Government #shutdown - Day 1

Oh, the horror!  The humanity!  Early today, the government shutdown went into effect , bringing the whole world crashing down.  Everything that went wrong today must have been caused by the shutdown!  I shutter to see what exactly happened. 

The whole government probably did not report for work.  Chaos, anarchy!  Wait, what?  80% of the federal government actually reported to work today? 

I guess they must all be doing important things, like putting barricades around open air national monuments so people who usually can go to it unsupervised 24x7 cannot go to it when the government is closed? Or try to close bike routes used for bike commuting around DC?

Maybe we just need to shutdown perfectly functioning websites with a message that the government is closed? 

Or maybe, just maybe, this might be a manufactured crisis in order to push one side's or another's agenda with squabbling and petty disdain that the Legislative and Executive Branches have for the American people to receive the services taxes are paid on.  We have elected a politicians who are such ideologues on the left and right that they refuse to compromise/find middle ground because of the fear of a primary challenge from someone even more extreme in their party.  The political process is so broken right now that it may be time for a moderate third party, one who respects the rights and pocketbooks of the American people to sweep in and finally restore the government back to the people, as opposed to the special interests the left and right wings of the Republocrat party.

Have we lost it?

As I write this, the date is September 11th.  The remembrances are occurring as I wake up this morning, just as the attacks occurred as I awoke 12 years ago. While sad for those affected by the attacks, let's remember that we are stopping to remember lest than 0.0001% of the American public who died that day.  

Because of this loss, we, as a country, have decided to go to war in 2 countries, trampled on the constitution (especially the 4th Amendment) with the TSA, VIPR, NSA spying on the American public, the increased pace of militarization of the police throughout the years, and the utter fear that people have allowed the government to instill in us (think how the citizens were told to "shelter in place" as the militarized police come and "rescued" them from their house). 

There is a fine line of remembering of what happened on 9/11 and allowing it to run our lives.  We have failed as a country to the latter, giving up freedom for security and rights for safety.  The terrorists of 9/11 may have won in different ways than what they thought they were trying to do by changing the American way of life for the worse. 

Random Syrian Thoughts...

As Syria and possible U.S. action is coming to a head, some things still don't make sense.   

• If, by most accounts, the Syrian army currently has the upper hand against rebel forces,  why would the Assad government risk bringing in more firepower aiding the rebels by using chemical weapons?  It just makes no sense.
• If the US is planning on supporting the rebels, would we be aiding Al-Queda sympathizing rebels who seem to be just as brutal as the Assad regime.  Again, it makes no logical sense. 
• Further complicating this is the supposed report that the Saudi and other governments would finance our actions against Syria.  Does this make us hit man for hire in the world?

I don't see the sense at this time of getting involved in this civil war. 

Baseball has an umpiring problem

...and it is not necessarily the call of balls and strikes.  See the blatant missed calls from last night (May 24).

White Sox - Marlins

Interestingly enough, the HOME team gets screwed on these calls.​

Talking about a poor political weekend...

Looks like the President is having some issues that the media is finally focusing on this week.  ​

Benghazi hearing.  - Who said what when?​

IRS targeting people that may have different politically different views than the president.​

Today, the Justice Department was outed for secretly obtaining phone records of reporters and editors of the AP in 2012.  ​

Oops.  Not a good weekend for President Obama.  This should put to rest the thought that he would have the most "transparent administration in history."​

President Barack Obama said that his is the "most transparent administration" in history Thursday during a Google hangout.

Typical politician.   Just like the issues with:​

• Weapons of Mass Destruction - Bush 43
• Impeachment for Perjury - Clinton
• Read My Lips - No New Taxes - Bush 41
• Iran-Contra - Reagan
• Iranian Hostages - Carter
• Nixon Pardon - Ford
• Watergate - Nixon
• Vietnam Escalation - Johnson
• Bay of Pigs - Kennedy

When are people going to learn that politicians will lie and cheat right in your face?​

Your rights and privacy?

It looks like if you want a secure phone, get an iPhone.  There is a long waiting list by police in order to get iPhones decrypted because of the security built into the phone.​

​Is this the final death of privacy?  Immigration reform bill has a provision to create biometric database.