Rant: never let kids play computer games alone

Parents nowadays are so busy, they often use computers and game consoles as substitute "kid-sitting" devices, and every once in a while, it may lead to disaster.

One such disaster is barely averted when FBI agents intercepted a 13-yr old girl running away from her home in Centerville, Utah to a "wonderful kid" she met online, first playing World of Warcraft, then chatted online and exchanged e-mails. Apparently, her parents had NO IDEA until FBI agents went through her computer and cell phone records.

FBI agents, soon found that this "wonderful kid" was really a 40-year old man who's got long hair, severely overweight, and clearly NOT AS NICE as she thought he was. I mean, you can't DRAW a stereotypical online gamer that doesn't resemble this guy, and yes, this picture is from "South Park". (photo of perp is in the article link below).


After intercepting the girl in Salt Lake City's main Greyhound hub, FBI agents posed as her and resumed the conversation with the perp, and the conversation turned sexual, as the man described in vivid detail what he'd like to do to her, most of which may not be fit for print even in S&M magazines.

Well, enough said. If your kids play online games, make an effort to play with them every once in a while. It's a bonding experience, and it may help them stay out of trouble such as this case.

FBI arrests 40-yr old man who almost lured 13-yr old girl to California

4 slain officers, asshat behavior, and George Washington Carver

Image via Wikipedia

By now, the entire nation has learned of the loss of four of Oakland's Finest, gunned down by one desperate man who decided to to play suicide by cop, but not without shooting a few cops first.

What was truly disturbing are a few disturbed individuals who actually taunted police who responded to the shooting, indicating that the fallen officers "got just desserts". That is total asshat behavior.

Perhaps the Oscar Grant incident was fresh on their mind, but they should well remember that Oscar Grant was shot by BART Police, which is completely separate from Oakland Police. They share nothing except similar uniforms and some shared operational areas.

Then you have the perp's family out on TV pleading "He's not a monster." So what was he? Insane? Or merely desperate? Only someone who's crazy would gun down four cops, at least two deliberately. If he doesn't want to to back to jail, he'd avoid all the stuff that could set him back, and he didn't. Going back to jail for a few months for a parole violation did not change his behavior, only made it worse. He got two firearms when as a parolee he should have NONE, esp. when one of them is an assault weapon (allegedly AK-47 or variant). He missed meeting with his parole officer when that's the only guy that will keep him out of jail. So he doesn't want to go back to jail? Sounds like he wants to go back REALLY BAD, or he wants to DIE REALLY BAD.

And what is it about black men nowadays? So many of them are willing to play the 'victim card' or the 'race card'. They scream about "racial profiling" but they don't help control the crime spree by tipping police off to crimes either during or after, as it's not good to be a "snitch". Well, you want police protection or not? You can't have it both ways.

And finally, do you know who is George Washington Carver? Time Magazine called him a "Black Leonardo [Da Vinci]" in 1941. He was born as slave and son of a slave. That's about as bad as it CAN be in the US of A, wouldn't you agree? Yet he rose to fame and fortune, and this is LONG before "civil rights" and "affirmative action" or even "black power" came into existence. Those didn't exist until the 1960's/70's.

If George Washington Carver can bring himself out of abject poverty after the abolition and became famous and rich, what can't most black men nowadays, with all the advantages we enjoy now like unions, civil rights, affirmative action, and so on, just make a living, and have to resort of desperate crimes?

Or are today's Black Men just such wussies?

Ah, the people we elect to office... Pfffft :-P

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Recently, a bit of interesting news surfaced in Oakland City Hall. You know, Oakland, that little city just across the bay from San Francisco.

Apparently, after a senior city councilman's retirement, a coveted parking spot has opened up in front of city hall, and two city councilwomen want it. Usually it goes by seniority, but both were sworn in on the same day, and neither would give an inch. So the hot potato was tossed to council president. The president made no decision, but called the city attorney to study the legal precedents. After a few weeks, the city attorney came back with a 5 page paper that basically says: it's a tie.

One of the councilwoman said she'll go for a coin toss. The other refused to comment to the reporter.

Conflict month 3 and counting. :-P

Rant about anti-tazer crowds

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Tazer is one of the best police tools available to control non-compliant people. A lot of "critics" are now screaming at the number of deaths allegedly caused by the Tazer, usually on people high on drugs, or otherwise behaving very strangely. They said those who died have their civil rights violated, electrocuted by 50000 volts, and **** like that. That is from total misunderstanding of how a Tazer works, and what it does to a human body.

Despite the sensational "50,000 volts", that's only the initial jolt to force the "arc-ing" of electricity from where the conducting pins are (which need NOT touching skin) to the skin. Once the connection is established, the voltage actually drops down to a much lower 2000 volts, and only for a pulse that lasts milliseconds.

The way Tazer incapacitates is by sending a T-wave through the muscle tissue that it comes in contact with. All muscles are connected to nerve fibers, and the T-wave shocks the nerve, connected to the central nervous system, into immobility. It should NOT affect the heart, which is controlled by the INVOLUNTARY muscles.

Obviously this was not tested on addicts, and somehow, addicts, and/or those with weak heart, are less tolerant of Taser shocks, as Tazer's history shows.

The problem however, is how some "civil rights activists" are screaming about how these suspect's rights were violated by the use of Taser.

Well, activist, what alternative does the police officers have besides a Tazer to control a potentially violent suspect without killing him? Let's see what the cops usually carry:

* their hands, capable of administering "holds" or other melee techniques
* their baton / billy club / whatever
* their service pistol
* and of course, the Tazer, if they are issued one.

So what's the problem? Service pistol is out, as cops are NOT trick shooters. Shoot the leg. Shoot the arm. Sorry, but they are trained to shoot at center of mass, which is lethal. So forget the pistol.

Baton? To disable a suspect, you pretty much have to beat them over the head and knock them unconscious. Not only will that be likely to be bloody, it may cause a concussion, and a massive lawsuit alleging "police brutality".

Hands? If the police is trained in Juijitsu or similar hold techniques it may be possible, and a reasonable suspect will not further resist. However, getting a non-complaint person into such a hold is nearly impossible without hurting them, and after that they will continue to struggle, hurting themselves. They are NOT reasonable, so any assumption that they will behave reasonably is automatically false. And the chance of the police getting hurt is vastly increased in hand-to-hand combat. What if the police lost control of the pistol in the ensuing struggle?

Tazer is the only reasonable alternative. Why won't people see that?

Protest rant

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Protesting about something in a rally may look good on TV, but gets nothing accomplished. In fact, such rallies are often "hijacked" by extremists / anarchists who are just looking for excuses to destroy something.

When "outraged" Oakland residents rallied to protest death of Oscar Grant III, the man shot to death by a BART police officer, some anarchists use the event to vandalize downtown Oakland. Dozens of businesses were vandalized, front windows broken, and many were looted.

And Oakland Police are NOT EVEN RELATED to BART Police except they have a bit of overlap in jurisdiction in Oakland.

And the protesters are NOT DONE. They are planning more and more rallies, forcing Oakland Police Department to deploy ever more police officers to head off any such violent confrontations. While nobody rampaged through downtown the last few attempts, several police cars were damaged, leaving the department short on patrol vehicles.

Enforcement and patrols in other neighborhoods are curtailed as more officers were moved to monitor the protests, leading to a rise in crimes.

Overtime costs for Oakland Police has already exceeded this year's "contingency funds".

And what has been done so far? Nothing beyond the usual. BART board decided to have an external law firm to conduct the investigation, and that's about it.

Another video has surfaced, this time depicting ANOTHER officer may have been beating Oscar Grant III just before the fatal shooting. The video was judged to be genuine, and more of these "civil activists" are calling for charging this other officer as accessory to murder, among other crimes.

It doesn't help that the victim is black, and the shooting officer(s) are white.

But what has the protests accomplished? Absolutely ZILCH, in my opinion, and may have contributed to spending millions of dollars in tax money, which comes from taxpayers like you and me.

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Pre-Valentine Rant

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So Valentine's Day is supposed to be between two sweethearts... so why is it so heavily commercialized? There's bazillion candies, flowers, valentine cards, bears, and so on. You can find a WHOLE AISLE of stuff in most pharmacies for them. Argh!

Up to one BILLION cards are sent for Valentine's Day, 2nd most after Christmas.

Valentine's Day was NOT associated with love until Geoffrey Chaucer added the association. Before Chaucer, Valentine's Day were named after two Christian Martyrs of the same name.

And Belarus have a bit grimmer tale... Sait Valentine, after learning rejection of his love, cut out his beating heart and have it sent to her. Now people send heart-shaped cards and candy to atone for hurting the ones you love.

Are people really THIS STUPID?!?!?!

Image via CrunchBaseI participate in Yahoo! Answers, where members post questions to be answered by other members. And some of the questions are real "howlers". here's one:

Where Can i Download A free Legal Keygen or serial number?

For those who are not familiar with software, most software will NOT work unless you enter a serial number when you install it. A "keygen" is a program written by hackers that can generate such serial numbers randomly. As you can imagine, such programs cannot be legal, as it cheats the software maker out of their money.

Which makes the question above beyond ridiculous and into totally moronic scale.

However, that's not the worst offender. Here's one better.

Will someone please help me hack someone else's Yahoo! Mail password?

No, I'm not making this up. This person claims to be helping a female friend who suspect her husband is seeing some other woman and using Yahoo! mail as contact. Does this person not even THINK that 1) this is illegal 2) Yahoo's use policy specifically forbids any sort of this behavior, and 3) Yahoo! Answers may NOT be the best place to ASK such questions?