Raptor, doesn’t look to be it. I need a menu where I can quickly examine offerings based on category, listing available applications that I may never have run before.

Moving away from interface design issues - though I realize that KDE4 is currently in Release Candidate form, it feels more like a beta to me. Konqueror crashed on me repeatedly and when I added my server’s Sitebar URL to the Konqueror sidebar, it wouldn’t refresh. Even resizing the sidebar left behind non-erasable tracks of the previous divider positions. I also couldn’t fill in form data on any URL I tried within the sidebar.

KMail seemed equally robust - that is to say, it crashed three times on me in half an hour, finally loosing all settings for server (IMAP and SMTP) accounts in the last crash.

As it stands to date, KDE4 is certainly not ready for prime time when it comes to stability. I expected some problems, but what I hit was too much. This is beta or even alpha level software, if we’re being honest here.

If its customization ability is going to be locked into the current state, without the hyper-flexibility I’m used to with KDE3, then I’m going to start shopping for a different desktop manager. Plasma offers nothing for me, really - which unfortunately seems to be KDE4’s eggs in one basket. It will be great for those who use desktop icons and various gadgets, who don’t cover the whole available screen with application windows, or are willing to hit a key to hide those or bring widgets to the forefront - but that’s not me.

Quite honestly, Compiz-Fusion provides enough of the tweaking and interface control I need for almost everything, so having a desktop manager on top of that has been for the inter-application connectivity more than anything else, coupled with a functional taskbar. With D-Bus being used as a standard, I’ll be able to run KDE4 applications (once they’re release quality) without having to run the entire KDE environment and still have the inter-application operations.

The lack of application level customization in KDE4 might actually make me re-examine Gnome. There will be no need to have the bloated taskbar and other interface crud, if KDE4’s only advantage over Gnome is Plasma - which I won’t be using. With both desktop environments running D-Bus, inter-operations should be seamless. I’ll run KDE4 apps when I need them, no matter the desktop environment running.

I’ll hold off final judgment until KDE 4.1.x is released, as I imagine it will truly be a release candidate by that time. At that point we should be able to tell if the lack of customization is simply an oversight for the time being, or the nature of KDE to come.

A lot of interesting news this week, so far at least.

First, we have for chief prosecutor former Guantánamo’s military commissions, Col. Morris Davis, going off to the press to warn how the Gitmo trials are rigged.

British Columbia is starting a Carbon Tax on fossil fuels as part of their budget plan. Proving once more my long held point that the Global Warming Church is merely a protection racket.

Another worthless bully with a badge Taser’s a high school student after a “small altercation” during a basketball game at the school gym.

Yet another abusive cop whines that he was treated unfairly when he is fired after he turns off a video camera after an arrest, only to show a woman beaten to within an inch of her life after the camera comes back on. The old, “she fell!” mantra is called, of course.

Though Al Gore has predicted that sea water levels are going to flood half the population of Earth off the face of the planet, Venice sea levels are at a fourteen year low.

Oil has topped $100 a barrel, but we haven’t seen anything yet, with the US economy on the verge of a complete meltdown.

But at least the CIA can stop trying to poison wetsuits and other failed assassination attempts, for Fidel Castro has resigned as Cuba’s President.

“A new bill proposed at the Utah legislature would allow for police to withhold misconduct reports from the public.”

So begins KUTV’s article on Senator Chris Buttars’, utterly deplorable attempt to make police misconduct unaccountable to public scrutiny.

Senator Buttars, you’re way, way out of line! Even suggesting this notion is despicable!

Your reasoning is utterly repulsive, utterly stupid and unbelievably arrogant. I personally hope that you’re dropped from office come next election, just for this bill - even if it doesn’t pass.

I believe it was just yesterday, the date of this article I might add, that I claimed that the left is using global warming like the right is using the fear of terrorism.

In spite of what you may think, no, I didn’t read this article until just now. I hate to say it, but I told you so.

Plug your ears and cover your eyes, boys and girls. This incident utterly pisses me off and my language is not censored here…

I can’t believe the behavior of the “officer” on this video. He’s dealing with a 14 year old kid. This worthless, shit headed, pig from hell needs to have his badge revoked and criminal charges filed against his miserable, ugly fat ass for assault and battery on a 14 year old child! Rivieri rips the skateboard from the kid’s hands and shoves him to the ground in a head lock - utterly without merit! It is beyond contemptible! Then this fucking asshole proceeds to lecture the kid on everything from his colloquial speech patterns to his upbringing!

As if things couldn’t get worse, he actually threatens the kid with death, if he doesn’t respect “Officer Rivieri”, saying: “First of all, you better learn how to speak. I’m not ‘man’, I’m not ‘dude’! I am officer Rivieri! Now the sooner you learn that, the longer you’re going to live in this world. ‘Cause you go ’round doing this kind of stuff, somebody is going to kill you!”

Really? Is that so? Name one gang or criminal element, name one police officer who is worth his weight in gold, who is going to kill this child for skateboarding and calling a cop, “dude”. Only you, “officer” Rivieri. Only worthless slime like you.

As far as I can tell, this is a death threat and felony charges need to be filed against Rivieri.

Officer Rivieri, you are scum. Total and utter scum. A bullying criminal with a badge and little else. You deserve to serve time behind bars for assaulting a child.

Though it may be against the law to skateboard on this section of walk, a calm talking to is all that is merited in this situation! No amount of skateboarding is warrant for an assault! No amount of skateboarding is warrant for berating a child over his upbringing! No amount of skateboarding earns a death threat!

The escalation of this incident is entirely on officer Rivieri, and if he doesn’t loose his badge over this behavior - well, then Baltimore knows exactly who the real enemy is.

Any officer who defends this kind of behavior is exactly the kind of arrogant Nazi shit we don’t need on the force, anywhere in this nation! Go to hell, because we don’t need you in Baltimore, Chicago, New York, Salt Lake City or Smalltown, USA.

A friend sent me this link and I’m stilling laughing!  This has to be one of the best practical assaults on the anti-gun stupidity of the loony left that I have ever seen.

I have long warned that carbon “taxes” (which at first were but carbon credit programs against industry to allow the Church of Global Warming to swindle their way into the pie) were designed to stifle free trade and industry, in order to impose control and steal money.

Well, the first of the real taxes is being unveiled in Washington state.

A cadre of six Democrats in the state senate are trying to push through Senate Bill 6923, which is designed to give the state of Washington more money for alternative transportation, by adding a greenhouse gas tax to automotive registrations. It’s a scaling system, based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates of the mileage your vehicle gets. 15 MPG or lower, $200-$240 extra every year. 15-25 MPG, $100-$180 extra every year. Over 26 MPG, $40-$100 extra, every year.

This is just the first in what I predict will become a national trend. Tax-and-spend liberals cannot pass up a good mythological disaster in order to increase the government coffers further. There is no environmental motive to this. The only motive is further control and monetary gain through fear peddling.

The Republicans have their War on Terrorism as the fear mongering tool of choice. The Democrats have Global Warming. Neither camp is trying to fix anything. Both are in the game for personal benefit only, by preaching global doom and gloom.

Just remember this: all laws are enforced at the muzzle of a gun. When politicians start imposing laws based on dubious science, they are doing so by imposing force against the People. With the latest lunacy the Neocons have unleashed on us with the TSA, Homeland Security and related nonsense, in an ever increasing paramilitary police state, do you want this force used against you over a still actively debated conundrum over CO²?

These trends start with licensing fees and end up in criminal code. The entire War on Drugs is currently fought over criminal code governing the sales of substances without a proper tax stamp. (Yes, you read that right.) What starts as a licensing fee, must be backed up with force if someone refuses to pay the fee. A single fee, never remains alone - more are added, more laws and more taxes - each must be backed up by force. Everything snowballs from the first act of resistance

When poorly formed scientific arguments are used to urge political action, it’s bad enough. When they are used to imprison people, or even kill them - which is the eventual course of all law as the regulators continue to try to “fix” things - we have reached rock bottom.