The Linear Canvas

I am so glad that Ohio finally got rid of the Pay Day Loan racket. They were only in poorer areas and preyed on those that could least afford it. There was a time that loan sharking was illegal everywhere. I am not sure how all this got started, but I know these people are aggressive in recovering loans. I’m not sure anyone got their leg broken like a loan shark might do. But abuse and harassment take many forms.

Quite a few states still have legal Pay Day Loan businesses. Back in high school, I can remember speculating that we would have small privately held bank’s someday and they would be called something like…Bob’s Bank. Little did I know that someday there would be that type of bank, but I never anticipated they would be evil. Even more evil than corporate banks! That’s alot of evil.

I am sure that Pay Day Loan defenders would say the up to 400% interest that Pay Day Loan sharks are charging is because of the service they are providing to their customers. And that without that service how would these people get by?

It turns out, many that borrow money from a Pay Day Loan racketeer, enter a cycle of borrowing, paying back, and borrowing again, that some people may never pay off. Even when the debt is finally paid, it ends up costing many times the original loan amount. Is this how we should be treating our poor and needy? This type of service only enriches those that have, at the expense of those that have the least. If that isn’t a crime, it should be.

The video link is to a report done by Katie Couric on the The CBS Evening News about the Pay Day Loan racket in the U.S.

click above or here to watch this video

I am currently reading Richard A. Clarke’s book "Against All Enemies".  I highly recommend it. It is well written and mostly easy to follow. Mr. Clark is a former long time government employee who had worked in the consecutive administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. He routinely held positions that required the highest of security clearance. It would include being Chief Counter-Terrorism Adviser on the U.S. National Security Council. That made him a member of the executive branch on 9/11. Published in 2004, the book is about his involvement in helping to direct the counter-terrorism strategy for the United States, through his retirement in 2003.

I came across these two paragraphs in the book. The context was a discussion on how some theories about government conspiracies were true while others were fabrications or distortions:

Another conspiracy theory intrigued me because I could
never disprove it. The theory seemed unlikely on its face: Ramzi
Yousef or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had taught Terry Nichols how to
blow up the Oklahoma Federal Building. The problem was that, upon
investigation, we established that both Ramzi Yousef and Nichols had
been in the city of Cebu on the same days. I had been to Cebu years
earlier; it is on an island in the central Philippines. It was a town in
which word could have spread that a local girl was bringing her American
boyfriend home and that the American hated the U.S. government.

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This report came from the "INTERNETS"

Report: Taser Use In Man’s Death Did Not Violate Policy

An investigation by the Butler County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office has found that an Oxford police officer did not violate policy when he used a Taser gun on an intoxicated man who later died.

Click here to read the original story >> 

Shouldn’t part of the policy be, "Don’t kill anybody"?

It’s pretty obvious that law enforcement is given the benefit of the doubt most of the time when there are casualties.  This is probably because they are involved in so many more incidents that might result in harming someone.  In the heat of the moment, anything can happen.  There are some pretty dangerous people out there and no officer could ever know the intentions of others they encounter.

A little is probably the familiarity with the officers by those that make and enforce the rules.

It’s not this one incident really, it’s my perception, so that is my reality.  Maybe, if they ever seemed to find an officer guilty of something my perception would be different.  Maybe it does happens. But if it does, they don’t give it enough publicity.

Taser’s can be dangerous weapons. The way they are marketed makes them seem mostly harmless.  I can see their use by the public as opposed to a gun, but I just think they have become weapons of convenience for security guards and law enforcement and some don’t hesitate to use them when maybe they should, just to think about the harm they might cause.

Over a month ago, Air America on-air personality Randi Rhodes, was suspended (she later quit), for calling Hillary Clinton “A F***ing Whore” during what she called “a standup comedy routine”, onstage (off-air) in San Francisco.  (see April 3, 2008 NY Times article)  I believe that Randi really thought that comment would be  funny, and to many people, it was. But I really wish Randi had not used such an explicit description of Mrs. Clinton, and I bet deep down, Randi  wishes she hadn’t either. That only gave the Clinton-ista’s and Air America a reason to silence an opposition opinion. I agree with Randi’s basic problems with Hillary, but calling her that was a little too harsh.

It is my suspicion that Randi Rhodes was shown the door because she did not “Toe the Line” established by her employer quite enough, whose preference might be Mrs. Clinton for president in 2008. As I said, I think the comments by Randi that caused all this to occur, were over-the-top. I do understand that she was acting as representative of Air America at this event. And no matter what she says, I understand the significance of that scenario. On the other hand, Randi was one of the more popular personalities on Air America and many of her listeners were very disappointed that Air America no longer carries her program.

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As I look back on things that I would have done over the years, I would have bought stock in my previous company just before it was purchased by Sprint. Another thing I would have done would be to invest in defense contractors, oil companies, and the pharmaceutical industry after George W. Bush was appointed president in 2000. At this moment I feel it would be a good investment to invest in companies that make paper shredding machines or perform that service in the Washington D.C. area. No doubt the shredding has already begun.

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This week has been quite a week for change. I guess I never realized that the political landscape could change so quickly. My first thought is that it is some sort of neo-con trick to throw me off.

Several months ago Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist from Tennessee, threatened to invoke a so-called “nuclear option” in response to threats by Democrats that they would filibuster legislation proposed by Republicans. There were many Republicans that warned that the consequences of not allowing filibusters’ by the minority party would someday come back to haunt them. Conservative talk show hosts and some conservative politicians made it clear that they endorsed use of this technique. With the loss of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the short sighted nuclear option would have been a complete disaster for the Republican Party.

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As a fifth grade student during the 1968 presidential campaign, I was thrilled to see my favorite for the coming election, Richard Nixon, make a speech from the caboose of a train that passed through my town. Five years later, I was disgusted by the deeds of this man and his entourage. The American press, “The Fifth Estate”, had its greatest moment then. They did not bring down this disgraced leader, as some would say, they held a single man up to the rule of law and that man paid a price, though I would argue not high enough of one.

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I understand what Hillary Clinton was saying recently about illegal immigration reform legislation ("This bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself."). Some Republicans are so heartless they would approve of almost anything. They are the Romans that would martyr Jesus if he were alive today. Maybe they already have. That would also include killing and torturing people in Afghanistan, Cuba and Iraq.

The real question is whether illegal immigrants that seemingly have no love for America except our money, deserve a free ride to citizenship and does big business have the right to exploit them because of their citizenship status? We have laws that require several steps to gain US citizenship. Other countries have some sort of immigration guidelines, including Mexico and Canada. If I tried to enter those countries, I would be breaking the law unless I followed their rules. Citizens of those countries entering my country are doing the same.

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The seaport deal giving control of them to the United Arab Emirates was a stupid idea. But was it a conscious stupid idea? What if the Republicans needed, for some reason, to make the congress seem like they have minds of their own? If the election was held today (and was fair), opinion polls are showing that many Republicans would be beaten by Democrats. There is a need to make the congress seem a little more independent from the White House. This was their opportunity.

This flexing of the congressional muscle might also allow Dick Cheney’s employer, Halliburton to take over the ports from the Arabs. Convenient the way these things work out “by accident”. They certainly claim they can handle these big jobs. Unfortunately, they waste so many resources in so many ways. They are an expert at waste, for sure.

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The Fairness Doctrine, was eliminated in 1988 by the hired guns of the broadcast industry with the help of the Industrial War Complex(aka The Reagan/Bush administration). It was known as the Equal Time rule in broadcasting.

I heard someone mention the fairness doctrine on the radio recently, implying that the loss of the doctrine was directly responsible for the creation of the FOX (Propaganda) News Network on cable. I have been in cable television and broadcasting, building and operating wireless, copper and fiber networks for almost thirty years. I know a little about the Fairness Doctrine.

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