Tag: Politics

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Religious radicals

I’m amazed at how some people interpret religion in such a way that they believe that others should die. No, I’m not talking about conservative Christians, I’m talking about Islamic fundamentalists. I’m just not sure how being a suicide bomber helps your cause or gets you to a higher place. It is my hope that all religions value life; it is just that some extremists think that others need to die in order for them to be better people. The recent win of the Hamas party is extremely frightening as they believe in the destruction of Israel where Israel is trying to make peace and is giving up land to that end. Everyone has the right, in my opinion, to practice their own religion, but I think that this can be accomplished without others having to be killed. In the words of the great Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”

(On a related note, don’t the Hamas people know that when they shoot guns into the air to celebrate their win that the bullets have to come down somewhere and possibly on someone? They must not be the brightest people in the world.)

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New recycling laws/fees in California

Starting February 8th (my birthday), any product that contains mercury (batteries, circuit boards, etc.) can no longer be put in the trash. I think this is a great idea for helping the environment. However, I see a few flaws in the system:

  • It isn’t convenient. People will have to collect their stuff and go to the landfill on a Saturday (it is only open on Saturday for the Miramar/San Diego landfill).
  • People will be charged $0.25 per pound. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, it is definitely a barrier to recycling. I’ve have to remember to take apart whatever I recycle so that I only recycle the circuit board from say a radio and not the rest of the bulk.
  • The paper has reported officials saying that they won’t be policing the trash for banned materials. If there are no consequences for throwing stuff away, people will continue to do it. The news reported that over 60% of the people in their poll would keep throwing out batteries.
  • For computers, there has already been a law requiring a recycling fee to be paid upfront. Now the consumer will have to pay a recycling fee twice for products.

I’ll make sure I keep a separate area/bin for this stuff and periodically recycle it, like I do with bottles and cans.

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San Diego Chargers or is it San Diego Whiners

The San Diego Chargers have decided not to put their expansion/renovation plans for the stadium and surrounding area on the ballot for November. This is excellent in my opinion as they are a private enterprise that seems to want concessions from the city and wants the city to spend tax payer dollars to help them make money. I’m not a sports fan, so maybe I’m jaded, but why should the Chargers get special treatment? Does sports really help the economy? From what I’ve read, not really (in terms of net gain).

Other cities in the county (and around the country) are trying to court the Chargers. I say, great, let them leave. We (the taxpayers) already spent a boatload of money about 10 years ago to renovate the stadium, we had a ticket guarantee so that they could make more money, and now pay them when a game is sold out because they are losing revenue due to becoming in compliance with the ADA. I say it is about time we give them the boot and if they can’t make money without taxpayer funds, that’s fine. Our city can’t afford to subsidize the Chargers nor give away 600 acres of land to private enterprise at a time when the city has a pension debt of almost 2 billion dollars.

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Televangelists

Who bothers listening to televangelsts? Do they really think that there message is better than someone else’s if they are on TV? Every time Pat Robertson opens his mouth, something arrogant and plain stupid comes out. Today he said that Ariel Sharon’s health problems are punishment from the almighty for trying to break up Israel. OK, here is a guy that is trying to make peace and Roberston has to say something like this. Somehow Robertson has 865,000 people a day watch his 700 Club show. Those people that watch must not be able to think for themselves.

Why is it news that Roberston opens his big trap? He should just be ignored. Even the Whitehouse is trying to distance itself from Robertson now even though they’ve been bed buddies in the past.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day: “Annoy a conservative; think for yourself.”

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Spy on this!

Our wonderful president has admitted to spying on Americans and has called it legal. OK, whatever you say Mr. Bush. One of the ways that he says that the government has spied on Americans is by monitoring phone calls from/to foreign countries by individuals listed on computers and cell phones. I’m glad I never call foreign countries (OK, my wife sometimes calls a friend in Canada, but I consider Canada just another state, eh.)

Do I really believe it is legal? Of course not. Do I believe that it has made it safer? No. Do I think it needs to continue in its present form? No. There are safeguards in place and I’m sure the government could have gotten wiretap permission from that secret court in a hurry if they really needed it.

The president, in my mind, thinks he’s above the law. I hope that someone really studies the law and brings charges against the president. We have lost even more credibility with the international community because of this flap and all the other recent Bush moves.

How did we elect this moron to office? Some have told me that they didn’t like Kerry and that’s why they voted for Bush. That doesn’t seem like a very informed decision. We’ll be paying the consequences for a few more years. (I saw a countdown timer the other day that showed how many minutes under Bush was out of office.)

(I am exercising my first amendment right to publish this blog; don’t put me on any government/military watch list.)

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Soon going to be illegal to be an illegal alien

Last night I heard on the news that lawmakers are working on a law to make it illegal (a felony) to be in the country illegally. Am I missing something here in that isn’t being here illegally already illegal? (OK, maybe they’re going to stiffen the penalties, but it really sounds stupid to make something that already is illegal, illegal.)

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Chopper Drivers

I almost fell off my chair tonight watching the NBC Nightly News. They had an interview with President Bush and without a script, the President sounds really dumb. He praised the Coast Guard “chopper drivers” when talking about Katrina. In case you think I made it up, check out the clip.

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Deterioration of language in our society

I’ve been noticing more and more how the English language is deteriorating into slang, misused words, improper abbreviations, and mistakes ranging from television to print media, to the web and most disturbing, everyday language. It has become so bad, that the English language has changed to “accept” this. For instance, anyways is often used for anyway. This really disturbs me as it just doesn’t sound right and makes people who use it seem uneducated to me. I hear this used on television and in everyday conversations all the time. The problem is that no one corrects the mistakes. Is this a breakdown of our educational system or does no one care anymore?Related to vocabulary issues and slang, the use of email, instant messaging, and text messaging has caused people to become very sloppy in their writing and many people just don’t care what they write. I find myself trying to proofread everything I write as it is a reflection on me and every communication can affect my work. I wish this was imparted on kids and teenagers as the more they neglect their writing, the bigger problem society will have later.It really only takes a few good influences to change someone’s language skills. It starts in the classroom, but extends beyond that. My wife is a science teacher and for the last few years, she’s been hanging out with English teachers. A few weeks ago, I commented to her that her vocabulary has increased just by being around people that use more sophisticated words. My wife is very smart, but has said that she was never good at the SAT words. Well, I think that has changed just by her friends’ use of new words.When is society going to start caring?(I’m sure someone will find grammatical errors with this entry, but at least I tried to get everything right.)

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Registered Professional Engineers

Some time ago, my father and I had a discussion about being a registered professional engineer and what it means. He’s been a registered professional engineer (civil engineer) his entire career. He’s always told me that being registered means that you certify that your work is going to hold up and it is a matter of safety. Some states (I believe Texas), have attempted to register software engineers. I think that this is a complete and utter mistake. As a software engineer, there is no way that I can certify that my work will function properly on any machine at any time other than on my machine at the time I ship it. There are some many interactions between the hardware, the operating system, other applications, and hacks that I simply can’t say that it will work. While I’d love to have the moniker “registered professional engineer”, there is no way in good conscience that I could even apply for it if it became available.

However, I think the title “engineer” should be reserved for those that have successfully completed a 4 year engineering education. Engineer is thrown around by Microsoft, Cisco, and other companies when people complete a short course. I think that this is unacceptable. Microsoft lost a case in Canada and was told to stop using engineer for their MSCE certification. Like that will really happen. Furthermore, many programmers are not engineers; they simply code without designing and understanding the implications. This is where I see that engineers differ from programmers.

BTW, I am considered an “Engineer-In-Training” and will be my entire career as I passed the grueling California Engineer-In-Training exam while I was in college.