What Do You Know - Another Anti-Depressant Crazed Mass Murderer

It should be no surprise that the 19 year old mass-murderer Robert Hawkins who killed 8 people as well as himself was taking anti-depressants. Is anyone else seeing a pattern here or is it just me??

Police Taser Deaf Man In His Own Bathroom (For Not Listening)

Can't make that sort of thing up. The Wichita police Tasered a deaf man in his own bathroom (wearing only a towel) for not listening to them (seriously....that was the only reason!)

I guess in the past he would have been shot? Uh-huh.....

Why Valet Parking Is A Really, Really Bad Idea...

As I mentioned in a previous post, valet parking should be avoided at all costs. Unless, that is, you think the convenience is worth handing over one of your most expensive possessions to a high school drop-out-stalker-serial-killer who's name you won't even bother to get.

Of course it's not just the car that's being handed over, but some fools also hand over their house keys (for an hour or more). And almost everyone hands over their registration/insurance information (in the car, of course) which usually contains the owner's home address. If you're lucky, maybe the valet will just do a little joyriding with your car or use it as a taxi. Of course, he might be a really good person, but you'll be leaving that up to chance, won't you?

Now, if you've ever read the back of your valet ticket, you know that if pretty much anything happens to your car, it's not their fault. Here's a few choice lines from a real valet ticket:

"Cars driven by our employees solely at owner's risk. Not responsible for fire or theft."

That pretty much sums up the relationship you have with these people. You pay us to park your car, and YOU, not us, are responsible for anything that goes wrong. Which is (dis) comforting, because while you might take time to park your car in a good, well-lit area or avoid slamming the car into a curb/poll/ and/or parking in someone's private driveway where it might get towed, the valet is more worried about quickly parking your car and getting back to park/pick-up another car to get paid. And as far as theft goes, many valets keep the keys in the parked car or in an unwatched key box. They're not too worried about it of course, because, after all, it's your problem. So if your valet forgets to set the parking brake and your car rolls out into the street, or they accidentally rip up one of your $1000 rims and a $400 tire on a curb, well, that's your "risk" coming back to haunt you.

And it's usually right after something like that happens that you are forced to read your auto insurance policy only to find out that your auto insurance company won't cover damage caused by a valet. "What? my insurance company won't cover my $40,000 BMW just because I let a high school drop-out-stalker-serial-killer guy who had his driver's license revoked for 3 DUIs (and, of course, I don't know his name) drive my car into a wall? Unbelievable!"

So now you're stuck dealing with the super reputable valet "company", who thoughtfully and fortuitously put that liability waver on the back of your claim ticket. More likely than not, the valet company will refuse to pay, either claiming that the damage was there before you arrived (How will you prove it wasn't?), or by claiming that you didn't identify the damage before leaving (if you find after you leave the lot, you're definitely on your own). Seems like a whole lot of risk for a very little 'convenience', doesn't it??

Oh, and if your car has nice rims, always check to see that your spare tire hasn't disappeared while you were eating dinner (Particularly if it's a rental car). It's valuable and easy to steal because people don't even think about it until they have a flat (months or years later). Who would bother to check that??? Well the rental car company will when you return the car...and guess who will get to pay for that?

Yup - you will.

Security Tips For Peons

While I have no formal credentials as a security professional, I would like to offer some security tips that I have learned/collected over the years. Some of these come from reading the local police news blotter, others come from direct experience with crime. So, while going about your life, keep these tips in mind:

In the Home

1. Always keep your exterior doors and windows locked (fairly obvious, you’d think).
2. Learn about lock bumping and why (sadly) it means that most exterior door locks (including deadbolts) are not much better than your flimsy bathroom lock which can be opened with a dime. Then have a locksmith install an bump-proof lock.
   
3. Install a peephole in your exterior door if it doesn’t already have one.
4. Never open your door for someone you are not expecting or do not know. I cannot tell you the sheer number of home invasions that occur because the criminals rang the doorbell and the victims opened the door. Occasionally they will kick in the door or climb in through a broken window, but more often than not, they just knock or ring the doorbell. If it’s a delivery person and you’re not expecting a delivery, don’t open the door. Uniformed person you were not expecting needing to “check” something? A nice old man selling chocolates to buy puppies for the orphaned children of Yugoslavia? Again, DON’T OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR! Read this horrific story if you need more justification as to why opening the door to strangers is a bad idea. But the examples of this problem are everywhere.
   
5. If you have children, never, EVER let them answer the door. Of all the people in your house that should have the responsibility of being the gatekeeper of your home, a child is the least capable to take on that level of responsibility. The additional risk of abduction just adds to the multitude of reasons why children should be taught only adults can open the door if the doorbell rings.
6. Install a security system. A security system can bring you piece of mind when you’re not at home. It can even bring you a discount on your insurance. But most importantly, it can tell you what the %$@#$$ is going on downstairs at 3:18 am when you’re sound asleep in your 2nd or 3rd floor bedroom. Alarm systems don’t have to be expensive or continuously monitored. This wireless system actually works well despite it’s cheesy website (and can even call you for alerts when you’re not at home).
7. Install a keyed lock on your bedroom door and lock it when you sleep. This is critical if you absolutely cannot afford an alarm system. Kwikset makes a very easy to install keyed entry door lock. The point is not to keep someone out indefinitely. It's just to give you enough time to wake up, realize what's going on and 'activate' your plan. Speaking from experience, you never want to wake up with a stranger in your room. If you do, you’re going to wish you had installed that lock. Trust me.
8. Have a plan. This is another no-brainer. Have a phone in your room, and know that after you call 911, you will be waiting the longest 5 minutes (if you're lucky) of your life for the police to arrive. What will you do during that eternal 5 minutes? While we're on the topic of planning, have you ever thought about what you would do in a house fire?
   

In Your Car

1. When you come to a stoplight, never pull up so close to the car in front of you that you cannot drive off to the right or left. This is particularly important if it's late or if the road is mostly empty. Always allow yourself room to drive off should a driver get out of their car for any reason. A broken down car or a carjacking - you'll always be thankful for the room.
2. As in the home, keep your doors locked.
3. Carry Mace in your car (if it's legal where you live). It's always good to have if you find yourself suddenly stranded on the side of the road.
   
4. Carry a cell phone. If you can't afford a regular cell phone, pick up a 'disposable' phone and buy phone cards. For most of the US, I have found that Virgin Mobile has the best overall deal. Get a phone for around $20, and add at least $20 every 90 days, or add $90 dollars in any 72 hour period and those minutes won't expire for 1 year. So for $110 you can have an emergency phone in your car for a year. Don't forget to keep it charged.
5. Avoid valet parking like you would avoid a hemorrhaging Ebola victim. This one has me so fired up, I've given it its own post.
   

Outside

1. Always keep aware of your surroundings. Never jog with headphones...sorry, I know it's why you bought the iPod. But jogging with headphones shows a predator that you're not paying attention.
2. Carry a small can of Mace or pepper spray (if it's legal where you live...and it's not everywhere).
   
3. Be wary of talkative strangers. More often than not, these 'sudden friends' want to sell you something. Either way, you really don't want to be bothered with their sales pitch while you go about your life. Otherwise, you would have called them, right?
   
4. See #4 above, - Carry a cellphone.
   
5. Most importantly, trust your gut instinct. If you feel a situation is getting dicey, NEVER second guess it. Get yourself out of the situation as fast as possible, and prepare for the worst. If everything goes well, people might think you're a bit paranoid. If something goes wrong, you'll be as ready as you can be. I can live with that, and you can too.

In General

1. Get a P.O. Box, and have all your mail sent there. At a minimum, it adds a layer between you and all the people you must correspond with. It's also much more secure than an apartment/house mailbox. Also, many states will allow you to put a P.O. Box on your driver's license as long as your physical address is on file.
2. Use credit cards (like you would a debit, with no balance carried from month to month) instead of debit cards. As I've written about before, debit cards are like the keys to your bank account. Lose control of your debit card and life will suck for you. And while the bank may limit your liability, they're not really good at limiting the serious discomfort you will feel when you find your account has been emptied. Read here for more details.
   

Australasian Journal of Clinical Environmental Medicine ?

Wherefore art thou?

I was planning on doing some research on this Wi-Fi/Autism link to see if I could actually read the study to see how they came to their result. Guess what? I can't find this journal mentioned anywhere. A check of Google left me with little. One site suggested that this site, http://www.acnem.org/ was the publisher of the journal. But I still can't find anything. If you can find time to do a press release, you've had time to put up a website. Until I'm able to find out more on this, I'll assume this is little more than urban legend.

**Update: Thanks to an anonymous reader, a link to the study has been found:
http://www.internalbalance.com/emr-autism-acnem.pdf

***Read the follow-up to this post here

Wi-Fi linked to Autism?

This disturbing study reminds me of a post I did last year about the potential dangers of wireless networking. The study links the increase in the use of wi-fi and cell phones to the increase in autism. Who knows if the science behind the study will hold up.

***Read the follow-up to this post here

A few Lucky Virginians Have Another Nasty Surprise In Store -- Compliments Of The Legislature

After the public outcry over the last 4 months related to the "Abusive Driver's fees" it's fascinating that another provision in the very same transportation funding bill (House Bill 3202) has not come under more public scrutiny.

Starting January 1, 2008, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) and the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority (HRTA) will begin taxing all sorts of activities in the Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads areas. These taxes will be imposed on residents in the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park, Norfolk, Newport News, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Williamsburg and Poquoson and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Isle of Wight, York and James City.

Here are the new taxes and fees (.doc), all of which are in addition to any existing tax on these activities:

• 2% tax on all motor vehicle rentals
• 5% tax on all automotive repairs, including things like oil changes
• $10 fee for your annual vehicle registration
• 1% (of the purchase price) additional fee for your initial vehicle registration
• $10 additional fee for motor vehicle inspection
• 2% additional hotel tax
• A $0.40/$100 of valuation sales tax on all real property sales (this is an tax increase of 500% from the current tax of $1/$1000 of value. No doubt this will help the ailing housing market)

The money will go into a State Treasurer fund (Special Sales and Use Tax Motor Vehicle Repair Fund) and will be doled out to the NVTA or HRTA as 'appropriate'. What does appropriate mean exactly? Well neither Authority is required to follow Virginia procurement guidelines and is free to issue “no-bid” contracts to whomever they wish. I'm sure it will be frequently 'appropriate'.

The Authorities were also given the ability to issue bonds and to obligate your future taxes to the payments on those bonds. And all of this power, in a pseudo public body that is run by appointees. That’s right, the NVTA and the HRTA members are not elected by the public, so you are being taxed without representation.

The only ray of hope in this is that Loudoun County and attorney Robert G. Marshall were just granted a joint appeal by the Virginia Supreme Court in their cases against the NVTA. Hopefully, the VASC will put a halt to this bureaucracy run amok.

The TASER Has Become Just Another Way To Kill People

When the Taser was introduced a few years ago, it was touted as being an alternative to lethal force. Police departments all over the world were sold on the idea that many of the situations where they would normally draw firearms could now be defused with a device that would only incapacitate an aggressive subject. However, in the last few years, it is undeniable that in situations where police officers would never have drawn a firearm they are drawing and using their Tasers.

Take for example the situation with the "Don't taze me bro!" guy. Police would never have felt justified in drawing a handgun on a subject who had no weapon, and was only resisting arrest. Yet they felt free to whip out the Taser and blast away. Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was electroshocked in the Vancouver airport because he had become unruly (after not being cleared by customs for 8 hours!). He clearly had no knife or firearm as he had been cleared past security checkpoints. Would police 20 years ago have drawn their handguns against this man? Never. Yet they Tased him twice and as a result, he was killed. In Canada alone, at least 17 people have died as a result of being electroshocked by Tasers since 2003. Of course not to be outdone by our northern neighbors, the United States has seen more than 270 Taser related deaths since 2001.

Supporters of the Taser argue that it has saved lives, as subjects are shocked rather than shot. However, a study in Houston Texas showed that the number of people shot did not decrease after Tasers were issued to police. Yet Tasers were used more than 1,000 times. And in 95% of those incidents, the Tasers were "...not used to defuse situations in which suspects wielded weapons and deadly force clearly would have been justified".

The truth is that police are using Tasers in situations where they would have previously used strong-arm tactics to control a subject. Wrestling someone to the ground and cuffing them used to be the way this was handled, now it's become a push button affair with a growing body count. What was sold to the public as an alternative to lethal force has quickly become the primary and routine method of gaining an unwilling subject's cooperation. And for that convenience, local governments and police are apparently more than willing to offer up a few dead citizens.

**Update: Frederick, MD Sheriff's dept killed a man today with a Taser (11/18/2007)

Thinking The Impossible – Could Ron Paul Actually Win?

As hard as it might be to believe, I think the perfect storm is brewing for the 2008 elections. Assuming that the current front runners are the nominees of their respective parties, we’ll end up with a Clinton/Giuliani election. Barring any surprise Vice Presidential nominations, I would predict an easy win for Clinton. Giuliani is going to inspire few republicans to vote. And in spite of Pat Robertson’s deal with Satan, the religious right is going to have a hard time swallowing a vote for Rudy. So Republicans and Democrats alike will assume that Clinton will be a sure thing.

Now suppose, with that mentality, the protest vote comes out in favor of Ron Paul, running as a 3^rd party candidate. Ron Paul would pick up the ‘rabid’ Paul supporters he has now and will surely gain in the coming months. Anti-war democrats will cast a protest vote for Ron Paul, to show their displeasure of Hillary’s hawkish views. Religious right voters will cast a protest vote for Paul to show their displeasure of Rudy’s pro abortion pro gay marriage views. What happens when Ron Paul ends up with all those protest votes? Who knows, but it could be a very interesting election for sure.

Pat Robertson Endorses Rudy Giuliani? Huh??

What's next? Robertson endorsing Satan for VP? At this point I wouldn't be surprised.

When the founder of the Christian Coalition backs a two time divorced, pro-abortion (tax payer funded no less), pro-gay rights presidential candidate with a 'thing' for dressing up in women's clothes, you know something in the world is just not quite right. Perhaps Robertson thought he was selling his soul to this guy instead of Rudy? Isn't he going to be disappointed when he finds out that Rudy can't deliver the goods. But then again, maybe that's not what Pat is looking for.

I'm beginning to believe that Alex Jones might have called it right when he raised suspicions that Pat Robertson and his televangelist friends are not quite what they seem.

WTF is going on at the George Washington University?

Less than a month after hate-speech fliers were posted around campus in the name of a conservative group (but were actually posted by a self proclaimed "anti-hate" group), a bunch of swastikas have shown up around campus, drawn on student's doors. The police have finally arrested someone and guess what? The woman, Sarah Marshak, who complained that someone was drawing the swastikas on her door (ostensibly because she's Jewish) was caught drawing them on her own door! And in another, completely separate incident, another student was caught drawing them on his own door!!! WTF is going on down there? The news keeps reporting that "racial tension is high". Clearly, but why is it self generated? Very bizarre.

BTW, GWU has not yet punished the original hate instigators for the fliers. Surprise, surprise....

Is Schapelle Corby a Victim of Circumstance?

The FBI announced today that they have arrested 18 people in a drug smuggling operation that operated out of JFK airport. During the 2 year investigation, the feds seized 90 pounds of cocaine and 50 pounds of heroin. The drugs were smuggled by airport personnel by placing packages of drugs in passenger's baggage (after security screening) at one airport then removing them at another airport, then returning the bags to the passenger.

This should send shivers down every flyer's spine. What would happen if a package was not picked up for some unforeseen reason? What if you were caught with a few pounds of heroin in your baggage? Would you use the "I have no idea how that got in there!!" line? Do you think anyone would really believe you?

It didn't work for Schapelle Corby who is now serving a 20 year sentence in an Indonesian prison for smuggling 9 lbs of marijuana in her unlocked luggage. Corby has long maintained that she didn't know how the drugs go in there and there's some evidence that she's telling the truth. Even circumstantially, it's hard to fathom he improbability of someone, on a family vacation, smuggling 9 lbs of marijuana into an Muslim country that is well known for its harsh drug laws.

In the United States, the federal government needs to crack down hard on this type of smuggling. IMHO, if an airline/airport employee is caught smuggling ANYTHING in passenger luggage, they deserve life in prison. Not so much for the relatively minor issue of drugs, but the huge potential for terrorism. How closely are they checking the "box of cocaine" to make sure that's what it really is? How much would it take to bribe them to take on a box of unknown origin?

The airline security breach in this case is massive and frightening. And you just know it's still happening somewhere.

The Republican Party: Invasion Of The Body Snatchers?

I've watched most of the Republican debates over the last few weeks and I am just about as confused as the RNC must be right now. Which of these guys is actually a Republican? Or more accurately, "How did all these Democratic candidates get into the Republican debates?" A story in the Politico suggests that Sen. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are the best ticket for the Repubs. Wow. That would be a "good" ticket?. First of all, I am still somewhat astounded that a RINO like Rudy Giuliani is the leader of the pack, considering that he is pro-abortion (favors taxpayer funded abortions no less), is for same-sex unions, and is anti-gun. Overall, he's looks to be somewhat to the left of Hilary Clinton. Am I missing something here? Which "Republicans" are the pollsters calling anyway?

Will Iraq be the big issue in 2008? Survey says:....Yes...well, maybe

A recent Rasmussen poll says that 68% of Americans want to be out of Iraq within a year. Yet all the front runners, both Democrat and Republican, want to be more into Iraq. Hillary and Giuliani are the exact same type of war hawks as Bush, with both of them mirroring his current policies with regard to Iran in their campaign rhetoric. Only three candidates, Ron Paul, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich are suggesting that the whole thing was a huge mistake. And all of them are polling in the single digits.

And how is Giuliani polling so high anyway? The whole thing begs the question that was brought up in the 2004 election. How big an effect are cell phone-only households having on telephone polling. In 2004 the alarm was sounded over the rise of cell phone only households. This caused great consternation for the pollsters as federal law prohibits automated dialing of cell phone numbers (used almost exclusively in telephone polls). In 2004, the error introduced by these people was non-existent: Polls matched actual results. However back then, cell only households made up just 3% of all households. Today 13% of all adults are using only a cell phone or VOIP. More importantly, 33% of 18-29 year olds only have a cell phone. None of these people are being polled. That's a huge concern, specifically for pollsters trying to gauge issues that revolve around a particular age group (elections anyone?). Those opinions might now show up in a telephone poll, but may at the ballot box. In June 2007, the Pew Research Center wrote:

The picture is not entirely positive, however. While the cell-only problem is currently not biasing polls based on the entire population, it may very well be damaging estimates for certain subgroups in which the use of only a cell phone is more common. This concern is particularly relevant for young adults. According to the most recent government estimate, more than 25% of those under age 30 use only a cell phone.

This might help to explain Ron Paul's huge internet support, near total dominance in Republican straw polls, but weak telephone polling. Interestingly enough, Paul has also done very well on text message polls, which would favor a younger more technically savvy audience.

When Does A Horrific Wrong Instantly Become A "eh...it wasn't that bad, really"?

*When you find out your friends did the 'wrong'.

Administrators at The George Washington University, promising expulsion for students who distributed xenophobic posters, suddenly get cold feet when they realize the guilty party wasn't the conservative group they thought it was

On Monday of this week, anti-Islamic posters distributed on The George Washington University campus (complete with university seal and forged signature of a conservative student group) were called hate speech. Today, after the revelation that 7 student members of the liberal Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness group made and distributed the posters in a smear campaign, the fliers have been downgraded to mere "controversial posters". This, after GW Administrators had initially attacked the conservative Young America's Foundation group and demanded they sign an agreement disavowing any hate speech that might occur at their event (which was the subject of the poster smear tactic). I guess the GW administration had found their criminal and wanted a signed confession.

Now the world waits with bated breath on their very uncomfortable and public response. What's a slap on the wrist between friends?

Scenes From The Upcoming Police State

Wow. This really creeped me out. Someone has developed (and you've no doubt financed) some seriously Orwellian toys to keep track of you. If you haven't seen the movie Brazil yet, I highly recommend it. It looks like it's our future.

Global Hysteria Swarms the Globe Like A Heat Wave

The global warming debate is becoming so hysterical I can barely stand it. An October heat wave is pushing through the mid-Atlantic states causing the Weather channel to call it "Wild Weather". The Drudge Report is calling it "Heatwave in the Heartland". Below that story is a not-so-subtilly placed story about fashion designers having a hard time because "...there is no strong difference between summer and winter any more". Yeah, ok. You go ahead and wear your shorts in February, Beppe.

A quick check of Accuweather shows that the historical high temp for October in Washington, D.C. was 96 degrees in 1941. OMG! Global warming must have started back in at least the 1940's!

My point is that it's been crazy hot before and that can't be blamed on global warming without claiming that global warming began before the huge carbon release of the 1950's.

Additionally, why hasn't anyone pointed the finger at this guy?

Image Courtesy of SOHO (ESA & NASA)

Now, admittedly, I haven't really been keeping up on this issue and maybe some rigorous science has ruled it out. But our Sun has a history of causing global warming and cooling. All without our help. It would seem like good investigative work to rule out the cause of the Earth's last couple of the global climate changes, wouldn't it? Perhaps it's too terrifying to contemplate a global crisis that is unfazed by UN resolutions and business meetings.

There are plenty of reason to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, not the least of which is national security and clean air. However I would hate for scientific principals to be discarded in the race to a 'good end'.

Hypocrites at the Washington Post call out Virginia candidate

I had to laugh when I saw this article in the Washington Post, in which the Post 'outs' a candidate running for the position of Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The Post has uncovered that the Republican candidate (Gary H. Baise) took "nearly $300,000" in subsidies for an Illinois farm over the last 10 years. All of this was completely legal mind you. It's just that the Post felt there was something inherently shameful with a wealthy individual taking a government subsidy.

So what's funny about that? Well, for starters, I'd bet a large chunk of the wealthy Washington Post elite are taking somewhere between $6,000-$10,000 in government subsidies every single year as well. This subsidy is in the form of the mortgage interest deduction. Sorry but it's true - mortgage interest deduction will be a $100 billion tax-payer funded subsidy by 2009. And not only that, but it's a subsidy that disproportionally benefits the rich over the poor. Year 2003 IRS data shows that taxpayers who had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of less than $30,000 received only 9% of the interest deduction subsidy, in spite of filing more than 52% of all tax returns. Yet those having more than $100,000 in AGI claimed 36% of the money. In fact, those making more than $75,000 in AGI claimed more than half of all mortgage interest deductions.

In 2004, the government handed out $89,500,000,000 in mortgage subsidies. 53% of that money (over $48,000,000,000) went to the 11.8% of taxpayers with AGIs over $100,000. And more than 20% of the money (~$18,400,000,000) went to the 2.3% of tax filers with AGIs over $200,000. Some of those people no doubt live in what would typically be called 'mansions'.

Ending this subsidy of course, is not popular. That's because so many benefit from it. But keep that in mind next April 15th. Do you really need that deduction? I'm sure everyone at the Washington Post will keep their pristine hands out of the cookie jar [/sarcasm]

For more info see HERE

Nobel prize winner calls for a halt to water fluoridation

Nobel prize winner Arvid Carlsson (awarded the prize for research into Parkinson's disease) along with about 600 other medical and science professionals calls for the halting of water fluoridation. Looks like the debate is heating up again:

Read/watch the story by clicking here

Professionals sign Fluoride Action Network call to end water fluoridation

Nobel Laureate Dr. Arvid Carlsson, one of 600 signers

American Dental Association guidance on infant formula

Former EPA scientist Bob Carton analyzes National Academy of Sciences report

Centers for Disease Control study cites statistics on fluorosis in children

National Academy of Sciences executive summary, Fluoride in Water

CRS Report for Congress: Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Review of Fluoridation and Regulation Issues

Another Judge Rules Driver Fees Unconstitutional

"An Arlington County General District Court judge has ruled that Virginia's abusive-driver fees are unconstitutional, saying they violate guarantees of equal protection because they apply only to state residents."

The County says they will appeal to the circuit court.

First round won: VA Driver's fees declared unconstitutional

A Henrico judge declared the new VA traffic fines unconstitutional. The ruling only applies to Henrico County, but will be appealed. Of course, this gives every defendant a path to follow.