Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Friday, July 25, 2008

GIVE ME BIRTH CONTROL OR ELSE!

As per usual, today at work I was spending most of my time browsing Digg while walking my customers through troubleshooting.

On Digg, I came across this:
The Conscience Clause should not be legal


I don't really know much about the Conscience Clause. I'm more interested in the apparent outrage it has caused in reference to a pharmacist being allowed to deny birth control to customers because of the Conscience Clause.

Of course, the Constitution already provides an individual the right to sell, or not sell, whatever he/she wants to in the United States.

People on left more and more confuse individual rights with the expectation of the government the ensure the majority has everything they need to live happy lives irregardless of whoever else's rights are tramped on. This is ok because the majority says so (or are just indifferent), and the majority is always right, so says democracy.

Statements like the following always tear me apart as I'm not sure whether to laugh at the stupidity and hypocrisy, or cry because so many people probably agree with it:

Furthermore, the people that cannot do the job required of them because their beliefs get in the way should NOT be protected under the law. If you want to work in a company that does not prescribe birth control go work in a Catholic hospital.

People depend and rely on their pharmacists (and doctors, nurses, etc.) to provide them with the best care and arm them with the information they need. For a professional to withhold service or information because they don't agree with it is unacceptable and that person should be relieved of their duties immediately.


This was found in the comments section of the linked article above. The only job someone is required to do is the one they are contracted to do. If a pharmacist is contracted with a pharmacy to perform a task, and they are not, then that is between the pharmacy and the pharmacist, not the consumer and the pharmacist. Go to a different pharmacist. The government only ever comes into play if an agreement is breached and a third party is needed to mediate. Just because someone has gone to school to be a pharmacist, does not mean that person is obligated to sell you whatever drug you want or may think you need.

If you're going to depend on a pharmacist to provided you with a service, it would be wise to make sure you depend on a pharmacist willing to provide that service.

There's an insinuation in that quote that if its deemed by the public that a professional isn't providing the generally expected good and services of their job, than someone should intervene and relieve that person from their duties. The person never specifically indicates this is the government's role, although the context in which this was written would suggest that is the case.

A pharmacist, just like any other professional, will lose his/her job if their employer deems they are not providing the services they hired him/her for. End of story. There needs to be no debate on this subject.

The Audacity of Obama

In the article "He ventured forth to bring light to the world", Gerard Baker interprets Barack Obama's political successes into something prophetic.

I'm hoping he's being sarcastic.

One of man's worst crimes is deifying politicians.

Of course, no one worships politicians more than politicians (maybe the free press), exemplified by Mt. Rushmore.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Thomas Jefferson is my new hero. . .

“Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.”

National Pride is a Beautiful Thing (Not)


For those who feel disgusted by what has become of the US Government, do not worry, Canada is just as bad.

This is a time in which safety trumps all principles, and those who are perceived as a threat to such safety are stripped away of the most basic rights and put into dungeons. Of course, our beacon of hope from such ignorance and cruelty, our federal government, intentionally has one of its own innocent citizens put into a foreign prison where he was beaten and tortured, AGAIN. Currently, this man is stuck living in the lobby of the Canadian embassy in Sudan. His passport expired while he was being tortured. Lovely.

The first instance, with Mr. Arar, it seemed to be a disgusting misunderstanding. Now, with Mr. Abdelrazik from Montreal, it appears it is growing pattern of behaviour by our peace-keeping Canadian government.

Of course, we (I say "we" because "we" allow our government to do these things) are committing these crimes against humanity from fear of backlash of the all-encompassing US government.

Though, the US government would never provide any backlash to Canada because we have too much of what they want (ENERGY), as pointed out by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien in this interview on The Hour. Business is business, and when business isn't profiteering from murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians, it likes to keep things friendly in order to continue doing business.

In other recent instances of former Prime Ministers speaking out from the moral high ground, Paul Martin reminds us that there is a third current example of the Canadian government allowing one of its innocent citizens sit in the jail cell of a brutal prison under a brutal regime, Khadr in Guantanamo.

Anyone else feeling proud of being Canadian?

“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Friday, July 18, 2008

My New Beast

Picked this up today to replace my Sony Vaio. The Sony did well the past 6 years, I hope this one to last me another 6 years.

Base Features

Processor Type Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Processor Speed 2.4GHz
RAM 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM (Exp. to 8GB)
Hard Drive Speed/Capacity 640GB SATA 7200RPM
Optical Drives Super Multi DVD Burner with LightScribe
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS
Pre-loaded Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1

Graphics

Dedicated Video Memory Yes
Shared Video Memory 2303MB
Video Memory 512MB

Audio

Audio Output 8-Speaker Surround Configurable
Line Out Yes
Line-In input Yes
Microphone Input Yes
Sound Card High Definition Audio

Networking

Ethernet Port 10/100/1000

Inputs/Outputs

Card Reader 15-in-1 Memory Card Rreader
FireWire (IEEE 1394) 1 - Front, 1 - Rear
Keyboard HP Multimedia
Modem 56K V.90
Mouse HP Optical
USB 2.0 2 - Front, 4 - Rear

Computing Features

Available Hard Drive Bays 2 Internal 3.5" (1 Available)
Available Memory Slots 4 Total (Occupied)
Available Optical Bays 2 External 5.25" (1 Available)
Available PCI Slots 2 PCI Express x1 (1 Available)
Available PCI-E Slots 1 PCI Express x16 (occupied)
Processor Cache 8MB L2
System Bus 1066MHz

Software

Loaded Software 1 Microsoft Works 9
Loaded Software 2 Muvee autoProducer Basic
Loaded Software 3 Adobe Reader 8

Product Features

Tower Depth 17.5 cm
Tower Height 41.3 cm
Tower Width 38.7 cm
Warranty Labour 1 Year Limited
Warranty Parts 1 Year Limited
Tower Weight 9.98 kg

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Battlestar Galactica

My new favorite show.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Friday, July 4, 2008

Congress's 'Virtual Iran War Resolution'

Statement on House Congressional Resolution 362 before the US House of Representatives, June 28, 2008

Today the Dow Jones Average was down 350-some points, gold was up $32, and oil was up another $5. There is a lot of chaos out there and everyone is worried about $4 gasoline. But I don't think there is a clear understanding [of] exactly why that has occurred.

We do know that there is a supply and demand issue, but there are other reasons for the high cost of energy. One is inflation. In order to pay for the war that has been going on, and the domestic spending, we've been spending a lot more money than we have. So what do we do? We send the bills over to the Federal Reserve and they create new money, and in the last three years, our government, through the Federal Reserve and the banking system, has created $4 trillion of new money. That is one of the main reasons why we have this high cost of energy and $4 per gallon gasoline.

But there is another factor that I want to talk about tonight, and that is not only the fear of inflation and future inflation, but the fear factor dealing with our foreign policy. In the last several weeks, if not for months, we have heard a lot of talk about the potential of Israel and/or the United States bombing Iran. And it is in the marketplace. Energy prices are being bid up because of this fear. It has been predicted that if bombs start dropping, that we will see energy prices double or triple. It is just the thought of it right now that is helping to push these energy prices up. And that is a very real thing going on right now.

But to me it is almost like déjà vu all over again. We listened to the rhetoric for years and years before we went into Iraq. We did not go in the correct manner, we did not declare war, we are there and it is an endless struggle. And I cannot believe it, that we may well be on the verge of initiating the bombing of Iran!

Leaders on both sides of the aisle, and in the administration, have all said so often, "No options should be taken off the table – including a nuclear first strike on Iran." The fear is, they say, maybe someday [Iran is] going to get a nuclear weapon, even though our own CIA's National Intelligence Estimate has said that the Iranians have not been working on a nuclear weapon since 2003. They say they're enriching uranium, but they have no evidence whatsoever that they're enriching uranium for weapons purposes. They may well be enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, and that is perfectly legal. They have been a member of the non-proliferation treaties, and they are under the investigation of the IAEA, and ElBaradei has verified that in the last year there have been nine unannounced investigations and examinations of the Iranian nuclear structure and they have never been found to be in violation. And yet, this country and Israel are talking about a preventive war – starting bombing for this reason, without negotiations, without talks.

Now the one issue that I do want to mention tonight is a resolution that is about to come to this floor if our suspicions are correct, after the July 4th holiday. And this bill will probably be brought up under suspension. It is expected to pass easily. It probably will be. And it is just more war propaganda, just more preparation to go to war against Iran.

This resolution, H.J. Res 362 [listed as H. Con. Res 362 online] is a virtual war resolution. It is the declaration of tremendous sanctions, and boycotts and embargoes on the Iranians. It is very, very severe. Let me just read what is involved if this bill passes and what we're telling the President what he must do:

This demands that the President impose stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran, and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials.

This is unbelievable! This is closing down Iran. Where do we have this authority? Where do we get the moral authority? Where do we get the international legality for this? Where do we get the Constitutional authority for this? This is what we did for ten years before we went into Iraq. We starved children – 500,000 individuals it was admitted probably died because of the sanctions on the Iraqis. They were incapable at the time of attacking us. And all the propaganda that was given for our need to go into Iraq was not true.

And it is not true today about the severity [of the need to attack Iran]. But they say, "Yeah, but Ahmadinejad – he's a bad guy. He's threatened violence." But you know what? Us threatening violence is very, very similar. We must – we must look at this carefully. We just can't go to war again under these careless, frivolous conditions.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008