Hardened warriors on the verge of losing touch with our own humanity

Google insists that its newest focus, Android-based “Heads Up” glasses that send data to the wearer about the surrounding area, are not about potential revenue streams. Of course not! The project is just an “experiment that anyone will be able to join.”

The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.

….The glasses will send data to the cloud and then use things like Google Latitude to share location, Google Goggles to search images and figure out what is being looked at, and Google Maps to show other things nearby, the Google employee said. “You will be able to check in to locations with your friends through the glasses,” they added.

We’d all be wearing these things right now if the Google-X team had already figured out how to get around our privacy concerns. That they are being built in a secret compound means that they are concerned about their privacy, though.

Internally, the Google X team has been actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses and the company wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera.

The project is currently being built in the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google’s main campus that is charged with working on robots, space elevators and dozens of other futuristic projects.

I think it’s ironic that people are so willing to Check-In to places using their smartphones – supposedly so their friends can find them easier. (Retailers lure them with marketing deals to persuade them to give up their privacy.) It seems to me that the whole thing reeks of being on probation of some sort. It used to be that wearing an ankle bracelet for tracking purposes was a horrible thing.

I can see where the glasses will have massive implications for military purposes – the futuristic soldier.  For the rest of us – well, life is a battlefield. The old adage “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” – will certainly be easier  with Google Latitude and Google Maps right there in the old eyeball.

Sarah Connor could have used these.

Andrea Mitchell was on Morning Joe working to rouse Democrats who rallied around Bill Clinton after he had sex with an intern.  That same crowd needs to get fired up for Obama – and Obama appears to have at least kept his pants on.  With a track record like that  – opposing a second term for the guy must just be rooted in mean spiritedness.

Right wingers corner the market on anger and viciousness!  Just ask any Occupier.

As if the so-called “vast right wing conspiracy” still exists, and actually has any real impact these days.

All I can say is:   Wish it did!

We know where the real “vast conspiracy” exists, and it isn’t on the right. (SEIU, public schools, universities, mainstream media…)

If there is a right wing conspiracy going on behind the scenes, I would tend to believe its goal is to throw the election to the left. Things just seem that bad at the moment.

On CNN this morning, Ron Paul called Santorum a pretend conservative who holds himself out as a social conservative at the same time he votes for Planned Parenthood.  Says Paul, “I don’t see how anybody can get away with that inconsistency”:

“His voting record is … from my viewpoint, an atrocious voting record — how liberal he’s been in all the things he’s voted for over the many years he was in the Senate and in the House,” Paul said.

Reiterating his belief that social issue discussions are not the purview of the federal government – just as insurance is a marketplace issue, not a federal issue – he questions the GOP’s insistence at making this an election year focus.

Paul dismissed the recent debate over contraception entirely, saying that while the other candidates discuss birth control, he’s concerned with “the undermining of our civil liberties, the constant wars going on” and the debt.

Paul said the focus on social issues is a fundamental problem and an unwise fight for the GOP.

“I think it’s a losing position,” he said. “I talk about it because I have a precise understanding of how these problems are to be solved,” on a state-specific level, he said.

It’s Sunday now. Can I hear an “Amen!” What sensible person can find fault with that position?

I’m not standing in applause at the VA GOP’s current headlong rush to hang itself on the altar of abortion – an important issue to be sure but not one that should take priority at this crucial moment in time.  Should the General Assembly enact its social issue agenda this session, I may not be in support of some of them, but at least the discussion and regulations were imposed where they ought to be, at the state level. This national debate on contraception, on abortion – is just mind boggling. It never stops, and it never will, and we will continue to be entangled in this never ending controversy while our fiscal problems escalate beyond repair.

While I may disagree with Ron Paul on his policies toward Iran, and the removal of insane lunatics who think their personal legacy to the world is to usher in Armageddon – when it comes to liberty, and the effect that debt has on it, he’s the only one talking common sense.

I’ve posted a lot about privacy concerns with Google and Facebook.  But this new tool I read about in the comment section at Hot Air supposedly allows users to see just how many of our favorite sites collect personal information for advertising uses – and to block them straight up!

Via Vodkapundit:

Do Not Track Plus — just go and download it right now. It’s a free browser plugin for all the bigs. Not only does it block companies from tracking your web browsing, it really speeds up your page load times.

Popular Mechanics has nine different trackers on its site, which might explain why it tends to suck so much. Well, not for me, not anymore.

UPDATE: Slate and Daily Caller top the charts with an even dozen apiece. I suspected Drudge would have been one of the worst offenders, but Drudge Report is at a relatively benign four.

I’m installing it, and will let you know whether it speeds up my browser as some claim it does – and how many pages won’t load at all, due to a carnivorous desire for digital flesh!

It will be interesting to see how the big trackers will get around this, too.  After all, our lives are their livelihoods.

Feed Me Seymour, so I can Grow Up Big and Strong!

I’m your Genie
I’m your Friend
I’m your Willing Slave
Take a chance, Feed me Yeah!

Don’t be Seymour if you can help it!

No boundaries when doing good

HB 462 is generating some controversy. As it should. It’s a gross perversion of how we’re all for big government – when our side is in control.  Our side is currently pushing legislation mandating vaginal ultrasounds prior to abortions.  As Chris at Mason Conservative writes:

We should all fight for life but government should never ever mandate anyone go through anything intrusive or invasive to their bodies. If they can do this on abortions, what happens next? What precedent does it set?

Agreed.  It’s not just the issue of vaginal penetration  …because let’s face reality — abortions require vaginal penetration, so a woman seeking an abortion will undergo an invasion one way or another.   What bothers me is the voluntary vs. involuntary part, and government mandating that a picture be taken inside a woman’s vagina and kept for later viewing:

A printed copy of the ultrasound image shall be maintained in the woman’s medical record at the facility where the abortion is to be performed for the longer of (i) seven years or (ii) the extent required by applicable federal or state law.

What is the purpose of keeping a picture of an aborted fetus in the woman’s medical records?  Who will have access to it over that period of time?   Certainly not the government, certainly not hackers breaking into electronic medical records parked in a cloud somewhere — right?  Curious, really.  Feel free to explain – isn’t this punishing the woman more than anyone else involved?

“He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16-17

Cordray-Obama seeks more control.

Obama appointee Richard Cordray has proposed a rule giving his agency expansive powers to oversee a “shadowy and often not understood” industry that he feels harms consumers.   And no, I’m not talking about the Justice Department:

At a press conference Thursday, CFPB director Richard Cordray announced the rule he’s proposed would enable the agency to examine the records and supervise the practices of the nation’s three largest credit reporting agencies — Experian, TransUnion and Equifax — as well as its lesser-known competitors.

The unprecedented proposal would give the federal government new sway over the controversial companies — which not only influence purchasing power, but hiring decisions as well.

The idea that we have to pay to view our own credit scores held in a database by a secretive third party has long irked me, that, on top of being reduced to a number in the first place. (666 – FICO, the mark of the beast?)

But this is getting out of hand.  Where does Cordray’s authority eventually stop? Or, is it virtually limitless, to any industry that involves a financial transaction – sort of like that inconsequential insurance mandate thingy?

Helpful

So, has this been her goal all along?  To back Newt, keep the conversation going…all the way to the convention?

“If one of the nominees, one of the GOPers, doesn’t get enough delegates, it  could go to a brokered convention,” said Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling in  an interview. “If it does get to that, and someone said, ‘Governor, would you be  interested,’ would you be interested?”

“For one, I think that it could get to that. … If it had to be  closed up today, the whole nominating process, then we could be looking at a  brokered convention. … Nobody is quite there yet, so I think that months from  now, if that is the case, all bets are off as to who it will be, willing to  offer up themselves up in their name in service to their country.”

“I would do whatever I could to help,” she added, her voice rising.

Regardless of her hopes, and perhaps cleverly crafted strategy, I can’t see a path where Sarah Palin would be the one to emerge from a brokered convention. Jeb Bush has been speculated as the one to watch out for.  If so, what a nightmare.

“Welcome to my virtual office on the World Wide Web.”
Virtual ownership, in the community of all.

Running for re-election last year, State Senator John Watkins did what politicians do; he pretended.

Watkins pretended to care about limited government. Watkins pretended to care about low taxes. Watkins pretended to care about the kinds of things that Republican  voters in his conservative district care about.

It is rumored that the Senator has said this term will be his last. Now that he’s back in office, with his final campaign behind him, Mr. Watkins brazenly shows contempt for those who made his political career possible.  In a committee session on SJ 3, a bill to add Property Rights of Citizens to the Virginia Constitution, Watkins reportedly stated that the bill was not needed, and only up for a vote to appease the tea party.  And, according to an observer, Watkins made a very interesting statement during discussion of the bill regarding property rights in general:

He said he was just a country boy and a Christian and as a Christian he understands that no one really “owns” property, only God does.

The observer also noted:

You know who else says that? The Preamble to Agenda 21. It says in the preamble that no one can really own property. This is a basic premise of Communism also.

I wonder if all the land for the Watkins Center and surrounding Watkins commercially developed property has God on the deed? Did all the proceeds and revenue from this property go to God?

Last fall the tea party wasn’t able to rustle up a candidate to run against Watkins – if anyone needed a challenger surely he did. Now the Senator openly mocks the tea party for its impotence. And why not? He was seen as unbeatable; tea party leader and 10th district voter Jamie Radtke was discouraged from running against him, choosing to tackle George Allen instead.

When Watkins talks of being a “country boy” – it’s blasphemous to real country boys; Watkins sold the land that was strategically positioned for what is now known as Watkins Center, and is as city-boy as they come. REAL country boys would be shocked to learn that Watkins believes the land under their feet, that they sweat and toil over, is not theirs, but John Watkins’, to do with as he pleases, if the time should come that he might want to.

Senator Watkins’ statements regarding property rights do beg a question, though. If we really don’t own our property – why are we the ones paying property taxes?

Profiling blonde, white, frequent flier, American mothers- aka “domestic terrorists”

After getting harassed, and delayed, for no reason the last three times flying out of Richmond airport, I now refer to TSA as “Torture Sara’s Ass”.  But it’s not just me:

CBS 11 News dug through more than 500 records of TSA complaints and found a pattern of women who believe that there was nothing random about the way they were selected for extra screening. TSA redacted the names of the passengers who complained, but here are quotations from several complaints.

• “The screener appeared to enjoy the process of picking someone rather than doing true random screening. I felt this was inappropriate. A woman behind me was also “randomly selected.”
• “TSA staff ‘trolling’ the lines looking for people to pull out was unprofessional.”
• “When I looked around, I saw that there were only women that were “told” to go through this machine. There were no men.”

I don’t think the TSA’s major public relations problem is sexual harassment – it’s harassment of everyone, at whim.  A male family member recently had his own experience with the TSA agents at RIC.  Unable to lift his arm above his head due to a recent shoulder surgery, he was treated poorly – like a criminal – and humiliated when agents repeatedly yelled at him to lift his arm!  Yes, they yelled.  An investigation needs to be done at RIC as to why these particular agents have such a huge chip on their own shoulders – and why they are allowed to abuse their badges without consequence.

Senator Schumer recently announced that he is introducing legislation this week that will mandate TSA passenger advocates at every airport in the country who can be summoned by passengers to hear their concerns if they feel they’ve been inappropriately treated by TSA officers.  Let me get this straight.  His solution to abuse by TSA is adding yet another “protective” layer of TSA?:

Schumer’s RIGHTS act would:

• Require the TSA to establish an “Office for Passenger Support”
• Require every airport where TSA operates to have at least one TSA Passneger Advocate on duty at all times
• Mandate every airport where TSA operates to have clearly visible signage explaining that a TSA passenger advocate can be summoned
• Establish best practices to resolve frequent public complaints and conduct training of TSA officers to resolve frequently occurring passenger complaints
• And field advance notification calls from individuals with medical conditions or disabilities to pre-arrange for a screening process at the airport that ensures the safety of the flight without causing undue hardship for the disabled passneger.

This is inane,  typical liberalism.  Here’s a real solution:  Privatize the TSA, or at least allow airports to hire their own passenger advocates.  After all, doesn’t the airport have an interest in making passengers comfortable with flying out of its hub?  Otherwise…social media has its benefits.  Twitter away, people!  The DHS is listening!

The new crackhouse, addicted…to debt

Athens is burning, our debt bomb is ticking, Congress hasn’t passed a budget in forever…but Whitney Houston has grabbed headlines for over two days now.

I’ll give her the obligatory praise for her singing, but her life was yet another warning that our bodies aren’t meant to withstand years of alcohol and drug abuse. Her death is not a shock and whether the autopsy rules it due to drugs or drowning, we all know the real cause.  It was headline news on Saturday…. but it’s time for our celebrity worshiping culture to face reality.

The real headlines should be this: Whitney Houston is symbolic of our government (us) — addicted and out of control, and if someone doesn’t intervene, we face the same fate.  Broke, consumed by things that are bad for us, and drowning.

———————-

Update 2/14:  The White House says Houston’s death is a “teachable moment.”     Different lesson plans, I’m sure.