Is Big Brother Watching You? What about a jealous boyfriend/girlfriend? Your employer? WHO???

For those of you who don't know, I love reading political blogs. I have become somewhat of an issue whore/political junkie. Reading about crooked lobbyist and other scandals really gets me going.

One of my favorite blogs, dailykos.com, has a pretty interesting post this morning about a company that will get you the numbers that a phone has called or been called for only $110. Check this story out. It's crazy! This hammers home the message that in today's world, nothing is private. If you've been living in a cave or a vacuum for the past few weeks, it also may be news that President Bush and the NSA have been doing a ton of warrant-less spying on American citizens.

People, we need to get upset over this. We need to write to our lawmakers and demand that this stop. We can no longer take for granted the rights and freedom that we have enjoyed, because iff this administration has it's way, we are all in a world of hurt. Alito, Worker's Rights, Women's Rights, equal treatment for the GBLT community, Iraq, dependance on foreign oil, the environment ... the list goes on and on.

From DailyKos:

In a nutshell, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a story two days ago about a Web site that sells phone records, for cells and land-lines, for $110 a pop. The company boasts on its own Web site:

Give us the cell phone number and we will send you the calls made from the cell phone number.

Scary Shit. Scary.

Soccer Moms and Swingers

From the AP.

Some teenage soccer players and their parents saw more sights than they wanted when they stayed at a hotel where about 200 swingers were having a New Year's party.

The families said the sexually adventurous partygoers sometimes flashed breasts and bare buttocks in front of the children as they sashayed through the hotel atrium. The parents described the dress at the Crowne Plaza Hotel-Airport in Orlando as "raunchy, despicable and worse than prostitutes."

"The kids could see through the glass atrium into the ballroom where naked people were dancing. There were exposed breasts, thongs and see-through dresses on women who were not wearing any underwear."

New Years in Honolulu

New Year's was amazing. I wasn't expecting anything huge, but we ended up going to the Living Room and the music was out of control. Skybox's afterparty was ok, but not really my scene. The worst thing about it was that I dind't even get a beer at 6am. That blows.

Happy New Year Everone!

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

The documentary " The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" has been on my Netflix queue for a few months after I missed it's limited engagement here in Honolulu. After waiting and waiting, the I received the film in the mail today and loaded with anticipation, I watched it tonight.

It sucked. It was too long (they could have condensed the entire film into a half an hour mini-documentary) and it needed some massive editing. I guess you could say they're the same thing?

The movie wasn't as much about the parrots, but rather about the weird single man who watches them. It was about his life and his relationships with the bird.

The two things about this movie that absolutely irritated me, were the constant use of recorded bird calls throughout the movie and the bird watcher's constant use of anthropomorphism towards the birds.

In any event, I gave " The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" a 1 out of 5.

Modern Day Slavery

From today's LA Times

Hundreds of young North Korean women are working in garment and leather factories like this one, easing a labor shortage in small Czech towns. Their presence in this recent member of the European Union is something of a throwback to before the Velvet Revolution of 1989, when Prague, like Pyongyang, was a partner in the Communist bloc. The North Korean government keeps most of the earnings, apparently one of the few legal sources of hard currency for an isolated and impoverished government believed to be living off counterfeiting, drug trafficking and weapons sales. Experts estimate that there are 10,000 to 15,000 North Koreans working abroad in behalf of their government in jobs ranging from nursing to construction work. In addition to the Czech Republic, North Korea has sent workers to Russia, Libya, Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and Angola, defectors say. Almost the entire monthly salary of each of the women here, about $260, the Czech minimum wage, is deposited directly into an account controlled by the North Korean government, which gives the workers only a fraction of the money. To the extent that they are allowed outside, they go only in groups. Often they are accompanied by a guard from the North Korean Embassy who is referred to as their "interpreter." They live under strict surveillance in dormitories with photographs of North Korea's late founder Kim Il Sung and current leader Kim Jong Il gracing the walls. Their only entertainment is propaganda films and newspapers sent from North Korea, and occasional exercise in the yard outside. "This is 21st century slave labor," said Kim Tae San, a former official of the North Korean Embassy in Prague. He helped set up the factories in 1998 and served as president of one of the shoe factories until he defected to South Korea in 2002.

The news of this is horrible on so many levels. On one hand, this is what happens when the EU zealously expands and includes countries that aren't on the same socio-political level as France, German, the UK, etc. Like NAFTA, CAFTA and other forms of free trade, this leaves a vaccuum behind when skilled workers leave to find higher paid wages in more developed economies.

Secondly, I find it completely eerie how far our country has swung to the right and how this administration's power can go unchecked. It's like Nixon on Steroids. (Okay, I know this wasn't a blog post based on Bush, but I couldn't help myself.)

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas.

I love homemade eggnog, pigging out, drinking on a Monday afternoon, spiced rum and substance abuse. Nothing says Tis The Season like being bombed on day three of a three day weekend. God Bless Christmas and Christ Almighty!

Dim Sum

I love Dim Sum. I really do.

I just stuffed myself silly at lunch and now I'm back at work and desperately trying to get work done, but I am so full that I can't even move.

Man, what a fat ass I've become!

Weird Science

Tis the season!

As Americans flock to their local Wal-Marts and gobble up Chinese-made plastic Sponge Bob toys and Cuddly Elmo dolls, the proponents behind teaching Intelligent Design, or the theory that a divine power created the universe, are busy licking their wounds. A Pennsylvania judge ruled recently that Intelligent Design can't be taught in high school biology classes, but only after the Board of Education and community was made into a national laughing stock.

I'm not saying that God doesn't exist or that we were't created by some power, for each of us is allowed to believe whatever we want to believe in. That's the beauty of this contry.

It means that in science, we can't turn to the supernatural to explain things when natural processes don't answer all of the questions.

Religion and Intelligent Design do not belong in the classrooms. Amen.

Grape Tomatoes

I am in love with grape tomatoes from Costco. These little delicious red gems of goodness are sweet and firm and about the size of .. well, grapes! I recommend you trying them out sometime. They go great in salads or for a light, yet healthy, snack. Vitamin C, Licopene and other goodies are loaded into these zingers!

Happy Holidays

I don't know if you've heard the news or not, but there is a War going on against Christmas right now. I kid you not, a mutha fucking War against the holiest of all American Holidays. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's an all out attack on our core and spirit. These crazy liberals out there, want to take away your right to worship as you please. They want to strip you of your Constiutional Right like in a Seuse-esque way so they can subject you to their twisted and perverse ways. Each time they replace "Merry Christmas" with their anti-Christian slogan of "Happy Holidays", these liberals take an attack on Jesus Christ, himself.

Crazies out there.

Man, I'm so good, I could work cleaning the filter at a right wing think tank!